Hi

Hi.

It's me.

Remember me?

I'm the one who writes this old blog.

It's been a while.

Sorry about that.

Life just seems to be throwing this old blog into the backseat.

But I'm trying to keep it up.

I'm trying to keep up with it all.

I've been saying to Mr. Hass a lot lately things like,

"Hey remember when the girls were babies and we thought life was so hard? And so busy? And we were so tired? And I couldn't wait until they were a little bit older so that they could do things like wipe their own butts, and use their words to tell me what they wanted, and things like that?  And now they are older, and they can do those things, but somehow life has become even busier and crazier."

Yup, funny how that works I guess.

Here's just a tidbit of what has been going on around here...

 The weather has been warming up, and we've been spending more and more time outside.
(I also have not picked up my big camera lately so once again, it's a post full of iphone pics.)
Sorry about that too.

 Both girls are enjoying soccer quite a bit.
I realized that I went to high school with Hannah's coach.
Small world isn't it.

 I saw The Duggar Family on Dr. Oz recently and they were sharing some of their financial secrets.  Of course they make quite a bit of their own foods and household goods like wet wipes.  I have been so sad to realize all the extra crap that is put into pickles recently, so I knew I wanted to try their pickle recipe.  It was so easy and they really are so good!! Way better than store bought pickles!! Just get over the fact that they do still look a bit more like cucumbers than the type of "pickles" that you might be used to.  But we all loved em.  Will be making those all summer for sure.  In fact we want to plant cucumbers in our garden this weekend and then all we have to do is pick em and pickle em!

 Here's a crappy screen shot of the Duggar Family recipe.  It says:
2 cups of vinegar
4 cups of water
4 cucumbers
salt and spices to taste
(I cut the recipe in half.  And used not quite 1 tsp of salt, and about 2 tsp of dried dill)
Let sit for three days.  Then eat!!!  (I also stuck mine in fridge on day three.)

 A favorite snack lately; sliced banana, almond butter, coconut, and some granola.  

 Mr. H watching the NCAA tournament while at soccer one night this last week.  Thank goodness for iphones right?  ;)

Cabernet Monday happened again.  ;)

I sat outside reading my new book while Mr. H grilled some mahi marinated in soyaki for us. 

It was so good.  With asparagus from the Farmer's Market, and this quinoa recipe that was delicious!

 Last Saturday in between the girls soccer games we ran to the market.
I love all the spring produce that we are starting to see.
After Hannah's game my mom and dad told me they were going out to Dana Point to see my Uncle David's new boat and did I want to go...
I was so happy for my Uncle and we said of course we want to go!

 This next pic is not a favorite, but I'm sharing it anyway.  Like my Dad always says "this is what we look like people"... :)

 It was a gorgeous day for a harbor cruise.

 Just gorgeous.

 My Dad and Uncle Dave.  

 The girls had to have their sperrys aka "boat shoes", on the boat!

 Mr. H had to work that day and missed the soccer games, but he got off a little early and met us at the beach.

 For dinner we wound up at Harpoon Henry's.
We realized after we were seated, that we were in the exact same booth, in the same restaurant that Mr. H and I had dinner in one night when we spent our babymoon in Dana Point, almost 7 years ago, right before Hannah Faith was born.
It was pretty crazy to realize that and be sitting in the same place with our now family of four.

It was a fun time.

That night Mr. H and I were supposed to be picking up a sitter to catch a movie date, but we had a feeling we'd be home late from the beach, so we rescheduled our movie date for the next night on Sunday.
We had intentions to go see Olympus Has Fallen,
but I was seriously so tired,
didn't even want to leave the house,
and then by 7pm I realized I was starving,
so we found ourselves at this neat little Gastropub by our house instead.

It was just what we needed.

And we loved it.

It's a husband and wife that own and operate, and their daughter works the bar.

He came over and chatted with us for a bit, and then he sent over a free slider for us to try.

It was so fun. 

I think this might be our new favorite date night spot.

Here's what we ate...

