Brooke

This is my sister Brooke.

She has amazing style, she is creative, daring, and beautiful!

Since she is my fashion inspiration, I thought I would show you what she wore this week:

Brooke is at school at BYU Hawaii, so hopefully her wardrobe will give you a little inspiration for spring :)

shirt- thrifted

(inspiration for the shirt here or here both well over $100 and i got mine for like $2 :))

belt- thrifted

shorts- thrifted

ring- Tracy Couture

earrings- love stitched

Brooke was asked to model this outfit in a photoshoot for the Kahuku Grill.

http://pinterest.com/kahukugrill/

Thanks for being my inspiration Brookie!  I love you!

Veggie Pizza Recipe

This is one of our favorite recipes...esp. in the summer when I have all the veggies from my garden.  I like we can change it depending on what we have on hand.  My kids like to help make it and it's pretty easy :)

Pizza Crust:
2 1/4 tsp. (1 pkg.) dry active yeast
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 1/3 cups flour

-Dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in water and let it rest for 10 minutes.
-Stir in salt and oil, then mix in the flour.
-Knead the dough until no longer sticky, then let it rise for an hour
-After an hour, punch the dough down and roll it out into 2 pizza crusts.
-This recipe also works well for calzones

Sauce:
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp. fresh chopped basil
2 cloves garlic
Salt to taste

Once you roll the crust out, put some sauce on it.  Then just top it with whatever veggies you want.  We used spinach, mushrooms, bell pepper, and olives.  Then I sprinkled it with fresh mozzarella and freshly grated Romano.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.

How to get kids to eat healthy

I try really hard make sure that my kids eat healthy.

I doesn't always work, but we make conscious effort.

Here are some ideas that work for us.

I know they won't work for every kid, (they don't always work for mine either) but it's worth a try get your used to healthy eating habits.

 (Dalton eating a bell pepper)

1.  Make sure to feed your kids a wide variety of food from the time they are little.  
From the time my kids can eat solid food, I feed them a wide variety of flavors.  I always try to incorporate international options into my menu.  We eat Brazilian beans and rice and talk about life in Brazil.  We Thai food, Indian food, Italian food, Mexican food, seafood, and lots of fresh fruits and veggies.  We usually feed the baby the same thing that we are eating and get him used to new flavors.  We love exotic fruits and fresh berries.

 (Saxon's lunch)

2.  Make healthy options the norm.
We have always had whole grain bread and we always try to avoid "instant" and processed foods.  Of course, we always make exceptions, but for the most part my kids are used to eating healthy.  They are never surprised to find raw fruits and veggies on their plate, and they don't even know what white bread is.

 (The apples that Bridger picked from the orchard)

3.  Grow your own.
There is something exciting about growing your own food.  We plant a garden every spring, and my kids have to walk down every day to help me take care of it.  Once everything starts to grow, I let them sample different flavors and textures straight from the garden.  Dalton loved to eat cherry tomatoes right out of the garden, Bridger always picked the cucumbers, and Saxon likes to pick different herbs and taste and smell them.  My kids seem to feel an ownership over the things that they grow and it makes them more willing to try. 
Even if you can't grow your own, try to go to local farms or farmer's markets.  Bridger and I went to a local orchard and picked our own apples.  We had to pay for them, but it was fairly cheap and worth it for the fun experience.

4.  Rename it.
Big food companies are famous for this!  My kids will eat anything as long as it has a Star Wars character on it.  I took my kids to get smoothies the other day and I picked a green smoothie for them called "Iron Strong."  They were skeptical that it was green and asked me what flavor it was.  I accidentally said "Iron Man" instead of "Iron Strong" and they were sold on it.  Now, when we make green smoothies at home, we make sure to call them "Iron Man Smoothies."
We also cut sandwiches and quesadillas with cookie cutters into fun shapes so that they can have star shaped sandwiches or pac-man shaped quesadillas.

5.  Make it sound like a treat.
Bridger loves broccoli.  When we go to the store, I tell him that if he's really good, I'll let him pick out a head of broccoli.  Then we make a special dinner with broccoli.  We try to find lots of reasons to reward Bridger with broccoli :)  Dalton loves broccoli, but not Saxon.  Saxon loves carrots.

 6.  Make it a game.
My boys favorite game is to pretend that the veggies instantly make them stronger.  They want Nate and I to watch as they chew, and as soon as they swallow, we pretend to be stunned by how big their muscles are!  Dalton likes the traditional "Here comes the airplane!" game.  Sometimes we race too.  The first one to finish their veggies wins!


7.  Let them help.
My kids all have their own aprons and cooking utensils and like to help.  When they help prepare a meal, they are more likely to try it.   Sometimes I will even let them go through a recipe book and choose.  Then they get to help make the meal.  It's a win-win situation for everyone because the kids learn something new, they get to spend one on one time with me, and they are more likely to eat healthy foods if they chose to.

8.  Disguise it.
I'm actually not very inventive with this one, but I there are several popular books out there with ideas about how to disguise healthy foods into your everyday meals.  A few of my favorites are adding shredded carrots or steamed spinach to meals.  They cook down really well and become soft and undetectable.  They also have mild flavors so they don't ruin a dish by including it.


