Category: family

Once a cheater, always a cheater

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Is this true? I don’t know. But I’m not talking about the bad kind of cheating where you want to rip your spouse’s nads off for putting his tool in another chamber so to speak. I’m talking about cheating at making dinner. Coz as we all know, this mama loves a good dinner cheat! (Not a spousal cheat, this mama doesn’t love that! Duh!)

Anywho, on with the cheating. Hubby grilled steaks the other night. And they weren’t just any steaks. They were NY Strips about 3 inches thick. That’s a lot of beef for two people. Now, I don’t know about you, but reheating a steak and eating as a steak is not so good. I do not enjoy it. I find it a bit on the nasty side (no offence if you like it, to each her own and all that jazz). So, what does one do with a leftover slab of beef? I’ll tell you. You make steak quesadillas. That’s what you do. They’re easy. They’re delicious. They’re cheap. And did I mention they’re easy?!

I made these easy, delicious, cheap and easy cheater quesadillas last night. Everybody loved them and we didn’t waste all that delicious beef (coz it’s what’s for dinner!). All I did was cut up the remaining steak into little cubes/squares/whatever; throw it in a hot frying pan, cover with salsa (I used Pace thick and chunky coz I like my salsa like I like my body!!!!!); get it all nice and warm. Meanwhile, I have a big ole skillet I’m heating on medium-high heat. The trick with quesadillas, if you don’t have a quesadilla maker (which, what a waste of money, again in my opinion, which as we know are like assholes, moving on) is to make sure your pan is nice and hot before you put the quesadilla on it. So meat’s simmering in salsa, skillet is heating up…I like to use the big ole burrito sized flour tortillas, lay it on the counter, cover half with shredded cheese of your choosing (I used the 4 cheese Mexican blend, reduced fat, coz I really don’t like being thick and chunky…), cover the cheese with the meat, then added some shredded cheddar on top of the meat (coz, fuck it, maybe I’m meant to be thick and chunky) and really, you want your quesadilla a. cheesy and 2. to stay sealed/together/whathaveyou. So fill it with your ingredients (I like to sometimes add spinach, black beans rice and/or corn but mama didn’t have these supplies on hand so just simplicity last night), spray  your super hot skillet with cooking spray and cook quesadillas on each side until browned and crisp. Last night I served them with a side of pinto beans and called it good.

Yummy stuff y’all! Great way to use any kind of leftover meat, really. It’s hard to go wrong with a Mexican dish in my opinion.

So, today is my 7 years of marital bliss with the hubby day. And of course, this mama ain’t cooking! I’m going to feed the kids early, put them to bed early and hubby is going to bring home some takeout and we’re going to eat child free, which is always a treat. This is actually the first year ever we haven’t gone on an actual date on our anniversary but hubby has to work late and I’ve used a lot of babysitting (ie my parents) lately and feel like they probably need a break! So, late night date night at home it is!

Until next time friends….xoxo

steak quesadilla

Ranchers gotta ranch

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No, I’m not a rancher but I do love ranch dressing. For real. I’m one of those people that wait staff hate because I ask for ranch dressing on the side for pretty much everything. (I’m certain this little addiction has NOTHING to do with the size of my ass. And thighs. And belly. And, you know what, just mind your own damn business!)

So why all the talk about ranch you ask? Coz last night I managed to make dinner. Ranch chicken, which I’ll share that so easy my 19 month old could do it recipe with you in just a bit. But first I want to talk about earth day. Why you ask? Because my kindergartener had an earth day party today.

