That is suum goooood slaw!

When my dad's family gets together, it's always always always understood that the meal is potluck. One year when I was in high school my mom brought this broccoli salad that was sooooooooooo yummy but sooooooooooooo fattening. The mayonaise-based dressing was rich, add to that the bacon and cheese and you can get an idea of what I mean by this salad. ;)

Because my body is intolerant to excessive amounts of grease and fat, I couldn't really enjoy this salad. I was bummed though because it had so many elements I loved but the stupid dressing along with everything else I couldn't have much, if any at all. Until I saw an episode of Paula Deen.

Yeah, I know! The queen of all things decadent and fattening. The woman whose favorite spice is butter, with mayo as a close second. The thing is though, I watched her make the dressing and saw very easily how I could alter it so it wasn't quite so bad. I found this recipe a couple years ago and tonight made it for the first time... WOW!!!

If you want the original recipe, click here. But below is my tweaked version ;)

Broccoli Salad

1 bag broccoli slaw
6-8 pieces of cooked bacon*, crumbled
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup craisins
8 ounces sharp cheddar, diced
1/2 cup chopped tomato
a little less than 1 cup of plain yogurt
2 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
salt and pepper

*HEALTHIER TIP: Cook the bacon in the oven on a broiler pan. Grease drips off and away from the meat as it cooks.

Combine the first six ingredients into a big bowl. In a second smaller bowl with a spout, mix together yogurt, mayo, vinegar and sugar. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour as much or as little dressing onto the salad as you like! :)

Breakfast for the Busy Mom

Ordinarily, I wouldn't call myself a big muffin afficianado. However once you take into account the Mommy factor along with trying to get out the door for work then breakfast takes on a whole new challenge. Sure I could buy prepackaged, sugary nightmares but 1) that takes extra money and 2) it's not usually as healthy. If I want the healthy stuff I'll have to spend even more money. Seeing as how I always have flour, sugar, baking powder/soda, and various other baking supplies on hand (and I LOVE to bake), why not make my own grab-n-go breakfast?

Most of the muffin batters I like make about a dozen muffins which, depending on how you define a portion (1 or 2 muffins), will last about a week or two for two people. So if I never go anywhere on the weekends, have people over or do anything special or out of the norm, I can pull this of regularly no problem. Uh-huh. I do vary things occasionally with making a breakfast bread (i.e. banana) but that involves cutting and I'm lazy. So I'm always on the lookout for a new muffin batter and I love to find ones that make more than a dozen. Then last weekend I had the ultimate "DUH" moment: Six Week Muffins.

If you haven't heard of these muffins then you need to crawl out from under that rock you love so much. These are healthy (made with Raisin Bran and extra raisins), economical (makes a TON) and the batter lasts in the fridge for, of course, 6 weeks. So here ya go (and stay tuned for after the recipe for my own little helpful mommy hints):

Six Week Muffins

1 15 oz box Raisin Bran
1/2 box raisins
5 cups flour
2 cups sugar
5 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 qt buttermilk
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup oil*

In the biggest bowl you have, combine the cereal, raisins, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a second bowl (if you've got a big one with a spout, use that) mix the buttermilk, eggs and oil. Add the egg mixture to the cereal mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon. Store in jars or containers in the refrigerator for up to six weeks.** Use as needed. Grease muffin pans well, fill with muffin batter and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

*HEALTHIER TIP: I used 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce.

**BUSY MOMMY TIP: Using my trusty ice cream scoop (which I more for scooping muffin batter than I do scooping ice cream), spoon 12 large scoops into 1 gallon-sized freezer bags. Keep out what you want to bake right away and freeze the rest. Then when you're ready to bake, thaw the batter in the bag, snip off the corner and squeeze the batter into the muffin pan. Voila! You've always got muffin batter on standby whether it's been 6 weeks or 6 months AND cleanup is minimal. You're also not committed to the same muffin for the next month and a half.

Special bonus for mommies of kids under 2: you'll notice there are no nuts in this muffin. ;)

Thoughts?

So, what does it mean when, after accidentally kicking a wooden stool, your toe is outrageously sore, a rather pretty shade of grape purple but not swollen?

For the record, I was just changing the sheets on my bed when the stool happened to be in the way of where I wanted to put my foot and I didn't see it. ;)

Feel the Love :)

I wouldn't say I'm the #1 fan of Third Day or anything but their music, particularly their worship music can just move me beyond words. Some days you just need to feel this kind of love washing over you:

Love Song

I've heard it said that a man would climb a mountain
Just to be with the one he loves
How many times has he broken that promise
It has never been done.
I've never climbed the highest mountain
But I walked the hill of calvary

Just to be with you, I'd do anything
There's no price I would not pay
Just to be with you, I'd give anything
I would give my life away.

