Cooking 101

As a young lady, I never showed much interest in learning to cook. I never even really learned how to boil an egg until I was already a mom. I mean, I understood the basics. Start with cold water make sure egg is already in water and then bring to a boil. That was the extent of my knowledge concerning boiled eggs. Then again, I had never really had much use for boiled eggs until after I was married seeing as I don't like boiled eggs. I like devilled eggs, but I had never been in charge of preparing them.

Now, as a mom living in an area where everyone knows how to cook, I get picked on quite frequently for not knowing how. I have begun to push myself to learn how to cook. I have learned to prepare quick meals and also to do many slow cooker recipes.

One of my favorite slow cooker recipes is Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak. It takes a little bit of prep work, but it turns out so good it just melts in your mouth!

 Picture from allrecipes.com

I also love Lawry's marinades and my favorite is their Steak & Chop marinade. I know that I can throw some pork chops or steaks in a zip lock bag in the morning with some of the Steak & Chop marinade and put it in the fridge to defrost and marinate at the same time. Then, when I get home from running errands, I can just pull them out and grill, broil, or pan-fry them. So tasty no matter how they get cooked! I try to pair it with easy sides that are kid-friendly like mac & cheese, baked beans, green beans, or corn & peas.

Happy Cooking!!!

Gender rules

OIf you have been reading my blog, then you already know that I have two boys (Ray 32mo, Reece 17mo). Ray is all boy. He has never been mistaken for a girl; however, Reece has been mistaken for a girl several times. Both boys have bright blue eyes and blonde hair (although Reece's is much lighter). My husband "Daddy" told me not to put Reece in an elephant costume because it was too gender neutral. I did it anyways because I thought it was super cute and at one house he was referred to as 'she' over and over again before we moved to the next house. It was not a big deal to me, but Daddy was embarrassed.

I recently began crocheting again and decided I would make the boys some leg warmers just for fun. Yesterday, it was warm enough to go outside and play but I couldn't find Reece's clean pants to I put his leg warmers on and said let's go. He was warm enough and had a blast playing outside but after posting pictures on my personal FB page I got some backlash from family friends (namely my mom-in-law's friend).

I thought he looked adorable. They are comfy and cute. Does it matter if he is a boy? Not to me. And it's not like I took him out to the grocery store that way or something. We were in my yard. I'm not putting him in a dress or putting bows in his hair. What do you think? Did I break the rules by putting him in leg warmers?

Homemade Holiday Sandwich

Ingredients:

Food Lion sub rolls (6"), cut in half

Sliced turkey

Stove Top stuffing

Turkey gravy

Whole berry cranberry sauce

Directions:

Prepare the stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce according to the directions. Next turn the oven on low broil and place the rolls open face on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven on the center rack for 1-2 minutes, flip rolls and repeat. Remove from oven. Put sliced turkey on the sub, add stuffing and top with gravy. Add cranberry sauce to top bread and place in oven for 3 minutes. Close sandwich, cut in half, enjoy!

One day at a time...

I have a hard time remembering to be patient. I often get flustered easily when I want something done a certain way but the people around me cannot manage it. I suppose I am a tiny bit OCD. Towels especially have to be folded just so (half, half again, thirds). Due to my impatience, I often lose my temper with the other people in our house (my 16yo brother-in-law with a developmental disability, my mother-in-law, and my husband). I try very hard to control my temper, but I get frustrated easily. Therefore, potty training and switching beds and taking away Ray's binky has been very hard on me. I have gotten little sleep since the kids have trouble going to bed plus potty training is hard!!!

End rant. More later!

November Changes-More Than Just The Leaves

Okay, well "Reece" has been saying "peepee" a lot and every time he says it he goes to the bathroom or I'm changing his diaper and he touches his "peter-bob." So today, after his nap, I took off his diaper and put cloth training underwear on him. I then took him to the bathroom and set him on the potty and said "go peepee" and then turned on the water in the sink. I took a cup (we keep two in the tub for the boys to play with) and dipped it in the warm water from the sink. I poured it over his "peter-bob" a little at a time and waited a couple of seconds. Sure enough, he went peepee and that was that. I jumped up and down, and clapped and "Ray" came in and celebrated and told Reece good job. We went in the living room and played for a while. He had an accident so I ran back and forth with him saying "no peepee in our pants peepee in the potty" about 4 or 5 times. After putting him on the potty I put new training pants on him. He had 4 accidents before I decided that wearing underwear was not going to work. After the fourth time, I took him to the potty and this time I left him bare-bottomed. He had one wet accident on the floor, but the rest of the day was much better and we went to the bathroom about every 10-15 minutes. At one point, I realized that he smelled, but there was no poop anywhere on the floor around us. I looked and he was just beginning to have a little accident. I took him to the potty, but once seated he did not go. By this time, it was dinner time, so we ate dinner and he remained dry and clean throughout dinner. After dinner, I put him back on the potty and he went peepee while I ran his bath water. After his bath, he sat on the potty again and went peepee, then I put a pull-up on him. I got him dressed for bed and read him a book. After reading him a book I put him in his toddler bed. We put the toddler bed in his bedroom at some point late in the summer (August/September). I wanted him to be familiar with it before I transitioned him out of the playpen and into the toddler bed. He laid in the toddler bed for about 1 minute before decideing that he wanted to get up and play. When he got up, I picked him up and put him back in bed. I spent about 10-20 minutes repeating this process over and over again. At that point, I got tired of putting him back in bed. I then picked him up and took him into the dining room where we keep the computer and turned on youtube. I found a 2 hour long video of Mozart music with calming moving pictures. I played it and waited as he fought sleep eventually giving into it. Now, I have to get my 2.5yo, Ray, to also go to sleep.... I guess it's back to Mozart.

