Kale completely surprised me in that it tasted very much like broccoli, therefore I found these
very enjoyable.
Kale
Olive Oil
Salt
Preheat oven to 275. Remove leaves from stems and wash. Drizzle leaves with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Toss until all leaves are coated. Spread on baking pan and bake for 15 minutes. Flip leaves and bake for another 15 minutes or until completely crispy.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Easy Thai Chicken
This recipe is an adapted version of a recipe found here: http://www.successrice.com/en-us/recipes/3321/easythaichickenandrice.aspx
1.5 lbs chicken breast, cut in small pieces
garlic powder (optional)
onion powder (optional)
black pepper (optional)
1 cup coconut milk
1Tbsp Thai red curry
2 tsp brown sugar packed firmly
1 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 bag frozen Asian style vegetables (16 oz), thawed
1/2 cup peanuts (optional)
Combine coconut milk, curry, brown sugar, lime juice, and salt. Set aside.
Sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper lightly on cut up chicken and mix together.
Saute chicken until cooked through. Mix in vegetables and add curry sauce. Cook until thoroughly heated.
Serve over rice and top with the peanuts.
1.5 lbs chicken breast, cut in small pieces
garlic powder (optional)
onion powder (optional)
black pepper (optional)
1 cup coconut milk
1Tbsp Thai red curry
2 tsp brown sugar packed firmly
1 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 bag frozen Asian style vegetables (16 oz), thawed
1/2 cup peanuts (optional)
Combine coconut milk, curry, brown sugar, lime juice, and salt. Set aside.
Sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper lightly on cut up chicken and mix together.
Saute chicken until cooked through. Mix in vegetables and add curry sauce. Cook until thoroughly heated.
Serve over rice and top with the peanuts.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Feeling better
All I needed was a day with an adult. It started with dropping Noah off to play while I went to a dentist appointment. Of course, they need consent to treat forms from Dr. Wiley. Why could no one tell me this before? UGH. Needless to say it was a quick appointment and I was back with Noah in 45 minutes. He didn't even miss me and that made me feel fantastic!
After I got back, we decided to take the boys to the zoo. It was TERRIFIC! I needed a day of interaction with an adult. It was a refresh for my soul. Funny think about it is, now I feel like doing housework, making dinner, and being the doting mommy/wife I normally tend to be. What a silly thing to realize that just 1 day can make such a difference in my mind, body, and soul... I need to do this more often.
After I got back, we decided to take the boys to the zoo. It was TERRIFIC! I needed a day of interaction with an adult. It was a refresh for my soul. Funny think about it is, now I feel like doing housework, making dinner, and being the doting mommy/wife I normally tend to be. What a silly thing to realize that just 1 day can make such a difference in my mind, body, and soul... I need to do this more often.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Overwhelmed
Yup that is me, completely and utterly overwhelmed. I need my husband's support and I don't feel it. He is always busy with work and when he is home in the evenings I need to ask for help. Hello, I'm 25w 5d pregnant. I'm tired. I have an 18 month old who relies on mommy, its exhausting. I shouldn't have to ask for help you should offer some relief. Especially when you get to leave and go out of town and I am home to handle EVERYTHING. How many times in the last month have you done anything in the house without being pestered to do it? Dishes? Vacuum? Picking up/Organizing?
Our beautiful little girl is due in 14-ish weeks and I'm carrying the bag as always. We talk about it, you don't listen. I beg for it, I feel like you don't care.
To make matters worse, I feel completely and utterly friendless. I know I have friends who are busy with their families, however I need adults to talk to and interact with. A girls night out (or in) to play games, talk and unwind. I need to re-energize and I am just plain tapped out. I have Noah who clings on me for EVERYTHING and a husband whose idea of helping me is waiting until I beg for assistance (and even then its pulling teeth).
