D is for

Daddy and Dinosaur: Jim took some time on his day off to do the Letter of the Day with Claire. It just happened to be D like daddy. They made dinosaurs out of the letter and then played with them for quite some time while I made dinner. It was really sweet to get to listen in on their play from the kitchen. My kids are super lucky to have such a great Daddy.

Dinner: Dinner tonight was stirfry? - any vegetable that was in my crisper with some soy sauce and ginger over rice.

Beef and Barley Stew

I am not a food blogger. But those around and close to me have of late been cooking an oddity for our family, but they look like they are doing a pretty good job, strangely enough. It is not that we can't cook, we can. We cook, we bake, we do it all, we just don't do it often. So after reading their blogs I was inspired to plan some 'real meals' for my family this coming week. We started tonight with a beef and barley stew. Barley was a new ingredient for me, I'm not sure that I cooked it properly as it was bit chewier than I expected it to be, but still good.
Not being a food blogger I have looked at several to help me cover this genre here properly. So I find that one thing they all have are pictures. So I took some, I did not stage all my ingredients as some do because well, I don't get all my ingredients out at once and I put them away as soon as I am done using them, otherwise I'd never have a 'clean' kitchen.
So here's what it looked like as a stew without the barley and then after I added the barley.

I also found in my research that they give great facts about some key ingredients. so here goes;
barley is comparable to wheat products as far as health benefits however it differs by having both soluble and insoluble fiber, while wheat only has the latter.
I used Thyme and Oregano as spices for this recipe but apparently you can use whatever you have lying around. I really like the flavor of thyme, I plan to use more of it in ALL my recipes, how do you think it would taste in pancakes?
After looking at several food blogs I also felt that there was something missing from their coverage of the food.
What was missing is the shots of the people reacting, interacting and enjoying the food. So I'm here to fill that gap.

This stew was particularly good paired with chocolate milk boxes.

After some testing it was determined that putting barley up your nose is not the best way to get more fiber into your system. It is also kind of sticky so it doesn't come out all that easily.

As a general review:
You may like it so much you feel the need to either attack it or bow before it.
Either way it was an amazing stew.

The perfect end to the meal is a homemade chewy granola bar filled with almonds, cranberries, sunflower seeds and peanut butter.

gap filled : you are welcome food blogging community.

From the Dinner table

Tonight as we ate dinner around the table (which yes, had some laundry folded on top of it that I am 'planning' to put away sometime well... maybe tomorrow). ANYWAY, after a moment of silence Claire dropped her head to the table and in her robot voice said 'Must sleep at the dinner table'. After she sat with her head down for about 45 second I asked 'what are you doing Claire' and Nick shhh-ed me- with his little finger up to his lips and everything! Claire told me she was sleeping and we we all sat for a bit till Claire 'woke up' and began eatting as if nothing had happened. Has someone been hypnotizing my children?
Dinner was penne with sausage and peppers tonight.

Family Dinner

         What's for Dinner?

Apples
Broccoli Dippers
Parmasean and Garlic Dip
Chicken Breast
    (with onion, parsley, salt and pepper)


We like the Broccoli Dippers becaause A: the kids are able to help make them (well Claire at least) which increases the chance they will eat them and B: They are made for finger-food dipping! Something toddlers all over can't resist.

Tonight we discussed weather Santa likes bunnies. (We made sugar cookies today and we made some that are shaped like bunnies, Claire thinks perhaps Santa doesn't like bunnies because they aren't really 'Christmas-y' so perhaps she should eat them, since Santa the bunny hater  obviously will not want them.)

We hope your family dinner was a good time tonight.