Monday, Monday

Today was a day. A Monday. We had cold spilt coffee dripping down my 14m old just as we were supposed to be leaving for soccer practice. Luckily, I was able to clean him up and make it for the last 20 minutes of class. Then, I found out our pediatrician could see my 14 m old for possible pink eye, only to have me spill almost an entire strawberry milkshake in the cars center cup holder. I had to race back into the house to grab a ton of paper towels and then jet off to our appointment.
If only I could leave well enough alone, but, no. That would be too easy. I decided to do my Fresh 20 meal plan for the week so that we can eat something other than a burger or noodles or pizza, which is mostly all I’ve been craving. (Well, the pizza.) I dragged the boys to the grocery store and got my weeks supply of food, per the list provided for the weeks menus and headed home. It actually went pretty well. I was able to pre-prepare the veggies I was supposed to and then meet my brother, sister in law nieces and nephew at the park. The goal was to not have to take as long to make dinner once we got back. It all went off without a hitch and, although my 29m old didn’t like it, my 14m old did as well as the Mr. All in all, a success. I made Veggie Burgers with Parmesan Zucchini. Can I say that the reason I don’t post actual recipes is because I feel that, unless the recipe is from a free, public source, it would be unethical of me to cheat the creators/purveyors of said recipes out of what they are trying to earn. It’d be like me buying a CD and downloading it and sharing it with the whole world for free. Anyway, just my feelings. Here are the photos of how it all went. Oh, and “Veggie Burger” may be something of a misnomer since they contain meat. I was fooled, too, until I read the recipe.

Things got too crazy once all the food was ready for me to have been of sound enough mind to take a photo of it all complete together. Just imagine the stuff in the pan scooped into burger buns and sitting on a plate next to the zucchini.
I am actually looking forward to making the other recipes because I do want to eat better and I was on such a roll. Now, I’m off to fill my belly with a last snack of the night bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.

I’m Just Sayin

I am exhausted beyond words and I can tell that as this year goes on, I will only become more so. Something had got to give because I have fallen off track of cooking and have been taking the easy route of take-out. I need to get it together. Last nite, I even used a baby wipe to clean my face but, at least I’ve maintained the ability to brush my teeth twice a day. Off to bed. I need to find a better time during the day to write rather than waiting until bedtime when I am plain worn out.
Ok, I’m not really off to bed. I’m off to watch my DVR’d episode of TRHW of Atlanta. I can’t lie. Later, gators.

Veggie Nuggets, Damn It

Obviously, I am having a hard time staying on course with daily writing. I’ve been struggling with crazy, bad allergies and trying to find ways to mitigate it. The swim lesson over the weekend went off with nary a hitch. There were no wardrobe malfunctions and, as is usually the case with us, it was so crazy just getting us all dressed ad there that I didn’t have time to fret about my body. I do have to mention that I am constantly amazed at my bosoms ability to inflate and deflate to the point that I’m never sure which size I’m going to be confronted with on any given day. Saturday, my swimsuit was more busty than I was, which created a gap that pleased my ever nursing 13m old. In the frenzy to load the boys, the Mr forgot to grab their change of clothes that I’d laid out the night before. Madness. That’s all I’ll say about that.
I’ve been taking the easy route with meal times but I did attempt to make a recipe for veggie nuggets from “Weelicious”. Things went ok until I realized that the recipe called for an hour to hour n a half stint in the freezer and I’d planned on serving them straight away. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that, not read a recipe through and missed some vital piece of info thus throwing me into a frenzy to get it all together. Anyway and luckily, we had left over mac-n-cheese in the fridge so I threw that together with some organic hot dogs. Here are some photos from my veggie nugget quest:

There were also some mashed potatoes as part of the recipe.

I got this far and placed it in the freezer for an hour. They seemed to thaw rather quickly for how much there was to dip in the egg, flour and breadcrumbs so I got frustrated and lazy and gave up on cutting it all up. In the end, I smeared the flour, whisked eggs and then the breadcrumbs on top and shoved it all in the freezer. I made it today by baking it and then broiling it because I wanted it to be crispy or just less mushy. That would have been ok had I not gotten distracted by my 13m old needing a nap and me forgetting I had put it in the oven and then forgetting to tell the Mr… Though you would think the smell of something burning would have alerted him to check the oven, right? Anyway, here is the final product.

It actually tasted good to me, so I would attempt this again with better planning. 😄

I’m off to bed so more later. G’nite.

All Apologies

When I lived in California, I exercised at least three times a week. I’d ride my bike a few miles to a coffee shop near Balboa Park and then run three miles and then bike back home. I even got certified as a fitness specialist. Then I moved across the country where I’m sure some depression along with an aversion for the hot , hot heat of summer and the cold, cold, cold of winter stopped me in my tracks. Not to mention that I have allergies, which I somehow forgot I had,
that got rejuvenated by the climate… Why I’m living in one of the top 5 worst places to live for allergies I don’t know. Needless to say, between climate, pregnancies and lack of motivation I haven’t exercised regularly in 4yrs. Thank God for a high metabolism, because I also live in one of the unhealthiest states in the country.
All of this is leading to the fact that my boys start swim class this weekend and it sent me into a flurry of swimsuit anxiety. I have a decent swimsuit designed to disguise the belly behind a blur of polka dots but I will still have to put my skinny-fat butt into it and bare my arms. Ugh. I had a brief moment last night while trying on said swimsuit of wondering if I could squeeze 3yrs of exercise into 15 minutes. 😞 Alas, I will have no way out of facing the fact that I have taken poor care of the body these last few years.
When I moved here I was 37 and looked about 30-31 max. Now, I’ve somehow aged 10 years and feel like I look 45 and I’m not even there yet. So here goes my public apology to my body.
“Dearest body, you have put up with my poor eating habits and abuse with nary a whisper or a cry. You didn’t punish me for the years of depression and misery and moments of non-exercise by blowing up or breaking down and I took you for granted. Now you are showing me what will happen if I continue to ignore your need for movement and better care. I hear you. My flabby butt hears you as we’ll as my mini bat wings, dry skin and limp hair. I will do right by you. I’m sorry. I am sorry. I’ve already started to actually wash my face instead regularly relying on facial cleansing wipes and I’ve been trying to moisturize my hands after each washing. It’s a small start but we can do this together. We can. Starting here. Starting now. Well, starting after I change this poopy diaper…”

