..with the slacker mommy.

Ugh. I'm talking about myself. Being slacker mommy is not a good feeling. It's hard keeping up with a toddler and trying to get ready for another baby all at the same time. My days are spent occupying Elena and it leaves little time for me to get ready for Baby Boy. My goal every day is to work on his nursery while she naps, but what can I say, I find myself lying down to nap as well.
I am 32 weeks pregnant. That leaves 8 weeks to finish preparations for this little guy.
The only thing the little guy has going for him so far is one styling wardrobe...thanks to my mother and I's shopping habits. Yeah, talk about priorities, huh? I find myself picking up cute little outfits for him whenever I am out running the usual errands...groceries, Target, etc.


I am really behind on the nursery. But I apparently am the only one who is concerned about the nursery not being ready. Getting the furniture involves driving an hour each way, and lifting heavy pieces into the back of our car, which I cannot do (I can drive, just not lift furniture!) Add to that the fact that we have had things going on most weekends that have kept us from making the trip to pick up the nursery furniture. We still need an infant carseat, but it is going to be a gift from a relative, so we are still waiting on that.

I haven't been able to work on decorations because I have no idea what the placement of the furniture will be in the room. Once I can see it set up with my own eyes, then I will have a better idea of how I want to decorate, etc. I will say though, I have decided that I will make a fabric art piece like I did with Elena's room and I have already purchased the fabric and I happen to have the canvas for it already too. So that's progress! I do have new sheets for the crib, a new changing pad cover and I have even washed some of the newborn diapers! See, so I'm not a total dud!
Have I mentioned what the theme of Baby Boy's nursery will be? Hmmmm? Well, the walls will stay blue. Colors will be black, white and yellow. Here's a hint...it's a bird....that starts with the letter "P". Here's a quick peek at the fabric for the wall art ~


Once some progress has been made on the nursery, I fully intend to provide a photographic tour in the blog ;)

In addition to getting the nursery ready I have still been working on freezer meals. I must say, this is the one area I have not slacked! I have a total of 20 "meals" prepared and in the freezer. Okay, so they are NOT a full meal by any means. They are the meat part of the meal. I stocked up on fresh chicken when it was on sale and from there I broke down the packages into portions for our family. I marinated the various cuts of meat and labeled them for what I intend them to be used for.
Here's a partial list of what is in the freezer already:
3 teriyaki meatloafs (meatloaves?)
2 whole chickens, butterflied and seasoned for baking
cubed and marinated chicken breasts for kabobs on the grill
cubed chicken for making orange chicken
marinated chicken breasts for grilling (I made about 3 different marinades)
marinated chicken thighs
strips of seasoned chicken breasts for fajitas
plain chicken breasts for whatever we are in the mood for

As you can see, these "meals" aren't cooked already. I just hope that by marinating them ahead of time I am taking out some of the mystery of "what should we have for dinner tonight?".

Next on my list is to buy some various cuts of pork and beef and do the same thing.

Oh, and decorate the nursery ;)

...with the freezable scones.

As mentioned in my last post, I have been on the lookout for recipes that freeze well, cook/reheat well and STILL taste good! I think I found one. No, I KNOW I found one.
Meet chocolate chip scone, dear reader:




I made these babies a few weeks ago and they were gone in 2.5 days. I made another batch just a few days ago...they are that good!
Since these scones weren't something I had made before, I wanted to be sure they would reheat well and taste yummy. I mean, there's nothing worse than preparing all this food ahead of time only to have it taste like dog poo when it comes time to cook/reheat and eat it...right??? So this was essentially a taste test. A taste test that I plan to give all the freezable food recipes I find. If they pass, then I will make them and freeze them for my maternity leave!
These particular scones are frozen unbaked, and when you are ready to eat you just preheat the oven and cook them from their frozen state. Easy. Now, admittedly, I cooked half the batch right away (and ate them) and froze the other half. Then I waited a few days and cooked the rest of the scones from their frozen state to make sure they passed the test. Let's just say they passed with flying colors. The second complete batch I made was for my freezer stash. Whether this batch makes it to my maternity leave still has yet to be determined. They may just jump into the oven one day and then into my belly ;)

I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs: Annie's Eats
She has other scone recipes as well, a few of which I am going to try out soon!

