Fake It "Home Made" Meals

Let me just go ahead and admit it.  My name is Carrie.  I'm a working mama and don't cook dinner.

Ahhhh.  Now I feel better.

In all fairness I really do enjoy cooking.  But I enjoy cooking for the social experience of eating together... the good food is just a by-product in my opinion.  Which is probably the root of my bad eating habits since I clearly don't eat to "fuel my body" necessarily, but that's an entirely different post all together. 

Despite enjoying cooking, it doesn't always happen.  In fact, more often than not we're scrambling to pull something together quickly because we either didn't make it to the store or I didn't thaw something in the morning or we're just out of time to fix something before we start knawing on empty spoons.  So, I thought I'd share two of my favorite tricks.  The caveat -- I need MORE of these tricks so comment at the bottom and share your last minute "home made" fake outs.

Oh, and my definition of a fake out is that it could pass for home made....But isn't necessarily.

FIRST:  Jack Daniel's ready to eat meat.  Sounds a little gross, granted.  BUT I SWEAR.  It's.  Freaking.  Awesome.

 

This stuff is so good that I may or may not have put it in a crock pot and taken it to a party for sliders.  And accidentally forgot to mention that it was STRAIGHT from the package.  I've made my own pulled pork too and it's a definite toss up which one people liked more. 

In a pinch for dinner at home?  No prob.  This comes out of the fridge, a quick poke of a hole in the package to vent, and thirty seconds in the microwave and DING!!!  Dinner is served.  When it can be this good out of the package, I tend to wonder why I would bother to do a pulled pork in the slow cooker.  It's honestly THAT good.

But don't take my word for it.  Go get some.  Run, don't walk.  (I get mine at Target for like $7.99 and we always have enough leftover for a lunch the next day.)

AND NUMBER TWO: 

Papa Murphy's.  But here's the key:  if you want home made taste, skip pizza.  It's still going to sit in your tummy like junk food (duh, it is).  BUT, switch gears and for $10 you can take home one of these beauties:

Their lasagna is AWESOME.  Again, I'm not going to cite specific times, but I will confess I may have passed it off as my own a time or five two.   Promise, it was just twice but I've considered on many other occasions.  For you other sneaks, it comes in a disposable alumninum pan wrapped in saran wrap...totally even looks homemade but more importantly it TASTES homemade.

So those are two meals that I go to in a pinch.  They're cheap, super fast and don't have the taste of restaurant food that I get tired of after a while. 

Now, since we all know there are seven days in the week, I need AT LEAST five more ideas!  Share some of your tricks with me!  Pretty please???  This could ensure that I don't cook anymore during the week and save my family from eating Eggos for dinner.

BTW -- I'm of course not receiving any compensation for these reviews.  These are totally my independent opinion and any and all tricks I shared are yours for the taking.  I'm not a big time blogger, ya'll.  Just a mom without any time.

Who me?

Looking more and more like a little boy and less of a baby.  Somebody tap the breaks around here!!!

Updates from "Camp Turner"

I think it's pretty funny that I read some blogs almost daily and am disappointed when there's nothing new...yet I go two or three weeks without writing anything.  Oops.

We've pretty much just put our heads down and plowed through the past couple weeks.   There's been lots of changes and I feel like things will FINALLY calm down.  That's always asking for trouble though, right?  I mean, as soon as you think you have things under control -- BAM!--- that's usually when chaos strikes in our house. 

So...what have we been up to since Luke's party?  Well, our nanny quit.  And gave us four days notice.  Then our A/C broke and it took five days to get it fixed. Kelsey's mom came to visit to help out with Luke until we could find a replacement to watch Luke, our cable went out, we had a huuuuge lizard in the guest room (while my mother-in-law was in bed, of course, and there was a massive Godzilla gecko on the guest room ceiling!) my mom had surgery, we hired a new nanny (and it's working out great!), and we've been working like dogs.  Whew!  I got tired all over again just typing all that.  Ok, so maybe it doesn't sound like all that much but holy moly.  It was a little like summer camp between the no A/C, no TV and the outside coming inside...Camp Turner!  Hopefully, things are status quo now and we can just cruise into fall (oh please, please please bring on the fall weather...I'm so excited to pull out boots and sweaters!)

I feel like I haven't been documenting Luke's accomplishments like I should and since that's the true purpose of this 'ol blog, here goes:

From his first full day with Dawn, his new babysitter.  Seems happy to me!

He's really "talking" more:  Mama, Dadda, Bye-Bye, Baby ("BayBuh"), Meow.  It's incredible how excited we get when he even tries to mimic our pitch but doesn't get quite get the sounds out.  We think he's genius even when he fails.  I suppose that's pretty close to the definition of a parent, huh?

Luke's definitely standing on his own.  And now that he's figured out how to sit down on his own...he can even catch himself when he starts to fall!  With the darn hardwood floors throughout our house, it's a huge relief.  I just know he's going to be walking around soon though and we'll have another learning curve.  I'm ready for it.  But I'm so not.

