Mothership Confessional

You know what is kind of cool? Every time I work out, in the middle of all the sweat and struggle and discomfort and thoughts of "this is hard; I want to quit", I also have these really amazing thoughts of perseverance during hard times. It's almost like the clouds of negativity dissipate in my mind, allowing positive thoughts to filter in. I kind of bask in the high of my endorphins, and let the inspirational thoughts float around in my head! Back when I went to the gym, I would get these thoughts too. I always remember thinking that I wished I had a way to blog while running on the treadmill because I would get these inspirational thoughts and I wanted to write them down! I would finish my workout and basically run to the nearest table and chair just so I could whip out my phone and jot down my thoughts! And now, I'm sitting on the edge of my chair, all sweaty, post-workout, to get this all written down! My thoughts never seem to come out as fluidly if I wa...

It's becoming a frequent discussion now that I have a 1.5 year old: what do you feed your toddler ? Toddlers come in all shapes and sizes, with different abilities and preferences. On top of that, those abilities and preferences can change weekly. Or hourly. That is the joy of raising a tiny human!! My daughter was exclusively breastfed until 6 months, with no solids introduced during this time, per her pediatrician's recommendation. I knew I wanted to do Baby Led Weaning, which her pediatrician had actually never heard of and wanted me to do purees instead. But I chose to follow my own plan and continue with Baby Led Weaning; I had done a ton  of research and had seen other babies thrive on it. So at 6 months, in addition to breastfeeding, I started Ava on table food, and she took to it better than I could have hoped! After she got better at not gagging and had tried a variety of foods, we began offering her whatever we were eating for dinner. Fast-forward a year,...

So I've been thinking a lot lately. About "swim suit season". And this new "mom body" that I have. Has anybody else been thinking about this?! Grab your 2nd cup of coffee, surround your kid(s) with all the toys they have, and attempt to sneak away to reflect with me for a few minutes. I delivered Ava 9 months ago. On paper, 9 months seems like such  a long time! But the reality is, is that it has flown by faster than I ever thought it would! I had planned on getting into a workout routine once I was feeling normal (hahaha normal... what is that?!) so that I could lose all my gained weight during pregnancy and get some muscle tone back. Well, that didn't pan out like I had hoped. Most of my weight simply fell off. I think I sweated and peed half of the weight off in the first week! But now I still have this extra 10 pounds on me with my muscles buried somewhere underneath. Boo. And it really frustrates and annoys me. B...

I knew for awhile that creating a freezer meal stash was something I wanted to do for my husband and I. Then, I got pregnant, and I knew  that making freezer meals was something that I had to do for our survival! But the thought of dropping an extra 100 bucks or so at the grocery store and slaving away in the kitchen for a whole day  just did not sound like fun to me. Especially once I got into my third trimester. So here are some useful ideas (that I found helpful) in case you don't want to turn your kitchen into a disaster zone and pass out from exhaustion! Buy Some Supplies I purchased a bunch of square aluminum baking pans from Walmart. They were like 97 cents for a 2-pack. I bought the entire stack on the shelf! I am just cooking for 2 adults, so if your family is larger, you will probably want to pick out a larger size. You will also want to have some aluminum foi l on hand (the heavy-duty variety is best). I also used plastic wrap to wrap around each p...

I am going to start off by saying the title to this post has a few lies in it. First, it's not entirely homemade. I used store-bought noodles. Second, to make the broth, I used a turkey carcass instead of a chicken one. I had stuck one in the freezer after our Welcome Home/Belated Thanksgiving when my brother-in-law returned home from Afghanistan in December and the in-laws came to visit. So it should actually read "Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Made with Turkey Broth and Store-Bought Noodles". Lets begin! So, you're going to need a large pot. And by large, I mean LARGE. I used my Paula Deen stock pot I bought from Walmart. There are a couple of different approaches to this recipe based on what you have in your fridge or freezer, or what your store has on hand. I put my turkey carcass in the pot and filled it with water to completely cover it. Add a bay leaf or two. I chopped up some vegetables (onions, carrots, celery) and added some fresh herbs leftov...

You know, a little bit of meal planning goes a long way. Nothing is worse than when it is nearing dinner time and nobody has any clue what's for dinner. This typically leads to impulse take-out or drive-thru dinner, or going to the grocery store to pick out something quick and easy. On Sunday nights I try to sit down and generate a meal plan for the week and a grocery list to accompany it. I plan about 4 meals based on our current lifestyle. There are just 2 of us, we try to eat healthy, but we also want foods that make us happy . We love food too much to restrict ourselves to only "lean protein and fresh veggies" all the time. Tried that once and it barely lasted 2 weeks. Food is so much more than just fuel to keep us alive, it is part of life's experience . Food is tied to emotions and feelings, hence the terms "soul food" and "comfort food" and "cooking with love". And there is something just wonderful about cooking really good food ...

The other day I bought 4 pounds of peaches from Sam's Club. I had heard that they were always really good, so with our new Sam's membership, I decided to pick some up. They look amazing from the outside, large, beautifully colored. I sliced one up and took a bite. I was expecting to have juice running down my fingers or my face or something. Nope. They were virtually juice-less .The texture was fine, but without the juice, there was no way I could eat them plain. I'd never been so disappointed by a peach before. So what to do with 4 pounds of peaches? I decided that I would make a peach salsa. I've had mango salsa before, and it was a nice combination of sweet and spicy. Salsa would be a perfect way to disguise the fact that the peaches I had were missing their natural juiciness. Peach salsa, for whatever reason, made me think of turkey burgers. It's my new favorite thing to order at restaurants. I had a turkey burger to die for at The Cheesecake Factory off t...