Freezer Meals

 If you're on Pinterest, you know that freezer meals are all the rage.  With good reason as far as I'm concerned.  I first saw the idea of cooking once a month on MamaBabyLove and fell in love with it.  I was intimidated at first then I remembered that I used to put together shopping lists for 100+kids to cook every week, shop, organize, and actually cook with them- for my job.  So I decided I had to decide what to make, make a list and shop- no excuses.

The first go went well.  And it was one of those magical times when Tony was home and Ada actually came with me to the grocery store and shopped with me and Em stayed home.  I let her use one of the children's carriages (sorry no pic, but you can imagine how cute) and she got to decide what she pushed and what I did.  She helped me pick out all sorts of things- really fun for mama.  We got home I stashed stuff away and got cooking after bedtime.  I cooked during naptime and after bed, so it's hard to determine exact cooking time, but a good 4 hours would be my best guess.  Here are the recipes I made for the freezer:

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken (slow cooker)- 2 batches
Chicken Curry (slow cooker)- 2 batches
Pot roast (slow cooker)- just threw carrots, taters, beef, onions and spices in a bag
Baked Ziti- just thrown together- don't use a recipe
Stuffed pesto chicken shells
Meatloaf- 4 minis (I used the Nourishing Traditions recipe like MamaBaby love)
Chicken Parm Meatloaf
Chicken stir fry- just cut up the leftover veggies (mushroom, boc choi, peppers, carrots, onions, snow peas) and included separate bag of chicken in homemade teriyaki sauce)
Beef, bean, corn empanadas- 8 empanadas (I used pie crust b/c it was all I could find and made 4 per shell.  I had extra filling and stored that in ziplocks to add to nachos or burritos)
Twice Baked Potato- this isn't the recipe I used, but I can't remember where it is...sorry.
Chicken Tikka Masala- this was a time consuming preparation but it was yummy.  It made a ton so we ate some right away and I froze some for another time.

Here are a couple pictures- I didn't document everything along the way.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Empanadas

I wanted to add some kiddo pictures to this post, so here's Ada helping make some "Cookie Monster" ice cream.  We used the ice cream maker that goes with our kitchen aid and added blue food coloring to the vanilla base.  She crushed up some oreos and we added them in- YUM!

When in doubt, be a ballerina

Enjoy!

We are almost through with those meals.  I wish we liked the texture of the crock pot freezer meals more because they are SO SIMPLE and nice to be able to throw in the crock pot (which I refer to as my wife) and have dinner done when we are ready to eat.  I find I am more likely to get down and play more in the afternoon, or make a playdate, if I don't have to get home to get dinner on.

We were up in the cities over the weekend and had a little extra time so we went to Whole Foods.  It was awesome, but made me SO miss being in Eastern Mass where WFM is everywhere.  Mostly I bought a ton of meat (chicken and ground beef) to process and have for easy meals.

I made a big batch of burgers (I add steak seasoning, shredded onion, and worchestire sauce) hand form and wrap individually in saran.  Throw them all in a ziplock and they are ready for the freezer.  I made another batch of empanadas because they were AWESOME, plus extra of the mix- I might mix some in with noodles for cheesey tex-mex mac.  And froze some just as is.  Then I made some Crock Pot chicken fajitas.  We had some for dinner and I made another batch for the freezer.  I didn't shred the chicken, I just sliced it up before I put it in.  They were pretty good.  Not as good as on the stove, but good and EASY!  Then just cut up the rest of the chicken and froze it in easy to use portions. Some with Italian dressing to just throw on the grill.

Rainbows

After having an awesome outdoor playdate this afternoon the girls came in and Ada was chomping at the bit to do the new work that I had put out today.  It had been a while.  Emma found this when she woke up from her nap and was excited to try out the tongs again.  It's meant as a 1:1 correspondence work and I did my best to find some different colors.  This was inspired by dinner 2 nights ago.  We had those yummy frozen arancini from Trader Joe's and I was so excited about the plastic container they came in so I could make a work- I have officially lost my mind.

I also changed up are art bins to have rainbow crafts in them.  Honestly, I've looked at a gazillion of these things on Pinterest but ultimately I just went into the craft room and grabbed what I had that I thought the girls would like and that was easy to put together.  There were some white paper plates handy so I cut them in half added a rainbow of markers, a glue stick and a small bowl of cotton balls for clouds.  I cut some office paper in 1/4 and added a freehand rainbow and rainbow of crayons and shiny star stickers in another bin.  I put the rainbow stacker on the table for "inspiration" and called myself done.

I struggle with trowing away the artwork the girls make.  I try to photograph and throw away, keep my favorites and display some too.  Sometimes there is a large stack of artwork on the kitchen counter that I haven't sorted and today was that day.  I decided to quickly throw up a string on some random screws that were left in the hallway from the previous owners.  I put some clothespins on and hung a few things.  My apologies for the poor quality picture, but the finished rainbows are up.  Emma's on the left (Ada helped her with the glue) and Ada's on the right. 

