T.T.: Shooting for Average

Years ago, I read a book by M.F.K. Fisher in which she advises parents that they should worry less about  individually balanced meals for their children and more about the balance of nutrition over the course of a full day, or even a week. I remember thinking when I read this, "Doesn't everyone do this?"

Apparently not.

When it comes to nutrition, I am all about the averages. 

What I mean by that is I don't even try to get all the food groups into every meal my children (or I) eat. They very, very rarely have a fruit or vegetable at breakfast, for instance. 

(I mean, very few people actually have vegetables with breakfast, but they don't have fruit, either. Mostly because we don't usually have fresh fruit, given its perishability and our distance from stores. But also because I know if they fill up on fruit, they won't eat their eggs.)

Breakfast for them is protein (eggs, milk, yogurt, peanut butter, etc.) and starch (hot cereals or toast).

They sometimes have a fruit or vegetable with their lunches, but generally they only have protein (peanut butter, cream cheese, tuna, cheese, etc.) and starch (bread, crackers, tortillas) at that meal, too.

Dinner is the most traditionally well-balanced of our meals, often including two vegetables along with protein and starch.

And yes, I consider sauerkraut a vegetable. (I do not, however, consider the ketchup a vegetable.)

In addition to averaging out their food groups over the course of a day, I also consider the variety they have throughout the course of a day.

If they have peanut butter on their toast at breakfast, they don't have peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.

If they are having pizza for dinner, they don't eat bread at the other two meals.

Basically, I'm trying to make their entire day's food well-rounded and varied, not just one meal.

I find that this is less crazy-making than trying to ensure they get everything at every meal.

So that's today's tip: Take a longer view when it comes to nutrition and shoot for a well-balanced day, rather than a well-balanced meal three times a day. It makes life much easier and less stressful.

Monday Bouquets: Surprise Flowers

I was yanking the withered remains of the choking morning glory vines off the front fence last week and discovered some little purple flowers that had been hiding at the bottom of the wall.

So of course I rewarded their tenacity by cutting them and bringing them inside.

No idea what they are, though. The yellow is actually asparagus foliage. It's a very cheery yellow, but it does shed a bit.

Also outside, the hollyhocks continue to rage against the dying of the light:

I think our forecasted low of 22 degrees on Wednesday night will be the end for them, however.

I hope you have a lovely Monday, with or without flowers.

Snapshots: Woodworking Wins for the Week

A couple of years ago, the MiL had the giant black walnut tree on the north side of Blackrock felled, thereby ending the annual labor of picking up the nuts that fell by the hundreds every fall.

I may have silently cheered from across the country, since I was the main walnut-picker during the decade we lived there.

Anyway.

A. hauled some of that wood back here.

It was this wood my father used to make me a nightstand after I finally decided I was tired of the rickety 20-year-old folding table that had been serving that purpose for a couple of years.

Can I say it "really transformed the space"?

No, that would be too annoying. I can say I love it, though.

That same wood was also called into service when the handle on my potato masher fell off. The handle was just a stainless steel tube attached to the mashing part. I asked Cubby to carve a new handle for me, which he did in about fifteen minutes. Then A. drilled a hole in the wood and used J-B Weld to attach it to the masher part.

 Ta da! My very fancy potato masher. (And the origami tulip Cubby also made for me. He's very crafty.)

In non-wood news . . .

The dogs found a way out of our perimeter fence the other night and were waiting for me outside of the gate when I went out for our morning walk.

On the outside looking in.

They were still game for a walk, of course.

Here comes the sun, do do do.

And there you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Unusually Succint

Friday 

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, boiled potatoes, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: I made extra of the cheeseburgers and potatoes so A. could take them the next night for his camping night in the mountains on his elk hunt.

He saw six bull elk crashing into each other at the top of the mountain, but no cows (females). His tag was for cows. So no elk this year. He enjoyed the burgers and potatoes, though.

Saturday

Short version: Personal pizzas, pickled radishes, carrot sticks, green chili hamburger soup

Long version: A. was in the mountains and Cubby was on a school field trip, leaving just me and the younger three children for dinner. I was making bread again, and I had just enough leftover pizza sauce and asadero cheese to make a pizza for each of the three. They were pleased with this. 

I made the soup with the remaining pound or so of ground beef that hadn't been used for the cheeseburgers, as well as the leftover boiled potatoes, a scoop of the squash I had roasted while making bread, and the last of the cream gravy I had brought home from the school cafeteria, plus onion, garlic, green chile, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and two containers of beef stock from the freezer. That's what I ate.

Did I also eat some pizza from the children's "personal" pizzas. Well, yes. I'm not made of stone, you know. They didn't even finish all of it, anyway, so there was enough for them to share with me.

Sunday

Short version: Beef pot roast with tomatoes and garlic, roasted carrots, rice, frozen green peas

Long version: Chuck roasts make the best pot roasts. Gotta have that fat.

No homemade dessert this week, because I told the kids their two pieces of Halloween candy every night the week before took the place of the Sunday dessert. Then I asked them if they wanted to stop getting the candy every night in exchange for having a homemade dessert the following Sunday. All of them but Poppy did, so I put their candy bags into the general candy bowl (they each got a quart-size zip-top bag that they could fill with their favorite candies and keep separate to choose from). 

