11.12.2013

Anderson Says

Anderson has started talking a lot over the past month or two. It's lots of fun to hear him say new words on a daily basis and it's way fun when he puts them together in little sentences. 

Of course I find his babblings adorable so I'm basically recording them here for memory's sake.

We have this conversation all day long, every day. Well, Monday-Friday anyway:

Anderson: "DaDas a wuk? Kekes all gone?"

Me: "Yes, DaDa's at work & the cookies are all gone."

Anderson: "Dadas a wuk & kekes all gone."

We have to confirm the cookie part multiple times because as most of you know, he's a cookie monster. For a while the first thing he requested when he woke up in the morning was "kekes", for lunch: "kekes", after nap: "kekes", for dinner: "kekes", after dinner: "kekes" and even one time IN HIS SLEEP! I kid you not.

Now when he wakes up he looks at me & says, "Mama...*followed by a kiss*....Eggs! Pease!" Eggs are a much healthier breakfast option than cookies so 95% of the time we have scrambled eggs for breakfast!

*Edit: I've been writing this post for a while & he does still ask for eggs every morning so Andrew makes them for him but he also enjoys eating my berry oatmeal with me as well. The boy can eat!

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The family joke right now is that Anderson is a little french boy. He puts "le" in front of a lot of words.

"OOOOO! Le Papa!"

"Le ball?"

"Le biiiiiiiiite!"

And my favorite :French phrase":

"OOOOOO! Le Punkum!"

It's pretty cute & very funny! I'll have to see if I can get a quick video of him saying his little phrases but in the meantime enjoy his adorable face photographed by the ever sweet & talented Mary Margaret Smith!


11.11.2013

Rise & Shine!

Today's post isn't especially exciting but it's something I've been wanting to share! It's a quick, easy & healthy breakfast idea.

It's not super original but it's really been working for us lately & we've been enjoying it.

My cousin, Laura, told me a while ago about how she added flax seed to her girls' smoothies. I had once bought some chia seeds to add to my yogurt but I didn't really care for the texture. I had never heard of flax seed so I looked up the health benefits & was pleasantly surprised! Check out this article for a fun & easy-to-read break down.

I bought some flax seed from our local health food store and ground it up in our awesome Baby Bullet! I just store it in a ceramic container that has a little teaspoon on the side and I try to add it to as many recipes as I can. I add it to pancakes, I added it to homemade chicken noodle soup & I add it to our Berry Oatmeal for breakfast. 

Photo Source
I bought a large container of quick oats & add a teaspoon of flax seed & it literally cooks up in less than 5 minutes! Now, I'm not a big fan of plain oatmeal. At all. But I found this recipe for Berry Sauce. I've been making up some berry sauce and topping our oatmeal with it for a super easy, super fast & very healthy breakfast, that we actually enjoy! The berry sauce recipe makes enough to last for 4-5 days of oatmeal just depending on how liberal you are with it. Trust me, it's tasty.

Now, one of the suggestions for the berry sauce was to add it to yogurt however I do not recommend adding it to plain, greek yogurt. Yuck! Imagine if you added it to sour cream. Would that taste good? Uh, NO!

Also, another helpful hint for you, the first time I made berry sauce I poured it into my beloved Baby Bullet to puree it & it went EVERYWHERE!!! Seriously, it looked like a murder scene in the kitchen with the bright berry sauce splashed everywhere. This last time when I made it I still put it in the BB but I covered the top with a towel & that kept it from going everywhere. The sauce is really thin & there's a tiny hole at the top of the BB {& apparently most blenders} so it easily leaks out. My mom suggested covering the top in saran wrap next time & I am definitely going to try that!

Last week I bought & prepared our first ever pomegranate & it was a HUGE hit with Anderson. So I did add that to our berry sauce as well or you could just top the berry oatmeal with the pomegranate pips to add some texture if you didn't want to include it in the sauce.

So there you have it, Berry Oatmeal. What are some easy & healthy breakfast ideas that your family enjoys?

Breakfast is really a meal I struggle with so I need ideas!