Loving my baby

I was just watching the most recent episode of "Parenthood" on NBC when the lawyer Braverman talks to the coffee girl about how she feels so embarrassed about having asked if she could adopt the coffee girl's baby. The coffee girl starts crying and says the reason she said no was because she would like a closed adoption. She says it's hard enough already and handing the baby over to someone that she knows and likes would just be too much for her to handle. Of course I cried. I cry at everything these days.

Having known several people who have had fertility issues, I feel I am especially sensitive to NOT asking married couples when they're planning on having a baby or when a couple will be starting on #2 - anything related to "why are you not walking around barefoot and pregnant 24/7?". It never really occurred to me that may be I shouldn't ask people who are currently pregnant any questions either. I immediately flashed back to my picking up a to go order from a restaurant a few weeks ago. The bartender was pregnant and I asked her when she was due. She didn't seem at all excited about being pregnant or that there is another little one on the way. She did tell me she already has a boy and this one is a girl so she's hoping a girl will be more.........well...I can't remember the exact word she used. I'm sure it was a form of subdued. She said her boy likes to be outside ALL.OF.THE.TIME and it's SOOOO annoying to her.....She was hoping the daughter would want to stay inside and play barbies in her room

How boring. I know I'm not the only parent who feels this way, but I was pretty put off. I'm so over the parents who are so bothered by being a parent - especially when they continue on to have a 2nd or 3rd. I have an employee who was completely incensed that the state was forcing him to provide his 2 year old with healthcare coverage. He has it for himself, of course, but God forbid he enroll his daughter who doesn't have any other coverage!

I just have to say, I feel so blessed and lucky to not only have such a great baby, but a great husband who loves the baby as much as I do. When he wants to go outside and look at the ducks he has seen no less than 800 times already? We go and we crack up at how excited he gets! As he's "aged" he went from squeals of joy, to grunts and points, to calling them with kisses, talking to them with quacks, to now trying to get as close as possible squatting and calling them with kisses as you would a dog. When he wants to swing at the park for so long that he begins to fall asleep, we continue to snap pictures. My sister makes fun of me because I have a 75 page photo book averaging 6 pictures per page from birth-5 months old of his life. I've TRIED to cut out some, but truth be told, I have more I want to put in there! I can't bear to delete ANY pictures from my computer even though they're all backed up on Shutterfly. I love to play with him, to engage, and I would be lying if I wasn't happy that he liked movies now. It's nice to be able to put Horton Hears a Who on the tv and sit with him or be able to cook dinner and still talk to him. He still comes running in to tell me there's a WOOOO on tv, even though we both already know that. I adore every.single.second I have with him and I KNOW my husband feels the same way. He can't bear to not kiss the baby before we go to bed every night even though the he's sound asleep. He stares at him and asks "Dean! How did you get to be SO CUTE?!?!?" Of course Dean says "momma" haha! just kidding. Anyway. With a face like this, how could someone NOT be madly in love?

Dinner last night?

ahh-maahhz-ing. Said like Penny from Happy Endings - what? you don't know that show or how she says it? Sorry for you, but it's hilar.

Our pork sammies ended up to be delish. Even the baby ate almost an entire half of a shredded pork on a hoagie bun sammie. We did have to put extra BBQ sauce on there, but I'm proud to say that this week I've tried a few new recipes and they've all turned out to be keepers! Even the leftover broccoli, onion combo meal turned into a pretty badass breakfast today! I scrambled an egg and put it in with the leftovers, brought it to work, warmed it after I finished my coffee and felt like I was having a sinful breakfast, but really it was a veggie delight. I took out the leftover beef strips and threw them to the dogs. Lit-rally.

Today's food log is as follows:

Breakfast - above detailed ah-mahhh-zing veggie scramble.
Morning snack - carrots
Lunch - the hubster george foremaned up some salmon last night for us to enjoy with salad today. He was going to BBQ it, but turns out the unsupervised child at some point turned the gas to "low" and the propane was gone. Super parenting. I took out the last of the pre-portioned lettuce containers and set the salmon next to it to determine what else should go with the salad. Since this was week 1 of healthy eating, I was out of cucumber. So I decided we'd each eat 1 roma tomato (I bought 4 for the week thinking I would eat them all by my lonesome since the hubby claims to hate tomatoes, but he informed me I picked some winners and they weren't all smooshy and slimey - his technical terms - so I would be "allowed" to continue use of said maters). ok, so roma tomatoes, black olives, and that's all he wanted. I threw in some cubed mozzarella for myself. shoot - I had garbanzo beans I could have used too! Anyway - he tossed some cajun seasoning onto his salmon after he took it off of the foreman, but I don't like that shiz, so I sprinkled some sesame seeds onto my salad and some all spice onto the salmon.
Afternoon snack: almonds and yogurt covered pretzels
Dinner: TBD - we're going to his boss' house and I heard mention of wine and pizza.

Yesterday and last night I was really craving snacks. I totally wasn't hungry, but I just felt like munching. I also kept thinking I should get some suckers or something, but then I remembered there is so much sugar there that going that way probably isn't a good choice....I kept popping in pieces of gum but that wasn't helping anything. I did have a few bite sized candy bars yesterday - my warehouse guy brought them to me and I couldn't resist.

I haven't had any wine on Tues, Wed, or Thurs. Tonight I'm going to have a glass or 2, but I'm sure I'll end up driving so my husband can drink - it's usually the other way around, but, it's his boss not mine. I have to make a grocery list today and stick to the $80 I have left over from my budget. remember the $16 to stupid Sprouts?! That + $4 for the baby's lunch at school today. It feels lazy not to pack his lunch, but they offer pizza and fruit for lunch on Fridays only and he LOVES "eeesssaaa" so I feel so conflicted! I let him have pizza today.

what day is it??

