Visitors and Stuffed Peppers

Today we had some visitors!!  We had a nice visit with DF's Lisa and Giuliana.  They stayed for a little while and the girls got to play.  I know that DD enjoyed having a friend to play with.  A little later in the day we got a visit from DF Chrystal.  Everyone has been so nice and keeps bringing gifts to us!  We feel so special and loved!

For dinner I defrosted some of the stuffed peppers that I made before DS came along.  I pulled them out of the freezer about 3pm and by dinnertime, 5ish, they were defrosted.  I baked them as the recipe says, but I did forget to put them over sauce and sauce on them, oops!  So after about 15 minutes I added the sauce to the top. 

I cooked up some pasta to go along with it.  On mine I just put butter and parmasan.  DH and DD both had sauce on their pasta.  These came out really good.  That was definitely a great way to do stuffed peppers.  I highly recommend it!

Open House and Frozen Pizza

Today I held my first open in months!!  A fellow agent asked if I wanted to hold one of her homes open so I said sure.  I went from 1 - 3.  I only had two groups go through.  The first group was a young couple with a 6 month old that had just started their home search.  Unfortunetly when they signed in they said no to follow up!  Well looks like they'll just be getting a lot of mail from me, hahaha!  The second group was this wierd guy who wouldn't sign in at all.  Didn't offend me much since he was weird!

Of course I didn't get a chance to eat before I left, so by the time I left the open I was STARVING!!  I went home and finished off my psuedo sloppy joes.  We decided to all go out as a family to do some grocery shopping.  We waited for DD to wake up, and we also had to wait for the brownies that DH decided to cook to be done.  By the time we left it was after 5.

We hit up BJ's for our stock up of items.  Then we decided to go to the GE in Willoughby.  I just went in alone and shopped.  When I came out with the frozen pizza, DH was like, I don't like that kind.  Everything went down hill from there.  How was I supposed to know which one he didn't like!

I bought one of the new digorno pizza's with the cheese sticks.  It honestly was a terrible pizza dn the cheese sticks were not very good!  I would not recommend this to anyone.  The only reason that I even got a frozen pizza is we are out of Alesci's Pizza Dough!

Baby Shower and Best Gyro's

Today Shane and I went to his first party ever!!  We traveled to the west side for DF Bridget's baby shower.  The food there was so delish!!  They had a great summer menu:

• Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella skewers with a balsamic drizzle
• Chicken Salad with Avocado on a Croissant.  The avocado was mixed into the salad and it was so yummy!
• Some other kind of sandwich on a croissant, but I think it was ham/roast beef or something like that so I didn't take it.
• A Roasted Veggie Salad that included eggplant, peppers, and squash in a light marinade served cold.
• Quinoa Salad that had peas, ricotta, and almonds in it.
• A marinated salmon, I didn't take this either.
• Homemade cupcakes.

I also love going to showers for new ideas!  Two different people did these cute little clothes lines of baby clothing that were such a cute idea. 

When we left there we went to this store in Rocky River called Planet Green.  I went there in hopes of finding some Bum Genius from a local retailer.  Of course they only had organic ones which cost $24 instead of $17.  Then we went to Whole Foods in University Heights.  I know it said online they had BG's, but I was a little iffy if they really had them in stock.  Of course that Whole Foods is not easy to get to off the highway.  I felt like I had been driving for a long time before I got there.  And to make it even more fun you had to park on the roof and go down stairs or an elevator to the store.

After going through the whole store without finding them, I took one last look in a different section and found them!  But they only had pink and white.  They also had swim diapers, but none in DD's size.  I ended up buying 1 white to add to my collection.

On our way home DH called and was asking about dinner.  I was naming all the left over's when he said, I'd really like a Gyro.  So much for not going out to eat!!  So I turned around and headed for Mayfield to go to Best Gyro.  This trip also made it feel like I had been driving forever!!  I also think the tzakiki at the mall is better than Best Gyro's, but it was nice to have a Chicken Gyro.  This is also not a kid friendly place as there are only bar seats and only about 5 of them. 

Psuedo Sloppy Joes

Today was our second day home alone.  I think it's a little easier than what people have said.  Although, we haven't left the house and DS is still in his babymoon stage of just sleeping all day.  I feel bad for DD because I know she just wants to get out and do stuff.  It's been so hot here though we can't even go outside to play.

For dinner tonight I reused our meal from last night!  I heated up the leftover meat sauce in a pan and I also added one small can of tomtato sauce to it.  Kind of like a psuedo sloppy joe, which we haven't had in our house in a while.  The fries are the Alexa Sea Salt fries, but I really don't care for them.  They really have no taste.  So I won't buy them again (and they cost more!!).  I also stuck a hotdog bun in the oven with some butter on it to grill it up, but I didn't leave them in there long enough so they came out soggy instead. 

