Eric thinks he can lift a 4000 lb dumpster (just an inch)! (Plus Days 220-224)

Things are moving along in the new Dattolo house, though not always as fast as we'd like.  That's how this stuff goes, right?  Big renovations always take a little more time and a little more money than you originally plan but you just have to hope that in the end you'll be left with something beautiful.  Meanwhile, when things aren't going at the pace you hoped, it has to be okay to have a little fun along the way and make light of the situation. :)

Umm... yeah.  Not gonna happen, Eric!

Notice the yawn??? Sure sign of a not-so-productive day. LOL

Was it unplugged the WHOLE time??? :)  Goobers.

I started the week with some great grilled meatless meals.  Check out my grilled vegetable tostadas from Monday and my grilled zucchini paninis from Tuesday night.  Wednesday (Day 220) we had grilled chicken quesadillas.  On Thursday night we ordered pizza and my sister-in-law brought over a delicious blueberry coffee cake!  Friday night Randy and I had an impromptu date night and we went to the Pub 99 and then to a martini bar in downtown Fitchburg (only a 2 minute drive from our house).  Saturday (Day 223) we fired up the grill again for a hot dog lunch and then I made barbeque chicken and grilled potato packets for supper. (Recipe follows.)  It's demolition weekend here so by dinner on Saturday, we literally didn't have a kitchen:

So you can see, no sink, no stove, no countertops.  I now use the "office" as my kitchen so that's where I prepared the potato packets. 

I wash dishes in the bathroom sink, so we have to be extra careful to throw away all food particles before dishes get washed.  The day-to-day will become more tedious before it gets better, but I can see the dim light at the end of the tunnel!!!  I'm so thankful for the help we've received and for having an incredibly awesome husband working so hard on this place and even stopping to take me out on dates. 

We don't always see eye-to-eye on projects like this, but by pushing each other, I think things come out better in the end.  It's also so important for us to remember to take time out for each other so we get a break from the stress and a chance to reconnect.  Sometimes I'm envious of couples who seem to work so well together when it seems like such a chore for Randy and I to get along at times during large projects like this.  But I think we're learning how to strike a good balance.  :)  I'm grateful for a strong marriage on a strong Foundation and for the fact that despite all the stress, we haven't gone to bed angry with each other once during this process.  (It may help that we've each been able to wield a sledge-hammer at some point during the day while we demo!) ;)

Barbeque Chicken & Grilled Potato Packets
1 package chicken legs & thighs

1/2 cup barbeque sauce
olive oil
Tastefully Simple's bayou bourbon glaze
Tastefully Simple's sweet & smoky BBQ seasoning
4 large, red potatoes (1 per person)
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp stone-ground mustard (1/2 tsp per person)
salt, pepper

In a large ziploc bag, combine the chicken parts, the barbeque sauce, a drizzle of olive oil, the bourbon glaze, and a few sprinkles of the BBQ seasoning.  Close the bag and mix all of the ingredients together with your hands.  Let the chicken marinate in the mixture for an hour or 2 before putting them on the grill.
For the potatoes, set out 4 pieces of aluminum foil (1 piece per person you want to serve).  Dice the potatoes and place 1 diced potato on each piece of aluminum foil.  Equally distribute the finely chopped onion and mustard.  Season each serving with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.  To fold, make a tent with the foil and roll down the top.  Then fold in the sides.  Place the packets on the grill with the chicken.  If you don't leave room for steam to escape from the foil, the potatoes will cook faster as the steam will help soften them.  Serve with a salad on the side.

Day 219: Grilled Zucchini Paninis

I love using fresh summer vegetables!!!  And fresh off the grill, they taste even better!  For this recipe, I didn't rely solely on the grill.  I used a grill pan on the stove to cook the paninis.  This is because the cheese melts and you don't want that getting all over the grill--better to catch it in a grill pan on the stove.  But I did have Randy grill the zucchini outside and the chicken that I'll use in tomorrow night's dinner.

