Making memories.
It would be our first travel trailer trip. Actually, the third trip for me and Janis together, the second trip with kids (actually the first was 4 years ago when Nelle was only 9 months old and she was the one and only kid: we visited our friends in Germany!). AND this is our first … More Our travel trailer trip through Europe
I’m 34 now (almost, at 8:30pm)! Well… I’m surprised! I can’t remember the birthday with mud and rain! It’s usually something between “Snow forever!” or “Wow, It’s getting pretty cold!”. I remember how half of my birthday guests didn’t arrive because of cold. It was -27C for a week and I turned 25 in that freezing winter. … More Birthday Girl: 34
Another tagine recipe from our kitchen is with minced pork. We are buying pork from local certified Organic farm Purmalas and cooking together with Latvian winter vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions. The same here I start this after a breakfast and it’s ready for lunch.
As you know I got my Tagine (I wanted for 3 years!) as a gift. A traditional Moroccan vegetable dish is cooked in Tagine but I wasn’t aiming for Moroccan style I wanted Tagine for slow cooking. With means: less liquid is needed overall and food cooks slowly until completely tender. And you also know that I … More Vegetable Tagine
Let start with the name. Is it travel trailer or is it camper!? Both words are fine with me! First family travel trailer trip through Europe vs First family camper trip through Europe. Ok, Ok! I can’t wait for it (the name doesn’t matter)! I’m so excited and the girls are too! It feels like it would … More Our travel trailer / camper
I’ve had such a short time together with my Tagine… Why? I loved it so much! I cooked in it twice a week (sometimes 4 days straight) but today.. today it has ended. Ended cause my Helmī (1 y 5 m) simply get it down from the table where I left it. I left it … More Tagine / Tajine food
It’s been a while since I saw a doe in my garden for the last time. Finally, they are here once again! I love these animals. They are so beautiful, majestic, and free animals! The way they are eating, the way they are jumping, the way they are walking. I love it! Our living room … More Visitors
Oh nice, this year I had a surprise. Flowers on a kitchen table! Not expected at all! We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. We don’t need to! We love each other every day and we aren’t spending money on things and flowers.Encouraging, Inspiring and making laugh. Helping each other, forgiving and being together. Growing our girls together. Not dividing … More Surprise: Valentine’s Day
We visited our doctor when the first “look like chicken pox” showed up. And she said it is an allergy! We won’t believe her and the reason is: We eat at home and usually I plan, prepare and cook our meals and it is 20 recipes repeating; Most of our food are organic or from local … More Mistical Allergy
I love instant noodle meals. BUT. The lack of nutrients and high amounts of salt and saturated fat and several unhealthy ingredients keeps these meals away from my plate. Another issue for me is they are packaged in Styrofoam, which contains a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is known to interfere with how hormones … More Homemade Ramen with Mushrooms & Boiled Eggs
We bought set of wooden blocks for girls to play a few years ago. They still use them when playing with other wooden sets but not that much anymore. I don’t like throw away toys (nor other things!). That old set has cubes in it and now it’s time to use them again. Since Nelle (will be … More Wooden Cubes Pattern set
Yesterday we had s busy day by making and using popsicle stick pattern cards. I found few popsicle stick pattern cards on the Internet for Nelle to try out. Every new card was greeted with such an enthusiasm and happy face ready to start to match the pattern on the card with the colored popsicle sticks… After … More Popsicle stick pattern cards
All my girls are home cause I’m still not sure if Helmī (>1 year old) has Chicken pox or not! We visited doctor yesterday and she said it is not the Chicken pox but she can’t say what it is!!! The diagnose was “Unknown allergic reaction”. OK, I might say it is fine – we ate few kiwis … More Chicken pox?
