It's finally here!

So I guess there was a little mix up with my new baby bouncer and it was delayed in being sent, so after a few quick and apologetic emails, my awesome, wonderful, beautiful new bouncer arrived tonight right as I was getting dinner ready! Isn't it pretty? I hope to be able to get some good use out of it with Emilie, and tons more use when another little one joins our family someday, should we be blessed with another baby some day. (I think this bouncer is making me baby hungry!)
And speaking of dinner, I made lettuce wraps using tofu for dinner. I've never cooked with tofu before, and I've only eaten it a handful of times, but I'm trying to branch out, expand my horizons and all that, so I thought I would give it a try. Not too bad. The recipe for the lettuce wraps is from a wonderful cookbook Jarom got me for Christmas called 52 Weeks of Proven Recipes for Picky Eaters and I love the book! I've tried a few different recipes and we have all loved them, even my picky little man. (And just to clarify, the recipe calls for meat, and I made it with chicken the first time, so this was just a little branching out on my own tonight.)I also made a batch of egg rolls to go with our dinner and they were very good too. Jarom was a bit skeptical when I told him what I was making because there was no meat involved! He said that I better make up for it with a double dose of meat tomorrow. That's my man.

Last night we were able to go to the Draper Temple open house with the kids, and our friends the Jaffa family came with us too. We had to wait for quite a while in the chapel before we were able to get on the bus to go up to the temple, and the kids were getting a bit restless, but the wait was well worth it because the temple was truly stunning inside!
Isaac has dubbed the Draper Temple as his since we used to live in Draper and would drive past the construction site often. He was very good as we walked through and was very fascinated by all the different rooms, especially the baptismal font. I'm so glad to have been able to share such a wonderful and peaceful evening with my children so that they could get a glimpse into the sacred atmosphere of the temple.

Here we are towards the beginning of our waiting while we still had a few smiles.The Jaffa's also waiting, with a couple fewer smiles.

Cheerios Bars

I've been in a bit of a funk lately with work and the kids and trying to keep up on the mountains of housework, so I don't have too much to blog about, so I'll just pass along another recipe. This is one that my mother-in-law emailed me last week, and since we always have Cheerios laying around, I made this up for dessert and the kids (and Jarom and I) enjoyed it too. Jarom's brother, upon hearing what we were eating, said, "So basically it tastes how Sacrament meeting smells?" And yeah, I guess that pretty much sums it up.

I give you, Cheerios Bars. (Side note, I'm out of chocolate chips, I KNOW! so I didn't put any of those in, but I will next time for sure!)Cheerios Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

3 cups Cheerios cereal

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1/2 cup salted peanuts (optional)

In a small sauce pan, bring the honey & sugar to a boil over medium heat. As soon as the sugar is dissolved remove from heat.

Stir in the peanut butter until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine Cheerios, peanuts & chocolate chips.

Pour the peanut butter & honey mixture over the cereal mixture and stir until well coated.

Spread into a buttered 9x9 pan.

Let cool, cut into squares and enjoy!

And one more!

I don't think I've ever done three blog posts back to back like this, but in addition to all the cooking I'm doing, I'm also having fun with my kids! Or trying to, at least. On Thursday, we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point with our friends and had fun seeing all the dinosaur bones and neat exhibits.

Here are Isaac and Lincoln in front of the Utahraptor.Isaac next to Alex playing in the sand and water play area.Rachele with her brand new little baby boyIsaac digging in the sand trying to find dinosaur bones.And standing next to a bones exhibit. After a while, he started getting a little freaked out by all the dinosaurs and just wanted to go home.And Emilie has reached another cute little milestone - she's started clapping. I love it. I try to get her to clap all the time, and she gets such a cute smile on her face when she claps. I just love it. Here are a few quick clips of her cute and contagious clappiness.

Breadsticks

I am just in a cooking mood these days, so I hope you are enjoying all these recipes! I just have one more to share tonight, with more to come next week.

My friend Brea posted a recipe on her blog a while back for her homemade bread sticks and I knew I wanted to give them a try, so last week when I made spaghetti, I made the bread sticks too and they were not only super easy to make, but so yummy! Since Brea's blog is private, I hope she doesn't mind if I copy her recipe here and share it with you.
Brea's Bread Sticks:

2 Tbls. sugar
1 Tbls. yeast
1 2/3 c. warm water
1 tsp. salt
3 c. flour

Mix above ingredients add another 1 c. flour or more to make a soft dough. (Usually I add just 1 then let rise. After I add just a little more to work with it). Cover and leave 10 minutes. Grease sheet cake pan and spread dough out. Melt 1/4 margarine. Spread over dough. Sprinkle on salad supreme, onion, garlic salt, garlic powder or Parmesan cheese. Cut in half and then lengthwise in strips. Let rise 20-30 minutes. Bake 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Caution, this will happen, even as you try to document your own bread stick triumph:And this.

