Cookies and Cream Fudge Pops

It's 12:23 pm and I am sitting down to blog instead of taking a nap.  You're lucky.  This morning started off at 6:45am with a run with my friend Allyson, a quick jaunt home to shower and make it to Emma's breastfed baby study where we popped in for a good 10 minutes and left with $70.  After that we drove over to my DR to get some thyroid med. samples for myself to take on my trip home (in 5 days!).  I really wanted to go garage sale shopping this morning because it is garage sale paradise around here, but after all that I decided I'd rather go tomorrow by myself so I brought the girls home for lunch and early naps.  I AM planning on taking one as soon as I'm done.

Cookies and Cream Fudge Pops

1 small box of instant chocolate pudding

2 C milk

6 Oreo cookies

1/2 C or more of whipped cream

Make pudding with milk, and let stand 5 minutes.  Crush cookies and stir into pudding with whipped cream.  Pour mix into small bathroom cups and stick a Popsicle stick into them.  Freeze for 3 hours or more.  Heat the bottom of cup for a couple of seconds with hot water to get pop out of cup.  I made mine with all low-fat versions of the stuff, and I couldn't tell a difference.  Anyways, they are a great summer treat, and the kids can help make them too.

Now, off to my nap and swimming later.  I'm starting my weekend early!

We Have Been BUSY

I'm giving you a preview of what this next "Food for Thought Friday" will have on it.  Lets just say, it's a great summer treat, and it's messy.  Kenadi loves it, and half of it ends up on her face.  Are you excited?

I love that it's summer time.  I love this season!  Here's a few tidbits of what we've been doing lately:  On Saturday's we spend most of the day gardening.  I love this time of being outside with the family all helping (well, sometimes Kenadi's help actually gives us more work, and Emma mostly sleeps), and spending time together.  Kenadi is usually in charge of helping us water things, since she likes to play in the water so much.  Her weeding isn't as selective as we would like it to be either.

Randy weeded like crazy last Saturday, and got most of the garden done.  He loves being outside too, and seems to be more productive than I am.  (I have good excuses, like KIDS)

The weather here has been hot.  Upper 80's and lower 90's.  I like to take advantage of the heat and get out in the pool, or spray park.  Emma didn't quite know what to think of it because some kids kept splashing her without noticing, and no matter where I moved her, she still got it.  I think she was nervous the whole time.  You can see it in her face.

It takes Kenadi about 15 minutes to get over her nervousness too.  I wonder why.  She loves going, and always asks to go, but acts a little scared until she's used to it.

I also babysat like crazy last week.  It was fun though, lots of kids for Kenadi to play with.  Here's her little friend, Jackson. They are cute together, and he was calling her his buddy.  I loved it.

Of course, our days are filled with singing and dancing.  I need to figure out how to put video on here, cause some of Kenadi's moves are classic.  Complete with hip shaking and a head roll.  She told Randy that she learned it from the belly dancers at the Medieval festival that we went to a couple of months ago.  It's hilarious.

We toured the Braums ice cream factory, and it includes a bus ride on their bus painted like a cow on the outside.  It was Kenadi's first bus ride, and she had so much fun!  She got to sit by her friend Reagan, and it made her feel like such a big girl.  I had fun watching her. Anyways, the ice cream was AWESOME!  So creamy and good.  They give you free ice cream bars at the end of the tour, and I almost went straight to their store and got us some to take home.  I didn't, cause I knew that I couldn't stay out of them if I did.  The tour was neat, and I'm sold on their products now, because they have more calcium in their milk from "squeezing" the water out of their low fat/nonfat milk so that it tastes better and has more nutrients.  More milk, less water.  It was also so fresh because the factory is right by the dairy, so everything is done that day, and shipped out the next.  So, we had fun.

Okay, now that I did a commercial for Braums...  Kenadi and Emma have been playing together better.  Kenadi is figuring out how to be a good big sister to Emma, and share and be more gentle.  They both love the piano, and are so cute when they sit and play together.  It reminds me of when Haley and I would do duets together.  I'd always "fall" off the piano bench and bring her down with me.  I wouldn't just fall either, I'd do some dying act or something.  Our practice session always included us laughing so hard and mom yelling at us to get back to practicing.  Good memories.

This is our kids country club.  Have a dip in the pool, take a ride on the swings or slide down the slide...  back to the pool.  How 'bout a Popsicle?  I love summer.

We've been grilling almost every night, and I'm running every day again.  Back to family fitness, good food, and fun.

