Lie to your children. It's good for them.

I plagarized the title of my blog post which is funny in this case because it's one of the criticisms (among many) that was leveled at Jessica Seinfeld when she published her book Deceptively Delicious. And in general I would have to say that I agree the book is kind of dumb. First of all, it's not really teaching your kids to eat healthfully if you're putting spinach puree in brownies. You're still feeding your kid brownies, which you really shouldn't do very often if you want them to be healthy. Plus, putting 1/2 cup of spinach puree in an entire pan of brownies really isn't boosting the nutritional profile all that much. On the other hand, hey - if you were going to be serving a dessert anyway, at a birthday party or whatever, why NOT put some vegetables into your baked goods? I guess. But, making purees (and baking, for that matter) are not really things I have the time and/or energy for, so the cookbook never interested me much.

Until we started having our produce delivered, that is. And as anyone who has ever joined a winter csa knows, there is pretty much no limit to the amount of beets and kale those people will try and fob off on you. We have gotten to a point where we're trying to put away 2 lbs of beets a week - and hey, I like beets. But that is a LOT of beets. The kale I find much easier to dispatch, but I was getting to the point where I was actually consider trying to use the beets to dye fabric with.

I know. Pull myself back from the edge. But don't worry. Like I said yesterday, I can't find time to shower so I'm not dyeing anything with anything.

But I still have all these beets. And my friend had the cookbook, which is how I ended up making a quadruple batch of these pink pancakes and the kids LOVE them. I use hodgson's mills 100% whole wheat pancake mix and they come out really well. They also freeze really well, so I put 2-3 in a baggie and put them in the freezer and then just reheat them in the toaster for breakfast.

The best part is that I now have an excuse to avoid eating any more beets. They're for the kids!

The great debates

I guess it's been a little while, sorry about that. I haven't had that much to blog about lately, or rather, I've had so much to blog about that I've had trouble finding things small and manageable enough to encapsulate in a post. But, in the spirit of not letting the blog get too far away from me I'll udate today just to get a post on the board in March.

First, I'm putting a new blog in the "blogs I like" section of my blog. I wanted to call attention to it because it's just been started by a friend and neighbor of mine. She and I met a little over 2 years ago through our knitting club, and bonded over the fact that neither of us had a very good idea of what we actually wanted to be when we "grew up" despite the fact that we both had full time jobs and pretty clearly defined careers. I'm really happy to say that she's found a passion in photography and I hope that she is able to parlay it into, if not a career, at least a wonderful and satisfying hobby. She's currently doing a project where she's going to take a photo every single day and post it. I am extremely impressed by this, because I can barely shower every single day. So, kudos to Cara and please check out her blog. I personally think she's extremely taleted!

As for me, as many of you know I've been spending the past couple years working toward a self directed career as well. I'm happy to report that, although I'm not ready to pull back the curtain on it yet, I think I'm only about 6 months away from being truly and exclusively self employed. I take my licensing examination on March 24th at 8am, and provided I pass it, the last puzzle peice will be in place and I will be independently licensed by the state of MA. It has been a pretty arduous journey to meet the clinical requirements while also having and keeping track of 2 kids, but I finally finished at the end of February. Now I just need to pass the exam. If I do pass, all systems will be go. I have a colleague, an office space, an idea...stay tuned on that front.

Finally, Andy and I have been agonizing (and agonizing is really quite an understatement) about our house situation lately. Should we stay in Boston (which we love, is best for our careers, is convienient and comfortable) or should we move to an area that has better public schools? we go back and forth on pretty much a daily basis now that Owen is 3 (next week? I can. not. believe it.) and pre-k is more of a reality with each passing month. We want to stay, but my parents really think we should move. Half my friends around here with kids are committed to staying and making school options in Boston work, and the other half are busy going to open houses every weekend. What we really want to do is put a second floor on this house and never leave, but that seems to be an option that no one thinks is a good idea. Ugh. and so the debate rages.....

Owen's birthday party is this weekend, the big 3. I'll try and remember to take lots of pictures to put on the blog.