What a great day!

So far, this day has been productive and enjoyable! It has been a long time since I have been able to say that, at least since June.  Brennan woke me up a little earlier than I wanted this morning and after a few fits he was quickly dispatched back to bed.  LOL He is cutting his eye teeth, and can be a bit cranky when he isn't getting his way.
Late morning we got him up again and went to watch Paden play 3rd grade level tackle football!  How fun was that?!? I haven't seen my friend LaVonne in quite a while, and hadn't met her new man, Coby.  He is really nice and we are going to get to spend more time with them next Saturday for Jacee's 4th birthday party.  I'm really looking forward to it. 
Some of my goals that I make for myself center around trying new recipes, getting some scrapbooking done, and organizing.  Today I will have done 2 out of 3.  No scrapbooking was done today, although I really need to get back on that.  I like doing it in the winter because its not as nice out to go anywhere and do anything.  So, today, I made homemade croutons.  We had some italian bread left over from a spaghetti dinner we had during the week, so I cut it up into cubes along with a few pieces of texas toast that was close to death...drizzled it with some olive oil and melted butter, then tossed in some kosher salt, garlic powder, and fresh ground peppercorns.  Put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, and Yummy!! Jeremy and I have been picking at them since I pulled them out of the oven!  I need to make a salad so that I can eat them! LOL I don't think I will ever buy store croutons again!
Yesterday on my way home, I stopped at Walmart to pick up some diapers.  I happened by the meat section and they had beef brisket for $0.98/lb!! Holy Cow! Literally.  So I grabbed a 10 pound slab of brisket, cut it up into 3 sections and threw one section in the crockpot this morning with some Skull Creek BBQ Brisket Rub on it and some onions for flavor. It's been in since about 8 am, and smells super good!! I have some hamburger buns and some BBQ sauce to pair up with the brisket for dinner, I can't wait!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!  I may write more if I try out these Buzz Balls I have been holding onto tonight.  I've tried one already, but I have 2 more waiting and I want to try all three samples before giving them a thumbs up or down.  They are small but pack a punch, or Buzz... keep an eye out for the next blog. 

Unhappy diner...

iFratelli
My friend and co-worker Casey and I went to lunch at iFratelli's in Irving the other day.  We were looking for a tasty inexpensive Italian restaurant for lunch.  We had a craving for some pasta and good bread.  We were thoroughly disappointed.  I mean, its pretty hard to screw up italian food, especially hard to ruin a house salad.  Casey and I were seated in a small booth, which is fine, they were busy and there was only the two of us.  Our waiter really didn't have the personality of a spaghetti noodle and shouldn't be in the service industry.  When he spoke, it was always on the move, never made eye contact and he mumbled.  We never knew what he was saying or bringing to us next. 
I ordered the Tortellini Robusto with their Rosa sauce.  The Rosa sauce is the combination of marinara and alfredo.  Our meals came with warm bread, which was surprisingly good and also warm... and a side salad.  I chose the house salad.  When he brought the salads to the table with our dressing on the side, I was wondering if we were in the middle of a food rationing that I had not been made aware of.  My salad consisted of iceberg lettuce, one green olive and one pepperoncini.  Really?? TWO small accessories to my lettuce?? Isn't this an italian restaurant? Do they not have tomato and some day old bread that they could make into croutons?? Seriously, I would be embarrassed to serve that in my home let alone make a patron pay to be served such a thing!  By that time, I was so bewildered by my salad that the main course might as well have been a slice of Pizza Hut Pizza, predictible. 

So, since when I get to go out to lunch, its a treat for me, I will not be treating myself here again.

Update...

So, the last couple of weeks have been busy and I haven't been able to update anything.  I had the unfortunate trip to California on the 7th of July to memorialize a wonderful man who died way too young.  After the services, it was just busy busy busy as I was only in town with Brennan for a few days.  I did get to see Clyde however, and that made me feel oh so good!  I love him, nuff said. 