There isn't a lot that needs doing... We need to clean out our closet, bathroom, and bedroom to make room for baby. We need big boy furniture for Noah. We need to clear the dining room and clean up the kitchen. There are little messes in between (like my desk int eh living room), but they are not something that will take time and dedication. I beg you to help me get these areas to a sustainable and reasonable level of clean so I can run through the house with a vacuum, duster, and scrubbing a few items once a week and have it all done. Instead, more stuff is piled into the dining room making more work for me. I am tired of weekends upon weekends of putting shit off just because and it taking months or me to handle it all because I am the only one involved. It angers and depresses me. It makes me honestly want to cry.
I feel bad... I unnecessarily picked on my Jonnie. He was my focus of my overwhelming sensation only because he was readily available. Yes I need his help and yes I would appreciate more assistance, but I really should not blame him when all I really need is some adult interaction!
Our beautiful little girl is due in 14-ish weeks and I'm carrying the bag as always. We talk about it, you don't listen. I beg for it, I feel like you don't care.
To make matters worse, I feel completely and utterly friendless. I know I have friends who are busy with their families, however I need adults to talk to and interact with. A girls night out (or in) to play games, talk and unwind. I need to re-energize and I am just plain tapped out. I have Noah who clings on me for EVERYTHING and a husband whose idea of helping me is waiting until I beg for assistance (and even then its pulling teeth).
There isn't a lot that needs doing... We need to clean out our closet, bathroom, and bedroom to make room for baby. We need big boy furniture for Noah. We need to clear the dining room and clean up the kitchen. There are little messes in between (like my desk int eh living room), but they are not something that will take time and dedication. I beg you to help me get these areas to a sustainable and reasonable level of clean so I can run through the house with a vacuum, duster, and scrubbing a few items once a week and have it all done. Instead, more stuff is piled into the dining room making more work for me. I am tired of weekends upon weekends of putting shit off just because and it taking months or me to handle it all because I am the only one involved. It angers and depresses me. It makes me honestly want to cry.
I feel bad... I unnecessarily picked on my Jonnie. He was my focus of my overwhelming sensation only because he was readily available. Yes I need his help and yes I would appreciate more assistance, but I really should not blame him when all I really need is some adult interaction!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Things always change
So, last week I am told that I have 2 wonderful friends who want to throw me a baby shower (thanks Cheri and Tiffany) and this week I start getting so much accomplished that I am 2 weeks ahead on my to-do list.
Noah's room has now been converted to a big boy room. His crib is now set up as a toddler bed, his furniture is anchored, and all the stuff we stored in the room is ready to transition elsewhere. The dining room is mostly cleared of the stuff it has been storing and should be emptied next weekend after I get the donations out of our closet. Next week will bring a trip to goodwill and possibly the dump or all my boxes awaiting recycling. It feels good to get the house cleared out. It feels terrific that our little girl is closer to coming into an organized home. I am loving this.
Speaking of baby girl, she is an active little baby. I love feeling her kick and watching my whole belly move when she is excited. Noah seems to love his little sister to, but its hard to know. He definitely enjoys laying against her and feeling her kick his back and head, lol. He is going to make an awesome big brother. I feel so lucky and blessed with the family I have. I love my life (most of the time) and am excitedly waiting the 15 weeks until baby girl's due date making our family of 3 a family of 4.
Noah's room has now been converted to a big boy room. His crib is now set up as a toddler bed, his furniture is anchored, and all the stuff we stored in the room is ready to transition elsewhere. The dining room is mostly cleared of the stuff it has been storing and should be emptied next weekend after I get the donations out of our closet. Next week will bring a trip to goodwill and possibly the dump or all my boxes awaiting recycling. It feels good to get the house cleared out. It feels terrific that our little girl is closer to coming into an organized home. I am loving this.
Speaking of baby girl, she is an active little baby. I love feeling her kick and watching my whole belly move when she is excited. Noah seems to love his little sister to, but its hard to know. He definitely enjoys laying against her and feeling her kick his back and head, lol. He is going to make an awesome big brother. I feel so lucky and blessed with the family I have. I love my life (most of the time) and am excitedly waiting the 15 weeks until baby girl's due date making our family of 3 a family of 4.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
New Baby
As the weeks tick by I know we are closer and closer to having our baby girl. This time I want to do a few things differently. A big one is that I want to get into baby wearing. Not that I did not want to wear Noah, I just didn't need to. I had both arms available for him. With 2 little ones, I won't be as lucky (unless having a second baby means I automatically sprout a second set of arms). In deciding to baby wear, I think I want to make my one ring sling and wrap. It will give me flexibility to have the stroller or grocery cart for Noah while I am "carrying" my little girl. Plus it will make breastfeeding on the go easier.
