Dinner tonight...

Ok, so i'm kinda getting a swing of this blog thing... I think I figured out how to add links to the published meal calendars here along the right side of the page (take a look - can you see it??) Anyway, I'm going to try posting my monthly calendars there, rather than including them in this portion...not that I don't enjoy using my words (any portion of 30,ooo that I might need! Ha!). April calendar was fun! I have been creating these for several years now - six years actually! Wow...who knew. Anyhoo...this month I was actually able to look back and use several of my April 2010 recipes (finally finding I have some favorites that stand the test of time!). Needless to say, this has been my goal all along and well, aparently it only took me six years to achieve it. Boy, does that make me slow or just picky? Who knows...I guess you can decide that for yourself. :) Here is one of the recipes that showed up this month...one of our favorites!

Mini Chimichurri Burgers

Ingredients

Burgers
1 pound ground round

1 pound ground turkey

1 egg
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup onion grated
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
Fresh squeeze of lime

Toppings
ketchup
Mayonnaise
2 Avocado sliced thin the long way
1/4 head cabbage finely shredded
1 tomato sliced
1 package queso cotija or Mexican cheese
1 package of mini-buns or rolls

Instructions

Mix beef, turkey, egg, cumin, salt, chili powder, onion, cilantro and lime juice
Take a ¼ cup size of mixture in hands and shape burgers - creating a small well in the center of burger for a more even cooking. Cook them over hot grill.
The cabbage needs to be soft. Bring a pot of water to a boil, turn off fire and add shredded cabbage for about five minutes. Strain water.
To begin layering add cooked burger to bun. Allow each member to dress mini buns to their preference... This is the way our family rolls :) ...adding mayo, ketchup, avocado, tomato, cabbage and cheese as desired. Add the top bun and get ready for a delicious burger.

Yields: 6 Servings
adapted from Deidre Pujols, Dominican Republic

Where's the sugar...

I am a total carb-aholic and when it comes to breakfast, I NEED it! :) However we are on a little grass-roots experiment in our home and refined sugars are banned. So, revamp the breakfast bread...
Here is a trial that came out deliciously (no refined sugars!) and with a half cup side of greek yogurt you have a very healthy combo:

Healthier Bread w/Yogurt and a Praline Glaze (0ptional)

Enjoy :) and let me know what you think!

the perfect pear...

I love pears! I love to look at them, eat them, drink them, smell like them...what is it about a pear!? One of my favorite pairs is cheese and pears :) Tonight we had pear and smoked Gouda grilled cheese for dinner. And, well...it was just alright. How disappointing! You know though, I believe the pairing has promise and we are going to give a sharp white cheddar a try next time, or maybe nutty Gruyere. What about you? Have you ever had fruit and cheese grilled sandwiches? What is your favorite pair?

Dinner tonight...

I have a girlfriend who LOVES information!!! and she is amazing at bringing people and information together... She asked me to post my Monthly Meal Planning Calendar just for inspiration. I agree, it is always easier to stand on someones shoulders :) so here is my March calendar...
March Meal Planning Calendar

Fun Destinations

Tonight the girls and I set out on an adventure into PDX east side, in search of a new place for us to "chill." We love discovering new places to eat and play, and it seems the combinations are few and far between. Tonight we tried out a place called Old Wives' Tales, which touted good Portland style cuisine and a separate place for children to run and play. It was just the three of us so we decided it would be worth the venture across town to scope it out. When we arrived, the girls plunged headlong into the brightly painted "kid room" squealing with delight. As I sat and looked over the menu, which was pages and pages full of variety and promise, I was encouraged that we might have made a good discovery. As is often the case with new places that offer 406 menu options, it takes me a little time to choose, but the girls ordered their "natural turkey franks," "slice of applewood smoked bacon" and "gluten-free plain brown basmati rice" with hardly any deliberation and then disappeared back into the play area with their new found friends. When our server next appeared (to deliver their meals), he promised to return in just a moment to take my order. The girls quickly ate their dinner while discussing their adventures and ran off again. As I sat watching my server take orders, seat customers, and clear tables I wondered if the Greek Sandwich I hoped to order would be worth the wait. The girls came back to the table to finish off their meals, and as they put the last bites into their mouths, our server appeared unceremoniously offering that he was ready to take my order…. Boy! I am still wondering if that Greek Sandwich was all it promised to be.

Finding a healthy combination of kid friendly environment, good food and service worth paying for can be a tall order. I have been working on a list for a couple years and as you might agree, It seems pretty short still. Please feel free to use what I have found and PLEASE!, let me know what I am missing.


View Kid Friendly Places to Eat and Play in a larger map

The husband said "What?"

I heard a speaker once say that she blogs because if she didn’t the weight of her words would crush her husband! She said many more and wonderful things that day, but for some reason that statement stuck with me (anyone who knows me is saying to themselves right now, “imagine that!”) I am a full time wife/mom/educator/character coach/social calendar coordinator/...and often more. I have chosen those things with delight and commitment. I am beginning to realize that as those things blend and collide, so do my thoughts - most remaining twisted wreckage until the days end.

I don’t delude myself into thinking that others are interested in my daily musings but I have come to believe that if I can assemble these ideas somewhere tangible, I might be able to unload the burden of a “complete thought,” without crushing anyone else in the process.

In the spirit of an invented parable - which proposes the word budget for women is two times that of their male counterpart - I named this blog “30000 Words.”

A joke to highlight my point:

A husband looking through the paper came upon a study that said women use more words than men. Excited to prove to his wife that he had been right all along when he accused her of talking too much, he showed her the study results. It read "Men use about 15,000 words per day, but women use 30,000".

The wife thought for a while, then finally she said to her husband "It's because we have to repeat everything we say."

The husband said "What?"