One foot in front of the other....

You ever have a day when you just feel "blah"? I've been having a lot of those lately, but today was the worst yet. I'm tired and hot and crampy (no, spell checker, I didn't mean CRAPPY, I meant CRAMPY and if you were written by a woman, you would understand!) and I just really found it hard to get out of bed, much less go about my day and my responsibilities. But, seeing as how Morgan doesn't yet have her driver's license, I had to get up and drive her to school. And since I was driving her to school, I figured I may as well swing by the gym. At least that way I can be assured of a shower. And since I'm going to be showered, I may as well make that trip to Target I've been meaning to make. Then we've got that park play date in the afternoon, so I'll need to come home and pack lunches for that. THEN...then I'll be able to rest again.

And believe it or not, when I finished my class at the gym I felt a little better. When I got the stuff I needed (and some that I didn't!) at Target, I felt even better. Heck, by the time I picked Morgan up from school, I was nearly back to okay. Then I was able to come home and take a nap after our play date and that was just heavenly.

One foot in front of the other. Some days, that's the only way to do it.

Another day in the kitchen

This week is Teacher Appreciation week and my friend Melissa (who is a teacher) gave me some advice on what was her favorite thing parents did for her class when she was teaching. She told me about a time that they all made dinner for her for a week and delivered it to her home. She said it was so nice to not have to worry about cooking and it was fun to see them outside of school. I thought this was a great idea! I'm always cooking a meal for someone who needs it because they just had a baby or are sick (or have family members who are sick), but never for someone just a sign of appreciation. I sent an email out to the parents in Morgan's classroom and we've arranged for Morgan's teacher to receive breakfast at school every morning and to have dinner delivered each night.

I signed up for the first night, and it was a tricky one because Morgan's teacher's daughters both had softball games in the evening. So, I planned to do pulled pork, oven fries and tomato-cucumber salad to bring to them at the ball park. Lance had even baked cranberry walnut chocolate chip cookies for them! I thought it would be fun to see the girls play, to give Trish an opportunity to show off how much she's adored, and it would be nice for them to eat dinner before they were starved after the games were over. I loaded up the food, some plates, napkins, utensils and condiments into my bags and Morgan and I took off to deliver the meal. Trish loved it and I couldn't have been happier to see the big grin on her face as she sat there eating pulled pork while we all watched her girls play softball!

Besides getting that stuff prepped today, I also took advantage of some of the chicken meat I had from the roasted chicken I made for dinner last night to come up with a new lunch time creation. Mango Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps. Basically, it was the roasted chicken, some celery, mango, salt, poppy seeds, and mayonnaise. I mixed up the salad and served them on romaine lettuce leaves. They were good, but needed a little sweetness added (finally added some Splenda) and maybe a little kick next time.

Amish Friendship Bread

About ten days ago, my neighbor stopped by, right as I was folding tons of laundry. My house was a mess and I was busy, but I was stopped by the sight of my neighbor holding a bag of gooey dough. He gave me the bag and a paper that explained what it was. Amish Friendship Bread. He told me that the bread was delicious and that this was a starter to bake more. He said that he knew that I liked to bake and that the kids liked to help and he thought this would be fun for us. I told him thank you, brought the bag inside and set it on the counter after reading the paper he gave me with it. It gave me instructions for each day I had the bag.



Please note the following:

DO NOT use any time of metal spoon or bowl for mixing.

DO NOT refrigerate. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment.


Day 1: Do nothing. This is the day you receive the batter. The bag is dated.

Day 2: Mash the bag.

Day 3: Mash the bag.

Day 4: Mash the bag.

Day 5: Mash the bag.

Day 6: Add to bag, 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Mash the bag.

Day 7: Mash the bag.

Day 8: Mash the bag.

Day 9: Mash the bag.