For 4 Grilled Zucchini Paninis:

Cut the ends off a zucchini and cut it in half.  Slice both halves lengthwise to make strips.  Brush the zucchini strips with olive oil and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Grill for about 2 minutes on each side.  Meanwhile, mix 8 oz ricotta cheese, the juice from 1 lemon, 2-4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, and a little salt and pepper.  Spread the mixture on 4 slices of hearty white or sourdough bread.  Layer on 2 strips of the grilled zucchini and top with another slice of bread.  Drizzle olive oil on a hot grill pan or panini press and grill the sandwiches, pressing down gently with a spatula.  Flip when ready.  Serve warm.

Day 218: Grilled Vegetable Tostadas (Meatless Monday)

In keeping with my meal calendar that I prepared a few weeks ago, one of my goals is to have a continual "Meatless Monday."  My reasons are because 1) it adds variety to the week's meals; 2) I can save a little on the grocery bill by not having to buy meat for every night of the week; and 3) it pushes my creativity in the kitchen.  This week we're having every meal prepared on the grill--Randy's early Christmas present.  So I came up with this grilled vegetable tostada idea.  I love it because you can really use whatever vegetables you like and you can make it in the winter too, if you roast the veggies in the oven rather than grilling them. 

I had Randy grill up some zucchini, summer squash, red pepper, and eggplant.  He also grilled the corn tortillas, as well.  He drizzled the veggies with olive oil as he grilled and then I seasoned everything with salt, pepper, and a few other southwestern seasonings when they were cooked and I could cut them into smaller pieces. 

We then took the tortillas and piled them high with the grilled vegetables, some cheddar jack cheese, and a dollop of sour cream.  They were so yummy!!!  Serve along with chips and salsa if desired.

Days 211-217: I can't even remember what we ate but I think I'm getting my sanity back (slowly)

Abby & Noah's completed bedroom!

So this week I think I'm recovering from self-pity.  My last post was all about Mommy Guilt and sort of feeling sorry for myself for experiencing so much of it and it also was describing the renovations and current state of our home.  Truthfully, I hadn't been excited about much because the home projects were consuming my life.  (They still are, to an extent.)  I don't think I ever expected to be quite so consumed--I think I just imagined that my life would carry on as normal once renovations started and the projects would just sort of be in the background of my daily routine with my children.  Quite the opposite is true.  The renovations seem to affect everything I do and they are in the forefront of my life, not the background.  But at some point, that had to change.  I'm a perfectionist, so I had it in my head that my routine could not carry on as usual until everything I wanted to get done was done and perfect. 

Opposite corner of their room.

I start "preschool" with Abby in 9 days and I wasn't even excited about it because our school room hasn't been touched.  It needs to be organized, stripped (wallpaper), painted, and re-organized and decorated.  But that will have to wait.  (Our kitchen table is currently in there as we wait for the kitchen to be completed.) And we will have to start school in an imperfect school room.  I will have to continue sleeping in an incomplete and disorganized bedroom and continue living in a boxed-up and nearly barren living room.  These rooms have not been touched yet as our main focuses have been the kids' room, the bathroom, the kitchen, and the second floor apartment as a whole.  All this to say that I am so grateful that I "snapped out" of my need for perfection before starting anything or jumping back into routine.  I am so excited to start school with Abby, I've begun meal-planning as usual again and house-ready or not, I'm thrilled to jump into my favorite season, autumn, with two feet and see where this year takes us!

The title of this post is accurate: I can't remember what I ate all week!  It's been such a whirlwind.  I mean, if I really sit down and think hard, I probably could remember.  I know we ordered out a bit and had turkey sandwiches.  I went out Tuesday night with a friend I'm getting to know so much better lately and we had a fantastic time!  My husband was supposed to be gone all day Friday and overnight into Saturday but surprised me by changing his mind at the last second and decided not to go but rather stay home and work on the house.  And, thank God he did, because it was a productive weekend and I don't know what would've got done without him!  He and I ordered from Outback Friday night for an in-house date. Saturday night was another fun night for me as a friend and I met up for appetizers at the 99.  Then on Sunday we had sandwiches for dinner.  The good news is that this week's meals will be much more thought-out (since they have already been planned) and homemade.  I bought Randy an early Christmas present over the weekend--a Forge Master 3-burner gas grill (with an extra burner on the side).  Having the grill makes meal planning much easier and life without a good stove much more bearable.  It will especially be helpful during the in-between time that our stove is disconnected and the new stove is put in.  We can only do heavy work on the weekends, so it's very possible that we will go a week without a stove in the house, but we'll see on that.

