Move right out of my life....

New blog, new web host, same old me......enjoy

Since Then

...Since my last post.....three days after we found out that Isaac had Hand and Mouth, Phoebe woke up from a nap with her eye swollen, took her to the walk-in clinic to find out that she had pink eye! Crazy!! Crazy!!! Crazy!!! And I am not even done yet! Not even a week later, Isaac fell off a table and broke his nub! What in the world! Can we have ONE week of no injuries or illnesses?! AHHHHHHH! I am really losing it!

On the Mend....Just Kidding!

Seriously, I just posted about how we were starting to get healthy! Probably as I was typing that post out God was chuckling to Himself saying, "Bekah, Bekah, Bekah, when will you learn." Last Thursday we took Isaac into the doctor for a checkup on an ear infection that he had only to discover that he had a DOUBLE ear infection. That isn't too bad, not contagious in any way. He was put on stronger antibiotics, and within a couple of days he was feeling better. Well, then on the night of day five he was acting really grouchy again and ended up throwing up from crying so hard.....fun times. Day six brought on a fever that was hard to bring down along with grouchiness. By day six on the antibiotics fever had left but he was still being a super grouch, and started drooling like CRAZY. Called the doctor back, and she got us in on the same day. We were both thinking the same thing, that his ear infections had come back. Well, the only problem was that his ears looked great. What? Please don't tell me that he is just teething. She looked into his throat and stepped back quickly. "Oh! Does he have any bumps anywhere? Diaper rash or anything?" I replied that he had a little diaper rash that had just started but wasn't bad. What was going through the doctor's mind? Was it Mono? Was it Strep Throat? Why was she asking about rashes? Chicken Pox? "He has Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease." WHAT? What in the world is that? She explained further that he has sores in his mouth (hence the drooling) and the "diaper rash" were the same kind of sores. HFMD is a virus it is very contagious(great!) and very painful. NICE! So, I am pretty confident that my 3 year old will catch this as well. One of these days........we will get better!!

Feeding my Addictions

By the way, for those of you keeping count. This past week I went to Costco to get this:

and wound up with that cookbook plus

I told you......I have an addiction

On the Mend...

This has been a very long and cruel winter in regards to the health of my house. We have definitely been battling multiple virus' these past, well, probably since October-ish. November brought on a severe case of Mono to (at the time) my 2 year old. She is still recovering from that, she still gets tired out if she does too many activities, and she catches just about any illness that passes her way. March was my bad month. I had this cold/sinus junk that would not leave my system. I had a fever for almost two weeks, went through a whole cycle of Penicillin and a Z-Pack with no help. Then, I got placed on some strong steroids, and an inhaler. I am off all meds now and I am for the most part feeling better but my throat is still crazy sore. The difficult thing with menu planning and making the majority of your meals on one day is that when you are sick and don't have the energy to cook anything your whole family suffers. Curtis has been making more store runs for fast food or prepared foods this past month, he has been doing more laundry, and trying to relieve me as much as possible. I am SO looking forward to the month of May. Looking forward to getting my meals back on track, looking forward to running in the mornings again, looking forward to my cleaning schedule again! I took Isaac to his doctor because he had an ear infection and needed a check up. I told the doctor that I was hoping that he had another ear infection because he has been the GROUCHIEST person alive. Screams and yells, refuses to be comforted, angry, yeah, that sums up Isaac. Sure enough, he now has a double ear infection. Thankfully, this round of antibiotics already seem to be working. ANYWAYS, all of that to say that I was telling Isaac's doctor that I am SO looking forward to spring, since we only seem to get sick in the winter. Spring is definitely upon us. Even now, our back yard is filled with croaking frogs......it is a wonderful sound! I know that in a few short months the frogs will be joined with the sounds of crickets offering their ever joyful song. Phoebe is now potty trained! It is truly glorious! We now only have ONE kid in diapers! Sorry, This post has been random. That is me, I am random. And I am addicted to Food Gawker. And Pinterest. My throat hurts. My very good friend flies in next week with her two girls! I get to meet the Pioneer Woman soon! That is awesome! She is awesome! Her newest book is awesome! And so is her biography of her and her husbands courtship. That is is.....goodnight!

Happy Easter!

From our home to yours!

Benisms

My six year old son is such a sweet boy. But he is also super silly. There has been multiple times wear he will say things and Curtis and I will look at each other in a quizzical way as if to say "Where does he come up with these things?" Seriously, you have no idea, well, at least not yet. I want to capture some of these so I can read them back to him when he gets older. So, here is the first installment of "Benisms" While walking into a freshly cleaned house. "Mom, it smells so shiny in here." While looking at the stream in our back yard. "When you get baptized in the stream all of your sins drown" While snuggling up to me on the couch. "Mom, you are my favorite mom and I love you!." "Ben, thank you, but I am your only mom" "No, you're not, Eve was my first mom." "Yes Ben, I guess you are right, I am glad that I am your favorite." More to come.....

Here it is!!

My very FIRST 6 layer cake!

BEAUTIFUL!

Addictions.....

I have a serious problem. I might even label it as an addiction. I am fully addicted to.......recipes! There, I said it, I am so ashamed. I have been working on a project now for almost 5 months trying to wrangle up all of my 18 recipe books and combining them into 4 binders......well, 4 binders plus the cookbooks I don't have the heart to cut recipes out of like Pioneer Woman.

Her pictures and stories are just too lovely.

This turned out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated! Right now it is just a big mess!

One would think that since I have such a big mess that I would steer clear of acquiring anymore recipes. WRONG! Ugh, I just can't help myself. I can't walk through a thrift store or Costco without passing through where they sell cookbooks. It is like there is some inner force that literally pulls me that direction, like a moth to a flame.

