The Hunt

I am on the hunt.

For two things...

First thing is I want to find the person that gave me this 10 extra pounds I am carrying around now and donkey kick them.


Second is I need ideas for our 10 year Anniversary this June (!!!!!). Holy craptastic. 10 years. Wow. Maybe I will post the hilarious pictures of my awesome wedding. It was good times. We are so Catholic it aint even funny in those photos. Which consist of a crap load of kids, crap load of beer, crap load of food, crap load of bad dancing, large families, and a large Catholic Wedding in a Catholic Church with a Catholic Mass. It was probably the most fun day of my entire life.

So I need some ideas for our anniversary. We would really like to go somewhere but we aren't sure where. I want it to be romantic, but not boring. We don't want to sit in our room staring at each other and making goo goo eyes at each other. However I would like it to be romantic, things to do for two people. But there has to be things to do. 

More like...slide in at midnight, giddy, a little (okay, probably like solidly) drunk, and laughing until we snort. Much like our wedding night.

Not Vegas.

Not Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Brewerman, this means you...so stop suggesting we spend our anniversary looking for houses to move there just so you can brew lagers in the winter.)

Not Wichita, Kansas (sorry mom).

Not Sandles, Beaches, or any other romantic tub-shaped-as-a-champagne-glass kinda place. We don't want cliche. We would also spend the whole time people watching and making fun of the other oogly eyed couples and the newleyweds who are convincing themselves that paddling together on this paddle boat in the middle of the lake while watching swans float in the water is the most fun they have ever had...even thought their partner isn't doing any of the paddling and they are carrying both the weight on this goshforsaken paddle boat in the middle of the goshforsaken resort. While that would be fun, not exactly what we are looking for.

No motels. Or any other hotel with the doors on the outside. Would prefer no big hotel chains.

Not anything rodeo, cowboy, honky tonk, or anything related to the wild wild west. Or camping. Or anything else really dirty and hot. Let's just say I must be able to pack my cute jewelry. And use this as an excuse to buy more.

Not anything where I would have to drive a boat. Especially if I have to pull him water skiing. That is a story for a different time...but lets just say Brewerman and I don't "do" well together on a boat if I have to drive. He's not exactly the most patient of teachers.

Not overly-long travel to get there as we will only be gone probably Thursday night - Sunday night if we can convince enough people to watch our kids.

Not Overseas (we don't have passports and don't those take forever to get?).

Good Food (duh).

Not crowded. Especially with kids.

No Cruises.

Not Super Duper Expensive (lets say $2000 would be max we would want to spend).

A brewery in the area would be a plus for brewerman. A brewery, brewerman. And no, we are not going to Bavaria.

I know it's a lot of fine print...but come on this is our ten year!! PLUS it will be the first time we have ever went somewhere sans kiddos. Now....GO! Please please please give me some ideas!

He is MY brother....incident

Well as the title states it turned out to be a very interesting weekend. Lil'Dude's birthmom did come and that was fabulous. She is amazing. Such a strong, beautiful woman and it was very surprising how easy conversation came (even though I was pretty nervous, which means I blabbed...a lot). It was also fun to see Lil'Dude's sister (Lil'Beauty), who is gorgeous, sweet, and smart as a whip. They also look just alike.

We did end up going to Dino World, which was fun...for like a minute. It's a little small to make the drive again but Lil'Dude liked going and he got a dinosaur egg that cracks after 2 days which he believes is the coolest thing ever.

So everything was going great....until I hear Lil'Beauty (who calls Lil'Dude brother...so cute!) say "Hey brother, look at this dinosaur!!"

Then Lil'Guy..."He's MY brother."

Lil'Beauty: "He's MY brother."

wait for it....


wait for it....


Remember me saying my youngest child better turn out to be a big guy cause he is going to get the s*it kicked out of him in high school for his mouth?"

well...I promptly hear Lil'Guy say (loud enough for EVERYONE to hear):

"Oh yeah? Well he lives with me."

