Cooking? Me?

Well, yes and no.

Sunday night we were supposed to have leftovers, but we ended up "celebrating" the 2nd night of Clay going to bed at 7:30 by getting a Whataburger. That is only the 2nd time in the month of February that we have eaten anything out for dinner! So I am happy about that.

Monday night we had the broccoli/cheese/rice mix that I make. I didn't do any chicken sandwiches with it this time though.

Tuesday night we went to my Mom's house, and she made homemade hamburgers. So we had hamburgers, and chips, and then a small green salad on the side.

Tonight I am making hamburger helper. I always keep 1 or 2 boxes in my pantry of this for those nights that I don't feel like cooking, but I don't really feel like having a cold sandwich either. So simple and for the most part, good. So the cheeseburger macaroni Hamburger Helper with whole kernal corn on the side. Tomorrow I will be getting back to my more complicated recipes.

I know that I was supposed to make meatloaf Monday night, but Robbie was just hell bent on me NOT making it. He doesn't like "regular" meatloaf, and he just didn't want me to even try the cajun meatloaf. Hopefully I can talk him into it one day. Or just make it and not tell him. Whichever comes first.

Those much needed nights

You know those days where you just don't think you can go much more without running away? Or those days that you wish your kids couldn't talk yet? Or those days where if you have to change one more poopy diaper, you might just go insane? Well that is how I was yesterday. And Robbie has been that way for more than a few days now. It has been insane around this house lately.

Robbie works 12 hour shifts, and when he comes home, he comes home to me trying to cook dinner (almost always it is almost ready though), trying to keep Clay away from the stove/oven (and out of everything else), trying to keep Colt entertained since he is going through a stage where he has to see me or he isn't happy, and me trying to keep from pulling my hair out. And for the next 2 hours after he gets home and before Clay goes to bed, it is us eating dinner, cleaning up from dinner, me bathing Colt, him bathing Clay, and then teeth getting brushed, bedtime stories being read, and then fighting with both kids to go to sleep. By the time that they are both asleep, Robbie and I are ready to fall over dead. And if Robbie is going to work the next day, he is really in for it. Since Colt can sense when Robbie needs a good night of sleep, those are usually the days that he doesn't want to sleep all night. Or he wants to fight until midnight to go to sleep.

On top of the normal routine, Colt has been teething. The first 2 teeth (on bottom) finally cut through 2 nights ago, so he hasn't been as fussy. But we also think that he may have an ear infection, so he is going to the doctor tomorrow. So he has definitely been more fussy than usual. And it can wear anyone down to hear a baby cry and fuss all day long.

So I knew that we needed a break. We have not had more than a 4 hour break since August 5th. Do you realize how long that has been? Now we have had a break from Clay lots of times. Breaks that last overnight. But from Colt, not more than 4 hours. And we definitely appreciate those times for sure. But we can't have an overnighter from both boys yet because Colt is exclusively breastfed. He has had a bottle ONE TIME since he was born August 27th. ONE TIME! Do you hear me? ONE TIME! Anyone who knows how many times a baby eats (from the bottle or breast) knows that that is a lot of time to have a baby attached to your boob. And with him not being on anything but rice cereal once a day yet, he still nurses a lot. I plan on exclusively breastfeeding him until he is 10 1/2 months old. Then I will start weaning him off of me, and hopefully have him on whole milk by 11 months old. Clay was 10 1/2 months old when we started switching him over to whole milk (for tummy issues, and approved by the doctor), so I am going to do the same with Colt. So until then, we won't be getting an overnight break from Colt. And as soon as he is weaned from me, I plan on having a whole weekend overnighter! :-)

Anyway. So yesterday it just so happened to work out for me to plan an in-home date night. The last in-home date night that we had planned, Clay went to my Mom's, and we kept Colt. And Colt cried from about 8:30 pm until 2:30 am. Just cried and cried and cried. And for no apparant reason. It was horrible! So last night I really wasn't looking for it to really work out for us. But it did!!! Clay didn't have a nap yesterday because he absolutely refused to lay down, and so I knew that he would go to bed early. And Colt had been up most of the day, and he was due to eat cereal and nurse around 6:30. I had planned on putting dinner in the oven at 6:30, and that would give me 30 minutes to feed and nurse him. Since I wanted Clay going to bed between 7 and 7:30, I ended up making him a grilled cheese for dinner with chips. I started that at 5:50, and he started eating at 6 pm. Since I had to make pasta, I started the water to boil, and I fed Colt his cereal while I was waiting for that and while Clay ate his dinner. Then once Clay finished dinner, I cleaned him and his dishes up, and then I put him on the couch and turned his Barney movie on.

Once Colt was done with his cereal, I prepared the rest of dinner and put it in the oven at 6:30. Then I nursed Colt. Then Robbie got home and took a shower. After I finished nursing Colt, I changed his diaper, put his pjs on, and then I put him in bed. After Robbie got out of the shower, I asked him to brush Clay's teeth while I finished getting dinner ready. Robbie didn't know that I was doing this, so he was a bit surprised to hear me asking him to brush Clay's teeth BEFORE dinner. I told him that Clay had already eaten, and he was going to bed once Barney was over. When Barney was over, I popped the bread in the oven, and we went to his room, changed his diaper and put his pjs on. Then off to bed he went. And then all was quiet in the Girman house!