Yes folks. An earth day party. Apparently that’s a thing in kindergarten in these parts. Now, I’ve heard of planting a tree at school, or cleaning up the nature trail or doing something actually earthy in nature for earth. But never, in my almost 34 years, have a seen anyone throw an actual earth day party. First time for everything I guess.  (Side note, I just got up to blow my nose in the middle of a sentence because mama’s got a nasty cold and completely forgot where I was going with this. Yay me. Awesome as usual!) Anyway, I was in charge of the drinks. So I brought in a big jug of red dye no 4. You’re welcome parents. Happy to  make you so happy!!! The kids got some pretzel sticks, chocolate pudding and gummy worms. Oh and 1 strawberry each. What the hell any of that had to do with earth day is beyond me. But it got me thinking. Maybe I should have an earth day celebration. Everybody bring a  plant for my garden (and plant that shit too – I hate yard work) and I’ll provide  you with an earthy mojito or 6 (earthy because of the mint, which is a plant, which is earthy – we’ve come full circle). Who wants to come? I think it could be fun. (Of course, I’ll have to keep having them every week so that y’all can maintain the plants that you’ve planted. Otherwise they gonna get sick and die. Coz mama’s thumb ain’t even close to green!) RSVP in the comments below. I’m thinking Saturday afternoon!

So, ranch chicken. Super easy. Super tasty. Super super super kid friendly. I served it last night with green beans, biscuits and rice. So here goes:

Ingredients: (this is another one of those meals where I’m just winging)

thin sliced chicken breasts (if you can’t find them, you could just pound out (oh yeah!) regular chicken breast but you know this mama ain’t got the time or want for that)

Hidden valley ranch dressing (this is very important – you want this particular brand for the nice tang it provides)

Italian style bread crumbs (I use regular and panko cause I like that little crunch the panko provides)

Directions:

Fully coat the chicken boobies (that’s slang for breasts) in ranch dressing followed by the bread crumbs. Bake on 350 for 25-30 minutes (depending on how thick your meat  is – I could go so many places with that but I’ll spare you!!). That’s it y’all. It’s tasty. It’s easy. It’s a winner.

Now, if you yourself are the ranch enthusiasts that we in this family are, then please know that I also make a batch of homemade ranch and use it to dip the chicken in. Coz that’s how we roll (literally coz our asses are so big from all the ranch consumption!!) Kidding.

Tonight I’m cheating yet again. Move over Sandra Lee. There’s a new barely homemade girl in town!! I like the Harris Teeter pre-made turkey meatballs. Throw them in with some good marinara, put on a toasted hoagie, melt cheese on top – voila meatball subs!

Next week I’m starting a 10 day shred to lose some of this ranch dressing off all my wobbly bits! This entails no gluten, no dairy, no caffeine, no alcohol, no patience, no happiness. I’ll keep you posted on that progress. Hopefully the children survive. The hubby probably won’t!!!!!

Y’all take it easy. RSVP to the earth day party. And each subsequent week! Haha!!! xoxo

One more thing…if anybody wants to buy me a new computer, I’ll gladly accept it. I’d prefer a mac desktop with the big screen. This laptop I got now is a  piece of shit! I inadvertently deleted this blog post TWICE people and had to rewrite it. So I was probably way smarter and cleverer 2 times ago!!

 

 

I’m not always serious but when I am it’s because my dad is in ICU

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Life is nothing but an emotional roller coaster. My dad is in the ICU with acute kidney failure. Those are scary words. The scariest part is nobody has figured out why yet. They’re thinking some kind of infection in the body, but are still guessing and eliminating at this point. He will have an MRI with contrast today that will hopefully point someone in the right direction. 

My dad is a great man. He is the greatest grandfather my boys could ever possibly have. And they are both so attached to him that I can’t even think about how they would manage without him, let alone my mom, my brother and me. I have put up walls all around myself so that I can’t think about the worst case scenario. Because if I do, this mama/daughter/wife/sister/friend will turn into an emotional wreck and that’s not good for anybody. The few times I have let myself imagine life without him, I have truly lost my shit. 

I’m a lucky girl in that death hasn’t  touched me a whole lot in my 33 years. I lost my grandmother a few years ago to cancer and the pain was almost unmanageable at times and that time my children weren’t affected. Jack was less than 2 and had only met her a handful of times. For my boys, I am staying positive, I am keeping my shit together, I am smiling and laughing and cracking jokes and playing trucks and whistling the Star Wars theme music. But inside of me there is a deep fear that I’m trying like hell to avoid because if I don’t, I fear the pain will be more than I can handle. 

