Progress Report: Communication Meltdown/Weird Words

Eden was approved for weekly speech therapy through her early intervention program! This is such a huge and amazing thing because it should not have happened (long story which I won't post). At any rate, God allowed it, and it is so. She is meeting with an amazing speech therapist every Friday morning at our house and Eden just loves her. She helps me put the toys away when I tell her that "Miss 'J' is coming" because she knows that a new basket of toys is coming to be played with :) So fun to see.

At any rate, the story begins with these glasses. Steve got them as a gift for his 30th birthday, and they seem to have prompted Eden's first real word. Sure, there have been mutterings. Grunts. Sounds we couldn't begin to decipher or for the life of us understand. But on May 15th, 2011? Eden said "gasses". No joke. And she wanted "waffles" for breakfast. The girl with NO words chose THESE words. I would say I never would have imagined - but in all honesty, you can't put anything past this girl.

Miss J comes and sings crazy repetitive songs, over-emphasizes words/sounds/syllables, and grabs Eden's attention like nobody else has been able to do. And Eden soaks it right up. If you were a fly on the wall in my house (when I am alone, of course!) you would think I am a nut too. I go down the stairs with this girl and on every step you will hear me say "down, down, down!", over emphasizing every down in a very sing-song voice. Every single step folks. No joke. She will say "down" if I am lucky, so I keep trying. We make up songs for everything because Miss J found that Eden responds SO well to music. We say everything with sounds first- Ba-Ba-Ball? "Eden, do you want m-m-milk? I sound like I have lost my ma-ma-marbles ;)
We are still doing simple sign language along with things as well. Its hard to know sometimes what is helpful - some of the sounds she says with other words, she won't say for things she knows the sign to. She has said "mama" (only twice, mind you!), but has not once attempted to say the word "milk". She will still only sign puppy and has not attempted to say puppy or dog, etc..
Along with this sudden language breakthrough, she has decided to also show me that she knows how to say her letters. For quite some time now, she would point to letters when I would ask her "which one is …?" but I had no idea she had this in her too! I don't know how many she actually knows! I am excited to get out her letter cards over the weekend and sit down with her to see what she will show me in a one-on-one setting. She loves "her" letter of course, and she gravitates toward the letter "n" which is funny. But she has spoken at least 10 letters to me in the past two days! We haven't had her letter cards out since moving into this house two months ago, so her recent exposure is from the books we've read and the fridge magnets!
The past week has just been amazing. This is not to say that we haven't still had the fits and all of that - somedays are worse than before, some days are better. But in between the bouts of whining or shrieks, I am hearing her actual voice! I feel like I can actually start communicating with her! It is just such an incredible thing! When I catch her starting to get upset I can tell her to calm down and use words! It doesn't work most of the time but she seems to get it - and I have hope. And thats what I needed.

