Fall is for Pumpkin treats!

So life has been really busy being life! I feel tired ALL the time; and especially this week while they are replacing every roof on our row of town homes!! It is so loud and annoying and today they started at 7:30 am! Is that even legal?! I vote NO! But what does my pregnant mommy vote count haha. I have so much to get done in ICAA and I always feel like I'm a mile behind in my primary duties (so much to update/email/record being a secretary!) And when I'm not busy with that or my little girl I'm probably hunting for a bag of doritos or a bathroom because apparently my bladder is now the size of a peanut or something, cuz I go all the time. More joys of pregnancy :) But in 2 weeks, Oct 18th, we will get to do our halfway ultrasound! Wahoo! Hopefully get to find out boy or girl, I'm guessing girl, and Jesse is guessing boy so we'll see who wins. Not that there will be a disappointed party by any means but its just exciting to be expanding our little family! And of course we want to make sure everything is alright, I mean I have so many crazy dreams (they keep me up at night sometimes) that I can feel a bit paranoid about possibly having a monkey or conjoined puppies (yeah weird dreams..).

ANYWAY I am so excited fall is here! Well its more summer with leaves on the ground this week but at least it cools off at night, I'll take it! I have been wanting pumpkin things since the leaves started changing so last night I made pumpkin bread! 1st time EVER I've done cookies before with pumpkin and a cake mix, way easy but it always feels really nice to make something from scratch! At least I think so :) AND it was SUPER easy! and turned out fantastic, Maia even gobbled some up.

Pumpkin Bread:

2/3 C. Shortening
4 eggs
2/3 C Water
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 2/3 C Sugar
1 can (15-16oz) Pumpkin (NOT pie filling!)
3 1/3 C flour
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. each Cinnamon & Cloves (except I had no cloves so I used Nutmeg and it turned out great!)
8oz Chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Grease/Spray with Pam 2 loaf pans.
3. Mix Shortening and Sugar in large bowl 
4. Once combined add eggs ( I actually found they combined a bit better once I added the eggs) and pumpkin and water. * If mixing by hand as I did wait until the pumpkin is incorporated to the rest of the mix before adding the water to avoid splashing*
5. Blend in Flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder cinnamon and cloves (or nutmeg works too ) ( I added these in small batches of dry ingredients since I was again mixing by hand)
6. Once batter is well combined stir in chocolate chips (or even nuts if you like that sorta thing :) )
7. Pour into loaf pans, bake 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean(ish)
8. Wait about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven, then remove from loaf pan; wait until it cools to serve (believe me its hard to wait!)

okay so I did NOT take this picture but the only difference between our two recipes is mine came from a ward cookbook this one was online and has whole wheat flour (which I did not have on hand)

I loved it :) in fact I think I shall go an try another slice right now, it's even better the next day!

Fall photos are being taken next week! And then Jesse's birthday, and then finals and then our trip to Colorado with our Anniversary and bringing my mom back to Iowa with us...I LOVE OCTOBER!

Crockpot Chicken Chowder

I LOVE this recipe! It has a little kick to it, but you can adjust that as need be :) I am currently making some right now so when it's finished I will post a photo!


Ingredients: (about 6 servings)
1 pound chicken breasts, cut into pieces (I like my chicken shredded so I don't cut it up and just shredded it at the end when mixing things)
1 11 ounce can Whole Kernel Corn (with or without peppers, sometimes called Mexican corn)
1 10+ ounce can of condensed Cream of Potato soup
1 4 ounce can green chilies, undrained
1 envelope Taco seasoning (about 1 1/4 ounces) 
2 Tablespoons Cilantro (can leave out for less kick)
3 cups Chicken Broth
8 ounces Sour Cream
4 ounces Cream Cheese, cubed (for extra kick use the jalapeño flavored variety)


1. I have come to enjoy crock pot bags to avoid bother some clean up so if you have one or want to use one insert now! Combine chicken, corn, soup, undrained chilies, cilantro (if using) and taco seasoning. Stir in chicken and broth. Cover; cook on low heat for 4 to 6 hours or High for 2-3 1/2 hours.


2. Remove about 1 cup of hot soup and stir in sour cream and cream cheese. Slowly stir the mixture into the the cooker (shred chicken now if you didn't cube it before hand); cover let stand 5 minutes. Stir with wisk until combined. 


