Another favorite summertime treat

In addition to the return of the summer farmers market, another thing I've been looking forward to all winter was the opening of the farms for U-pick fruit in the nearby city of Brentwood. Last summer we went and picked cherries and pluots and blackberries. We had so much fun and I have really been looking forward to doing it this year, since Bennett is big enough to do more than watch from the stroller. We made it a big family trip, waiting to do it on Memorial Day when the dads would be home. We went with my friend Melissa W and her family and we all had a great time. The fruit wasn't as ripe as we had hoped it would be, but we came home with plenty! Lance even had enough for a pie!

After picking fruit, we had hoped to go to a place called Scoops, where you can play and eat, but it was closed. So, we made the best of it and headed over to Chili's for lunch. The guys hung out at one end of the table chatting and watching Bennett while Melissa and I hung out at the other end talking and taking care of Morgan, Collin and Brandon. It was a nice way to end the outing. Here are some pictures from our fun day!

Grilled pizza

I'm known to sometimes get a wild hair and decide to do something a little crazy. Or big. Or crazy and big. Today's adventure was brought to you by one of these stray hairs.

I ran across a cookbook Lance and I had been given during our first year of marriage. It's a cookbook for making pizzas. Dough from scratch. Sauce from scratch. The real deal. I decided that was what we were going to do. Only that's not crazy or BIG enough, so we're going to GRILL the pizza instead of baking it. :)




I set to work, making the dough and letting it rise, punching it out and then forming the crust. We had read up on how to grill the pizza and one site recommended that you grill the crust before adding the toppings and then grill until the toppings melt. We did this and it turned out okay, but would have been better if we would have grilled just one side of the crust and the flipped it, put the toppings on and then grilled it until the toppings melted.

We made two pizzas...one was for Lance and myself and was a pesto sauce with goat cheese, olives and roasted red peppers for the toppings. The other was a simple tomato sauce with cheese for the kids. I loved the taste of both pizzas, but Lance said that he didn't like the tomato sauce since it was just blended tomatoes, rather than using canned tomato sauce. He said it wasn't saucy enough. Next time, I'll just make it easier on myself and use canned tomato sauce. :)

The kids had fun putting the toppings on their pizza. They thought it was super cool that we were grilling it and enjoyed eating it nearly as much! It was a fun experiment, one that we are looking forward to trying again soon!

Return of a summertime favorite

One of the things I love most about this city I live in is the sense of community and small town feel. Nothing exemplifies that more than the annual farmers market. It's one of my favorite things about summer...leisurely strolls to the market (I live less than a mile away), then wandering from booth to booth, checking out everyone's fresh produce, honey, nuts and even cheese and meat. I almost always run into people I know, all of us enjoying the weather and the gorgeous fruit. This happens once a week, every week, all summer long. Even better, the third Thursday of the month is Thirsty Thursday, and a lot of the wineries show up for tastings and they usually have a band. You will see lots of families there - the parents sitting on a blanket in the grass watching their little ones bust out some dance moves and devour obscenely large and juicy strawberries.

Today was the first farmers market of the season. I could hardly contain my excitement as I loaded Bennett up in the stroller and we headed over to see what was in store for us this year. They never disappoint, either! We got our usual huge box-o-strawberries as well as some peaches and nectarines. Mmmmmm.

Mr. Pickles

There is a restaurant in town, right on the corner of a busy intersection that has seen at least five turnovers since we've lived here. For some reason, whatever was there has not done very well. It's past lives include things like sushi and sandwiches and just when an owner would get settled in, pretty soon you'd see a "For Sale" sign in the window. It's baffled Lance and I since we moved here.

Except the current tenant is an extraordinary entrepreneur. Sure, they've moved in with the usual lunch fare, but this time they have their secret weapon.

A giant, dancing pickle.

I know....what? A giant dancing pickle? Yes, that is correct. It's become the thing my children look forward to when we drive by. If he's out there dancing, they are crazy waving at him and pointing him out. I'm pretty sure they must know me by my car and my kids. Because they look like fools every time we drive by. And with this particular location, it's quite often.