As far as house work that has been done this weekend, the main concentration has been the floor on the second level apartment.  Friday was spent picking up parts, assembling Randy's grill and his other new "toy"--a table saw.  Saturday the guys cut and screwed down the new ply wood and Sunday the tiles went down.  It's almost done!  I also got one more room completely painted upstairs and woke up early this morning and framed the final room.  My goal is to complete that one today.  As things are starting to come together upstairs and very slowly coming together downstairs, this week brings its own challenges as Randy heads back to work at his evening job.  I have goals for the house projects, and goals for my grill meals this week, but also more personal goals of getting back into a routine and letting go of what doesn't get done.  That may be the hardest goal to achieve. 

Tile that's going down on the second floor.

The Weekend (208, 209, 210): Chinese Food, Meatball Subs, Eating Out and House Projects

Someone recently described our current situation as "camping renovations" and I thought, Yep, that

Upstairs kitchen.  Ours looks pretty much the same.

pretty much describes it!  Though I had never put it that way in my head before.  Right now, I feel like we are functioning and surviving--not really living.  Sometimes I wonder if it will ever end.  Here are some project updates and my thoughts about our current situation...

You'll never be able to escape "Mommy Guilt."  It's all around us mothers and from what I've heard from other grandmothers, "Mommy Guilt" never goes away.  Ever.  Ever.  That's a scary thought because I've been experiencing some extreme Mommy Guilt lately.  And I'm going to keep capitalizing it because it's that extreme.  If you've never experienced Mommy Guilt then let me try to describe it, though I know my words won't do it justice.  Mommy Guilt is a constant pitt in your stomach telling you that you're doing things wrong, that somehow, some way, you're screwing up the life of your child.  You have no right path because in your mind they all end with your son or daughter resenting you for the rest of your life.  And as extreme and far-fetched as this might sound to someone who is not a mother, well, it is.  It is extreme and far-fetched, but that doesn't make the feeling any less real.  When you are under the spell of Mommy Guilt, all you do is wonder if you're making a mistake and wishing you could've or will remember to do things differently in the future.  Social media plays a HUGE roll in Mommy Guilt.  Articles are passed around (on my newsfeed, usually by non-mothers) written in accusation or judgment of other mothers or parents.  For those who read these articles, it leaves we who are prone to severe Mommy Guilt wondering: should I really be dressing my child in gender-neutral clothes (and where can I get those/what does that even look like); am I screwing my daughter up because I bought her a doll instead of a truck; what should my response really be when she wants me to give her a different colored sippy cup after I've already poured hers, her brother is screaming, and I have a headache; and why is my second child so different--do I treat them different or are they just that opposite of their sibling or what kind of combination of both???  And, will my kids grow up to hate me???  (Side note: as Christians, I think we need to tone down the parental judgment and passing around of judgmental articles.  I don't know any mother who wakes up WANTING to screw up their kid everyday.  All the mothers I know try their hardest and more to raise their kids.  Every mother is her own harshest critic and instead of "liking" a bunch of judgy articles, maybe we can vamp up the passing around of grace.)

Tearing down wall paper border in the upstairs living room.

