The Musings of a Working Mom

My kids love Sloppy Joes and what's not to love?  They have an excuse to eat messily and get food all over themselves!  But I really don't like canned sloppy joe sauces - they are too sweet and loaded with nasty, unhealthy ingredients, so I decided to make my own homemade sauce.  And thanks to the internet...more specifically Food Network (one of my favorites), one of the first recipes that popped up was a Rachel Ray recipe.  I looked it over and saw that I had almost all of the ingredients and I read most of the ratings and reviews and made some adjustments to the recipe to suit my kids' taste.   Cooks notes: I used 80/20 beef and drained the excess oil/water out before proceeding with the recipe below.   Two of my kids are not big fans of bell peppers so I substituted grated carrots instead (and they had no idea that it was in the recipe).   I also reduced the Montreal Steak seasoning to 1 1/2 teaspoons so it wouldn't be too spicy for my kids. ...

With 3 kids to feed each night, I have to find easy, creative and delicious meals to serve them to avoid the late evening meltdowns.  Well one afternoon, with the kids finishing their homework, I looked up to realize that dinner time was way too close with nothing on the stove or even in the works!! YIKES!!  What to do??   Now I could just resort to making pasta, but they eat pasta like every other day! So I wanted to feed them something different.  I opened the fridge to scan my shelves and see what I could make....and then a Pinterest picture came to mind:  pizzas made in a muffin tin.  I don't recall ever seeing the recipe but I figured that I could come up with it on my own.  So I fished out the canned biscuits, pizza sauce, and shredded cheese.  Yep, that's it!    Preheat the oven to 350F (or whatever temp is listed on the biscuit package).  I sprayed the muffin tin with some Pam.  Placed and spread each biscu...

Even though I have adventurous eaters, I do have toddlers after all and we do have our moments of "picky eating"...but I get them to try something new by reminding them of the story of "Sam I Am".  I have read and re-read the story Sam I Am by Dr. Seuss for many years now...and the moral of the story is that you should give something a try before writing it off - you never know how good it tastes until you try something.  So when my kids say that they don't want to eat something, I just say "Come on Sam I Am - you should try it, you may like it!"  Saying this reminds them of the story and they take one bite and if they don't like it, no problem - they don't have to eat it.  At least I got them to try it.  And if they like it, even better.  On a side note, if they didn't like whatever they tried - don't give up on that item just yet.  Keep on trying - toddlers are finicky eaters and one day they make like something, and the next day the...

Having a child is the most amazing and wonderful thing in the world.  After all, you carried this child for 9 months and anxiously waited for him/her to make their grand entrance into your world and everything is all dreamy and wonderful.  Then you enter into the sleepless nights of midnight feedings, diaper changes, singing, coddling, rocking, swaying, etc. and then you wonder when will you get a full night of sleep again?  Well the answer is sooner than you think!  Just to lay it out there - I'm not a sleep expert nor do I claim to be one.  But I do have experience from sleep training our 3 children and I can happily say that my husband and I have peace and quiet from 8pm on and we sleep through the night (minus sicknesses/teething issues/nightmares/etc.) because we have successfully sleep trained our children.  So back to my point... Initially, infants don't have the internal mechanism to put themselves to sleep or even to know day from night....

So there were quite a few things that I loved using this month on both myself and my kids, as well as a couple of food items.  I'll start out with the products for the kids - 2 of my kids suffer from eczema and all 3 have very dry skin in these winter months despite constant moisturizing but we have all loved using Shea Moisture Organic Raw Chamomile Argan Oil Baby Head-to-Toe Ointment.  We all love the smell - like cocoa butter - and I tease the kids that I'm going to eat their cheeks, arms and legs because they smell so yummy! Their skin stays really soft and moisturized after just one use...I try to reapply it every night and I keep one tube/tub on each level of my house at arms reach.  Now for the products for myself - I am re-loving my Mary Kay Medium Coverage Foundation. This foundation has been sitting in my makeup drawer for quite some time but recently saw the light of day and has now found a place on the counter with the rest of the...

Confused about when to switch your baby's carseat?  Here is a great article in the Washington Parent on the when's and why's.  Hope this helps... http://www.washingtonparent.com/articles/1201/car-seats.php