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!