PINspiring recipes

Posted on February 17, 2013 by mommyinthemidwest

I’ll admit that I didn’t “get” Pinterest at first. I went to the website a few times. Didn’t get it.

I started working at my new job almost 6 months ago and remember having a conversation with a (now) friend there, who asked me “did you see that on Pinterest?” Believe it or not, this question dumbfounded me. I kindly said no, but was thinking to myself “uh…no? Why would I have? Is the whole world on Pinterest?”

Fast forward a few months and here I am. A Pinterest junkie. If I don’t know what’s for dinner? Pinterest. Need a lo-cal recipe for dieting friends who are stopping by for lunch? Pinterest. Decorating ideas for the boys’ bedroom? Pinterest. It’s clearly the place to go for IDEAS. Duh. How could I have been so blind?

So I thought I’d share with you some of the Pinterest recipes I’ve tried recently.

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Looks amazing, right? Well, I thought so too. On Pinterest, I saw the chicken teriyaki and the quick note beneath the photo gave instructions to fix the chicken in the crock pot. It wasn’t until I threw everything in that I realized this looked, and was going to look, nothing like the photo. I went back to Pinterest and followed the link to the actual page with the recipe (which I’ve attached) and found that they had marinated chicken and then cooked it in the skillet with totally different ingredients. Cool. Thanks. So I went to the store and bought 2 different types of teriyaki sauce, mixed them, and sweetened it up with a bit of honey. However. The rice was amazing and the finished product was really good. I’m not ever sure if the boys will eat stuff like this but man, did they gobble it up! Only regret now is that we didn’t have leftovers.

The Pizzadilla. It was pretty good, but what I really like about this is the opportunity to play with it and change it around. Any ingredients would make this taste different. I have a quesadilla maker so that made this super simple for me.

Crockpot chicken taco chili. Wow. This was amazing! 200 calories per cup and packed with so much flavor. I couldn’t see eating this with a spoon so we had it on tortillas (with cheese and sour cream) and/or on salad. This will become a staple in this house!

Skinny Brownie Batter Dip. I haven’t personally made this but I’ve had (lots of) it. My PIN pal at work made it for Superbowl Sunday and brought some in the next day. We must just remind ourselves that eating this will not, in fact, make us skinny. It’s so decadent and you really feel like you’re cheating that diet!

Hubby’s Favorite Casserole. I realize that this photo does nothing to make this meal sound appetizing, but it seriously was so good, especially warmed up the next day. I think when I found this, I was searching for a recipe comprised of ingredients I already had. YUM.

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken and Rice. This is in the crock pot right now. Oh. Did I fail to mention that the crock pot is just about my favorite thing ever? Hopefully it’s good. It didn’t sound amazing just based on the ingredients but the person that writes about it makes it sound like this is the only thing I will ever want to eat again for all of my life, so we’ll see.

Things I want to try soon:

Perfect Sweet Tea.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats.

So, be honest. Am I the last person east of the Mississippi to get on board (ha, see what I did there?) with Pinterest? Sigh, I’ve missed so much. I’d write more, but there’s pinning to be done…see you over there!

xo,

~C~

our first Christmas

Posted on February 17, 2013 by mommyinthemidwest

Oh, that’s right. This was Theo’s third Christmas and Dexter’s second.

But it felt like our first real Christmas. It was important to me that we spent Christmas as a family, at our own home, on Christmas day. I figured at 2 yrs and 9 months and smart as a whip, this would be the first year that Theo would really “get” it. Santa. Waiting until Christmas to open presents. Leaving out treats for Santa and his reindeer on the fireplace hearth.

I had a lot of big ideas about traditions we would start this year and envisioned a picturesque scene of the gentle glow of our tree next to the crackling fire as we sat around on the floor nearby reading The Night Before Christmas and sipping hot cocoa, while wearing our coordinating Christmas Eve pajamas.

Well, per Theo’s request, we ended up with LED lights that let off more of a neon illumination than a warm glow. Our fireplace is gas and does not crackle. We don’t have a mantle (yet) so the stockings were hung on the entertainment center. I was too tired to make hot cocoa and the boys had very little interest in The Night Before Christmas. We did read it to each of them separately before they went to bed. I threw some new pajama pants for myself and Ryan in the cart at Target a few days before Christmas and ordered the boys’ from Carters a week before that because I couldn’t find any in the stores by that point. So pieces of my vision fell into place but this house is not yet what we want it to be. We’ll get there eventually. Maybe.

Theo making some treats for the reindeer.

Our tree in our very blah, unfinished living room.

Puzzles from Santa.

Play table from Pop Pop and Nana.

Work bench from Grammy.

Regardless of what wasn’t perfect, our “first” Christmas was. Ryan’s parents stayed the night with us so they could be there to watch the boys discover their gifts. I cooked all day on Christmas Eve so that we could eat leftovers and lounge around in PJs on Christmas Day. Wise thinking there, if I do say so myself.

Their faces were priceless. They loved (almost) every gift. I’m just not a proper mom if I don’t give my kids some toothbrushes and socks for Christmas, right?

They woke up early and quickly discovered their unwrapped surprises.

Noticing their tiny Toy Story figures and some play food for their kitchen.

Trying out their new table.

And puzzles.

Just as I predicted, Dexter was pretty excited that Santa left him some cleaning supplies.

Stockings!

Watching a movie some hours after all the excitement.

We went to Cincinnati for New Year’s weekend to celebrate Christmas with Ryan’s sister and her family. Then we went to Tennessee to celebrate with my family once Penelope was born. That’s about a 3 week long celebration!

With cousin Spencer.

More presents!

Aunt “Chelle”

Nana, Pop Pop, and their 3 very adorable grandsons.

So just short of 2 months AFTER Christmas, there you have it. It was wonderful. Perfect just the way it was. We’ll always remember it. One of my favorite things about it was that we were snowed in the day after Christmas, when we were supposed to go back to work. So we had an extra day, just the 4 of us, to continue celebrating, playing, and enjoying. Perfect.

xo,
~C~

skinny sweet treat: cake batter yogurt

Posted on February 1, 2013 by mommyinthemidwest

At work myself and a few other lovely ladies are using MyFitnessPal to stay on track with our goals for 2013 of living healthier. Some of them are doing Weight Watchers as well. One of the girls brought in this amazing “cake batter yogurt” today and allegedly, it has only 100 calories per 1/2 cup serving and 2.5 WW points. That sounds great, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that probably most ice cream has about 100 calories per 1/2 cup. Right? Just a thought, but a pointless one because it doesn’t matter. That 1/2 cup was the best, most decadent 100 calories I’ve had all week. So I bought the ingredients and made it at home for my family. HUGE HIT.

Without further ado, friends (get ready to PIN the sh*t out of this), I give you Cake Batter Yogurt.

1 box of Funfetti cake (or cookie – whoops) mix

2 cups of plain nonfat yogurt

1 cup of Cool Whip Lite

*I added gummy bears to the boys for funsies and cutesies*

Seriously. That’s all there is to it and it is soooo good. It’s almost too rich to eat with a spoon. It would be great as a dip (graham cracker sticks, maybe?).

But is it good? Proof is in the pudding, er, yogurt!