Typically, J is the chef of the household but with work and school he's just not home lately to do it. So, I've decided that in order for me to do it and do it well, I'm going to have to plan. Otherwise, 5 p.m. rolls around and I'm asking myself, "What's for dinner?!" And then slap something quick and easy together. Like quesadillas and black beans. And salad. Or turkey meatballs with sweet potato oven fries. And salad. But it's getting routine and I really want to have a plan in place. So, this weekend I came up with this!
October 2-9, 2011Sun - Turkey and Three Bean Chili with Corn Bread and Mixed Green Salad
Mon - Penne Pasta with Gorgonzola, Spinach, Kielbasa and Apples
Tues - Hawaiian Chicken Thighs with Rice and Steamed Broccoli and Edamame
Wed - Chicken Parmesan with Pasta Florentine Thurs - Sour Cream and Chicken Enchiladas (see recipe below) with black beans and corn
Fri - DIY Pizza
Sat - Grilled Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Spinach
I've created a Word Doc that has a table with columns for each night of the week (Sun-Sat) in the rows goes the main dish, carb side and veggie side. Then I have a grocery list below it. I hope to just update it each weekend, do our shopping and be ready to go for the week!
Most of my recipes are inspired by magazines, some are DIY and others I've just recently found on Pinterest.
For the pork chops my J just seasons and grills, he does mashed potatoes with the skins on and a little half/half and minced garlic and the spinach he sautees with more garlic and some olive oil...easy peasy!
The pizza will be interesting...never DIYd my own dough, so I am considering...or I'll just get a premade crust or dough at the store and add our toppings...lots of veggies! And maybe a Hawaiian one with pinneapple and canadian bacon or turkey ham.
The recipe for the Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas is from a coworker. She makes them for staff potlucks and they are delicious!
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
This recipe makes 10 to 12 enchiladas. Amounts are estimated as I do not measure.
Ingredients
3 or 4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts
10 or 12 flour tortillas (the thinner the better) I used low fat, "carb smart" tortillas
1 small can of green chiles
2 or 3 small cans of green chile enchilada sauce
Minced onion (optional) I skipped this
2 ½ cups of colby and monterey jack cheese ( or can use packaged mixture of Mexican cheese) I used a "pizza mix" since that's what we had in the fridge
1 small can of sliced black olives (optional)
3/4/ to 1 cup of sour cream (per personal preference) I used Light Sour Cream
1 or 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil I used olive oil
garlic powder (or fresh minced if preferred)
Directions
Sprinkle garlic powder, salt, and pepper (to taste) on chicken. Cook covered chicken breasts until tender. I prefer slow roasting in oven (325 degrees) for an hour or so but the breasts can be cooked on stove top in enough water to cover breasts for ½ hour or so. Chicken should be so tender it is shredding apart. Cool chicken for about 15 minutes.
Warm vegetable oil with a small amount of green chile sauce in large skillet. Warm each tortilla in mixture. Put in skillet, count to 10 and remove to a plate. This helps to keep the tortillas from getting soggy when baking.
Shred cooked chicken in a bowl, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of onion (optional), ½ of the cheese, ½ the sour cream and can of green chiles. You can a small amount of the chicken drippings if desired. Mix well.
Put about two tablespoons of chicken mixture in center of a tortilla. (More or less as needed depending on diameter of tortillas). Roll up and place in Pam sprayed pan with seam down. Continue until all tortillas or chicken are used.
Mix remainder of sour cream with remainder of green chile sauce. Pour over tortillas. Place sliced olives on top of rolled tortillas, sprinkle remainder of cheese. You may want more or less cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Enchiladas may be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated but do not add sauce until ready to bake. Increase baking time by about 10 minutes if enchiladas have been refrigerated.
Speaking of cooking, Libby cooked with me for the first time this weekend. We made peanut butter cookies. The recipe is very simple and from Parent's Magazine.
1 c. peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
1 c. sugar (and a little more for dusting)
1 egg
Mix all ingredients in a bowl until a dough forms. Make one inch balls and roll in a plate of sugar. Place balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and use a fork to press down flat. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until just brown on the edges. Makes 24 cookies.
