Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

I have previously made a summer squash mac and cheese (that I don't know if I posted about it because we didn't really like it). The squash didn't blend well and it was just...stringy. I suppose I should've known but I had heard good things about mixing squash with the mac and cheese to get more veggie content in a meal. I had given up on the idea until I saw this recipe on Pinterest. It sounded promising!

So that afternoon, I roasted my squash (poke holes in squash, put in pan (foil lined for easiser clean up if you wish), and put in the oven for 90 minutes at 400). Then I scooped out all the good parts (not the seeds or little stringy parts) and mashed them in a bowl. I put it in the fridge until I was ready to make dinner.

Then I followed the recipe (for the most part). I will say that you definitely need more noodles than what was called for. There's no way you can make that much sauce for only 8oz of noodles! I used a whole 16oz box. I also have to say that the squash sauce looked heavenly! I could've just had noodles stirred into that without the cheese! I'm not necessarily a big fan of baking mac and cheese or with the bread crumbs on top but this did turn out really good.

With the squash and the breadcrumbs, David and I thought it tasted a little bit like Wheat Thin crackers. My toddler tried it and liked it too but she'll like anything if it's a noodle. I think I would rate this a 7/10. The leftovers are just as good as the first time too. And good thing for that because this makes about 6 servings (and that's generous servings).

I think I would make it again. It's fairly simple but not too quick, especially if you have to puree your squash first.

Roasted Cauliflower and Raspberry Pork Chops

For dinner tonight, I wanted to try something different. I found a pork chop recipe and modified it a little. I basically cooked the pork chops until cooked and then I added the ingredients I had mixed in a bowl to the pork chop pan. I cooked this for a few more minutes to incorporate the flavors and then served. The ingredients in the bowl were (no measuring) raspberry vinaigrette (from Ruby's!), brown sugar (about a spoonful), liquid smoke, onion powder, rosemary, and paprika.

This was a very simple recipe that took about 35 minutes. The cooking of the pork chops took much longer than expected because they were so quick. I didn't finish them off with fresh raspberries, simply because I didn't have any.

It turned out quite good and was a different recipe for pork chops than I usually make. I would definitely make this again but I might finish it off in the oven, if I use the thicker pork chops again, to make the cook time faster and more predictable. I did spend a lot of time in front of my stove top wondering why they weren't cooking as fast as the recipe said they should. It actually ended with my husband finishing the cooking process (he has more experience cooking meat than me) while I watched the kids (instead of the other way around). So if you keep in mind that the cook time is a more than it sounds like in the original recipe, this recipe is so basic and easy.

I served this with roasted cauliflower. I come across recipes all the time for roasting vegetables but they always start with raw vegetables. I'm never sure how to modify them for frozen vegetables. That's what makes this recipe unique: it uses frozen cauliflower! This recipe is also quite easy and simple. I used shredded Parmesan because that's what I had. I don't think it coated the cauliflower as well but the flavor was still there. I also left out the pepper. In other words: I coated my pan with non-stick spray, sprinkled my partially thawed cauliflower with garlic powder, salt, and shredded cheese and then threw them in the oven.

I could not believe how delicious this was! It smelled good before I even put them in the oven and when I pulled them out, they smelled even better. I'm not sure of pairing them with the raspberry pork chops but they were still good. I will definitely make this again and again and I look forward to trying it with other frozen vegetables too.

Review of Our New Mattress

We used to have a queen size lumpy mattress. David had bought it when he moved out of his parent's house and since we figured there was a good chance it would become our mattress after we got married, I helped pick it out. It was on sale for about $500 and in the store, we loved it! After he bought it, it quickly started to shape to his body...and not bounce back. He had it on the free-with-mattress-purchase boxspring but it was still saggy so he put it on the floor. Somehow, it still felt saggy even with the entire thing supported by the floor. 

When we got married, we decided to keep it since it was only a year or two old and mattresses are supposed to last 8+ years. After enduring it through being pregnant with my daughter, I knew we definitely needed a new one sooner rather than later. Ours wasn't going to make it many more years. Then I got pregnant with our son and we looked into getting a new mattress (because the third trimester is unbearable enough, even on a good mattress). They were all too expensive and it was a big decision to make because we didn't want to make the same mistake twice. 

Then (when I was no longer pregnant), David found a PuraSleep mattress for less than $500 on a daily deals site. It was a 10 inch thick, firm, all memory foam mattress. It sounded too good to be true. With the site, we had only four hours to decide if we wanted it. We justified that it wasn't an impulse decision because we had been wanting a new mattress basically since David had bought our old one. We read lots of reviews and they were all positive. Without the daily deal site, this mattress is over $2000. We debated between the king and queen sizes. Finally, we decided on the king.

We did have to rearrange our bedroom furniture to fit the king but it was SO WORTH IT! Just upgrading to a king was better. We had our own space when we wanted it and when our kids play in the bed (they never sleep with us), they can even fit sideways in between us! The extra space is just SO nice. The only downside was having to buy new sheets and build a king size bed frame (they recommend not putting the mattress on a box spring so David and his dad spent a Saturday building a simple bed frame with built in storage). 

The bed itself is AMAZING! It's firm and gives you support but still lets you sink into it. You can move around on your side of the bed as much as you want without disturbing the other person (a problem with our old bed. Every time one of us would roll over, the other person would get rocked). This bed makes it even harder to get out of bed in the morning. I look forward to going to bed (you think that's true when you have a newborn and you're always tired but our old bed sometimes made me consider sleeping on the floor instead). 

I had back pain if I slept on our old bed on my back for more than 20 minutes or so. With this bed, that pain is gone! I can't recommend this bed enough. I'm not sure if I would pay full price for it but every so often, it does come on woot.com (the daily deals site). If you get it for that price, it is SOOOOOO worth it. 

It comes vacuum sealed in a box the size of a kitchen chair and weighs 87 pounds (try lugging that up the stairs!). It takes up to 3 days to fully pop up to life and lose that new memory foam smell but we slept on it from day one anyway. These mattresses are made when you order them so it's not like it's been sitting in the back of a warehouse for years, sad and alone. 

If I haven't implied it enough, buy this mattress if you need a new one (or even if you don't!). 

Hosting Thanksgiving Year 2

Last year, I hosted Thanksgiving (see previous blog post--sorry I don't have the link. I'm not sure how to link that up). This year, I hosted Thanksgiving again. On Thursday, we went to David's side again and then hosted for my family on Friday. I should've read my previous blog post sooner than the day before because I did not remember how early to buy the supplies. I decided to buy them on Monday, the week of Thanksgiving, because I thought that might get me the best deals. Instead, I got the same deals I would've had the same week, lots of empty shelves, more stress, and less choices. Because of this, I got one of the very last turkeys. I wanted the biggest one since it was on sale and I can use the leftover meat in the future (freezer) so I found a neglected 24 pound turkey. Before checking with my previous post, I thought last year's was close to 20 pounds. Turns out, it was 15.

I started thawing my turkey in the fridge on Monday night. Turkeys take FOREVER to thaw so I knew it wouldn't thaw in time for Friday's meal around 2pm. I read that you can soak the (wrapped) turkey in cold water (such as in a sink), changing the water every 30 minutes. It takes a minimum of 30 minutes to thaw one pound. We started the soaking treatment at 3am on Friday (my wonderful husband took the first shift) and we needed the turkey in the oven by 9am, according to the package recommendations of cook time. At 9am, the turkey was still a little frozen on the inside (the downside to the soaking method is that you have to keep the turkey in the packaging but then there's no way to know if the inside is thawed or not) so I thought it would take longer than the 5-6 hours the package said for this weight.

Due to  poor planning on my part, the turkey didn't end up in the oven until 9:45am. I did the same method as last year. I started it at 475 for the first 30 minutes, then turned it back down to 325 for the rest of the cook time, covering with foil when darkening too much. It was cooked except for the very bottom of the turkey as of 1:20pm. Then I let it rest until everything else was finished cooking (about 40 minutes). I was able to cut the cook time! For the very bottom that was uncooked, heating it in the microwave will get it up to temp without overcooking the rest of the turkey.

Now, I should also mention that this turkey caused a lot of stress on my part. The night before, I discovered that none of my pans were big enough to hold my turkey. I ended up using a disposable roasting pan that *just* fit the turkey but this needs to be supported on the bottom so the turkey doesn't break through. I found my biggest, no edge cookie sheet and it wasn't big enough to hold the entire pan (but enough of the pan that it worked). I had to take my second oven rack out and lower the first rack all the way to the bottom. Even with all this, I could still barely fit my turkey (and its pans) in the oven. At the end of all of this, I bent my cookie sheet (I'm not even sure it's still usable) and I bent my oven rack slightly!

Lesson learned: never buy a turkey that big again!

(Everything else went just fine and we had more than enough food. Once the turkey was done, this was a less stressed day. Plus, I had lots of help from my mom. I don't think I could ever manage hosting a traditional Thanksgiving without her help.)

