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Last weekend we washed the car and Lil decided to do a little dance before we started.

car wash dancing

car wash dancing

I harvested garlic this week. I think there are around 24. Vampires beware.

Harvested garlic

We had lunch outside one day when it wasn’t tooooo hot to deal.

Lunch outside

Apparently Lil spent a lot of time in her bathing suit this week.

Sprinkler play on Wednesday.

IMG_20130717_154340_311

We went to the zoo on Sunday (still have to post pics from the last 3 trips I think) and Lil was so bummed because no butterflies landed on her. This has actually happened the last 2 times. So she was crazy pumped when this ladybug hung out with her while she was playing in the sprinkler.

Ladybug Love

Ladybug Love

Ladybug Love

Ladybug Love

More fun hair. I have wanted to braid her hair forever and was so happy that she finally let me and liked it.

Fun hair

We were headed out to get our hair trimmed on Tuesday, but Waldo was on a phone call so Lil didn’t get to kiss him goodbye. We took a picture for him.

Goodbye kisses for Daddy

Banana oatmeal chocolate pip cookies

The title isn’t a mistake. While we were making these Lily christened chocolate chips chocolate pips. I liked it so it stuck.

Making banana oatmeal cookies

Lil is smashing 2 very very ripe bananas. Hmmm, it seems that the very ripe bananas is the only part of the recipe I can really remember and can’t find the right one on Pinterest or Google. I’ll keep looking and also look for the copy I printed. Once I find it I’ll post it.

Making banana oatmeal cookies

I really hope I can find it, because Lily and everyone else in the house loved these cookies. Well everyone except me, I loth bananas. I don’t like the smell, taste or texture of bananas so I didn’t try them.

Making banana oatmeal cookies

Making banana oatmeal cookies

Making banana oatmeal cookies

Making banana oatmeal cookies

Making banana oatmeal cookies

Banana oatmeal cookies

We added extra pips to the top of the cookies before baking.  Lily added extra pips to her mouth and was a happy kid.

Banana oatmeal cookies

Banana oatmeal cookies are yummy

Banana oatmeal cookies are yummy

Banana oatmeal cookies are yummy

Banana oatmeal cookies are yummy

Banana oatmeal cookies are yummy

Banana oatmeal cookies are yummy

Vacation 2012 ~ Baking adventures

I mentioned in my vacation part 1 post that I did a lot of baking for this road trip. I went on a crazy baking rampage for a few reasons. 1 I’m trying to limit and eventually cut out all processed foods from our diets, we’ve always been really good about this for Lily, but not so much for ourselves. 2 We are pretty careful what we feed Lily so by me baking my head off I was pretty confident that she would continue to have health-ish snacks. 3 I fricking love to cook/bake and this was an excellent excuse to go crazy. Pretty much any of those things would have done it for me, but when you put all 3 together I pretty much gave myself license to go buck wild.

For weeks before the trip I scoured Pinterest and pinned anything that fit the bill. Oh yeah, I had pretty tough criteria. Mostly healthy, little to no sugar, yummy and within the realm of what I could do with what I already had and my skills. Most of the time I’m very happy to try a new recipe if it looks great and especially if I get to buy a new gadget for it, but I was trying to keep the cost down because this vacation was already stretching our budget.

If a recipe fit into my list of requirements I’d print it and put it in a stack. I was shocked that I only printed 5 or 6 recipes and ended up making almost all of them. I also made two of my standby recipes, on planned and one last minute addition.

I had what I was going to make and when all planned out because I only have so much time that I can devote to the kitchen every day. The first thing I made were homemade wheat thin type crackers. I had never made this recipe before and wasn’t sure how well they were going to turn out. I mean they have vanilla and paprika in them. (Oh and the recipe calls for vanilla paste which I’ve used in the past and loved, but didn’t want to shell out $10 for at the moment, I just used vanilla extract and it worked out fine.)  That just seemed too weird for me. Boy was I wrong and I’m so glad I was. I made my first batch (the only batch I had planned on making) and gave Lily one to try out. I then sat down to chat with Rita (my Mother in Law) and before I knew it Lily was back for more and then again back for more and again and again, till I cut her off. I took a few to Waldo while he was working (bonus point for him working at home, he can taste test recipes immediately) and he loved them too. I looked at the jar I had put them in and realized that about half of my batch was gone and I’d need to make more for the trip. If you even remote like wheat thins you should make these, you will thank me.

The next thing I made was the standby recipe that I had planned. I have been making the goldfish crackers from Smitten Kitchen for a few months now and they are a huge success. Don’t get me started on the quest I’ve been on for a reasonably priced micro cookie cutter, I don’t care if it’s a fish or not, I just don’t want to pay $15 for a 1″ cutter. So I ended up buying at least 4 different sets of cutters and spent probably around $20. I don’t understand my logic sometimes. But hey, I have like 18 really small cookie/veggie cutters. Oh and if you are interested the ones that I liked the best were Japaneses Bento veggie cutters, one or two of them are the closest to the real goldfish cracker size. I know, I bought a small box of real goldfish crackers and compared. I tell you, once I get invested in a quest for perfection I get a little crazy.

