Kids in the kitchen ( why hamburger is a staple )

Being a stay at home mom I do a lot of cooking and since I have a picky husband and a picky four year old son it can make dinner time tricky. One thing I know for sure is the number one kitchen staple in this house is hamburger. It is such a versatile ingredient and I can make some many different things from it.

My kids love pasta, we eat a lot of different pasta dishes in this house. Tonight we had a pasta dish that they ate really well. Very simple and easy to make also!

You need:
wheat elbow noodles
1 pound hamburger
1 small bag of frozen corn
catsup
v8
tomato sauce
garlic powder
Italian seasoning
salt
pepper

Cook your noodles like normal. While noodles are cooking start frying the hamburger, I add the garlic and Italian seasoning right to the hamburger while it cooks. Drain noodles when done, add hamburger and corn to noodles. Pour in enough v8 so you can start to see it coming up the sides, do not add to much or it will make your pasta soupy. Add 1 can of tomato sauce and a small squirt of catsup. Stir and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

It only takes about 20 minuets to make and it was a huge hit in my house.

Later this week I plan on making meatloaf cupcakes again. They are really tasty, the cup cakes makes for a perfect portion and the kids really liked them. All you need to do is make the meat loaf the way you normally do.

Here is my recipe:

1lb hamburger
1 sleeve crushed ritz crackers
3 large eggs
catsup
garlic
Italian seasoning
pepper
meatloaf seasoning ( I get it from watkins and it is really yummy )

Then I line my cupcake pan with cupcake liners, fill the liners almost to the top and bake at 350 for around 30 mins or until baked through.

While those are baking I make garlic mashed potatoes to frost the meatloaf cup cakes with. After frosting them with the potatoes I add shredded cheddar cheese for sprinkles and serve with a side of corn.

It is a really simple way to make a meal fun, the kids love it and always clean there plates.

A great give a away for all my readers

Sweetpeaboutique has been kind enough to offer a custom shirt for a give away for all my readers. I love her shirts, she is such a sweet mama and does a great good on her items.

Here is Kairi in one of her shirts:


How to enter:

To enter you simply have to comment on this blog entry. A winner will be picked 9/17.

Extra entries:

Become a follwer ( or tell me you already are a follower ) of this blog and get one extra entry.

Post this give away on your facebook, blog or another forum and post the link here to get one extra entry.

Send a friend, if they say you sent them you get one entry per person.

Go visit http://hyenacart.com/sweetpeaboutique/ to see all her adorable items!

Diaper give a away!

Have you ever checked out http://www.ragababe.com/Home_Page.html? I recently found out about them on facebook and while they are not selling yet I have already been admiring the prints of their diapers. I am hoping to get a newspaper print and a heart print, they are so adorable!

They are hosting a give a way on their facebook fan page, check it out and enter for your change at a free diaper!!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/RagaBabe/127158910630142

Breast feeding beyond 12 months- why I do it

When I was pregnant with my first child I knew I wanted to breast feed but I had no idea how long I planned on doing it for. My goal was until he was 12 months, I figured when he was old enough for cows milk that he was old enough to be weaned.

Time went on and when he was six months old I got pregnant with our second child, I had a lot of people telling me I should wean him but I kept nursing him. My plan was still to wean him at 12 months, that way he was weaned before his sister was born. Before I knew it his first birthday was here, I had been doing a lot of reading on breast feeding beyond a year but I was just not sure what I wanted to do. I loved breastfeeding him, I knew it was the best thing for him but I really was not wanted to nurse a toddler and a newborn, so I started to wean him. I started with night weaning, Chris would get him to sleep each night with a sippy cup. It was going well until a couple weeks later he walked right off the end of my moms bed and broke his leg. He wanted the comfort of nursing and there was no way I was going to deny it to him. At that point in time I just decided it was not time to wean and if he was not weaned before his sister was born so be it.

Our second child was born when he was fifteen months old and he was still nursing. I really thought nursing a toddler and a newborn was going to be a major pain but it really was not. Alexzander kept nursing till he was 18 months old and he self weaned.
Since I nursed Alexzander for 18 months I decided that was how long I was going to nurse Destiny. Destiny was a very difficult baby, she did not sleep through the night until well after a year old, did nothing but nurse for about the first six months of her life and I am pretty sure if I would have weaned her at a year it would have been very difficult, she really did not like milk at all. I got pregnant with our third child when Destiny was about fourteen months old, she continued to nurse until she was 18 months old and again she self weaned.

