This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m getting back to reading paper books (instead of just listening to my favorite audiobooks), sharing the coolest social distancing 30th birthday party that we attended and taking about great options for breakfast on the go.
I find myself enjoying the smallest of routines lately. As hard as it is to have a routine during these ever-changing times.
- I wake up at 5am, do an hour of work before the kids wake up, and then:
- Have a cup of iced coffee
- Make the kids breakfast (lately it’s scrambled eggs or an applesauce muffin or heat up an eggless waffle I have in the freezer)
- Talk about the day ahead with Nick and then the craziness ensues.
- Look at the clock and realize it’s 1pm and my coffee is 1/2 full and room temperature and the house is a disaster and my to-do list is ever growing. Phew!
- Last week we only had 1 day of childcare, so our schedules were all over the place.
- This is what I let the kids do if i don’t have childcare and i need to cook dinner – ha, anyone else?
How are you holding up? Do you have any small routines you are enjoying?
New On The Blog:
- Tips for Having a Family Dinner – dinner time can be a struggle with kids, so I hope this post helps you out a bit!
- Kids Birthday Traditions – I loved hearing what other people did for birthday traditions, so I share some of those memories in this post too
- Catching up with the Kelnhofers – our weekly family updates from last week
- Tomato Cucumber Salad – the best summer side salad for any grilled dish.
- Love List – in week three of this super fun series, and I love how much you guys are loving the lists too!
What to Make:
A lot of times I hear people skipping breakfast because they are running out the door for one thing or another or just don’t know what to make in the moment (hey, my kids have me wondering the same thing when they’re demanding food and I’m not fully awake). Here are a few of my favorite brab ‘n go breakfasts so you’re never missing a meal:
- Eggless waffles – I make these in bulk and freeze them to heat and eat all week long.
- Quiche – this is another one that I prep for the freezer and reheat when I’m in a hurry. Packed with protein!
- Muffins are a great option when you’re in a hurry. I included some delicious recipes to make ahead of time (again, I freeze muffins and then just grab them and warm them for a super quick breakfast).
- Coffee – I can’t start the day without coffee and I always add in sweet cream to make it even tastier.
What I Made:
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Pizza night! Ok, this was so fun!
- I took my recipe for sourdough pizza crust and divided it to four.
- I let it sit in the fridge for 3 days
- Then, I stretched it carefully/thinly and baked it on a pizza stone in the oven (I put the pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper)
- It baked it at 500 for 7-9 minutes.
- And Viola, BEST oven pizza at home – it was so so good!!
- Ben piled FIVE pieces on his plate…he ate FOUR!
- I had gotten this set of 3, 4-inch cake pans and hadn’t really used them until recently. Now I use them all the time. For the kids’ birthday I made banana snack cake with Greek yogurt frosting and just poured the cake batter between the three pans. It was perfect.
- Then this past weekend, Ben wanted to make a chocolate cake. So, we picked a recipe (he flipped through Martha Stewart Cakes cookbook) – there’s a recipe for a ‘light chocolate cake’ that just so happens to be vegan and we make it all the time.
- We even drew out different decorating options and he choose which way he wanted to decorate the cakes (with M&Ms sprinkled all over) and then did a porch delivery to Nicks family.
- We made granola from my 5-ingredient cookbook (or I should say Ben made granola) and the twins went through the Tupperware drawer lol, then Ben joined in the fun (see pic above!).
- We also made mashed sweet potatoes from my Baby Food Cookbook.
Reader Comments:
I love writing these Family essentials posts and this comment about my – summer edition post makes me so happy to read!
- “Thanks for the sunscreen recommendation! I hate sunscreen to the point that I avoid the sun whenever possible. However, this sunscreen sounds do-able for my kiddo (and me, too!).”
Reader ReCreations:
We make this whole wheat pizza crust all the time at home, so I love seeing when readers like @jcs_curiouspalate use the recipe to make those delicious-looking pizzas.
Links from Around the Web:
- This is crazy – these are all cakes – jaw dropped at the chicken one.
Item from Amazon you didn’t know you needed:
Is it just me or do you find all sorts of things on Amazon that you never really needed? I tend to order things and end up absolutely loving them! Each week, I’ll share my favorite item I never knew I needed!
What I’m Reading:
- I started & finished The Flatshare. At one point in the book it was so good I did not want to stop listening to it and was thinking it was going to be one of my top 5/5 star picks from my audible listening list but the mid -and right before the end turned into more of just an ok to good book and my final rating would have to be 4/5 stars, 1/5 flames.
- I’m actually reading a physical book and I’m liking it – I’m thinking I might start reading more physical books again. Right now I’m reading a book called Only When It’s Us; very steamy and romancy.
What I’m Watching:
- We watched Palm Springs with Andy Samberg on Hulu (check out the trailer here). It was good, quirky and a little weird, but I liked it.
Personal Stories:
- One of my sisters-in-law celebrated her 30th birthday! What a neat thing they did for her party – they had a drive through (or stop by) social distancing popsicle party where they rented a popsicle truck and everyone got to enjoy the pops. They were so so good. Ben made her a card he was so proud to give her!
- We also made her back of the bag Ghirardelli brownies because she loves chocolate and those are the best brownies for chocolate lovers.
- The kids are very messy and into everything. We caught Frankie eating a crayon and had to pry it out of her hand and then I tried seeing what would happen if we fed the kids off of a plate…they’re not ready, lol. Freddie just dumped it on his face and laughed.
- A local library offers a kids craft in place of the story time activities they used to do. I’m so impressed and grateful. This week it was a contact paper flower garden craft. Ben loved making it. He always improvises and it’s fun so see his interpretation (remember his monster craft he made? and this awesome fish tank?)
- Ben gave his giant dinosaur a hug; it was adorable.
- The twins went into the kiddy pool for the first time! Freddie just wanted to keep crawling out and Frankie wanted to drink the water lol, but it was very cute and fun.
- Ben worked on a sticker book he got as a birthday present.
- I went with Ben to the Hatched drive through bakery – oh my goodness! It was so fun and good. And I loved seeing such a long line and support of a local business. Their take-and-bake pies are SO good and their cookies are too…really everything was so good, I couldn’t choose a favorite!
- The kids sure are lucky – they got MORE birthday presents. Homemade sun hats from an aunt, clothes and a truck from another aunt/uncle. Also, Cornell…ever heard of it? lol (
- Ben set up his dinosaurs to watch us making breakfast (eggless waffles).
- I tried fresh mint iced coffee from How Sweet Eats and it was so good.
Did you know?
I have a new recipe card on the website! I love the new look and hope you do too. But, it gets better – I now also have a ‘jump to recipe‘ feature? What that means is that you can simply click that button and head right to the bottom of the page to the recipe card.
Popular This Week:
- Most visited blog post: this simple and delicious scrambled egg recipe!
- Most liked Instagram post: a super summery peach and tomato panzanella salad image
- Most pinned image: this roundup of my favorite ground turkey recipes.
- Most viewed YouTube video: people are loving watching how to make some of my favorite cookies.
- Most purchased item: my favorite snack that I order 4 at a time from Target online.
How is your week going? How have you been doing? I’d love to hear, so just leave a comment below and let me know.
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