Haven in a bite~

So... this pregnancy is making me a foodie. The only problem with trying to be a foodie and being an army wife at the same time is- WE'RE POOR! So, in order to satisfy some ridiculous flavor cravings, I've had to budget, plan ahead, and be inventive with whatever spices are in my cupboard. (I know, everyone does this already... but I'll admit a certain type of laziness that usually has me supplementing dinner with a box of _________).

Today, I've created Heaven in a bite.

I live on allrecipes.com most of the day. I'm on a 'lets try something new for dinner' kick. I've discovered Braised Basalmic Chicken- manda style.

You can look it up, or you can do it like I did- it's totally worth it!!

2 chicken breasts
1 med onion
1 tbs olive oil
Garlic powder
Pepper
2 cans diced tomatoes (drain one, leave the other juicy)
1/4 cup basalmic vinegar
1 tbs oregano
1 tbs basil
1 tbs rosemary

Thaw your chicken and cut into cubes. Slice your onion into thin, long chunks (or however you prefer your onions- not super diced). Sauté in a pan over med-heat with the olive oil, sprinkling pepper and garlic on chicken while cooking. In a separate bowl, combine tomatoes, vinegar, and spices- stir together to let the tomatoes absorb the flavors. (I'm also somewhat on a garlic kick, and added some freshly minced garlic to the tomatoes as well). Once your onions have softened and are turning clear, add tomato mixture in with the chicken, and simmer until chicken is fully cooked and juices are reduces- about 10 minutes ish. Serve over rice, spaghetti, angel hair pasta, or your favorite noodle- Green beans pair nicely with these meal too.

I'm going to go and stuff my face now. That is all.

Transitions~

It's been a busy week! (And it's only Wednesday!)

This week I had my first official FRG meeting with my co-chair and the "Uppers." Well.. Upper. Captain D was there in the beginning, and then left to take care of some military business while we (the women) handled our meeting :)

Guess I should tell you what the FRG is... The Family Readiness Group is basically visiting teaching for the army. We are the group that takes care of the families, making sure they have the resources they need, are aware of company activities and travel/training schedules, and any other little thing they need to keep the morale up for them and their soldier. We're pretty much the support group, but have major assisting duties during deployments- and are the information distributers from army command to the families.

I'm excited to be able to be a part of the FRG- and now I'll know anything should anything happen the fastest (you know that's one of the reasons I'm all over this!), but I like helping too.

Ya, I know.. I needed another thing to add to my crazy life! You think that between the pregnancy, Sariah, Chad, mom stuff, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and being a full time student I'd have enough on my plate... but I didn't!!

Well, in other news, I took Christmas down today. What?! Christmas was THREE WEEKS AGO! Yes, yes... but the tree served as the perfect night light so I could wander around in the middle of the night, and it was really pretty, and there was the sentimental value of this holiday season~ See two posts ago~ So I took it down. And put it in it's box. And told Chad to put it in the closet. Away... for 12 months... sigh~

I am amazing this week, truly, I'm awesome. And I'm patting myself on the back. I ordered my new sewing machine. It's been a long time coming. I've spent weeks (literally) debating which one to get. I've spent those same weeks hoarding the gift cards from Sears. Chad kept looking at me- JUST GET THE MACHINE ALREADY! I told him no, I was holding out for the gift card that I knew was coming (Thanks military support fans!! We're so grateful!!). I'm glad I saved them, because I only paid $6.00 for a $200.00 machine. Yes, patting myself on my back :) I got the confirmation email this morning "Your item has shipped!" Made me very happy. It will be here next week. Hopefully I'll finish my sisters quilt soon. I've been trying to avoid looking at it, because it needs doing and I can't do it!!

Chad has a four day this weekend, we're going to go out with his Sgt. to celebrate his recent promotion. OH YA! CHAD GOT PROMOTED! Early! I'm so proud of him. He had high remarks from his leadership because he is such a super HOOAH soldier! I got to pin his new rank on him, and he kissed me in front of all the other soldiers- caused quite a ruckus.. you know how men are.. hoots and hollers, cat calls and whistles.  And then Captain took us to lunch (it was a lunch meeting for me and my co-chair, but it was still nice!).

I measured the belly this week. I should have done it in the beginning, but you'll just have to trust me. Once upon a time, I was skinny. I was so skinny that my perfectly shaped waist was 27" around. But.. that was a very long time ago. About 6 years ago actually.. If memory serves me right. But in more recent measurements- About 6 months ago, I had a 33-34'' waist. 6 hours ago, it was 47''. I think something must be growing. It got me thinking "How far am I?" See, I generally have things of this nature scheduled. But with everything else happening lately, I've lost track. So I went online and looked it up. I knew I was almost in my third trimester- two more weeks and I'll be there officially. But, when I looked it up today, my magic tracking site informer me that I had 100 days left. I thought that was pretty cool. 100 days is not a long time. I can do this. So long as Chad keeps rubbing my back and hips every other night. The hip dysplacia has been acting up, but I'm doing my exercises, so it's not killer! Chad laughs at me most evenings when I do the exercises, apparently I'm somewhat awkward looking in a squatting position.

I just saw an old spice commercial. 'Should you're man smell like an old spice man?' YES! Sorry.. I blame the pregnancy for my tangential thinking pattern.

That is all for now. 'Gangster Paradise' is now stuck in my head. Thank you Seth Rogan and 'The Green Hornet.'

