Kid Friendly Sushi

Sushi and Spring Rolls

It is hard to find a great sushi place when you live in a small town in Idaho....I was craving sushi last week and my kids love finger foods....and foods you can eat with chopsticks.  So for Avery's biorthday I decided to make a spread of Asian food. So I made California rolls, spring rolls, egg rolls and potstickers.  So I thought I would share how to make kid friendly sushi and spring rolls.

For the sushi I opted not to use nori or the seaweed paper stuff....my kids don't like the taste and they don't like the taste of raw fish so I leaned toward the California Rolls.  So instead of the seaweed paper I used rice paper wraps....the same you use for spring rolls....it worked great and my kids loved them.  Avery even asked to take some for school lunch.  I am sure she would of been the first kid in Tetonia Elementary to bring sushi for school lunch:)

I am not a sushi expert but what really helped me was having good sticky rice.  Matt asked the guy that makes the sushi at our grocery store and he showed him what to use....the rice was found in the Asain isle at our store. 

All you need is.....
-rice paper
-rice
-avacado
-cucumber
-carrots (for color)
-crab...I use imitation crab
-rice vineger, sugar, salt
For the recipe go to this site.... http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/california-roll-recipe/index.html  For a tutorial on how to roll up your sushi you can check out this site.... http://norecipes.com/blog/california-roll-recipe/

For the spring rolls check out this site.....also serve these babies up with some yummy peanut sauce. ://www.phamfatale.com/id_1607/title_Shrimp-Spring-Rolls-Vietnamese-Roll-Recipe/.  The nice thing about these are you can put in anything you want...they are healthy and very portable:)

Meatball Sub

Meatball Marinara Sub
 This is not a great picture but these subs are awesome!!!!

Warning..these subs may cause a food induced coma along with a general feeling of complete satisfaction.

These are really easy to make.  When I am making meatballs I always double the batch and freeze half.  So I can have a quick go to meal.  So to make this sandwich just bake up some meatballs and add them to a pot of spaghetti or marinara sauce and add your favorite seasonings.  Then I take some yummy french bread add a little provolone or mozzarella cheese and melt the cheese a bit in my oven....add a nice scoopful of sauce....add some Parmesan cheese....and there you have a yummy and easy to make meatball sub.

Food for Thought

Steak topped with Herb Butter with Sauteed Green Beans and Orzo

 I was craving a yummy steak the other day and found a interesting way to season a steak.  It has to do with how you salt the steak and how long you leave the salt on.  So I gave it a try and Matt loved it.  It had good flavor...especially with the garlic and herb butter.  Here is the recipe if you want to experiment with some steak. http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This is another favorite of mine...the flavor of the chicken is yummy and it is a lower calorie meal...which is always nice...oh and my kids call it a lettuce taco...they love it.  You can find the recipe here http://iowagirleats.com/2011/04/26/p-f-changs-lettuce-wraps-remade/

Birthday Cupcakes

Avery's birthday cupcakes for her class.  They are chocolate cupcakes with green butter cream frosting.  I wanted to make the frosting look like grass but I did not have a tip for it so...I dug through the play-dough box and found a little tip that I was able to use in my piping bag.  Then to top it Avery wanted bugs, worms and slugs with flower sprinkles.

I had Matt take the cupcakes to her class and he became the most popular dad in class.  He got swarmed by twenty three kindergarteners and hugged by all of them.  Later that day Avery had a friend over and we all played beauty shop.  Matt painted the girls nails...including sparkles and stickers...he is a good daddy:)

Big 6 year old

 Avery turned 6.  She is such a big girl and she has grown so much.  She loves school and is turning into such a smarty pants.  She loves to come home and tell me all about what she did at school...I love it...she tells me about what she learned, what she ate, who she played with, who was sick, what kids are not getting along, what is going on in her teachers lives...and of course about the boy she has a crush on.  I never thought I would learn so much from a kindergartener but I do.  Today she taught me all about bugs and I actually learned some facts.....she is pretty awesome.

Great Grandpa Erickson is always the life of the party!

Mattie at 3 months

She is so smiley and full of personality....she tries to talk and squawks when she gets upset

Hailey has learned how to feed babies...she says the baby is eating her body...I caught her multiple times with a baby shoved up her shirt and after she feeds it she burbs the baby and puts her down for a nap.  Then she makes us all be quiet so we don't wake the baby.

Matt has had two adjust a lot to living in a house full of girls.  He is now very good at piggy tails and painting nails....and the occasional dressing up.

I love the happy face she makes in her sleep after she has just eaten....you can see the milk dripping from her cheek:)

Mattie at one month...I bought these boots for her before she was born and I love them on her

Mattie at two months

My little cuties

Mattie Faye meet Betty Lou......My grandma is a baby charmer.  She is so good with babies and she knows the best songs to sing to them.  I love watching her with my kids and I am so glad my daughters get to know this amazing woman.

Hailey...not to be upstaged by her baby sister.  This is a typical Hailey outfit....she is obsessed with being a princess.

 Jenni's hipster outfit she bought Mattie....bringing a little California to this Idaho kid.

Mattie with Uncle Kurtie

My cute dad has fine tuned the art of making yummy banana pies.  He made one for Matt's birthday and it was so yummy...