And on a brighter note, Emma exists

Daughters

Warning: After the photo there is a long essay.  If you're not in the mood to read a rant, I suggest you just look at the cuteness and come back next post. :)

The fact that I have daughters is a huge gift.  I always thought I wanted sons, but once we had Ada I was so happy that I was hoping and wishing for another girl when I found out I was pregnant again.  In fact, the conversation I had with my OB as I was sitting on the table getting my spinal before having Emma was her asking me "do you think it's a girl or a boy?"  to which I replied, "I wish I didn't feel this way, but I really hope it's a girl but I think it's going to be a boy."  Everyone thought Emma was going to be a boy.  When she was born it was AMAZING. 

First off, it was finally the joyous birth experience we had heard of, unlike the trauma of Ada's birth AND I was so relieved to have another daughter.  I kept picturing Ada with a sister.  Imagining them growing up together and taking care of one another (they're only 22 mo apart), and just having each other.  They are proving to be such great friends already.  There are a million little moments: glances, kisses, touches, shares, kind words that happen every day between them and I know that the greatest gift we could have ever given either of them as parents is each other.

But having daughters is not without worry.

A phrase I sometimes can be heard saying is, "you get to make decisions for your own body".  As the girls are 1 and 3, this applies to things like no pushing/ pulling/ taking things etc. but really I hope to be setting the groundwork for a lifetime of them making good choices when it comes to their bodies.  I realize this sounds silly since they are so young, but that's me- overthink it. Tony and I of course have to override this on occasion, like when Ada wants to wear her ballerina outside when it's 10degrees, but you get the picture.  

With all that's in the news (and I barely pay attention) right now about women's rights, I can't help think what the country will be like when they are older- especially in their teens, twenties and thirties when their reproductive lives will be of great import.  I hope they will have every right to make any decision they see fit with regards to their reproductive health.  I hope they and they alone (with input from their partner) will be able to make that choice.

I just read an article that a friend of a friend had posted on Facebook that scared the pants off me.  Kansas to Pregnant Women: "A Little Lie from Your Doctor Won't Hurt You"
It is so hard to believe that a doctor would deliberately keep information from their patient.  It is even more difficult to believe that people- yes, men and women will stand for this being legal. 

Reading about Arizona passing a law to allow employers (this is just the exempted religious employers) to actually fire women who are using birth control for "sexual" reasons, i.e. not for acne control or pcos, etc.  This means if a woman is taking the pill she would need to submit her medical records to her employer in order to keep her job.  I'm a natural born skeptic, so I was reading a little summary about the law.  Turns out lots of states have a "Contraceptive Equality Law" that requires employers to cover birth control if they cover prescriptions.  And many states give an exemption to religious employers.  I can completely understand that but what I don't agree with or even understand is how it's alright for a woman to have to show her medical records to her employer in order to get a hormone treatment.  My guess is most of the women working for these organizations share the beliefs regarding bc, and if not they can certainly go to another provider like Planned Parenthood.  The problem is being at risk for getting fired (there is no job protection in AZ- at will) for being on hormonal birth control is taking things too far. 

So I do worry.  I worry that my girls will have to fight for things that I have been able to basically take for granted my whole life.  I worry that we could take a step backwards in this country when it comes to women's health and that my girls will have to pay for it.

Mud Pie Kitchen

I have been dreaming of making a mud pie kitchen for the girls for almost a year now.  I've thought about where to put it and what to make it out of, but mostly I thought about not wanting to use anything that was new and not wanting to spend lots of money.  The ones I love are very natural looking like this and this and this.  But we don't have a good backdrop since the fence surrounding our yard is chain link (previous owners).  Last summer I kept my eye out for inexpensive kitchen tools, and hoped to find some nice wooden crates to use but didn't find anything that was within the budget I wanted to spend.

Yesterday Em and I stopped in at Salvation Army and found what I decided would be perfect.  It's a plastic shelving thing that has a bottom shelf and one above.  Perfect height for both girls to use.  Sturdy and able to take the elements.  The best part?  $1.00

Combined with the collection of pans, spoons, and plates that we found last summer at yard sales our whole kitchen came in at under $5.00!!  That is including the 50lb bag of play sand I got at HD to add to the mix.  I put it in an old rubbermaid container and now we have a "sand box". Although the gravel under the swingset is a big hit too!

 
Ada made me proud when she started doing this move with the pan.  Almost as proud as when she shifts gears when she drives her car :)

So far this is the area Ada is literally running to she we go outside.  Em is liking it too.  I'm sure I'll switch it around and add to it as the summer wears on, but it's nice to have some different type of play outside and to encourage playing with dirt:)  Now we just need this weather to stick around.