It's only Thursday and my motivation is already sort of slipping away. I know it's stupid, but I feel fatter today than I did on Monday. I've gone a few days with no booze and eating rabbit food all day and not even having treats at night with hubby! That a-hole has probably already lost like 20 pounds. Guys suck hairy balls when it comes to weightloss

Last night that chili turned out to be amazeballs. I brought some for lunch today, but my boss offered me In N Out, so of course I took that instead. The way I figure, my lunch was juuuust about under 500 calories. http://www.in-n-out.com/pdf/nutrition_2008.pdf According to the nutrition menu, my double double with no onions and most of the cheese scraped off (I don't like to ask for "one cheese, please" because I feel like that's taking it too far when I've already gone with the super secret protein style in the first place), I should be able to squeeze in just under 500 calories. I also didn't order fries. I DID eat some of my boss' fries on the way back to the office, but that's my little secret. I also skipped the soda and kept with my sugar free, pure cranberry juice with water mixture. After my satisfying lunch, I promptly polished off my snack size baggie with exactly 1 serving of yogurt covered pretzels (courtesy of Sprouts and part of my $16 bill). I'm not hungry. I feel fat and lazy.

Tonight I am making shredded pork sandwiches. Unfortunately, it's not my favorite, so why did I even decide to put that on the menu for the week?!?!? It's covered in BBQ sauce which I'm sure is awesome for the "diet". I put it in the crockpot, poured a can of beer over it, dumped about 3/4 of the bottle of BBQ sauce, sprinkled on some paprika, cumin, garlic salt and corriander. I ended up pouring a cup of water in as well since the meat didn't look covered enough to me.

I'm going to stop for some fresh rolls before I pick up the baby. I was going to do that at lunch, but again... I had In N Out.

Next week? We start exercising

Kill me now

Day 3

The morning was a little hairy. It doesn't seem to matter if I wake up 45 minutes before scheduled departure or an hour and 45 minutes before...I"m always running late during the week. This is why I try and do as much as I can to prepare the night before.

Last night I prepared our salads. I took out our pre-packed lettuce and took stock of what I had left in the fridge. I had defrosted a little chicken, so I tossed that on the George Foreman. That took like 7 minutes but I had that cooking while I was putting everything else together. I cut up the other half of my cucumber, divided that into 2 containers, peeled 2 hard boiled eggs, removed the yolk and cut one up for each container, cut up 2 roma tomatoes and put one in each, put some slivered almonds into a mini container so they wouldn't get mushy and waited for the chicken to cool so I could put that in too. Here's the 1/2 way completed salad sans chicken and dressing. I put the dressing in a mini container as well so hubby wouldn't have to carry an entire bottle back and forth.

I also packed him a snack baggie of carrots, one serving of yogurt covered pretzels and some fresh strawberries. For breakfast, he ate a banana and a cliff bar

For my snacks, I went with the 1 serving of Triscuts and cheese again, carrots, and strawberries. My breakfast today was another green smoothie. I thought it tasted good again, but a little watery. I wonder what it would taste like with a little nonfat plain yogurt??

Last night I also pulled out the crock pot. Wednesdays and Thursdays going forward WILL be crock pot meals or something like we had last night that can happen really quickly. Once I pulled the crockpot, for this chicken chili recipe that I got from Pinterest, I pulled the ingredients

I guess I forgot to put the taco seasoning packet in there... As you can see I have the chopped onion in a bag that I chopped while prepping the broccoli/onion recipe. And the chicken is in the fridge....where it should be...not contaminating the air with it's rawness. I'm going to make cornbread to go with it. We have sour cream and cheese if needed also. I'm not sure of the calorie content, but I do know that I'm glad I didn't make all 5 days of packed lettuce for salads for me because there is going to be A LOT left over!

Day 2 dinner

These were the ingredients I used to make this broccoli/onion concoction meal I told you about yesterday. I didn't take an after picture, but it looks really similar to how the website shows it. Bottom line was that the meal was delish. SHOCKINGLY good. I was anticipating going through the night craving candy and chips or bread or something because I knew I'd barely pick at this bowl of onions and leeks to eat only the broccoli. Not the case. phew. The only thing I would change for next time is to use either chicken or shrimp because I didn't care for the texture of the beef.

Now, if I was better at life and blogging I'd be able to tell you exactly how long this recipe took from beginning to end, but I'm not. So, we'll estimate. I took everything out and set it up for that moderately nice photo. That took no time at all. I then chopped the leek and put it into a bowl. I didn't know how much broccoli to use so I estimated and ended up using nearly 2 crowns (I figured I liked broccoli and I would need plenty to pick out). I then chopped an onion. I looked at the clock and after those 3 things were done, it had been just about 4 minutes. I then decided to chop an onion for dinner the following night. I then stood around for a minute wiping the tears from my eyes and yelling "How you doin, baby? you watchin the WOOOs??" (For those not 'in the know', "woos" are elephants) and "How ya doin, pumpkin? You need anything? You ok?" then thinking to myself "what the fuck am I doing - why can't I be more organized so I don't have to plant my kid in front of the boob tube during the last few minutes of light we have?!?!" So then I took out a measuring cup and realized since my toddler likes to play with measuring cups, my 1/2 c was missing. I like pine nuts, so I measured out 3/4c.

While we're on the topic of pine nuts, I'd like to give you a quick PSA. The pinenuts I told you about previously -that I saw at Trader Joe's for the rapist price of $7.99? Turns out that's a good price. Who knew. After the baby and I stopped the car at the ATM at 4:52 yesterday, we deposited mommy's paycheck and took out $100 for groceries for a week. We're going on a food diet and a money diet. I digress. Then we walked over to Henry's which I have discovered is the exact same thing as Sprouts because the Henry's sign was taken down and there was a banner that said something like "Different name, same great something-or-other" with a Sprouts logo under. Inside, everything was labeled "Sprouts". Fine. So we found the feta. $3.99. I can't remember the exact cost at Trader Joe's, but I feel like there may have been one a little less than that. I had to search for one at that price though - most of what I saw was $6 and up. for SIX OUNCES! WTF?! ok, so then we found the bulk pine nuts. I immediately started to freak and wonder "umm should I be getting raw or toasted???" so off we went in search of packaged pine nuts.