Broccoli Grilled Cheese

I needed a quick and easy dinner idea because I was exhausted and not looking for anything where I would have to follow more than say, 2 steps. We had some tomato soup (from Ruby's!) to use up so I decided on grilled cheese, tomato soup, and fries. Non of this sounded very healthy. I don't think tomato soup can count as a vegetable unless you make it from scratch. I needed a vegetable. I'm not a big fan of just eating a little pile of peas on my plate (but I do it sometimes and I do it for my toddler regularly) but I also try to incorporate a vegetable into the dinner somehow.

I considered adding something to the soup but I didn't want it too chunky since my husband likes to dip his sandwich into the soup. After hopping on Pinterest, I found this idea: adding broccoli to the sandwich! It's so simple yet brilliant. Broccoli and cheese are always a good combination. How did I not come up with this on my own?? I have added tomato slices to grilled cheese before but tomatoes are kind of juicier than I'd like and I can totally taste the tomato. With this broccoli recipe, you can barely taste the broccoli at all!

Basically, all you do is cook up some broccoli, chop it small, and add it to the grilled cheese.Do be sure to drain it well after cooking because any leftover water will make for a juicy sandwich. For the adult sandwiches, I use two slices of cheese so I put the broccoli in between the two slices so the melted cheese can hold it in while I flip it. For my toddler, I only use one slice of cheese so the flipping was a bit trickier but it still worked out (Not to toot my own horn but I should also mention I'm a pro at making grilled cheese. Everyone who has tried mine agrees that I make the best ones).

When giving the sandwich to a toddler, I cut it in half and then I cut those halves in thirds (like strips) so they can easily pick them up and eat them. However, be sure to wait a minute or two after cooking it before you cut it up so the cheese doesn't just ooze out everywhere.

Surprisingly, after watching us dip our stuff in our soup, my toddler also wanted to! She is behind in the whole toddlers-love-to-dip thing even when we have done it in front of her before. We didn't give her her own cup of soup though because that's just asking for a mess so we dipped hers in ours and she loved it! Definitely making this again!

Honey Mustard Pork Chops

Because pork chops always seem to be on sale, we have a LOT of them. We freeze them in packages of 2 or 3 (now that our daughter is eating more of our food, we actually have to account for her when I plan dinners). This makes them really easy to thaw just the right amount. I am always looking for new ways to eat them and this recipe fit the bill.

It cooks up really cook (so quick in fact, that I barely had time to finish the side dish!) and is super simple. I only cooked 2 pork chops so I tried to halve the recipe for those of you that know me, I don't really measure anything so I just made enough sauce for what looked right. I also added a little onion powder instead of onion salt. And I left out the cloves because I think they're rather...unpleasant. I served the chops with Parmesan roasted asparagus.

We loved these pork chops! David rated them an 8/10 and I rate them about a 9/10. I can't get over how quick and easy they are (common ingredients, less than 20 minutes to make from start to finish). The only thing that could make them better would be if they weren't pork chops. I'm getting kind of sick of them. But I do plan to make this again in the near future!

Toddler Color Book

I am always on the look out for new ways to teach my almost two year old new things. Pinterest is a great place for this but they can also become overwhelming and make you think you aren't doing nearly enough for your kids. Sometimes it just stresses me out with all the rainy day activities, new food recipes, potty training tips, sensory activities, and things I didn't even know existed that I'm supposed to be doing.

So sometimes I turn to other websites (*gasp!*) for when I have a specific idea. I know it's a little early, but I decided that teaching my daughter her colors might be fun, especially now that she is starting to color with crayons more. I turned to etsy for product ideas to achieve this.

I found a color book that looked very simple to make (and they were asking a significant amount of money for it) so I gathered my supplies. I used paint chips, stickers, and book rings. Basically, you decide on how you want to lay yours out. I wanted a book format so I needed two paint chips of each color. The different shades, I believe, will help the kids learn their colors faster because it's not one specific shade and then they learn that another lighter/darker shade is also called the same color. I can see how that would get confusing for them but I have no science to back this up. Then I just dotted the pages with various stickers in that color. Some things are that color in real life (i.e. a red wagon) and some things are only that color in sticker format (i.e. a blue monkey).

Here are some examples of my pages to give you a better idea

I know the pictures are kind of hard to see.  They were taken on my lap for one thing. But hopefully you stil get the idea. I will also mention that I did two book rings to make the book sturdier and more book like (rather than flipping them over the ring) but those were the only two spots where I could make holes in every page because I had poor planning when it came to putting the stickers on. So if you do one, be sure to mark where you're going to punch through so you don't put stickers in the way.

I also used (okay I made David do this part) tacky glue to glue the pages back to back so you don't have the backs of the swatches in between each color. This is pretty self explanatory once you get started assembling.

I haven't used it with my daughter yet but I plan to once she's up from her nap! Hopefully she likes it :)

Changing Table Topper

In our house, we have a changing pad that adheres to a surface rather than a changing table with something built in. We actually have two, one for changing downstairs and one for changing outside the kids' bedrooms. Before our little guy was born, we had one in our daughter's room. We never got a cover for it because it's vinyl-y, which makes it quite wipeable. Some of you may cringe at the germs that must lurk on it but I do disinfect it regularly and clean up anything visible. 

However, because of this, when our daughter would spit up on it, it would have nothing to absorb into and it would run into her hair and outfit. Basically, it made her messier than necessary. We started using a folded receiving blanket under her head. (I don't know why everyone thinks they make such great gifts. We rarely swaddled her in them and this was our only other use for them. I don't give them to people for the sole reason that as a parent, I never found them useful or handy. If any of you do use them, please tell me what I'm missing out on). It just simply folded in half and then it was absorbent enough that we didn't have a problem anymore. It was just placed on the head end so it wouldn't get in the way for the diapering process. Then we could wash these and put another one on. I realize that a cover would've done the same thing but if I had to change the cover every time I got a drop of pee or poop on it, I would go crazy. It was much easier (and less laundry) if I just wiped it up from the table. 

Now that we have two changing pads, we found that our very small stash of receiving blankets was not enough. So I decided to make a blanket topper. Now, with the size I chose, this could definitely not be used as a receiving blanket. Mine is about 11 inches by 30 inches. This was my first sewing project after our son was born (and I barely got a chance to sew at all since our daughter was born) so I was a little rusty and it's not perfect but it gets the job done.

I took two pieces of flannel and cut them to be about 11 inches by 30 inches. I put them right sides together and sewed around the edge with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leaving a gap to turn. Then, I turned it right side out, poked out all my corners, and hand stitched the gap closed. Finally, I top-stitched the whole thing and voila! I was done. Back in the day (not that I was ever a very efficient sewer, but better than I currently am), I could probably have this done in about 25-30 minutes. Today, it took more like 50 but part of that included clearing off my cutting mat, where I had been piling things for the past few months. So for those of you experienced, this is a pretty quick project. 

Here is the final result: 

So the brown (bears) are the back side (folded over so you can see) and the green alphabet that's impossible to tell that it's green or an alphabet are the main fabric. So then you just lay the baby's head on this and all your problems are solved! 

Ham and Potato Soup

I love soup in the fall and winter! A big bowl of something hot to warm you up after raking leaves in the cold wind or shoveling snow. Now, I wasn't doing either of those things when I decided to make soup for dinner but this soup was delicious anyway!

For this recipe, I actually had everything on hand with a few adjustments. Here are the ingredients I used:

• 5 large russet potatoes, diced (this is part of the 50 pound bag we got from Ruby's pantry and when I say large, I mean as long as your hand)
• garlic powder, to taste
• onion powder, to taste
• 3 ish cups of mixed frozen vegetables (no need to thaw ahead of time)
• 2 cups of diced ham (we keep this in the freezer after chopping up a big ham since ham even comes precooked! very convenient!)
• 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth (this was the last of my broth)
• 3 cups water with 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups monterrey jack cheese

I threw in the potatoes, frozen veggies, frozen ham, broth, and water (no bouillon yet) into a giant pot until it boiled. Because I started with so many frozen ingredients, this took a good 20 minutes. Then I added in the bouillon, garlic powder, and onion powder until the potatoes were done. Next, I made the cheese sauce and then stirred that in. It all came together very easy.

This soup was very hearty but I served it with bread anyway. I'll take any excuse to eat more bread! My mom and brother were in town and we all agreed that it could've used more ham. It probably didn't help that my toddler was picking ham out of all of our bowls but even in spite of that, I would add more ham. 

My mom also suggested using a sharp cheddar. The original recipe calls for that but I don't normally have that kind of cheese on hand so I probably wouldn't buy it special for this but I do admit, it might help. We all rated this an 8/10. Very good and easy dinner, just not what I would call quick. I will definitely make it again! 

Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuits

We love pot pies in this house but the recipes I have used in the past are really time consuming, especially if you make your own crust. It just doesn't seem worth it to me to spend 3 hours (literally) making dinner when it takes 5 minutes to wolf down. So I found a new recipe to make chicken pot pie.

I adapted it from a couple different recipes but a big difference with my end result is that it uses refrigerator biscuits, rather than a crust. I suppose you could use a refrigerator pie crust instead but I like the idea of the biscuits.