So, I’m sorry friends. No recipes today. No quirky jokes or dirty innuendo. Just a scared girl trying to get by. Hug your loved ones tight and never let them forget how much they mean to you. xoxo

Slack-a-her (in my best Ace Ventura voice)

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Hey friends! Remember me? Whew – life has been a bit hectic lately. We just finished up basketball with the 6 year old on Saturday and baseball started yesterday. And I’m talking real baseball. No more tee. No more 45 minute “practice”. Real deal hour and a half long practice, hitting a pitched (well, off a pitching machine) ball and playing actual positions. And boy  does that ball come quick. I was shocked. Jack struggled of course. It’s hard to go from a tee where the ball is right there just waiting to be hit, to an actual live ball. He had no idea when to swing, he was always about 5 seconds too late. Poor buddy! He’ll get the hang of it though. I come from a long line of baseball players so I have faith that Jack will figure this out.

I did manage to crank out some meals the last few days. I think we left off on Saturday when Mr. Wonderful was grilling steak. We bought some big a$$ porterhouses that cost an arm and a leg and hubby grilled them to medium rare perfection. We all stuffed ourselves on beef, roasted asparagus and oven roasted potatoes. It was a magical night of eating. But, of course, the magic couldn’t last. Since we splurged so much Saturday night, hubby insisted we have leftovers Sunday night. Only issue (a little bit more than minor in my opinion) was that there was only meatloaf leftover. And only enough for 1 person. And guess who the 1 person was that got the meatloaf (hint: it wasn’t me (or Shaggy) – oh dear, I’m showing my age). If you guessed the man that insisted we have leftovers for dinner, ding, ding, ding, you win. There’s no prize other than knowing that you were right, but congratulations anyway! So, the poor kids got frozen chicken nuggets (calm down, I didn’t make them eat them frozen – I nuked ’em like any self-respectable mom would do – I can’t wait to get my “Mom” blue ribbon that I know will be coming for all this amazing momming I’m constantly doing) and peas and carrots. So that left me with nothing to eat. I did steal a couple bites of the meatloaf (still delicious) and then heated myself some cheese ravioli. It was a crap night of food.

But I redeemed myself Monday. I made a one pot chicken alfredo with roasted broccoli (yes we just had that, but I’m pretty certain no one ever od’d on broccoli) and Italian bread. It was tasty! Jack liked to so much he had seconds (and then had it again last night because last night’s dinner was too spicy for him he claimed and I didn’t  feel like arguing and sometimes you just have to do what’s easy (not too often though), especially when your husband is at class all night and you’ve just come from real baseball practice where you chased a 17 month old around nearly the entire time because of course the field is right on the highway (helllooooo run on sentence) and even though you dropped him with your inlaws so you could watch practice in peace he was brought back after 20 minutes). Whew! I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to Monday night – one pot chicken alfredo. Easy! Delicious! Not altogether healthy! Easier clean up because, hello, one pot! (I loathe doing dishes but never relinquish control of the kitchen because I’m crazy that way). Anywho…here’s the recipe

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into chunks)

salt & pepper (not to be confused with Salt & Peppa)

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (I used closer to 2 tsp)

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream (I used more and will tell you why in a bit)

1 fresh basil sprig (I used 2)

1/2 lb uncooked pasta

Olive oil (a couple tbsps)

2 cups grated parmesan

Directions:

Season chicken with salt and pepper. I also seasoned mine with basil. Brown chicken in olive oil on medium high heat (don’t do it too long, the chicken continues to cook the whole time so you don’t want to dry it out). Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add chicken stock, cream and uncooked pasta. Stir to combine. Add basil sprig(s); bring to a boil then cover and reduce  to a simmer. Simmer 15-20 min or until pasta is tender. Remove sprig; mix in parmesan cheese. Now, 2 cups of parmesan cheese is a lot. I suggest either cutting back on the cheese or make sure you add more heavy cream after you mix in the cheese. My pasta go super dried out after I added the cheese but after I added more cream (or milk would work too) it moistened right back up and tasted yummy to my tummy!

