Happiness Is: finding an old MILK sign

This morning, in an attempt to avoid the hideous traffic on the freeway, we took some surface streets.

As is so often the case, it really saved no time.

However, we did stumble across some fantastic signs.

MILK signs.

Old MILK signs.

2 of them, within blocks of each other.

I love MILK signs.

And even though we missed our ultrasound appointment, stopping on the way back to snap photos of these lovelies helped soften the blow.


It's the little things.
And, one of these is going to look awesome hanging in my kitchen.


Even if your kids are in the car and they're hungry, even if you have to go back, even if it's a little inconvenient, this is just a reminder to ALWAYS stop for old signs.
Just a little helpful advice for your Monday afternoon.
Love from,
Greta


PS.  These signs are on Pioneer Blvd, somewhere between Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia.
If you want to go snap a few photos yourself  

Taking Pleasure in Simple Things

I love my kitchen in the morning.
The sun streams in the windows and lights up the room with a warm glow.
It is calm (even when it isn't) and beautiful.
Being in there makes me happy.


My kitchen is not perfect.
There are, in fact, quite a few things about it that I don't like at all.
Our counter tops are pretty hideous.
So is the back splash on the wall behind the sink.
The windows are the 1952 original aluminum windows and they are a wreck.
Plus the glass is so old that there are parts of them I simply cannot get clean.
I don't have window coverings.
When the sun gets too hot, I hang sheets up to keep things cool.  The rest of the time the windows are bare.
I am waiting until we finish up countertops and back splash and really get a feel of what our kitchen is going to end up looking like before I commit to window coverings.
We have those horrific fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
And our fridge leaves quite a bit to be desired.
There are many things in my kitchen I could look at with a critical eye.


But I try not too.
Because I have found that when I do, I get in a really crappy mood.
And before too long, I end up hating everything.
I see every little thing in my house that needs to be fixed or finished.  
I see all the things that drive me crazy,


I don't see the vintage stove that I adore.
I don't see my fabulous red floor.
I don't see our imported from Amsterdam booth, and my favorite table, handmade by my hubby and kids.


And those are the things I want to see.
So what I try to do, every day, is to take note of the simple things in my home or life that bring me joy.
This morning it was the way the sunlight hit upon the bowl of apples sitting on the kitchen table.
I stop and look.
I smile.
I feel content.
I don't even pay attention to my ugly counter tops.


Mornings are the easiest time for me to do this.
Sometimes by afternoon, my perspective has become skewed again in the wrong direction.
But I am trying.


I hope you are finding pleasure in the simple things that fill your life too.
Really it is about slowing down, even for one minute, and noticing things you ordinarily walk right past.
Maybe it will take a bit of work, but it will be worth it.
Promise.
Love from,
Greta


PS.  We are in the process of picking out a dishwasher, sink, and counter tops.  We are going to rip out the back splash but will probably wait a bit before we figure out what we want to replace it with.  We will be getting something up on the windows, but can't afford to replace the lights right away.
We've lived here close to 2 years and are finally able to get to this.
Or so it seems right now.
Aaron's truck may die any day now.
And if that happens, the kitchen will wait some more.
But I am good with that.
Because until then I can dream.
And admire the sunlight on the apples.
*Dream kitchen pictures as well as "before" pictures coming soon.

Home Made? Why Bother?

My dear friend, Jen, recently brought by a home made pear cake.

It was delicious.

I wanted to brag about how awesome she is, so I posted a picture of the cake on Facebook.

Another friend of ours asked Jen, "where do you find the time?"

I hear that phrase a lot.

I think I probably use it a lot too.

But I haven't really thought much about it.

This time I did.  

We all spend our time in ways that matter to us.

Very few people have lots of time on their hands.

Except for the independently wealthy types, with servants and chauffeurs and all that, that are so far removed from my reality I won't even bother mentioning them.

For the rest of us, well, our time is pretty precious.

So why would I spend my time making fresh squeezed orange juice?

Or making home made hummus?

Why would Jen make a pear cake?

