Category Archives: Recipe

Sep12

Great Gear for New Moms- Coming Home

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1. Gas Drops – Imagine this if you will: The day you leave the hospital, they send you home with a meal. Baked ziti, salad, bread. It’s a super thoughtful gesture and you enjoy it the second night home. As you’re finishing your dinner, you and your husband look at each other and think, hum…that was a tiny bit spicy. You’re also breastfeeding. Two feedings later, your tiny newborn that doesn’t weigh quite seven pounds begins SCREAMING his little lungs off. Oh no! The spicy meal they sent you home with was like poison to your newborn’s tummy. You’re tired, your baby is in a lot of pain, you feel helpless. The only thing that could help at this point was the gas drops.  I’m so thankful Joe went out and bought them! You may not have a horrible event like that, but if you may find that you need them to help your gassy baby!

2. Saline drops – When Jonathan was a few weeks old, he became really congested. It was really helpful to already have these drops since you can’t really give them any medicine yet.

3. D-vi-Sol – Vitamin D drops. Your pediatrician may suggest that your baby take these daily, so go ahead and have them on hand. (I’ve found them cheapest on Amazon, plus not all pharmacies carry them)

4. Car Seat – Don’t be like us. We were supposed to have a shower two days after I had Jonathan (he was a few weeks early). We decided that we’d see if we were given any gift cards and then we’d purchase our car seat. Bad idea! Between contractions, I was on Amazon, ordering a car seat for us. Thankfully a friend of ours had extra since her twins had outgrown them and let us borrow one! Ours arrived a few hours after we came home!

5. Aden & Anais swaddling blankets – Great, big blankets made to swaddle babies. They’re super soft and breathable. Sadly, even as a newborn, my child could Houdini himself out of these in minutes, no matter how tightly he was swaddled.

6. Vaseline – This is for boys and girls! If you’re having a boy and he’s being circumcised, you’ll need it. But for both boys and girls, diaper rash can be treated with Vaseline. I never realize that there were different forms of diaper rash. But thankfully my pediatrician husband filled me in on the different forms and that some types are better treated with Vaseline, not zinc oxide.

7. Rectal Thermometer – Taking the temperature of a newborn/small baby is best done with a rectal thermometer. You also want something with a little room between the probe and your hand…just in case there is a bathroom “moment”.  The Summer 3 in 1 Family Thermometer has worked really well for us. Simple to use, removable probe tips that store easily in the back of the case.

8. Freezer meals - Make them around your 35/36 week mark. You’ll be thankful you did! We had baked spaghetti, another pasta dish, freezer burritos, twice baked potatoes, shepherd’s pie, cheesecake, apple tart (didn’t freeze well). Between having friends drop off meals every other night, and us having freezer meals, it saved us so much time and stress! If you’re in need of freezer friendly meals, head over to my Once a Month Cooking page on Pinterest for links!

Other stuff:

Paper products – This may be a silly thing to include on my coming home list, but trust me, its worth having! Washing dishes is going to be the last thing on your mind or in your plans. You’re going to be too busy cuddling your baby or sleeping to think about the dishes in the sink. We’re a family who (generally) washes dishes the day they’re messed up (don’t look in my kitchen right now though!). If we wouldn’t have stocked up on paper supplies, I can’t imagine how long our dishes would have sat there!

Sep11

Recent Pinterest Projects

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Are you part of the Pinterest cult yet? It is by far one of the most addicting things I’ve ever seen, but I try to limit my time on there to only when I’m feeding Jonathan…if I can help it. There are so many projects I want to do, so many recipes I want to make, so much decor inspiration that I’d love to do for my house!

My recent pin projects I’ve completed:

My front door (pardon its dirtiness) is now ready for fall! The original inspiration came from this pin. The project was around $20. I used 4 pieces of wood from WalMart ($0.99/ea), scrapbook paper (less than $2 total), black letters (I think they were $1.99/ea). I had a coupon for the ribbon which started out at $10 for a huge spool. I spray painted the pieces of wood black & used ModPodge (both I had on hand) for the scrapbook paper (about 4 coats worth). I glued the letters on using heavy duty wood glue. I finished it off by drilling a hole in each corner to thread the ribbon through.

I hung a command hook upside down on the back of the door (thanks to this pin for the tip) to catch the ribbon from the FALL sign hanging on my front door.

This sign now hangs in the window next to our doorbell. I thought it was a brilliant idea so that visitors didn’t wake my possibly napping baby. Apparently the UPS man couldn’t read the other day. The idea came from this pin (her’s is much prettier than mine. My pink paint pen bled everywhere). The pencil lines have since been erased!