Yesterday we had baseball practice so I made a stacked enchilada dinner in the crockpot. Hubby and I loved it. Colt loved it. And as I said earlier Jack thought it “doesn’t taste bad but is too spicy”. I’ll share that recipe with you tomorrow coz I gotta go get my yoga on before Thing 1 gets home and Thing 2 wakes up. Until then…xoxo

PS – This afternoon we have a play date at the beach and hubby has class so I won’t be cooking tonight. Yay me!!!!

  
Look! A picture! Not a good one but beggars can’t be choosers, eh?!

Meatloaf! Beatloaf! I hate meatloaf!

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Ok, that’s not true at all. I freaking love meatloaf. You know what I do hate though? That it’s called meatloaf. Who’s with me? For something so delicious, it sure does have an awful name. Meatloaf. Meatloaf. Meatloaf. I think I’ll start a campaign to change the name of meatloaf. What could we call it? Meat log? Gross! Beef log? Even worse? How about beef Remington? Let’s really posh it up here. Let’s give meatloaf the name it deserves! Because it is tasty. But nobody comes running to the table when you say “the meatloaf is ready”.  Wouldn’t it sound much better if we said “the beef Remington is ready”? I like it. Any suggestions are welcome!

You probably guessed it. I cooked on a Friday. Again. But I didn’t cook Thursday. We went out to eat with some friends. 4 adults and 4 children. 6 and under. Whew! That’ll fill up your wine glass/pint glass/highball glass in a hurry (mine was a wine glass, as it normally is – Pinot Noir if you must know – also, it was the first wine I’ve had since I ruined Valentines Day and I kept it down and it tasted delicious. Score!!). It was fun though. A little old lady (who had been hitting the high ball glass all day  me thinks) got seated next to us, looked at us, immediately flagged down a waitress and demanded to be moved somewhere “without all this; without all these -ugh- kids”. I wonder if that lady knows she too was a kid one day (long, long, long ago) and that kids are actually what make everything great in this world – their innocence, their humor, their delight, just everything about kids is pretty freaking awe-some! And at one point, we were all kids. And our kids weren’t even being disruptive. They occasionally get a little louder than they possibly should have, but the restaurant was already loud so who gives a shit! It’s not like we were dining at a fancy five star joint. Whatever. I hope she enjoyed her meal in the absolutely no where quiet part of the restaurant. And I really hope she wasn’t driving. And I really really hope she doesn’t have any grandchildren herself coz yikes! Ok, that was mean, but really, sometimes, the truth hurts.

Back to the point – I cooked last night. If you guessed beef Remington (I’m loving the name change already) then you are absolutely correct and pretty clever, too I might add. Now normally, I cheat when it comes to beef Remington. I usually use the McCormick’s packet and call it good but last night I actually made my own beef Remington (just FYI, I just typed meatloaf and had to go back and fix it – whew! Change is hard but so worth it!!!). And y’all, let me tell you, it was damn good. I’m so excited about it. The packet is so chuck-a-buck full of sodium that I’m quite happy to have an actual recipe that I love!! I did forget to take a picture, yet again, but I’m sure none of you are shocked. Now, I found the recipe online – and I’ll give it to you exactly like I found it – but I actually tweaked it some for my family’s taste and I’ll share my tweaks with you too. It was good stuff. Everybody cleared their plate much to the dog’s dismay!

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean ground beef (I used 1 1/2 pounds)

1 cup soft bread crumbs

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp salt (I only used 1 tsp – 2 seemed like way too much)

dash of pepper (I used about 1 tsp – we like pepper)

1 medium finely chopped onion (I used a small shallot coz it’s all mama had!)

1 tbsp. horseradish (I did about 2 tsp, again, coz it’s all mama had)

The recipe didn’t call for this but I also added a couple shakes of Worcestershire because, quite frankly, ground beef and Worcestershire go together even better than peas and carrots. Take that Jenny and Forrest!!!

Directions:

Thoroughly mix all ingredients and shape in loaf (or a Remington!!) pan. It suggested covering with ketchup but I don’t love ketchup all that much so I’ve always used 1 can of tomato soup on my meatloaf (and it’s damn good, if you like tomato soup!). Bake 1 hour at 350. I baked mine for about an hour and 20 minutes and it came out as close to perfect as beef Remington can get.