Last two days are busy for me. My two bigger girls are having a day off from kindergarten. For them, it’s sleep til 9:30 am and having fun all day without napping! And going to bed at 11:30 pm. For me, it’s a had time especially when it comes when I’m not prepared! And by … More Who’s working and who’s having day off
Tagine is here! I’m so happy to receive this! I couldn’t wait to have it. My first “maybe I need it” was 3 years ago. Then I couldn’t decide how big I want and what style. We have a lovely store in Riga – Muhamors and you can take a look at all the beautiful tagines … More Happy Mail Day #2: Tagine / Tajine
I’ve got half of pumpkin in my fridge this morning. I should make something out of it or it will be wasted. I wanted something satisfying and delicious but without sugar, so the pumpkin puree cookies wasn’t an option. So I made Pumpkin end Lentil cream soup without cream. There is no need to add … More Pumpkin & Lentil soup
This is something that I end up with a few days ago. This dish supposed to be a vegetable risotto… How I ended up with curried Bulgur Pilaf? I listened to myself. Took the carrots out of the fridge.. and onion from an onion basket… then rice…no.. this time I want bulgur.. ok.. how about chickpeas? … More Curried Bulgur Pilaf with chickpea & vegetables
Today is my name day. When I was a child I loved name days and always got a small present or flowers from my mom. When I started to work we celebrate “National day of Ilze” with the collages. There are lot’s of Ilze in Latvia (Jānis is even more popular!). A bit of a statistics: Resident … More Nameday
Can you find the bird in the picture bellow? So small, so quick and likes to look under our old pine trees bark. I think it is Eurasian treecreeper (oh, what a name!). I hope you find it! Never seen before. But maybe the reason is excellent camouflaging technic and teeny-weeny size of it! Nice, I … More Eurasian treecreeper
Lentils. I know, I know.. there is more then one kind of lentils out there! Which ones am I using for the soup!? Red. Red!? Yes, red! I don’t know all those kinds of lentils. Lentils don’t grow here in Latvia and I’m not the expert of lentils. Just stick with colours! This recipe is … More Lentil and Tomato Soup
We are getting ready for our FFTTTTE (First Family Travel Trailer Trip Through Europe… I should change it to Trailer Trip!)… That includes buying some books for me and girls. I ordered few cook books for me and activity books & cards for girls from BookDepository.com in a case of rainy days or long drives! I hope there … More Happy Mail Day #1
Maca. The first time I heard about Maca was few month ago.. Now I start my day with Mocachino and feel energised. I don’t need coffee anymore. OK, I’m not saying that I quit coffee. Just don’t feel I need it every morning and afternoon. Now I have another recipe. I found this one at … More Maca energy balls
This soup is something I made in late autumn 2016… When friend of us brought us 3 extra large pumpkins and said – I have more! Thank you, Aivars! Now I have few pumpkin recipes for my pumpkin haters to cook. Why am I saying haters? Let me explain… When Janis and I first started to live … More Pumpkin, Napa Cabbage and pasta soup
Each of the seasons is special with something different. Coldest months of the year are usually January and February when temperature sometimes fall even to -30° C, but usually no longer than a few days and average temperature in Latvia winter is around -6° C. -Discover Latvia This is what Discover Latvia says about winter in … More Winter in Latvia
Macachino. So, what is Macachino (in my family!)? It’s a super drink I choose when I’m not in the mood for coffee… and it happens very often lately! I used to drink coffee two times per day. White american coffee (I didn’t know there is coffee and american coffee until I asked for coffee in Italia) … More Maca & Cacao drink or Macachino
I wish my kids can help with laundry! My wish was granted! I found instructions for super cool t-shirt folder made out of cardboard in the Facebook few days ago! I was sceptic as all the Latvians are (yes, most of Latvians are sceptic for new things!). This is my first time using something like that. I … More DIY: T-Shirt folder for kids
One day my mom told me that she don’t like Sundays evenings.. I think it was Sunday evening…. Especially when the sun goes down… Sounds terribly wrong for me and so I asked… WHY?! When she was a child she felt sad every Sunday evening. It doesn’t matter if it’s summer or winter.. spring or … More Sunday evening…
I’ve just sharpened 71 colored pencils (is it colored or coloured!?)!!!! 71! 71!! I did it using Prism (manual, pocket) sharpener! The simplest and the oldest variant of all the sharpeners….. Yes, that one! For each one of the 71 pencils! Why we have such a big amount of pencils!? Where did they came from!? Wait a minute!!? I haven’t bought any of … More 71 colored pencils
We had an interview for the local magazine. So. I waited for the manuscript so I can help with IT terminology. Redactor is a middle age woman that don’t know anything about computers (that’s what she said when heard that i’m also from THOSE). So.. I waited.. and waited… and today Janis gave me the newspaper. … More Manuscript… where is it!?