Each of those things can be bought at a store, right?
How do we find the time in our busy days to make things from scratch?
That's just it.
It isn't about finding the time.
It is about making the time.
We make time for the things that are important to us.

Perhaps home made food isn't important to you.
But I'm sure something else is.
Going to your kid's soccer game.
Not missing your favorite show, even if that means you dvr it and watch it the next night.
Giving hand made gifts for Christmas.
Going to the gym.


Whatever it is, we all spend our valuable time on the things we value.
One of those things for me, obviously, is making home made food.
Yes, part of it is about the taste.
I may sound like a food snob, but a home made cake most often beats a store bought one.
Even my 6 year old knows that.


It's also about knowing what is in my food and where it came from.
When I make my own hummus, I know just what goes into it.
There are no preservatives.
There is nothing I can't pronounce.
I like that.

But it is also about the experience.

From walking out to my orange trees and picking the fruit, to the act of rolling the oranges around on the counter to loosen up the juice, and then the squeezing of each orange in my old, red citrus press.

I love the way the kitchen fills with the strong, sweet smell of oranges.

I even love the way the sink fills up with the peels.

I love the color of the juice in the glass.

It glows.

It's beautiful.

It reminds me of being a little girl.

I loved making myself a glass of fresh squeezed juice then too.

I guess I have always been a romantic.

Sometimes, making home made food is just that.

Like the morning I made this juice.

The house was still quiet.

The sun was rising and I watched it through the kitchen window as I rolled, cut and squeezed.

It was calm and meditative and a perfectly lovely way to begin my day.

Handing my kids a glass of juice squeezed from our oranges feels pretty lovely too.

But sometimes making home made food is just more chaos.

Like the night before, when I was making hummus to go with our dinner.

And my 2 and 4 year old wanted to help.

I was in a hurry.

They were slowing me down.

That, however, is the other part of making home made food.

The experience part I mentioned before.

In the same way that I remember making myself a glass of fresh squeezed juice and enjoying it with my breakfast while I poured over Marion Cunningham's "The Breakfast Book," my kids will remember making hummus with me.

They will remember using a citrus reamer to add the fresh lemon juice.

They will remember that Mom always used kosher salt.

They will remember spending time with me there at the counter.

And that is important to me.

I make time for home made food because I like it.

I like to eat good food.

But also because it is one of the ways I am making memories with my kids.

It provides a place for us to talk and be together and to learn many different things.

It is a way for us to bring joy to others in the way Jen's cake brought us joy.

It is a way to show love.

And, it's fun.

Most of the time.

And that is why I bother.

Happy cooking!

Love from,

Greta

PS.  If you are a cookbook reader and a breakfast fan, that cookbook is a must.  It is on my list of cookbooks I'd like to own.  And not just for nostalgic reasons either.

The Post Christmas Detox

We all do it in January, right?

We pledge to eat healthy, join the gym, or use the gym membership we have, to walk everyday, stop drinking diet Coke, or whatever our weakness is.

We bemoan our holiday over indulgences and pledge to get back on track so we can look good by swimsuit weather.

Well, I won't be looking good by swimsuit season.  I will, in fact, be looking like a beached whale when I hit the sand with my kids.

I will be wearing a mumu, not a bathing suit.

But that doesn't mean I don't have other goals.

It doesn't mean I don't have some detoxing to do.

And while you may have only to recover from the month of December, I have to recover from October, November and December.

Yikes!

Right before I got pregnant this time, I finally lost the 10 pound I gained from the last pregnancy.

It is much harder to lose weight when you don't have a baby to nurse.   

The weight loss felt great.  I joined the gym and began embarrassing myself in aerobics classes and fit into some of my post William pants.  (I couldn't eat dairy for a year after William was born and it was the best weight loss tool I ever had.  Let's hear it for babies who can't digest milk!)

But in no time at all, those 10 pounds were back on my hips and then some.

You can read about my ridiculous first trimester weight gain here.

I know I am supposed to gain weight when I am pregnant.   

And to be honest, I am not horribly worried about the weight gain--I always lose it thanks to nursing and birthing 10 pound babies.  And I have never been one of those cute, skinny all over except for a baby bump, kind of pregnant ladies. 

