Lactation Cookies Gift Jar

I made this as a gift for a soon-to-be breastfeeding momma, with just a few simple additions (hopefully from a helpful hubby!) these cookies are a delicious treat that also support milk production!

Here is what I included in the jar: 

1/4 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup sugar

1 TSP cinnamon 

Dash of nutmeg 

1/2 TSP baking soda 

1/4 TSP salt 

1 cup oats

2 TBSP brewer's yeast

2 TSBP ground flaxseed 

1/2 cup raisins 

Here is the directions on the note:

Add:

1 cup flour

1 egg

1 TSP vanilla 

1 stick of butter 

Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, bake @350 for ~10min 

Breastfeeding can be so challenging at the beginning so I hope that these cookies are just one more little (yummy) piece of encouragement to help her stick with it!

Some babies do not do well with chocolate so I would avoid including any chocolate, but for a change you can mix it up with toffee chunks or craisins!

~D&H

Deja Food

We've changed how we grocery shop & cook for the past month with three goals in mind: 1) eat healthier 2) don't waste food 3) reduce food prep time. I should really say a fourth goal too - lose enough weight to have an honest driver's license, but it's January so maybe that goes without saying.

With those goals in mind I had the idea to plan our weekly meals so that each main menu item was used twice - this ensured that we didn't waste food & cut down the prep time I had for the second meal. 

Below is my menu, shopping list & recipes from week #2. (Serves 2)

Menu:
Monday: Bacon wrapped BBQ grilled chicken with sweet potato fries

Tuesday: Chorizo meatballs with cauliflower faux-tatoes

Wednesday: Grilled chicken, rice and veggie stir fry (Deja Food: Grilled chicken)

Thursday: Stuffed bell peppers (Deja Food: Chorizo meatballs)

Friday: Southwest chicken bowls (Deja Food: Grilled Chicken)

Grocery List:

• 3-3.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken
• 1 package pork chorizo (9oz)
• 1- 1.5 lbs lean ground beef
• 1 package of bacon
• 1 head of cauliflower
• brussel sprouts
• stir fry vegetables - onion, carrots, celery (julienne any extra carrots & celery for snacks!)
• white rice
• 4 bell peppers
• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2 avocados
• 1 can of beans (we like black or chili)
• 1 can of corn
• salsa

Recipes:

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Grilled Chicken
Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken
• bacon
• 1 tbsp chipotle powder
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tbsp pepper
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• dash of cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp sea salt

Directions:

• Roughly cut chicken into ~1.5 inch pieces
• Lay chicken in pan and sprinkle with spices, mix chicken to coat entirely
• Wrap chicken in bacon
• Grill

Simple Grilled Chicken (pre-cook for rice & stir fry night)
Ingredients:

• remaining chicken
• kick'n chicken seasoning
• dash of worcestershire sauce
• dash of soy sauce

Directions:

• Coat chicken with sauces and seasoning
• Grill

Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, chopped in half then chopped like well, french fries
• 3 tbsp (ish) olive oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder (mine has parsley in it too, this one
• pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Coat the fries in olive oil and the spices 
  
• Place foil on a cookie sheet or loaf pan, spray with non-stick spray
• I said spray with non-stick cooking spray. 
• Seriously, spray the foil. 
• Place the fries in a single layer on the sheet,
  
   bake until crispy, 30-40 minutes

 Chorizo Meatballs
Ingredients:

• 1-1.5 lb ground beef
• 4-5 oz chorizo 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Mix ground beef and chorizo
• Roll into 1.5 inch meatballs
• Place in 13x9 pan, bake 30-40 minutes or until meat is cooked through

Cauliflower Faux-tatoes
Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 4 tbsp butter
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Steam cauliflower until it feels soft when poked with fork
• Mix 1/2 of the cauliflower and butter in a food processor until smooth.  Dump into a bowl and repeat with the other 1/2 of ingredients
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Edible Brussel Sprouts
Ingredients:

• brussel sprouts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• sea salt
• pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Rinse brussel sprouts, remove stem and chop in half
• Sprinkle with olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper
• Place on a baking sheet, bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly browned

Stir Fry
Ingredients:

• carrots
• celery
• onions
• 1 cup chicken broth
• olive oil
• sea salt
• pepper

Directions:

