Tasty Thursday

Here are the reviews for last week's new recipes in case you're interested in how they turned out. 

Chili Frito pie: A

This was a really good chili recipe and I didn’t have to buy any specific chili seasonings. I could just use what I have in my cabinet. Tim really liked it as well. The only thing I might do differently in the future is add a bit more tomato sauce and some water because I like my chili to be a little more soupy.

Chicken tacos: B

This recipe seemed really great in theory, but the results were not so hot. Also, in case anyone was wondering, using flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas was a big mistake. The flour tortillas puffed up and tried to escape in the pan and chicken kept falling out while they were frying and it was a big mess. Also, frying the taco overcooked the chicken inside. Otherwise, they still tasted okay (because of course, fried foods always taste good). I definitely liked the addition of a can of green chiles to the chicken, but if I made chicken tacos again, I wouldn’t bother frying anything.

Because I'm making some recipes this week that make a lot of food, I'm only going to be cooking a few times and we're going to be eating a lot of leftovers for dinners and lunches. Which means, less cleaning the kitchen! Yay!

Thursday: Chicken parmesan skillet pot pie. I found this recipe online when I was searching for dinner ideas to use up the extra pie crust I still have from when I made Italian pie. I had passed up about a million chicken pot pie recipes when I came upon this one. It's from a website called Picky Palate. It's a blog written by a stay-at-home mom of two boys who creates "family-friendly" meals that anyone, especially those with more limited palates, would love. The best thing is that it seems like it won't take too much time to make and won't dirty too many dishes. And I can throw in a side salad and we have a complete meal. 

Friday: Leftovers, with zucchini casserole on the side. I shred the zucchini and bake it in a casserole dish with a little olive oil, garlic powder, and some parmesan cheese. You can then top it with some breadcrumbs. Yum!  

Saturday: Dr. Pepper Spicy Shredded Pork sandwiches with coleslaw on top. We'll have it with baked sweet potato fries on the side. This is the Pioneer Woman recipe I made a couple months ago. I still have a pork shoulder in the freezer and I wanted to use it and I really liked this recipe so I decided to make it again. It will make for some tasty sandwiches on college football Saturday. And we actually get to watch the UGA game in the evening this week! 

Sunday: Leftovers of the pork wrapped in tortillas with shredded romaine lettuce, salsa, cheese, and avocado. We'll have them with black beans and leftover cole slaw on the side. 

Monday: Italian chicken soup. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that my mom recommended. I just love soup and I'm so excited that it is fall. And it has actually been really rainy and chilly here in the last few days so soup is just what the doctor ordered. My mom made some changes to the recipe and I think I will add in some of the things that she used like spinach, carrots, and kidney beans. I will also leave out about half of the cream she suggested using to make it a little healthier.

Tuesday: Leftover soup.

Wednesday: Slow cooker Bajio chicken. This is a yummy looking recipe I found online at a blog called Six Sisters' Stuff. We will have it in leftover tortillas from earlier in the week. And we will most likely have the leftovers on Thursday in a salad like in the picture .

Food processors are funny?

So, if you are wondering, this video was taken with a cell phone and is sideways.  I don't know how to fix it, but we've really enjoyed hearing Owen laugh over and over again.  Enjoy the hilarious noise of the food processor (or Jessica)!  CHU CHU!

Owen is six months old!

I'm six months old!

At six months old, Owen was:

Weight: 16 pounds, 12 ounces (between the 25th and 50th percentile)

Height: 26.75 inches long (between the 50th and 75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.8 inches (25th percentile)

Eating:

     Owen still drinks about five or six ounces at each feeding. He goes about three to four hours between feedings. He has started touching our faces or playing with my hair while he eats now. He began eating pureed fruits and vegetables this month (see previous post) and seems to like peas and sweet potatoes the best. We generally feed him about two ounces of solid food in the evening and will probably give him another solid food feeding in the morning soon. 

Sleeping:

     Though Owen had been sleeping through the night, he has resumed waking up in the middle of the night for a feeding for the past three weeks or so. We think that he is going through a growth spurt and needs the extra feeding for that reason. He typically wakes up around 3 a.m. to eat and then sleeps until 6:30 or 7 a.m. when he wakes up for the day.  

    I tried to gradually decrease Owen's number of daytime naps from three to two, but he didn't respond very well to it and I have gone back to just watching him for his cues that say "I need a nap." He becomes fussy and starts rubbing his eyes when he is tired. 

    We start Owen's bedtime routine at about 7 p.m. every night. This can mean we feed him one last bottle, give him a bath, read to him, or just snuggle a little. Then we rock him until he falls asleep. If we're lucky, he goes down easily at 7:30, but lately he's been fighting sleep until as late as 8:30 p.m. 

