Soundtrack to cook to: The B52's Cosmic Thing. This album brings me back to being little and dancing around in the basement with my sister to songs that I did not understand the lyrics to, but knew all of them by heart. A GREAT dance album!
Ok. I'm going to start off with an amazing salad, because it really is THAT incredible. It's delicious and super healthy. It's the perfect combination between a slaw and a chopped salad. Before we get into the cute kid pictures, let's jump into today's recipe and gobble it up!
Ingredients:
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 orange
- 4-5 green onions, sliced
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 4 slices cooked turkey bacon, chopped into small pieces
- 4 dozen brussels sprouts
- 1 cup almonds, chopped
- 1/2 cup grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
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| Squeeze the juice of the lemon and orange into a large bowl with the sliced green onions. |
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| Pour the oil into the bowl in a steady stream, while whisking the juice mixture to form an emulsion. Season with salt and pepper. |
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| Chop up the 4 slices of cooked turkey bacon into small pieces. |
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| Instead of using a mandolin, I employed the help of our 3 year old and a food processor. Alex LOVED putting the brussels sprouts in the food processor. Since he helped make the salad, he was super invested in eating it, as well!! (And all of the brussels sprouts were shredded in no time!) Double bonus!! |
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| He was SO proud of himself! We got him a step stool from Ikea that he refers to as "Mr. Steppy Stool." He loves to get it out and help me cook in the kitchen. He's getting to be pretty good! :) I love having a little sous chef. |
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| The brussels sprouts after they have been put through the grater attachment of the food processor. (In the same bowl as the vinaigrette.) |
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| With the brussels sprouts and vinaigrette, place in the turkey bacon, cheese, and almonds (I didn't have almonds, so I used chopped pecans). |
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| Mix it together and serve! There's no cooking (other than the bacon) involved and it really is a fantastic salad. I served it alongside some grilled fish but it could also go nicely with burgers and hot dogs. It's really versatile, stores well, and is super delicious. I never thought I would enjoy raw brussels sprouts so much! |
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| The boys, in a rare moment where neither of them were screaming (out of joy or annoyance...their volume level is always set to 11). |
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| They look like I caught them in the middle of hatching an evil genius plan. :) |
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| William Billiam :) |
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| He's getting ready to take out the entire contents of that cabinet. Who needs toys when you have pots, pans, and measuring cups? |
So of course, the next morning, Alex wanted "Toads on toast" for breakfast. Here's our little guy with the breakfast concoction. :)
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| Alex, getting ready to eat "toads on toast." |
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| Our smiley William, ready to go outside and play. |
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| After playing outside in the cold, I turned on the fireplace, gave the boys some hot chocolate (or in William's case, lukewarm). We snuggled up together and enjoyed our hot cocoa while watching the fire. |
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| Our happy boys with their rosy cheeks. |
So, I had the boys do that, then let the paint dry, and cut the paper into heart shapes. Then, we strung the hearts together and made a garland to hang in our dining room. We had enough hearts left over to decorate the rest of the kitchen, as well. :)
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| Alex, stamping the paper with hearts. |
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| William attempted to do this as well, but ended up just smearing the paint with his hands. |
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| Alex with his finished product. |
On Valentine's Day, I was in a super festive mood, and decided to make a heart-shaped carrot cake for the men in my life. I used this low calorie recipe: Carrot cake. (Instead of using 1/2 cup of oil, I used 1/2 cup of applesauce (for a total of 1 1/2 cups applesauce), and instead of 2 cups of sugar, I used 1 cup and it was just as good!)
This recipe was enough to make one square pan and one round pan. Here's how I formed the cake:
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| Place the square cake on a foiled cookie sheet so that it looks like a diamond. |
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| Cut the round cake directly in half. |
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| Place both halves on the top portions of the diamond to make the heart shape. |
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| Ice the cake and decorate to your liking! I only had a small amount of frosting, so I had to get creative. Everybody enjoyed the special cake! (Yes, even Oscar. He has a huge sweet tooth.) :) |
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| My sister visited for a little bit on Valentine's Day. Here she is, holding William. |
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| Snuggle kiss time! |
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| I also decided to make a "heart pizza" for us for dinner that evening. I couldn't quite shape the dough into a point at the end, so it really just looked like a rectangle with a divot. :) |
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| After the boys woke up from their nap, I laid out their Valentine's Day surprises. They got Ninja Turtle bubbles, light sabers with M&Ms inside them, giant chocolate kisses, and some coloring kits. Joseph and the boys got me some beautiful red roses :) Lots of love up in this house! |
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| Alex and William, celebrating Valentine's Day! |
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| Awww! Hugs! :) |
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| Alex exchanged valentines with his friends at school. He loved looking through all of them and "reading" them. I remember doing that as a kid. Such fun times! |
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| Alex and Kristen on Valentine's Day. |
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| Alex was super excited about his Ninja Turtle bubbles. (Which is funny because we've never shown him the show at home, nor have we talked about them. I blame this entirely on his friends at school.) |
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| Alex and William, goofing around. |
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| It looks like William is ready to say, "Ole!" |
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| Too bad William was absolutely TERRIFIED of his first ride. He was not comfortable in it at all. |
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| The boys were mesmerized by Chuck E. Cheese. |
Here's the boys dancing to the Chuck E. Cheese band.
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| Alex LOVED playing the games and William enjoyed watching Alex play. |
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| William enjoyed riding this ride because Alex rode it with him. :) |
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| The boys had a field day with the packing materials. |
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| Alex then turned them into very large slippers. He says that he was being a robot. |
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| William loves to smile for the camera. |
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| I love his little squishy face! |
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| As you can tell, my sister loves dressing William and Alex up in her hat and glasses. (They love it, too.) |
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| William is showing off his hipster chic look while holding the very latest in tissue boxes and magic wands. This look was on all the catwalks during fashion week. |
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| He loves the camera. :) |
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| 6th row seats!! Boo yah! |
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| Joseph, feeding William some snacks while Alex watched the show. |
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| Look at our cheeky little guy! |
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| Me and the boys at Disney on Ice. |
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| William and Alex at the show. |
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| Joseph and Alex at Disney on Ice. |
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| While playing in our living room, William always loves to toddle over to the kitchen and take out his and Alex's lunch bags. He then proceeds to hang them on his arms and march around the house. He's a really funny kid. |
Alex being silly
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| It's so funny what kids pick up while you don't think they're watching. William was playing in his play kitchen, got a cup and held it under the water dispenser section of the refrigerator. He made a "shhhhhh" sound while he had the cup underneath to collect some imaginary water. Too funny! |
Love and kisses,
Nikki
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