HEALTHY SNACKS FOR KIDS

You know what I want?  Maybe even more than world peace?  Are quick healthy snacks my kids will actually eat!  Is that asking too much? As you all know, we follow a mostly Paleo lifestyle.  “Mostly” meaning about 85 percent. And to be totally honest, it drops to about 50% for the kids. I’m not going to lie; I buy mac ‘n cheese every trip to the grocery store. But I grab the all natural stuff… does that make it any better?  OK, fine, no! But it does make me feel better!  So anyway, when Whole Foods asked me to review some of their gluten-free, kid friendly snacks, I honestly thought maybe the Middle East was at peace!

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We first tried the Hip Chick Farms Chicken Wings.

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Eva liked them.  Dominic thought they were too spicy.  So of course I ate them! Next up, Applegate Naturals Gluten Free Chicken Breast Tenders.

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I have an excellent recipe for similar chicken wings… but I don’t have time to make them! So this was a perfect example of what I’m looking for to fill up my kids’ bottomless stomachs! I cooked them for 20 minutes in my toaster over. We paired them with Grama’s Sweet Chili Sauce (AMAZING!) and…. SUCCESS!  Both kids loved them! I even kept sneaking bites while they weren’t looking.  They are all white chicken meat “breaded” with rice flour. They even had a nice crunch, which is crucial for any chicken strip! So there you go! Some nice options for kids now that we are back in the “I’m home from school and I’m starving and there’s nothing to eat in this entire house” season.  Now, let’s work on that world peace thing!

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HOW TO FIX YOUR WASHING MACHINE

Last year was a big year for us.  “Us” being Darrin and me.  Excluded in that “us” is Eva and Dominic.  That’s because last year, “us” decided “they” would start doing their own laundry!  YES!!!!!!!!  I loved that idea!  I was fully onboard.  “They”… not so much.  But after threatening to take away football for the lad and pageants for the lass (yes, I said pageants.  That’s for another blog post I haven’t yet brought myself to write!) “they” agreed to add laundry to their list of chores.  That’s a good thing right?  Well, it was for about 13 months.  But then F35 entered our family.  F35 is a warning that started showing up on our Whirlpool Duet washing machine just moments before it would beep 3 times and shut off.  No matter the washing machine was full of sopping wet clothes.  Well,  I’m the type that just assumes it was a momentary laps in function of my washer.  So I rung out the clothes, threw them back in, and hit start.  7 minutes later, F35, beep, beep, beep, and another “momentary lapse of function.”  Damn it!  I called Darrin and he said he had no idea what F35 was so we agreed I would call our appliance guy.  So imagine my surprise when THIS is what I came home to that night after work!!

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“What in the hell are you doing?  Just because you work on ranch trucks does not mean you can work on a washing machine!!” I sputtered out.  “No, I think I know what’s wrong. I found out the F35 code means the water pressure sensor switch it out.  I think I can get to it,” was his reply.

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What I forget about my husband is his confidence he can fix anything and the fact he has a truckload of tools.  Check out this little flashlight! It even has little grabbers at the end in case you find a treasure! I bet if I told him my stomach hurt he would honestly think he could do a colonoscopy on me.

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And low and behold! Check this out!  On his way to fixing the water pressure sensor switch he found a treasure trove  of kid stuff! A few rocks, some coins, candy wrappers, ABC gum, bobby pins… treasures from little kid pockets that were never emptied prior to washing! When this whole mess started my first thought was to start doing the kid’s laundry again.  But not anymore!  I can get used to having an appliance man in the house!

 

PALEO GIRL

20140613-093024-34224680.jpgYou know You know what I love about vacations? You get to read a book with morning coffee. You can get your fingernails painted crazy colors with sparkles on top. And you use pool towels as tablecloths. But back to the book. Primal Blueprint Publishing recently sent me a copy of Paleo Girl to review. This vacation actually provided me the time to read it. And I loved it! If you’ve ever read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, this book is like it’s younger sister. Mark created Grok. He’s the caveman in his book. Grokette is Leslie Klenke’s cave girl in Paleo Girl. While so many Paleo books I read are just cookbooks, Paleo Girl is a lifestyle book. It talks about exercise, puberty, sleep, playing and also provides a few recipes. It’s written very conversationally; your teenage daughter would even relate. Definitely a good book if you are contemplating starting a Paleo lifestyle but you’re not quite sure how to do that. This is a good and fun manual. It’s also a quick reference guide for things like workouts. Can’t remember the Paleo fitness essentials? Turn to page 58 for a refresher course that’s full of helpful pictures. But what caught my attention was the skin products. I’ve never tried Paleo skin products but I’m going to now. Want to join me? Let’s do it! I’m going to try the Coconut Milk All-Over Wash (page 240). Leslie says to combine 1/2 cup coconut milk, 2/3 cup Castile soap, 1 tsp preferred oil like vitamin E, olive, almond, coconut (I’m going to use olive, just because I already have it) and you can add 5 drops of an essential oil for fragrance. I’m skipping that. She says to shake your bottle of body wash before each use. The second thing I’m going to try is to use coconut oil as a moisturizer. That’s it. Just coconut oil. I’ll use this at night since I have to have a moisturizer with sunscreen in it for daytime. Soooo let’s all get our stuff this week and start using it on Sunday the 22nd. I’ll remind you on Facebook so be sure you are following me at www.facebook.com/ktvnwendydamonte  And don’t forget to pick up your copy of Paleo Girl by Leslie Klenke.  Go to this website for some pretty cool deals!! http://www.marksdailyapple.com/paleo-girl-book/#axzz34rAatzf0

