Cupcakes, Donuts and Fridays! Oh my!

I love Fridays.

I also love baking. 

As such, the following is on my agenda this weekend. 

Pray for my thighs.

1. Banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

We eat a ton of peanut butter and banana sandwiches in our house so this is just plain logical. I found another recipe with cream cheese/peanut butter frosting. I'm just not so sure about cream cheese and peanut butter. But I suppose there is peanut butter cheesecake?

And then, I found this one...

BACON banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

I might have to do it. No, I really, really think I NEED to do it. 

2. Coffee Cake Donuts

A picture of these donuts popped up on my Instagram feed and I immediately took a picture so I would remember to make them. I love coffee cake and donuts. Again, logical. 

I've never made a donut before though so I'm not so sure I can pull this one off. Cupcakes though? Done and done.

Then I'm off to sunny Phoenix on Sunday for a few days. I'm hoping I can squeeze in a few morning runs to work off all of the few dozen sweets I intend to consume buuuuuuut I have to be at the office by eight so I'm not confident.

There's always next month?

I hope everyone has a marvelous weekend!

xxoo

ma

I just can't hide it

I'm on a roll.

We just hired a cleaning lady.

What, what?!

  

My glass is totally half full

I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning.

Or perhaps, it was Ole Kingy who worked his charm on me again. This time he woke me with a hug around the neck, a kiss on the nose and a sweet "waa you mommy"

I mean. 

We've had a somewhat disastrous few weeks in the poop department.

And by we, I mean Kingy.

The details you ask? Well, we've bounced in between diarrhea and constipation for two weeks straight and NOTHING can get him regular. We've tried just about everything and finally decided to give probiotics a go yesterday. 

The result? Let's just say that I understand the logic behind them but I think it may be too much of a good thing. After just one swig of the good stuff, homeboy was a shitting machine and he hasn't stopped since. 

Literally, has not stopped. It's unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it.

Needless to say, his lunch box had a fair amount of cheese in it and I think we're going to hold off on the powder for a bit.

Speaking of school, we are going on two days without a freak out at drop off. He's been in his current classroom for three months and still melts down when I leave him. He is always having a raging good time when I pick him up but the mornings are a nightmare.

Well, the last few days we've moved drop off to about 40 minutes later so he can be with his favorite teacher and it worked!!! I think the problem was a mix of not loving the morning teacher, not getting enough time to wake up or spend with mommy and not seeing his favorite person, Miss Edy. I am so grateful to not be leaving with a pit in my stomach.

In other news, I'm getting maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarried!!!!!

I have finally come up with a wedding plan that PB can not refuse. It's cost efficient, it will be special, it will be stress free and most of all, it will be FUN!

I will share the details as soon as I sort them out in my head but I can't wait. If you haven't noticed by now, I am as cheap as they come so if anyone knows of any good places to find a reasonably priced dress, send them my way. 

Here's to tomorrow being Friday friends!

xxoo

ma

What Good Dads Do

Check it out. Worth a second or two of your time today.

What Good Dads Do

Makes you rethink that daily Starbucks doesn't it?

Where my moms at?

Girls.

Watch this video.

Now tell me you didn't ugly cry through the whole entire thing and I will promptly adopt your baby.

I can't even bring myself to watch it again.

Motherhood is messy.

Just messy.

Happy Hump Day pals.

Nothing to see here

Has anyone else noticed that we are almost through the month of January?

Umm, yes!

The absolute longest, most miserable, coldest month of all is about to be history.

Thank you sweet baby Jesus.

It's usually around this time that I get hit pretty hard with the winter blues. Does anyone else feel wicked depressed around this time? I'm usually a rotten beyotch but not this year baby!

It's been frigid cold, yes. But instead of being pissed off that's it's still winter, I've been focusing on the fact that our days are getting longer every single day and we really only have one more solid month of wicked cold.

Bonus, February is fast moving.

Sure, March is likely to be cold too but it could also be peppered with warm days! And we can soon start planting seeds. And I might buy a treadmill this week. And I'm going to sunny Phoenix next week. And we may or may not throw a Valentine's day party for the kiddos.

How's that for looking on the bright side?

Even better than all of that, Ole Kingy had zero freak outs last night, slept in his bed all night and was only mildly miserable this morning.

Miracles do happen.

It's totally a guessing game with him. I try lots of different things to dodge tantrums but it seems giving him options and letting him do things himself work the best, most of the time.

Like this morning, I let him use a "knife" to spread his own pee-bee and cut bananas to make his second breakfast of the morning. Homeboy already had two slices of french toast because of course mommy makes him hot breakfast every day.

Well, he happily handled it like a pro and rather than eating it himself, he excitedly exclaimed

"Mommy! Pee-bee zoast an nananas!" - King, while practically throwing his sandwich across the room at me

"For me buddy? Really?" - Mommy

"Yes! Mommy. Pee-bee zoast!" - King

Insert ten heart eye emoticons

And just like that, all of his past offenses were forgiven.

