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