I kid you not, we will be down the street, driving towards the restaurant and they are both straining to catch sight of the chef's hat he wears. Oh, we've had many different conversations centered on Mr. Pickles. Where is he in the mornings when he's not out? He's sleeping. Why does he wear a hat? He's a chef at the restaurant. How does he see out? Do you think he eats pickles?

EVEN IF HE'S NOT THERE, we go through the same stuff. Bennett will inform me (EVERY TIME) that he's not there because he's sleeping so that he can wave to him.

Even though I never visited any of the other establishments that called this particular location home, we WILL be going to Mr. Pickles. Because, really? How can I not. It's practically Disneyland.

Nice work, Mr. Pickles. Sheer genius!

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.

Unwinding the whirlwind

The past, ohhh, say MONTH has been just non-stop. Between Easter parties, Bennett's birthday, my folks coming out to visit, Easter, spring break, Melissa's shower, and Camporee, there has not been a ton of time to get my life and my house back in order. In an effort to regain order and tidiness in my house, I spent the better part of today getting stuff done.

I started the day off like I like to, at the gym. After that, I came home and played with Bennett for a little bit and then got started unpacking all the gear that I spent all last week packing up. I cleaned bathrooms, did laundry, cleaned the kids rooms (which had been sorely neglected over the past month), and then I thought it was time for a nap. After all, I spent the entire weekend sleeping in a tent in below 30 degree temperatures.

After my nap, I did all the dusting and vacuuming and before I knew it, it was time to make dinner. I decided to make up a new recipe, because apparently I didn't have enough going on. LOL Besides my goat cheese chicken pasta dish, this is really the first recipe I've made up on my own. Honestly, I'm always looking for a new way to make salmon because we eat it about once a week, so I wanted to come up with something new and different. So, I put together the salmon I had thawed with some bread crumbs, basil, Parmesan cheese, and tomatoes to make this dish, which I guess I'll call Tomato Basil Salmon. I paired it with brown rice and green beans and it was a hit with everyone in the house! Love that!


It was super easy to make.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray and place a salmon fillet on it. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Combine 1/4 c. Italian seasoned breadcrumbs with 1/4 c. shredded Parmesan cheese and sprinkle half to three fourths of it over the salmon. Take fresh basil leaves and place them over the salmon so that they mostly cover. Thinly slice a tomato and place the tomatoes over the basil. Sprinkle remaining breadcrumb/parm mixture over the tomatoes and then drizzle about 2 TBSP fat free balsamic vinaigrette over salmon. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes and then broil for 2-3 minutes.

Overcoming fear

All of us have fears. Some rational, some not so rational. Some founded, some not founded. Fears like spiders, or lightening storms, or maybe earthquakes. Or gas grills. Yes, you read that correctly. Laugh, if you will, but there *is* a story to go along with it.

The year was 1996. I think. Or maybe 1997. Hell, I'm too old to remember the year, but it's fairly inconsequential anyway. The setting was my apartment, shared with four other people. Yes, four. This was California. I was poor, having just moved out from Auburn. We were having one of our infamous parties, where there was far too much cider and beer consumed. I went out to light the grill so that we could get the ribs going. I lifted the grill cover and checked inside. I pressed the button that said IGNITE and then turned the knobs that said gas. I closed the cover and went back inside to finish preparing for the party. I made some wraps and had just grabbed one, to taste the efforts of my labor, as I headed out to the patio to check on the grill.

