Lilyʻs "Deliciously Donut" 8th Birthday Sleepover [w/ Corn, Edamame & Black Bean Salad]

In our family we donʻt have birthdays.  No, weʻre more birthday week kind of people.  In a family of six I really enjoy being able to focus on one person and remember why they in particular are so special to our family unit.  Last week our oldest child turned eight.  I still canʻt believe it, I feel like Iʻm still in a little bit of shock.  Like I gave birth 8 years ago and forget everything up until today and how do I already have an eight year old? Breathe.

For Lilyʻs birthday she really wanted to have a sleepover with her best girl friends.  They had a blast playing dress-up, shrieking and running in circles and watching movies into all hours of the night.  Literally, all hours, I got the last one to sleep around 2am.  Mom life is hardcore sometimes.

The theme for her sleepover was Deliciously Donut!

Cake by Mom!  I used this awesome Wilton cake pan that can do any number or letter.

Happy Birthday to Me shirt from Childrenʻs Place via Noni of course! 

Chocolate Milk and Sprinkles for breakfast, what else could a little girl ask for?

Lilyʻs birthday "cake"! 

Happy Birthday Lily Pax!  You are loved. 

Teaching Daddy how to make a bracelet, her new favorite hobby. 

Pre-sleepover spaghetti dinner with friends!  

In addition to her birthday sleepover we had; cupcakes at the beach with friends (twice!), went to see the new Planes: Fire & Rescue movie and went to the annual Midsummerʻs Night Gleam at Fosterʻs Botanical garden.  All in all a great week to celebrate a rad little girl.

On the night we saw Planes we had dinner at a friendʻs house in Waikiki and since I had a random bunch of corn I decided to make this salad.  Super light, fresh, and fast it was great on a hot day.  I took the pictures before I added the cilantro but I really like the flavor with it included. 

Corn, Black Bean and Edamame Salad

2 ears of corn, cooked, with kernels cut off

1 can of black beans, rinsed

1 jalapeño, diced 

1 cup shelled edamame, cooked

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

For the vinaigrette:

2 limes, zest & juice

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup olive oil

salt & pepper

• Combine corn, black beans, jalapeño and edamame in a large bowl.
• In a separate jar combine all ingredients for vinaigrette adding salt & pepper to taste,  mix dressing well and pour over salad ingredients. 
• Add fresh cilantro and toss to combine.
• Cover dish and refrigerate at least one hour.  

My 10 Happy Things. [Zucchini & Quinoa Stuffed Portabellos]

My 10 Things.

I love......[in no particular order.]

1.  My new home, for how much of a pain in the ass this move has become, no matter how much I bitch and complain about the process, what we still have to do, etc. I am SO excited to be in a bigger house and looking forward to all the memories we will be making here.

2.  Babywearing.  Something about it just makes me feel like a skilled parent, even tho I'm not the best at it.  The wraps are so pretty, Tulip loves it and I can get shit done.  Enough said.

3.  My husband.  Obviously this guy has to make the list, he is such an amazing Father and loving husband.  God knew what he was doing when I met this crazy kid.

4.  Workaholics.  It's just a good show.  I mean come on, have you seen the Ninja Turtles episode?!

5.  Leggings.  They're so comfy.  I know you're not supposed to wear them like pants but sometimes I do.  I mean a longer t-shirt, but still.  I know. 

6.  My kids.  My sweet flower girls.  My crazy boys.  These four little people have helped me grow so much, I am forever grateful for their love and patience with me everyday. 

7.  My church.  Be it small but mighty.  It's easy to be discouraged about the things you're not doing, but I'm hoping to remember the things we are.  

8.  Tattoos.  They're just so pretty. 

9.  The beach.  I love the beach so much more now, the smell of the ocean, the color of the water, sand in my toes and usually happy kids all around.  A day at the beach is always a good day.  Unless you get rained out with a newborn and than a homeless guy starts a fire in the rocks and runs away and fire men come and think it was your husband that started the fire.  Than it's just an ok day. 

10.  My new blog designer, Miss Tobie!  Be on the look out!  This space will be looking rad someday soon-ish.  But for now I'll keep working on my writing and getting yummy recipes out!  