I had an organic extra pale ale, and Mr. H started with a flight of beers to sample.  We loooooved the Bootlegger's Knucklesandwhich IPA.  Sooooo good.  Then for food we had the olive medley, a roasted veggie salad with cous cous, pork belly tacos with a chipotle lime sauce, flatbread with goat cheese and grilled onion and basil, and flatbread with sliced pear, balsamic and gruyere.  We really wanted to try the "Sticky Pig" for dessert but they were out.  It is a maple bar with a bevarian cream filling and bacon!  Next time for sure.  Neat place.  Fun night.

This week the girls are on Spring Break.

And man have I needed it!!!

Since they are off school, and Mr. H is off work on Wednesdays, 

I took yesterday off work and we had a fun day adventuring at the beach. 

It was just what we all needed.
A little sun, surf, and sand sure does do the body good.

Tonight we are having family over for dinner to celebrate my Mom's birthday which is actually tomorrow.
I better go prepare!

Peace Out...

Life & Some Babble

Hiya.

How are ya?

I am tiiiiiiired.

I worked until almost 9pm last night, and I am dragging my feet today.

Man why does 6am have to roll around so darn fast?!?!

My friend and I have been joking that we are going to make a construction paper chain like kids do in school to countdown until Christmas, only ours is gonna be how many school days left until SUMMER!!!!!!

You may laugh, but we're serious, we need a paper chain.

Funny how as a kid you think once you're done with school you are done waking up early for it.  And then you have kids and you have to do it all over again.  ;)

So since Hannah joined her girl scout troop a little later than the rest of the girls, she's missed some of the activities to earn her daisy petals and some badges, so we have been trying to make them up.

This week she is working on earning her green pedal, which is "do good in the community".  So we thought she could pick up trash at a park near our house, and she also wrote out a note to our school cross guard thanking her for her service every morning.

We included $10 to Starbucks and told her that we appreciate her!
Cars are ruthless out there in the morning! The poor lady has a dangerous job.

Claire has another cold this week.
Tuesday she was super plugged up and coughing quite a bit so I kept her home from speech and we blew bubbles and painted in the backyard.
Way more fun than speech.

This picture reminds me soooo much of my sister and I at that age!
People tell me all the time that my girls look nothing like me, or that they look just like their dad. 
But I disagree, every once in a while they look like spitting images of me at that age.  

I love Claire's little sperrys on her.
So stinkin' stylish.
Hannah doesn't have sperrys so I told her we'd get her some soon.

The weather has been so nice here and it's making me so anxious for summer!

But ya know what else happens to me when it warms up...
I don't want to cook at all!!!!
I want to spend every last drop of time outside soaking up the sunshine, not working away inside my kitchen.
Tuesday after school I had a craving for fro-yo.
Of course the girls were thrilled.

And since it was 90 and felt like summer,I came home and made these coconut pineapple popsicles!  

I kinda followed this recipe I saw on Pinterest.  But not to a T.

Recently I tried this recipe from pinterest to make a chicken, quinoa, and black bean casserole.  I used leftover shredded chicken from my whole chicken in the crockpot.  

It was very pretty looking,
but once I threw it all together I wasn't sure and I was crossing my fingers that I didn't waste my time and ruin dinner.
And as it turns out, it was Delicious!!!
I will definitely make it again, and we ate every last drop within the next day.

After our fro yo on Tuesday we weren't super hungry and I was enjoying that sunshine and not wanting to cook.  So we came inside at 5 o clock and I just threw this quick dinner together.  (Sorry for the really crappy iphone pic)

Egg and cheese and ham sandwhiches on whole wheat bagel things for the girls, and some kiwi and sunflower seeds.  And for Mr. H and I, I just microwaved a bag of TJ's frozen organic brown rice, put spinach on top of the rice, and cooked up a couple of TJ's chile lime chicken burgers and topped it with some sunflower seeds, cheese for Mr. H, and some hard boiled egg, and added an asian salad dressing.  It was pretty good for just throwing it together!

And one more crappy cell phone pic, but we also had strawberry banana smoothies too.

2 cups coconut milk,
2 frozen bananas,
1 cup sliced frozen strawberries
1 cup greek yogurt
and 2 T. of flaxseed


I've gotta get going and take Claire to speech this morning,
but wanted to real quick answer the last two questions that I have not gotten to yet...

