Glass Noodles--What a pane!

Glass Noodles.

Mung Bean Noodles.

Cellophane Noodles.

Whatever you decide to call them, they are yummy, fun to look at, and unfortunately were a pain in my a** to find in this town.

Over the past weekend, I took my little family of 2 plus a friend of mine down to the Annual Sukiyaki Dinner Fundraiser at the Wapato Buddhist Hall. They served up a dish of something incredible that had beef, celery, cabbage, and these clear noodles that the baby just gobbled right on up. She smacked her lips so loudly, people at the far end of the table were looking over at us and smiled.

"That must really be tasty, eh, little Sweetie?" said the old lady next to me, giving Baby Willow a squeeze on her cheeks.

Willow rolled her eyes, gave the lady a glassy-eyed stare (pun intended), and kept on slurping noodles. ("Slurping Noodles" is so gonna be the name of my next rock band.)
Later, the baby knocked over the cup of complimentary vinegar-soaked cucumber slices. We left a whollup of a mess of beef, rice, and celery all over the floor under us, but thankfully, the gracious teenage hostesses didn't mind cleaning it up at all. I learned two lessons that day. 1) The baby hates cucumbers. 2) The baby can give a wicked evil eye. She didn't inherit that from me.

Pictured: Willow, playing with toys before the Wapato Buddhist Hall Dinner.

All the Single Ladies (Put Some Meat on it)

I'm willing to wager that Beyonce hasn't eaten Hamburger Helper. Like, ever.

Nevertheless, she was fist-bumping the Hamburger Hand & a food bank a couple of years ago in order to help fight hunger. So that inspired me last night as I was channelling my inner "Sasha Fierce" to fight the hunger in MY house.

Love Potion No. 9

I know that Valentine's Day has passed us by and as a single person, I will freely admit that I couldn't be more happier!

Fortunately, I work with mostly men, so I didn't have to be tortured by office deliveries of gorgeous bouquets and chocolates from husbands, boyfriends, and lovers, to make me green with envy at some chick in the next cubicle. (We also fortunately have no cubicles!)

In a non-related story, last night I felt like a mad professor because I discovered a love elixir! It will be foisted upon my next victim, er, I mean, boyfriend.

I had a bottle of Shiraz sitting in the kitchen, beckoning me to hurry up and open it.

While I am not a big red wine fan, I do like syrah/shiraz and cab franc. I usually avoid drinking reds because it usually ends up with me dancing on tables. To take the edge off the alcoholic effects of red wine, I improvised and threw in some Apricot juice from a can of Kerns.

 += YUM!!

Little Brown (Sugar) Lies

I have been M.I.A. for quite some time. Booo. But believe me, I have not been trying to give my blog the finger.

I have really missed my blogs, but I have just been overwhelmed and super swamped with (trying to keep up with) school work, watching the baby learn how to walk, volunteering, handling Board member duties, soothing the baby's teething fever, balancing out of town trips, and hitting the Capitol for an advocacy training.

 

Whew!

But enough with the excuses. I'm back, toots, so let's get into the swing of things again!

Besides the aforementioned crap going on in my life, the silver lining is that my mom came into town to visit the Grandbaby!

Grandmommy Mary & Baby Willow

at "Cooking with Kids Night" at the Daycare

She hasn't seen my daughter since she was 3 weeks old. My mom, Mary, flew up to see us from my homeland of Nashville, TN. I should really be calling Nashville the "mothership" because I feel like an alien whenever I go back to visit. Everything has changed so much in the 10 years since I've moved to Yakima, so much so that I feel lost in my old stomping grounds (which have are now gentrified and countrified, with Matt Hasselbeck and Nicole Kidman laid to the side.)

But don't get it twisted. I am so thankful for all of my Tennessee upbringing, such as knowing that there IS a difference in hot water cornbread and cornbread.

Hot Water Cornbread(yum!)      

Skillet Cornbread (weaksauce!)

One year olds & Birthdays & Hello Kitty

I am so loving this right now!