He's a wild man in the bath tub.  Flipping onto his tummy and kicking and splashing, standing up, trying to rip the soap tray off the wall.  We usually have to tag team the tub time.  On our list this weekend is to buy one of the no-skid pads for the tub.  I told him the other day, "You and Grandma Alberta [my grandma] are going to be twins!" and I don't know what it was but he got a huge grin and laughed and laughed.  So, we'll be getting a tub mat.

But, putting his lotion and his diaper on after bathtime...FORGET IT! By the time he's clean, in jammies all cozy and ready for bed, I usually need a shower from my work out.  But overall, he loves the water and I think he just gets upset to get out of the tub.  He loves the pool too.  I hope that next summer he still loves the water this much because it's been so fun to take him to the pool all summer. 

With fall coming, we are excited to take him to a high school football game.  We're still trying to figure out how to accomplish this since most games start at 7:30 and he can barely make it to his 7:00 bedtime.  But we're determined to find a way!

We've also entered the cabinet phase.  You know, where the only thing he wants to do is pull everything out of the cabinet?  Yep, our house is constantly a wreck.  He takes everything out, puts it back in, takes it back out...over and over.  But always ends with it out.  Funny thing is that Kelsey asked me the other day if I'd ever heard of any other babies getting in the cabinets like this.  I said, "yep, I think it's kind of a phase most kids go through".  Then as if he didn't believe me, he's all "then why do they make cabinet locks?"  Oh, sweet daddy.  Because we only let him in CERTAIN cabinets...the Luke-safe ones.  Sweet, sweet, daddy...always thinking, that one!

Have a great weekend!  We are taking Luke out to dinner tonight and then he has a little friend's birthday party tomorrow.  Other than that, we'll just be maxin' and relaxin'...and sleeping sprawled out like a teenager!

PAR-TEE! PAR-TEE! PAR-TEE!

So, that title is our family chanting "party" before the big event.  And yes, I'm one of those mom's that (once again I vowed I'd never be) and had to invite a billion 26 people for Luke's party.  And 14 kids. 

YES.  It was a tiny bit insane.  But I "kinda" love to throw a party.  And since we never had a baby shower with our friends we used this opportunity to celebrate our little dude.

I actually took pictures.  LOTS AND LOTS of pictures (over 150!) so the good news is, some day Luke will know his mom threw him a killer party.  Until then, I'm glad birthdays only come around once a year!

The invitations:

And some decorations hanging the night before the party:


Comic book birthday banner

  

A picture from each month over the last year

 



A comparison of the first diaper size to now

 

Superhero cape for each friend



And of course there had to be a phone book for the transformation to superhero!





Setting up the dessert spread...

Which got a little out of control.  What can I say?  We like sweets!  There was cake.  And cake pops (like 80...oops).  And oreo truffles.  And candy.  So when I say setting up.  Seriously.  This is a small fraction of what we ended up with!  I could NOT have had all this yummy deliciousness (or the tummy ache that ensued from eating one of everything....again, oops) without my MIL's help.  She's a baking queen!



Luke's own smash cake


WHICH HE LOVED!!!!!

And the cake for everyone else was delicious too!

Disclaimer:  this isn't a picture of our cake, but it's what we sent to our cake lady.  Who managed to do EXACTLY what we wanted!  PRECIOUS!

Here's some of the cute guests:



















The Guest of Honor, aka mini Bat Boy









Yay!  Got a cute one by our photo booth (otherwise that would have been a complete bomb since the kids didn't want to stand still for a silly pic!)




Case in Point:

The older boys and some of the daddies  relocated to the game room for some fuseball...

The baking Queen (my MIL) loving on the guest of honor.

Luke had a batman cape since I had a hunch there might be a REAL superhero showing up!

 And there was lots and Lots of catching up with friends and eating good food!  I feel like as everyone was leaving I found myself saying "We miss ya'll!  Can we get together soon please?!?!?"  The thing is...I meant it with each and every one of these great friends.  Now that we live in the burbs...and we have a baby toddler...it's been so long since we've been able to have a big group over and we loved seeing every one of their sweet faces.

AND, you won't believe it, but look who showed up to surprise the Bday boy!!!

(Daddy, you're such a good sport.  I KNOW that was hot but you rocked it!)

Happy Birthday, Luke James.  You show us your super hero strength EVERY day (for good or bad)!  You're the coolest and we love you so much...MUAH!

We have ourselves a one year old!

WOW.  We have a one year old as of August 6!  CUH-RAY-ZEE.  I can't even put this past year into words.  I'm more than grateful at how far we've come -- as a baby, as parents, as a family.  I'm thrilled with Luke's progress, my growth as a mama and, let's be honest, really excited to be sleeping through the night.  But in a way, this was bitter sweet re-visiting all the memories of the fear and anxiety of a year ago.  Soooooo many times this week I caught myself remembering exactly what I was doing at that exact moment a year ago.  It's a strange feeling for me to re-live the past and something I don't find myself doing often. 
That being said, we partied like it's 1999 2012.  Saturday was Luke's birthday party, which deserves it's own post.  So let me back up.  Last weekend, I took pictures of Luke for his first birthday pictures.  Here's a couple favorites (but keep in mind I had to take over 100 pictures to get a couple gems...AND since I'm no pro, these are totally untouched)

Kinda in love with them, or just my lil dude. 

