Lacation Cookies

Carey and her kids are coming tomorrow so I am going to make us Lactation Cookies as a treat! I am so proud of her for breastfeeding Colin! She and I had very similar problems with our first kids breastfeeding and I know how wonderful I feel being able to nurse sweet girl. I know she is really enjoying nursing Colin too. We keep saying to each other how amazing it is that our bodies produce the perfect food for our babies! Here is the recipe for the cookies - they really do boost supply and are YUMMO!! The secret is the brewers yeast, oatmeal and flax seed.

Lactation Cookies

2/3 cup butter
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 cups ground flax seeds
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups whole grain wheat flour
3 cups rolled oats
4 tablespoons brewer's yeast
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, oil and sugar.
Mix in eggs and vanilla, add flaxseed.
Stir in flour, brewers yeast and oats.
Add choc chips.
If mixture is too dry add a little more olive oil.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Menu Plan Monday

I really liked having this plan last week. For some reason, typing it out made me stick to it! Everything was great last week - I didn't try the boca brats but used chicken instead! Here is this week's plan!

Monday - Fiesta Taco Casserole, rice - This was great!
Tuesday - Chicken Salad, crossiants, fruit
Wednesday - Leftover Buffet!
Thursday - We are going to the Bengals game again so we will eat on our way there.
Friday - Ranch Ham Skillet, potatoes
Saturday - Fuss Free Ravioli and Cheese Bake, salad and homemade bread
Sunday - Neighborhood golf outing - I will make a Chinese Slaw to share!

Chinese Slaw

1 lb. bag of slaw mix
1 pkg. Oriental flavor Ramen noodles
1 C sunflower seeds
1 C sliced almonds
6 green onions, sliced

Dressing:
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
Flavor packet from Ramen noodles

Break up dry noodles into large salad bowl. Add sunflower seeds, almonds, green onions and slaw mix. Whisk together all dressing ingredients. Add dressing to slaw mixture just before serving. Toss well.

Serves 8-10

I will let you know how everything went!

Menu Plan Monday (or Tuesday!)

I am going to try to stick to my weekly menu planning. We definatly need to stop eating out!! So here is my plan for this week. I also want to try new recipes! Yum-O!

Monday - We made an impromptu trip to Kings Island and had dinner there!
Tuesday - Smokey Tomato Tortellini with homemade bread and corn from the farmers market
Wednesday - Tacos, tice
Thursday - Coach and I are going to the Bengals game and monkey will have Mac n Cheese. This is on sale for .88 a box at Whole Foods this week!
Friday - Spaghetti, bread and green beans
Saturday - Grill out something. We are having some people coach works with over for dinner
Sunday - Sausage Penne Pasta (I am going to substitute Boca Brats and see if coach notices! These were on sale for .50 a box a few weeks ago).

Monkey's Birthday Gift

Katherine and Ren came over for dinner last night and brought us this! Their neighbors were getting rid of it and snatched it for us! We decided it is too big to just give monkey so we put it in our neighbors basement and will clean it up and give it to him for his bday! Not something I would have bought but he will LOVE it! Coach drove it down the street - it is painfully slow but that will be good for monkey!!

We are back!

I know it has been a long time since my last post! For some reason, I feel like I always have to post pictures with my posts. But my camera is somewhere at the bottom of my still unpacked suitcase so this will have to do! We had a great time in Denver visiting with my parents. I survived the trip with the two by myself. Thank goodness for Frontier airlines and their Direct TV in every seat! Monkey loved watching Sponge Bob because he is never allowed to watch it at home! While we were there, we relaxed and spent a lot of time at the pool. Monkey took two private lessons and swam for a few seconds by himself with no life jacket! My parents and I saw Julie and Julia. It was cute - I would defiantly recommend it. We took sweet girl with it because she was not loving the babysitter!! She did a great job - it was her third movie!

Today, we went to the Heritage Festival and Parade in Mason. We decided this was the epitome of small town America! Monkey got enough candy to last him well into Christmas! They both loved it. We went with some friends and their two boys and finished up the day with a trip to Chicky Fries:)

Swimming

Last Thursday, monkey finished swimming lessons. This session, he took lessons at the outside pool. He did a great job and had a lot of fun. I waited until the end of summer to sign him up for outdoor lessons thinking it would be nice and warm every day. But until the last day, it was either cold or rainy every day! The good news is he finally passed level 1 ! YAY! But unfortunatly, he won't be able to take lessons with his two buddies from preschool as they are in level 1.

So on Thursday, I was pretty sure I had mastitis and coach and I were talking about it. Monkey piped up and said, "daddy, we do not talk about boobies" and after scoldeding us, he said, "wait, are you talking about miss lydia? (fyi - miss lydia was his swim teacher). she has big boobies" yep, that's my boy! And for your viewing pleasure - Miss Lydia!

Chuck E. Cheese

So monkey has been asking and asking to go to Chuck E. Cheese. He always sees the ads on the back of the coupons every week and they have commercials for it on PBS. We always put him off but yesterday, on yet another rainy day, we decided to go. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty fun! We got pizza and lots of tokens. He turned in all his tickets for a little basketball and microphone that does nothing. But he was pretty excited! Sweet girl liked looking at all the stuff and they both liked the 'show'. Monkey even got to meet the big guy himself (Chuck E. Cheese, that is!)

Randoms

Here are some recent pics of the kids. Monkey loves to feed sweet girl and she is finally sitting! YAY - makes dressing so much easier!

Sitting

And just a few seconds later!

Cubs/Reds Game

Last night, we went to the Cubs/Reds game. We had a great time! Monkey and sweet girl both did awesome and lasted all 9 innings! We packed our dinner but still managed to get peanuts and cotton candy. Monkey pestered us for about an hour about getting cotton candy and of course he took one bite and didn't like it! We were in the middle of Cubs fans so it was interesting. I wore Coach's Cubs jersey but we made sure sweet girl wore a Reds shirt - someone had to represent the 'Nati! Sweet girl made it to the 8th inning before falling asleep!

Organizing!

So I was reading blogs this morning and came across a blog about parenting and organization. You can click on the button down on the right hand side to see it.

I am going to try to do this and pick one area to organize every week. It might be a big spot or a little spot but I am going to try! And you know how I hate cleaning! First up - Master Bedroom Closet. Hopefully, I can get coach to help! I *might* be be brave enough to post before and after pictures but we will see.

Sweet Potatoes

We had sweet girls 6 mo appt yesterday and she is 26" and 15.9 lbs! She is growing and her car seat is getting heavier and heavier! Thursday, we tried sweet potatoes. I think I am stopping the BLW - she never really got any food in. And, while I know that nursing is all she needs in the first year, I still want her to actually taste food, not just play with it! So I am going to try to make her foods. Carey had a friend who was getting rid of a steamer so I got it! And making the sweet potatoes was really easy. I just peeled them and put them in the steamer for 70 min, pureed them in my Cuisinart Mini Prep and froze them in 2 oz portions in my baby food freezer tray! When I fed it to her, I defrosted it and added a little breastmilk to thin it down. I will try to take pictures of my next baby food making adventure! She ate it up! She is also 'drinking' out of a sippy. She mostly just plays with it!! So she loves the potatoes but hates the bib!

Next up, Squash! Instead of steaming the squash, I will roast it in the oven before pureeing!