We are working our way through some of the Pre-school basics to see where Z got off track, and to help E get used to Dorchester prep. On the one hand, Z can explain in great detail the different habitats of the many animals she is fascinated by, and on the other, she stops at 12 when counting because she gets stuck. E, younger by 14 months, can count to 30 (except for a stubborn skipping of the number fifteen that I can’t explain). I know you are not supposed to compare your children, but in this case it’s the only way for me to identify what is likely a learning gap (Z being so stressed by the school environment that she couldn’t learn) and what is more likely to be a challenge for her even in the safety of our home.

We are starting with alphabet cards (I found a super set of index cards with dividers on a ring at target, and we are drawing or gluing examples of each letter in use) so each day we are searching for things that start with the letter we are on.

Z likes this fine as long as its about animals. So A is for apple got no response or engagement but when I suggested there might be an animal or two that have names that start with A she popped out of her chair and came back with a rubber alligator and a coloring book that she turned to the ant eater page.

E on the hand took a different path. When asked to find an animal who’s name started with the letter A she looked around for a bit and then brought to the table a big stuffed toy cat. I tried to gently explain the idea again “no honey the animal’s name needs to start with the ‘aah’ sound. Like alligator.” E gave me that look and then explained ” oh, mommy. THIS is my cat Annie, hear it? aaaaaannie like aaaaaa for alligator”.

Okey dokey. We’ve got the letter A. Next?

Not really a recipe needed here. The girls were frozen after an afternoon at the playground and Elena announced that hot chocolate and chocolate chip banana bread would keep her warm all over.

We ran out of marshmallows so I punted and used a scoop of frozen cool whip (why have I not tried THAT before?!)

The girls first thought they’d make little farms and just spent a bunch of time pealing the paper off the back of those stick on foam shapes (yay manual dexterity activities that they don’t realize are anything more than fun) then it grew into adding sky and grass and dirt color foam squares to set a scene to play with, then a cardboard box was claimed as the “best box ever”

A box of stick on foam shapes and animals
Cardboard boxes
Glue

Seems like everything we need to make a new place for the zillions of little dinosaurs, princesses, insects, and cars to play.

Spring and summer healthy eating is almost a default position. I have to go out of my way to avoid fresh veggies, fruit, salads and with the heat we eat lighter without even thinking about it.

But winter (3/4 of the year here in Chicago) is my downfall. Heavy cream soups, hearty stews, and the ease of hitting GrubHub on my iPad and having any number of places deliver Chinese, Mexican, Indian food all of which we over eat like little bears getting ready to hibernate.

I do have a few favorite “winter” salads (which really just means using veggies you can get at the store without wondering how they got them all the way here from the other side of the world.

Today was a “what u got” recipe (open fridge and assemble what might go together)

Rocket
Red pepper
Grape tomatoes
Green apple
Cranberries
Blue cheese crumbles
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar with some salt and pepper for dressing.

Another favorite is to toss root veggies and cauliflower Ina roasting pan with garlic and olive oil for about 45 minutes at 450 degrees. They are great on rice or salad greens.

At least now I’ll have plenty of room for the big meal we’ll undoubtably have for diner.

Living in Chicago with young children means piles of, fairly expensive, boots and shoes for every season. When you multiply that times two Wee Kahunas and add in the reality that the minute you by children’s shoes they start to outgrow them you get the bonus answer of never having what you need and blowing any budget you try to set.

We tried to get ahead of the math an bought the last set of Uggs a size too big and went with thick socks over tights to start. That was a great plan…except of course the soft material on the outside got faded and scuffed way before they stopped fitting. I was all ready to give in to the girls asking for new sparkly boots, and we even went to Target to see what cheaper options we could find to stretch our budget through this winter. As luck would have it the first isle we hit in the store was the craft isle. Glitter fabric paint?! Oh my! What’s the worst that could happen?

Not only did we get a project that kept the girls busy for close to an hour, but they came out sparkly and better than new, with a super bonus that they seem to be slightly water proof now. We used paint brushes to spread the fabric paint in a thin layer on each panel of the boots, the girls only complaint was when I nixed the plan to paint the soles (my explanation about getting slippery and leaving sparkles everywhere was met with that look dogs give you when they tilt their heads to the side to try to understand “you mean you DON’T want to be able to leave sparkle footprints and slip slide around?”)

I pulled this list of “does your child know” items that are meant to help parents judge if their children are ready for kindergarten – it’s not a perfect list, but it does seem like a good guideline to use as we set goals

Colors and Shapes

• Recognize and name primary colors
• Recognize circles, rectangles, squares, triangles
• Matches shapes or objects based on shape
• Copies shapes

Listening and Sequencing

• Follow simple directions
• Listen to a short story
• Listens carefully
• Recognizes common sounds
• Repeats a squence of sounds
• Repeats a sequence of orally given numbers
• Retells simple stories in sequence

Motor Skills

• Is able to run.
• Is able to walk a straight line.
• Is able to jump.
• Is able to hop.
• Is able to alternate feet walking down stairs.
• Is able to march.

