Anniversary canoe

With our anniversary approaching we wanted to make time for a visit to one of the cold-water springs in the area, a feature in northern Florida that we will surely miss. We decided to travel by canoe, so we dropped Lydia with our wonderful pastor's wife for the morning and hit the road. 

It was a beautiful morning and because we went on Thursday, the day before a big holiday weekend, we were practically the only 2 in the park, at least for a while. We canoed up the Ichetucknee River and then back down, not seeing a single person until we reached the headwaters. It was just us and the birds (and turtles, lots of turtles). We saw egrets, green herons, little blue herons, ibises, wood ducks, coots, grebes, bitterns, and osprey and several little teeny tiny bobwhite in the 'savanna' on the way out of the park. Last time, we saw 3 river otters, but alas, no such luck this time around. The water was lower due to Florida's drought, but since this river is spring-fed it's not affected as much as some of the other area waterways.

 Getting ready to head out. 

Sorry about the glare on these pictures, that Florida sun is intense!

 Lots of lovely spider lilies out to greet us along the way.

 We stopped here for a brief little swim. The water definitely feels cold at first (72 degrees), but it cools your body temp down so thoroughly that the rest of the day is quite comfortable even as the air temperature rises (and rises).

 The aqua-blue area is the actual spring; it's quite deep and you can see the water bubbling out from the aquifer.

A great day to be a turtle.

Replacing canned cream of fill-in-the-blank soup

I had seen recipes for homemade cream-of-whatever (chicken, celery, etc.) on the web in the past, but since I have a lactose intolerance and we don't eat a lot of creamed soup dishes anyway I didn't give it much thought. But then one day I had some celery that was about to go bad and I decided to give it a whorl. So glad I did, and I hope you do too. Not only do you use pronounceable, real-food ingredients, the flavor is just better and it's really not that difficult. As a bonus, the soups seem to do fine in the freezer so you can make it ahead and just thaw when you need it. 

 Celery, onion, and garlic cooking in the butter. Be prepared to have everyone pop into the kitchen to ask what smells so good.

 I believe this is the website I got the recipe from that I've made a few times now; I've only done cream of celery but I'm sure I'll try chicken in the future. I added one batch to a chicken soup to make it a little creamy, and the other to a Shepherd's pie. Yum and yum.

Everything thickening up nicely.

Kicking the boxed cereal habit

Next up, another staple in our kitchen for the last few months - homemade granola. This has basically replaced boxed cereal for us, and I find that I don't really miss it (except for the occasional box of Life which I'm pretty sure I could finish in one sitting if someone didn't pry it out of my hands). We have it for either breakfast or a filling snack, mixed with yogurt and raisins or even just plain milk. I find that it sticks with me much better than boxed cereal (probably due to the higher fiber content? Haven't done my research), and then there are all the other benefits. Doesn't it seem like cereal is really expensive for the small amount that you get? And I'm always surprised when I add up the sugar content. I reached for Raisin Bran last year sometime thinking, 'ok, this has got to be somewhat good for me' and realized one of the top five ingredients was high fructose corn syrup, that was just about the last straw. All that packaging, preservatives and additives that I can't pronounce; finally we just said 'no thanks'.

There are tons of recipes for granola out there, but I'll share the method I've been using because it's super easy and turns out great every time. I originally got this from Amy's site, and she's recently posted an updated version with lots of variations that look really yummy!

Lazy Granola

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (*yes, I know I just complained about sugar but I feel a little better knowing exactly what ingredients I'm eating and I'm pretty sure this plus the honey is still less than a box of cereal)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 7 cups oats (I use old fashioned)

1. Mix brown sugar, butter, and honey in a small saucepan.  Bring to a low boil.
2. Remove from heat.  Stir in cinnamon and vanilla.
3. Pour over oats in a large bowl.  Stir until well coated.
4. Spread oats in a 9×13 pan (I use my large 'bar' pan which I think is bigger but it still works).  Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.
5. Take out and stir.
6. Return pan to oven.  Turn oven off. Don't open til the morning, even though your house will smell awesome and you'll really want to.

I usually add some kind of chopped nuts if I have any in the house, same goes for sunflower seeds (a constant in our cabinet to go with salads and as a snack for Lydia). In the morning I scoop it all into a large container and keep it handy because this stuff is popular. 

The empty pan in the morning. Not sure why I took a picture of this and not the actual granola-making the night before. I guess that's what happens when you prepare food right before you crash on the couch for the night.