Libby had a blast as she poured the sugar into the bowl and mixed it with the peanut butter and egg. She had fun rolling the dough into little balls and placing it on the cookie sheets. We recited the Pat-A-Cake verse, "roll it...and throw it in the pan! Pat it and prick it (as I used the fork to press them down)..." Which made her all the more excited about the entire thing! Too cute. Some cookies browned faster than others (I suspect they had more sugar ON them) and for my taste, I am not a fan of the cookies (a bit too sweet and flaky for me) but Libby had so much fun and that was the whole point. She talked about it for the rest of the night and this morning too, "Peanut butter! Sugar! Egg! Cooking cookies! Yum!" Adorable. I did manage to snap some pics but they're still in the camera. I'll add them to this post as soon as I can!
Showing posts with label milestones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milestones. Show all posts
Five Months Later - I'm Back!
Whew, what a crazy 5 months it's been...insane!
1) This summer was out of control with days upon days of 100+ degree weather! We had a small reprise with a 5-day vacay in Southern California visiting our good friends.
2) I am pregnant! We're expecting a son on January 17, 2012...just six days before Libby's second birthday. I found out just after I posted my last post on Mother's Day. Apparently we got pregnant on Easter. Guess an EXTRA special egg was delivered!
3) We bought a house! We made the offer on July 1 and moved in over Labor Day Weekend. It's 2,000 sq. feet (so nearly double the size of the rental we've been in for the past three years), 2-story and has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths with a two car garage.
So yeah, that's why I've been away. Plus work was wacky all summer too with two positions downsized (I am now a department of 1.5...don't ask!), travel for a seminar we hosted, many meetings and special projects.
Fall is finally here and at 25 weeks pregnant I am looking to slow down a bit now that we're all moved into our new place.
More to come!
1) This summer was out of control with days upon days of 100+ degree weather! We had a small reprise with a 5-day vacay in Southern California visiting our good friends.
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| Libby's First Trip to the Beach! She loved it! San Clemente - August 6, 2011 |
2) I am pregnant! We're expecting a son on January 17, 2012...just six days before Libby's second birthday. I found out just after I posted my last post on Mother's Day. Apparently we got pregnant on Easter. Guess an EXTRA special egg was delivered!
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| Our Baby Boy on the Way! EDD 01.17.12 |
3) We bought a house! We made the offer on July 1 and moved in over Labor Day Weekend. It's 2,000 sq. feet (so nearly double the size of the rental we've been in for the past three years), 2-story and has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths with a two car garage.
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| View of our new home's interior from the entry way |
So yeah, that's why I've been away. Plus work was wacky all summer too with two positions downsized (I am now a department of 1.5...don't ask!), travel for a seminar we hosted, many meetings and special projects.
Fall is finally here and at 25 weeks pregnant I am looking to slow down a bit now that we're all moved into our new place.
More to come!
They're here! Libby's Pro Pics from her One Year Photoshoot!
Okay, we took these over two months ago, but I've finally got them! I love how these portraits came out...Malisa has been a wonderful photographer to work with since we got our maternity shots taken with her in November 2009. This session marked the end of our "baby bundle" session and we are thrilled with all of the fantastic photos we have of Libby from her first year! We will treasure them always. Now...I've got to decide which I will have enlarged and framed!
These were taken at a warehouse near 4th and Elgin in Downtown Tulsa:
And then her cake smash pics!
These were taken at a warehouse near 4th and Elgin in Downtown Tulsa:
These were taken at Morgan Street Studios in Broken Arrow:
I asked Malisa to take some portraits of us nursing and we gone ONE and only one because Libby was so distracted by the camera clicking away. That said, I love the ONE we got...and will treasure it always as a memento of this special time in our lives as mother and daughter.
A couple of Valentine's Day shots...inspired by her cute bloomers and headband from RuffleButts.
Color Color! Circle Circle!
Libby LOVES to color with her color crayons. She also loves to look at her books with colors in them and sort her toys by color. She can identify and say: yellow, purple, blue, green, black, orange and pink. She can also identify red, white and brown but doesn't say those words yet. Here she is enjoying "color, color" time in her room today:
She's also started shape sorting and identifying shapes. She is consistently identifying circles, stars, and hearts. She'll wind her little pointer finger around and around saying "circle, circle" when she sees a ball or the water knobs in the bathtub. She'll trace the opening of her cup repeating "circle, circle." It's really cute! I've got to get it on video...that and her counting. Many of her books are counting/number oriented and I've always pointed to the illustrations and counted out loud. She's started to copy me and will point at each object and say "two, two, two..." The other day I said, "one...two...." and she chimed in with me. My mom read to her and right on cue, after she said "six," Libby said "seven..." Libby also seems to have her books memorized. We have several collections of 3 or 4 books in a series. For example, four books on manners titled: Please, Thank You, Excuse Me, and Sorry.
