there was this one time...

fig + mascarpone tart

 A friend gave us a boatload of figs from her tree and I was thrilled as they are one of my favorite fruits and they can be pricey at the grocery store! The kids aren't crazy for figs but I wasn't either when I was their age. So excited to be able to use a bunch of figs for this tart, guiltfree and still have a ton leftover for other ways of eating! Threw this tart together from this recipe I saw on pinterest. I decreased the honey in the filling from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup and added a handful of blueberries and raspberries to the figs. 

sigh. :) 

don't judge a soup by its texture

my husband is a vegetarian and the rest of us aren't. he's probably the easiest vegetarian I know though. I can make him anything and he's usually pretty happy. last night I noticed I had a plethora of sweet potatoes. I roasted them and some cauliflower, threw it in the food processor with a little veggie broth and a dash of half and half and called it done. he was hesitant when he saw the baby food resemblance but devoured and thanked me for his new favorite soup. this was mine with a dollop of cream and basil. his had red pepper flakes and a fresh shave of parmesan atop. yum.

food heaven friday

a spur of the moment dinner out with the hubby and his brother...went to a new spot for us (Diablo in silverlake- hipster tacos so good I could cry thinking back on them- pork belly, hello!) and celebrated a 2year birthday of one of my absolute fave spots in la- the piehole. as always the banana cream pie did not disappoint.
here's to random nights out and good food. I'll daydream about those foods while I cook all week. :)

smoothie obsessed

my family has drank more smoothies in the last few weeks than i can count! thank goodness for costco! i have been pretty addicted to boba for awhile now, always craving my favorite avocado smoothie with boba. i finally decided to start making my own instead of forking out $5 a drink! yay! but of course, i had to mix it up a bit.

banana, oatmeal, flaxseed, peanut butter, almond milk. i loved. the family did not. ahhh adding the recipes in now and see she called it milkshake, which seems more sinful than a smoothie! hahah. here's the link.

then i had to try one of the green smoothies i've heard so many raves about. kale, spinach, pear, almond milk. i swear i have more energy in the day when i drink one of these. this is the recipe i first tried here. since then i've tweaked it since i ran out of pears, so without pears and without the honey- i use agave nectar.  and i also add a tablespoon of trader joes organic vanilla yogurt, just to cut the leafyness of it all. and because i am obsessed with that yogurt, being a anti dairy person myself, that's a pretty big thing.

next up, one of my top faves: blackberry, vanilla yogurt, almond milk and CINNAMON. heaven! one of elsie's faves too! here's the recipe for this one here.
and last, the whole reason i got on this kick: avocado, milk and sugar. doesn't get any better than this! eta the recipe, i just eyeball it. a cup of milk and half an avocado and a tsp agave nectar and ice. 

and a few shots of the whole reason i am drink obsessed now:
this one is next on my list!

sweet sixteen party :)

last friday night we threw a surprise sweet 16 party for kira. it was a ton of work but such a fun experience. i couldn't have done it without both of our best friends' help! :) i didn't take any pics of the venue or details, so sad. thankfully her good friends were able to catch these pics for me :) i love them! dots cupcakes did all of the sweet treats. red velvet and toffee... kira's favorite flavors!

i couldn't resist the hello  kitty napkins, doesn't she look like she's holding flags up? our kira is a flaggie at school, captain actually! ;) cake pops and macarons. heaven.

spam musubi, heart shaped! my sweet friend punched all those hearts out, amazing.
bit of decor. flowers in random jars, candles, frames of her and her friends everywhere.
and my favorite :) the photobooth! i cut out the garlands myself and had kira's friends put it up for me. i gave them my vision and they went to town. i love how it turned out!


what a rush.. planning and executing a party. between the 6 in our family- we have birthdays quite often, now for a little break until november...when the big guy above turns THIRTEEN!

thankful for thanksgiving

i'm way behind on blogging, instead of trying to catch up i'll just dive into my thanksgiving menu :)

turkey: had decided weeks ago that i was going to make Ina's truffle butter recipe but today was sent this and am contemplating it instead. i can't decide! i will probably wait till the morning of to decide!

image by elizabeth messina!

