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).