Epiphany

Today, as I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few things we’d run our of, I had an epiphany. I don’t feel like making my own coffee creamer. The organic recipe is fine if you like your coffee less sweet, but I am not that person. It was yucky. Ok, not totally yucky, but still. No likey until I added a ton of sugar and at that point it just makes you feel bad about what you’ve made that’s now being taken down by all of that sweetener. So it’s back to store bought creamer for me, for now, so I can sip my coffee in happy ignorance as to how much sugar I’m consuming in each cup full. Nite all.

‘Nilla Creamer

The fun never stops. I have been super cranky the last two days so when I woke up and discovered that, not only did I NOT have coffee creamer, I didn’t have the ingredients I needed to make the recipe I’d found, I was mad. Like “I feel like crying” mad, not “I want to claw someone’s eyes out for using all of the maple syrup even though I told you it’s expensive and sweeter so one is supposed to use less” mad. I went ahead and made breakfast for the kiddos and then bundled us all up still in our pj’s and drove through the Starbucks drive thru. Thank God there is one five minutes away. After that we had a pretty good day. The weather was nice again so we hung out outdoors. I made mac-n-cheese bake for dinner then whipped up this yummy sounding home made vanilla creamer I found on this site called [Deliciously Organic](http://deliciouslyorganic.net/homemade-coffee-creamer/). Why do I torture myself this way. I’m supposed to be seeking ways to save time…

Anyway, I can hardly wait until tomorrow morning to try it out. I made the vanilla bean one. I was prompted to do so because I’d bought the generic organic one from Whole Paycheck (foods). I didn’t read the ingredients until it was time to recycle the bottle and I thought “WTH”? I thought it would list just four or five ingredients but it had more.

After that, I said to myself “Self, we can do better than that. Let’s keep it simple”. So, I decided to make my own organic, homemade creamer. And, voila! Here it is.

May I also add that I am not one of those people who just happen to have a stash of mason jars hanging around the house in case I make something (though it’s looking like I need to become one of those people). I had to search high and low and, fortunately, I had this jar full of baby bottle nipples and caps. Now I’ll have to find those things a new home but desperate times people, desperate times.

Results

After letting the pan get too hot and burning my first set of garlic and then burning the hell out of the bacon in the microwave by following the directions on the package (grrrrrr), this is how it turned out. The fam loved it and my littlest one gobbled it up after I put his portion in the food processor. Not too shabby.

Amendment

I wanted to mention that the recipe I used was for mini taco bowls. My bowls were not folded as well as the ones in the photo on….shit. The app is for Big Fork Little Fork. My apologies. This is my ADD brain and bad memory. I can remember the most random things very well but names… I feel awful. Ok. Let me shake it off. The recipes and apps I’ve been using are from Big Fork Little Fork and the Weelicious cookbook, which I love. The ranch dressing came out awesome. My food masochism wouldn’t allow me to buy ranch dressing and I’m glad, in this case. Maybe it’s my subconscious way of acting like I still have all the time in the world to cook, though this behavior didn’t occur until post-babies. Go figure.
Today we are having Big Fork Spaghetti by Marcus Samuelsson. Should be good. Here’s what we’re using:

More on how this goes later 😃.

Spring Days

Did I fall off the writing wagon again? Oui. I did. I made that yummy dinner with homemade ranch from “Weelicious ” and the rest from the Bigforklittlespoon app and then it all went down hill. I don’t know who these moms are who have time to blog and make wonderful meals and do DIY projects and clean their homes and manage relationships… It’s enough for me to get regular meals into my belly while tending to my 27m old and 13m old. I’m lucky if I get to sit for 20min just reading a magazine or catching up on the shows I record on DVR.
That said, it was a nice full weekend. We drove a total of 4hrs to go to a family bday party (always great with kids this age. Not). Fortunately, they slept on the way down and I hauled ass to get home with just the beginnings of a meltdown occurring 5min from our house. I also got to take a nap with the boys on Sunday because I was able to get them to go down at the same time. The weather was nice and we rounded the weekend out with an afternoon at the park with my brothers 3 kids. Good times. Don’t let my whining fool you. I love, love, love staying home with my kids and I love being a mom and wife. It just consumes a lot of energy with little to spare for self or other things unless you are better at time management than I am. Everyone has to find their own rhythm and mine just happens to be a little frenetic. Gotta run before the kiddos get up so we can get groceries but here’s looking at Spring 😄❗

Uh Huh

I should be writing something interesting and/or witty but I have a splitting headache so I am going to bed. Here are some scenes from tonite. More details mañana.