Me and Martha

Menu Plan Monday/Holidailies 16

For those of you just tuning in, I'm participating in the weekly Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie, and I'm also doing Holidailies for the month of December (well, that was the plan...I may elaborate in tomorrow's post).

Just for fun, I'll start with a review of last week's menu plan:

• Monday December 10: soup night, either slow cooker taco soup (new recipe for me) or meatball/pasta/spinach soup (made it before with frozen meatballs, yum and easy); if we're having a good day, I'll try to make some homemade no knead buns from (of course) Everyday Food.
  • I made chili instead.  And the kids would have nothing to do with it.  We didn't make the buns from scratch, but did organic corn muffins from a mix.  The kids loved making the muffins but didn't want to eat them.
• Tuesday December 11: oven chicken (might do half with dijon for the grown ups and half with honey-soy for the kids), broccoli, wild rice (they were out of fresh brussels sprouts when I went shopping today)...and, now that I think of it, we'll probably skip the rice and use up the potatoes in the fridge.
  • Chicken broccoli stir fry, which is becoming a near weekly classic.  Yum.
• Wednesday December 12: for the kids, the traditional Wed. fish sticks, mac and cheese and peas; if I'm feeling really motivated, I'll make slow cooker chicken and beans for me (it's a Martha recipe from Everyday Food but I can't find the recipe online) (I just don't need the fat in the kids' menu)
  • As written, but I didn't make the slow cooker thing
• Thursday December 13: leftovers, maybe some polenta to go with (never made it before)
  • We made the quesadillas planned for Friday.
• Friday December 14: ham, cheddar, apple quesadillas, some kind of salad with it (I made this back in October, it's a Martha recipe, surprise, but the original calls for turkey and muenster, and there was a carrot and raisin salad with it)
  • DaddySutra had a late lunch, so he made a frozen pizza for the kids.  I had a bit of that and then some nachos.  Best supper ever!!
• Saturday December 15: tacos
  • Chicken burgers with oven fries.  Also yum.

And now for this week...nothing too exciting on the calendar, so nothing too exciting for the menu.

• Monday December 17: "stir fry" with oven baked chicken breasts, nuked or sauteed frozen veg mix and some rice...oh, wait, I have some tortillas leftover, but I forgot to seal the bag so they're kind of wrecked/dried out...maybe it'll be tacos, if the tortillas are salvageable
• Tuesday December 18: fancy sandwiches, maybe broiled bagels with ham and cheese
• Wednesday December 19: party food if we decide to have people over; otherwise it's fish sticks
• Thursday December 20: slow cooker maybe, chicken and beans or bbq pork on a bun...or maybe I'll cook a ham
• Friday December 21: frozen pizza
• Saturday December 22: burgers, chicken or beef
• Sunday December 23: I have no idea; maybe we'll go to my parents' because that's the Sunday tradition, but we're having everyone over Christmas Eve, and then it's a couple nights at my parents' for the big dinner and leftovers...I'd like to just stay home and eat...I really don't care what, I'm just running out of ideas...maybe we'll have a "normal" lunch instead of brunch and have breakfast for supper

Well, that was pretty brutal.   I'm losing my momentum for everything.  Maybe go to this week's Menu Plan Monday and see what some good menus look like. 

And to all the Menu Plan Monday participants who have dropped by my blog to leave sweet comments: you're all awesome!  I'm so sorry that I've been terrible about stopping by your blogs!  Merry Christmas! (I don't think I'll be posting next week...just a hunch.)

piss up a rope

(totally stole the title after reading this post by the Pioneer Woman)

Seriously, I'm ready to tell today to go piss up a rope.  Ho ho ho, piss up a rope.  I like the sound of that.

It's one of those days when something goes wrong and I over-react, and then I can hear the voice in my head saying "what is your problem?  why are you freaking out about that?"  And then something else happens, and I haven't un-freaked out from whatever happened first...rinse and repeat, yadda yadda.

