Savory Roasted Root Vegetables.

Every Tuesday I go and pick up a large box of vegetables from a local organic farm, my vegetables for the week, as part of Community Supported Agriculture(CSA). Not only am I getting great fresh organic produce for a decent price ($20/week), I am supporting a local family-owned farm. http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Last week, I received some beets in my box, and was extremely puzzled as to how to use them. Today I finally whipped them out and used them along with the carrots, potatoes, and onions I received in this weeks box..... boy were they good!!

About 3 raw beets, cubed
4 carrots, cubed
1 onion, cubed
2 cups cubed potatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup torn beet greens

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F.
Place the beet, carrot, onion, potatoes, and garlic into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Drizzle with the olive oil, then season with thyme, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
Bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, stirring once midway through baking. Remove the baking dish from the oven, and stir in the wine. Return to the oven, and bake until the wine has mostly evaporated and the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes more. Stir in the beet greens, allowing them to wilt from the heat of the vegetables. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Happy Birthday to Me!

Got my birthday present a little early this year! =)

2003 Kia Sedona LX. I am sooooo happy! Up until now, we have been unable to travel altogether as a family, we had to take separate cars because we could not fit all three car seats in either the Matrix or the Kia Sportage. With my birthday coming up we were really wanting to finally get to go on a vacation to the coast, but the whole car issue got in the way. The wonderful seller was kind enough to allow us to pay half now, then half next month. So, not only do we have a van, but we also have the financial ability to take the vacation to the coast. I am one happy Mamma!! =)

Documentaries

I have been a bit on a documentary kick lately and wanted to share a couple of recommendations.

An awesome and thought-provoking documentary of the attack on Intelligent Design in the scientific community. Ben Stein interviews many who were basically expelled from the scientific community for merely raising questions about the theory of Intelligent Design. It also takes hard looks on Darwinism by interviewing some of its devout proponents and glimpsing into history when Darwinism was taken to a frightening level (Hitler, eugenics, etc.). I was completely enthralled during the whole thing and highly recommend it.

A great documentary on birth and our medical system, scrutinizing modern practices and showing the public what midwives actually do, how they are actually trained and prepared. So often have I come across people who think midwives are unprepared and practically walk in with a leather strap and Birkenstocks. The medical society is trying hard to get midwives out of practice, as they have done for years, and that will only serve to do more harm to birth. I have a great heart for birth and have actually begun to tamper with the idea of becoming a midwife in the future. When I saw The Business of Being Born I had already been sold on natural birth and the horror that is our current medical system and view of birth in the US today. It still completely captivated me and furthered my feelings on birth and secured my desire to have a home birth. I would highly recommend this to any woman who is pregnant or planning to get pregnant. Too often do I see women taken advantage of by the medical community to make their job easier, and women need to know their options and the risks of all these routine procedures. Oh, this is such a passion of mine I could go on and on!

Both are free to stream on Netflix!

No longer my little boy....

Have you seen this little boy?

Last night Jeremy and Sebastian went into the local hair salon to get haircuts. Sebastian had been complaining that his hair in his eyes was bothering him, and Jeremy's was pretty long itself, so we decided a joint trip for them both would be good. We talked about letting Sebastian look through some books of boy hairstyles and pick out one that he liked.

He came home with this little man...

Who is he and where is my little boy? I nearly died when I saw him and keep staring at this little stranger. Oh my......

Pasta and Twilight.

Went to my mom's house last night to make her dinner and watch Twilight. The pasta ended up being quite good and I thought I would share my creation. Sorry that the directions are a bit vague, when I cook I tend to just throw things together and not notice amounts and time and such.

• 1/2 package Kirkland frozen four cheese ravioli


• 1 tbs olive oil


• 2 tbs butter


• 8 oz cream cheese


• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese


• 3/4 cup milk


• 2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips


• 2 green bell peppers, sliced into strips


• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• 10 oz brown mushrooms, sliced


• breast meat of 1 rotisserie chicken, chopped


• salt and lemon pepper to taste

Cook raviolis according to package directions.

Heat olive oil in large pan, add peppers and saute until they start to soften. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add mushrooms and saute until softened. Season with salt and a few dashes of lemon pepper. Add chopped chicken meat and cook until heated through. Remove mixture from pan into a bowl, return pan to stove. Melt butter in pan, add cream cheese and stir until almost melted. Add Parmesan and milk little bits at a time, adjusting to your own personal taste and texture preference, I just threw them in until it tasted good and seemed the right consistency. Pour over cooked raviolis, fold in chicken mixture.

Two things that I learned about twilight that night. 1) Stephanie Meyer is in the movie. The second scene on Bella and Charlie at the lodge. The woman sitting at the computer that the waitress is serving, that's her. Didn't notice that the first time watching it. 2) Port Angeles... when my family took our big month long trip up north and to Canada, we stopped in Port Angeles and took a ferry from there to Vancouver. So yes, I have been there! LoL, I am such a geek!

Camping out on the Sofa.

Last night, in an attempt to make Elisha understand that he was indeed sleepy and needed to go to bed, we set him up on the sofa with his sleeping bag, pillow, a sippy of milk and some Pirate Booty.

I must add that, despite the look on his face, he was happily watching Barbie Nutcracker. I must also add that the ploy did not work and he stayed up way past all of our bedtime... sigh...

Silly Faces.

Sebastian said he wanted to take some pictures for Aunt Jenn. The results follow:

The silly faces of a 5 year old are a precious thing. You are loved, Jenn!