I serve with bread or tortilla chips whichever I have on hand, tasty morsels!




*note so this time I realized I have a gazillion cans of beans so when I did step 2 I also added a can of Garbanzo beans and let it sit for about 10 minutes and that seemed to be long enough for the cheeses to melt and I didn't need to wisk it. Which was nice cuz everything would have gotten stuck in the wisk anyway!


Happy Eating!

sorry my flash destroyed the color a bit, but its DELICIOUS!

And blog #2 as per request CafeRop :)

Cafe Rio yummy!
3 fresh tomatillos cut into quarters.
1 package of Hidden valleys buttermilk dressing powder. 
1 cup of mayonaise. 
1/3-1/2 cup of buttermilk. 
1 cup cilantro. 
6 Green onions roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves minced/crushed. 
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper(optional- I dont use quite this much, I have also seen variations in recipes using green tabasco sauce and jalapeno but I am wimpy when its spicy cilantro adds enough spice for me) 


Put all the ingredients into a blender of food processor and blend until smooth.
Makes Lots of dressing, I stored mine in old spaghetti sauce jars and this filled one and a half jars. And I have posted another recipe I think where I used some of the extra dressing for the base of some chili that was amazing and quite green :)




For chicken that is similar to Cafe Rios I just season to flavor with honey, cumin powder, and garlic salt and fry it in some olive oil. Or you can cook it in the crockpot in Chicken Broth, little water and a Packet of taco seasoning I have also added 1 can of green chilies before.


 If you want to do the pork or beef I have this recipe I have never used, but I hear its good I just get nervous sometimes with new recipes that make large quantities. 


5 lbs pork
1 pkg onion soup mix
12 oz Dr. Pepper
4 oz taco sauce
1 c brown sugar
dash cumin
1 pkg taco seasoning

Sprinkle soup mix over roast. Cover with water 1/2 way. Cook on high 4 to 6 hours. Drain. Shred.
Add remaining ingredients, stir until mixed. Cook 1 more hour..
 Pork shoulder can take up to 10 hours on low in a crock pot to shredd well, Another reason I haven't tried it yet because that is a very Long time here is another recipe I have for same thing:


2-3 pounds of meat. 
1 bottle of A-1 sauce. 
1/2 tsp pepper. 
1 1/2 cup salsa. 
juice of two limes.
 3/4 cup brown sugar.
cook in crock pot on low for 7-8 hours.




Can make burritos or salads or whatever dish you are craving!
So this is making me very hungry I think we will be having some for dinner very soon :)

Dreams

Do you ever have strange dreams and wonder if they might mean something? This is just something I have always had some interest in and I've learned a lot about some things regarding dream meanings and I like to analyze my dreams.

I have had some crazy dreams lately and some repeat offenders! But I often look things about them up in online dream dictionaries like this one.
A few days ago I had a dream (yes I totally still remember it) with a guy I used to date and his brothers, being so mean to me! In real life those brothers didn't really like me so much, in this dream they were being super rude and gross and making me serve them snacks at my own house! Then my Jesse shows  up and gives them the what for! Yes I dreamt of my husband beating up guys being mean to me. Wanna know the weirdest part?! Jesse had a similar dream the very next day! I mention I dreamt of him beating up boys in my dream but never said who or too many details, and so he starts telling me his dream. We were dating again and I was super tiny (short too) and my ex-boyfriends brothers were pushing me around and well being ruuuude so he beat them up for messing up with his girl. Only then did I tell him more details from my dream, uh goosebumps anyone?!
It was very interesting to look up some meanings from these dreams because depending on how you look them up they can symbolize different things. So I searched this one as protection cuz I was being protected from mean boys, right? So when I looked it up it was very interesting to me to read this:

To dream that you are being protected or need protection, indicates that you are feeling helpless in some situation. Life's difficulties has made you dependable on others. You need to start taking charge of the situation.


