Why a this blog?? Thank you for asking...

Its the new year.. Happy 2016!!! 2015 was quite the year for our family... we had some incredible joys (most specifically the birth of our fourth daughter) and some heavy burdens. However, we made it to 2016 fully in-tact, so I praise God for all character He builds in us through it all, even if I can't see it right away. 

I'm kind of half-heartedly doing this blog. It was actually my husbands idea.  I am in no way doing a blog because I have it all together and I have "so much" to share. I am doing a blog to accomplish an odd new years resolution, and to organize some of my meal planning to keep me organized in that area and other family favorite things in our house. Also, for my girls, this gives them an opportunity to look through a blog of our favorite family foods (maybe it will expand to other things? At this point I'm sticking with food, based on the small amount of time I actually have to give to something like this). I'd love them to have document of a lot of things that has helped me do my job at home better. So its potential is more of a memory/journey/food blog, than a food blog.

I am a mom. I am a mom of four small kids, ages 8 and under. As a mom of four small kiddos, sometimes you can't see your accomplishments for the day, sometimes activities get interrupted multiple times. Most days we get the kiddos to bed and go to clean up and there are multiple household jobs that were started, but never finished... You start a certain cleaning job during the day and boom... you hear tears... someone accidentally knocked their little sister over...there are tears (no one is hurt, but with four little girls, someone is definitely heart-broken), your three year old has a potty accident, which then results in 45+ mins of clean up, kids are fighting for the umpteenth time over a certain toy (time to send that toy away to anywhere, but here). Its simple, as a mom, you get interrupted, constantly. And when I wake up in the morning, seeing signs of the day before (particularly, if it was a rough day), makes my day start with my shoulders and neck tense. So, once the girls are in bed, there's only enough time to clean up from the day. A lot of the clean up are the things you tried to start in the first place during the day, and I try to do it before I can sit down (honestly, some days I am just so tired, I let it sit...but then I DEEPLY regret it in the morning). This food blog, I'm hoping will help give me a very small sense of accomplishment in this season of beautiful chaos. This is something I can cleanly, clearly, and simply check-off: posted a blog...CHECK.

 I've been pretty consistent through the end of the fall of 2015 getting back into my groove of meal planning, once our fourth daughter turned about 8 months old it was a little easier to get my routines together. My goal is meal planning and cooking almost 100% at home. When I stick to my meal plan, we save money, we eat better, and we are able to save eating out for the extra special occasions, which result in squeals from our girls when we announce we are eating at a restaurant--yahoo!!! I've been searching for new recipes for our family to keep changing it up for myself. We have, also, discovered some minor stomach issues, so our meals have mostly been either whole wheat or no wheat at all (no gluten, mainly), little-to no dairy, little-to no sugar, little-to no processed foods, or an assortment of them all. (This falls under the title of cooking... I am SO a baker at heart and we don't eat desserts that often, but when we do on special occasions and we do the real stuff!) This blog can help me keep tabs of my progress of cooking for my family and my memory of how each recipe turned out (and for inspiration for future meals plans).

That is all!

January 1, 2016 - Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce

So here is to January 1, 2016. Our first dinner of the year: Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce  Let me tell you, it was amazing! I have actually made it one time before and it was just as big of a hit this time as it was the first time I made it. My three big girls gobbled it up without hesitation(...that alone makes me give pretty much any recipe 5 stars... come on!) But seriously, the peanut sauce...I could lick it out of the bowl (But, worry not, I licked it down once everyone was finished). 

Thai Chicken Skewers, with peanut sauce on the left; served with Costco's Asian Cashew Salad and Steamed Brown Rice--Yum.

Its in the middle of winter and there wasn't a chance that our [slowly dying] outdoor BBQ wasn't going to make a comeback for this dinner. So, I thought long and hard... Ah-ha! my brand-new $20 griddle that I got for Christmas... PERFECT. So they grilled away on my pancake pan (or so that was the sole intent of why I had it on my Christmas list... we LOVE waffles/pancakes at our house, I even make them in batches to freeze so in the mornings my girls can pop them in the toaster if we're in a hurry, but that's another post).

Skewered chicken pieces, grilling away on my pancake griddle... you can almost smell it, can you not?

 I put this down on my meal plan to be served with steamed broccoli and steam brown rice. However, like many times, I got distracted by the kiddos and forgot to start the broccoli. Thankfully, I had a Costco Asian Cashew Salad pack, so I just added that instead, since it was super fast to throw together. One of the hardest parts of cooking, I think, is timing it all, so its all done at the same time. When we first got married, that took quite a long time to get used to. Like, for example, our very first Christmas as newly weds, we lived out on the east coast and weren't able to be with family that year. So, I made my very first Christmas dinner for my husband and me, making pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, salad and rolls... I roll it all out to the table we sat down to eat and as we cut into the pork tenderloin...and we the pork tenderloin was to be cooked 45 min PER POUND... not 45 mins total. We ate nice hot pork tenderloin, and had "microwaved" everything else... My husband didn't care, but I did, of course, it was a big of many fails in cooking those first few years, one of which, I still have yet to overcome... burning bread. Seriously, I still cannot broil bread without burning it, its just not possible. Its not meant for me.

I have an awesome rice cooker (costco, I think?), and I like my brown rice to be a little sticky. The way I cook our brown rice is to soak it. I take two cups of brown rice and soak it in a bowl of cool water for 20 minutes. If I'm putting it in the rice cooker, I put the drained rice in the inside bowl and fill it with clean water to the 3 cup line.  Set the brown rice settings on the machine... perfectly sticky brown rice.

If I'm cooking my brown rice over the stove, I soak 1 cup of rice for 20 mins. Then I add the soaked and drained rice into a sauce pan and add 2 cups of water. I bring it to a boil, once it comes to a boil, I turn the heat down to a simmer, put the lid on and let it cook for about 45 minutes. Not quite as sticky as the rice cooker, but still very good.

That's it!