Power of Suggestion

It's funny what you can accomplish with the power of suggestion.
We were having broccoli for dinner last night. I didn't even give any to my son because I didn't figure he would it. Well he saw we had it and wanted it but when I gave it to him he didn't touch it. Go figure.
Then I told him I was a Mama Dinosaur and I was eating the trees. I asked him if Baby Dinosaur could eat a tree? And he did!!!
He ate broccoli! And not just one piece either. As long as we told him they were trees he was good.
A small victory for Mom.

Kickin' It Polish Style

We are a meat-starch-veggie type family for dinners. But I get bored with starches.
Potato-rice-pasta-potato-rice-pasta
I throw in egg noodles every now and then. Sometimes couscous but it's not a favorite.
Well while looking for something on allrecipes.com, I came across baked peirogies.
Now we like peirogies but I usually only buy them when they are on sale, which isn't often.

So last night I made my own. This is what I did:

Made instant mashed potatoes (would work well with leftovers too) and added chives
Boiled some large shell pasta.
Coated a pan with butter, stuffed potatoes inside the pasta and placed in pan.
Sprinkled with cheese and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes (just so cheese is melted but they don't dry out).

Wah-lah!! Pierogies! They were good.

I'd try some different variations: sauteed onions, bacon, etc. You can also make with lasagne noodles and layer in baking dish. Or those canniloni noodles would work and pipe in the potatoes. How about sweet potoates even.

So if you are looking for something a little international and different. Give it a try.

You can't judge

So my son LOVES chicken nuggets. It's a staple in his diet. I know, worst mom ever! But seriously, if you don't have kids, you can't judge. Kids can be very picky eaters.

So we've tried several brands: Banquet (yuck!!! how can you remove all taste from a food?), Tyson (which wasn't bad...in the beginning, more on that later) and Yummy, Dinos.

Now we tried these Yummy, Dinos from BJ's Wholesale club because 1) they were cheap and 2) I had a coupon (always a reason to try something). And they were actually not bad. We all liked them. Then they ran out.

So I bought Tyson again because they were convenient and I had a coupon. They say 100% natural blah blah blah....they were SO GREASY. I couldn't believe it. We didn't notice before I guess. We struggled through the whole bag, Nicholas still liked them.

I bought the Yummy, Dinos again and started comparing the nutrition charts. OMG!! We'll break it down.

Tyson Nuggets Yummy, Dinos
Serving size 5 5
Calories 270 170
Cal from Fat 160 80
Fat 17g 9g
Sat Fat 4g 0.5g
Cholesterol 40mg 20mg
Sodium 470mg 360mg
Iron 0% 4%

Okay there you have it. Tyson is not so good even when it says All Natural, good for them and you. Check the labels carefully people.

Enough said.

To Sew

Sometimes I wish I had a sewing machine.

It's Functional

Our bathroom project is on the homestretch. We have running water again. We replaced our whole entire vanity. We ripped out the old one and replaced with a new cabinet, new countertop, tiled it, new Mexican sink (the one we bought in Cabo last year on vacation), and a new faucet. It only took one month! We still have some touchup work to do but at least we can use our bathroom again. So here are some before and after pictures.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This is the wall cabinet above the toliet.

There isn't a picture of the vanity cabinet because it doesn't have drawers in it yet. But it matches the wall cabinet.