This is the recipe I came up with, taking mostly from here :

• 1/3 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (about 2 -2.5 cups)
• 1 tube of 10 count biscuits (the little ones)
• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I made this the night before to make the pot pie faster)
• dash of garlic powder
• dash of onion powder
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup (I used reduced sodium but it doesn't matter)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• salt and pepper to taste (but I didn't use any of either. I think the broth and cream of chicken soup are salty enough, even when they are reduced sodium)

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Cook all your vegetables according to package instructions (a few minutes in the microwave). They don't have to be hot. Basically, you just need them thawed. Set aside. 

3. Melt your butter over medium heat. When melted, add in flour and stir constantly. Then whisk in your milk, broth, and soup. Let come to a slight boil and cook for one minute (to thicken). 

4. Take pot off heat and add in your vegetables, chicken, and seasonings. Stir until well combined.

5. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish and bake for 18 minutes. 

6. Take out of oven and top with your (raw) biscuits. Cook for an additional 10 minutes (or until your biscuits are cooked). 

This came out delicious! The first day, my sauce was a little thin but it was much better the second day. I think I enjoyed it even more as leftovers! I will definitely be making this recipe again. 

Spinach Banana Pancakes

I have had these pancakes pinned for the longest time but I only got around to making them this past weekend. They are a fairly simple recipe and the ingredients are things I keep on hand (except agave nectar. I used regular sugar instead. I did consider using honey but honey and spinach together don't sound good to me). I also used milk instead of water.

My batter came out a little runnier than I was expecting. I'm not sure where that came from. It made for really thin pancakes. It's also a little harder to tell when these are done because of the green color. They still brown like a regular pancake, it's just harder to see it.

The banana flavor is really strong (but I like that) and the spinach flavor is almost non-existent. I will mention, though, that when they are leftover, the spinach flavor does get a little stronger. They were still yummy the second day, they just tasted healthier. I should also mention that I do not have a Ninja blender but my regular, cheap blender did just fine making the spinach small enough that other than color, it was undetectable.

Also, when using oil to make the pancakes, I had a hard time making sure the pancakes were cooked all the way through. When I used non-stick spray, the pancakes seemed to come out better.

My toddler really liked these, as did I. The banana flavor was a little strong for David since he doesn't like bananas. I would make them again but I think I would add more flour or something to make the batter a little thicker.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

At Ruby's this past month, they gave us a lot of tomatoes and pizza crusts (among other things of course). I decided to use our remaining tomatoes to make our own pizza sauce. I looked around online and found a non-cook one since I wanted it to be fast. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is in the end result. Maybe I'm missing out on something.

Anyway, I chopped up 4 (on the vine) tomatoes into chunks small enough I thought my blender could handle it (I think each tomato was in about six pieces). I scooped out as much of the seeds and liquid part as I could because I didn't want a runny sauce. Then I added some italian seasoning, garlic, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt. It was still pretty liquidy so I added a handful of spinach leaves. This helped things. It did turn the sauce a kind of brownish-purple but I wasn't going for looks. I figured it would be hidden under the cheese anyway. After adding the spinach, I was in an add veggie kind of mood so I added some chopped bell peppers (red, orange, yellow, and green) and I looked for our shredded carrots but couldn't find any (we need to reorganize our freezers again). Once that was all blended, it still seemed thinner than I would've liked but I decided to just spoon it on as it was. (I should also mention that I tasted it to make sure I had got the seasoning the way I wanted it to be.)

This was actually a good idea because on the crust it was a lot thicker than it looked in the blender. So really, it turned out great. On top of the sauce I added cheese and pepperoni. Then baked. This turned out SO good! Our kitchen smelled amazing (mostly from the seasonings I think) and we couldn't wait to eat it. It was better than take-out in my opinion. I'm not sure what the crust was since we don't usually get things that include labels from Ruby's but I think a basic homemade crust would've been just as good. Plus, you get the veggie boost from the sauce making this pizza ever so slightly healthier.

With the amount of sauce it made, it covered our two crusts (for smaller pizzas, about the size of a small at Domino's I believe) and we will have enough for 2-3 more. I have heard that pizza sauce is very freezable so we will do that so it is ready for next time. I couldn't believe how well this turned out though! Even our somewhat picky toddler liked it! (She's not exactly picky. She likes almost everything she tries but getting her to try it is the hard part).

Eggplant Patties

When I'm at the farmer's market or grocery store, I'm really good about buying fruits and vegetables. However, when I get home, I usually realize that I don't have a plan to use them up and then I have to go dig up recipes before the produce goes bad. This week's victim was eggplant. In the past, I have made eggplant meatballs that were a big hit (especially with my toddler!) but I wasn't feeling that this time. On pinterest, I found a recipe for eggplant patties. I have made something similar with spinach before that turned out well so I thought this would be like that. 

They took longer to prepare than I thought they would and I did have a little trouble with the eggplant sticking to the pan while I was cooking it up ahead of time but in general, this is a very easy recipe. These weren't fantastic but they did turn out well! 

We used two eggplants, vegetable oil, scallions, garlic powder, dried parsley, Colby Jack cheese, regular salt, and plain breadcrumbs. As you can see from the original list, this is very similar but as always, feel free to make your own changes to suit your family or what you have on hand (I always do!). I ended up using about 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs instead of the whole cup to make the consistency right. I also skipped the refrigeration step due to lack of time.

I will also mention that when eggplant cooks up, it resembles mushrooms. It turns brown and mushy like mushrooms. My mom even thought that there were mushrooms in the burgers! I also couldn't believe that my non-veggie loving dad enjoyed these. So, like I said, not out of those world but probably a 7/10. I would make these again if I find eggplant in my crisper. I served them with french fries. I might've served them on buns too but I didn't have these so we ate them with forks.

After having done this with both eggplant and spinach now, I feel confident making this with just about any vegetable. I imagine they are very versatile!  

Clean Your Play Pen

Now that we have two kids, we thought it would be nice to be able to keep the newborn in the play pen while I'm playing with the older one. Plus, this keeps the younger one safe from the older one when I have to leave the room for a minute (such as to go to the bathroom). 

Our play pen was kept at our cabin for our older child to sleep in when we stayed there. However, we never really got around to cleaning our cabin (or staying overnight) so our play pen stayed there just getting dirty. Plus, it was a used play pen to begin with and long story short, this thing was probably really dirty and we just didn't know it. None of it was visible dirt. As far as we knew, our daughter never pooped in it or even spit up on it. 

As part of my nesting (even postpartum. Does postpartum nesting exist?), I decided to clean it. I found this idea and found it worked wonders! I'm sorry I don't have pictures to show you because my husband did all the work (c sections are great excuses to get your husband to do things for you) but our bathtub looked like the before and after pictures in the link. At first we thought maybe, just maybe, it was dye or something from the play pen itself because ours has a brown theme. But after draining the tub, we found all this grit and residue. Definitely not just dye! 

Gross to think we had our child stay in that filth but hopefully it somehow wasn't that dirty back when we actually used it! I will also mention that to get the play pen out of the tub and onto our back deck to dry in the sun is hard work. David said it was quite heavy. Our play pen is by no means light to start out with but to add water to that, it probably weighed as much as a baby elephant! Okay that may be an exaggeration and David had no problem carrying it but I am not convinced I would've been able to carry it through our entire upstairs, down the stairs, through the entire downstairs, and out to the deck without complaining at least a little bit (or taking rest breaks along the way). 

I highly recommend you do this if you at all think your play pen could be harboring filth like ours. Now I wonder if you can use this method for other things like strollers or car seat covers. 

Fly Tape

Before we went to the hospital for the birth of our son, we had a fruit fly problem in our kitchen. We thought that fly tape would be the easiest way to get rid of them so we bought a bunch. As David is putting it up, the tack breaks and I just happened to be leaning under him at the same time for access to the sink. Of course, this means the tape fell in my hair! Now it's not quite as gross as it could've been because at least it was a new strip so no flies were on it but still. This stuff is unbelievably sticky. Picture Winnie-the-Pooh's hand after he reaches into his "hunny" pot. It's a big mess.

So my hair is plastered to my forehead where it hit me and I'm both laughing at crying at this whole situation. Then as I'm googling how to get it out of my hair, I feel as though the fruit flies are attracted to me. None are even flying around my head and I wasn't in the kitchen but I just felt like now that the glue was in my hair, what was to stop them from getting stuck to me? This is really starting to freak me out.

I finally found the answer to get the glue out (thank goodness!). You wash your hair like you normally would but you use baby oil instead of shampoo. Good thing I have a baby or I may not have this on hand! Well, that worked but then I couldn't get the baby oil out of my hair. It was just way too oily. I had washed it once with shampoo in the shower after the oil but then I had to give up because I was ready for bed (gross, I know). The next day, I tried dry shampoo since that is supposed to be good at soaking up oils. I'm not sure that did anything. It took about 3 more washes in the shower before I finally felt clean again.

So long story short, if you ever get fly tape glue in your hair (and hopefully you don't because it's really not a pleasant experience), try baby oil.