So, let's re-cap on the last year in a waaaaaay bird's eye view.

This time last year, literally about an hour ago, I was being wheeled into L&D and apparently the nurses all knew we'd be meeting our little guy pretty soon but I thought we'd head to dinner after I was monitored for a bit.  Oh, and we had our couples shower the next night so we didn't want to scare anybody so we could still go.  Ooops.  Within about 15 hours, we met our lil guy.  Since then he's gained roughly seven times his body weight.  He's gone from preemie diapers to newborn, 1, 2, and now 3.   We went from feeding him 1 ounce every three hours and now he's eating some solids (turkey, chicken, apples, and CHEERIOS!!!) and eight ounces of milk just at sleepy time (half cow's milk - yay!- half mommy's).  There was a point when he couldn't wear clothes because even preemie clothes were too big.  NOW, we've caught up and are mostly in twelve months.  And really - that's just the stats.  The reality of our journey this past year would be a book, not a blog post, so I'll just carry that in my heart for now.

For the current stats, check back Wednesday since we go for his one year on Tuesday afternoon.  And say a prayer that I can be as strong as Luke during his shots.  It's real humiliating to cry when your baby toddler is sitting all stoic. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!  You are the coolest kid I know. It was scary for a bit but we love that you march to the beat of your own drum.  Keep it up, kiddo!

Weekend Recap

This was the best weekend I have had in a long time!  We made the trip down to College Station to spend time with fantastic friends.  Luke did pretty well on the trip down...

All smiles

We got to my friend's farm just in time to feed the little guy, have our own dinner and let the kids hang out for a few minutes before putting Luke to bed.  Except he didn't really sleep.  SO...actually Friday was a little rough.  Thankfully Hayley (my friend that we stayed with) has three girls so they're used to crazy but we definitely bring our own breed of crazy when we travel!  Her whole family made us feel so welcome and loved and it was great to catch up and laugh about old memories...even if Luke was squawking in the pack 'n play most of the night! 

Saturday, we got up early and did Luke's 1 year pictures around their land.  Hayley's girls were big helpers and Hayley had all these great ideas.  The pictures turned out UH_MAY_ZING and I'm so happy with them!  I'll post the rest after his birthday party but here's one of the out takes (still need to process these to get the scratches off his face):



Ooooookay... And because I'm excited and terrible at surprises here's a good one too...

Obviously I'm biased but I think he makes that wagon look GOOOOOOOD!  And honestly, those aren't even the best.  You'll die.  Or at least I do.  So, check back next week for the really good ones!

Saturday afternoon really warmed my heart.  Not only did I get to spend time with friends that I love and miss but to see all our kids playing together (or at least next to each other!) was so much fun!  There were six kids total and I think everyone had fun.  There really is something so amazing about seeing your kids playing with your dear friends kids.  Maybe it's because we were basically "kids" when we all became friends (sorta...okay we were 19 but we were definitely young and stupid so whatever). Kelsey and I both really enjoyed the weekend and it's made me miss our friends even more!!!  Here's a couple pictures to record the chaos:

Sammie and the dog and the stuffed animals all "attacking" Kelsey and Luke.   

Getting all the toys out.  Espeically the little tiny pieces for Luke to put in his mouth ;)

This picture actually shows a lot.  Luke played with a LOT of pink with all these girls.  And Kelsey is in the background making frosting from scratch (don't ask!)...and Taylor, the oldest of the kids, was a pseudo-babysitter.  That's Patrick and Whitney there on the couch and Annabelle, our nine year old lab mutt was the best farm doggie we could have asked for!

I absolutely, positively love when my friends love on Luke.  And in just the short time that we were in College Station, I learned a lot about being a better mommy.  I really hope the lesson sticks and I can loosen up a little bit and not stress so much.  That's Hayley just doing what she does best... mommying and multi-tasking...

Headed out to the pool!

It felt a lot better in the shade for the little ones.  The splash pad was a big hit!  (oh, and by the way, how cute is little Jack???  He's just over two months and already hanging with the big kids.  He's a trooper!)

 

Shortly after this pic, Kelsey lost his wedding ring and I lost one of my favorite shoes.  Luke was wiped out and went to bed without a fight.  The dads threw the football while us mamas had some cold drinks and the older kids ran around playing. It was exactly how I always thought having a family would be!  

Oh....And Kelsey found his wedding ring (in the trash) and I found my shoe (in the bottom of my suitcase, oops).  

And speaking of mamas, check out this pregnant pig.  She's so pregnant her back feet would lift off the ground and she'd get "high centered".  POOR MAMA!



So...that was our weekend in general - I loved seeing my friends.  I can't tell you girls how good it was for my soul --- and my family -- to spend that time with you and your families.  It's so nice when the husbands get along, the wives get along and now the kids.  Not too many friendships work that well... I needed that!  And seriously... let's do it again soon!