Day 10: Do the following:

1. Pour the entire contents of bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 ½ c. flour, 1 ½ c. sugar, and 1 ½ c. milk.
2. Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 zip-lock bags (1 gallon size). Keep a starter for yourself and give 3 friends along with a copy of this recipe. (Note: if you keep a starter, you will be baking every 10 days.) The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create a starter, so if you give them all away, you’ll have to wait until someone gives you a starter back. Should this recipe not be passed on to a friend the first day, be certain to tell the friend which day the batter is at when it is presented to them. Baking instructions:
3. Preheat oven to 325F.To the remaining batter, add:
   * 3 eggs
   * 1 cup vegetable oil (or ½ c. oil & ½ c. applesauce)
   * ½ cup milk
   * 1 cup sugar
   * 1 tsp cinnamon
   * ½ tsp vanilla
   * 1 ½ tsp baking powder
   * ½ tsp baking soda
   * ½ tsp salt
   * 2 cups flour
   * 1 large box instant vanilla or chocolate pudding
4. Grease 2 large loaf pans. Mix an additional 1/3 cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp cinnamon in an additional bowl. Dust the greased pans with half of the mixture.
5. Pour batter evenly into the 2 loaf pans. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.
6. Bake 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from sides of pan.
7. ENJOY!

It seemed easy enough. Mash the bag most days. Add some stuff in the middle there and then add more at the end, pour into separate bags and then bake what's left. And it was just that easy. And SOOOO delicious! I got four starters (one that I kept to make more from) and two loaves of this bread from this one gooey bag my neighbor brought by.

A new recipe

I've been trying to create a new meal each week, something I've never cooked for my family before. In preparation for my being gone all weekend long, leaving the family behind, I figured I would cook almost every night this week, leaving them with plenty of leftovers for the weekend. (Awww, what a nice wife, right??)

Anyway, I had planned to roast a chicken, giving the possibility of three meals with one roasting. Instead of doing the standard chicken noodle soup and goat cheese pasta dish that I've been doing, I decided to try a new recipe from Cooking Light for an Enchilada casserole. Now, I've NEVER made anything like this before, so I was a little leery. Then, the recipe called for Great Northern Beans. I went to the grocery store, fully expecting to see a can labeled "Great Northern Beans". When I didn't see that, I decided I'd have to wing it. I picked up two cans of pinto beans, knowing that I had cans of black beans, garbanzo beans, cannelini beans, and kidney beans at home. Come to find out that the Fabulous Northern Beans are nothing but smaller cannelini beans. I had one can of "white beans" which appeared to be smaller cannelini beans and another can of just regular cannelini beans. That would have to do!

The recipe entailed a lot of prep work, which took up most of nap time. But, it baked in the afternoon and I got to spend time with the kids during those witching hours between 4 and 6. That part was nice! It turned out a little spicier than I expected, but everyone really seemed to like it! Hooray for new recipes!

Energy

It's amazing to me how much more energy I have when I am able to follow my routine of getting up before the kids, getting ready for the gym, taking Morgan to school and then spending time exercising, showering, and taking care of myself in general. I always pick Bennett up from the nursery, energized, refreshed and ready for the rest of the day.

Today when I picked him up, he was all smiles and ready to go! One of the ladies in the nursery commented to me about how much he's talking. Ummm, yeah. Complete sentences. A lot. Like all the time. For example, after the gym today, we headed over to a golf club in Pleasanton to talk to them about being a potential venue for the moms' club Mothers Day brunch this year. It was a good 20 minute drive, through pouring rain, up windy muddy roads and Bennett talked THE ENTIRE TIME. I actually had to ask my not-even-two year old child to PLEASE BE QUIET SO MOMMA CAN THINK. It's almost like my energy is contagious. :)

My energy lasted all day. No napping, no stopping. And loving every minute of it.

A new dish for dinner

Tonight, I thought I'd try a new recipe from one of my tried and true cookbooks, the Weight Watchers 5 ingredient, 15 minutes cookbook. This cookbook is seriously overused by me as the recipes are all simple, EASY, healthy and pretty yummy. I can't say we've had a bad one. Never having enough ways to cook chicken, I picked out Mexican Chicken Skillet. Now, mind you, I had like only one of the identical ingredients, so I made do with what I had, but it turned out really yummy nevertheless. I'll post the original recipe with my substitutions in parenthesis.

I will say, that the thing that made it so delicious and ultimately provided that finishing touches was the fact that just as we were dishing up the food, my husband (who's job has not allowed him to have dinner with us during the week since he started two weeks ago) walked in the door. We had a family dinner, yippee!