Recovery From a C-Section

My first child was born via c-section because she was breech. They ended up over-numbing me and it took almost an entire day for me to feel all the way to my toes. The hospital stay was pretty rough. They did have me up and moving once I had full feeling back and that first time on my feet was intense pain that I could barely handle. However, the nurses said I was doing well because I wasn't fainting, dizzy, shaky, or screaming.

I am glad my husband stayed overnight in the hospital with me because I was completely helpless when it came to taking care of the baby. I could barely hold her (due to the only "natural" position putting pressure on my incision and floppy, sore belly), I couldn't get up to get her or change her diaper, I needed help getting the hang of breastfeeding (unrelated to the surgery), and I couldn't put her back in her Tupperware for sleep (what we called her bassinet because that's what they look like).

When I got home, my mom was here and waited on me hand and foot. I basically lived in my bedroom because stairs were an impossibility for about a week so I was unable to come down for meals and such. We even had a card table set up in the bedroom for us to eat our meals. My husband was a great help (as was my mom of course!) and I don't know what I would've done without them. I was unable to retrieve my baby from her crib down the hall when she called at night, I wasn't comfortable standing long enough to change a diaper, and doing any sort of activity for myself (even as simple as showering) was a luxury I no longer had. (This is just talking about the pain and recovery, not the change from having a newborn too).

After a week and a half, I was actually able to move around more and feel like a person again. Keep in mind, this was actually fast according to the drs. I had no complications and passed my six week post partum check up.

That was 19 months ago.

On the 19th of August, I had a repeat c-section for my second child. I felt more during surgery but I think it was easier going because my body and I knew what to expect. I still had that intense pain the first time they had me up and walking and my walks around the maternity ward were very slow going. However, by the second day, my bed was hurting me enough (mostly just sore from not moving much and the spacing between where the bed goes up and down for your top and bottom half was digging into my back) that I felt encouraged to get up and move around more. The more you can move around, the better but definitely don't push yourself.

When we got home, I didn't live in my bedroom quite as much. I mostly stayed downstairs and just went up for bedtime but even then, I was moving more than I did the first time around. I still took it easy when it came to baby duties and per doctor's orders (with all c-sections and probably all deliveries), I can't pick up my first born because she weighs over 15 pounds. So this time, rather than everyone taking care of me, everyone is taking care of my older daughter so I can try to take care of my newborn. I can only imagine how hard life will be now that my mom has left for home and soon my husband will be back to work.

It's only been a week but I basically feel like myself. I just have to really take it easy and not strain myself. I have noticed a burning sensation in one of my hips and when I called the doctor about it, she said it is probably a nerve that got pinched in my inside stitches. Ouch! So because of that, I am a little less mobile than I think I would be otherwise (it's actually quite painful but thankfully, it comes and goes).

In general, I have heard that the second c-section is easier than the first and other than having to take care of your first child on top of it, I think people are right. I haven't had any serious complications and I'm doing much better than I expected. Even in the hospital, everyone commented on how well I was doing (I was especially happy to hear this from the people who were there the first time around so they can compare). But I have also had a lot of help at the hospital and at home and I am not afraid to say I can't do something or ask for help with it because of the surgery. I can't stress enough that you shouldn't push yourself by any means. If you are recovering slower, take the time you need.

Of course, a VBAC is much less recovery and I had been rooting for one with this second baby but it just didn't turn out that way.

Dijon Maple Syrup Chicken

I had a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs to use up (from Ruby's Pantry!) and I was running out of creative things to do with them. Chicken always seems so ordinary to me. Maybe I don't branch out enough. Anyway, I scoured Pinterest looking for a new idea and found this recipe. It is absolutely amazing! My husband and mom rated this a 10/10! There is only one or two other recipes my husband has ever rated that high so you know has to be good chicken!

I followed the recipe to a T because the opening disclaimers really scared me. I wanted this to turn out right. I used an 8x8 pan, double lined with tin foil. I went to the store special for Dijon mustard. I used the very last of our homemade maple syrup. And it turned out just like the author said it would!

The chicken was very easy to prepare with minimal prep work. I was surprised how long it bakes in the oven for but I suppose that gives you time to make the side dishes. (I served this with mashed potatoes. I will admit that after looking at our potatoes and deciding they should probably just be thrown away, I used boxed mashed potatoes. I did add in extra cheese and a big handful of chopped spinach to help them though. This was also a huge success! It was also an easy way to add in more vegetables).

I tried to do the corn starch mixed into the gravy to make the thicker gravy but my corn starch just clumped up. I'm not really sure why but this chicken was so good without the sauce that I don't think I missed it (but maybe I just don't know what I was missing!).

I will definitely make this recipe again but because store bought real maple syrup is so expensive, I guess I have to wait til spring again to get more from our trees.

How to Wash Stuffed Animals

My little girl takes a stuffed animal with her just about everywhere. It's not always the same one but I do admit, her favorite is a dalmatian. As I'm sure you realize, dalmatians are white and show dirt quite quickly. She is also in the phase where she pretends to feed her stuffed animals, but sometimes this results in them getting food on their faces. Because of this (and because kids will always be dirty and make messes), there comes a time that their stuffed animals need to be washed.

For the ones that are washing machine safe, I always assumed this was the easiest method. You put them in cold water, gentle or hand wash cycle, and just put in a dab of detergent (if any). I've been told to NEVER put stuffed animals in the dryer. NO setting seems to be safe for them, even the "fluff" with the no heat. It apparently makes them crunchy. Enough angry parents had commented on the washing machine post (on a different blog) saying the animals come back crunchy and just not right that I got scared off of doing it and always hang dry them. (They hang by their ears in the laundry room on the clothesline until it's sunny enough to put them on the back deck. The sun works much faster than the clothesline).

The problem with that method is that I only have to wash about 3 animals. The rest aren't safe. 3 animals doesn't come close to equaling a load and my washing machine doesn't have a small load cycle (this actually really bothers me but what can you do?). So it's a big waste of water and time in my book.

Last night, it finally came to me (per my mom's suggestion). I was taking a bubble bath (my due date is tomorrow and bathes are definitely the way I feel most comfortable. They solve everything from itchy, stretched out skin to restless feet to sore, aching muscles!) and my little girl wanted a bath too. She came in with me (for the first time ever. She normally bathes by herself but who can deny such a cutie a bath??) It was then suggested, knowing how dirty Doggie (her favorite) was, that Doggie takes a bath too. Little Girl LOVED this idea, especially because she got to help with the washing. Long story short (sorry this post is already so long), Doggie took a bubble bath with us. Then we laid him out in the sun to dry and he not only got clean (minimal scrubbing required. I just used my hands) but he also smells like a delicious bubble bath! I don't think I'll ever put another stuffed animal in the washing machine again!

Of course, you have to be willing to share your bathwater with a dirty animal but at least you aren't wasting any water in the process. I guess I might not do it if he was muddy or something like that but he was just regular wear-n-tear dirty.

Zucchini Crust Pizza

When we were at the farmer's market last weekend, we bought a HUGE zucchini for 75 cents. I'm sure there have been bigger zucchini's in record books but this thing was fatter and longer than my forearm! Luckily, I had been stockpiling zucchini recipes for a day like this.

The first one we made was zucchini crust pizza. Most people have probably heard of cauliflower crust pizza with the new gluten free everything but I have heard mixed reviews from people that don't need a gluten free diet. I decided the zucchini might be better but since I had never tried the cauliflower one either, I had nothing to lose.

The recipe I used also had a recipe for topping it but we did it our own way. We only used the link for the crust. Our crust came out a little soggy in the middle and I think this might've been because I was getting impatient for the zucchini to cool so I didn't wring it out as much as I should have.

We also made a few other changes. We left out the Parmesan (because we didn't have any), used all-purpose flour instead of almond meal, and added an extra tablespoon of flour to try to combat some of the liquid left in the zucchini. I don't know if the oregano I used was Greek or Turkish or something completely different but it still tasted fine. Aside from the egg and the flour, I also didn't measure anything.

Instead of making this into two smaller pizzas, we made it into one bigger one on a cookie sheet (in the oven). I would be interested in grilling it too.

Then we topped it with pasta sauce (cheaper than store-bought pizza sauce and practically the same thing. I have considered making my own sauce and have in the past but it's not worth it to me), lots of mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. I noticed a difference in flavor and texture than our regular crust pizza but it still tasted great! We usually give our 18 month old the crust from our pizza and with this one, she was eating it faster than I could cool it off! Yay for giving her veggies! (We have tried in the past to give her everything, not just the crust, but she doesn't seem to like it).

I would definitely make this again but it does come out a little time consuming. However, it's all easy so it's well worth it!

Vegetarian Spinach Burgers

I am always on the lookout for new recipes, especially those that think outside of the box. You can only have so many recipes for say, hamburgers, before they all kind of blend together and become the same thing. However, I have to say the recipe I found to use up almost an entire, big plastic container of spinach is pretty genious. David and I were originally kind of scared to try it because it sounded so healthy (it has 8+ ounces of spinach in it!) but we are SO glad we gave in because this recipe was phenomenal!

