Messy Eater

Linc is the messiest eater of all my kids. I kid you not, he covers himself from TOP to BOTTOM when he eats.  For some reason, as soon as I turn away form him, he grabs handfuls of food and then rubs it all over his head.  Maybe he sees Daddy with the hair gel in the morning and thinks it's the same thing?  Who knows.  But when we're home for the day, I tend to just keep him in a diaper only because otherwise, we'll go through 6 changes of clothes.

So after lunch the other day I was cleaning peanut butter of his head, his ears, his belly, his toes... when I realized I was practically bathing him anyway and would save myself time by just putting him right in the sink.  And my teeny tiny little guy still fit right in the sink at 15 months old! (Kaden would have never fit in the sink at that age.)  Lincoln thought it was hilarious and he loved playing with the water.

 

  

 

Meal Plan Monday 3/8/10

Sooo... last week didn't go quite as planned.  I only ended up cooking one of the meals on my meal plan!   I never made it to the grocery store, and just threw created some meals using what I had on hand, and we were lucky enough to have family feed us a couple nights too!  And.... ok, we ate out one night.  But I even did that pretty cheap, and it was a fun playtime for the kids.  So this week, I'm recycling my meal plan from last week.  I made it to the grocery store last night and picked up the few items I needed.  So this week, my Meal Plan blog is what I made LAST week. :-)  I finally made it to the grocery store on Sunday night - for the first time in two weeks!  

Being able to make it through a whole week without grocery shopping was nice enough, but to really make my week, about 20 minutes into the grocery shopping Sunday night, right around the time I was losing patience with trying to keep Kaden & Lincoln wrangled inside the shopping cart and after telling them for the tenth time that they could not buy ANYTHING that's not on my list, Kenny snuck up on us in the aisle!  He was on his way home from work, knew I was at the store with the kids and my Knight in Shining Armor swooped in to take them all home and get them to bed!!  Yes, in my fairy tale, my knight in shining armor sweeps in to rescue me from my own children.  Don't judge.

Monday

Chick Fil A :-)

I hadn't made it to the grocery store, the kids were bored and it was already getting late in the evening and they were starving by the time I got it together.  And I was about ready to rip my hair out of my head!  I have several free item coupons for Chick Fil A, so me and the kids had dinner for under $7 and they ran wild on the play area, while I sat in somewhat quite and let my brain settle down!  :-)

Tuesday

*The only recipe from th eplan that I actually accomplished making last week! And this was an absolute FAVORITE!  I ended up doubling the recipe & using 3 lbs of chicken (didn't need to double the bread crumbs though) and we ate buffalo chicken wraps for lunch the next day!  I'm defintely going to do a large batch of these for the freezer soon!)

 

Oven Baked Buffalo Chicken Fingers from my friend Leilani - who found it on the Whole Foods website

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

1/4 cup hot sauce

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons tomato catsup

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins

1 1/2 cups dried whole wheat bread crumbs

Vegetable oil cooking spray

Method

Stir together hot sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, and catsup in a wide, shallow dish to make a marinade. Add chicken, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate for 10 minutes, or overnight. Remove chicken from marinade and gently press it into the bread crumbs, rolling well to evenly coat chicken all over.

For Freezer: After coating chicken, flash freeze on a baking sheet, covered in plastic wrap until firm.  Place flat in a Gallon-size freezer bag.

Prep Directions: Thaw (if from frozen). Place on greased baking sheet, being careful not to overlap them. Spray chicken all over with oil and bake for 20 minutes at 375, or until cooked through and golden brown.

Nutrition

Per serving (about 4oz/103g-wt.): 180 calories (20 from fat), 2.5g total fat, 0.5g saturated fat, 55mg cholesterol, 710mg sodium, 15g total carbohydrate (0g dietary fiber, 2g sugar), 22g protein 

with Ranch & Carrots

Romaine Salad 

Wednesday

Fajita Take-out @ Grandma's

Wednesday is Kenny's Sunday. We went to my mother-in-laws house and relaxed outside with the boys by the pool all day. It was gorgeous weather and we had a great relaxing day. Our friend Mikey helped Kenny move a desk into storage (b/c my office is now Kaden's room).  Mikey's been away for a long time so it was nice to visit with him and we just had a nice "day off".

Thursday

My sister & her boyfriend came over with there 3 kids and we all spent time outside playing and enjoying the beautiful day.  By the time I realized I needed to start dinner, I just started going through the fridge and freezer to see what I could come up with.  Here's what I made - that's right, I actually created a recipe! haha, It was certainly nothing gourmet, but it was quick & it was actually pretty good.  I even thought I'd use the leftovers to mix in with scrambled eggs the next day for a big breakfast skillet - but there weren't any leftovers, everyone gobbled it up!