With a self-satisfied smirk on his face that tells me he isn't really giving a crap about Lil'Guy being his brother more so like he just wanted to win.


W.T.F. (insert mortification here)

Luckily I looked over and Lil'Dudes birthmom is laughing it up, and we all kind of have this shocked face on. Lil'Beauty isn't phased, she fires back something I couldn't hear because I am zeroed in on my smartelic-and-a-half son and I proceed to explain to Lil'Guy how Lil'Dude is both their brothers...no matter what. And very quietly add a little warning about losing the 'tude please.


Why can't he be super extra smart at math? Or spelling? No...I have to have the kid with the smartest MOUTH on the block.

Weekly Meal Planner

Here we go again! So last week was a bad week, due to this, that, and the other we didn't cook much. Which just happened to be fine since we had some big dishes at the beginning of the week so it lasted us with lunches and what not. Frankly, my meal schedules aren't to stringent. They can't be...this isn't a fad for me it's a way of life, and I just don't take life that seriously.

This week should be fun! I'm excited about a couple of the dishes that are here:

Monday - Nothing...grocery store night! Sandwiches, chips, whatever...leftovers night!
Tuesday - Tacos in Pasta Shell - Going to try to healthy this up...lowfat cream cheese, less cheese, wheat noodles if I can find...totally excited for this one.
Tuesday - Asian Peanut Noodles with Chicken one of my all-time favorites!! mmmmmm and makes a TON!
Wednesday -Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup this was from a couple weeks ago - never made it
Thursday - Tilapia with Skinny Scalloped Potato Gratin
Friday - Chicken Ropa Vieja with Cilantro Lime Rice over tortillas or lettuce for lettuce bowls (and yes this was from last week and we didn't get to it.
Saturday - I'm thinking the Cabbage Casserole from last week...I never got to it and it's an exciting one too because it's new and I have heard such good things about it.
Sunday - Turkey burgers with sweet potato fries

P.s. The Carrot Soup Recipe? Awesome. I added garlic and some minced mushrooms to the mix during the cooking, and let it cook a little while after I added the rosemary. Of course did less butter, 1% milk instead of cream. Oh and topped each bowl with parmesan. Why? Because it's parmesan. Then I served the soup with the Best. Salad. Ever.

Best. Salad. Ever. Recipe:
6 cups Romaine (or Spinach...or whatever)
1 red pepper diced small
Olives chopped (however much you like - we did about 1/2 c or so)
1 cup (ish) chopped mushrooms
1 cup (ish) thinly sliced red onion
1 cup (ish) thinly sliced fennel
A whole bunch of Feta

Layer all the veggies to your liking...top with homemade dressing:

Homemade Dressing:
6 T Olive Oil
3 T White Wine Vinegar
1 large Garlic (if you like garlic)
1 t dried Oregano
dash of salt
1/2 t (or so...to taste) of Sugar

Shake it up, serve! I would let this sit a while if I was serving to company to meld, but it was pretty darned awesome made up 2 seconds before serving.

Weekly Meal Planner

Okay so back by popular demand is my weekly meals planner!

Here is what I have going as well:

Sunday - Rice Ball Casserole (we didn't get to this Saturday so it will be pushed back)
Monday - Carrot Soup (I use less butter, and milk instead of cream to make it healthy..by all means make it all the way if your hips can afford it. I totally would. Or use it for a splurge recipe...but if I'm going to splurge...well...it aint going to be Carrot Soup.) with crackers and parmesan cheese
Tuesday - Stuffed Cabbage Casserole new one, but had some friends say it's awesome!
Wednesday - LilDude's BIRTHDAY DINNER!! Right now - Hot dogs by request, we'll see if it changes
Thursday - Chicken Ropa Vieja with Cilantro Lime Rice over tortillas or lettuce for lettuce bowls (oh and avocado and sour cream...psh...like I even have to say that
Friday - Turkey Burgers (93% Turkey mixed with French Onion Soup mix, or pkt of ranch dressing mix (we are going to try mixing this up the night before, see if it adds even more flavor), then pan fried up. I LOVE serving these with those flat bread buns) with Sweet Potato Fries
Saturday - NONE - Out of town with Lil'Dude's birth mom (YAY!)

