Being sick + a water overflow + a broken oven

Last week was a crazy week in our house!  If it wasn't one thing, it was another.  Let me quickly (hopefully) recap for you.

Valentine's Night, I had 2 of my girl friends and their kids over since all of our hubby's had to work.  Crappy right?  Well being a restaurant wife, I am very used to it.  This year, I decided to do something fun for me and the kids.  It was perfect.  We had wine, chocolate covered strawberries, the kids made a HUGE poster board card for the daddies, and they played.  Two of the big girls decided to spend the night with my big girls.  Saturday we went to make cookies, and our first batch burned and our second batch never really finished cooking.  Crazy right?  I wished I would have thought about that then.

Sunday I woke up with a major headache.  I toughed it out as long as I could before I decided to take a nap before the hubby went to work.  I slept close to 3 hours before I had to finally get up, and by then not only was my head still pounding, my throat was starting to hurt.  I made it through the night as best I could with all the kids, and I crawled in bed early.

Monday I got up to take the girls to school and I could hardly swallow.  My hubby sent me to the doctor before he had to go back to work for the day.  I ended up having strep.  BOO!!  The doctor gave me a shot and a prescription and sent me on my way.

I made it through the day with my two little ones, and went to pick up my meds and dinner before getting the older girls from school.  I figured pizza would be easy for me to make for the kids, and I got myself some tomato soup.  The big girls and Brayden hung out watching tv most of the afternoon, while Paisley and I napped.

I got up to "fix" dinner by throwing the pizza in the oven, and Maddi helped me by starting some laundry.  This is where things go majorly downhill for me.  The oven was not working (wished I would have thought about the cookies) and in return, not cooking the pizza.  I sent my hubby and text, and he offered to feed the kids BJ's pizza when he got off.  Life saver!!  I left the pizza in the oven to see how long it would take with the temperature reaching a staggering "warm" and it took well over 2 hrs!  Ugh!

In the mean time, Maddi went to go to my room, which is close to the laundry room and noticed water all over the floor.  I squished my way to the laundry room, and was greeted by a waterfall of water coming out of the washer.  The carpet was soaked and the laundry room was flooded with ice cold water.  I told the big girls to get towels to soak up the water on the carpet while I scooped water in the laundry room.  The girls took turns dumping out the water for me.  The towels didn't really help since there was so much water.

Luckily my hubby felt sorry for me being sick and all, and brought home the pizza for the kids, and went and picked up a shop vac from work and a carpet shampooer to help suck up the water.

The next day, I started feeling better, and we had a guy here to fix the washer (a tube came loose), a guy here to put out fans to dry out the carpet, and a guy here to fix the oven (a wire burned).  Our house was a mad house for a few days walking over fans, catching up on laundry, and having lots of workers come and go, but it all worked out, ya know $200 later.  But that's life I guess.

Taco Soup

I love soup and I love tacos, and so by default I love taco soup.  The recipe I use is so quick, easy and delicious.  I got the recipe from my old boss when we lived in Sherman, and I have tweaked it to my liking.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

Ingredients:

I lb. ground beef (I have used 93/7 and 85/15, so anything will work)
1 can sweet corn (I get no salt added)
1 can ranch style beans
1 can diced tomatoes (I get no salt added)
1 taco seasoning packet (I use low sodium versions)
1 dry ranch dressing packet
1 cup of water (optional)

Start by browning your ground beef and drain off grease.  In a big stockpot combine the rest of the ingredients (with their juices from the can) and start simmering.  Add your ground beef and simmer (stirring occasionally) for around 30 minutes.

Depending on how thick you like your soup, you could leave it as is or you can add in the water to thin it out some.  I like my soup with a "brothy" consistency so I add in the cup of water during the simmering process.

My girls and I like our tacos topped with cheese, so we sprinkle on a little cheese on the top of my soup, but that is up to you.

That is it!!  Quick and easy!

I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we do!!

 

Summer Visit Has Ended

It has been a crazy fun few weeks with my mother in law and step daughter, but sadly it has come to an end.  Marco is in the process of driving Veronica and Savannah home today.  Maddison and Gabriella decided to tag along for the road trip, so it is just me and the grumpy baby here at the house.

Here is a run down of their visit:

We swam a lot.

Marco and I got some date time in.

This isn't our date night picture, we forgot to take one.

 Brayden loved playing with Grandma and Savannah.

We celebrated Marco's birthday in style, at a hibachi, that we had to leave before they cooked our food, to take care of Brayden, who decided to swallow a coin.

We all had a great time these past few weeks, I just hate that they went by so fast!  Can't wait till next year!   

Leap Day

I hope everyone has enjoyed the extra day that we get every four years! 

So far today I have taken Ella to the doctor for her 5 year checkup (6 months late, but better than never), took her to get a milkshake for doing so good with the 4 shots she had to get, came home and napped while Ella and Brayden also napped, picked up Maddi from school and took the kids to Ross to buy the girls some new dresses.  It has been a great extra day for us so far!!

The weather is amazing here in Dallas TX!!  Can't complain about 70+ and sunny outside on an extra day!!  I think we need to get out of the house and head to the park, then order pizza for dinner!!  What a great way to end the day!!

What are you doing to make the most of the Leap Year??

Good day Sunday

I had a fabulous Sunday!

How about you??

Even though it started off way too early (Brayden never sleeps in when I want/get to), I managed to make the most of it! 