Zucchini & Quinoa Stuffed Portabellos

1 lb. grass-fed ground beef

2 tbs. olive oil

5 Portabello Mushrooms

1 medium zucchini, diced

1 cup cooked quinoa

4 slices good cheese, optional

Salt

Pepper

1.  In a large skillet brown the ground beef with the olive oil. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

2.  Once meat is browned add the diced zucchini.

3.  Cook for 5 minutes and than stir in the quinoa, season again with salt & pepper.

4.  Scrape out the gills, the brown inside, of the mushrooms with a spoon.  

5.  Arrange cleaned mushrooms on a baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil inside each cap, season with salt & pepper.

6. Fill each cap with a scoop of the beef mixture, dividing it equally between the 5 caps.

7.  Bake at 400 degreed for 10 minutes, top with cheese or panko crumbs if desired and bake an additional 5 minutes.

To make vegetarian/vegan:  Replace the ground beed with tofu or more veggies.

I'm also trying to figure out how to work Blogger a little better, especially in the aspect of adding pictures and the stories they tell.  I LOVE taking pictures, all the time, anytime, of anything and I really want to be able to go back through my blog one day and see the pictures and remember this time in our lives just because I know it moves so fast.  I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to do it but for now, they're here.  Pictures top to bottom: 

1.  Lily reading her new Junie B. Jones book under a slide at the park the other day.  She got the book from the tooth fairy the other day and is starting to love reading.  That makes me incredibly happy!

2.  A typical day for me.  I was on my second Nutella iced coffee of the day, taking a break from baking a Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a little munchkin tugging on me.  I'm pretty happy. 

3.  Oliver the Grouch.  Just look at it, you know. 

I've got a restless heart. [Hawaiian Granola]

I've always been a bit of a nomad.  I grew up as a Navy brat moving from the West to the East coast and later when my parents divorced traveling that same distance to see one or the other.  As my Dad was stationed different places I would visit him in Guam or San Diego.  When Andy and I started dating the restlessness continued, I never imagined myself being the kind of girl you could "tie down."

After dating for a year we moved down the coast of California to be with his family and after another move back to Stockton we got married and moved yet again to Hawaii.  Since that time we have moved homes countless times, gone to the mainland and back and never stayed in a house much longer than two years.  Even the one we bought.  Errr. I have lived in 4 states, a U.S. territory, and over 15 cities. I wanted to get restless tattooed on my knuckles, it's that bad.

But sometimes the restlessness makes me nervous.  Am I destined to be one of those people who isn't happy no matter where they are?  Or am I the type of person that's thankful to be where they are.  I hope I'm the latter.  I love Hawaii, this time around, I've made it a point to be thankful for the things I do have.  A beautiful ocean, lush palm trees, no rent to pay in a crazy expensive place.  And when the parts that make me sad creep in, like the fact that we couldn't afford to leave this place even if we wanted to, family is always at least a 5 hour plane ride away, and there's no In-N-Out, Chipotle OR Trader Joe's.   I force myself to look again at the good, because I know there is so much and I am so blessed.

Whether I am here, there, or anywhere if I'm with my family and if I'm in God's will it doesn't really matter anyways.  And if God wants to cure my itchy feet and Hawaii is where we're meant to stay I will be ok with that.  Or if he wants to give us that push to the next place we're supposed to be I'll be ok with that too.

I'm tired of being restless.  I want to be rested and refreshed.
Where you go I'll go, where you stay I'll stay, God I'll follow you alone.

 [The Swap!  Look at that awesome teepee!]

But right now I'm in Hawaii!  And I made granola for a local Peaceful Parenting Network swap I just went to which was awesome.  All us Mamas got together with whatever we had to get rid of and swapped, haggled and gifted all of our kids stuff for other people's kid's stuff.  It was pretty awesome and a great way to save money, get some new to us stuff and just hang out. 
I made this granola as an extra bargaining chip and it turned out great!  Definitely easy to adapt to your likes or allergies, add more honey if you like it sweeter, dried fruit or even chocolate chips at the end!

