Happy 7th Birthday, Lauren

My little NICU baby turned 7 years old on March 11th.

(If she would have been born on her due date she wouldn't have a birthday until April 4th )

(6lbs, 1oz. born at 36 weeks)

These days she's much more interested in $100 bills than C-Pap.

(Thanks Great Grandpa Bob!)

In honor of her 7th birthday Tyler and I made her a cake while she was at school. I don't bake so this was a big step for me. I went all out and made it a double layer cake.

After cutting off the domed tops the cake ended up pretty small.
Stacked and Iced

Then it was Tyler's turn.

He added the decoration.

The birthday girl.

(the plate above the cake holds the chopped up dome pieces)

And finally, it's present time.

Tyler got her a Zhu Zhu pet carriage set.

(which he told her about before she opened it)

She also got a pink DS!

(which Tyler also told her about before she opened it)

(Word of Advice: Don't take a 4 year old birthday shopping with you.)

Remember when your Mom made you pose with each of your opened birthday presents?

(I think she really likes this Barbie DS game.)

She loves to draw.

(Art Academy)

Zhu Zhu Pets

(good thing she got a DS!)Make Your Own Jewelry Set

(not pictured: She also recieved $30 birthday money and bought herself the Zhu Zhu Pet: Carriages and Castles DS game. Thanks GG!)

I love you Lauren...seven years strong!

What Are The Odds?

What Are The Odds that my handsome, manly, can-fix-anything husband goes out of town for two days and in those two days the house falls apart? I like to think that in a pinch I can pretty much handle anything. Sadly, not so. (It turns out though, I do have the ability to ask for help. (Who knew?!) Many thanks to my trusty and always helpful neighbor Mr. Buddy.)

What Are The Odds that as Matt was leaving the house for his business trip to Alabama, the garage door opener started to make a strange sound? A few hours later it made an even stranger sound and broke. A part came off the motor and the chain fell off its tracks. My garage door did not open or shut on its own anymore. My car was still in the garage and the door wouldn't stay open far enough for me to pull it out. I called Mr. Buddy over to hold it open so I could back out. (He then took the motor apart to let me know what was wrong with it. Long story short...we'll be buying a new entire opener very soon.)

Even though I had to park outside and we had to use our front door to enter and exit (who does that?) we made due.

What Are The Odds that the very next day I would have to call Mr. Buddy to help me again? This time, our house alarm started acting up. We have it set so whenever a door opens or closes we hear a chime.

Later that day I noticed when I opened the front door I didn't hear the chime. No big deal I thought, Matt will be able to fix it when he gets home. Well twenty minutes later I heard the chime go "ding-dong, ding-dong..." repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly and my blood pressure started to rise. I punched a bunch of buttons on the keypad to try to turn the chime off but that only armed and immediately set off the house alarm. So now not only did I have the "ding-dong" repeating but I also had the house alarm siren going off for the whole neighborhood to hear. (The cancel code did not work.)

Amidst all the alarms, I called Matt and he told me I needed to clip a wire to turn it off. I was afraid of electrocuting myself (which Matt told me there was no chance of) so I called Mr. Buddy once again and asked him to come over and clip the wire. He disconnected a few wires and my house was finally silent again.

Seriously, What are the Odds?

And finally, What are the Odds that I did not like the dinner I made today? I made Chicken Souvlaki Pitas with Tahini Sauce and I must say I did not care for the tahini sauce. Maybe it needed more salt? Feel free to try it and tell any changes you make to the recipe.
Tonight I'm sleeping with one eye open...

Odds Are something strange will happen. =)

PS. My baby girl turns SEVEN YEARS OLD tomorrow.

Picture Day

Today was Picture Day.

Lauren had "Spring Pictures" and Tyler had "Cowboy Day Pictures."

Even though it was only in the 50s this morning I sent Lauren to school in a skirt and t-shirt.

Ahhh...the LOVE!

I tried to get Tyler to smile for me but to no avail.