Examples?  So glad you asked:

• Loaded the dishwasher last night, didn't start it right away because there was a load of laundry going, thought I'd start it before bed.  Oops.  DaddySutra ate his cereal out of a tupperware bowl, I used one of the kids' plastic ikea bowls.
• Making hard boiled eggs for lunch.  "I want to help." "Okay, but put the egg into the pot gently."  Drop.  Splat.  Crack.  Of course.
• Put the pot of eggs on the stove.  Waiting for it to boil.  Haven't turned the stove on.
• Accidentally dumped out my little box of stuff-the-kids-should-not-get-into (sharp ended scissors, puffy paint, lip balm, etc.); everything went everywhere on the kitchen floor and I think some went into the living room, where I'm sure the kids will find it sometime this afternoon.  Or I'll be pulling buttons out of their mouths.  Or the cat will be batting stuff down the heating vent.
• The two kidlets disappeared down the hall.  Older sister told younger sister she could not go there.  Younger sister let out the pterodactyl shriek.  Then laughing.  Then younger sister comes crying down the hall to me. 

Well, enough of that.  I'll see if Martha can cheer me up.

Recipe central

Let's just say it's getting a bit ridiculous here.

In the past few days (I think two, actually), I've made the following recipes:

• honey soy chicken stir fry, Everyday Food (third time we've had this, it's so easy and good)
• smitten kitchen's banana bread (much better this time when I left out the nutmeg; somehow, I managed to buy some very coarse nutmeg and the texture was compromised...yech; I know, I should be buying whole nutmeg and grating it myself...some day)
• baking bites banana gingerbread (what can I say, we had a lot of old bananas in the house)
• coffee clay (I didn't just say food recipes, did I)
• gingerbread playdough (I am in love with this stuff, it smells so good)
• lemon poppyseed icebox cookies (just out of the oven, I think they'll be a winner, but I'm pretty partial to lemon and poppyseed)
• orange date cake (okay, this was actually from Sunday)

I'm going to try to put all the links in later, but I'm not sure if I'm going to fall asleep with my kidlet when I put her to bed, and at least this gets my post in for the day.  I know, I don't have to post every day,I just tend to keep going so I don't lose my momentum.

Project update

I read a blog called Kids Crafts Weekly.  It's very cute, and has lots of good kidlet crafting ideas.  I love how they're grouped thematically.  A few weeks ago, they made a call for families to participate in a handmade Christmas card exchange, and I signed our family up. 

Our cards are not entirely handmade.  I don't think we would have had a hope of getting them out on time if we'd gone that route; maybe once the girls are a bit older.  Anyway, I had some blank Christmas cards that had a cute print background on the front, with a little Christmas art covering about a third of the card.  I decided that we would "pimp" the cards by adding our own art (a la Pimp that snack, not, you know, the other use of the word).

My first idea was to cut out shapes from coloured construction paper and use those to cover the official art.  I took three cookie cutters, a star, a tree, and a gingerbread man, and used them as templates.  The girls showed almost no interest in these at all.  They did like to fight over who was going to get what shape (the trees being the biggest hit), but they did not want to decorate the shapes with markers or stickers.  Rats.

So, I let it wait a little while.  I thought that maybe once they saw what the finished cards would look like that they might be a bit more motivated.  We also did it before bed one evening, instead of in the afternoon, our usual crafting time.  I think the novelty of the hour helped me.  I gave them some stickers and they got into it.

I decided that we needed a little background, as the stars, trees, and gingerfolk were not quite big enough to cover the art.  I took some paintings the girls had done earlier and cut out rectangles (I got smart and made a cardboard cutting guide for these before I started).  I glued the rectangles in place on the card.  I let Big Girl glue stick the shapes onto the rectangles.  Then we covered the whole thing using their all time favourite crafting material: transparent contact paper.   Voila!  The looked cute, authentically preschool crafted, and I almost couldn't let them leave the house because they were my girls' work.  Sniff! 

I should really go to bed, but with everyone asleep I can get so much done.  I would have started more stuff, like laundry and banana bread, if I'd known I would I'd be staying up so late.  I should know better: once I cook up the second mug of chai, I've been up too long.