Dad reads with the best voices.

Other Things I Want to Remember:

     Owen is wearing 3-6 month and 6 month size clothing, but will soon outgrow them. We've started putting him into his 9 month size clothes and some of his 6-12 month outfits. They are a little too big, but he is quickly outgrowing the smaller sizes. He is in size 2 diapers. 

     Owen's hair is growing in thicker and is currently really fluffy on the top of his head. It's really cute. His eyes are getting darker and we bet they will ultimately turn brown. 

My eyes still look greenish blue sometimes, but you can see the brown creeping from the inside out.

    Owen has begun sucking on his right index finger. After finding his feet last month, he has recently become enamored with his hands. While I'm feeding him his bottle, a lot of the time he will hold his hands out in front of his face and just stare at them and wiggle his fingers. 

      Owen can now sit in his stroller without being in his infant carseat and enjoys being able to sit up and look around. We have started taking walks daily as a family in the evenings when Daddy gets home from work.

      His favorite toys are his stuffed musical elephant and a Tigger stuffed animal. He really likes playing with some cloth blocks I bought for him recently. He also enjoys his teething bumblebee and anything else he can chew on. His favorite non-toys are cell phones, car keys, and the television remote. He plays a good amount of time on his activity mat and rotates himself around it to play with all of the different features. He has learned how to turn on the music and seems to prefer the classical music over the nursery rhyme tunes.

You can keep stacking these all you like Mom, but I'll just keep knocking them down.

     He still enjoys having us read to him. His favorite book this month is "Are You My Mommy?" Now that he is teething, he often tries to munch on the corners and grab the pages.

Who needs Mom or Dad? I can read by myself.

     Owen has had several "firsts" this month. As we already mentioned, he has started eating pureed fruits and vegetables. 

     Additionally, Owen has started sitting unassisted this month. He can sit for the most part now without falling over. He generally bears some of his weight on his hands on either his knees or the floor in front of him. Now that he can sit, he becomes frustrated at laying back and is constantly trying to sit up for instance when we're giving him a bottle or bathing him in his infant bathtub.

This is my typical half-squint face. It means, "What are you doing, Mommy?"

      Owen has started raising himself up on his hands and knees in preparation for crawling. So far though, he tends to propel himself backwards almost like he's doing "the worm." It's really cute. Lately, he gets up on his hands and knees and shifts his weight forward and backward, but hasn't started crawling yet. 

     Owen "watched" his first University of Georgia football game this month. 

Goooo Dawgs! Sic 'em!

University of Georgia Class of 2033.

      Owen cut his first two teeth (the bottom front two) last week. They don't seem to cause him too much pain for which we are grateful. And they are so cute when he smiles. 

Hey, how did those get in there?

      Owen also got sick for the first time this month. He caught a nasty cold (as did Mommy) and is still recovering more than a week later. He is still a happy boy for the most part. And we have actually been a little happy because he has occasionally let us snuggle him while he's been sick. (Normally he is a very busy boy and has no time for snuggles).

Mommy better enjoy it while it lasts. Next week I'll be back to discovering the world.

      Here are some pictures from Owen's six month photo shoot. As you can see, he is showing off his ability to sit up by himself. And he is photogenic. I had trouble deciding which photos to post because there were so many cute ones!

Why yes, you can call me "Mister Cuteness."

Either I'm growing, or my elephant is shrinking.

That's right Elephant, no more pushing me around.

My feet? Why yes, they are still awesome.

Check out my fuzzy hair. Nana says my head looks like a coconut.

Check out my two newest adorable features. My teeth!

Hahaha! Mom and Dad are sooo funny.

Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.

Let me have the camera. I want to eat it.

Oh, Dad. I am too cool for peek-a-boo.

Just in time for Halloween: my zombie impression. Grr...argh...

They call me "Drool Monster."

Mommy says the girls are going to be jealous of my eyelashes.

How could you ever say no to this face?

You don't know this Mom, but Dad is making a funny face behind your head.

Geez, who are you? The paparazzi? Please, no more pictures.

Tasty Thursday

     Hi folks! I'm really excited today because our new dining room table and chairs are going to be delivered! I will post a picture sometime so you can see our new eating spot. I'm also really exciting because it is now officially fall, which is my favorite season of the year. I also love fall because it means I can start bringing out my soup, stew, and yummy warm casserole meals. 

