ABC's of Me

ABC's of Me

A. Age: 27, though my older brother and I agree I act more like 31 than he does!

B. Bed size: Queen.. keep talking about a king, but who knows when..
C. Chore you hate: ALL!!
D. Dogs: Rex 1year old 80lbs husky/german shepard

E. Essential start to your day: Shower- I don't function well without one
F. Favorite color: Green
G. Gold or silver: silver
H. Height: 5’5”
I. Instruments you play: nothing really
J. Job title: stay at home mom, thanks to my wonderful husband!
K. Kids: 2 very strong willed little ones. Lil Mis 5 this summer and Lil Man almost 2.5
L. Live: In the sunshine- Southern California

M. Mom’s name: Minnette
N. Nicknames: Megs, Mommy
O. Overnight hospital stays: having babies and Lil Mis' open heart surgery (18 days!!)
P. Pet peeve: chewing gum, bragging about their kids nonstop (a little is fine here and there)

Q. Quote from a movie: no idea.?.. I'm on kid mode.. "BEST DAY EVER!"
R. Right or left handed: Right.
S. Siblings: older brother
T. Time you wake up: when the kids (or dog) wakes me up.. around 6:30 normally
U. Underwear: Yes... I wear underwear...
V. Vegetables you dislike: No.. not really.. I grew up in a home where artichokes, mushrooms, salads were the norm
W. What makes you run late: Kids.. always the kids..
X. X-Rays you’ve had: broken arm.. 5th grade maybe?!?!
Y. Yummy food you make: ALL! :-)
Z. Zoo – favorite animal: little tiny monkeys that are active while we're there.. love watching any animal play at the zoo. Polar Bears too, when they are out...

Well ENJOY getting to know me a little better...

Vegetable Id Posts

We finally got our garden planted! I am so excited to plant our garden in the ground this year! It's been in containers for the past 2 years and I am really hoping it just takes over out there.

I thought it would be cute to have little stakes that said which vegetables were what, especially since we started most from seeds. I had some craft popsicle sticks laying around, picked up a sharpie and some markers and wrote down what the veggies were. So proud of myself and then..... fast forward to when my husband watered the garden for the first time and sure enough my markers were not waterproof.. :-(

Did a little googling and found DIY: Garden Stakes. SOOO CUTE!!!

It was a project I did outside while the kids were playing. They even came over and helped with the first coat of paint.

These were my colors.. really wanted yellow but didn't have enough

You can tell that the Lowe's side was hard to cover- but it's only on one side.

She says to use a paint pen to write the types.. Had no idea what a paint pen was or where to find it, but they are locked up at Michaels.. sharpie brand is what I picked up- also called a poster pen. Just FYI..

There's my little basil plant!

Say What?!

I don't know about you, but every time a holiday comes up I google to find a new recipe geared towards that holiday. So we had just moved into our new house and St Patricks Day approaching fast. We decided not to really celebrate since we had so much going on. But let me tell you, this holiday is one of my husband's favorite! He's a huge corned beef fan!

St Patty's Day morning I searched stores trying to find a corned beef and a place that had cabbage left! Finally found both! Already had russet potatoes at home and figured kids would enjoy mashed better than in the pot with corned beef.

Searching AllRecipies I found a group of recipes called "colcannon". Had no idea what it was, but it said that it's traditional Irish side dish.. that sold me.. plus I already had everything on hand!! So tried it out and the kids devoured it!! LOVED IT!! Best part is, it has "hidden" vegetables in it! Tried to keep the fat low and opted out the bacon.

Menke's Colcannon
2 1/2 lbs of potatoes
1/2 of a head of cabbage- finely chopped
1 onion chopped
large handful of shredded carrots
1/4cup milk
1/4cup blue cheese dressing (if not a blue cheese fan sub in more milk)
1 tbs of butter
salt and pepper to taste

So basically you are making mashed potatoes. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the potatoes. Boil until tender.

In a saute pan pour a swirl of olive oil, heat to medium high. Add in cabbage, onion, carrots. Saute until cabbage is soft.

Drain potatoes and mash with milk, dressing, and butter. Then add in cabbage mix and salt and pepper to taste.

ENJOY!

Potato Leek Soup!

Oh how I love Potato Leek Soup! It's in my top 5 for comfort food! I came across THIS recipe and it's my base for the soup.

A few tips for cooking with leeks. First, sometimes they are found in the organic section only. (this is where they are at Henry's.)

This is what they look like

You place chopped, diced leeks in a BIG bowl of cold water. Swish it around. They are really dirty and this is the best way to wash them.

See all that dirt left!