Cream Cheese Wontons

It's not often that I make something with no real recipe to be guided by, but the other day, I had a hankerin' for some cream cheese wontons. I think I'm just in a Chinese food mood lately. (And no, I'm not pregnant.) I had Jarom do a quick google search for recipes as I was on my way to the store, but the recipes were pretty vague, so I tried to just come up with my own version, and they turned out great! I made the first batch last night, and my parents were in the area and stopped by and were able to sample my first attempt. I had a bunch of left over wonton wrappers, so I made some more tonight and they turned out so good too. Here's what I did:

For the cheese filling, cream together:
1 package of cream cheese
1/2 to 3/4 cup of shredded cheese
1 T dried onions

Then just put about a teaspoon ball of the cheese mixture on a wonton wrapper, seal up the sides with water, and put them on a plate. I covered them with a towel as I was working so they wouldn't dry out too much.Then fill a large frying pan with oil, get it nice and hot, and drop those lucious babies right into the oil. Let them sit for a few minutes until the wrapper is covered in little bubbles, you don't want them to cook too much. Flip them over with tongs and let the tops cook for another minute or two. And voila, you have a wonderful, delicious, crispy wonton that even kids will eat! Just ask Isaac, he ate tons of them!

Quick and Easy Fettuccine Alfredo

I love alfredo sauce. I could totally become obese on good alfredo sauce. I've tried a few of the bottled varieties in the stores only to be met with utter disappointment - it tasted nothing like the sauce I would get at restaurants (especially the Spaghetti Factory!). But for some reason, I was hesitant to try making it from scratch. WHY?!?! I'm kicking myself for all the time I was missing out on one of the most wonderful, rich, creamy sauces known to man. I got this recipe from a friend and now this wonderful gem is part of our regular meal rotations. We just had it for dinner tonight and I just have to share it with you. My tummy is still so happy. It's really that good. If you don't make it soon, you will hate yourself. Just sayin'.Quick Fettuccine Alfredo

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. dry fettuccine (although any pasta works in a pinch!)
1 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. butter
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (not the canned stuff)
pepper to taste

Cook fettuccine in a large saucepan according to package directions. Drain well. In the same saucepan, heat cream, butter, and salt over medium-high heat, bringing to a boil. Remove from heat. Add fettuccine and cheese, tossing to combine well. Continue cooking over low heat, tossing continuously, about 2 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Sprinkle with pepper.

Grocery Shopping helps

As the kids were enjoying a mid morning snack, I watched a few minutes of Studio 5 and saw a neat segment on surviving grocery shopping with kids. Click here is a list of some great games to play while shopping. They also have printable BINGO cards for kids to play while shopping. The ones with pictures/words work really well if you laminate them and let the kids use dry erase markers while you're shopping. It's also a cute way to teach kids their food vocabulary.

This and that

A whole week without blogging? My goodness, that can't be good. I guess I was a bit too eager beaver the first part of the month to make up for a bit of slacking for the last little while. I guess that now that the kids are over their illness, we are getting back to our usual craziness.

I got a flier in the mail with a coupon for a free haircut a little while ago, so yesterday I decided to use it and chop the ol' mop. Here's how it turned out. It's ok, not the best haircut I've ever had, but not the worst either. It's nice to have a change pace and I like having my hair short again.Then yesterday afternoon I went to a baby shower for my friend Eniko who I met on my mission. I don't keep in touch with too many of my Romanian friends, so it was a special treat to visit with her and some other wonderful, darling Romanian gals. I especially loved hearing them speak to each and be able to speak to them in Romanian too (and they could still understand me!). I love Romanian and think it is one of the most beautiful languages, I just wish I had a chance to use it more.

Here is Eniko, just a few more weeks until her due date!And some of her friends made her this darling diaper cake, isn't it cute?

Super Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

I love to cook, and I saw a recipe a few weeks ago that I've been wanting to try for a while, so while the kids took their nap this afternoon, I gave it a try. Here's how it turned out:
Are you drooling yet? Well, you should be! The recipe was from What's for Dinner. Very good, and surprisingly easy to make! Click here for the recipe.

And here's what my helpers were doing while I was baking.