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WHAT ALL MOMS REALLY WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY

When my mom was alive, here’s how our Mother’s Day always went.  After a lovely home cooked brunch, we would go see a movie, grab a glass of wine afterwards, and meet our family at dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  No presents.  No flowers.  Just time.  Time spent with one of my favorite people on the planet.  Munching on popcorn and hot tamales in the theatre.  Giving our best Siskel and Ebert review of the movie over a glass of Rombauer chardonnay.  Happily eating out because we didn’t have to cook… or clean!  It was always a day I looked forward to.  Not for the “thing” I might get.  But because of the intangible gift of time. When you lose THAT gift, you truly realize how precious it is.  So now that I’m a mom, time is all I want with my kids.  I wake them up early sometimes, just because I missed them overnight.  I sometimes deny their request for sleepovers simply  because I want them staying with me. I look forward to Darrin being out of town because the kids and I know this means we all sleep together in my big bed like a pile of puppies.  So like all of you moms reading this, I’m sure your request for Mother’s Day is the same as mine;  TIME.  NBA MVP Kevin Durant probably said it best:

MY ZOO JUST GOT BIGGER

I live in a zoo.  I guess ranch is more accurate, but it feels like a zoo.  Like a crazy zoo.  Like I’m the zoo keeper of a family of orangutans.  I can’t get control.  And it gets worse every year.  Allow me to explain.  We have a dog… who sneezed right as I snapped this picture.

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two cats… we inherited from my mom.

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a hamster… that was an 9 year old little girl’s birthday present.

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thousands of cows… which constantly need to be fed.  Literally, they eat before we do.

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Two 4-H pigs named Jerry and Henry.

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and now this.

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5 kittens and a mamma cat… that are incredibly difficult to take pictures of.

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See, my over-achieving daughter decided she wanted to foster kittens from the Nevada Humane Society.  She went to her first introduction get-together and while she was there, I was busily preparing for the 6:30 newscast. I got a call at about 6:22.  Here’s how the conversation went.  “Mom, they have 6 cats I can bring home tonight.”  “What?  I’m reading scripts and putting on mascara and trying to talk to you.  You said they have hats for you?” “No cats.” “Well ok, fine, I’m sure we can find people to hand out these hats to.  Bring them home.  No problem.”  “Um, ok mom, I’m doing it.  I’m bring home the cats.”  “Ya ya, sure, ok sweetie, love you, my mascara is going all over my face because I’m holding the phone with my cheek.  Love you see you tonight.”

DAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!  Not one hat did she bring home!  But instead 6 CATS!  So our zoo now has 5 two week old kittens and their mamma.  We are fostering them until they weigh 2 pounds.  Ok, these babies weigh 12 OUNCES!  We will have them for weeks!  This is a perfect lesson for me to stop multi-tasking.  Next thing I know, Eva will be calling me asking for the “keys” and I’ll say “no problem” thinking she wants “peas” for dinner!

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4-H AUCTION

What did you do this weekend?  I went to a swine auction in Fallon, NV.  I literally could end this post right there.  That sentence alone is enough to give you a good enough laugh for the day.  But you just know my San Francisco self has something more to say.  And it starts with the nose.   This was my first view of a swine auction.  Call it a hog or pig auction if you want.  It’s all the same to me.

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What you don’t get from the picture above… is the smell.  Oh my lord!  It’s like walking into a wall of cobwebs.  It literally makes you recoil at first contact.  I live on a ranch.  Cow and horse manure are common place in my world.  Pig shit is another story!  It’s like no other smell I’ve ever smelled.  It literally assaults your nose.  It stopped my feet in their tracks.  It made my brain wonder if I could really enter this room.  Fortunately, like other smells, it passed… but not 100 percent.  You know how Thanksgiving dinner smells so good when you walk in the door, but after 30 minutes you can’t really smell it anymore?  Well pig shit stays with you.  It never completely dissipates…. but at least it did enough to get me in the door.

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The day was quickly made better with these little guys.

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Some were just 16 pounds… others were about 70.