Filling My Freezer Round Two: Armed and Dangerous

Okay, let me just start by saying that I was so blown away with Round One that this turned into an obsession of epic proportions! Oh man. And then I will say this. I had a weekend set aside this time (YAY me!) but then I got invited to see Beth Moore with a free ticket (YAY friend!) that same weekend. SO, once again, I ended up starting my OAMC on a Sunday afternoon (like 6:30pm). Why not put it off another week, you ask? By the time the big surprise party for the hubby came around the weekend before, I had depleted my supply of breakfast and lunch items. That means a whole week had now gone by of impromptu grocery store runs right before bed, eggos, etc…. I was SO stressed out EVERY day because none of my meals were figured out and I felt awful going back to feeding the kiddos mystery meat every day - meaning Steve was running to the store again because we didn't want the same mystery meat each day.  I got back from this amazing, refreshing conference and wanted nothing but rest! But I knew that I would go to rock bottom the next morning if I didn't get it done. So there we were. My lovely cousin came to help with the big shop and cooked with us that night which was a ton of help too.
All of this to say - after going to bed at 1am the night before, I hadn't showered. There are no pictures of this amazing cooking event. There should be. It was a beautiful process and I should have taken pictures. The thing is - when you have three people cooking a hundred meals at once, the kitchen doesn't look picture worthy. I think the pictures would look like junk even though the food looks amazing! Just picture the food in your mind. Here is the breakdown!
I spent $320. I know. Quite a bit more than last time, but I think I have 2+ months of breakfasts in this, not just one. This also includes restocking my pantry with bags of flour, sugar (white and brown), etc. Oh - and this includes a pizza meal from the walmart deli for cooking night (two pizzas and breadsticks!), all of our fresh fruits, etc.. The only thing not included is one pound of flank steak which I have to pick up from the butcher because none of the grocery stores have it and this amazing looking recipe calls for it and I now have all other ingredients for it. Oh - and this dollar amount includes ingredients for a huge amount of mixes - I am taking up making my own mixes for pancakes, waffles, muffins - preparing the dry ingredients ahead of time and freezing because they have whole wheat flour, then adding wet stuff when you go to make it. Here is what else we made for the money:
1. Individual Mac-n-Cheese (a big hit from last time - double batch again!)
2. Homemade Pizza Dough (onceamonthmom.com): New this time. Excited to try this one! She has ideas for grilling pizzas on her site, which I've never tried before, and I am all about trying new foods all of a sudden ;)
3. Burritos (onceamonthmom.com) with cilantro lime rice (twopeasandtheirpod.com): New this time. The burritos made 14 instead of 8 and still look huge, so that was awesome. And they smell delicious when you cook the filling, so you know they are going to taste yummy. You make the rice fresh on the night you serve the burritos, so this weekend when we pull out the burritos we will test that recipe - excited to try it!
4. Poptarts (onceamonthmom.com) - big hit last time, double batch again. This time used all natural filling, no added sugar, etc. Feeling much better about that ;)
5. Tacos in a sleeping bag (onceamonthmom.com) - YUM! These are incredibly easy and honestly, the grown-ups that tried them (dipped in salsa and/or sour cream) liked them just as much as the kids. Double batch!
6. Pizza Croissants (onceamonthmom.com - again, big hit, double batch again! Used chunk pepperoni this time to trick Eden into thinking it was hotdogs instead of mini pepperonis and it worked!
7. Banana Sour Cream Bread (GoodCheapEats.com/allrecipes.com) added chocolate chips! This made four loaves and WOW, this is the best banana bread I have ever had. Coming from a girl that doesn't eat bananas, won't touch bananas to make the bread (Steve did it!), it is incredible. This is a snack item in our freezer. Definitely a keeper!
8. Sour Cream Noodle Bake (pioneerwoman.com) - Repeat! SOO yummy, adding more green onion and tons of garlic! 2 8x8 pans!
9. Meatballs/Meatloaves (goodcheapeats.com) - repeat, so good and so versatile! We make this into 2 meatloaf meals (1lb each) and the rest into meatballs (bagged by meal size). I pull out a bag of meatballs and put it in whatever sauce to heat them up. So easy and the sauce soaks that flavor into them too.
10. Roasted Vegetable Pasta (onceamonthmom.com) - OMG!!!! if you try anything, try this one!!! We had this last night and it is quite possibly my new favorite pasta! Incredible flavor, and the veggies are amazing, even after being frozen! Peppers, asparagus, tomatoes and mushrooms all fire roasted and garlicky! YUM. Check it out! Oh - this made 3 giant freezer bags full, and each is one meal's worth.
11. Frozen Fruit cups (onceamonthmom.com) - basically its like little yummy cups of fruit frozen in fruit juice. This recipe wouldn't work as a popsicle -its too slushy - but its YUMMY. Its a great summer snack or even a breakfast on a hot lazy day on the deck! The kids gobbled them up. It made 24.
12. Upside down baked oatmeal (thepieholeblog.blogspot.com) OMG. These bars are SO good. And if you skip the chocolate chips, they are actually really good for you. The website lists weight watchers points. I don't care for baked fruit, so I put in a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips. I added maple flavoring and vanilla and they are incredible. I made a double batch and I am going to make another double batch to have more in the freezer. I could easily do that with the groceries I still have. This made 24 breakfast bars.
13. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (goodcheapeats.com) - new this time! I love baking (can you tell?) I wanted to have more snacks on hand, especially with Josiah out of school, but with Delia eating solids too now, I want to have things in the house that are made - not the cheez-its ;) So I'm loving these, which I made into mini-muffins, more portion appropriate for my kids. I also used half apple sauce instead of all of the oil and half brown/half white for the sugar. They are amazing. Josiah requested these instead of his packaged snack for school his last week! We got about 150 mini muffins from one batch!
14. Breakfast Cookies (onceamonthmom.com) - repeat, doubled the double batch! Kids love them, and I love them too. Two of these make the perfect breakfast for me. Sometimes Eden eats four, but thats on a really crazy day ;)
15. Corn dog muffins (onceamonthmom.com) repeat, doubled the recipe. We all enjoyed these (yep, I love corn dogs!). I cut the hotdogs pretty small for the girls, I add a tiny bit of brown sugar and extra milk to the recipe… so yummy.
16. Pizza Casserole (onceamonthmom.com) new! I added garlic, some onion salt and extra oregano to this. We used Wacky Mac - not only is it fun for the kids, but its veggies! ;) We are having this tomorrow and I am excited - I know they are going to love this one!
17. Apple Chicken Nuggets (onceamonthmom.com) new! I know, it sounds odd, gross even. These are seriously good. I mean SERIOUSLY good. The only one that didn't eat them was Eden and she is currently not eating much of anything, so I'm not giving that much weight at all. Steve and I and Delia loved them. Josiah said they were "pretty okay". He thought they should come from a bag ;) But he ate them right up! The flavor was so great. This made like 30 or 40 nuggets.
18. Whole wheat Freezer waffles (goodcheapeats.com) new! goodbye eggos! We made up a bunch of these and put them in freezer bags separated by wax paper. Then you can heat them in the toaster oven or toaster (or microwave for Delia).. Pretty good stuff!
19. Mexican Verde Casserole - (onceamonthmom.com) repeat! 2 8x8 pans, and again, this was delicious. Definitely would recommend this, or have you over for dinner to eat it :)
20. Make ahead garlic bread (goodcheapeats.com) This has become a staple in our house since we are all garlic bread junkies. Probably not a good thing! But its the most amazing garlic bread! (with a bunch of extra garlic of course!). We made 4 of these!
21. Mix and Match Muffins (goodcheapeats.com) this is a mix to freeze, though I also bought two containers of blueberries so hopefully I will get one container before the kids eat them all and make some muffins to freeze for breakfasts or snacks.
22. Multigrain pancakes (goodcheapeats.com) another mix, ready to go! Have buttermilk waiting for fresh pancakes this weekend!
23. Dump chicken #1: Paula Dean's Vidalia Onion Honey Mustard salad dressing - half a bottle dumped onto a package of raw natural chicken tenders. Marinate in the fridge overnight then freeze. Took this out and grilled it tonight. AMAZING. Use the rest of the dressing to dip if you wish, but we didn't need to. SO tender and full of flavor.
24. Dump chicken #2: Same as above except I think it was caesar?
25. Dump idea but with pork chops and dressing is Italian. Oh - and all of these have garlic added :)
26. Italian Flank Steak Pinwheels (onceamonthmom.com) - cannot wait for these this weekend! This can be fresh or frozen. Ours might be half and half.
27. French toast sticks (onceamonthmom.com) repeat. 5x the recipe - Those texas toast loaves are so large! I use two loaves and it is so much bread when you cut it up! I got a bazillion sticks.


