Project 365: 70-78

March 11- An early morning walk to Coffee Bean for an ice blended before Mimi and Bapa headed back to Utah.

March 12- Family Date Night.  Hamburgers, Trader Joe's, and frozen yogurt.  (According to Garrett: "fries and play slide." (Burger King Playground), "Sticks!" (free stickers for kids at TJ's), and "Ice Cleam!"

March 13- "Uncle" Braden, a Funeral Director friend from Utah, crashed at our place in the middle of the night after driving a case down from SLC.  I made him breakfast while he played with my kids, and then he was back on the road.

March 14- Look at those sweet little hands.  I looked through a baby book of mine today, and I had so much more hair than her when I was this age, but she's a lot cuter than I was! I just love her.

March 15- Garrett was with his grandparents, and instead of being productive at home, Addie and I went shopping and did some party planning.

March 16- Thank you Trader Joe's 'Everyday Seasoning' (with a built in grinder), for making our vegis so pretty and delicious!  Also, I found a great, simple seasoning for the chicken and now I can't find the link to give credit...I think it's 'The crayon box recipes' or something.  Anyway, apparently this it how you should always prep your chicken, whether it's to grill, put in a casserole, add to Alfredo sauce, or whatever. And after tasting it, I agree.  So here it is: for 2 chicken breasts I did, 1/2 tsp of each of the following- salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder.  Mix all those in a bowl, then sprinkle it on the chicken and rub it in.  Heat a couple Tbs. olive oil in a frying pan and barely brown the chicken.  Really just to make the seasoning stick.  The recipe said to then bake it at 350 for 25 minutes but we grilled ours and it was yummy.  I think I would do this to the chicken to use in other recipes because it adds such a great flavor.  And I had all the spices on hand! I feel so grown-up when I have all the ingredients for a new recipe.

March 17- Happy St. Patrick's Day!

March 18- Addie was a nightmare all day.  Fussy, needy, constantly bugging Garrett and getting into everything she shouldn't.  Then Paul came home for lunch, so I starting complaining about her, and she was a sweet little angel the whole time he was home.  Yeah, I'm sure he believed me after a good-bye hug like this!

March 19- I made this dress for Addie during her nap.  She would only hold still for a picture if Garrett would stand next to her.  The whole dress cost less that $2.50 to make, and took less than 30 minutes to make it.  I think I'll make a couple more!

salsa, loneliness, and a movie synopsis

I mentioned the salsa to a friend yesterday, and I've been meaning to post it for a few weeks, so I thought I'd hurry and do it.  I of course found it on Pinterest.  When I was in Utah last week, I said, "I saw this idea on pinterest..." so many times, that my mom said, "how did you survive without pinterest?"  And she also said, "when you tell me about something, I'll just assume it was on pinterest unless you say otherwise."  Anyway, this salsa reminds me on Chili's salsa, which I love!  During one of my pregnancies I'd send Paul to Chili's just to get chips and salsa.  Oh the money that could have been saved if pinterest wound have been invented earlier. (Paul would say, "Oh the money we'd save if pinterest was never invented.")...but anyway.

Easy Blender Salsa

1 - 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 - 10oz can original Rotel
1/2 small onion roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and mashed
1/2-1 jalapeno, seeded or not
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
small to med size handful of cilantro
juice of one lime

throw it all in the blender, pulse to combine ingredients until it gets to the consistency you like, and enjoy!

My notes:  I drain the juice off of the diced tomatoes.  I wasn't sure the first time I made it so I saved the juice in a dish, but when I was done I for sure didn't want to add it.  It would have been too runny.  (I don't drain the rotel.)  I just used garlic from a jar. 1/2-1 tsp.  Be REALLY careful with the jalapeno.  I've never used more that a 1/4 of one for a DOUBLE batch, and the recipe calls for 1/2-1 for ONE batch.  Garrett loves him some salsa, and one time I used 1/4 of one for a double batch and Garrett about choked to death, so I made ANOTHER DOUBLE batch to add to it.  The batch I made yesterday has NO jalapeno in it, and it's perfect.  The rotel has some kick!  They also make hot rotel if you'd like.  And I'm super scared about cutting jalapenos with two mobile babies.  What if I drop a seed?!  What if I don't wash my hands well enough and I touch their faces?!  Anyway, I'll be making it jalapeno free now because it's perfect without.

We snack on chips and salsa often around here.  It's also great on tacos, and on tossed salad with a little ranch.  Oh, and the time I made a quadruple batch, I froze some in a jar.  It still tasted yummy, but it got a little runny.

(yesterday's batch)

I think Addie misses Garrett.  (He'll be back from Utah tomorrow.)  She is so fussy all day!  And it's been like that all week.  She has to be able to see me and reach me at all times.  Usually she'll sit on the floor and play with Garrett while I shower, do dishes, fold laundry, etc.  But not this week!  It could also be teething.  But I choose to believe that she loves and misses her brother.  So much for a productive week with only one kid!  This is where I had to put her so I could have a two minute shower yesterday, and she still fussed.