Happy Hula-Gan Hawaiian Granola

4 cups oats

1 cup rough chopped Macadamia Nuts

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey, preferably local

1/2 cup Chia seeds

1/2 cup Hemp Seeds

1/2 cup uncooked Quinoa

1/2 cup unsweetened shaved coconut

1/2 cup Coconut Oil + 2 tbs. for Greasing Pan

1.  In a large mixing bowl toss together all ingredients until everything is well coated with the oil.

2.  Grease a baking sheet with more coconut oil and pour the mixture on top.

3.  Bake in a 325 degree oven for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until granola looks toasty!

4.  Let cool and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

This granola is great on yogurt, as a snack, with milk or whatever!

Healing hurts. [Blueberry Quinoa Muffins!]

The New Year is here!  It snuck up on me.  

2012 was just a blur.  Of trips, moving, babies, blessings.  

I thought about what "resolutions" I was going to try for 2013.  Mine are mostly simple.  

Drink more water.  Sleep more.  Cuss less. Pray more.  Read my Bible. 

Be gentler with my children. Eat healthier. Stress less. Exercise.

All of these things are definitely do-able, change-able.  

But one thing I really would like to focus on this year is giving myself time to heal.

[I signed myself up for the Honolulu Marathon today!  Let the resolutions begin!]

I'm not the best at letting myself heal.  Physically or emotionally.

I always want to rush the process, to have it be over and done with.  For my body or mind to bounce back to what I expect it to be without the waiting process.  I had surgery a week ago today and today is the first day I've let myself kind of be.  I slowly baked muffins with the kids, I snuggled in bed with the babies.  I went to bed early last night. Kind of ass backwards, but it's what I do.  I wanted out of the hospital the day I had surgery.  I want all the bandages off.  I want to take showers and climb staircases and lift heavy things.  And so I do.  But at what cost?  Essentially, a slower recovery, my body is not quite as young as it used to be or maybe even as I hope it is.  I'm rounding the bend of 29, it's getting close and with 30 right behind it and it's kind of freaking me out.  

[Bellows Beach. <3]

I had the same problem post-partum.  My midwife told me to rest a solid two weeks and I didn't.  I tried to do too much and my body came back to tell me, no.  This was not a challenge of mind over matter.  My body simply needed to heal and willing it to be healed was not going to work.  In my mind I justify it with the fact that really, no mother of 4 young children can really REST.  Can they?

I mean, husbands have to work, diapers need to be changed and little mouths fed.  Laying in bed watching TV and eating Ben & Jerry's sounds delightful but improbable.  

Healing is more than a body process tho.  I do the same in my mind.  I want hurts to go away the second they happen.  I want the crap I replay in my mind to be gone.  I understand healing is a process I just want it to be the shortest one possible.  I've never been good at dealing with emotions.  I'd much rather feel physical pain than the emotional kind and telling myself things don't matter has been kind of my go-to healing process.  Whatever happened to me isn't the worst, someone else at some point in time has been in a shittier situation and who am I to complain?

Healing from hurts is agony to me.  Such a slow and painful process that involves forgiving and letting go of the past.  Forgiving I think I can do.  Well mostly, I don't know if I've quite gotten there with certain people yet and probably because I haven't finished the healing process.  Letting go, maybe.  

I hate for the past to infect my future.  I have so many beautiful things in my life.  My family, my friends, my profession.  Why do I choose to let people that could care less about me burrow their way into my happiness?  I understand the process of a cut healing, you bleed, it hurts, it scabs over and then it scars.  I think I'm at a point in my life right now that my emotional hurts are scabbed over.  A huge part of me wants to just pick at them, see if they're still raw underneath but I know the best thing I can do is let it be.  Wait for time to do what only it can do and for me, what only God can do as well.

Heal me completely, leave a scar for what was lost.  A faint reminder.

Nothing that has to be part of my day to day living, but just what it is.  I was hurt, there's no denying it. There's no hiding it.  But I can let it go, let myself heal and move on. <3

So more of that eating better business, that includes baking better too. At least sometimes.

Made these muffins with the kiddos today and none of them would eat them, seriously.

Sigh.  It's worth trying tho right?

Blueberry Quinoa Muffins

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup cooked Quinoa

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsps. Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2/3 cup milk [I used whole]

1/4 cup Coconut Oil

1 heaping cup blueberries [I used fresh, but frozen would work!]