9.  Dip it.
I really think my kids will eat anything as long as they can dip in in ranch.  I can give them a bowl of raw spinach to eat as long as it has ranch.  They will eat most raw veggies, or even veggie quesadillas.   They love dipping apples and celery in peanut butter and fruit in yogurt.


10. Choose the healthier option.
Almost everything has a healthier option.  If you need sour cream, choose light.  If you need cereal, choose low sugar with whole grain.  Don't be fooled though.  A lot of things make claims that are deceiving.  Read the labels.  For example, Bridger was begging for chips the other day.  I agreed, but wanted to pick the best option.  The low-fat version had 8 grams of fat per serving as opposed to the 14 in the full fat version.  However, the multi-grain version (that did not say low-fat) also had only 8 grams of fat.  So we picked mulitgrain because it had less fat and whole grains.  I know that chips aren't healthy, but we're talking about choosing the healthier option. 
I also try to cook from scratch a lot so that I know exactly what is going into our food.  It's a little scary to read the ingredients label and not recognize anything in it other than "spices" or "artificial flavors".  What is that anyway?

Most of all, have fun and experiment!!

Our quest to eat healthy has been really fun for our family.  We've tried new things and learned a lot.  Not everything always works.  Sometimes something works once and not the next time, or the other way around.  All kids are different so you need to find what works for your children and your family.

Love Stitched Winner

I finally picked a winner for the Love Stitched Giveaway!

Sorry for the delay on it...I had a few computer issues.

The winner is:

Shannau

Congratulations!  Make sure to email me for instructions on how to claim your prize.

(You have 72 hours to email me and claim your prize)

Thank you so much to everyone who entered!!!

 

Instant Waves

I keep seeing tutorials on pinterest for instant waves and decided to try it out.

I was taking the pictures myself while trying to braid my hair and the camera was freaking out and wouldn't let me turn the flash off.  So, sorry about the pictures.

First, start with clean, dry, hair...

*Or maybe a little hair spray or mousse to give it some hold.

Then braid your hair into 5-10 loose braids.

*Some advice:  you should curl the ends of your hair first so that you don't get the straight pieces at the bottom.

Then run your flat iron over each braid.

Spray lightly with hairspray and let each braid cool.

*I found that I had to run the flat iron over each braid a lot and very slowly otherwise the whole braid didn't get warm enough to hold the waves.

Then just undo each braid.  That's it!

As you can see, mine does look like I slept in braids, but it looks nothing like the pinterest picture.  I think I should have curled the ends first, and maybe only done about 4 braids instead of 9.  My waves were so small it looked like I crimped my hair.

My hair is really straight though, so maybe this would have worked better on someone with some natural wave to their hair.

Has anyone else ever tried this?  Did it work for you?  Maybe there is some secret that I'm missing.  I'm going to have to keep trying :)

What I Wore...Vintage

Brittany gave me this cute vintage dress (maybe just "vintage-inspired"...I'm not sure...)

But either way, I love it and this is what I wore out to dinner on Valentine's Day:

I also tried waving my hair by braiding it and running a flat iron over it (pinterest idea)

I'll tell you how it went tomorrow...

Dress - Vintage

Leggings - Charlotte Russe

Undershirt - Shade

Shoes - Steve Madden

For Valentine's Day, we went to get Thai food with our kids :)

One of my neighbors was at the same restaurant and invited my kids to sit at her table.

So it turned out like a date for me and Nate :)

It was so fun!

What did you do for Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day Cupckes

I got this amazing new Wendy Paul cupcake cookbook from Brittany for Christmas.

It has tons of yummy, unique flavors, and the best part is...

they can all be made in 10 minutes.

Everything I've made so far has been a HUGE success!!!

As I was browsing through the recipes trying to get some inspiration for Valentine's Day, I stumbled up  

Twilight Themed Cupcakes.

Perfect!!!

To my non-Twilight-loving-neighbors, it will look like Red Velvet Cake and Dark Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes.

However, my Twilight-loving-neighbors will recognize their Valentine's Cupcakes as:

Team Edward, and Team Jacob Cupcakes.

TEAM EDWARD CUPCAKES (via)

AKA: Valentine's Day Red Velvet Cake

I altered her recipe a little bit, and this is what I did:

Easy Red Velvet Cake
1 box of Betty Crocker Red Velvet Cake Mix
3 large eggs
1 cup of sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

-mix together, scoop into cupcake liners, and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

TEAM JACOB CUPCAKES (via)

AKA: Dark Chocolate Valentine's Day cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Once again, I changed the recipe a little, and this is what I did:

Easy Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
1 box of Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract

-mix together, scoop into cupcake liners, and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

Easy Chocolate Ganache:
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream


-melt together and dip the tops of the cooled cupcakes in it.  Then sprinkle with dark chocolate shavings.

Happy Baking

and

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Valentines

Did anyone else spend all weekend making Valentines?

This cute little face may look like he was happily cooperating with writing his name on 24 THOR Valentines...but don't be fooled.

It was an all day battle to get this project done...

He wanted THOR Valentines, for his class, but also wanted candy.

Which left us writing his name on two dozen THOR Valentine's cards and taping them to two dozen packs of Fun Dip.

His name started off looking like this:

But when left to his own devises 

(while I cleaned up 1000 lego pieces off the carpet),

the majority of the Valentine's looked more like this:

I give up.  I taped them all on looking like that and called it a night.

How was your weekend?