• Chop all the veggies
• Place the carrots in a pan with 1/2 cup of the chicken broth, cover and let cook on medium ~5-10 minutes or until they soften a bit
• Toss in the celery, add remaining chicken broth, cover and cook another ~5 minutes
• Add onions, turn heat up slightly and leave lid off
• When all of the broth is absorbed add olive oil and stir, allow veggies to brown
• Dash with salt and pepper

Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cooked rice
• chorizo meatball leftovers
• 4 bell peppers, cleaned & sliced in half
• 1/4 cup ketchup

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Smash up the meatballs & mix with the rice
• Add ketchup and stir
• Place in 13x9 glass pan, cook for 30-40 minutes

Southwest Chicken Bowls
Ingredients:

• 2 cups mexican rice, recipe here
• grilled chicken, chopped into small chunks
• 1 can of chili or black beans
• 1 can of corn
• 2 avocados, chopped
• salsa

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients together, heat & enjoy!

I'm excited for this new approach to planning our dinners & the opportunity to be creative in the stewardship of our finances & more mindful of what we put into our bodies.

Happy new year!
D & H

Prayer for our daughter

After finding out that I was pregnant we definitely felt like we were flying blind - we didn't know so many things, including the health or sex of our baby. I was comforted by 2 Timothy 2:19, knowing that our foundation in God's word was firm & that our baby was known by God.

I prayed and still pray over our daughter's body - for her physical health, but I also pray the prayer below as well.

I don't want her to have better things than I had, I want her to have better values.  We will never know what the future holds for her but we can rest in knowing that God's plan for her life is far above what
we could imagine & she can be strong & courageous because His faithful love for her will not fail. Jer 29:11, Deut 31:6

-Our prayer-
----------------------------------------------------------------
Feet that stand firm in their beliefs
Legs that walk with purpose in their calling
A backbone that upholds what is just
Arms that reach to those in need
Hands that hold with strength and love
Lips that speak words of wisdom tempered by compassion and grace
Eyes that see the good in every situation
Ears that hear Your voice above the chaos in this world
A mind of understanding & a heart that beats fervent and faithful
----------------------------------------------------------------

The Creator's love for us is deep, unapologetic, consuming and powerful leaving no place for fear, doubt, guilt & anxiety, may we find peace in his compassion and faithfulness to us.

God bless you,

~D & H

Refreshing the Look of Bedroom Furniture for Under $50

While D was remodeling our master bedroom I decided that a fresh coat of paint may be a great solution to updating our bedroom furniture to go with the new vibe.

Master bedroom before - when the house was originally listed

Master bedroom after the remodel

Gorgeous right? Although painting the furniture was such a tiny piece of the overall remodel, it was definitely a necessary touch - ideally the furniture in the room should take no attention from the craftsmanship. 

Updating the furniture to be black seemed like the way to go so I bought some paint, a paint brush, painting tape, borrowed D's palm sander and went to work on it.

Here is what one of the dressers looked like before

I chose a high gloss finish paint from our local Home Depot, the quart was enough paint for two dressers and a nightstand.

I also bought this paint brush, also from Home Depot. 

To prep the dressers and nightstand I sanded them using a palm sander. 

I just sanded until the shine was gone, like the drawer on top in the photo below. 

I used a damp cloth to remove the dust and taped off any areas that I didn't want to get paint on. 

I then painted two coats of paint along the grain of the wood. Voila.

I did the painting after I got off work and on a weekend so overall the project took me about a week to knock out.

I like using black in our home, it feels very grounding to me. Obviously the focus of our room is not on the furniture at all, but it shouldn't be! 

I am really happy with how the room came together and how beautiful our refreshed furniture looks in it! 

~D & H

Baby Booties: Easy Knitting Pattern

I found this easy knitting pattern for baby booties & just had to try it out.

This was the first time that I have used markers for a knitting project and it was not as difficult as I thought it would be, I am definitely going to make a pair of these as a gift for my next expecting friend!

Each of the pairs I made took me only a few hours, can't wait to see them on my baby's little feet!

The pattern can be found here: Baby Booties Pattern

Happy knitting!
~D & H

Chocolate Chip Cookies

In high school after our hockey games I would bring these cookies for our team, we never won a game & really were the worst team you can possibly imagine. D always came back for more cookies, he kept eating them, I kept baking them and eventually kept him too.

