A Love-ly Lunch

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Today, I surprised the girls with a special Valentine’s Day themed lunch. I found the cutest heart shaped shortbread cookies with strawberry jam at the store this week, and had the idea to put together a special lunch a little early, since Amelia will have her school party next week.

The girls ate heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches, pretzels (which look like hearts to me), strawberries cut in to hearts, and raspberry lemonade. It made them both happy, and they were excited to drink out of my vintage tea cups, too.

I had purchased them each a book as a Valentine’s Day gift, and decided to let them open up their presents today. I bought Romeo & Juliet: A BabyLit Counting Primer (BabyLit Books) for Maggie, and Everybody Bonjours! for Amelia.

What special plans do you have for your kiddos this Valentine’s Day?

How Does Your Garden Grow

Spring has come early to Florida this year. Our once sad looking orchid tree is now covered in flowers and leaves. 

A few weeks ago, my mother asked us if she could plant a garden in our yard, (she lives in a condo), “YES!”, I said. It has been a group effort. The kids help my mom, and get really dirty in the process, and my mister has been watering in the evenings. It is has been really fun to watch the progress.

We’ve got lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, eggplant, radishes, cucumbers & sunflowers growing. I’m sure I’m forgetting something. I can not tell you how much my children have enjoyed watching their garden grow, and I must admit, I get excited when I see a new bloom, too.

I will continue to update the progress of our garden, and can’t wait to eat the fruits of our labor.

Do you have a garden? What kinds of things do you grow?

Kid Friendly Recipe {Easy Cheese-Ravioli Casserole}

A super easy and delicious recipe that my 3, closer to 4 year old, put together almost entirely by herself. 

What you need: 2.5 cups of milk, 2 cups of broccoli florets, 1.5 cups of cheddar & 1.5 cups of Monterey Jack shredded cheese, 8 eggs, half of a 7 ounce jar of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes drained & chopped, and 2 (9 ounce) refrigerated packages of beef or cheese ravioli.

Ready?

Grease a 3-quart baking dish. Place raviolis evenly in dish. Sprinkle in the sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli florets. Top with the two cheeses.

Whisk together all of the eggs and milk. Pour mixture over layers in dish.

Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake uncovered about 40 minutes or until top is golden and center is set. Let stand 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Yummy.

“Even for me, there have been times over the past few years when cooking felt like drudgery. My lowest moments in the kitchen have come when the boys were long past the point of needing food, right now, and I was insistently plowing forward with some from-scratch meal. They would be garroting each other under the table, I would be beating an egg with a fork, dipping a sole fillet into it, then rolling the fish in bread crumbs (fresh! homemade!) and slipping it into the cast iron skillet. There’s yellow police tape at the front door, the detectives are on their knees drawing chalk outlines on the floor and I’m at the stove, reminding myself that sauter means “to jump.” On nights like that, what I probably needed was something edible that I could transfer from the freezer to the microwave to the table quickly. After all, there’s nothing wrong with processed food. The problem is bad processed food. Instead of cajoling people to get “back” into the kitchen and shaming them into avoiding processed foods, it might be more helpful to work on turning out proc­essed foods and fast foods that taste like more than just salt and grease and that don’t make kids fat and sick.”

The Very Busy Home Cook - NYT

Seriously. Sometimes after a long day at work, four year old wrapped around my leg…freezer to microwave seems like the only option…

(via sherry-deactivated20110501)

A Sweet Date

Beau and I had our Valentine’s Day date today.

We had noon reservations at an historic local spanish restaurant, that is located in an historic local landmark, the St. Pete Pier. That’s a lot of history:)

I ate the ropa vieja, drank sangria, and ended the meal with flan and a cafe con leche. Yum.

We had an incredible view of Tampa Bay. There was a regatta happening today, and we had front row seats. The sailboats looked like toys for our vantage.

It was a beautiful warm day, and we were happy to be walking around in this amazing city. Our original plan was to visit the new Dali Museum, but when we arrived, there was a very long line around the block. We decided to change plans and headed down the street to see the new Chihuly Exhibit. It was an amazing collection of his work, and we really enjoyed it. Chihuly’s glass sculptures are some serious eye candy.

It was a lovely date, and nice to have an afternoon without the kiddos. Although, the conversation did include alot of talk about Miss Amelia & Maggie. They are our favorite topic, afterall.

Hope you all enjoy your Valentine’s Day plans.