Sandy asked me "What are your thoughts on soy milk?"
So here they are:  I know we've been led to believe by the FDA and American Heart Association that soy is good for you.  That soy lowers cholesterol and lowers blood pressure, and is healthy and good.  That eating sushi and edamame is good for you.  
From what I have read about it, soy can be good.
But too much of it is very questionable.
And recently the American Heart Association quietly stopped promoting the use of soy.
Funny how nobody knows that though.
Some scientists refer to soy as a double edged sword, because it has both pros and cons.
I learned from Robyn O' Briens book The Unhealthy Truth,
that 92% of soy grown world wide is genetically modified.  
Robyn says in her book, that on  the simplest level, "genetic engineering involves manipulating genes, altering an organisms DNA to create a new trait.  A genetically modified crop might be developed to resist bugs, for example, or to withstand frequent spraying with herbicides."
I also learned from Robyn's book that a food allergy is the body reacting to the proteins of a certain food.  If the body is having an allergic reaction it sees those food proteins as a toxic invader.
The food proteins of soy are very similar to the proteins in a peanut.
So if one was allergic to peanuts, it is safe to say that they would most likely also react to the food proteins in soy as well.
Now, today soy is EVERYWHERE.  It is in almost every kind of processed food, in soy based formula, and in many conventional formulas as well.
A British study turned out to discover that kids who were given soy formula as infants seemed almost three times as likely to develop a peanut allergy later on in life.
Another Doctor in Wisconsin became curious and he conducted his own study on soy.  When he looked at his patients records, he found that 62% of his peanut allergic patients had once been fed soy formula.
Kinda funny how there has been such a huge increase in the peanut allergy in young kids in the last ten years huh?
Could it have to do with all of this genetically modified soy that now seems to be everywhere? ??
To learn more about all this soy business, Robyn's book is a great place to start.  

And one last question:
Someone asked me about what beauty products I use... 
This might sound disapointing, but most of my makeup and skincare I buy from the esthetician at my salon.
I've been using Neova skin care line,
and all my makeup is from ColorScience.
This brand is hard to find and is usually sold by a skin care rep, but can be bought online too.
It is a mineral based, natural makeup and all of it contains lots and lots of spf!  

Ok, that's all for now!
Gotta run! 
Talk to ya soon!

The Weekend, Some Recipes, and Food Q & A

Heyyyyy.
How's your Monday going?

Did I tell you guys that I am officially growing out my bangs?

Because I am.

Headbands are my new best friend.  :)

We had some rain recently. 

But those pretty flowers from Mr. H just keep getting prettier and they kept it cheery during the rainstorm.  

And now the skies have cleared, rain is gone, and it's back to being beautiful.

 Today it was 83.  Tomorrow 86.  Wednesday 85.  LOVE those numbers!

So, I have loved all of the feedback and questions from my last few food posts!
I will try to answer everyone's questions here on my blog and please bare with me if I don't get the answer up right away!  It's just getting harder to find the time for "it all", but I'll do my best!  So, in this post I will answer as many as I can...

***Abby asked me what brand of tortillas and pastas I use because a lot of recipes in the fabulous cookbook Weelicious calls for them.    I switch up brands depending on where I'm shopping, but I stick with whole wheat tortillas.  At Trader Joe's I like their organic whole wheat tortillas, and at Sprouts I buy Mission Brand whole wheat, or another off name whole wheat brand.  Look at the ingredients on the packaging, and try to go with the one that looks the best and is also whole wheat.  I've learned to look for the word "whole" wheat, not just wheat, because that way you know it's not also mixed with other enriched flours.

Friday I tried a new recipe from the author of Weelicious.  Crockpot Vegetable lasagna, and I bought these whole wheat lasagna noodles from Sprouts.

 My friend Sarah said she tried it and the family loved it so I was anxious to try it too!

 SO EASY GUYS!!!! 
Seriously, I had it all layered in the crockpot within 15 minutes!
And it was DEE licious!  Or should I say WEElicious? ;)

 I'm already excited to make that one again!!! Easy and yummy, now that is a winner.  You can find the recipe here.
For the veggies you can use whatever really, I used spinach, broccoli, and a large carton of sliced mushrooms.

