Thankfulness 2013: Day Eighteen

Honestly, I hate feeding kids.  It is entertaining for maybe a week worth of meals when they are learning to eat solids.  After that it is a messy and oftentimes inconveniently timed event.  Please don't think that I don't appreciate the ease of baby food and it is a fun kind of frustration usually.  Still, I am so much more excited by the finger food stage!  You're probably familiar with it.  That stage between baby food mess and their own spoons...

Mr. Wyatt isn't impressed with cheerios though.  No idea what he would've eaten before all these 'choke proof' foods out there, especially because he is really good at choking on them still.  Regardless, the better he is getting at these finger foods, the more thankful I am for these flavorful options of finger foods for babies.

Mr. Wyatt's favorite are those crunchies types.

Thankfulness 2013: Day Eleven and Twelve

Though the military irritates me more often than it doesn't, I am still very thankful for the opportunities and family it has provided us.  The military background helped my husband find his great civilian job.  I don't love the way it is run but I absolutely love the men and women in service.

On those days where the incessant whining, cries, demands, and questions all pile upon my near-to-bleeding ears, I remember my great appreciation for today's luxuries.  I won't lie, I am very thankful for 24/7 kid television programming!!  Disney Junior, Sprout, The Hub, etc.  There isn't a minute that I can't find something appropriate for my toddler to gain five minutes of distraction if needed.  Pair that with DVD's, educational tablet apps, crayons, chalk, books, toys, puzzles, and food, one would think that this would all add up to a full and busy day without draining a parent.  It is never the case, but it certainly maintains parental sanity until bedtime...most nights anyways!

Honestly, any distraction of little to no risk to the health of my kids is appreciated.  I'm always looking for suggestions too!  *hint hint*

Thankfulness 2013: Day Seven

I love my Keurig!  I am not a coffee drinker.  Now that I've confused everyone as to why I even own a Keurig, let me explain...

I love hot chocolate and I love hot cider.  I do not like pretty much any microwave version of said drinks.  I've tried a lot of choices out there and none are quite as good as the Keurig as far as instant goes.  My wonderful husband got me a Keurig as a gift one year and I've been happily consuming hot beverages through the cold months ever since.

The only thing that beats out having a Keurig is having creamers with it.

So this holiday season, I'm thankful for the return of seasonal flavors of coffee creamers to add to my hot chocolate!!  Mmmmmm.

Thankfulness 2013: Day Five

My husband is a very understanding man.  We have failed at menu planning this week.  Pulling frozen meat to thaw, not adding all necessary items to the grocery list, etc. all adding to the warped and constantly changing nightly menu.  I am so thankful for my husband's sense of humor when stupidity hits our household.  Now if y'all will excuse me, I have a hotdish missing a crucial ingredient that I must finish putting together in order to throw it in the fridge ready to bake tomorrow instead and a new meal to figure out...

Exploring Locally: Apple Orchards

One of my favorite fall activities has always involved eating.  My parents' house out in the country had some crab apple trees and that was one thing that I enjoyed.  I ate a few of them off the tree each year even when it was awfully tart.  My grandparents have multiple apple trees in their backyard also and they pick apples every year and freeze, bake, and can them (ready made pie filling!!).  Last year we found out that there is a local apple orchard not too far out of the suburbs around here.  Alyssa was 2 1/2 and we had a lot of fun picking apples, seeing the farm animals, and checking out the area in general.  Of course that meant that we HAD to go back this year!

We got to the orchard and unlike last year, we were there without any crowds.  Yay for weekdays!  It was seriously windy but it was a perfect temperature out to be hiking through an orchard.  My sister came for a visit so we got to drag her along as a kid helper too.  Alyssa loves tagging along with Auntie no matter where we are.  Even with the massive aphid problems this year, we were able to fill our bag to the brim in a relatively quick amount of time.  We missed out on the animals this year because we didn't see where they had moved to in the remodel until we were leaving.  As it was nearly past supper time already, it wasn't such a huge loss.

I'm looking forward to trying my hand at baking some yummy fall treats and possibly weaseling that canned pie filling recipe out of my grandmother for an ice cream topping!

