In the real world...

In addition to providing some reviews of all of the recipes we tried as part of our July meal plan, this month I am also providing you all with an idea of what happens in the NMOTB household after the meal plan is created (as promised.)

When people visit us and see our monthly meal plan hanging on the fridge, the follow-up question is usually, "So, do you actually stick to it?"  My answer as always been, "Well, yes.  Within reason."

But, this month I decided to actually keep track of the subtle changes we made to have a better answer for people.  Sometimes the changes we make will be to the actual meal (i.e., We have a salad instead of asparagus because I didn't see any good asparagus when I went to the grocery store) and sometimes it will be a change to the calendar because of unforeseen social engagements, travel plans that change, or simply that I just don't feel like cooking dinner.  It seemed like the changes in July were more related to the latter because it ended up being an exceptionally busy month.  In looking back, it still appears that the correct response to that FAQ is, "Well, yes.  Within reason."

July 7
Meal Plan - Beef Lo Mein using this recipe.
Reality - Beef Lo Mein using THIS recipe.  
The first recipe used beef boullion which I didn't feel like buying just for one recipe, so I did a little more Pinteresting and voila!

July 8
Meal Plan - Buffalo Pork Chops; One Pan Fettuccine Alfredo; Green Beans
Reality - Dinner with my husband's boss
We had planned to order pizza later on during this same week, so instead I just pushed back all of the meal plans by one day and we enjoyed socializing with my husband's boss at a local eatery we'd been hoping to try.

July 12
Meal Plan - Pulled Pork; Grilled Corn; Potato Wedges
Reality - Too tired to cook
I would say this happens about once a month. I plan a big meal and then realize it isn't going to work given everything else I have to accomplish on that day.  This day was TIH's fourth birthday party, so by the time we got home I didn't want to do anything.  I'm not sure what we ended up eating, but I didn't cook it!

July 13
Meal Plan - Grilled Shrimp with Mustard Sauce; Baked Potatoes; Sauteed Brussels & Corn
Reality - Pulled Pork; Grilled Corn; Potato Wedges; Cole Slaw
We pushed the meal from July 12 back onto this day and invited friends over to share it with us!  It was absolutely delightful to have everyone over and the meal was enjoyed by everyone!

July 17
Meal Plan - Stuffed Peppers; Bread; Salad
Reality - Homemade Pizza; Salad
This was TIH's birthday and he specifically requested pizza for his birthday.  Since we'd done our fair share of dining out over the course of the month already, we opted to make it ourselves.  Served with a nice slice of birthday cake, of course.

July 18
Meal Plan - Grilled Brats; Cole Slaw; Tator Tots
Reality - Snacks
Here was another example of not really being in the mood for a big meal or wanting to cook it.  Instead, my husband swung by the deli and got a few snacks (wings, cheese & crackers, etc.) and we ate that.

July 19
Meal Plan - No meal plan - having visitors
Reality - Stuffed Peppers; Bread; Salad
My husband's parents were visiting and we weren't sure how long they would be staying in town, so we weren't sure if we would be cooking for a crowd or dining out.  When we found out they were heading home early, I went ahead and moved up the meal plan for July 17 to this day.

July 25
Meal Plan - Steaks; Grilled Vegetables; Baked Potatoes
Reality - Steaks; Grilled Vegetables; Baked Sweet Potatoes
The sweet potatoes just sounded better when I was grocery shopping!

July 26
Meal Plan - Spinach & Mushroom Smothered Chicken; Carrots; Pasta
Reality - Had dinner with friends
You know me, I can't miss out on a social opportunity.  We can have this meal some other time!

July 31
Meal Plan - Breaded Pork Chops; Cous Cous; Sauteed Asparagus
Reality - Going Away Happy Hour
A very good friend and colleague is starting a new job with the next school year, so I spent the evening sharing memories over cocktails and moved this plan to August.  Great way to get a headstart!

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As you can see, I wasn't too great with the picture taking this month, but we did try a lot of great new recipes.  Some of which I'm happy to say will for sure be making return appearances on future meal plans.

Grilled Fish - (not pictured) We initially planned to cook this on the grill, but decided to go with the oven at the last minute (took about 20 minutes at 400 degrees; my oven generally cooks slow.)  My husband had tilapia instead of salmon, but this delicious marinade worked very well with both.  We left the fish in the marinade for 30 minutes before cooking it.  I think it would be great grilled, so definitely worth a try!