• Is able to stand on one foot for 5-10 seconds.
• Is able to walk backwards for five feet.
• Is able to throw a ball.
• Pastes objects.
• Claps hands.
• Matches simple objects.
• Touches fingers.
• Able to button a garment.
• Builds with blocks.
• Completes simple puzzles
  (5 pieces or less).
• Draws and colors beyond
• a simple scribble.
• Able to zip a zipper.

Numbers

• Counts orally through 10.
• Counts objects in one-to-one correspondence.
• Understands empty and full.
• Understands more and less.

Position and Direction

• Understands up and down.
• Understands in and out.
• Understands front and back.
• Understands over (on) and under.
• Understands top, bottom, middle.
• Understands beside and next to.
• Understands hot and cold.
• Understands fast and slow.

Reading Readiness

• Remembers objects from a given picture.
• Knows the letters of the alphabet
• Has been read to frequently.
• Has been read to daily.
• Looks at books and magazines.
• Recognizes some nursery rhymes.
• Identifies parts of the body.
• Identifies objects that have a functional use.
• Knows common farm and zoo animals.
• Pronounces own first name.
• Pronounces own last name.
• Expresses self verbally.
• Identifies other children by name
• Tells the meaning of simple words.
• Repeats a sentence of 6-8 words.
• Completes incomplete sentence with proper word.
• Has own books.
• Understands that print carries a message.
• Pretends to read.
• Uses left-to-right progression.
• Answers questions about a short story.
• Tells the meaning of words heard in story.
• Looks at pictures and tells a story.
• Identifies own first name in manuscript.
• Prints own first name.

Some days we have lots of great ingredients and I have no idea what to do with them. The girls wanted pizza and I really really did not. I love pizza, but I’m doing almost anything I can to be smarter about cholesterol and other less healthy foods, and cheese covered seems the wrong direction.

Besides, the pantry and fridge are literally bursting at the seems from the last shopping trip. I have these avocados that I meant for guacamole but then talked myself out of since the bag of tortilla chips reports that a single serving would blow my cholesterol budget for the week (and no one eats just a single serving)

Oh look, one of those Boboli crusts that the girls told me was to squishy (they are thin crust only girls) fine, its adult food time anyway.

This worked great to tonight.

Bobolink crust
Avocados
Shredded grilled chicken
Cilantro
Chihuahua cheese
Shredded cheddar cheese (just a tiny bit)

This was a super special meal. Jordan won’t let me share all the secrets of his amazing barbeque sauce and spice rub, but I have a few of the key details and some yummy photos to share:

Spice rubbed ribs
Mix very fine garlic powder, tomato powder, brown sugar, guajillo chile powder, mustard powder, dried white onion powder, salt and pepper. Rub as much as you can get to stick to the ribs on all sides and refrigerate for at least a few hours (24 is best). He grilled them on medium heat for five hours (that’s a lot of putting your snow boots on to go out and baste and then back in to play with your little sisters time…it was a great day.

Sauce
Tomato sauce, apple vinegar, mustard powder, a small bottle of coke, stir over medium heat and cook down, Jordan put his mixture into our crock pot and let it concentrate for several hours.. It got dark and tasty in a way I didn’t know a crock pot could cause.

Each season change I’ve been trying to find new ways to get the girls to see beyond just noticing the temperature difference and to start anticipating the changes that will come. We have really large windows in the front of our house on each floor so I’ve taken to letting the girls use them as a place for art projects. We have a set of window crayons (Grease paint that washes off easily) and a never ending supply of clear glue pens that let you stick things to the glass and then peal them off later.

E, in particular is a fan of this activity. We call her our little installation artist because there are days that she will spend hours with tape and glue and sparkly things setting the window up to be one amazing thing or another.

Yesterday the girls lamented the winter dragging on but not giving us any fun snow to make up for all that cold. So we talked about spring and how great it will be when we get to see the flowers growing , and butterflies and green trees again. So we decided to make our view out the front window become what we wanted it to be instead of just seeing the branches of our tree and the grey skies.

We started with making butterflies and sparkly flowers which took up most of the afternoon. Today we drew the tree and the girls took turns covering it with all of their sparkly creations. We managed to cover ideas about butterflies not liking to be cold, which flowers smell best and why they might have scents, that bees are cool except when they startle you, and my personal favorite, that it’s ok that we aren’t getting much snow this year because we can order some online.

This whole unschooling thing is really teaching me more than it is the girls everything in our day is learning and one of the best lessons today? That you can change your whole mood just by getting out the glue and sparkly paint and using your imagination.