Here's the recipe to share!

Chocolate Chip Scones
Ingredients:

1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup (6 oz.) chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. butter, melted
Additional sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; stir to combine. Toss in the chocolate chips and stir to blend. Add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, stirring just until a dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated. Knead the dough very briefly with well floured hands to ensure even mixing.

Using a large dough scoop (or a large spoon), drop rounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush lightly with melted butter and sprinkle with additional sugar (if using). Bake 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. Makes about 8.

...with the nesting.

I'm only 29 weeks pregnant...and I'm already starting the nesting phase. Namely with cooking and stocking up on "supplies". It's like we're going into hibernation or something. Or going on a 3 month trip to the moon. Who knows, whatever it is, the nesting bug has taken a huge bite out of me and I am obsessed with making lists of things I need to stock up on before baby #2 arrives. Things like toilet paper, shampoo, soap, etc. The main reason I am so interested in stocking up on things is because I don't have a paid maternity leave, so the more stuff I can stock up on now, the less I have to spend while on leave...and you betcha, I am taking the full 12 weeks.
I am also starting to prepare food dishes that will be quick and easy to cook once the baby arrives. Because, I'll have 2 kids to keep an eye on. Yipes. Sounds a little scary right now. I am not a huge fan of casserole dishes...a few here and there are okay, but I don't want to eat casseroles every night of my maternity leave. Not only that, I don't want to be using the oven frequently during the summer months...just gets things too hot in the house. I have been searching online for recipes that freeze well and actually am going to try out a few ahead of time to make sure they really do freeze well and then cook up well after being frozen. Did you know you can freeze mashed potatoes?

For now, I am making lists of the things I want to prepare ahead of time. It's a little too soon to start making and freezing things, as some things don't have a long freezer life. I found a nice chart on the FDA's website which gives a good rundown of how long certains foods can be frozen for. Check it out here. We fortunately have a deep freezer, so freezer space is not a concern at this point.

I have been working extra grocery items into my weekly shopping trips when there are sales and good deals. Just today I purchased boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale and plan to cut them up, marinate and then freeze them to be used for kabobs on the grill. I also was able to get 2 whole chickens on sale and will marinate those as well and then freeze. Not everything will be cooked ahead of time...I plan on stocking up on "staples" too...like boxed pasta (just got 2 boxes today for free after coupons!!!) and cereal.

Here is more of what I plan on making and freezing, with links to possible recipes:
Muffins (for breakfast)
Scones (breakfast, or just to snack on!)
Hamburger buns
Meatloaf (already have tried this and it is delicious)
Marinted chicken thighs and breasts (for grilling)
Pasta dishes???

If you have any recipes that you've already tried and give a stamp of approval to, feel free to share with me! I am on the lookout for more recipes!

...with cheesecake + peanut butter + chocolate = Yummylicious!

My husband's birthday was yesterday and for his birthday cake I decided to make something involving cheesecake (his favorite...or wait, is it my favorite?!?!?), peanut butter (ok, that's his favorite!) and chocolate. I initially was thinking of making a regular size chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, but since he's been watching what he eats and exercising regularly (and asking me to not keep sweets in the house because they tempt him!) I decided to look for something different. Imagine my surprise when I found a recipe for chocolate peanut butter cheesecake LOLLIPOPS! The great thing about these is that they can be freezed, so we won't feel the need to polish off an entire cheesecake before it goes bad in a week...but who am I kidding - this pregnant lady may still polish them off in a week ;)
Let me tell you, this recipe did not disappoint! I will definitely keep this one around to make again in the future!

These were relatively easy to make and the best part was that I already had all the ingredients (including the lollipop sticks - leftover from last years hot cocoa on a stick!).
Here's the yummy recipe!
The only thing I have to say about the recipe, is that the dipping chocolate wasn't enough for my 36 lollipops. So I ended up only dipping about half of them in chocolate before I ran out (maybe mine wasn't thin enough?) and then froze the rest without chocolate. I figure I can easily pull them out of the freezer and dip them in chocolate as needed :)

Ingredients:

Cheesecake-
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups creamy peanut butter

Chocolate-
5 tablespoons butter
12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line a 8 by 8-inch baking pan with foil letting long flaps overlap on each side. Spray foil with nonstick spray.

2. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until very smooth. Add the cream and beat slowly; then add the yolks and vanilla mixing until just combined. Gently stir in peanut butter. Take care not to over beat the mixture; this incorporates too much air and causes the cheesecake to crack.

3. Pour and evenly spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Open the oven to release some heat, then lower the temperature to 200 degrees F. Continue to bake the cheesecake until the outside is set but the center is still loose, for about 45 minutes. Turn off the oven, and cool cheesecake in the oven for 45 more minutes. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

4. Lift cheesecake from the pan by lifting up the foil. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Stick a wooden pop stick halfway into each bar and freeze for 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, put the butter and chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with an inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

6. Dip the pops into the chocolate mixture, and stand on waxed paper to set, about 5 minutes. Serve cold (straight from the fridge), or freeze up to 2 weeks.

...with Elena's homemade Apple Banana Bran muffins.

I recently wanted to try out a new toddler food recipe for Elena that is in one of our baby food cookbooks. I specifically wanted to make a breakfast recipe, as I have been making homemade pancakes of every flavor (beet, blackberry, cinnamon and vanilla are some of Elena's favorites) for Elena, so I wanted to try something different. I have made blueberry muffins before and Elena was interested in them, so I decided a muffin recipe would be a good one to try out. This recipe is for Apple Banana Bran muffins. It was simple to make and you can either make 24 mini muffins or 12 regular size muffins. I made the regular size muffins as I don't have a mini muffin pan. After cooling, I froze the muffins in the freezer, so I can grab them out and thaw as needed. Elena enjoyed her first muffin quite a bit!
Here's the recipe:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup applesauce or apple puree (I made my own apple puree)
1-3 medium banana's (1 mashed, 2 sliced***)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin tins. (I used paper liners)
With a fork, combine first four ingredients in a small bowl.
Melt butter . In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, apple puree, mashed banana, sugar and eggs. Mix together with a rubber spatula. Add flour mixture to apple puree mixture and stir until just blended. Batter will be lumpy and moist.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling 2/3 full. Place a banana slice on top of each muffin (***optional). Bake for 12 minutes (for mini muffins) or 15-18 minutes (for regular size muffins). Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes before removing from muffin tin.
***I only say the sliced banana's on top of the muffins are optional because I forgot to add them! Oops. But Elena enjoyed them without the banana slice on top!

Enjoy!

...where Elena walks in my shoes!

What can I say, the girl loves to try on any pair of shoes that happens to be lying around and take a walk in them. She has managed to put them on the wrong feet, one shoe missing, 2 different shoes and even backwards at times. But she sure does love walking around in them! In this photo, she is wearing 2 of my shoes (mismatched)!

...with the upcycled Christmas cards.

As I was packing up our Christmas decor yesterday I set all the greeting cards we received in the mail from family and friends aside. As a side note...the majority of the cards we received were actually photo cards - we had very few good ole fashioned Hallmark-esque cards!
Anywho, rather than throw the Christmas cards away, I had a plan to upcycle them. I took them down to my craft room in the basement and created gifts tags out of them for next year. This was the most simple project ever. I have stopped purchasing those sheets of sticky labels to signify who gets what gift (I am still using a few sheets that I purchased several years ago), so I figured I better start making them now. Since the cards were handy I decided to make them now and pack them up with the rest of the Christmas decor.
All I did to make these was rip the back half of the card apart from the front with the picture. I then used my Cuttlebug Die-Cutter and some scalloped circle dies in various sizes to cut the picture from the front of the card. Some of the cards were larger and I was able to get 2 gift tags from each.
After using the Cuttlebug to cut each tag I punched a small hole in the top of the tag and threaded some ribbon thru it. That was it. Easy-peasy. Took about 5 minutes to do and I was able to make 10 tags.
Here are the finished gift tags!