Yucky Weather Holding Me Back

I have some amazing people that I am working with for some reviews and giveaways- I already have the reviews written, but whats a good review without some amazing pictures? The weather here has been on the chilly side, grey and raining for days and days blah....come on sunshine and warm spring weather I NEED you and my artists and crafts people need you too. I have some cool apparel and things that deserve pictures in the beautiful, bright and sunny outdoors! I had not checked the weather yet today but I hope it will change soon. I do not want anyone to think I am slacking. I really want to do a good job and have my readers not get bored looking at the inside of my house. Thanks for being patient- You are all wonderful. I do have a cloth diaper review that does not need the outdoors- so that will go up possibly tomorrow....oooo and it has a giveaway too...time to feed some one's stash!!!! I am also working with a company who is launching a line of organic baby products next week- I just got them in the mail today and WOW you will love these! Can't wait to share :) Much love to you all!
Do any of you by chance know someone who would help me out getting my blog design worked on?  I know what I want but I am not savvy in that department, so some help would be very much appreciated- I would love to trade for some advertising on the page or something- Thanks and e-mail me Myecofamily@gmail.com Do look for a major re-design of this blog in the near future (hopefully)

Here is what it look like today-see even Adelea thought it was crappy-no smiles-

A Night With One Twin AND Cookies!

Yesterday my Grandmother- who the boys refer to as GG for Great Grandma offered to take one of the boys to spend the night. If you have twins or even more than one child you understand how valuable it is to to spend time with each child alone. Usually here, it is all about the boys as one, especially since they are twins. GG decided she would take Avery this week and give Aidan a turn next week. Last night Aidan and I decided to bake Organic Chocolate Chip cookies- This was awesome because it is hard for me to do anything like this with both of them- It can get totally out of control :) I think Aidan ate more than anything else during this process, but here are the pics I was able to take- We had lots of fun!

Banana Splits for Breakfast!

I put these together for the boy’s breakfast one day and they called them banana splits! Well creative little 4 year old boys I have, we’ll just call them that from now on. I think it’s great that we could have a healthy version of this popular dessert. It is fine by me that my boys love eating this and don’t even consider having Ice Cream drowned in all sorts of sugary toppings.


I have made this for the boys with many different combinations of fresh fruit and other toppings- Be creative the more color the better!

Try to use as much Organic and Natural ingredients as possible. Even on a budget I buy Organic and Natural for the majority of food we eat. Watch for sales!

This morning I used-

• Organic Vanilla Yogurt
• 1 Organic Kiwi
• 1 Large Organic Banana

• Fresh Ground Peanut Butter from Whole Foods

• Local Wildflower Honey

I pre-chilled the Vanilla Yogurt in the serving dishes for approx. 15 minutes. While they were chilling I peeled and sliced the kiwi-my boys like it in thicker slices. Then I peeled and sliced the Banana down the middle. I then used the Peanut Butter to make a “sandwich” with the Banana. I pulled the Yogurt out and placed the Peanut Butter and Banana down in the Yogurt. Then the Kiwis in the side and topped it off with a drizzle of honey! Any kind of fruit is great to add. Some fun ones we have used are Berries, Star fruit, Dragon Fruit as well as different kinds of nuts or some granola :) This one has limitless possibilities!

It can be a bit messy especially with boys-but they LOVE it!

mmmm..... Friday = Food Day

Yes, I do have some baby weight I still need to lose. I was not one of the lucky breastfeeding moms who dropped the weight in no time. Another downfall to the situation is I like to eat- not crap, but good food. BUT “good food” is not always healthiest for you! Not to mention Steven cooks for a living- always the temptation around for an amazing from scratch meal. Lately I have been working on my cooking skills. I have been trying to use whatever I could find in the house to make a good quality meal. No planning, no recipes NOTHING. It has actually been kind of nice not planning groceries around specific meals. I keep a variety of natural and organic meats and produce around. For me it is about being spontaneous. I want to be a well rounded cook, one of the reasons, unless I am baking I don’t measure a thing. So here I am deciding that I will share some of my cooking adventures with you guys- I would love to hear about some of your favorite recipes or cooking tips!

Yes, I know this meal is not a diet friendly meal-but it sure was good! Moral of my story- I think I am going to enjoy eating for a while...it is summer time so there will be lots of activities to burn it all off!
Last night was my first time ever cooking Pork Chops. I am not a huge fan of pork, and at one point in time I was a vegetarian- but the 1 ¾ in thick fresh cuts were beautiful to me :) They weren’t cheap so I prayed I would not screw them up! Here is a run down of what I did, remember I was making this up along the way!

Basic Ingredients

• Thick cut Pork Chops
• Fresh Garlic
• Large Red Delicious Apples (found these babies on sale for 99 cents per pound and they were huge!)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Onion- can be of your choice but I used a yellow onion.

And the extras…all optional according to taste I suppose-but let me tell ya, I would have paid a lot of money in a restaurant for the way that these turned out!.

• Cumin
• Coriander
• White wine
• Salt
• Pepper
• Brown sugar
• Butter

Pre heat oven to 375

Cut up onion and 2 large Apples- Toss them in a skillet with EVOO, white wine, crushed garlic, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Let them cook down until the apples are soft and the onions become transparent.

Then add the Pork Chops. Brown them evenly on each side approx- 5-6 minutes per side. Add small amounts of EVOO and white wine as needed to keep things moist. Ad some additional seasonings if you would like.

When finished browning-transfer Pork Chops to a glass baking dish. Cover them with the apples and onions-basically everything left in the skillet! Put them in the 375 degree oven- Mid way through the cook time slice s few small pieces of butter on top and sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar.

                                   

The cook time will depend on how thick the chops are and how well you browned them in the skillet. Mine took about 45 minutes to be completely done. Check them by sticking a fork in and twisting- the meat should feel tender. OR if you want to be sure slice the thicker Chop in the middle-make sure it is white all the way through.

Then Serve- went very well along side of some Garlic Mashed Potatoes!

So since I have dubbed today my Friday-Food Day I am going to post another cool kid friendly recipe for What my boys call breakfast Banana Splits! OHHH and these are healthy-PROMISE :)  Check back because they are REALLY yummy!