I usually serve steamed veggies with every meal, except for the carrot soup, either fresh vegetables steamed up or those Steamer Bags in the frozen aisle. I am in love with the mini carrots you can get from Costco and steaming those up and serving them. Mmmmm.

I will post next week as well! I actually already have my menu planned up but I will wait to post it since it's a birthday week I can see things changing quite a bit.

P.s. For those that have asked, I have added the Pizza Crust recipe I used on my Recipe pages.

Lil'Dudes Birthday Week!!

This week is Lil'Dude's birthday. His 5th birthday. Huge. This has been a huge year as well. Plus? Tuesday is his first day of "big" preschool at public school. Where he will also be riding the bus. This in and of itself makes me want to cry.

I am having a slightly hard time of dealing with the 5th birthday. It just sounds so old to me. UGH. I hate that he is getting so big, so fast. I mean, I celebrate and adore every milestone and in many ways these are the best times.

But still...he was just a baby...just yesterday.

So I'm going to post...eventually...once I wrap my head around this. We really don't have huge plans. He wanted an ice cream cake so we that was easy (though I did add crumbs to the top and I made dinosaur bones out of gumpaste for the top. He loved it. I loved how easy it was!

The BEST thing will be his birth mommy coming to town!! We are going to head to the dinosaur park near by, hopefully it will be fun. I love open adoption!

The Nat-o-Planner Strikes Again

Prepare yourself folks, this is a very MOM post. But whatevs. It's reality. Sometimes being an adult means switching up from martinis and happy hour to meal planning and Mario.


I *heart* my life.


So a few things have changed with me working full time again. Like being able to eat lunch in peace, drink hot coffee in the morning, and wearing fun cute things daily without worry of them being ripped, torn, slopped on, or otherwise tortured.

One other major adjustment has been my meal planning. You all know how crazy I am with planning my meals and what not. Remember The Nat-o-Planner? Well, it's still in effect...I mean...it is awesome. But it's been going through a few upgrades.

I am still cooking, but certain things become difficult when you have an hour or so when you get home from work. One nice thing about working from home is that I could start my meal ahead of time, I wasn't quite so rushed....now it's a NASCAR race to get home so you can start dinner.

I could turn to more prepared meals, and I have no qualms in doing so when in a bind, but there are so few healthy delicious options. What it really comes down to is I love cooking for my family though, and love the healthy benefits as well, so I want to cook for them. It's how I love. If I cram food down your throat, you know I love you. If I have never done that with you...well....

Dang this just got awkward.

In the words of my fabulously highly educated, wish I could be as smart as he, brother, I digress. We are all bringing lunches every day which means if I don't cook, I don't have leftovers, we don't have lunch. Yes we can do sandwiches but since every one of our appetites suffer from ADD we don't like the same thing twice (in a way, we eat the heck out of leftovers). So I'm forced to make some changes to my already way too organized meal planning (again, I will do so many more things for the sake of food. Luckily I can put it under the umbrella of keeping my family healthy or it could be horribly pathetic).

#1 - I am still writing out my 12 meals for 15 days. I still organize and buy for them ahead of time. I write down which meals go on which days, though this is always changeable. I still grocery shop once every 15 days (or twice a month...sometimes less than that with my new love of all things Costco.) I am more consistent with this though. When you have less and less time to run errands you don't want to get caught unorganized.

#2 - it IS more difficult to find the energy to cook when you just get home, so I am finding myself searching harder for recipes I can get excited about. Sometimes you have recipes that are okay, easy, and really just filler recipes. Well, coming from experience (like the Smothered Steak that has been on my list for months now and just never going to happen), if you don't find it exciting, you won't make it. I think this is the number one reason why most people don't cook, they aren't excited about the recipes. Pick a few of your favorites, always have new ones you are trying also, and use a variety of ingredients.