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 9-oz package frozen southwestern-flavored cooked chicken breast strips (I thawed 4 frozen chicken breasts, cut them into strips and seasoned them with some homemade taco seasoning + some chili powder*)
1 3/4 c. water
1 14.5-oz can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes (I used a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes and seasoned it myself with chili powder)
2 cups instant rice, uncooked (I used instant brown rice)
1 8.75-oz can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained (I used frozen corn -- no idea how much, maybe like half a bag? -- that I had thawed under warm water)
1 cup preshredded reduced-fat Mexican blend cheese

1. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; place over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken strips and saute 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken in thoroughly heated (or cooked in my case). Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.

2. Add water and tomatoes to skillet; bring to a boil. Stir in rice and corn; top with chicken strips and cheese. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Yield: 4 servings.

8 WW points: 402 Calories, 55.5g Carbohydrate, 7.7g Fat, 1.3g Fiber, 27.1g Protein, 40mg Cholesterol, 767mg Sodium, 239mg Calcium, 2.0mg Iron

* If you want the recipe for the taco seasoning mix, let me know. I got it from the Miserly Moms book.

Domestication of Paige

Want to know what happens when you leave me at home with a toddler who is still recovering from a cold?

This...



























And a little "this" with the little ones....
















Then when all that was done and dinner was done, I popped some cranberry banana nut bread into the oven for my MOPS meeting tomorrow morning. So, yeah. I pretty much spent the day in the kitchen. I was really proud of myself for the bread though! It's the first time I've made bread from scratch and it actually wasn't that hard to make and it tastes great!

In fact, the hardest thing I did today was to put the sprinkles on those damn pretzels. It was very time consuming! You couldn't roll them in the sprinkles because that would just smear the chocolate everywhere, so I had to hand sprinkle each pretzel, by sprinkling while turning. To 20+ pretzels. Ummm....yeah! Morgan had fun drizzling the white chocolate over them, though. And when I was letting her stir the chocolate in the double boiler as it was melting, she looks at me and says, "Mom, I'm noticing that you are making a lot of things homemade these days. And I'm really glad that you are letting me help you. That way I can be a great cook one day!" It's then that you realize that these little things that are total pains really do matter! Anyway - hope the kids in her class like them! We opted to totally make all of our Valentines this year. The cards are handmade and we did these pretzels instead of the standard conversational hearts. When Morgan hands these out to her classmates on Friday, she can take pride in the work that she actually put into each and every one of these. For that alone, all the work is worth it!

Want to know what follows a day in bed?

A burst of energy! And the strong urge to decontaminate your entire house.

Since Bennett is still coughing and snotty, I was stranded at home today and decided to make the best of it and get things clean, from top to bottom. Now, this is atypical for me since I normally do a little bit at a time, but between Bennett's cold and my stomach virus, I wanted the germs OUT! I stripped all the beds, cleaned all the bathrooms, mopped all the floors and wiped down all surfaces and door knobs.

So, germs, in case you didn't get the memo. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!!

I managed to do all this, entertain Bennett, go to the grocery store, help Morgan with a ton of her homework, AND cook dinner. And it went relatively smoothly. Yeah, I know. I was shocked too. Picture this....kids sitting at the table EATING CARROTS and doing homework while I cook dinner. I know! I have no idea what happened. Apparently my prayers were answered.

Once upon a time....

....in a not very far away place, there was a full grown woman who thought that it would be cool...no, rather FUN! to subject herself to making miniature penguins for her daughter's kindergarten class. In the future, said woman's husband is to immediately Google the word "tedious" when the woman sees another "cute project" in Parents magazine, that so nicely coincides with her daughter's school subject. When that happens, Google is going to come back with several links, but one of them is sure to have a picture of this guy.

Not only were they tedious as hell to make, but once they were "set", the little bastards kept falling down. I'm elbow deep in cream cheese and olives and I'm having to reset them like they are melting snowmen. I finally cut their butts off and they have remained relatively still since then. Let that be a lesson to all miniature looks-like-something-else food everywhere!

Oh what we parents won't do for our children.

The new math, aka "The Chicken Experiment"

Attention idiot employers of my husband: You may be able to take 20% of our monthly pay, but you cannot take away my ability to stretch a dollar! Here's our new math:

$27.10 for 28 servings = $0.97 per serving!

