Lollipop Love

"Samuel, if you eat all your peas, I'll let you have a second serving of macaroni and cheese, AND I'll even let you have that lollipop from the library." He responds, "Wow mom, I think I'll keep you. You are the best friend ever."

And who says bribes aren't ok?

And I must make a public confession. I just ate 5, well... maybe 7 or 8, mint oreo cookies in under 10 minutes. It was heavenly! Does it make it any better if I tell you that they are Newman's Own brand? Probably not. But what's a girl to do when she's been without her hubby for 12 days. I gotta get some lovin' somewhere:)

What was he thinking?

If you've known me for awhile, you would know that I never had a sweet tooth until I got pregnant. Yup - it's true. I didn't like chocolate and I'd rather eat vegetables over cake any day. I never had cookies in my house and I certainly didn't make them myself.

Well folks, those days are long over. And it all began with milk's most favorite cookie - the one and only O-R-E-O!!! I had a serious Oreo addiction while pregnant with Samuel. Tim had to monitor the number of cookies I ate each day (not to mention the mini packets of M&M's left over from Halloween - but that's another story). Anyway, while pregnant I enjoyed every minute of the chocolaty crunch and creamy filling OREO's have to offer.

The love affair had to come to an end - after all, we TRY not to eat refined sugar in our house and I was breaking all the rules...

Until I sent Tim to the store.

What was he thinking bringing Oreo's back into my life? I've been clean for 3.5 years but I'm still weak and I have no self-control. And don't you know that the moment I was left alone with those Oreo's, I ate 6 in one sitting BEFORE my lunch. And I won't tell you how many more I ate after lunch.

You guess...

Just wondering...

if it's OK to eat an entire box of Bunny Grahams for lunch?

Priorities!

I really shouldn't be writing right now (really late). Just wanted to let you know that I've not dropped off the face of the earth. Just a few things at home needing my attention. I'm keeping my priorities in check here.

Oh and I ate cheese for the first time in 2 months!!! What a glorious occasion. I'm a cheeseaholic big time and I've not been eating dairy because Gabrielle was having reflux issues. So, today I sampled a delicious slice of muenster cheese. Hopefully tomorrow I won't be covered in spit up.

You've gotta try this...

Tim was in his glory this past week. I started cooking again! This recipe is a new one for me and it was absolutely delicious!!! The combo worked great together. OK, so I'll toot my own horn - Tim said the meal was restaurant quality. Wow! So really, you have to try it!

Barley Vegetable Medley

1 cup dry barley
olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
16 oz. frozen corn
1/2 green pepper, chopped
2 carrots, shredded
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt & pepper to taste
1 large tomato, chopped

Cook barley according to package directions. Set aside. In a large skillet, coated with olive oil, saute onions until tender. Add the remaining ingredients except tomatoes. Saute until crisp tender. Add olive oil as needed. Stir in Barley and tomatoes and cook about 1 minute or until heated through.


Slow Cooked
Savory Barbecued Ribs

3 lbs boneless pork spare ribs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp hickory smoked salt (I used regular salt)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cola
1 1/4 cups barbecue sauce
(I used Wegman's Memphis Style)

Spray inside of a 4 1/2 to 6 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Mix brown sugar, salt and pepper; rub mixture into ribs. Place ribs in slow cooker and pour cola around the ribs. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Half-way through cooking, pour barbecue sauce over ribs.

What a good man...

It's been tough lately. Long hours at work (and I mean long, like 12-16 hour days) trying to get things squared away before baby arrives. A PhD hanging in the balance. The more he gets done, the faster we'll be done with this phase of life. An upcoming out-of-state interview for a post-doctoral position. Needless to say I've not seen much of my husband lately. Samuel's sleep has been questionable and I'm 35 weeks pregnant.

Am I tired? You bet!
Am I a bit lonely? You bet!
Am I running out of steam? You bet!
Have I talked Courtney's ear off? You bet!

In walks my husband 3 hours late last night with a rose, a York Peppermint Patty and some biscotti to eat with our decaf coffee while watching American Idol. His first words were, "I really missed you today." And I knew he meant it!

What a good man!

What to eat Wednesday?

OK, So it's hard to come up with something catchy regarding food and Wednesday. And I'm too tired to think to much about it. Here goes a super yummy and very easy dish your whole family will enjoy. The flavor of the sauce is DEEE-LICIOUS as Samuel would say. This is a good one for kids who are picky about eating meat. The chicken is tender and cheesy. I don't know about your children, but cheese makes almost anything worth eating in my toddler son's opinion! Wish I had a photo for you, but we ate it all up before I remembered to bust out the camera!

CREAMY CHICKEN ALFREDO

1/4 cup all purpose flour
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast filleted in half
(make 'em nice and thin)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil divided
2-3 gloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp minced onion
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I usually use dried parsley flakes)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place flour in a shallow dish or pie plate. Sprinkle chicken with salt and then coat with flour. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Cook chicken until golden brown on both sides (about 4 minutes per side). Remove chicken and place in a 13x9 baking dish.

Heat remaining 1 tsp olive oil in same skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until onions are tender (about 2 minutes). Increase heat to medium-high, add heavy cream, Parmesan cheese and pepper. Cook until sauce is bubbly and slightly thickened. Pour sauce over chicken.

Bake chicken uncovered for 20-30 minutes
(until chicken is cooked all the way through).
Sprinkle parsley over chicken.

Serve over whole wheat angel hair or fettuccine.
I especially like making a side of fresh steamed spinach with this dish.

