I just wanted to say thank you to all the wonderful women who have written posts for my series on Latter-day Saint Women around the World. It has been so much fun for me to read and share them… not to mention it has been such a help to have a series of pre-prepared posts so that I haven’t had to worry about keeping my blog going while having a newborn. So thank you so much. I look forward to sharing the rest of the wonderful submissions I’ve gotten!
The other day when I was loading all three of my kids into their car seats (which miraculously do all fit into the back of our car) I got thinking about how nice it must have been back in the days when they didn’t have car seats. No straps to fuss with, not belts to untangle– just throw the kids in and go! But then I started thinking more about it and realized that not having car seats or seat belts would mean that the kids could, and would, wander, jump and crawl all over the car. How did people drive with chaos like that going on? And what did they use to do with infants? Just lay them on the seat and hope they didn’t roll off? Really, how in the world did our grandmothers manage riding in cars without car seats?
This one of my favorite paintings of all time. It is called “Nativity” by Brian Kerkisnick (click the picture to view it bigger). I saw it once several years ago and it is stunning in real life, 17 feet long X 7 feet high! I can’t even begin to say how much I LOVE this painting. It is my favorite depiction of the Nativity because it seems the most realistic. Mary breastfeeding Jesus, Mary attended by two midwives, the angels pressing down to see– young and old, the dog with her puppies in the stable, and Joseph overwhelmed and awe. It also reminds me of this post, which I’ve linked to before but really love.
Someone informed me that the original of this painting is hanging up at BYU’s Museum of Art right now, so if you happen to live around Provo, Utah make sure you go over and see it. It is so beautiful.
I’d like to try adding some more variety to my family’s breakfast diet but sadly my knowledge of breakfast dishes includes: cold cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, french toast, waffles, oatmeal and cream of wheat– all of which we are TIRED of. I really need some new ideas. What does your family like to eat for breakfast? Do you have any good breakfast recipes to share?
Just a heads up, there won’t be a Five Things for Friday post next week. We will be traveling to visit family instead. I can’t wait to see them and introduce them to our new baby! Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas as well!
If you want to link to your own “Five Things for Friday” post you can use the tool below to add your link. 1) Please link to the URL of your blog post and not your main blog and 2) Please include a link back here.
Regarding transporting babies, I saw in a movie once a baby put into a basket and then in the car, but that would only work for about six months or so. I like in the painting how it really looks like Mary just had a baby, all sweaty and tired. I don't care for the pictures of a fresh-looking Mary, like having a baby, whether partially from heaven or not, is a walk in the park. Merry Christmas!
Hi Heather
Great Post
Breakfast is my favorite meal, how about a Breakfast makeover, with what you already have.
You can make a simple breakfast casserole with crumbled sausage, an egg,milk and cheese base with a biscuit crust on the bottom.Canned biscuits for the crust. You could make a French toast cassorole by arranging the bread (buttered) in a shallow dish,season with cinnamon,pour custard mix (eggs,milk sugar) over toast, bake in 300 degree oven for 30-40 min when cassarole will "set up" and brown. You can surprise your kids with "fried" chicken tenders and waffles. Its all good
I like to mix up breakfast with the fruit I serve. Your menu sounds a lot like ours 🙂 but I like to have fruit – strawberries, blueberries, bananas, oranges, etc. just having some different fruit with whatever we eat (cereal, pancakes, etc) helps keep things interesting – especially because we don't ALWAYS have fruit – sometimes we'll go a few days/weeks without much fruit for breakfast. More because I am lazy/forgetful than because we don't want to have fruit all the time.
One of our favorite breakfast foods is related to pancakes/eggs – preheat the oven to 415, put a little over half a stick of butter in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish and stick it in the oven to melt. Mix up 6 eggs, 1 c milk, and 1 c flour and pour it into the melted butter. Cook for about 15 min then serve like pancakes (my favorite topping is jam/jelly or applesauce). Growing up we called this "quick breakfast" my husband's family called it "hoot-n-nanny" but I have heard it called German pancakes, oven pancakes, etc – it doesn't matter what you call it. I think it is fabulous. My four year old can eat half of the pan all by himself so if I am feeding my hubby too I have to double it 🙂
My first breakfast suggestion was the recipe Becca gave; our family called it Dutch Babies. My daughter doesn't like traditional breakfast foods, so in the past little while she's had leftover pasta casserole, soup, plain fruit, cinnamon biscuits, toast (my grandfather's daily routine included peanut butter on whole wheat for breakfast), a quesadilla, or a smoothie before leaving for seminary. We're always trying to come up with something besides pancakes, eggs or cereal!
Here's my link for this week:
http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/12/35-weeks-free-games-and-more.html
We're pretty boring for breakfast (and can't do eggs, plus have to bake from scratch due to eggs being in everything) so we do cereal, yogurt, coco wheats, oatmeal, or pancakes.