Robbie and I have become huge fans of The Office. We had never watched it when it came on during the week, but we had caught a few of the late night episodes on TV and fell in love with it. So I bought Robbie the first 3 seasons on DVD for Christmas, and we just recently bought Season 4 and 5. So after putting the kids to bed, we happily filled our plates, popped the first DVD of Season 4 in the DVD player, and sat on the couch together. Other than the few times that I had to get up and tell Clay to go to bed with the last time threatening his life to take his toys away the next day if he didn't hush and go to bed, it was a pretty quiet night. And just what we needed to re-energize. We would have been in bed at 10 pm, but as soon as we laid down, Colt got up to eat again. So we went back in the living room and talked while I nursed Colt, and then we were in bed by 11:30. It was SOO nice! Colt did wake up again at 2:15, but it was because he was uncovered and couldn't find his paci. So I popped that sucker back in his mouth, pulled the blanket up, and turned back over and went to sleep.

Clay is again refusing to take a nap, and I am completely fine with that! Another early night for the boys, and a nice quiet night for the parents! Works for me! Robbie is off tomorrow anyway, so he can spend much needed time with them then!

I made Destiny's Baked Ziti last night, and it was amazing! Robbie said that he would prefer it over regular spaghetti! There was 1 change that I made, and there is another change that I will make the next time that I make it.

It doesn't have ground beef in the recipe. Robbie is a huge fan of having meat in spaghetti (as long as it isn't meatballs), so I mixed ground beef in with the sauce before mixing it in with the cheeses. That was the 1 change that I made this time.

Next time...I did NOT like the way that the parm cheese "melted" on top. It is like it doesn't melt. It gets hard and forms a shell on top of the dish. I am also not a huge fan of bagged cheeses. I prefer grating the cheese myself. So next time I will buy a block of mozzarella cheese, grate the whole thing, put 3/4 of it in the mix with the ricotta cheese, and then put the other 1/4 on the top and bake it. I also grated fresh parm cheese last night to put on top of individual portions. Sometimes Robbie does, sometimes he won't. I love fresh parm cheese though. So next time I will just do fresh parm cheese on the side and do the fresh mozzarella on top to bake with. But other than that, a simple, easy, and delicious dish!

Here it is fresh out of the oven!

I was planning on putting a salad on the side with it, but I decided to do something different instead. I had 2 kaiser rolls leftover from the hamburgers the night before, so I cut them in 1/2. Then I buttered each 1/2. Then I put garlic powder on them, freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese, and then Italian seasoning. And Robbie and I both loved it! Something that I would definitely do again! Next time since I will be using mozzarella cheese, I will grate a little for the bread too and mix the cheeses. So good.

Robbie's plate

This dish made so much that we have over 3/4 of the pan left. Therefore, we will be having this again tonight. Tonight Clay will be eating it with us, and I will be doing salad on the side instead of the garlic cheese bread.

Tomorrow I plan on doing PW's (courtesy of Pastor Ryan) Cajun Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and some sort of veggie or salad. The meatloaf serves 8 people (with 3 lbs of meat), so I am going to cut that down to 1 lb of beef and cut the ingredients to match that. Should be good! I love meatloaf with onions and bell peppers, but Robbie can't even stand the sight of meatloaf. I am hoping to change his mind with this one.

No bueno!

Last night we tried PW's Most Favorite Burger Ever, and I have to say that it is NOT our most favorite burger. At all. There were parts of it that I liked, but I just couldn't get past the blue cheese. And I would probably make it again, but it would have to be minus the blue cheese. Robbie and I both ended up taking about 2 bites of it and then trashing it. And then I made some velveeta shells and cheese instead. And we had that with our salad. Like I said though, there were parts that I liked. I loved the spicy mayo/tobasco mixture. I loved the onions. OMG, I loved the onions. And then the actual burger was really good. But that damn blue cheese was just too much for me. But hey, at least I tried it!

Here are the onions caramelizing in the butter and brown sugar.

And my kaiser rolls heating up in the skillet to get them toasted.

And here is the finished product. I made 3 of the burgers because I thought if they turned out good, Robbie would most likely eat 2. And for the 4th burger, I made Clay a regular cheeseburger. I put a slice of cheese on it while it was in the pan so it could melt, and then I put mustard on it.

It is actually a pretty burger.

And our plates after we got the salads on them. I bought some of that Wishbone Salad Spritzer (Ranch), and that is what is on my lettuce on the right. And that is some watery stuff. I think I will stick with my regular ranch dressing.

And Robbie's reaction to the burger.

So this one didn't make it into my recipe book. I still am having trouble deciding what I want to cook tonight. I have a few options and ideas, but I just can't decide.

Outside In Pizza Review

When I first started staying home in May 2008 with Clay, I was a faithful watcher of the Rachael Ray talk show. I loved to watch the cooking segment at the end. And that is where I found the recipe for what I made for dinner last night. I had planned on making the blue cheese hamburgers, but Robbie wasn't up for hamburgers last night, so it got changed at the last minute. Tonight is the hamburgers though. Excited to give those a try. The outside in pizza is a very easy recipe.

Ingredients:

Focaccia Bread (I used a garlic one last night...not sure if I would again though)

Pepperoni

Mozzarella Cheese

Pizza Sauce

Now you could use any pizza toppings that you wanted. Rachael Ray did a pepperoni one and she also did a veggie one. But Robbie won't eat veggie pizza, so pepperoni it was.

Directions:

Cut the focaccia bread in 1/2 (to open up the bread like a sandwich). Then spread however much pizza sauce you want on the bread, put the cheese on top, and then pepperoni. I have done it several ways as far as cooking. RR showed it where she put it in a skillet and cooked it that way. Kind of like you would a grilled cheese. But I have always had to microwave it a bit after that to get the insides of it hot enough to eat (and to melt the cheese more). I have tried just microwaving it, but the bread doesn't get crispy enough like a pizza crust for me. And then last night, I put it under the broiler without closing the bread up into a sandwich. I kept it open so the cheese would melt and the toppings would be hot. The bread started burning a bit on the edges, so I took it out. But because I left it open, the top part of the bread was soggy. And once I started cutting into it, the inside of the cheese was still cold (if that makes sense).

