On Our Table This Week

Food is a huge part of my day. It's amazing the amount of time a missionary mamma spends in the kitchen! What takes others no time to make takes us an hour or two. I've recently been trying to streamline and make some quicker meals that are both healthy and good! 

We're all on a health kick.  Trying to get into shape and loose some weight. Clinton's lost 11lbs, I've lost 9.5lbs and Chase has put on some serious muscle mass. Bang has even joined in and is trying to gain some weight and eat healthier.

We're trying really hard to eat "clean" Focusing on fruits and veggies and foods that are good for you. We've made a few simple changes like eating brown rice, no sweets except once a week, no pork, nothing fried, and very little beef. Our main diet consists of veggies and chicken. 

Once a week we have a "splurge night" where we eat a fattening meal and a dessert. 

Hey! You gotta be realistic! 

Some of the things on our table this week.

First we have some Baked Eggplant with Red Sauce. YUM! 

I used 1/2 cup parmesan and 1/2 cup bread crumbs, and a little pepper. I dipped the eggplant in an egg wash then dredged them in the crumb mixture. Baked them until golden. Cant' remember how long that was. 

We took our food outside and had a picnic in the front yard. It was a gorgeous afternoon. 

The sauce was super simple.
Red Sauce
1 can of whole tomatoes, two cans crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup parmesan, with some sautéed onion and garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. Let it simmer for 25min.

Tuesday night we had Grilled Chicken with Pasta and a Tomato Cream Sauce! YUM!!
My Tomato Cream Sauce came from The Pioneer Woman recipe. You can find this recipe here.
This is one of my FAVORITE quick go to recipes when I don't know what to cook because you can do all kinds of stuff with it. You can have chicken, shrimp, or have it plain.

Grilled Chicken with Italian Seasoning

The Chocolate Chip cookie below was for a Friday night "splurge" night. I found this recipe on Pintrest and it's WONDERFUL!!!! You mix all the ingredients in one bowl. You can find the recipe here
Did I mention how much I love my iron skillet!!! LOVE. IT.

I LOVE Pesto!! Especially homemade Pesto. I decided to use this Pesto on one of our Pizza's. A huge hit.

(The pizzas were from before we gave up pork)
The recipe for my dough is also from Pioneer Woman. You'll soon find that many of my recipes come from her site! There ALL wonderful. Pizza Dough This pizza was from a few months back but I wanted to share it with you. Homemade Pizza is so quick and inexpensive to feed our large family. We have it at least twice a month. There's SOOO many ways you can change pizza!!

Pesto Pizza with Ham and Tomatoes

 This one is half Bar B Que Pizza and half ham and cheese. I wasn't quiet sure how everyone would liek the Bar B Que one so I made half. IT WAS A FAVORITE!!! It's acutally left over Pulled Pork. Colton loved it so much he requested it for his Birthday Dinner! So that's what we had for his birthday.

My Pulled Pork Recipe is:
Cook your pork in  slow cooker with some chicken broth. After it's fork tender pull it all apart, drain some of the juice then add 3C Catsup, 6T brown sugar, 1tsp Worcestershire Sauce, 1tsp Tabasco Sauce. Let it simmer for a few min. Really good the second day.

Sad to say.... but we no longer eat pork. I decided about 3 months ago that I wasn't going to eat pork and I shared it with the family at dinner one night. After reading some things I just decided I was going to make a break from it. I'm really trying to give up beef too. Well, the funny thing is, the WHOLE FAMILY (all those living in our house) decided to give it up too. So we no longer eat pork. I know. I know. It's delicious!!! I agree!! But I must follow my conscience. ;)

Pulled Pork Pizza

Granola! This is an absolute staple at our house!! I try to have it on hand ALL THE TIME! The whole family loves it and it's SOOO good for you!!!! I put all kinds of things in my granola: cranberries, walnuts, almonds, flax seeds, wheat germ, honey.... So so good!!

Here's the recipe:
8c rolled oats
1/4c sunflower oil
1/4c butter
1tsp salt
3/4c honey
1/4c apple juice
3/4c brown sugar
3tsp Vanilla
1 1/2c cereal (any kind of crunchy cereal: Rice Krispies, crushed Corn Flakes)
1c wheat germ
1c nuts
1/2c cranberries
1/2c chocolate chips

Mix the oats with the salt oil and butter. Let them toast on 325 for about 15 mins. Then pour them in a bowl. Set aside. Mix honey, apple juice, brown sugar and heat in the microwave until dissolved. Pour the mixture over the oats, then add the rest of the ingredients. You can mix and match what you add.