This recipe  is quite simple and the ingredients are things we typically have on hand. I also threw in a couple chopped mushrooms because I had to use them up as well. I did use fresh spinach so I had to cook it down first (but no big deal). We also didn't have any onions on hand (I couldn't believe it either) so we used onion powder. As per usual, I didn't measure any of the spices or the cheese but I did measure the breadcrumbs. I did throw in a smidge more because of adding the mushrooms and probably having more spinach than called for. Next time, I would consider omitting the red pepper flakes. They didn't taste bad, I just can do without the heat. (I'm such a wimp when it comes to spice).

I served these on hamburger buns. My mom and I ate these plain but David put ranch on his. We were all really pleasantly surprised how well this turned out! I'm not convinced that spinach has all that much protein, plus being pregnant I really need to get a lot of protein, so we made scrambled eggs on the side (this puts those two egg yolks you don't need to good use too!).

You could pretty easily make these vegan. Just omit the cheese (which I'm not sure really added much any way) or you could use vegan cheese and then a binder of some sort to keep it all together. I'm not sure what that would be but I'm sure you vegans out there have some ideas (or it's probably google-able).

These were even good leftover! I will definitely be making these again.

Cheater's Way to Homemade Egg Rolls

We love Chinese food but it can get expensive to order out all the time. I decided we should make some at home. We had previously done egg rolls (which I'm sure you can find in a blog post of mine somewhere) but they didn't really turn out right (if I remember right, they tasted good but they didn't look close to right and were kind of hard to make). That was because we had attempted to make our own wrappers for those.

This time, we cheated and used store bought wrappers. Also, instead of spending the time chopping and shredding carrots and cabbage, we just bought a bag of coleslaw mix. This obviously really cuts down on the prep time!

We loosely followed this recipe. We only used half a pound of ground chicken. I might've used the whole pound had we had that much but we had used the other half in a different dish the night before. I still think they had plenty of protein and we usually cut the meat in half anyway for recipes. However, if you have a whole pound, I would consider using it. Or maybe even just bumping up the chicken to 3/4 of a pound would be good. The problem with ground chicken is it doesn't crumble the way ground beef does so it's harder to distribute between all the egg rolls.

Other differences between our recipe and theirs was that we used garlic powder, vegetable oil, and 15 wrappers (see the original recipe for what they used) instead of what was called for. I will mention that our egg rolls were a little empty but that was because we didn't roll them as tight as we could've. The carrots and cabbage kept ripping the wrappers if we went tighter. They still turned out great though.

I would definitely make this recipe again but boy was it greasy! The outside grease mostly got absorbed by the paper towel while they were cooling on the plate but somehow, the insides got greasy too. It didn't taste like we were eating sludge but sometimes, it looked like it. If we wrapped them in napkins as bit into them, the grease factor was significantly improved though. Don't let my description stop you from trying these though! They are worth the heart attack (Or you could take the healthier road and try to bake them).

I also liked the instructions for rolling these closed and I had never heard of using the flour/water paste before to seal them. Ours did take longer than 10 seconds each to cook. I believe we did 30 seconds each and they didn't come out as dark as restaurant ones do but they still managed to be crunchy.

Spare Pacifier Bag

At night, sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident, my daughter's pacifier ends up outside of her crib. Or my eyes haven't yet adjusted to the dark and rather than turn on the light to find her pacifier, I grab a new one. They used to be stored in her diaper caddy thing by her changing table but since our changing station is being moved to a more central location for after the baby is born, that is no longer an option.

I saw you can buy these little pouches to store the extra ones that come with a tie so you can tie to the crib or around a doorknob or something but I figured I could sew one pretty easily. The one I made is actually for Little Boy's room but our daughter is using it for now until I find the time to sew hers.

I used flannel because I had some remnants of it in really cute baby prints but you could just as easily use a cotton. I wanted to use more than one print but you could use the same fabric for the inside and outside. I cut two pieces (one of each flannel) about 10in x 14 in. With a 1/4in seam allowance, I folded each in half (separately) and sewed around 2 sides (one side was the folded side so that doesn't need to be sewn and the other side is your top, which you want to leave open. Be sure if you are using directional fabric to keep track of which side the top is). Then I trimmed the excess off the seams to cut down on bulk (just cut close to your stitches, sort of like making your seam allowance smaller). I should also mention that for the outer fabric, you sew it right sides together and flip it. For the inner fabric, you sew it right sides together (and don't flip it). This way, your seams are in between the two pieces and hidden. Then put your inner fabric into your outer fabric. It should basically look like the end result now. Turn the top of your inner fabric over your outer fabric and tuck under the edge and sew all the way around (so you don't have a raw edge at the top of your bag).

To make this easy to tie to something, I cut a piece of ribbon (I guessed on the length. I think mine ended up about 7 inches long) and I sewed the middle of the strip to the top of the bag. This will show your stitches but it was the easiest method I could come up with and I was making this up as I went along.

My finished product looks like this:

I know it's not really fair to take a picture of a green bag next to a green wall but it was the best I could do. I hope the picture also clears up any confusion in the instructions because I realize they might be a bit hard to understand. Any questions, leave in the comments below and I will try to help!

The Best Chicken Tenders Ever

Oh my goodness. Because I have gotten behind in blogging, David made these chicken tenders about a week ago and I'm just writing about them now. But I'm still thinking about them!

We were lucky enough to actually have chicken tender meat from Ruby's Pantry so the chicken took no prep work. We also don't have seasoning salt so we just used regular salt and I wouldn't change a thing about this recipe!

The recipe says to cook for about 3 minutes a side (6 minutes total) but our chicken needed more like 9 minutes total. We also could only cook two pieces at a time due to the pot we used (in an effort to use less oil) but this just meant we had to eat in shifts. I ate mine with a honey mustard dipping sauce but ranch or even nothing would be great too. I served them with oven roasted potatoes. The potatoes got kind of ignored because everyone was so obsessed with this chicken! It is seriously a 10/10!

Like in the pictures, ours came out a little light too (making it not look like restaurant chicken) but it was cooked all the way through and I don't think it sacrificed any of the taste. I would DEFINITELY make this recipe again (well, actually I'd have David definitely make this recipe again. He's my deep fry guy). We have tried other recipes in the past to get that crunchy, crispy outside and they were total flops. This is the way to go. We even did the homemade buttermilk (a tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of milk) since we never have buttermilk on hand (are there people who actually buy it when there's a substitution that's that easy??).

I believe this recipe made 16 tenders, which for us, was two packages.

Homemade Spinach Crackers

To continue the veggie effort, I decided to make homemade spinach crackers. I actually doubled the spinach they said to and used salt (not bouillon). I tried to make these in the blender, rather than the food processor but it got too thick and I ended up mixing a lot of it by hand. They definitely were easy to make though. The hardest part was rolling out the dough.

I think they taste sort of like saltines. I can't taste the spinach at all (although they do come out green). They're very dry and I wonder how they would be dipped in something.I rate these about a 3 out of 5. Little Girl doesn't mind them but she doesn't exactly gobble them up either. I'm not sure I'd make them again just because my target audience didn't thoroughly enjoy them. Although, I may try to experiment with different things in them such as cheese, bits of other veggies, or different seasonings.

There is a chance I made them thicker than they were supposed to be but I don't think this was a problem (and I didn't even have to adjust cooking time). The recipe says it makes about half a box of crackers. I was somehow expecting this to be more than a sandwich baggie full but I suppose that's about right.

Broccoli White Bean Dip

In an effort to get my toddler (and myself) to eat more fruits and vegetables, I've been sneaking them into things lately. I make smoothies, veggie muffins, fruit pancakes, add veggie purees to things (like spaghetti sauce or mac and cheese), etc. Basically, I take food I already eat and find a way to amp up its nutritional value. My latest thing is dip.

I make a variation of hummus (no tahini and I alternate between garbanzo beans and cannellini beans) that is basically just beans, a splash of oil, and spices. I also thought this would be a good snack for my toddler. She doesn't like things dipped in things per se but she does like to be spoon fed (which is especially ironic because we never fed her baby food and try to let her feed herself as much as long as we can tolerate the mess). I thought a dip of some sort would be similar.

Broccoli seemed like an obvious choice to me. I'm not really sure why because as far as I know, the common types of dips don't include broccoli (spinach and artichoke is the one that comes to mind). I did also think of cauliflower because that wouldn't add an unappealing color but Little Girl doesn't care if her food is green. She just hates eating vegetables plain.

Ingredients:

• about 1/3-1/2 bag of frozen broccoli, heated up
• 1 can of cannellini beans, drained
• garlic (I used about a tablespoon because it came out too fast and this is really garlicky but still good. Maybe a half tablespoon would be better?)
• paprika, just a dash
• splash of oil (or water) to get the right consistency
• about 1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese (I don't know if this was necessary but I wanted to mask the broccoli flavor as much as I could without making it too unhealthy. I might just leave it out next time because I'm not sure I even taste it)

Blend it all up in a blender (do your toddlers hate the blender too? Mine is TERRIFIED of the thing. She bursts into tears if I so much as pull it out of the pantry.) Now I served mine with chips but if you want to be extra good, serve with raw veggies. My toddler ate hers with a spoon and couldn't get enough. She even ate some of the raw broccoli while I was prepping everything (which is so rare for her!).

