There are a lot of articles and blog posts out there telling you what you do and don't need to do to prepare for a baby.  I'm going to add something to that list because, well, it was a life saver right after I had Katherine over four years ago.

Freezer meals.

I remember reading about stocking the freezer with meals that can be popped into the oven for a nice home cooked meal once the "stopping by to see the baby" meals stop. 

Last time, I headed to Sam's Club to buy frozen casseroles by the bulk to have post baby, as well as making a few of my own concoctions. 

This time, I've stocked our basement freezer with meals and desserts from recipes online.

I've used this recipe for Meat Sauce, which can be used on spaghetti or on garlic toast. 

I also made Lasagna Roll Ups, Mexican Tortilla Casserole, and Baked Ziti, all wrapped tightly in disposable pans with baking instructions written on the outside. 

After the baby has arrived, we will clearly need cookies.  So I made chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and peanut butter oatmeal monster cookies and froze them for a quick snack or dessert.  Make sure to flash freeze the cookies before actually packing them in freezer bags.  I froze the sugar cookies in log form so they can be sliced and baked later. 

Freezing meals and cookies can also come in handy when you want to share a dish with someone in need or if you have unexpected dinner guests. 

In our upstairs freezer, I've made smoothie packs for post baby.  More about that in the last blog post. 

All was going well until Jason discovered the stash of food and snacks in the basement freezer.  It will be hard keeping him out of them for the next 8 weeks. 

There are a lot of smoothie recipes floating around in Internet space, most of which are complete duds in my opinion.  Lots of Pinterest fails. 

I recently got on a smoothie kick, wanting a "healthy" morning or afternoon pick-me-up while also getting in some fruits and vegetables.

These two smoothie recipes via Pinterest really hit the mark in my opinion:

This Raspberry Lime Smoothie tastes like a slush.  No kidding.  I used this limeade recipe to make this smoothie. 

For something a little more decadent, try this Banana Cream Pie Smoothie.  Even Katherine liked it.

Runners up were this Cake Batter Protein Shake and this Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Smoothie. 

I'm also a big fan of freezer smoothie packs.  There are tons of recipes for these out there, it's just about finding the right recipe and taste.  Smoothies were an excellent snack for me, until my pregnancy diet took a turn for the scandalous.  But that's another story for another day.

What's your favorite smoothie recipe? 

I'm excited to finally share the details of Katherine's 4th birthday party from last weekend.  She requested an Elena of Avalor party, so I went all out with a taco bar, chips with homemade guacamole, salsa, and pico de gallo, and a make-your-own-margarita bar. 

Katherine had a four layer homemade birthday cake and cupcakes, and Elena decorations galore (thanks to Party City).

{Elena cupcake toppers}

{Katherine's birthday shirt}

Oh how I love throwing a birthday party, but boy was I tired after this one was over.  I would like to give a BIG thank you to everyone who came to celebrate our four-year-old!  She had a ball and I hope everyone else did too. 

Recipes: guacamole, pico del gallo, watermelon pico de gallo, salsa (old recipe, but similar here)


(Links to Katherine's 1st birthday, 2nd birthday, and 3rd birthday)

So the Super Bowl was last night, and one of Jason's favorite things to do during the game is eat.  He made his preferred list of goodies last week, and I spent a bit of Sunday afternoon preparing said food items. 

We had a quiet Super Bowl party at home, and even with just the three of us, the football dishes we got as wedding gifts 10 years ago came in handy yet again. 

Pretzel Bites - recipe

Pizza Sticks - recipe

Buffalo Style Hot Wings (I used any'tizers - similar recipe here)

My pizza sticks didn't turn out very pretty, but they tasted great and Katherine loved them.  She also loved our "party" of three. 

The Super Bowl is the "national holiday" that I just don't get that excited about.  Oh well.  Everyone enjoyed themselves; Jason in the basement watching the game and Katherine upstairs watching PJ Masks. 

I love to bake.  I do it a lot.  So I'm pretty excited when the holidays come along and I can bake my little heart out. 

Pies are one of my favorite things to bake.  I can sometimes see myself as Jenna from Waitress (minus the horrible home life and job), creating and baking pies all day.

Here are some of my favorite pies to make around the holidays:

I've made this apple pie in the past, but lately this recipe is my personal favorite and the clear winner around my house. 