So really I can't figure out a good way to cook this sandwich without burning it in the skillet to get the insides hot enough, without having to eat mushy bread from just microwaving it, or without getting a burnt crust/toppings on the inside and mushy bread on the outside by broiling it. If I could figure out a way to do that, it would be an excellent sandwich! It has a great taste to it, but I can't stand the mushiness of the bread. Or to have a cold "pizza".

Here is a picture of it coming out from under the broiler before I closed it up to a sandwich and cut it up. I used fresh mozzarella cheese, and I probably wouldn't do that again. I would prefer the shredded for this just because it is more evenly distributed throughout every bite, and not just a glob of cheese in 1 area.

Confession

Yesterday we had one of those days. You know those days. The ones that there is a constant roadblock everywhere that you look. One that has you taking tylenol every 4 hours just to keep the headache at bay. The one that leaves you with a sleepless night. Not the sleepless night where you are waken up every 4 hours to nurse. But the one that has so many things on your mind that you can't catch a wink of sleep.

The day started out really well yesterday. We got up and got the boys ready. My Grandma had stayed the past two nights, and she had decided to go home yesterday. We were all hungry, so instead of eating leftover beans, we decided to go out for a nice lunch. So we load up the car and drive to Panera Bread. We have a great lunch, and then we stop in over at Michael's. We wanted to get some fresh, spring flowers for my Grandpa's grave. The snow had pretty much left the poinsettas that were on his grave flat. After getting the flowers, we drove out to the cemetery. Then we headed to my Grandma's house. Colt was asleep and Clay was almost there, so we left them both with my Grandma, and Robbie and I went birthday shopping for Clay. Since we have a little bit of extra money right now, we wanted to go ahead and get his birthday party supplies out of the way and get his big gift. It isn't until May, but still.

We leave my Grandma's house and enjoy a few hours away from the kids, and then head back over there. After we got there, we had planned on leaving and going grocery shopping. But Clay was still asleep, and Colt was ready to nurse. We ended up staying til 11:15 last night and decided to go grocery shopping today. My cousin (who lives with my Grandma) was off last night, and we all watched a movie and ordered a pizza. So not only did we eat out for lunch, we ate out for dinner. I didn't cook at all yesterday. And I didn't workout. And I drank a dr.pepper. After we ate dinner, we started talking about some things that Robbie and I are going through (more on that later), and it pretty much went downhill from there. I had to take tylenol to get (somewhat) rid of my stress headache. Clay was acting like a complete terror. And then Colt has (we think) an ear infection. So he didn't want to be put down. And when you did hold him, you had to be standing up and he had to be up on your shoulder. Not laying down. So yesterday just ended up being a horrible day.

This morning Robbie had to go and get some stuff taken care of for work, and then he had to stop and get his oil changed. Once he gets home and we eat lunch, we plan on going grocery shopping. This is what I have in mind for tonight. I am not a blue cheese fan, but I am definitely willing to give it a try!

Getting through the next few days.

To say that I have a headache would be a huge understatement. It feels like my head is going to explode. Yesterday I did really well with no sodas. Diet or regular. I stuck with water, and I felt great about it. But today has been different. I stuck with my water, and I probably drank a little over 100 oz of water today. And with sticking with just water, I have had a huge headache. I have been taking tylenol trying to get it to go away. I was even able to take a 1 1/2 hour nap today when the boys were down. And NOTHING is helping. I know that if I drank some caffiene it would help, but I just don't want to. Back in 2004 or 2005, my cousin, LeaAnn, and I decided to give up caffiene. And we lasted for 84 days. And I felt great! I had so much more energy, and not the fake energy that caffiene gives you. So I know that I can do this. I just have to get past these next few days. When I told Robbie that I had a huge headache, he said that I could do this, and that it is best for me to give it up since I am still nursing Colt. After he said that, I thought to myself how much I would like to jump over the table and strangle him. But I didn't.

Not only do I have a headache from no caffiene, but I have a headache from no sleep. Colt is still trying to cut these first 2 teeth, and I am trying to keep from hanging myself   pulling my hair out. He went to bed last night at about 9:30, and I expected him to get up to eat, and he did. So he eats at 10:30, and then he won't go back to sleep until almost 12:30. Then he got back up to eat again at 3:45 am. Then back to sleep about 4:15, and then Clay got me up at 8:30 am. Now I guess that actually does sound like some decent sleep, but when I haven't been getting decent sleep in the past few weeks, it just adds up. And it seems like I can't catch up. Even with my 1 1/2 hour nap today.

Since being pretty tired today, I was really not looking forward to doing my workout. Also my Grandma came over yesterday and stayed last night and is staying tonight. I love having her here, but I am the type that does NOT like to workout in front of people. Even Robbie. I can't concentrate fully when I know that someone is watching me. The only time that I will workout with someone is if they are doing it with me. So gyms and gym classes don't bother me. Going to the track doesn't bother me. But working out in front of my husband bothers me :-) I love working out with Robbie though. In 2004 when I lost all my weight, we were going to the track every morning at 3 am to run (after he got off and before I went to work), and I loved it. He pushes me like no other person will. Anyway. Back on track....I ended up getting up and working out. I popped the DVD into my computer and worked out in our bedroom. So it worked out well. I didn't want to do it, but because I knew that I had to post about it, it got me up. So posting about my challenge IS helping!

Okay, on to what we had for dinner last night!

Beef Enchiladas! It is a recipe that my mother in law gave me (she got it from someone at work), and it is excellent! Robbie says that mine are WAY better than when his Mom makes them though. And it is because she goes way overboard with the chili powder. I put exactly what the recipe calls for, and that is it. But I'm glad to know that mine are better :-)

Here is the enchilada filling cooking.