Sausage & Potato Skillet

2 Potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces

1 lb. smoked turkey sausage, cut into bite size pieces

4 cloves garlice, minced

I bag frozen Mirepoix Veggies (diced carrots, celery & onions)

1 8oz can tomato Sauce

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp basil

1/2-1 cup water

Saute potatoes, and sausage, until browned.  Add garlic, veggies and cook until veggies are hot and tender-crisp, add tomato sauce and seasonings and water as needed, let cook to combine flavors.  Would be good garnished with Parmesan Cheese.

Romaine & Carrot Salad w/Cheddar 

Friday

Turkey w/Cranberry Sauce

With both of our families all here in Katy (& Brookshire) I realize we are often ridiculously spoiled!  My mom called on Thursday and told me they'd cooked a whole turkey and she had a whole turkey dinner, with gravy and cranberry ready for me to come pick up!  Woohoo!  Love having someone else cook for me.  It was a great surprise.  I had big plans to make mashed potatoes and maybe even some quick stuffing.  BUT, if you haven't noticed a running theme, the weather was great last week, I've been busy and unorganized, so my best plans didn't happen!  We had a birthday party to run to that evening, so I made the kids quick turkey dinners and we ran off - no veggies!  Shame on me.... but does jellied cranberry sauce count as a fruit?  That's almost nutritious right?  yea.... ok.

Saturday

Pizza

We had another birthday party, this one was at an ice skating rink.  We ALL skated (hoping the other mom has a picture of me on the ice with both Lincoln & Kaden - it was quite an adventure!!) and then we ate Pizza, soda & cake.  Yes, this week was definitely our most nutritious!! 

Sunday 

Turkey Tacos (or we can call it Taco meat and lettuce!)

Okay, seriously, this last meal just goes to show the ridiculousness in my dinner plans last week.  After getting by all week with luck & mostly other people spontaneously feeding us, I had to cook something last night.  I planned to go to the grocery store, but had to feed the kids first.  Grocery shopping with three kids is miserable enough, but grocery shopping with three hungry kids is suicide.  So I started the taco meat, and then realized I had 2 corn tortillas left, then realized I was also out of cheese.... and tomatoes... and salsa... oh, and sour cream.  I browned ground turkey, seasoned with cumin, chili powder & lots of garlic.  Wanted to add black beans, but realized I didn't have any of those either (but, of course!), I did have a can of Ranch style beans with jalapenos.  So I half rinsed those (so it wouldn't be too saucy) and added them along with a tablespoon of tomato paste and some water, and served it over lettuce.  It was a sad excuse for dinner - but the kids ate it and then I finally made it to the grocery store.

Conversations with a three year old

Me: DO NOT PUT THAT ROPE AROUND YOUR BABY BROTHER'S NECK!
K: (with  jump rope in hand) But Mom.  He wanted to go for a bull ride. So please just let me put the rope around his neck.  Can I please?
Me: No, you can't ever put a rope around Linc's neck!
K: uhhhh!  (B/c I am just the meanest most unfair mother in the world.)

And then he looks at Linc sitting on the couch next to us, jums up, picks him up and throws him onto a pile of pillows on the floor.  And I mean, literally throws him.  (Fortunately, our easy going baby just laughs.  And fortunately, there already happened to be a pile of pillows there!)

Poor Linc.  He's either going to be seriously tough, or need serious therapy.  

Or both.

Hello Spring!!!

Oh my goodness, I am loving this weather.  I swear, Winter makes me depressed.  I think I have a very real physical need for sunshine, and when I don't get lots of it, I get crazy!  The past several days have been so beautiful and we've looked for any excuse to get outside.  We've been having a lot of fun!

Bear Creek Park

The kids & I met up with my best friend from high school, Leilani, this past Saturday.  She and I haven't seen each other much over the past few years, and we've been meaning to get together for a while.  We finally made a park playdate this weekend with the kids and it was perfect weather.  She has a little boy who is 2 and she is expecting (yay!!) baby # 2 in September!  It was a nice sunny day, almost warm, but there was some chilly wind.  The kids played until they were worn out! It was great catching up with her, and her husband, Ailona, is a wonderful photographer!  It was really fun because he took tons of great pictures of the kids, and I've been needing some tips and advice for my camera and suggestions for new lenses or equipment to get.  I was really into photography in high school, but it's been so many years and I really need to re-learn a lot about it. Ailona gave me some great tips and got me excited to start playing again.  It was a great day and I now have TONS of pictures to share (Thanks Ailona!) 

Cute kids! (and look at Linc's face here!  Priceless!)