I finally stopped to ask a stocker. "Excuse me, could you tell me where to find pine nuts?"

him "We have bulk...over there"

me "Yes - I found those, but I was looking for packaged...Do you not have packaged? orrrr....."

him "ummm... Well, you know if you buy packaged you're paying for the packaging, right???"

me "yes. I realize that but I was looking for toasted pine nuts and there aren't any of those in bulk" (plus I secretly DID want to check the price comparison)

him "oh. ummm uhhhh"

me "nevermind. I'll just get the bulk"

him "sounds good!"

Not to me it doesn't, but whatever dude. So back to the bulk we went and had to get a package of yogurt pretzels for the baby because I didn't want to get arrested for giving him one out of the bulk, which I can only assume would have been cheaper since there is no packaging. Anyway, the pine nuts? Must be rare or exotic or something. Those suckers were OVER $20 a pound!!!! So I got a small bag: here is a picture next to the "6oz" of feta I got

These 4 items at Henry's/Sprouts?

Cost me $16.00 even. Almost 1/5 of my total weekly grocery budget.

oh ...back to dinner... quickly. It was so fast. I did the onions as suggested in the recipe until a little brown then I tossed in the meat - I think those 2 things took about 10 mins total, then I tossed in the broccoli, leek, and pine nuts, sprinkled on the spices and stirred it around for just a few minutes! Under 5! Then I poured the egg whites over and it was done in another 3 minutes or so. I can say without a doubt this is a less than 30 minute meal. May be even less than 20. Healthy and yummy. can't beat that. We'll be bringing this into the rotation.

Day 2

So last night after our grocery store sushi dinner, I set out to prep our lunches for today. I vowed to get up earlier than I had on Monday so that I could make a smoothie for breakfast. I got out 2 of the pre-packed lettuce containers and since I had not defrosted chicken as previously planned because I"m a scatterbrained mother who runs around like a chicken with no head, I decided it was tuna salads for day #2.

One day, I'll get better about putting pictures in this thing. For now, this is what I managed to snap. This is what you get - you'll like it and not complain like greedy bitches. You're welcome.

Ok, so today, I put 1/2 can tuna, 1/4 sliced (into quarters) cucumber, a little less feta, and some black olives in my secondary container used for toppings. I also brought along my ripe avocado, which didn't make the cut in the photo shoot and in a teeny container I put almond slivers - I didn't want them to get soggy. As you can see, I also packed some carrots for snack. I also neglected to bring my handy dandy triscuts and cheese over for the picture. I put 6 Triscuts in a snack bag and put 4 small slices of colby jack cheese in another. Turns out this was a smart change from bringing everything with me to the office because after I polished those off, I was ready to eat 100 more. I wasn't HUNGRY but I wanted to eat more. This girl loves food.

For breakfast, I also woke up early enough to shower make a smoothie (don't judge. I did also make breakfast for the kiddo and got him dressed and ready to go to school) Tomorrow I'll have to get up early enough to do both. Anyhooo, I put a good sized handful of spinach in the blender, a frozen banana (I always over estimate the number of bananas that will be consumed in our house and I can't bear to throw them away when they're brown and spotty, so I break them in half and freeze them), some fresh strawberries, like 5 frozen mango chunks, and I had a skosh of pink lemonade left so I poured that in with some water. I had to hit chop a few times, but I ended up with the liquefy setting until I was satisfied I wouldn't be ingesting soggy, liquidey (technical term), spinach leaves. I was a trooper and gave the baby a sip before I took one. If he would eat it, so could I. He promptly sucked down the little amount I gave him, ditched the oatmeal and asked for more? more? more? I took my own sip and whaddya know?! It tasted like a strawberry smoothie! you DEFINITELY have to get past the dingy green look of the smoothie, but the taste was great! I swear- you could NOT taste the spinach! I SWEAR!


Right now I'm about to go dig out the carrots and tonight I'm going to attempt this broccoli recipe. SHIT! I just noticed I'm going to have to buy more feta! I think I've bought feta like 3 times in my life and now I'm buying a 2nd container in a week! I hate going to the market after work after going to the atm all with a toddler. It's not very efficient getting in and out of the car - nothing is a "quick stop" anymore. Anyway, the hubby is DYING to try this and I already bought the broccoli, weird leeks (I'm not even remotely close to wanting to use these things), onion, and eggs. Looks like I'm going to have to be on the hunt for those pine nuts too. I saw some at Trader Joe's, but that little bag was freakishly pricey! $7.99! I thought I could find them for less $$ but I was unsuccessful. I hope the stir fry style beef I bought tastes good in this concoction. Oh and if you're wondering? My body and I both despise peppers, so those are not on the list to get into the dinner.

May be I should take some pictures so I can do a before and after. that would be sufficiently humiliating. and may be a little motivating....I should probably also start counting calories or something too.

No wine tonight. NO WINE.

I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow

And so it begins.

