Sunday Dinner

Sunday I felt like cooking. I love to cook but these days I just have very little time to play in my kitchen. However with no major plans on Sunday I made one of my favorite meals. Lemon Garlic roasted chicken, with lemon fingerling potatoes and a butter lettuce salad with a yummy Beurre Blanc Sauce. I actually use the recipe from Tyler Florence's book Dinner At My Place however the link from Time is the same one. For dessert I wanted to try a new recipe and make a Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. Oh my goodness it was so delicious, I have to thank Aimée over at Under the Highchair for posting such a great recipe. I've made the cupcakes before and they are always a big hit but they just don't compare to this gooey chocolaty cake.

DH had to run a few errands and was a sweetheart so he stopped off at the store to pick up a few thing for me. So for dinner instead of having the lemon garlic chicken i had planned we had a lemon garlic turkey breast....because "they looked the same." Hey I'm not going to complain though it turned out great and I didn't have to go to the store.
Going into the oven


Beurre Blanc Sauce
Everything is better with butter
Something is wrong with my flash but here's the finished salad, those are shallots on the top
Ruggles hanging out
Usually this would be all served up fancy on white platters, however I just didn't feel like washing that many dishes.
Just about done baking, I would have taken finished product pictures however we had a slight mishap. Dh so graciously offered to help me get the loaf out of the pan......so half the loaf came out and half didn't =) no worries though all crumbled up makes a great bottom to vanilla ice cream. Next time more cooking spray and less help.

7 Months and Mobile

Just a short update on Ruggle's. He is now 7 months old and has six, yes SIX teeth. Which makes finding teething foods hard since he can break most of them. He is a very good crawler but is covered in bruises. He's at that stage where he's pulling up and standing but lacks balance so he bumps his head on everything. Below are his 6 months photos, these aren't the cutest of the ones we had taken but DH hasn't scanned the others in yet. I just want to point out that he is a strawberry, at least one of my kids inherited something from me.






The girls also had there Kinder school photos taken. Snowdrop swears that the photographer told her not to show her teeth.....hummm

I Heart My Freezer

These day's I find myself with no time and in the evenings when things are the busiest no energy to make dinner. With the kids wanting help with homework, and the baby underfoot spending time over the stove just isn't practical. Surfing the web I found a wonderful idea called Freezer cooking. It's a life saver for me, and kind of fun. Healthy to because now you can avoid those days where you are DREADING making dinner, so you give in spend money and get fast food.

Here's what you need :
a little pre- planning
2 hours time in the kitchen
box of large freezer ziplock bags
black permanent marker
14-30 yummy recipes
your favorite music in the background

If you plan to cook for 2 weeks ( 14 meals ) then you can probably shop at your local grocery store. Find one that is having a sale on meats since this tends to be the where the bulk of your money goes. If you plan on cooking more than 14 meals then I would shop at your local wholesale grocer like Sam's or my favorite Costco. If you buy in bulk then the next time around that you cook you already have a pantry full of the staples and only need to pick up the fresh things like veggies, meats and so forth. What I do is pick 7 meals and then make 2 of everything, saves time and brain power. I also write is all down on a calendar and then I never have to think about what to make I just rotate several meal plans and I have the shopping lists all ready.

What you are doing pretty much is doing all the prep work for your meals in one day. I buy a pack of 12 pork chops each ziplock bag receives 4 chops ( since I cook for 4, needless to say if you are cooking for 2 you can make several more meals with 12 chops ) I label each bag, BBQ pork, Honey baked, Orange chicken, Wine and Herb Chicken and so on. Then you either make your marinades up and pour them in or you store bought marinades. Then you freeze them, when you are ready you thaw out your bag the night before and then all you have to do is pop it in the oven and poof done. You can precook your meal like the quiche's or the meatloaf, but I like to just freeze everything and then bake it when its time to eat.

There are a few tricks and tips that I have learned the hard way. One make sure you freeze your bags with NO air in them to avoid that nasty freezer burn taste. Two make sure you freeze them flat, sometime you will have to reverse the way you lay the bags to achieve this. Three lay a paper towel in between each bag, no matter how hard you try the bags always have some moisture so when you go to pull a bag out instead of one you get all. They will all freeze together and it is no fun to separate them. Four get a friend interested, it's a lot more fun to swap recipes and do the work together. Five start by making just 2 weeks, if you begin by trying to make all 30 your first time out you might be a little overwhelmed.

Here are my fav sites for Freezer Recipes
Once A Month Cook

Frugal Mom - Chicken

Frugal Mom- Beef


Martha Stewart has several on her site that are so tasty



These two sites are great for tips
Mom's Budget
Frugal Mom - 7 steps


Now about side dishes, usually I like to serve a salad or a veggie along with meat. You can pre-make your veggies especially if you like organics, or are trying to save money. I however like to save time so I usually splurge and purchase frozen veggies that I can steam in the microwave. I try and stay away from anything canned, not only do they have that "can" taste they are also high in sodium.

Cooking this way lets me walk in the door after the girls skate practice or gymnastics or after a long day with the baby teething and all i do is pop something in the oven and put a salad in a bowl. Go grab yourself a few yummy recipes and give it shot, let me know how it goes.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Today was our annual Pumpkin Patch day. We've been going now every autumn for the past 4 years.