Phew. Its so funny because You get all of this stuff done (by Tuesday night since I did it in bits and pieces here and there) and then when you dip into it for the first time it hurts just a little! But it is just such an amazing feeling to know that I will not have to worry about meals for a LONG time. My big eaters right now are Josiah and Delia, so snacks will be different especially with Josiah home from school. I am hoping that the muffins, fruit cups and that kind of thing will do the trick. I have found some great sneaky chef type recipes to use for popsicles that I will try when my snack supply gets depleted but it should last well into summer!
 I was bummed that I didn't have more time to do couponing this time. With the party planning I was so preoccupied. Next time! But I saved $18, so I will just be happy with that. When I look at all that is in my freezer, and the fact that other than milk/juice, and fruit we really won't need groceries until who knows when, I am really impressed. A lot of these I could make more of with what is left in my pantry (staples that are still stocked). And I can't wait to go down the salad dressing aisle to try more flavors for chicken/pork! It is so fun to be expanding my search  - trying new recipes, testing out the concept of making my own mixes for things, not buying them, etc. I prefer to make things from scratch, just because I like to, not because I'm a cooking snob!! - but with the loudest little one who wakes up very hungry, we need to be able to eat breakfast FAST - so scratch breakfast items don't work. And when Josiah asks to bake something, sometimes there is only time for a mix, so this would be perfect and way cheaper!