As you can see, they're all the same size and feature the same illustrated pig family. Each has a different colored cover. And Libby knows which is which. She will say "excuse me" and then go an get that book. And same with the others. J swears she's reading the titles or knows the words. I think it's more that she has memorized the colors of each cover. In any case, we're both amazed that she'll consistently bring us the correct book, even though she has several similar ones. She does this with her other series books as well.
After her nap, we took a nice walk to the local playground:
Libby loves to look at the trees, birds, squirrels and flowers. She wants to touch everything and will walk with us for most of the way. We are constantly amazed by our Little Being and the person she's becoming with each day. We're so lucky to be her parents and able to witness her development.
Awesome Weekend: Part Two
The weather was still great come Sunday, so mom and I took Libby to the Tulsa Zoo at Mowhawk Park. Libby's been to the aquarium twice (once here in Tulsa, well, technically, Jenks and the first time was in Seattle, last October)...but this was her first time to the zoo. And it was my first time to the zoo here in Tulsa and the first time I've gone in about 15 or 20 years!
Oh, I should mention that on the train ride Libby asked to nurse, so we did. And then a little more on the bench while we waited for our turn on the carousel. I have no idea if others saw us (I nurse without a cover, but am discreet by wearing a nursing tank under my top so I can lift up my top and still be covered underneath...
At 14 months Libby's still going strong with nursing. During the week it's about 2-3 times a day, but on weekends it much more. And I am okay with that...at least for now. She's still my baby and nursing is so beneficial for her AND for me!
Anyway, then it was off to the petting zoo, where ironically, we saw some mama sheep nursing their lambs. And Libby got to touch some goats!
We started with the elephant exhibit since Libby is obsessed with "eh-a-fence" but there was only one out and she was way across from the observation area so Libby hardly saw her. And lost interest quickly. So it was on to the giraffe exhibit. Again, only one giraffe, but he was eating and easy to see.
She had been in the Ergo about 20 minutes at this point and wanted "down!" She was funny watching the giraffe and kept saying "ball!" because he was eating some food from the green ball tied to the fencing.
Across from the giraffe was the zebra enclosure...
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| I love this photo of Libby with my mom... |
Despite bringing the stroller, in addition to the Ergo, she wanted to walk on her own at this point. So we put on her "puppy backpack"...which is basically a kid leash. I never thought I'd be one to use one with my kiddo, but she doesn't want to hold hands and wants to walk on her own. So this is our compromise. And she loves the thing! She asks for it all the time at home. And in the car I let her hold it (sans the long tail) and she's super excited when we arrive at our destination to wear her puppy backpack! That said, we're still working on holding hands and staying with mommy, daddy or grandma!
We headed to the Big Cats...the tiger and lion....yes, again, just one of each. And ongoing theme at the Tulsa Zoo, at least on this day...
Then we saw some penguins...
And checked out the bears (black and brown) as well as some lemurs and made our way to the train. This was Libby's first train ride! She was thrilled that the "big kids" in front of us were wearing backpacks too...yep...a monkey and tan puppy version of her kiddie leash! Apparently, all the cool kids wear them!
At the train stop was the carousel, so we went for a spin on the ferocious looking tiger! Libby had a blast! And so did I...I love just seeing her experience new things and enjoying the moment! This was her second time on a carousel (the first was in December at the mall when we had her holiday portraits taken).
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| One of my all-time favorite photos of me with Libby. There's a lot of emotion in my face here! |
At 14 months Libby's still going strong with nursing. During the week it's about 2-3 times a day, but on weekends it much more. And I am okay with that...at least for now. She's still my baby and nursing is so beneficial for her AND for me!
Anyway, then it was off to the petting zoo, where ironically, we saw some mama sheep nursing their lambs. And Libby got to touch some goats!
After about two hours in the park she started to fade...which was understandable as her nap time was nearing AND we'd been in the 80 degree weather and walking in 30 mph winds! So we wrapped up our visit with a stop by the otters and headed on our way home...
Libby stayed awake during the 15 minute ride home but then promptly fell asleep for nearly 3 hours which is record napping for her! I am sure this is just the first of many more visits to the zoo to come. We had a great day and a wonderful end to our awesome weekend!
