Kid-ism of the week:  As we were getting ready to go swimming, I asked my son to put on his flip-flops.  He said, "Mama, where are my slip-slops?"  We got a chuckle - once wet, plastic sandals are more fittingly called slip-slops!

It's amazing how grown up my 3-year-old seems right now.  Yesterday, we bought him a small backpack to use when we are at large events this summer.  I put a piece of paper in it with our contact information and his emergency contacts.  I explained to him how he could use his backpack if he got lost.  We talked about safe people and role-played going up to a mom with kids or a police officer to ask them to call the numbers in his backpack.  I was hoping he would retain enough to mumble "backpack" if he got lost.  However, a few hours later, I heard him explain the entire idea in near-perfect detail to his 2-year-old brother, who threw a fit until I put the same paper in his little backpack.  Kids are so much smarter than we give them credit!

Here is our week plan:

	Sunday	Monday (F)	Tuesday	Wednesday (F)	Thursday	Friday (F)	Saturday
Breakfast	Crepes w/ berries	Cereal	French toast w/ Coconut Syrup	Cereal	Scrambled Eggs w/ toast & fruit	Cereal
Snacks	None	Teddy Grahams & Watermelon	Dried fruit	Edamame	Fruit pops	Traveling food: Apple slices Dried Fruit Goldfish Teddy Grahams Carrots
Lunch	OUT	OUT	Cheese Sandwiches w/ green salad	Leftovers	Parmesan Garlic Rolls w/ fruit
Snacks	Apples & oranges	MG tortilla chips w/ salsa	Fruit pops	Mud Slides	Rice cakes w/ peanut butter
Dinner	Cheese & MG Crax	Lasagna (K5) Homemade sauce	Curried Bow Tie (Home 50)	Hot dogs w/ carrot sticks	Chicken Skewers (Home41)	OUT
Activities	Church Day Mother’s Day	Grocery Day 8:30 Preschool 4:00 Gymnastics 4:15 Zumba	Library Day 8:30 Weights 9:00 Zumba 10:10 Story Time 2:30 Playdate/Lillid	Friend Day 8:30 Preschool 10:30 Play group 5:15 Zumba 6:00 Kira	Activity Day 9:00 Zumba 10:00 Ballates	OUT	OUr Grand Adventure with Daddy!

Recipe key:

Home = Semi-Homemade by Sandra Lee
K = 52 Weeks of Meals for Picky Eaters

However, I didn't like the lasagna recipe.  Here is my recipe for healthier lasagna:

1/2 package multigrain lasagna noodles, cooked
1 lb organic, grain-fed ground beef
8 ounces all-natural cottage cheese
8-10 ounces part skim milk mozzarella cheese

Sauce:
1 lb pureed tomatoes (I do half Roma and half stew-type tomatoes)
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. basil paste
1/2 onion
1/2 green or red pepper
1/2 stalk celery
1-2 tsp oregano
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste


Finely chop garlic, onion, pepper, oregano, and celery in a food processor.  Brown in olive oil until translucent and scent is pungent.  Add pureed tomatoes.  Bring to a slow boil and cover, permitting to bubble for 30-45 minutes until the flavor is strong and some of the liquid has evaporated.

Our family doesn't like chunky sauces, so I use an immersion blender to finely puree the sauce.  Then I add the ground beef and let it stew for 5-10 minutes.

Once sauce is prepared,  layer in this manner:
1. Noodles
2. Cottage cheese (or Ricotta - I don't like Ricotta)
3. Sauce
4. Cheese - remember that the cheese is what holds the lasagna together, so don't be skimpy)

On the top layer, only pour sauce.  The multigrain noodles will be soft and not chewy if you add enough sauce and let the lasagna sit for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Lasagna is not for the rushed!

Bake lasagna for 30 minutes at 350 degrees until the cheese is smooth and warm throughout.

Delicious homemade pizza sauce

Not sure why I'm obsessed with what I'm feeding my family this summer...maybe it's just that I have time.  Anyway, I have perfected vegetable-based pizza sauce, so I'm sharing.  We eat "less-dirty" at home, so tomatoes, peppers and olive oil are organic.  The best part about our lunch was that my children ate 2 servings of vegetables without complaint!