Hmm. Something was wrong, I didn't hear the flames. With one hand, I opened the lid and I leaned over the grates to see what was going on. When I didn't see any flames, I shoved the wrap in my mouth and with my other hand, pressed the IGNITE button again. It all happened very quickly. The clicking of the ignition, the poof of the gas as a bubble of gas flamed out of the grill and right at me. All I knew was that I had obviously burned my face off. I ran inside screaming, while trying to quickly chew and swallow the wrap that was in my mouth. Lance came running over to me asking what was wrong. I was screaming "I BURNED MY FACE!!", but all he heard was "MA MUU MA MAAAA" since I was still mouthing the wrap. When he stopped panicking and looked at me, checking out my face for the first time, his eyes stopped at mine. He said, "What happened to you??" Oh dear Lord!!

I ran to the bathroom, still trying to swallow this wrap that had somehow expanded to twice it's size. I hesitated for a moment, bracing for what I was sure was going to be second or third degree burns, all pink and bloody. When I looked, I didn't see much. I got closer to the mirror and realized that my eyelashes and eyebrows had been completely singed. Finally, swallowing the wrap, I was able to relay to Lance what had happened. He told me how lucky I was, because basically I had set myself up for that gas bomb by turning the gas on and leaving the lid closed. It was at that point that I realized that the grill was a man's territory and that I now had a healthy fear of it.

Fast forward to today. Today was my first day, conquering my fear of the gas grill. I've been observing it's use for over ten years now. Watching from a distance. I've asked question after question about the hows and whys of what you do with the grill. I've never before even attempted to light a grill, however, since The Great Eyelash Singe of '96 (or '97). But the other day, with Lance's new grill, I had him walk me through the process. The dos and the don'ts. Really, it's pretty simple if you understand basic CHEMISTRY and PHYSICS. So, tonight, I went out and faced my fears. I marinated some pork chops and when the time came, I took a deep breath, stood back and lit the grill. Victory is mine! Watch out world. The grill is a whole new genre for me to play with!! :)

Culinary delight

I don't know what got into me today, but I decided to try a few new things in the kitchen.

For lunch, the kids and I made pita pizzas. Not only did they have so much fun putting their toppings on, but they also scarfed it right down, having made it themselves (or "me do it myself" as Bennett says). Do you like how Morgan made a circle with her bell peppers? :)
















For an after lunch treat, Morgan asked for applesauce and I spruced it up with some banana slices and strawberries.


For dinner, I made a new dish from Cooking Light, Skillet Chicken Breast Aglio e Olio. The dish was rather spicy, so the kids ate it in between sips of milk, but my hubby ate it up!

I love trying new things in the kitchen. It helps me keep it interesting and helps when I don't feel like cooking! :)

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!

Happy Spring!

Not sure if it's the gorgeous 70 degree weather outside, the fact that today is officially the first day of spring, or the really great workout I got in this morning, but something is giving me energy and bringing out my inner Martha Stewart.

Instead of the standard rotation of peanut butter and jelly, meat and cheese sandwich, corn dog, hot dog, cheese and crackers, and even just your plain run of the mill quesadilla this afternoon, I decided to spice it up a little. For the kids, I put diced tomatoes, corn and bell peppers in with the cheese in their quesadillas. For mine, I diced up some roasted red peppers (roasted by me nonetheless) with some diced tomatoes and used whole wheat tortillas. Mmmmmm. I added some black bean soup on the side and it made a very filling and yummy lunch for everyone!


After lunch, we went outside for Morgan to practice her tennis, for Bennett to play in the sandbox and for me to do some weeding. While I was out there, I noticed how pretty my camellias are looking in bloom. I cut some, Morgan picked some lemons and this is the result that is now adorning my dining room table.


For dinner, I had tilapia in the refrigerator. When I wasn't satisfied with any recipes I was finding on allrecipes.com, I decided to make up my own. It actually turned out great! I pan "fried" the tilapia in olive oil and garlic and then put together a caper wine sauce (wine, garlic, capers, lemon juice and a little bit of butter). I even made some homemade garlic mashed potatoes that were a big hit with the under 6 crowd. Delicious!

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.

A very ordinarily magical Valentine's Day

There were no plans to go out to a fancy dinner. No going to see a jazz band or taking in the latest movie. Nope, we opted to stay in for Valentines today and it was perfect!

