Freezer Meals and Getting Close

I haven't been doing the greatest job keeping up with this blog. I have another blog specifically for "baby stuff" to share with family & friends that is unlisted - if you would like to read it let me know and I'll get you the URL. I'm probably going to be primarily using that blog in the future. In the meantime, everything has been going well with my pregnancy and the baby boy. I actually haven't had any serious complications; everything has been going smoothly and I'm due in around 10 days!

This past month or so has been a whirlwind of checking things off my "to-do" list. The nursery is done (I'll share pictures in another post), including steam-cleaning the carpet and installing a ceiling fan (thanks Dad!). Just about everything baby has been washed and has found a spot. Plus, my mom came over this past weekend and we made freezer meals for when Scotty and I do not feel like cooking after his arrival!

I thought I'd share links to the meals as well as a Google Document I put together. Hopefully it can help you too! Here's what we did:

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn and Black Beans

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Crockpot Green Chile Pork Stew

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Salsa Chicken

We will probably get 15 meals easily out of the above recipes since it's just the two of us. It only took about 2 and a half hours to make everything!

If you would like all of the recipes in one place, I made a Google Document that was very useful to have open during the cooking:

Freezer Meals

June in Pictures

Yup... I definitely fell behind!

Work.

Danielle and Kyle's wedding.

Grandma's birthday dinner.

Sir Genbu.

Doctor Who Premiere Party

Yesterday was a very exciting day - the premiere of the seventh series of  Doctor Who. It's my favorite show, so I was really excited to be able to have some friends over and have a fun premiere party. In case you want to have a party of your own I thought I'd share what I did for the party and how everything turned out!

Decor

My decorations ended up being mostly TARDIS themed for some reason. I wanted more Dalek decorations but maybe I can save some ideas for that for next year.

On the front door I hung a TARDIS sign:

This was very simple to make. I just bought some balsa wood from Michael's and spray painted it with Rust-Oleum brand spray paint in Deep Blue. After the paint dried I added vinyl letters from Hobby Lobby. Scotty sealed it for me and added two hooks and some wire so that I could hang it to the front door. Total cost was under $10.

I don't have a picture, but I strung these TARDIS String Lights ($20 from FYE) in our entranceway.

I also made a TARDIS banner:

For this project I used blue and white felt from Michael's along with sticky letters and silver ribbon. The white felt was the kind with the adhesive back. I cut out the shapes (each TARDIS is half a rectangle of felt) and used fabric glue to stick everything on that wasn't already sticky. 

The TARDISes each say different things: "Doctor Who," "Timey Wimey" or "Police Box." This was so that I didn't have to buy multiple packs of sticky letters. I just came up with what I could say that was reasonably Whovian with one pack of letters.

I also printed out some signs that will be familiar to Whovians out there. Click each link for a printable.

VOTE SAXON

TARDIS - Pull to Open

Dalek - To Victory

For the table, I used a blue tablecloth and bought white and blue utensils/paper plates/napkins. My brother made me the awesome TARDIS you see below. I already had the scarf and sonic screwdriver, and I picked up the red Dalek for $10 at FYE.

Food and Drink

My menu for the party was as follows:

• TARDIS Coral (rock candy)
• Fish fingers (fishsticks, marshmallows or cinnamon sticks) and custard (I bought a big tub of custard from my local Fry's Food & Drug bakery)
• Cupcakes with ball bearings
• Banana chips
• Apples (not pictured)
• Jammie Dodgers
• Apple grass (I found this product in a candy store. It's called Galerie Edible Easter Grass, but I think apple licorice would have worked equally well)
• Pizza (not pictured)
• Celery with garden vegetable cream cheese (not pictured)

I had little markers saying what each food was along with a tidbit of information about how it related to Doctor Who. I will upload the markers to Google Docs when I get a chance - the file isn't on this computer.

For drinks we had soda, beer, antiplastic (blue punch) and mixed drinks. We followed these recipes for various Sonic Screwdrivers:

Sonic Screwdriver

1.5 oz vanilla vodka

1.5 oz blue curacao

6 oz lemon lime soda

10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (blue)

1 oz blue curacao

1 oz citrus vodka

6 oz Ginger Ale 

11th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (green)

1 oz blue curacao

1 oz vodka

6 oz orange juice

BBC America was showing a Doctor Who marathon so we put that on for some visual entertainment. We all enjoyed watching the premiere of the seventh series and I had a lot of fun putting this party together! :)

Pantry (No Eggs, No Milk) Cupcakes with Speculoos Cookie Butter Drizzle

The other day I wanted some cupcakes, but had no eggs or milk. Luckily I found this recipe for eggless chocolate cupcakes, which I think of as "pantry cupcakes" because you use items from your pantry, not your fridge.

