She Will Go Greek

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe, but we found a good one and I couldn't wait to share.  Since it is winter and I am even lazier in the winter I prefer slow cooker recipes.  Last time I made Greek food was when I had a Mamma Mia! viewing party around 2009, but this recipe seemed easy enough and sounded pretty tasty.

Slow Cooker Greek Chicken Pita
Degree of Difficulty: 2
Mess Factor: 3
Taste: 9

I was a little skeptical of the recipe as it didn't include any additional cooking liquid.  I just placed the frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot with the spices and sliced onion, then turned it to low and went about my business.  4 hours later, we had amazingly tender, shredded chicken.  

 We mixed the chicken with 1/2 cup plan yogurt, as called for in the recipe, and it was the perfect filling for our pita bread.  Seriously, there is absolutely no need for any additional sauce.  

The tasty chicken is the perfect vehicle for some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers!

The best part...it tastes even better cold on a pita for lunch the next day!

I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe.  If you get a chance to try it out, let me know how it goes!

Lori  

She Will Talk About Her Kids

I was traveling this week, so there wasn't much time for projects or new recipes.  I'm really hoping I can keep up with blogging once a week so I thought I would talk about my favorite things in the whole world...my girls!  It seems like every time I turn around or check Facebook someone else is pregnant.  A lot of women get excited about registering for the baby, but to be honest, this was the most daunting task (next to labor of course).  There are so many choices for every single baby item and it's hard to decide what will be the best choice for you, your baby, and your family.  I honestly don't think I would have gotten through it without Baby Bargains and my cousin-in-law, Tammy.  We spent 3 hours in Buy Buy Baby and I think I spent an additional 5-7 hours afterwards fine tuning the list with my husband online. I highly recommend taking a new mom with you if you are registering for the first time.  It's a HUGE help as they can steer you towards the products that you will actually use versus the stuff that just looks cool!

Below are the top 10 items/products that we have found the most useful with our girls.  Every single baby is different and what works for one baby may not work for another, even if they are siblings, but we still recommend giving these a go!

Boudreaux's Butt Paste

Lots of people have heard of Desitin, but we swear by Butt Paste.  Our daycare introduced us to this wonder cream and now we don't use anything else for diaper rash.  Desitin has alcohol in it and can irritate diaper rash further, which can cause some ear piercing screams.  As soon as we switched to Butt Paste, the screaming stopped and the rash started to clear.

Burp Cloths

I understand that not all kids spit up constantly, but you can't go wrong picking up a couple packs of burp cloths.  We have found that your basic white cloth diapers work just as well as the fancy ones.  In addition to cloth diapers, we also really like Tiddliwinks flannel burp cloths, but I haven't been able to find them again.

Angel Dear Lovey

A family friend gifted the sheep Angel Dear to Morgan, embroidered with her name, prior to her birth.  We introduced it around 9 months or so and it has been a staple ever since.  We do a lot of traveling, so having a lovey she can sleep with every night allows her one constant, no matter where we are.  We bought one for Amelia after she was born and she loves her piggy Angel Dear.

Sophie the Giraffe

I honestly have NO idea why this thing is so amazing, but it is seriously like crack for small children!  We did NOT leave home without Sophie when we had Morgan.  It got pretty beat up so we ended up buying a new one just for Amelia.

BooginHead Paci Clip

I know that not everyone uses pacifiers for their kids, but we did and we would NOT HAVE SURVIVED without our BooginHeads!  Even now, Morgan has a striped BooginHead and Amelia has a polka dot BooginHead.  They know which paci belongs to which girl and there is no confusion (at least within our small family).

Plum Organics Baby Food Pouches

This is called "sauce" in our house and is one of the few ways we can guarantee our girls will eat their vegetables.  Our favorite flavors usually include two veggies like, Spinach, Pea & Pear.  We carry these with us everywhere and the kids can usually eat them without making too much of a mess.  Since the mixtures usually contain fruit there is enough sweetness for my girls to think they are pulling one over on us!

Travel High Chair

I cannot recommend this enough.  The Chico chair that we have cost us $30 and we take it everywhere!  It folds up really well to fit in the trunk for trips to see relatives that don't have high chairs!  And while I can't always recommend taking your children to bars, sometimes they have great food, but they don't have a high chair and this helps a lot!  We actually use this instead of a high chair for Amelia so that we can all sit directly at the table.

Take & Toss Cups

I'm sure every kid has a preference on cups, but we have found these work perfectly.  We re-use them, but if a lid gets clogged or one cup gets really really dirty, we just toss it.  They also make the cups with straws or handles for younger children.  We recently picked up some cups at Meijer with a Minnie Mouse design and I have also seen Disney Princesses.  I am sure they have equally awesome boy design options, but alas, I am not usually looking for that!

