Chicken Soup

This is one of my favorite things to make. It's easy and it uses up leftovers! I often make baked chicken, so I normally boil the chicken when we're done with it to make my own broth to freeze and use for soups, but one could certainly use canned chicken broth as well. Also, any of these ingredients can be modified to suit your taste. I will honestly toss in whatever I think sounds good. I've used spinach, kale, and broccoli in the past. I've also substituted the corn and potatoes for tortellinis. Yum!!

Ingredients:

Chicken broth (I use about 6 cups. If you are using canned broth, you might want to substitute with a cup of water to cut down on salt.)

1 small onion diced

1 cup corn (frozen, canned, or fresh if you recently had corn on the cob)

2 medium potatoes

1 cup sliced carrots

2 large celery stalks sliced

1 cup green beans (frozen or fresh)

2 cloves garlic diced

2 cups chicken (optional)

1TBSP olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in large pot with olive oil for aprox 5 mins

Add broth, potatoes, chicken, salt, pepper and simmer covered until potatoes are soft. (Aprox 10 mins)

Add corn and green beans and simmer covered for another 5 mins.

To make your own chicken stock, pick off as much meat from the bones as you can and set aside. Boil entire chicken (along with drippings) in a pot of water. I often add an onion and some celery. Boil for an hour or more! Strain out the broth and freeze to store after returning chicken pieces to the broth. (optional)

Product Rave

I have to take a minute here to RAVE about a product I've been using. It is called Method Multi-Surface Cleaner in French Lavender. I've been using Lysol for a while and my husband and I joke constantly about how terrible it smells. We were using it to clean the counters, stove, and pet accidents on our kitchen floor. (They happen from time to time) I wanted to find something natural with the baby all over the floor these days. I purchased Method and I am thrilled with how it works and smells. When they advertise that it smells like Lavender, they mean it. It DOES NOT smell like a cleaner at all. Thumbs up to Method. I'm going to buy other items that they make and give them a whirl.

Cooking

I consider cooking a hobby of mine. I don't usually make anything overly elaborate, but I feel I "specialize" in making healthy home cooked meals. I am a firm believer that it isn't the quantity of food consumed that makes a person healthy, but the quality. My entire family is made up of "big eaters", yet not a one of us is overweight. My friends constantly ask me how we do it, "How do you eat so much and stay so thin?" I'm not trying to "toot my own horn" here, but I'd like to share some of the cooking/diet "rules" that my family has been practicing for years. I'm sure many of these rules will be ideas you are already familiar with, but maybe you'll find one or two that are of use to you, and feel free to share with me some of your healthy cooking secrets!

1. Avoid any recipe that calls for a can of soup. When I search the Internet for recipes, I'm completely overwhelmed with directions to add cans of cream of mushroom soup to chicken dishes or french onion soup packets to pot roast. In my oh so humble opinion this is completely unnecessary. Adding these soups to your recipes only adds salt and chemicals to your dishes. In a future post I will share some of my recipes for dishes that frequently call for cans of soup.

2. Make your own salad dressing. I'm still trying to convert my husband on this one. He is used to sitting down to dinner and having six options of bottled dressing to choose from for his salad. A simple oil and vinegar mixture tastes great and doesn't have the salt, calories, or bizarre ingredients that bottled dressings do. Again, I'll post some of my favorite dressing recipes in a future post.

3. Keep it simple. This is probably the most important rule. Have a baked potato instead of a twice bakes potato with cheese and sour cream. I use olive oil, salt, and pepper to flavor my baked potatoes and love it. Think clean when it comes to meals. Adding cheeses and sauces to your food only hides the taste of what your eating and ups the salt and calories.

4. Avoid Low-fat and diet foods. This one usually comes as a shock to my friends. I don't eat anything low-fat or labeled diet. This includes cheese, yogurt, ice cream, bread, and soda. Eat REAL butter. The chemicals and hard to pronounce ingredients in low-fat/diet foods do more harm than good. Plus, most low-fat/diet food makes up for low fat counts with high salt and sugar content. Instead of a carton of low-fat ice cream, enjoy a guilt free bowl of regular old ice cream and forget about it. Your body will thank you.

5. Don't skip breakfast. You are only slowing your metabolism. The more you eat at breakfast that less you'll snack during the day. Also, don't starve yourself at lunch. Eating a small lunch will only bring on trips to the vending machine or fridge at 3pm. I usually eat leftovers for lunch everyday. I make enough at dinner to have enough for a lunch the following day and this keeps me from eating a frozen meal at lunch. Instead, I'm eating a home cooked meal for lunch!

6. Cook with olive oil, not butter. I never fry anything in butter. There is no need.

7. Bake goodies yourself! You'd be surprised how easy it is. Making something from scratch takes just a couple more steps than using a box mix. I have found it really doesn't take much more time and you cut out a laundry list of bizarre, hard to pronounce, mystery ingredients from the boxes.

I may think of more of my favorite rules, but this is all I have for now! I'll be adding some of my recipes later. I'd love to hear some of yours!

The Bad Haircut

For DS' first haircut, I took him to a salon. The hairdresser snipped and cut here and there and I thought for sure I could do this myself. The hairdresser made it look so easy! Well, better to leave that to the professionals. I tried cutting it myself and this is how it turned out. He looks like Elvis from Quantum of Solace...