The hubs and I have decided to embark on a trip to skinnyville. I hope my one reader, sister, enjoys reading about our journey. Let's travel back in time a few days. I'm feeling disgusted with myself. I don't consider myself fat, well, ok, I guess I do consider myself to be overweight. My goal is to shed like 30 pounds, but as long as I feel like I look good in the clothes that are currently hanging in my closet waiting and waiting.....and waiting.......to be worn, I'll be happy. I'd like to get back to my pre-wedding shape...Although, since I've had a baby, I know that's not going to be 100% possible. Saturday, the hubs asked if I wanted to try and lose weight together. normally, this type of question would be rewarded with me sulking and thinking HE thinks I'm fat and disgusting and never wants to touch me ever again, but I decided to try a new approach and after recalling visions of myself trying on 15 different t-shirts to wear to the park until I felt satisfied, I said "sure!". I sat down and made a list for the market. Typically I spend $70-$100 a week on food for the 3 of us. This trip was the first after a long time and I needed to stock up on some essentials. I spent over $200 between 2 stores. shoot me now. I should tell you that I was a little sickened at the total spent especially since I had taken great pains to write out a meal plan for the week!! When I got home from the market on Sunday (which, by the way was a treat trip all by my lonesome - able to roam the aisles in all of their glory - we'll discuss my strange love of grocery stores at another time) I took inventory of my items and set off to work. I bought 2 bags of spinach from Trader Joe's, a head of green leaf lettuce and a head of red leaf lettuce. So I just have to say I'm not going to run down the list of all of the shit I bought because it would be intensely boring. I washed all of the lettuce and put 1/2 spinach and 1/2 lettuce in 8 gladlock "entree" size containers I did 4 for myself and 4 for hubby. Partly because that's how many containers I had available at the time and partly because I'm often left with too much dinner and I have to bring it for lunch the next day because I'm the only one who will eat leftovers other than pizza. Our grand master plan was to work out every night. But life gets in the way. Last night we had to talk to the rents about a certain financing situation so working out (oh and my vow to not drink during the week) was out the window. However, my plan to eat healthy was still on track. We Imade this salad for our Monday lunches. I have to say the finished product looks kinda nasty on their site. I followed the directions relatively closely - I skipped out on the salad and avocado- I bought a few avocados, but they weren't ripe. I put the fixins (tuna, kidney beans, feta, green onions) in their own gladlock container - that took no time at all. Between the rinsing, the squeezing of cans, and chopping onions, I'd say that part was done in less than 3 minutes. Then I started on the dressing. I've never made my own dressing before, so I was a little nervous. I had to buy all of the ingredients except the honey. I even had to buy paprika! I was out! anyway, back to the dressing. I whisked it up and it tasted pretty good. there seemed to be enough for both of us for 2 days. The hubby ADORED the dressing. I thought it was a little dijon-ey for me and I may have used a little too much feta for my liking. All in all, I was definitely full from the salad. I had 1/2 of a plain bagel with butter for breakfast - not so healthy, but delish nonetheless! For snack both morning and afternoon, I had almonds. For dinner, we dined on sushi from the grocery store- don't knock it. This store has a sushi chef and will make customized rolls for you!

Did I miss wordless Wednesday!?

Stopping to smell the flowers is important


mmmm Cake!




Lil Angels Fan

I"m cranky

No particular reason. Just thought I'd share. Things are bugging me. I am looking into things - people on facebook are bugging me - not even with things they are saying to ME! Just their comments. I can hear their tone. Their fakeness (I know that's not a real word) Their...agendas

The only thing I want to go is go home and snuggle up with my hubby and baby. I don't want to hang out with anyone else.

Thank you and good night

oh and P.S. hubby asked me earlier if I was in a bad mood and I lied. I'm going to call him back now to inform him people on facebook have driven me to crankville. He'll understand.

Weaning from the bottle

So I know it's been a long time since I last posted. I don't understand how these mommy bloggers can do it! Work full time, take care of the family AND blog! They're super mommies.

So after having gone through about a month of le bebe being sick constantly and one week with 4 doctor visits - the last one resulting in a double ear infection diagnosis - I have been informed by the doctor covering for our regular pediatrician that we are to lose the paci and lose the bottle. I can understand....however, this momma decided she's smarter than the average doctah and has decided to do things our own way. We'll lose the paci. When we're ready. Not when we're told. Sorry substitute female doctor with a mustache that made me cry when le bebe was just a weeks old....I digress....... So this week I decided to try and lose the bottle - at least for the most part. He still gets it during naps (or all day at grandma's house even though I tell her explicitly NOT to give it to him except for at nap time- which is another story we'll dive into another time) and as of last night......that's it.....no mas.... It's hard on mommy and daddy to do this. Daddy suggested we may be wait until this weekend to try taking the bottle away, but then quickly followed up with telling me he's all for it if I decide now is as good of a time as any. This comment was made about 5 minutes into the screaming from le bebe.

We took turns going upstairs to make sure he had his paci and to lay him down to tell him "It's bedtime, love. I love you, night night". That did NOT go over well. We were quickly reminded of the days when we decided we couldn't rock him to sleep every single night before carefully placing him in his crib so we put him down awake. At that time, daddy was the strong one. He told me I could leave the house so that I didn't have to hear my angel cry. I didn't, though. I stayed in the kitchen with daddy and he just hugged me until the most wretched seven minutes of my post baby life had ended. Seven minutes the first night, six minutes the second night, eleven the third, four minutes for the fourth night and voila. The crying stopped.

Now, however, the baby is almost a year and a half. He can stand. He can tell us he's mad. He has more stamina. He is more stubborn. Tuesday night, he and daddy were out to dinner with Great Granny and didn't make it home before falling asleep so the bottle was a non-issue. Monday night, I gave him the bottle while reading before bed and while Daddy was out at the store, I decided to start the no bottle in bed routine. He cried for about 10 minutes on and off, but just decided to hit the hay. Last night was a completely different story. I offered him milk while we were reading books from a sippy cup. NOTHANKYOUVERYMUCH. He didn't want really anything to do with it! So I tried to make him drink a little, but he didn't want to. I put him to bed after 5 books. His highness was not impressed with the new routine. It took 35 minutes of intermittent sobbing, yelling, throwing the paci, coughing, and one giant glass of vino for mommy before I won the battle. It was hard. I didn't like it. It made my heart hurt. I didn't like going in there and laying him down and having him reach for me ("MOMMY! PLEASE PICK ME UP" is what I imagine him saying) I wanted to pick him up and take him right to my bed and lay down with him in my arms until he drifted off to la la land. For me, I know this was the right way to do it. Some people will poo-poo that and say we shouldn't have gone in at all or some would say the cry it out method is vicious (and it sort of is for both baby and parent) but it was the best way for our family to make this change. I can only hope tonight is an easier night and that Daddy follows the rules while I'm off at my new workout class. I'm sure he will. He's the best Daddy around.