Have you heard about the new movie called, 'The Obama Effect'?  A friend of mine posted about this on facebook and I thought it was funny, so I watched the trailer.  The synopsis on itunes trailers starts like this:

"In the beginning of the 21st century, no one ever thought that an African-American would become the first President of the United States."

...umm, what?...

What does that mean?  Maybe they mean the first president of the 21st century?  Which is also not true, for anyone who's confused.

Anyway, just thought it was funny.  And I'm guessing the movie will probably be about as thought out as the synopsis.

photo dump and a recipe you'll thank me for

I love my days with these two. Lulu is so laid back as long as she can see what's going on and has something to chew on. Garrett is so busy all the time, taking Lulu's toys and taking the plants for walks.
I love this picture of Garrett. He HAS to sleep with the tiger pillow and the alligator. I usually lay him on the pillow and put the alligator at his side, but on this night he was so tired that I just laid him on the pillow. The alligator was at the foot of his crib and I didn't grab it because I knew he's be asleep so quick. But when I checked on him before I went to bed, he'd somehow found his alligator in the dark and snuggled up.We're finally feeding Lulu rice cereal. Just at dinner time for now and so far, it's going so well. So much easier than Garrett was. I'm giving most of the credit to the Munchkin Easy Squeezy Spoon. It's awesome. Cuts down so much on mess and drips. And I think she's sleeping longer because she's staying full longer. So far since starting, she's sleeping 9-10 hours. Daddy's little girl.And now the recipe. I've been trying simple, fast, and minimal-ingredient recipes to find an easy one to use for a pinterest party. I've decided on two. One sweet and one salty. I'll share the other one later, but for now, dessert first! You can find the recipe at chef-in-training.com.

Or right here:

1 pack microwave popcorn, popped
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs light corn syrup or honey
1/2 tsb vanilla
12 large marshmallows

Instructions

1. Pop popcorn until done, remove any unpopped kernels.
   
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.
   
3. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and marshmallows.
   
4. Turn heat to medium and stir until marshmallows are melted and mixture is smooth.
   
5. Pour over popcorn and stir in until popcorn is evenly coated.
   
6. Store in an airtight container.

*My notes*

I've made it twice and both times popped 2 bags of popcorn because Garrett loves popcorn and he snacks on it to keep busy while I cook. Both times I've used at least 1.5 bags of the popcorn and I think it would be way too gooey with only one bag. I've never tried it with honey so I don't know which one is better. I wish there was an amount of time you're suppose to heat the mixture because I feel like if I cook it on high and quick it won't have enough time to get the good carmely flavor, but if I cook it too slow it'll get too hard once mixed and cooled. Both times it's been the best right after it's made, warm and gooey. After it cools it gets hard. Fortunately a few seconds in the microwave softens it back up. If I ever get it to stay soft, I'll update with what I did. But it's so yummy! But I'd serve it shorty after making it.

Garrett loves it too.
He's got the idea, table push-ups while snacking to cancel out the calories.

St. Patrick's Day

I was going to let this holiday slide by unnoticed. Friday was quite possibly one of the most randomly crappy days I've had in a very long time. No reason. Just crappy. So much so, that Paul took the day off at the last minute, just so I could work on getting out from under the dark cloud. By Friday evening I decided to try and think of something fun to do on Saturday to help me snap out of it. Paul had to work all weekend, so it was just me and the kids.

I'd pinned a few ideas on Pinterest. Which, Pinterest, by the way, made the news here in LA a few days ago and the reporter doing the story called it, "Pin-interest", and said it's "Facebook's new social media threat." Ok, not quite.

Anyway, Garrett and I had green french toast and green milk for breakfast. I think he was scared of the milk. I gave him syrup for the first time. For some reason syrup can put me in a sugar induced coma faster than anything, so I only gave Garrett a few drops. But he LOVED it. He (literally) licked his plate clean.
After his morning nap we frosted sugar cookies. (Note to self: Next time, eat lunch before you pull out the cookies.) Syrup for breakfast + frosting for lunch = mother of the year.

I made Irish Stew for dinner, minus the irish. It was so yummy and so easy, and partially made up. Here's what I did if you want an easy crock pot dinner.About a pound of steak (or stew meat) cubed and browned in a couple tbs. oil
4 med potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 med carrots, peeled and sliced
1 lg onion diced
A little diced celery...I don't love cooked celery, but I had some, and my mom always puts it in her stew so I added a little.
2 cans of Cream Of whatever soup. I had one chicken and one celery so I used those.
2 cans of tomato sauce
About 1 tbs minced garlic
About 2 tbs chili powder
About 1/4 cup ketchup

Mix it all in a crock pot, I added about a cup of water. I salted and peppered it a little and let it cook for a few hours. Yummy. Oh and I think if you want it to be Irish, just add some Guinness instead of water.

