Food on the run today.  Pathetic eating habits and no meals at all.  I spent my day with the boys, picking Darien up from school, and running errands.  On the way down there, we stopped at Safeway and got cherries, pita chips, apple turnovers, and 2 ice cream bars.  Yep, we ate ice cream for breakfast.  We basically snacked on all those things through the day, and this evening I threw together a mayo, cheese, sprout sandwich on flatbread, and ate 2 veggie hot dogs with ketchup.  I have no idea what anyone else ate today, nope, not a clue.  I’m shaking my head.  This is all too familiar.  My chocolate chips are waiting along with the can of pumpkin, but the result will be more like a dessert than something really worth eating for food value.  This is the type of food lifestyle that I desperately want to change.  One day at a time.

I’m afraid today was pretty typical as far as our food situation goes.  Today is the type of day I want to see less and less of in our home.  I fixed about 1/2 of a meal today, and people fended for themselves for the rest of it.  Everyone ate cake for breakfast, and for supper, I threw together the leftover Quinoa, a can of black beans rinsed, a can of corn rinsed, 4 Roma tomatoes chopped, a thick slice of red onion chopped, a hug dollop of mayonnaise, and half a bunch of cilantro chopped…mixed it all together and served it on some broken taco shells that served more as a tostado 1/2 than a taco.  I did warm the taco shells in the oven while I was throwing together the salad spread, which currently does not have a name.  I wanted my first kitchen post to report a grand recipe that I tried, which was delicious and amazing, so I was too embarrassed to actually take a picture of this loser supper, BUT it did taste good and nobody complained about it.  I’m sure I’ll do the salad again, and even serve it on real tostado shells, but try to fill out the meal with something else yummy too.

I did download the “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian” app on my iPad today and browsed around on that for a bit, and pulled out my muffin recipe book to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins in the next couple of days.  I have several cans of pumpkin, leftover from grand ideas of making pumpkin pie for holidays, and I need to get it used up, and I also have a few chocolate chips left, out of a gigantic bag from Costco that need to be used.  I won’t buy that brand again, and will only stick with Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips in the future.  The “off” brand was a lot cheaper, but now I know why.  They simply don’t taste as good as the Nestle chips.

I’m heading to Costco tomorrow and have a list ready (Nestle Chips are on it).  And good or bad, I’ll report on what we ate. 

Hi. My name is Kristy. I am not a cook. Most of the time I don’t even like to cook.

So why have a kitchen blog? I’m asking myself the same question. My motivation comes from the fact that my family likes to eat. There are 5 of us, so that means a lot of food is consumed in this home. Someone is responsible for feeding this family and that person is me.

I have been on strike for a long time. My family has been fending for themselves for a long time. But I am ready to take the bull by the horns. I ready to conquer my fear of the kitchen.

I told my husband when we got married (18 years ago)…”no unexpected guests for mealtime”. I was petrified. I still get sick to my stomach when people are coming over for a meal.

So this is what I want to conquer. I want to be comfortable in the kitchen. I want to have fun cooking for my family and for other people. I want to find the joy in this hobby and more importantly, I want to find the joy in just being a mom that provides great food for her family.

If you want to come along for the ride, feel free! I am a vegetarian who leans toward being vegan. I hope to try new things and document my progress along the way.

Here we go!!

 
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The snow is MELTING like crazy!!  The quiet little park in Chewelah was out of control, and it’s hard to believe children splash in this little, tiny, creek during the summertime!  It was flowing fast and dangerously expanding all of it’s borders.

 The water was lapping against the cement, dangerously close to going right over the entire road.

This next picture was taken a few days later.  The water DID go over the road, and all the way onto the highway.  As of today, Memorial Day, this little bridge and road is still closed, though the water is now going under the road instead of over the top of it.

  
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I don’t consider myself at a cook.  At least, I didn’t…but I’ve been spending some time in the kitchen and things have been going pretty well!  I’ve been having some fun trying new recipes and resurrecting old ones that I’ve used before and my family has liked.  Here are just a few images of what I’ve been doing lately in my kitchen.

 Pita Bread

 Took this for potluck at church and everybody raved about it.  Inside was hummus, sprouted lentils, pea shoots, and olives.  It WAS really good!

 Haystack with a lot of extras!

 Sprout Salad

 Egg Noodles with Pesto Sauce

 Focaccia Bread

 The Meal…Pesto noodles, sprout salad, and Focaccia bread!

 Carrot soup, which nobody liked, and Calzones with spinach and tofu! 

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I usually don’t clutter my personal blog with our dog business, but this puppy was just TOO CUTE to pass up!  He’s a blenheim male Cavachon, already SOLD to Faith in New Mexico.  The babies are just soo precious and soo cute!!

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The Flour Mill…a true country store.  Absolutely love this place, the customer service, the basic garden supplies, tools, and everything someone needs for their farm.  And on some days, you can even see the farmer and his wife.

I walked into the Flour Mill and this couple was at the counter, buying their goods.  The lady was carrying a TINY black poodle, with a lopsided bow in it’s hair, and if the sight wasn’t straight out of a Norman Rockwell picture, I don’t know what is.

But the thing that made it stand out even more, was that beside this couple, that seemed to be lost on the prairie, were 3 young adults speaking Russian, and dressed to kill in their modern, 2011, current, attire.

 I couldn’t get a REALLY good picture of them simply because I was sneaking all these photos with my phone in the first place.  But having these two sets of people provided such a beautiful contrast in this life, and they seemed to both come from completely different worlds!  
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I said I’d post pictures of my trip to the nursery that I discovered a few weeks ago!  I had so much fun checking everything out.  Here is the sign, large and so very visible along the Highway, and somehow I’ve never seen it or noticed it!

Can’t wait for the eggs.  I’m hoping for mid July, or early August, but might have to wait till September.

 Little “Puff Head”.  So cute!  
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Lake Roosevelt is WAY DOWN this year, lower than we’ve ever seen it.  As a result, the ferry between Gifford and Inchelium has been closed down, so we had to drive all the way around to go to church each week.  We aimed for just church, so our drive could be a little later in the morning, as well as be a little more relaxed.  On this day, we decided to stop at one of the campgrounds and take some pictures of the “islands” in the middle of the lake!

You can’t really see the depth of this, but this is the point where the kids jump off the rock cliffs into the water.  I was very happy to see that there are NO big rocks hiding below the dark water.  We have never allowed them to dive, even after trying to check it by swimming the area and diving down, but now that we’ve been able to see it with NO water, I guess I can relax a little bit!  Still don’t really want them to dive, but at least I know there are no big rocks for them to hit.

 This photos really shows how low the water is.  Normally, it is more than half way up this cliffside.

 It was a pleasant stop, and who knows when the water will ever be down this low again.