Genius?

How to Make Breakfast

Step One: Pour the Cereal

Step Two: Eat the Cereal

Step Three: Throw the Cereal into the air in celebration

Step Four: "Enjoy" confinement while Mommy cleans up the mess


For the record: Yes, I took pictures when I could have been cleaning. But no, I did not let him dump out the cereal....he climbed up to the table and dumped the cereal while I had my back turned. Ah, life with a toddler! :)

Chicken Broccoli Cheese Nuggets

My son Seth is a super picky eater. He wont touch food unless it is not messy or squishy or feels like anything other than a piece of bread or a cracker. This makes it extremely difficult to make sure he eats enough meat and/or veggies. Sooooooo, I adapted a Broccoli Cheese Nugget recipe I found online to include chicken and spinach. Miracles of miracles he eats them! I don't eat them because of the cheese but my husband LOVES them. I have a hard time keeping them in the house because Nathan will eat them before Seth gets a chance!

Chicken Broccoli Cheese Nuggets

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked chicken puree.

1 16-oz Package frozen broccoli, cooked, drained, and pureed in food processor

1/2 cup cooked spinach puree

1 1/2 cup Seasoned bread crumbs -- I use Mrs Cubbins Seasoned Stuffing Bread and put it in the food processor: 7 oz of stuffing mix makes about 1.5 cups of crumbs

1 ½ cups Shredded cheddar cheese

2 large eggs

Directions

Pre-Heat oven to 375

Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil or cooking spray and set aside.

Combine all ingredients (except for 1/2 c bread crumbs) and mix well.

Shape mixture into nuggets or fun shapes.

Coat nuggets in remaining bread crumbs and place on baking tray.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (or until golden brown) turn nuggets over once during baking.

Serve warm

Nuggets freeze and reheat well in the oven.

Enjoy!

i like food

I made a delicious and I mean DELICIOUS salmon dinner last night.

Nathan and I both have been thinking about it all day today. Seth has been thinking about PB&J, but what does he know? :)

I will give you the recipe as found in the Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine followed by my notes. YUUUUUUUUMMMM!!


Salmon with Dill Sauce

6 salmon fillets (4 oz each)

1/2 tsp plus 2 Tbsp fresh dill (just the leaves)

1/4 tsp pepper

4 tsp cornstarch

2/3 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

2 tsp lemon juice

Place each salmon fillet on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 12 inches square). Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp dill and pepper.

Fold foil around salmon and seal tightly. Grill, with the cover closed, over high heat for 5-10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

In a small saucepan, combine the cornstarch, broth, milk, mustard, lemon juice and remaining dill. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened.

Open foil packets carefully to allow steam to escape. Serve salmon with dill sauce.


Juli's notes -- I used an 18 oz fillet of fresh Atlantic Salmon and cooked it whole in foil on the grill. It took about 20 minutes to cook. To make the sauce dairy free I boiled 2/3 cup of soy creamer down to 1/3 cup and substituted that for the evaporated milk. I served the salmon with plain white rice and steamed asparagus. This simple meal was one of the best dinners I've had in quite a while!

Enjoy!!

Made my day

I was in a public restroom today -- enjoying a sliver of privacy in my stall when a little voice popped up from the stall next to me.

"Mama. I like going to the bathroom."

Judging from the acoustics of her response, Mama was not in the stall with the little voice. She replied sweetly but with a hint of disapointment that she wasn't going to get just a minute of silence while the owner of the little voice was in the stall alone.

"That's nice honey, I'm glad you like using the bathroom."

Encouraged by Mama's response and obviously excited the little voice then exclaimed "Mama Mama I don't have diarrhea any more!"

"Oh honey that's good. I'm glad. Please wipe and we will finish our shopping." What was a hint of disappointment in Mama's voice had at that point turned into more than a hint of embarrassment.

"Mama! I'm having regular poops!"

"Good. Now please wipe your bum and come out to wash your hands."

