Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

This post really has nothing to do with Blackjack...though Steven did have $75 worth of good luck at it about a week ago....

I love to cook. I really do. However, between work, Lara, "mini business", and trying to spend time nuturing my relationship with Steven and my relationship with myself....cooking has sort of fallen by the wayside in our house. I am passionate about healthy eating and while I have researched and made sure Lara is getting a good start in nutrition, Steven's and my eating habits have become pretty lack luster.

SO...in an attempt to get back to cooking, I have decided to plan out our dinner meals in advance for the week. Additionally, to make myself accountable to my new "program"...I plan to blog about it, posting photo proof of dinner, sharing recipes we try. With the help of the Kraft website I have planned the menu for the week (starting tomorrow).

Enjoy...

Plan for the upcoming week-
Sunday - BBQ Roasted Chicken w/ Parmesan Potatoes
Monday - Bruschetta Minute Steaks
Tuesday - Skillet Chicken & Vegetables Parmesan
Wednesday - Sweet 'n Sour Meatball Simmer
Thursday - Chicken Nacho Bake
Friday - In Valley City for a concert...Steven fends for himself...
Saturday - Roast Pork Tenderloin Supper

Wolliams Out...

Smarti Pants

We have been verging on the cloth diaper movement for a while know. For those of you who don't know, we use Gdiapers at our house with the flushable inserts. LOVE Them....However...the inserts are pricey, as are the cloth inserts for them.
I have litterally been researching the crap out of different brands of cloth diapers, trying to decide which ones to try, itching to take the plunge....(we even have L's nursery set up for cloth diaper use)....The money you save and the eco benefits are great (remember...hippie mom over here).
Maybe it is a sign that Smarti Pants is having a giveaway. You can enter to win 3 of their cloth diapers....Standard entries for this day and age....Become a fan on facebook, follow them on twitter (sorry...won't happen, refuse to twitter)...blog about the giveaway (tada!)....and "re-tweeting" about the giveaway....
I wish I could say we use them and I could tell you how awesome they are....but we don't. HOWEVER, absolutely believe that if we were to win, there will be a full fledge review of their awesomeness.

Wolliams Out...

I'm Yours

Steven and I celebrated Valentine's Day this past weekend with a much needed date. After some good food, a great movie, and laughing until I cried and almost peed my pants, I was yet again reminded of how lucky I am to have such an amazing man in my life.

Love you babe...I'm yours...I dedicate this song to you.....

Valentine Upcycling

I love any excuse I can find to be crafty....the longer you know me the more you will come to see this (my own father was shocked within the last year at my craftiness). Before Lara, I never really had an excuse to flex my "craft muscle". Valentine's Day is coming up and Lara has two of the greatest little "daycare brothers" so of course they needed some cool Valentines. Instead of candy I decided to "upcycle" some old crayons (see photo's below).

With a little help from Mama Peg, I gathered just some of the crayons that have inhabited the infamous Wollmuth Craft Closet since I was still in elementary school. Luckily for me, Dad, for whatever reason, has missed the craft closet on his "cleaning binges".

These were super easy to make and I think they turned out cute. Definitely something I will make again. I was tempted to go a step further in the name of "greenness" and make paper out of the crayon wrappings....but alas...another day, another time....maybe when I win the lottery and can just stay at home being crafty and hanging out with my awesome kid all day.

Here is a play by play in the event you have too many crayons layin' around your pad and want to attempt this project....

Materials:

- Old busted crayons (the older and more broken, the better)

- Your mold of choice (in my case a silicone baking pan? I got on sale at hobby lobby)

- an oven, or microwave....up to you

- Drawstring baggies

You can sort the crayon pieces by color as specifically as you would like....or you can toss whatever colors tickle your fancy all together and see what you get. For my purpose I combined similar colored crayons (yellow ended up with green because there were only two yellow crayons in the whole bag mom donated)

I would imagine using an oven safe mold would be easiest as you put the crayon bits in the mold and into the oven at 350 until melted (about 6-8 minutes). You can use regular candy molds, but then you have to melt the crayons in a separate container and pour the wax into the mold (when I attempt this I will blog how that adventure goes).

Let cool...pop 'em out...and there you go....

Schnazzy huh? All that's left is dividing them up and packaging them....What a cute product from something old and broken....

Delish Indulgence....

On a random trip to Walmart the other night to get milk I stumbled upon Bolthouse Farms beverages on sale for $1.70 (usually a whopping $3.50/L)...quite the deal right? I drank the Green Goodness when I was pregnant with Lara (Steven was repulsed by the stuff) and was pretty excited to find it on sale. I stocked up, but this time went with the protien drinks and a couple liters of C-Boost (mango, cherry, and one other fruit that escapes me at the moment) for myself, figuring Steven wouldn't touch it....

I was wrong. Mocha Cappucino has become a huge hit at our house. It is great for me to have at work in the morning and is an awesome/healthier substitute to coffee. I went back today to stock up while the sale is still on.

C-Boost...also tasty...in fact I am pretty impressed with the line as a whole. And since it is all-natural and "no sugar added" is it really considered an "indulgence?"