I digress. ;)  My specific form of Mommy Guilt has been these stinking renovations and my inability to (or unwillingness to) do all the fun things I wish I was doing with my kids right now.  Sure, we've had plenty of fun beach and lake days, and we used to go to the park on a regular basis.  But now that we're in the new house, I haven't taken them to the park or the lake once.  I JUST washed our towels and bathing suits from our last (pre-move) lake day yesterday.  I've let the novelty of being in someplace new entertain my kids while I wash, paint, tape, paint, organize, paint, and... you get it.  But I think that novelty is wearing away.  I feel The Guilt whenever I work on the house while they're awake--I wonder if I'm forcing them to entertain themselves TOO much.  I know a little is okay, but I don't know when I'm crossing that line.  I feel guilty every minute of the time they're asleep that I'm NOT doing house work.  Is it wrong for me to watch my weekly hour-long show with a bowl of ice cream when I could be painting for an hour?  It feels like it is.  And don't even get me started on the kitchen/food situation.  I cook about half as much as I used to, if that.  I can blame it on the state of my current kitchen, but my guilt derives from the fact that I didn't plan ahead.  I think, "I should have 10 freezer meals ready to go and 10 more Crock-Pot recipes to use."  After both births of my children, I didn't have to cook for weeks due in part to 1) home-cooked delivered meals and 2) my own freezer meals that I made ahead.  Why didn't I think to do that this time?  Every time I don't cook or I feed my kids a less than balanced meal in our chaotic state, I feel guilty.  We don't have a kitchen table in the kitchen, so we usually eat in the office/playroom (where our table is set up).  But sometimes we just eat in the living room in front of the TV, and I feel guilty for that.  Our routine is so out of whack.  I've only been on one run since moving and I haven't gone to the gym yet.  More Guilt.  I know this is only temporary but The Guilt is so strong.  I pray that this burden can be lifted somehow, but as long as our house is "unfinished", I don't see The Guilt going away.  I don't mean to sound depressing, I am actually pretty content with the way things are coming along, and I am seeking the Peace of my Savior, but Mommy Guilt has it's own way of creeping up--it really has a life of its own.

I had a minor victory this weekend when I made meatball subs that my husband raved about.  The benefit was that we were able to have them twice in a row.  Friday night the kids had their own meal and Randy and I ate Chinese food while watching one of our shows on Netflix.  Then on Saturday, we worked on the house all day and had some help come along in the late afternoon.  I had my meatballs and sauce cooking in the Crock-Pot all day and for supper we all enjoyed some meatball subs with American cheese; chips, and veggies with dip.  Then on Sunday Randy and I and Noah (Abby was at a birthday party with my mom) had them for lunch.  Only that time, I was out of American cheese so I used fresh mozzarella.  Because mozzarella cheese is better melted (it gets nice and stringy as opposed to "spongy" when it's cold), I layered it on the sub rolls first and then stuck them under the broiler for a few seconds.  Then I put the meatballs on top and then more mozzarella.  Then back under the broiler until the cheese was nice and melted.  So yummy!!!

New cabinets residing in our porch.

Today, Monday (Day 211), I fed the kids their own supper of macaroni and butter (yep, another "guilt" meal) and Randy and I indulged in some of the nice cheeses and crackers that were given to us by our realtor along with some other finger food and wine after the kids had gone to bed.  We are also painting like mad men upstairs.  The goal is to have that apartment ready for September 1st.  Over the weekend I washed all of the walls and primed everything that needed it.  (The cabinets were blue and the upper part of the walls were blue.)  All of the hardware came off of EVERYTHING.  Some of the trim has been started, and I started painting the cabinets and the kitchen walls.  Randy painted the bathroom.

Progress!

Today I finished the cabinets and finished the kitchen/hallway walls.  I also had 3 showings of the apartment.  I managed to not only find a plumber but he came to the house to do an assessment and he also does electrical work and will be back on Friday to replace some light fixtures.  Score!  Overall, it felt like a very productive day.  Did I mention that I took the kids grocery shopping and to Dunkin' Donuts where we sat inside to eat our donuts and drink (my) coffee?  That was our treat for the day.

I have a very busy week ahead of me with appliance deliveries, plumbing and electrical work being done, I want to continue painting upstairs, and Randy and I are supposed to demolish our kitchen this week so the floors can go in over the weekend.  It looks like my only appointment-free day will be Thursday so pray for sun--I desperately need to take my kids to the park or lake!

Abby likes to peel the wall paper in a room I can't even think about touching yet!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Day 206: Spinoccoli Calzones (vegetarian)

For Wednesday (Day 206), Randy had asked me to make vegetarian calzones for a luncheon he was having at work.  Remember from my last post how I mentioned I had been up at 11:00 one night making a cake and the next night making calzones?  Bingo.  Here you go.  Randy wanted about 15 calzones to bring to work and the frozen dinner rolls I buy come in bags of 12, so I sent him with 16 vegetarian ones, and then made 8 of my easy sausage calzones for our dinner Wednesday night.  I had the sauce simmering in the Crock-Pot all evening on Tuesday night while I was in CT with the girls.  When I returned from our nice dinner (and after getting stuck in stopped traffic on the MA pike for 3 miles) it was time to make calzones!