Wordless Wednesday

Holy applesauce, Batman!

The great baby food making begins. I loaded up le bebe and le hubby in the family carrier ("Brownie" the Tahoe) and we were off to Babies R Us in search of what I would need to begin this great adventure. After much discussion...should I get the mini food processor-esque thingy? No - we have a mini food processor and a full size (which I haven't used once, but I digress). Do I get the magic bullet thigy? Nope - looks like a mini blender - pointless as I have a blender that is LA BAMBA! Should I get the steamer thingy? Nope - why get that when you can steam things on the stove and in the microwave? I do have to say that the glitz and glam of these items did their work in confusing me and I get all "may be I SHOULD buy that! You know.....just in case???" That's why I brought le hubby - he says things like "Just in case what? The stove AND microwave magically stop working?" or he says his favorite term that he got from Alton Brown "We don't need a 'unitasker', babe". After picking up all of the boxes and asking "do I need this?" "What's the diff between this and this??" (and for those of you interested, I DO use the word "diff"), I finally settled on this gem Let me just tell you that this is chock full of good EASY information. It's not all confusing and it doesn't make my eyes cross like when I google "baby food recipes" or "what to feed baby" I have yet to demo the dvd, but I read the first part of the book. It seemed to sum up my other research and didn't go rogue on me about the order of foods recommended by the pediatrics association. Plus it comes with a handy dandy laminated food "tip" card. I'll be referring to this kit plenty as I go forward.

So I started it. Thank goodness for mommies because I needed mine to walk me through making applesauce. She makes applesauce all of the time and has had her own snaffus so she could help me avoid them on my first attempt and thus avoid giving up after the first attempt of making baby food. According to the book you just steam, mush and voila! applesause! Not so, people! Not.so! I mean - I guess it's that easy, but...it required a little more finesse!

First there is the big debate on what kind of apple to use. Braeburn? Fugi? Red Delicious? Granny Smith? Granny Smith was immediately out. Too tart. I imagined sticking a lemon into his mouth would get the same reaction as a Granny Smith. I wanted to go with Braeburn, but my mommy was in town and bought us some Red Delicious. Good nuff for me.

Next debate. To peel or not to peel? According to the wise great grandmother, it all gets blended up so it doesn't matter, but according to grandma (my mom), the peel adds a lot of fiber which can be hard on a little tummy, right? According to Daddy, the peel is where the vitamins are! According to my thoughts.... I change lots of diapers each day. No peel it is this time.

I cored and peeled 2 Red Delicious. Sidenote....I used this exciting apple corer tool (a unitasker as mentioned above). It was a total crock. It doesn't really work unless you have a perfect apple with a perfect core. It basically left me with like 1/3 of what I would have been left with had I NOT used said utensil. In the trash it went leaving me with that much more space in an already jammed up utensil drawer (1 of 2 I might add)

After I cored and peeled the apples, I quartered them - note that you can dice them, quarter them, whatever you want. It makes really no difference but in my now extreme knowledge of applesauce, I think it would probably cook a little more quickly if they were cut into eighths. Next, I put the apples in my pot on the stove - I used a small pot. I also have to say that I used the stove instead of the microwave option because I've decided that I'm a total fah-reak (as sissy calls it) show and I don't want radiation waves going into my kid's food. Totally fine with them in mine though! The book also "suggests" picking the either the stove or microwave method and sticking to either or so that it becomes easier as a routine. Whatever to that - I think it's easy to switch back and forth if you want, but that's because I'm SuperMommy.

Here's where the applesauce making becomes more of a science. You add just a little water. I didn't bother measuring out because MY mommy said just to add enough to cover the bottom of the pan. She also suggested that since I'm being a fah-reak (and she said it just like that and rolled her eyes, but not in a mean way - in a funny way)about everything, I shouldn't use tap water haha. I should use my Brita water. Good call Granny JoAnn. Good.Call. So what I did was pour enough apples to come up about 1/4" onto the bottom of the apples. You can leave the lid on or off. Doesn't matter. I put the stove on medium low. If it were numbered 1-10 on my dial, I'd venture to guess I would have been about at 3. We stood around and yukked it up, she holding a wooden spoon, and me wondering if it was too early to pour a glass of wine. Then about 5 minutes in, we peered over the edge of the pot and poked the spoon at the apples. At this point, the apples still had plenty of water in the pot with them.

"You have to remember" she tells me "the apples have a lot of water in themselves already, so that's why you don't want to add too much to begin with"

A few minutes later, we pushed at the apples again. According to the book, once they're soft enough to pierce with a fork, they're done. They're soft enough to do that, but Granny JoAnn says to wait longer. She's the expert. We look in about 2 minutes later and see the water is almost completely gone! So I pour enough in to cover the bottom of the pot again - not to cover the apples. Just a little for the bottom of the pot. We start pushing at the apples again. Almost trying to mush them up in the pot. I had to add a little more water once again, but they were almost mushy enough to remove. This is far mushier than just piercing with a fork, in case you all were wondering. In the mean time I have prepared the mini food processor - it's something similar to this Black & Decker

Once the apples were mushy, we put them in the food processor and added water to try and make it a smooth texture - like applesauce. But it wasn't cutting the mustard, people. We had to break out my la bamba blender. We scooped out what was in the mini food processor and put it in the blender. Took the top off and started streaming a slow, thin stream of water (from the Brita, of course). It did NOT take much water. I put the setting on "liquefy" and HOLY APPLESAUCE BATMAN! I DID IT!! It looked like honest to goodness applesauce! We made it a thinner in consistency than what you'd get out of a Mott's jar, but not soup-esque. Follow me? Dang it people! I didn't have time to take pictures (or may be I forgot), but cut SuperMommy some slack, would-ya!?!? I'll take pictures next time!