My amazing brothers and soon to be sister in law drove all through the night to make it to the baby blessing.  They arrived an hour before church started.  It was so sweet to have them come and it melted my heart to have them drive over 9 hours to support my family.  I have amazing siblings.

 My beautiful sister Jenni and my adorable Mattie Faye

My mom had a little scavenger hunt for the girls at the hotel pool.  Who knew you could have so much fun at the Super Eight in Driggs Idaho:)

 It was so great to have my awesome siblings all come for Mattie's blessing.  My amazing sister Jenni flew in from California.  My girls were in heaven...she always does the cutest things for them and she is so good about playing with them.

Nothing like learning how to swim with a water wedgie!!!  My dad should be a swim instructor:)

Mitch made the blog!  This is my sisters hubby and they drove down from Utah to come hang with us for the weekend.  My girls love their aunts and uncles.

My adorable mom.  She and my dad drove up for Mattie's blessing and it was so much fun to have everyone together.

 My bud and sis Lizza.  She brought up her girls and we played all weekend.  We had to break her in again and get her used to having a baby around.  She is due in October!

 The birthday boy.  We blessed Mattie on the weekend of Matt's birthday.  This is how he looks every birthday....Christmas....Valentines Day.....pretty much any celebration...I keep telling him we need to work on his excited face.

My little Mattie...she is pretty cute.

My sisters were such troopers playing with the girls in the pool.  We could not get Hailey out of the pool she is fearless and begged Lara to catch her while she jumped in.  I am sure Lara walked away with a few bruises after being jumped on multiple times.

Recipe

I thought that I might post some of the recipes I am cooking this week. I like to plan my meals each week so I don't have the dreaded 5:00 feeling of panic of wondering what I am going to feed my family. I like to plan for the week so I only have to go to the store once a week.

I am posting these....not that very many people check out this blog but those who do might like a new recipe or two. Let me know if you end up using them:)

What we ate last night....

Picture used from liliblueboo.com
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2012/03/tomato-basil-cream-pasta-vegan-and-gluten-free.html
I got this recipe from one of my favorite craft websites. This girl is amazing and so talented and she had this recipe posted on her site. It was so easy, inexpensive and very yummy. I didn't follow it exactly...I changed it just a bit and I really liked it.

Ingredients:
4 small or 2 large ripe tomatoes
Tomato paste (I used tomato sauce and just put in how much I wanted)
1 cup Raw unsalted cashews (I used slated cashews that I munch on for a snack)
Fresh basil leaves (If you don't have this around just use some dried basil or leave it out)
Linguini pasta (use corn pasta for gluten free)
Crushed garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper (Becasue my cashews were salted I didn't have to put a lot of salt in the sauce)

Go to the link above for directions on how to make this. I added a few things to this recipe and if you try this recipe you don't have to this...unless you really want to. I blended my tomatoes, sauce, and cashews in my blender...while blending I got distracted and blended to long which made my sauce really thick. So while I was simmering the sauce I added just a little chicken stock and heavy cream to make the sauce creamy and not as thick. Just add in as much as you want till you get the right consistency.

I paired this recipe with my favorite easy bread recipe I got from my Aunt Becky. My family loves this bread recipe and it is quick and super easy.

Peasant Bread:

2 cups lukewarm water

1 package dry yeast (2 1/2 to 3 tsp)

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cornmeal (we used oat bran)

melted butter

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Stir in bread flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured plate.

Clean the bowl and grease with butter. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes or until double in bulk.

Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle it with 1 tablespoons of cornmeal. Flour your hands and divide the dough into 2 parts, shaping each into an oblong loaf but do not knead. Place both loaves on the prepared baking sheet. Let the loaves rise another 45 minutes until almost doubled.

Preheat oven to 425.

Brush the tops of the loaves with melted butter and bake 10 minutes. Reduce temp to 375 and bake 20 more minutes.

While loaves are hot, brush with more butter and serve.

I hope you give these a try.

7 YEARS

This month has been one of the craziest months we have experienced as a family so far. At the beginning of the month we were expecting a baby at any time, I was just finishing the basketball season, and Matt took on an extra position at work that increased his work load and made his life very busy, plus his church responsibilities, city council responsibilities etc. Needless to say our lives were crazy.

The only time Matt's phone was not ringing off the hook was when I was in labor. It has been a big adjustment for our family...and for our relationship.....it is hard to communicate with someone when he is on the phone or computer all hours of the day.

With that being said....he has still managed to find ways to help out and be there for his family. He helps out with my daily duties, getting groceries, cleaning, cooking, putting the girls to bed, picking Avery up and taking her to school, running errands, and watching the girls while I get a little more rest.

We celebrated our 7th anniversary on Saturday by house hunting (we are looking into moving to Idaho Falls) and then went out to dinner. It was nothing romantic....or chic flick worthy...it was just nice to spend time with him....I forget how much fun it is...and how much I miss quality time.

So I guess what I am trying to say is....I have a great husband...who has helped me grow and has always been there for me. He is such a hard worker, he is a loyal friend, a great dad, and awesome husband. After seven years I can't imagine my life without him. So thanks Matt for all that you do....thanks for loving me even when i am acting like a crazy person...or look like I got hit by a truck....even when I haven't showered in days...and may or may not smell like a rose!