2007

2008

2009

2010

DH and Rugglebug

When Life Get's In The Way

Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed being a mom, wife,chauffeur,cook, maid, construction worker, accountant, laundress. It's just so much and these days it tends to be too much. Here is a day in the life of me, lets call it a Monday.

6 a.m - wake up, get dressed, get baby up and give a bottle, let dogs out, let dogs back in and feed them. Change baby and dress him, put him in the high chair, and feed him breakfast ( usually apple banana oatmeal )

7 a.m - Wake up the girls, start there breakfast. Get out there lunches, and eat something myself. Finish whatever I need to, to get myself dressed and ready to walk out the door. Tell the girls to hurry up and eat and kiss there daddy goodbye. Make sure they brush there teeth, and give them each a ponytail. Load the car ( takes me about 3 trips I am always forgetting things.)

7:45 - Take the girls to school, pop open a red bull as I pull away from the school and head to the gym.

8 a.m - 9:45 a.m - Drop the Ruggle's off in the gym daycare and then 1 hour of cardio and then weights. I actually love this time to listen to whatever I want on the radio and just be.......

10 a.m - Now either I am walking into the grocery store and picking up grocery's or running odd errands or I am just getting home. Lets say I just get home, I sneak a sleeping baby into his crib and tip toe out to let the dogs out and load the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, and make our bed. Then I take 30 mins to answer emails and write my sister. Until Ruggles wakes up I try and do quiet things around the house. Today I am trying to finish painting our bathroom. If i haven't mentioned it yet we are remodeling our house.

1 p.m - Ruggles wakes up and gets a change and a bottle, then another feeding of pears broccoli and peas. He plays around the floor while I fold 3 loads of laundry.

2:30 p.m - Put the baby in the car and leave to pick up the kids from school. Sit in a car line till the little ones are released and then head back home.

3:15 p.m - 4:30p.m - Get the kids a snack, and look through there backpacks for there homework. Get them started with there homework, and then make there lunches for the next day. Help them while feeding the baby another serving of bananas.

4:30 - 5 is free time for all, if the homework is done the kids can play and if the baby isn't fussy then he crawls around after them while I get the girls clothes laid out for the next day.

5-5;45 p.m - make dinner, DH gets home and is surrounded by kids all dying to see him. It's so funny if he doesn't pick up Ruggles right away, the baby gets so mad and just screams until he get's DH's attention.

6-7p.m is dinner and clean up, then I get the girls into the shower, teeth brushed, and stories read and 7:30 p.m is bedtime. Hopefully the baby is ready for bed to and goes right to sleep ( on a good day). Afterwords I get the bottles and breakfast dishes ready for the next day. Grab a shower and crash for the night.

Now on Wednesday night the girls have Ice Skate Practice and Thursday's they have gymnastics. Saturday mornings they have Ice skating lessons. I think we are going to have to quit something, I asked the girls what they want to stop and it looks like Gymnastics is getting the hatchet. They adore Ice Skating and they are doing really well. In two weeks they have there Advance Tot test and if they pass they get to move on to Pre-Alpha. They are super excited. This is a pic of the girls in one of there ice skating costumes. They won for best costume. =)

I mentioned above that our house is "under construction." We want to sell and move, but before we do our home needs some....updating. I've taken some before photos and some after. However I do not want to post them until everything is finished. Which to me feels like it is taking forever. We finished painting the kitchen, living room, dining room, and the halls. We started on the master bath and ran into a few problems, the original guys did an awful job on the taping and bedding I mean the walls have a ton of flaws and I really do not want to float the walls. So trying to figure out how to hide the flaws without too much work. These days I just don't have the time especially since Ruggle's has learned how to crawl. I think I have decided to just use a faux finish paint, maybe sponging. Anyway after we finish that and DH's office I'm going to stain the bathroom cabinets and kitchen ones. We also have plans for new kitchen counter tops, and new floors. We already have the tile and a date to lay it, the end of November.

I have totally fallen in love with this Blog : Young House Love It's this young couple who blog about all the remodeling they have done in there house. They really inspire me and they have the best ideas! I also really like this one I Heart Organizing Now if I could only do things like that.

Cleaning Green

We have a new addition to our family,Dexter. Yes, DH named him after a serial killer. Now come on is that the face of a killer or a cuddle bug?

He is a pure German Shepherd of course, and he's HUGE. Only 12 weeks and already 21lbs, he's also a "silver," because his dad is totally white. We call him a BEAST, because he really is one.


Our house has gotten a tad bit full these days. =)







It's also messy and smells like wet dog on rainy days like we're having today. That is why I love my vacuum, it's a bulky one a Rainbow BUT it has a great air filter. It does wonders for DH's allergies and to keep the house smelling clean.

However the vacuum can't do it alone, a friend introduced me to Method and now I am in love. Have you heard of them? I buy mine from Target but they are sold all over like Albertsons, and Lowes. They claim to be a Clean, Green, Safe, cleaning product. They are cheaper than several of the leading brands and work great. Yesterday DH brought me home a bottle of antibacterial bathroom cleaner that smells like spearmint. Who knew a bathroom cleaner could make me so happy.
They have a new kitchen one out too that smells like lemon verbena, I can't wait to try it. What "green" product do you clean with?