zach n kali

I love baby dedications; I think I cry every single time.  We were incredible blessed yesterday to dedicate our sweet Baby M to God before our church family.  Our family joined us at church and we were more than excited.  But in the true spirit of unpredictability, M decided that he didn't like being on stage, and he screamed the entire time.  Who would have thought that my sweet mellow child would be the one to absolutely freak out during his dedication?  Not me.  I was flustered, embarrassed, and pretty upset.  You have an idea of how something will go and you want to remember the day a certain way, and it's upsetting when things don't go as you imagine. After the service, our pastor came up to us and said the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth.  I was waiting for the inevitable, "Well... that was something else..."  But instead, with a huge smile on his face, he said "That was cool".  I'm sorry, what?  Cool?  He screamed the whole ti

For all you new and future parents out there who thought that you would feel more rested after the baby sleeps through the night, I have great news for you: I have never been so tired in my life!  Once these sweet darlings discover how to walk and stand, you have to stay four steps ahead of them.  It's 1:30pm, and just this morning M has unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper, emptied the trashcan into the bathtub, eaten (and immediately spit out!) candle wax, spilled milk on the floor, emptied a box that I'm trying to pack three times, hidden my cell phone, sprayed himself with Cherry Blossom body spray, smeared you-know-what all over the changing table, and since it's quiet right now, I can only assume he's into something else.  And all that with a nap in the middle.  Some of you might be picturing my son as an out-of-control-undisciplined little maniac, but the truth is that he's a very well-behaved baby.  But he has discovered the freedom that comes with walkin

The cupboards are looking pretty empty!  But with the addition of bell peppers, heavy cream, and zucchini, we were able to pull together some tasty meals last week.  Using peanut butter and peanuts pulled out of some trail mix (in my opinion, there are always too many peanuts in relation to everything else) we enjoyed chicken satay with peanut sauce.  The next night we had coconut flour pancakes, using peanut oil for the canola, and homemade vanilla-rum syrup.  I made brown-rice pasta with vodka cream sauce, thanks to the canned tomatoes and garlic in my pantry, and on Thursday I used our plain yogurt with spices to marinate chicken skewers that we ate with con tortillas.  On Friday we adventured out to Dang Crabs! for some good ol' cajun food.  What I love about Groupon is that they often encourage you to try things that you normally never would. For me, this was a crab boil.  Thankfully the owner of the restaurant came over and gave us an awesome tutorial on how to properly attac

Before you have even opened your eyes, you just know that it's going to be "one of those" days.  You're still tired, but the baby's crying and the yard service started half and hour ago.  The weather forecast says it's going to be over 100 degrees today. You go into the kitchen and before the cheerios even have a chance to hit the tray, they are on the floor along with some pasta that you missed during last night's cleanup.  You just want to go back to bed.  It's definitely going to be one of those days. But this is where you have a choice.  It's easy to let the morning rule the rest of the day.  It's easy to assume that a bad morning will lead to a bad day.  Or you can stop and consider each minute a chance to start over.  Mine changed with a hug after breakfast.  It continued with a decision to be productive and get something done that I would feel good about.  It changed when I sat down with a cup of good coffee to return calls and emails.

Things are getting a bit more interesting.  Today it was rainy and cold - a rarity here in southern California, so I decided to make soup for dinner.  I forget that leftovers are not a common occurrence in a house with growing boys, so I had to revamp my dinner plan.  Raiding the fridge and cupboards I found just what I needed.  That's right, dinner tonight was made out of chicken broth, an onion, dried thyme, mozzarella cheese, and a tortilla.  I call it "Pretend French Onion Soup".  Thank goodness for a Crock-Pot.  Since I don't eat beef and I can't eat french bread, tonight provided the perfect opportunity to try out a classic.  I used chicken broth instead of beef stock and baked a tortilla brushed with olive oil until it was nice and crispy.  I can't tell you what real French Onion Soup tastes like, but this seemed like a decent imitation.  For tomorrow I have some tomatillos that are begging to be made into salsa verde, so tacos are on the menu.

Last night I didn't really feel like cooking dinner.  But since I'm always in the mood to bake, I decided we would have strawberry bread (I didn't have any over-ripe bananas on hand) and I would cook up some bacon that my brother had left in our freezer for my boys.  I'm thankful for a husband who doesn't always expect a meat-and-potatoes dinner and for a steady supply of spaghetti-os for my little one. But tonight I need to cook.  Last week I finally hit my limit for eating oatmeal in the morning, and I asked Zach to pick up a box of Chex cereal for me.  He came home with three, telling me that it would be much more interesting to mix and match them instead of being stuck with straight rice or corn Chex.  And then for fun he added a box of honey corn Chex.  That one I polished off quickly, but I am now stuck with two family size boxes of Chex.  Thankfully I have a recipe for a rice and chicken tetrizini that calls for rice-cereal crumbs on top!  So the chicken

And so it begins.  Last week's meals were all planned out and shopped for.  Now is where it gets interesting.  Dinner tonight was grilled chicken sausage (leftover from pizza) with potato salad.  I love potato salad because I always seem to have potatoes and I can usually find substitutes for any of the required ingredients.  My no-fail Bobby Flay recipe calls for white wine vinegar and jalapenos, but I used red wine vinegar and red bell peppers.  I have also used pickle relish and celery in the past.  My main problem was that I didn't have any mayonnaise, but I wasn't going to break my challenge and go out and buy something I would never use.  So I decided to make my own!  Eggs, olive oil, canola oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, pepper, voila!  I have kept my word and dinner was a success.  The rest of the week may be interesting, but thankfully there are plenty of eggs in the fridge for my other no-fail option: the omelet!