We love breakfast around here. Some ideas: yogurt with fruit and granola, green smoothies, egg sandwiches (on toast, english muffins, or biscuits with cheese and meat if you want. And I must mention that I hate fried eggs so I just scramble my egg and pour it into a small skillet with a little butter to cook.) We also like cinnamon-raisin biscuits, muffins of all kinds, easy carmel rolls (in a 9×13 pan: 1 c. cream , 1 c. brown sugar, 2 cans of small biscuits cut in half and layered ontop of brown sugar. Bake at 375 (I believe) for 30-40 minutes til done and invert on a platter or cookie sheet- this one is a sunday morning treat for us.), Quick cinnamon loaf (slice a loaf of french bread in half the long way. In a small saucepan combine 1/3 c. butter, 1/3 c. brown sugar, 2 t. cinnamon, grating of nutmeg, and 1/4 t. lemon peel. Brush mixture on halves, then put loaf back together, wrap in foil and bake at 400 for 8 minutes.) and one of our very favorites is baked oatmeal (recipe at ourbestbites.com). Hope that helps and Merry Christmas!!
I've sure enjoyed reading the Latter-day Saint Women around the world series! Such a wonderful idea, Heather.
We LOVE breakfast around here. Many times we have it for dinner too. Others have already mentioned German Pancakes or Dutch Babies (they are the same thing). Those are wonderful with apple pie filling.
We also like having biscuits, crepes, hashbrowns with our eggs and bacon, elephant eyes (bread with the middle cut out using a biscuit cutter then place on a griddle, crack an egg in the hole, cook on both sides), muffins, coffee cake, cornbread. The list goes on…..
This is one of my families favorites:
http://veggielovinfriends.blogspot.com/2010/06/burton-breakfast-hash.html
So filling, and so delicious!
I've enjoyed your series and loved reading about LDS women around the world. That painting is really neat- I especially love how Mary looks realistically tired! I just posted about another nativity painting that I love- http://hollythehomemaker.blogspot.com/2011/12/favorite-christmas-painting.html
Have you ever tried putting wheat berries in the crock pot with some fruit and such? I hear it's really good but haven't tried it yet.
I have no breakfast suggestion…we eat oatmeal everyday, with an occasional breakfast of pancakes…
I also really like that picture of the nativity. I used to see it frequently while pregnant with my #3, because my midwife had it hung in her office…. Which, by the way, I think she's the same midwife as you had for Asher…
I have also loved your lds women around the world series. I'm glad you thought of it. 🙂
Thanks for your LDS women around the world…I have loved those posts too. Have fun visiting your family!! I loved it when we were small enough to still do that. The bigger we have gotten the less traveling we do. Now the grandparents come to see us! Ah Breakfast…love it. Seems most people have given you the ideas we use. Sometimes we will also make cinnamon rolls or bagels the night before. Breakfast cake and muffins are probably our favorite…at least they are for the current breakfast cook 🙂 (Our 12 year old.)
We buckled them in and hoped for the best. At a stoplight once, my oldest daughter opened the car's backdoor. She was 1. They did climb all over and we were forever hollering SIT DOWN. I love car seats as cumbersome as they are.
For breakfast we like green smoothies. We also eat miso soup everyday. We buy South River Miso through mail order. I've liked miso soup for many years but wheat and soy issues forced me to seek out alternatives. What a serendipitous find! The flavor and texture of this brand say 'old world is better.' After researching miso for its health benefits, I don't eat miso soup occasionally anymore. Studies at Nagasaki indicate it is protective against radiation sickness and cancer–possibly because of its alkalizing nature. It is nourishing and full of probiotics, which build the immune system. I chop 2 shitake mushrooms, mince a bit of green onion, ribbon cut a few leaves of spinach, add 1 t. dulse or a bit of ribbon cut nori, a spoon of brown rice, and 1/3 of a small red pepper into my oversized mug and pour 1 c. boiling water over. In a separate dish, I mix 1 1/2 t. chick pea, adzuki, red pepper miso, or a combination with 3/4 c. room temp distilled water and a dab of chili paste. I take a couple spoons of hot soup and pour it over the miso, then mix the miso into the soup. Now I don't feel hungry at all between meals. All that in less than 3 minutes and only 20 calories. This is why Japanese women are slender and bright eyed.
Oh, we also eat a lot of steel cut oats (WAY better than rolled or quick oats in my opinion) and millet for breakfast. I love whole grains!
here's some more ideas for breakfast I came across! Happy eating
http://keepyourdietreal.com/food/news/10-healthy-breakfasts-in-10-minutes-or-less/
For got the link!
Saw these breakfast ideas earlier this week…can't wait to try the breakfast quinoa
http://thischickcooks.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-about-some-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
Wow! I LOVE that painting. Thanks for sharing, love the expression of Joseph. Beautiful!
I enjoyed the LDS women series too 🙂 Thanks so much!