I love this peppermint pie, but I think I'm the only one in my family that likes peppermint so it doesn't get made often.

This peanut butter fudge pie is always a favorite at family gatherings. 

For the past couple of years, instead of the peanut butter fudge pie, I've made a chocolate pie.  It's been a big hit with my family (except for Jason who only likes apple pie or cherry pie).  This year I'm going to attempt to make mini chocolate pies. 

I could probably skip the Thanksgiving meal and go straight for dessert.  But I won't. 

For a fun summer pie, try this one.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We've made crazy bark (recipe here) a lot in the past, and it's always a good time for me and Katherine.  We decided to make Halloween crazy bark this week, but I was having trouble finding the chocolate graham crackers required for the recipe.  (Which is weird because I used to be able to find them everywhere, but after going to five different stores.....nothing.)

So I found this recipe on Pinterest for homemade chocolate graham crackers, and it turned out so much better than the store bought kind!   I'll probably just make the graham crackers from now on because they were so good, and so easy to make.

So, I give you:

This is a super easy recipe and is great to do with kids because they just pile a bunch of random candies on to the melted chocolate.  If your child is like mine, they'll pile everything up in the middle of the pan and you'll have to spread things out when they're not looking. 

I used the homemade chocolate graham crackers (but you can use store bought if you can find them) and white almond bark.  For our toppings we used "fall" M&M's, roasted peanuts, Halloween Oreos, sour gummy worms, candy eyeballs, and Halloween sprinkles.






Once the bark had chilled in the fridge, and the chocolate and toppings had set, I broke up the pieces.  This stuff is like crack. 



Happy sugar coma!

When Jason is working nights, it gives Katherine and I (mainly me) a chance to eat things we normally wouldn't get to try when he's home for meals.  Jason's not an overly picky eater, but....no.  Actually he is.  But I digress. 

We usually just go with the flow when Jason's not home for dinner.  We can do anything.  Occasionally we drive through somewhere or pick up take out from one of our favorite places.  Most often though, we have a homemade dinner at home.  Just the two of us.   

Sometimes we try something new.  Like the night I just threw some stuff in a bowl and called it "Burrito/Taco Bowl."  This bowl contained ground beef (you could also use ground turkey) with taco spices, grilled green and red bell peppers, avocado, steamed brussel sprouts, and cheese in a wheat tortilla. 

Some nights it's as easy as pancakes.  On this night, we had chocolate chip pancakes with a side of eggs.

Another night I made orange chicken (recipe) and chow mein (recipe). 

I've recently become acquainted with our outdoor grill.  While I usually let Jason so all of the grilling, it's nice to grill up something when he's away.  Grilling fruit is my new "thing."  I made this grilled chicken and watermelon salad the other night, which also included feta cheese, sliced almonds, and Greek yogurt cucumber dressing. 



One of our favorite things to make is slow cooker mac and cheese (using this recipe).  It's super easy, as with most slow cooker meals, but it does make a lot of mac and cheese.  We usually have tons left over.


While it's nice to have the freedom to do whatever at dinnertime, it's always great to have Jason back home for dinners during day shifts. 

We've been in full "Fourth" mode this week, despite all of the rain we've had.  I hope it dries out just long enough for us to have a fun Fourth of July. 

Since it's been kind of rainy, I've been busy inside making festive desserts for us to have this week. 

Here are some of our favorite summertime treats:

Angel food cake with strawberries and homemade whipped cream.  Angel food cake is surprisingly easy to make.  You can find a box mix at the grocery store, or use a homemade recipe. 

Speaking of strawberries, a good ol' fashioned white chocolate dipped strawberry with festive sprinkles is always a big hit around here. 

It's been one of those weeks around here, so a nice glass of wine is almost a necessity.  Why not make it festive with a Fire Cracker Popsicle?

We had a cookout at my parents' house over the weekend, so I made an ice cream cake to bring for dessert.  This was actually pretty easy to make but looked like it was a professional job.
 
One of my all-time favorite Fourth of July treats is this pie I made last year.  I was sure it was going to be an epic fail, but it turned out to be a Pinterest win.  

I bought a huge package of party poppers this week at Sam's Club so that Katherine can have some Fourth of July fun without having to actually light anything on fire.  It came with 500 pieces of popper fun, and I'm surprised to say we've already almost gone through the whole package.  Oh well. 

Happy Fourth of July!