My youngest is now thirteen months old and still nursing. There are times that I really want to wean her. She bites a lot and as any mom that has been bit by a nursing baby knows it hurts a lot! For a couple months now she has been waking up more then an average newborn and unless my husband goes into the other room with her she will not go back to sleep without nursing but I just can not bring myself to do it yet. Yes she is over a year so she can have a cup of milk but to me she is still a baby and I love the connection we have. As of now the plan is to nurse her for eighteen months also.

If you are a nursing mom and you are not sure how long you plan to nurse I highly recommend these sites to you. There is a lot of very good information. What ever you decide to do, best of luck on your breast feeding journey.

http://www.llli.org/NB/NBextended.html

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html

The daily life of a stay at home mom

If you are a stay at home mom I am sure you have had at least one person ask, " what do you do all day?" Well this post is my answer to that question.

I am a stay at home mom, my usual day starts with one or more children jumping on me to wake me up way to early, especially since they had me up way to late. If the usual saying mommy in my ear about thirty times does not get me up fast enough for their liking they will start opening my eyes and announcing " wake up mommy, it is morning time". I then drag myself out of bed, get the already rowdy kids some breakfast ( did I mention I am not a morning person ) and turn on a cartoon, hoping for a few more minuets of peace before the day goes on, this rarely happens.
After they have eaten their breakfast and I have chased them around the living room or kitchen several times trying to wipe them off the older two usually will go into their playroom for awhile and the baby spends some time playing with her toys in the nursery. On a good day I only have to break up a couple fights on a bad day I am breaking up more fights the average bar bouncer.
If they are playing nicely I usually take this time to wash some dishes, do some laundry or vacuum. The thing about having three young kids and a dog in the house is that their is never a lack of something to clean and there really is never enough time to clean everything.
Soon it is time for lunch, we sit at the kitchen table, eat our lunch and then usually make something for dessert, on a lazy day I grab a popsicle, on a more ambitious day I have two very helpful little chefs that love to make cookies, cakes brownies and more. By the time we are done baking my kitchen would be enough to give the British ladies from that one house cleaning shows a night mare but listening to my little chefs giggle with excitement while helping me is well worth the clean up afterward.
In the afternoon we do many different things depending on the day. Our usual activities include, coloring, preK homeschooling, playing together, watching cartoons together ( I know every song in Kai-lan, mickey mouse and dora by heart ), outside activities and so much more. While the oldest kids are coloring or doing something else fairly quiet I get the youngest to nap and pray the house stays quiet enough for her to sleep for a good amount of time.
My evenings include cooking dinner, more cleaning, bath time, story time and trying to wrangle the kids into bed.
That is a brief over view of an average day in my house. While some days are calmer then others and I do have time to sit around doing nothing that is a pretty rare thing. On average I do a million things a day.
I am a cook and believe me when I say toddlers can be worse then food critics.
I am a nurse and doctor. A kiss from mommy is a miracle potion for bumps and bruises.
I am a professional entertainer and multi talented at that. Some days I am a singer, other days a dancer and always a story teller.
I am a teacher and councilor. I have to teach them not only manners, morals and education but I also have to to remember they are watching me and learning from how I act.
I am a coach and a team mate. Sometimes I am the one teaching about the sport or game and other times I am learning new rules that did not exists a few moments prior.
I am a stay at home mom, I work long hours, get no vacation or sick days, spend most of my time discussing board books and singing along to cartoons and while my days are long and at times my nerves get fried I know I have the best job in the world. My breaks are filled with cuddle time with the best kids in the world, my bonus' are finger paintings and color pages and no other job will pay you in the best slobbery kisses and sticky hugs.

The oldest cloth diaper system- prefolds

I have been cloth diapering my kids for almost three years now and I was never brave enough to try a prefold. I was happy with my pockets and aios but after I started using fitteds I really wanted to try out some prefolds.

My husband and I went to a local cloth diaper shop and I decided to take the plunge. I bought a six pack of prefolds, two snapis ( there was no way I was trying pins ) and a brown cover. When we got home that night I started the prepping process and a couple days later I used the prefolds.

Here is a picture of her first time in a prefold:


and with the cover:


I can not believe how much I love my prefold diapers, the are really easy to use, really easy to clean and I love shopping for cute covers. This is one of the newest covers I have:


If you are a cloth diapering mama and have not yet tried using prefold diapers I highly recommend getting them, you will be pleasantly surprised.