I served this with mashed potatoes (duh! – 5 peeled and cooked yellow potatoes, mixed (on low) with whole milk, butter, pepper and seasoned salt), roasted broccoli and biscuits. Heaven. And yesterday was such a nasty day here, it was the perfect rainy, cold weather meal. If you try nothing else that I post up here y’all, you NEED to try this one!!! Easy, delicious and worth every calorie!!

Tonight Mr. Wonderful is grilling porterhouse steaks. We’ll be serving those up with roasted asparagus and grilled potatoes. Yum! Yum! Tis the weekend of beef! There could be worse things in the world!!! xoxo

Batter up!

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It’s a weird week. Mr. Wonderful is in real estate school (he spends hours a day studying as well so my mom is convinced he’s going to “graduate” as valedictorian!!!). Jack had basketball practice last night and then we ate dinner with my parents (score!). He has a basketball game tonight at 6:30 (what?! that’s way too late!!!!) so the cooking won’t be good. Tonight I am putting one of those pre-seasoned Smithfield pork loins in the oven and calling it dinner. It’s not gourmet but it’s better than going hungry. Sometimes you just gotta do what’s easy. Although, y’all are getting to know me well enough through this fantastic (ahem!) blog so you should know I always do what’s easiest!

Next week Jack starts real baseball (as opposed to fake baseball!). His last basketball game is Saturday and his first baseball practice is Tuesday. At 3:30. 20 minutes up the road. And he gets off the bus at 3 pm. And the baby is still asleep at 3 pm most days. So that ought to be interesting. I’ll keep you posted on how that cluster-you-know-what turns out. I’m looking forward to baseball season though. It’s definitely my favorite! And not to brag or anything, but Jack is pretty damn good at baseball. It’s just one of those things that he took to right away and it’s so fun to watch! This will be the first year off the tee so it’s gonna be a fun one folks! And my childhood best friend’s (whose mom’s pizza recipe I’m going to share with you) son is on the same team as my son so that’s pretty exciting too! It’s going to be a fun season.

“Best friends” are a funny thing. I actually find it kind of offensive. Other than my mom and my husband, I can’t say that any of my friends are my best friends or my worst friends. I love them all. They’re all unique and beautiful and fun. They’re all the best. I understand the varying degrees of closeness, and I get that time is a factor in having a “best” friend but, I don’t know, I’m just not on board with “best” friends in adulthood. I’m probably the odd girl out but that’s usually the case with me anyway. I’d love anybody’s feedback that wants to jump in and tell me their thoughts. This was a random tangent and quite irrelevant to anything I’ve been talking about but it’s my blog and I can do what I want. Nanny nanny boo boo!

Anywho, on to the pizza. I used to love it when my friend would have me spend the night on homemade pizza night. It was just the best. It brings back some great memories. So when I had to become all adult like, I asked her to provide me with the recipe and she very kindly did. So here goes:

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef (I use the extra lean)

1 can tomato sauce

1 skinny can tomato paste

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp. oregano

8 oz shredded cheddar

pizza crust (I use Boboli thin crust)

pizza toppings of your choosing (we just did pepperoni the other night – we have a hard time agreeing on pizza toppings)

shredded mozzarella

olive oil

garlic powder to taste

Directions:

Brown hamburger and drain fat. Add tomato sauce, paste, garlic and oregano and let simmer 10-15 minutes. Mix in shredded cheddar and blend until melted.

Drizzle olive oil on pizza crust and sprinkle with garlic powder. (I like to use one of those kitchen paintbrush thingies (definitely the technical name there) and spread it all evenly. Then spread sauce on the pizza crust/dough, top how you please, sprinkle with shredded mozzarella (or whatever your preference is – I had to use 4 slices of mozzarella and some shredded cheddar the other night coz mama sucks at making lists when grocery shopping) and then bake according to the pizza crust package directions (mine was 8-10 minutes on 450)

The sauce makes enough for about 2 pizzas and since it’s just the 4 of us, one pizza is plenty. Can you guess where this is going?! Yep!!!! I freeze the remainder so that I have a quick, easy meal down the road! It’s just my favorite thing in all the world to have a freezer full of premade meals!!!