The day started with some heart shaped pancakes my hubby made for me. That's right. For ME. The kids had already asked for cereal and didn't have the patience to wait for pancakes, so we fed them breakfast first and then Lance and I sat down to some heart shaped pancakes.


I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but the second picture has Kiss Me written in syrup. You saw that, right?

The kids opened presents from us and from my parents and were ecstatic with what they got. Bennett got an Elmo Loves You video from my parents and a Find and Fit puzzle book set from us. Morgan got the movie E.T. from my parents and Barbie paper dolls from us.


After presents, it was time for Morgan and Lance to head off to Lowe's for the Kids' Workshop where they were building jewelry boxes. Morgan came back really excited. She got to keep an apron and even got a patch for building the jewelry box. I think this is something we'll be doing more of in the future. Especially since it's totally free! When they came back, they also had a little something special for me. :)


Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, here's the card that they made for me. All three of them. :)

Lance, Morgan, Bennett


And here is the "smelly heart" that Morgan made for Lance and I at school. They took scented candle shavings and melted them between wax paper and cut them into hearts.


After lunch, the kids went down for naps and Lance and I got busy. No, not that kind of busy. He went to work in Morgan's room, scraping the ceilings. We had a plumbing issue that required us to cut a hole in the ceiling of her room to diagnose properly and now that it's time to repair it, we've decided to scrape down the popcorn from her ceiling. Here's my little honey bunny on Valentine's Day this year.

Doesn't he look cute?? Yeah, in that freaky oompa loompa way. ;-)

While he was busy working up a sweat in Morgan's room, I was busy in the kitchen baking him some special treats. I made him Russian tea cakes (his favorite) and also baked some brownies for our dessert later that night. I also started to prep for the romantic dinner we had planned for when the kids went to bed.

Later, Lance got the kids fed (leftover heart pancakes, nonetheless) while I got showered and prepared dinner. I made Cornish game hens with rice, toasty garlic bread (the bread I made from scratch!) and Caesar salad. We ate on our fine china and silver at the dining room table, complete with candle light, wine, and some Coldplay. I even used the dimmer on our dining room light fixture, so it was extra romantic over the candle light. We actually got to talk and not have to worry about disciplining children or who's throwing what food. It was really nice! We should do it more often!

After dinner, we loaded up Made of Honor in the DVD and watched this romantic comedy together. Half way through, we stopped and got the brownies from the oven and put some ice cream on top and enjoyed our chocolaty gooey goodness. Mmmmm.

No grand gestures, no elaborate plans. Just us, together, enjoying each other's company. What a perfect Valentine's Day.

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!

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.

Dinner time fun

Tonight we were having a baked ham for dinner. Apparently, baked ham reminds Bennett of Grandpa. Don't ask. So, he starts in on "Memaw and Pepaw" and then he busts out with "come for my birthday!". I tell him "That's right, they are coming for your birthday!" and then he wants to know if Uncle Brett and "Mimles" are coming. I tell him that they are not coming for his birthday, but they are going to come this summer. This leads to a full on conversation about where everyone would sleep if my parents and my brother and his family were staying at our house.

Bennett says that Grandpa could sleep in his bed. Everyone else laughs. We tell him that Grandpa is too big to fit in his bed. But Grandma could, right? Riiiiiggghhht!! ;-)

We all laugh because the big joke in my family is how short my mom is. But then Morgan asks where Grandma and Grandpa would sleep for real. I said that we could give them our bed and we'd take her bed and she could sleep on an air mattress or the couch or something. She wanted to know if there was enough room in our bed for Grandma and Grandpa. To which I replied yes until I realized that she was talking about enough room IN ADDITION TO LANCE AND I. Lance and I realized this at the exact same moment, and what I would give to have captured his expression on camera. Oh my! I busted out into laughter and asked him if he could imagine that. To which he replied. NO!!! And I don't want to!!!

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!