Motherhood is such a ride. I tell ya.

Rainbows, butterflies and magical unicorns

Except, not so much.

Well, where to begin?

I haven't been posting as frequently for fear of sounding whiny and bitchy because that's how I feel but, who really wants to hear that?

So, I'll leave you with a few random thangs this morning and I'll do my best to keep them short and without whine but I can't promise anything. 

1. Target has finally jumped on the organic bandwagon. Can a sister get an Amen?! The grocery section was full of organic goodies yesterday and I was so stoked. It's seriously the little things. I'll admit, they are slacking in a few areas but I bet it will come with time. Once they realize that no one really wants all the fake crap they'll start stocking up on the goods. 

2. Constipation is a bitch. Especially when you're 20 months old.

3. When you become a mom, talking to your other mom friends about poop, the color, consistency, frequency and smell is totally normal. Talking about poop to people that don't have kids is totally not. 

4. I actually went out of my way to go to the grocery store alone the other night just to get a 30 minute break. And it was glorious. I highly suggest it.

5. I am officially living with three boys and three dogs and I couldn't be more terrified. 

6. Toddlers are seriously 10,000 times harder than a baby. I don't know what I was thinking getting excited about this shiz. Granted, they can be seriously silly and fun and easy at times but right now, we are having a battle royale in our house and I have no idea what to do about it. 

Take this morning for example.

Ole Kingy wanted yogurt, blueberries and granola for breakfast. 

No problem homie, coming right up! 

Wrong, ma. I want all that but I don't want you to put me down to get it. And when you do, I'm going to freak the eff out and throw a massive fit. Then you'll pick me back up to "help" you and once "we're" finished I'll refuse to eat it. Then I'll continue to yell "NO", push my bowl across the counter and swing at you until you send me to my room where I'll then bang my head on my bed and cry out for you and yell "EAT PEEEEZE."

Then you'll come back, pick me up and I'll sweetly tell you "thank you" which really means "sorry" and say that I want to eat and demand to look in the fridge for something else. When I finally settle on "peebee zoast". You will get it, thinking I'm happy but I'm not. I'll just throw another massive fit. 

...

This went on and on for about 40 minutes until finally, I yelled to cut the shit and he did. I hate yelling but I tried everything. 

Timeout and ignoring him does not work. Calmly talking and explaining, does not work. Pretending to eat his breakfast and saying it's yummy, does not work. Pretending his favorite stuffed animal is eating and loves it, does not work. NOTHING WORKS.

I literally gave him everything he wanted and then he turned around and didn't want it. I know this is a battle of wills and stubbornness but I am so unbelievably over it. 

The kid throws fits IN HIS SLEEP.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know because I'm about to move his bed to the chicken coop.

So that wasn't short at all but that's what's happening these days. 

Fun, eh?

Looks can be deceiving. The weekend in pics. 

Spoiled.

We were planning to move this walker to the attic but Kingy thinks it's his car

Just trying to catch his new fish

New dance moves

Morning stuff

This was a cute break between all of the madness this morning.

What the?

I can't even.

Just read this "You Can Now Buy a 3D, Life-Size Model of Your Unborn Child"

Unreal.

Jumbled

My head is a whole bunch of all over the place today.

But the one thing I do know is we're having chicken marsala for dinner. 

Thanks again Pioneer Woman!

PB thinks he doesn't like it but he always changes his mind once he takes a bite, which is exactly why I haven't mentioned it to him yet. 

I love surprises!

Really, I just have a ton of mushrooms and nothing to do with them.

In other news, I have no news. Nothing is particularly thrilling or exciting lately. Kingy is going through another phase and I'm starting to wonder if these "phases" are just some degree of the "Terrible Twos". He literally threw multiple fits in his sleep last night. How is that even possible? 

And it's fricken frigid. 

Shocking, I know.

Also, I'm totally swapping out the heavy cream in this recipe for milk. Why does every recipe call for heavy cream?

That's right, because it's delicious.

My thighs will thank me later.

Chicken Scallopine

Prep Time:

 15 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 15 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 6

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound Linguine
• 6 whole Boneless, Skinless, Trimmed Chicken Breasts
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 12 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Sliced Thin
• 1 cup Dry White Wine
• Chicken Broth (optional)
• 1 whole Lemon
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream (can Use Half-and-Half)
• 1 teaspoon (heaping) Capers
• Chopped Fresh Italian Parsley
• Parmesan Cheese, For Topping

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Flatten chicken breasts to uniform thickness. Salt and pepper both sides, then dredge in flour. Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry chicken breasts until golden brown. Remove to a plate and set aside.

Throw mushrooms into the pan and stir. Immediately pour in wine and chicken broth (optional), and then squeeze juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon. Stir to deglaze the pan, and then cook vigorously for 1 minute, until sauce reduces.