I had cheddar cheese grated, and I put it on top (the right side). And I ran out, so I was going to grate some more. And I was out. Luckily I had some four-cheese mexican cheese in the fridge. That is what is on the left.

Now tonight I made PW's Pinto Beans and Jiffy Cornbread. I have to apologize ahead of time that I didn't get any pictures of before. After we finished eating, I told Robbie "Oh crap, I forgot to take pictures for my blog." And he said "Well I guess you will just have to say you didn't cook." I said "Oh heck no!" So these are the pictures that you get tonight....

The empty pan of cornbread. All of us like to put cornbread crushed up in our beans as well as on the side, so to have an empty pan is not a surprise. Thank God the beans are VERY low in calories. Like 40 calories for 1 cup. Not bad at all.

We did have a lot of beans leftover, so I just took some out of the crockpot to get a picture of them.

I am not sure what I am going to cook tomorrow night. We are going grocery shopping tomorrow, so maybe I will cook something that I pick up at the store tomorrow.

And with that, I am headed to bed. I think that Colt is finally asleep!!!! Until at least 2:00 am........

New Challenge!

With my cooking challenge being such a great success, I have decided to expand my challenges. Part of my New Year's Resolutions was to start cooking. And with the cooking challenge, I have done that. And I have started enjoying cooking again. I have started finding myself in the kitchen. I have started trying things that I would have never tried before. Maybe not a new food (even though I have tried new foods), but just trying different cooking techniques. And that inspires me to keep going everyday with cooking. I am in the middle of making my menu/grocery list for the next few weeks, and I am finding new recipes and trying out new things. So because I love the feeling of accomplishment, I have decided to implement a new challenge. The cooking challenge will definitely help me out in this challenge as well.

Another part of my New Year's Resolutions was to lose weight. While I have been doing so, it has been an on/off thing. I will do good here and there, and then I will have a lot of bad days. Then do good, and then a lot of bad days. So now, the bad days far outweigh the good days. And if I am going to change my lifestyle and lose weight for good, I can't do that. Because I no longer want to go back and forth with my weight, I have decided how I am going to keep from doing so.

A little bit of my journey

Robbie and I started dating in June 2002. We have known each other since June 1998, and we were best friends for 2 years before we ever started dating. But in June 2002, I started trying to lose weight. I never would get completely serious with it though. I tried every diet known to mankind, and I tried losing weight with my mother in law by doing the Atkins diet. I lasted on the Atkins diet for about 1 day. I had about 50 lbs to lose. I ended up giving up, and then in May 2004, I tried again. This time I counted calories. I stuck at 1200 calories, and I exercised. I started dropping weight so fast that I didn't want to give up. Between May 2004 and December 2004, I ended up losing 75 lbs! 25 more than I really intended on losing. I was working out 1 hour everyday 6 days a week. Then in January 2005, I started easing up a little bit. And in March 2005, Robbie and I moved in together. Between March 2005 and August 2006 (when we got married), I gained back 34 lbs. I was still working out here and there, but nothing like I was in 2004. I still wasn't where I started at even with the 34 lbs back on, but I knew that I didn't want to be back to where I started either. And I knew how easily I could slip back into it.

We were origionally supposed to get married in October 2006. We were the ones paying for our wedding, and the wedding costs were spirialing out of control. We knew that we wanted to start a family immediately, but if we had to pay for the wedding for a year after the wedding, we wouldn't be able to start a family that soon. So we cancelled the big wedding, had a small wedding in August 2006, and started trying September 1, 2006 for Clay. We got a positive test on October 2, 2006. With my pregnancy with Clay, I gained a LOT of weight. After having Clay, I lost 35 lbs of what I had put on, leaving me where I started in 2004 when I first started counting calories. Once I decided to get back in gear to lose the weight for a 2nd time, we decided to start trying for Colt. That was in December 2008. We got a positive test with Colt on the 2nd of January 2009. So not only do I still have these last 24 lbs on me that I can't shake from having Colt, I still have 40 lbs on me that I didn't lose after having Clay. So I have gotten 1/2 of what I gained with them both off of me, but the other 1/2 is still sitting on my ass.

I have tried counting calories again. I have tried Weight Watchers (counting points) again, and with both of them, I just can't seem to get back into gear with it. I HATE counting. I hate having to think about how many calories/points I can have at each meal. Anyone who has done Weight Watchers or counted calories knows that it can become an obsession. And not in a good way. You get so obsessed with it that you just can't seem to think about anything else. And then when you start stressing, your body reacts, and either you don't lose weight or you gain weight. So it is not something that I want to do. With me cooking now, and us not eating out as often, that will help a lot too. But because I am cooking more complex meals, I don't want to have to sit there and figure up the calories for each meal.

So here is my plan of action:

-THIS IS MY CHALLENGE: I want to work out at least 5 days a week.
-I want to keep my breakfasts and lunches between 800-1000 calories.
-With keeping my breakfasts and lunches at that, I should be able to cut my dinners in 1/2 of what I would normally eat, and still lose weight.
-I want to cut out all sodas. I may have the occasional (diet) soda if we go out to eat, but none at home. With me working out, I need to stick strictly with the water.

My main challenge is working out at least 5 days a week. The other stuff will come naturally as I am working out. I have a tendency to not want to overeat or do bad after working out.

Another thing is that I have taken my measurements and weight. And I have them written down in only a place for me to see. And Robbie if he sees them. I don't care if he knows my weight or measurements because let's face it folks, he has seen my crotch give birth to a baby the size of a watermelon. There is not much that I feel I need to hide from him after that.

