Who’s the Boss?

September 27th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting

I’ve let Max have a lot more control over all sorts of things this weekend. I’ve found that with half as many kids as usual I have twice as much patience. Funny how that works.

She made her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich today for lunch. That probably goes without saying, at least I hope it does.

Max Makes PB&J

Remember being a kid and wondering how mom always made sandwiches so perfectly?

Fortunately for me I made my own sandwich.

Veggie Sandwich

And BEETS! Dude, beets are good. I don’t know why anyone didn’t clue me in on this sooner.

Beets

Sandwich was my standard fare of lettuce, tomato, sprouts, banana peppers and sprouts. I peeled and cut my bloody beets into sticks and steamed for about 15 – 20 minutes. Once they were cooked I sprinkled them with a little balsamic vinegar.

This afternoon we walked to the playground, and then a favorite post-playground stop – the little coffee shop on the corner. See the purple monkey in there?

Jitters

Maxine got a sugar cookie and I got some oolong tea. She shared her cookie with me on her own accord. Hey! I thought the person who breaks the cookie isn’t the one who decides which half they want!? Hmph.

Not Fair

For dinner tonight I took portabella pizzas for another spin. Shawna at Balancing Me made them this weekend too! I washed the mushroom caps, removed the stem but left the gills. I cooked the mushrooms in the toaster oven on 350 for about 20 – 25 minutes, removing them every so often to dump the mushroom water off. I cooked the mushrooms longer this time and therefore they’d released almost all their water by the time I added sauce and cheese to them.

While the mushroom were cooking, I sauteed some banana peppers, red onion and garlic in extra virgin olive oil and then added some diced tomatoes, salt and basil. When the mushroom were cooked, I piled on the sauce and sprinkled on some mozzarella and Parmesan and baked for another 10 minutes.

Portabella Pizza

Served with tossed salad.

These were even better this time with less water in the mushroom and with mozzarella cheese too! The mushroom does not get crispy like pizza crust, and you really only want to eat this with a knife and fork, it’s still an uber healthy and tasty version of pizza, especially if you really like portabella mushrooms like we do!

And now Maxine says it’s time to go to bed. Oh no wait, that’s me saying that.


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17 Responses

  • portabella pizzas is one of the foods i feel like i’ve made before, but i know i haven’t. isn’t that strange?

  • Sounds like you and Maxine had a great weekend! I think spending some quality one-on-one time with your kids is so important (but sometimes hard to do)… :)

  • Lizzy says:

    i love it when you make portabella mushroom pizza’s! dinner tomorrow? teheh..

    i’ve never tried oolong tea, what does it taste like?

  • maria says:

    It seems like your mother/daughter weekend has went very nicely. I’m glad. My parent’s never did those, but I think it would have been a lot of fun!

  • Leianna says:

    Love her pb and j, so cute!
    Those mushroom burgers look amazing!

  • Maxine wins the Youngest Sandwich-Maker Award! Now that she can make her own meals, your work is done.

  • P’Bello pizzas..great idea! Glad the agave idea for the apple crumble worked for ya too. Agave is great, isn’t it. I love the stuff. Especially for things where you want a liquid sweetener anyway, like getting apples are juicey and ready for a dessert, perfect. Glad it worked for ya :) And beets…girl in the winter, roast them in EVOO in the oven. The carmelization is fabulous. They have the highest sugar content of any veggie so the carmelization is lovely, so tastey and great. Just watch out…beets are a total detox’er for the liver if you didnt know this, take it a little careful. I once ate about 4 roasted (though small) beets. I felt awful for a few days. I had just accidently done a liver cleanse. Whoops! But 1 or 2 beets at a time you’re safe. Just the roasting with the carmelization was sooo good I over indulged. Whoops :)

  • shawna says:

    Thanks for the shout out!

    Ahh, you cooked the portabella first and then added the toppings! I didn’t do that, and I had mushroom juice all over the pan. I also had problems with my cheese melting at first until I turned on the broiler. I’ll have to try that next time…which will be some time this week since I have one portabella left.

    Hmmm, never tried beets, but I might!

  • Haleigh says:

    Your little girl is so adorable!! Those sammies look awesome- the PB&J and the veggie 😉

  • Angela says:

    haha Jitters is such an awesome name for a coffee shop, lol.

    Maxine is so cute by the way! =)

  • Rebecca says:

    Love Maxine’s sandwich and your half of the cookie!

  • Erin says:

    Those beets look SO good! I need to try some immediately.

    Seriously. I really want to babysit your children. I think I would be so amused.

    Great article on HBH, by the by. Everytime I see someone link to it or mention it, I want to yell YEAH, TOTALLY, ALISON IS AWESOME.

  • A says:

    I love the PB and J a la Maxine! Very cute! I bet she was so proud! Such a big girl! 😀
    I’ll have to try those pizzas. Hungry Girl has a similar recipe that I’ve been meaning to try out.
    Happy Monday!
    -A

  • Cindy says:

    I have been drooling over that recipe since you first talked about it.

    OH and I just happen to have 2 perfectly good porto’s waiting for me …hmmmmm dinner anyone!

    Lil Maxine put you on a cookie diet! love it tho! she shared!!! how sweet!

  • Christina says:

    portobello mushroom pizza? genius idea!!

  • Shari B. says:

    Oh my, I missed so much while I was on vacation! I have so many of your posts to catch up on!

    The portabella pizzas are genius! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!

  • Erica says:

    haha- future chef in the making…I can just see it! Cutting right down the middle is so overrated. Love the name of that coffee place.