     Anyway, last week was a good week meal-wise. We had a few new recipes that we are going to put into our normal meal rotation and the pizza dough turned out really great. I don't think I'll ever buy pre-made dough again! Here are the ratings for last weeks recipes:

Italian pie: A

This was a really good meal and pretty simple to assemble as well. I did have the problem of finding a premade bruschetta for the recipe since it is a Publix recipe. I don’t have a Publix and my Albertsons doesn’t carry anything similar. Instead, I made my own bruschetta using a large can of tomatoes, a packet of fresh basil, and two teaspoons of minced garlic. Then I just whirled it in my food processor for a few seconds. I also did my own combination of meats: ground beef, Italian sausage and pepperoni. Anyway, it turned out really good and we were able to eat it for two dinners and a few lunches.

Man Rating: A

Homemade pizza dough: A

The dough was super easy to make, especially using my KitchenAid mixer. And rolling it out was easy to do by hand because the dough wasn’t too sticky. The only problem we had was that we didn’t put on enough toppings because the dough seemed kind-of thin, but while it baked it rose enough to provide a substantial base for more toppings. So the next time we use the dough, we will pile on the toppings and it should be just about perfect!

Man Rating: A

Chicken piccata: A-

This meal was super easy and quick. I think it took me less than thirty minutes to make our entire dinner. The sauce is so yummy that Tim says he could drink it.

Man Rating: A-

Thursday: Veggie pizza. The pizza dough recipe I used last week made enough for two pizzas so we're using our second pizza dough to make a veggie pizza tonight. We will top the pizza with broccoli, squash, zucchini, onion, and pepperoni. Okay, so it's not a true "veggie pizza," but we have pepperoni and I don't want it to go to waste. 

Friday: Tilapia with lemon butter sauce and angel hair fresca. This is a Publix Apron's recipe that I have been making for years. It has been my go-to special occasion meal for anniversaries and Valentine's Day, etc. Tim really loves it and requested it the other day and since tilapia is on sale at Albertson's this week, I'm going to make it. We will have it with a side salad. It will be a nice meal for a Friday night "date night." Once Owen is in bed, we'll eat this at our new dining room table and then cuddle on the couch watching a Netflix movie. Sounds perfect!

Saturday: Chili Frito pie. This is a new recipe that Pioneer Woman posted on her website this week. I love chili and I'm interested in trying her recipe. Generally when I make chili, I use a seasoning mix from the grocery store so I think it will be cool just to be able to use seasonings from my pantry. We will serve it over some Fritos, which is a trick I first learned from my Aunt Twyla. And for that, I will always be grateful to her. Anyway, even though we will once again watch the Georgia game in the morning, I think it will be a great meal for a day of football watching.  

Sunday: Chicken tacos. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that her brother makes. I've never made chicken tacos before, but I really love Mexican food and I think it will be a nice Sunday night meal. 

Monday: Chicken pot pie with cheddar crust. I know I just made this the other week, but it really is that good. It does take a good deal of prep time, but it is worth it. And really, because I'm at home all day, I can prep different parts of the meal throughout the day and then putting it together and baking it in the evening is really simple. 

Tuesday: Leftovers. Tim is working really late tonight because he is on the board of a group at his job and apparently they feel the need to meet for three hours after work. So he probably won't be home until after eight. So I'm just going to reheat some of the chicken pot pie from the night before. 

Wednesday: Italian sausage rigatoni. I found this recipe on Food Network's website. It's not really a hard recipe, but I wanted something simple so I can use up the Italian sausage that we have in the freezer and I also have some leftover rigatoni from a few weeks ago in the pantry. 

Making Faces

     Owen is now eating fruit and vegetable purees. I am having a really good time making his baby food and our favorite part is seeing the faces he makes when he eats something for the first time. I thought it would be amusing to show everyone Owen's "faces."

That Gala apple looks pretty tasty.

Hmm...not sure I can eat this without teeth, Mom.

Wow! This is sour!

What is this?

These are yummy!

So this is a pear...

First bite...

I'm not so sure about that one, Dad.

First time eating green peas.

Weird texture and delightful color. See?!?

I think I like them!

What is this strange yellow fruit?

Kind-of weird-tasting from the outside...

Can't wait to peel this open!

Eww... I take that back.

Re-peel that banana. I don't want it!

Please don't make me eat any more!

If I look at you with big, sad eyes will you stop feeding me bananas? (We did. And we have since fed him bananas mixed with sweet potatoes and he seems to like them better)

Anyway, our sweet boy is enjoying trying new foods (minus bananas) and we're enjoying seeing his funny first-taste faces.

This is the thing I use to freeze extra baby food that I make. These are pears and sweet potatoes.