When Mr. H got home from work Hannah and I took off on our date.
We picked up her troop leader and her daughter and went to see the play The Little Princess.

 It was really cute, and even cuter to watch how much Hannah enjoyed herself.

 The girls got a VIP backstage tour before the show.  They got to meet the actors in the green room, check out their dressing rooms, learned some history of the building, see the sound room, and best of all, to be on stage themselves!  

 It was a really fun night.
I'm so happy that Hannah and I get to experience all these great things with her troop together and I can't wait until Claire can join the fun too.
We didn't get home until 10pm, which is super late for Hannah.
She slept until 7:45 Saturday morning.  (Unheard of around here folks.)

Mr. H worked all weekend and we pretty much laid low.

 I made about 30 apple cinnamon pancakes to freeze for the girls breakfasts on school days.  These are from the Weelicious book, and oh my gosh are they good!! They taste like an apple fritter! I'm serious, so good.  I can't find a link for that recipe on her website but I'd just buy the book on amazon. ;)  

I also made almost 4 dozen of the Weelicious mac n cheese n chicken muffins.

I had shredded chicken to use so I made all these to freeze and pull out for the girls as needed.  They came in handy tonight strolling in at dinner time after a girl scout meeting!

Saturday afternoon the girls needed to run off some steam, and I needed to go to Trader Joe's, so we headed out.

First a stop at Star bizzucks for my favorite green tea no sweetener.
Then to the playground for the crazies.

It sure felt good to sit in that sunshine.

A few people have asked me about my Trader Joe's must have items.

So next time I go shop there I will bring take pics of all my favorite stuff.  Stay tuned for that post ok?

*** One Q I got was "What about juice for the kids?"

I really don't buy much juice.  We always seem to have a gallon of organic apple juice, but to be honest, the girls (and all of us) drink water like it's going out of style.  I used to buy lots of capri suns and juice boxes.  But now we have tons of re-usable water bottles and we just fill those up with ice water for them all day long.  And guess what?  They love it.  They've never really asked for juice.  We do love fresh squeezed orange juice from my parents oranges though!

Speaking of oranges, I made a balsamic orange dressing for our salad this weekend and it was so tasty.

I just mixed some evoo, balsamic, 2 pressed garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and juice of one orange.  and the next day I just added the juice of one more orange to it and used it again.

***My dear friend Jenny asked me if I use a magic bullet for my smoothie making.
Nope, Jen, I recently bought the Ninja Mega Kitchen System and it has all sorts of fun attachments for smoothies!! I love it. I got that with some Christmas money, and have honestly used it almost every single day since then.
***Jenny also asked me if I worry about my girls getting enough calcium since we don't drink cow's milk.
I thought that was a great question.  The food industry has led us to believe that cow's milk is the only place to get our calcium from.  
But that is simply not true.  I found this article listing the top ten highest calcium foods.  One thing I've learned recently is to ask myself "What incentive does a corporation have for doing something?".  Mr. Hass tells me that one of his pharmacy teachers in college reminded him of this a lot.  Always ask yourself who benefits from it?  Millions and millions of dollars have been spent making celebrity milk mustache commercials and ads, and making us believe that we need milk.  And who is benefiting from all of that?  The USDA, the FDA, Monsanto, and those scientists who have also invented rBGH, the growth hormone injected into dairy cows.  Now, you know I don't think all milk is bad.  I just have chosen not to buy/use it.  And to buy organic milk is expensive! So, I guess in a way I'm glad that we don't have to spend the money on that and can use it on other groceries that we do buy.
The only milk I've been buying is organic half and half for my coffee.

Making my own creamer just isn't ideal, and it wasn't fabulous tasting. It wasn't horrible, but wasn't worth the trouble either.  So this cinnamon sugar grinder is my new solution.  At least I know exactly what's in that!