I've heard it said that a man would swim the ocean
Just to be with the one he loves
How may times has he broken that promise
It can never be done
I've never swam the deepest ocean
But I walked upon the raging sea

Just to be with you, I'd do anything
There's no price I would not pay
Just to be with you, I'd give anything
I would give my life away.

I know that you don't understand
the fullness of My love
How I died upon the cross for your sins
And I know that you don't realize
how much that I gave you
But I promise, I would do it all again.

Just to be with you, I've done everything
There's no price I did not pay
Just to be with you, I gave everything
Yes, I gave my life away.

First Day

Today is the first day of a new lifestyle for us.

If you hadn't heard already, well SURPRISE! Rob has a new job, which he started this morning. Without going into a ton of details or whatever I'll just say that after three years with the same company, it was time to move on to bigger and better things. Now he's working at a consulting company with a local office, however he'll mostly work at the location of whichever customer he happens to be helping out at the time. It's exciting because he'll be able to focus on one project at a time and then move onto something else entirely when that project's done.

Well this new job means he no longer works downtown, which means we no longer carpool. There are pros and cons to this. Although it makes no sense to dwell on the cons really because it is what it is.

One of several things that will take some getting used to is our evening schedule. At the moment, I'm taking care of dropping off and picking up Gavin. I hope though that occasionally Rob will be able to at least drop him off if I need to get into the office obscenely early. We'll have to see how that will work. But I digress... by driving separately, I'm not really sure when Rob will get home in the evenings. And because he'll work on projects around the southeastern part of the state, whatever time he would be able to get home will be changing every few months as he completes projects. This is going to make dinner very interesting. We are committed to having family dinners together; both of us grew up this way and it's something we want to be the norm for Gavin. Even the thought of only having Family Dinner a few nights a week makes me sad... It's very important to me that we make family our priority but I also understand what it is to start a new job and work hard. I'll keep you posted on how things turn out here.

Also first day of new lifestyle pertains to me: Rob's old job allowed him to work from home on Fridays so that he and I could share being home with Gavin (his in-home day care is closed on Fridays). New job isn't able to do that. So as of today I'm officially a part-time employee. Granted I still put in (and consequently am paid for) 36 hours a week but now I have every Friday at home. Now that it's all been worked out (thank you to friends and family for dealing with my nerves!) I'm relieved. I've been wanting this for a while but wasn't sure I'd ever be able to give more of myself to home than to work. I hope this is a good sign that if I'm still here when Gavin starts school that I can cut back my hours even further. :) Also, a secret, side hope is that having more time at home, away from the office will help a bit with some of the health issues I've griped about. Time will tell!

p.s. Dad, you'd be proud... Friday I went voluntarily into the lab and had blood drawn WITHOUT HYPERVENTILATING. I still ask for them to use the butterfly needle though. ;) Ironically I think I will need to do this monthly for quite some time. Ironic, isn't it?

Meet the Next Food Network Star!

Let's try this again, shall we?

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Self-Esteem and shoes

So I've been kinda down on myself since Gavin was born about my appearance. Technically speaking I'm back to my pre-preggo weight but some of that weight has shifted and now I've got stretch marks....just usually feel a twinge yucky about myself (Mr. S is WONDERFUL for putting up with me!!!).

This weekend wasn't as much fun as I would have liked and this morning was stressful because I discovered an invoice oops that was completely my fault that I needed to confess to my boss. To try and combat all these icky feelings I decided to put on one of my more fool-proof outfits to make me feel good about myself and hopefully achieve that mental state that I'm projecting. I've worn this one before but I bought new (sexy) shoes this weekend that I wanted to wear with it. It's a black pencil skirt (back is super duper sexy with lots of seaming and multiple slits instead of just one), a black stretchy top that has a blue floral print on the front (very splashy, sassy and vibrant; kind of Asian-inspired in style). I got these fantastic black strappy heels yesterday and wore some fun black bead jewelry I just got from hosting a Lia Sophia party. I've noticed multiple second looks but just had a run-in at the post office that has me grinning.

Needed to get some stamps and drop a package in the mail and I prefer to go before the lunch rush. There's a few people there but not a whole lot. I sense a woman looking at me but I just keep to myself and prep my package for shipping. As I'm about to leave this woman comes up to me to ask about my skirt. She was curious about where I worked and what I did because I looked so put together and professional. WOW!!!! And here I'm just trying to make myself feel better! We swapped business cards although I'm not sure if she'll contact me. And if she does, hey...always nice to have get together with another girl seeing as how the bulk of my friends around here are MEN (yay estrogen!). :)

Oh, and the reason for my title is simply this: I've worn this outfit multiple times this summer and though I've gotten compliments before, never like this. The difference? The SHOES!!!

For your Simpsons fans :)

http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2008/07/cutting-calories-and-saving-doh-25.html

#7 and 13 are my favorites. :)

Saw "The Dark Knight" last night...

Oh. My. GOD!!!!!!!