P.S. Isn't Emma getting so big?  She now has 5 teeth, and should be crawling VERY soon.  I'm betting on this week.

Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken

I did take a picture of this meal, but decided that it looked weird and might keep you from making it.  So, I posted a picture of a happy Kenadi with her food mostly gone (which is unusual for her at dinner time, so it must be good).  It is Very yummy and easy to make.  I love doing it when it starts to get hot because I can make it in the crock pot and keep the house cool.  

Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 C chicken broth

1 C salsa

1 can black beans, drained

1 can corn, drained

1 package taco seasoning

1/2 C sour cream

1 C grated cheddar cheese

Place the chicken in the bottom of a crock pot.  Top with broth, salsa, beans, corn, and seasoning.  Cook on high heat 3-4 hours, or low heat for 6-8hours.  Shred chicken.  Stir cheese and sour cream into crock pot.  (I add plain yogurt also, so its a bit more creamy without the fat)  Serve with/over rice (Spanish or plain), and tortillas.  We eat it by scooping the rice/chicken mixture into small pieces of tortilla.  It's good!

I procrastinate

I procrastinate. I have not made any commitments to myself to quit procrastinating, therefore, I am not weakening my character by doing this ( in case you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to my "resolve" post). I am telling you this, because this a post that contains a lot of posts I wanted to do, but now I have waited so long I'm going to just do them all at once.
We spent our Saturday working in the garden and playing with the girls. Kenadi loves Randy to give her fast rides in the wheelbarrow, so I had Emma pose with them for a bit. They are getting so big.
The day after we planted our garden, we had huge torrential rainstorms, and they continued for a week. I think a lot of our seeds rotted, that is why it's so bare. We started late too. Anyways, we have re-planted since then, and hopefully these seeds take. See my beautiful strawberries? I'm getting about a half a bucket of strawberries every day now. Yum! (that was my food for thought Friday post)


Saturday afternoon we went to this thing called "Touch a Truck". It was so fun and neat! It is basically a ton of different trucks/ vehicles parked and opened for kids to just climb through them and touch buttons, honk horns, and pretend like they're driving. They had this helicopter (med-flight), firetruck, ambulance, milk truck, bus, race car, police car, cable van, ice cream truck, police motorcycle, shredder truck, crane, etc. I thought it was great. Kenadi loved it, and touched all the buttons she could.
She always wants to get on school buses when they drive by us, so this was a treat.

She loved the fire truck too.
Here's another random thing. I cut Emma's hair finally. I took pictures of it before I cut it, with pig tails and stuff, but I can't find them for some reason. It was a little sad that I had to do it already, but she had a mullet pretty bad. I cut off about 2 inches, I think. It was long. It's cute now, isn't it? It just curls under really nice.I had to add this one too. Kenadi's getting better at the big sister thing. She is much more gentle, and loves to do anything she can with Emma. I can't wait until Emma can actually talk back to Kenadi, and play with her. That will be nice.

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Before I get started, you must notice the picture of that nice sewing machine. It's much better than the bike Randy had up, isn't it? I think I need a sewing machine like that one.
Randy has been voted in as the College of Medicine Graduate Student Association President. The funny thing is that he didn't run for this position, nor was he there at the gathering when he was chosen. I feel a little bad because I tried to convince Randy that it was a joke and he really wasn't the president, but I guess it's been confirmed and he is. So, you can all call him Pres. now.

So, "Pres" turned the big 2-8 on Thursday, May 7th. He's now closer to 30 than he is to 25. Scary. He's aging before my eyes. For his birthday we went to a nice cabin of some friends of ours. It is by a lake, and we went swimming there. The water felt so good, just a little cool, but you didn't really have to get used to it, which was unusual for swimming in a lake in the beginning of May. It was so much fun. We had all the family time that we love, and I wish we could have stayed longer.

We went on nice walks, and we even drove down to Dallas to see Ikea. I've never been there, but it's been one of my dreams, so Randy took me. It was as cool as I'd imagined.

We had a nice birthday party which included cake, ice cream (chocolate chip cookie dough is his favorite), and presents.

Kenadi always has fun helping us blow out our candles.
Here are some quick facts about The President.