Baby Oil & Cotton Balls

A lot of people give Baby Oil as part of a baby toiletry gift, but a lot of parents don't really know what to do with it.  When our girls get a diaper rash, we skip the wipes and use cotton balls and baby oil to clean the area instead.  It may sound gross or messy, but there is absolutely NO irritation and can make changing their diapers so much easier.

Musical Walker

We bought this toy well before Morgan could walk and we used it to help strengthen her neck and body for sitting up.  We stabilized the walker so that she could sit in front and play with it.  Morgan was sitting up and looking straight ahead within a couple of days since she finally had something that brought her attention away from the ground.  This toy was also instrumental in helping Morgan to walk, so it did serve a dual purpose.  There are TONS of walkers out there and I really believe anything will work, but I'm just recommending this as a toy you invest in before baby starts to walk as it can assist with other milestones.


Whew!  This was actually fun to put together.  Matt and I walked around the house trying to pin point the items we really feel we could not live without.  Butt Paste is probably my number one recommendation, but we really love all of the items we listed on here.  If you have other "can't live without" baby or toddler items, please share them in the comments!

UPDATE

Easy Go Dispenser

We were not even up 3 hours before Matt and I realized that we forgot to include one very important product, our Easy Go Dispenser.  A friend of ours started this company and we originally purchased one to help support his business.  We had no idea this product would go with us EVERYWHERE!  The dispenser was originally created to store and dispense protein powder, but it works just as well for formula.  We find that one turn equals two scoops (4oz).  It can carry enough formula for at least 3 - 8oz bottles.  It's only a little bigger than a baby bottle and easily fits in the bottle holder of our diaper bag.  We have brought it on the airplane and the security guy even stopped to ask where he could get one.  I will be buying this for every new mom who is not going to breast feed at all or long term.  The best part is that once we are done with formula, Matt will use this for protein powder.

You can only purchase an Easy Go Dispenser online at www.easygodispenser.com

Lori

She Will Come Back With A Vengeance (and a Silhouette Cameo)!

Yes, you read that right, I was given a Silhouette Cameo from my AMAZING husband for Christmas!  The best part...I think he is almost as excited as I am about the endless possibilities!  It took me a couple of days, but I finally opened up the box, read through the instruction manual, watched the instructional video, and pored over numerous YouTube videos!  I am ready to take on my first project!

My favorite thing to do with my girls is finger painting.  The Shady's gifted Morgan with her first finger paint and doodle pad for her first birthday.  I was a little dubious how this would go over with a 1 year old, but after laying out a vinyl tablecloth on the ground and stripping Morgan down to her diaper, I figured out this is a pretty fun way to create lasting memories (emotional and physical)!  We had some friends over yesterday and with the intent of entertaining and tiring out the little ones, we broke out the finger paints.  I normally have a project in mind, but we just let the kids pick their colors and paint what they want.  The end result was a beautiful mish-mash of colors.

I love saving Morgan's finger paint projects, but have never been really sure of how to display them.  I did purchase these cheap 4x6 frames from Ikea a couple of months ago and was hoping I could eventually use them (sorry about the bad picture, not sure why I couldn't flip this).

Originally, I just cut out 4x6 sections of Morgan's finger painting and put those in the frames.  I actually liked the end result, but was hoping for something a little more exciting.

I did eventually find inspiration on Pinterest with a post on Art Gallery Animals from Meet the Dubiens.

This is where my love for finger painting art and love for my Silhouette Cameo collide!  I was able to cut out some fun animal silhouettes with my Silhouette that allowed me to showcase the finger paint art perfectly!  Below are a couple of shots of my first Silhouette project!

This is actually my very first project and I used another little friend's finger painting.  Kamden's color choices look great with the elephant.

Since the first project turned out so well, I hunted for more animal silhouettes to use with Morgan's art.

Close up of the lion, my favorite!

I am so excited about how these turned out, but since these are pretty small frames, I think I'm going to need to create some more art to go on Morgan's bedroom wall.  I have always loved gallery walls, but I have a feeling we are going to go gallery wall overboard in our house!

I am unsure how to post the templates that I used for the Silhouette on this blog post, but if you would like a copy of the template I used, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at Lori.Siuta@gmail.com

Here is hoping I can do a much better job keeping up with the blogging in 2013!

Lori

Will Throw a Yee Haww Good Time 2nd Birthday!