I don’t know what I’m cooking the rest of the week. There was talk of going out to eat Thursday night but we shall see. And then you know what happens (or doesn’t happen as the case may be) on Fridays. So, until I get my ass in the kitchen again…xoxo

PS Of course I forgot to take a picture. It looked like damn good pizza. Use your imagination!

Fever! Fever all through the night!

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Not really. Well, it could have been all through the night but it’s all gone today! Woo hoo! I’m talking about  Colt of course. I did take him to the doctor yesterday (go me!) and the doctor actually broke out his text book and was all like “I think it’s this!”. The “this” is called roseola and it affects 90% of children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years of age. It’s apparently caused by the herpes virus – types 6 and 7 – (ew) and presents as a high fever for 3-5 days and then a rash (that does not itch) that breaks out on the “trunk” of the child once the fever is gone. We are moving into rash territory today folks! The little red bumps are popping up all on that boys trunk. But he’s quite happy today and we even managed to play outside for a bit this morning. Until he fell in the dirt, looked at his hands, realized they were dirty, threw a bloody fit and we went back inside. Such a charming child!!

Last night, as you may recall, I made crock pot pork tenderloin. I find cooking meat in the crockpot to be tricky. In my experience, if you don’t get the timing exactly right, the meat turns to dust in your mouth. It’s like out of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when they cut open the turkey and it all shrivels up and then they either to pretend to eat it or have to wash it down with copious amounts of water. The pork wasn’t quite that bad but I didn’t find it that good either. My husband liked it. Jack liked the meat, not so much the potatoes and Colt hated it. Although, he hated pretty much everything yesterday so I’m not sure we can trust his opinion. I thought it was edible but nothing I’m dying to eat again. I’ll share the deets with you and you can be the judge. Maybe you know exactly how long to cook pork in the crock pot and yours will turn out amazingly well. If so, hook a sista up with some tips, would ya?!

Ingredients:

2 lb pork tenderloin

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp. yellow mustard

2 tbsp. olive oil

3 tbsp. maple syrup (seriously! not joking at all)

1 chopped shallot

1 tsp onion powder

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

Put tenderloin in the crockpot (yes, you must put it in there, it will not cook otherwise!!!!). Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over tenderloin. Cook on low for 6 hours. Flip the tenderloin at 2 and 4 hours for even cooking.

I also cut up some baby red potatoes and threw them in for the last 2 hours. They were actually quite good so I think if I can cook the tenderloin for the appropriate amount of time, this meal will be a tasty one that’s entered into the rotation. We shall see.

I obviously forgot to take pictures yet again (I’m soooo good at this!) but it was none too pretty anyway so you’re welcome!

Tonight I’m making one of my favorite meals of all time. The recipe is actually from a restaurant in the area that shut down several years ago and I was lucky enough to have my dad that knew a cook there and shared it with us! So on tonight’s menu – Quag’s chicken enchiladas, refried beans and Spanish rice. I’ll share all the yumminess with you tomorrow. Probably. If I remember. Until then, stay hungry my friends (ala the most interesting man alive but with hunger, not thirst)! xoxo

Keeping up with the Jones’s

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Holy shit! Screw you blog! I just wrote a whole damn blog and somehow managed to delete it and save the deleted version. That is more frustrating than you can possibly imagine. I’ll be banging my head against the table for the remainder of the day if you need me. There will be no cooking involved. I will also be screaming expletives in between bouts of crying. Temper tantrum launch in 3…2…1. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Ok, dramatic outburst over. Seriously, though, f@&*!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the subject at hand, I sincerely hope you are not keeping up with the Jones’s as we have been plagued with sickness. First I had the stomach bug, then Jack had the stomach bug, Colt had a diarrhea bug and now Colt has had a random fever for 4 days. 4 days people. No other symptoms – just a fever that can be controlled with Motrin but always comes back. I finally called the doctor this morning (I should be a shoe-in for mother of the year) and they are going to check him out this afternoon.

