Crockpot Happiness

I absolutely love cooking, but I don't have as much time for it as I used to. Since I spend most afternoons and evenings teaching piano and voice lessons, I am always looking for recipes that can be made quickly or in the crockpot, but are still healthy. That isn't easy to find since most quick recipes rely mainly on convenience foods (ie. high fat, high calories and lots of other crud.) Before we had Sam, I used to buy mainly organic and all natural. That isn't always possible now that we live on one income, BUT I still read labels and regulate the amount of chemicals, preservatives and added sugars in our food.
My grandma got me this wonderful crockpot cookbook for Christmas called "Make It Fast, Cook It Slow" by Stephanie O'Dea. You can check out her blog. All of the recipes are inexpensive, healthy and full of fruits and veggies. Last night, I made these chicken tacos and they were wonderful. Pedro and I each ate 4. I threw in diced green peppers and carrots in addition to the traditional taco toppings so I didn't feel so bad eating that many. We both had taco salads for lunch today and I still have enough of the taco meat left over to make Tortilla Soup tonight. Yum!
Right now, I am making homemade yogurt in the crockpot. We all love yogurt in this house. I buy it by the tub because Samson eats it every morning. I've always been intrigued and impressed by people who make their own yogurt, but the process seemed too fussy for me. Making it in the crockpot has been a breeze. I added in a packet of unflavored gelatin at the end to make up for using low-fat milk instead of whole and I think I'll also stir in a packet of vanilla pudding mix. I can't wait to taste it tonight.


P.S. My sweet boy is back to normal today. He took a 3+ hour nap yesterday afternoon and then slept his usual 12 hours last night. I think he was exhausted from the long week of parties and family.

A long-awaited apology I'm sure

Dear Mom,

I am so sorry for all the miserable tantrums I threw as a kid. Like the time I was two and I banged my head against the wall until my nose bled. Or at age 3 when I slammed my bedroom door so hard that the ceiling in your bedroom caved in. (Not something you want to happen in an old victorian house with plaster ceilings....)I am so sorry about all of the times I threw myself on the floor and had a fit in the grocery store or during any shopping excursion. I am sorry for the time Grandpa had to pull the van over and put me out in the snow until I could calm down on a trip home from Florida. My child is now paying me back.....in spades! Today I was reminded of all these incidents as my own child threw food in my face, kicked and hit me, and last but not least, cried himself to sleep in his crib, but not until after he had banged his head on it a couple of times.

I love you Mom!

Chocolate For Breakfast...........

It's about 7:30 am and my son has already had two major tantrums. The first was because he wanted daddy to change his diaper. Sorry dude. Daddy has to finish getting ready for work. The second involved him throwing bread and cheese at me(and hitting me in the face with it I might add)and then smacking me on the back from his high chair as I bent down to pick it up. Again, he wanted daddy to give him breakfast.
Sunday night he had a tantrum so bad during bath time that Pedro told me he was done having kids. Um...sorry honey, I think we're having another boy in about 3.5 months.
Last week the tantrums were non-stop, but I chalked it off to the fact that we were staying at my mom's house and he was in a different environment. We also had a party to go to almost every day and there were tons of people in his face all the time. On Christmas day he screamed for an hour and we thought we might not even make it to my grandparents for Christmas dinner.
I keep meditating on the fruits of the Spirit (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.) And reminding myself that this too shall pass.

Bilibo

Sam got one of these for Christmas. I had never seen or heard of them before, but I have to say it is pretty cool. I'll have to post some pictures later.

Thankful

I am thankful for a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Toys are assembled, bags unpacked, laundry done and now I think its time for bed. But first, a picture....or two.....

This Old House

Pedro and I bought our house knowing that it needed a LOT of TLC. (Airplane bathroom anyone?) It's a good starter house and we do love it here, but sometimes we shake our heads and wonder what the heck we were thinking? Last winter we were blessed with a little extra money so we decided to pick something from our long list of house projects. The floors in the kitchen, dining room, living room and entrance seemed like the best choice. Of course, it was the middle of February and everything was covered with snow so we completely forgot about our eyesore of a front yard. We tore it up our first summer here to put in a mandatory city water line. That is a whole other story. Anyways, we installed wood laminate in our living room and tile in the kitchen, dining room and entrance. Here are some before and afters. I think it turned out pretty well and I am super proud of Pedro for all the hard work he put in. He will be the first one to admit that he is no handyman. We couldn't have done it without the help of many friends.

The chipped, dingy, stained slate floor that greeted anyone walking in the front door. My dad couldn't understand why we would EVER get rid of such an expensive floor.

The new wood laminate and our favorite rug.

Putting in the laminate flooring.

It doesn't look too terrible in the picture, but the white carpet was very stained and dingy. It also stunk. We steamed it several times before moving in.

A shot of the carpet and the old vinyl tile linoleum. The glossy finish was almost completely worn off and it was peeling and cracking around our stove and fridge.

Loving the tile.

I actually love our vintage cabinets, but I don't love the mustard yellow sink and gold-flecked countertops.


When we put the tile in, it raised our floors up about a 1/2 inch and as a result the cold air return vent on one of the kitchen walls didn't fit right. Six months later we still haven't bought a new one. And that brings me to the main point of this whole long renovation story. I was making dinner one night in July and Sam was playing with his ball popper. Next thing I know I hear "Uh oh." I turn around to see that he has thrown one of the plastic balls down the cold air return never to be seen again. At the time I remember thinking, "Huh, that could be interesting when we fire up our furnace in the fall." Yep, every morning when our heat kicks in Pedro and I are greeted with the sound of that ball pinging throughout the vents.

Trying really hard......

I know I need to start updating my blog again. It kind of fell apart when the charger for my iBook died. (It was way easier to upload pics in the Mac world. I still can't get used to using Pedro's PC.) And then I got pregnant and Sam stopped taking two naps...but I will try my best to start this thing up again.