And I am not one of those that has to post my weight and measurements for all to see so I can step back and look at the reality that is my fat ass. So although I won't be posting that, I will be posting what I have lost and the inches that I have lost every other month. So the next time that I post about my weight or measurements, it will be April 15th. I already have the date marked on my calender so that I remember to update my blog with it. Just like the cooking challenge, I will be posting about this challenge in my cooking posts. Just about how I am doing with working out, no sodas, and my eating. Now somedays I might post what I have eaten for the day, others I won't. But as long as I am working out at least 5 days a week, I am meeting the requirements of my new challenge!

DAY 1: Today I did my Turbo Jam workout. It was a 20 minute workout. 20 minutes doesn't sound like much, but I will eventually get back up to my 1 hour a day. Turbo Jam has 2 20 minute workouts. 1 of them is a beginner workout. The other 20 minute video is a high intensity "when you don't have much time" video. I did the beginner video. I have eaten healthy, and I am making homemade beef enchiladas for dinner. I plan on not overdoing it with dinner, and drinking plenty of water.

So here is to not looking like a walrus anymore!

Cooking Catch-Up

Even with all of this snow, I have still been cooking. I have made cooking a top priority in my daily activities. I usually have planned what I am cooking the next day the night before. This week has been a little bit harder doing that considering the weather.

Wednesday night, I had planned chili cheese dogs. And they turned out great! Robbie and I have eaten so many chili cheese dogs in the last month or so that this won't be coming back on the menu for a while though.

Robbie's plate

Thursday we woke up to about 2" of snow already on the ground. It was so pretty! Unfortunately we had to drive to Cedar Hill in it, but it ended up being fine. We only had 1 scare of being stuck. We had to stay at my Grandma's house that night because of the weather, and we ended up having nachos.

This is before we put them in the oven. Not sure why I took a before picture instead of an after.

Then Friday night was a little bit off. Clay stayed with my Mom and Grandma at my Grandma's house (Mom's electricty was off, so she was over there Thursday night with us too). Robbie and I needed to get home regardless of the weather so we could get some stuff taken care of. Clay didn't want to leave, so he stayed with Granny and Grandma. So we only had Colt. When we got home, we cleaned, paid bills, did some laundry, etc. In the midst of everything, I didn't get anything out for dinner. So Friday night was a "fend for yourself" night. Robbie had a ham sandwich and chips, and I had one of those Steamers bag of steamed rice and veggies.

Saturday night was another no cooking night for me. Robbie and I went out to Campuzanos in Midlothian to have lunch. It was just Colt, Robbie, and me. It was really nice getting to have some adult time with Robbie. Although we had Colt there, he wasn't saying much :-) Then that night, my Aunt and Uncle's grandkids wanted to have a Valentine's Day party. So we went over there for their party. My Aunt and Uncle made spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. A great meal!

Sunday night. Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day has never been a big holiday for Robbie and me. We have celebrated it in the past, and we have done the whole present thing, but once we got married, for some reason, it stopped. Neither of us really care about it, so we didn't see it necessary to go out and spend money on the holiday. We had our lunch together the day before, and that was all that we cared about. I was planning on doing pasta for Valentine's Day, but since we had it the night before, I didn't. So I made fried rice instead. Since Chinese food is one of Robbie's favorite foods, it worked out perfectly!

This is the carrots and onions for the fried rice. I put bell peppers in it the first time that I made it, and Robbie didn't care for them. I had peas to put in it, but I forgot to add them.

And the finished product. This is only the 2nd time that I am making this, but I still have improvements to make. The person who gave me the recipe cooks it with the soy sauce in it, but since soy sauce is just too much for me to handle (aka. gross!) I let Robbie add it after the fact.

Tonight is homemade beef enchiladas. I am looking forward to this meal because Mexican food is MY favorite! :-)

Chicken Parmigiana

Well last night ended up being a bad night for Colt again. Luckily it wasn't as bad as most of the nights have been. At 11:00 pm I checked on Clay one last time, checked on Colt one last time, and I told Robbie "Both boys are asleep. Let's go to bed." So we did. We turned out lights, checked the doors, set alarms (Robbie had to be at work this morning), and then we came into our room. And I climb in bed, look at Colt, and guess what? He is looking back at me! What the hell? He was just sound asleep. I couldn't believe it. Right then I just wanted to cry. I told Robbie that I just wanted one good night of sleep. Just one. I wouldn't even be greedy and ask for 1 more after that, but I needed just 1. So at 11:15 Colt is turning over in bed, screeching like an eagle, and then all gets quiet. And I think that maybe, just maybe he will be going back to sleep. Then he starts crying. And it was the hunger cry. So I reluctantly get myself out of bed, and I head to the living room. I nurse him, and then I put him back in his bed. About 5 minutes later, he is out. And I actually thought that he would sleep through the night. Um, I was wrong. At 4:05 am, he starts crying because it is time for him to nurse. So again, I reluctanlty get out of bed, and I head to the living room. Now it wasn't as bad this morning having to nurse him that early because Robbie had to get up not too long after that and get ready for work. So I would have been getting up with Robbie anyway. But just the fact that he isn't sleeping through the night just wears me out.

We are going to be grocery shopping sometime this weekend, and I am going to get Colt some baby food and get him started on it. Most people don't recommend starting babies on baby food until they are at least 6 months of age. And I didn't start Clay on baby food until he was 6 months old. But I think that Colt is ready to eat baby food. He does so well with his cereal, and I think that he just needs that extra little nutrition to get him sleeping through the night again. So when we go grocery shopping this weekend, I will be getting stuff to get him started.

Last night I made an excellent meal! It was an easy meal to make, but it definitely took time. And that was okay with me because it turned out so well! This is definitely on Robbie's favorite list now. I made PW's Chicken Parmigiana.