Poppy had worked with Paul all day so we invited him up to join us. For dessert I made Irish dirt cake. Also, minus the irish. Very easy as well and pretty good. I got the recipe from tablespoon.com via Pinterest.I also dressed my kids festively and took pictures of them being cute. And during nap time I made a handkerchief dress for Addison. I wish I could find smaller handkerchiefs because when I finished this I tried it on Garrett and I bet it won't fit Addie for a couple more years, but if I cut it down I'd lose the pattern in the fabric. Anyway, it took like 15 minutes, I'm going to try it with regular fabric too though, so I can make them any size I want. Total cost, less that $5.00!And when the fun was over and all the messes were cleaned up, I went to find my family because it had been pretty quiet for a while, and this is what I found in our bedroom.Perfect way to end the day.

Zuppa Toscana, OG style.

I love The Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. I've started always ordering the all you can eat soup, salad and bread sticks. I always eat 2 bowls of soup and sometimes I ask for a 3rd and then I waste it. I just don't want it to end.

It took me forever to figure out what the green leafy stuff is in it and I hate to ask because I don't want them to think I'm trying to steel their recipe, but then I remembered that the internet exists and I can find just about everything I need. I found a recipe that I thought seemed about right. I learned the dark green stuff in kale. I'd never heard of it or seen it in grocery stores. Never looked, but never remember seeing it.

Last Tuesday we were at the Huntington Beach farmers market and a guy was selling it for a dollar a bunch. I bought it, found the recipe again online, went shopping for the rest of what I needed, and today I made it. And I'm really surprised at how close it is to the real thing! I love it! Here's the recipe, pictures I took along the way, and my own notes/changes at the bottom.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb ground Italian sausage
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
• 1 large diced white onion
• 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
• 2 tsp garlic puree
• 10 cups water
• 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
• ¼ of a bunch of kale

1. Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.3. Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.4. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.5. Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated.

6. Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!Sauté is a fancy word for fry slowly. I used minced garlic, I couldn't find pureed, I don't know that it matters. I used sausage links and peeled the link wrap stuff off before I cooked it. Next time I'll search until I find straight up ground Italian sausage. I used real bacon, bacon bits. I didn't want fatty bacon. I'm guessing the recipe means bacon bits, but at first I almost bought a package of bacon to cook. Check your potatoes, it says 30 minutes but mine were perfect in about 19. When I added the sausage at the end I got some orange fat residue on the top of my soup. Still yummy, but next time I'll probably lightly rinse it, instead of just letting the fat drain off. Pull the leafy stuff off when preparing your kale and throw the middle stem part away, I included the 2 kale pictures so you can see what I had as a "bunch" and also how I chopped it. I left the skins on the potatoes. I usually don't really like russet skins, but the OG leaves them on, so I did, and its yummy. Oh and I should say I tripled the recipe so Paul can take it to work to share with his co-workers tomorrow, that's why it looks like a lot. This recipe serves 6-8.So Yummy!

pies and colors

Paul is out at a lake somewhere all day today boating with a bunch of his guy friends for a bachelor party of a friend of ours who is getting married this Friday. So after church today I decided to cook.

You know those people who cook or bake and blog about it by taking pictures of each and every beautiful step? That's not me.

These are the peach skins and pits in the top of the trash before I took it out.
And this is the pie chilling in the fridge.
It's close to Marie Callender's fresh peach pie. My father in law bought me two of 'em in two days last weekend. (I shared the second one.) But of course Utah's fresh peach pie season doesn't start til the end of August. So until then (and probably after then) I'll make my own. Last year I made one from peaches off my parents tree and this year Paul and I have our own tree full of little peaches, not ripe yet, but I'm looking forward to them growing and ripening.

Here's my top secret recipe. (That I found on the internet.)

Ingredients:

5 large ripe peaches
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp constarch
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp butter
Frozen pie shell (Marie Callendar’s of course)

Directions
Bake 1 pie shell per instructions. Set aside and cool.
Mix together the sugar and corn starch(mix well).
Slice 3 large peaches for filling.
Mash 2 more peaches with a fork and combine with the following in a small saucepan: mashed peaches, sugar, cornstarch, water.
Cook for 5 minutes, until it boils.
Add the vanilla and butter.
Stir until the butter is melted and the consistency is thick and gluey.
Place the sliced peaches in the pie shell.
Pour the mixture over the top, covering every sliced peach.
Chill in the refrigerator. (about 1-2hrs)

(I usually cut up an extra peach for the shell, and then I don't use all the sauce.)

In other news. I'm getting anxious about finishing the nursery. Everything is picked, and almost everything is purchased. I chose the colors back in March/April and bought all the fabric and ordered all the furniture. I made the decision before I knew if it was a boy or girl. But it is definatly more boy-ish. I love the colors we picked. I feel like we have a pretty unique color scheme, especially for a baby. But I like it. His room is brown, green, red, orange, yellow and blue. A lot of color, but I love 'em all!

Everything in the nursery except the glider is either made by me, my mom, or someone I work with. I've loved coming up with ideas for the room and I love that I spend my days with people who can build anything that comes to my mind. It's been really fun.

I'll work on getting some pictures up soon.