The remaining candy in that bowl will go into the freezer next week to be used as bribes for haircuts or for Easter baskets or whatever until next Halloween, at which point whatever remains will be thrown out in anticipation of yet more candy coming in. 

That's my Halloween candy system, in case you were curious.

Random photo break!

This little dump truck is no match for the numerous apricot leaves. It blends nicely, though.

Monday

Short version: Leftovers, cafeteria rolls

Long version: Hello, Monday leftovers! Cubby, Jack, and I had the leftover soup. A. had some of that, too, plus some leftover pot roast. 

Calvin and Poppy had pot roast and peas. 

All the children had some of the dinner rolls I brought home from the school lunch leftovers. They were very soft, and quite sweet, so of course they all loved them.

Tuesday

Short version: Shepherd's pie, squash

Long version: Shepherd's pie is one of those things that the children reliably take seconds on, so anytime I want to be sure they'll all eat a reasonable meal, I make it. 

Same squash I had put in the soup on Saturday. It's handy to have in the refrigerator as a ready-to-go vegetable/starch substitute.

I think we need a photo here, yes?

Poppy the Mummy. Amazingly, she actually enjoyed this game.

Wednesday

Short version: Must be leftovers

Long version: Yes, it was a workday, so yes, it was leftovers. Poppy, A., and I had leftover pot roast with squash and carrots. Poppy and A. also had rice.

The rest had leftover shepherd's pie.

Thursday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice, oranges

Long version: I sure love having the already-prepped beef for stir-fry. With a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables--my last bag, so it's definitely time to re-stock on that--it makes for as close to a fast-food meal as I ever get.

The oranges came from my most recent Sysco order through the school. I've been waiting to order oranges until I thought it was really orange-harvesting time in California. Because an out-of-season orange is a very sad thing.

These were not quite in-season yet. I'll try again next month.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

T.T.: A Pistachio Trick

Last month I bought a four-pound bag of pistachios in the shell. Yes, that is a lot of pistachios, but all of my children love them, so we've eaten them all already.

Pistachios are delicious, but as you're going along happily pulling shells apart and popping the nuts in your mouth, you inevitably come to the dreaded Barely Cracked Pistachio Shell.

Frustrating pistachio on the top, properly cracked pistachio on the bottom.

A pistachio shell that isn't already almost half pulled apart is a real pain to get open. Quite literally a pain, as the prying hurts fingers and can break fingernails.

Luckily, I have a sister who is smarter than a pistachio.

While she was here, she showed my children a trick for opening the frustrating pistachio shells using another half of a shell. I didn't know this trick myself, and I was delighted.

What you do is, you get half a shell from a pistachio you've already eaten and slide the narrow edge of that half-shell into the small gap on the pistachio you want to open.

Half-shell wedged in and ready for action.

Then--and I don't have a picture of this because it's impossible to do one-handed--you twist that wedged-in half shell about a quarter turn. This cracks open that small crack much further, so it can then be opened easily.

So! The next time you encounter a pistachio that is quite literally a tough nut to crack, you know what to do. And so do I, thanks to my clever sister.

Monday Bouquets: The Last Survivors

We have a contender for the longest-lived cut flower:

Carnations in the home stretch.

Those three are the only flowers left from the bunch my sister brought me over two weeks ago. Impressive longevity.

I hope you have a lovely Monday, with or without flowers.

Snapshots: I Fail at Photos Again

I regret to inform you that I did not get a photo of all the children in their Halloween costumes. Again. 

I do have a couple of individual ones. Poppy was Superdancer. She did this costume all by herself, and it included a superhero cape and mask, a tutu, and a tiara. Because that's the sort of thing that makes sense when you have three older brothers and are the sole sister.

 

Superdancer minus the mask, and plus my mother.

I have one picture of part of Calvin's costume, taken by my sister when she was here. He wanted to be a barrel of toxic waste (yup), so she helped him make a barrel out of cardboard.

The final version included black pants, shirt, and gloves, and little pieces of green paper taped all over him to be the toxic waste.

The only photos I have of Jack the Construction Worker and Cubby the Steel Mill Worker are from the costume contest at the village celebration, and I couldn't figure out how to crop out the other children. So I guess you'll just have to use your imagination on those. There were hard hats and jumpsuits and they were actually really good costumes.

Anyway. Let's see what else we have.

I was greatly amused that this guy showed up in my kitchen on Halloween day.

I'm into natural materials in decorating, but I did remove him eventually.

We only have one tree that makes good leaves in the fall, but that's enough to make a pretty good leaf pile.

Poppy the Squirrel in her leaf nest, stocked with rock-acorns for the winter.

We've changed out the Halloween window decorations (provided by my sister) for the Thanksgiving window decorations (also provided by my sister).

We'll close out with a couple of the obligatory Photos From an Early Morning Walk.

O give me a home where the canines roam . . .

And some dramatic clouds over the rising sun.

And there you have it! My life, snapshotted.