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN

I feel like I'm in a never ending cycle. I get one room clean and move to the next and by the time I get that room clean I have to go to another room to clean and when I think I'm done I have to start all over because the boys have destroyed the first room already. Ugh! I wish Ray would help clean instead it feels like they devised a plan to divide and conquer. I need a vacation. Who's with me?

Chex Mix

I am a SAHM. My husband works two jobs but we still can't afford childcare for me to get a job or go back to school. As most of you know, the economy-I'll just come right out and say it- has gone to shit! I am praying that it will get better but to be honest I don't see that happening any time soon. We were hoping that Ray would qualify for an IEP which would get him into the preschool program at the local primary school for free, but we aren't sure if that will be happening now. OFF TOPIC!
Okay, so because we are a one income family (basically), we qualify for WIC. I know a lot of other families are also on WIC nowadays. One of the things you can purchase on WIC is a LOT of cereal. We don't actually eat much cereal because we own chickens and we mostly eat eggs and sausage and bacon and grits for breakfast. So our cereal has kind of piled up a LOT!

My mother-in-law found a BUNCH of Chex Mix recipes online at Chex.com (and some can be found on the back of the box itself) but we have slowly begun to try all of the different ones. So far we really like the Chex Barbeque Snack Mix, Taco-Seasoned Chex Mix, and Peppermint & Chocolate Chex Mix. We found all of these on Chex.com and each of them have the nutritional information at the bottom which is great. One serving is 1/2 a cup of mix and the Peppermint & Chocolate Chex Mix has only 190 calories per serving and I think it is the mix with the most calories. I don't normally like chex but some of these recipes are really tasty! Plus, it's healthy snacks that my boys (all 3-husband included) LOVE!

Christmas Book

Ok, so we are starting a new tradition this year where each child gets a Christmas Eve Box. Inside will be a new pair of pajamas, a bag of ready-to-pop popcorn, a box of theater candy, a movie, a pack (or k-cup for all you keurig users) of hot chocolate, and THIS year we will be adding a special book. Like I said in my first post, we live in the Carolinas, and while browsing at Walmart the other day we saw a book called Santa is coming to the Carolinas. As I flipped through it, I recognized the names of all the major cities and thought it was very cool. My children are too young to recognize the names of the different cities but in a few years they will really enjoy it!

Christmas and presents

I don't know about y'all, but I am a mama on a budget. I just scored an awesome buy of a bike cart for my babies at only $30! :) now I can ride my bike with my babies! 😀

Influenster

I just joined influenster! It sounds great! Hoping to get my influenster badge high soon! I want to get that voxbox! 😉

Cooking-without burning down the house

Before I met my husband, I could only make three things: potato soup, green bean casserole, and pancakes. I mean, sure, I could bake brownies or a cake from a package or heat up some canned soup, but I didn't realize how many culinary skills I lacked until I moved in with him. "JR" taught me how to make spaghetti, fish, baked chicken, pork, roast, hamburger helper, and pretty much everything else! His mama, "Julia," taught me how to make fried chicken in a pan, desserts from scratch, and a myriad of other delicious things I wouldn't have dreamed about making before.

When I visit my parents, I ask them to let me help in the kitchen now; something I never would have asked to do before becoming a mom. My dad is a great chef.  He taught me to make some goodies as well and I hope that one day I will be just as good as he is.

When I try new recipes, I will post on here as to whether or not my family enjoyed them. If they loved the recipe, I will post either a link or the recipe on here as well.

Little Mens

I am starting this blog a little later than most. I currently have two children. "Ray" is my first born. He is 2.5 years old. He has childhood apraxia of speech and has been in speech-language therapy since his second birthday. Ray went from having approximately 10 words in January to speaking in full sentences now (6-8 words per). He still has problems with forming some of the words.

My second child is also a boy, "Reece." He is almost 1.5 years old. He has over 25 words and has already begun putting words together.

I want to have a daughter some day but I decided to get an IUD to give me some time to enjoy my boys first. Ray is almost potty trained so there will be a few posts in the future on our potty training adventures with him, our successes and failures. Reece has already begun to show interest in the potty as well so we may begin working with him soon as well.

Back Story

I grew up thinking I was from The South. I am from The Carolinas and I lived on a farm for the first few years of my life. I never realized how privileged I really was. My mama always told me that we didn't have any money. I thought we were poor. I never understood how we could live in a nice house and still be poor. My daddy always took me to church and one day after church he took a homeless man lunch. I knew then how poor people actually lived.

I never had a country accent like most of my family but I thought that was because I spent my summers in Texas and California and Colorado. Now, I live in the true country. When I was a child I would have referred to people like my in-laws as rednecks or hicks. What's so funny, is that they call themselves rednecks. Now, I go home and my mama asks where I got this thick southern accent from. Well, I guess I must be turning into a Southern Mama…