My best friend

Yesterday, Max and I spent the whole day doing laundry at our friends Grace and Kevin's house, and then we ate dinner and spent some time hanging out with them. It was fantastic. And it made me realize how blessed I am to have a friend like Grace in my life.

I honestly don't have too many people around that I would call friends, and I'm ok with that. But if I didn't have Grace as that one really good friend, I would not be ok with it at all. She goes above and beyond to be a good friend to me, and she is one of few that are accepting of my life as a mom. Sadly, I have lost friends because of differences in lifestyle after Max arrived, but that was definitely not the case with Grace. Even though she and her husband don't have children (yet), she loves Max and loves hanging out with both Max and I, which is good because he is always with me :) Everyone needs a friend like Grace. Seriously.

So, Grace, if you are reading this, thank you so much. For knowing how to install the carseat. For always welcoming our whole family at your house. For always knowing when Maxi B's cupcakes are necessary ;) Thank you thank you thank you for always always being a wonderfully supportive and fantastic friend. I love you!

Oh, and here are pictures, as usual :) #1 is Max with his "Aunt Grace" eating fries at the WFU game we went to a few weeks ago and #2 is Max helping me with the laundry I mentioned above

Chicken Taco Chili

My favorite kind of recipes are the ones you just throw in the crockpot and leave. This is one of those :)

My amazing future sister in law told me about this recipe. I found it online, but changed it up a little...

Ingredients:
2 cans of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
8oz can of tomato sauce
2 cans of Rotel
16oz of frozen corn
1 small onion, chopped (or to taste)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 packet of taco seasoning
2-3 chicken breasts

Directions:
Put all ingredients EXCEPT for the chicken in the crockpot and mix together. Put the chicken breasts on top. Cook in the crockpot on low for 8 hours or on high for 6 hours. 30 minutes before serving pull chicken out and shred, then put it back in the crockpot for the remainder of the time. Serve with cheese on top and tortilla chips on the side if you like!

So good y'all...enjoy!

French Breakfast Muffins

I don't even think these should be considered a breakfast item. More like a fantastic dessert that you could eat 10 of in one sitting without thinking twice. Seriously. So good.

I found the recipe through foodgawker.com (which, if you haven't already fallen in love with, you should definitely check it out). I added more cinnamon to the topping than it called for because it just because it seemed like too much sugar and not enough cinnamon. I also decided that to just roll the entire muffin in butter then in the cinnamon sugar mixture instead of just putting it on the top. What can I say? I have a major sweet tooth :)

I'm pretty sure there is no possible way you could mess this recipe up if you tried.

PLEASE make these...you will not regret it ;)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-breakfast-muffins/detail.aspx

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Yes, that is a mouth-full of a recipe name. Pun intended :)

I usually burn or under-cook everything I bake, and I also tend to accidentally leave ingredients out. I didn't even own a regular muffin tin until less than a week ago. I am bound and determined, however, to change all of that. Starting with these muffins.

I have never made muffins from scratch before...but after making these delicious beauties I will hesitate to make muffins from a mix again! I found the recipe on Pinterest, and not only is it healthy...the end product is a moist, filling and completely spectacular muffin. You should definitely try it out! Even my hubby, who isn't much of a peanut butter OR banana fan (yes, he is one of the pickiest eaters I know) likes them! I have just been eating them as-is, but they would also be good with a little smear of peanut butter on top. Enjoy!

A note about baby food: Mac and Cheese!

I am a HUGE advocate of homemade baby food! Max has only had a few store bought baby food items: apples and chicken, sweet potatoes and chicken (I don't have the equipment to blend the chicken up enough for him to eat), oatmeal, and yogurt. He occasionally has apple sauce from the store, but it's the same kind I eat at this point.

Let me just tell you...we figured out that making your own baby food is EXTREMELY cost effective! It costs about a third of what store bought baby food costs, and it is so extremely easy!

The basic rules? Cook (in whatever way you will lose the least amount of nutrients- usually baking or steaming), add a bit of water or breast milk, and blend! We put it in ice trays and freeze for later, then just pop them out when we are ready to use them. At this point, we occasionally add some seasonings and are trying to add more variety by mixing different things together, etc.

Our newest venture? Mac and cheese! I simply took a little bit of spaghetti noodles (leftover from last night's dinner), put some butter and a little cheese on top, and microwaved it all for a few seconds. Then I just put it all in the blender with a splash of water and puréed it until it was the right consistency. Max. Loved. It. And it was so simple and easy to make! Please, moms, do not let me catch you buying store bought baby mac and cheese for your little ones!

As we are getting a bit more adventurous with Max's diet I will be filling you in a little more about how we do things over here :)

Here are a few pictures of my sweet boy enjoying his dinner!

Learning how to cook

So, since I am now a stay at home mom, at least for a little while longer...and that is my "job"...I have decided I need to get better at it :) And that means that I need to learn to cook.

For those of you who may not know me very well, I am a terrible cook. I have actually improved a little bit over the last few months- at one point, while I was still pregnant with Max, I was attempting to make spaghetti for dinner and the noodles were all sticking together, and not cooking properly as a result. I remember crying and telling Nick, "I can't even make noodles!" Well, I have come a LONG way since then :) I even made breakfast (including homemade gravy) for 6 people on Christmas Eve.

However, I still feel like I have no idea how to make a decent meal for my family on a daily basis. And that definitely has to change.

Tucker an Chelsea (my brother and his lovely wife-to-be) gave me an apron for Christmas that I completely adore (Anthropolgie...what's not to love?!?!) and it has inspired me, somehow, to be fearless in the kitchen!

I'm going to set goals for myself to make two new things- one dinner type item and one baked item- each week, for a while anyway. AND I'm going to tell all of you about those adventures in the kitchen so I will actually stick to it :) All of this will be starting next week, because we have way too much going on before then. I am so excited to get started...wish me luck!

Yes, I am back, again.

I know, I said I was moving to tumblr. But Blogger got an iPhone app, and so I am back again! I just don't have the time right now to blog on the computer. Plus Max thinks he loves the computer, which makes it that much more difficult! I will have to update the look of our blog, now that it's not all about having a baby ;)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Ours could not have possibly been better...and Max loved it! However, our house (which was spotless before everything started on Christmas Eve) is now a complete disaster. Our very generous family's gave Max tons of fun toys, but I have no clue where to put them all just yet. And we hosted our first Christmas eve brunch with Nick's family, which of course we never had time to clean up after before leaving for Wilkes. It was all completely worth it!

I will leave you (for now) with a picture of our sweet boy, helping us get ready for Christmas!