Red's Little Victory / Lori's Favorite Salad

A big shout out today to our little Red. Yesterday, he used the potty every single time. Yay!!!

Of course, the money he saved us in diapers he made up for in toilet paper. I don't mind, though, because I'm remembering when Biscuit started pottying, he would only use one square. Unpleasant. He's the conservative one in the family.

Now if we can just get Blondie on the bandwagon. She likes to do things on her own time.

OK, if you can stomach talking about food now, then I'm offering up my favorite salad of all times. If you could put together your 'dream ingredients' on a salad, what would they be?

Lori's Favorite Salad

fresh spinach
romaine lettuce
bibb lettuce
grilled chicken
feta cheese
cranberries
pine nuts
cucumber
red onion
balsamic vinaigrette

Mmmmm....

Painting Pink Noodles / Warm Peachy

The pink eye has subsided for now. In honor of its departure, we celebrated by painting things pink.

We like painting on random things in our house. The kids love painting dried pasta.

In fact, Blondie and I are considering starting our own jewelry line. So, who wants to buy a pink noodle necklace? We'll donate all proceeds to finding a cure for pink eye.

On sick days like these, it's temping to prop them on the couch with cookies, cake and Blue's Clues, and disregard all healthy eating principles. Consider this treat as an alternative...

(We're eating frozen peaches now because cheap, fresh fruit is slim pickins these days. Substitute fresh peaches in the summer months)

Warm Peachy

frozen peaches
granola
cinnamon
low-fat vanilla ice cream

In an oven-safe bowl, bake thawed peaches topped with a dash of cinnamon and granola at 350 degrees until bubbly. Serve with ice cream. This will make any booboo better.

Holed Up Today / Kid Pizza Night

Pink eye.

On a child with any tint at all to their skin, pink eye means pinkish-coloring, swelling, and the crusty stuff. On a child like my Red, with pale skin and red hair, pink eye means a total transformation from sweet little red-headed child to a creature from Lord of the Rings.

Bless his heart.

I didn't have to tell my other children to keep their distance. They were already on the other side of the room.

This morning, Red noticed the lawn service guy out in our yard, and in the process of watching him, Red discovered the joy of drawing on windows after you've breathed on them.

Which is fine, but when the lawn service guy caught me breathing on the window, it was a little embarrassing. After that, I made an exaggerated effort to make clear what what going on, drawing shape after shape after shape, but of course, I'm sure he never glanced in that direction again. Kind of like when you scoot a chair back, and it makes a toot-resembling sound, so you keep scooting the chair, so everyone knows in fact, it was the chair. Whatever.

Anyway, we're holed up today, and I'm thinking it's kid pizza night tonight. We usually grab a whole wheat ready-made crust, combine canned fire roasted tomatoes and a little red sauce to spread on top, add shredded mozzarella cheese, then let the kids go wild with toppings. They pick a spot on the pizza and add toppings like peppers, mushrooms, feta, turkey pepperoni, olives, tomatoes, and onions.

Fun for them, easy for me!

You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

Welcome, Rocks in my Dryer readers! Not a reader yet? You should be! Shannon hosts a link-fest every Wednesday where bloggers share things that, well, work for them. Works-for-me Wednesday

Does your little one eat lunch at school? Most schools provide a lunch menu to keep you informed, but how do you know they're not on a daily diet of nothing but corn and chocolate milk? Or chicken nuggets, ketchup, ketchup, and more ketchup?

Well, you ask them, right?

And the answer to the "What did you have for lunch?" question will come back as a shoulder shrug, a barely audible "I dunno," or just a frustratingly consistent case of lunchtime memory loss.

My advice, which you know is definitely just two cents worth, is to keep asking. Not in a pushy, shoulders-up-against-the-wall kind of way, but in a I'm-interested-in-what-you're-eating-because-it's-important kind of way.

If showing interest and asking questions doesn't inspire your kid to report on lunch, try these...