Next, we filled up one of those cute little ice cube trays and put the lid on. The next morning I had a helluva time getting the cubes out and without SuperDaddy around with his super muscles, I probably would have had to put the bottom of the tray in warm water or something, but SuperDaddy got the cubes out for us. Supposedly, each cube is 2 servings. I put them in a baggy, wrote on it "APPLESAUCE 5/31/2010" and put it back in the freezer.

I have since tried it my own self and I must say it's delish - I would (and will) make applesauce again for the whole SuperFamily. Le bebe likes it mixed in with his disgusting rice cereal. Meal time is nice and messy, but it makes it more fun that way, right?!

Stay tuned....I think I might get crazy and try squash next!

Mother's Week

This week I decided is Mother's Day week which means I barely have to do anything. I don't think hubby knows about my evil plan, but so far he's falling right into my little trap MUAAAHAHAHAHA!!!

For my very first Mother's Day, I got French toast for breakfast and it was truly yum city. Hubby hasn't ever made it for me and he I think accidentally used my fancy little shaker filled with cinnamon sugar that I use for snickerdoodles and late night snacks of cinnamon sugar toast on English muffin bread (do yourself a favor and try it) instead of using plain ol cinnamon, but it was heaven on a plate anyway. Then I got an honest to goodness Mother's Day present.

Hubby and I had a few arguments regarding Mother's Day that began before I was ever pregnant. I tried to nicely inform him of the "rule" that he has to get me something on behalf of any bebes and he did NOT agree. The fights got violent. I mean - not VIOLENT, but there were some raised voices and may be a few hurt feelings, but the man of steel swore he'd never break down. Even when I kindly brought our disagreement up in front of others (rude, I know) to put him on the spot just so I could get more people to agree with me....he wouldn't break down. Damn him. So I thought I was in store for a giftless Mother's Day. I know, I'm sorry - I'm so greedy - but who doesn't love PRESENTS!?!?! So this year, he didn't disappoint (as usual) and le bebe and hubby got me a vase from Color Me Mine and the plan was for hubby and bebe to paint it together, but hubby wasn't aware of the time constraints, so we get to go do it all together. I'm for reallys THRILLED about this gift. We're going to put bebe's handprints on it and everything! It's way better than diamonds if you ask me (I don't want to say that part too loudly though!)

So in honor of my Mother's Day week, dinner's have been made easy on me.

Monday night is too far back y'all. Need I remind you I have mommy brain?? Let me digress for a moment to prove to you the power of mommy brain. My bff texted me last night to tell me she forgot 3 gallons of milk on the bottom part of the cart last night....at Target...in the parking lot. Knowing that, I will tssk tssk all of you who think I should remember what I had for dinner on Monday night!

Tuesday night we took a

omg - I have to interrupt to tell you. I just remembered that we had salmon and veggies on Monday night! I just sang the super hero DUNDUNDUNNNNN announcement in my head. The salmon was pre-marinaded from Trader Joe's (or as I like to call that place - Heaven). I am going to have to try Sara's fish recipe at a later date. Just toss the salmon in the (new) oven along with some quickly sliced and diced veggies tossed with EVOO and whatever seasonings you have on hand and voila - you pull dinner out 30 minutes later.

Tuesday night we took a walk to the market for chocolate chips so I could make cookies in my (new) oven. While I was preparing the cookies, I tossed fries in the (new) oven while hubby grilled up some burgers. He also grilled the buns, prepped the avocado, cleaned the lettuce, sliced the onions (that I didn't eat) and took out the rest of the fixins. I always forget what an easy yet DELICIOUS dinner burgers are!

Last night was easy dinner night #3! I put fish sticks and fries in the (new) oven. I bought these super de duper yummy breaded halibut sticks from heaven (Trader Joe's) and while I adore the taste of these, I've decided they aren't the most economical. You only get "6-8" sticks and last night there were 7, one of which was a teeny tiny itty bitty chunk of fish. The cod sticks from heaven are a better buy and just as yummy.

Tonight we will be having either chili cheese dogs (sans cheese for me since le bebe is still boycotting dairy) or orange chicken - either way it's another easy night for me!

Don't know if you noticed, but I have a NEW OVEN!!!!!!!!! *happy dance! happy dance!* The fries cooked in said oven have turned out amazingly crispy both nights. Therefore, hubby and I have decided the chicken nuggies need another chance to see if the crispy factor will change.

Sorry for the incredibly long post, but that's what happens when you cram 4 nights into one post :P

OH - P.S. I started watching Julie & Julia and I think it's a true story, right? I'm only a few minutes in, but I wonder if I should do something like that. But with baby food....the wheels are churning, people! The wheels are churning! It might be from the coffee hubby made this morning. He's the best like that.

Chicken nuggies

I sometimes feel like hubby thinks I make the same ol, same ol food week in and week out, so this week I decided to try some new recipes. Recently I've been following http://blahtota-daa.blogspot.com/ They have some really great recipes and I would try all of them, but I have to be sort of choosey since hubby won't eat just anything, you know!? I mean...he will, but you should see the look on his face when "whole wheat" and "pasta" come out of my mouth in the same sentence. He lets me know that is SOOO not Italian! I'm dying to try that veggie pasta, but I have to wait until I can eat dairy again because I know I'm going to have to hide the veggies under a bunch of cheese in order to get a bite past hubby's lips!

Tuesday night I decided to try out a chicken nugget recipe found on From Blah to Ta-Daa. My plan was foiled right from the start. Somehow my mommy brain pulled through to block the fact that we have NO OVEN! Back up plan: I'd use the toaster oven. I would just have to either make a small batch of fries and nuggets followed by another small batch of both, or I could make the fries first, then the nuggets. Hubby decided I should go with the latter plan.

First, I pulled up the recipe
http://blahtota-daa.blogspot.com/2010/04/healthy-homemade-chicken-nuggets.html
Second, I started the toaster oven, sprinkled out some waffle fries, and gave them an extra kick by tossing some seasonings on them.