Pour in cream and stir, then add capers and parsley and stir. Turn off heat. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Don’t under salt!

Place pasta and chicken on a platter and top with every last drop of sauce. Generously sprinkle Parmesan Cheese over the top.

Seeds

Well, I just wrapped up my fifth load of vomit covered laundry. Ole Kingy is at daycare today so I'm hoping we're done with this nonsense.

Considering he pulled a fast one on me and skipped a day between the shits and the pukes over the weekend, I'm not confident.

Life has been a bit hectic lately. Work has been outrageous, we've been bogged down with sickness and just general life stuff. I'm ready for a slow down, that's for sure. Not complaining, just ready to be doing nothing.

And also, I'll take some warmer weather.

Has anyone else noticed the days are getting longer? There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Speaking of warmer weather, PB surprised me last week by ordering all of our seeds for this year. Well most of them, he thinks my garden plans are a little aggressive, I think he needs to mind his own business and tend to the chickens.

If anyone is looking for a good seed catalog, try The Whole Seed Catalog or you can order online from Seeds of Change which is where PB picked up our goodies.

Check out what we've ordered so far. I am stoked!!!

Pack, Pepper, Jalapeno Pack, Cucumber, Sumter Pack, Pepper, Cal Wonder Red Bell Pack, Cal Wonder Orange Bell Pepper Pack, Bean, Bush, Jade Pack, Bean, Bush, Royal Burgundy Pack, Corn, True Gold Pack, Carrot, Dragon Pack, Pumpkin, Howden Pack, Spinach, Charger Pack, Watermelon, Crimson Sweet Pack, Cilantro, Slow Bolt Pack, Dill Pack, Squash, Summer, Lioness F-1 Pack, Squash, Dark Star Zucchini Pack, Tomato, Fox Cherry Pack, Tomato, Red House Free Standing

Beware

People. 

We have had a rough go of things the last few days. 

Saturday The King was plagued by the stomach bug. Sunday I practically burnt off my nether regions, which I will not get into detail, but it felt like I'd been riding a horse for three months straight. A whole new level of discomfort. 

I'll leave it to your imagination but please know that I have not picked up an STD. 

Today, Kingy kicked off the day at 2am by puking all over us and continuing to do so until about 11am. 

And now, I'm not sure if I'm about to shit my pants or vomit all over The King for pay back. 

And he looks like this now

The good news? My crotch is fine and this bug is fast moving. 

The bad news, I'm 99% sure I've caught the plague. 

Hope everyone is making out better than us!!

These two

Oh wow.

These two are amazingggggggg

Umm?

Y'all

Life has been ridiculous lately. I haven't had much time at all to spend with anyone, let alone blog. So apologies. I'll hopefully only have another week or so of excel hell.

Gotta love last minute projects and just overall, b.s.

Quickly though, last night I thought I would have the night off so I made dinner. Who'da thunk I'd have time to make my family dinner...short lived because I got an email mid-meal that reminded me I hate life (I was only looking because the boys were taking a potty break).

So anyway! Pioneer Woman strikes again and girl, she killed it with this one. It is SO good and wicked easy to make.

Chicken and Dumplings

Few things, I didn't have whole chicken so I used breasts. It was fine. I also did not have heavy cream or apple cider. I used a whole milk/melted butter concoction instead and threw in a little cinnamon and sugar. The whole milk was a fine substitute, I'd go without the last ditch effort to add sweet. Not because it was bad, but because it would be fine without it. And, if you use a smaller dutch oven, you won't need such a large dumpling batch.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Chicken and Dumplings

Prep Time:

 15 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 30 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 8

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 whole Chicken, Cut Into Pieces (cut Up Fryer)
• Salt And Pepper
• 1/2 cup Finely Diced Carrots
• 1/2 cup Finely Diced Celery
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
• 6 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1/2 cup Apple Cider
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• Dumplings:
• 1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Yellow Cornmeal
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1-1/2 cup Half-and-half
• 2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Parsley (optional)
• Salt As Needed

Preparation Instructions

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then dredge both sides in flour.

Melt butter in a pot over medium-high heat. In two batches, brown chicken on both sides and remove to a clean plate.

In the same pot, add diced onion, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in ground thyme and turmeric, then pour in chicken broth and apple cider. Stir to combine, then add browned chicken. Cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

While chicken is simmering, make the dough for the dumplings: sift together all dry ingredients, then add half-and-half, stirring gently to combine. Set aside.

Remove chicken from pot and set aside on a plate. Use two forks to remove chicken from the bone. Shred, then add chicken to the pot. Pour heavy cream into the pot and stir to combine.

Drop tablespoons of dumpling dough into the simmering pot. Add minced parsley if using. Cover pot halfway and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Check seasonings; add salt if needed. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

*Adapted from Gourmet Magazine