Organic Family Cookbook Love

Oh my, I've been meaning to get this on the blog for awhile...you know how it is with kids and life and all of that, right?

Way back in October I was sent a copy of Anni Daulter's The Organic Family Cookbook and I love it! Our family typically follows a traditional foods-type diet and so I was a little skeptical that the recipes would work for us (we don't really do any processed sugars, including agave nectar). But I'm so glad I checked it out anyway!

I think our favorite recipe so far is the Veggie Parmesan Popcorn. We eat a fair amount of popcorn and this recipe ups the flavor and the nutrition perfectly.


I eat up the Super Green Crispy Kale right out of the oven! Yum!


One of the great things about this book is the little nuggets of info and ideas throughout. Anni talks about food choices, sourcing your food, cooking with a family and "greening" your household. I love her recipe for making your own cleaning solution!

This weekend we're going to make these pastrami and blue cheese melts....they look so yummy!

Has anyone else tried out some recipes from this cookbook? What is a must-make for your family?

Sharing

We're finally getting some much-awaited snow around here and I've been cooking, cleaning up from cooking and knitting away as the snow falls!

I was also looking back at some family pics we had taken back in October and wanted to share my favorites.

Okay, seriously? I love her faces, gah!

We had such a good time with Linenko Photography. Memories made and captured!

Slowing Down

After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays January sure feels s-l-o-w...and I think I like it. This is the first year that I've really noticed the slow, cozy, unhurried feeling of this season and I am deciding to embrace it, welcome it and enrich it.

Menu plans are all about soups, stews and casseroles. Roasted veggies over fresh salads. Morning soaked oatmeal and tea. Lovely.

The Christmas knitting that didn't get done is actually quite needed right now. Instead of starting something new, it feels like welcoming an old friend; the familiar pattern.

The kids feel it too, I can tell. Jake is devouring the Harry Potter series (watching each movie as he finishes the books - of course)...a nice, long read.
Kaiya is enjoying arranging scenes in her new dollhouse and helping in the kitchen.

Life is just a bit slower paced right now. I'll just go with it because - really- spring is just around the corner and we can speed up then!

On Rhythm

Just a little post on how rhythm so really and truly affects everything we do (by 'we' I mean my little family group here and myself). With this poor, neglected blog as a testament to how busy, busy, busy can get in the way of true understanding and needs!

A shortlist of my own needs and new understandings:
I need a routine, a rhythm. If I fail to provide myself with this, then I am lost and things are left undone and moments are left unsavored (the worst part!).

We have been reconnecting as a family and our unique rhythm has been emerging and unfolding. So here I am! We have found this nice, steady rhymth to our days (something along the lines of up, work, home, dinner, baths, goodnight...but it works for us) and it is allowing me more clarity to see the things that I need and those that I really don't.

One thing I need is some balance! I know you can relate. As a parent, a work-away-from-home person and as an individual, I need time to reflect on what works. I also need time to nourish those parts of me that aren't sustained by my day-to-day work (reading, knitting, creating, writing and so on) I've been trying on different systems for managing everything and keeping what has been working and leaving the rest. I'll post some more on that later. These "fitting sessions" have been most of what my head has been wrapped around lately so I know you'll get an earful (eyeful?) of that topic very soon!

Please share what works for your family when it comes to rhythm and routine. Are you still trying things on or have you found what works (for now)?