Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

8 ounces mushrooms, chopped

3 scallions, chipped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 can water chestnuts, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

head of bib lettuce leaves

shredded carrots

chopped fresh cilantro

Sauce:

3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/4 cup water

For filling:

Brown ground turkey in skillet over medium-high heat. 

While turkey browns prepare sauce in small dish and set aside. Add in mushrooms, scallion, garlic, and water chestnuts, if using. Cook about 5-8 minutes. Add in soy sauce and vinegar, stir to combine for another minute. Remove from head. 

Serve turkey mixture in lettuce wraps and garnish with carrots, cilantro, & sauce. (I make a batch of rice for the kids and serve with rice for them)

Fix count: filling with drizzle of sauce: 1 cup = 1 red, 1 green, 1 spoon 

I divided one cup onto three double layered lettuce cups with a generous amount of carrots and counted 1 red, 2 green, 1 spoon

Toddler approved!!

More Jar Salads

Here are three more mason jar salads I've made. Kyle isn't a fan of fruity salads, but I kinda like them So I haven't over done them but I'll try one every now and then.

Mustard Chicken Jar Salad

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

4 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp dijon mustard

2 Tbsp finely chopped tarragon

2 cup thinly sliced celery

3 cups cooked chicken breast, chopped

2 cups grapes

4 cups spinach

1/4 cup walnuts

Preparation: 

Make dressing: combine vinegar, oil, mustard, and tarragon in small bowl; whisk. Evenly divide dressing into bottom of four jars. 

Compile salad into jars: Evenly layer celery, chicken (red container into each), grapes (1/2 purple container), spinach (full green container in each), and walnuts on top. 

Cover and store in fridge up to three days. Shake before serving. 

Fix count: 1 orange, 1 red, 1.5 green, 1/2 purple

Crunchy Quinoa Jar Salad

Makes 6 jars

2 tsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2c extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 c quinoa (I made 2 cups worth to keep in the fridge for my kids' smoothies) 
3 bell peppers
4 1/2 c cooked chicken
6 cups of spring mix salad greens

Mix ingredients for dressing:
Place mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, peppers, salt, and oil in small jar. Screw on lid and shake to combine. 

Cook quinoa according to package.

Assemble Jars:
Place 1/2c quinoa in each jar, pour 2 Tbsp of dressing into each jar, shake to mix up. Next layer 1/2 c bell pepper, 3/4c chicken, and 1 cup salad greens. Cover and refrigerate til ready to eat. Enjoy within a week. 

Fix count: 1 yellow, 1 orange, 1.5 green, 1 red

I'll call this the, throw stuff together to use up what's in the fridge jar salad
Makes 4 jars

I used this AMAZING dressing! It's made with an egg yolk so make sure you consume within five days.

Dressing - place items in blender:
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
4 Tbsp lemon juice
add in some sea salt & fresh ground pepper

With blender going pour into lid opening:
1/4 cup olive oil

Assemble Jars:
1) Put 2 Tbsp dressing into four separate jars.
2) Chopped up bell pepper and celery (or whatever crunch you might have) I used a half a cup each for the first batch and 1/4 c bell pepper + 3/4 c celery for the second batch.
3) Add in a red container of diced chicken. I discovered a new cooked chicken at Costco I love better than the other stuff, just be sure to rinse and pat dry before using. They are individually wrapped and stored with some goop.
4) Stuff in a cup worth of mixed greens!

Fix count: 2 green, 1 orange, 1 red

Easter

I just realized I had this sitting in my draft box and I never got around to posting it... oops. A little late but here's our Easter Day post. 

Sunday morning we got up and the kids got to explore their baskets. They got sidewalk chalk, a human body book/puzzle, and new playdough rolly toys. Grandma Cindy sent some tin cans with candy and fun necklaces. Emma was a fan of the necklace and wore it to church.


Isaac's basket:


Mary's basket:


Emma's basket:


Checking out the flashy necklaces








Mouth full of chocolate

It was our weekend to volunteer so we had to coral the kids along so we could make it by 8:00. 

Got them all together for a quick picture at church before kiddos started to arrive.

After church we came home had lunch and everyone went down for naps. After nap we had an Easter egg hunt in our basement. It has rained the day before and it was still pretty wet out. It worked out in the basement and Isaac loved it. We ended up hiding them a few more times because he kept wanting to hunt. Once the candy was gone the girls lost interest.

Egg hunt video 1:

Egg hunt video 2:

This was that evening, having fun putting together the body puzzle. The girls are waving at him.

Easter Eve

Yesterday we made it out to a park to get some fresh air and burn off some energy. It wasn't the warmest day but it was pretty nice. Nice enough to be out to play! The kids loved running around and even let me try to take a group photo in the beginning.

Thankful for photoshop and the skill to piece photos together to get at least two good faces in one photo ;-) now if only I had more time to dink around with it, haha.







They are much easier to capture individual!










Mary waving "buh bye" to the airplane

March 12th, 2016

I don't grab my nice camera much these days, mainly because the kids just want to mess with it and they don't really hold still much for me to capture them anyway. And it's hard to chase after children with a multi-thousand dollar device wrapped around your neck. I miss taking pictures and playing around with photography, but I know my time will come again some day.

We have been able to play outside here and there when the weather has been warm enough so I grabbed it while we were out. Natural light is always so much better anyway.

So these photos were from a few weeks ago, but not terribly long ago. Girls still 22 months old and Isaac is 4.

Running the cones practicing their soccer skills:


These kids love balls!!







Isaac is such a sweet big brother. He really wanted Mary to run the cones with him, she wasn't so interested but he tried to convince her.