Saturday, September 26, 2009

DE-Lish

Last week I was watching Rachael Ray make an extremely delicious looking meal and my mouth was totally watering, so I took this as a sign to run over to the store and pick up the ingredients. The recipe was for Portobello Bolognese, which looked like a great hearty substitute for a meat spaghetti sauce, and I am always looking for good veggie meals. The portobello mushrooms at the store were a bit pricier than I expected, but really nothing compared to going out to a nice restaurant. So I made it for dinner last night for Bub the hub and it was even better than I imagined!! And boy did it photograph well!

From chopping all the vegetables to thickening the sauce, the whole thing took me a little under 2 hours. I know this sounds like a long time, but I am horrendously slow at meal cooking (ask any of my dinner party friends) and I tend to forget to read recipes all the way through before starting, which usually results in a couple of mishaps that take even longer to correct. I think I am slowly improving though (just don't ask Bub the hub) and now I am requesting dinner party friends to join in the chopping fun (thanks Ali and Alla :) so it goes a bit smoother. In other words, I think any other normal cook can expect this to take about an hour. If you are Rachael Ray-caliber, probably only annoyingly like 40 minutes. And it's soooo worth it. We prefer bowtie pasta and use herbs from the front porch, but you know, that's our prerogative. Here's one more photo to convince you. I am off to have the left-overs.

p.s. thanks for the bowls momma!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

New High Chair

We borrowed a different high chair from our friends the other day to see how lil'bub would like it. We had previously been using this little travel one that fits onto any chair. We really liked it but figured something that made her sit up straighter might be good. She looks adorable in it...of course.


hmmm. feels like my old high chair...


can still eat snacks off it like my old high chair...


can still play with my toys off it...
(with one aggie sock on)


can still grin at daddy from it...


yep, I like it!!


sweet munchkin

Monday, September 21, 2009

Come On Fall!

The nicer weather lately means more time outside playing with the neighbors! Lil'bub makes the funniest face whenever she gets close to their sweet puppy dog, Chloe. First of all, she cracks up everytime he's near and we can't help but laugh along with her little giggles. Then she scrunches her face up and looks away, expecting some licks I think, whether she gets them or not! I got a good shot of the face:

She also enjoys pulling up blades of grass, playing with them, and attempting to eat them if we look away for a second...

And stay out of her way when she starts driving!!

honk! honk!

I love kisses from daddy...

Hopin for more good Fall weather!!!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Fav Dinner Recipe


One of my favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner, does a "Show Us Your Life" blog hop every Friday. I have never participated before, but it's always fun to look at all the other bloggers that share. It's a different theme every week and this time Kelly asked everyone to share their favorite dinner recipe. So I decided to hop in! (even though it's kind of a day late).

You can click on her blog link on the right to see all the other yummy recipes too. There are some I am definitely going to try. And just F.Y.I., I don't know Kelly personally, but her blog is always fun to read. I came across it last March when her family was going through a scare with her newborn daughter Harper. She began having heart problems immediately after birth and was in pretty critical condition, which I related to with Avery. Even though our problems have not been heart related, it's always helpful to talk to (or read about) other new moms that are thrown into this completely life altering situation that they never expected.

Now Harper is a completely recovered, happy and typical eight month old, and cute as a button! They persevered through it all just as we did, although we do have a whole lot of recovery still left and perhaps a more uncertain future. Lil'bub continues to work harder than any baby you know!

Now here is my favorite, EASY, yummy recipe. It's originally a Cooking Light recipe from a long time ago that I have never gotten tired of. I usually serve it with potatoes, orzo pasta or risotto.

EASY CHEESY BALSAMIC CHICKEN

Yields 2 servings (or double everything for 4 :)

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup (or 2 oz.) crumbled goat cheese (or most any other cheese you love)
3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
2 tspns olive oil, divided
1/2 cup chopped shallots, divided
1 1/2 tspns sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tspns chopped fresh basil
1/4 tspn dried thyme
2 tspns cornstarch
2 tspns water
salt and pepper

To Prepare:
Heat 1 tspn olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup shallots, all sugar, and all garlic; cook 4 min. or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Spoon all this into a bowl and stir in 1 1/2 tspns bals. vinegar.

Combine this mixture with chopped tomatoes, cheese, basil, and 1/4 tspn salt, stirring well.

Cut a horizontal slit through thickest portion of each chicken breast to form a pocket. Stuff about 2 tablespoons cheese mixture into each pocket. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tspn salt and black pepper.

Heat 1 tspn oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan, cover and keep warm. Add broth to same pan, then add remaining shallots, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and all the thyme; bring to a boil.

In a separate small bowl, combine cornstarch and water, stirring with a whisk. Add this mixture to pan and bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until sauce is slightly thick, stirring constantly. Drizzle sauce over chicken. Enjoy the deliciousness!

Sidenote: If you want to make it a bit healthier, use reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes instead of the ones packed in oil, or just use the fire roasted-tomatoes from a jar. I have also used lots of different cheeses like fetas and mozzarella for this if you don't have goat cheese laying around! I have also eliminated the shallots/used dried basil before and it still tasted great.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sunday, September 13, 2009

MRI Complete

This is a quick post to say that lil'bub did well with the MRI. It went much quicker than I expected. First they gave her a little liquid drug to chill her out. Boy did that work! She was rolling her eyes around and giggling a lot. We thought it was pretty funny.