Our little caveman

Last night I roasted a chicken for dinner. I usually cut off a leg for Morgan and then cut up some of the thigh meat for Bennett. Except, since he's become PARTICULAR about things, he demanded a leg. Like Morgan. He kept pointing to the roasted carcass on the counter and pleading with me "Kicken! Kiiiiiicken!", until I deciphered his meaning. Oh, you want what Morgan has. Okay.


Look at our CLASSY little caveman eating his chicken. *sigh*

I guess I wanted to spend the whole day in the kitchen

After dropping Morgan off at school this morning, Bennett and I headed to the tennis club (even though I'm terribly sore from the half of a spin class I did yesterday). He talked my head off the whole way there.

Bennett: "Mama!"
Me: "Yes, Bennett?"
Bennett: "Water!" "MAMA!! Water!! WATER!!"
Me: "Yes, I heard you. Water."
Bennett: "Mine!"
Me: "Yes, you have water."

Repeat the same with ball. And then water again. Twice. Yes, he's quite a talker. Who needs affirmation, apparently.

After doing the track (3.5 miles) and stairs (40 sets), I got showered and then Bennett and I headed to the grocery store. After doing our shopping, I came home and unloaded the groceries and then we went to pick Morgan up from school. After that, I proceeded to spend pretty much the rest of the day in the kitchen.

First, I made lunch for everyone. For today and tomorrow. Because? Might as well! Morgan has her first after school reading group where they stay an extra hour to have a small reading group with the teacher. So, she needs a lunch for that. And since I'll have a extra hour with Bennett at playgroup, we'll need lunches as well! I took a small hiatus from the kitchen to wash out the AC filter and the outdoor garbage cans and then came back and cooked throughout the entire nap time (while talking to my Mom on the phone, in true multi-tasking fashion). I made banana bread with some over ripened bananas and cooked up a batch of pancakes for breakfast since I don't have time on school mornings to do it and Miss Morgan has decided to forgo her hot-breakfast-aversion.

Once I got all the dishes cleaned up, it was time to get the kids up and going to drop Morgan off at ballet. I ran to Target while she was there and now I'm back home. Guess where I'm headed? In the kitchen, of course. It's time to cook dinner. Turkey tacos for dinner tonight. Yum.

All prepped and ready to go

I overslept this morning and didn't make it to the early service at church. I got up with the kids who are like little angry trolls this morning. Bennett screamed at me when I put him in his highchair for breakfast because I dared to put cheerios on his tray instead of in a bowl. I'm obviously the most ignorant momma in the world, at least according to his reaction. Morgan is driving me nuts with her non-stop made up songs and noises just for the sake of making noise.

I realized that we were out of waffles and knowing that they will likely want some hot food this week, decided to whip up another batch of homemade waffles. Both kids had cereal and waffles and Bennett also insisted on having peaches. As I was making breakfast, I peered into the refrigerator and saw the pork tenderloin that I had thawed earlier in the week to cook and had not yet managed to cook. So, I prepped it and put it in the crock pot to make my yummy Slow Cooked Pulled Pork. I decided to go ahead and also prep the tomato, cucumber, celery and onion salad as well as the home baked potato fries so that all I have to do is throw the potatoes in the oven about half an hour before we are ready to eat. This led to me going ahead and dicing up some celery and onion for tuna salad sandwiches for lunch. So, I've now managed to prep all our food for the day. I also managed to miss the late service at church as well. Oh well. That's what they make podcasts for, right?

Lance was corralling the kids while I was doing all the prepping and cooking and I'm pretty sure he's having "a morning" right along with me. After he woke up (he slept in after I got up with the kids), he came downstairs and one of the first questions to me was "isn't there that park play date today?" No such luck. But, I told him, we can take the kids to the park. Not as appealing as me removing them from the house and him having time to watch some football in peace and quiet.

Plan for the rest of the day is to get my weekly planning done and maybe even some yard work. I feel a burst of energy, so I suppose I should take advantage of it, huh?