The standby recipe that I didn’t plan on making, but made anyway was my eggless banana bread muffins. Rita pointed out that I had some really old bananas on the counter so banana bread mini muffins happened. In the end I’m always really glad to have these little muffins around. Lily and Waldo love them, they have very little sugar in them and they are easy to make. Sorry I can’t find the recipe anywhere.

The last strictly healthy recipe I made was granola bars. I have been on a quest for great granola bars. Waldo doesn’t care much for regular broken up granola, but he loves them in bar form. I think I found the holy grail of granola bars with this recipe. I added a few things to the existing recipe and left out the sesame seeds (I forgot them, I didn’t leave them out on purpose). I added about 1/4 cup of quinoa flakes and about the same of unsweetened coconut shavings.  Everyone that tried them (I made just about everyone we know try all of my treats) loves these the best of all.

The last thing I made has little to no health benefits to them. I wanted to make something easy, fun and delicious to eat for breakfast (or whenever) in the car. I’ve also always wanted to make scones and this was a perfect excuse. I made Glazed cinnamon scones. They are sort of like scones shaped cinnamon buns. Yum.

For me making all of these yummy snacks was a great way to prepare for and get excited about this vacation. I love making yummy food that my people will scarf up and if it impresses my friends all the better.

I can’t believe I didn’t take any pictures of any of these snacks in the making or finished stages. Lame.

Garden bounty

A few days ago David (my father in law) decided to dig up one of the potato plants to see how it was coming along because the top was starting to die. The potatoes were perfect. I couldn’t believe something so perfect could grow from a cut up piece of sprouting potato that I almost threw away.

Because Waldo’s sister Christy and her son Jude were coming we didn’t get a chance to dig up any more potatoes till today. Jude totally helped and the kids (along with Grandpa) had a lot of fun.

Digging potatoes

Lily diging up potatoes

Jude helping to dig up potatoes

We dug up all of the white potatoes and picked a few orange tomatoes. In a week or two we’ll have a bunch of russet potatoes too.

Today's garden bounty

Homemade Pizza, one of my favorite things

When we lived in Montana (two years ago, I can’t believe it’s been that long) Waldo and I made pizza often. I used Alton Brown’s sauce (so friggin good) and dough (also very good) recipes. While I love both recipes the dough has to sit in the fridge overnight and always seems to make a big mess. I made it a few times while we were in California, but since we’ve moved to Idaho I haven’t bothered. As an aside, that’s a lot of moving in two years, seesh.  Anyway my Mother in Law Rita has been on a pizza making kick lately so now I’ve caught the bug myself.  She has to make gluten free dough and I like as much gluten in mine as possible so we can’t share. Since Alton’s recipe for dough takes to long to be usable I am now on hunt for the best quick pizza dough.

A few weeks ago I ran across a blog post about freezing foods (a whole different post I’m working on) and decided to give the pizza crust a try.  I made the sauce one day, separated it and froze it. The next day I made the pizza dough, separated it and froze it all.

Homemade Pizza sauce

Homemade Pizza sauce

I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the sauce after I blended the heck out of it. Alton says this sauce can be used for pasta, meatballs, pizza and just about anything else you can think to put a tomato sauce on. I’ve never used it for anything other than pizza.

When I separated the dough I made two big balls and two small ones so that Lil could have her own pizzas. This was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while. Lil doesn’t like anything remotely spicy and is very suspicious of red sauce so she doesn’t eat much pizza lately and if you know me even a little you will know that is just unimaginable to me. So anyway with Lil’s little pizza dough I made her a white pizza with a little ranch as a base sauce and then she cheesed it up. She loves helping me cook so the fact that she got to make her own pizza was the.best.thing.ever!

Helping to make pizzas

It was totally an accident that her dough was shaped like a heart, but we all thought it was great.

Helping to make pizzas

She also insisted on helping with our pizza, which was fine with Waldo and I.

Helping to make pizzas

*The cup of peas isn’t for the pizza. Lil loves to eat frozen peas so she was snacking on them while we prepped dinner.

Home made pizza

The pizza was delicious, but it was mostly because of the sauce. I’m pretty sure you could dip cardboard in that sauce and it would be the best thing you’ve eaten in a year. You will notice in the bottom corner a small cup of sauce to dip the crust in. Yum.  The dough itself we both felt was a little too bland. We are still searching for the best dough (besides Alton’s) so if you have any recipes for me to try let me know.

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