Lyrics

In case you were wondering, here are the lyrics (according to Isaac) to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Twinkle baby little star
How I wonder what you are
Up, up, up the world so high
Like a Diamler up in the sky
Twinkle baby little star
How I wonder what you are

Food Storage, again

I first posted this list last year around this time but didn't do a single thing with it all year (for shame!), but I just got done printing it out and it is going on my fridge today so that I can start crossing some of these things off my list and getting my food storage together! So if you have food storage on your list of resolutions for 2009, here is a way to get started! And if you're out shopping this week, Harmon's has their case lot sale going on right now. I spent a small fortune getting stocked up on a few things this morning, so I've got at least a few of those weeks covered. :)

Food Storage on $5 a week

week 1: 6 lbs. salt
week 2: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 3: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 4: 8 cans of tuna
week 5: 6 lbs. macaroni
week 6: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 7: 8 cans of tuna
week 8: 6 lbs. yeast
week 9: 50 lbs. wheat
week 10: 8 cans tomato soup
week 11: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 12: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 13: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
week 14: 50 lbs of wheat
week 15: 5 cans cream mushroom soup
week 16: 50 lbs. wheat
week 17: 8 cans of tomato soup
week 18: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 19: 8 cans of tuna
week 20: 6 lbs. shortening
week 21: 50 lbs. wheat
week 22: 5 lbs. honey
week 23: 8 cans of tuna
week 24: 6 lbs. shortening
week 25: 50 lbs. wheat
week 26: 5 lbs. honey
week 27: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 28: 20 lbs. sugar
week 29: 5 lbs. peanut butter
week 30: 50 lbs. wheat
week 31: 7 boxes of macaroni and cheese
week 32: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 33: 1 bottle 500 aspirin
week 34: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 35: 50 lbs. wheat
week 36: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
week 37: 6 lbs. salt
week 38: 20 lbs. sugar
week 39: 8 cans tomato soup
week 40: 50 lbs. wheat
week 41: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 42: 20 lbs. sugar
week 43: 1 bottle 500 multi-vitamins
week 44: 8 cans tuna
week 45: 50 lbs. wheat
week 46: 6 lbs. macaroni
week 47: 6 lbs. sugar
week 48: 5 cans cream of mushroom soup
week 49: 5 lbs. honey
week 50: 20 lbs. sugar
week 51: 8 cans tomato soup
week 52: 50 lbs. wheat

Some weeks you will have leftover change. Save the change each week in a jar to be used for the weeks you may exceed $5.00 (for example, as when purchasing wheat or milk). You will end up with:

500 pounds of wheat
180 pounds of sugar
40 pounds of powdered milk
12 pounds of salt
10 pounds of honey
5 pounds peanut butter
45 cans of tomato soup
15 cans of cream of mushroom soup
15 cans of cream of chicken soup
24 cans of tuna
21 boxes of macaroni and cheese
500 aspirin
1000 multi-vitamins
6 pounds of yeast
6 pounds of shortening
12 pounds of macaroni

This should be enough to sustain two people for one year. For every two people in your family, add $5.00 more and double or triple the amount of the item you are buying for that week.

Pudding

After dinner, Isaac opened up the fridge and declared, I want pudding! And not being one to want to deny my special guy puddin', I called my mom and got her recipe that she used to make for us as kids, especially when we were sick. It's super easy and is so yummy, so if you have sick kids, or you just like pudding, then give my mom's recipe a try!

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar (or less to taste)
1/4 corn starch
2 egg yolks

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring continually with a wire whisk until it thickens (right about the time it comes to a soft boil), about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour into bowls, allow to cool, then enjoy!

For variations, you can also add a tablespoon of cocoa to the mix before cooking, or any other flavoring that suits your fancy.

I gave Jarom his bowl to eat and it was still fairly warm. He asked if pudding should be cold before eating, and I said that I don't know. As kids, we never waited around long enough to get it cool and just ate it hot! So it probably does taste good cold, if you can wait that long.

And I have a confession to make, I have a bunch of heavy cream in my fridge that I need to use up, so I only used 1 1/2 cup milk, then a half cup of cream, and it tasted so yummy!!!

Sick and cute

Even though the kids don't feel well, they are still super cute!

I was finally able to capture Emilie crawling on video. Adorable.

And this is how I found Isaac sleeping this morning after he kicked us out of our own bed. (Yes, those are the same clothes he's been wearing for a few days now, but I promise, I bathed my kids this morning and put clean clothes on them both!)