I'm not sure how much fun it was traveling with a 16 month old baby!  Boy, once he is on the move, he is on the move.  There is no holding him back!  Plus all of the crap that you have to take with you! OMG... it was much easier when he was younger.  or was it easier because I had Jeremy with me to help entertain?? Must be it.  Anyway, had a semi enjoyable weekend trip, the downside of course being the reason for the whole trip, the funeral.  Did get to spend some time with the family, and lots of crying involved... not just Brennans either.  Back home... Jeremy gets his Senior pictures taken tomorrow... I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.  I can't be that old to have a son a year away from graduating high school... not possible!! I don't feel that old.  Anyway, I will update more hopefully this weekend or next week... the possibilities are endless!!!

The ABC's of Me Baby!

Ok, so I kind of have to go here this morning. For anyone who knows me, the dating world has been rough on me, not kind at all.  One of my favorite quotes from a movie is from Jerry Maguire and its not "Show me the money!"

Jerry: Can I ask you a question totally unrelated to your career?

Rod: Oh, we gonna be friends now?

Jerry: What do you know about dating a single mother?

Rod: Oh I know plenty. I was raised by a single mother.

Jerry: Tell me, because it's been a month, and she's about to take another job in San Diego.

Rod: First, single mothers don't "date." They have been to the circus, you know what I'm saying? They have been to the puppet show and they have seen the strings. You love her?

Jerry: How do I know?

Rod: You know when you know. It makes you shiver, it eats at your insides. You know?

Jerry: No, I don't know.

Rod: Then you gotta have The Talk.

Jerry: But I sure don't like that she's leaving.

Rod: Well, that ain't fair to her. A single mother, that's a sacred thing, man.

Jerry: The kid is amazing.

Rod: No. A real man does not shoplift the "pooty" from a single mom.

Jerry: I didn't "shoplift the pooty." We were thrown together and -- I mean it's two mutual people who -- Alright, I shoplifted the pooty.

Rod: Shame on you. Shame on you.

 

I am sure dating a single mom isn't easy for guys, and of course it is not easy for the single mom either.  Men tend to take advantage of our limited time out or location.  I've actually had a man say he had a hard time breaking up because of my kid.  Really? Thanks for thinking of him? Is that how I am suppose to respond to that? Or how about the one who says that he would "step up" for your kid without a dad?  Yep, you got me Hook, Line and Sinker.  My bad.

 

Single mothers aren't looking for the occassional guy who wants to take you out here and there, well maybe in the beginning... but they already think as they are sitting across from you, "do I want this man around my kids?".  That is how we weed out in the beginning.  How are his manners? Is he polite to the waitress? Does he tip them well? Is he checking out her butt while I am sitting here?  Does he drink too much? Smoke? Everyone has their limits on what they will or will not tolerate.  Cheating isn't tolerated with me.  When I tell a man I love you, I am telling you that I trust you not only with myself, but with my kids.  I am handing you my heart and theirs for the taking.  I am bringing you into the inner circle of our family.  When those words come out of my mouth, I am yours...heart, body and soul. Don't hand me back to my family in pieces. 

The road paved before me...

So, I was approached the other day about possibly contributing to a Single Mother's website that I belong to.  They are looking for bloggers that reach out to the Single Mother.  My blogs don't have a huge purpose except to inform the reader of the latest cute things that my 15 month old is doing, which as you can tell by the tons of blogs recently, he hasn't done anything too cute!  Sometimes my blogs are more cooking related.  I love to cook, so sometimes I really like to share what I have recently cooked that turned out really well. 