If you have known me long, you will know that I LOVE to plan parties.  It's in my blood.  My mom used to plan and host a lot of parties and now it's something I enjoy doing.  I hope the love for parties gets passed on to at least one of my girls!  I started planning Morgan's 1st birthday before she was even born and I think the Michael Jackson theme worked out really well.  I was torn on a theme for Morgan's 2nd birthday, but eventually decided on a farm theme since she really enjoys pointing out all of the farm animals on the way to daycare (we live near a lot of farms & cornfields). 

Once the theme was finalized, my first order of business was to pin all sorts of decoration, food, and favor ideas.  Then I pulled out my contacts from last year and asked around for contacts in the area.  After putting together a giant to do list, I started working on the decorations.  We ordered some checkered tablecloths from Oriental Trading, picked up some flowers from Meijer, and used red lanterns we bought at IKEA for last year's Christmas.  I think the final tablescape turned out pretty well!

While the cupcakes for Morgan's 1st birthday were tasty, they didn't exactly have the look I wanted for the Michael Jackson party.  We were fortunate enough to attend the birthday parties of the Chadwick girls and scope out some pretty great cakes and cupcakes.  After begging Kristin for the contact information and scouring Pinterest for the perfect design, I was able to work with the Cake Lady to put together the best cake and cupcake display I have ever seen in person!  This was probably my favorite part of the entire party and I will continue to use the Cake Lady at every opportunity possible!

Summer at Initially Yours Monogramming made the onesie for Morgan's 1st birthday and she did a fantastic job again for the 2nd birthday.  If you have need a custom shirt or onesie, I would highly recommend Initially Yours Monogramming, not only do they put out a great product but the price is unbeatable!  Below is a picture of the birthday girl in her special shirt!

I also dragged my sewing machine out of the closet the night before and put together a bandana shirt/tunic for Amelia.  I tried creating a bandana skirt for Morgan as well, but didn't have enough bandanas to put both together (I ended up finding 2 more bandanas after everything had been put away).  Since I did not have a pattern to follow for this tunic, I am pretty darn proud of the end result!

Thanks to Pinterest, great family and amazing friends, I think the party was a HUGE success.  We want to extend a BIG thank you to everyone who came out to help celebrate!  Morgan is one very lucky birthday girl!

 

Lori

She Will (Get Her Husband to) Makeover the Kitchen!

I know I said I would be posting more frequently in my last post but time got away from me.  Posting today was important because I couldn't wait to show off our kitchen!  Several months ago, Matt and I talked about changing our kitchen cabinets.  It's not that they were bad, but they were your standard oak cabinets and didn't really match our tastes.  You can see a picture of our initial cabinets in the pictures below (ignore the mess).

We went back and forth on what color cabinets we wanted: black, really dark brown/espresso, or white.  We eventually decided on white and due to budget, we decided to try painting the cabinets ourselves.  I did a little bit of research before we started and decided Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation was the best fit for us.  It doesn't require any sanding and came with everything we needed, except the paintbrushes.  I tried out the half bath cabinets first to see  how it would look.  Even though it took us awhile to complete, we though the end result was worth the effort and went full steam ahead on the kitchen cabinets. 

Matt and I both agreed that if we started on this project, we wanted to have it complete in time for Morgan's 2nd birthday on Saturday, October 13th.  We don't remember the exact date, but we stated at the beginning of August and put up the completed upper cabinet doors on Friday, October 12th.  Whew, only 1 day to spare!  We could have gone a LOT faster, but we got a little lazy and we were only painting after the kids went to bed or when Matt was off of work.  The last week, we kicked into high gear and were painting two coats a day. 

Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation has 4 major steps: Deglosser, Bond Coat, Sealer/Top Coat, and Glaze.  We chose not to use the glaze because we didn't like the color/effect, but we did put on 4 coats of the Bond Coat instead of the 2 recommended coats.  It's a long process, but overall, we are super happy with how it turned out and would definitely recommend it to anyone else who is looking to make an affrodable change!

Below are some step by step pictures of the process.

Another large part of the transformation are the cup pulls and knobs.  The original cabinets didn't have any hardware, so we really got to start fresh.  I searched a lot of websites for ideas and fell in love with cup pulls.  In the end, the combination of cup pulls and knobs came together really well.
 
Now comes the fun part...the budget breakdown!  I don't remember the exact cost of everything and can't find all the receipts, but below is a pretty conservative assessment:

Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation (200 sq ft kit) - $150
Cup Pulls = $4.97/each x 8 = $39.76
Knobs = $2.97/each x 20 = $59.40 (I think this estimate may be high)
Husbands Labor = Priceless
TOTAL = $249.16

For under $300 this is a pretty amazing transformation and we haven't even touched the countertops or backsplash.  We will be making a change there as well, but right now we are pretty burnt out on big makeover projects and probably won't be ready to spend any more money on the house until after Christmas. 

