VANiversary (#tbt)

Timehop tells me that 4 years ago today, we bought our van.



Timehop also tells me that I smell nice (thanks?) and that it was wacky tacky day at Lorelai's daycare on this day last year, which is totally beside the point, but cute nonetheless. :)




Anyway, in honor of our "van-iversary" today, I figured I would profess my undying love for our Honda Odyssey.

I'm not one of those anti-van people at all--I fully embrace my mom-ness and if that meant buying a van, so be it. Although it's not like I was dying to run out and get one the minute the pregnancy test came back positive 10 years ago with Aidan. :) When I was pregnant with Lorelai, we knew we needed something bigger than our Civic so we started shopping for an upgrade. We did look at other SUV options, but this van was by far the most practical solution to us, because:

>>> Power sliding doors. Perfect for full mom hands, kid hands, tight parking spaces, and our tiny garage. No banging the wall or other cars trying to get in/out. (The power liftgate is really nice, too!)

>>> Walk-through middle aisle to the 3rd row. With 3 kids, we knew we'd have one that would have to sit in the back, and you don't have to move the seat (tough if you have car seats installed) to access the 3rd row, like with many SUVs.

>>> Lower to the ground so little kids can get themselves in and out of the van more easily.

>>>Great trunk space. Much more (so much deeper) than the Chevy Traverse we looked at.

>>>Removable second row middle seat, so we could fit 3 across if we had to fold the back bench down for more storage space.

>>> Fold-down center console. When it pouring rain out, I can get in the back to buckle Lorelai, then walk through to my seat without leaving the van. Something I would have never thought I needed when we were considering vehicles, but so handy! You can do the same from the passenger seat when driving but that's illegal, so...:)

>>> A DVD player wasn't the biggest priority for us, but we did want to get a model with because it's a nice perk for longer trips (we don't put on movies for trips around town).

And it just so happens that the only EX model they had on the lot was one with a navigation package, which I believe added in the bluetooth and integrated rearview camera. They gave us a deal on that model so they could get it off the lot without having to search (and wait due to limited availability...and potentially lose our sale) for an exact matching vehicle with just the DVD.

Let me tell you, I could not be happier with our accidental bluetooth and backup camera. I use the backup camera to park perfectly in the garage each time, and I will never buy another vehicle that doesn't have bluetooth. It's a huge convenience/safety feature that I can use my phone hands-free.

The navigation has been nice on occasion, but you have to pay to update your maps, so we just use our iPhones or Adam's garmin now if we need directions, for the most part.

Bottom line: I love our van. I will sing its praises to anyone. And even though it may not be the coolest vehicle out there, it's pretty great anyway. Although ours is the older model 2010 which isn't nearly as fancy as the newer ones with iPod integration and coolers. But our van will be paid off in a year, so I'm certainly not looking to get a newer model yet to the tune of more car payments! :)

Our next vehicle will definitely be an upgrade of the Civic. Adam has had enough of always having to drive the "crappy" car and how can I blame him, since the Odyssey is so nice? Ha!

Healthy chickpea banana chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

Whew, how's that for a name? I stopped short of adding honey in there--you're welcome. :) And I almost decided to leave chickpea out for fear of completely turning people off, but the fact that these "cookies" are made mostly with chickpeas (garbanzo beans) is the best part! Because they're seriously healthy, seriously yummy, and seriously easy to make. Win, win, win!


Clearly my food photography needs work. ;)

I came up with this recipe based on the other chickpea cookie I made. Logan was not a fan because they were too peanut-buttery. So this time, I subbed banana for the peanut butter. Unfortunately, that turned my mix into a runny batter consistency not suitable for cookies (duh, should have guessed!). But it turned into a happy "accident" because by necessity I had to add something to thicken it. Voila--quick cooking oats.



The result was surprisingly good--so good that my kids were begging for these before school, after school and after dinner as a treat! And aside from the fact that it meant less for me, I was happy to oblige. If you like bananas/banana bread, I'm sure you'll enjoy.



They're ugly...but taste yummy!

So without further ado, here's the recipe.