It's a Hello Kitty Kids Meal for the Hello Kitty airline run by http://evakitty.evaair.com/ch/

(Thanks to CNN for the link to the story! http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/eva-air-does-its-best-new-hello-kitty-jets-623405?hpt=hp_bn7)

I betcha I can replicate it. All I have to do is find some Hello Kitty molds online for real cheap. Like this site, here:

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/moldworld/3318045/diy_handmade_silicone_soap_mold_candle_cake_mold_6-hello_kitty_mold/supplies/handmade_supplies/other

What's up with the Hello Kitty fetish, all of a sudden, you may ask? Well, my daughter is turning the big 0-1 next month and I'm faced with the challenging decision of whether or not to throw her a 1 year old birthday party. I'm not ready to do that yet. I still haven't even had time to sit down and send out Thank You cards to everyone who came to my baby shower, let alone have a few minutes to send out invitations to a birthday party! Well, I guess that's a lie, I mean, I do have time to sit here and write up this blog, so excuses, shamuses on me!

If I am going to do a bday party, it's gonna be simple, quick, and cheap and the theme is preferrably Hello Kitty.

It's not going to look cheap, though, I have my ways. Like making the theme a tie in with Valentine's Day, because then I could buy all of the decorations at up to 70% off come February 15th! (I know that's wrong of me to be so cheap, but it sure is a tempting thought!)

I have never thrown a kid's party before so I don't know what all is expected for the 1st year. Party favors, cake, something to put on the tables, and enough chairs for all the little tykes invited. And then you have to plan some games, too?!! I'm just worried that if I throw her a little party I'm gonna have about 5-10 babies ending up looking like this:

and honeychile, I am NOT going to be cleaning that mess up!

Amazing! Delicious! Cheap!: It's Chili in the House

Amazing! Delicious! Cheap!: It's Chili in the House: It was Sunday mid-afternoon and I was starvin[g] like Marvin[g]. I had to think fast on my feet and create a meal before I gave up and broke...

It's Chili in the House

It was Sunday mid-afternoon and I was starvin[g] like Marvin[g]. I had to think fast on my feet and create a meal before I gave up and broke into the baby's stash of Goldfish crackers.

SNOMG!

Now that the snow is starting to melt, I can finally say that if there was one great thing to come out of all this Snowpocalypse mess we've just endured, it's that I discovered I am one kick-butt* cook!


I got home on the Thursday evening of the blizzard and didn't leave the house for the next 3 days! That left me and the baby staring at each other in silly silence, with her eyes blinking at me, as if to say, "What the hay are we going to do about food for the next three days, my Sugah-Mommy?"


I tell you what! I cooked all sorts of breakfasts and dinners, that's what the hay I did! I must brag, the three dinners I made (lemon pepper ravioli w/chicken sausage bits, tilapia w/carrots and potatoes, and chicken & rice) were out of sight. The breakfasts all followed the current nutritional standards for 10 month olds, namely, fruit, dairy, and grains.¹ The baby's snacks were healthy (rainbow fish crackers, honey graham crackers, cheerios, yogurt, and Chex squares). And I couldn't have done all of this without having some miraculous foresight to stock up on groceries at the store the day before they predicted the Blizzard of O'12!


I noticed that there were a few ways in the future that I could replicate this phenomenon of delicious and nutritious cheap meals. Stock up on Cream of Chicken (or Mushroom) soup, for instance, so that you will always be able to make Chicken & Rice in a pinch. Buy the value box of five-minutes-to-cook Minute Rice. If you know of friends who make their own sausages, ask them to give you some to save yourself some money! You can barter with them to sweeten the deal.

+=Yum!

I Am One Hot Dollar Store Mess

Some days I really hate going there, but it is so worth it. I'm talking about the dollar store, aka My New Best Friend.

I primarily only hate it because I always seem to go at the wrong time. I have learned my lesson: You should never go there during 4-7 pm on any given day. The last time I went to Your Dollar Store on Nob Hill was on a Friday, around 5:15 in the evening. I stood in this super-long line that seemed to move only a few centimeters every 3 minutes. The entire time I was stuck there, a teeny little boy, all of about age 4, kept kicking the back of my boots. I didn't want to cause a scene so all I could do was turn around and glare at him with the evil stink eye. When that didn't work, I turned around and glared at his mom. She glanced over at me, watched her son kick my boots, and then promptly went right back to her cell phone conversation. I think I need to work on my evil techniques.

