Chocolate, peanut butter, sugar, oh my....

I'm not much of a dessert woman, nor am I a baker so I guess it works out. However, I wanted to do something nice for my neighbors and in the spirit of Thanksgiving decided to make some easy, delicious morsels for them to enjoy, hoping that the sugar rush and buttery intoxication comes in handy the next time they are awoken by a small shrieking animal (( aka my child )) at 3am. 

Mission accomplished. 

I've had these treats before, they consist of chocolate, peanut butter, sugar, sugar, and rice krispies. On the company website they call these "scotchees" or something. I call them a little bar of heaven. 

Pssst, they are vegan too... if you use proper dark chocolate like I didn't. Oops, guess mama gets to eat all the left overs... sorry Nolan.


Now all I need is for Starbucks and Total Wine to deliver a soy, skinny vanilla latte and some red blends and I'll be set for Turkey Day... which I am also doing vegan style. Wait for that post after I've come out of my food-coma. 

Here is the recipe. Did I mention you don't even bake these?!?!?!?

You're welcome.

 

What you need

3/4 cup of light corn syrup

3/4 cup of sugar

3/4 cup of peanut butter (or almond butter)

4 1/2 cups of puffed rice cereal 

8 oz chocolate chips

What you need to do

1. line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper, letting extra hang over the sides

2. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup together over medium heat, stirring frequently until it reaches a boil. Once this happens remove from heat

3. Add peanut butter or almond butter and stir until smooth

4. Add rice cereal and mix it up until everything is covered in gooey wonderful-ness

5. Press the rice-sugar mix into the pan, making sure it reaches the sides and is pressed firmly down

6. In a microwave safe bowl zap the chocolate in the microwave at 50% heat for 30 second intervals stirring after each trip. Once the chocolate is blended smoothly pour over the top and let it cool to room temp

7. To cut into bars hold the extra parchment paper, lift the treats out and try not to eat them all yourself :-P

ENJOY!

Happy Father's Day, Mom.

There is something truly special about being a single parent; for one, he prefers me over anyone else (( although my dad is a close second )). There isn't any parent preference because, well, I'm both. Likewise, if I make us dinner and it is really gross, the only person who really knows it sucks is me and I'm so hungry anyway I eat it regardless. Whether Nolan likes it or not doesn't matter because he eats anything and what he doesn't eat ends up on the floor anyway.

Another awesome part is having a  walk-in closet all to myself, but really, that has nothing to do with Nolan and has everything to do with a particular clothes hoarding problem that a particular person has. Not pointing fingers though....

 I am able to get to know my child as a dad and as a mom. He watches and helps me clean but we also play a game called crash-bang where we throw cars at the wall. I know it isn't the most responsible game to be teaching a toddler but he laughs his ass off and I love to hear that belly giggle.

Most of all, he teaches me things, like how awesome and not-scary it is to be alone.

Now I'm not suggesting that I hate being attached to a small minion all day, I do the work that I do so I can be around him and not have him in daycare. What I am saying is, before I had Nolan I HATED doing things outside of my house alone. It felt awkward and weird. 

Forget eating alone, I would have rather purchased take-out and sat alone in my car while listening to NPR because no one gets you through a sandwich quite like Diane Rehm.  See a movie by myself?? NO WAY. The thought of not sharing popcorn might have been tempting but there is no way in hell I would have uttered "one for ________" to a movie theater employee and not felt like he or she was laughing at the loser going to see Avatar alone.

Fast-forward to today....

I itch at the opportunity to do things by myself. I'll skip up to the ticket counter, buy my ticket for one and tell the snack girl to lather my popcorn up with extra butter, because that shit is delicious. Table for one? Don't mind if I do. That means the only person I have to talk to is a waitress and if I am stone cold enough she will leave me alone and not tug at my shirt screaming for me to share.

Don't even get me started on going to Target by myself. It is better than Christmas Day, truly.

Being alone isn't bad, it's quite liberating. Much like being a single parent is. I get to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day, teach him how to be gentle with other people's hearts, play catch with him at the end of the day, pick out every awesome outfit, relish in the glory of every hug and know that I alone cured his infectious disease (( better known as a cold )) with my expert WebMD knowledge and homemade soup. AND THEN, at the end of the day, I can curl up on the couch, watch whatever I want on TV, cry at Pampers commercials and be ALONE. 

 Side note: I'd like to take a moment and give a special shout out to all you happily married or in a committed relationship moms out there who despite having a partner, usually do all of the things I do alone as well... being a stay at home mom is the hardest job out there, certainly the hardest and most demanding job I've ever had. You are equally awesome and feel free to take a bow with the rest of us at the end of this post. 
   Side note for the side note: If you are a male and think for one second that being a stay at home mom isn't harder than your job, stop reading and go have someone kick you in the balls because that is literally how I feel every time I hear someone, usually a man, talk about how being a stay at home mom isn't real work.


When he is playing t-ball for the first time, or basketball, or soccer, or football and makes a basket or scores a goal or throws a perfect spiral I'll know that that was ALL me... and THAT is awesome. I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize to any future parents, referees, teammates... really anyone in the general public who might take offense to my undoubtedly unruly behavior on the sidelines of these games. I really am a nice person... see?? future me even brought everyone orange slices and Mike's Hard Lemonade for after the game (( or during, whatever you prefer)).