Chickpea banana chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

Makes about 15 cookies.

Ingredients:

1 15oz can of garbanzo beans (or about 1 1/2 cup cooked beans if you start with dried)
1 medium banana (about 1/2 cup mashed)
2 tbsp natural peanut butter (optional--I left it out and didn't miss it at all)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c honey or agave nectar
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 c quick oats (add more or less to achieve a loose dough consistency)
1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (or however many you want!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend all ingredients except oats and chocolate chips in a food processor until smooth, scraping the sides occasionally. I started by pulsing my chickpeas as fine as I could get them, then added the banana and pulsed until there were no whole chickpeas. Then I blended in the honey, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
4. Drop heaping spoonfulls of dough onto a baking pan.
5. Bake for 10 min. They'll still be soft when they come out, but once they're cool, they'll firm up so you can transfer them to a container. Or, just eat them straight off the pan!

If you really don't like banana, you can sub about 1/4 cup milk for the banana and double the peanut butter. They say baking is a science, right? Well clearly this isn't baking, because I eyeballed this recipe a few different times in a few different ways and it's been good each time. Ha!


Nutrition information: Each cookie has 109 calories, 4g of fat, 2g of protein and 19g of carbs. (Or less, if you omit the peanut butter like I did!)


Enjoy! If you try these out, let me know. I'd love to hear what you think of them!

An Easter-versary‏

Happy Easter!






Not only did we celebrate Easter yesterday, but it was also mine and Adam's 12th anniversary. Although I gotta be honest, there was MUCH more emphasis on Easter. And that's totally fine with us. We typically keep our anniversaries low-key anyway--just a simple date night is our go-to. So we'll just have to schedule something for next weekend maybe. :)


Pay no attention to his lack of ring. Ironically, he forgot to put it back on after making hamburger patties earlier.


Anyway, we had a pretty great day. The Easter Bunny visited and left another treasure hunt for the kiddos, so they got started with the festivities first thing in the morning. And after a last-minute scramble because the Easter Bunny was such a procrastinator this year, their baskets came together nicely.


Easter baskets this year: skylander characters and cards for the boys; a watercolor paint set, hello kitty chapstick and socks for Lorelai; bubbles and a little bit of candy for them all. 


And we think the Tooth Fairy might have hitched a ride with the Easter Bunny, because Logan got a dollar and a Cadbury mini egg for his latest tooth that fell out on Saturday. :)




After breakfast, we lounged on the couch and watched Free Birds, because what better time for a Thanksgiving movie than on Easter, right? Ha!

We hosted Easter dinner this year, but kept it pretty simple and kind of non-traditional with a cookout. Burgers, dogs, baked beans, cole slaw and asparagus. No ham or lamb for us this year, which is fine by me. Although we did have deviled eggs, which is an Easter must for me. I also did some homemade greek vanilla frozen yogurt served over brownies for dessert. Although not everyone liked the froyo (ahem, Adam).

We ended the day with a back yard egg hunt with the cousins. The kids all ate waaaay too much candy yesterday (and somehow Logan managed to skip dinner and only eat candy? No wonder he was scarfing down deviled eggs and bananas right before bed last night!) but everyone went to bed happy after such a fun day.











All the NC cousins with an Iron Man photo bomb :)

Friday Faves

>>>Flip-flop weather! Need I say more? :)



>>>Scanpan. Maybe we're crazy for spending so much on a cooking pan, but I'm seriously loving our new scanpan chef's pan from Sur La Table. It has a lifetime warranty which is nice after our previous one broke, and has eco friendly non-stick coating so I don't have to worry about eating teflon. We got it last weekend and have used it every day (sometimes multiple times) since then. Our cost per use will totally justify the $200 price tag. :)

via

>>>Chickpea chocolate chip cookies. I made these on Monday (subbed Wow Butter for peanut butter) and they're surprisingly good! I've been heating them up so they're nice amd gooey and eating them for breakfast and/or snack all week. I'll definitely make them again. Although next time I'll be sure to blend the chickpeas much better. Each cookie has a couple of whole ones, which is kind of weird.

via The Hungry Tortoise

>>>Tortilla pizzas. I was too busy scarfing mine down (made several since last week) to take a pic, but I sliced up some zucchini and put that over some mozzerella on a pan-heated tortilla. Splashed some balsamic vinegar on the zucchini and sprinkled with feta and broiled (in my new scanpan!) for 2min. Seriously DELISH!

