Relaxing.

These couple of days, I have been relaxing. Well, at least try to. If the weather wasn't so stinking hot, I'd go out shopping or take Baby B to the bay and just walk on the boardwalk. I've been eating a lot, if you haven't noticed my cooking lately. Today, I made fried spring rolls and regular spring rolls. I'm just on the ball on exercising this mouth. And to be honest, I feel like blah. And when I feel like blah, I just want to run down the road and order me some starbucks. I shouldn't be drinking caffeine though. That's all I have ever been drinking these past few days. :( Maybe because I'm constantly waking up an night. Typically Baby B wakes at 6 or so in the AM, once I put him back to sleep, I don't go back to bed. I just might develop some coon eyes. Here's to sleepless nights and trying to relax. :)

my food boards are put to use!

It was a hot day. Typical. But it's always nice spending time with my loves. We got to eat at our favorite pho restaurant before we ran our errands. I've pinned a lot of recipes off of Pinterest in the past, but never really made them. Now I have a reason to! I picked out a couple of recipes and wrote it down on our grocery list.  Instead of our to-go-tos (wal mart & HEB), we went to HEB plus. It's almost like a market and of course, more choices to choose from. It's a little further out from where we live, but we stayed for quite some time! It was pretty neat. For dinner tonight, I made a crock pot recipe called tater tot casserole from http://www.tamileetips.com If you're interested in wanting to make this dish, visit her site. This is one of their top ten recipes. 

While the casserole cooked for 3 hours, I began the dessert recipe. Healthy Blueberry banana bread from http://www.mynaturalfamily.com . I typically do not eat bananas, but really like banana bread. While my mom was here, she bought bananas. I haven't touched them until now. Super ripe they were! I figured I'd do something with them instead of throwing them away. I'm also putting my blueberries to good use  from picking during this summer. So this recipe was perfect! It turned out really good! 

 

 

Crockpot Rib Recipe

I’m thinking this rib rack has been freezing for quite sometime now and needs to be cooked & plus my cousin has done it in the past and has suggested it because it was fairly simple to make. I’ve searched online to find basic recipes and decided to tweek it to my own personal liking. Don’t worry, no major tweeking was involved because I’m afraid to mess it up. Lately I’ve made soups with my crockpot because my mother forced me to. Although delicious and simple, they weren’t picture worthy. Ha! It has definitely saved me a lot of time since I have Baby B waking more and more and my current addiction is sewing.

I don’t have a name yet, but
I name this my “First Take” rib recipe.

Ingredients:
A rack of ribs [ I cut mine in thirds]
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Salt and pepper
A can of coke
Half of an onion
Sweet Baby Rays barbeque sauce

Directions:
Sprinkle each third on both sides with salt & pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.
Dice the onion.
Place the thirds on top of each other.
Place diced onions in between the layers & on top.
Pour In your coke.
Set your temp. on HIGH for 3 ½ - 4 hours or on LOW for 8 hours.

Oops, I forgot my onion.

^^^SCORE! You don't get this everyday! We were lucky!^^^

I would say that it was a hit in this household. J REALLY liked it and so I could see myself making more of this in the future! I accompanied the ribs with panfried zucchinni & yellow squash tossed in olive oil, salt, & pepper and mashed potatoes with bacon bits (not the fake kind. I wouldn't dare do that to myself. Ha!)topped with cheese. We were recently introduced to Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce, that stuff was AMAZING! It was on sale too!

Let me know if you try this recipe and how it has turned out.

Words from a Pro Daddy

"Swaddle, Vacuums, & Classical music".

My recent roadtrip to San Antonio gave me some great good out of it (ALWAYS!!). My good friend Joe's father was sitting at the table with us, telling stories of what he'd do to soothe each and one of his babies. Did I mention both Joe's mom & dad said he was the worst out of the three?! Haha! Those three things.

I have been meaning to clean this house. How does it get so messy so easily?! I'm not one for schedules. I have terrible organizational skills. Seriously, artistic people are carefree and do whatever, whenever.... At least in my eyes. Haha. I promised J I would have dinner cooked and the house cleaned once he gets home from work. With Baby B waking up more and wanting to be held, I remembered what Mr. Joe said. 

So here we are, smushed in the front pack, carried by mommy while vacuuming. This kid sleeps through any noise. 

Vacuums don't phase me, they soothe me. Like music to my ears...

 

Baby Girl Booties

These are the booties  that were made today. I'm trying to better myself at making baby shoes so I can make tons for my son, but it never hurts to make things for girls. 

 

Lumpia at midnight

 

Frying at midnight? I think yes! I've done nothing, but snack on m&ms today therefore I didn't have the chance to cook up a meal for myself. I mainly worked on baby, girly booties when Baby B was asleep. J came home, asked if I'd want something to munch on that he'll prepare and thought to myself "Why not fry some lumpia?". It so happens that I ended up frying them, but I didn't mind at all. I've been on this cooking kick. We will see how long THAT will last, but I'm determined to cook more again. I've always enjoyed it. Every recipe for lumpia is different. Although I'm going to say that my mother's the best ( every Filipino kid says that about their mom's cooking recipe ), they all go fantastic with the sweetened chili sauce that you typically find in oriental/asian markets. It's apparent that my lumpia didn't fry picture perfect, but what does really matter is the taste! J and I ate every single one in a ziplock bag that my mom & I had prepared before her departure. We have a total of 6 bags left! There's no telling how long they're going to last!

Pacifier Clip & burpcloth combo.

Ah yes! I found this super cute fabric that J and I bought months ago. (I seem to misplace things alot!) I went ahead and sewed it on my dull, white burp cloths that were sitting in the drawer. It needed a little pop! Aaaaand I went ahead and made a pacifier clip to go with it.