#3 - I am cooking ahead of time. Trying to do some of the prep the night before, Sunday before, or just buy already prepped ingredients (sometimes the extra money will be worth it if it makes cooking that meal less daunting / more doable). But even something as simple as having the veggies chopped can make lots of difference.

#4 - Cook with recipes that take less time. Obvious? Yes, I know, but for me it is hard because I cook complicated recipes. I like a lot of flavor. I like complex, and I like variety. This usually means the recipe takes longer, hence #3 where I am trying to still be able to make some of my faves but not end up eatting at 9:00pm every night.

#5. My large 12cup food processor. Helloooo lover. Where have you been all my life? I have literally used this thing daily. I can make pizza dough with the dough blade, mix up baked goods in it, slice up, dice up, or shred up ingredients with my meals without half of the food becoming mush and half in large chunks like my small processor does. It has saved me tons of time, and added a variety to my cooking that I didn't have before. The other day I made eggplant calzones for the family when I got home from work. Psh. No big deal.

#6 I still break everything out in serving sizes when we put it away at night, which is awesome for packing lunches. We have actually started making our lunches the night before also, which is a huge help during the mornings. With two adults, and two kids that eat the same amount as adults, well, packing lunches can take a while.

So...that being said... here is this week's recipes for anyone interested (yes I adore Skinnytaste.com):

Sunday (tonight): Turkey and Black Bean Enchilada
Monday: Cuban Black Beans and Cilantro Lime Rice on wheat tortillas with avocado and sour cream (I will make the beans Sunday night) Mmmmm, this is a staple. Love the combo.
Tuesday: Simple Lasagna (on recipe tab, though this has been modified, I made this Sunday morning)
Weds: Whole Roasted Chicken (I am using my Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker and doing this in the microwave for 30 minutes. I don't love using the microwave but I had it before and this is delicious. Basically I will shove garlic everyone in this thing and stuff the cavity with chunks of carrot, celery and onion, then rub olive oil and seasonings on the outside...YUM) and Cauliflower Fritters
Thurs: BBQ Chicken and Buffalo Chicken Pizza (Pizza crust made Weds night and chicken leftover from the whole chicken the night before) No recipe for this really. For BBQ Chicken Pizza: just bbq sauce, onion and green pepper sliced and sauteed in olive oil until very tender, mozzarella, and chicken. For Buffalo Chicken Pizza: Franks hot sauce mixed with chicken, onion sauteed, monterey jack cheese, and drizzle with ranch after it's cooked.
Friday: NOTHING!! Free day! Probably a fat day..splurge day...probably do whatever suits are fancy that day.
Saturday: Rice Ball Casserole (made the tomato sauce for this Sunday as well, which I freeze, and it makes more than enough to use for pasta or, what we used it for last week, the dipping sauce for the calzone)

And there we go folks! We'll see how it goes. I don't pressure myself too much, if we don't make it to a recipe one night, we don't make it. I like us to have good options for lunches though which makes it more of an incentive to cook as well. I might start doing this weekly if it helps anyone. I love seeing do-able recipes and love recipes that actually taste decent.

Poop and the Fabulous Christmas Parade Extravaganza

I love that title. It sounds like a very messed up Children's Christmas Book.

I would totally buy it!!

Okay so Christmas was fabulous, as always! You know I was all excited. I am a Christmas FREAK! I adore every aspect. Christmas trees, christmas candy, christmas cookies, christmas prime rib, christmas desserts...seeing a theme? I am nothing if not predictable.

My kids were excited too. We were caroling and singing our little hearts out. Their favorite is Mr.Grinch. They adore that song, adding in little lyrics of their own which usually have something to do with poop. Ahhh the life of having two boys strikes again.