Potato Leek Soup

2 Leeks- sliced

2 cloves of minced garlic

4-cups of broth- I use chicken, vegetable could be used too
1TBS of cornstarch
4 cups of peeled and diced potatoes
1 cup half n half
1 cup milk (or cream- depending on how low in fat you want your soup)
1 package of diced pancetta

Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste

Olive Oil

First add a swirl of olive oil to a large skillet. Heat that to medium. Add in the sliced leeks and garlic and saute until leeks are tender.

Pour broth into a large pot and add cornstarch before turning on the heat. Add potatoes and then turn on heat to medium high. Add leeks to broth. Bring to a light boil.

In the saute pan you used for leeks, dump in the pancetta and brown slightly to your desired crispness.

I like to put my pancetta on a paper towel after to soak up some of the fat/oil.

Then put it in the pot with potatoes and leeks. Boil until potatoes are done. About 30mins from when pot started boiling, depending on your size of diced potatoes.

Add milk and half n half. Then ENJOY!

Pancakes!!!

There is nothing that my 4 year old loves more than breakfast foods! Pancakes, scrabbled eggs, waffles, crepes.. Always asks for breakfast for dinner! So I had some energy this morning and figured why not make a double batch of pancakes and freeze some so we have them for later!
When we make pancakes and really any other 'baking" we add applesauce instead of oil or butter. This morning the only applesauce I had in the house was a gogo squeezer. Apple Peach.. hey why not try it! There was even a little left over for the Little Man to eat.



If you haven't seen these before, they are just what they say they are "applesauce on the go" NO spoons needed! We started little man on these pouches that we found at Babies R Us. A different brand has all sorts of baby food puree in the pouches. Now that the kids are older I try to keep some applesauce ones around. We find these at Henry's, Trader Joe's has applesauce and apple carrot ones that both kids like.

Ok, back to pancakes. Whenever I use applesauce I always add a dash or two of cinnamon, just think it goes nicely with it and I normally add a splash of vanilla too. :-)

Applesauce Pancakes

2 cups flour

2 tbs sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup of applesauce

dash of cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon) Then in a separate bowl mix rest of ingredients together. Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. If you have time let the mixture rest in the fridge for up to 30mins. It helps make them fluffier. I did not wait this morning.. :-)

Lightly spray skillet and heat to medium high. Pour 1/4 cup of mixture into pan. Flip once bubbles pop on the top side.

This makes 18-20 1/4cup pancakes. I freeze mine in 5 pancake batches because that's what we eat on weekday mornings. I just put them in freezer ziploc bags.

Enjoy!

Before And After

Here are some of our before and afters on our new house.

Let's start with the Kitchen of course!

Before- Viewing what island would look like!!

After- still more is planned.. thinking of new color of cabinets!

This is the Family Room Before

Notice carpet and brick hearth

During...

After Fireplace

Lil Miss's room- Wanted pink! Was able to convience her of one pink wall and the others green. Pink and green are best friends, you know!?

Little Man's room- Music themed! Not finished yet but good enough for awhile!

So that's the new place for now! There's been lots of painting and lots of fixing things inside, so the outside needs some tlc next!!

Getting Settled

Oh the joys of moving! Takes forever to pack things up and then just as long (if not longer) to unpack! Moving also means eating take out and super fast already prepared meals! We tried our best to stay semi healthy while moving but didn't always work out that way.

It's a month after closing and we are getting settled. Pictures are going up on walls and stuff is finding it's permanent home. Meals are also coming together. The kitchen is put together enough to actually want to cook a full meal and try new meals even!

Check out our beautiful new island!!

Last night's dinner...

Maui Maui with Pineapple Apple Salsa

3 maui maui fish fillets- Any white fish will work (We normally split a fillet between the two kids)
Pineapple- We used half of a fresh pineapple diced small- You could use a large can of pineapple chunks if needed
Half an apple diced small
handful of cilantro chopped
lime juice from half a lime- we only had the fake lime juice last night so just a few squirts (if you use a real lime and not the fake stuff in the plastic lime bottle, squirt the other half of lime over the fish before baking)
salt
pepper
paprika
red pepper flakes (didn't add this to the kids' fish fillet but did to the adults)

Preheat oven to 350. Place fish in sprayed baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, and optional red pepper flakes and lime juice. Bake for 10mins and check. Continue baking until forks easily. Ours took 20mins but they were thick and still slightly frozen.

Mix pineapple, apple, cilantro and lime juice in bowl. Let it sit until ready to serve (can be made a day before and store in fridge)

Place cooked fish on plate and top with salsa. Enjoy!

Can't wait for more cilantro meals!!!