DO try the roasted veggie pasta!! And the Paula Dean dressing as a marinade! And the oatmeal bars with chocolate chips! And the pumpkin muffins! there are just too many good ones…

Party Food Means We Need More Reasons To Party

Last night I threw Steve a surprise party in honor of his big 3-0 milestone and I must say I was thrilled to have an excuse to make good party food! For some reason, there are foods that only come out at party time - its just not fair! These foods should have more time to shine, right? ;) At any rate, several people requested recipes for the various delectables so I thought it might be easiest to compile them in one place rather than creating several facebook notes. A couple of these are recipes others have passed on to me and some I have adapted for the sake of my need to make things easier/spicier/etc… Enjoy!

BLT Stuffed Tomatoes 
What a better way to enjoy a tomato than stuffed with bacon?! And wow, this would make a great spread on a pita with a big slice of tomato too! YUM!! You will totally eat a few while making these, so make extra.

50 Cherry or Grape Tomatoes
2lbs bacon, Chopped and cooked (or crumbled - its your preference, I leave mine in small chunks)
1/2+c chopped green onion (I lean toward a whole cup, use less for less kick)
1/2c MAYO (You may need to add more than 1/2c if you add the extra onions if your mix gets too thick, just add another heaping spoon or 1/4c, no need to be exact!)

Halve all of the tomatoes and scoop out the insides - set aside. In a medium bowl, mix the bacon, mayo and onions. Spoon the mixture into the tomatoes and refrigerate until ready to serve.

*NOTES* When picking the tomatoes in the store, pay attention to how skinny they are. Fat ones are way easier to stuff. Also, this recipe just doesn't taste the same with Miracle Whip. This is one time I actually break down and buy mayo, trust me on this!

Cheese Tortellini and Pesto Dip - Courtesy of Kelly Hyer ;)
Pretty sure I called/emailed my dear friend Kelly half a dozen times for this recipe before I finally remembered to write it down. Its so simple but SO good. Thank you for sharing!


1 large container of refrigerated tortellini (like Bertolli)
1 large container whipped cream cheese
1 container pesto sauce (from that refrigerated pasta section in your grocery store)
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Boil noodles according to directions, rinse and drain well and let them cool. Be sure to separate the noodles - I spread them out on a paper towel or wax paper lined sheet pan (so I don't dirty the pan!) then put them in the fridge in a ziploc or lovely container. In the midst of all of this, mix the cream cheese with the pesto and then start adding the lemon juice. Add a little, mix and taste. Add more if you wish - some like more/less lemon, so its your call on that (see how we give you options here?!) Thats how we roll.

Bruschetta
So fresh and so garlicky - fabulous on toasted baguette slices, pita chips, regular chips, pretty much anything. I LOVE bruschetta. The best part about this is that the garlic gets stronger as it sits and gets to work out its awesomeness. So it just keeps getting better and better (if it lasts that long).