I would definitely make this again. Next time, I might even add the cauliflower in addition to the broccoli to up the veggie intake without altering the flavor much. I would also be tempted to try this with other vegetables (and no broccoli) and change the spices. This is a very versatile recipe. Maybe something with peppers and italian spices? Or carrots and ginger? I'll have to experiment! 

Manly Mac and Cheese

For some reason, I always think of Kielbasa as a manly food. Maybe because it's meat but it seems even manlier than say, brats. I don't know why. So I came across a recipe that is essentially homemade mac and cheese, peas, and Kielbasa. The recipe turned out great! I followed many commenters suggestions and doubled the sauce. I also made the entire (16oz) box of noodles and just dumped what fit into my dish, leaving some for leftovers for a different meal. I think I used about 2/3 of the box (more than what the recipe calls for) and the sauce to pasta ratio was perfect.

Also, I used garlic powder instead of minced and whole milk instead of low fat (our daughter has a hard time going through a whole gallon before it goes bad so we usually use it in our cooking). I'm also not sure how much of my cornstarch actually made it into the milk mixture. Most of it seemed to be stuck to the bottom of the bowl but the cheese really thickens things up.

It came together rather quickly and I give it a 4/5. Of course, it's not the healthiest of meals but that's what the peas are for! It also tastes fine leftover the next day.

As with all of my homemade mac and cheese recipes, this had a slightly grainy texture to the cheese sauce and I even used expensive cheese this time instead of generic. I think melted shredded cheese is just always going to do that to me. Or maybe what I call expensive and high quality still isn't high enough quality. It's not from the deli. On the other hand, I can put up with this texture and David doesn't care so I would rather get more cheese for my money than buy the most expensive kind I can find.

I would definitely make this recipe again but more as a treat because of the high fat content. Plus, we don't usually Kielbasa on hand. It just happened to be on sale last week.

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Don't ask me how but somehow today, I found the time to make pancakes for lunch. Usually lunch is just heat up leftovers or something equally quick because Little Girl doesn't like waiting. I did give her her lunch first while I cooked and then when I was done, she still got some. Plus, there are some leftover for her to enjoy tomorrow.

The recipe is super simple and actually fairly quick (but nothing seems quick enough to a 16 month old). The only change I made to the original recipe was adding a dash of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. I mashed the bananas with my hands, which proved for lumpy pancakes but they still turned out okay.

I also don't usually cook the breakfast foods around here. They are one of the things David is really good at making and he understands our griddle so I let him do it. However, these just sounded really good and I got it in my head that I had to make them. So I did. I made them in a frying pan though because our griddle was in the dishwasher.

They turned out great! I would say I only got about 4 servings out of it but we eat a lot of pancakes around here. I think Little Girl ate a pancake and a half all by herself (after eating her whole lunch that is). I don't know where she puts it all.

The pancakes don't need syrup but everything is better with syrup on it. We even still had some of our homemade syrup left so this was extra good!

You can't even taste that they're whole wheat instead of white. I also bet for the people who like nuts (but not me), that they would be good with pecans or walnuts in them. These pancakes were basically banana bread in pancake form. You can't get better than that!

Cleaning Your Hairbrush

I'm just gonna say it. I have never cleaned a hairbrush or comb in my entire life. Usually when they get gross, I decide they're cheap enough to throw it out and buy a new one (this happens every few years). I am always good about getting the hair out of it right after I use it but those little dust things that happen around the bristles sure annoy me. I decided to follow this advice. You mix warm water, 1/4 cup borax, and a squirt of dishwashing soap (preferably in your sink but any basin should do it). Then soak your brushes and combs for 30-45 minutes. Let air dry. They're supposed to come out clean.

Well, I did this. I soaked them for 45 minutes. I had a comb and a brush, both mostly hairless but with the dusty things. This did nothing for the dusty things! I was so disappointed! It did clean the oils and grease out of them, which I suppose is an improvement. But it's really the dusty things that get to me. I have taken to cleaning them out with a tweezers but this has taken me about an hour so far and I'm not done (I know, you're thinking "how gross is her hairbrush??" but they're just so tedious!).

From now on, I will just replace my hairbrush every time they bug me until I figure something else out. Pinterest fail!

How to Clean Your Dishwasher

It may seem odd that you have to clean your dishwasher when it constantly has soap and water running through it. Believe me, it gets dirty. I usually clean ours when our dishes stop coming out clean, about 3 times a year. We don't typically rinse our dishes before putting them in and there are some things we know are going to come back dirty, like eggs. In general, this works for us and we are able to save lots of water by not rinsing. Some detergent companies even argue that they need the food particles on the dish to cause friction with the soap (or something equally weird). Even though we have an older dishwasher (that we actually got for free on the side of the road), it still gets the job done but only if I keep it clean.

In the past, I have taken apart every loose piece and washed them in the sink (if they fit) and wiped everything down.I still try to do this about once a year but it really is a lot of work to do every time and to me, it just isn't worth it. I have also tried commercial dishwasher cleaners like Dishwasher Magic. I actually love Dishwasher Magic and think it works great but I felt like this was something I could do with a homemade cleaner (i.e. cheaper).

Today, after pinteresting about it of course, I tried vinegar and baking soda. You put a glass measuring cup with 1 cup of vinegar in the top rack of your dishwasher. Then add 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Of course this causes a reaction so be sure to do this when the cup is already in your dishwasher. Then run your dishwasher (with the rest of it empty) with the hottest cycle you can. Voila! Your dishwasher is clean.

I hope it goes without saying that food particles, especially if you don't rinse your dishes, can get stuck in places that can also affect the efficiency of the machine. Since these were too big to fit down the drain, get them out with your hand before you do the vinegar cycle. You should also periodically look for them, even if you aren't completely cleaning the washer.

Gutter Bookshelves for Kids

Our Little Girl has a lot of books. We originally had a little corner in the dining room for them all (which is nicely attached to our living room, giving her more play space) with a regular bookshelf. However, the bookshelf was a little uneven on our wood floors and we couldn't anchor it to the wall. This worried me a little bit because little kids love to climb up things and I didn't want her getting hurt.

We thought of doing regular shelves that attach to the wall but then they would stick out really far and we would need bookends to keep her books on them. It just wasn't ideal for us. After some pinteresting, we came across bookshelves made out of gutters. We actually had picked up some gutters at Menard's a while ago when they were free after rebate so really, this project didn't cost us any money! We simply cut them to our desired length and screwed them into the wall (in studs of course). You can sand the edges smooth if you want but ours didn't seem that rough. Some people also add crown molding or end caps to theirs and we may add this later to make them more sturdy but for now, they work just fine.

I apologize for the bad lighting but you get the idea. The books face outward and the kids can easily pull them off the shelf. I will admit for now, Little Girl can only reach the bottom shelf but she knows to ask for books she wants on higher ones. This is also an easy way to rotate through her books so I don't have to read Moo Baa La La La to her every single day! (For those of you that know this book, you know how annoying it is. I think I've had it memorized since my third time reading it).

We also picked up a Winnie the Pooh floor puzzle at Goodwill for a dollar and made the whole corner her toy corner. Of course, it doesn't usually look this nice but it is really easy to clean up, since everything has a home. Little Girl even helps sometimes (or just pulls out all the books you are putting back on the shelf). I will also mention that to keep library books from getting mixed in with the regular books (and lost forever), we put them in the little red basket on the floor. Then when we put them away each night or have to return them, it is easy to find them again.

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

Especially being pregnant, I have a hard time cleaning things due to the smell of my commercial cleaners. They're just overpoweringly strong and make me gag. Besides the fact that I shouldn't be breathing in that stuff anyway, I thought it was best to change to homemade cleaners.

One of my favorite recipes is 1 part dawn dish soap and 1 1/2 parts white vinegar mixed together in a spray bottle. It helps to warm up the vinegar first to get it to mix but it's not necessary (and it's definitely not necessary every time). I use this on my kitchen counters, mirrors and anything glass, appliances, bathroom and kitchen floors, showers,toilets, tubs, sinks, etc. Basically, EVERYTHING. It gets soap scum off. It removes hard water stains. It gets regular grime off. All without scrubbing. You can leave it on a surface for a few hours and come back to wipe clean the toughest of stains (instead of having to scrub and scrape).

For regular cleaning, I spray and wipe right away and rinse. For the tougher stuff, usually 10 minutes suffices but I did have some hard water stains that took more like 45 minutes to get off.

I even use this as a toilet bowl cleaner (when I can get our cheap spray bottles to spray upside down). With the dish soap, it clings easily like the commercial stuff.

This stuff is such a miracle cleaner and the ingredients are cheap! I did a side by side test (sorry I don't have pictures to prove it) with Lysol Kitchen Cleaner and this. This stuff won! I can't rave about it enough.

