Tasty Thursday: Thai pizza

My husband asked for a Thai pizza this week. He loves Thai food, I don't. The poor man only gets Thai food once or twice a year so I was happy to oblige him.

Now not liking Thai I am not the best when it comes to flavors so I asked and did some research...I guess I didn't do enough. Still the pizza was pretty good and we ate it all, which is more than we did with the taco pizza last week. 

So here is the recipe.

Pizza Dough (Bobby Flay)

Thai chili sauce

medium zucchini, chopped

shallot

mozzarella cheese

peanuts (we didn't have any so I had to use cashews)

So roll out your dough and then spread some of the chili sauce over it. You decide how much you want but hold out some for the top. 

Spread the other toppings throughout the pizza, topping with cheese. 

Bake at 375 until the crust and cheese are golden brown. 

Let pizza sit for five minutes and top with some chili sauce.  

Mommy Musings Monday- Sick mom=messy house

So if one of my kids brings home a cold I end up getting their cold times ten. They get the sniffles, I get a fever and chills. I guess being home most the day I am not exposed to germs like I used to be when I was teaching, so any germs that enter my home find my immune system to be a playground. Anyway what amazes me is how messy my house gets in the few hours I stay in bed.

For example, I have been sick this weekend. I was pretty good this weekend about staying out of bed and by doing so the house stayed clean. This morning was another story though. My head pounding, and my chest racked with coughing I stayed in bed this morning. I was able to direct the kids to do their chores and I checked on them occasionally but then sleep overtook me and I was out for about two hours.

When I woke up I was pretty sure I had slept for more than two hours. The kitchen, the living room, my room, the play room, the tv room- about half the house.  I was amazed how quickly the kids could make a mess. The best part was it was only three of them and one of them was taking a nap for an hour.  This only seems to happen when I am sick though. If I am gone for an hour or even taking an odd nap here or there the house stays fine. I am pretty sure my kids have a sensor that goes off saying "mom's sick, engage mess making." It's like they know I will not have the energy to reprimand them or say anything.

Smart kids I guess, I will just have to make sure I start fighting off the super bugs they bring in...

Tasty Thursday- Taco Pizza

So I have been thinking that Pizza Palooza is a hit, we didn't have it last week due to the holiday and a neighborhood BBQ we went too and Matty kept asking for it all week long and was very disappointed when there was no Pizza palooza. 

So this week we decided to try the Taco Pizza that James has been asking for. 

So when we made the nacho pizza the sauce was a bit too runny so this time I cooked the salsa down with the meat and made a meat sauce. 

The problem was it was too hot so I had to temper it with some sour cream. Even then it had a nice kick.

Okay so here is the recipe:
Bobby Flay's pizza dough
1 lb ground beef
2-3 cups of salsa (you decide how spicy you want it to be)
3/4 cups sour cream
can of sliced olives
Cheese
Tomatoes
chopped lettuce
Guacamole (optional)

Cook your beef in with your salsa to create a meat sauce, if you want you can temper it with the sour cream. Your choice.

While that is cooking preheat your oven to 375 and then cook your pizza dough for about eight minutes.

When that is done top it with the meat sauce, olives, and cheese and cook for about 15 minutes.

Let it sit for two or three minutes then top with tomatoes, lettuce, and guacamole.

The kids declared this was the best pizza yet, beating out the nacho pizza the previous winner.

Workout Wednesday- Finding time for me

It is no surprise that I am not a huge work out fan. I try to like it, but really it is not that much fun to me. It is something that I need to do and something that must be done but I find it to be more of a chore than anything else. Here is the thing I do love about it though- it is completely my time.

During the day I try to catch time for myself, but as a mother of four with a family to run these moments are brief and fleeting. But when I am at the gym that is 45 minutes that I get all to myself.  When I am there I can take the time to think, to get lost in ideas and thoughts. Usually I find little time to relax, I know that sounds funny, to relax while working out, but there is no better place.

This is why I keep going every morning. Sure dragging three or four kids to the gym at 8:30 every morning is hard. Sometimes the breakfast dishes don't get done before we leave.  And many times morning chores are left unfinished until after we return home. But all of that is okay, because sometimes you just need a little time to regroup and to face what lies ahead.

So I may not like working out, I do like the me time so I will keep going and enjoy that me time.

Try it Tuesday- Hand print Pillowcases

This last weekend my brother and his family moved to Denver. I wanted to do something that would help the kids with this move. They are very close. The cousin group got together at least once a week to play together. I wanted to make sure they remembered how much they all loved each other so we made a hand print pillowcases. 

This is a simple and fun project. The hardest part was actually finding the right aisle at Michael's to get the paint.

So you need fabric paint, a pillowcase, a foam brush, and a hand. That is it. 

So you simply paint the hand ...

And then press it on the pillowcase

Yup simple. We found we had to move quickly as the paint dried quickly.

When we were finished we wrote the kid's names below their hand print with a fabric marker. We also added a message on a couple of them.

This was a simple easy project and one that will provide great memories for the kids for years to come.

Mommy Musings Monday-teaching kids hygiene

Toilets not flushed. Underwear streaked. Teeth not brushed. Fights at bath-time. Dirty hands at dinner.

It is life as a mom.

One of the responsibilities you have as a parent is to teach your children proper hygiene. It is something that you tackle young and hope that your children "get it" by the time they start school and you unleash them, and their dirty ways on the world.  Unfortunately it doesn't always work that way. It appears that reteaching and relearning is a daily process. We are doing that right now. There has been an influx of unflushed toilets, dirty underwear, teeth so gross they have grown orange gunk...need I go on?