There are a million projects to work on in our house right now, and I am fixated on baby wearing devices. Hopefully we can get Noah's room "secured" this weekend. He is so big that it is time to convert his crib to a toddler bed.
We also get to clean out mommy and daddy's room and closet to make room for our little girl and to store their bigger clothes. Finish clearing out the dining room, move the eat-in play yard gate, and just clean out the house in general... so much to do and all I can focus on is the wraps/slings. I need help, lol!
There are a million projects to work on in our house right now, and I am fixated on baby wearing devices. Hopefully we can get Noah's room "secured" this weekend. He is so big that it is time to convert his crib to a toddler bed.
We also get to clean out mommy and daddy's room and closet to make room for our little girl and to store their bigger clothes. Finish clearing out the dining room, move the eat-in play yard gate, and just clean out the house in general... so much to do and all I can focus on is the wraps/slings. I need help, lol!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Easy Fudge
So, I love to make fudge for the holidays. Its easy, people enjoy it, and if I can give it away so there isn't too much in the house for me to eat!
Here is the recipe I follow (from Nestle Tollhouse) with my personal variations.
Fudge
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups (9 oz.) Baking Chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Line 8-inch-square baking pan with foil or wax paper
COMBINE sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
STIR in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil.
My Variations
I never take the pan off the heat before adding chips, marshmallows, etc, I simply turn the pan to low. If you take it off the heat, you may have to put it back on to melt what won’t melt. There are so many ways you can change this up to get the flavor you want. It is super easy to change it, which is why this is my FAVORITE recipe to follow.
Milk Chocolate (self-explanatory)
Use 1 ½ cups of milk chocolate chips
Milk Chocolate Pecan
Use 1 ½ cups of milk chocolate chips and ½ cup of pecans (or other preferred nut)
White Chocolate (again, self-explanatory)
Use 1 ½ cups of white chocolate chips
White Chocolate Peppermint
Use 1 ½ cups of white chocolate chips, and substitute 2 tsp of peppermint extract for the vanilla extract. Also, I crushed 3 candy canes and mixed half in and topped with the other half. For another variation, I have made this recipe with semi-sweet chips before if you prefer to the white chocolate and I noticed this year that Andes now sells their mints chopped up for baking, but I haven’t tried that yet.
Peanut butter Chocolate
This one is easier than the triple layer. I split everything down the middle. And combine separately then I layer it in the pan.
Layer 1 (chocolate)
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
1 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup marshmallows
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ tsp vanilla
Prepare as instructed and place in bottom of pan.
Layer 2 (Peanut Butter)
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
1 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cups miniature marshmallows
3/4 cup Reeses peanut butter chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Prepare as before and layer on top of chocolate.
You can also make a straight up peanut butter fudge by using peanut butter chips, or if you don’t care if the chocolate and peanut butter is layered or mixed you can buy premixed peanut butter and chocolate chips (or mix them yourself).
Triple Chocolate
This one is slightly more difficult to describe. I split every ingredient in thirds, or you can make a half batch of each flavor which would be easier to split. I could only do this one because of my kitchen scale.
Layer 1 (Semi-sweet)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.67 fl.-oz. Evaporated Milk
2/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
2/3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cups Semi-sweet chips
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
Layer 2 (White Chocolate)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.67 fl.-oz. Evaporated Milk
2/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
2/3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
Layer 3 (Milk Chocolate)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.67 fl.-oz. Evaporated Milk
2/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
2/3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
Prepare each layer as instructed and layer each of them.
I think I would have preferred this one with dark chocolate chips. Just me though. I wasn’t using dark chocolate for anything else though so I didn’t have any.
