Two things I learned about the start of this school year:
1) Stay with the known. I made Vail her choice of dinner for the night before school. Meatballs and fuscilli. Yum. Made meatballs. V didn't like them because you could see the bread it them. She likes the grocery store ones I apparently have to pay $10 for when I can make them for less than $10 and produce 4x the number. Oh well. Next time, maybe I'll have enough time to cook them in sauce long enough for her to not see the whiteness of the bread.
Plus, I tried to make a new recipe for V. A huge chocolate chip cookie. I checked three blogs and while I am sure that the cookie was wonderful for all of the people who raved about it, I learned the hard way at 9pm on the night before school that it was too much batter for my pizza stone and it spilled all over my oven. Everywhere. Burning sugar dripping from the rack. Disaster. I ended up crumbled on the kitchen floor crying and Chris ran out to purchase more sugar and chocolate chips b/c I had used up all we had.
The next afternoon, after a four hour oven clean in 90 degree weather, I made my old standby of amazing chocolate chip cookies and Vail was thrilled. She never knew about the big cookie so nothing was lost.
Stick with what I know.
2) No matter how many pairs of shoes I buy, I will always need more for the girls. Seriously - I feel like my house is a Build-a-Lalaloopsy-Shoe Storage Facility. And whenever I turn around, they are grown out of shoes I just purchased. Thankfully, I love shoes. Haha.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Homemade bread and meatballs
V loves meatballs. S loves anything. So I am thinking of making my dad's meatballs recipe tomorrow on my day off and I'm going to use NJ Housewife Teresa Guidice's recipe for sauce. I am hoping that if my mom is reading this, she will not be offended, but I have fresh canned tomatoes from my mom's neighbor and they are so good with homemade sauce. Teresa's recipe sounds delish and I've just go to try it... http://www.teresagiudice.com/home/2012/3/30/happy-fff-fabulicious-fish-friday.html. The snappy red sauce. But I'll go easy on the red pepper flakes for the sake of the girls.... will update tomorrow night!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
In the spirit of French parents...
I was reading a review of a new book in our library about French children and how they eat everything. In French Kids Eat Everything by Karen LeBillon, she talks about how French parents were appalled at how LeBillon's children were so picky and how she placated them with snacks. And it got me thinking, is my snack cabinet a bad idea?
Seriously, who has time to have dinner done in a timely manner after working? I get home at 5:30. That is when Scout likes to eat. Well, doesn't happen unless I am home all day. So I start dinner preparations, much to C's dismay, as soon as I get home. I often don't even unpack bags until dinner is over. Or until the kids are in bed. Last night I worked from home until 5:30. But that does not give me the liberty of beginning dinner early. So it was off to pick up S. Then home to start cooking. Chicken Curry with Basmati rice (which is Texmati b/c Shop-Rite no longer carries basmati), Naan and steamed broccoli. S was running through the house looking for evidence of crackers. V was rummaging through the snack closet to find a "healthy" snack we could agree on, and was disappointed to find that cheese curls didn't make the grade. So I succombed to their ravenous appetites with Trader Joes Rounders, or whatever their Ritz substitutes are called. On the stove I had three pots going: chicken browning, rice simmering, broccoli steaming, and in the oven I had the naan warming. The whole time, I am thinking of LeBillion and her French neighbors wondering if I would be chastised for my similar compromises as my children are chewing on crackers minutes before dinner.
But, as we sat down, and I set the rules for V, which are now, "Finish what is on your plate," I found that my children ate well and the crackers didn't seem to impede appetites. And while V found the chicken spicy, I just replied with, "eat it," and she did. No questions asked, because she wanted more naan. More naan? Finish the chicken. More naan? Eat the broccoli. Dinner success...
But overall, am I doing a disservice to my children by having snacks? What is worse, a toddler with a cracker and a sane mommy or a child without a cracker, crying, and a stressed out mommy?
I think V, S, and C would vote a happy mommy.
Seriously, who has time to have dinner done in a timely manner after working? I get home at 5:30. That is when Scout likes to eat. Well, doesn't happen unless I am home all day. So I start dinner preparations, much to C's dismay, as soon as I get home. I often don't even unpack bags until dinner is over. Or until the kids are in bed. Last night I worked from home until 5:30. But that does not give me the liberty of beginning dinner early. So it was off to pick up S. Then home to start cooking. Chicken Curry with Basmati rice (which is Texmati b/c Shop-Rite no longer carries basmati), Naan and steamed broccoli. S was running through the house looking for evidence of crackers. V was rummaging through the snack closet to find a "healthy" snack we could agree on, and was disappointed to find that cheese curls didn't make the grade. So I succombed to their ravenous appetites with Trader Joes Rounders, or whatever their Ritz substitutes are called. On the stove I had three pots going: chicken browning, rice simmering, broccoli steaming, and in the oven I had the naan warming. The whole time, I am thinking of LeBillion and her French neighbors wondering if I would be chastised for my similar compromises as my children are chewing on crackers minutes before dinner.