 

 

Meal Plan Monday 3/1/10

I have to get serious about getting back in better shape, and Ken and I are going to try out P90x in a couple weeks.  So this week I'm really trying to focus on not only healthy, natural, whole food meals, but also on low-calorie, low-fat, high-protein dishes.  On top of keeping everything frugal... should be super easy! eek.
I also need simplicity right now.  So I'm looking for a few Crock-pot recipes, so I don't have to be in the kitchen, messing up dishes and trying not to burn dinner while the kids run wild wreaking havoc on the house.  Several days this week we've been busy in the evening, and then at 5 or 6, I'm rushing home to start dinner and already have starving cranky kids impatiently waiting.  So, low easy prep is important too.  Those aren't unrealistic expectations, right?
I got yummy stuff from my Organic Produce Co-op this week, wanna see?

 

The fruits and the avocados are usually used up for snack.  We've been getting cilantro for the past few weeks and I'm obsessed with making fresh guacamole with this seasoning called Herby that I bought from the family that runs the co-op. It's an organic seasoning blend made with herbs and spices, and it's got great flavors so I'm putting it on everything now.

Here's my menu plan along with explanations for what I'm thinking when I'm planning and how I try to balance cost with health.

Monday
Oven Baked Buffalo Chicken Fingers from my friend Leilani - I don't know where she got it from. :-)
with Ranch & Carrots (Kenny is crazy about Ranch dressing on everything, and so, of course, are the kids.)
Romaine Salad

Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
1/4 cup hot sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons tomato catsup
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins
1 1/2 cups dried whole wheat bread crumbs
Vegetable oil cooking spray
Method
Stir together hot sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, and catsup in a wide, shallow dish to make a marinade. Add chicken, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate for 10 minutes, or overnight. Remove chicken from marinade and gently press it into the bread crumbs, rolling well to evenly coat chicken all over.
For Freezer: After coating chicken, flash freeze on a baking sheet, covered in plastic wrap until firm.  Place flat in a Gallon-size freezer bag.
Prep Directions: Thaw (if from frozen). Place on greased baking sheet, being careful not to overlap them. Spray chicken all over with oil and bake for 20 minutes at 375, or until cooked through and golden brown.
Nutrition
Per serving (about 4oz/103g-wt.): 180 calories (20 from fat), 2.5g total fat, 0.5g saturated fat, 55mg cholesterol, 710mg sodium, 15g total carbohydrate (0g dietary fiber, 2g sugar), 22g protein


Tuesday
Barbecue Pulled Chicken from EatingWell.com
over whole wheat buns, with pickles, sliced red onions & little bit of sour cream
Steamed Artichokes w/lemon butter
*I'm going to reserve 1/4 cup of the sauce for tomorrow's recipe .
This can be made super cheap using pre-made barbecue sauce that is often free or just pennies (how you ask?  It goes on sale for $1-$1.19 and a .35 cent coupon triples at my grocery store, which takes off $1.05, making it free - .14 cents!). The bottled bbq sauce is mostly high-fructose corn syrup and full of other yucky preservatives and artificial additives, so I prefer to make my own sauce, like in this recipe.  BUT, I'll get a few of the free bbq sauce when they're available because on a busy day, or when I haven't made it to the grocery store yet, I can pull ribs or chicken out of the freezer and a bottle of sauce, plus a bog of frozen veggies (I also get these FREE) and get a quick cheap dinner everyone loves - it's still healthier and less expensive than the alternative of grabbing fast food or eating out. Using the free pre-made stuff it would cost only $4.70 for 8 servings (just the cost of chicken @ $1.88/lb on sale).  I'm estimating about $7.50 for 8-servings for the original recipe (I don't have time to calculate the exact cost of each amount of spice :-).

Wednesday
Family Pizza Night
Greek Salad *rolled over from last week - I was busy and went with a few frozen pizzas instead!  Kenny's begging for real pizza night, so I'll be getting our favorite toppings this week.

Thursday

Sweet 'n Sassy Flank Steak from Jo Jo Ba on Sparkrecipes.com
served over Wilted Spinach
Frozen Garden Vegetable Medley (Free last week @ Kroger's with coupons)

Perfect recipe for this week!  Flank Steak is on sale, this is made in the crockpot, and it uses the sweet potatoes, pineapple, onion (I'll be using red, not white) & spinach from the co-op, plus I have all the other ingredients on hand, and am already making BBQ sauce for the Tuesdays' dinner.
Flank Steak (also called London Broil.  Or maybe it's just similar to London Broil.  I don't know if they're the exact same cut, but I know they're pretty much interchangeable in recipes) is on sale at Randall's this week for 1.88/lb (usually $5.49, so big savings!)  I'll buy enough for this recipe but I'll also buy several extras and mix up a couple marinades (can be seriously simple: a packet of onion soup mix with tomato sauce, a cup of salsa with some garlic, lemon & soy sauce, whatever) and put the Flank Steak into a Ziploc Freezer bag with the marinade and then freeze.  Then I've got easy inexpensive marinated meat for another time.  Flank Steak/London Broil is a stringy, generally tough cut of meat - so it's inexpensive and it works great for the crock pot b/c slow cooking it all day makes it really tender.  You can throw veggies in the bottom of the crockpot, put your marinated Flank Steak on top and in 5 or 6 hours dinner's done.

