I have a problem, though…. I am still a picky eater; have been for as long as I can remember, although I have been slowly improving over the years.  At what point will it dawn on Ellie that all this wonderful food I am serving her, I am not actually eating?  Will she become a picky eater at that point and refuse new things?  I am keeping my fingers crossed that she likes things well enough at that point that she keeps up with her culinary appetites.  This certainly gives me some added motivation to try some more things, but there are just some foods that I won’t likely come around to (like bananas).  I know, I’m crazy. 

Please, disregard my just-rolled-out-of-bed look.

Here’s what you need:

• The Green Cup- coffee pod adapter ($5)
• DisposaCup Filters (or similar) ($0.07-$0.10 each)
• Finely-ground coffee

The Green Cup is SUPER easy to clean with a quick rinse, is only two parts, is completely reusable.  When finished, the filter and grounds can go right into the compost and the cup is rinsed for re-use.

The coffee comes out to a medium-strong strength, the way I like it.

I hope this inspires other K-cup lovers to try it. It really isn’t terrible harder or more time-consuming (thank goodness). And, now, I can stop my deconstructing the k-cup process. Rejoice!

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We stayed with my cousin and her family and enjoyed some rest and relaxation.

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We toured Di Rosa art gallery and nearby winery in Napa.

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Private room karaoke in Korea town in San Fran.   So fun!

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Day trip to Angel Island and Tiburon:

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Rehearsal dinner party.  Here are all the cousins together in one place!

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And, THE WEDDING…

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And, lastly, we checked out the Japanese Tea Garden.

And, that was our trip.  I already miss everyone!

If you want, you can even use some chalk board paint around as a label and mark it with a date.

What other things have you seen or done with a glass jar?

More posts from this month’s challenge can be read here.

See more ideas I pinned on Pinterest.

This post is part of the (#freefromtrash) hosted by Calley, The Eco Chic, and is part of a one month challenge to create from trash. This challenge will hopefully open your eyes to the number of items that we still end up trashing every day that could be used by ourselves or our kids to create fun and useful items. To find out more about the challenge and to see other projects click on over to Calley’s announcement post.

Just run one end through the straw, cut straw if needed, and reclose the clasp.  Ta da!

Tip: If you have trouble getting the one end through, try flattening the straw a little more.

What other things have you seen or done with a straw?

More posts from this month’s challenge can be read here.

See more ideas I pinned on Pinterest.

This post is part of the  (#freefromtrash) hosted by Calley, The Eco Chic, and is part of a one month challenge to create from trash.  This challenge will hopefully open your eyes to the number of items that we still end up trashing every day that could be used by ourselves or our kids to create fun and useful items.  To find out more about the challenge and to see other projects click on over to Calley’s announcement post.

Ellie’s usual bed time is 6pm (yes, that’s early, but she also wakes up at 5:30-6 a.m.).  And, she’s pretty easy to get to sleep.  Diaper change, PJs, lights off, fan on, small bottle of water, pull the hippo’s tail for a lullaby and you’re done.  Yes, I know, we’re very lucky.   And, even though Ellie was still up when we left for our night out, we had already gotten most of the routine done and she was showing signs for being ready for bed.  Lucky babysitter, this was going to be an easy night!

Rob and I had a great night of dinner and drinks and coffee at our favorite Columbia restaurant, the Stanford Grill.  We picked a table on the bar-side, on purpose, so we could really take our time and not feel any pressure to give up the table.  After three-hours we finally decided to head home and continue the party out on our porch where it was warmer and we could have more wine.

As I walk in the door, I hear Ellie crying.  At first I was all “oh no, we woke her by coming home”.  NOPE, Sonia tells us Ellie decided she didn’t want to go to bed and had been up for the entire three hours.  Holy smokes!  Poor babysitter sure earned her money last night.

So, our anniversary continued on the porch with Ellie in her bouncer until she calmed down and started dozing off and a  orchestra of owls hooting up a storm (that sounded so freaky and was scaring Molly).  By the time Ellie was in bed asleep we were ready to go to bed ourselves.  Oh well, it was still a lot of fun and so nice to connect as husband/wife.

I’d still hire Sonia again…not sure if she’s want to come back, though.  Cheers!

Happy Anniversary, honey!

I loved making love to you in my Keurig. For the first time, it was so nice that I could have my single cup of whatever flavor I want and it was perfect every time. Our relationship was strained back in the Mr. Coffee days. How much coffee to put in? How much water? How to grind the beans? How to store the coffee? Coffee got stale before we finished it. Etc. But, we made it through that tough time and found a way to live together through the assistance of the k-cup. Now I find that I need you every morning. Unfortunately, I think it’s time that I re-think our relationship.

For one, you’re not very kind to my mother (Earth, that is). The UU in me can’t let this stand. While the K-cups could theoretically be recycled, recycling centers DON’T WANT THEM. It is too hard to really separate the paper filters and foil from the plastic. It bogs down the whole recycling conveyor belt system. Plus, how many people even bother to try to break apart the pieces for recycling? Most just end up in a landfill somewhere. I know Keurig has talked about trying to find an alternative, but they’re been at it for a few years and nothing has changed. I’m tired of waiting and hoping that something is going to change in this relationship.