• He's patient. Well, he's patient with me and the girls. He can be impatient sometimes, but that is rare.
• He is handy. He can build things, fix things, and he doesn't mind getting dirty. If he doesn't know how to fix something, he's not afraid of figuring it out.
• He has a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is very faithful to our church.
• He rides his bike almost everyday to school and back. (about 12 miles)
• He is stubborn. I'm stubborn too, but not as stubborn as him.
• He says he can't cook, but if you give him a grill, he's a master chef.
• He is practical. He won't just go on a trip or go camping on the spur of the moment. He likes to have things planned out.
• He can be violent if woken up in the middle of the night.
  
• He is smart. Out of all his graduate school classes, I think he got 1 B+, and the rest are A's. He learns and doesn't just memorize, which amazes me. He can talk to you and tell you all about subjects he studied 5 years ago.
• He likes scary movies
  
• He used to have a go tee, but refuses to grow one for me to see.
• He's hairy
• he grew up riding dirt bikes and LOVES them
  
• I think he's mostly Italian and German, and claims that he still has Italian mafia in Chicago related to him. (Im not sure about that one)
  
• He snores a lot lately
• His favorite sport is baseball. He loves to watch football too.
  
• He had skin cancer when he was 3 or something.
• He was 10 lbs 2 oz when he was born. AHHHHHHH! I don't even want to think about it.
• His clothes are well organized in our closet.
• He doesn't complain
• He helps me get the kids in bed every night
• Served his mission in Chicago and speaks Spanish fluently
• He has the kindest, most beautiful, blue eyes
• He is kind
• He's a very hard worker
  
• He carries bugs outside instead of squishing them
• He gets up early to study his scriptures every day.
• He loves his family and talks to his parents about once a week.
• He likes to laugh, and makes me laugh.
• I love you Honey!
  

I could go on and on, but this post must end sometime soon. So, I thought I'd finish with some more picutres of our trip. We forgot our swimming suits, so this is how Kenadi swam. Randy and I swam naked. Just kidding.

Me and the girls. Aren't they getting so big?

Our little family.

Kenadi likes to ham it up. This pose made me laugh. This was on one of our walks in the woods.

Emma had it the best. Just riding in luxury. Oh, it's a good life.

Road Bikin'

I've been telling the wife to update the heading picture.  She never did so I guess I have to do it.  Plus, this pic is way cooler than any pic she'd put up there:-)  Well the bike build is finally done (it's been done for ~3 weeks).  The bike has held together and it rides smooth, so I must have done something right!  I was a bit nervous the first couple times i rode it, I kept waiting for something to come loose.  The difference between the new road bike and the old clunker of a mtn bike I've been riding is like night and day.  Anyway, I'm enjoying it.  It was worth every penny (thanks Honey for understanding...well, at least letting me do it).  Here's some pics to wet your whistles.

Here's the old mtn bike hanging by the new ride.  Just don't pay attention to the messy shop.

This is my bike work stand that I built.  Saw something similar to this online and thought spending $20 dollars as opposed to >$150 for a work stand was a better deal.  It works great too.  It's just galvanized pipe bolted to the benchtop with a PVC T fitting cut in half with hinges and a latch to go around the seat post (you can see that in the first picture of the frame).    

Italian Stew

This week has been a rainy one. So, I got to try some colder-weather foods, like this Italian stew. This recipe was great for me because I had a lot of vegetables to use up before I get new ones from the co-op tomorrow. I got it from Taste of Home, but adapted it to what I had, and it turned out so tasty!

• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage (I think that the kielbasa sausage would be good too)
  
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced ( I used 2-3 cloves)
  
• 3 cups beef broth
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) stewed tomatoes, cut up
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 package (9 ounces) refrigerated cheese tortellini
• 1 small zucchini, sliced
• 1/3 cup chopped green pepper (or red)
  
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• I also added almost a whole bag of fresh spinach
  

Directions:

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, cook sausage and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and onion is tender. Drain. Add garlic; cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Stir in the broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, carrot, basil and oregano. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Gently stir in the tortellini, zucchini, green pepper and parsley. Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until tortellini is tender. Add spinach in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. Serve with Parmesan cheese. Yield: 6-8 servings (2 quarts).

Try this recipe with any veggies, and it should work! We loved it. I got the asiago cheese bread from the Walmart bakery to eat with it, I definately recommend the bread too. Oh, I love the Walmart artisian breads. You should try their Asiago cheese bread, Chedder cheese bread, or any of their filone's.

My last food for thought of the week: I canned jam this week with a friend of mine. I wish I had gotten a picture of our huge production. The kitchen was packed with busyness, and after 4 hours of hard work, we counted 52 jars of strawberry and raspberry jam. Maybe we over-did it this time, but we shouldn't have to do jam for a couple of years!