Emergency post

Is it PMS?
The full moon?
Have I left the first virtuous phase of trying to eat better, entering into "this just sucks, I don't want a piece of fruit, I want chocolate"?
And why is it that whenever I try to eat better, I get great urges to bake.  A lot.  And make gigantic messes.
And why is this all centered now?  And why couldn't I get it centered before.
Anyway, I'm crabby, but I'm still posting!  Aren't you lucky to be reading this!

Two weeks until Christmas as of midnight tonight, and I'm not ready.

I found this quiz thingy somewhere and saved it for a day when I had nothing to post.  That day took 48 hours to arrive.  Funny, that.

Which B-Movie Badass Are You?

Gimme some sugar baby.
Take this quiz!

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Holidailies 9/Menu Plan Monday

I am slowly making my way through the Holidailies at Home participants list.  I'm sorry I haven't been leaving comments, but I will try and start making some rounds in the next while.  I know how much I love getting comments, so I am going to make an effort when I get a chance!

I finally posted my tribute to my daughter on her second birthday on my other blog.  Not sure sometimes why I have two blogs, as I rarely keep up with both of them.

I'm just having kind of a blah/down day.  I feel like I haven't been getting anything done, though I watched some of this (we're partway through season 1, no spoilers), and we bought two pairs of these, and I baked this cake, and we're almost finished with our handmade cards for our card exchange.  But, I've eaten too much (and recorded it all here), I've just felt kind of moody and yuk, and I really should just go to bed already. 

This coming week, nothing very exciting for the menu.

• Monday December 10: soup night, either slow cooker taco soup (new recipe for me) or meatball/pasta/spinach soup (made it before with frozen meatballs, yum and easy); if we're having a good day, I'll try to make some homemade no knead buns from (of course) Everyday Food.
• Tuesday December 11: oven chicken (might do half with dijon for the grown ups and half with honey-soy for the kids), broccoli, wild rice (they were out of fresh brussels sprouts when I went shopping today)...and, now that I think of it, we'll probably skip the rice and use up the potatoes in the fridge.
• Wednesday December 12: for the kids, the traditional Wed. fish sticks, mac and cheese and peas; if I'm feeling really motivated, I'll make slow cooker chicken and beans for me (it's a Martha recipe from Everyday Food but I can't find the recipe online) (I just don't need the fat in the kids' menu)
• Thursday December 13: leftovers, maybe some polenta to go with (never made it before)
• Friday December 14: ham, cheddar, apple quesadillas, some kind of salad with it (I made this back in October, it's a Martha recipe, surprise, but the original calls for turkey and muenster, and there was a carrot and raisin salad with it)
• Saturday December 15: tacos

Oh my gosh, the links nearly killed me.  I know I make stuff, but then I can't remember where I found the recipes.  I think I may need to go with something like del.icio.us.  A great idea, if I could figure it out.  Maybe I'll put that on my list of New Years' Resolutions, along with flossing (my next dentist appointment is the first week of January!  coincidence?) and not yelling so much. 

Swimming

Because we live in crazy town, you will still find people heading to the recreation center when it is -20C/-4F.  Nothing ever closes here.  We decided to stay home for a few days this week because it just didn't seem worth it to try to get two kids bundled for a non-urgent trip to the library.  But, we had our last swim lesson of the session today, and we'd already missed once, and it would be both parents getting the kids bundled, so we set off.

An hour in the cold pool.  Delightful.  Fortunately, I have the body fat to make it a little less terrible, but the kidlets had blue lips by the end of it. 

But still, it was a great thing, to take my wee ones and see how much has changed since our first round of lessons in July.  I didn't start them in lessons until they were much older than average, at least amongst the families here.  Classes start for four month olds.  I started Big Girl just before she turned three, and Baby Girl at about twenty months.  I had to really suck it up and buy myself a swimsuit first, and that took a significant amount of determination on my part.

They did not love it at first.  Big Girl would spend the first half of each class sitting on the edge of the pool voicing her displeasure.  Baby Girl was okay, she'd let me take her into the pool, but she had a deathgrip on my neck like you wouldn't believe.

Today was the last class of our third session.  For the first time, we had the girls in the same class (an advantage of having kids 16 months apart).  What a difference.  They were like little fish!  Dolphins! 