You also can see some fridge pickles!  Love those!  I needed to use them up and I'm the only one that likes them, booo!

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Rice Pudding and Meaty Pasta Sauce

This morning everyone went home and I was left for the first time alone with both kiddos!  I was scared my day was going to be a disaster, but it actually went well.  I was able to get a lot of things done.  I just remember having to hold DD a lot when she was little.  But maybe I just did that because I lived at my MIL's and was bored? 

In the afternoon I made some Rice Pudding.  I had made a bunch of rice last week when I was doing my freezer cooking.  I was thinking that I need to double the chicken and rice recipe.  It worked out perfect though because it was just enough for a a rice pudding recipe!  This recipe I got from Betty Crocker.  I was actually down to one egg, so I could only add one egg to the recipe.  I also added two teaspoons of vanilla instead of one.  I didn't add raisins because I don't like raisins in my rice pudding.

I still had some turkey burger in my fridge from what was supposed to become my second Turkey Meatloaf.  I needed to use it up, so I decided to do a pasta with meat sauce.  Since I wasn't going anywhere I made some homemade sauce.  Now I've never made sauce the same way twice, so here's a rough recipe I used.  I cooked up some garlic, onion, pepper (red and green), grated zucchini (still trying to use this up!) in a little EVOO.  I added some oregano, basil (Fresh chopped from my garden), and parsley when they were cooked up a little.  Once they cooked up a little, I added a can of crushed tomatoes.  I love making sauce with crushed tomatoes.  I think they taste better than diced and makes for a soupier sauce.  I also added a little bit of sugar to cut down the acidity of the tomatoes.

Right around dinnertime, I cooked up the turkey burger, added the sauce and made some pasta.  Super easy, filling dinner.  I used to babysit every Thursday night and the girls mom always would make pasta with meat sauce for us.  I also added my signiture breadstick to it, hehe!

Pasta with Meatsauce

Rice Pudding

Mall trip and BSpot

Today we all ventured out to the mall to go to Build a Bear.  I figured this would be a good activity for DD.  I'm not sure how much she really enjoyed it because I think she was a little young to understand the concept.  She made a dog that barks.

For lunch we ate in the food court at the mall.  My mom and I went to Subway.  I was trying to be good and they had pizza there, so I knew DD would eat that.  A water main had broke in front of part of the mall, so some stores had no water.  Only a few food places were open in the food court because of this.  My sister and her BF went to "It's Greek To You...".  When we all sat together I thought, mmmm, a Chicken Gyro sounds super yummo right now!!

For dinner we decided to eat out at BSpot.  I was a little disappointed this time with it.  We were sat in the mall area patio at the last table, a sure fire way to know you'll be forgotten most times!  There were nats flying around us and they didn't have enough high chairs!!  We have gone out to eat before where they didn't give us the high chair right away and it's turned into a disaster because when we finally did get it, DD didn't want to sit in it!!

By the time our dinner came they still didn't have a high chair.  So I asked for a booster instead.  It worked ok, but I really wanted a high chair.  After dinner we went up to Fosters for ice cream.  I had a cookie sandwich, it was sooooo good!!  Two homemade chocolate chip cookies with soft serve in between.

Buffalo Stuffed Chicken

Today my sister and her BF came to visit.  I left with DS to get them at the airport.  I left DD with my mom.  When we got back to my house we all took DD to the spray park again.  This time she went in a little more with my sister, but still was not sure about it. 

We left about lunch time to go to Chick-Fil-A.  I know, I know, I said I'm not eating there ever again, but my sister's BF had never been and we wanted to go somewhere that is not back at their home.  On our way there, DS began to cry so much because he was hungry.  I could not get there fast enough for him!!  When we got there we sent everyone in and DS and I stayed in the car to feed.

After we stopped at DQ because my mom likes dilly bars and there are DQ's back home.  I found out there were several flavors of them that I never knew about!!!  I had a heath one and it was so good!  Had I known they had different ones I would have gotten them in the past instead of the too big blizzards!  Not to get off subject, but I'm watching tv as I write this post and just saw the Kia Black Sheep commercial, so stinkin funny!!

Anyway, we got home and everyone was ready to nap!  DH came home early since DS had his first doctors appointment.  DS actually gained 10 ounces!!!  That is a lot for a BF baby!  When we got back, everyone was still sleeping!!  DH and sisters BF went out to get some diapers and stuff.  When they got back DH had my new flash!!!  Super excited to learn how to use it!

For dinner I decided to make the stuffed buffalo chicken that I had put in the freezer.  I had it out thawing most of the day.  To accompany it we had left over macaroni salad and fridge pickles.  The chicken came out good and my mom even liked it!  I do think this meal would be a better quick fix meal rather than freezer meal.  I unfortunetly didn't take any pictures, so I'll have to take some if I make it again.