And, if it does change, will that be enough for me? When you take into account the energy and resources used to produce the k-cup in the first place, ship them, transport them to recycling center, recycle them into something else… are we really doing the Earth any favors. The short answer is no.

(The life of the k-cup)

So I did some research for k-cup alternatives, to see if I could make our relationship work again:

• The My K-Cups by Keurig did not have great reviews and still sounded like a lot of work and cleanup.
• The Eko-brew. It’s better reviewed and sounded easier, but is not compatible with the B30 machine (the one I have).
• The “Green Cup – Coffee Pod Adapter”. It works very well and the coffee pods you use are completely compostable. It would be perfect EXCEPT that each pod comes individually wrapped in a non-recyclable, non-compostable foil envelope. Grr. So much for that alternative.

So, then I got to thinking that maybe I could really give a drip or French press coffee another try. The coffee grounds and filters could be compostable. I could even get a reusable filter and forgo the paper filters altogether. Score! Much better for the environment, right?

But, then I thought further… What about the impact of drinking coffee at all? It’s not like there are any local coffee farms that have ethical green practices. So that means, they are being grown far away and have to travel here.

(More reading about impacts from coffee farming from the NRDC.)

Tiny Footprint Coffee looks like a environmentally-responsible coffee company. But, even that coffee would still have to be shipped to me. Is it worth it? Do I really need my one cup of coffee THAT badly? Probably not. But, if I did, this company is one I’d look to.

There are other ways that stopping the brew will help me.

• Save money.
• Improve cholesterol.
• Improve blood pressure.
• Reduce iron-deficiency anemia.

So, with this all said, I’m going to break up with you, (cup o’) Joe. It wasn’t me, it was you.

Yours truly,

Kate

P.S. I guess this means I need a new tag line for my blog… “sleep-deprived mother reanimated with _________”? Help me fill in the blank.

I didn’t really go with the recipe I found, so here’s what I actually did.

You will need:

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1  1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
• 10 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained (8 needed, but I cooked 2 extra just in case I ripped any)
• 2 cups Tomato Sauce

Random thought…why does Ricotta and Parmesan get capitalized, but not feta? 

What to do:

1.  Cook up the lasagna noodles after breakfast and refrigerate them for quicker assembly that night.  (Babies can only handle so much prep work at a time.)

2.  Chop up the left over chicken in to itsy bitsy cubes.
3.  Combine chicken, cheeses, milk, and pepper.  A fork worked well.
4.  In a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce.
5 . Spread a layer of mixture on each noodle; roll up like a jelly-roll.

6.  Arrange lasagna rolls, seam-side down in baking dish.

7.  Top with remaining spaghetti sauce.

8.  Cover with foil.

9.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes or until hot.

10.  Pull it out and be VERY CAREFUL not to touch any part of the oven with your forearm!  OUCH!

11.  Sprinkle some additional Parmesan cheese, if you want to…and why wouldn’t you want to?!

12. Bask in your awesomeness as your husband exclaims “Wow, it actually smells like lasagna.”  Sigh.

The official verdict?  IT WAS YUMMY and my new go-to plan for left over chicken or ground beef.

Ellie and I attended a themed picnic, yesterday.

Locals, we went to Savage Park and it was fabulous! 

• Easy and close parking to picnic tables and play area
• Plenty of shade
• Nearby bathrooms and trash cans
• Walking/biking path
• Very few people there (at least on a May Tuesday)
• No goose scat (our usual park has been bad lately

The theme of the potluck was “holidays.”  Each person picked a holiday and brought a dish to represent it (at least that’s what was supposed to happen).  Didn’t quite work out that way, but it was a whole lot of fun, none the less.)

Can you guess which holiday we went for?

Yeah, I guess it was a little obvious.  What can I say, any excuse to don my girl in some blue, right?

When we got home I filled up the kiddie pool and we continued our enjoyment of the “summer” weather.

This video is actually from Sunday, but is still cute:

Glad the weather is looking good for the weekend so we can have some friends over for a BBQ.  We’ve got most of the shopping done, but there’s a few more things I’ve got to get accomplished:

• Clean off the coat of pollen on everything
• Shop-vac up the herd of stink bugs that have taken over
• Set up an infant swing for Ellie (handed down to us by our neighbors)
• Make a signature drink
• Bake some dessert

Can’t wait to keep the good times rolling.  How are you enjoying the weather?

And, apparently the answer is YES!

I made a couple bowls of water, egg dye tablets, and little salt. Then, I placed the egg white halves in the bowls.

I thought it might be cool to have REALLY orange yolk middles so I added some red food coloring to the yolk mixture. I turned out more of a pink, which I thought was okay. I think I’d try something different next time, though.

I added some cayenne and dill to the top and I think they turned out pretty cool. Now they taste good AND look good (at least in my opinion).

I’m definitely thinking of future uses to this technique (like making green deviled eggs and ham for next St. Patrick’s Day.)