*** To answer Sarah's question, she asked "I live in Missouri and here all the jugs of milk say something about the farmers pledging to not use artificial growth hormones for their cows.  Is this a lie?"
No Sarah, it's not a lie.  If they have a label stating that they do not use artificial growth hormones on their cows, then legally they can not.  But corporations like Monsanto (the scientists behind the growth hormone), got mad when some dairy farmers started labeling their milk this way because they were afraid that it was going to scare people, and make them think that something is wrong with the "other" milk.  So now dairy farmers who pledge to not use the growth hormone, are actually required by law to also include the label stating "No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from cows treated with artificial hormones and those not treated with artificial hormones."  !!!!  Do you see the crazy in that yet?   Monsanto freaked out and didn't want to lose money in their dairy sales, because people are starting to get smart and realize how dangerous rGBH may be to our health, and so because of the many connections that they have within the food industry, they now have these labels on everything. If that doesn't confuse the heck out of poor unsuspecting shoppers!

Recently we needed cheese and Mr. H was running to Sam's Club.  I told him to check the labels and let me know.
He text me this picture:

That confusing label again.  Only on this cheese, there is not also a label stating that the farmers did not make the cheese with cow's milk not treated with rBGH (or rBST).  So he knew, this cheese was a no go.

A few hard boileds in my new egg tray from Cost Plus.  I always have these babies on hand.  They make a great snack, salad topping, etc.

Okay, so one last question I wanted to answer in this post:
***Several have asked me if I have noticed a difference in the way I feel/energy level/weight loss since we have begun to eat and cook differently.
My answer to that is YES!!!!!
I used to NEED a diet coke every. single. afternoon!
And now, I don't really get that afternoon slump like I used to.
I feel like by eating right, it naturally elliminates the bad for you and you don't want it.
I used to be so hard on myself for not ever really getting back to my pre baby weight.
And now, I try to be happier with the knowledge that I am treating my body as best as I can, and that is good enough.
Yes of course my body has changed after having my girls, but I try to embrace that now and know that if I am eating well then I am probably at the weight that I am meant to be at.  Of course there's still things I'd love to change, but that's life right?
I think overall since eating differently my weight has leveled out.  I don't feel like I fluctuate as much as I used to.
And I am certainly much more "regular" in that department if ya know what I mean! ;)
I've mentioned that I've suffered from ibs my whole life.
I've been to the doctors several times and nothing ever really changed.
Along with my ibs episodes I'd usually suffer from anxiety along with it.
And now, I'm not saying I'm not stressed out (because who isn't!) but I don't really have these episodes any more, and when I have, it's been at times I ate something that I knew would probably cause it.
Mr. Hass said that he has more energy throughout the day, and doesn't suffer from that midday slump anymore either.
So yes, we do feel differently, and for the better for sure.
It's a good life, and we want to be around to enjoy it for a long long time!

So that's that.
And today's Monday.
And I was kicking Monday's butt this morning.
Got H to school, 
worked out,
sheets in the wash,
pillows bleached and washed (after inspired from Pinterest),
took C to school,
showered/hair/makeup done...

and then this happened...

Waaaaaaaaaa.
I put some chicken stock in a mason jar because my plastics were already full, and it shattered.  When I went to lift out of freezer it shattered into my hand some more.  Two fingers down.
Not good.
Blood freaks me out.
I'm hoping that's healed a bit by Wednesday.  Washing hair with finger wounds ain't all that fun.

This afternoon Hannah had a police officer visit her girl scout troop and she earned her safety badge.

She got to sit on his bike and everything.
It was a fun afternoon.
And to those whose QUESTIONS I didn't get to,
Stay tuned!!!!!
I'll try to get another post up in the next couple of days with some more answers.

And one more pic...
Mr. H painted my purple beaudoir mirror and it's not done yet so it's in the garage.
I forgot about it and laughed out loud every time I opened the door to leave the house today.

How's that for one last mirror check before running out the door?
Ha.

Ok, I'm off to chill with Mr. H.
We've got a Breaking Bad calling our name.
Oh! Did you watch SNL this weekend?
JT is such a funny host!

One little note: In case you don't know, if you click on the words in this post in colored font I have hyperlinked the information for you.  To see a recipe, or to buy the Ninja, or read the article about foods highest in calcium, just click on the link! ;)

Ok,
now I'm off.
Peace Out.