As I was thinking about how to reach the Single Mother crowd, I started thinking of the ones that aren't driven, have no ambition or just don't care to be.  Although, I'm not the "model" come from the trenches Single Mom, I did fight to be where I am.  I continually fight, day in and day out to make sure that the ends meet in the middle.  I have lived in low income housing, used grants and student loans to put myself through college, had a great support system with friends and family.  Some Single moms aren't as lucky as I have been with my support system, or the oppotunities I have had.  Most of the time, they just don't know where to look.  There are so many grants, organizations, groups, colleges, and even just people out there that want to help and can help.  Usually, if you can get in touch with one group, they are linked in with all of the others.  I received money for my college textbooks through EOPS, a California Community College program.  That program is linked into the CARE program, which helped me with child care costs to attend college.   Of course, you had to meet their requirements, such as GPA and credits, but if you are determined, you did that anyway. 
I guess my point is, where there is a will, there is a way.  I looked at it like this, I wanted to give my son (only 1 at the time) everything I possibly could.  I wasn't looking for some man to come along and bank roll me and my kid.  Believe me, they are out there... I have seen these women.  It really makes me sad to see smart women with great potential, turn on their charm for the easy way instead of trying to make an independent stand on their own.  Talk about selling yourself and your kids short.  Just think of the life lesson you teach your kids by standing on your own two feet and being independent no matter how hard it is, and how much you have to give up.  You do it because you have too.  You do it for yourself, and you do it for your kids.  Just puttin it out there.  Just want to thank all of the Single moms who paved the way before me to make it possible for me to get where I am today.  I did all the work, but I had to have a road to walk on.  Thanks!

Yummy Nutter Butter Banana Pudding

So tomorrow we are having a Bridal Shower for one of our employees.  All of the girls signed up to bring something for our luncheon and then we are also bringing desserts for the whole company to eat during their lunch hour.  I volunteered to make the Nutter Butter Banana Pudding, a recipe I found in a Southern Living Magazine while getting my hair done one Saturday.  Here is the recipe and pictures to help you out!

3 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

5 medium ripe bananas

1 pound package of nutter butters

2 small packages vanilla pudding

8 ounce container Cool Whip

Mix the pudding, milk and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the entire container of Cool Whip.  If you would like to leave a couple of spoonfuls out for garnishing the top, its ok!  Let that stand in a bowl of ice or I just put it in the fridge while I get the rest ready for layering.

Now take the Nutter Butters and break each one into 3 pieces...set aside.

Take the 5 bananas and slice them into 1/4 inch size pieces.

Take pudding off ice or out of fridge, and spoon half of the pudding mixture into the bottom of a 3 quart dish.  Layer in the bananas and Nutter Butter pieces.  I usually hold a few pieces of each out for garnish on top.  Now, spoon rest of pudding on top of banana and cookie pieces, garnish as you want.  Chill for 2-24 hours.

Here is my final production:

I hope you all enjoy!!  I know I will!

Freezer cooking, small scale...

So, I keep reading these blogs about freezer cooking, and I am really trying to implement it into my weekends, at least for the week.  I will eventually work my way up to two weeks, but since my freezer is small, it may take awhile before I can do a whole months worth!  Plus I just don't have that much glassware!!  Today I have cooked up some Chicken Spaghetti and yesterday I cooked up Chicken Enchiladas... I also have Baked Ziti on my list. 

This is the Chicken Spaghetti... its going into the freezer.  I'll update later and let you know how good it is.

These are the Chicken Enchiladas that are in the freezer... Before I put them into the over, I will cover them with the Picante Sauce mixture and some graded cheese.  These are good and a recipe that I found in the coupon section of the Sunday paper:

Easy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas:
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup Pace Picante Sauce
2 tsp chili powder
2 cups chopped chicken
1/2 cup Monterey Jack Cheese shredded
6 ( i used 9) 6" flour tortillas, warmed
1 small onion and tomato chopped for garnish

Stir together soup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder in medium bowl. Stir 1 cup of picante mixture, chicken and cheese in large bowl.  Divide chicken mixture among tortillas, roll and place seam side down in a baking dish.  Pour remaining picante sauce mixture over filled tortillas.  cover and bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees.


Now, for dinner tonight...being Mother's Day, I've decided that my mom and I deserve some Ribeyes... So I have been marinating these since this morning, and I will post the before and after :)

I will be making a layered salad too...

