Mom...I'm Hungry!

It generally takes me a week or so after school is out to re-acclimate myself to my old life of being a stay at home Mom.  By that I mean a mom that works in the home.  I did it for years and as much as I love my job I truly miss it.  I didn't sleep in (hello...I had small children) I got an early start to my day, got the housework done, errands run, activities completed and we had our afternoons free to do as we pleased.

Now that I work outside of the home, I feel like there is so much to squeeze in on my time off that I really start to dread it a little.  So a few years ago I decided that the first week I would get "my house in order" so to speak, get appointments out of the way, get cleaned up and organized so that I can enjoy the time off and the days with my kids.

For me, this works.  Over the years I have learned to stream line my life (a little) and really weed out what I do and don't need, how and what I need to spend my time doing and keeping a healthy circle of friends and support around me.  Not to intentionally try to sound shallow....but I have a little mental list of :
                                                   Things That NO Longer Matter
that runs in my head all of the time.  This list includes: keeping my house perfectly tidy at all times, I CAN have a few dirty dishes in the sink when I go to bed, my kids CAN pick out their own clothes even if they look ridiculous, I need to stop worrying if I have upset someone before I take in to account how they make me feel, stop OVER apologizing, etc.  Bottom line is I have had to let a lot of things go, forever.  I am a much happier person for it.  Every once in a while you have to trim the branches of your tree, meaning if something is causing you great stress and/or anxiety then...SNIP!

Back to the food......

One thing I had to get accustomed to again this week is the feeling that my kids are ALWAYS hungry and no sooner than I clean up breakfast I am hearing their stomachs growling for lunch.  Sometimes we eat before my oldest son's 7:30 AM swim practice so we eat an early lunch...sometimes we just have a big late breakfast.  Ah, the glory of having no set schedule.  Eat when you want!

So this is something that I can make them and get their veggies in PLUS I like it, too!  I make a lot of omelets for the Boys (I don't eat eggs) so it is a double bonus when I can make a lunch I can get 2 days out of and I would actually serve this to guests that come over for a play date!

I am on a quest to purge my kids need to have meat with every meal.  I would say, on the whole, we consume less meat than even the average family.  What we DO eat comes from local producers 80% of the time so I can KNOW where it slept, lived and what it was fed.  There are SO many producers in my area it isn't hard to find a good one. I think it is attainable to make small changes for big outcomes.  I have given up meat before and I always seem to bring it back in small doses. Like eggs, I cook a lot of meat but I don't always eat it.  It is not just a humane choice but also for me a choice about my health.  I can't control what my kids are fed when they are not with me, I can only hope those that know me can respect how I feed my kids:)

Let me say though that I do eat some meat.  Not much but some.  I don't want to sound like a hypocrite here.  I had to make BIG health changes over the last year and a half so drastically cutting back my animal proteins was one of them.  It is not as expensive as you may think and there is a lot of really good products sold at my local groceries (Hampton's Market for example).

Orzo with Fresh Vegetables, Lemon and Feta

1 box of Orzo pasta
1 bag of fresh broccoli medley (cut up the really large pieces so they are bite size)
Juice of 1 lemon
dried basil & oregano (to taste, I used a tablespoon of each)
1 box of Feta cheese
salt/pepper
1 can of vegetable broth/stock
olive oil
Cook orzo in a large pot according to package directions.  What I do is add the orzo, add the can of vegetable broth then add a little water just to the top of the orzo.  Boil for 8 minutes then in the last minute add the vegetables that you have cut up.

When orzo is done remove from heat and add to a large bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil, add the juice, salt, pepper, basil and oregano.  Allow to cool for a few minutes then add the feta.  I like to serve this at room temperature with a dish of fruit (which is what we did today).