Recipes recently (as in the last month) attempted:

Slow cooker Salisbury steak - great, and we’ll have it again…once Jonathan’s intolerance for dairy subsides. I served it with rice, because that’s what I had on hand. Mashed potatoes would have been MUCH better!

Sweet & Sour chicken – Decent, but doubt I’ll make it again. The amount of time spent wasn’t worth it!

See all of the pins I’ve completed over on my “I did it!” page on Pinterest

Aug20

Second attempt = much better!

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A few days ago I posted some of the recipes I’ve tried from Pinterest recently. One of them was a two (or three) ingredient recipe for Dr. Pepper cookies. I had scored a Dr. Pepper for $0.20 and had a Devils food cake mix in my pantry, so why not give it a whirl. Instead of cookie success, it turned out to be spongy piles of cookie that more resembled piles of poo (which we didn’t think about until AFTER we tasted  them). They quickly ended up in the trash.

I refused to let a two ingredient cookie defeat me. I picked up another cake mix, this time regular chocolate, while I was at Target. Determined to make it work, I set about baking while Joe entertained Jonathan/got him to sleep.

This time the victory was mine!

The cookies turned out great. However, the icing recipe doesn’t work with the ratios she has listed. I decided to only start out with one cup of confectioners sugar instead of two. I ended up using almost three tablespoons of Dr. Pepper to achieve an icing like consistency.  But in all honesty, skip the icing. Its not that great and I think the cookies stand better alone.

I would have snapped a picture, but we put icing on almost all of the cookies and decided we didn’t like it, so they ended up in the trash…again.

Aug17

We ARE alive

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I’ve not posted much recently because of timing. Jonathan has been sleeping better at night, praise the Lord. However, we’re still dealing with nap time issues. I’m beginning to work on getting Jonathan to nap in his crib, which I’m guessing will end up being a nightmare since he hates napping to begin with. But I will persevere. I have his 3 month post sitting in my queue, waiting for me to publish. It’s all about getting the pictures off my camera. No worries, I’m only 17 days late :)

Pinterest has consumed my soul. During what few breaks I get, I’ve tried to accomplish a few projects. I’ll post more later of the DIY projects I’ve completed. The recipes, which I failed to take pictures of, have had some successes while others have flopped.

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak was a huge hit and we ended up eating it two nights in a row. The only downfall was that it has a little bit of milk in it (1/16 of a cup, per serving). Jonathan paid for it for two days and then I ended kicking myself because I didn’t think about it.

Baked Italian Chicken- this was a good, easy recipe to throw together. Joe thought it needed more seasoning, so next time I may use two seasoning packets instead of one.

Strawberry Cookies- Super simple, and they were tasty. Only thing I would change would be to cook them about 12 minutes instead of 10

Dr. Pepper cookies- I made these because I scored a 2 liter Dr. Pepper for $0.20 last week and wanted to make these. I used Devils food cake mix (the recipe says any chocolate cake mix, and thats what I had on hand). Not to be gross, but these turned out like little piles of poo. I am going to attempt again with another, regular chocolate cake mix.

Mar21

Welcome to Chaos Central!

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Today is a big day! Really big! We’re finally having the rest of our house painted. Well, the rest of the house that I started to paint and never finished. One wall in our living room, our foyer, and our stairwell. There are still plenty of rooms that need to be painted. But its such a relief to have this completed. And even better yet, there have been holes in our guest bathroom wall for over three years that have been nagging at me. The builder covered them up behind the light fixture and when we switched fixtures out, we found them. Now, they’re being fixed!!!

And while the painter is here, I’m “stuck” in the kitchen. More like, I could be in one of three or four places, and the kitchen seems to be the place I can be the most productive. Cue freezer cooking day…Round One.

Last week I made a rustic apple tart to freeze and yesterday I made the most amazing smelling cheesecake ever. A cappuccino fudge cheesecake. Seriously, its a good thing I’m pregnant and can’t do caffeine and that I’ve got gestational diabetes and can’t have sugar. If neither of those were the case, I’d be inhaling the cheesecake today. Thanks Pinterest for the recipes!

Today I’m working on a few different things. Shepherd’s Pie, though I doubt I’ll be able to finish it up today. I like to add a roasted carrot puree on top, but forgot the carrots. I’m also going to be doing burritos (today or Friday), marinara sauce and meatballs, throwing together a pan or two of meatloaf and maybe one of baked spaghetti. On Friday I hope to accomplish a little more with another baked pasta dish and twice baked potatoes, as well as a few bags of shredded chicken to have on hand for a few simple meals such as enchilladas and chicken casserole.

(If you need a painter in the WF area, let me know!!!)