What is even worse is that recently I have smartened up and started checking out cookbooks from the library and going through marking the recipes that I want to copy down for my collection.

And so my collection just sits there and continues to grow. Most recipes I will probably never try, but I just can't throw them out because I might want to try them someday....right?

If you are thinking to your self, it's ok Bekah.....we have all been there. There is something else that you need to know.

My online collection is about 5 times bigger than my physical recipes. Holy cannoli!

mmmmmmmmmm......Cannoli's! I need to find a good recipe for that!

Focus Bekah FOCUS!!

On my browser tool bar, I have a tab just for recipes. There are over 26 recipe sites bookmarked.......18 of them I subscribed to and are updated with recipes multiple times a day. Probably the biggest problem area of all is pinterest. Pinterest has a section labeled "Food and Drink" it literally has hundreds of thousands recipes posted by everyone and their mother. Each picture represents a recipe. Most "normal" people would simply repin the recipe and move on. Not me. I have to keep on clicking until I get to the original source which 99% of the time leads to a blog......not just any blog......a cooking blog full of recipes. And just like a habit, without even thinking about it, I click the "subscribe" button and add it instantly to my list of recipe sites. And so the cycle begins once again.

Is there any hope for someone like me? A 12 step program? "They" say that the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem...........Hello, my name is Bekah, and I am a recipe hoarder..........

Menu Planning 102: Tools Needed

CONGRATULATIONS!!! You are back! Did you decide to take the plunge? Are you determined to rid your self of processed foods for 30 days? If you have made that commitment this is the next step; TOOLS. Tools?! Why would anyone need to have tools for this challenge? The success of this challenge (especially if you are doing the majority of your cooking in one day) is heavily dependent on the tools that you surround yourself with.

1. 9x13 pans- preferably glass and preferably with lids.

They make stacking up your dishes in the freezer super easy and they don't allow much moisture to enter the dish like aluminum foil will. I own about 5 or 6 of them. Most of them I purchased from our local thrift store.

2. Crockpots- different sizes works great I have three of them. One of them is big and fancy that has a temp gauge for cooking meats. I like it a lot!

The next two that I have are small and have just a little knob to adjust the temp. They are old and well used and were purchased again at the local thrift store.

The problem with only having one crockpot is you can only work on one recipe for the whole day. What a time waster! During my cooking days I use the large one for either big recipes or for cooking meats. The two smaller ones are for slow cooked soups or dips.

3. An Upright or Chest Freezer CRUCIAL!! You need a place to put all of your meals in! We bought ours at a garage sale. It's old, smelled when we first bought it but hey, it works and that is all that matters! It is a rare thing for our upright to be empty, it is usually jammed packed with foods. This what ours looks like right now. Nice and filled with yummy ingredients!! This is how it looks before I do my Saturday cooking. I will show you what it looks like after as well.

4. Food Processor- This I actually do not have, but, I would love to get one some day. I am sure that it will make my life 300% easier! This is the one I want.

One day, I will find one at a thrift store, but until then......chop, chop, chop!

5. Food Scale- this really isn't a necessary tool, just a helpful one. As of now, we buy our beef in bulk at Costco. The size I buy is fully dependent on what I am scheduled to cook. This past month our "beef" calendar consisted of two meatloaf nights(1.5 lbs per recipe), one chili night(2lb recipe), two burrito nights(1 lb per recipe) and one spaghetti night(1 lb). That is 8 lbs of beef needed for one month. So, I pick out a package that is closest to that weight and take it home and try to figure out how much is 1.5lb/ 2lb/ etc with no scale. Yikes!

I have generally stayed away from scales because I have this notion that food scales are for dieters measuring their portions in grams, but, I need to just bunker down and get one.

So, there you have it. You have the goal/mindset, you have the tools needed, next up is planning your meal calendar.....kiss those processed foods goodbye!!

Menu Planning 101: Getting Started

I love menu planning!! I have been doing it for almost two years now and it is a huge life saver! No more picking out meals by how you are feeling, and no more staring blankly at your fridge wondering what to do.

I do my shopping at the beginning of the month even my fresh fruits and veggies. I do most of my cooking the Saturday following the shopping. There I cook the majority of my dinners that call for the fresh ingredients and then freeze them. I will say that it is an all day thing and it takes planning, but it is so worth it!

We do most of our big shopping at Costco as well except for chicken. Chicken we buy through Zaycon. Organic, skinless, boneless chicken breast for $1.69lb!! They catch is they come in 40lb boxes. Now we will use all of that but for other families who won't or don't have freezers (more on that later)to hold all of that chicken you could always split the order with a friend or 3 other friends! The boxes are divided into (4) 10lb bags. Super easy, super nice!

I am not that big on New Year's Resolutions but last year I did make one and I did keep it, well, mostly. Last year I stated that it was my goal by the end of the year for my menu to be free of processed foods and for the most part we are. There is only one meal that is processed and that is Orange Chicken from Costco. I cannot find a good Orange Chicken recipe that the sauce has good flavor. I even tried Panda Express's Orange Chicken Sauce and I still didn't like it. So, we buy Costco.....mainly for the sauce. But other then that everything else is homemade, no more store bought nuggets or fish sticks or tator tots or soups or prepackage pasta meals. Now, I still have on hand a few boxes of mac and cheese as a backup plan for babysitters to make or if grandma watches the kids at her house I will take a couple of boxes over for her to prepare.

Let me challenge you, even if it is for one month, to eat homemade meals! It is awesome and you will feel so domesticated! I am still working out kinks with planning and I want to get to the place where I can make my own pasta sauces, marinara sauces, and enchilada sauces from scratch as well, and find a better homemade applesauce recipe.