3 Roma tomatoes, deseeded and diced (super important to get the soupy guts out)
2T Fresh Basil
1T Fresh Parsley
4 cloves GARLIC
1t Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese (optional, I add enough to make it look like an equal ingredient)

*Notes* The rough thing about this recipe is that these ingredients are all "to taste". I always add way more than the recipe calls for, and WAY more garlic! Also, after the munching on this last night I realized that it needed more olive oil - when you start with a giant bag of tomatoes and there isn't just a "3 cups of diced tomatoes" type of recipe, its a learning thing I suppose. But you'll notice this tastes a bit dry - just add a little more EVOO.

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade With Strawberry Lime Ice Cubes
I'm pretty sure we've always tripled this recipe - if you are going to go through the effort to make real lemonade, you may as well go all out. This is our favorite summer drink - definitely not just a party treat at our house!


2qts Water
1 1/3c sugar (more/less to taste)
1 1/3c fresh lemon juice (yep, squeeze it!)
1 container strawberries, chopped/diced
1 11.5oz can strawberry margarita or plain margarita frozen concentrate mix

Put the chopped strawberries into ice cube trays filling 1/3 to 1/2 full. Mix the concentrate and 1 can of water in a pitcher and pour to fill the ice cube trays - freeze. Combine the 2qts of water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to combine. Reduce to a simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved - takes just a minute or two. Take off the heat and let it cool a little before you put it in a pitcher to chill it. Makes 8 cups.



Knock You Naked Brownies - Adapted from Pioneer Woman
These brownies were amazing - and the name was a riot and provided great conversation starters and jokes all evening long. I adapted the recipe slightly to make it easier as I am not a double broiler kind of girl, nor am I about to sit and unwrap 120 caramels. If you are up for that type of thing, check out her version on her website.


2 pkg German Chocolate Cake Mix (I know, I know, just buy this flavor. Its lonely anyway)
1c margarine, melted (she uses butter, you can too if you so fancy)
1 12oz can evaporated milk
3 bags Kraft Caramel Bits
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c finely chopped pecans (I left these out as we are no-nuts-in-brownie people)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees In medium bowl, mix cake mixes, melted margarine and 2/3c of the evaporated milk.  Add the nuts if you are nutty. The mixture is going to be super thick - no worries! Divide it in half - spread one half in the bottom of a well greased13x9 baking dish. Bake for 8-10 minutes. In medium saucepan, melt caramels and the remainder of the can of milk (just over 2/3 cup if you feel the need to measure) on medium low heat for about 3-4 minutes. After a minute or two, get a quick whisk in to break up the remaining clumps. Pour the caramel over the first layer of brownie that you just pulled out (I saved out about 1/2 -2/3c because it looked full). Then dump the bag of chocolate chips on top. Then, you take the remaining dough and it needs to go on top. My first attempt on Friday was not quite as pretty as I would have liked - however, since I got a second attempt today for Steve's birthday Round Two, I tried a new trick, so this is what I would recommend: WAX PAPER! I baked this in my pyrex pan and in the first go, I just formed the dough in the lid and tried to flip it over on top. Not so hot. This time I lined the lid with wax paper and it came off perfectly, impressing even me ;)  After you have the top layer on, this pan of delicious goo goes into the oven for 20-25 minutes. When it comes out, let it cool and THEN, you have to let it sit in the fridge for several hours so the caramel can gel the two layers together so it doesn't all fall apart when you cut into them, etc. After you've let them sit for several hours - like 3 or 4, seriously - take them out and dust the whole thing with a good coating of powdered sugar. I was going to drizzle the remaining caramel on top but I totally forgot! Then cut into them and scoop them out onto the platter or into a tin to give them away. You do not want these sitting in your house ;)

DQ Cake and Knock You Naked Brownies ;)

*NOTE* Make this in an 8x8 with one pkg cake mix, 1/2c margarine and 1/3c evap milk. Then for the caramel sauce I would use 1 bag of the chips, 1/3 cup milk and only use half bag of chocolate chips for that goo layer...