What was so interesting to me was that the only real life situation I feel is out of my control is all the darn nausea and bloating and fatigue I have been having with being pregnant. Can be difficult to take charge of that situation but I will try?
Last night I had another dream with similar connotations from dream moods. I had a dream where my teeth were falling out. Didn't even have to do anything they were just falling out and my mouth was full of teeth that were not attached...it was awful I was doing all sorts of stuff and my teeth would just fall out, then the dentist could fix them. But I would go and do more stuff and they would fall right back out! Click here to read all about Teeth dreams. I wanted to quote a couple of parts I found interesting:

Teeth are used to bite, tear, chew and gnaw. In this regard, teeth symbolize power. And the loss of teeth in your dream may be from a sense of powerlessness. Are you lacking power in some current situation? Perhaps you are having difficulties expressing yourself or getting your point across
and this:
A scriptural interpretation for bad or falling teeth indicates that you are putting your faith, trust, and beliefs in what man thinks, rather than in the word of God. The bible says that God speaks once, yea twice in a dream or a vision in order to hide pride from us, to keep us back from the pit, to open our ears (spiritually) and to instruct and correct us.


Yeah so the powerlessness showing up again was very interesting, and the just not being able to get your point across I can think of a couple of situations where that occurs. One of them being with my one year old definitely. But some others with some projects etc that I am working on. The second part that caught my eye was surprising, I didn't think teeth could be spiritually representative. Cuz I know for sure that I have been slacking in my personal scripture study and I know that always help me be more at ease and able to cope with situations that come up and surprise me. 


So I think I have a couple of things to work on and it took dreaming up a storm to get my attention. I think dreams are cool and I like to analyze how my brain is trying to tell me what I need to remember or realize :)

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Yummy yummy!! I really like asian cuisine lately (last pregnancy all I wanted was mexican) and I was particularly missing lettuce wraps so I googled. And I found hundreds of recipes some the same some strange so I took the 3 easiest ones I found and combined and added based on what was in my kitchen (minus a quick trip to the store for some water chestnuts) Here are my best guesses at measurements cuz I didn't measure anything...

Ingredients:
5 chicken breast tenderloins (and we had no left overs!!)
couple shakes of McCormick Montreal Chicken
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic (from the jar style)
2 tsp dehydrated minced onion (used all my onion for sunday dinner oops)
1- 8oz can water chestnuts sliced and drained
1/4 bag of frozen veggies (again what I had on hand..)
1 cup Teriyaki sauce
2 Tbsp lime juice (or 1/2 fresh lime would be good)
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce (reduced sodium)
1 1/2 Dash of Ground Ginger
1 Tbsp Cornstarch/ Flour (or more depend how think you want the sauce)
olive oil for cooking (I did once around the pan..)

I diced up the chicken while heating up a small amount of oil in a skillet
add onions and garlic to skillet, toast
add chicken and Montreal seasoning cook until chicken is no longer pink
add vegetables stir until frozen ones are thawed
add Ginger, Teriyaki, Soy sauces and lime juice, combine
then add Cornstarch/Flour until you reach desired thickness of sauce (i made it a bit thicker so the wraps wouldn't be too runny)
let simmer a few minutes
Serve with Large lettuce leaves for wrapping

Yes I couldn't wait to take a bite before I took a photo too tasty :)

All I had on hand was romaine lettuce and it didn't want to wrap very well so after a very messy first attempt we tore up the next few pieces to finish off a little more like a salad. Even Maia ate all hers! With a little help from daddy and his  airplanes ;)


So that was our tasty dinner which I will definitely make again, maybe even try switching things up or even following a recipe :) But I'll definitely try with a more pliable lettuce :)
All in all DELICIOUS

Dilemmas...help!

Recently my sweet little girl has decided she no longer wants to sleep through the night. In fact she has decided we all need to wake up at at least 6am to play. So put her to bed later right? Wrong, we tried putting her to bed an hour later even an hour and a half later and even with how exhausted she was she was still up the next day at 6:15! The 7:30am she was doing was tough enough for me, but now its nearly impossible. Jesse has been an awesome help of course he goes and picks her up and brings her to our bed thinking maybe it was a bad dream she'll go back to sleep. She then proceeds to tell stories and ask for baba and its impossible.
Help we don't know what to do! She's been well adjusted she's only been teething like the last 6 months but no new bumps or swelling in her mouth...and mommy and daddy are tired!!

