Bacon-licious Corn Chowder

This weekend I made two soups with bases of bacon, onion and garlic. The corn chowder was so yummy that I had to post the recipe! (The other soup is awaiting taste testing in my fridge because we had a date night last night. :)

This is another 'use up things in my pantry' recipe, and I must apologize for those who can't tolerate dairy as it is most definitely NOT dairy-free! I am able to have dairy again, so have been relishing the taste of real cheese and milk. Milk by itself is not a good option all the time, but milk in things like soup is fine for me! Hooray!

Ashley's Quick and Easy Bacon-licious Corn Chowder
Ingredients:
1/2 lb bacon, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced (or use a Garlic Press - I love my Pampered Chef one!)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chicken stock (or 1 tsp bouillon paste + 1 cup hot water)
4 cans corn, drained
2 cans whole new potatoes, quartered - reserve water from 1 can, drain other
1 can condensed milk (12 oz)
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Process:
Place large pot on stove, turn burner to medium-low. Add olive oil, garlic, onion, and bacon. Cook until onion is soft and bacon is at your preferred level of doneness (mine was medium, ~10-15 minutes), stirring often to avoid burning. Add corn, potatoes, chicken stock, and water from 1 can of potatoes. Stir and let cook for 10 minutes so that the corn and potatoes get the taste of the bacon (keep stirring every so often to avoid burning). Add condensed milk, cheddar cheese soup, Parmesan, and spices, stir until well-combined and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring periodically. Turn off burner and remove from heat. Let cool for 10 minutes (or you'll burn your tongue like I did!) and serve with garlic bread, cornbread, or rolls. Serves 8-10.

This was a great lunch on a cold, rainy Rochester day! My husband, brother-and-sister-in-law, and three nephews all liked it too. Enjoy!

In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms

While feeling down (due to PMS) and walking through Wegmans, I came across this book: In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I've been dealing with some mental/emotional issues with my decision to stay at home, so thought I might give the book a look-through and see what it had to say. I am so glad I bought it!

As a working mother with two college degrees, I have had a range of reactions to my decision to leave work. Some have supported my decision and said "That's great!" Others have been more negative and implied that I was going to lose my skills/intelligence/usefulness by leaving my job. Granted, the naysayers are fewer in number than the encouragers, but it can be hard to deal with when they are people you respect (or thought you respected).

This book was totally helpful to me in that it a) helped to validate my decision to stay home and b) offered wisdom on dealing with the changes that will occur and the various emotions that will come as I change my perspective. I also agree with Dr. Laura's assessment that colleges train women to think that their best contribution to the world should come from being 'career women.'

I went back to work after Joseph was born because I felt like I 'had to' for financial/benefits reasons, and, honestly, because I felt like I 'needed to' in order to prove that I could do both (since I'm so 'educated'). As a result, I've had more struggles with trying not to cry as I leave my son every morning--although thankfully I have had the privilege of having my sister, a very loving auntie, watching him instead of an institution--than I ever have had with leaving work at the end of the day. My entire life has changed, and I no longer want to put my energy into primarily supporting work instead of my family.

Don't get me wrong - I love my job, have a great boss and co-workers, and feel very blessed to have been able to earn income doing something I like for 4+ years. I know many other people would trade places with me in a heartbeat. However, my son is more important, and there is no one else in the world (not even my mom or sister or mother-in-law) who can be his MOM!

Here's to all the stay-at-home moms out there - HIP, HIP, HOORAY! I look forward to joining you soon.

Poopy Picasso

We have finally experienced one of the 'parenting horror stories' that are hilarious and a turn-off for potential parents all at once! Hooray! Below is my abbreviated reenactment of yesterday morning:

7:00 am - Wake up to baby crying, change his diaper and put him into a disposable because the cloth ones are downstairs, nurse. (I do not replace the pajama bottoms as I am planning to change him into his church clothes soon. This will be important to note in a few.)