YUMMY!!!

A "Weighty" Matter

Let's start back about a month ago at a prenatal appointment about a week after the holidays. I'm waiting in the room with Tim and Samuel and my midwife walks in and says with a smirk, "So, you had a good time on your cruise I see." She happens to be holding my chart and reading my stats that the nurse took a few minutes before. She said, "I could tell by the 7lbs you gained since the last time you were in." (Please note that was only about 3 1/2 weeks prior) So I laughed and told her how amazing the food was on our cruise and chuckled about all the delicious food I ate over the holidays too. She laughed and was happy for me that I finally had my appetite back.

OK... Now fast forward another four weeks. Yesterday I had another appointment with my midwife. This time there was not a smirk on her face when the scale read another 8.5 lbs heavier!!! Yes, ladies, I have gained 15.5 lbs in 2 months. How could this happen???? I was sure I'd been eating smart.

On the drive home, I started pondering about my eating habits over the past month. I realized that I'd been eating a lot of appetizer and hors d'oeuvre type food (sweets, cheese, dips, chips, puffs, etc) when I do jewelry parties. Not to mention my love for chocolate is at an all time high. Hot chocolate with whipped cream, cafe mochas, truffles, m&m's, after eight mints. Yes, I'd been having a bit of all of those. For those of you who haven't know me long. I once did not like chocolate or sweets. In fact, I'd eat a vegetable over a cookie on any given day. Then I got pregnant and it's been down hill ever since. I LOVE CHOCOLATE NOW! It's so bizarre.

So, this is my cry for help. Who out there can share some healthy, low-sugar, low-fat recipes? And does anyone have a good recipe for homemade hot chocolate with real cocoa that I can make with less sugar? We usually eat dinner around 5:30, so I'm pretty hungry again around 9:00-9:30pm and that's when I usually eat all the sweet stuff. I need a healthy alternative, yet one that makes me feel as if I'm still treating myself. Does that make sense?

Holiday Happiness!

This has been a fabulous week for being in the Christmas Spirit!

First stop was last Sunday at Grzenda's Christmas Tree Farm. This is a beautiful place to get a tree. We were a bit unprepared for the weather (mix of snow and rain and very windy) but thankfully we bumped into some friends and they gave us a wool blanket, a Carhartt jacket for Tim, and a bright orange hat. I didn't have a hat with me, so Tim gave me his black hat and he decided to sport the orange hat. He knew that was the proper fashion maneuver for his super sensitive pregnant wife. We hopped on the tractor and rode past a beautiful frozen lake, on to the field of trees. They were magnificent! Tim sawed down our tree while Samuel stood on the side lines holding his very large snowball.

I think our tree is the best one we've ever had! I was amazed at how perfectly shaped it is and how great it smells! We brought the tree home, stuck it in the stand and guess what else we did? FORGOT to water it for the rest of the day. Between Tim's usual absent-mindedness and my pregnancy induced spaciness. We both forgot to water the tree. I was so upset I could cry. We put water in before bed and checked it the next morning. It had barely absorbed any water and there was a ton of needles on the floor. Yikes! We had to save our tree. So Tim had to take it out of the stand and make a fresh cut the next day and it's doing fine now.

Samuel "helped" me decorate the tree by pulling the lights off as I was putting them on. Somehow we managed to get all the lights and ornaments on and Samuel is just loving the tree! Probably loving it too much as he is constantly rearranging the ornaments.

Don't go into shock. Yes, that is me in an apron. The second stop was baking at KT's house. For those of you who know me. I just don't bake. I love to cook meals but baking to me is tedious, controlled and way too precise. But I figured with KT's help I could enjoy the process.

We made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and Andrea's famous caramel corn. The boys played together and napped at the same time.

We enjoyed the silence and a cup of coffee or two!

I made a second batch of caramel corn at home and my little buddy found a new sweet treat that might have replaced lunch if I didn't intervene. Every few minutes a small hand would pop up and steel a few kernals of corn while it was cooling.

The end result was several lovely gifts all ready to ship out to friends and family. I delivered the cinnamon rolls locally to some of my favorite people. I then made these cute goodie bags filled with caramel corn, a Christmas movie and a few other treats to my family members who have children and live out of town. This was actually KT's idea, so I have to give her credit. All my packages are mailed out and I, for the first time in holiday history, will not be waiting on huge lines at the post office with just enough time to get gifts out for the holidays. I guess this week has given me a nice sense of accomplishment.

Taco Soup!!!

Well here it is...my first posted recipe! Even though its called taco soup, it's hearty and thick - a bit more like taco stew. This is an all-time favorite in my house and it's super easy to make. You just need a good can opener. Enjoy!

1 small onion chopped
1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 lb hot Italian sausage (pork or poultry) squeezed out of casing.
(You can probably use sweet sausage instead
but I've not tried it. I like it on the spicy side)
1 cup water
1 15.5oz can pinto beans
1 15.5oz can lima beans
1 15.5oz can dark red kidney beans
1 15.5oz can white or golden hominy
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1-2 small cans chopped green chilies
(you decide how hot)
1 pack ranch dressing mix
1 pack taco seasoning
(Simply Organics in Wegmans natural food section
has ranch and taco mix with no msg or preservatives.)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese
Tortilla chips

Rinse and drain all the beans. Brown the meat and onions in the bottom of a large pot. Add remaining ingredients except the cheddar and tortilla chips. Bring to a boil and let simmer at least 30 min. Serve with shredded cheddar and tortilla chips.