Dark of night & recipes

The bedtime shuffle in the dark of night...

Charlie had a bloody nose in the night.

I had no idea that he'd come into our bed last night.

Then this morning Miss Elsa work up at 4am crying because of a bad dream.  She kept asking me to stay with her the rest of the night.

I assured her I would, but my M. O. is to typically jet the second she's asleep and head back to my own bed.

Miss Smarty-Pants wasn't buying it.

When I rolled my back toward her I felt her little hands grab the straps of my nightgown and hang on.

Like I was on a leash.

She wasn't letting me get away so easily.

Seems to be a rash of bad dreams.

I have no idea why my kids are all having deep rooted fears of something happening to me and/or Mark.

That's the reason, I believe, Sarina won't spend the night anywhere.

I remember having those myself.  I hated that show Punky Brewster because of it.

It turned my stomach to think of being orphaned.

Charlie laid in bed tonight worrying about bad dreams.

He even asked, "Are bad dreams nightmares?"

Poor kids.

I'm hoping that this too shall pass.

Oh, then this morning I noticed Elsa stomping her foot repeatedly.

I realized that she was saying she was stomping out the sparkles.

Sparkles.

It took me a second to realize the "sparkles" was tingling in her foot.

It must have fallen asleep.

I like that.

Sparkly feet.

When they're asleep.

And now to continue my random train of thoughts...

My eating habits have relaxed a little more than I'd like recently.

And I have an extra 5lbs to prove it.

So, it's time to cut the carbs again.

This morning I made two salad dressings to have on hand for good quick salads.

The first is Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette 

These are the ingredients I used- that's sugar in a sugar bowl, in case you were wondering.

First things first, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS buy "FIRST COLD PRESSED" olive oil for salad dressings- or anything else not heated to a high temp.

I learned that's how you find the tasty olive oil when I studied in Italy.

And boy does it make a difference.

Kirkland has a good one that's reasonably priced- we go through this pretty quickly in our house.

Usually I throw together whatever I have on hand to use with this dressing.  Today was tomatoes, mini bell peppers, coleslaw cabbage, butter lettuce, some marinated onions (red onions sliced and sitting in a baggie with balsamic vinegar for a couple hours to a couple days) slivers of Dubliner cheese and two hard boiled eggs.

I'm at the end of my fresh groceries- ideally I'd have my marinated red onions, tomatoes, avocado, chicken, (maybe even some bacon), some type of strong cheese (blue, feta, Dubliner) and lots of fresh butter lettuce or romaine.

Also, I'm a sucker for a good Asian Noodle Salad .

Fortunately my friend Robin keeps me hooked up.

I've posted her Spicy Thai Noodle Salad before.

Now this one she shared with me this year.

These are the ingredients I had on hand to use today.

I make this dressing and try to have it on hand. Super quick salad with left over grilled chicken or steak with cabbage (often I cheat and use the coleslaw mix from the grocery store).

But do NOT use Kikkoman soy sauce from costco- way too salty.

I'm sorry that I made that mistake when I ran out of the low sodium sauce and was making this for a family.

Also, if I add noodles (I try to stay away from carbs) then I use Trader Joe's High Fiber Spaghetti.

Yes, I went through a phase when I was trying to consume 30 grams of fiber each day eating some nasty cardboard crackers (now used as fish bait at Ken Lake).

Now I'm just trying to eat whole foods with minimal carbs.

Five lbs can stick like super glue but I've learned that if you're persistent, even super glue can release it's hold when you keep at it.