>>>Game of Thrones is back on. The flip side to that is Shameless, House of Lies and The Walking Dead have all ended, but GOT fills the void pretty nicely.

>>>Lorelai's new dress. I scored this gorgeous dress that Lorelai wants to wear for her birthday at a clothing exchange at my mom's church. Brought a garbage bag full of outgrown clothes and baby items, and walked away with a few dresses, a bunch of shorts, skirts and shirts for Lorelai this spring and summer.



>>>It's been the fastest week ever. I worked from home on Monday so I could be with Aidan and Logan, then all three kids went to Grandma/Grandpa "camp" on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was SO weird not having them home on a weeknight, then getting up and ready for work in the morning without them. Adam and I even ate dinner on the couch while we watched TV, which we never do anymore. Made it almost seem like a weekend in the middle of the week. So glad they're back though (even if they wanted to stay with Grandma and Grandpa forever) because I miss them like crazy when they're gone.

TGIF!!

Spring Fever

The weather has finally been mostly nice lately, so I've got a bad case of spring fever. I wish it was the kind of fever that makes me want to clean...but in reality, it's the kind of fever that makes me want to spend all kinds of time outside. And um, doing anything except blogging, apparently.

Aidan and Logan are out on their 3-week (minus 2 snow makeup days) intersession from their year-round school, so I took last Friday off to just hang out with them. It was one of those perfect days where you're exhausted at the end of it, but smiling like a loon 'cause it was just that wonderful. Maybe my bar is low because we didn't do anything all that exciting, but it was crazy productive, and the best part was that it was quality time with them and only them--a rare thing these days.

After dropping Lorelai off at daycare, we started off the day bright and early with a trip to Target for some Starbucks and shopping. They browsed their stuff, indulged me while I browsed my stuff, we smelled candles for a riduculously long time and cracked jokes about the ones that smelled horrible.

Our next stop was Petco, at their request. Adam's not on board yet (um, at all) but the boys and I are really interested in fostering cats through the Independent Animal Rescue after talking to the representative for a long time. Seems like a good way to introduce the kids to the responsibility of having pets without the immediate life-long commitment. We'll see...

Anyway, then we hit up Michaels to browse and ended up with the makings for jewelry instead of the makings for a spring wreath like I'd intended, oh well! I like my two new pairs of earrings better. :)



Our last stop was Walmart, where we loaded up some other stuff we needed, as well as flowers and vegetable plants, because on a whim, we decided to plant a garden. It's been four years since we've had one (it didn't do so well the last time--basically never got watered since I was very pregnant with Lorelai that summer, oops!). The boys are really interested in helping, so it seemed like a perfect thing to do. We took turns hoeing the garden (but let's be real, I did most of it), potting plants and watering. Hopefully we'll have our very own strawberries, tomatoes and peas soon! And zucchini, if I can manage to find a plant.



To cap off our day and take a "break" from the gardening, we took a jog down to the neighborhood playground where the boys played for a while. On another whim, we decided to finally--after 11 years living in this neighborhood--walk the nature trail that winds along our neighborhood creek. I figured if I was going to do it at all, it'd have to be now, before the snakes all wake up to come "play" and the foliage fills in too much. It was such a great walk! Of course I had to grab a stick for protection just in case, because we all know how I feel about snakes...

We jogged (well they jogged--I did some HIIT sprinting/jogging, go me!) back home and played outside some more until Adam got home with Lorelai. At the end of the day, the boys and I were filthy and tired, but so proud of all we did, and the fun we had together. And bonus for me--I logged some serious calorie burn with all the activity, since I only sat down to drive and eat the entire day. And hoeing is seriously hard work. :)