You know how the sausage ones are made, and you just follow the link above.  The filling for the Spinoccoli Calzones (for 24) is as follows:

1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil
1 large or 2 small bunches of broccoli, chopped
1 cup of spinach, chopped
32 oz ricotta cheese
8 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
1 egg
salt, pepper
sprinkle of basil (dry or fresh)
sprinkle of oregano
sprinkle of parsley
1 egg + water for egg wash

Start with the onion and garlic and drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent.  Add the vegetables to cook just a bit until the spinach starts to wither.  Turn off the heat.  If your skillet is large enough, you can make the filling in the skillet, otherwise you can transfer to a large bowl.  Combine the vegetables with the ricotta, mozzarella, and egg and mix well.  Add in the salt, pepper, and herbs to taste.  Fill the flattened dinner rolls as usual and use the egg wash on top.  Baking is the same, in a 400* oven for 10-15 minutes.
Sorry there's no picture!  I baked them Wednesday morning and let Randy take them out of the oven before work.  Neither one of us remembered to capture any step with the camera!  Next time, since they were so delicious I will have to make them again...

Thursday was Day 207 and we had dinner at our friends' house right around the corner!  For dessert, I made my double chocolate cookies.  Yum!

Ladies' Dinner & A Look Back on College (Days 203, 204, 205)

What have you been doing the past few nights at 11:00?  Sleeping?  Reading?  Watching TV?  Baking a cake?  Making calzones?  Those last two were me... how I spent the past couple of nights.  And tonight, I'll be blogging.  I'm putting down my paint roller and cooking utensils and picking up a glass of chardonnay and thinking about college days.

1st time at Alexa's parents' house.

Lauren & I in Ireland

Last night, two of my college friends and I had dinner together.  The three of us were very good friends in college and even though they both married brothers and live just one street over from each other, they have stayed in contact with me--who lives an hour and a half away--which I so appreciate!  And what's even nicer is that we can get together with our husbands occasionally, too, which is always fun.  When we have girls' dinners, we have real dinners.  Alexa was my roommate and Lauren was a good friend of both of us and the three of us lived together in a town house our senior year.  If it wasn't for Alexa keeping the Food Network on our dorm TV almost 24/7, I may never have developed such a love and passion for food and cooking!  I still remember when the three of us used to sleep over Alexa's parents' house in Connecticut and we would have fantastic food and her dad would get so excited to have Spanish wine and Colombian coffee to serve.  (I traveled abroad to Spain and as most know, am an avid coffee drinker--Lauren and Alexa weren't so much.) 
:)  Though Alexa was my roommate, Lauren and I had our own grand adventure in Europe.  After my semester in Spain, I traveled around Europe a little on my own and Lauren flew out to join me in Ireland and we toured the beautiful countryside and England and then flew home together.

Alexa & I at graduation

Lauren & I ("co-maids-of-honor") at Alexa's wedding

Alexa was married first, only a few short months after we graduated from college.  I got married the next year and Lauren, two years after that. 

Lauren, Alexa, & their better halves at Randy & my wedding

We now all have our own lives, husbands, homes, and teaching careers (though mine just ended) and still make an effort to get together to catch up as often as possible.  You know you're a teacher on summer break when your ladies' night is a Tuesday.

Alexa & I and other college grads at Lauren's wedding

Our dinners are delicious; complete with an appetizer, full main course, dessert, and wine.  Lovely food and friendships!  It's crazy to think (as Lauren pointed out) that we've officially been out of college for longer than we were in college.  Hopefully we can remain in contact for just as long in the future.

Now to the food.  Lauren made a delectable appetizer of spinach and artichoke tartlets.  Delicious little bites!  Alexa prepared a Ree Drummond recipe of twice baked potatoes, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts stuffed with garlic and herbs, and broccoli.

I used the night to test out a new recipe I'm writing for lemon-blueberry cake with lavender frosting.  I'd like this cake to be served at my grandmother's 80th birthday this year, so I'm playing around with it now.  I don't have measurements for the frosting complete yet, so I'll hold off on sharing the recipe, but it'll be a great one!  Stay tuned.