Next, I began to cut up the chicken which was really no big deal as everyone likes to tell me I dissect chicken breasts so much that all that is left are nuggets...Instead of using 6-8 breasts, I only used 4. I tossed some apple sauce in one bowl and did the seasonings with bread crumbs in another. Not sure if my bread crumbs were "dry" but aren't they all dry? I'm so naive. I changed up the breadcrumb to seasoning ratio also, using a little more on the seasoning side. Coating the nuggets with applesauce then the crumbs was pretty messy, but the pain didn't last long. Only 15-20 minutes (exactly how long the fries needed to cook thankyouverymuch!)

I proceeded to put the fries on a plate (pre warmed in the microwave) into the microwave to keep them warm. Then I started my first batch of nuggets. I suspect if I were using a regular baking sheet, I would have only had to do 1 round in the oven, but I was using the toaster oven and had to go with 3 different batches. S'ok...I think had I used any more breasts, I would have had to use 2 baking sheets for sure. The breading wasn't really crispy when they came out - it was still a little soggy, but I'll tell you what. We were starving. We had already walked the 2 dogs and the baby to the dry cleaners to pick up clothes, continued on to CVS for batteries, fed the baby...twice...gotten him back to sleep...twice...

We managed to gobble down the first batch in no time flat. Like I said, the outside wasn't crispy like I'd like and we even tried to hit it on broil for about 5 minutes but it didn't make any difference. Even with the sorta soggy exterior, hubby considered giving it 5 spoons (using Blah to Ta Daa's rating system) but gave it 4 instead. In the last batch, there was a small nugget that came out crispy.

The moral of the story is that we really liked the HEALTHY :) nuggets and will try them again - it may become a staple once le bebe can eat foods like this (may be when that happens, I'll have enough time to make homemade fries to make it even healthier). I feel this was a budget friendly meal as well. Chicken breasts are often on sale (so I hear - I've never noticed it though!), but I buy the mega pack for $10. The fries are often buy 2 for a bargain price, however it would be even less expensive-o to MAKE your fries, and I nixed any greens this time. Life got in the way of my salad endeavors. Next time I think we will make the nugget size smaller and may be using an oven instead of a toaster oven will make a difference. All in all, it was healthy and pretty delish. I used the leftovers on a big, fat, delicious salad for lunch yesterday to make up for my lack thereof Tuesday night.

One of these days, I'll post pictures of my steps like all of the other fancy people do, but for now just refer to the picture in the recipe link. Mine looked almost exactly like that! TA-DAA!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I always forget about wordless Wednesdays!

Look how fun my sister is :)

Pulled Pork... not just a hobby

Yesterday we had company over and we haven't seen this couple for a while. I thought we were going to head out to the ol delish stand by of In N Out for lunch, but the pork roast I tossed in the crock pot was done just in time to satisfy our needs

I found a pork loin roast at the market for 50% off - my total cost was just about $3.75. I also had to send hubby to the store to get those fabulous deli rolls. $4 for a bag of 6. My recipe came out of the Betty Crocker cook book (the one with the pink cover that I was DYING to have and didn't tell anyone, but received it that very Christmas!) on page 392. I'd made this recipe before and left myself a few notes in the margin so that I could remember for the next time. Smarty pants, I know.

The recipe is as follows
1 3-pound boneless pork shoulder blade roast
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup beef broth
12 hamburger buns or kaiser rolls, split and toasted

Last time I made this I think I followed it pretty well to the T except, I had accidentally purchased a pork roast with a bone in (specifically because I ASKED for bone in, because I was trying to make a different kind of pork roast, but forgot that I had to ask for the LOIN, so then I had 2 bone in roasts - one loin and one 'roast') anyhooo....when looking back, that's all I could remember. My notes tell me it was a 3.5 pound roast and it made 11 large sandwiches

This time I had a 1.5 pounder and anticipated only feeding hubby and myself for dinner then lunch leftovers. Also this time? I had a baby....So, at the time I was trying to get this all together, I had JUST gotten le bebe to la la land, I wasn't dressed, I needed to pump, I had to swap laundry (which means folding whatever is in the dryer uuugh)and get a possible meal for 4 ready. It was 11:15 and the friends were scheduled to arrive at noon.

I put the roast in the crock pot, opened a bunch of garlic. No time to count. Tossed them in my handy dandy mini food processor and dumped the minced goodness onto the meat. I sprinkled on oregano (crushed?? ummm...looked crushed to me - going in as is!). It looked a little sparce, so I sprinkled more...I had cumin (turkish cumin..wtf is Turkish cumin and how is it different than regular cumin and WHY do I HAVE Turkish cumin??? I can only think I needed it for a recipe once upon a time and that was all I could find *sigh*) I did measure the cumin out. I also measured the onion powder. Both went right on top of the meat. I can't see much of the meat anymore, but that's alright. I found coriander. WHOLE coriander seeds - *SIGH*!! WHY do I have whole coriander seeds?? I have NEVER used these. I contemplated for a second trying to crush them and then thought NO. NO TIME! NO TIME!! Opened the fridge for the broth..Instantly I flash back to the previous day at the market and thinking to myself "self. don't forget some broth!" oy vey. I forgot the broth. I found chicken bouillon cubes in the cupboard. The recipe calls for 1 cup broth, but to use a cube, you have to use 2 cups boiling water. BAH. 1 1/2 cups should do....I mean, I'm already using chicken instead of beef for a pork roast for pete's sake. I also decided to toss on a little allspice I bought from my fave store ever. Trader Joe's.

Turn that puppy on high for 4 hours and voila! I had a perfectly succulent pork roast ready for my hubby to pull apart and dish up. I had to dig into our potato chips for a side, but I had bought those 2 for $3 the day before, so the moral of this story is: anything goes with the crock pot and you'll get a delicious meal -just use what you have. The roast produced 6 sandwiches. Total cost of the meal? $10.25 and my amazing math (calculator) skills tells me that is just over $2.50 a person. Not too shabby for a Sunday funday lunch!