Alyssa and Momma at the Orchard--Sept 2013

**No location, business, or individual has asked me to write these Exploring Locally posts.  I've taken all trips upon myself and at my own discretion.  I am merely sharing with you some fun ways that we pass our time and tour our own local area!**

Recipe: Sweet and Sour Chicken

I thought I had this recipe posted previously...and if I do, well, I forgot to label it under recipes so....here we go!  This is seriously good stuff people!  Of course it isn't the true Asian dish that we love, but here is the easy Americanized version we eat far too often:

Sweet and Sour Chicken:
1 bag boneless/skinless Chicken Breast

Sauce:
1C. Ketchup
1/2C. White Vinegar
2tsp. Worchestershire
1C. Sugar
1/2tsp. Garlic Powder
1/4C. Water

• Cube/dice chicken (whatever size you really want but we do bitesize or a little larger)
• optional: coat in fry'n magic and fry for crispier chicken
• Brown chicken
• Mix sauce ingredients together
• Pour over chicken in 9x13 pan
• Bake @ 350-375F for 30 minutes
• Optional: serve over rice

We have grilled up extra chicken and used that later in the week to make this.  We have done 8x8 pans using fewer chicken breasts (but did the same amount of sauce and poured that over the rice).  Play with it to suit your family.  It is sweeter than sour but delicious!  I use Ready Rice from Uncle Ben just to make it one less thing to juggle at supper time with the kids.

My husband, the man who likes only things with a crunch to them, even likes this one.  Our daughter used to think it was 'ketchup chicken' and will clear a plate of it in minutes usually.  As for myself, it is a personal favorite!  Chris froze the leftovers (we made a second pan to test this) one time and it worked SO WELL!  Took the vacuum sealed pouch out of the freezer, thawed/heated in the microwave and had a GREAT lunch a few weeks later.  Speaking of....I think I'll go dig through the freezer and see if I have any more lunch pouches left in there!

First Foods! (Pictures and Video)

TaDa! Mmmm?

Waiting for the first bite...

The first food...I love it!  It is always fun to see how they react to new experiences and as expected, the impatience to be fed wins out for the very first bowl.  When he masters the whole gumming part we will up the consistency and pick out the first fun food!  YAY!  (Wow the doctor recommendations sure have changed in only 3 years...go ahead and talk to your pediatrician if you're close to this stage because we apparently could have skipped rice altogether now!)  Anyways...a small glimpse at meal time around here now:

I know....he was pretty boring in the video but c'mon, that rice stuff has NO flavor.  We can't expect anything exciting when he doesn't get to eat something exciting!

Loving the spoon thing

Candy Crafting

We had a 30th Surprise party for a very good friend of ours towards the end of February.  We wanted to get her something special but as her passion is for her horses and we know nothing about them, I went the more crafty route and decided to satisfy her sweet tooth instead.  Get yourself some cake pop sticks or sucker sticks from your local craft or party store, hot glue the favored Fun Size chocolates onto the ends and start filling up whatever vase you love.  Accessorize in any fashion!  I used some glittery spiral sticks, spiral holographic confetti, and holographic tissue paper plus some curling ribbon as a topper.  It was a big hit as I kept overhearing people talk about it in such a positive light.  Talk about an ego boost that night!  So I present to you, my first ever, Candy Bouquet!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Twenty

Monday night my hubby made up 5lbs of BBQ's.  (mmmmm.....)

They do a monthly celebration of birthdays at the office and this month he brought in my family's recipe of that delicious messy meat.  The making of said BBQ's reminded me of something that I frequently am grateful to have: the Crockpot!  Yes, I am thankful for my Crockpot.

C'mon...so many amazing foods can come out of this baby and if you recall my Pinterest thankfulness post, well, you would be thankful for anything that does ALL the work but the cutting and serving too.  I have a few recipes that are Crockpot faves and they can be found in my dedicated Pinterest Crockpot folder.  The one that can't be found there though is the BBQ recipe.  In case you need a delicious and still simple option for semi-sweet BBQ's, here ya go:

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BBQ's

1 lbs lean hamburger

1 C Ketchup  (we use Heinz)

2 TBSP Mustard

2 TBSP Worchestershire Sauce

2 TBSP Brown Sugar

Brown and drain hamburger
Mix all sauce ingredients (everything but the hamburger).
Mix and simmer (or crockpot) sauce and meat til heated through or as long as you want the flavors to marinate for.

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Our Crockpot only holds 5lbs at a time so we take this recipe and multiply it (shockingly by 5).  We then vacuum seal about 1-1 1/2lb portions to freeze.  It makes a great last minute meal during the week considering we can pull the bag out of the freezer, defrost in the microwave and then heat in the microwave and serve!  Play with the amounts for the sauce to get your taste preferences.  My family hates exact measurements (and they wonder why I can't cook....) so this is my mother's "all approximates" recipe that we actually like as-is.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Two

Having lived with deployments and even just living apart because of civilian job relocation, I am thankful for having my family under the same roof.

All the simple things you miss (like toddler-chosen suppers on a sick day).