To catch you up on the past couple of days, Sunday was Randy's family reunion.  I made my broccoli salad to bring.  Monday was the first day of Vacation Bible School at our church, so it's been a busy week.  Randy also had a meeting that night so I just made hearty salads in pita pockets for the kids and I (in keeping with my "Meatless Monday" theme from my menu calendar which you can find here). 

Here's to family, friends, food, and wine! :)

Day 201 & 202: Shared Dinner Menu, Mexican take-out, & kitchen shopping!

I woke up yesterday morning with a plan to make meatballs and sauce for meatball subs for dinner.  I really didn't feel like making meatballs.  Have I mentioned how disfunctional my kitchen is right now???  So I convinced Randy that Saturday night would be the better night for meatball subs, telling myself that I would make the meatballs last night and cook them today.  That didn't happen.  Will we actually have meatball subs at some point this week?  Time will tell.

It's been one week since we closed on the house we are living in.  In that time, I have not completed a single room.  But what I have done is: removed wallpaper from the bathroom and main part of the house, washed the walls of the main living area, bathroom, and kids' room, painted almost all of the trim, painted the bathroom, kids' room, and have had the kitchen/main living area painted with one coat--still needs one more.  We've switched out the hardware in the bathroom, changed door knobs on four doors, and are currently putting the kids' curtains and animal net up.  The bathroom is also mostly done; it just needs a few more decorative items and won't be fully complete until the floor of the kitchen/hall/bath is done.  I've also started removing the hardware from the upstairs apartment, which I am also re-doing before we get a renter up there.  As anyone who has done a fair amount of painting will say, it's not the actual painting that's a pain, it's the prepping.  Remove all the hardware, wash the walls, tape, trim, THEN get out the roller and load on a coat of paint.  Phew!!!  And it's a good thing for child-proof gates!  Those have been super helpful at keeping my kiddos away from any wet paint.  Only yesterday did Abby (yes, purposefully) touch some wet paint.  I'd say one incident out of 6 days is not bad!

Things are starting to come together.  I've decided that we need to completely "gut" our kitchen.  This will be an especially fun project as my husband and brother-in-law are really looking forward to the task!  We have my husband's good friend who is a truly humble expert and so fun to work with as our "foreman."  I'll definitely post pictures of that process as it unfolds!  Yesterday was shopping day for the kitchen as Marko and I and my brother-in-law, Eric, went to a couple stores to look at cabinets, countertops, flooring, and appliances.  I bought some sample tile and back-splash and am so excited for the end result!  After such a busy day, Randy and I ordered take-out from Happy Jacks in Leominster.  Randy also made some killer margaritas.  Although he used my classic recipe, I swear it tasted better just because he's the one who made them.  I like to call him the "doctor" of mixology.

A good friend of mine stopped by yesterday to watch the kids for me while I went shopping for a new kitchen.  She's a teacher and she asked me if it was weird that I'm not planning my classroom or getting ready for school this year.  Things have been so chaotic at home right now, that I honestly haven't given it much thought.  But the truth is, I'm at such peace with my decision that no, it's really not that weird.  In fact, I am gearing up for a year of staying at home with my children (potentially full or part-time).  Abby will be starting preschool with me this year and I'll have my hands full with household projects, I'm sure.  To help keep myself organized, I like to have a schedule.  This includes a general meal-plan.  I've never had a problem planning suppers.  But the task of planning lunches and breakfasts and snacks and keeping them healthy and varietal seems daunting to me.  So I came up with a handy menu for every week that can simply be adjusted and specified to meet the needs of the week at hand, but provides enough structure so that planning the weekly grocery list is not an hour-long chore.  I've already been asked by a few friends for the menu, so I'm sharing it here.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_4JDFBgdAuwOHY0QV9tcmlKRms/edit?usp=sharing

The breakfasts and dinners are very generalized to allow for more specific and different meals to be prepared each week.  For instance, when it says "eggs" this could mean scrambled, fried over toast, hard-boiled, quiche, egg sandwich, etc.  "Meatless/Mexican/Italian/Seafood" can mean a variety of things and Sunday lunch isn't designated because for me, this is where I like to get creative and it's my "whatever we're in the mood for" meal.  Some Sundays I like a hearty soup, stew, or roasted chicken.  Other Sundays we go out, or are at a gathering of some sort.

