What We Eat - January

In January I was awesome with the whole "cooking at home thing". Not joking, I did great but by the time I remembered to take a picture we were done or it was gone or it didn't look as pretty as I thought it should, so next month I'll try and do better. For now, just know all this stuff was yummy.

Mexican Casserole



This recipe I stole from Brittney. I made it once and my girls love it. They eat more of this than anything else that I make. Like I warned, the picture isn't pretty but the food is awesome. I make it at least once a month and it's now a favorite.



1 lb. ground beef

2 pkgs Mexican Rice, prepared

1 can Black Beans, drained (babies love these, they try and pick them out of my food)

1 can Corn, drained

1-2 cans Pettite Diced Tomatoes (we use 2 because we love tomatoes)

1/2 c. Sour Cream

2 c. Mexican Cheese



I cook the ground beef and rice separate. I season the ground been with pepper, garlic (crushed) and diced onion. Sometimes a little seasoning salt. When the rice is done I add the beans, beef, corn, and tomatoes. I stir in the sour cream and 1 c cheese. Transfer to casserole dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. This feeds my family, including Amy and Spencer, and we always have enough for the girls and I to have lunch the next day.





Santa Fe Chicken



I got this recipe from Kraft Foods. The way they make it is a little bland so I've modified it and it's much better. I'll post the original recipe and then tell you what I added.


2 cups instant white rice, uncooked
1 can (19 oz.) black beans, drained, rinsed
1 yellow pepper, chopped (I used red cuz that's what I had)
1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups water
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
1/2 cup Thick 'N Chunky Salsa (I just use the kind we bottle every year)
1 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Shredded Four Cheese (I upped this to 2 c cheese. Not enough)



I added one can diced Green Chiles, this needs more flavor. I also seasoned with some salt and pepper along with some garlic and onions.


HEAT oven to 400°F.
MIX rice, beans and peppers in 13x9-inch baking dish. Combine soup, water and cilantro; pour evenly over rice mixture. (I just mixed it all together instead of layering, also mixed in 1 c cheese here).
TOP with chicken. Spoon salsa over chicken. (I think I might dice the chicken next time, make it more casserole like)
BAKE 35 min.; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 10 min. or until cheese is melted.



My family liked this with the modifications, the first time I made it things were pretty bland, definitly needed to spice it up a bit.





Rotini Casserole



We make this instead of spaghetti sometime because it's easier for the girls to pick up the noodles. I'm sure it's similar to things that everyone makes but I'll share anyways.



1 box Rotini , cooked

1 lb Ground beef, also cooked

season with pepper, seasoning salt, garlic, and onion

1 can Diced Tomatoes

2 c. Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 c. Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 (26 oz) can Spaghetti Sauce

I add additional Italian Seasonings to mine but I don't measure, just dash



Mix it together and bake for 20 minutes on 350. I cover so as not to get the top crispy, some people like that but it make for crunchy peices that babies can't chew well.



Yield: about 6



Grandma's Pancakes



My Grandma Jensen makes the greatest pancakes in the world. I'm all about breakfast so I love differend pancake and waffle and casserole recipes. This one is the greatest and I always double it so that I have mix for a couple days. My girls will eat this and now wont eat the box mixes. So yummy, I think that's what I'm making for dinner tonight.



1 c Flour

1/2 c Sugar

1 c. Milk

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 Egg



Mix together and cook on griddle until bubbles form. Flip. Enjoy

... and last but not least the world's greatest Chocolate Chip Cookies...

Town House Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 c. Shortening

1 c. Sugar

2 c. Brown Sugar

4 Eggs

4 1/2 c. Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 tsp. Salt

1 pkg. Mini Milk Chocolate Chips ( I like mini because then you get just the right amount of chocolate in every bite).

Cream eggs, shortening and sugars. Add in remaining ingredients, except chips. Mix well. Add chocolate chips. Spoon onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. No longer. I usually end up cooking mine just over 9 minutes because I don't want them too done.

Yield: about 4 dozen with some cookie dough left over for Handsome.

Well that's it. Next month I'll work on Pictures. For now, enjoy!

You May Have Laughed Had You Been Anywhere Near Me in Logan Last Night if...

1- You heard the doorman at the Hampton Inn ask me if my twins were Fraternal or Maternal?