And the After:

Our layered salad.... Lettuce, hard boiled eggs, tomato, peas, bacon, avocado and shredded cheese.

This was Jeremy's steak... it was SO good~ 

So, a side note! Jeremy got me The Taste of Home Cookbook: Cooks Who Care Edition for Mother's Day!! It also came with a whole year subscription to Taste of Home Magazine!  I'm so excited! I plan on going through it and marking the recipes I want to try...and hopefully posting them here!

Happy Cooking everyone!! And Happy Mother's Day!

Chicken and Broccoli Bake

Ok, so tonight was Chicken and Broccoli bake.  I know, we do eat a lot of chicken, but its so inexpensive and versatile and healthy!  We are always looking for meals that can possibly be prepared ahead of time and frozen or put in the frig.  I work 8 hours a day and commute an hour each way to work, so when I get home, I don't want to spend 2 hours preparing dinner.  Brennan wouldn't let me and I would go crazy with him whining for food at my feet.  Jeremy would be in the kitchen telling me his "belly is about to eat through his backside"...

Anyway, this is the second time we have made this and it's great!  Has a little of everything and the baby likes it. 


What you will need:

1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1 pkg (16 oz) frozen broccoli florets, thawed, drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 lb Velveeta cheese cut into cubes

Make it: 
heat oven to 400 degrees

Prepare stuffing mix as directed on box, set aside.
Combine remaining ingredients.  Spoon into 13x9 inch baking dish. Top with stuffing.
Bake 40 minutes or until chicken is done.

Enjoy!!

Cheesy Chicken Casserole

So, as I am navigating the new blogs and websites that interest me, I am finding a lot of new recipes to try and money saving ideas that I would LOVE to put into use here at home! 

I decided to cook this casserole last night that I found online on the website Recipe Lion.   It was a hit!  Now, I think next time I may add a little more salt and pepper to taste, but other than that... it was good!  You can even make it ahead and freeze or put in the frig the night before.  Best of all, there aren't a lot of ingredients that you need to go hunting for.  It says it serves 4, and it does...4 rather large portions and second helpings, with enough left over for the baby to have for dinner tonight. 

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces macaroni, uncooked
• 1/2 pound Velveeta cheese, cubed
• 4 eggs, hard boiled, chopped
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups chicken, cooked and chopped or shredded
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups milk

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a 13 X 9 baking dish.  You can cover it and put into refrigerator for future cooking.  Make sure you take out one hour before baking.  I put mine straight into the oven which was preheated to 350 degrees.
2. Bake 1 hour.  Do not add water, the soup is enough to cook macaroni.

Hope everyone enjoys! Make sure you let me know what you think!

Learning from Big Brother

It is funny the things that our children pick up from each other.  In February, I broke down and bought a couple of baby gates.  One for the entrance to the hallway, the other for Jeremy's room since it is right off the living room.  Well, before those gates were purchased, Jeremy was constantly bringing Brennan out of his room... but it was all prefaced with "Get Ouuut" and Jeremy pointing towards the door.  So, Brennan has now picked up on this and likes to tell his Bubba to "get out"...He waves his arm around like he was pointing towards the door, and mumbles something that sounds a little like "get out".  In fact, I think Brennan has seen me having "discussions" with Jeremy so much that he gave Jeremy his own talking too last night as Jeremy was eating.  Brennan had something to get off of his chest I assume, as neither of us understood a word or mumble he was saying.  But he had a very stern look on his face and was wavin his arm around and just makin sure that Jeremy was listening to all he had to say!  It was very hard to hold a straight face!! Anyway, here is a link to some video I posted on facebook of Brennan reinacting the event...sort of.  Brennan "get out" towards the end...

So, I am headed to CA this Thursday.  Going to Stagecoach Music Festival Saturday and Sunday!  I'm so excited... need a mini-vaca from my house.  Have been looking for a laptop bag to take my computer in, but can't seem to find one that doesn't cost more than $30! I live on a budget man! LOL
I just remembered that the small little book from Stephenie Meyers came out...and I should buy it to read on the plane...

