Homemade Cereal Re-Runs

October 4th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (Comments Off on Homemade Cereal Re-Runs)

Homeschooling comes with plenty of challenges, but it’s also got a handful of perks.

One of my favorite perks? We quite often get to enjoy leisurely mornings at home – by design, really.  I’m a morning person, but that doesn’t mean I’m uber-excited to run out the door first thing in the morning on any given day of the week.

More accurately, I’m not uber-excited to get kids out the door first thing.  I’ll happily head out in the wee morning hours in my running sneaks, but a) I’ve only got to get myself ready and b) I don’t need to be reminded to brush my hair before I leave and c) I don’t have say CAN YOU PLEASE GET YOUR SHOES ON ALREADY three times before I finally do it.

What Kind of Day?

October 2nd, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (1 Comments)

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are,

Cold Wet Day

but it’s A Cold, Wet and Dreary kind of day here.

Wet Ground Wet Sidewalk

Or maybe A Soup, Sandwich and Writing on Your Bread with Mustard kind of day?

Egg Salad with Avocado and Cabbage Soup

Yeah, I like that kind of day much better.

So I guess that means we better make some soup.  Soup that’s gonna start with cabbage and leeks.

Leeks

Leeks that need their scary, hairy parts sliced off.  Scary, hairy parts that need to find something fun to do.

Coconut Oil Leek Hair

Not Another Cookie Recipe

September 24th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (4 Comments)

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

-Chinese Proverb

That’s great, but we’re not going to talk about fish today.  We’re going to talk about cookies.

One of the best things that happens when you learn how to cook is learning out how to get along without a recipe.

If you make something a couple of times, soon you begin to understand what ingredients and steps are most important.  Make something a bunch of times and soon you begin to see the variety of ways you might be able change it up.  Make something a couple of dozen times and soon you start see cooking from a whole new perspective.

First Things First:

Do you know who Miranda Kerr is?

Miranda Kerr Loves Coconut Oil

I didn’t – but I do now! An article just surfaced about this Victoria’s Secret model, wife of Orlando Bloom, new mother and coconut oil lover.

I will not go a day without coconut oil. I personally take four tablespoons per day, either on my salads, in my cooking or in my cups of green tea.

Rock on girlfriend! NOW I’ll remember who you are! You’re that chick who digs coconut oil! Orlando Bloom, Schmorlando Schoom.

Ratatouille: Revisited

August 25th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (10 Comments)

I’ve been waiting and waiting for eggplant to show up in the CSA share this summer so I could make Ratatouille.

Finally, the good word arrived in my inbox yesterday.

CSA Items

(more peaches. did ya catch that?)

Well what do you know – this week I’ll be picking up just about everything I need to make Ratatouille!

From inbox to counter top:

CSA Share

I think Peach and Corn Ratatouille is on the menu tomorrow.

I followed my own Ratatouille directions from last year’s premiere stewed veggie attempt – and good news! I didn’t steer me wrong.

Until recently, Brussels sprouts were not something I was eager to eat.  Truthfully there aren’t many vegetables I’m afraid of, but when it came to The Sprouts?  I simply saw no reason to even put them in the shopping cart.  Why bother if I’m only going to have to bribe or threaten myself in order to choke them down later.

But then I figured out how to cook these guys and oops!  I accidentally fell for them.  It was love at first bite.

CSA = Community Supported Agriculture.  (Not “Can’t Stand Alison”, thankyouverymuch.)

If this acronym is new to you, in short – a CSA is an opportunity for you, the consumer, to get your produce direct from a local farmer.  Find a farm that offers CSA memberships and you can buy a share of their crops for what will hopefully be a bounty of locally grown fruit and/or vegetables from late spring until mid fall – or whatever the growing season is where you live.

I’ve written casually about my favorite way to make Brussels sprouts before, but now I feel that this vegetable dish deserves an official post of its own because:

1.  I make them all the time and have therefore seriously improved my method

2.  I want to flesh out each step that goes into preparing Brussels sprouts in this manner

3.  Cooking vegetables can be highly meditative – as I will now demonstrate

OK.  Before we get started, let’s take a couple of deep, cleansing breaths.  In through your nose… out through your mouth. Yes, that’s it.  Very good.

A Time for Fish

November 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (14 Comments)

Earlier this week we met up with some of our unschooling, nature loving friends for a salmon run adventure.

We were the first to arrive,

Salmon Run

so we figured out how to keep ourselves entertained as we waited for our friends to join us.

tongue

Smile

One by one a colorful gang of kids showed up,

Fall Day

and then the creek walking and fish stalking began.

Colorful Friends

SVA

Right around this time every year, the salmon make their way back up the creeks and streams in this area to spawn,

Energy Lessons

August 14th, 2010 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (7 Comments)

Potential Energy

Chocolate Chews

These my friends, are fuel. And a pretty yummy fuel at that.

Inspired by Brendan Brazier’s Direct Fuel Bites, I made my own version with coconut oil, medjool dates and cocoa powder. Coconut oil is where it’s at for potential energy, which is what makes these little suckers so powerful.

Chewy Chocolaty Chewy Chews (catchy, eh?)

10 medjool dates, pitted
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 – 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Throw all ingredients into the food processor and then stand back to observe it’s Kinetic Energy with awe and wonder.