Meatless Monday

Grass. That is what I thought I was eating. It was lemon-basil pasta with cannellini beans. It was too grass-like for me. Garrett liked it though! Since Garrett liked it I will post the recipe in case any of you would like to try it:-)

10oz pasta

1 can cannellini beans rinsed

1/2 cup lemon juice (you will need to zest the lemon as well)

2 TBSP olive oil

1 cup fresh basil

salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta and add rinsed beans. Next mix the remaining ingredients in a food processor. Finally, enjoy your grass on a plate!

Who do they look like?

I think Cooper looks like me - he definitely has my pointy nose. Eden looks like her daddy, at least to me she does. Her eyes disappear when she smiles and in the morning she has Garrett's sleepy eyes. But then I think Coop and Eden look a lot alike with the exception of Coop being a little chunker. I guess it is not for me to decide who they look like. No matter who I think they look like I think they are pretty darn adorable:-)

Meatless Monday

I suppose I should get more creative with what I make for my Meatless Monday but hey, this lady is a mother of two who sometimes just doesn't have inspiration and I recycle recipes that I know my family will eat. So, what did we eat? We had broccoli cheese soup (http://teamhufford.blogspot.com/2011/01/meatless-mondays.html) and homemade bread. Nothing too special but still really good.

Piggy Tails

Meaty Monday:-) on Wednesday

It wasn't the success but the enchiladas I made were all right. The recipe that I was following (to be honest, I don't follow a recipe exactly when cooking so that could have been part of my problem) was from Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/sour-cream-enchiladas/).

Next time, if there is a next time, I will buy a different enchilada sauce. Hy-Vee brand was not as good as El Paso. And I would buy an extra tub of sour cream to top so we would have some to top them with. Oh and more cheese. But I love cheese. And at the request of my husband I would serve it with chips and salsa - I had spent the past 5 days eating nachos for lunch so all the chips were gone:-)

Now, a question for all of you would make your own beans (dried). What is the easiest way to cook them? And do you have any good pinto bean recipes to share?

Sometimes you just need a different perspective.

What do you do with a sick child?

Okay, so we have "the crud" in our house. Nothing to serious. Just a low grade fever, congestion and a case of the crabby pants. I am seriously running out of things to do with Eden. She is well enough to want to play but not well enough to play without a fit. She is well enough to color but not well enough to have an attention span longer than 5 seconds. She is well enough to sit and have books read to her but again, her attention span is less than 5 seconds.

So far today all we have done is watch Veggie Tales and Word World because watching tv (aka netflix) is all she will be content with. Oh, I did get the vacuum out and chase her around with it in hopes of brightening her spirits. She liked that a lot but once I put it away it was meltdown city.

What do you do with a sick child?

Meaty Monday:-)

Meatless Monday will be moved to Wednesday because today is Valentine's Day and I am making one of Garrett's favorite meals which means meat. No way around it! This is the recipe I use for meatloaf (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/old-fashioned-meat-loaf-aka-basic-meatloaf-recipe/index.html) and it is a hit all around. And with some fresh bread and mashed potatoes, it is a dinner any man would want:-)

Is it bad?

Sometimes I wish I could use Windex as a body spray because I love the way it smells. Either that or lemon pledge.

Helpmate

As Valentine's Day approaches I am continually reminded of just how blessed I am. I do not need fancy things or flowers (although I do like them) but I need a lover who loves on me in ways he knows I will most appreciate. So when I came home today to an empty sink and no dishes left by the sink air-drying, all I could say was thank you over and over again. Not only am I Garrett's helpmate but he is also mine.

Meatless Monday

I tried this recipe out and it was a success! When my hubby says it's good and that he would like me to make it again I know I have a winner:-)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/NU00463

Thanks Angie!

Efficiency

Being a mama of two (and hopefully, one day a few more) means craziness when trying to leave to go somewhere at a certain time. But I have come up with a surefire way - most of the time - of getting out of the house and to our destination on time.

It all starts the night before. When I get the kids ready for bed, I lay out a pair of clothes for each of them with a diaper and shoes. This eliminates the frustration of finding a clean outfit for them and makes it easy to get them dressed from head to toe the next day. I also pack the diaper bag and set out anything extra we need to take with us (snacks, pack'n'play, etc...). If I can I load them into the car so it is one less thing that I have to do the next day. Since it is cold right now, I lay our coats, hats and mittens by the door just so I don't have to scramble to find them.

Then comes the important part - set my alarm a half-hour earlier than I normally would. WHAT?!? Yep, getting up early in the morning allows me to get myself ready and have a quiet time before the chaos begins. Most days I get up before everyone, just because I like the peace and quiet and can really focus and not enter the day in stress.

If Eden and Coop aren't up an hour before we are going somewhere I get them up. I get Eden dressed first and get her breakfast and then get Cooper ready and nurse him. Once all of this is done, we hopefully have not had any catastrophes (I do allow time for that as well). Then 10 minutes before go time we get our coats on and get in the car and off we go!

The funniest part of all of this is that on the weekend none of these things seem to work. You might think that with an extra pair of hands this wouldn't be the case but it's not. It might be that there is one more person to get ready who takes their sweet time ****cough, Garrett, cough****. Or the fact that Eden likes to play with daddy or that daddy likes to read lots of books before breakfast. The list goes on.

But this is how we efficiently get ready and get out of the house!