Beef Lo Mein - SO GREAT.  In addition to being very tasty and enjoyable for the whole family (TIH included!), it was exceptionally easy to put together.  A friend of mine also said she tried it with chicken, so this recipe is adaptable to a variety of tastes (would probably be great with extra veggies or tofu as well, if you are so inclined!)  This recipe will be added to the regular rotation without a doubt!

One Pot Fettuccine Alfredo - I love me some fettuccine alfredo and I even have a great recipe I've honed over the years - but this is PERFECT for an easy weeknight side dish.  Sure, cream sauces aren't the healthiest dish in existence, but this is DEFINITELY better than something I would make from a box (which I've been known to do in a pinch.)  These meals that come together in one pan are obviously my new favorites.  I've already put this on our current meal plan!

Grilled Shrimp with Mustard Sauce - (not pictured) Great method for brining and grilling shrimp.  The mustard sauce was just "eh."  I would have rather had a spicy cocktail sauce or a tarter sauce or really any other kind of sauce.  The sauce itself wasn't bad, it just didn't really do much for the shrimp.  Now we actually have a method for grilling shrimp now - we've done it before, but it was all kind of lackluster.  Glad to have something in my arsenal that works!

Lemon Shrimp with Parmesan Rice - (not pictured) I think I did something wrong with this recipe.  For starters, it could have been that I used a boil in a bag rice brown rice instead of the rice recommended for the recipe.  The shrimp itself was great, but paired with the rice it was sort of a gummy mess.  My husband didn't seem to hate it as much as I did, but we both agreed it just wasn't our favorite recipe.  Worth giving it a shot if you can learn from my mistakes, but I'm not sure we'll be trying it again.

Spinach & Mushroom Smothered Chicken - (not pictured; not attempted) This is the second or third month in a row that we haven't gotten to this dish.  I swear it sounds delightful to me, but we keep scheduling it on days that it gets cancelled.  We'll get to it someday.

Cheesy Chicken Orzo - (not pictured) This was touted as "Grown Up Mac & Cheese," but really I think I would have liked mac & cheese from the box better.  We tried to doctor it up a bit by adding some spices and hot sauce, but it just wasn't really anything special.  It's a shame because I was really looking forward to it!

Messing around the kitchen like a busy bee...

Today, I'm excited to present to you the first recipe I ever developed completely on my own.  It used to be one of the few things I could successfully cook in the kitchen.  We had it the other night as part of our meal plan and we realized it had been over a year since the last time we had it.  That seems impossible since we used to have it weekly.  I typed it up once so I wouldn't forget what I did, and now the page looks like this:

You know you love a recipe when it looks like this.
Also, you know that I choose to stick my lemon stickers on my recipe instead of walking to the garbage.

My husband and I are HUGE fans of the flavor of all lemon.  I like lemon as a seasoning more than I like salt.  And I LOVE salt.

Beauties.

If you love lemon, you're going to love this recipe as well.  So, gather your ingredients and get ready...


{Lemon Caper Chicken & Cous Cous}

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 tsp. of minced garlic
1 cup of chicken broth (I used free-range, low sodium this time.  It was great!)
1/2 cup of white wine (May omit entirely or sub more chicken broth, I've done both.)
1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/2 cup of sliced green onion (The amount doesn't really matter here.  Just eyeball it.)
1 package of Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil Cous Cous (I mine from Aldi and it's awesome.)
1 tablespoon of capers (coarsely chopped)
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

- Heat olive oil & garlic in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken; saute until golden and no longer pink inside.

- Use the time it takes to cook the chicken to prepare your other ingredients.

Delicious capers ready to be chopped.

- When chicken is no longer pink, add broth, lemon juice, capers, white wine, green onion, and the contents of the spice sack that comes with the cous cous to your skillet.  Stir that mixture together and bring it to a boil.

- Once you've got a good boil going, stir in your cous cous, cover, and remove the skillet from heat.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.

It will look a little soupy at first and that's okay.  It really will only take 5 minutes to absorb.  Cooking magic.

- Toss your cous cous mixture with a fork and serve in bowls.  We love this with steamed asparagus on the side.  It tastes even more delicious as leftovers the next day.

Yeah, buddy.

Enjoy!  If you try it out, make sure you let me know what you think!

We all need somebody to lean on...

I wrote this post months ago and forgot about it. Seriously, the two pregnant women I mention at the beginning are both in their 3rd trimesters now and we moved after I wrote this so TIH is in at a new preschool (which we LOVE).  But, since most of the stuff is still true, I can post it now.  I love it when blog posts have been written for me already.

I wish I could say that my husband and I have never had a single issue with our childcare provider(s) throughout the over 2 years since I returned to work from my maternity leave.

