Tag: parenting

Interesting Enchiladas

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I think *no jinx* I might be through the morning sickness business. I say this because over the last week I’ve stopped being totally repulsed by food and even, dare I say, started to get hungry for things besides turkey sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls. That said, I got a huge hankering for sweet potatoes…and black beans. A quick trip to my Pinterest “YUM” page and I found a recipe for sweet potato and black bean enchiladas. I added the ingredients to my grocery list and headed out the door.

While I was mixing, I started getting second thoughts. Who they hell thought sweet potatoes belonged in enchiladas?? But I was already knee deep in the recipe and thought we could have quesadillas if it turned out as wrong as it sounded.

To my, and PW’s surprise, they were DELICIOUS! I put my own spin on the recipe by adding some frozen corn – a yummy addition if I do say so myself. I love how easy this is since most of the ingredients will last for a few weeks in the fridge and pantry making it a “go to” meal since it won’t require a trip to the store for fresh stuff. Also, I think it would freeze nicely AND would be a  nice gift recipe – you know, when someone has a baby, is sick or just needs some home cooked food!

Ingredients:

Small corn tortillas at room temperature (so they break less)

1 large sweet potato

1 can of black beans – I like Bush’s

1 small jar of salsa – I used Newman’s Own

1 can of red enchilada sauce – I used Hatch

1 small bag of frozen corn

Mexican shreded cheese

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Peel and cube the sweet potato into bite sized pieces. Put into steamer basket and cook until soft – about 15 minutes.

3. Drain can of black beans and pour into a large bowl. Add cooked sweet potato and about 3/4 of the jar of salsa. Mix in about half the bag of frozen corn. Add several good shakes of salt and a little pepper. Stir until combined.

4. Using a greased baking dish – take tortilla, spoon in mixture, roll and place seam side down in dish. Don’t panic if they break or spill, just squish them together. Repeat, lining them up side by side until the dish is full.

5. Pour can of sauce over the top of the tortillas so that it’s evenly distributed. Cover top completely with cheese.

6. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the top is getting crispy. Serve with a big dallop of sour cream.

 

*this is where a picture would be…but since I thought they were going to be crappy, I didn’t take one! Oh well, use your imagination 😉

 

 

Big Helper

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Yesterday morning, Baylor emerged from her bathroom declaring that she had brushed her teeth all by herself. We all got very excited and I made a mental note to rebrush them later…

While passing by her room, I noticed a very strong smell of strawberry…upon further inspection I found that apparently in the “toothpaste on the toothbrush” portion of the morning, she had squirted about a third of the bottle of toothpaste into the sink. And now it was hard and not easily washed off. Crap. I made another mental note to deal with it later.

In the evening, PW and I were making dinner and chatting about schedules when it dawned on me I hadn’t seen or heard the munchkin in a while. My “what are you doing??” yell was answered with “ANYTHING!!” which is translated to I’m not doing anything which is always a lie. Two minutes later she came running into the kitchen announcing that she had cleaned all the toothpaste out of the sink! Awesome, I thought…and then I really thought about her cleaning skills and got a little worried. I asked her to show me her good work…which is where I discovered that apparently in two year old world, cleaning the toothpaste out of the sink means using goldfish crackers to do so.

This time I made a mental note to tell PW that this was a daddy clean up job.

 

Maternity Jorts

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I remember being perplexed about this with Baylor, but my animosity towards the designer of maternity clothes has gotten worse this time around. Why the hell do all maternity clothes have bows, cap sleaves, ruffles or all of the above? Why are maternity shorts either of the baggy no shape variety or denim? Why must I dress like a 5 year old OR a redneck? Why doesn’t J.Crew have a maternity line?!

Oh. And don’t get me started on those assholes at Pea In The Pod. Their very nicely cut white shorts are SIXTY DOLLARS. I don’t spend $60 on any one item (ok, face cream. But really, that’s an investment in my future) why the hell would I spend it on shorts that I will wear for MAYBE 1 year total? Those jerks are trying to take advantage of my need for stretching waistlines and decent fabrics.

I mean I get it. I understand that some women want to cover up their arms or are in need of shapeless shorts to cover their posteriors. I was that lady (I tried on my postpartum shorts last week and they fell off while buttoned – Jen the trainer really had her work cut out for her) and there’s a strong possiblity that I’ll be that chick again. However, I have very strong intentions of keeping my sessions with Jen going, running and keeping my cookie cravings to a manageable amount (1 box is not a serving size). That said, until I balloon so the size of, well a balloon, I would like to look decent until the point where I wrap myself in a bed sheet toga style and call it a day.

See what I mean?

Ugh. The frayed cuff is a nice touch.

If I wanted to dress like Mrs. Dugger, I would grow my hair to my butt and move to Arkansas. Until then, no gracias.

Where to start? The pattern? The sleeves?  Bleh.

I guess where you see a need, it makes sense to fill it. I’m over starting a retail store though so if anyone out there is feeling ambitions, lets talk; I’ll design the clothes and the store, you run it and sell stuff – deal? Until then, I’ll be the lady hunting around Target and then running to the tailor to make me a decent wardrobe for the foreseeable future.

