Mother's Day Meal Planning with Cooking Planit!

As I get older, gift giving for Mother's and Father's Day just gets harder and harder. Handprints in clay and "I'll clean the house" coupons to beautiful jewelry and flowers, I've done it all. But, I think the gift that never fails is a nice homemade meal of some of their favorite dishes or even dishes that'll be new and exciting for them.

One year, my brother, his Fiancé , Hubby, and I made a nice brunch for my mom. It was fun to be in the kitchen with my brother and our significant others while we reminisced about our favorite childhood memories. My mom liked it too because she had a chance to rest and listen to funny stories. Then, we all sat down and had a delicious spread to celebrate my beautiful mother.

This year will be no exception. Meal planning started with Google and Pinterest and sure, I found some great stuff but I wanted something easy and no fuss since, technically it is my first Mother's Day too. Cue CookingPlantit a true lifesaver. You can access it through their easy peasy website or download the app onto your iPhone or iPad!

So, what is Cooking Planit exactly?

Cooking Planit makes even a novice chef look like a rock star in the kitchen by delivering a main course and two side dishes on your family's table at the same time. The Cooking Planit app:

• Combines the chef-tested recipes of a main dish and two sides
• Perfects the cooking process with step-by-step instructions so everything is ready at the same time
• Provides a categorized shopping list to simplify your trip to the store

 

I will be writing a formal post to this soon but I have tested this myself and if you follow me
on Instagram, you'll be able to see that I've been making incredible meals using this great App!

I'm so excited about this App, I can't stop raving about it and lucky you, there is a Mother's Day Sale on the App!! Make yo Mama proud!

Mother’s Day SALE: Cooking Planit is making it easy for you to make Mom feel special this Mother’s Day. Considering surprising mom with breakfast in bed? How about a special home-cooked meal? GET the APP, half-price for a limited time: $0.99 iPhone and $1.99 iPad. Click Here!

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! Let me know if you try the App.

Drizzles of Sunshine: Calm Mama

1. I went to my first Quincenera. For those of you who don't know, a Quincenera is a big celebration of a young girl crossing over into womanhood. It is similar to a wedding because there is a huge white dress involved as well as a reception with food and booze. It's a grand ol' time for everyone.

However, my night-o-fun came to a halt when Hubby's crazy uncle decided to give little Joaquin a few bites of spanish rice. Mind you, Joaquin isn't eating solids yet. Luckily, the kind women at his table quickly alerted me and I proceeded to, grit my teeth, scoop up my baby and take him away while trying to hide my desire to throw a taquito at the Uncle's face. Composure is the key when with the in-laws.

2. It's the last month of school. Double sighs of relief for the end of testing season and for the end of a very long year. I used to think this season was the easiest but not anymore. Spring Fever has hit my school harder than a hurricane in Florida. The middle schoolers have grown their attitudes and are not afraid to tell me that they don't want to work anymore. The hormonally charged couples are all over campus, awkwardly clasping hands as a huddle of laughing hyenas friends follow behind them. I couldn't be more annoyed. 17 days left and I'm home free!

3. This Sunday will be my first Mother's Day as a mother. I'm very excited. Hubby keeps whispering to Joaquin "Don't tell Mama the secret." Then, they both laugh their heads off. This is both crazy cute and annoying as hell. I hate surprises. This ish better be good.

4. I cut my hair. When I tell people that I feel like Elle's friend on Legally Blonde that tells her "I got bangs!!" I just thought I'd inform you of this shocking development.

5. Sonic hates his life. I feel so bad. I've been trying to give him extra snuggles but it's hard to do that when I'm holding Joaquin, since he hates Joaquin's guts. Anyone know how to make a doggie feel loved? Sonic loves treats and I think that's the true way to his heart but I don't want an obese dog.

Sore Throat Remedies

Dammit! The sore throat monster has struck again. It creeped up on me Thursday afternoon and made my Friday just unbearable. So annoying, Mr. Monster. What's even more annoying is that sore throats often aggravate my Asthma causing middle of the night cough wars where hubby wakes up in a panic to find my inhaler. No bueno.

When I couldn't take my scratchy throat any longer(10 minutes is just way too long!), I did what any modern day woman would do, I Googled it. More specifically, I Googled "sore throat cures."
Then, I tried the ones that didn't seem too disgusting. I also looked for ones that were fast acting and not too fussy, read: I'm not salt water gargling every two hours. I ain't got time for that.

Here's what worked for me:

- Advil. Now, I'm not a medicine taker. I try my best to do without pills mostly because I'm a scaredy cat. In this case, I just didn't want my sore throat to turn into a full on cold. Nah uh, not with a baby in tow. So, I read that Advil or Aleve helps ease the swelling, thus helping with the scratchy feeling. Worked almost instantly for me. It definitely helped ease my throat.

- Apple Cider Cocktail.
Beware, this smells like stinky feet. Hubby won't even let me sit near him when I'm downing it. It's worth it though because this shortened the duration of my soon-to-be cold. I'm typing this on Sunday night and I feel so much better!
-1-2 Tbs. of Raw Organic Apple Cider vinegar.
- 1 tsp. of honey
-1 cup of water

Mix and microwave cocktail until warm. Some people have reported how disgusting it is but I taste mostly honey. It was easy for me to down every night before bed.

- water water water. Down as much as you can. Flush those bad cooties out.