You see, poop is not a bad word in our house...I tried that. They were in timeout literally every 2 minutes so in my great parenting style I let it go so I wouldn't have to deal with it. I thought maybe it was because I told them they couldn't say it that they wanted to say it. Nope. Turns out poop is just funny in general. You totally just giggled, didn't you. Don't lie.



We went to the Christmas parade again!! It was a ball and a half of good times. This year we went with our friends Caroleenalou and Jamister. They have two small boys also, and we like to hang out with them because their boys hit back. So it's usually an even match. It's always nice to walk away from an evening out knowing it was an even match up.



We did the usual, went super early, rode the train, walked to the parade, then...oh then it all changed this year. You see in the years past we would cram into a good spot, one of us battle out for that spot with other cut-ins until the parade started while the other searched for donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate. Well this year we were lapping in luxury as Caroleenalou's dad has an office that faces the parade. It was fabulous, warm, and we could just wak right down and see the parade when it started.

Love that look on the kids face when they watch the parade.



Enamored with the parade





Lil'Guy hanging with dad...and glaring at mom for no reason



So after that we walked back to the train, almost lost Lil'Guy, rode to our cars, had lunch, then went to the Arboretum to see Santa.

Yes, I am going to ignore the fact that we almost lost Lil'Guy.

We gave them hot chocolate, so I am still counting this day as a parenting win.

 

Santa was cool, Cooper had a "Ralphie" moment when he sat on his lap and went blank. Then panicked and told him "remote control helicopter" three times. Luckily Santa heard him and we are all good now.



Holy Batman.....it's Santa...she wasn't just yanking our chain.



Oh.

OH.

OH OH OH....the best part? Check out what I found at the Arboretum's Gift Shop:

That's right. Honey Badger don't care. Honey badger don't give a s**t.



If you have no idea what this means I will warn you...this probably means that you are probably old. Like I was, until last weekend when I watched the you tube on it also.

Now I'm totally, like, totally hip on the, like, times, like. Snap.

 

Crackle. Pop. (Sorry I never could hear somebody say that without mentally adding that. Damn. Now I'm old again.)





Okay the rest of Christmas went by in a blur of wrapping paper, wine, mimosas, lots of driving, and little to no sleep.



It was absolutely fantastic. We went back to KS and OK this year during Christmas, which will be a one time thing but it was great to get to spend that time with everyone.



Lil'Dude got a remote control helicopter (which was broke by 9:30am, returned when we got back to TX, and somehow Brewerman came out with one also...so now we have two...oh and did I mention that these shoots laser beams at each...hmmmm WHOSE gift was this again!?).



Lil'Guy got the K'nex Mario track. Yes, he still adores all thing Mario. He loved it, we hated it. Turns out being an adult blows on Christmas because, unlike when you were a kid and everything magically appears, you have to spend hours putting every darn toy together. Ugh.

I got an incredible 12 cup food processor, and Brewerman scored the highest and got his Blichmann Brewing system. He has brewed twice already on it. It's like the Cadillac of brewing. I'm just happy it looks official enough the neighbors will stop thinking we are cooking meth in our garage.

Basically like this...but instead of the cooler there is another pot. Because he "had" to have it.

Well on that lovely note, my promise to myself is to keep this up more, ya know, the whole blogging thing. I have sooooo much to say and so little time to say it. Basically: kids are nuts as always (wouldn't have it any other way), husband still sucks at sharing but after 10 years of marriage I forgive him, and my job is amazing, I love the people, location, everything...but darnit if I don't have the time I used to!

Peace love and chicken grease. Here are some photos for your all around general enjoyment:

Lil'Guy showing his signature move to Lilihipster

The boys with their Mario (MARIO!!) PJ's and swords

NOT happy to have to stop and take a darned picture

No makeup, mimosa, crappy pj's = fantastic christmas morning



Truley just posting this because as bad as I looked, my brother looks worse. Ha!



 

Oh...and my new years resolution is to cuss less.

After this post.

Stop laughing!!!