Try and Tell Tuesday-Tried and True Recipes

When my husband and I got married, I had 2 main meals that I could cook: Spaghetti and Frozen Pizza. We ate out a lot. When I was a working mom, I had zero guilt about eating out or throwing a frozen meal together and calling it dinner. But, when I got laid off and we decided to take it as an opportunity to see if we could manage with me as a SAHM, I decided that I should cook a homemade meal every night. I have always been a believer that if you try hard enough, you can succeed at everything. Everything but cooking, apparently. There were many times that my husband came home from work to find the kids starving and me crying over a disaster of a dinner. My mom was a great cook, his mom was a great cook. What was wrong with me?

One day I ran across a food blog and started reading comments about recipes. The posts and the comments taught me a lot about the recipes and how to cook the meal. I am now addicted to food blogs and have found some amazing recipes! I always read comments to see if I should tweak the recipe or if I need to change an oven temperature or time. I also print the recipes and add my own notes (who in the family liked the meal, who didn't, ingredients to add next time, etc.). I even got brave, at some point, and started cooking from cookbooks again. I can't say that I am a great cook, but I have started to surprise myself with some edible dishes.

Here are some of the recipes that I have tried and enjoyed recently:

French Onion Soup-who knew you could make this at home! This is one of those meals I thought only restaurants knew how to make:)

Sausage and Roasted Vegetable Pasta-Melissa D'Arabian from Food Network is great! Love her show, her recipes, her tips.

Best Brownies Ever-Annie's Eats is one of my favorite food blogs. Her recipes are easy to follow and so unbelievably yummy! I have always struggled making homemade brownies, but these were easy and so good that I wrecked my healthy eating plan on one batch!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken-this was one of the meals I cooked while cleaning out my pantry/fridge/freezer. Super fast, Super easy and Super tasty! Fairhope Foodie is one of my more recent finds and I have already bookmarked half of her site for future dinners.

I have found that I enjoy cooking a meal for my family. There is a sense of pride when I place a meal that I created on the table....even if Jackson hardly every eats it:)

This post is part of Try and Tell Tuesday from Mom Tried It. If you would like to link up, head on over to Mom Tried It and share your tried and true ideas, recipes, tips, etc.

Sunshine Award

Who couldn't use a little sunshine? Thanks so much to Misadventures Mom of 3 for this wonderful award:)

There are some rules for me to follow -

• Put the Logo on your sidebar, or within a post. (check)

•Pass the award onto other Bloggers (check)

•Link the nominees within your post. (check)

•Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog. (In Process)

•Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award (check).

Here are my nominees:

*Smart Money Mom

*Cop Mama

*Mommy, Play with me

*The Mommy Diary

*Kate's Kitchen

*Mom Tried It

Thanks, Misadventures Mom of 3, for the shout out:)

Shea

I love visitors, readers, followers. It is so lovely to know that there are others out there reading my words, sharing my troubles and joys. So, to try and gain more of you amazing readers, followers, visitors, I am participating in a new Blog Hop at Trendy Treehouse.

This is a free way to market your blog to others, so head on over to Trendy Treehouse and link up...be sure to follow Trendy Treehouse on Facebook, Twitter, and Network Blogs.

Thanks for reading:)

Pizza Crescents

Our normal grocery bill is $125/week which is pretty darn good considering that we do not eat out at all. That means $125 feeds all 4 of us breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days. Not too shabby:) But, my pantry is packed solid with half empty (or half full) boxes of pasta, some chicken broth, breadcrumbs...you get the picture. So, I challenged myself to plan my meals based on what I already had on hand and see if I could spend less than $40 at the grocery store. Turns out, this was easier than I thought! I am going to do this at least 1-2x's a month and will save us $80-$160/month! Yippee:) Thanks to $5 dinners for the great money saving tip! (My friend Michelle at Smart Money Mom did the same thing and saved even more.)

I had ingrediants on hand for pizza, minus the crust. What I did have was crescent rolls. I debated rolling them out to make one big crust or make individual little pizza crescents. The individuals won out and we thought this was the greatest meal ever to be placed on our table. Ok, that is a little dramatic, but they were darn good!

I would imagine most kids would have been giving their moms hugs and kisses for serving them this for dinner. Not my kid! This meal started the, what I like to call, Crescent Pizza Battle of 2010. My son, who loves pepperoni pizza, refused to eat these. Because they were not in the shape of a triangle and they were not delivered to our house, he would not take a bite. Now, I understand my son's refusals to eat vegetables or even fruit...but pizza because it was shaped differently...COME ON!!! Much debating was spent between my husband, son and I. One hour at the dinner table begging him to try a bite. There was crying (from me) and in the end, one bite was consumed by my son...who still holds the title for World's Pickiest Eater!

I am sure these crescents have been done before and I am sure you can find a version on Pillsbury's website, but here is how I did them:

Roll out individual crescent rolls. Place a spoonful of your favorite pizza sauce, some mozerella chesse and your favorite pizza toppings. Roll crescent (you could do an egg wash to give it that shine) and sprinkle some cheese on the top. Bake according to crescent package directions. The buttery sweetness of the bread mixed with the salty pepperoni and cheese...T-A-S-T-Y!