This was super nice and relatively quiet in our house tonight. Only Helmī was crying from 6:03am till 7:41am. I can’t get back to sleep anymore…. Long story short. Janis is super-dad! He spends all his “free” time together with them. Paying, tickling and doing some “kids aero yoga” (that’s how I call it!). They have such a … More From 6:03 till 7:41
Today we (me, my mother and kids) went outside for some fresh-air activities. As Helmī was tired and grumpy we decide to put her in the baby stroller, pack here nice and tight and go for the walk. We went outside and the weather looked nice and sunny. But when we went around the corner the wind blowed … More Following the rabbit tracks!
For the first time in 5 years – I slept in (I’m not sure about the right definition here… Overslept… Neah!) Let me explain. My dear mother is with us right now. I woke up at 10am. Some may say that it is not “slept in” if you have to get to work.. it’s overslept! Maybe. But … More I slept in!
Today we gave an interview for the local magazine. Usually I’m not the one who likes to be in magazines. I simply don’t wanna be popular. (Be real, you can’t get popular by giving an interview in local magazine!). …all started at the end of November 2016 when someone wrote me in the Facebook by claiming that … More Interview for a magazine
For me, it’s surviving… After the nights like this (and those mornings when you woke up at 5am and can’t fall asleep anymore) I defiantly don’t drink a coffee. Why? First things first. I got several panic attacks few month ago. That was my first time but my husband suffered from panic attacks 10 years ago … More Surviving the day after a restless night
Sometimes being a mom means you have to be up at night and you can’t sleep in a day either. After 4 years of being mom, it’s getting harder and harder… But tell me why I couldn’t fall asleep last night!? Girls were sleeping! All of them were!! No need for me till 7:40am… but I … More Up till 5am
I woke up and opened my eyes.I couldn’t believe what I saw!I got up and walked to the window…And there it was — a foggy winter morning. The girls were still asleep, so I grabbed my camera and rushed outside. Okay… not before putting on my down coat, scarf, hat, and mittens! 🙂 Today reminded … More Foggy Winter Morning
I wanted to share this moment captured in our old apple garden—it’s not something we were used to seeing! Just a year ago, around this time, our view was filled with cars and crowds in Riga. Now, we’re surrounded by nature and friendly animals. I feel truly blessed to be here with my family, enjoying … More Our New Friend
This is my twist on a classic tomato sauce—perfect with vegan pasta, of course! It’s flavorful, simple to make, and always a hit at our dinner table. According to Wikipedia:“Tomato sauce is any of a very large number of sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish (rather than … More Homemade Tomato Sauce for Pasta
Wiki: Lavash (Armenian: լավաշ; Persian: لواش; Turkish: lavaş) is a soft, thin flat bread of Armenian origin, popular in the Caucasus, Iran, and Turkey. This recipe is super simple—only 5 ingredients plus Lavash! One bowl, fresh, guilt-free, and no extra salt added. You’ll either love it or not—let’s see… Serves: 2 Ingredients: Directions: Enjoy! Ilze
These are for my mom — she’s turning 60 this October!The idea of including chocolate in the invitations came to me over the summer. I bought a small Latvian chocolate bar (Laimas “Luks”) and started designing a glamorous outer cover to turn it into a sweet and elegant invitation. I’m really happy with how they … More 60th Birthday Invitations with Chocolate inside
This Saturday, I finally finished making the invitations for my daughter Nelle’s very first BIG birthday! Envelopes: Invitations: This time I chose white and pink, even though I usually prefer cream instead of white — it’s just more my style. But unexpectedly, this color combo turned out beautifully! I’m really happy with how everything came … More Invitations for Nelles 1st birthday
a day in the life of a latvian mom 