Politely informed...

...for the second time that we are sending Heath to school in pants that are too tight.

Here is how he came home today:

I have two highly logical explanation for this embarrasing issue.

(1) The boys school is very into potty independence and that means loose fitting clothing, no overalls, and preferably elastic wastebands that are easy to pull up and down. Those 2T pants are no longer sliding down easy on the old Heath these days.

(2) Heath is larger than Alder was at this age and until now, I have been ok pulling clothes out of the closet to fit him. I have noticed his clothes being a bit snug, but plan to get up in the attic to pull down the 3T stuff here just as soon as I get a chance.....maybe this weekend.

So, Heath can put down some food - pretty amazing in some instances - and I am not sure if his dense and quite thick body is the cause or the result of his appetite. I do know (as do all other members of this family) that it HURTS when he steps on your toe!

Unrelated....the boys have discovered a new activity in the bathtub. We have random pieces of pvc pipe laying around the house these days (mom has been building traps to catch caterpillar poop....) and the boys figured out how fun it was to use them to blow bubbles like elephants in the mud. This has been an exciting activity for three baths now....

but not quite as hilarious as the first time...

I also want to share a couple of new and easy recipes that I have found:

Quinoa crusted roasted potatoes -

boil 4 cups cut up potatoes for 5 mins, add 1 cup quinoa and a few cloves of garlic and boil 5 more minutes.

pour into collandar (some quinoa will be lost)

pour onto baking sheet and stir in a couple TBSP oil, sprinkle salt and bake

bake undisturbed for 15 minutes then stir with spatula and scrape up any brown bits, then bake again for 10 more mins

Stir in scallion, red bell pepper, additional seasonings if desired and sprinkle cheese over top before baking another 5 minutes to melt cheese. I am sure thees would be great without the cheese too!

Here is a photo to whet the appetite.....

Grain griddle cakes -

Awesome thing to do with leftover rice:

--whisk together 2 eggs and 1/2 c milk (soymilk is good)

--stir in 1.5 c cooked rice (miture of rice and beans is good too)

--optional cheese can be added

--add 1/2 c flour and 1 tsp baking powder

--add salt and pepper to taste

--heat heavy skillet and cook this batter like you would pancakes.

Here is Alder enjoying his with a side of steamed kale. I like mine with sour cream and salsa.

...possibly more about that random pile of stuff next to him in a future post. He carried that around for a week and seemed content to just have it with him.

Both of those recipes are from a cookbook that Jason gave me a couple fo years ago that I have finally come to love: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I was so devoted to my Moosewood and Laurel's kitchen cookbooks that I had a hard time even opneing it with its very different format, but have found it to be really awesome and open more often than the others lately.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.