7:30 am - Decide to go back to sleep for a few, hubby puts baby in crib. All is quiet on the western front, which was, in retrospect, unusual because Joseph screams when he's in his crib normally.

8:00 am - Joseph starts crying - we think, oh, he must need a diaper change. Hubby gets up to get himself and baby ready for church, while I stay in bed and am a bum because I don't feel too hot. He walks by the baby's room to go get a cloth diaper to change him into.

Suddenly, I hear "Ashley! Get the bath running!" I sit up in bed and say "What?" as I am still sleepy. "Joseph took his diaper off and there's poop everywhere! Start the bath!" Again, I say "WHAT?" as I am hoping this is a joke.

I get out of bed and walk down the hallway. Joe already has the baby in the tub with water running. I walk into the baby's room, smell poop, look at the crib, and see poop EVERYWHERE!

Somehow Joseph took off his diaper (either before or after pooping), and then decided it would be a good idea to smear poop all over his crib - all over the sheet, all over the toys in the crib, over some of the bars on the side. It was disgusting! I instantly grabbed the Clorox wipes and started cleaning gingerly, trying not to dislodge more of the stuck on fecal matter from the sides of the crib. GROSS!!!!

After about 45 minutes of elbow grease, order was restored. However, I now have to call the doctor's office and tell them that Joseph ate poop!

Any other 'parenting horror stories' out there worth sharing?

Overnight Diapering Problems...

Sigh... as all my loyal readers (all 5 of you ;) know, I am a cloth diapering user and proponent. However, this past week we've been having problems with our overnight diapering: My little man developed an irritation on his pee-pee that was bleeding!!! YIKES!!!

Thankfully it was just a little dot here and there, but it's been consistent every few days with a little drop of blood on his diaper in the morning. NOT what you want to see.

I'm not sure why it's been happening, but we took him to doctor and they gave us some ointment to put on it, and recommended either using disposables or "softening" the cloth diaper in some way so it wasn't so irritating. We've gone down to one liner during the day, which has seemed to help, but the overnight has been the issue.

For now, the plan is to switch to disposables for overnights until the irritation is gone, then to try some different cloth diapering solutions and see which one works best. I found this page on the Cotton Babies website that was helpful, so I ordered 3 BumGenius stay-dry diapers with some extra microfiber inserts and hemp liners to try. I also decided to try the hook and loop (aka Velcro) diapers instead of the snaps as a) we've only been using snap covers and b) they seem more adjustable, so we will hopefully be able to get a good fit.

Here's hoping this works! Anyone else have any overnight ideas for me to try?

Crazy Moms

 

Image credit: http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/saf-seeking-emotional-deliverance/crazy-mom-twitter-facebook-stalking/

Top ten reasons why people think moms are crazy:

10.) Moms talk to themselves all the time. (It's only because the baby books say that talking around your baby is good for language development! No, really.)

9.) Moms cry at commercials. (Well, at least I do... must be those pesky hormones.)

8.) Moms wipe off boogers, snot, drool, spit-up, etc. with their hands and/or clothing like it's no big deal.

7.) Moms can understand toddler speak as though it's English.

6.) Moms talk about the condition of their child's bowel movements with anyone who will listen.

5.) Moms wake up in the middle of the night to check and see if their baby is still breathing. (Yes, I did this too.)

4.) Moms think that their baby is the most beautiful thing in the world, even when the baby looks like a squished up little old person.

3.) Moms sing songs about anything and everything... just to make it fun!

2.) Moms actually care if their child's clothing--which will inevitably be getting covered in food, drool, or worse--matches.

1.) Moms go through labor and, once it's over, would go through it AGAIN!

I hope you enjoy the list, and let me know if you have anything else to add!

Wanna-be Gourmet

As a busy mom--still working full-time until September 1!--when it's time to cook, I go for the fast and easy route. However, I've been reading Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family lately, and it has motivated me to go more 'gourmet' when I cook. If I don't enjoy making it/tasting it/eating it, then what's the point?