Here is the recipe I follow (from Nestle Tollhouse) with my personal variations.
Fudge
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups (9 oz.) Baking Chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Line 8-inch-square baking pan with foil or wax paper
COMBINE sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
STIR in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil.
My Variations
I never take the pan off the heat before adding chips, marshmallows, etc, I simply turn the pan to low. If you take it off the heat, you may have to put it back on to melt what won’t melt. There are so many ways you can change this up to get the flavor you want. It is super easy to change it, which is why this is my FAVORITE recipe to follow.
Milk Chocolate (self-explanatory)
Use 1 ½ cups of milk chocolate chips
Milk Chocolate Pecan
Use 1 ½ cups of milk chocolate chips and ½ cup of pecans (or other preferred nut)
White Chocolate (again, self-explanatory)
Use 1 ½ cups of white chocolate chips
White Chocolate Peppermint
Use 1 ½ cups of white chocolate chips, and substitute 2 tsp of peppermint extract for the vanilla extract. Also, I crushed 3 candy canes and mixed half in and topped with the other half. For another variation, I have made this recipe with semi-sweet chips before if you prefer to the white chocolate and I noticed this year that Andes now sells their mints chopped up for baking, but I haven’t tried that yet.
Peanut butter Chocolate
This one is easier than the triple layer. I split everything down the middle. And combine separately then I layer it in the pan.
Layer 1 (chocolate)
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
1 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup marshmallows
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ tsp vanilla
Prepare as instructed and place in bottom of pan.
Layer 2 (Peanut Butter)
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
1 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cups miniature marshmallows
3/4 cup Reeses peanut butter chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Prepare as before and layer on top of chocolate.
You can also make a straight up peanut butter fudge by using peanut butter chips, or if you don’t care if the chocolate and peanut butter is layered or mixed you can buy premixed peanut butter and chocolate chips (or mix them yourself).
Triple Chocolate
This one is slightly more difficult to describe. I split every ingredient in thirds, or you can make a half batch of each flavor which would be easier to split. I could only do this one because of my kitchen scale.
Layer 1 (Semi-sweet)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.67 fl.-oz. Evaporated Milk
2/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
2/3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cups Semi-sweet chips
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
Layer 2 (White Chocolate)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.67 fl.-oz. Evaporated Milk
2/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
2/3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
Layer 3 (Milk Chocolate)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.67 fl.-oz. Evaporated Milk
2/3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
2/3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
Prepare each layer as instructed and layer each of them.
I think I would have preferred this one with dark chocolate chips. Just me though. I wasn’t using dark chocolate for anything else though so I didn’t have any.
Mommy blues
I don't know what is going on, but I have this attitude I cannot shake since last night. I wouldn't doubt if it is because I am exhausted, but I don't like it one bit.
I jumped all over my wonderful husband for the simplest things. While I'm not jumping on Noah and still being the mommy he knows I don't feel like doing it. Just hanging laundry, loading the dryer, and starting a new load of laundry left me feeling out of breath. I still need to finish organizing the dining room, clean out Noah's room, and make a plan of attack for getting the house cleaned up this week (when we went out of town, we left it looking ransacked and I have yet to start picking it up).
I need to organize coupons, peruse shopping ads, couponing websites, and make shopping plans for our groceries this week. It is equally frustrating that lockheed's email isn't cooperating so that I cannot get in touch with Jonnie easily. ARGH!
At least I am starting to wake up some.
I jumped all over my wonderful husband for the simplest things. While I'm not jumping on Noah and still being the mommy he knows I don't feel like doing it. Just hanging laundry, loading the dryer, and starting a new load of laundry left me feeling out of breath. I still need to finish organizing the dining room, clean out Noah's room, and make a plan of attack for getting the house cleaned up this week (when we went out of town, we left it looking ransacked and I have yet to start picking it up).
I need to organize coupons, peruse shopping ads, couponing websites, and make shopping plans for our groceries this week. It is equally frustrating that lockheed's email isn't cooperating so that I cannot get in touch with Jonnie easily. ARGH!
At least I am starting to wake up some.
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