Grocery Shopping Mondays

Monday has become one of my favorite days. I am REALLY starting to enjoy putting the effort into meal planning and making out my grocery list. When I get to the store and I see how much money I've saved, it's a huge victory for me. I have been Babysitting for some extra money and I made $60 dollars last week and decided I would use that cash for groceries. My goal was to get my bill to $60. At check out, I watched the cashier ring everything up and the total came to $61.39! Close! I paid for the bill with the cash and put the $1.39 on my checkcard. Pretty darn good!

This weeks menu:

*Kilbasa
Cabbage
Red Skin Potatoes with Parsley

*Baked Chicken
Baked Potatoes
Broccoli
Sweet Potatoes
Salad

*Beef Stew
Potatoes, garlic, celery, carrots, green beans, onions

*BBQ Chicken Drumsticks
Roasted Red Skin Potatoes
Broccoli
Salad

*Chicken Parm
Salad

*Fish Sticks
Rice
Spinach
Salad

*Pork Chops
Mashed Potatoes
Salad

Jack Russel Terrors

I have two Jack Russell Terriers. In case you aren't sure what they are, that's TWO too many. They are high energy, spunky, smart, fearless, yappy little dogs. They weigh 10-20 pounds, but fully believe they are 80 pound pit bulls. My husband and I were never allowed to have dogs when we were children. Naturally, as soon as we got our own place, we went dog crazy and ended up with TWO JRT's. Jacques was our first. We adopted him before we even got married. I was 21 and living in my own apartment. He lived with me, but it was agreed he was OUR dog. He was the sweetest little thing, but I should have known he was trouble when on the way home from picking him up, he pooped in the front seat of my car.

He was a handful to say the least, but was so much fun. Time went by and my husband and I married and moved in together. It was then that we got the brilliant idea that Jacques needed a playmate. We adopted a female JRT we called Lily. We thought having two of them would keep them busy all day long and they would love each other and live happily ever after. Well, Lily ended up dominating Jacques and little did we know we had just sentenced poor Jacques to a lifetime of servitude to the domineering Lily. These dogs were the center of our lives for years. When our son came along, the dogs took a back seat and now I'm sad to say drive me completely insane. They bark when my son is napping and they pee on my kitchen floor. There are days when I fantasize about putting a post on Craigslist and sending Jacques and Lily on their way. However, when I see my son with them, I am reminded why I got these silly dogs in the first place. The dogs and my dear son are in love with each other. JRT's are notoriously bad with children as many smart dog breeds are. Jacques and Lily, however, are so very patient with my son. He steals their bones and pulls their ears and pokes their eyes, but all they do is soak up the attention. I keep telling myself (daily) that in a few years this trio will be inseparable. (Plus I'll have someone to help me clean up the dog poop in the backyard)

Other People's Kids

I haven't posted in a while! I'm going to try to be better. I've been keeping very busy. I now babysit a six year old boy for a couple hours each afternoon. It is really a perfect situation because I can bring my son. I just finished my first week and have come to the realization (again) that I just don't like other people's kids. Is that completely terrible? I've always been that way. My childhood was filled with dreams of wanting to be a mother. I played dolls until I was 16. (Yes you read the right and no it wasn't a typo) I guess I'm not a baby or kid person. I'm not good with kids. I'm coming to terms with that. I love my DS to pieces and want more children, but when it comes to other kids....I have no idea what to do. I have a cousin that is a kid magnet. She knows all the fun games and knows just what to say to get any person under the age of 12 in a fit of giggles. What's her secret? I remember asking my grandmother when I was a teenager if I was going to be a bad mother because I never felt comfortable talking or working with babies. She promised me that it was different with your own children. She was very right.
The little boy that I'm babysitting is a sweet, energetic six year old. Wow can he test limits though! Each day he gets off his bus awkwardly struggling under the weight of his backpack. He greets us with a smile and launches into a story about his day at kindergarten. I take his backpack and help him into the house. My heart is warmed by his chatter and after he kicks his sneakers off we finish talking about his day. Then I see his wheels beginning to turn. "I think I'll have my snack now," He says coyly. He bolts into the kitchen and disappears into the pantry. Keep in mind I have my toddling son to watch out for in a home with lots of small things and breakables! I chase after my little six year old buddy and there he is half way through a chocolate bar. Somehow, the little monkey scaled the pantry shelves and found someones hidden chocolate stash. I quickly flash back to the days when I did my own pantry shelf scaling and think of my poor mother. How did she put up with me? There is a list posted on the fridge of approved after school snacks and guess what ISN'T on there? That's right, chocolate bars! I calmly, yet firmly, tell the child that chocolate bars are not one of the snacks he can have. As I say this he somehow shoves the rest of the bar down his throat. "But I'm already done eating it!" He says through a full mouth. Battle number one and I lose. We spend the rest of our time together playing hide and seek. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've stood in a broom closet next to a litter box holding an antsy 11 month old while a six year old counts to forty. Strangely enough, the six year old seems to actually have fun when we play these games and battle over snacks. How can this be? I never know the right games to play or the right things to say to him. Maybe that doesn't matter??
I'll be honest, part of me loves my two hours of babysitting, but am I the only one that feels like I'm constantly being outsmarted by a six year old? I suppose I have a lot to learn.