Mushroom Spinach White Sauce Lasagna Roll Ups

Whenever possible, I prefer to do lasagna roll ups instead of layered lasagna. Then I don't feel guilty serving it with bread (since it's less noodles per serving, less carbs)! I also think they are easier to eat and cut with a fork. For some reason, I really struggle with layered lasagna. I end up eating the layers one by one because I am unable to cut them. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, I found this recipe for the roll ups. I have made something similar before (check my posts from July of 2014 I believe---sorry no link back) but these were with a white sauce and I think that made them so much better.

I will say I left out the broccoli. That sounded like an odd combination to me and I get nervous when dinner has too many vegetables in it (too healthy=doesn't end up tasting good in my experience). Plus, all I had was frozen and I wasn't sure that was what they meant for the recipe. I didn't use fresh spices or fresh garlic (I used the spice version) but it worked out.

I followed the instructions and was surprised you cook the noodles after you cook everything else but it really does take that long (at least at my house) to boil the water. However, like with most recipes, she has you preheat the oven way too early. I would preheat it while your noodles are cooking.

Ours didn't turn brown on top, probably because of the foil and the directions never said to take the foil off but we ate it the way it was. This was so good! My husband and I both rated it a 9/10. I don't think I'd make any changes if I make it again but I will say that with prep time, this took us 2 hours to make. Definitely not going to get added to the weekly rotation!

I served it with bruschetta because I had a little leftover tomato and parmesan cheese to use up. I used the recipe that I used last April (again, check my archives). This also turned out great.

I would definitely eat both of these meals again and for once I agree with the servings per recipe. The lasagna makes 6 servings (2 roll ups a person).

Coconut and Lime Chicken

Because we somehow still have more coconut milk lurking in our fridge, we decided to cook with it again. I found this chicken recipe that would actually use up a lot of our Ruby's Pantry things. We also were having company over to celebrate my birthday so we had 5 adults, 1 child, and Baby. Everybody, even Baby and the picky child eater, loved this chicken!

I made a lot of changes from the original recipe so I will rewrite it the way I did it.

Ingredients:

• chicken breasts. We had a package of 20 chicken breasts and I had no idea how many pounds that was so I pulled out 9 for our 6+ people. 
• 3 T vegetable oil
• lime juice
• cumin (I don't measure spices, remember?)
• 2 T soy sauce (low sodium)
• salt
• 2 T sugar
• turmeric
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• chili powder (not a lot. This didn't turn out spicy at all, just flavorful)

Directions:
1. Thaw chicken. Place each piece between sheets of wax paper and pound with a meat mallet until even thickness.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients except for lime juice.
3. Put chicken and marinade in a ziploc bag and place in the fridge for up to two hours. (She doesn't recommend going longer than that because then the flavor gets too strong). I did mine for two hours. (Other commenters said they didn't notice a difference between 15 minutes and two hours so if you are short on time, I think it's okay)
4. Using our reversible grill/griddle, use the grill side over high heat to cook the chicken. Don't flip it for a few minutes on each side. Be sure to cut them open to tell if they are done.
5. Using a pastry brush, brush on lime juice (on one side). Put chicken under foil on plate while the rest of the chicken cooks.

I served this with green beans and potato wedges. This recipe turned out just fantastic. I give it a 9.5/10. You didn't even need a knife to cut the chicken! We will definitely make this again!
4. 

Another Banana Bread Recipe

Banana bread is something that doesn't stick around for long in this house. Even Baby likes to eat it! I already have a tried and true recipe from my mom that I like to make and I already have a butterless recipe to speed things up. Now, I have a butterless recipe that uses coconut milk! We don't care for coconut but we are still trying to use it up from Ruby's Pantry.

The recipe is pretty basic and comes together quickly. I did leave out the shredded coconut for our tastes. I also left out the almond extract, simply because we don't keep that on hand. I used the all purpose flour and added more baking soda (like she suggested) to make up for it. Also, I used regular coconut milk and my bananas weren't overly ripe. This is actually my first time using regular bananas, instead of black ones but I think it turned out the same.

The recipe says it makes one loaf but don't be fooled! It makes one HUGE loaf. It was about a half inch from the top of my pan when I poured it in. That should've tipped me off to use two pans but I was already doubling the recipe (although making it twice, not doubling everything at once). I ended up with two loaves (with my doubled recipe) but I easily could've had four or maybe even six! It took an hour and twenty minutes to bake. I had to move my oven rack all the way to the bottom after an hour because the top was getting browner quicker than the inside was cooking. If I had split the recipe, this wouldn't've happened because the middle wouldn't need so much time to cook.

After the slight baking issues, this bread was really really good! We couldn't taste the coconut at all (a good thing! If you want to taste the coconut, people suggest using coconut oil as well). It was super moist and had a nice crust on it. We are never going to buy coconut milk on our own accord but we are already planning on making a third (and fourth) loaf to use up more of what we have!

Dal with Coconut Milk

At Ruby's, we were given a lot of coconut milk. Neither David nor I like coconuts much so we weren't sure how this was going to go. We heard it's good for things like homemade conditioners but I can't use 10+ containers of it for our hair. I pinterested recipe ideas and I came across this presumably authentic Indian Dal. I had to look it up but dal refers to the lentils themselves or the dinner you can make with lentils, onions, turmeric, and other spices. This version includes coconut milk and tomatoes. There are lots of varieties. The recipe is best served with bread or rice. We used wheat French bread but I would think any crusty bread would work great. We even ate it communal style, where we dipped into it from the big batch.

Because we don't like coconut, we left out the toasted coconut on top. We also had 330 ml containers of coconut milk instead of the 400 but I didn't change anything and this seemed to work out fine. Because we don't have much of a spice tolerance, I completely left out the cayenne pepper. I also used cumin instead of the mustard seeds because it is what we had on hand. David is one of those people for whom cilantro tastes metallic (this is a real thing) so I also omitted that. I didn't use fresh ginger or garlic (just the spice bottle varieties). I will also say we didn't drain the tomatoes. If you dig deep through the comments, she says there is no need to and I agree. Mine was a little soupier than hers looked but it works out fine with the bread (or rice) to soak it up.

This was really delicious. I do think it makes much more than 6 servings though. Next time, I may also cut the lentils in half because there are a LOT of them. I also wonder if you couldn't cook the lentils in with the sauce but I'd be nervous to try it. Because my lentil package said to cover the lentils for cooking, I did (but the recipe calls for uncovered).

I would definitely make this again but I'd probably keep all my substitutions and I'd cut it in half. We've been eating this for 3 days now and there's probably 3 days worth of it left!

Review of The Tomb

I recently had the privilege of reading the book, The Tomb by Stephanie Landsem. It is the third in its series and I believe it also to be the last. The whole series brings Bible stories to every day life. It makes them more realistic and easier to relate to. I understand what the people were going through better after reading these because they make more sense. In no way is Stephanie trying to rewrite the Bible or change things. She is just trying to make us realize what it was really like.

This book was about a young woman named Martha, who struggled with providing for her family while keeping a secret from all of them. It follows her through finding out her brother Lazarus is sick and dying. For those who know the Bible story, you know his life will eventually be spared when their cousin, Jesus, brings him back from the dead. However, life is a little more complicated than that (not that bringing someone back from the dead isn't complicated!). There are many plot twists in this book and it will keep you hooked until the end. I am always surprised to find myself wondering what will happen next when for the most part, I should know because I am familiar with the Bible stories.

The author does an excellent job tying up loose ends and doesn't leave you hanging. Her writing is easy to understand and has great style, making this a quick read. If I didn't have a baby to take care of, I easily could've read this in one sitting (as I did with the previous two in the series).

Even though this is based on biblical stories, I do believe that non-believers could find some worth to reading it. The story is excellent, even if you don't believe it actually happened. I highly recommend this book and I hope Stephanie writes more (probably in a different series).

French Onion Soup Casserole

After receiving lots of French bread and onions from Ruby's pantry last week, I knew I needed a recipe to help use them up. When I say a lot of onions, I mean like 30. Plus the 30 we got last month. Even though the recipe I found only uses 3 or 4, that is still quite a bit.

The recipe is for French onion soup casserole. I was a little leery of this at first because I couldn't get over how many onions are in it. I will admit it's been 3 days and our kitchen still smells like onions (some people recommend cutting them outside for this reason). However, I do like onion soup so I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

For more protein, I served it with a side of shrimp sprinkled with some garlic and tossed in butter but with all the cheese in the casserole, you'd probably be fine serving it as a main dish as well.

The only change we made was to use mozzarella cheese instead of Swiss because that's what we have on hand. I will also mention that the bread we used was the kind that is mostly baked but needs about 5 more minutes in the oven to finish. We left it as was and didn't do the full baking ahead of time. We also must've cut our slices of bread too thick (about an inch or more) because we couldn't push them down into the casserole halfway through baking. This wasn't a problem and I liked the thickness of the bread. We probably could've just flipped the bread over before adding the cheese and it would've been the same effect. However, our way, we got to keep the crunchy topping from the first 15 minutes of baking.

