Farewell to March

Enzo had a birthday. He turned 7. How easy it is to just Instagram my life? Easy. Using my DSLR is so much harder. I didn't take as many pictures of Enzo's birthday as I had intended. He had a good time though, and that's what's important. Also, we did a group gift this year and I swear I'm never going back. Whenever we say no gifts someone always brings a gift and then everyone else feels bad. One year we did a group gift towards swim lessons and that was great. I'm sticking to group gifts. Everyone chipped in and Enzo is now the proud owner of a season pass to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. He even made a bit extra and decided to also buy a pass for Maria. This week is his spring break. We're planning on going a lot. Basically I forsee a lot of cotton candy in my future.

And then today we tried to get a couple pictures of the kids in their Easter outfit.

My friend made these dresses for the girls and this shirt for Enzo. Stay tuned, we're working on redesigning her Etsy shop and it's going to be awesome.

 

We tried to get the kids to, you know, just stand still. Chocolate much? When they're excited I say, let them be excited. It's Easter, He's risen[!], how can you not be excited?

Baby Kale Chips with Sesame Seeds

I made kale chips because I thought it would be a great afternoon snack for me and the kiddies. Kale chips and carrot ginger juice, yum! I know, I'm such a rockstar mom, I feed my kids awesome nutritious food - yeah, right. They didn't really like the kale chips and were fine drinking the carrot juice until I told Christian "come get some carrot ginger juice before it's all gone" and they immediately decided that they hated the juice, because they hate ginger because ginger is too spicy. I'm not a fan of spicy food myself, but really?! I don't even think Maria knows what ginger is. Whatever, I was so not in the mood to argue. I was in the mood to get out and enjoy the sunshine and not make a storm out of something so unimportant like kale chips. Besides, more for me!

After snack time I told Enzo and Maria I wanted to go to the park. They were down with that idea until I told them they needed to clean up first, at which point Maria went into hysteria and Enzo looked at me as if I had just said something in Greek. Ohhh-kayyyy then, I guess this is how it's going to be. Fine. Forget cleaning up, lets just get out!

We got to the park and our old neighbors were there. Love. Also, there was a dad who was there with a guitar playing for 2 hours straight. Love. And I just want to make it very clear that he was totally paying attention to his kid. He would follow his kid around and play the guitar simultaneously. I think it was a great trick so that his kid wouldn't ask him for a push on the swings, you know 'cuz dad has his hands full. If this is the case then double love!

Seriously, remind me to leave the house more often.

Kale Chips with Sesame Seeds

5 oz baby kale pre-washed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon seasame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 300*F.In a big bowl toss together the kale with olive oil, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Divide between two cookie sheets and spread the leaves out so that they're not touching. Bake for 15-20 minutes until crisp.

Magnolia Ice Cream Party

Spring has sprung in Santa Cruz and we're taking full advantage of it. Few things make me happier than moving our table outside and eating on our deck. For one, we happen to have a great ocean view. And then, there's the less vacuuming factor that always makes me smile. Yay[!] for spring, and dinner parties, and friends, and cool tropical flavor ice cream.

Magnolia sent us a box of goodies to explore. We explored every single one, it took no effort at all. The avocado is rad. Ube (sweet potato) was also pretty great. Starting April 1st these cool flavors will be ready to ship - something to look forward to.

Has spring sprung where you're at?

Our current thing

If you see Maria please refer to her as bunny rabbit. Pretending like she's a certain animal for weeks on end is her thing.

We all have out thing.

My current thing is to get crazy organized. This has been my thing for a while now, and finally I feel like I'm getting a pretty good grasp oh how to make it happen. We have a budget. We have a food budget (I know!). I have gotten rid of things I don't use and added a few things that have helped me save money, save space, and save time.