Even without the smile I think he looks pretty cool.

I took about six pictures of him this morning. When he did smile (when I made him laugh) he immediately turned his back to me. I guess I'll just have to wait until the school pictures come back. He told me he smiled for those.

the little bugger

Dinner tonight was

Chickpea Chili

This crockpot meal was tasty and very filling. It made 8 servings which is okay because I have an always hungry Mr. Mike living across the street. If you don't have a hungry Mr. Mike then you might want to halve the recipe.

The kids had a modified dinner full of left-overs

(cheese quesadilla, chopped chicken and veggie pizza

along with the chickpea chili)

I hear we could get up to 4 inches of rain tomorrow. I'm kind of excited for the storm as long as there is no severe weather (aka tornados) involved. Umbrellas Up!

Meyer Lemons

Tonight's dinner revolved around the Meyer Lemon. When I made the weekly menu I planned on using a substitution (1/4c. Meyer lemon juice = 3 T. lemon juice + 1 T. orange juice + 1/2t. sugar.) I didn't think my local grocery store would have them in stock (heck, I've never even heard of them before this March 2011 issue of Cooking Light.) I was very happy to be proven wrong. Kroger had two bags.

Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata and Roasted Asparagus with Browned Butter

from Cooking Light, March 2011

WW plus points: 5 + 3 = 8

(the links to the recipes are from a Google search since I didn't want to type them out myself)

(many thanks to the bloggers who did type them out)

The chicken was AWESOME.
Matt's exact words were, "Babe, this is awesome."
Lauren ate her chicken and asparagus in 2 minutes flat. She then had 2 more servings of asparagus and also an entire Meyer lemon cut into wedges...and some grapes.
Tyler told me he thought his dinner was "interesting" (which is what I taught the kids to say if they don't like it...sounds better than "disgusting" right?) but he ended up eating most of his dinner.
I thought the asparagus was good but a little overkill on the oil and butter. It's drizzled with oil and roasted and then drizzled again with browned butter. Next time I'll just steam the asparagus and only add the browned butter, salt and pepper...no olive oil needed.


Lauren made a comment today that made Matt and I laugh. Oh how we love their naivete, innocence, youth and whatever the word is that I'm trying to think of!

Anyway, she was playing with her Zhu Zhu pets and made a castle for them. She told Matt that they had a "horse-field around them." (force-field)

And not to leave the boy out...
Whenever Tyler sneezes he always blesses himself. "Bless you," he says. When he sneezes I always say, "bless you" as well. When I do this he gets upset and tells me I don't do it right. I'm not supposed to say Bless You since he's the one who sneezed. We've gone back and forth on this and I'm just going to let it be.

Whole Wheat Pizza with the Works

Lunch today was an eye opener. While running errands (buying stuff for Lauren's 7th birthday party next weekend) we went to Panera Bread and I thought I chose a healthy meal from the menu. 1/2 a Greek Salad and 1/2 a Sierra Turkey Sandwich. I got home and looked them up by Weight Watchers points and found out I ate a 21 point lunch. (That's more than half of my daily points.)

After splurging on lunch I was very happy to take it easy with a healthy dinner.

Whole Wheat Pizza with the Works
(slightly adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, Eat Well, Lose Weight cookbook)

1 recipe pizza dough
2T tomato paste
1/2 cup tomato based pasta sauce or pizza sauce
1/2 6oz. pkge turkey pepperoni
1 1/2 c. thinly sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 of a small green sweet pepper, sliced into strips
1/4 c. chopped onion
1c. shredded mexican cheese blend

1. Prepare Pizza dough.

Pizza Dough:
In a small bowl combine 1 package active dry yeast and 2/3 c. warm water. Let stand 5 min. Stir in 1 T. honey and 1 T. olive oil.
In a lg bowl combine 3/4 c. whole wheat flour, 1/4c. cornmeal, and 1/4 t. salt. Stir in yeast mixture. Stir in as much of 3/4 to 1c. all-purpose flour (APF) as you can with a wooden spoon.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining APF to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total.) Shape dough into a ball. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30-45 minutes.) Makes enough for 1 pizza. Punch down dough; let rest 10 min. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 12-inch circle.

