Ratatouille, Ratatouille

August 1st, 2010 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (14 Comments)

Whenever I say “Ratatouille”, I always want to say it twice and then the chorus Rock Me Amadeus starts to play in my head.

What? Is that just me?  Probably.

So… Ratatouille. Yeah. I’m fairly sure “Ratatouille” is French for “what the hell am I going to do with all these summer vegetables?”

My mom has been making Ratatouille and raving to me about it during recent phone conversations.  When she described what went into it, I realized that I had every single one of the ingredients in my overstocked-with-produce fridge.  That’s what I call vegetable fate.

Sweet Tooth Fairy

December 13th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting - (13 Comments)

Guess who’s coming to our house for the first time tonight?

The Tooth Fairy is Coming Tonight

That would be the Tooth Fairy!

(You try and get a 5 year old to smile in such a way that she holds her lip out of the way! Go ahead! Just try!)

So yes, Ava lost her first tooth today! It came out just a half hour before we left for an OrKIDStra presentation of The Snowman this afternoon.

Holding Our Tickets for The Snowman at the RPO

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs is a children’s book that was made into a short animated film. Like the book, the film is wordless – but has an orchestral score.

2 out of 3

December 3rd, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (22 Comments)

What’s one of the first things I do when I wake up in the morning? Put in my contact lenses.

And what’s the first thing I saw today? Toys on the bathroom counter. But do you see what I see?

Dirty Toys

If I look in the mirror I see a lady with a dirty mind.

Toys

At least now I know why he smiles like that.

Now I Know

Soft porn toy pics make me hungry! I was in the mood for cereal and planned to do yoga at home, so I figured I’d pop some homemade cereal in the oven before I got my downward dog on.

Sunday Processing

November 29th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Late Night Craziness - (12 Comments)

Almost a month ago my sweet friend Cindy asked me if I might be interested in trying a recipe she created. I said “Sure!” and she sent the recipe to me, and that recipe has sat in my inbox all this time, patiently waiting for me to make good on my promise.

Well today is finally the day! Cranberry Orange Bites here we come!

I did a little tweaking of Cindy’s recipe, so check hers out for the original version.

Crust
1 C soaked, raw cashews
4-6 ripe large medjool dates (pitted)
1 Tbsp coconut oil

Zak didn’t exactly get to go home early today due to garlic breath, but he did get home earlier than usual tonight. We loaded the whole family into the car and hit up the pool at the fitness center for some family fun and exercise too.

Swimming is probably my least favorite form of cardio, but I rather enjoyed it tonight. Maybe because I haven’t swam laps since the spring? Whatever the reason, it was a nice change of pace and I swam laps for 30 minutes, alternated 100 yards of freestyle and 100 yards backstroke while Zak entertained children in the shallow end. He got his turn to swim laps while I took cold, wet girlies into the locker room for nice long hot showers on someone else’s dime (forgive me, Mother Earth), blow drying hair and hiding in lockers until dad was done and ready to go.

A Nice and Easy 9

November 14th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (10 Comments)

Having started last Saturday with a fast 7 miles, I decided this Saturday would be another long run – but this one at a comfortable pace and maybe a little further. Matt’s post on Stu Mittleman got me revved up for an enjoyable long run and today was the day.

I wasn’t sure exactly how far I was going to go this morning, and decided to play it by ear. First things first though, a MamaBite while loading the dishwasher multi-tasking.

Come on coconut oil, show me what you got!

Pre Run Banana Bite

Make Your Own MamaBars

November 2nd, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (19 Comments)

When I made Averie’s RAWking chocolate donut holes last week, I got to thinking that these were basically homemade Larabars. They were really good – and they were chocolate! I don’t know about you, but the chocolate Larabars leave much to be desired. I think I can do a little better. Wait, I DID do a little better! (Thank you Averie.)

Are you smelling what I’m smelling?

I’m gonna make me some MamaBars.

The only thing is, I’m kind of curious to know how many calories might be in a MamaBar versus a Larabar. I was in the mood for a little project tonight so I got to work.

Tofu Cakes I Did Make

September 10th, 2009 | Posted by Alison in Dinner Time - (22 Comments)

After lunch today we were off to run some errands and explored a brave new frontier. OK really it was just a playground we’d never been to before. Brave new frontier sounds much more interesting though if you ask me.

A dino? Or a rhino? You decide.

Dino?  Or Rhino?

This was my second attempt to take this picture…

Swinging Things

My first attempt was thwarted by this… this… THING!

Jerk!