I have very alturistic kids

The other day, Bryn and I were riding in the car. Out of nowhere, she says to me:

"I feel bad for the kids in Haiti. Don't you mom?"

"Yes," I said, trying not to smile. "What made you think of that?"

"I don't know," she said. "But I want to do something for them."

"OK. Like what?"

"I want to give them shoes, and toys, and things they don't have. Things they lost in the eart-cake."

"That is nice," I responded. "How will we get it to them?"

"Drive there. Duh!"

"But we can't drive there over the ocean. We have to take a boat or an airplane."

"Or a submarine! We could take a submarine and go under the water."

"Yep" I said. "That would work too."

"Oh, and we can see things like sharks and octopusses through the windows."

And then it was done.

We're now preparing our things, and we'll be boarding the submarine next week.

Yummy Halloween Cupcakes

Its a lazy Saturday afternoon. Nothing to do, other than watch college football. So, we decided to make cupcakes, lest you think, after that last post, that I'm super-duper healthy (I really only eat all that veggie soup, so I can justify dessert). Only, I didn't have a cake mix in the pantry. Luckily, allrecipes.com has always been a good stand-by for easy recipes. I picked this Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe - the very first one that came up with a search. I'm not much of a baker, but this one seemed pretty simple. The girls and I pulled out the mixer, and went to work - each girl adding ingredients one at a time (we have to take turns). I even had a healthy supply of Halloween cupcake wrappers from last year. Perfect.


The girls love to help dump the ingredients in (this is a very easy recipe). They also love to lick the bowl - maybe too much. Check out Bryn's eyes - those are CRAZY eyes! No doubt, made crazier by an overdose of sugar and chocolate. I hope this wasn't a mistake . . .

Also, notice how matchy/matchy my girl are. This was a total accident. I promise ;-)

The cupcakes go into the oven, and I had to cook them a couple minutes longer than the recipe called for. I don't know if that is because of the recipe itself, or just high altitude (I usually forget to adjust for this).

While the cupcakes are baking, I mixed up some cream cheese icing, dyed orange of course. I don't really have a recipe for this either (are you sensing a pattern yet??) But, its basically a bar of cream cheese (fat free of course), 1/2 a stick of real butter, a cap-full of vanilla, and powdered sugar. Oh, and food coloring of course. Of course.

Now its time to decorate! This is serious business. Notice the lack of CRAZY eyes?

The girls' cupcakes turned out very unique, and covered in candy. Ew. We'll be sharing the ones that mommy made (see top of page) because I can't be sure these are safe.

Note to self: orange frosting looks a little on the peachy side. Next time, more food coloring!

Vegetable soup

What do you do on a gray October day? You make soup, silly! Delicious, healthy, vegetable soup. Its not exactly vegetarian, because it does have chicken broth. But, it is only about 100 calories a bowl, and delish! I have actually been making it every Friday, and eating it all week. I'm kind of addicted, truth be told.

So, if you want to make some of this delish, addicting, veggie soup for yourself, here's what I do. I can't actually call it a "recipe", because that would imply that there is actually an order to my madness. But here's what I do:

Assemble the ingredients. I use an entire box of Pomi, and an entire box of chicken broth. The olive oil is to drizzle on the zucchini and squash, which will be roasted in the oven. I'll show you that part in the next picture.


I sliced up 4 zucchini and 4 small squash, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and the broil for about 10 minutes in the oven (or until the edges begin to turn brown).
Next, I chop 4 large carrots, a small head of cabbage, one medium onion, and some fresh green beans. Delish!
Then comes the hard part: dumping it all into the pot. I added a bit more salt and pepper, parsley, Italian seasoning, and celery salt. Heavy on the celery salt. Then, it simmers together for about 45 minutes (I like my carrots still pretty firm).

I tried adding some small shell pasta once, but didn't love it that way. I prefer it just all veggie! mmmmmm.