I also wanted a frosting, and had a jar of this delicious stuff in my pantry...

Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter

 ...so I decided to just melt it and drizzle it.

They didn't turn out very pretty, but they sure are delicious. Next time maybe I will melt it a little less, or use a peanut butter frosting recipe such as this one but use the delicious cookie butter instead.

Definitely a delicious experiment at the very least!

A Day of Good Food

Yesterday ended up being a pretty delicious day... in addition to rain and time spent with family, we also had some pretty darn good food! I thought I'd share a couple of recipes from breakfast and dessert...

Egg in Ham Cups

I can't remember where I saw the idea for these ham-egg cups but it was brilliant. Just grease a muffin tin, put slices of ham in, and crack an egg into the ham cups. Add whatever you'd like on top (we added salt, oregano, and diced mushroom), and bake at 350 degrees till the egg reaches the doneness you would like. I believe our eggs ended up in the oven for 20 minutes for a hard yolk. Next time we'll do them for a shorter amount of time so that the yolk is runnier. We had hashbrowns on the side - so good!

Strawberry-Glazed Brownie Dessert Bars

My mother-in-law made her delicious stuffed peppers for dinner, and I made a dessert. After looking at a lot of options, I decided to try Pillsbury's recipe for Cherry-Topped Brownie Dessert Bars... but substitute a strawberry glaze for the topping.

I made the brownie and frosting/icing the same way as in the linked recipe. For the strawberries, my husband showed me how to make a delicious glaze. Just core and slice up the strawberries and put them in a bowl. Add some sugar to taste and possibly a little bit of water. Stir gently, cover with saran wrap, and refrigerate for at least ten to twenty minutes. We added the strawberries after the brownies had been in the fridge for about an hour, then just kept it refrigerated till it was time to serve.

So good! I said that a lot yesterday, haha!

April in Pictures

(Minus pictures from the wedding - which are here.)

Wednesday Hodgepodge, 5/23/12

1. What's something you miss about the 80's? If you're too young to miss the 80's how about the 90's?
I was born in 1986 so too young to remember the 80s much at all. Something I miss from the 90s though... Nickelodeon shows. Doug, All That, Rugrats, Clarissa Explains It All (she seemed so old and wise to me! haha), The Amanda Show. I love that they are showing them on tv again.

2. Do you have a library card? If so, how often do you visit?
I do indeed have a library card. In fact I work for a public library. Haha. So I am there 4 days a week (10 hours a day). The library I work for is pretty awesome.

3. What's the secret to success?
Motivation.

4. This is National Backyard Games week...what's your favorite backyard game?
I am not sure... I like playing bocce on the PlayStation 3 so maybe I would like it in real life.

5. If I dropped by today what would I find on your coffee table?
Oh gosh, it's a mess. There is a blanket on there, a pile of papers, the remotes... probably some random things I am forgetting.

6. Do you own a bicycle? When was the last time you rode a bicycle? Is that something you enjoy?
We have bicycles, and I actually love bicycling, but we haven't gone out to do it in quite awhile. It's one of my favorite active things to do though. Much better than just walking everywhere. Haha.

7. What's your favorite cheese?
Dubliner.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
I'll share a picture of us. We just had our fourth wedding anniversary (nine years together on the 25th). Love this guy.

March in Pictures

Training.

Mass Effect 3.

New dice.

Training paid off.

The Coffee Shop in Gilbert, AZ.

Yesterday

Yesterday, we celebrated three things: Valentine's Day, Arizona's Centennial and my husband's 27th birthday.

It was a good day.

He got a pocket watch from me. (Plus a video game and chocolate.)



He got me a CD of Les Miserables, the 25th anniversary performance, live.

We listened to it while we drove to Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park and passed the Centennial highway signs on the way.

We said hello to all of the animals at the zoo. One parrot even said hello back. (But not this gecko, although he was very friendly too.)



We had lunch in Litchfield Park at a Mexican restaurant Yelp steered me to, and Yelp has never steered me wrong.

Then Scotty's mom visited and gave us more chocolate (score), and we had friends over. We beat each other up in Soul Calibur V.

And then sushi thanks to our wonderful friend Dan. And it was all delicious.

And then bed, because it was a long day.

But a great one.

Things I Love This Week

Mo's Dark Bacon Bar. Scotty found this at Cost Plus World Market the other day and it's delicious.
This absolutely amazing cherry blossom wedding theme.
Neil Gaiman's American Gods is getting a sequel!
This list of the top 10 myths about introverts. Describes me to a tee - except, yes, I am actually shy.
Who knew you could breed Corgis with pretty much any other breed to get something adorable?
And what a cool idea for a laptop!