Mom’s Night Out Giveaway

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I’m so excited to announce that today I am giving away TWO TICKETS to the next Scottsdale Mom’s Blog Mom’s Night Out!!

The event is being held on Thursday, May 10 from 7:00PM to 9:00PM at the Ice Den in North Scottsdale. Each ticket is a $10 value and includes:

:: a glass of wine ::
:: delicious snacks ::
:: raffle entry & chance to win spectacular giveaways ::

If you’ve not been to a Mom’s Night Out event before, you’re in for a treat! Not only is it a great excuse to get out of the house / work early and enjoy a glass of wine with friends, but the giveaways are AMAZING. SMB draws some really fantastic sponsors like Boon, Giggle Boutique, Rodan and Fields and lots more. All you have to do is sit back, enjoy and wait to win!

 Here’s how you enter: comment below on why you need a mom’s night out. Potty training not going well? Work kicking your booty? Family making you bonkers? Tell me all about it! I’ll randomly choose a winner tonight at 10pm and announce the winner on tomorrow’s post. So get writing and good luck!

If you’re interested in purchasing tickets, send me a message and I’ll let you in on the early “friends only” link!!

Working Girl

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One of the appeals of starting to work for the family business two-ish years ago was that I would be able to do it around Baylor’s schedule. And it’s worked great especially since she started preschool. 12 hours a week plus nap times is just the right amount of time to get stuff done.

Last Friday was a rare day when I had to schedule a meeting for an onsite inspection during a non school day. It also meant I had to head South to Arizona City  which would add and 2 hours + to the meeting time for commute. Thankfully Grandma had coordinated a day off of work so it would all work out brilliantly – Bay to Grandma’s house, me to AZC for a meeting with enough time on either end to get some work done around the house.

And then pneumonia.

After much discussion, PW and I figured out that with a lot of tag teaming and Grandma’s help, we could both make it to our meetings and get the munchkin healthy. I would do the x-ray as soon as the place opened at 730 while PW worked and took a meeting over the phone. I would spend the next hour prepping for my meeting and then tag PW to take B to the follow up appointment with the doctor. PW would then tag Grandma to take B home to play, eat and nap. I would return home around 2 to tag Grandma and then B and I would spend the rest of the afternoon watching Mickey Mouse in a daze of sleep deprivation and Albuterol.

It was around 1030 that morning that I realized we were going to make it. It was all going to get done and get done without being too messy. The end result was total exhaustion from the past 2 days and scrambling for the past 5 hours. I’ve always had so much respect for friends who both work AND raise awesome kids, but now that I’ve tried on their shoes, I’ve realized they should really have a super hero cape to match!

Pneumonia Sheumonia

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Phew  is the only word I can think of to describe the last 5 days.

Baylor came home crabby and running a slight fever on Wednesday last week. By Thursday afternoon, it was a full blown 104.5 fever with a cough, wheezing and labored breathing. Any one of those would mean “get to the doctor” but all four meant get there pronto.

I fully expected the doctor to say “it’s a virus, nothing we can do” and send us tired and crabbily on our way. But then he listened to her chest for a solid 5 minutes. He asked a lot more questions and then determined that her asthma might actually be pneumonia. His suggestion was a full workup of meds including a shot that makes adults cry, chest x-ray, two inhalers and oral antibiotics as well.

The good news is that her x-ray came back clear, but since it was a day behind the beginning of treatment, they moved ahead with the meds. After a few fitful hours of sleep (normally I compare sleeping with her to sleeping with a badger – this was like sleeping with a hot,  clingy badger), her fever dropped and she was able to get some real sleep. By Friday afternoon, her fever was gone and she was hungry and happy. We kept her mellow the rest of the weekend with lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and M&M’s to bribe her into taking the “yucky” inhaler. She was mellow to the point where she was restless and making herself and us nuts so she went happily off to school today. Fingers crossed there won’t be any calls from Teacher Jackie and we’re on the road to  really getting better this time.

If You Need Me, I’m in the Bathroom

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Where the hell have I been for two days? I’ll tell you…it’s spring break for Bay this week (why the hell 2 year olds need a spring break from their grueling 3 half days a week, I don’t know. I guess it’s more for their freakishly patient teachers, but still… not that I don’t love my munchkin, Momma’s just gotten real used to those precious 12 hours of free time a week to do crazy stuff like work) and we are, drum roll please, potty training!

Yes, the bain of my existence as a parent is finally happening. We’ve knuckled down, broke out the timer, the potty, the big girl undies, the M&M’s and gasp! stayed in the house for 3 days straight. Well not really. I couldn’t take it so we made the super fast 5 minute trip to Noni’s house today so I could run a few errands without the fear of a wet car seat and without visiting the Costco, Sunflower, CVS and Safeway bathrooms repeatedly.

In short, I have been enjoying a little quiet / work time during the oh-so-brief nap times this week. All is going well so we will likely survive the week with little pee pee poured out for the homies and thus call it a success. Until then, it may be a little quiet around here…