Date Day

Day dates are wayyyyy better than night dates.

For one, you're not tired by 7 pm.

And two, things just look better in the light.

So while the boys played with their grandma,

Kyle and I went thrifting (surprised?).

This time though we ventured to some new places out of our normal territory and scored big time.

Kyle and I always play dumb when we are thrifting.

We pretend we don't know the worth of the item,

or mid century designers...

he always just says, "my wife just likes collecting this stuff."

Which is the truth.

And while we were at one very questionable front yard thrift store, I mentioned in passing that my favorite pieces are danish made furniture.

The proprietor of this yard sale, a rather scruffy looking man with bulgy eyes and a cigarette hanging from his lip, looked at me and whispered, 

"so you like danish, eh? I can get it for you, give me 24 hours. We know guys." 

I asked myself, "Is danish modern the new crack?"

Because that really felt shady.

A little uncomfortable perhaps.

After we loaded down our nitro with all the chairs we could cram in, we decided to cram our bellies with food.

So went to the Royal Falconer in Redlands. 
And ate lavash and a caprese salad.

It was a good way to end a very good day with my favorite person on the planet.

My "healthy" breakfast

So I have an on going battle right now...
with Nutella.


Each day I wake up and tell myself, 
"Dena, you don't need to eat it for breakfast. Have an egg."


Well egg smegg.
And Nutella it is!


And so today, I smeared this heavenly creation on Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and baked them in the oven at 375' for 12 minutes.


The result was nothing short of delicious.
(Except for the ones I burnt-I'm still not used to my new oven.)


I really need to try and stop buying this stuff each time I am at the grocery store. 
But I just keep telling myself that it's part of a healthy breakfast (well, that's what the jar says at least).


Happy Tuesday! 

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Sunday night I had a real life dinner with no babies,
and just friends for Lisa's birthday.


It was so nice.


We ate a million small plates (have you had the Vietnamese Tacos from The Cheesecake Factory? They are so good),
and had a real life adult conversation.


Mostly about how thankful we are for each other,
and the fact that we've known each other for almost 15 years!


I love these two.
and seriously cherish our time together. 


Happy birthday Lisa!!

Day 1

Today was Day 1 without Daddy.

He's in Arizona painting a Mimi's Cafe.

And me...I am home packing our house for the big move.

I'm about 80% finished.

High five!

The boys just went to sleep.

For some reason they just did not want to go to bed tonight.

But today was good & productive.

I love these days.

Went thrifting (and found some beautiful vintage dresses for our shop...I'll show them to you on Thursday) and I ran into my sweet friend Heather. We seem to always be doing that. I love it.

We ate Phoencia before going to Trader Joes.

I love that place.

I could eat Greek food everyday.

Ayden ate chicken schwarma.

I told him it was a taco.

He fell for it.

Oh & Lucas loves humus.

He'll eat anything that boy.

PS- And Honey don't worry, I'm not scared. 

I have a night light.

We like to Party...

So, we had a baby food making party!

Why not right?

We're young, have loads of babies (who need to eat) and so why not get together & make some baby food!

We cooked for about 3 hours and made a ton of baby food.

And...my blender died in the process.

RIP dear friend.

You've been with me for a long, long time...

it was sad to see you sitting in my trash can.

Overall, the day was eventful to say the least.

Some moments will be etched into our brains for eternity.

It was one of the wildest parties I've been too in a very long time!

Dinner # 1

On our plates:
Cheesy chicken & salsa skillet
Recipe found here.
(Tip: The best thing about this website is the 3 ingredient list. Where you can list what ingredients you have and it pulls up recipes that include them. Genius!)


The verdict:
Pass
It was really easy to make.
The husband liked it. He said it was, "Good."
The down side: the duo didn't, they said it was too spicy.
My gringo babies don't have the buds for salsa.
Next time I'll use extra extra mild.

The Fridge

Helloooooo, Fridge!

It's time for me & you to have a lil' experiment.

And so here is my mission: To use all that you hold to feed my family.

Sounds easy enough right?

Well, you.are.wrong.

Half of the food we use.

and the other half, well, just gets funky.

OR I buy it to use in some fancy smancy recipe (hi, capers! you've been on my fridge door for awhile now...I know) and I never.use.you.again.

So here is my project for the next 7 days.

I am going to use all that my fridge holds, without restocking at the grocery store once!

(this of course, excludes drinks! Once milk or diet coke is gone in my house, there is gonna be a riot.)

It's a tall order.

I know. I'm scared.

But I have some tools to help.

And for the next 7 days I'm going to post my recipes.

And at the end of 7 days, we'll see how well I did.

We are all trying to skimp to save where we can.

So, wish me luck.

And if you try any of these recipes, let me know what you think!

Picky Eater

I have a picky eater.
His name is Ayden.
Or "Aydee-Boo" if you ask him.

He loves: beans, cheese, & tortillas.
But that's about it.

His love for mexican & dairy has really effected his "schedule."
If you catch my drift.

And I like my babies to poop with ease,
so I've decided to get back to being sneaky with the food I cook in my house.

Yesterday I bought an arsenal of mommy ammo to fight my picky eater.
Secret weapons that I totally get a kick about using because no one even knows...!

First order of business were Chocolate Chip cookies.
Secret ingredients:
1) Flax Seed
2) Wheat Germ
3) Chick Peas
4) Oatmeal
5) Whole Wheat flour

The cookies were actually really good & you couldn't taste a difference (really) plus it has like a 3rd less sugar then a normal cookie...so I could eat a few more and not feel so bad.

Dinner was "Chicken Cigars":
1) Low fat cheese mixed with pureed winter squash.

Wrapped in a tortilla & baked in the oven...that boy didn't know what hit him.


So from here on out, I'm gonna load that boy with a ton of my secret weapons
and
wait
for
him
to
poop til' his hearts content!