Dinner Last Night

Dinner last night consisted of a mixture of meats we barbequed for our Super Bowl Party, potato salad, cheese and crackers and whatever else we had out for our guests to snack on.

But one dish seemed to win out over the rest.  I adapted this from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com and it was a huge hit (even my husband ate it).  Definitely a healthier choice of dessert than cake and ice cream.  I used melon, blackberries and apples in my dish, but you can use whatever is in season at the time.  This would be good with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, watermelon, mango, etc.

Fruit “Salsa” and Cinnamon Chips

Mixed fresh fruit  - 1 cup ea. of three or four varieties

4 tbs sugar

1 tbs brown sugar

10 Flour tortillas

Spray butter

Cinnamon

Dice the fruit into small (salsa ingredient) sized pieces and put in a bowl.  Add two tbs of sugar and one tbs of brown sugar, mix and put in the refrigerator.

Add cinnamon to the remaining sugar. Cut the tortillas into wedges.  Spray both sides with the butter spray and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on the chips.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes (check the first batch to get the time right) until crisp and golden brown.

Use the cinnamon chips to scoop the fruit “salsa”.  Enjoy!

Farm Fresh Vegetables

Last week, I decided to try something new and ordered fresh vegetables online.  I researched several places and in the end settled on Farm Fresh to You.  They are a bay area farm that specializes in organic produce.

I chose Farm Fresh because it offers the widest variety of choices.  You have the ability to list out fruits and vegetables that you absolutely don’t ever want to see in your box, can adjust the size of the box, and the frequency of delivery.  There are also fruit only or vegetable only choices and even a “no cook” box for those that don’t cook or don’t have time to cook.

I ended up ordering the regular size box ($31.50) to be delivered every other week….mainly because the website suggested this for a couple or small family.  The $31.50 includes the delivery charge.   For those of you (if you are like me) that need to plan your meals ahead or shop on the weekends, you can look up what will be in your box on the weekend before it’s delivered.  I wasn’t aware of this feature when I first ordered, but was thrilled to find it when I looked up my order several days later!  It also included direct links to storage suggestions and recipes for each of the fruits and vegetables on my list.

My box arrived yesterday and included the following:

Apples, Tangelos, Tangerines, Red onions, green onions, lettuce, kale, collard greens, cauliflower, carrots, and beets.  If I had ordered a week earlier, my first box would have included mushrooms and chard (hope to see these again in my next shipment).  It does not surprise me that in the winter I would see more leafy greens, onions, and beets in the box, since that is what’s growing now.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what we get in the spring and summer months!

I did a quick price check on the produce I received and if I had purchased these at a farmers market, I could have gotten them for a lot less.  If you have access to get to one of these on a regular basis and the time to go, then that would be a better choice.  But, if I were to purchase all these from the organic produce section in Raley’s (I love this store), then the price is actually pretty comparable.

The main advantage to getting vegetables this way is that it forces me to be more creative when it comes to feeding my family.  I’m not a picky eater and so far (knocking on wood), neither is my daughter.  But my husband is…or at least he’s not that adventurous.  It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to meals…especially when it comes to vegetables.  Unless we get something we absolutely hate, my plan is to take what I get and come up with easy, healthy recipes that incorporate that.  The hope is that we’ll end up with new, healthy dishes that we otherwise wouldn’t have tried.

The second advantage is the time savings, which for me, as a working mother, is huge!  A trip to the grocery store can easily take an hour, if not more.  And to keep fresh fruits and vegetables in the house, those trips need to be fairly often (at least once a week).  We already make bigger trips to places like Costco or Sam’s Club to buy our meats and non-perishable items.  We invested in a freezer to keep in the garage and a very simple vacuum sealer.  This way, we can buy the large, bulky meats, and separate them into family size portions.  This takes some extra time on shopping day, but saves us money and decreases the number of trips we need to take.  Plus, we can keep a good variety of things in the house this way. 