2- You were standing by the ice cream machine at Sizzler when my gay cousins boyfriend walked up behind me and I said "Hey Ricco, you're Jordan's ... (insert awkward pause, short laugh).." and he says "Yeah!" (also awkward).

3- Noticed that every channel on Direct TV last night had the words "Discrete Shipping" written accross the bottom.

4- Saw that every channel also contained wording such as Brazillian Butts, Pole Dancing, Juicing with Jack, and/or Trojan Buzzer.

5-Heard my kids laughing as they rode the cart down the hallway with Grandpa at 11:00 at night.

6- Saw Josh, both babies and myself attempting to sleep in the same full size bed. Kyle and Andrea were in the next bed and I'm sure will be sleeping better tonight than they ever have. Let's just say that they angel babies weren't angels.

7- Woke up at 9:00 to Dan pounding on the hotel room door and felt a baby with a leaky diaper on my face.

8- Witness me taking a spoon away from Katie, that still had yogurt on it, and accidentally throwing it into my hair.

9- Being the oldest people (minus the parentals) with the loudest children at the student ward that Kyle and Andrea attend where people stare. A lot.

.... and last but certainly not least

10- Leaving the stinkiest diaper of the century on Kyle & Andrea's porch when we left because we forgot about it when we walked out. (Sorry about that guys, we meant to throw it away. Hopefully the cold will freeze the smell in with it! Love you!)

Some Randomness...

To catch you up...





Babies first birthday was Fun! Losts of presents, cake, and mess!





Christmas was Great! More present, less cake, and huge mess!





New Years was okay. We went to Josh's Parents for soup and then home for pork tacos (awesome).





I have thus far refused to get on the scale. I'm sure it's a ginormous amount that I would rather not deal with, nor would I like the hit to my self esteem so I refuse to see how much I gained. (Probably about 4-5 lbs.) So Josh and I have been talking about the fact that I would very much like to quit my job. I'm having a hard time with this because flying for free is amazing, the fact that usually I only end up working about 10 hours a week and it's in my house is really nice. But since Christmas I have been working an extreme amount of overtime plus my normal hours. While I appreciate that my paycheck is more than the .69 cents it was the week before Christmas, it just plain sucks. I hate it. My kids hate it (at least I think they do) and I have been so grumpy. Such a crappy way to end the year.



So the reason I'm spilling all of this info is because although the flight benefits are awesome and you cant beat working in the basement we've made a Unofficial New Years Resolution. If I can make the budget work with just him income and still live life then I can quit.



First place I look for extra money is in our food budget. Let me just say HUGE! Although I love to cook sometimes it's tough and we end up going out, more than we should, like 2-3 times a week. To add to that Josh stinks at packing a lunch, if I don't make it and pack it he doesn't take it and then he goes out to lunch. Let's just say the majority of our extra money goes to food.



Don't think that we don't save though. Josh is all about the budget, has been since we got married. It's just the "fun" money usually ends up in the "food" money.



So I've made a promise to myself that we cut back on eating out to once a week. Week one is going well. So far... no eating out for dinner; although we plan to on Saturday since we're going to Logan for the night.



To help me keep my plans to quit in order I've decided that I just need to cook everynight. I'm still giving myself the one night a week lee-way (I don't know how to spell that). The 10 gift cards we got for Christmas will help in this area (horray for Cafe Rio). The other thing is that my friend Brittney did these posts on her blog last year where she had a monthly email with pictures and recipes of some of the things that she cooked that month. I loved that post every month. So I will be attempting do something similar and post every month. Hopefully I can make it work and by the end of the year not have to have this job anymore.



Wish me luck....

I Almost Punched Him

A couple of weeks ago my Sister In Law, Ellie, got hit by a car in the parking lot of Fresh Market.

After my experience there on Monday, I think we both will be avoiding that parking lot.

My Grandma came down from Logan to visit for a couple of days this last weekend. She stayed with my parents but spent Monday and Tuesday with the girls and I.

(To be honest I think I wore her out to the point she wont be visiting for a while, but we'll see.)