Before the baby, the dollar store wasn't even on my radar and I thought the only food they had to sell was off-brand juice and Bugles. That was the case in the 90's, but not anymore! The one on Nob Hill sells frozen food, sodas, canned goods, and all kinds of stuff. Of course, there still is the off-brand cranberry juice, but come on man, it's only a DOLLAR!

I stocked up on organizing containers for the fridge (3 for $1), plus I got some surprisingly pretty new plates with matching bowls at the Dollar Tree next to Rosauer's. And, get this, I saw the same exact design of the matching cups at Wal-Mart for $4.99! Let's see, $1 vs. $4.99? Who’s a saucy savings ninja now?!

I discovered that there IS a great time to go to the dollar store, which is usually between soon as the doors open and noon, and you must choose a weekday that isn't Friday.

The dollar store is a hidden gem to a parent who is working with a limited budget. You probably agree with me that having the addition of kids to your life means that you don't get to spend an extra $40 on a super-cute purse from TJ Maxx like you used to do because now you have to spend said not-so-extra-anymore $40 on super-necessary diapers from Costco. Whatevs. Costco is my new best friend, too, because you can get at least double the amount of diapers and formula for the same price you’d spend at your regular grocery store!

Organizing Le Pantry

Yesterday morning, high off of the excitement of cooking my first meal in, oh, I don't even know how long, I decided that I should get organized in order to continue on my mission.

What's my mission, you may ask? My mission is to not spend any money on fast food for 1 month! (Yes, I've already failed the mission as you will find out in a minute.)

So I took a picture of my pantry with my new tablet, the Motorola Xoom Family Edition.

OMG look at it! Just look at it! My pantry is deplorable! It's right now what I call a "Disastra Zone". Not a disaster, a "disastra", because as you can plainly see, it's beyond a disaster. *Huge sigh* Yes, there are lots of plastic bags that I swore I would never take home from the store anymore (that lasted about a month) and there is even an ironing board. I just have to shake my head at myself. SMH

I hope that sometime in the very near future my pantry will look like this:

Meanwhile, I did not cook anything before I left for work so that left me starving come 5:00 pm when I left work to go pick up the baby from daycare. I had planned on stopping by the store first, but then I saw the halo around the Taco Bell place. (Don't judge me! The Taco Bell is much closer to the daycare than the store.) I made a mad dash to the drive-thru to get something to eat quickly before I gnawed off a finger from the hunger. Then I ordered a 7 Layer Burrito (with no lettuce) and a Volcano Taco. Finally, I snuck home to devour my food. I do this from time to time before heading to the daycare in order to have a few moments of peace while I eat.

I was 5 minutes late picking up my kid, but at least Mommy was happy! And the baby was happy, too!*

*By the way, the baby is always happy :-)

Pasta Barata (con Pollo), aka The OMG Pasta

This morning I was really desperate for something to eat.

Normally, I just zip on over to Jack in the Box or something, but since I've been on this very recent "Organize My Pantry" kick, I decided to cook with what I have. Enter one box of cheap Shells & Cheese, stage left. I began to lament the 10 minutes it would take to wait for the noodles to boil. That's when it finally dawned on me just how impatient (and spoiled) I really am.

As I glared at the boiling dollar store noodles in the pot, I just so happened to look on the side of the box and noticed a list of "Suggested Items" to add to the pasta.

That got my creative juices flowing, so I opted to add the following to my finished shells & cheese: 1 can of (Costco) Chicken Breast, 1 can of diced tomatoes w/green chiles, plus some sea salt & fresh ground pepper. Stir together and voila! Deelish! And super cheap! Serves about 3 or 4 people. I hereby name this recipe: Pasta Barata con Pollo! (Also known as The OMG Pasta, for the gringos.) If you want to make this dish look a bit fancy, you can garnish it with cilantro and parmey (that's what I call parmesean). I made this dish in less than 20 minutes. Move over, Rachel Ray!

I was amazed at how deelish and spicy this was. I tried to give some to the baby but she gave me a puzzled expression and then proceeded to throw the pasta shell onto her tutu dress over and over.