This post is part of Follow Me Friday! Link up at either: One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families, and/or Midday Escapes. Happy Blogging!

Try and Tell-Fun Learning Games for all ages

I am so happy that one of my favorite blogs, Mom tried it (and where I get a lot of my "tips" and activities) is starting a blog carnival where we can share those tried and true things that have worked for us either with the kids or in the kitchen, or just about life in general!

Here are a few parenting "tricks" that I have found to work well:

I have a 5 (soon to be 6) year old and a 3 year old. One loves to learn and the other says "I don wanna learn" whenever I even mention a number or letter. With their age differences and their differing opinions on learning, finding activities to do together can be tough. Often times I find that Jackson (the oldest) and I end up playing a game while Wrigley (the youngest) plays by himself. Sad, I know! So, the other day I came up with 2 great activities that involved all of us and tapped into some learning for both kids!

1. I drew a vertical line down the middle of their chalk board and drew different shapes on one side and sight words on the other. I told them that we would play a game and gave each one a piece of chalk. When I called out a shape, Wrigley had to find and circle it and when I called out a sight word, Jackson had to circle. It was a lot of fun and both kids were racing to circle the most things.
2. Since letters and numbers were making Wrigley disgruntled about learning, I decided this week to focus on our 5 senses instead. I grabbed some great activities from No Time for Flashcards and he enjoyed them. So, while we were gathered around the chalkboard, I decided to combine spelling and senses. I drew a face and a hand (Jackson had to remind me about the hand. I would of totally forgotten touch!) and then would say and write a sentence about senses (ex: She saw a bird). I would leave out at least two words (ex. ___ saw a ____). I would have Wrigley come up and circle what she would "see" the bird with and Jackson had to spell the missing words. So much fun!

I can't wait to read other posts at Mom Tried It from others and gain some tricks, tips, recipes, activities, etc. for my arsenal:)

Mama Guilt Monday-Things I adore about Jackson

I am sharing my Mama Guilt as part of a series hosted by Cop Mama. If you have your own guilt you would like to share, head on over to Cop Mama or simply post in my comments.

My Mama Guilt for today is that I use this blog to share my frustrations about my son's picky eating habits and have never included the things I adore about the kid. In fact, I had planned to write a post about the recent battle we had over eating, but instead I am going to share some of the things that make Jackson such a joy in my life. Hopefully, if he reads this when he is all grown-up, he will forgive me for sharing all the times he did or didn't take a bite of chicken.

• I love that Jackson's favorite song is "Run to You" by Lady Antebellum. I can't help but smile when he sings it with as much passion a 5 year old can muster.
• Jackson never took to a security blanket (no matter how hard my mother tried!). Even as an infant, though, he would reach up and stroke my hair. To this day he will reach for my hair when he is sad, tired or nervous. I have a friend who finds this creepy (like the dude from Charlie's Angels II), but I love that I am his security blanket.
• I downloaded the Mama Mia soundtrack as soon as it was available and played it in the car every chance I got. Jackson now knows every ABBA song by heart and when he heard I was seeing the movie, he asked to come along. I told him it was a grown-up movie and he would not be allowed to talk in the movie theatre at all! His response: "Or sing?"
• Jackson has always shown an interest in drawing. At preschool you would always find him in the "coloring center". We took him to Hollywood studios one year and he sat through an animation class (he was the youngest person in the room). I witnessed a light-bulb go off in his little head. He could learn to draw things. We bought him a book on how to draw Mickey Mouse and he hasn't stopped learning since. He can draw well beyond his age and has since said he wants to be "an artist" when he grows up. Who knew your children could have talents you yourself don't posses?
• I can get Jackson out of a grumpy mood by simply playing any Rascal Flats song.
• I am in awe by the look of determination and confidence in his eyes when he is swinging a baseball bat.
• He brings me the most joy when I see his compassion and love for his little brother shine through. He is a friend to Wrigley in the truest sense of the word. They say that a person's true character is defined by how they behave when they think no one is looking. When they think I am not watching, I witness my son treat his little brother with kindness, love and respect. Of course, there are times when I witness him push Wrigley for no reason, but hey-he is human:)

The list could go on, but I am sure you are now thinking of the million reasons why you adore your kids. And, hopefully you are smiling...

Follow Me Friday!

I love One 2 try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapes for stating Follow Me Friday! When I started blogging, I found that it was very therapeutic and was a way for me to stick to my guns about getting Jackson to eat healthier. I then realized that it is really just my diary if no-one reads the darn thing! Follow Me Friday has given me a whole list of blogs that I now follow, as well as, given me a few followers of my own. I am amazed daily at the incredible mothers out there who are sharing their stories, tips, activities, guilt:)

If you are reading my blog for the first time, let me tell you that it is ever changing. I started the blog as a challenge to myself to tackle my son's picky eating habits. I found, though, that I had a lot to get off my chest:) You may find a great recipe, proof that some "expert" parenting tips work or don't work, funny stories and a picture of my triumphs and struggles as a mother.

Happy following-you are in for a treat as there are some amazing blogs out there! Also, if you have a blog of your own feel free to link up!