So, with the meat, rice, pasta and canned goods taken care of and now, the fresh fruits and vegetables being delivered directly to our house, the grocery shopping is pretty much done.  Making a weekly pit stop for milk and eggs, if I do it right, can take as little as five or ten minutes and can happen on my way home from work.  The time savings equals a lifetime for me!

Speaking of eggs…I got an email from Farm Fresh this morning that said they are adding egg delivery to their service.  The eggs come from a neighboring farm and you can get either free range eggs for $7/dozen or cage free eggs for $6/dozen.  At first, I was a little excited at the possibility of farm fresh eggs being added to my box, but I do think it’s a little pricey and have decided against it.  Unless getting free range or cage free is the most important thing when it comes to buying eggs, I say it’s not worth the extra cost.

Weekly Weekend Planner

...because it's never too early to think about the weekend.

Sacramento Museum Day

Looking for something cool to do with your kids this weekend?   Need something that’s fun, educational, and cheap?

Well, Saturday, Feb 5, is the 13^th Annual Sacramento Museum Day.  26 area museums and the Sacramento Zoo are offering free admission!  The event takes place from 10 am to 4 pm (all museums close at 5 pm).  The following website offers event specifics and a complete list of participating museums as well as tips and helpful suggestions for getting through the day:

http://www.sacmuseums.org/museumday.html#

Because the museums can get over crowded and parking can be at a premium, please take the time to plan out your day before going.  Certain locations have shuttle buses that will take you to almost all other locations and may be a good place to start.

The sheer number of participating museums can be overwhelming and it will be impossible to visit all of them, so take into account what interests your family and then plan on attending two or three that interest you most.  Also, some museums may have long waiting lines, so if you’re anything like me and don’t like waiting, have some backups in mind and remain flexible.

Some favorites for children, listed in the FAQ on the above website, are Discovery Museum Science and Space Center, Fairytale Town, the California State Railroad Museum (one of my favorites), Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park, and the Sacramento History Museum.

It looks like the weather on Saturday will be partly cloudy but with temperatures in the mid-sixties.  Perfect museum weather.  If the clouds don’t bother you, I would suggest starting early in the morning and ending your tour at the Sacramento Zoo or Fairytale Town.  You can pack a lunch and picnic either inside the zoo or anywhere in Land Park.  It gets crowded there on the weekends, so my suggestion would be to park at one of the other museums and ride the shuttle over.  If you have young kids and start early, you can finish your tour in plenty of time to get home for an afternoon nap. 

The event promises to be a fun-filled family day.  And what’s better than getting a little bit of education along with a whole lot of FREE family time?  Have fun!

Dinner Last Night

Dinners are probably one of my more challenging tasks.  As a full-time working mother, with a full-time working husband, getting good, nutritionally complete meals on the table is difficult at best.

Last night I made this quick pasta dish that was both easy and delicious.  This dish is easily adaptable to a wide variety of tastes.  Add as many or as few vegetables as you wish.  We like bell peppers, olives, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts.

Chicken “Tender” Pasta

3 T. olive oil

4 chicken breasts cubed

½ c. bread crumbs

1/3 c parmesan cheese

2 T. flour

Salt/pepper to taste

Italian seasoning to taste

1 box pasta (penne, bowtie, macaroni) – prepared per package directions.

1 small onion or 2 shallots diced

2 cloves garlic

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce (or 1 cup chicken broth)

½ c. hard cheese (parmesan, asiago, romano)

In a small bowl mix together the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper (you can also add onion and garlic powder and any other seasoning you wish).  Set aside 3 T. of the mixture.  Lightly coat the chicken pieces with the bread crumbs (you don’t want a thick coating so no need to use egg or milk to help the bread stick).  Heat the olive oil in large pan and cook the chicken pieces on both sides until no longer pink.  Remove and set aside.  Add the onion, shallots, garlic, and dice bell peppers to the pan and sauté until the onions are golden brown (about 5 min).  Add the tomato, tomato sauce (or chicken broth) and any additional vegetables to the pan and cook an additional 10 minutes.  If the sauce is too watery you can thicken with the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese mixture you set aside before coating the chicken. Add additional seasoning to taste.  Add the cooked pasta to the pan and toss to coat.  Add any mixture of parmesan, asiago, and/or romano  cheese to taste. Top with the chicken and serve immediately.

