Parking Cars

I am working on number identification with my son and he really is not terribly interested. I do "school time" with him, which varies from crafts to working on letters and numbers, and really just about anything I decide to do with structure (It is something I have to force myself to do, being structured). I try to make efforts to have it be fun for him (he is only 4 after all...) and to include things he really likes to help him to care more. One of the main things he really cares about is cars. The child has been obsessed with cars since he was 17 or 18 months and his love has only grown. So today I told him to load up his dump truck with cars of varying colors and to meet me in the living room for school time. He was intrigued.

I showed him the "parking lot" with spots for 14 cars and told him he would be practicing parking his cars, but that they had to match the cards.

I set out the number line for him to use if he needed help identifying the number, then had him pick a card. He could then see how many cars he was to park, as well as what colors the cars needed to be. It was up to him as to how many cars of each color to use. It ended up being a lesson in addition as well with things like, "how many orange cars did you choose?...4... How many blue cars?...3...So 4 plus 3 equals...?" It was easy to set up, educational, and he really enjoyed it. Plus, it was something that once he got the hang of it he really didn't need me to be very involved other than to affirm that what he did was correct. Definitely a keeper for us!

Meatless Mexican Pizza

I really don't like fast food. I dont eat fast hamburgers or struggle with french fry cravings, and even though I am a mom, I am not a huge fan of Chick-fil-A, but I do have one fast food weakness. Okay, I have two weaknesses, I love Sonic slushies, but I am not thinking about beverages at the moment, just food. Warm, crispy, cheesy food: the mexican pizza from Taco Bell to be exact. I get it without meat and add extra hot sauce and I love it. It is the one thing I could eat even when in the midst of horrible nausea and vomitting with both of my pregnancies. I would crave them. At times even to the point of having my loving husband drive me to Taco Bell so I could buy two. I ate one, had him pull into a parking lot for me to throw up, then I ate the second before we ever got to our destination. I know that is so gross, but pregnancy is weird and that is how much I love them.

I rarely give into the magnetic pull that I feel when driving by the place, but I think about it often. Today I was really feeling it, but knew I shouldn't. So, instead, I made it for dinner. I know I have done it in the past, but I have no idea when or how long ago. It was so easy and really, really good.

So here goes it, my version of a...

Meatless Mexican Pizza:

What I Used:

-corn tortillas

-refried beans (i love the trader joes fat free kind)

-chopped onion

-chopped green chiles

-1 diced tomato

-chopped cilantro

-bit of cumin

-non GMO canned corn

-sliced black olives

-shredded cheese

-sour cream

Preheat oven to 350degrees

Heat a bit of oil (I used non GMO canola oil, but I know grape seed is much better for you for high heats) in a skillet

Place a corn tortilla in the oil and let is sizzle for about 15 seconds, then flip it over and do the same on the other side. Take it out and let it drain the excess oil onto a paper towel on a plate. Do this until all the tortillas you are wanting to use are crispy and not dripping wet. I used 9 as I was making 4 2-layer pizzas for my husband and myself and a single layer one for our son.

Place bottom layer tortillas on a cookie sheet and top with a layer of beans, onions, and cumin.

Put second layer tortilla on top and add corn, olives, more onion, green chiles, tomatoes, cilantro, and cheese.

Stick it in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until melty and smelling amazing.

I added some more fresh tomato and cilantro and some sour cream. And Enjoy!

If I had thought about it I also would have smashed up an avocado and added some lime juice to the mix, but it was still REALLY good and totally hit the spot. Plus, this way it was real food I was eating and not nearly as questionable. As with most recipes, the options are endless for toppings and ways to do it.

What do you like to put on a Mexican Pizza?

My Husband's Birthday

First off I have to say that I have the most wonderful husband. Ever. He is smart (working on his MS in hydrogeology), funny (no specific examples, but he really is), friendly (everyone loves him. if you don't, something is wrong), creative (he does awesome paintings that people pay actual money for), manly (he goes caving and takes out the trash without being asked), he is kind and compassionate (again no specifics, but its true), and is an amazing father to our son. And today is his birthday. I am so thankful to my in-laws for making and raising such a handsome and intelligent man.

He is in grad school and spent the day working on his thesis and teaching undergrads environmental geology things. He was coming home too late and tired for us to really go do anything today in honor of his birthday and he is never too big into having a party for his day, so instead, I fed him good food. And I have to say, it was seriously good. Plus, every single bit of it was from scratch. The beans were dried and the cake batter was *not* from a box, so it was a real labor of love in my 8.5 months pregnant mind.