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Several 4-H clubs from northern Nevada attended this auction.  The kids buy their pigs in a real auction type of sale.

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Then the dads had the fun of putting the purchased pigs into the trailer.  Oh this video makes me laugh.  Keep an eye on the pigs right hind leg… priceless!

Once loaded up, the pigs were taken home and will be raised by the kids until the Nevada Junior Livestock Show in May.

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Last year, our kids raised lambs.  We made the jump to pigs this year because… well, I have no idea why.  But for the time being, our family has now grown by 8 feet… 8 little pig feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SWITCH BAG

You know what I hate about Halloween?  No, not the candy.  Really.  That doesn’t bug me that much.  It’s the small pieces of wrapper that drive me insane.  My kids will eat a Snickers one day and even though it comes in ONE wrapper, by the time they’ve devoured the candy, the wrapper is in 16 little pieces all over my house.  Even when they stand over the garbage can, tiny pieces of candy foil end up on the floor because they’ve fluttered right past the damn waste basket.  I don’t get it.  Kids and candy don’t mix in my house.  Not because of the candy but because of the wrappers.  So imagine my excitement when this came across my desk at work.

The Switch Bag is BRILLIANT!  And what’s even better?  Two Reno gals wrote and illustrated it.  These two geniuses are both architects.  When times were slow in their office, they got busy putting together a book to help save my sanity.  The gist is that kids get to keep a couple of pieces of candy but the rest goes out onto the front porch in The Switch Bag.  The next morning, presto, a little gift is in the place of all the candy wrapped in wrappers that would have otherwise ended up all over the floor of my house.  LOVE IT!  And what’s even better… it’s one day!  Unlike its cousin who comes in December and stays the whole damn month, this little super hero comes just once, not to return until the following October.  Did I mention these Reno gals are BRILLIANT!  So hurry, get your copy here:

So come post Halloween, you can actually vacuum your house without ruining our vacuum on those tiny pieces of wrapper.

GREATEST HAUNTED HOUSES

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I was “that mom” this past weekend.  “That mom” who walked sheepishly up to the local haunted house with her elementary school age children in tow. No, I probably shouldn’t be taking them to a haunted house called Frightmare for at least a couple more years. But truth be told, I’ve waited long enough! I love haunted houses. They scare the crap out of me and IT’S GREAT! I’ve been dying for the kids to be old enough to go with me.  Well, I might have jumped that gun just a tad this year. Eva is 10.  Come on! 10!! Domi is 8. Make that 8 and a half! 8 and a half!! My God, how old do they  have to be now-a-days to scare the crap out of your kids??  Back when I was a kid, my Mom took us to the Walnut Creek haunted house starting at 5 and 7. Of course she’s the same woman who took me to see Jaws IN THE MOVIE THEATRE at age 3. Now that’s crazy. My parents didn’t have a child rated filter… for anything. We went everywhere with them. “Hey Honey, I want to go see Jaws tonight.” “Great idea! Throw the kids in the back of the Pinto and let’s go!” So that’s why I had no problem bringing my kids to Frightmare. Yes, I did take note they were the youngest kids there. And yes, I should have heeded the warning when a teenage girl right in front of us got out of line and left. But I really wanted to go! There, I said it. I was the one who wanted to go. Not my kids. I was the driving force behind this Saturday night activity. And I couldn’t wait!! At Frightmare, there are 4 houses you go through. We went into the Black Hole first. It was a mind tripping experience. You walked a plank while the room spins around you. We all wanted to throw up afterward.  Next up… Zombie Farm. Now it gets real people. Real creepy! We entered a run down shanty and all hell broke loose. Zombies popped out from behind doors. A bloody girl zombie with extra long zombie arms played the piano… until she got up and chased after us. Something horrible and bloody happened in the bathroom and every zombie in there went after us. At one point, I lost Eva because she just flat-out started running.  I couldn’t run after her because Domi was now clinging to my leg. And honestly, I was scared to death! Frightmare is a total understatement. This is living hell on Elm Street on Friday the 13th with Jason and Jaws coming after you.  And what’s worse, this house was huge!  We kept turning corner after corner and entering worse and worse torture chambers.  It just wouldn’t end.  Finally, Eva darted left, hit a black curtain and Praise Jesus, we were back in the parking lot.  As we stumbled to safety, I murmured, “I nearly peed my pants.” Domi replied, “Nearly??? I did pee my pants.”  Needless to say, we skipped the last two houses. Frightmare, you killed it this Halloween season!  Nice job!