Sidenote: I didn't even realize until I was typing this up that I had completely forgotten the black pepper and cayenne pepper. Didn't seem to make any difference - I got rave reviews and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Know what else made me feel warm and fuzzy? The fact that I pumped, picked up the living room, and swapped the laundry before our company arrived and before le bebe awoke.

Next time, if I'm really fancy, I'll take pictures. I had great intentions of doing so for this post, but the "NO TIME! NO TIME!!" kept running through my head - my camera was in the car and my phone was nowhere to be found. Therefore, no photos :P

oooh THIS is what they were talking about!

The hubby and I had one of our first baby insanity nights. It was an evening that ended with us talking about how grateful we are that our baby never had colic because if having colic was any indication of what last night was, but on a re-occurring basis, we have SERIOUS empathy for parents with babies with colic. Or single moms. I immediately thought of a girlfriend who has a husband who travels out of town for a week at a time and I felt badly for her. It was probably the first time that I really felt like I knew what people were talking about when they said "having a baby is hard work" because up until this moment, we'd of course had some stressful moments, but nothing that spanned an entire evening like last night.

Le bebe had a major meltdown last night. Scratch that. He had like 5 MAJOR meltdowns last night! I didn't think I'd be writing consistently about being a mommy or having a baby, but seeing as though that is practically the only thing my life involves these days (that and washing bottles and teeny tiny clothes) that is what you're gonna get. deal.

Being a first time parent brings all sorts of brand new territory. You fill your little head with ideas about how you will raise, discipline, teach, etc your new little person. Well....last night I told hubby during meltdown number 1 that "he can't be hungry! He just had 4 ounces not even an hour and a half ago!!" and hubby said he was going to warm some water on the stove "just in case". brilliant idea because we fed le bebe 1.5 ounces about 30 mins later (in reality, it was about 5 minutes, but felt like 30). Le bebe fell asleep and we said "phew!" to each other and I wisely said "I just know he's going to sleep until at LEAST 10 now! He's exhausted after that meltdown and eating that little bit extra"

Not so

Approximately an hour later, le bebe awoke from his slumber, and REFUSED to go to bed. Meltdown number 2 commenced. We tried teething tablets, changing his diaper, rocking, singing, pacing, ooh! the pacing is working! , NO! IT'S NOT!!!!!!!, bouncing, going outside...anything! Hubby asked - "should we feed him again??" and I, wise beyond my mothering years responded "I'm not going to let him force us to feed him when he JUST ate! He's just tired - I know it" I had just pumped liquid gold while he was snoozing, so we gave him another ounce and a half promptly 5 minutes after I had just declared my previous stance. and zzzzzzzzzzz away le bebe went to la la land. I immediately said "may be he's going through a growth spurt. D said Shea went through a MAJOR one at 4 months". We agreed. It's a major growth spurt. Even though that's our excuse for his excessive eating every other week. But he's a boy - and he's constantly growing, so may be he IS going through a growth spurt..a constant spurt..yaaaa that's it....

I sat there with the most precious angel in my arms and just stared at him. How could something so precious get SO MAD? I suppose it's because he can't talk yet to tell mommy just what he needs and he hasn't quite picked up the sign language that we've been working on either, but hey - it's only been a few months! haha! High expectations much?!?!

Anyway - I guess it wasn't FIVE meltdowns, but it sure felt like it. When I woke le bebe for his last feeding of the night, I said to the hubby - I think that exhausted me just as much as it did him! He concurred. The same was true for all of us. We all slept like babies until 5am.

Let's hope the same routine doesn't happen today.

*sigh*

So I texted sister the other day (yesterday I think...my days sort of blur together!) to let her know that in case she ever finds herself leaving the house late on a consistent basis like I do, she should wake up 45-60 minutes early and this will allow her to leave 20 minutes earlier than usual (aka..on time)

I woke up yesterday and fed le bebe about 5:15 and he went back to sweet, sweet sleep about 5:25. I got out of bed because I decided it was definitely a day to shower. So hubby patiently informed me while I was standing neked in the bathroom with the shower running that "babe. It's only 5:30. You know that right?" and I say "yes, babe. I do know that." (meanwhile thinking to myself - "actually, dear - it's the ungodly hour of 5:25" not like it makes any difference, but...you know...) and he goes onto say "well..baby? Why are you up??" and I lost my cool just a teeeny bit and said "Because BABE! I've been running so late the past few days that I need to have some extra time!!" and he just said "ok! ok!" and sent me his love as he left for work. I remembered AFTER he left (which happens a lot these days) that the MAIN reason I got up so early is because I needed to bathe. Desperately. I'm embarrassed to say it had been 2 full days since I had done so. Usually I get in at least a little bird bath, but no. Not these 2 days.

Lately, I've been forced to make split second decisions in the morning when my hubby's alarm goes off. Do I just get up at 4:45 like he does and try to be megamom getting things done in the house before work: packing lunches, diaper bags, cleaning dishes, doing laundry, etc? or do I let him change the alarm for me to go off at 6:30 which is too late to get in a shower. I always choose the 6:30.

Anyhoo - while I was getting invigorated in the shower - I used an invigorating shampoo that momma bought me then I used an invigorating scrub on my face. Then I pondered why all of my stuff says it's invigorating and it's not really...I enjoyed a lengthy, quiet shower. It was really nice and it started my day off on the right foot.

Then while I was packing everything up explaining to le bebe what I was doing (which btw I feel like such a fool doing, but the books say it's a good idea to do)I discovered that my loverly hubby made coffee. For the first time in weeeeks. It was like heaven aaaaaaaaaaahhhh (said like angels singing)

When I got to work, Pops told me that he had woken up at 1:30 and thought it was 5:30 and almost took a shower. Then he woke up at 2:30 thinking it was 5:30 again, but this time he didn't realize it WASN'T 5:30 so he DID take a shower! HAHAHA!!! So my early morning wasn't that early after all.

It was a tough go the rest of the day because I suspect le bebe might be starting the teething process??? already??? is that even possible??

Wordless Wednesday: I'm in love