Elijah helped quite a bit (it really is all relative I suppose, haha) and insisted on giving Mike his gifts first.

Then we moved on to dinner.

Besides the cucumber slices in vinegar with dill they were all new recipes for me and they will all be repeated. The spicy beans were per his request and definitely lived up to being called "spicy". For some reason I was under the impression that the mashed cauliflower would feel like mashed potatoes. They didn't. But it is still something I will make again, especially since our son ate a bunch of it. I also did a baked fried chicken that was REALLY good.

Then we moved on to dessert.

The chocolate raspberry ganache double layer cake was everything it should be. And the peach cobbler was... a good peach cobbler. It has never been my favorite, but I do like it. Elijah helped me pick out and make both desserts. Having the rich chocolate cake and the warm fruity dessert was kind of like the best of both worlds. It definitely satisfied my sugary cravings.

Tomorrow we have a couple of friends coming over to watch our son so we can go out on our own (hoorah!) and they will hopefully help us finish these sweets off so I don't make this baby any more giant than he already feels!

Also, sorry about all the random "frames" around the pictures. It is really starting to bug my OCD-ness and I am not sure how I didn't realize how much they dont match each other...

Happy Birthday Mike, I love, love, love you!

Nashville Weekend

This weekend was our last time visiting Nashville for the next couple of months. I have grown accustomed to going back to visit at least one weekend (usually two) a month ever since we moved further east this past May. While I really am sick of the drive there and back, it had been so nice to be able to stay so connected with friends and enjoy all the things we love about Nashville. However, being 8 months pregnant and Mike being so busy in school this semester, it is just not realistic to keep it up. Thankfully, our weekends away came to a temporary end with a boom. It was *such* a fun and busy weekend from getting together with my book club girls to brunch with bunches of friends. We ate at some of our favorite places, attended a friend's art show/reception, and (my favorite parts) had 2 baby showers! One was a surprise for a dear friend who is pregnant with her third daughter and shares a due date with me. It was so much fun to treat her to a girl’s night out at a favorite restaurant and remind her of how loved and dear she is. I was honored to be a part of putting it together.

Then on Sunday I was once again honored, but this time by my beautiful sister who threw a shower for me despite the fact that she just gave birth a little over a month ago! Amazing!

It was a cookies & milk party with a winter theme. Beautiful AND delicious.

It meant so much to me that so many friends came. I felt so loved by my Nashville community last night that it almost made me cry. Not that that is anything new to have me cry, but still.

We had planned on coming home after the shower, but decided to stay one more night and have pizza and games with family. It was a wonderful ending to a fabulous weekend. And I am quite impressed with all the great gifts I received. My family and I are so blessed to know so many beautiful people. Thank you, thank you! to all who came out.

We had a variety of 13 kinds of cookies, chocolates, berries, dipped marshmallows, and some more salty snacks in the kitchen for those who are less sugar inclined.

Our party favor for everyone to take home was a pretty take out box for people to fill with cookies they liked best. And I am in love with the little milk bottles/striped paper straws we had for the drinks.

We had cold pitchers of local milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, and caramel vanilla iced latte's. YUM!

It was all so beautiful and satisfactory to all the sugary cravings I have had this pregnancy.

And I have to add that this morning I found my husband eating leftover muddy buddies (aka puppy chow to some) with milk as his cereal....yikes....

Veggie Pot Pie

Someday I plan to have this blog be about something in my life other than just food. However, today is not that day. Every day for the past week I have been planning on making this warm comfort food and just never did it. A friend from back home flew all the way from California to take my maternity photos (!) and I really wanted to make this for her. She is a vegetarian and for some reason I have always had a hard time finding chicken-less pot pies so I thought it would be nice. But ya, it never happened. I finally got around to making it tonight and it was perfect. Especially with the cold windy evening that it is and the predictions of snow.

I am not opposed to chicken pot pies, in fact, I rather like them. However, we rarely buy meat as we are picky and only get the fancy grass fed organic kind, which doesnt fit into our student budget very often. And not being crazy about meat anyways, it works out easily for us.

This pot pie can easily be made with chicken broth instead of the vegetable broth, but then it wouldn't be suitable for most vegetarians (obviously).

Veggie Pot Pie

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

2 russet potatoes

1/3 cup butter

garlic

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

sage

1 3/4 cups vegetable broth

2/3 cup milk

• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

Take your beautiful veggies, wash them, and chop them up! (i have extra ones in the pic...)