 

EASY WEEKEND GET-AWAY

20130925-213326.jpgDid you hear the AMAZING NEWS????????? Team Oracle USA won the American’s Cup!!!!!!!!!!!! Had you told me that during the last time they raced, I would have said, “Oh neat. What sport are we talking about again?” But this year is different. Because we went to the America’s Cup. We saw it with our own eyes. We cheered for America.  And let me tell you what…nothing’s better than cheering for America! It was a fluke that I took the kids down to San Francisco. Darrin was out of town and we didn’t have any plans so I put everyone in the car and just drove. And the weekend was so great, so easy and so totally doable, I wanted to share it with you all so you can do it too. Ok, here’s what you do.

Get out of bed early Saturday morning. Throw everyone in the car and drive to Truckee. Grab a coffee and pastry at The Coffee Bar at 10120 Jibboom Street. It’s fabulous and a perfect potty stop to make sure you make it the rest of the way. You then drive to Walnut Creek (2 1/2 more hours) where you are staying at the Embassy Suites. It’s important you stay there… I’ll explain why in a moment. Now, you go to downtown WC and shop till you drop.  As you can see, my kids went to town!

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Seriously! Walnut Creek is now known as the Rodeo Drive of the north. It has everything. And it’s beautiful. When I grew up in Walnut Creek, we had a Bullocks. Then came Nordstrom… and Neiman Marcus and Tiffany… truly, the list goes on (except for Justice which I think is totally weird and my 9-year-old daughter thinks is totally ridiculous!) And then, you eat. Just take your pick, people. There are more restaurants in Walnut Creek than there are bars in San Sebastián, Spain. Just drive down Main Street and pick the one that looks good to you. There are literally dozens to choose from. If you want old school Walnut Creek, eat at Sunrise Bistro for breakfast (http://sunrisebistrocatering.com/). Enjoy Lark Creek for dinner (http://www.onemarket.com/larkcreek/walnut_creek/index.html) And if you want to check out one of my favorite hangouts for cocktailing stop by Crogan’s (http://www.crogansbarandgrill.com/) After a fun night on the town in WC, you’ll head back to Embassy Suites (about 2 miles outside of downtown WC) where you are perfectly situated to catch BART in the morning.  Literally the hotel is in the BART parking lot.  The train schedule is online at http://www.bart.gov/schedules/bystation.aspx  You are actually at the Pleasant Hill Station.  20130925-213314.jpg It looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 You can also figure out how much your BART fare will be here http://www.bart.gov/tickets/calculator/index.aspx  For most places in SF from Pleasant Hill it’s $10 round trip per person.  Once on the train, you will go through a long tunnel (which is actually the train going under the water of the bay… that freaked my kids out!) and you will pop out in San Francisco.  We got off at the first stop which is Embarcadero.  This took us to the piers where the America’s Cup was happening.  It also is your stop for Pier 39 if that’s your style.  Get off at Powell if you want Union Square and SF shopping.  We stayed at the races…

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meeting the teammates for both New Zealand and Team USA….

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and of course chanting USA-USA-USA…

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until 3 in the afternoon.  After that, we caught BART, now heading toward Pittsburg/Bay Point, got off at Pleasant Hill and picked up our car and headed east to Reno.  After a stop at Ikeda’s in Auburn, we got home at 8:30.  Really, a perfect get away for a family or just you and your honey.  Even without the American’s Cup, San Francisco is fun to hang out in for a few hours and now that I’ve given you a glimpse of the town I grew up in, I hope you go check out Walnut Creek too.  And hopefully, just hopefully, Oracle Team USA will decide to host the American’s Cup in San Francisco the next go around!  If so, I’ll see you down there!

GROWING OLD

When Darrin and I married 13 years ago…

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we promised to grow old together.

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Since when did “growing old” start at age 41??? Don’t people know 40 is the new 20?  Allow me to explain. We recently went to the optometrist for our annual eye exam. That’s your first clue we are becoming geezer.  We went to the doctor together! My grandparents didn’t start doing that until they were 80. And only then because one of them could no longer drive.  But there we were, Pearl and Earl, driving to the eye doctor.

My eye exam went fine. I rested my chin on that thin little bar and said “first, second, horizontal, horizontal, diagonal, yes the red dot is on the house, the last line says k-b-z-o-n-w” … you know the drill. The doctor then typed away at her computer and just like at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, the printer produced a golden ticket that read, “Congratulations! You need reading glasses!!” I was less than thrilled. So the kind doctor walked me out to the room with glasses lining every inch of all four walls and who should be sitting there trying on spectacles? Darrin!!!!!!!! “What are you doing in here?” “I need glasses for when I drive at night. What are YOU doing here?” he smirked. “According to my golden ticket I need reading glasses.” I was so convinced I didn’t really need them, I grabbed the first pair off the wall and bought them.

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Well, here we are.

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I tried reading my book and dammit! The glasses helped! I should have taken more time picking out my new specs!

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Darrin is pretty happy with his new set of eyes as well. So, hate to tell all of my 40-year-old friends, but…

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The shit hits the fan in this decade apparently. What happens at 50? Walkers with tennis balls??