Now I'm not saying these cookies will get you a husband, but...

This recipe is really my go to for any event - from stress baking to potlucks to surprise company, nothing is as sweet & welcoming as homemade cookies. They are like the little black dress of desserts if you will; a classic & a guaranteed win.

The recipe is simple, and here it is:
3/4 C Sugar
3/4 C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1-1/2 TSP Vanilla
1 C Butter Flavored Crisco (you can use butter instead)

2-1/4 C Flour
1/2 TSP Salt
1 TSP Baking Soda
1 C Ground Oats - Regular or Quick Oats

2 C Chocolate Chips

Ah the goods. Preheat the oven to 375.

Put the sugars, vanilla, eggs & Crisco into a bowl.

Mix.

Put the oats in a blender and crush them. They should look like this. The ground up oats are what keep these cookies from being flat, this is my "secret" ingredient (if you can call it that).

Now mix the flour, salt, baking soda & ground up oats.

Some people use a separate bowl for the wet & dry ingredients, I need less dishes in my life so I don't do that noise. 

Mix all the ingredients together.

Add the chocolate chips. 

Mix it all up and drop globs of cookie dough onto your baking sheets (I use air bake sheets), don't roll the cookies, it's a waste of your precious youth.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until they look like this:

They should look a little gooshy in the middle. Let them sit on the pan for about ten minutes before moving them to a serving platter.

Here they are!

Happy baking (& eating too!)
~D&H

Bringing back the casserole!

To help prepare for our new addition, I wanted to create a few dishes that I could freeze & bake later. A great casserole seemed like the way to go. Now we've all had our bad experiences with casseroles, believe me I've been there, the last one I had was in the 90s and involved tuna (ew!), but this is not that kind of casserole.

I also had a few random items in my cabinets & fridge that I wanted to get rid of, like leftover blah salsa from a party. So this dish is the result of that - kitchen cleaning & nesting.

The first recipe today is for the Sopa de Arroz, or Mexican rice. This is how I make it and on the scale of authentic, it's not. It's just easy and good. The next recipe is for enchilada sauce made from salsa that I wanted to get rid of, turned out delicious! The last recipe is for the actual casserole. Casseroles are forgiving like soup so just take out the ingredients that you, your spouse or kiddos don't like and add ones they do. Okay, here we go!

For the rice:
2 C of white rice
2 TBSP Caldo de Tomate (think of it as tomato boullion)
2 TBSP Olive Oil
~4 C of water

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the rice, stir the rice to coat with oil.

Brown the rice. BTW, you can't skip this part.

Add the water and tomato flavoring and bring the mixture to a boil.

Once boiling, give it a good stir, cover it, reduce heat to low and let it cook ~20 minutes. Confident cooks will just leave it the entire time....I'll typically check the rice once and give it a stir to make sure there is enough water because dry rice is nasty. I typically use about half a cup more of water per serving than the rice package says to.

Done.

Now for the enchilada
sauce:
Salsa
1 TSP ground cumin
1 TSP Paprika
1 TSP Cayenne Pepper
2 TSP Chicken boullion
Water

Dump equal parts water and salsa into a saucepan on medium low heat. I used two cups (ish) of each.  Add all the spices. 

Use a whisk to mix. Allow the mix to come to a gentle boil. Stop and smell your kitchen, inhale...exhale. Ahhhh.

Okay, that is done. 

For the casserole:

10-12 tortillas

1 can of beans (any kind) 

1 can of corn 

1 can of olives 

3 cups mozzarella cheese 

Mexican rice

Enchilada sauce 

Heat the oven to 375.

I used a round (12 inch?) dish for my casserole. Start with 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish. Place three tortillas around the bottom of the dish for structural integrity and sprinkle about a cup of the rice on top.

Now add about half of each of the remaining ingredients and cover with cheese.

Pour a cup of the enchilada sauce on top. Place three more tortillas in the pan and repeat the previous steps. I only did two fat layers on mine since my pan isn't that deep. For the top layer layer three tortillas around the top of the casserole and add about 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce. 

Cover with foil, place on a cookie sheet (so nothing spills over into the bottom of your oven!). 

Bake covered for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes. Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving. 

Cut a huge slice & top with sour cream. Enjoy! 

The casserole is back guys! 

Happy cooking! 

~D & H