This is after I fried the chicken breasts (with butter and olive oil with a little bit of flour). You don't clean the pan in between doing the chicken and the sauce. This is the onions and garlic. I was just about to pour the red wine in.

Robbie pounded the chicken flat, but just not as flat as it should have been. It looked pretty flat after he pounded it, but once I started cooking it, I realized it wasn't flat enough. I also forgot that I was supposed to trim it. But either way it turned out delish!

Once the sauce is done, you put the chicken back in the pan with the sauce and cover with parmesan cheese. Then you put a lid on the skillet and allow it to heat the chicken back up and melt the parm cheese. YUMMY!

When the sauce was almost done, I got the linguine noodles cooked. And here is the finished  product!

Robbie's plate

So delicious and very easy! I will be making this sauce more often just to use on other pasta dishes. It was that good. And my friend Destiny made it not too long ago, and she said that the sauce was kind of bland. So I added A LOT of italian seasoning and it turned out excellent!

Tonight is going to be a really simple meal. Chili and cheese dogs! I figure that I deserve a quick and easy meal :-)

Tomorrow when I post my chili dog pictures, I will also be posting about a new challenge!

Looking through a fog

This is how I have felt the past few days. It has been a tough few days/nights for Robbie and me. Colt started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks old. Then around 11 weeks, we all got sick with a head cold, and Colt got it too. Ever since then, it has been off and on with sleeping through the night. And now all of a sudden, for the past week, it has been off every night except one. It has been horrible to say the least. I feel like I am losing all functioning skills. I feel like I could fall over and just sleep for 3 days straight. On top of that, Clay has gone back to fighting for 2 hours to go to sleep at night. We have tried with a nap, and we have tried without a nap. And either way, he is fighting. Today he didn't have a nap, and he crashed on the couch about 5:30. We let him sleep until dinner was ready at 6:15. So he got a small nap, and he is still fighting us no matter how tired he is. I am hoping to not give him a nap tomorrow and see how he does.

So with Colt, I am thinking that he is teething. You can see white where the bottom two front teeth will be. Clay cut those same 2 teeth first, and he cut them both on the same day. Thanksgiving Day 2007. So he was almost 6 months. So yeah, I guess Colt could have those teeth breaking through anyday. They don't look too close to the surface though, so I don't know. But I wish they would hurry up and break through. Every night for the last week he has been up every 4 hours. ON THE DOT. And so I have to get up and nurse him, and then wait for him to go back to sleep before I can lay back down and fall asleep. And Clay has been getting up at around 8:00 or 8:30. Which normally I would be happy about, but with getting no sleep, it is killing me. Luckily Robbie only has to work 1 day this week, and today he let me take a THREE HOUR NAP!!!!! It felt so good. And although I had that nap, I am tired now. But I am just waiting on Clay to go to sleep, and I am waiting on Colt to go to sleep. I have upped Colt's cereal feeding, and I just gave him a dose of tylenol hoping that will help him (and me) sleep through the night comfortably.

So on to Superbowl weekend! Although the Colts lost, we still had a great time! Although most of us (not me) were going for the Saints. We had a good turnout. We had 7 adults and 5 kids. So loud, but oh so fun. It isn't football if you aren't screaming at the TV for every little thing! So the day started out with me doing some last minute cleaning. And then I also had to bake a cake. The cake was supposed to be a football shaped cake, but I don't have a football shaped pan. So I made my own. And it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped....

You can see that the pan is very greasy and has a lot of flour to coat it. I was hoping that it would pretty much make it fall out. Um, it didn't.

So while it was in the pan, I cut the 4 corners off. I tasted it, and it was a very moist cake. So I thought that it would turn out well. So I take a big spatula and get up under it and move it pretty flawlessly over to the parchment paper.

Then came time to ice it. And that just pissed me off. It kept falling apart on me. The top kept scraping up as I was trying to spread it out. To say that I had a few choice words to say would be a huge understatement.

Once I finally got it frosted, I took a cream cheese icing squeeze pouch and did the football. It turned out cute, but Robbie told me that it was dry. Since it was moist when I ate it after cutting the corners off, the only thing that I can guess was that with it sitting out and air getting into the actual cake for so long, it dried it out a lot :-(

A week before the party, I had sent out an email telling everyone that this year we were going to dress in the colors of the team we were rooting for. So Saints would be black or gold (yellow would be fine too), and the Colts would be blue and white.

My cousin, Colt, Clay, and me were going for the Colts. My Grandma, my Mom, my Aunt and Uncle, and Robbie were rooting for the Saints.

Here is Colt (before I changed him into his colors) and my Grandma

Since I didn't have a blue shirt that was a real blue (I have turquoise, and I DO have a long sleeved blue shirt, but it is a sweater type material...way too hot), I decided to decorate my hair. I wore a black shirt (later ended up putting my turquoise shirt on), and put blue and white ribbons into my hair.

The sign that I made for the party.

Before everyone showed up and the game started, my Aunt and Uncle were dancing with Clay.

The table. My Mom made the centerpieces and the chocolate/white chocolate cookies.

My Grandma and Aunt Lisa

Emmitt Smith doing the coin toss

My cousin has 3 kids, so here is Clay playing with them.

Erin and Colt

As you can see, Colt was very interested in the game.

Erin and Clay playing in Clay's tunnel

Okay, before the game started, Robbie and I had everyone fill out a sheet. It was a contest that we were going to do. You had to guess how many total combined touchdowns, field goals, interceptions, fumbles, and the total combine score (with all these) there would be. There were a lot of good guesses, but there would only be 1 winner. And the winner was Aunt Lisa! Congrats! She made a guess for the total combined score of being 35 points. The total of the actual game was 48 points with Colts at 17 and Saints at 31.