Ultimate Blog Party 2010... Wow!

So, as I was cruzing around the internet on my lunch hour at work today, clicking through some of the blogs I follow, I came across a link to this UBP10.  There are so many family friendly blogs to look at, I think it will take almost a week just to go through them!! Plus if you link in through your own blog, plus leave comments on other blogs, you can win prizes!  How awesome is that!  I really need to spruce up the place around here on my blog and make it look nice for company... we may get some! 

Anyway, I am really excited to read the other blogs listed in the links, people always have interesting thins to say!  Please go check them out!

Oh, and I am supposed to post the prizes I want to win... so, here we go!
1. $200 Apple Gift certificate from CmomGo  who is releasing a new iPhone app soon!  I need an iPhone so that I can get the app! :)
2. The 12" x 24" custom, hand painted gallery style canvas for baby nursery or kids room by October Belle Designs LLC  here are some Samples!
3. The Bailey curriculum for 18-36 month old babies from The Itty-Bitty Bookworm as my baby is 13 months old and 18 months is right around the corner!

And, if my top three are already gone, any gift card to Target, Amazon, Barnes n Noble, Toys R Us, Walmart... I can spend money anywhere! LOL

HAPPY EASTER!!

Ahh... Easter Sunday.  I really love Easter... the colorful eggs, the candy assortment, the bunnies and of course the fun of hiding all of the above!  I love hiding the eggs and watching everyone try and find my clever hiding places.  I think my favorite spot this year was on the light that hangs over my kitchen island.  It has a little flat spot on top about 6 inches from where it connects to the ceiling.  My step dad Don, who is 6'2" tall, couldn't find this egg...and it was the bright pink one!! Jeremy made this "thing" in Art class, I think it looks like a platapoose... he has no idea what it is, anyway, I was able to balance an egg on the spot between its head and neck.  Of course Brennan doesn't quite understand finding the eggs and putting them into the carton, he felt the need to throw one on the tile floor. 

Score: Brennan-1  Eggs-19.

So whatever you are celebrating today, Happy Easter or Happy Reserection Day, may it be a beautiful day spent with family and friends!

My awesome hiding place...in plain sight!

Jeremy's creation in Art class became an interesting spot...

Whew! It's been a little while...

So, lots going on here. Brennan turned 1 on March 11th! We had a birthday party here at the house and invited family and friends. He had a great time! He had a Prince themed party with a soccer ball smash cake.  He got all kinds of toys and some clothes.  I got him the Little People ride on Train... he gets behind it and walks it around the house... that is the only walking he does. LOL He just has no interest in walking. 

So since he turned 1, we have been trying to get him to eat normal food with the rest of us... haha!  He gets a little headstrong, don't know where he got that from!!  I practically have to force the first bite in his mouth for him to decide whether he likes it or not.  It's not fun.  So, if anyone has any helpful hints, please feel free to comment! LOL  I can get him to eat Honey Nut Cheerios  for breakfast, but after that, I have problems.  So, I am on the search for blogs and websites that have great ideas for what to feed a stubborn 1 year old! 

A quick post....with a few pics

So, call me lazy, busy or just forgetful...but I haven't posted in awhile. Life has been well, life. I thought I would jump on, read a few of my favorite blogs and then post a small one with a few pics to tease the masses! Brennan has hit 10 months old. Yes, 10 months. He is pulling himself up, walking along the furniture and thinks he is having a meaningful and deep conversation with you where you nod and smile. LOL.... He was 20 lbs 5 ounces and I think 30" long at his 9 month appointment. I'd have to check to be sure.



Here I am with Jeremy...he is turning into such a young man... makes me wonder where the time went.

This is his "Touchdown" and then he claps his hands.... It is starting to sound like he is actually saying touchdown when he raises his arms up now! LOL

Brennan LOVES his big brother "Bubba".... I think he likes him better than he likes me.

My absolute favorite picture of Brennan right now!