A food processor or handheld blender with a chopping feature is essential to this recipe, though I think a blender would work fine as well.

Pizza Sauce

In food processor, place:

1 Tomato, split in half
2-3 cloves garlic (we like it spicy, so 3 is perfect).  Make sure you smash and peel.
1/4 yellow onion
1/4 red pepper
1 teaspoon Oregano (dried - adjust if using fresh)
1/8 tsp basil (optional - we don't love basil, so we leave it out)
Dash salt
2-3 dashes of pepper
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Process until you reach desired consistency.  Place in a fine colander to squeeze out excess water.  The sauce should hold its form and not soak into your crust. 

Warning: your sauce will be paler than what you expect from canned sauce (and full of many more nutrients).

We use multigrain flatbread as crust and then add toppings - today it was nitrite-free, minimally processed ham, organic mushrooms, red peppers and cheese (don't pretend pizza without cheese is even worth eating).  It was a hit with the husband and the children!  I'll post pictures when I get cooler - in the meantime, enjoy knowing what we ate today!

Now I'm off to record with my dad for Story Corps.  Very nervous, so wish me well!

My first summer as a full-time mommy!

Yeah, I'm scared, too.  In order to try and avoid ruining all the good work daycare has done with my polite, socially appropriate, and mentally capable children, I decided to take to planning.  As my little dietitian heart got to warming to the idea of meal plans, I realized that this was exactly the kind of overshare that is so popular on the Internet!  So, here is our plan for this week.  The meal part is quite the work of art well-balanced in all the appropriate nutrients.  The educational/activity part is a work in progress. I make no guarantee this waste of Internet space will become a weekly column:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast			Cereal	Oven pancake Fresh Fruit	Cereal Juice	Pancakes Fresh Fruit	Cereal Juice
Snack			Teddy Grahams	MG Crax w/ hummus	Yogurt w/ blueberries	Fruit pops (if needed)	MG Crax Cheese
Lunch			Leftovers	Twice Baked	Leftovers	Flatbread pizza	OUT
Snack			Grocery Choice	Goldfish Dried fruit	Animal Cookies	Rice Cakes w/ peanut butter	Goldfish Fruit leather
Dinner			Cheese Sandwich w/ apples & Nutella (T's choice)	Spaghetti w/ meatballs	Ramen w/ peas (R's choice)	OUT	OUT
Activities	Church Day	Grocery Day	Library Day	Friend Day	Activity Day at Jump Zone	Work Day Date Night	Family Day

Note: MG = Multigrain in dietitian lingo.  Aren't we cool?!

(And, yes, we eat out a lot.  My husband is naturally skinny and refuses to care about his heart and I'm too lazy to cook if he's offering to pay someone to do it.)

Dinner with a side of punnage

After a particularly bloody prize fight (a.k.a. dinner in most civilized households), I decided to take a 2-minute rest period.  As I left, I pleaded with my sons, "Can you just sit here for 2 minutes and eat your dinner in peace?"

My 3-year old called after me, "No, mama.  These are not peace.  These are corn!"

Later, he had a small peepee accident while playing. I asked him why and he replied, "I can't stop go potty when I killin' bad guys!"  (In truth, I can see this as a real problem to caped vigilantism.  I hope the suits are appropriately designed, but the sex appeal decreases significantly when you think of Batman in his crime-fighting, bodily fluid-filled Depends.)

...and that's how my son made me laugh today.

Job Posting Filled, My Friends

The other day, I remarked that with the retirement of one of my most memorable teachers, the dietetics faculty didn't have that all-important "quirky" professor - you know, the one who doesn't notice a spider in her hair or whose toupee is holding on by just one piece of tape as it flaps in the breeze created by a vent or who gives you a test from the wrong class and refuses to accept that it happened.

As I left that day, I looked down at my hands to see a wad of clean toilet paper and a coaster (no idea why I picked them up on my way out of the office).  I couldn't help but laugh - apparently, the reason for the silence in the room after my remark was not my slight insensitivity towards the retired professor but a group realization that the post has already been adequately filled.

Hey - at least my students will remember me, right?