I'm really proud of our kitchen, so I'll leave you with one final shot!

Lori

She Will Come Back With A Vengeance!

Whew!  It has been a LONG time since I have blogged (3 months on Friday)!  To be fair, it has been a little crazy in my household as we got used to having 2 little girls under 2 and I went back to work mid-June.  Now that we have put together some semblance of a schedule, I feel like I can pick up the blogging once again.  Luckily, we have been trying out LOTS of recipes and I have tried to remember to take as many pictures of the process as possible.  Below are two tried and true recipes that we truly enjoy and continue to make in our house.  Enjoy!

Breakfast Loaf
Degree of Difficulty: 3-4
Mess Factor: 3
Taste: 8
I was inspired by a recipe I saw on Pinterest, but ultimately this became my own recipe based on tools I had on hand and the ingredients my family enjoys.  It's pretty easy and pretty quick to make.  The hardest part and the reason I wavered on my difficulty score comes into play when trying to roll up the loaf with the filling.  I tend to make too much filling, so when I roll up the loaf and try to flip it over to put the seam on the bottom it's a mess.  After my first attempt, I have just left the seam on the top which usually means it opens up.  I don't really mind, but you can see both options below and make the recipe whichever way works for you!

The original recipe recommended one pound of Jimmy Dean sage sausage and cheddar cheese.  We always have mozzarella cheese on hand, so I decided to go with a more Italian flair and use ground Italian sausace.

 After browning the sausage, I mix it in a bowl with 2 beaten eggs and a cup or so of cheese.  I really just eyeball the cheese depending on how I am feeling (I'm usually feeling cheesy)!

 Once all of the filling is mixed together, it's time to stretch out your french dough.  I buy the Pillsbury french loaf, split it down the middle (not all the way) and stretch!  The more you can stretch it, the more filling you can fit.  Careful as it can tear and getting the tears back together is not easy. 

 Fill the stretched out dough, then attempt to pinch the ends all together.

The ease of the next part is up to you.  If you want to leave it as is, place it in a 350 degree oven for 16-20 minutes, and the seam will probably open, leaving you with something simliar to the picture below.

It is still incredibly tasty and it's not the most hideous breakfast available, so this is the option we prefer.  The first time I made this, my dad helped me flip over the loaf so the seam was on the bottom.  He then got a little creative with some fruit and made a snake to entertain the girls!



Easiest Ribs Ever
Degree of Difficulty: 1
Mess Factor: 3
Taste: 9
This recipe is actually from my aunt and uncle.  They make the best ribs and I am lucky enough to enjoy them when we have large family gatherings at their place.  These ribs literally fall off the bone and their taste is entirely derived from the spice rub you choose.  Experiment until you find a rub that works for you.  If there is any leftover ribs, take the meat off the bones and use for pulled pork sandwiches later in the week!

There are 3 ingredients for this recipe: ribs, apple juice/grape juice/apple cider, and spice rub.

Liberally apply your spice rub on both sides of the ribs and place in a large baking dish.  I used a disposable pan because we were bringing these to a friend's house and I thought it would be easier for clean-up.  ONce your ribs have been covered in the rub, pour apple juice, grape juice, or apple cider (hard cider in our case) into the baking dish until it comes up about 1/2 an inch. 

Cover the baking dish with tin foil and place in a 250 degree oven for 3 hours.  You can do this just as easily on the grill.  Use low heat and cook for at least 3 hours.  The longer these cook, the more tender the ribs will be!

I am sorry I don't have a picture right after these came out of the oven but we were in a hurry (when aren't we in a hurry?) and I forgot!  Here is a pic of what we had leftover at the end of the night.  We have made these with several different spice rubs and continue to experiment.  Our grocery store, Schucks, has the Weber Grill spice rubs on sale all the time and I usually pick up whatever flavors look exciting that week. 

I am have plenty more recipes and pics, so hopefully I should get up at least one more blog post this week and at least 2 next week.  Plus, I finished the headboard in our master bedroom and we are in the process of painting our kitchen cabinets.  Wait until you see the transformation!  Glad to be back!