The Magimix by Robot-Coupe Food Processor is a new addition to our kitchen, complimentary of Magimix, and it is an absolute thing of beauty! I already had a food processor. In fact I had two. One was big and one was little. I mostly used the little one and occasionally I would bust out the big one. Bust out is a bad way to describe it. Bust out makes it seem fast. It wasn't fast. I have a small kitchen with limited counter space, so the big food processor was tucked away in a hard to reach cabinet. I wanted something that was more accessible and the Magimix by Robot-Coupe Food processor fulfills my need because it comes with 3 different bowls, 3 different sizes, and they fit inside each other, so now I have a big, medium, and small food processor all in one, on my counter, with an added bonus.

This is the bonus.

Carrot juice! Lots and lots of carrot juice. Carrot juice is my other thing. Carrot juice is one of my absolute favorite things. A close contender is passion fruit juice, but in order for passion fruit juice to taste good you need a whole bunch of sugar. With carrot juice you need carrots. And it tastes so good, so so so good. I could put pictures of me jumping up and down to show my excitement but mini-me , bunny rabbit is cuter. The juice extractor and smoothie attachment for the food processor is a mega bonus. It makes it so that our 25lbs bag of carrots do not go to waste and helps me save time and money from trips to the store to buy carrot juice. Plus, fresh carrot juice is a lot tastier than any store bought stuff. I guess that's true for most things.

And because we believe that all good things has a popsicle version we're converted to carrot juice popsicles.

So basically here is a quick rundown of our current happenings.
// our daughter is on sabbatical and in turn we have a bunny.
// a 25 pound bag of carrots is a common sight in our house these days
// new food processor / juicer = good addition to our kitchen
// carrot popsicles are the bomb and since we live in sunny California I'm thinking of making a bunch of these for our big Easter egg hunt

So tell me, what's your current thing?

Monday Morning

// Peace and plenty here abide, smiling sweet on every side. Time doth softly, sweetly glide, when there's love at home //

Eliza woke up at 6:30. I cranked up the space heater in our room to 85 and then Eliza and I just smiled at each, and I kissed her 100 times. I counted. At 7:15 the older kids got up. Enzo practiced piano while Maria, Eliza, and I enjoyed some cuddle time together in my warm room. 7:50 I realized I was late. gave Enzo a banana made him some toast and got into my exercise clothes. 7:55 Chris come home from surfing and I left to take Enzo and his friend Xhuba to school on the bus. We arrived early. Enzo and I spend some time together talking in front of his classroom. I walked back from his school to my house while listening to an audio book. This morning ritual of taking Enzo to school on the bus and then walking home is one I hope to maintain.

Got home at 8:50. Called my mom to wish her a happy birthday, also asked about my new niece that was born yesterday - baby Hamaya. All is well.

9:00 I started work. Ate breakfast while I worked. Maria is off to preschool with Marley and Katie. By 9:30 The house is still; just me with my thoughts, the sounds of the key board, and  Christian and Eliza sleeping on the hammock.

Mornings like these renew my soul.

Today | 30

No Bake Cheesecake with Hot Guava Sauce

Since Christian and I are only doing desserts once a week we figured that whatever we make better be worth our time and our inevitable sugar-high.

This cheesecake was worth it.

No Bake Cheesecake with Hot Guava sauce

1 package of graham crackers
5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cups sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup guava paste
1/2 cup water

1. Crush the graham crackers in a food processor until very fine crumbs form.
2. Pour crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in the coconut oil and sugar.
3. Press the crumb mixture into a 9-inch springform pan. Chill crust in freezer for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the filling: Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sweetened condensed milk a little at a time until well incorporated. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla.
5. Pour the filling into the crust and smooth the top with a spatula. Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.
6. Unclasp sides of pan and remove the cheesecake.
7. In a small saucepan add the guava paste and water and stir on medium-low heat until the guava paste is completely melted. Serve the hot guava sauce over the slices of cheesecake.

Have a fun and delicious weekend! I'm planning on turning 30 in the company of friends and my kids who keep me young. Those are my weekend plans.

See you back here next week.

xoxo