Rice Crispies Treats

While the kids have been sick, I've been making a lot more comfort foods lately. Last night I tried an experiment with Rice Crispies treats and thought I would share the love in case anyone else out there has also abandoned any new years resolution to lose weight. I'm not going to post the recipe for the RCT's since they are printed on just about every package of marshmallows out there. First of all, while grocery shopping, I found some cute Christmas marshmallows in their after-Christmas sale cart and grabbed a bag for pretty cheap. Problem is it had both red and green marshmallows, and if I used them both, I would end up with BROWN RCT's, and that's not appetizing to anyone. So I seperated the colors and just used the green (and made up the difference with regular white ones from my pantry). Then as I was mixing it all up, here comes the really sinful part, I added the red ones in with the cereal, unmelted. The result?The marshmallows got really soft from the warmth of the cereal/marshmallow mixture but didn't melt, and it gave a delightful extra gooeyness that was very satisfying. You could easily do the same thing with regular miniature marshmallows and I bet it would turn out just as great.

For dinner, Isaac request my brother Jeff's Taco Soup. I had to search through his blog to find the recipe, so I hope he doesn't mind, but I'll save you the trouble and post a link to his recipe here. I didn't have any ground beef or kidney beans, so I just used some canned chicken and black beans and it still turned out really good. Gracias, Jefe!

As for the kids, they are still plugging along with their coughing and runny noses. Emilie is handling things pretty well although is still a bit on the moody side (how much of that is from being sick and how much is from being a PRINCESS, I don't know). And Isaac is handling his treatments well enough. It takes about 20 minutes for the nebulizer to deliver the entire dose of medication, and after about 15 minutes, he gets really bored, so we have to do a lot of encouraging and bribing and he's being such a trooper. I can tell that it is helping, especially in the morning. He is still acting very energetic and crazy, which is good. It's when he gets lethargic and sullen that I start to worry. I'll take an obnoxious kid any day!

Deja Vu

Here was Isaac in March:And here is Isaac tonight:Emilie has had her cold for a few days now and is doing fine, just a runny nose to contend with, but Isaac started to get the cold symptoms yesterday and I upped his inhaler meds, but he still had a rough night last night and spend too much of it coughing. This morning, he looked so exhausted, so we did some more inhalers and I was able to get an appointment for him with the doctor. After a brief consultation, she said the dreaded phrase, Let's test him for RSV. The nurse did a quick nose swab and the results came back very quickly: positive. My heart just sank and it was all I could do to keep from crying since it hasn't been that long since my little man spent a week in the hospital struggling to breathe because of RSV.

The doctor said that most likely, Emilie has RSV too (she could tell by hearing her cough), but she's such a healthy girl that it's just not affecting her as bad. Isaac is just starting his sickness and could have a rough couple of days. We got a nebulizer and will do breathing treatments with him every four hours and hope and pray that he can stay on top of this nasty virus this time around. My poor little guy! At least we can do the treatments at home this time around.

Happy New Years!

On a side note, this morning Emilie wanted to play with MY cell phone, and I guess it doesn't handle baby spittle as well as Jarom's because the screen shorted out and doesn't work any more. Lovely. So if you call my cell phone or text me, don't be offended if I don't answer/reply.

Anyway, enough about that, let's talk about food! One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is all the fun food to make and eat (and eat and eat!). Since I have two small ones, going anywhere for New Years just doesn't happen, so we've spent New Years Eve at home the last few years and have our own little party. Well, party is a relative term I suppose, but at least we have fun food to eat! Here is what our fancy shmancy meal consisted of:We had shrimp sauteed in butter with Harmon's super yummy cocktail sauce, chips-n-salsa (we tried the Kirkland signature salsa from Costco, very good!), small polish sausages cooked in BBQ sauce, spinach and artichoke dip with crackers, dill pickles, and grape juice. I let Isaac drink his juice from a champagne glass and he felt very grown up. I also got a cheese tray but totally forgot to get it out. I guess we'll munch on that tonight!Then after we ate dinner, Isaac helped me make some cupcakes. For some reason, they just did not turn out like they usually do, but they tasted fine. Isaac's favorite color these days is green, so he wanted green frosting.He also helped decorate with sprinkles. Can you tell which ones he did?I love hearing what people eat for the holidays! What did you have at your New Years party?

Just give her what she wants!

I think it's a girl thing to be able to have such a high-pitched, squealing cry that is able to tear asunder the very fibers of everyone's hearts in a 20 foot radius. Emilie is perfecting that wonderful talent. I mean really, is it so bad to let a girl have a phone?

Evidently, it is. Gosh, all she wants is the phone.