Life As It Is.

Pear Salad with Maple Dijon Dressing.

This is one of my favorites right now. I've made it a lot lately. Thankfully, everyone in the family likes it and it goes over well with guests too. I found the recipe on pinterest, but the pinterest recipe calls for bottled dressing. I didn't want to use bottled dressing. My favorite green bean recipe has a dressing that I love and the first time I tasted it, I thought it would be great as a salad dressing. So I've always made this salad with the dressing from the green beans and it works really well.

Pear Salad:

• Romaine lettuce
• 1-2 medium pears, chopped
• dried cranberries
• chopped pecans (I usually use homemade cinnamon roasted pecans because I've been keeping them around for the girls' oatmeal)
• bacon, cooked & crumbled (I chop it, cook it, and keep it in the fridge for a couple days to use on salads, omelettes, side dishes, etc)
• feta cheese, crumbled

Maple Dijon Dressing:

(note that the amount shown is a double batch thinned out...I wanted an extra batch so I could make the green beans later)

• 3 Tb maple syrup
• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 TB red wine vinegar (I use pomegranate red wine vinegar)
• 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves (i run it through the microplaner)
• Salt & pepper

Throw it all in the food processor or blender.

 

 

BBQ Cilantro Lime Dressing.

I am a huge fan of homemade salad dressing. It is rare that I use store-bought salad dressing...perhaps some thousand island for the times that Seth is craving a reuben. So I'm always making different salad dressings, trying new recipes, experimenting with what I have on hand.

We do a lot of vinagrettes because they're easy and healthy, but this particular dressing is a creamy (and not so clean) salad dressing. But it is packed with flavor, so you won't need to use much. So here's the dressing we use everytime we have bbq chicken salad now.

BBQ Cilantro Lime Dressing:

• 2/3 cup olive oil mayo
• 1/3 cup nonfat greek yogurt
• 2 TB milk
• 2 TB fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 TB fresh lime juice
• 2 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced (I just use my microplaner)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce

Throw it all in the blender and push go. This is such a flavorful dressing. Love it. I found the recipe here.

I've tried various other dressings to go on bbq chicken salad, including an avocado vinaigrette and a gorgonzola vinaigrette, meant to go together. The avocado vinaigrette wasn't bad, but none of us cared for the gorgonzola dressing (we're not gorgonzola/blue cheese people). But I'll include the recipes in case you have more mature taste buds than we do :) These recipes came from Two Peas and Their Pod.

Avocado Vinaigrette:

• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1 medium shallot, chopped
• 3 TB peach jam
• 1 avocado
• salt & pepper

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette:

• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1 medium shallot
• 2 TB peach jam
• 1-2 garlic cloves, pan-roasted & chopped
• 1 cup nonfat greek yogurt (I think the original recipe called for sour cream)
• 1 cup blue cheese or gorgonzola
• salt & pepper

 

BBQ Chicken Salad.

Salads seem to be a favorite at our house. One of the great things about salads is that you can put out a lot of healthy options and then let everyone pile on what they like.

BBQ chicken salad is one of our favorites. What we put on the salad depends on what we have in the house, but a general idea of what I use:

• BBQ chicken (usually oven baked unless it is grilling season)
• romaine, spinach, or spring mix (or some combination of the three)
• tomatoes
• avocado
• sweet bell peppers (yellow, orange or red)
• red onion
• corn (frozen or fresh off the cob)
• black beans
• hard-boiled egg

I'll do a separate post with the salad dressing that we've come to love to go along with this bbq chicken salad.

Harassment.

Me: "Sadie, are you harassing your sister?"

Sadie: "No, I'm just teasing her a little bit."

Me: "That's the same thing."

Sadie: "Oh. Well then, yes, I'm harassing my sister."

I will take hold of your right hand.

We were in the mudroom putting our shoes on, getting ready to leave the house. Avery had her bible in her hand as she told me that she had been looking up a verse that Millie had mentioned. Millie Keith is a book series that the girls enjoy, by the same author as Elsie Dinsmore, which I've mentioned before. I asked her what the verse was and she paraphrased it for me and told me that she would read it to me when we got to the car. As we started down the street, Avery read the verse to me and I couldn't help but choke up as I thought of it in the context of the struggle one of my dearest friends is going through right now, having just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The verse was Isaiah 41:13::

"I am the Lord your God. I take hold of your right hand. I say to you, 'Do not be afraid. I will help you.'"

My lovely Sarah, He is the Lord your God. He has hold of your right hand. Do not be afraid. He will help you.