"Mama come in here. Come see my regular poops!"

"I don't need to come in honey."

"No Mama, come see so you believe me!"

"I believe you."

"No Mama! Come now! Come see them!"

The little voice is getting louder and louder, the tone of Mama's voice is becoming less embarrassed. I can only imagine that Mama is standing outside the stall resigning herself to the inevitability of acquiescing to the voice's demand.

I am quietly giggling as I wash my hands, and fully smiling as Mama and the little voice emerge from their stall.

Mama, a pretty woman with shoulder length blonde hair looks at me and smiles. She looks down and shakes her head, shrugs her shoulders, telling me with her eyes that she can't believe what she just did.

I laugh out loud and say "That just made my day."

She looks at me in disbelief "Well I'm glad that made your day."

"It did. My son is 16 months old and is just starting to talk. I can't wait to see what kind of things he's going to say."

She laughs. "Whatever they say, it's always at the best time."

As if on cue the little voice pipes up once again. "Where is your son? Did you leave him in the toilet?"

Mama and I share a knowing look and laugh. "No," I say "He's not here. He's at his grandma's house."

I leave the restroom with a smile on my face, I love it when strangers can make my day.

Miracle

I'm reading a novel called The Birth House by Ami McKay.

I'm not too far into it, but am enjoying it. At the end of the first chapter the narrator relays a poignant observation about the birth process and the nature of miracles. The passage itself is a bit long to be quoted in its entirety, but there was one sentence in particular that took my breath away and reached deep into my heart.  If you are familiar with my experience of pregnancy you will understand why.

"How a mother comes to love her child, her caring at all for this thing that's made her heavy, lopsided and slow, this thing that made her wish she were dead...that's the miracle."

It is by the grace of God and with His power that I, as a mother, love my child. A mother's love (and probably a father's too, but I can only speak to my own experience) can only be possible because of the love Our Heavenly Father has for us. My greatest fear during my pregnancy was that I would resent my child for my illness, but loving Seth is the easiest thing I have ever done. I don't struggle with it in the least and I thank Jesus for this miracle each day. I thank Him too that this woman put it into words for me.

Mineral Oil

This Christmas my sister and I were discussing eye makeup removers. We ended the discussion by determining that Mineral Oil would make a good one and we both resolved to try it. I bought some and relayed my experience via email to my sister.  Maybe you will benefit from this story.

"I bought some Mineral Oil a couple of days ago and thought since you wanted to buy some you might like to hear about my experience! First off, it was an adventure even trying to find the stuff in the grocery store!! Nobody I talked to knew where it was. Finally someone called a manager and she told us where to find it: in the Pharmacy section next to the Miralax. Apparently Mineral Oil is a laxative. People drink it. SICK. Oh well, at least I found it and it was only $3 for a huge bottle. Sweet. Getting it home was uneventful. Once home I poked a hole in the seal, squeezed a little out onto my cotton ball and noticed something funny.  This was astoundingly thick oil. It came out as what can only be described as a "dollop." This is a word I would never think could be associated with an oil -- well, learn something new everyday I suppose. I looked at the bottle and saw something I had not noticed in the grocery store. This was "Extra Heavy" Mineral Oil. Oops. I don't even know if they sold any other kind of Mineral Oil. Oh well -- dollop or not I smeared it on my eyes to get rid of my mascara. It removed the mascara like a dream. GREAT! While admiring my newly cleaned skin in the mirror something strange started to happen. My vision got blurry and my eyes started burning! I used another cotton ball to make sure I had gotten all the goop off my eyes. My eyes slowly stopped burning but for the rest of the day my vision was still blurry. Thinking this was perhaps a freak occurrence I used the Mineral Oil again the next day -- taking care not to use too much - but the same thing happened! Knowing me I'll probably use it again tonight just because it removes mascara so well and I don't having anything else in the house. We'll see. So Sister, take what you will from my story, but I believe it has to be said -- "always be careful when smearing a laxative on your face."