However, I can't.   When we sold our house, we left a center we absolutely loved to go to a place that we really didn't even like that much.  But, we chose it because it was close enough to my dad's house and didn't totally break the bank.

As with most things in life, when you cut costs you also inevitably sacrifice quality.
We tried to make this place work for a good 4 months (which is honestly 4 months longer than we ever thought we would be there), but eventually the number of our complaints outweighed the reduced cost we were getting.  So, we started looking again.

The day that we went "daycare shopping," we happened to spend some time with a couple of couples who recently told us they were expecting their first children.  Both women plan to return to work when the time comes, and yet, here I was with another one of my New Mom on the Blog horror stories.  I tried to back peddle halfway through what I was saying after seeing the horrified looks on both of their faces, but I know I need to go one step further.

The thing is, I've received a lot of criticism from people for enrolling my child in a daycare center.  For some reason, daycare centers have this stigma of being dirty, disease-infested, money machines who will abuse and neglect your child for the low, low price of $1500.00 a month.  And unfortunately, our most recent experience was pretty much that (give or take a few hundred dollars.)

But, today on the blog, I'd like to talk about all of the reasons why sending your child to a child development center is not just a great idea (and something that you shouldn't fear at all), but also why it is mother-flipping AWESOME.



Reason #1 - Nap time
It takes about a full hour from start to finish to get TIH down for a nap on the weekend and almost always involves taking a ride in the car (which is somehow the fastest way to induce toddler sleep.)  At daycare?  Not only does he lay down on his cot with minimal prompting, he almost always falls asleep within minutes of laying down, and proceeds to sleep for THREE FREAKING HOURS (on the weekends, we are high-fiving ourselves if we get an hour and a half.)  I would love to know their secret to such nap-ful bliss, at the very least to save us some gas money on the nap rides.

Reason #2 - Art Work
If you follow me on Pinterest, you may believe I am some sort of crafty goddess, but you would most assuredly be wrong.  In fact, I have an entire Facebook album dedicated to craft projects I've made and not screwed up.  (There are five pictures in it.  Two of them are of brownies.  Made from a packaged brownie mix.)

Don't get me wrong.  It was delicious.

So, when I've attempted art projects with TIH, it almost always turns into a big, fat, FAIL.  Most recently, I attempted to make this project, but instead ended up with this:

Nailed it.

Even though it doesn't state it in the directions, you probably should not leave your toddler (still holding a paint brush, still covered in paint, still with open paint pots) alone while you go retrieve paper towels to clean up his hands.

At daycare?  They would have never made this mistake.  And even if they did, the place is practically a Hobby Lobby filled with all of the crafting supplies you could ever imagine and furniture that can be wiped down within an inch of it's life.  My kid is only two years old and I already have a large binder FILLED with his paintings and drawings.  It's amazing and it allows me to leave the crafting up to the experts.  Otherwise we end up with things like this:

I wish I could blame this flower pot address marker on TIH, but this one was all me.

Reason #3 - Parents Night Out
A long time ago, my husband and I used to actually go places and get dressed up and eat dinner and have adult conversations.  We are lucky enough to have a bunch of family members who are always willing and able to take TIH so that we can have a date night.  But, sometimes those people have lives too.  Or, they want to do things WITH US.  Enter: PNO.  This is where we pay our licensed, degreed, and AWESOME childcare workers a (very, very small) fee so that my husband and I can have 4 hours of freedom while TIH gets fed pizza, makes more of the aforementioned craft projects, and plays with his friends.  The result?  Mom and Dad still have what resembles a social life/marriage and TIH has a freaking blast.  Win/win.

Reason #4 - Spanish
Do you know what language I took in high school?  Latin.  Yes.  The dead language.  Sure, my ACT/SAT scores rocked and I still have an above average vocabulary (not that you'd know it from this blog), but as for being functional...nope.  And it also isn't really something you can teach your kid (not that I remember enough to do so anyway.)  At TIH's daycare, a Spanish teacher comes once a week to teach them basic Spanish vocabulary.  If I tried to teach my kid basic vocabulary in another language, it would sound like this:

Reason #5 - Diapers
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am kind of okay with someone else changing the diapers for 8 hours.  If I leave you with no other reason why daycare is awesome?  This is it.




I will tell the truth - it isn't easy to drop your kid off in the hands of people you don't really know that well.  The first time made me feel like I had been punched in the stomach.  But, it gets easier.  There will be tears at times, but another great thing about daycare - and this is probably the best part - they're there to give the hugs and wipe the tears that I can't.

And that?  Is worth way more than $1500.  (Give or take a few hundred.)