A few things we've been doing...

Last weekend I made a little farm board for the girls.  It was inspired by a cool farm set I saw on Pinterest.  Gramma Deb had given the girls some great little animals and fences that we use with our fold and go Melissa and Doug Barn.  I debated about using foam board but finally decided to use a piece of cardboard that had been used to hold a large picture frame I bought- has a little hook so we could hang it on the wall.  I like how it's all contained when it's put away.  Emma pulled off one of the fence sections nearly right away, but that's fine- Ada likes that there's a "door" now.

Ingredients:
Got glue gun, cardboard, green construction paper, brown construction paper, back of an old calendar that had vegetable/ fruit illustrations, blue foam for a little lake, tractor stickers.- ALL of this was stuff laying around in the craft room.

The girls discovering this after nap...

We've had nice warm weather and Ada has been saying "Icky mud"...I have got to nip that attitude in the bud. We've been talking about how soil is nice because it grows plants, trees, and food and even when it's wet and muddy- WE LIKE DIRT.  For anyone reading who knew me when I had my S10- remember the "Girls love dirt" sticker?  Man, that was a great truck.  Anyway,  here's a little video of Ada playing with her animals as they find their children/ parents.  Pretty darn cute.

We did a little science experiment inspired by a conversation Ada and Tony were having about density.  Well, they were talking about why something was floating (while baking- pancakes I believe).  I overheard and remembered a post I had seen on Chasing Cheerios (easily my favorite mommy blog).  I grabbed a few baskets and we wrote "sink" on one and "float" on the other.  Then we gathered a collection of random items, I made a quick chart and we went through each one and Ada made a prediction that I recorded.  We talked about what a "prediction" was and she did pretty well.  Next it was time to put each item one at a time into the basin of water and Ada told me which ones sunk/ floated.  I was surprised by a few of the results- which we also recorded.  Emma had fun with this one too... but note to anyone who is going to do this with a 16 month old- don't walk out of the room while she is playing with a basin of water unless you have MANY towels handy :)

Sticky paint is what we've been calling this little concoction that I learned about on Two Hens and a Chick.  It's just corn syrup and food coloring. We had been talking about changing our window decorations for spring and wanted to make rainbows and flowers and trees.  We made trees with sticky paint so there is brown and 2 shades of green.  I pulled up some google images of trees for Ada to look at and the first couple she made were more "abstract".  She asked me to draw one for her to paint.  So I drew some basic tree shapes and she told me she was going to paint the trunk brown and the leaves green.  So she did.

These were fun to make and I would do sticky paint again, but we decided to say goodbye to these as they were still sticky after a day and we/I didn't want them drip and attract ants so they didn't make the window.

Speaking of the window.  No more snowflakes!!  We made some rainbows and hung them in the shape of a rainbow.  This was just a thrown together, I don't want to put on a movie, and we need to do something inside kind of thing.  I put some coffee filters down on the children's table and sprayed them with water.  Then we used watercolors to paint on them.  Let them dry and voila!  Ada liked it so much she asked to do it again the next morning. I decided to cut flower shapes before painting this time and we dried them and hung them with construction paper stems.  Ada glued on some leaves too.  And now we have a more spring-y window.  Yay!!!

Last but not least, after a weekend of glorious weather and a full day of outside play we shared a treat after Em was asleep.  Ice cream cones + marshmallows + chocolate chips + peanut butter chips + tin foil + oven = yummy

Artist vs. Crafter

It is very clear to me that I am not an artist.  I like to create things with my hands, but have a hard time just going with the flow.  I like to have an idea of the finished product and prefer to make functional items.  When I went to Mass Art briefly I took things like clothing, metal, and ceramics- all things that you can use rather than simply appreciate.  I appreciate art, just don't have the confidence level to make it.  That said, my husband was raised by artists.  I was raised by a crafter.  My mother is a skilled quilter, knitter, cook, basket weaver, you name it- she can make it.  My mother in law is a talented sculptor and we have some of her pen & ink drawings that are amazing as well.  She is the type of woman you are psyched to go to a museum with because she understands it and can help someone like me see the artistry more clearly.  I'm one of those- "I like this" type people.

When we are all home and Ada has the urge to do some artwork it is so clear to me this difference in rearing.  I have all the materials and have to hold myself back from helping to create the specific end result while Ada just creates.  Recently Tony was home and showed Ada a technique for using watercolors that you would never assume he knew... paint with water then paint over it with the paint and let the color bleed.  Well this is the only way Ada paints anymore.  She has been loving it.  In fact, she went on a little watercolor exploration.

This is Ada's "Study in Blue"

I guess time will tell with our little Emma, but for Ada we will continue letting her do her thing.  But this weekend I hope I can convince her to make some flowers for the front window- I'm sick of looking at snowflakes and need a little spring inspiration.