Before I ever had babies, I had birthing hips!

Mostly I just felt unhealthy.

Like I couldn't eat much of anything besides buttered toast, cold cereal and Top Ramen for months.

Very few vegetables or well rounded meals passed my lips during that time.

My family suffered too.

I can't tell you how many times I served them burritos, or cereal for dinner.

Add weeks of Christmas treats to that and we were all ready for a detox of sorts.

I started with breakfast.

My kids had eaten bacon for breakfast 3 days in a row.  The grandmas love to spoil them with bacon.
So the day after Christmas, I whipped up smoothies for breakfast.


Almond milk (high in protein)
Frozen, wild blueberries (the color and the seeds are so good for you)
Banana (potassium for my leg cramps)
Strawberry Kefir (healthy bacteria)
Ground flax seed meal (more nutrients than if you leave the flax seeds whole)


They were delicious and the kids, like always, love them.
I finally felt like the mom I like  to be. (at least in the food department)


I also served baked oatmeal.

I know I have posted about baked oatmeal before.
Several times in fact.
But when something is a favorite, it bears repeating.
I added dried cranberries before baking.
They were plump and juicy when the oatmeal came out of the oven.


Don't get me wrong, bacon and pancakes are a great treat for breakfast, but we just can't do that everyday.  We're not working on the farm all day.
Starting the day with breakfast like that made me feel better, even mentally, than I had in months.
Feeding my family well is one of my favorite things to do.




Another goal of mine is to drink more water.

I never do drink enough.  Especially when I'm pregnant.
I crave orange juice, lemonade and chocolate milk when I am pregnant.
I can't get enough to drink, and it is never enough water.
Simple solution: adding citrus to my water from the plethora that fill our trees.
It helps the water go down easier.


And finally, I am working on dinners.

I can't even tell you how great it feels to want to cook again.

It's like I have been given a new lease on life.

3 months of hardly cooking a meal is a life time for me.

Frozen meals, boxed meals, quesadillas, and beans from a can do not count as cooking in my world.

So I've been reading my cookbooks again and planning menus.

I am mixing it up a bit by cooking more vegetarian.

It was Aaron's request.

I love vegetables far more than meat, so I was on board immediately.

It has been fun to try new recipes and figure out how we can get 3, 4 or 5 servings of vegetables in a meal some way other than salad.

Here is one of the first recipes I tired.

It's easy, because when you cook vegetarian, pasta is an easy place to start.

The recipe is: Pasta With Roasted Vegetables and Arugula

I love roasted vegetables, and I adore arugula, so it seemed like a winner.

You can find the recipe here but read my notes before you make it yourself.

Notes:

Roasting the garlic and tomatoes is essential.  It adds a depth of flavor you can't get otherwise.

Don't substitute onions for shallots.  The shallots have a milder flavor and are delicious when roasted.

Make sure the pasta is cooked al dente.  Otherwise it will get mushy when you add the veggies.

I didn't add olives because I was out and didn't want to make a separate trip.

I think you should add the olives.

Adding pasta water to the pasta and veggies as the recipe says, doesn't really make a sauce.

In fact, I still found the pasta kind of dry and boring.

I added 1/2 a cup of low fat, ricotta cheese and stirred it up in the pasta.  It added a nice finish to the dish.

Use arugula not spinach, and use more than they say.  It is so good.

Like most pasta dishes, this one tastes even better for lunch the next day.

Like I said, this was an easy one--not much of a stretch for me.

But last night I made Israeli cous cous with asparagus, roasted brussel sprouts and carrot ginger soup.  (don't know  Israeli cous cous?  here is one of my favorite ways to cook it)

And let me tell you, it was good!

Tonight I am making rice tacos.

Hopefully I'll be able to share some of my favorite new recipes here.

Like the carrot ginger soup.

Check back for it.

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!

Love from,

Greta

PS. Thought I knew how to get back to my old header and to fix it, but alas, I do not.

So please excuse my mess until my man gets home and he can fix things up around here for me.