back in the saddle

i'm FINALLY cooking again. i still get a little nauseous thinking about food, but making it isn't such a big deal anymore. HALLELUJAH! i really do love to cook. i feel such accomplishment when i'm able to make something delicious and see the happiness on people's faces as they enjoy and savor each bite. i love to try all sorts of recipes. i think my favorite are ones that don't sound good when looking at the recipe initially, but after it's all made it turns into something wonderful.


for my husband's birthday last saturday i made this AMAZING red velvet cheesecake from scratch. this was my first experience making a cheesecake from scratch and i was rather impressed with how it turned out. i think i would take this one over something made at the cheesecake factory! here's a picture from the website i found it on (it turned out JUST LIKE the pic! how often does that happen?!):



Yummmmmmm!!!!
here's the recipe


I let my husband sleep in that day and decided on a whim to make him breakfast in bed. a long time ago, when i was in ninth grade and taking 'life skills' (home ec. in essence), a girl brought this recipe in for our group to make called 'pop oven pancakes'. they were so simple and always tasted fantastic. i have held on to that same recipe since that day, but since we moved recently and a good majority of our things are in storage, i was able to look up (pretty much) the same recipe online...only BETTER. they are MINI 'pop up' pancakes. they are SOOOOO easy! you mix the ingredients in a blender, pour them in a greased muffin tin, then throw em in the oven for 15 minutes. top them off with syrup, powdered sugar and strawberries and you have a very tasty (and pretty!) breakfast!



TRY IT!!! you and your family will love it.
>Click here for the recipe! (great site, by the way!)


so enough with the sweets....last night i made some super incredible pasta. my new favorite website for recipes is heart healthy living. healthy recipes that actually taste GOOD! my husband has high cholesterol, so this site comes in handy when looking for low fat, low cholesterol and low sodium foods. so, let's just cut to the chase. here's the pasta...WARNING....DROOLING IS PRETTY MUCH GUARUNTEED!





summer chicken and mushroom pasta recipe


i did alter the recipe a little because i know what i like and what my family likes. instead of the whole wheat or regular penne pasta, i used ronzoni garden delight penne rigate.





it's an enriched tomato, carrot and spinach blend pasta and it is just too delicious to pass up. i also used diced 'bello' mushrooms and instead of shredding the basil and adding sprigs of oregano, i threw them in my handy dandy little chopper so they ended up finely chopped. this pasta tastes fantastic both warm and cold. it has lots of garlic in it...i'm a sucker for garlic.


happy cooking! please feel free to share any of your recipes. i love to try new and different things!

top ten weirdest finds of the day.

Number One:

Fetus In A Jar Necklace




Number Two:

Caffiene and Shea Butter Shorts?!




Number Three:

Birth Dolls (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth)





Number Four:

Placenta Brooch...'nuff said.




Number Five:

Aaaah, the scent of childhood...bottled up into a fragrance




Number Six:

Nothing like a warm booty to cozy up to




Number Seven:

I don't even know what to say about these things




Number Eight:

MMMmmmmmmm Bacon Perfume




Number Nine:

MMMMMmmmmmmm Bacon Shake! (*insert vomit sound HERE*)]




Number Ten and My Personal Favorite:

Machete Slingshot!

....spoon your way to health

feel like THIS?





Lucy has a great solution....who else could use a pick me up?

healthy hearts...and messy pants.

grandpa is healthy and back at home! he was in the hospital for a full week and each day he has gotten better and stronger. he ended up having a quadruple bi-pass. they even used a vein from his leg and put it in his heart! so amazing, the things they can do to fix us these days! i must admit though, it was pretty tough to see him the first day, directly after his surgery. he was hooked up to a ventilator and was out cold, hooked up to a ton of machines. he's a tough guy though, he was off of the ventilator that same evening :)





THE FOLLOWING SHOULD NOT BE READ BY THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHES!!!




on a completely unrelated matter...we are in the middle of moving. it seems like everything that can go wrong IS going wrong. my morning sickness has been pretty bad lately and i've been having nearly unbearable headaches. my doctor told me the other day that i will need to get checked out for a rare brain condition, because of the types of migraines i have...fun, huh?! besides the lovely moving, morning sickness and brain pains, my poor little girl is really sick. she started throwing up yesterday about every 20 minutes or so. eventually it stopped and she began to be herself again, but then she started having some seriously explosive diarrhea. last night she seemed like she was getting better, but this morning when she came in to my room after waking up, following her was a very putrid odor...i made the mistake of taking a few minutes to get dressed for the day and brush my hair, rather than changing her immediately. when i picked her up to lay her on the leather couch, i noticed her pants were wet...her diaper had leaked pretty bad into her pant legs. i slowly took the pants off and began to change the diaper...the best description i can give is melted peanut butter...there was so much that when i tried to move the diaper it oozed on to my calf! let me remind you, that i am already having a hard enough time NOT puking all the time...this was definitely a test for my barf reflexes...i tried to wipe the warm mess off my leg, but as i rubbed, it just got messier and messier! i then noticed that in my frenzied clean up efforts, more had oozed onto the couch! it was terrible...i finally gave up, grabbed a few grocery bags and discarded the nasty diaper mess and took Chloe into the shower with me where i proceeded to scrub as if i had never showered before. OH THE JOYS OF PARENTHOOD! in all seriousness though, Chester took her to urgent care about an hour ago. hopefully we will be able to get this thing figured out, poor baby!

PS....had a baby doc appointment the other day...heard heart beat for the first time! baby is growing healthy and strong...may even be a little further along than 12 weeks! wahoo!!!!