Loopy Avery in her huge hospital gown

Then we had to lay her down on the gurney while they gave her something through an oxygen mask so she would go to sleep. She was not really into that. It was hard for mommy and daddy to watch. And her anesthesiologist was so young! I almost asked him how old he was...but I didn't. Made me feel like I was turning into my mother! haha (love you mom :)

However, I did specifically tell him that Avery was a really hard stick, so I hoped he was really good at putting in I.V.'s. Oh yes! he said. Don't worry! he said. Well, she came out of it fine, and even smiled at us when she woke up, but I was SOOO not pleased to discover this:


He stuck her in every appendage before getting it right! She had four bandages instead of one! Poor baby. Good thing she was asleep for all that sticking or I would have had to punch his teeth out! She was a little lethargic afterwards as you can see. So we cuddled on the couch.

Back to normal today...

Hope y'all had a nice weekend :0) Thanks for voting in the poll. Looks like most people think she's a mix. Sounds good to me.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Too Cute

...that's what lil'bub was the other day when we were playing in front of the mirror and she discovered what magical fun a box of tissues could become! I grabbed the fancy new camera that Bub the hub bought me for my birthday and started snapping away.

Lil'bub was completely mesmerized by the constantly reappearing tissues. Soon she was surrounded...and I was having waaaay too much fun watching her to care about the mess. She was sitting so straight and looked so pretty :)

The funniest part was that every so often, she would stuff one in her mouth (like, with gusto!), and it would stay there while she continued pulling more out...

And then, for whatever reason, she would release said tissue from mouth...

and find another (that looked yummy?) to cram back in! What a silly munchkin. She heard me laughing and started giggling too...


But then it was quickly back to business. I am trying my hand at blurry photo backgrounds, what do you think??



Have another?




all gone!!

what a cute tooshie!!!

Here is Avery's other favorite toy, her alphabet spinner. These photos are so clear!! I think I am going to like this camera.

On a totally different note, tomorrow lil'bub has to get an MRI. It's just a check-up to make sure everything looks ok, but I am pretty nervous to say the least. It's been more than a year since she has gotten one. And they have always been post-surgery in the past, when she was already under anesthesia. So this will be a little different. They will have to start an I.V. and put her under for awhile. Please send your good thoughts! Hopefully I will have some time to update after she comes out ok.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Pollster

Soooo I just figured out that I could post a poll on the side of my blog! How fun is that? Of course I carefully pondered what would be the very best first poll to post and came up with something I seriously need answered....that's right, WHO does lil'bub look like the most? Bub the hub or ME?? But don't worry, I like to put careful research and thought into serious questions before I answer them, and I will not leave you hanging. Before you make any rash decisions, take a look at the following photos of us as young bubs:

Now, I will go ahead and admit that when lil'bub was a newborn, she looked exactly like her daddy...



and this trend did continue...



for a number of months...


Then, around 4 or 5 months, lil'bub's features started to take a turn (in my humble opinion) toward her momma's looks!


I think it's the cheeks :)

And then, before we knew it, she looked like a whole different baby! Half mamma, half daddy, don't you think??



Now it's a year later, and I'm not quite sure what YOU think, but I think this girl is DEFinitely lookin' more like her momma.


So now take a moment to vote in the poll and tell me what you think. It's totally anonymous, so don't worry I might be mad if you don't do the right thing and vote how much she looks like me! Just kidding...sort of. And guess what else? I also just discovered I could add a "Reaction" poll at the bottom of each post too. So all you blog stalkers can tell me what you think of my posts because it's anonymous too! And yes, I know you stalkers are out there. I had almost a hundred hits the other day! So feel free to keep stalking, just participate in a poll now and then, eh?

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Gig'em and Good Times

First of all...


Lil'bub is showing her support


gig'em Ags!!!

Second of all, we had a really fun birthday party last night for Bub the hub with great-old friends, good Mexican food and a little Texas Hold'Em! I got out early, which gave me time to do about 3 million dishes, but I think everyone had good times. Thankfully, lil'bub slept peacefully upstairs while we made lots of noise down. Even one flying roach episode with a lot of (woman AND man) squealing didn't wake her....but she was pretty tired from another great week at school.

On Thursday morning, exactly two weeks after starting school, lil'bub did not fuss once when handed off to her teacher, and did the same on Friday. We are very VERY proud of her. Her teacher tells us she is talking more and more, and gets pretty excited to hear "Old MacDonald" and "I'm A Little Teapot"---there's even some dancing involved :).

Here are a few good photos of the party last night.



Big surprise, the birthday boy did pretty well for himself. We tried stuffing him with drinks, but I think it just made him better. Oh well! Good thing he won my money back, right?? I am taking him to the Astros game tonight and that food is so dang expensive. Did you know that they are the ONLY team that doesn't allow fans to bring in their own food and drinks? And their reason for it is ridiculous. Read this Houston Press article about it. They should either lower ticket prices or lower food&drink prices. Maybe then we could afford to go more...and perhaps Bub the hub could enjoy a nice beer without thinking how it costs like ohhh A DOLLAR A SIP!! sheesh

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Bub the Hub's Birthday

On September 3, 1981, baby Bub the hub was born! He turned into a sweet boy...

and now he is a sweet man...


a loving husband...


and a wonderful father!

We love you more than we can say. Have a wonderful birthday :)

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