Roasted chicken with potatoes and salad

1 whole chicken ~$6
15 small red potatoes ~$1
20 baby carrots ~ $0.25
2 lemons ~ free from my tree
fresh rosemary ~ free from my bushes
1 head of romaine lettuce ~ $0.50
2 tomatoes ~ $1

4 Servings ~ $7.85






Chicken noodle soup, salad, and cornbread muffins

Meat from roasted chicken ~ Free
Broth ~ Free, made from roasted chicken
1 bunch of celery ~$0.80
6 carrots ~ $2
1 lb rotini pasta ~ $1.50
fresh flat leaf parsley ~$0.50
fresh minced garlic ~ $0.10
spices ~ free from my cabinet
cornmeal ~ $1
milk ~$0.25
butter ~0.25
1 head of romaine lettuce ~$0.50
2 tomatoes ~$1

16 Servings!! ~ $7.90


Goat cheese chicken pasta with roasted red peppers and artichokes

Chicken ~ Free from roasted chicken
1 lb. bow tie pasta ~$1.50
1 can artichokes ~$2
1 can sliced olives ~$1
1 jar roasted red peppers ~$3.50
fresh sliced mushrooms ~$0.25
goat cheese ~$3
olive oil ~ free from my cabinet
fresh minced garlic ~ $0.10

8 Servings ~ $11.35




Woohoo! I am woman. Hear me roar!

Someone needs to call CPS

Because I keep hurting my poor kids today! It started this morning, when I went to take Morgan to school. We are driving Lance's Eos today, so it's 2-door and, I'll just go ahead and use that as my excuse. Anyway - I go to get in and totally elbow Morgan right in the forehead. It was really hard, too. Poor girl. Immediately, I'm apologizing and telling her that I'm so sorry and I didn't mean to hurt her. The poor girl has tears all welled up in her eyes and she's looking at me and telling me that it's okay. "Accidents happen." I'm watching as the red spot on her forehead grows to about the size of the knobby part of my elbow. Oh my. I just continued, all the way the way to school, "I'm soooo sorry!".

After the gym and Bennett's toddler class were over, I came home and decided to finish up today's chores so that I could bake some cookies during nap time for our afternoon Halloween party for Bennett's playgroup. I'm doing this while also cooking corn dogs for the kids. Well, time crept away from me and before I knew it, I was running about five minutes late. I grabbed Bennett up, put his shoes on him and then started literally running out the door, through the garage to the car. And that's when I totally whacked his head on a cabinet in the garage. Nice. Poor guy started shake-crying and rubbing his head. I'm repeating from this morning, "I'm soooo sorry! Momma didn't mean to hurt you!" I ask him if he's okay and he nods his little head yes. Poor baby. We get out to the car and I swing the passenger side door open, slide the front seat forward and then go to put him in there, when I bump his head on the roof of the car. He's looking at me like, seriously??

It's just one of those days, I suppose.

In happy news, I baked the sugar cookies during nap time. It's amazing how a little music on the iPod can get you all dancing around the kitchen doing crazy stuff. I'm signing out loud to Erasure and shaking my booty to the Beastie Boys. Imagine the surprised look on the faces of the two teen aged boys who rang my doorbell and I answered with my iPod on, flour all over my hands, and having just wrapped up my part of the duet in "Power of Two" by the Indigo Girls. Carry on, nothing to see here. The funnier thing, though was seeing the looks on their faces when they asked what I did for a living. I told them that I am a stay at home mom now. They nodded their heads as if this explained it all. Then I added, "I used to be a Program Manager. For Lockheed Martin." They suddenly had a fearful look on their faces. Ha!

I've been having such a lovely day...

...that I'm going to pretend that I didn't set a tiny fire inside my oven. But if there were, say, some drippings from a certain pan of muffins that exploded everywhere, and, say, I smelled them BURNING as I was preheating the oven, I would NEVER EVER (again) try to pull out HOT aluminum foil out from under the lower element that is preheating to 425 degrees. Because, those drippings just might catch on fire when they brush against the heating element. This concludes today's science experiment. Carry on.