Having said all that, the cooking has been scarce around here. I did manage to crank out dinner last night that was pretty tasty – Lasagna rollups be what it was called, mateys (in my best pirate voice – why? I don’t know). Italian cooking is some of my favorite for a few reasons – it’s generally, easy, tasty, can be prepared during nap time and usually makes enough to freeze at least 2 other meals (in our family anyway). And, again folks, winning! Fo rizzle! (We’ve gone from pirates to Snoop Dogg (or is it Snoop Lion still???) – my brain is an interesting place to hang out!)

Without further ado (ie distraction, random dribbling for the mind of Mrs. Jones), here be the recipe (back to pirate talk – cue Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song):

Ingredients:

Cooked lasagna noodles (did you guess that?!) – I usually do 5-6 coz that’s what works for  my family of 4 – you do your own thang, chicken wang (what?!)

1 lb ground Italian sausage (you could substitute beef if you’d rather)

1 tsp minced garlic

1 15 oz container ricotta cheese

2 packages of cream cheese (did I mention this is not diet friendly but it is taste bud friendly!)

1 package of that fancy shredded parmesan

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tbsp. dried parsley flakes

1 tsp Italian seasoning

salt & pepper to taste

shredded mozzarella

1 jar/can spaghetti sauce (I like Hunt’s 4 cheese if you care)

Directions:

Cook noodles and sausage. Combine sausage, garlic, ricotta, cream cheese, parmesan, egg, parsley, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper. Stir in 1 cup of mozzarella. Spread onto lasagna noodles and roll up (you can use a toothpick to hold together but I find the cheese holds it well enough). Put spaghetti sauce in bottom of greased baking dish. Arrange rollups in pan and top with additional sauce. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes at 350. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and bake until cheese is melted.

I generally pair this with a Caesar salad and garlic bread. Last night I had no lettuce (which, if you don’t know, is pretty instrumental in a salad) so we had cut up carrots and cucumbers with ranch. Improvisation folks! Often necessary when cooking with Kellie!! But we did have bread, so ha! Score for me! (My 6 year old ate 4 pieces of bread last night! And he’s skinny as a damn rail – did not inherit that from me!!!!)

Tonight’s dinner is coming from the crock pot. I love crock pot cooking! I don’t always love what comes out of it but the cooking portion is right up my alley!! It’s a pork tenderloin with some interesting ingredients (yellow mustard and maple syrup being mind boggling to me)! I’ll give you all the specs on it tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn’t suck!! xoxo

 

PS – In case you didn’t figure it out, that filling makes a shit ton! I generally freeze the remainder in 2 separate freezer bags for easy meal time in the future. The mix also works well in jumbo shells!

Pot Roast Down

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I cannot find that damn pot roast recipe anywhere. Which is problematic for 2 reasons: 1. I promised I’d post it here and B. My husband loved it and will probably expect me to make it again (the nerve!). Alas, I have searched high and low to no avail. Obviously. So y’all are SOL and for those of you that don’t know what that means it’s shit outta luck. That’s another one of those sayings that doesn’t quite make sense to me when I break it down. Shit outta luck? What does shit have to do with luck? I shit just fine so maybe I’m lucky? Who knows? And gross. Why did I have to go there? Probably because I can. (And really, when it comes to pot roast, you should probably use your grandmother’s recipe passed down from her great great great grandmother, who will be rolling in the grave if you don’t use it – ah the guilt from the old folks – such a great weapon in their arsenal!! – Was that offensive??? Sorry!!)

It’s the weekend in case you didn’t know. It’s hard as a stay at home mom to get excited about weekends anymore. It’s not like I’m off. Ok, kids, I took care of you all week, now it’s mommy’s turn to be a tyrant! Doesn’t work like that, now does it?! I tried to take a day off last weekend and we know where that got me. Shit outta luck if you know what I mean?!