Lori

She Will Start to Get Her Groove Back

Amelia Rachel is 3 weeks old and we are starting to get a routine together.  She takes three pretty solid naps a day with some cat naps thrown in, so I try to get things done around the house during the longer naps.  In order to feel more in control of my life, I have finally started planning ahead with dinner.  Earlier in the week, I planned out three meals to make throughout the week and thought enough ahead to double one of the recipes to freeze.  Check out two of the dinner recipes plus one healthy dessert recipe below!

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf
Degree of Difficulty: 2
Mess Factor: 3
Taste: 9
I am pretty sure I have mentioned it before, but I LOVE easy prep meals and meatloaf is almost always easy prep.  Meatloaf is actually one of my favorite dishes and I love experimenting with different flavor combinations.  I decided to try out this recipe, found on Pinterest, but double it and place one loa

f in the freezer to use at a later date (which was only two days later). 

Since I could not find ground chicken at the local Meijer, I used ground turkey instead.  I was also too lazy to measure out all of the individual spices, so I subbed with 1 1/2 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning.  Finally, I really didn't feel like dealing with an onion, so I left out the grated onion entirely.  Can you tell I am getting really lazy? 

I mixed together ground turkey, eggs, Italian Seasoning, Itallian breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese together with my hands (this is actually my favorite part). 

I then split up the meat mixture in to two disposable loaf pans (the epitome of lazy since I didn't even want to put the loaf pan in the dishwasher). 

Added half a cup (I just eyeballed it) of sauce to the top and put in a 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes.  I had a litte leftover Classico, which is on the loaf on the right.  The loaf on the right has my normal go to Ragu sauce.  Honestly, I really couldn't taste a difference between the two sauces used.  After cooking for 40 minutes, I took out the loaf and topped with shredded Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese and put back in the oven until the cheese was melted.  When I made the frozen meatloaf two nights later I cooked it for 55 minutes before taking out to add the cheese. 

I wish I had a picture of the finished product, but this dish went so fast in my house I wasn't able to get a picture!  This is a really easy and really tasty recipe that we will definitely be making again and I would recommend anyone try.  Best part, we told my daughter it was meatballs and she actually seemed to enjoy it!

Cheez It Chicken Tenders
Degree of Difficulty: 4
Mess Factor: 6
Taste: 8
This recipe was inspired by my friend, Crystal.  She suggested covering chicken tenderloins in plain Greek yogurt, then rolling in cheese and crushed Ritz crackers.  I'm not a huge fan of Ritz crackers, but I love cheese so we used Cheez Its instead.  This is really easy and when the girls get a little older, I think this would be a fun dish for them to help with.  After rolling in Greek yogurt and crushed up Cheez Its, I popped them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  They were really crunchy on top, but a little soggy on the bottom, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to flip these halfway through the cooking.

I served them with yellow bell peppers and mini pierogis.  Not sure why I decided to go with yellow and orange colors for dinner this night, but I think I was hoping to get my daughter to eat more of her dinner (it didn't really work).  I did finish off my first tender without any topping, but brought out some salsa for the second tender and it added just the right amount of zing!

Healthy Chocolate Chip Blondies
Degree of Difficulty: 3
Mess Factor: 3
Taste: 6
A friend of mine, Molly, writes a blog about healthy eating, working out, and everyday life.  If you are interested in checking it out (it's one of my fave blogs to read), you can find her at Wine and Workouts.  In one of her past posts, she talked about making healthy brownies with a recipe from a blog titled, Chocolate Covered Katie.  I checked out this blog and became hooked!  I checked the pantry and decided I had enough ingredients to try out her healthy chocolate chip blondies. 

You may have seen one of the Pinterest pins for healthy chocolate chip cookie dough dip made with chickpeas.  If so, this is probably the blog from which that recipe was pinned.  The blondie recipe used chick peas as well as peanut butter to create the blondie base.  All of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, were thrown together in a food processor and blended until smoothish.

After all of the ingredients were blended together I stirred in half cup of mini chocolate chips (I find the mini morsels disperse better in recipes).  The mix was put into a 8x8 baking dish and baked in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. 

These bars are pretty tasty, but I must warn you that they do not taste like a blondie or really even a cookie.  I think it would probably be better to name these chocolate peanut butter bars as that may help people get over the cookie hurdle as they really just taste like peanut butter and chocolate with none of that sweet and salty cookie flavor (this is probably not being explained very well).  Either way, we will definitely be making these again because my daughter LOVED them!  Even better, I didn't feel all that bad giving them to her since none of the ingredients are that bad for her.  Also a bonus is this recipe is gluten free and vegan.  Not really an issue in our house, but definitely good to know!

I have plenty more recipe to try out this week and weekend including some fun breakfast pancakes and grilling recipes for Mother's Day! 

Lori