organic snacks | SemiCrunchySAHMlife's Blog

Today, I feel accomplished…the house is still messy, but for me I got what I wanted done! That makes me happy!

For the last two days I have been washing and sorting all of my children’s clothes that they have outgrown. Boy oh boy! It was a lot! When sorting thru the clothes you go through a ton of emotions…The first feeling I felt was overwhelmed, because I had to wash everything. Then I felt happiness, to know that my son and daughter were loved, because a lot of the clothes were gifts. Next emotion was sad, but a happy sad. I know strange right?! Well let me explain. I started with my son’s clothes. I found his very first outfit. This made me sad that he was in the NICU for a week, and then sad that he couldn’t wear it anymore because it’s so darn cute. Then I saw his first Christmas outfit…etc. The clothes all brought back happy memories, it just made me sad to realize that time are flying. Then I felt, shocked. I can’t believe that my daughter who is almost 8 months old already has a bag full of clothes that don’t fit. She is growing so fast! She’s rocking 12-18m clothes… I sorted the clothes by size and then began putting them into bags, until I can get those plastic bins. While sorting I decided to take some of the clothes and sell/donate them. A little extra cash to help buy more clothes for my ever-growing children! I am not getting rid of anything yet…Then I felt happiness and accomplishment!

The kiddies had settled down for their afternoon nap! Yes, together at the same time… it was FANTASTIC! I was able to eat lunch and make my Veggie Lasagna! I love my veggie lasagna…I think I’m a little bias…but it’s really freakin’ good! I’ll put my recipe at the end of post.

I was also able to clean up some toys…sometimes I wonder why I even do that during the day… I mean really my children are going to wake from their nap and just do it all again?!…haha

Then the children woke up from their naps and it was snack time…my son is a bottomless pit and my daughter just wanted to nurse! That’s easy.

Today was election day…so once my hubby came home from work, we rode our bikes and voted! Came home and had a nice family dinner!

Civic Duty Done

Now it’s bath time and putting the babies to bed…Maybe, just maybe mommy and daddy can watch a movie!

Till Next Time!

Here is my recipe!

Ingredients: (I try my hardest to get organic everything, but sometimes the budget that week changes things)

1-box of Lasagna Noodles (I usually by organic whole wheat)

1-qt size container of sauce (I make my own, using organic tomatoes, and store in quart size Tupperware)

1- Organic White Onion

¼ lb of Organic Portobello Mushrooms

3-Organic Yellow Squash (depending on size-they were a little tiny this time around)

1-Bag of Organic baby Spinach

1-Bag of Organic Mozzarella Cheese

1-Container of Organic Ricotta Cheese

Directions:

Begin by boiling 4-6qts of water. I salt and oil mine (flavor and helps with the noodles not sticking). While water is heating up to a boil begin cutting your veggies. I julienne the onions, cut the squash in little disks, and use a mandolin for the mushrooms. I don’t do anything to the baby spinach.

Once all veggies are cut I sauté the veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper(I sometimes add garlic and basil). I sauté the harder of the veggies first, that way by the end all are soft. Mushrooms, to get water out, then squash, then add onions. At the very end I add the spinach to the pan.

Squash, mushrooms, onion, spinach. also my sauce newly defrosted and warmed up

The water should be boiling now. I add the lasagna noodles and follow the instructions on the noodles package. Usually about 9-10 minutes. Once the noodles are done, I strain and rinse with cold water (so I can manipulate noodles to pan-otherwise they are too hot (I think that it also helps then not stick together). Pre-heat oven to 350.

Roaring Boil of Noodles

Lightly Sauced Pan

Then I grab my pan and begin the process of layering. First I place a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Then lay out the noodles, a little more sauce, veggies, ricotta, mozzarella, sauce, noodles. I repeat this until I run out of ingredients or room in my pan. Making sure to always put mozzarella on the top, that way it melts nicely and then browns a bit.

Once that’s all done, I place in the oven with foil so the mozzarella on top doesn’t burn. I bake it for 30 minutes. I usually do this a few hours before my husband gets home from work. Then when he gets home and it’s time for dinner, we just have to heat it up. During the last 10 minutes of heating up I remove foil to brown the cheese.

Mozarella Topped Lasagna

Nice Layers!

Yet again! It came out fantastic! I hope if you decide to make, it turns out just perfect for you too!

So, I’m back!

This weekend’s camping trip was phenomenal! This trip is so my husband and I! It was definitely the best way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary!

Camping is such a great way to appreciate nature! Especially, where we were… Barely any cell reception! It really is nice to step away and be disconnected from technology and connected to Mother Earth!

While we were getting ready to get on the road… We hit a couple, actually a lot of speed bumps before we were actually on our way (potty trips, crying infant, broken rented pop-up…etc). Finally, got the car loaded with 2 dogs, two kids, and 2 adults. We were able to make the best of the situation… Thank goodness!

Luckily, the trip up to the mountains is only 3 hours! I chose to ride in the back with the babies… This way I could maybe help If they decided to not like the ride… Key word maybe! Of course a little ways into the trip Ethan began “Can I have a snack?”(repeating this 20 times-like any 2 year old). Did mommy remember to keep Ethan’s snack and juice in the car?…NO! I don’t know what I was thinking. I went out and even got the special organic lollipops he loves and only gets once in a while… Oh well! What can one do?!… Make a pitstop!

Mommy and daddy got a nice glass of wine and Ethan got to snack and frolic in the grapes! Plus, awesome fall weather! Afton Mountain Vineyards has a great slogan “grapes don’t drop in ugly places”… Man, were they right! This vineyard is picturesque… I bet it looks amazing during every season!

So, after some lunch, we were on our way again! This time, snacks in the car… Not the camper! Thanks to our previous stop the children were tuckered out!

We got to the campsite just before dark… This made setting up a bit difficult, of course hitting more speed bumps… But that’s ok! We got it done! Had a late dinner and decided just to go to bed! Fresh start tomorrow!

Lesson learned here: even with all the speed bumps before the trip…stay positive (easier said than done, for sure) and work through it! If we didn’t, this whole trip could have gone up in flames… Instead, it was one of the greatest!

If we weren’t able to stay positive, then I don’t think we would have been motivated to enjoy all the things we did and wanted to do!

Definitely, the best way to celebrate being together for 12 years, our 5 year wedding anniversary, and pass on the appreciation of nature to our children!

Till next time! Thanks for reading! Hope you are enjoying reading… Still finding my groove! Just wanted to let you know I appreciate you reading what I have to say!

Side note on cloth hiney: Unfortunately, while camping I don’t cloth diaper… We have tried multiple times before this… Disposable, flip and grovia compostable inserts (not good for overnight), full on cloth; It just never worked out… The diapers wine up getting too funky… Or I run out. So, we buy disposables… Ugh! it hurts me to write that….

*Here is the vineyard info for anyone interested…Afton Mountain Brewery-http://www.aftonmountainvineyards.com

**these statements are mine.