[1] Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place liners in 12 muffin cups.

[2] In a large bowl whisk together the flour, brown sugar, salt & baking soda.  Mix quinoa into this mixture.

[3] In a separate bowl combine the oil, milk and egg and then fold into the dry ingredients.

[4] Gently fold in blueberries and bake for 19-21 minutes.

Quinoa Power! 

Rants, Raves & Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies.

Holy crap, I don't know how it happens but I swear every time someone posts an article from Huffington Post its always some asshole that talks about how they're not going to tell people what to do, but then there they go and tell you what to do. 

The last article I read, I also blogged about when I was a fledgling blogger, oh....about 4 months ago.  It was a woman ranting why marriage under the age of 25 is stupid, she got a divorce, we're all basically the same, blah blah blah.   So I already thought "Yippee!" [in my most sarcastic tone], when I see this article going around lately.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicola-kraus/detachment-parenting-sears_b_1852579.html

It's another woman talking about how AWESOME she is a parent and how easy it is for her daughter to go to sleep.  All the awesome sleeping & screwing she does and once again, why her way is the best.

I honestly don't know why I let these things get to me.  

First off, I am not an attachment parent.  I won't label myself in anyway cause if I do, I'll fall short.  I already know it.  I REALLY don't like being told what to do, whether by some random blogger on the internet or Dr. Sears, I'm sorry but each family works differently.  I personally don't feel like some random guidelines are going to work well for each child and unlike the writer of this article I have 3, soon to be 4, not 1 that magically did everything I wished. 

[I couldn't think of any clever things to put with this blog so I'll just entertain you with my awesome Instagram pictures.  Here's one of a double rainbow I took the other day!]

I guess in any article of this nature the thing that bothers me is her righteous attitude about what fools attachment parents are.  Like I said, I am not an attachment parent, but please, if I have the choice lump me in with the lovers cause detachment parenting just sounds cruel.  Being proud of how you teach your child to self-soothe from the day their born to poking fun at Mayim Byalik breastfeeding until the age of 4 doesn't make you seem better.  It makes you seem rude.  It makes me think your children will grow up with the same attitude of superiority complex that you have. 

Yes, I breastfeed my children until one of us is ready to stop.

At almost 39 weeks pregnant with a 20 month old that time might come sooner rather than later. 

But guess what?  My marriage doesn't suffer from that.

Yes, I wear my children.  But surprise!  I put them in strollers and other dangerous contraptions too.

To say you know my marriage because you might have some idea of how I raise my children is wrong.

My husband and I put each other first FOR our children. 

That doesn't mean we don't get kicked in the back when one of the kids decides to get into our bed at night, or that we're not sometimes sleep deprived, I've been sleep deprived since I was 17 so really that's just a joke.  I've just traded in Halo marathon playing sessions with trying to get toddlers with night terrors back to sleep.  Same, same right? 

[Me at my maternity photo shoot last weekend at 38 weeks pregnant. 

 See?  I do love my self more than my kids. ;)] 

I'm not saying she's wrong.  For her family she might be right. 

But I would love to see if her own advice works for her 5 years & 2 more children from now. 

Any who!  On to food!

My midwife told me to drink more water & eat more protein to get ready for this impending, 

seriously could be anyway [ahh!] birth.  I wasn't digging the meat and I made Andy some quinoa salad and had been wanting to try this recipe.  These came out pretty decently although I have gotten tips to use a little more Peanut Butter or Maple Syrup which I definitely recommend.  These could be vegan too if you get vegan chocolate chips and peanut butter?  Is peanut butter already vegan?  Hmm.

Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies

2 cups cooked Quinoa

1/2 cup Peanut Butter [I used smooth]

3 tbs. Pure Maple Syrup

3/4 cup rolled Oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

[1] In a bowl mix together all ingredients until throughly combined.

[2] Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

[3] If you want chocolate-y looking cookies mix chocolate chips in while quinoa is warm,

mine are more studded with chocolate chips cause I used cold quinoa.  Either way is fine and tasty.

[4] Using a tablespoon pack the tablespoon tightly and drop cookies onto parchment paper. 

You can put these cookies as close as you want to each other, they won't spread at all. 

[5] Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy! We ate a whole pan of these in one day. Oops.