Sarah's Simple Servings

...introducing food blog by me! For those of you who know me well, no you are not dreaming, it's really true! :) I know, we'll just laugh together about this one-because I am no culinary genius!

This blog is really born out of my own struggle to feed a child with multiple food allergies, another who is unbelieveably picky, and a Daddy and Momma who are trying to attain wellness through exercise and eating (mostly) healthy foods, on limited resources (time and $). I really enjoy learning new things about nutrition, although I don't always put these principles into practice!

Now that the kids are getting a little older, and a little more self sufficient, I feel like I can go a little beyond basic nutrition and actually enjoy cooking. It seems these days it's gotten a little easier to focus on meal planning an preparation... for at least 5 consecutive minutes without interruption! :) I'm excited to share a few of the resources and recipes I've found with you and anyone who's interested (or just bored). The new blog is separate from this one and is "open" (not password protected) I've added a link to the right on this web log so you can visit now. Enjoy!

A Yummy After-School Treat...

Sliced apples with peanut butter (slightly softened for about 10 seconds in the microwave) make a yummy, filling after-school snack. Though we are out right now, we also enjoy softened almond butter for dipping. Pumpkin gets all happy when the food looks cool on the plate. :) For this easy treat I was rewarded with "momma, you are the bestest food maker".

Snackin' Soybeans

Found this one in the T*rg*t freezer section a few days ago...Pumpkin actually asked me if I was gonna put some "Dora peas" in his lunchbox today! Still working on sweetpea, hopefully the "Dora" gimmick will be appealing?

Soybeans are a complete protein, and a good source of essential fatty acids, they contain (among other nutrients) vitamin A, C and Iron.


They had two kinds on the shelf: Spongebob unshelled Soybeans (still in the pods) and Dora shelled soybeans. These come frozen, and I just pop one in the lunchbox-it's all thawed out by lunchtime. These can also be served warm-just steam them to your desired texture, or nuke 'em in the microwave. Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken & Rice Soup

(courtesy of: Allrecipes.com)

Preparation: fairly easy, only took about 20 minutes to prep, and about 25 minutes to cook)

Serves: about 6
My review:
Sweetpea has been suffering from a really long cold/cough, so I decided to try the old chicken soup trick. She liked it, especially having the freedom to add her own little oyster crackers. Sweetpea loves rice, and noodley soup can get so messy, this was a good one for her to manage independently.

Surprisingly, Pumpkin was not too impressed. He's a texture guy and doesn't too much enjoy food of the soup/casserole variety. Likes his foods separated, thank you very much.

I really enjoyed the flavors of lemon and white cooking wine, these gave it a little kick! Not super creamy, but overall good. I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. chopped carrot
• 1/3 c. finely chopped onion
• 1/3 c. chopped celery (omitted this)
• 2 T. butter
• 1/4 c. All-purpose flour ( used unbleached)
• 2-14.5 oz cans reduced sodium chicken broth (used one carton) (some varieties are gluten-free and some are not)
• 2 c. cooked long-grain (used brown) rice
• 1 c. cooked and cubed (cut to same size as chopped carrots) boneless-skinless chicken breasts (about 2)
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1/8 t. garlic powder
• 1 c. 2% milk
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 T. white wine

Instructions:

1. In a large saucepan, saute the carrot, onion and celery in butter until tender.
2. Stir in the flour until blended (to coat veggies).
3. Gradually stir in broth.
4. Add rice, chicken, salt, pepper, garlic powder; bring to a boil.
5. Reduceheat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or untl vegetables are tender. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the milk, lemon juice and wine, if desired. Cook and stir for 5 minutes or until heated through.

And the tradition continues...

Sittin' at Momma Smith's table, I enjoyed many grilled cheese and tomato soup lunches after church . Today, Hannah Reece (thoroughly) enjoyed her first traditional Smith-Sunday-lunch-combo...I think her favorite part was carefully crumbling crackers into her soup. She didn't quite get into dunkin' her sandwich in the soup..."no, Mama...isss jucky." Mmmm...gotta love some comfort food!

Scrapbook Saturday

Took this one just before I made a big 'ol mess!

Very thankful for the opportunity to use mom and dad's house (while they are out of town) for a spot to get away and work on some memory keepin'! And even more grateful to Dan for spending the day with the kiddos so that I could go! The only problem, is that when I go so long between times of working on these things, I end up spending the first hour just organizing my thoughts and getting set up! The good news (for my neurotic-need-a-plan brain) is I think I've FINALLY got a strategy to set-up/maintain our memory keeping.

For each child:

• "My birth-day" album-detailing the day of birth
• "Baby" album-age 0-1
• "Toddler" album-age 1-2
• from ages 2+ all photos will go into the family album

For the family:

• "Milestones" album (for storage of enlargements, and professional photos)-thanks, Choley, for this idea! I don't really journal in this one-only dates.
• general "Family" album, for this I plan to use a binder-type of album so that I can easily rearrange pages around or remove individual pages to make copies for kiddos if they want their own copy of the album in the future
• web log as a means of recording/sharing stories and thoughts, and help along with journaling in albums
• Special events (vacations, etc.) will go in a mini-book or digital scrapbook
• Christmas album (maybe) could include memories from each Christmas, traditions, cards, photos received from others, etc. -may make a mini-book this year...not totally sure how I'm gonna approach this one, yet....something like this might be cool...

My goal is to keep it simple...let the words & photos be the focus. I'm telling our story as one way of deepening our faith in God as we, and future generations look back and see his activity and faithfulness.

I'm trying to include the some smallest details of life- provisions and even those things that are hard or uncomfortable to write about! For example, I'm still struggling to write in Graham's album about the time we were in a car accident with a drunk driver, but I think it's important for him to know later in life, how God has protected him in this situation, and how He's brought good out of the whole thing.

My friend, Kim, is also a "faithbooker", (I think she may have even coined the phrase!) and she's got some neat perspectives on memory-keeping with the intent to honor God now and in the generations to come....and a good reminder to embrace imperfection in the process!

"Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything he has done." Psalm 22:30-31

A Week in the Life-Sunday, Day 7

10.12.08

-up and at 'em! "momma-can we build a fort?" Graham's the "supply collecter" of blanket's and pillows, Hannah Reece is the "arranger" making the little nest inside...

-Dan's off early to church-today's a long day at work for him

-coffee, put away dishes, work on final prep. for Sunday school this morning

-dress all and get ready to go

-Graham in his favorite hiding spot, while I'm setting up for Sunday School

-as we leave church, Hannah Reece decides shoes are not needed in the grassy parking area...lovin' it

-go home, lunch and naps for everyone-a rare occasion!

-wake up, play and head back to church for youth group (this is Graham's favorite: he loves to play with the "big kids")

-now we're home, it's movie/camp-out night Strawberry Shortcake & Transformers, snacks and ...sleep!

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A little wrap-up and reflection...

just over 200 photos later...SO enjoyed this project, thinking of how fun it will be way down the road to look back. It really was eye-opening to see (somewhat) objectively how we spend our lives as we stack the "activity" up against the "priorities"...also some good practice with my camera. My goal is to create a simple album/notebook out of the photos plus some journaling. Ali Edwards has a great wrap up, plus some cool examples of what a finished product could look like. I might feel a little naked without that camera glued to my face this week!!