I woke my hubby up early (even though he had a late night at the restaurant and early for him is 10:15 btw) and he took me and Brayden out to breakfast at Denny's.  Brayden's naptime is anywhere from 10:45 to 11, so I wasn't sure how he would do.  When we got there, the front door was packed.  Luckily there was only a 15 minute wait, because Brayden became restless very fast.  Once we were seated, he was easily entertained by the colors and kids menu.  He did pretty good considering he was tired.  He loved trying to throw things off the table, make lots of noise by banging on the table/plate and yelling at the top of his lungs, and didn't really eat much.  The girls were at church with my mom and it is times like this that I really miss having them around to distract him.  He is lucky he is so darn cute, because it is hard to stay mad at him, especially when he throws in "momma" and "dadda" while yelling and then blows us air kisses.  He is just too much sometimes!!

Apparently, Denny's was too much for me to handle, because once I got Brayden laid down for his nap, I had a massive headache creep up on me.  Since Marco is working the night shift tonight, I was able to lay down and rest till he left. 

Once naptime was over and the girls were home, we hit the ground running.  We had to go to Office Depot to get a copy made of Ella's birth certificate (for soccer), we had to go get Ella some new tennis shoes (for soccer), we had to eat lunch, and we had to meet at a tennis court (for Ella's soccer practice) since the field was too wet. 

Ella was amazing at soccer!  She worked hard, and did exceptionally well when it came time to scrimmage with the other little girls.  I know that the season will be great, especially since her Daddy and her best friend's Daddy are her coaches!

After soccer practice, we had to make a grocery run for dinner, snacks, and Maddi's lunch stuff.  I spent way too much, but I did find a cute shirt on clearance (I hope it fits because I sure wasn't going to try it on with all 3 kids hungry and tired).  When we got home, the girls were super helpful putting away the groceries and getting dinner started.  We made baked ziti and it was yummy and simple!!  I used the Kraft mozzarella cheese that is now made with Philly Cream cheese, and it was wonderful (and only a few cents more than the store brand, score!)!!  It was so creamy and melty (yes that is a word), I loved every bite of my 2 helpings!!

The kids are in bed, and I am enjoying some quiet time blogging and pinning!!

I hope you had a great day as well, and I hope we all have great weeks!!

Please keep my family in your prayers!  My hubby is going to see a neurologist tomorrow!  The story leading up to tomorrow will come soon, I just haven't had the strength to write it!!

Adventures in Cooking

This past week, I made a menu plan, and for the first time, mostly stuck to it!  I may have changed around what I was going to cook on a certain day, but I have not once strayed away from my original menu.  There have been some failures, but over all I would say it was a success.  So much so that I will continue in my menu making! 

It was nice to get up knowing what we had in the house for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, yes I made a plan for all 3 meals every day!!  Let me give you a brief overview of how I was before.  Get up, do nothing all day, and go to the store anywhere from 3 pm to 5:30 pm for that day's dinner!!  Yes I was that bad.  I was making 6 to 7 trips to the store a week, if not more!

I have changed my ways.  I make a plan, we stick to the plan, and in return I know what we have in the house and I am a lot less stressed.  It has been great this past week.

All of my recipes came out of a Low Cal/Low Fat cookbook I got from my grandma's house after she passed.  A few of the things I made this week were homemade mac and cheese, homemade pancakes, honey pork chops, citrus ginger chicken, and homemade calzones.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Ingredients for Citrus Ginger Chicken:  Low Sugar orange marmalade, ground ginger, lemon zest and juice *supposed to be lime but I had lemons on hand

Trim Chicken

Supposed to be grilled, but I baked mine since hubby wasn't home.
Just baste with the marinade as it is cooking away.

Pan frying carrots with some lemon juice.

 

Pan frying some sugar snap peas with some lemon juice.

I finished off the peas and carrots in the steamer.





Dinner on Thursday night!!!



Homemade spinach and cheese calzones.  So yummy!!!

Brayden enjoying momma's homemade pancakes

I am looking forward to making this week's menu!  Any suggestions???

Yummy and SUPER easy Dinner

I am so bad about waiting till the last minute to plan dinner.  By that I mean, we make a trip to Wal-Mart just about every day to pick up the fixin's for dinner and our random buys (juice, milk, granola bars, baby food, wipes, diapers, etc).  I would prefer Kroger, but it is too far for my every day habit.

Today I went with no idea in my head of what to make.  I was wandering around clueless.  I knew that I wanted it to be healthy and filling.  I picked up chicken, still with no clue.  I found myself wandering down the spice isle, and ran across McCormick Bag and Season.

How amazing, a bag for steaming and the spices ready to go (I am not a good spicer, FYI, so to me, this was AMAZING).  I picked up some veggies, and we were ready to roll.

First I trimmed the remaining fat off of the chicken.

*The package called for 2.5 pounds of chicken parts, but I only used 1.25 pounds of chicken breast.*

Next I used part of the packaged seasonings and seasoned both sides of the chicken.

*I left some of the remaining seasonings for the veggies*

I put the chicken in a single layer in the bag and put the bag into a glass pan.

I chopped up my veggies.  I used squash, zucchini, carrots, and then I added some red potatoes.

*2 things I have learned from watching too much TV

1st-Buy organic fruits and veggies if you will be eating the skin (Dr. Oz)

2nd-Chop everything the same size, so that it will all cook at the same pace (Robert Irvine, Dinner Impossible)

*I didn't buy organic, because with produce prices being out of control, it was just too expensive, so I thoroughly washed my veggies, and cut off the skin of the pots.

*I tried my best to cut the veggies the same size, but I didn't do too great.

I seasoned the veggies with the leftover seasonings in the package.

I put my veggies on top of my chicken in the bag.

The you seal the bag loosely, with the given tie, and cut 4 small holes in the bag.

You bake in a preheated oven on 350 for an hour.  

*Using less chicken, I should have used less time.  My veggies were a little mushy, but the chicken was fork tender.*

My verdict, a HUGE thumbs up!!  The seasonings were great, and it was SO easy!