But, as we sat down, and I set the rules for V, which are now, "Finish what is on your plate," I found that my children ate well and the crackers didn't seem to impede appetites. And while V found the chicken spicy, I just replied with, "eat it," and she did. No questions asked, because she wanted more naan. More naan? Finish the chicken. More naan? Eat the broccoli. Dinner success...
But overall, am I doing a disservice to my children by having snacks? What is worse, a toddler with a cracker and a sane mommy or a child without a cracker, crying, and a stressed out mommy?
I think V, S, and C would vote a happy mommy.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Easter bunny
I never realized before becoming a mom that every holiday has its candy. Just didn't think about it. But here we are at Easter and we have Cadbury eggs (love them), jelly beans, cadbury creme eggs, peeps, and chocolate. There is enough to put V into a sugar overload for a week. So I am trying to temper the sugar with nutritious meals. This week I did a slow cooker chicken with bottled Italian dressing and spinach. Low fat Newman's Italian is ok on the healthy scale butinach is amazing. It was surprisingly good and the meat didn't dry out. C liked it. S liked it. V had a nervous breakdown about eating it but ended up thinking it was not as bad as first imagined. I also did a breakfast for dinner with homemade bread French toast. There is nothing like homemade bread and this recipe was Good. Easy. And made two loaves. I am going to try another recipe out of the five minutes a day bread book when we get back from visiting Mimi.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Gravy
Why does gravy taste so good? Baked a chicken this weekend. Used Penzey's 4/S Seasoned Salt to flavor the skin, filled the cavity of the chicken with lemons and put on a roasting rack over potatoes. Then I made a gravy after I took out the potatoes with the drippings. S ate the chicken. Loved it. V ate the chicken. Loved it. Both ate their broccoli and I thought it was a successful meal. But why is the gravy my favorite part? Seriously? I'm looking to make Mom's taco pie tomorrow night for dinner. Hope to get to the butcher to get some items for my freezer and fridge. Hoping I can prep the pie before V gets home from school tomorrow. And then maybe make some chocolate chip cookies - I am so craving homemade choco chip cookies... does it have something to do with the gravy?
Friday, March 9, 2012
Right, so prepping dinners.
A couple of weeks ago we were skiing and they were giving away 5 hour energy drinks and I thought, hmm, what I could do with five extra hours. I could use those hours to prep my dinners... Right. I'd probably use them to sleep, but prepping dinners would be divine.
The ziti went over very well with the whole family. S loves sausage. V, not so much, but the noodles were enough to keep her at the table.
Yesterday morning I made homemade oatmeal. Right, in 1950, if I said homemade oatmeal, moms would have laughed at me. But I did the Quaker "slow" cooking oats. I didn't want to surprise them into oatmeal with my can of McCann's Irish Oatmeal and I didn't have thirty minutes to cook it on the stove. Even though I love McCanns and think I'll try their overnight idea. So, onto the oatmeal. Scout wasn't so sure, so I went between oatmeal and Cheerios. She finished her bowl. V, didn't like it after her third (and final) teaspoon of sugar. I totally get it. I only liked the instant when I was little and I know there is more than four teaspoons of brown sugar in that little bag. But she really needs to be polite. After screaming, crying, drama, saying we liked S better, and more drama, she went to her room where I told her that she was not to have a pop-tart that morning. She only needed to eat five more bites for a pop-tart. More crying ensued and in about 30 minutes, she was fine.
But she must have gone to school hungry...
The ziti went over very well with the whole family. S loves sausage. V, not so much, but the noodles were enough to keep her at the table.
Yesterday morning I made homemade oatmeal. Right, in 1950, if I said homemade oatmeal, moms would have laughed at me. But I did the Quaker "slow" cooking oats. I didn't want to surprise them into oatmeal with my can of McCann's Irish Oatmeal and I didn't have thirty minutes to cook it on the stove. Even though I love McCanns and think I'll try their overnight idea. So, onto the oatmeal. Scout wasn't so sure, so I went between oatmeal and Cheerios. She finished her bowl. V, didn't like it after her third (and final) teaspoon of sugar. I totally get it. I only liked the instant when I was little and I know there is more than four teaspoons of brown sugar in that little bag. But she really needs to be polite. After screaming, crying, drama, saying we liked S better, and more drama, she went to her room where I told her that she was not to have a pop-tart that morning. She only needed to eat five more bites for a pop-tart. More crying ensued and in about 30 minutes, she was fine.
But she must have gone to school hungry...
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Dinner
So I've read, repeatedly in organzing articles, that in order to keep my sanity, I must prep dinners when my children are sleeping. I want to sleep or just sit and veg when they are not running around me like crazy girls, but last night I buckled down b/c Chris was watching some creepy scary movie, and I made baked ziti to bake tonight. I used all natural chicken sausage instead of the suggested ground beef, and to be honest, it was very little effort b/c chicken sausage is already cooked. Genious, whoever started that! I am only hoping that the ziti is well received this evening. Mental note, pick up garlic bread on the way home.
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