Free time

So what do I do all day? All less than 3 hours of my no kid time? After the dishes are done and the house picked up- I am really strong... I have been baking. I love to cook. I love to create healthy whole food meals. I also like it to be quick and not have it be too complicated, not that I don’t like a challenge, but no extra steps! One of my favorites is chicken enchiladas, but I don’t like frying the tortillas and rolling them and burning my fingers and making a big mess so I have moved on to the chicken enchilada casserole. It is just as good- maybe better and so fast and easy. Layer the tortillas on the bottom of an oiled casserole dish, layer cooked chicken then shredded cheese. Then do it all again. Top with tortillas, cheese and lots of enchilada sauce. Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes at 375. Voila! Yummy dinner. I serve it with a green salad, Mexican rice and beans.

So all of my kids are different. Really different. Paris finishes her salad first, then Atlas, a bit later is Leif and when I am ready to cry, Emilia finishes her salad and is the last to be done with dinner. Rich and I take deep breaths and count to ten and wait with her.
It sort of feels like fall- at least the end of summer. I bought a box of apple, a box of peaches and a box of nectarines. Martha Stewart has an amazing recipe for apple cake but it it a bit labor intensive. I tried Williams-Sonoma apple spice cake recipe and it was just as good. Really they tasted the same and I was so glad. It is dessert and then breakfast. The kids dig it, especially when they get cake for breakfast. They don’t realize that it has whole wheat flour and apples and is much more nutritious then some other more traditional breakfast fare. Cake for breakfast.
I am still on a cooking high from making my first souffle. It always seemed daunting but I had all the ingredients on hand and gave it my best shot. It didn’t fall and there were no leftovers. Each kid ate a portion and 2 even asked for seconds. It was Williams-Sonoma spinach souffle. So good. But that was before I started photographing my cooking feats...
I have made bread pudding before but it had been a while. I had a loaf of good artisan bread that was a bit stale.... It was calling to me to make it edible. Bread pudding really is a lot like french toast. I am pretty sure that is how French toast got started- a lazy version of the pudding. But bread pudding is so easy to make. I served it with whipped cream, fresh sliced strawberries and drizzled it with maple syrup. After we ate it for dessert one night, the kids had bread pudding for breakfast. Two days in a row.