A recipe to ensure my entire family eats until they can't move

and then even fight over left overs. Yes, literally. We got the recipe for Cheesy Bean Enchiladas on vegweb and have had it almost weekly ever since. it is so delicious. We had some friends over (not vegetarian) and had this for dinner. A week later One told me he was still thinking about this yummy meal. yes it is that good! I use canned beans and even let myself buy tortillas and enchilada sauce at the store...YIKES! The fact is i need a few meals that don't take hours to make. We very often eat this on shopping day. I hate cooking on shopping day! Ortega makes an enchilada sauce with no MSG. We use 4 bottles and add 1 cup of hot salsa to the beans as the sauce is mild. I serve it with my yummy coriander rice.

in a sauce pan saute one med onion chopped in oil until soft
add 2-4 cloves garlic and 1-2 tbls whole coriander seeds crushed. You need to use the whole seeds and crush it yourself or it does not have the same flavor. I just wrap it in a cloth napkin and beat it with an ice cream scoop. saute for one more minute add 2 cups brown long grain rice and 4 cups water. bring to boil, cover and simmer until done about 40 mins.

I am currently stuffed from leftovers of this meal. sooo good! we also use the cheese sauce recipe for nachos! good stuff!

Almost wordless Wednesday

I will admit I painted on the second eyebrow. but the rest was all his doing. i just thought it was so hysterical i wanted him to have a matching one!

School and a some sickies

First, Thank You Soule Mama for your inspiration. We busted out the water colors. Lovely! Gaynor finally did his oral presentation on Ramadan, Hanuka and Kwanzaa.



We got busy and forgot. Forrest will do his this week. It was terrific. He has asked to do his next report on Chimpanzees an endangered species. We are listening to Eragon on CD. its great. Its amazing to know it was written by a 15 year old boy! Gaynor is working on a series of fictional short stories based on working on a(our) farm. I will post his first on his page this week. If you click on their individual pictures on the right, they will take you to their pages. They are not current but will be soon. Forrest is loving his Biology Curriculum. He received his first test back from his teacher. 88. Mostly because he transposed answers when copying them to the answer sheet. I think he will be more careful next time. His essays received almost full credit, minus 1 point. Pretty Great! The Math-U_See curriculum is going very well. I am very happy with it. Gaynor is still having a tough time dividing fractions so we will go back together tomorrow and work on it. Other than that they are both doing very well. The boys watched "The Future of Food" yesterday. I think they have a new appreciation for our effort to grow our own food as I do. We found a form letter to send to US Senators about keeping organic foods and seeds pure from GMO's and we will send out 3 per week. Forrest is working to start a Harry Potter Alliance group here. Its a really great way for kids to get together and work to make a difference with current events and issues. One of their major issues right now is Darfur and the Genocide happening there. They sort of relate current issues with issues Harry deals with in the stories. Really Interesting. We still are not doing history. This is so tough. I feel like so many history books are jaded and honestly it's not my favorite. Mike has agreed to try and take it over. I just don't know how he will find the time. Any ideas are welcome.
I have jinxed the health of my family again. I mentioned in a comment to Jillienne that my kids have been healthy all winter. So, now, of course they are all sick. Well three of the four so far. Indigo first. He has a bad cold with a terrible cough. He is cranky but eating, drinking and sleeping fine. No high fevers either. So it could be so much worse. Forrest and Harland starting coughing yesterday and are looking progressively worse as the day goes on. So nice we don't have any where to go. We will sit and listen to our story and drink tea, and knit, and paint and rest. oh and wipe noses and cuddle. Maybe i will cuddle with my face pointed in the other direction. Or does that even matter since he sleeps with me with his face less than an inch from mine?

Yummy happy Weekend!

We ran into our farmer friends, Sarah and Andy at the grocery store on Thursday. It was really kind of weird. I had just said to Mike that I wanted to have them over for dinner again. We were walking in as they were walking out. It was fate. Really! What are the chances of us being there at exactly the right time. Anywho, We invited, and they came for dinner Friday. We always have a great time. Sarah made the chocolate zucchini cake (the kids request) with the peanut butter frosting on the side this time so i could have some. yumma! They are so super helpful too. We have so much to learn about this farming thing and we definitely need all the help we can get. They brought lots of seeds to share. Tons of varieties of tomatoes plus carrots and kale and lettuce. I am thrilled. Andy also said he would help us find our maples so we can tap them. Normally you identify them by the leaves, except, um its winter, no leaves. This is really exciting. Yummy maple syrup. We also discussed some other really exciting ideas. As usual, we were having such a good time gabbing that the time got away from us. They left around midnight. If this was a few years ago, that would be pretty early for me. But, alas, I am old now! So Saturday consisted of us lounging around all day. Honestly, aside from the mess. It was wonderful. After breakfast we broke out into a full-on drum circle jam. The sun was beaming in the windows, it was so fun. The kids loved it! The baby thought it was the greatest thing. He was playing his maracas.
We then watched Penelope, gotta love instant netflix, I made a big lunch/dinner. I made tofu scramble and These Delicious Sweet Potato Pancakes. They were sooo very yummy. It took forever to shred the sweet potatoes by hand. I need a new food processor! But so worth it in the long run. We omitted the eggs and added 1/4 cup arrow root powder and 1/4 cup water. I think you could use cornstarch or potato starch as well. I also used sweet onion instead of red because that is what we had. They were so darn good! Some ate them with salsa, some with ketchup, I ate them with just a little salt. They were a huge hit here with all six of us and I'm sure we will be having them again soon!