Here is Robbie presenting Aunt Lisa with the "award"

Robbie and I made this "plaque" on the computer. Then we cut it out and pasted it to a piece of cardboard. Every year it will be passed onto the new winner! Something stupid, but fun!

The plaque says:

This prestigious award is presented to the contestant who completely annihilated all other players at the Annual Superbowl Bash hosted by the Girmans. Now for the next year, they shall hold the title of

Stat Master

To all who failed, better luck next year!

That night we made tacos for dinner. I didn't end up getting a picture of the tacos, but they turned out great! I also made a velveeta/rotel dip with tostitos chips to go with it. Simple but good. So that was this years Super Bowl Party! We had a great team! Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their first ever Super Bowl win since becoming a team 43 years ago!

Well although I haven't been getting much sleep, I have still been cooking. Other than the night that we had tacos at my Grandma's house, I have cooked every night in February so far. And since we didn't eat out that night, it still counts! So we are going on 8 days. And tonight I also cooked, but I will post more about that tomorrow since this blog is already long enough. Last night (Monday) I made a great meal! Normally I would make some sort of meat with this, but I decided to make it the main meal and pair it with a green salad. I made PW's Twice Baked Potatoes. I have made these before, and they are always a hit. I baked 3 potatoes, and we had leftovers for lunch today. Very good!

And here is my plate (I decided to give Robbie a break from me always capturing his plate :-)

There it is. My 8th night of cooking. I made PW's Chicken Parmigiana tonight. I will post my pictures and review on this one tomorrow along with what I am making for dinner tomorrow night.

Good night folks!

Comfort Food

There are not many things better than being with your family on a cold night and eating a good, comforting meal. Last night was one of those nights. Robbie had a hard day at work, and I was exhausted! Colt is still having trouble sleeping through the night on some nights, and lately, it has been wearing me down. I think that he is about to start cutting teeth or something though. So that could definitely be the cause. Since Clay was such an easy baby, good sleeper, and not a fussy teether, I knew that we were bound to have a baby that wasn't easy like Clay. And Colt is definitely proving that to be right. Don't get me wrong....he is definitely a good baby most of the time. And he is ADORABLE! And he is so sweet. But he is just fussier than Clay was. More demanding than Clay was. And not as good of a sleeper. Luckily I stay at home now and have the option of taking a nap when the boys go down for their nap.

So anyway. Last night was one of those "comfort food" nights. And it was great! I made the fried chicken tenders, and they turned out excellent! They were the best that I have made since learning how to fry chicken. Not only that, but I upped the cayenne pepper spice which made it that much better. And the spice didn't even phase Clay, so that was great too!

Here is my chicken batter before mixing it all in. You can see how much cayenne pepper I used. This dish looks huge, but it really was a small dish. I just zoomed in.

I also made the onion strings. For some reason, they didn't turn out as good as they normally do. I have made them before, and Robbie gave me a great review on those. But last night just wasn't my night for them, I guess. The only thing that I can think of was that I didn't have the oil hot enough. I don't have an oil/candy thermometer, so I test the oil by throwing a little flour in there. And I am guessing it just wasn't hot enough. I only used 1 whole onion (which still was a lot of strings), and only about 1/4 of them came out coated with the batter. The rest of the batter was just floating around in the pan instead of on the onions. I made a seperate flour batter to coat my onion strings with (I am weird when it comes to messing with raw chicken, so I wasn't going to use the same batter), and I used even more cayenne pepper. Robbie and I are all about the spice, and since I knew Clay wouldn't eat them, I spiced it up! And the batter turned out well on the ones that actually kept it on while frying.

This was my chicken frying up. The package made about 12 strips. So I was able to cook them 6 at a time which made it go by really fast.

Now I also said that I was going to pair this meal with a veggie for Clay. So I made one of those steamer veggie bags of broccoli with cheese. And the broccoli came out really mushy. So Clay wouldn't eat it. And I wasn't impressed either. So Clay got chicken tenders and cheetos, and I ended up making Robbie and me a box of Velveeta shells and cheese. Now Clay won't eat mac and cheese either. He is weird. I know. So while this definitely wasn't a healthy meal at all, it turned out really well. But like I said yesterday, I usually don't do 2 fried foods in 1 meal either.

Robbie's plate

So tonight is our 2nd Annual Girman Superbowl Party!!! I am very excited about it! It is Superbowl 44 Colts vs Saints. I think that everyone that is coming is going for the Saints. And while I like the Saints, I prefer for the Colts to win. So I am going for the Colts! I am the ONLY one going for the Colts. Last year, Robbie and I were the only 2 that went for the Steelers (and they WON!!!), and it was so much fun having a rivalry between everyone. It just makes football that much more fun. I think there are going to be 7 adults and 5 kids. So that should be fun! I have made Superbowl signs to put up, and I requested that everyone wear the colors of the team they are rooting for. So I am excited! And I will still be cooking! I am making tacos!!!

Pepsi-Ranch Pot Roast = Happy Family

If you have never tried this, you don't know what you're missing out on! My friend Destiny gave me this recipe several months ago, and it has been a favorite with my family ever since! I also do a pot roast gravy to go on top of the roast! Here are the recipes...

Ingredients:

2-3 lb roast (I use a chuck tender roast)

1 small bag of baby carrots, washed

about 5 or 6 medium sized potatoes (peeled, cut, and washed)

1 packet (10 oz) of dry ranch seasoning mix

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

pepsi (16.9 oz)

Directions:

Put your roast in the bottom of a large crock pot. I put meat tenderizer on it before I put it in. I didn't do that last night, and it turned out good and tender still. Then put your potatoes around and on top of the roast. On top of the potatoes, put the carrots in. Then put the cream of mushroom soup on top. I usually spread it out over the carrots, but I'm sure you can just dump it all in in a clump on top. Then put the dry ranch mix on top of all of that. Then pour the whole 16.9 oz bottle of pepsi in the crock pot. It usually fills my crock pot up about 1/2 of the way. Then I fill the rest with water. Now I have filled the entire crock pot up with pepsi only, and Robbie and I both agreed that it was a little overwhelming. But 1/2 pepsi and 1/2 water gives it the best taste! Cook on low for 8 hours.