Baby Girl couldn't get enough of jumping into the water.  She jumped in at the start of the class.  She jumped off the flotation mat that the other kids were content to float on.  She had to be held back during "five little monkeys jumping on the bed."  She let me submerge her multiple times, coming up smiling every time.  She floated on front and back, kicking and using her arms (not necessarily at the same time).

Big Girl let me take her down the big slide, which was a bit of a miracle.  She kind of freaked out at the top, but I took her down, and she was okay.  She loved the flotation board that Baby Girl wasn't so interested in.  She did a gorgeous starfish float on it.  At the end of the class, we had the kids at the shallowest part of the pool, and they were to try and walk to their parents.  Big Girl is quite petite for her age, and she was just barely able to stand up, she needed to be on tiptoes.  But she did it!  She even walked to me.  She was so proud of herself; I think she had some doubts herself before it actually happened.

They both passed their level!  I was hoping Big Girl would, and was surprised that Baby Girl did already, as it was her first time in this level.   The next step is to get Big Girl into the unparented class, and let Baby Girl have another round in the same level, as she is about a year young for the next level.  Success!  I swear, when I started taking them this summer, I really didn't see us coming this far in half a year.  Yay for my girls!!

a meme for day 7

Thank you, kwizgiver, for posting this meme!  I found her blog on the Holidailies at Home page.   (Look at me, seven days in and still posting!)

NAME 12 CHRISTMAS CAROLS

1. Feliz Navidad
2. 'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime
3. Jingle Bells
4. I'll Be Home for Christmas
5. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas
6. Silent Night
7. O Christmas Tree
8. Rejoice Rejoice Emmanuel (I'm sure that's not the official title)
9. Do They Know it's Christmas (okay, I'm pushing the definitions of "carol" aren't I?)
10. Little Drummer Boy
11. O Holy Night
12. Jingle Bell Rock (again, does this count as a carol?  do I care?)

NAME 11 DECORATIONS YOU WILL PUT ON THE TREE

1. Lights
2. Big Girl's first Christmas ornament
3. Big Girl's second Christmas ornament
4. Big Girl's third Christmas ornament
5. Baby Girl's first Christmas ornament
6. Baby Girl's second Christmas ornament
7. cranberry and popcorn garland (if I get around to making it)
8. felt cow ornament
9. felt sheep ornament
10. felt chicken ornament
11. felt tractor ornament (don't believe me?  here's where the idea came from)

NAME 10 PRESENTS YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

1. kitchenaid mixer (ha!  not really expecting this)
2. new Jamie Oliver cookbook (dropped a bunch of hints on this one)
3. new Martha Stewart cookbook (ditto above)
4. gift cert for the spa so I can finally try reflexology
5. time...to do stuff like run a sewing machine without worrying that a kid will get injured
6. this has never been so difficult...usually I want tons of stuff...okay, starbucks gift card
7. membership to the gym (this is fantasy world stuff, as it's ridiculously expensive, especially when you factor in...)
8. babysitting at the gym
9. car paid off (when did I get so boring?)
10. my own espresso machine for when the starbucks card runs out or it's too cold to go out (like, oh, the past three days, maybe?)

NAME 9 FOODS YOU LOVE EATING ON CHRISTMAS DAY

1. stuffing
2. cranberry salad (the only jello salad I will eat)
3. pumpkin cheesecake (maybe we only have this at Thanksgiving)
4. gingerbread pancakes (we'll have these for brunch)
5. did I mention stuffing?
6. turkey
7. mulled wine (have I ever had this on Christmas Day?  no; my fam doesn't do wine much.  am I going to start this as a tradition?  I think so!)
8. turkey sandwiches in the evening on fresh white dinner buns
9. mashed potatoes with gravy

NAME 8 PEOPLE YOU WILL BUY GIFTS FOR

1. Big Girl
2. Baby Girl
3. my mom
4. my dad
5. my sister
6. my sister's boyfriend
7. DaddySutra
8. my friend C

NAME 7 REASONS YOU LOVE CHRISTMAS

1. everything stops for a while, the stores finally close and everyone stops racing around
2. sun reflecting off the snow
3. my kids trying to make sense of it all: so cute
4. Christmas vacation (when I'm working)
5. having DaddySutra home for two weeks (see #4)
6. an excuse for baking
7. the advent calendar I have almost finished (yeah, I know I'm late, but it's really cute!)