Variations:
Raisins
Pecans
White Chocolate Chips
M&M

look at those plump cranberries

This is what we had today! If you make this, your family will love you!!! 

Chicken Curry with Pineapple served over Brown Rice

I call it a health revolution because that's really what it is!! If any of you know us well, you know the Garsees have NEVER been into "healthy" eating. We've always been the kind of family that "eats what tastes good" I mean my husband thinks Lays Potato Chips are a food group. And Coke.....he loves this stuff. Chase Tanner could have lived his entire existence on fried food. And ALL OF US, looooooove SUGAR. 

But while Chase was in Mexico he started working out and made a few eating changes, and because I REALLY need to loose weight Clinton jumped on board. When the whole family's on board it makes it a lot easier! So I began to go a little further and stretched all of us but we FEEL SO MUCH BETTER!! I have SO much more energy!!! It's amazing!

When I made the switch to brown rice several months ago, I wasn't really sure how the family would respond but everyone loves it except Joseph! Bless his little southern Thai heart...he hates it!! 

It's nutty and hearty! I love to crunch it between my teeth. Yummy!! 

Chicken Curry with Pineapple

Do you love my bowls in the back ground?!? I got them today at a tent on the side of the road. I got these plates that the rice is on for 30 baht or $1 and the bowls for 60 baht or $2!

One of my weaknesses is table ware. I love dishes!!! I love pretty bowls and plates and serving dishes. I love to entertain.... cooking and having people over is one of my favorite things!

Okay, I just totally went off on a rabbit trail.....hahaha. but I REALLY love my dishes! Do you?

I'd love for your to share some quick healthy recipes with me. Any suggestions?

Have a good day!

Love,
Amber

Laying Low

Because Joseph's adoption isn't finished yet, we feel that we need to lay low on the "google" search radar. Not that we're doing anything wrong but we feel we just need to keep quiet and wait on the Lord.

So you won't find me on Facebook or the FI website. As on outlet to communicate I'll probably be writing on my blog much more often. I MUST communicate!! :)
So if you're signed up to receive my blog via email or otherwise then you can stay in contact with me. Please feel free to leave a comment or write me an email.

Here's a few pictures of what's been happening here. All of these pictures are from January. Enjoy!

These first two pictures are of Nitcha. We did an impromptu photography session. She's so super cute!! She's having a girl and they've named her Bella Rose (Bella means God is my vow). Needless to say, we're SO excited that we're about to be grandparents.

Also on January 1st, we lifted up the baby bed and got it ready for Chandler. At this point he's still sleeping with us. Not because we haven't tried to get over into the boys room...but he's not having any of it. He likes his spot right between Mamma and Daddy. But at least we got a good picture of him in his bed right.

Cayden on the other hand, we SUPER excited to be sleeping in a big boy bed!!!! He's been in the baby bed longer than any of the other boys...33 months. He also decided that he didn't need to be rocked anymore, which is kind of sad. I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I was certain we'd be going to his house once he's in collage and "putting him to bed" ;)

Since the first day until today he's had no problems, except he plays like  little monkey and we have to go into their room five times a night to get them settled down. #lateinlifebabies

On January 26th, we went to a Thai wedding. Thai weddings are so much fun. You get to get dressed up and eat good food and see people you haven't seen in a long time. This was a really BIG wedding. There were over 1000 people at the reception. Dr Krassani's son got married. Dr. Krassanai is a very important man in our city. There were lots of "important" people there! There are 10 chairs to a table so our family got an entire table all to our selves. 

We had a work day at church. We are putting on a kitchen in the back of the building and tearing down a wall in one of the rooms. Before work ensued Chase was goofing off showing his muscles..... he's been working out for several months now and wanted Bang to take pictures. He's such a ham.

Cayden and a Thai friend playing in the cement bucket. It was SUPER hot and I had to get him cooled off. They stayed in that bucket for two hours.

Cayden not happy that he has to get off the motorcycle

Me washing vegetables Thai style

These next photos cap off January. 

I started doing sensory bins with Cayden and HE LOVES THEM. I've never seen this child sit so long in his life!!! Today we played with "snow" I mixed 8 cups flour with 1cup cooking oil. It was surprisingly not sticky. I put all kinds of things in there for him to measure,  make cupcakes, cut things.

