25 February 2016

A midweek motley

Blogging. I haven't been keeping up well lately, at all. But words are going on a page today one way or another, and if they don't all quite go together? Well, I did just use "motley" as a noun.

What we're doing

Soaking up sunshine—it's been warm enough all week that opening the window shades doesn't suck all of the warm air out of the house! I am loving having the living room lit up with sunlight instead of electric lights all day long again.


Little Bear has been working on his reading, and as long as I check for consonant blends ("th," "ng," etc) he's doing well with me picking out random short-vowel words as we're reading stories and asking him to tell me what they say.

Kit is happily rolling from back to stomach to back to stomach to back... all the way over to whatever her brother is playing with, where she grabs his toy away and then smiles at him, waiting to be praised for her rolling.

What we're eating

Still dairy-free and soy-free, plus meatless on Wednesdays as well as Fridays right now. I try not to take away all of Matt and Little Bear's dairy just because Kit and I can't have it, which leads to suppers like this taco pizza that only have cheese on one side, or two separate batches of oatmeal (with/out milk), scrambled eggs (with/out cheese), etc. 

Do you know that there's soy in canned tuna? Soy. In canned tuna. It's in everything!

Ahem.

And then there's "fake cake," 90-second cake in a mug. That's been a thing for how long now? But I'd never done it, because putting dry ingredients + oil + (almond)milk in the microwave and having them spontaneously manifest a mug full of chocolate cake? Ridiculousness. How could that possibly work? It would surely be like one of those silly "two-ingredient homemade apple pie in the microwave" recipes that have little to nothing in common with the deliciousness they're named for. 

But... it's not like that. It works. Who enchanted my microwave? Not that I'm complaining about having an enchanted cake-producing microwave, mind. But seriously, how did this happen because I do not understand and it is boggling my mind. The crumb was perfect, the upper crust firm, the whole thing moist and rich and delicious and decidedly unLenten. I may be making myself a microwave-mug-cake for Matt's birthday, so that I can make his requested brownies for him without any funny nondairy substitutions.

What we're reading

Little Bear keeps requesting this month's issue of Ladybug magazine and Leo Landry's Space Boy, a bedtime story of a young astronaut who travels to the moon for some quiet but realizes that even with the noise, it's better back home with his family.

Kit eats any book she can get her hands on.

I keep trying to read Theresa Tomeo's Extreme Makeover, which I'm very sure is excellent, but reading a paper book is so unreasonably difficult these days. I knead bread with a baby in one arm; having two hands free to hold a book and turn the pages would be a rare moment of leisure indeed. Reading one-handed on my phone while Kit nurses, though, works fine. A few of my favorite finds this week:

King Arthur in the Lives of the Saints


Buttons, lard, and Old Norse: The Invention and Abandonment of Home Economics

How to Soak, De-Gas, and Cook Beans from Scratch

Plus the archives of the Fountains of Carrots podcast, which I had somehow never heard of. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd never listened to a podcast ever, at all, probably because Little Bear usually doesn't cooperate at all when I want to listen to things. He's been enjoying? listening to? keeping quiet while I listen to them this week, though, so that's been fun.

And I just finished an ebook on closet decluttering, Simply Dressed by Victoria Osborn. Hopefully I'll have more thoughts on that book, and decluttering in general, to share in a couple of days.

And that's all, I think. One more day left before the weekend starts! I either sprained or broke my toe this evening, taking a corner too quickly in socks on the tile floor, soooo... Saturday cannot get here too quickly. I can't wait to have Matt home for two whole days!

2 comments:

  1. Your poor toes! Hope they feel better soon.

    Soy in canned tuna.... Ridiculous. It's used as a completely unnecessary filler in so many things! Ugh!

    Oh, forgot to update you on the salmon loaf recipe. Joey's mom's recipe calls for one can of tuna and it still cooks for 45 mins to an hour. She bakes it in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper. I usually bake it free-form in a larger dish and it cooks faster.

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    1. Oh, thank you! I'm thinking that salmon loaf sounds like supper on Wednesday; somehow, canned salmon doesn't have soy in it, although salmon in pouches does. Or I could plan ahead enough to pull a filet out of the freezer, bake it on Tuesday, and then flake it to use on Wednesday... We shall see.

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