NAME 6 THINGS YOU DO ON CHRISTMAS MORNING

1. wake up groggy because I put off wrapping presents until the night before
2. make coffee
3. drink coffee
4. pace ourselves through the gift opening at home, because we'd like to avoid the shredding wrapping paper freak out if we can
5. get the paper and cardboard recycling ready
6. Christmas breakfast

FINISH IT:
5 GOLDEN: rings
4. Calling: birds
3. French: hens
2. Turtle: doves
1. And A: partridge in a pear tree

NAME 4 GIFTS YOU HATE GETTING

1. stuff that I won't use on a regular basis (unlike bath stuff, pyjamas)
2. big, non-consumable stuff that takes up a lot of room
3. joke gifts
4. saccharine sweet precious toy kind of stuff (if you know me, don't hate me for saying any of this!)

NAME 3 PLACES YOU HAVE TO SHOP FOR CHRISTMAS

1. Michael's (oh, the lure of the 40% off coupon)
2. amazon.ca
3. the local toy store

NAME 2 CHRISTMAS WISHES

1. that I won't gain ten pounds between now and new year
2. that my family will all be healthy

NAME 1 PERSON YOU HOPE TO KISS UNDER THE MISTLETOE

1. DaddySutra, of course...assuming we'd have mistletoe in a house with a cat and two wee kidlets (I just wrecked that moment, didn't I?)

Colded in

It's not the snow that gets us here, but the cold.  And if it were just me, I'd be out of the house.  But I have two small kids, and since we don't have any pressing engagements requiring us to leave, like a job or grocery shopping, we aren't going anywhere.

I freaked out a bit over this yesterday.  "What will we do in this house all day long?"  But today it came together, and we did our inside stuff, and finally made cookies, and it was all pretty nice.

I'll just say that sugar cookies with cream cheese in the batter are the work of the devil.  So good.  for someone who started journalling her food yesterday, it was a bit difficult to keep away from this stuff.  And I'm not a big raw cookie dough eater, but this stuff doesn't have any egg in it, so it's delicious and safe to eat before it goes in the oven.  And the cookies come out more soft than crispy, which I like.  So, go get some cream cheese, because they are good. 

My girls.  They want to bake.  They love Christmas.  They do not, however, want to make Christmas cookies.  They chose for their cookie cutter:

• a flag
• a tennis racket
• a bat
• and finally, because I was forcing these on them, a gingerbread man and a Christmas tree.

The batch is roughly two thirds bats.  Fortunately, these weren't earmarked for an specific recipient or event.  Hell, if I was going to give them to someone else, I probably wouldn't have let a two year old and a three year old manipulate the dough with their...er...charming little paws for extended periods of time.  Enough said, right?

A day of many accomplishments

1. I managed to get to level 48 on freerice.com for a shining moment. 
2. I loaded the dishwasher, filled the sink and put the fiddly little plastic kid dishes in...and walked away.
3. I made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for the girls but didn't have one myself; I had a salad.  This is not like me at all. 
4. I also re-started my food log on twitter.  It wasn't working very well for me back in October, but maybe it'll be better now.  I've been up since 8 and I haven't eaten anything too bad so far.  I am kind of hungry, though.  Maybe I shouldn't make muffins for the girls; I've been none to go a little kooky at the sight of fresh from the oven baking.
5. What's the minimum word count for these daily posts?  Am I there yet?
6. We're stuck in the house as it is really cold.  Lovely and bright, but cooooold.  A little bit of cabin fever; don't know how we'll get through the winter at this rate.  It's been relatively conflict free so far...touch wood.
7. I watched all six episodes of The Conchords last night before I went to bed.  What was I thinking?
8. I should go be the mum: the girls are jumping from the coffee table to the loveseat.  Safer than being outside, perhaps, but not by much.