Along with her waking up early my body has also been waking me up too early. Not only do I dream about food now I wake up at 5am STARVING!! Most nights I just have some water and try to go back to sleep, since my window of opportunity is growing ever shorter to sleep. When I drink too much water on an empty stomach I start to get really nauseated, and have on more than one occasion had to get up to throw up.. something needs to change. Last night I tried having a protein shake before bed so there was something to help my blood sugar level last a little more. Didn't help. Woke up around 5am starving water helped none and about 20 minutes into trying to sleep who but Maia wakes up and starts screaming. Ignoring has not helped she doesn't go back to sleep...I guess we can try harder... We just don't know what to do! I am trying to change her nap time to make it earlier and its a work in progress. She is tired all morning as am I poor kid gets to play with a cranky mom. I seem to be leaving my patience in my bed with my appetite.
Losing all this sleep I am becoming even more forgetful than normally as a pregnant woman. Like last night I left the groceries in the car, somethings were fine cuz they didn't require refrigeration, like toothpaste, but the pork roast we got for Sunday dinner was an unfortunate casualty. I've also left laundry for days, and messed up the cutest baby blanket for my sister in law (I'm still mad about it, I know I can fix it but I'm just mad so I'm not even gonna go near it for a little while). I'll find the remembering part eventually...I think...I feel like Dori from Finding Nemo!

  Here is what Maia has to say on the subject:

 n       m                         m  n                                                         mm       j                                                                      cccnnb   xn m ,s
k kl    c   vvnhjknhknhkjhjkjjjhjh          hj hz             nn

followed by "fishies! fishies meeenmo!  "

'Morning' Sickness 2011

So I don't remember exactly what my 'morning' sickness was like with Maia I know it only started in the morning but lasted all day for a while. I remember starting to feel better around 20 weeks! But I was in school, so I was busy always had things to keep my mind on. This time around has been different for sure because now J is in school and I am chasing a toddler around instead of school. Still something to keep me busy. But man oh man this time has been rough! It's getting better but I do still get sick. I actually only took a pregnancy test because I was getting nauseated in the mornings, and low and behold it was positive. ;)

But it has just been so intense I wanted to document it somewhere and sometimes its easier to put up here. From about 6 weeks the all day sickness was so intense and only got worse throughout the day that I actually asked my doctor for some medicine to help. They were great about it and gave me something I have taken before and found effective. Unfortunately my insurance will only allow me to have 12 pills per month. With 30 days in a month and the pills only lasting a few hours at a time I knew that wasn't going to work. So at a real appointment I asked for help with what to do. They gave me another one that my insurance doesn't have issues with, but it can make one very sleepy. I'm already sleepy. But it helped a lot for when things get worse at night I could take it and go to bed.

One day it was so bad I could hardly do anything. Maia read books and watched mElmo like a good little girl it was very helpful, and I felt quite guilty for not really doing anything with her; But I was so sick and upset about being sick and feeling so over it I asked my husband for a blessing. And it helped me a lot to remember things I know, that I wont be tested beyond my abilities and this too SHALL pass!! Which I really needed to hear, and to be reminded of all the people around me that are so willing to help me out when I need it, I just need to ask. So that has helped give me some extra stamina and strength to get through this.

I am now at 12 weeks and 4 days things HAVE improved, I haven't had nausea intense enough to take one of the pills for a week and a half now. Which feels like a giant accomplishment! But I do still get the nausea. Like this morning has been rough, yesterday afternoon was rough but  I'm getting there!
My little baby is now about the size of a lime, and my big girl Maia is still on the shrimpy side :) a whopping 22lbs! She is so fun and happy and very supportive for a toddler. Every time I've paid my respects to the porcelain throne she comes up behind me and pats my back, and it just brings tears to my eyes she is so sweet and doesn't even know how much little things like that help me out! Then often she will spit in the toilet too and be so proud of herself that I just smile :) and give her a good squeeze.

 Speaking of my sweet girl I just have to post this photo of her showing off at my parents house when we went to visit for Scott's farewell

She had no clue why we all thought it was so funny :) Just that we were laughin

Maia 19 months

This is my Sweet Little Princess I'd be so sad without her. Even when she wakes me up too early or doesn't want to go to bed until too late I still LOVE her. I am so grateful to be responsible for such a sweet spirit. I am one lucky Mama!!

But let us not forget my J! He is the most supportive man in ever. He is at school all day and then will still come home and cook dinner or play with his little girl or let me take a nap or whatever I need. Even bringing me my orange juice w/ bubbles that has helped me so much! I am so grateful that I get to have him forever. 

I've really got it all :)

My 'Yockey' star :)

My smiley girl

Pregnant sickness or not I know I am truly well taken care of