The question comes on how do you drive home to older children that this is important stuff? That is the challenge that now faces our household.  We have tried reminders. We have tried punishments. Nothing has worked. Last week we stumbled onto something though.

James is a horrible teeth brusher. Just bad. Kids have come up to him at the store and said "you're teeth look gross." and they were right. He told us he was brushing every day and we believed him. We thought the discolored teeth came from a fall he had a few years ago that seemed to loosen some teeth but not enough to pull them out. Then came the day in May when I realized James had been lying. He hadn't brushed his teeth in over a month. He didn't know where his tooth brush was and had just been going into the bathroom during teeth brushing time, turning his timer over, and waiting. When we found out there was the dreaded punishment of dad brushing the teeth. We watched him like a hawk and found he was no better at teeth brushing and there were more times of dad brushings. He went to the dentist last week and our hygienist painted his teeth to show them how bad they really were. It was bad, but it shocked James enough that he was scared what would happen to his teeth. So far so good. over a week later he has pearly white teeth and is flossing- all because he got scared.

So tonight we are having a Family Home Evening Lesson about hygiene. We are going to talk about what happens to you body if you don't wipe well. Or if you don't wash your hands. It is going to be the scare tactic.

I don't know if it will work, but it is worth a try. I guess all we can do is hope.

What way do you teach your kids about good hygiene?

Workout Wednesday-Couch Potato to 5K strike three?

A few months ago I wrote how I was starting the Couch Potato to 5K program in order to become a runner. I actually did pretty well. I got to the point I where I could run for twenty five minutes at a brisk pace. I know that isn't an earth-shattering record but for me that was fabulous.  I was doing really well then my grandma died, the holidays hit, and we bought a house. My running routine, heavens my exercise routine was shot for about two and a half months.

Finally things stabilized, we bought a treadmill, and I started the CP5K program again. I was getting back in the groove, I was doing better and that was fabulous. Then I broke my toe.

Yeah stupid toe.

So I was sidelined for about three months. At least this time my workout routine actually kept going and didn't suffer.

This week I was finally ready to tackle the program again. It was easier this time. I found the run the first day was fabulous. It was so nice. I knew this time I was actually going to succeed and get to the end of the program...then I sprained my foot.

So yes, I am out for the next few weeks and part of me is wondering if it is even worth going back to doing the running thing again.  Is that a sign?

Try it Tuesday- Flag Cake

I remember as a child looking at the magazine covers in the grocery store checkout line. They always had the most delicious looking food on them. There were fun cookies, decadent pastries, and fabulous cakes. My favorite was not the scary Halloween cookies or the fruit pies but the Fourth of July flag cake. I loved this cake, I obsessed about this cake. I had dreams that one day my mom would surprise me and make the cake for me.

I finally made this cake seven years ago. I was so excited. I finally made my cake and it was fabulous. I make it every year now some years I use strawberries, other years I add coconut. But it is my dream cake, the cake I loved in my childhood and one that now my kids look forward to every year.

It is as simple as it looks. Make a white cake, top it with whip cream, and then  develop a flag with fruit. It is a fabulous Fourth of July treat.

Mommy Musing Monday: Mom and the Great Veggie War

The only veggie I remember disliking as a child were peas, I am sure there were more but that is what has stuck with me. I didn't like them but I ate them anyway because my parents told me I had too. They never gave me too much, and never made me have seconds so it was good.

 I am not sure what it is about kids and veggies, when they are tasteless pureed disgusting mush they scarf them down, but when it is seasoned and tasty they turn their noses up at them. This problem has led to mom's creating cookbooks where you hide the veggies from the kids to make sure they eat them. I am not sure that I am on board with that plan, I want my kids to become good eaters and eat their veggies. I follow the same rules my parents did, if you don't like the veggie you don't get a lot of it, and there is no need for seconds.

I think these are fair rules, my children however do not. Our home is in the current grip of the Veggie War. With mom, dad, and the veggies waging battle against the kids. There our days our campaign is successful, there are other days where we want to throw up our hands and let the kids eat only processed sugars for the rest of their lives. It is a tough war, one where I can't really see an end, for as soon as we have one child happily eating their veggies, two more will rise up in anarchy. See my problem?

Today was only one battle in this never ending war, and today it was James versus the Zucchini.  Here's what I don't get, James likes zucchini, not as much as broccoli or beans but he likes it. Today though when I looked over from the dishes to James still sitting at the table looking sad at his plate I noticed this was the only thing left. By this time he had been eating for fifty minutes and all he had were four pieces of zucchini sitting there and thus it started. Much like other battles, it was a minor incident at first, me asking, James refusing. Then it grew.

"James, you have five minutes to eat your vegetables on your own, if you don't I will feed them to you and you will go to bed at the same time as Matty."

Corporal James gets a glint in his eye, "With Matty?"

General Mom senses a strategical error and tries to correct, "No not with Matty, you will be in a separate room, oh and you won't get dessert."

Corporal James takes a moment to think about it while General Mom continues with the the dishes, "James, you are down to four and a half minutes."

The corporal looks at his food and mumbles something, intelligible only to those under the age of two who he is clearly trying to recruit to his side. 

"Jamesy not like his food," Private Matty translates.

"James, two minutes." 

The corporal stares at his food, as if looking menacingly at it will make it turn tail and run. Major Zucchini holds its ground. 

Time on the offer expires and the General moves towards the Corporal. "Last chance."

Silence.

As the Veggie forces advanced the Corporal held to his beliefs, and at least he had that comfort while  chewing the zucchini and going to bed early. 

Yeah, the battle was over and will be waged again, probably tomorrow. It is a win for veggies but as the war continues I find myself staring longingly at the veggie hiding cookbooks and wondering when it is I will give in.