Things to do in Sacramento with Kids

I don’t know about anyone else, but when it comes to finding things to do in the Sacramento area, I’m not very creative.  Add my inexperience at entertaining kids to that, and well, “what should we do today?” is usually resolved with a trip to Target or Home Depot. 

And while there’s nothing wrong with either Target or Home Depot (I’ll vouch that both these places rock!), it’s not a good source of entertainment for a toddler.

The most comprehensive website I’ve found of Sacramento area activities is Uptake.  This website searches travel sites and generates lists of things to do, complete with reviews, some pictures, and general information.  The Family Activities tab alone has 115 pages of things to do and places to visit.  While there are some repeats and some of the information is lacking, it is a good place to start when planning out weekend activities.  There’s even a Budget Activities tab for those of us who require more economical entertainment.

Sacramento Weekend with Kids highlights six specific picks of places to take kids.  This site is especially good for those just visiting the Sacramento area.

I’ve been to a few of the places highlighted on the web page; the Sacramento City Zoo (one of my favorites), the Railroad Museum, and the State Capitol are among a few.  I’ll be talking about each of these in greater detail in future posts.  I’ll also be taking the family to visit some of the other attractions as the year progresses and reviewing each in detail.

In the meantime, browse Uptake and let me know your thoughts.  Enjoy!

What's This Blog About?

As an engineer and a project manager, I’m pretty anal retentive about…well, just about everything.  I like to know exactly what I’m getting into, what to expect, and how to make it better.  I’m a compulsive “Google-r.” 

It should come as no surprise, then, that when I became pregnant with my first (and so far only) child, that I read an endless amount of books, visited web sites, read online forums, and just about anything else I could get my hands on to learn about every little tiny symptom, non-symptom and question that I had.   The information out there is endless.  Some is great, and some is not-so-great, but the bottom line is, there’s a lot.  As far as the pregnancy went, I was pretty well armed with information and what to expect.  Questions to my doctor and the nurses that were taking care of me were pretty much just verifications of things I already knew. 

Then the unexpected happened.  Despite all that I had read about the signs of early delivery, I quite suddenly went into labor.  My daughter was born in September 2009 - five and a half weeks early.  All of a sudden, I was thrust into the world of mothering and caring for a real life baby…and I had not done my research.  For the first time ever, I was unprepared.  Of course, the doctors and nurses in the NICU gave me very good guidance.  When my daughter was released 10 days later, I knew how to keep her on schedule, change her diapers, and monitor her feedings.  I was given excellent information on her development, when to worry, and mostly when not to.   

What’s the problem then?  Well, after we strip away all the developmental milestones, the disciplining philosophies, and the craft projects (which I don’t do), I find that there really isn’t a lot of “go to” places to get information on what to DO with my child.  Now that she’s a walking, jumping, climbing, toddler, I have no idea where to take her so she can safely expend all her energy.  I don’t know what safe, economical, family activities are out there.   My friends either have grown children or don’t have children at all.  I don’t have the resources around me that say “here’s what we do.”  So, I turn to the only other place I can…the internet.  The information is out there, but it’s not easy to find.  So, I figured if I’m going to go through the trouble of researching, I would consolidate what I find into one blog in the hopes that I can make it easier for someone else.

My goal for this blog is to find out what’s out there.  I won’t talk about milestones, development, health issues, etc.  I’m no expert and there’s plenty of easy-to-find information on those subjects.  I will talk about what there is to do with children in Northern California, and especially in the Sacramento area.  I’ll endorse toys and activities that we try and give warnings were needed.

This blog is open to feedback.  As much as I want to help consolidate information here, I also want it given to me.  So, for all the moms and dads out there with good ideas of family fun, recipes, and activities, please send them in.  I would love to hear from you!