1. Threaten to install a video camera in the lunchroom.
2. Threaten to pay a teacher to report on what they eat, and any other interesting information they pick up.
3. Threaten to call and ask the boy whose name she doodled exactly what she ate for lunch.

Hey, you know I'm here to help. Your kids can thank me later.

Kidding aside, I truly believe it is worth the annoyed looks and eye rolls to consistently communicate with kids what they're eating. Use the conversations as teaching moments, and if you need help on what to teach them about healty eating, call your Pediatrician right now and ask the office to mail you any information they have.

I wanted to give you a few shots of Biscuit giving a good ol' fashioned shrug and eyeroll, but this is as close as we got...

Nothing but giggles after this...

Dinner with Tow Mater / Mayoless Tuna Salad

An interesting post by Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer got me thinking about the kids' manners today. I suppose it's that time of year when parents of America feel the pressure to cram a year's worth of manner lessons into a few weeks, all in anticipation of the large, expanded family holiday dinners to come.

As I served little Biscuit, Red and Blondie their chicken and sweet potato fries this evening, it occurred to me that the current state of manners in the SuperNoots house is somewhere close to abysmal.

I realized I was dining with three Larry the Cable Guys.
(No offense, Larry. I loved you as Tow Mater).

TDH is not a whole lot of help in this area. It's humanly impossible for one male to frown upon another male's burps or toots. Just is.

No segwe seems to be flowing naturally into a food tip or recipe, so I'll just jump right in here and offer up a lunch favorite of mine via Ali at Healthy Hostess. It's a Mayoless Tuna Salad, which I either eat with crackers or in a flat-out wrap. I never thought to substitute hummus in place of mayo, but it really works!

Grumpy Grumpersons / Whole Wheat Pancakes

Waking up with a cheerful disposition has never been a strong suit for Red and Blondie.


In their defense, they got off to a rough start. From day 1, one twin or the other would inevitably wake to a punch in the mouth, a small foot inserted into a rib cage, or a piercing scream that could jump start your car, much less wake someone sleeping next to you.


Here are the Grumpy Grumpersons waking up from a nap.

We. keep. our. distance.

In the meantime, TDH or I will fix breakfast, just the way they like it.

TDH loves making pancakes for the kids, a Saturday morning routine. We've been using this recipe for whole wheat pancakes. A good healthy tip is to use 100% maple syrup. It's richer, so you don't need as much, and any food in it's original state is a good thing. Also, consider sweetening with fresh fruit, like strawberries, blueberries or bananas. Enjoy!!

The Indy Kids go to Work / Light Hummingbird Cake

Several weeks ago, the SuperNoots household was blessed to host our amazing friends, The Indy's, for the weekend. Words just can't describe how much we enjoy their yearly visit, and this year was no exception. Here they are. Aren't they cute? Dont' they just look sweet?

Our weekend consisted of eating, shopping, eating, going to a movie, eating, playing, eating, going to the UT/Alabama game, eating, working, and did I mention eating?

Now, I mentioned working because the Indy kids were unwittingly lured into making SuperNoots magnets. It truly started off as an innocent attempt on my part to show them how cool it was to make a magnet, but after showing them how it was done, they made it their personal mission to help me out.

So, if you order a SuperNoots chart within the next week or two, there's a good chance your magnets were made by the Indy kids (self-named G-Man and Dancing Queen for this blog). I'm sure child labor laws have been violated here, but I assure you they were treated well, given breaks, and did I mention there was lots of eating at my house?


Red shows G-Man how it's done.

Blondie and Biscuit assist G-Man and the Dancing Queen.

Part of the weekend's eating involved my favorite cake recipe, Lightened Humingbird Cake from Southern Living. I mean, delicious, folks. The unsweetened applesauce works to keep this cake moist for days. Yum.

Later on, I used the cream cheese frosting recipe to fill strawberries for my neighborhood bunco. This was a huge hit!!

Halloween pics

Just getting around to posting pictures!

May I present...

Biscuit, the race car driver (a little unsatisfied that a Tony Stewart uniform was not available)

Red, the disgruntled chef

Blondie, the 50's dancer