cranberries: this one by the pioneer woman. elsie already made this this morning all by herself. mmmm!

image by pioneer woman!

stuffing: again, can't decide between these two: both by real simple. one. two.

image by real simple.

i'm also doing roasted carrots & leeks and a couple of little dishes of mac and cheese and corn for els as i'm sure she won't touch anything else. other lovely family members will bring all the starches and salad and pies. if i'm feeling adventerous, we might make these:

image by tasty kitchen

we did make these this afternoon. yum! and are going to make these tomorrow.

we are excited!

yesterday

was a typical day for her! she made her own fruit salad, chopped and mixed all by herself :)

her normal little chirpy self :)

lots of lounging around on the porch swing :)  

big sister was going to pep and put orange prewrap in her hair and els had to do the same, but of course nothing lasts in els' hair, around the neck it goes! :) 

today she is sick :( 24 hours makes such a difference! hoping this time tomorrow is a full swing back to her normal self. always tough to see the kiddies under the weather!

the gift that keeps giving

a few years ago, i became obsessed with the movie, waitress.

tell me you saw the wonderfulness that it is! the movie itself gives me goosebumps. i love it. the tragic true story of the writer/director breaks my heart. :(

chris being the total stud gift giver that he is, enrolled me in a local pie class, taught by penny of penny's pies. penny taught a private class at her home for kira and i and we came home with 3 pies and a quiche. our lives have been changed. penny is an awesome teacher, very easy to love. :) i love making my own crust, i feel so betty crocker :) quiche is a pretty regular thing around here, i think this last one was probably my best crust yet. (phone pics)


heavenly! i wish i had some leftovers now! so like i said. chris was pretty smart to give me a gift of a pie class. our family will continue to reap from it's lesson :)

he loves milk

like many bowls of cereal a day. many glasses of milk and chocolate milk a day. but he's been having horrible headaches for the past few months, and today his doctor suggested taking milk out of his diet. :( as soon as we left the office, we went to the store and i got him every flavor of soy milk and had him stock up on other snacks besides yogurt, pudding and string cheese. tonight i made chicken curry and made his portion separate as i put cream in the dish, his was cream-less and rather sad looking. he made a bowl of oatmeal (with water) afterwards and gobbled that up. :( i'm so sad for him but i am determined to figure out the cause of these headaches! hopefully milk won't be the cause and he can go back to it in a few weeks!

anyone have any dairy free snacks, drinks or recipes you'd like to share? he would be super appreciative :)

warm and happy

snickerdoodles.

she is so used to working with just 3 fingers of her right hand. she puts the other 2 in her mouth, so she knows to keep them up like that when she's in public, trying to keep them germfree. :)

 

snickerdoodles. onions. breakfast. tea. even brussel sprouts. these are all examples of things I didn't like when i was younger, but as i got older (and wiser) i slowly started to like these things more. i love telling these little factoids to the kids, 'oh one day you'll like it. believe me....' for instance: snickerdoodles- i'm just not a big sugar cookie person. i need other things of sugar goodness in there to make me satisfied, ie chocolate or caramel. but then i tried a different recipe and i think they turned out awesome. note that there aren't cookie pics after they were baked. they were devoured too quick!

 

tea. okay geez, it's not like real australian tea, it's chocolate mint. hahaha. but i do love it and i am so glad that dots cupcakes introduced it to me. i'll even drink a green tea mint. ;) onions. used to hate them. over time and with plenty of innout burgers, i began to have them grilled. now i love them raw even. :) just depends on my mood. breakfast. i would go to school every morning against my mom's requests to eat breakfast. i just don't like breakfast food. but lately i'm so into eggs over easy with garlic fried rice. i could eat that every morning and i firmly believe my days will go by smoother :) that being since jelly filled donuts are totally unreasonable on a daily basis. ;) brussel sprouts. this one's a stretch but has to be doused in butter and herbs. and i won't make them. they have to come from someone else's kitchen and resemble nothing like the brussel sprout in it's normal state. :) i still stand very firmly on my inabilities to eat spicy food though. ;)

there you go. my afternoon of baking with elsie transformed this whole post into a favorite parenting phrase of mine, 'one day you'll like it'. :)