We love you and we are praying for you. We cried for you in the car as we thought of you today. Though you are so very far away, you are held close in our hearts right now. I am thankful that we serve a mighty God together, and that He is caring for you. Love you, friend.

 

Chem Lab.

The girls and I turned our kitchen into a chem lab last week for a bit of experimentation. I found a chemistry kit for them for Christmas and so we put away the school books for a day last week and just spent the day learning about chemistry. We started by discussing some of the rules for safety and gathering all of our test substances. Earlier in the week, I had bought the items we didn't already have on hand, like glucose tablets, borax, etc.

Seth was in charge of a lab for a few years at his last job, so it was good to be able to use his experiences as an example for a few things. For instance, how chemistry is useful for identifying unknown substances. We studied how substances react with water; how to determine if a substance is a base or an acid using pH strips; using reagents such as citric acid to assist in identifying substances (Avery loved watching the carbon dioxide gas form when we combined substances); and observing the various ways that differing substances behave when heated (another favorite experiment for the girls). I think all in all, we performed eight different experiments.

Tying up loose ends from 2011.

Almost a month later and I'm finally going to blog a few photos from Christmas. Of course it seems so far away now that I'm not feeling very motivated to try to remember what I wanted to blog about, so we'll mostly just go with photos.

We got new tree decor this year. I went with a brown, copper, aged sort of look. I wrapped all of our gifts in brown paper with jute/rope. My kids weren't impressed. Evidently brown paper isn't festive. I reminded them that Christmas isn't about the gifts anyway and they agreed and got over it.

Each girl really only had one wish. Sadie really wanted "The Throne of Fire" which she had already read, but she has all of Rick Riordan's other books and so she wanted to be able to add it to her collection. She received a few other books, a few clothes, audiobooks/ radio theaters.

Avery's gift wish was for a Nancy Drew audiobook. She also received books, clothes, audiobooks. She also got a pocket knife. Seth gave Sadie a pocketknife last year, so this year was Avery's turn. He keeps them in his drawer for safekeeping, lest we lose any fingers. Seth also got the girls slingshots this year. I think they'll enjoy them more when it warms up outside.

For some reason, Seth seemed to be the one that got showered with gifts this year. He made out well this year! He got me some new stainless steel pots & pans as well as a gift card for the spa I like to go to for massages. Massages=best gift ever for Jen.

Seth and I have been wanting to set up a computer for the girls for some time now, and at the last minute, we decided to buy one for them for Christmas. Nothing fancy, just enough to meet their needs. We're looking forward to using it for Rosetta Stone Spanish. The girls have been using it for writing stories, watching Khan academy videos, looking things up on Wikipedia, and playing learning games at www.arcademicskillbuilders.com.

All in all, we really had a wonderful Christmas season. It always seems to go by so quickly. The girls and I loved having Seth home for a week. We enjoyed playing games together, hanging out, just enjoying being together. We spent some good time with family. We went go-karting with Seth's family. The girls even raced and loved it! It is such fun to have the girls at ages where they can do more and more activities with us. Well, on to 2012 and the adventures that will bring!

Workout Partner.

During our workout today, Avery said, "It doesn't come for free!!" It makes me laugh that she works out with me so much that she has memorized all the quips of the trainers. I love having her by my side when I work out. Today during a particularly grueling circuit, she told me, "If I can do it, you can do it!" She is a great training partner.

Healing meatballs.

Sadie and Avery are both a little under the weather today. Nothing big, just sniffly & headachy. They both love homemade spaghetti & meatballs, so that is what we're having for dinner tonight. This afternoon as I was preparing the meatballs, Sadie came into the kitchen and said, "The thought of spaghetti and meatballs is healing me."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

I'm just enjoying the quiet for a little while until the rest of the family wakes up. The fireplace is warm and toasty. The lights from the tree are bathing me in warm light. I set the coffee before I went to bed, so the coffee is hot and ready. Breakfast (sausage and cheese puff) is ready to go in the oven. Stockings are stuffed and under the tree.

Now if everyone would just wake up! Seth told the girls not to wake him until 7am. Funny, he didn't tell me not to wake him ;) Think he'll be mad if I get him up at 6am? I think I'm willing to take my chances! I'm always the first one awake on Christmas morning....I'm worse than the kids. Excited energy gets me all amped up to start the day.

Well, I think I'll take advantage of the stillness and read for a few minutes before I go jump on the bed and sing, "RIse and Shine".

Have a most blessed day celebrating Christ's birth. It is amazing that God came to earth, took on flesh, lived a sinless life, and died on a cross to save us from our sins. I am truly humbled and thankful for that grace-filled gift.