2. Preheat a pizza stone in a 425 degree oven. Transfer dough to stone . Slightly build up edges and prick dough all over with a fork.
3. Bake crust 8-10 min. or until lightly browned. Spread tomato paste and sauce on partially baked crust. Top with turkey pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and onion.

4. Sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and edge of crust is browned. Makes 8 servings.

I had a half a serving of the pizza and thought it was good. The pizza crust definitely tasted on the healthy side (whole wheat flour taste) but the toppings made up for it.

I also made up a big batch of soup tonight. I will eat this for lunch all week long. Tasty, filling and oh so spicy!! Only 1 WWplus points too!

Mexican-Inspired Vegetable Soup

We Are Going Granola

Before I get to the meat and potatoes...I mean greens and browns...of this post check out Lauren's latest photo artwork.
She had her Littlest Pet Shops line up and pose for a photo and then she decorated it with a border and some stamps and of course, her signature. She's pretty proud of her masterpiece.


And now for the breaking news. We are going granola.
We (I) started to compost today. I've been wanting to start one for awhile (years?) but for some reason have been too intimidated. After asking my Facebook friends for advice I've decided to give it a go.

I found a bucket (with a tight lid) to keep in the house. Anytime I have compostable kitchen scraps I will throw them in there. Every evening I will dump the scraps into my outdoor compost bin.

lime peels, tomatillo peels, onion peels etc. etc.

For my compost bin I decided to start out small. I took a generic Rubbermaid container and kindly asked the hubby to neatly drill some drainage/air holes in it.

I filled it with 6 inches of shredded newspaper and recycle paper and added some stray leaves I found in the garage.

I'm ready to get serious now.

I tossed in my kitchen scraps...

stirred it up and added some water. Just enough water to moisten but not too much that everything was floating around.

Then I put the lid on and hopefully right now it is doing its compost magic. Time will tell.
(My friend Claudine suggested this website to guide me in starting my compost. I pretty much followed it word for word.)
And hoo boy are we going granola! I'm also going to attempt a square foot garden this year based on Mel Bartholomew's book, All New Square Foot Gardening which I bought last week.
Matt has aready built me my four square box.

And we've also bought the mix we need to plant the garden. Now we wait until it is warm enough to plant my first ever garden.

Although I have officially gone granola, have no fear because I will still continue to shave my legs (for the time being.)

*wink*

WOW and a Weekly Menu and a WOW

Lauren likes to play with my camera. Yesterday, she took a picture of her name on her brand new birthday chair (thanks Grammy)...

and then somehow turned it into this while only using the camera.

She knows more about my camera than I do.

WOW!

Weekly Menu

(all but Sunday's pizza and Wednesday's pasta are from Cooking Light, March 2011 issue)

I'll post links to the recipes if I find them. Perhaps I'll even take the time to photograph my dinners and post the recipes nightly. (perhaps...maybe...we'll see)

Sunday: Whole Wheat Pizza with the Works (from BH&G Eat Well, Lose Weight cookbook)

Monday: Meyer Lemon chicken Piccata & Roasted Asparagus with Brown Butter

Tuesday: Chickpea Chili & 1/2 Baguette loaf (from Kroger bakery)

Wednesday: Pesto Pasta (jarred pesto from the fridge + penne pasta from the pantry.) & the other 1/2 Baguette loaf (from Kroger bakery)

Thursday: Chicken Souvlaki Pitas with Tahini Sauce

Friday: Shrimp Pad Thai

Saturday: Out-N-In California Burgers (mine will be a boca burger) & freezer fries

Sunday: Pantry meal or left-overs

I'm getting hungry just posting this. Bring on the week of good eats.

And now the final WOW!

I've just posted 3 times in one day. WOW.