Mar13

This Week on Pinterest

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Are you following me on Pinterest yet? If not, click on the tab to the right and join in my fun! If you’ve not yet succumbed to the pressures of the world and joined this virtual pin/inspiration board, whats keeping you??? If you need an invite, leave your email in the comments and I will send you one!

Beautiful blue bedroom by Better Homes and Gardens

I'm always looking for new ways to cook pork chops! I may have to give this one a try

Christmas in the spring and summer!

Great marriages take God and take work! Here are some ideas inspire

Lets face it, we all face tough battles sometimes. Why not brighten someone's day with a box of sunshine? Such a GREAT idea!

Love this outfit, but would opt for flats and non green nail polish

Mar6

Freezer Cooking-The Mental Prep

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With a 10 weeks left, I’ve got A LOT I want to accomplish. One of these things is decorating the nursesry, another is cleaning/reorganizing the house, and the other is freezer cooking. Our freezer isn’t huge, but I want to utilize some of our space to at least store away a few dinners. I’ve been doing some research to figure out what it easiest to pop in and out of the freezer, and will cook up well. And along with freezer meals, I want to store away a few snacks as well. Money Saving Mom, Life as Mom, Pinterest, and a few other sites have been super helpful.

Hopefully during early April I will be able to tackle a number of these meals & snacks and get them stored away before the baby arrives! Here’s a rough outline of my plan so far:

Breakfast:

-Baked Oatmeal

-Cinnamon Scone mix

Lunch and dinner meals:

-Spaghetti sauce with meatballs and sausages

-Spaghetti sauce for additional meals

-Pizza dough

-Twice baked potatoes

-Baked ziti

-Shepherd’s Pie

-Meatloaf

-Burritos (maybe)

-Rolls

Desserts & Snacks:

-Cheesecake

-Chocolate chip granola bars

-Applesauce

-Banana Bread

-Granola

I’ve also got a ton of fruit currently in the freezer. Since I can’t consume a lot right now due to the gestational diabetes diagnosis, I think I’ll make packets for smoothies.

Feb26

Don’t Tell the Dietician

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As I was working out at the gym one evening a few weeks ago, I decided I didn’t want to listen to music so I instead plugged my headphones in to the the tv jack. What did I proceed to watch as I worked out? Food Network. What show was on? None other than the Queen of Excessive Butter herself, Paula Deen. This was no ordinary episode either. This was her CHOCOLATE episode. Holy fountain of yumminess.

The Queen was making her recipe for Chcolate Explosion Cheessecake. Since I had forgotten to pick up a towel, I found I could only keep one hand on the treadmill because the other one was picking my drooling jaw up from the ground.

People, this recipe is INSANE. Graham cracker crust. Gooey chocolate layer. Caramel layer. Cookie dough. Cheesecake. Chocolate ganache. That is SIX layers of sugary, luscious, taste bud bliss. And I’m not one that gets excited over a Paula Deen recipe….ya’ll. In fact, I try to steer clear of her recipes.

As the days crept by, all I could think about was this cheesecake and how I wanted some. I was even willing to sacrifice the time to make it.  (Allow yourself two days)

{SCREECH} Everything had to come to a halt though. I had a failed 1 hour glucose test that had to be repeated…but for three hours. I needed to make sure I didn’t have gestational diabetes. So I made a pact with myself that if I passed my test, I’d make the cheesecake.

The week came for the 3 hour test, and I was determined to have at least a bite or two of this cheesecake. The timing was perfect. Even if I failed the glucose test, I could still make the cheesecake, have a tiny portion, and “unload” the remainder on others. Joe, too, could have a small amount, though not much. The recipe has a lot of egg in it and I don’t care to poison my husbands already allergy crazed body.

So I took the 3 hour glucose test, made the cheesecake, and then learned that I failed the test and would need to see a dietician. But thats ok, we’re not going to tell the dietician that when I have to see them this week to make sure I can control gestational diabetes with diet alone.

And just so you know, we enjoyed our little bit of chocolately cheesecake goodness. And the rest of it has either left our house or is finding a new home today.

 

(I did make a few adjustments to the recipe. I made Dolce de Leche and used it instead of caramel, I also cooked the cheesecake in a pan of water so it didn’t crack on top, and cooked it for ~25 minutes longer than the recipe called for)

Feb7

This Week on Pinterest

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I've been loving/craving blueberries this past week. I think I'll attempt these soon!

Love the bright, cheerfulness of this room

Our warm weather lately makes me long for summer and something like this pineapple strawberry cooler

Love this outfit combo, but would prefer lower shoes. Maybe after the baby I can get back into shape!

Happens to me ALL the time. If its not the door when lying in bed, its the stove. If not that, I get a block down the road and cannot recall closing the garage door.

Sock monkey party!