Chili

I have this habit of not feeling like anything sounds good for dinner. Usually in this situation, I call my mom, and she tells me what to make- It works for me. I don't have to think, just do. And I can do, and do do, most of the time. Yesterday was the exception. Nothing she suggested sounded good. Nothing I found in the cupboards sounded good. But eventually, we came up with something worth eating.. Homemade from scratch Cornbread and Chili. I know, sounds great right?!! Well, I looked in my freezer, and I had some sausage. I looked in my pantry, and I had some kidney beans, stewed tomatoes, corn, and tomato paste. I added some other good stuff for flavor- and found a whole new corn bread recipe (the last one I tried was blah.. too bitter and not sweet enough for our tastes! So here you go- clean out your pantry chili and yummy cornbread!

Chili

1lb Jimmy Dean Sausage- Hot
1 small- medium onion, chopped
1 can Red Kidney Beans (drained)
1 can Whole Kernel Corn (drained)
1 can Stewed Tomatoes (undrained)
1 can Condensed Tomato Soup
1 can Tomato Paste (those small cans.. I know, I should look up ounces and what not...)
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 squirts Ketchup (so probably around 2 Tbsp or so)
2 quick squirts Mustard (mustard squirts and ketchup squirts are NOT EQUAL! = 1 tbsp(ish) mustard)
1-2 tsp Red Pepper (we like chipotle red pepper, it gives it a nice kick/after burn/smokey feeling)
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Salt

So.. This is what was in my pantry yesterday. Brown the sausage and add the onion while browning (the onion is the only other thing that actually needs to cook!) Once browned, add in the cans- Beans, Corn, Tomatoes, Soup, Paste. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Turn down to a simmer, and start adding the rest of the flavor. Use caution on the mustard- a little bit goes a long long way. Salt and Pepper to taste, the spices are all tinker-able.

Cornbread

2/3 cup Butter or margarine, softened
1 cup Sugar
3 Eggs (beaten)
1 2/3 cups Milk
2 1/3 cups All-purpose Flour
1 cup Cornmeal
4 1/2 tsp Baking Poweder
1 tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and milk, mix in well. Add the rest of the ingredients, combining well. Pur mixture into greased pan, and put in the oven for 22-27 minutes (make sure that the bread is all the way cooked through by sticking a toothpick or knife in the middle- when it comes out clean, it's done!)

Now, if you were smart about it, you'd do the bread first, since the prep work takes the longest- and you can make the chili while the bread cooks.

Some of you might argue that true chili doesn't have meat in it.. well... tough luck! I like the sausage in my chili, and it gave it just the right consistency that probably would have been missing had it not been added! So there. Nay-say all you want. It was good!

Enjoy!

2011

Lets face it: I'm a terrible blogger.

Our future Beauty Queen!

No, no, I really am. I'm inconsistent and don't have much to say most days, except how Sariah has accomplished something new- which is great, since I know my mom is one of those four followers and needs to know everything my baby accomplishes! Well, this post really isn't any different. I'm going to brag about my baby.

Sariah went to Nursery for the very first time yesterday. I know she's not old enough, she technically has one more month before they'll let her stay without a parent. But it was a big deal for this tired and pregnant mom. Church has become increasing hard to sit through, mostly because this little boy in my tummy is seriously killing my hips. But the energy it takes to keep Sariah somewhat hap and almost quiet is usually more than I can handle on my own. Luckily, Chad is here to save the day! He's such a good dad! Always willing to take her out or get on the ground and play with her! The nursery leaders are wonderful- and I'm sure that Sariah is going to have such a good time in there! We're very lucky, one of the leaders tries to teach the kids sign language, especially those who aren't speaking very much yet. I've taken the opportunity to restart and reinforce Sariah's signing (previously a very unsuccessful venture in parenthood for me!). Something has happened. She understands. She repeats what I do, AND SHE DOES IT ON HER OWN NOW! All of this makes me really excited and lets me know, I'm not a failure as a momma!

Sariah signing 'Love'

Sariah doesn't have a lot that she can sign, but in one week, she's learned how to say 'love,' 'more,' and 'cup.' She's also a book-a-holic. I have no idea where that characteristic came from at all! Ha.

She made out like a bandit at Christmas, and now keeps herself occupied while I find the time to go back to my crafts.

Recently, I've been working on a quilt for my sister. It's insane. It's killed my machine. The quilt is now on hold, until I can afford to replace the machine. I'm having some serious sewing withdrawal. So to make up for the lack of a major project to undertake, my wonderful mother in law sent me some yarn to make an afghan with. Now, I'm kept busy, Sariah is kept busy.. and Chad.. well.. Chad works.

The Growling Daddy monster catching his prey!

Chad works a lot. But the last two weeks have been quite the treat for us. He's been home more than he's been gone! Two 'four days' for the holidays that don't count against us in vacation time have made this holiday season great for us. I'm so glad he was able to be home, since the last two years we've either been traveling (and we didn't have Sariah), or we've been separated. When Chad's not working.. well, he does man things- he eats dinner when I get around to making it, he sleeps on the couch when his tummy is full, and he does all my laundry and dishes because I don't. I know. I'm spoiled. It's true. He also comes home and chases Sariah around while making growling monster noises. A very Dad thing to do, and Sariah loves it. I want to just bottle her laughter when he catches her for rainy days. (There's a lot of those here!).

2011 is only a couple days old, but already we're preparing for some changes. We've only got 14-16 weeks left before Baby Boy Nunes makes his debut. Ok- now that I've seen written I might start to panic. Dang. I don't have enough time. Well, I do, but it doesn't look like a lot. We're also currently debating whether or not Washington is going to be home for another three years. I'm thinking yes... maybe... We'll see what the army declares, and we'll survive wherever we end up. But I'm kind of hoping we stay.

Well, this is how we've opened out new year. We're going to add to our family, hopefully settle further into our home, and continue to stay happy!