I hope you give it a try! It's easy and yummy and doesn't send you on the sugar highs and lows that usually come with packaged cereal.

Beans, beans...

That title sounds a bit ominous, doesn't it? Don't worry, this post is rated G.

The last few weeks haven't brought us to any new adventures really, just the regular rhythm of life pretty much - Joel is continuing his search for a job and working on manuscripts while Lydia and I hang out everyday -  coloring, reading, going to 'story time' at a local shop, watching old Sesame Street videos on YouTube (did you know I'm home with her now full-time? I can't remember if I've shared that on the blog or not. Well, I am, and I'm loving it:). I'm still playing ultimate frisbee a few times a week but I've had to start bringing Gatorade because we're in full-on summer temps around here. Yowza.

Any-hoo (or is it any-who?), since I have no actual stories to share I thought I'd spend a few posts talking about something near and dear to my heart - food. I love eating it, I love growing it (or at least I will someday:), and with being home more I've found that I really love making it. I guess I always have, I just haven't had the opportunity before to really dig in and explore the responsibility of feeding my family healthy, homemade, yummy (usually), inexpensive meals and what that looks like in our kitchen (because I know it looks different for everybody). Instead of a hassle it's really become a fun challenge for me. I used to be a little intimidated but once I started trying some things I realized that it's not scary, or that time-consuming, or even that hard. My thought with these posts is to show you a few things that have worked for me and to hopefully get some feedback from you - I love getting new ideas to try! So please, comment away :)

I thought I'd start out with something that has recently been making frequent appearances in our kitchen - bags of dry beans. It started out with incorporating cans of beans (black, navy, cannellini) into some meals (beans are cheap and nutritious!), but after hearing about BPA levels in a lot of canned goods, we took the leap and now I can't imagine going back. I thought it would be lots of work and time in the kitchen, but really it's not. It's embarrassingly easy, as in, I'm a little embarrassed I didn't start doing this sooner. The only thing it takes is planning, and not even that much.

Here's what I usually do: the night before I plan on cooking beans, I throw them all in a big bowl and cover them with water. I use this batter bowl because it has a lid so I can leave it on the counter overnight and not worry about bugs. Gross.

The next day, I have two options - cook them on the stove if I'm going to be home, or throw them in the crock pot if I'm not. So easy. Even if they're on the stove you basically just get them simmering and walk away for 1 1/2 hours or so.

My favorite part is that they freeze so beautifully. If I have a day with not a lot going on, I'll cook a bunch of beans, and when they're done I fill up a few containers and throw them in the freezer. It's basically like having a cupboard full of ready-to-use cans of beans, without the nasty chemicals. For less money. And they're in your freezer instead but I bet you'd figure that out eventually.

What do we serve them with? I use black/pinto in Mexican dishes, usually instead of but sometimes alongside hamburger, white beans in casseroles and soups, or even in a stir-fry instead of chicken (most of the flavor is in the sauce anyway, right?). The other reason I like having them around is because, brace yourselves, Lydia loves to eat them just for a snack. Plain beans. She's weird, I know, but they're good for her so I don't want to jinx it.

Here are a few links with more info:

How to cook beans in a crock pot

Nutritional benefits of beans and legumes

Soaking beans in salt water   

(we add salt to our water and I think it really helps soften the beans)

To sum up - I've found working with dried beans to be cheap, easy, healthy, and versatile. It's a win/win/win/win. Hard to argue with that! :)

Lost in translation

A collection of videos for you today. 

There are some words/phrases that Lydia has put her own twist on as she's been learning and speaking more and more over the last several months. She's already outgrown most of these, so I'm glad we caught them on camera when we did. Toddlers are so so fun, aren't they? (Usually) We are always entertained by this little girl.

This was back in November (so that would make her... doing some quick math here... 20 months or so). For the longest time she called yogurt 'nogi'. 

I didn't get all of these on video, but for a while she would put the 'ie' sound at the end of most words. So cup would become 'cuppie', sock was 'sockie', when she wanted to be picked up she would say 'uppie', and so forth. Another favorite from around this time was 'swark'; it took me about a week to figure out she was saying 'fork'. Oops.

One from January (22 months); she went through a phase where any word that started with 'p' (and some 'b' words) she would add the raspberry sound at the start. It'll make more sense once you watch this....

Back in March; she actually gets this one right, but it's still pretty cute to hear her say 'barbeque' over and over :)

Earlier this month; I finally saw the latest Muppet movie and had the 'mahna mahna' song in my head, so naturally I taught it to Lydia, or tried to anyway.