I am sharing these photos with you on the basis that you will promise not to notice how horrible i look(never looked in the mirror or got dressed) or how messy it is while we are cooking. It does not normally look that bad.


We were so stuffed we immediately sat down to watch Beverly Hills 90210 the original pilot. So fun! the kids were frightened by the style! Then we listened to Eragon on CD and I worked on my knitting. I'm making these. It was a lovely day. Even if it did mean tons of cleaning to catch up on Sunday, all worth it. Yes this has officially thrown our TV limits right out the window.
On a side note, Mike and I watched "The Future of Food" last night. It was truly disturbing and eye opening. Honestly if you have even the slightest concern about GMO's , or I guess especially if you don't, you need to see this film. It is available for instant viewing on Netflix. The boys will be watching it as their science assignment today. You should really check it out.

I forgot about baths....

Every other night, mike gives Indigo and Harland their "tubby". This gives me a break, well, really a chance to run around and pick up the house, and him some time with the littles. It has been this way since Harland was about 2 and I love it! I lay everything out and Mikes does lotion, diapers and jammies. I don't get many breaks these days, which is really ok, i just truly enjoy the ones i do get. Well, Indigo has a horrific diaper rash again! To be honest, it is a staff infection. It keeps coming back. I feel horrible. It truly baffles me how this happened in the first place! We quite literally leave the house once per week on errand day. No baby sitters, no daycare, just us. Where on earth did it come from? Any way the doctor said basically it has colonized in him. so any irritation will end up staff! What a nightmare! Now here i have a baby who poops more than any baby EVER! like 4-6 time per day. I'm pushing bananas these days! His favorite thing to do is go into his crib for a nap and poop. He stays pretty quiet and sometimes even goes to sleep. So he sits in it. How do i stop this? Wait, I was talking about baths.
So, i wanted to give him a bath to soak his sore little butt. My point is, I forgot how much fun bath time is! He loves the tub! All my kids did but I just don't see Indigo in the tub. He dumps the water right over his own head and laughs! Mike has got this one trained well. Maybe the other kids irrational fear of having water dumped over their heads was my fault? I'm glad mike has this special time with them. But maybe I'll peak in once in a while.

I have so many blogs i want to write....

But, I'm only allowed 20 minutes on the computer per day. Not enough time to go off about the hostility towards a certain mom of 14. Not enough time to write about our plans for this farm. Not enough time to talk about how i taught myself to knit and am sooo proud of myself so here is just a peek at some pics.


This was a delicious thrown together from what i had on hand meal. Black eyed peas over brown basmatti rice with back yard barbecue sauce and kale with onions and garlic. it was delicious!


Indigo hard at play. He loves this rocking horse. He gets going so fast the the boys always get worried he is going to tip it over.


Reading very intently. I love that the book is upside down!


It's a race car....


now its a bed(while daddy is working on his room and he can't take a nap)


Here are some before and after photos of the room. we did not get any accessories as we are on a strict "no spending" diet while we work to pay off our debt. I will make curtains and possibly a quilt next month. Oh, I love the color now! Plus it is amazing the difference doors and moulding can make!











This is a birthday gift for an adorable one year old so i can't show you much more but, Ya, I am pretty proud of me!

Times are a changin

So we had an intense family meeting this weekend. We made some long awaited new house rules. (day with mud, i laughed when i saw your family bill of rights post today) the biggest of which is the 20 minutes per day computer time per person! HELLO! I can't even check my email in 20 minutes! We also limited TV to 2 hours per week, cut down our netflix membership and decided no computer, TV, Wii, etc etc on the weekends! WOW! We got soooo much done this weekend! So, no time to blog, but here are our latest photos. Do you think we are going crazy due to our new time limits......just look at what mike is wearing! It is pretty hot though! At least i would have thought that back in jr high! Oh, and the children are not actually watching anything, just being silly. All right, the computer Police (in the form of a 14 year old child) is standing over me! Busted, got to go.