When he brings home his first girlfriend, holds her hand, is attentive and polite, I will bask in the glory of my greatest work yet, smile, then grill her relentlessly ((sorry future wife of Nolan, you aren't getting off that easy )). 

So cheers to you, mom who is dad, or dad who is mom. We are awesome-- now take a bow, you deserve it.

Have a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T

As many of you know, I am and have been a vegetarian for almost six years. The reasons behind my choice to skip out on the meat are a perfect blend of common sense, empathy for animal and my own health. 

Bottom line is, I care about what goes into my body...deeply and am not okay with tens of billions of animals being killed to make the majority of America fat. If you need more reasons please feel free to visit my good friends at PETA  to find out some shocking facts about where your precious chicken nuggets come from. I promise, it's disgusting, and your thighs hate you for it.

Since having Nolan, my diet changed tremendously. Even when I was pregnant I was hyper-vigilant about what I put into my body because of the little life who depended on mine. That carried out through his infancy and into today.

He is lactose intolerant-- he gets these angry red hives around his mouth and anywhere else milk has come into contact. He itches and whines, it isn't fun. 

Milk no more! I cut back on my dairy intake BIG TIME and I felt awesome doing it. 

Come January I will becoming a vegan. Slow and steady wins the race so be kind, friends. I might have a day or two where I indulge but knowing my competitive-ness, probably not. My family members are probably rolling their eyes... sorry ya'll! Salad bar it is :-P But seriously there are more places to eat as a vegan.... I hope???

I guess that will be another blog post to come. See what I'm doing??? Making my life difficult for the sake of page views. I've become a slave for you... 

I made this awesome concoction today for lunch. It was easy and delicious, as always. 

You're welcome.

What you need

Eggplant, sliced
Quinoa (any kind will do)
Vegetable broth
Red and yellow bell pepper
Kidney beans
Lime
Zucchini, sliced
Olive oil
1 shallot thinly diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro to garnish

What you need to do

Brush the eggplant with olive oil, salt and pepper and set aside

Preheat a skillet or turn on the grill

Grill the eggplant until it is tender and has pretty lines on it

Cook quinoa according to the package -- once the water has boiled out, add some vegetable broth and let it simmer a little longer

Drain kidney beans and run under cold water

In a separate pan, start cooking the shallot, veggies and kidney beans.

When the quinoa is done add that into the mix and squeeze some lime juice on top

Remove from head and slap it on top of the eggplant slice

ENJOY!

Hummus cups

So, I went to a mommy and me Halloween potluck and wasn't really sure what to bring at first. I found this awesome recipe, of course on Pinterest and much to my delight they were delicious and easy... AND VEGAN! 

 What you need:

Hummus
Crescent squares
Cucumbers
Cherry tomatoes 
Salt and pepper 
Muffin tin

What you need to do:

Roll out the crescent rolls and preheat oven according to the directions

Grease up the muffin tins and squish the crescent squares inside. Poke with a fork so they don't get too fluffy

Bake according to packaging but keep an eye on them, you want them to be fluffy not crusty. Slice up the veggies you want to use while the cups are cooking

Take out the cups, dollup hummus inside, decorate with pretty veggies and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste! That's it! I even refrigerated mine before the party and set them out before and at room temp they were great.

VIOLA!
 

Waking up on the weird side of the bed

I was at the park last week trying to wear my kiddo out when I saw an epic battle between mother and son. She wanted him to wear a sweatshirt, he didn't want to. I know, huge deal.

He was yelling, she was trying to negotiate. It was this whole huge thing that lasted for way too long. Once she tricked him into putting it on she then had to trick him back into taking it off because we live in Arizona and cold temperatures don't exist. Really, they don't.

It just goes to show that sometimes we pick battles we should just let go. 

This has been my biggest realization inside and outside of parenthood the past few weeks. For example--

Nolan loves to paint, LOVES it. But at the end of the day we get home, need to eat, need to take a bath, need to adhere to the rigorous schedule I've put in place to secure a little of my sanity....or else. He is constantly coming up to me with the paint (that he hides) and screams "PAYYYY PAYYYYY," which drives me insane. 

Finally I gave in.

I put on Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Pandora radio, stripped him down to his diaper, sat on the dirty balcony and painted with my monster. It made me realize that in those moments I am being the parent I want to be; the parent who doesn't care if their kid rolls around and eats dirt, the kind of parent who listens to music with her kid instead of watching tons of cartoons, the kind of parent who listens to what their toddler wants and does it despite the ever impending doom and struggle that comes with bedtime. 

The kind of parent I want to be is always changing. I haven't done this before and hopefully I'll get the chance to do it again because I love it and I'm good at it.

My biggest hope is that we can continue to do things like paint, throw dirt, smash oatmeal in our hair (( and by "our" I mean his )) and be silly together and he will remember that I was the kind of parent that he too wants to be when he grows up. 

 

My little weirdo