When it comes to cooking, I try to only do it about 5 nights a week. And I definitely don’t cook on Fridays (I usually make hubby “cook” so takeout it generally is! Score for me!). Generally. Having said that, I did actually manage to cook last night. It wasn’t by choice. The 6 year old looked at me Thursday (as he was eating the dreaded taco, kid hates tacos or anything that could possibly have the tiniest drop of 1/10th of a spice. He gives sensitive pallet a whole new meaning!) which his big brown eyes with some of the most gorgeous eyelashes you’ve ever seen (not that I’m biased or anything) and is all Mommy, can you make me something special for dinner tomorrow night please? And I’m all what did you have in mind Angel Baby (insert gag here, I know you want to) and he’s all can you please make either shrimp scampi or homemade chicken tenders and I’m all anything for you Sweet Boy and Colt’s all mamamamama lalalalalala. And that’s pretty much how it went. So, being that it was Friday and I am lazy (have I mentioned this enough yet), I opted for the shrimp scampi.

Let me tell you, shrimp scampi is one of our favorites around here. It is so damn tasty. And the surprising part – it’s so super easy to make (unlike the chicken tenders, which may technically be easy to make but the clean up is a damn bitch (not unlike yours truly) and ain’t nobody got time for that on a Friday). So I will share that delicious recipe with you below. I even managed to take a picture but I’m not sure I’m tech savvy enough at this moment to load it (sometimes I post from my phone which makes it super easy to load, not so easy to type and sometimes I post from the computer which makes it super easy to type, not so easy to load. There’s just no winning here!). But I’ll try.

So on to the scampi

Ingredients:

1 lb shrimp (peeled)

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp parsley

1 1/2 tsp basil

1 tbsp. minced garlic

2 tbsp. lemon juice (depending on how tart you like it – we only like it mildly tart – I’m tart enough for the whole family What! What!)

2 tbsp. chopped spring onion

Fancy shredded parmesan cheese (top hats and tails required – coz it’s fancy!!! Hardy har har!!)

Capers (to taste – optional)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Cooked linguine (or whatever noodle choice you wish to make – really go crazy here – I would too but Mr. Wonderful prefers linguine – he’s picky with his noodle…)

Directions:

Melt better in a pan (I use a large skillet). Add olive oil, garlic, basil, parsley, spring onion and lemon juice. Mix well and simmer until onions are soft (about 10 minutes). Add shrimp and capers (I like to add a little caper juice too coz I loves it – it’s like a salty little pickle juice flavor explosion. Yum!). Simmer until shrimp are cooked through (about 5 minutes). Toss with your crazy noodle choice then sprinkle with that fancy parmesan we talked about.

I’m telling y’all, my whole family loves this recipe. It’s a good one. I guess it’s lucky that we live at the beach, too so we have seafood a-plenty! I served this with the super easy and delicious roasted broccoli and some Italian bread. Easy peasy!

Tonight my parents have invited us for dinner so I guess it’s okay that I cooked last night. Nothing fancy there – apparently they have been stockpiling steak and need to get rid of some. No problem parents. I’m always available to eat any food you wish to prepare for me. And my family. If I must include them in everything. Kidding – I love those a-holes to pieces!

Anywho, I’ll try to post the picture after I post the blog. Wish me luck or find me a wordpress tutor! xoxo

  
Look at me being all smart and stuff!! 😝

Blah! Ugh! Argh! Ahoy Matey?

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This stomach bug ain’t no joke y’all. I’m still feeling like crap on a cracker. I don’t know what that means really but I’m assuming it means pretty freaking rotten. And if it doesn’t, it should. 

I know I owe at least 2 recipes now. The pot roast. And the poppyseed chicken, which I did make last night. We all ate it and enjoyed it as much as we could until the 6 year old threw it up all over the table. That’s a quick way to end dinner right there!

Today it’s like I’ve had a relapse back into feeling-like-crap-ville (population: the whole of the elementary schools in the county and at least one parent per family) yet, as the SAH parent, I still have to prepare dinner. 😢😭👎 There was another emoji I wanted to use as well but thought better of it. Use your imagination!! So on tonight’s menu, I bought some premade Italian style turkey meatballs which I’ll toss with marinara, flop on a toasty sub roll, melt mozzarella on it and throw on a plate for anyone that feels like eating, which ain’t me. 

I swear I’ll try again tomorrow folks. Tonight, ginger ale it is (Canada Dry if you must know) and my dieriere (sp????) in my bed. After I get the damn rugrats in bed. xoxo