hopeful

There's a whole lot keeping me from blogging these days, but nothing is going to stop me from taking a moment on this night to share the story of a very special birthday for a very special kid.

This guy.

This guy who, six years ago almost exactly to the minute as I write, came into the world and made me a mama. Today we celebrate Finn Kimbell, an extraordinary little man.

Finn is a kid who lives life fully. When talking to my parents last night, I used the word "zest," and it is so fitting. He is tremendously expressive, enormously enthusiastic about new things and experiences, and gets ridiculously excited about the littlest moments. I love this about him.

It was months ago that Finn came up with the idea for a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-themed party. It's the perfect match for him - he is that kid who walks into the Chocolate Room with eyes wide open, an enormous grin spread across his face, eager and ready to take it all in. He is my Charlie Bucket.

The party itself was great fun. We invited six friends from his Kindergarten class, three girls and three boys. The invites had Wonka bars printed on the front and golden tickets inside (which several of the kids brought to secure admission at the door). We played a few games, opened a few presents, and then...we ate chocolate.

We happen to be the proud owners of our own chocolate fountain. Got it on Kohl's clearance years and years ago and have gotten a ton of use out of it since. The fountain served as our chocolate waterfall, and my awesome husband lovingly recreated the Chocolate Room around it - lollipops, gumdrops, snow caps, gummi bears, you name it. I made two dozen pumpkin cupcakes that I frosted to look like the mushrooms in the movie, and Sean added those to the tablescape. It was fantastic:



My personal highlight? When Finn declared it the best party ever after saying goodbye to his last friend and gave us both hugs. Because he's that kid, too.

Happy birthday, Finn. So much love.

I'm convinced that the secret to a good theme party is the perfect font. I found this Willy Wonka font at dafont.com.

Table yummies

Child's eye view of the fountain

Soda water + fruit juice

Mushroom cupcakes

Party activity (take photos, make frames) + party favor

So a few weeks back, I attempted to make homemade breakfast bars with no success whatsoever. I really wanted to find a homemade alternative to processed snack bars - I find that when I am trying to eat healthily, I all too easily fall into the trap of purchasing granola bars and energy bars which - let's be honest - just aren't all that healthy and are far more expensive that the sum of their parts. I definitely have a sweet tooth, so while I appreciate the thousands of articles recommending that I snack on almonds or celery sticks, I need a little sugar to get me by, particularly in the afternoons.

I found this recipe referenced in a magazine that my husband's cousin Ami left at the house when we were in Helena. This is the perfect opportunity to give Ami a shout-out since she informed me that she checks my blog every morning for updates - how's that for loyalty? With deepest apologies for the long, silent weeks, Ami, I thank you for leaving behind that magazine which led me to this awesome recipe! You rock!

These are crazy good. You probably have everything you need to make them right now, so walk away from your computer and go do that. There is lots of information on substitutions, etc. on the original blog which is linked below. The only thing I changed from the original recipe is the amount of coconut - my first batch seemed a bit flaky, so I cut back.

Enjoy!



No-Bake Energy Bites
adapted from Smashed Peas and Carrots

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1 cup oatmeal

We're home. Sigh. It was a lovely, lovely vacation, filled with family and friends and beauty and happy kids.


When it comes to food, two things happen on the flip side of a vacation: we come home with a renewed commitment to healthy eating (generally brought on by weeks of microbrewed beer consumption and an "I'm on vacation" mentality), and we always come home to a fridge so empty it takes a good week to get it back to snuff. We've been home three days now, and I've spent a fair amount of energy on the latter. There are a few things we just always like to have in the fridge: staples, like milk and bread and cheese and eggs, and homemade items, like yogurt. Since we also came home to a vegetable garden two feet taller than the vegetable garden we left, Finn and I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon making pesto which found itself on whole wheat penne last night and will end up on a pizza later this week (while not a huge fan of packaged pizza dough, we're kind of crazy about the Pillsbury Artisan Whole Wheat Crust -- so good to have on hand!).

We ate a lot of hummus in Montana (I went to Costco for the very first time...wowzers!), but I really never tire of the stuff. It's great to have on hand when dinner isn't quite ready but the kids are already hungry. I liked the Costco stuff a lot (which is a good thing, since the container of it was ginormous), but I really like this easy recipe as well...it's super easy to throw together on a weekly basis. Feel free to add ingredients to your heart's content (olives, roasted red peppers, etc.) - I'm somewhat of a hummus purist, but you can easily customize this basic recipe.

Happy summer, all!

Quick Hummus

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1 16 oz. can chickpeas
~1/4 cup liquid from the can
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp tahini
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

Throw garlic cloves into the food processor and pulse to mince. Add the chickpeas, the lemon juice, the tahini, and the olive oil. Add a bit of the liquid from the can, then a bit more, until you reach the desired consistency. Once blended, add salt to taste.

The key ingredient here is the liquid from the can. I've tried lots of hummus recipes and could never get the texture quite right. This is super yummy, super economical, and super easy to throw together. Tahini is the only unusually ingredient; however, once you buy a jar to make this once, you'll have it on hand whenever you want to make more.