Friday

Spicy Garlic Lemon Shrimp from epicurious.com
Quinoa Pilaf from Tyler Florence, Food Network
Steamed Broccoli
We like the big shrimp (like 16-25 ct), so I usually buy them when they're on sale around $4.50-$4.99/lb.  They're on sale this week and I still have a 2 lb bag in my freezer from the last sale.  I have to have pretty substantial sides when I cook shrimp because I need something to help fill everyone up before they each scarf an entire pound of shrimp on their own.  We're big shrimp lovers.




Breakfast:
Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal from one of my favorite blogs 5DollarDinners.com
I'm going to use Steel Cut Oats, instead of quick oats.  Steel-cut oats are better nutrition-wise, of course, the trade-off is that they take longer.  BUT, you can put them in boiling water for one minute and then remove them from heat and leave them to soak overnight, then bring them back to a boil in the morning, and continue the above recipe just like you would with quick cook oats. 

Snack:
Easy Zucchini Parmesan
I have one Zucchini from the co-op and saw this idea, that might make a great snack for the kids. I'm hoping I can trick Lincoln into eating veggies this way.  Picky little guy won't touch anything green lately! I'm going to add some garlic & Herby Seasoning, and use olive oil instead of the butter spray.

Grandma's & Linc's Birthday Parties

Still catching up.... Lincoln had his FIRST birthday in November! So cute, and possibly my last "first birthday" ever... :-(   Sooo, November was a bit crazy for us.  Linc has started getting sick just weeks before, so we'd been dealing with lots of doctor appointments and they decided Linc needed to have an upper endoscopy & biopsy, and they suspected Celiac Disease.  The biopsy was done the day before his first birthday!  The procedure went well, and when the GI Doctor came out to review the procedure with us, he showed us inflammation and damage on the lining of his intestines.  He said Pathology would have to confirm the results, but what he saw, combined with Linc's clinical history and symptoms is the same as what he would see with Celiac Disease.  He said we should go ahead and start the gluten-free diet and then await the Pathology to confirm.  So....  Linc's first birthday treat was gluten-free coconut cupcakes (made with coconut flour & iced with gluten-free, dairy-free frosting.) Oh, and we found out a week later, after fully realizing how crazy the gluten-free thing was going to make our lives, that it wasn't actually Celiac Disease (turns out he has an Immune Deficiency, you can follow the link to find out what it is)...  so for his Second Birthday he'll have a full gluten cake!  But, I thought the cupcakes were pretty good (ok, the frosting was weird, but the cupcakes weren't bad at all - sort of like a coconut muffin)  Cousin Max spit his right out and wouldn't touch it again... haha.... but Linc gobbled them up & Kaden asked for more for days!!  Because of how much we had going on at the time, we just did a small party with family.

 

  

Frammy gave him this soft snuggle bear, who says The Lord's Prayer when you squeeze his hand.  This is Linc's favorite snuggle EVER.  Every time he goes to sleep, he wants his "Snuggle Buddy", and it calms him right down when he's upset about going to bed.  SO cute!

And Grandpa Willie gave him his first.....  Hooters shirt... bwa-wa-wa.... something I've ALWAYS wanted him to have.. haha.

 

Cousin Max (who always wears his cowboy boots & hat!)

  

Linc & his Piggy Bank from Frammy (which came with an official Savings Account)

And because the kids aren't spoiled enough.... the Grandparents brought presents for Tayla & Kaden, too...

 

Aunt Tumma & John

  

 

And a few days before that, Grandma (my mom) also had a birthday.  My sweet, sweet little brother Ian & sister Summer decided to make a cake for Mom's birthday.  They went all out with a FOUR LAYER strawberry & chocolate cake..... very impressive.... until they realized they needed to drive it to moms house, and those layers weren't very stable.  Here's the masterpiece cake after it finally arrived at Mom & Dad's house....

Cracks me up.  I couldn't stop laughing.  And the best thing about this cake was it was a crumbly mess, so no one would even notice if you just walked by and picked out a little piece.  I mean, not that I did that or anything.  Just saying. :-)

Here's Dad cooking the Birthday Dinner (and being a goofball) 

Linc trying to sneak off without being caught

Marme (My mom's mom)

Grandma with Kaden and the BEAUTIFUL birthday card he made just for her

  

The Bakers & their Masterpiece - with all 40-something candles! Thought we might burn the house down! Ha!