At this point he's really tired and ready for a nap. Look at those eyes.

Joe joined in after his school was done. 

Joseph had just as much fun as Cayden. Blast!

Look at that dirty little face. So precious

I hope you've enjoyed a tour of our January! I have a few more pictures to add that I've taken with my phone. 

Love,

Amber

All in the family

 This post has taken me FOREVER!!!!! I've been trying to move my iPhoto pictures to another program and it's giving me SO much trouble!! For one, I'm not a techi AT ALL! So I've had some major/minor bumps! Thank God in heaven that I was able to save my pictures!!!

So, I thought it'd be fun to share some of what's going on with the children via picture.

Joseph and Cayden started school 7 weeks ago! This week's almost over moving them on the week 8! I can't believe how quickly time flies! I feel like I barely get Monday started and it's already Friday. We've having so much fun with school even though some, our son Chase, would call it chaos. ;)

Joseph started 1st grade and Cayden's in Tot school.

For Joseph I'm using Sing Spell Read and Write for his phonics, Abeka Math, and Sonlight Core A for History, Bible, Science and Language Arts. We're all, Daddy included, really enjoying it!

For Tot school we're doing what we can with a tornado for a son. Getting Cayden to sit still for even 5 mins is a HUUUGE task! Some of his favorite things are playing with blocks, as long as cars can drive over them, playing with hot wheels, reading books (which he loves), and sometimes I can get him to color, but not often and not for long. ; )

I dressed Colton and Chase like twins until they begged me not to. I think they were 9 and 11. :)
Some habits never die.

Colton and Nitcha celebrated their 1st anniversary in May and found out they were pregnant the same month! We're ecstatic that we're going to be having a grand baby!! This should be a new experience for all of us! Their baby is due March 30th. 

We recently took family pictures, which was a large undertaking for our big crew in this Thailand heat. We waited until 5:30 but after only 5 min we were all sweating bullets. This was the craziest picture taking session in history. Chase and I were running back and forth to check the pictures between shots. Not to mention we were wrestling 3 children under 6 which is a huge undertaking!! Kids are almost impossible when taking pictures.

We finally got one we ALL loved!

And I really love the black and white version.

All our boys. Look at the faces on the three small ones....my point exactly. Taking pictures of little guys is a challenge!!

Chase is taking a stab at some small modeling jobs here in the city. We were taking some shots for him to send to them.  I know I'm partial but I think he's gorgeous!! He's grown so much in character over the last year which makes him even more handsome. We're so proud of the man he's becoming.

Here's our Tazmanian angel! The helmet suits him as he's running around like a mad man most of the time. We can hardly keep up with him, but he sure is cute!!

Okay, those cheeks.... some one help me! I can't stand it!!! I think he might be the prettiest baby we've ever had! He's just beautiful! And so sweet. He loves me. I love him.

He looks at me with longing eyes when I walk in the room or pass by him or when I'm feeding him. It's so precious! I didn't have this experience with Cayden. He was more the, "Feed me woman"..kind of baby.

God is so kind to make my last baby so affectionate. I could look at this picture all day and never get tired! Baby Chandler, I'm so glad you were born.

I thought I'd share with you what's going on in our house.

What's going on in yours?

Love
Amber

Houston Zoo- America part 4

I couldn't visit Texas and not take my children to the Houston Zoo. It's one of my favorite memories from when we lived there pre-Thailand days. However, this day was the hottest day on record in 50 years for that particular day!! It was blazing HOT!!!!

Here's the boys on the red train! Wow! It's so much nicer than it used to be.

Look at me mommy! I'm so cute.

Chandler slept through the whole experience. Good thing we'll have pictures. 

My love

The pretty red train

Cayden loves animals!! I mean loves them. Sometimes it's hard to tell. He likes to hold our animals by the neck or puts his whole body on top of them as a sign of affection. The animals are trying to get away for their dear life. When they see him coming, they run, bark, or hide...... hahahaha but he pursues them until he overtakes. They're all so sweet to endure his torturous love. They tolerate him. 

 The zoo is seriously one of his very favorite places to visit.  So when we got to the petting zoo part, he was super excited!!!! We don't have a petting zoo in Thailand. However, Daddy had to give him a good talking to before he went in. We didn't want one of the animals biting him or ramming him with their horns. ; )

I think this animal might like him. Look at that face! 

 Lamb! Come back here!! Lamb! Do you hear me! Come back or I'll....I'll jump on you.

What a perfect picture!!

My monkies