POT ROAST GRAVY

Ingredients:

3 cups of the roast liquid out of the crockpot (after the full 8 hours of cooking)

1 cup of milk

2 heaping tbsp of flour

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, put the 3 cups of liquid over medium heat to boil. While waiting for that to boil, mix the milk and flour together until there are no lumps. Once the liquid comes up to a bubble, slowly pour the milk/flour mix into the liquid stirring constantly. Then just stir until desired thickness.

This is THE BEST pot roast recipe EVER! I promise you that you will love it once you give it a try!!! And when you make it, this is what you get :-)

A yummy pot roast

And this yummy gravy

And a VERY happy husband! (and no, this wasn't taken last night. But had I taken a picture, this is what it would have looked like :-)

Tonight I am making this and this. Now normally I wouldn't make 2 fried foods in 1 meal. But I have a 1/2 gallon buttermilk that I bought specifically for these 2 recipes, and I didn't know that it expires tomorrow. So I need to use it up. So I am going to make both of these, and then I will pair it with a vegetable. Clay won't eat the onion strings, so he will only get the chicken tenders and the veggie. So that is good :-)

The yummy deliciousness in my kitchen!

So I have not blogged about my cooking challenge these last few days, but don't worry, I have been cooking! The only day that I did NOT cook was Wednesday and that was because we were at my Grandma's house, and she ended up asking us to stay for dinner that night. BUT, the whole idea of the cooking challenge was for us to get out of the habit of eating cold sandwiches or ordering take out. So we still got a good, hot meal, and it was FREE! So Monday night we had this. Then Tuesday night I made my broccoli/rice/cheese dish and chicken sandwiches. And here are the pictures from that night and my recipe for it. Now I origionally got my rice dish out of my Kraft magazine that I get in the mail. But it had chicken in it, and you had to cut it up raw (which I do NOT like to do at all), and then it had very little cheese in it. Robbie said that he liked the rice part, but not the chicken. So I decided that I would tweak it to make it something that we would enjoy. I was doing the recipe (without the chicken) exactly as they had it, and it still wasn't right. So I played around with it, and this is what I came up with. Now, used to we made this as the only thing for dinner. But now Robbie likes to pair it with a chicken sandwich. So my measurements are for 1 big pot of this stuff. And that would make enough for us to have dinner that night, and plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. The next time I make it, I am going to cut the recipe in 1/2 though since we do pair it with stuff.

The ingredients:

32 oz (low sodium) chicken broth ( I have made it with regular sodium, and it is just fine too.

10-16 oz of frozen chopped broccoli (depends on how much broccoli you want)

16 oz velveeta cheese (I use the kind that is made with 2% milk)

4 cups of instant white rice

salt to taste (I don't salt it until after I put it on the plate)

Directions:

Pour the 32 oz of chicken broth into a pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. While you are waiting for that to boil, put the broccoli in a microwave safe bowl, put water in it (I just eyeball it). Cover it with a paper towel and put in the microwave for about 6-7 minutes. Less or more depending on the power of your microwave. Then I take a whole block (32 oz) of velveeta, cut it in 1/2, then I put 1/2 of it back in the fridge, and cut the 16 oz into about 1" cubes. Then measure out 4 cups of instant white rice into a bowl. Once the broth starts to boil, then pour in the rice. Stir it in really well. But don't stir very long because you don't want it to sit on the heat long. Then once it is stirred in with the broth, add the broccoli. Mix it in. Then add the velveeta. Just stir it in enough to get it all off the top, and then take the pan off the heat. Let it sit (without stirring) for about 5-10 minutes) It will stay hot, and the heat will melt the cheese. Once the 5 or 10 minutes is up, then stir it in well. Don't try to get the cheese to melt immediately because it will get watery and thin. If you wait the 5-10 minutes, it will be really thick and yummy!

Like this!

Then pair it with a chicken sandwich (we use the Tyson frozen chicken patties on a honey wheat bun)

Here is Robbie's plate

So Wednesday night was the tacos at my Grandma's house, and I didn't get a picture of those. Then last night I made a tator tot casserole. Again, I got this recipe from the Kraft magazine, and there was nothing I needed to do. It was yummy from the beginning!

Ingredients:

Package of frozen tator tots

Mixed frozen veggies

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 lb hamburger meat

1/2 of a large onion, diced

1/4 cup of milk

grated cheese

Directions:

In a skillet over medium heat, put your onion in the pan until it is transluscent. Then add your hamburger meat and cook until it is done. While it is cooking, take your cream of mushroom soup and put it in a bowl. Add the 1/4 cup of milk to it, and stir until well blended. Once your meat is done, drain the fat off of it. Then in a 8x11 glass baking dish, put the meat mixture in and spread it over the bottom. Then pour the mushroom soup/milk mixture over it and spread it out evenly. On top of that, pour out the frozen mixed veggies to form a layer of those. Then add however much grated cheese you want. I use just enough to cover the veggies. Then on top of that in a single row, line up your tator tots. And just do single rows of the tator tots. Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees and bake for 40 minutes. Once it is done, you have this!

YUMMY!

So there is what we have had this week. Tonight I am doing Destiny's pepsi-ranch pot roast. I will post a recipe along with pics tomorrow!