This brings me to the other night (now a week or so ago) when I was concocting the deliciousness below.

Ashley's Dijon Walnut Tilapia and Beet Salad
Ingredients:
1 onion, sliced into rings
2 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tilapia filets, thawed2 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1 bunch large beets, scrubbed and quartered
1 bunch beet greens, washed with stems removed4 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese


Process:
In large frying pan, warm 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium low heat. Once warmed, place onion in pan and caramelize, stirring often, about 20-30 minutes. (Wait for them to really caramelize - tastes so much better this way!) While they are cooking, place a large pot with 6 cups of water on high heat. Bring to a boil. Place beets in water and boil, uncovered, for about 10-12 minutes (or until beets are able to be easily pierced by fork). While beets are boiling, use the steam from the pot to steam the beet greens! Take a steamer basket and place on top of the pot. Place 1/2 bunch of greens on top and cover with pot lid. Steam for 2-3 minutes until greens have wilted. Remove (carefully!) using tongs and reserve. Repeat with remainder of beet greens until all have been steamed. Once done with the greens, remove the steamer basket. If beets are done boiling, turn off the heat and strain out the water through a colander.

Place 1/2 cup cooked beets on top of 1/4 of the greens on a plate for a salad serving. Top with 1/4 cup feta and 2 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette. Let this sit to cool while you finish the fish as follows: Once onions are done caramelizing, push to one side of the pan. Place fish filets in pan and brown on each side for 2-3 minutes. Once the filets are mostly cooked (each side browned), add the walnuts, mustard, 2 Tbsp olive oil, honey, and spices to the onions. Mix well, then spoon over the fish filets and stir together. (If the fish breaks up, no biggie - it will still taste great!) Cook for another 3-4 minutes until the fish is done (you can use a meat thermometer to check this). Spoon 1 filet with onions and walnuts onto the plates you made previously. Enjoy!

You need to be a bit of a multitasker to pull this off but it's worth the extra attention! Hope you like it.

Transformers and Strawberry Ice Cream

Not that these two things go together, but this is what you get from my brain today.

Joe and I saw the new Transformers movie last night. I would give it a B+ overall (as in, I saw it, it was cool, but I wouldn't watch it again). It was action-packed and full of cool special effects (including super slowdown fight scenes so you can see the awesomeness of Optimus slashing the bad guys with his sword). There was a group of young kids sitting in front of us (which I didn't understand since the movie was rated PG-13... but I digress), which was fun because they kept exclaiming over the cool parts. The joy of children for things they've never seen before is always a lot of fun to experience.

*SPOILER ALERT* However, the movie also made me sad (not because of the lack of acting) but because of the scene where all these children are running around with no parents in sight due to the Decepticons killing people right and left. That made me a) want to get home to Joseph as soon as possible and b) reflect on the sanctity of human life - killing people is so wrong. Even if it's fictional alien mechanical creature/robot things.

On to strawberry ice cream! I've been trying to use up things in my pantry/freezer, and the big bag of frozen strawberries I bought a while ago caught my eye. I thought of churning them up in the food processor to make a frozen treat, and came up with the following recipe:

Dairy-free Strawberry 'Ice Cream'
Ingredients:

• 3 c. frozen strawberries (or you could use fresh too with no greens)
• 1 c. So Delicious vanilla coconut milk
• 2 tsp. organic agave nectar (add more as desired)

Process:
Mix all ingredients in food processor (or super strong blender) until well-blended. Freeze until hardened, or (if using frozen berries) you can serve immediately. When frozen, the final texture resembles an Italian ice; fresh out of the processor is much softer like a soft serve ice cream. Serves 4 - 8 (if you follow the 1/2 cup serving size).

This is a refreshing treat for a hot summer day, and there is virtually no coconut flavor since the berries take over. It's also super easy to make!