It’s wonderful.

The key is to start with the veg recipes and then to work through all the chicken broth based ones and then the beef so you can have a chicken roasting in the oven for more broth and the chicken breasts while the first soups cook. The thing that makes Mark laugh is that I’ve devised a way to prep the ingredients common to most recipes (garlic, carrots, celery, noodles, rice, tomatoes, etc) all at one time so when I start the morning our kitchen counters look like the worlds best farmer’s market.

With our work schedules, and two tiny people wanting (and deserving any of our spare time), I try to cook like this every couple of months and just fill the shelves of the basement freezer. I just bring them up the night before we want them so they can defrost in the fridge.

You can see the recipes for most of our favorites by using the link in the top nav, feel free to use the comments below to request an email set to be sent to you.

Which brings me to the question of the day. Would you like to get a once a month newsletter emailed to you with recipes and craft projects and other cluttered pantry topics in it? We often get requests from companies to review their products and sometimes those come with coupons we can share this way if you’d like. Let me know via the comments and if enough of you are interested I’ll set it up (it will be free, but we might have to put an add or two in it to help pay for it)

Black bean and Sweet Potato Patties
makes 6 patties

2 cans black beans, drained
1 large sweet potato, baked/peeled/mashed (about 2 cups)
2 Tbsp tahini
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup wheat flour
Pepper & salt to taste. I like chile powder as well
1/2 cup Panko crumbs
safflower oil for pan

Directions:

1. Put baked and peeled sweet potato and drained beans in a large bowl. I use a potato masher and smooth until soft.
2. Add in the in seasoning, flour and mix until smooth
3. Form a patty from mixture and coat in panko crumbs. Double dip in crumbs for a thick coating. Sauté in a skillet coated with safflower oil(hi heat is best to help the panko will brown nicely on both sides.)

Avocados make great toppings and if you add even a small amount of cheese it helps it all stick together better.

Posting a few favorite winter recipes today, the house smells wonderful right now. We’ve got chocolate chip banana bread fresh out of the oven, a green chile stew in the crock pot and a pile of veggies ready to become a stir fry with Marianne’s grilled tofu.

First soup is a Cream of Mushroom that I love. It also makes a great base for other soups ( add spinach for florentine )

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1 lb thinly sliced mushrooms

2 shallots (fine chop)

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons tomato paste

2 cups beef broth ( veggie works great too)

1 tablespoon lemon juince

2 cups half-and-half

Method:

melt butter on medium high heat, add mushrooms and shallots and cook, stir often, until mushrooms are browned and most of their liquid is gone

add flour, salt and pepper, tomato paste and stir mushrooms to coat. remove from heat and slowly blend in the broth, return to heat and bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Puree mushroom mixture with stick blender until smooth.

Mix in lemon juice at end, return to heat and add in the cream stirring until steaming hot – don’t let it boil though. the recipe I started with calls for two tablespoons of vermouth to be added right before serving, but I don’t even like vermouth in cocktails so that doesn’t work for me, try it if you like that sort of thing.

For starters, using the free item means you aren’t using something up that you paid for. And very often, those free samples come with coupons, so if you watch for a sale, you can get a great deal on it (this should go with out saying, but I’ll say it anyway – if you can’t get a great deal on it, and you wouldn’t have bought it normally, DON’T BUY IT just because you have a coupon ).

Secondly (or maybe firstly, depending on whether your household is like mine) – getting a package in the mail, even if it’s small, is pretty exciting. Super exciting if it isn’t a bill. And triply exciting if it’s something to play with or eat.

Vocal Point is a great site for samples and coupons.  If you don’t already have an account, I encourage you to sign up, especially right now, since they are offering a free Swiffer Duster. The registration is short and doesn’t require a ton of private information, and the samples usually come in very creative packaging.

The pantry has been pretty cluttered lately. Real life and work took over and has had us thinking of meals as a thing to grab between work and time with the girls. I miss cooking, and I miss family meals and honestly I miss being able to find something in my pantry without having to dig for ten minutes.

We’ve been so busy since this year started that I’ve been relying almost completely on PeaPod grocery delivery via an iPhone app for grocery shopping. I’m sure there is a way to use them and not spend as much money as we have been, but the method of using a saved grocery list and fast select shopping has led to a ton of waste. Wasted food that gets bought but spoils before we can cook with it and wasted money since I never take the time to comparison shop or look for coupons (which PeaPod does accept.)

So! Time for a change. But this time the key to success is learning from my big sister. She has developed a system of grocery shopping that is the perfect mix of coupon collecting, bargain hunting, smart shopping and self control. Those of you who know me will get right away that my plan is to add some technology into this mix to make it work for our family, but I’m on board. Time for a change that also saves us some change.