I dragged her all over the place getting ready for the girls party. We went to the bank, to Walmart, Smiths, and Fresh Market. (Yes I needed all those different stores). On our last stop at Fresh Market I was there to get Maddie's medicine and my birth control. After the usual coversation with the pharmasist (we are on a first name basis because I'm the only lady that get's this medication and so he always remembers me.) about my girls and his holiday; we wander over for a donut (Love them) and proceed to the parking lot. I load Maddie in and then Grandma gets in while I load Katie.

As I'm closing her door I hear these footsteps behind me coming at me at a run. Right as I turn around, a mexican (excuse me for not asking his name...) guy is right there.

Now in my head this happens in slow motion... I pull back to give him my best right hook because who in their right mind runs full speed at someone in a parking lot unless they just stole something or were planning to steal something? No one, except this Mexican. Anyway, he's not carrying anything so I didn't think he had stolen anything and no one was chasing him so I figured he was planning to steal my purse (or me) and so I scream (loud), with all intent I almost punch when he stops (maybe a foot from my face) and ducks into the car next to me, who then takes off like a batt out of Heck.

What?

I really almost punched a stranger for running to his car?

Yep... It's a sign of the times.

Our Last 6 Months

I am aware that my blog has become severely neglected, and while I am sure that everyone has given up on waiting for me to post and I am at this point writing to no one, I don't care. Here is an overview of our lives in the last 5 months.

We went to Logan to visit Kyle and Andrea. (Love them). Made a stop at the Logan Temple and the duck pond where the girls had no idea why they should be excited about ducks, but I made a fool of myself anyway.

We went on a trip to Disney World with Allie and Aaron. Let me tell you, airports DO NOT accomodate people with kids. I was holding both babies while Josh was trying to take apart (yes dis-assemble) the stroller and get the car seats up, take out the laptop, empty the baby food jars and his pockets, explain the need for water (hello... two babies... enough said), only for me to get stopped by security because I was holding two babies, not just one (has no one heard of multiple children before?). It was a nightmare. We had fun at all the parks except for the pack of wipes to clean off my pants, purse, stroller, and both babies at Majic Kingdom day, and the huge amount of vomit all over me during Animal Kingdom Day, and the fact that we spent the night before coming home at Arnold Palmer Med. Center for Children with Madisyn because of her MCADD, and had to buy a ticket at the last minute on another airline because our flight was booked (oh the joy of flying Non-Rev) we had a great time.

'insert laugh'

We went hunting in October. The babies were there they were just napping during this photo. No one in our group got anything but we still had a fun time.



Babies learned that they need to share and don't like to.

We were bugs for halloween, just like the rest of the teen population in Salt Lake. Here I thought I was being original. Not hardly.

They learned to smile for the camara.

How to crawl and walk.

And that they love the lights at Temple Square.
We've had a great year so far and are looking forward to their first birthday next week.

Me vs. Poop

This morning started off just like any morning. Babies wake up, we change butts, we have breakfast, and we play.

During "play time" I started to smell something a little rank. I checked Kate ... nothin. Then I looked at Madisyn. Her innocent little face gave nothing away but the discoloration of her adorable pink jammies and the slight browm goop coming out the neck hole (yes... her neck) totally gave her away.

I knew before I even got her in her bedroom that this would be an official sacrificing of the onesie by way of cutting. I knew there was no way I was getting that off without spreading the crap. So as I cut off the onesie and proceed to wrap it up Madisyn smacks her belly (still covered in Poop) and then right to her face she goes... I know... yuck!

I proceed with the wet wipe bath and 1/2 a container later I decide I might as well just go for a regular bath. I sit Maddie down (I've done this tons of times and never had a ... well a... situation) and strip Katie. I walk to the bathroom which is right across the hall and run the water. Katie is in there with me all excited and Maddie is no where to be found. I walk out the bathroom and around the corner.

I wasn't looking at my feet, who looks at their feet when the walk? Anyway, I steped right into a small hill of poo. Yup, the whole foot.

And who do I have to thank for it...

Miss Madisyn Paige!

I give up!

Literally!

Done!

Poo - 1 Me - 0

P.S. Mom, I need to borrow the sham- 'poo'- er!

6 Month Pics

My Babies are 6 months old now. I can't believe how fast time is flying by, they are growing so fast. It's fun to watch them progress and discover new things everyday.