Once they're all chopped, put them in a med sized pot and cover with water. Boil for about 15 minutes. Drain and set them aside. Here is where I like to add about a cup of frozen peas. I don't like to overcook them and adding them now will thaw them within minutes amidst the hot vegetables.

Meanwhile, melt 1/3 cup butter in a pan and add garlic. Chopped, minced, whatever you like. Normally I would throw in half an onion and soften it in this buttery garlic glory, but I didn't have one. So I added more garlic.

Once you are satisfied with your butter meltiness, add the salt, pepper, flour, and milk. I also usually do celery seed here, but since I am out of that, too I threw in some sage. I have no idea how much. Then mix in the vegetable broth (not pictured).

Mix it all really well over medium heat until it turns into a smooth gravy. You can leave it like this or be like me and add, you guessed it, more garlic. And maybe some seasoned salt. And more sage. And seriously, I could eat this by the spoonful. This makes me think I am in the right place living in the south...

In a deep pie dish lay down your pie crust. Layer half the veggie mixture, half of the gravy, other half of veggies, then gravy. Should I be calling it sauce? Lastly, top it off with the second pie crust and cut little slits to let the heat escape while it bakes.

30 minutes later it should be browned and look something like this.

Dig in! I assure you, it does not lack in flavor with the vegetable broth! Especially with the garlic and sage or whatever other seasonings you like to add. My husband, 4 year old, and myself ate half of it for dinner and it makes great leftovers.

Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

Yesterday afternoon I was having a mad craving for a milkshake. A really good milkshake. We didn't have any ice cream in the house and I had already downed a giant smoothie so I did what I always do when I am craving something i can't have: searched it on Pinterest. Cos I love to torture myself with beautiful images of things I can't have. And apparently I am not the only one who does this, cos let's face it, there would be no Pinterest if there weren't hundreds or thousands of us. Anyways, I searched "milkshake"and so many beautiful photos came into view, but one really stuckout: The Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake. So i immidiately repinned it and then went to the original post in order to gawk at a larger image.It took me here. I stared and I nearly drooled. Today we went grocery shopping and made sure we got vanilla ice cream. And it was so worth it. You can go to the original blog to see her creation with much better pictures and more detailed measurements. I tend to ingnore details in recipes and I don't have the patience to figure out how to edit bad photos to make them amazing, but this is what I did.

Put a bunch of marshmallows on a cookiesheet. I used foil to prevent having to clean a sticky sheet. Then i ran out of big ones so I added a bunch of minis.

Broil those babies for a minute or so.

Put 2 parts vanilla bean ice cream and 1 part milk in the blender.

Add the toasted/charred marshmallows and blend.

This is the finished product, which I wish looked better but the lighting was bad and blah blah blah, here it is.

And it was divine. Seriously, I could have easily drank the whole thing by myself. And probably a second one as well.

Go ahead, make one...you know you want to...

Pregnancy Tears

I am 27 weeks pregnant and it is beginning to be obvious in all aspects of my life: my size, my aches and pains, my poor sleep, my eating habits, etc. Today, it has made itself especially clear with my emotions. I tend to cry easily, but when I am pregnant, wow. Hot mess doesn't even begin to describe it. I am feeling really good and positive about life in general these days and nothing that I cried about was sad. Nothing. They were all tears of joy and/or hope and I am glad for that.

This morning I cried thinking about the fact that my beautiful sister is about to give birth to her third child. Mike and I have her 2 kids here with us for the week so she and her husband may have a break before the baby comes and/or so we will already have the kids should she go into labor this week. I woke up thinking about how amazing and precious this time in our lives is and how I love that we are going through it together. Tears.

A few hours later I got a some texts from a dear friend. She and her husband have been in the adoption process for years and finally things are coming together to bring their sweet girl home from Ethiopia. Seeing the face of their baby in picture form really got the tears flowing. Tears of nothing but joy. So, so beautiful.

Then it got ridiculous.

I cried while watching a Ron Paul video.

I cried hanging an ornament on the tree of my best friend back home and her son.

I cried while watching videos of Peter Paul and Mary performing at civil rights movements.

I cried an hour later when Peter Paul and Mary were still performing on PBS but this time for little kids and at each others wedding.

Right now I kind of want to cry because it is 5 minutes 'til midnight and im hungry. Really, really hungry. But, instead of crying, I shall be proactive and close the computer to find something to eat.

What makes you cry?

*edit* I went on to cry about something that actually is sad that is going on in someones life. But then i regressed back and started to cry at the end of last weeks episode of Community.

Yikes. Time for bed...