So I gotta say, I really did not have the highest of hopes for this recipe. I was sure the onions would be too much and it might be bland. David agreed with me. We were both scared to try it but once we did, we couldn't stop eating it! This casserole was so unbelievably good that we will definitely be making it again! It was actually quite surprising to us but I have already recommended this recipe to the other people I know that go to Ruby's pantry (to help use up those onions!). This was definitely a 5/5 in my book.

P.S. This is my 300th post!

Meatloaf in a Muffin Tin

David and I really wanted meatloaf but with the temps starting to rise now that it's spring, I didn't want to have the oven on for a whole hour to bake it. I found a a recipe that uses muffin tins instead and only takes 25 minutes! We followed the recipe, as written, except we only used 1 pound of ground beef instead of 1 1/2 pounds. We did keep the rest of the ingredients the same. Oh but we didn't put the ketchup on top before baking.

This recipe turned out great and I loved that it had the veggies cooked right in. That makes it a perfect meal to give our baby, especially in the convenient size of a muffin. She loved it! We did too. I felt like you didn't need to add ketchup to the top because there was enough sweetness from the carrots and from the ketchup already in it but David did add it. I usually add ketchup to the top of my traditional meatloaf recipe though.

As much as we liked these, we still like our original recipes (from our moms!) better. I was thinking we could just take our recipes and make them in muffin tins, baking for 25 minutes. The only downside to this, is Baby doesn't get her veggies built right in but that's okay. I would make these again some time but I also feel they are a bit more prep work than our recipes. I love the concept though and what a time saver it is!

New Cleaning Spreadsheet

I am the kind of person that needs a daily to-do list. I uses the free app called Taskos (and highly recommend it! You can even cross things off and see them crossed off. I love that feeling). Most of the time, half my to-do list is personal stuff (grocery shopping, gym, mail bills, etc) and the other half is cleaning. The problem with this is things only get added to the cleaning part of the list when they are out of control and need to be done. With a kid (and a pregnancy), it's kind of hard to make sure I clean everything as often as I should.

For this reason, I have come up with a spreadsheet in Google Drive (so I can use it on all devices) that lists all my regular cleaning things, quite specifically, and the date I last cleaned it. It's all broken down by room in the house. So for instance it says "clean downstairs bathroom sink" in one column and then the next column says "04/14/15". This way, I don't end up cleaning something six times in two weeks while another item gets neglected and last got cleaned three months ago (believe me, this somehow happens).

I can also use it for keeping track of things that you don't typically do weekly, such as oil changes on the cars, washing your mattress pad, cleaning out the junk drawer, etc.

I have only recently started using it so I'm not sure in how it's working out. I do still have to remember to update it, which can be a little bit of a hassle but having it electronic should make it easier. I'm very excited about this and I hope it stays effective.

Pear Applesauce Muffins

Over the weekend, I discovered that I had 2 pears I needed to use up. I love to eat them when they are really really soft (my husband thinks this is disgusting because they are basically rotten by the time they are soft enough for me) but even these ones were a bit past that. I would feel bad wasting them and decided they would be okay to bake with (you can bake with black bananas so I think you can bake with squishy pears).

I found this recipe for muffins and doubled it so I could use both pears. I left the pear skin on and it wasn't a problem. I also used cinnamon instead of Chinese five spice powder because I had no idea what that was so I definitely didn't have it in my pantry. The only other minor change was not using brown sugar on top. We tried to sprinkle it on a couple but the sugar was too clumpy and wasn't working out so only like, 3 got any.

These tasted really good! My husband doesn't normally like chunks in things (like apples in apple bread) so he was unsure until he had one. Even he liked them! I do have a couple complaints, however. First, they stuck to the liners. Well, only one batch stuck to the liners and we can't figure out why they weren't the same. It was the same batter and the same liners but whatever. Some people say this could be because of the liner you are using. Others say it happens with low fat recipes. I'm not sure these qualify as low fat because they do still have half a stick of butter in them but maybe. Next time, I'll just grease my muffin tin instead.

Second, they dry out really fast. By the second day of sitting on the counter, they were pretty hard (but still edible). Now, they are in the cookie jar and doing slightly better but we still find if you warm them up for about 10 seconds in the microwave, they're much better. In other words, don't make a double batch if you aren't prepared to eat 24 muffins in a day or two!

But other than that, these are really good, quick, and easy! I will definitely make them again. Maybe I'll freeze some of them next time before they get too hard.

Long Car Ride with a Baby

Wow it's been a long time since I have posted! Sorry about that. As per usual, I will try to stay on top of it (look, here I am blogging on a Saturday. That's quite rare for me).

For Easter, we went to my parents' house. It's about a 6 hour drive, depending on how much you stop. However, this time, my husband was too sick to come with us so this was my first trip all by myself with our 14 month old. Now, I have taken her to the store, her other grandparents' house, the gym, etc. I think prior to this, the longest trip I did with her was about 45 minutes and that wasn't exactly pretty. She hates being in the car. She doesn't sleep in it (unless she's desperate), she can't see out the window very well because of the safety features of her car seat (those side head rest things in case of an accident), and she just gets tired of being in it. When my husband comes along, he drives and I get to sit in back and tend to her. It sort of helps but mostly it gives me piece of mind knowing I exhausted my options. Otherwise, I have to just wonder what she wants when I can't see her, if that makes sense.

We had set up a mirror on the head rest so I could see her in my rear view mirror. This was a LIFE SAVER. If you don't have one and are going anywhere by yourself, I highly highly highly recommend one. We got ours from a family friend so I don't know price or anything but they can't be much. If you google "infant car mirror", I'm sure you'll find what I'm talking about. With this, I could see her when I would give her a snack (to see if she dropped it, choked on it, needed more, etc). I could see when she would actually fall asleep (she did take one 40 minute nap on the way there and another on the way back) vs. just got quiet for a bit. I could see her shake her head yes and no for when I would ask her questions (she's such a good communicator if you ask the right questions). Basically, this was the best thing ever.

Then, I made sure to stop a lot. Normally, especially being pregnant, I have to stop about every two hours to stretch my legs. With baby, we stopped at every rest stop and then a couple gas stations (mostly to retrieve things she had thrown and wanted back). I made sure to stop long enough that she got to play a bit and roam around. She was very happy getting out of the car, not so happy getting back in. In fact, she would close the door if I got close enough for her to reach it when I would try to put her back in. It was bad but I do think the playing helped.

The last thing I can recommend (although I would hardly say I had a successful trip given that she screamed through much of it) is plenty of snacks and toys. I do spoil her and get snacks she doesn't normally get to eat, as well as healthier things to keep her full longer. I also recommend buying new toys, such as from the dollar store, to hold their attention for a few extra minutes before the screaming starts again.

Also, I will say that the way there went a lot better than the way home. I think on the way home she knew what she was in for because she started crying the second we pulled out of the driveway. Every time we go there (with or without my husband), she hates any car ride for MONTHS afterward. Even a quick trip to the store (literally 5 minutes) can seem like eternity to her. I feel so bad she doesn't understand but I suppose she will some day!

Make Your Own Maple Syrup

After watching a Curious George episode about it (we learn everything from George), David and I decided to tap our maple tree for sap. David's family has already been doing this for a few years so if we had questions, we had someone to ask.

I believe our maple is a silver maple. You can identify a maple tree by its grey color and ridges. Depending on the size of the tree, you can use more than one tap but we just used one. You put your tap out when the weather gets above freezing during the day but still below freezing at night, very early spring time. We started two weeks ago (I think) but we were a little late.

We got a regular stainless steel tap from Ace Hardware and hung an empty ice cream pail from it. To insert the tap, you drill a hole about 3 feet from the ground, 2 inches deep, and at an upward slant for best flow. Then put your tap in (tap it in with a hammer) and hang your bucket. Our sap flowed enough that we needed to empty the bucket just about every day. You also don't want your sap to freeze so it's smart to bring it in at night. Store the sap in the fridge and boil down within 7 days of collection.

In the end, we got about 5 gallons, which is more than David's family got. We must have a good tree! Then we started boiling it down. I'm not too informed about the process since I wasn't a big help and David did most of it but I will describe it to my best.

First, bring the sap to a boil in a large pot. It will foam and bubble but we didn't have a problem with it overflowing (surprisingly). As the volume of the sap in the pot decreases, add more in, trying to keep it boiling (but we never were able to). For our 8qt pot, it went down about an inch every 20 minutes. When all the sap has been added to the pot and is boiled down and reaches 220 degrees (we used a candy thermometer), you need to filter it. Another sign of being ready is the bubbles stop popping.

Our filter was a piece of felt between two pieces of flannel that we had clamped onto the top of a smaller pot. Then you continue to boil it until it is the consistency you want. Then we poured it into maple syrup bottles we purchased but you can also can it. It needs to be refrigerated but should last about 6 months.

This morning we made French toast to test it out on and everything was delicious! We are eager to do it again next year and can't wait to tap the trees at our cabin too so we get even more sap.