I am already so excited about how this menu will help keep me structured while staying at home and ease the anxiety of writing out a grocery list each week.  I hope you find it useful, too!

Tomorrow we have a family reunion in CT and I'll be writing about what I make to bring there.  The upcoming week will be filled with some new recipes, struggles with finding my rhythm in the tight kitchen, and a few planned dinners with friends where I'll be making different desserts.  

Sorry everyone!  I realized that I advertised a week of Crock-Pot meals and then didn't deliver.  The closing date on our house changed about 3 times and the short story is that we closed with about 1 day's notice and moved the day after that.  I thought I would have time to perfect some of the recipes I experimented with before actually moving, but that didn't end up being the case. 

I am living in the midst of chaos right now as I try to unpack and paint 2 apartments all at once.  It's not the painting that gets you, of course, it's the washing of the walls, the prepping, the trimming, etc.  That mixed with the fact that I have two tiny ones to take care of, and a non-functional kitchen at the moment makes day-to-day living, well, challenging.  Okay, so my kitchen technically functions.  That is to say, the refrigerator and stove both work and so does the microwave we are currently keeping in the porch.  However, there is barely any countertop space, the stove is teeny-tiny, the cabinets hang too low, and... it's just plain ugly.  We are renovating it ASAP.  Starting tomorrow, actually.  So I haven't unpacked any of my kitchen items or put anything in any of the cabinets. 

Starting work on the upstairs apartment.  Hope to post "before" and "after" pics soon!

On top of the that, our internet wasn't hooked up in our new home until today.  So please excuse my absence.  Today is Day 200.  I can't believe I have been doing this for about 200 days!!!  (Even though I may not technically blog everyday.)  Some of you may know that I am starting my own catering company.  With that, I have a new website that I hope to launch in the fall.  It will have a blog of its own that will still be about cooking, but also about much more.  I figured since I will not be doing as much cooking in the next couple of days or weeks as normal, I may as well use this time to give you a taste of that.  I will still keep track of our meals during this time, but I will also blog about the renovations, the apartment fixing-up, home school preparations, and adjusting to stay-at-home life in general.  I hope you enjoy it!

Slow-Cooker Teryaki Salmon BEFORE it's cooked.

With that, let me give you a brief recap of the past week and a half.  Days 191 through 200 went by with no formal documentation.  I tried some new slow-cooker recipes and some were wildly successful and others were not.  We've done take-out quite a bit in order to help keep my sanity, as well.  During this time, I made a good teryaki salmon meal in the Crock Pot, but I haven't perfected that recipe yet.  There is one recipe, however, that was so good, I made it twice already and had to share it tonight!  I'll call it, Slow-Cooker Chicken Gnocchi.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Gnocchi
If you like chicken gnocchi soup (like, from the Olive Garden) or if you like lemon chicken, this recipe is for you!  And it's so simple!

1 lb chicken breasts (with skin or without)
olive oil
salt, pepper
zest and juice of 2 lemons
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
6 sprigs fresh thyme, de-stemmed
1/2 cup white wine
1 package gnocchi (not frozen)
2 handfuls of fresh spinach

Place the chicken breasts in a greased slow-cooker.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle in some salt and pepper.  Add the zest and juice of 2 lemons and the minced garlic.  Sprinkle in the herbs and add the white wine.  Cook on high for about 3 hours.  When there is about a half hour left in your cooking time, add the gnocchi and spinach.  Cook for the remaining 30 minutes.  Serve immediately.

I've been "trapped" in this house for the past week, devoting my days to painting.  It's fun, I love this kind of stuff, but it hasn't felt like "me" because I haven't been doing anything that I usually do.  I haven't been able to cook the way I want, I haven't been able to blog, and I'm in new surroundings and even sleeping on the opposite side of the bed--with new sheets!!!  Nothing feels familiar.  But tonight I went to a Pampered Chef party and spent time with some wonderful lady friends of mine and I think I laughed most of the night.  I finally felt like me again.  And it felt good to put on something other than painting clothes.  I'm glad to be back to blogging hope to be sharing new recipes from a nice, new kitchen shortly!  I'll keep you updated on how the renovation is going and other things.  It's sad that summer is flying by so quickly, I hope you all have a fantastic new few weeks of summer!