I'm hoping by tomorrow Mr. Sore Throat Monster will be completely gone. Just in case, I will be downing just one more stinky feet cocktail.

What sore throat remedies do you swear by?

Ridiculously Easy Crockpot Pulled Pork

As if crock pot cooking couldn't get any easier, I find this ridiculous recipe. I found it in the allrecipes mini magazine that came with an issue of Good Housekeeping (why does this magazine making me feel old?).

This recipe is perfect in every way. It's simple, quick, and delicious. Actually, simple is an overstatement. What's 5 notches below simple? I know. This recipe.

Ingredients:
2 lbs pork loin (didn't know it shredded!)
1 can of root beer
1 bottle of your favorite sauce

Seriously, that's it.

1. Combine loin and root beer in crockpot.
2. Set it (low) and forget it! BING! Leave it for about 6-8 hours.
3. Drain and mix with sauce.

Seriously, that's it.

I also used steamed cauliflower to make mock mashed potatoes. (Because fried potatoes are out of the question) Insane.

 

You're welcome.

Baby Joaquin: 4 and 5 Month Update

My little booger monster turned 5 months this month. A lot has happened in these past two months and we hit so many milestones. I can't help but squeeze him tight because it's going too fast for Mommy.

 

 

 

Size: 6-9 months. Real Babies have curves. Joke.

*I'm going to start a petition to change the sizing of baby clothes. They need to drop the "months" because it is no longer accurate. Babies are born in all sizes and grow at different rates. Who's with me?

Cuteness level: Epic proportions (not to brag or anything)

 

Eating: Soy formula and Brown Rice Cereal with Probiotics (Hipster baby)

Sleeping: Beat the sleep regression monster! Sleeps from

8:00pm- 3:30am/Bottle, back to sleep until 6:00-7:00.

(Note to self: Write posts about these two things later.)



Milestones: Sitting up for a few seconds on his own, cut his first tooth (!!!), eating cereal, rolling from back to front and back again, dropping and picking up his toys,

and toy to mouth coordination is spot on.

 

 

Likes: Mommy and Daddy, jumping, playing with anything with a washing instructions tag on it, staring at the time on the oven, the colors black, white, and red all in the same object, and his feet.

Obsessions: Sonic and splashing in bath water

Sonic is still coming around.

Dislikes: His carseat, an empty bowl of cereal, men with deep voices, when mommy burns something in the oven and the fire alarm goes off.

Next Up: Pureed foods, sitting unassisted, crawling, and turning half a year old!

 

 

As for me, I'm obsessed with my health right now. Hubby and I finally agreed that eating out as many times as we do and being addicted to coffee is not ok. We are eliminating most starches when we can and incorporating Paleo ideas (Yay, MEAT!) but still staying true to the foodies that we are. This is called the "DUH" diet which stresses the obvious: more veggies and fruit, no junk, quinoa<brown rice<white rice, sugar makes you fat, and limit the treats. DUH.

I've also been hitting well over my Nike Fuel points everyday and making sure I'm up and about instead of being comatose in front of the TV. I took out my running stroller the other day and I'm slowly working up to running again. The weather has been very cooperative.

I'm feeling good.

 

Pineapple Fried Quinoa

SUCCESS! I made a quinoa dish that I just love! Bonus, Hubby loved it, too. We were both pleasantly surprised and it gave me hope that I can finish the rest of that bag!

I used my recipe for regular, delicious Pineapple Fried Rice and made a few changes to make this dish bomb diggy.

Ch-Ch- Changes:

• Switched up the rice for quinoa...duh.
• Cooked the quinoa in my rice cooker and I sprinkled  some chicken bullion powder in before cooking. Chicken stock would be fine, too.
• Instead of minced garlic I used garlic salt. The dish wasn't too salty but for heart healthy sake, next time I will cut the sodium. (i.e. less soy sauce, galic powder instead of salt, and stock instead of bullion.)
• added corn and edamame because that's all I had
• forgot the raisins
• kicked out the sugar and added some of the pineapple juice

I highly recommend this dish if you hate quinoa. I have hope that I can use my noggin and some old recipes to use quinoa in delicious ways. Quinoa, we're going to be alright. We're going to be alright.

Random Wednesday: Priorities

1. I'm giving up Facebook. My promise was to give it up for a week. I only failed once. I'm ashamed that my willpower is so weak that I HAD to check it. Did I find anything cool on my "give in check?" NO! Same ol' Like this picture because I want a puppy, Like this picture if you don't want to go to Hell, Like my picture because I went to the club this weekend and I'm showing my boobies. Wow, I am addicted to what now? Yeah, I'm definitely going to do this.

2. I have 5 drafts of unfinished posts in my Blogger. I write them during my lunch, on my phone, or when I'm on the loo, but I'm big on pictures and I can't upload pictures quickly at any of those times. I like to post lots of pictures because I like blogs with lots of pictures. I would rather gawk at pictures than read sometimes. I'm a first grader apparently.

3. Tonight, I will be making Pineapple Fried Rice, but with quinoa. All I can think about is that I'm going to hate it. I tried quinoa and I'm not a fan of the texture. I want to like it, mostly because I bought a big box of it and I don't want to waste it. If you have any recipes that I might fancy, please pass them to me.

4. Joaquin is starting to get a little too attatched to me. Sometimes he wants just me and only the warmth of my arms. I love it.

5. I really hope my dinner turns out edible.

6. I'm not posting pictures today. The first grader in me is crying.