Meal time - a new hit or miss

Awhile back a friend of mine posted on her blog about some pinterest meals that she had tried. Well in an effort to expand my meal repertoire I have been challenging myself to try a few new recipes. In addition to the new recipes I have been doing meal prep once or twice a week for the entire week. It makes making dinner so much easier since now that I have a little one, I never have time in the evening that I can actually make a meal that takes prep work outside of sticking something frozen in the oven or making a sandwich. It's been working quite well. It's also cut back on doing dishes during the week and if I plan well I can cook a bunch of chicken up for 4 recipes at the same time. And if I'm extra good, I can double recipes for a meal to enjoy on a crazy week that I am not together on. And since I plan everything all at once it forces me to look at the week as a whole and evaluate some of our meal choices. 

So back to my friends challenge. Here are the pinterest meals we've tried and our thoughts:

1. Slow cooker Honey Sesame Chicken - this was okay. Not a favorite. Something about Asian food in the slow cooker is not quite working for us.
2. Coconut Chicken w/ Sweet dipping sauce - this would have been better had the recipe specified that you need 'sweetened' coconut, not the plain stuff as I used. I plan to try this again with the right stuff.
3. Chicken Broccoli Supreme Casserole w/o the canned soup - excellent. We've had this a couple times.
4. Braised Short Ribs - This is a favorite of mine. I cut the red wine and use beef broth. Aaron seems to sometimes like it and sometimes not, so I don't know if I didn't space it out far enough in between or what. He likes variety whereas I could eat the same delicious meal every night several nights in a row.
5. Honey Spice Chicken Thighs- Good, but not as flavorful as I was hoping. Need to kick up the spice next time.
6. Pot Roast - I've made pot roast before, but I thought I'd try this as it had a few more seasonings and spice. We both enjoyed this and especially the pot roast leftover quesadilla's that were suggested as a follow up meal.
7. Left over Pot Roast Quesadillas - Awesome :)
8. Chicken, Potato, Bacon Au Gratin - sounded better than it was. It was fine, I definately need to add some red pepper or something next time. Needs some serious spice.
9. Orange Chicken - made in the crock pot, another Asian meal I decided doesn't work in the crocker. To many varieties of flavors blended together. The flavors need to be kept separate and layered and then maybe we would have liked this better.
10. Best ever Beef Sandwiches - good. very salty from the soy sauce. maybe beef broth next time? We'll see. I haven't given up on this one.


So inspired again by my friend, I put this question out there... What are your go to meals? and what about recipes you've tried? Anything good enough to share? I need some more awesome hits and less misses.

Family Vacation 2012

Aaron was surprised with an extended Fourth of July holiday so we decided to take Liam on our first official family vacation. Over the years that we have lived on the east coast we've consistently had reasons to travel north and have not taken the opportunities to go south. So since fried chicken was calling my name I thought why not go to the mecca of the lady herself, Ms. Paula Deen.

Our trip started out earlier than expected due to the previously mentioned power outages. But on the plus side we got to spend extra time with our friends in Florence, SC. It was so nice to sleep somewhere with air conditioning. This part of the trip was mostly hanging out with friends which was really nice to just visit without trying to fit extra things into the schedule. Aaron got to spend some time golfing, while Melissa (yes the friend we visited has the same name) and I got to talk endlessly about girl stuff without boring the boys. We went to school together years ago, before we both got married, had kids, and moved all over the place. And I love that after all these life changes, when I talk with her and hang out with her and her family I still feel as if we are the same people that we were in design school years ago.

On the Fourth we set off to our next destination, Savannah, GA. We stayed at a riverfront hotel with a perfect view of the fireworks. Liam did great touring the city. He napped in his stroller and when awake he hung out in the Bjorn cooing at the constant change of scenery. Although somehow he managed to sleep through the fireworks. While in the Savannah we spent a day doing a hop on hop off trolley tour. We saw movie sights, historic sights, gardens and eerie graveyards. Everything was draped in Spanish moss which made the town feel both romantic and haunted. I was happy that we did not run into any alligators on our trip, but I saw plenty of warning signs along the river. The highlight of Savannah for me was the buffet dinner at Paula Deen's restaurant. The home cooking classics were delicious and I've never tasted brussels sprouts like these, topped off with a piece of butter cake for dessert. I can't even remember the last time I was in that much pain from eating, but somehow an hour later I found space to enjoy a praline.

note: a favorite memory of Savannah was the morning Aaron was changing Laim's diaper and he pooped through 4 in a matter of 20 minutes, not only that, but it was while Aaron was in the middle of the diaper change and poop got all over the bed sheets on his side of the bed.... Aaron humbly went to find the maid in the hallway to ask for new sheets, she laughed when he explained why.  A special thanks to my son who saves his best poops for his dad :)

Three days later we were off again to our next stop. We swung by the beach for lunch on our way out of town and made our way north to Charleston, SC. Aaron's favorite food guide when traveling is his phone app. called 'TV Food Guide'. It has led us to some awesome food and some random food. My favorite is still the gingersnap milk shake I enjoyed in Cleveland, OH. So our first night we let it guide us to a quaint little sit down place that had the menus written on a chalkboard wall in the dining room. Again I enjoyed my favorite fried chicken and Aaron has some sort of pine bark stew. I'd say this place was on the awesome list, although I still crave that gingersnap milk shake. We only spent 2 days in Charleston, but we took a great historic tour on a carriage ride and enjoyed some silky gelato on the pier. We walked through the market and saw the pirates graveyard. Next time I'd love to spend a day at a plantation. There are some big ones there that take a solid day to explore. 

After Charleston we made the drive home and were very happy to find the electricity had returned. I always love family vacation. It's very rejuvenating, a nice break to leave the stresses of home behind and just enjoy each other one on one for a solid block of time and experience something new.

So the part you've all been waiting for.... PICTURES!

 Market Street where they have sweet little things called 'pralines' a new favorite

 Stroller AC

 Fourth of July Firework set up

 Laim enjoying his diaper change

 Breaking for morning snack

 The Sears and Roebuck fountain

 This is a Sears and Roebuck house kit. Apparently the owners read the manual wrong and put the window sills on top of the windows and the window crown on the bottom where the sill should be.

 Eerie graveyard

 Aaron and Liam in thier matching outfits... only dad's isn't a romper, but wouldn't that be funny? Aaron actually picked out this outfit himself and dressed them both that morning. Later he got tired of all the strangers commenting on their father/son outfits so he changed.

 Aaron's other purchase for Liam. He makes a cute monkey.

 I think Liam thinks he's too cool for this.

 Tybee Island Lighthouse

 Charleston Pier

 Carriage ride

That is our update for now. In other news we have started house shopping, wish us luck! We might be moving to Virginia. Sad, but true. Friends in Maryland, pray we'll find the perfect home here... although on the plus side our power lines would most likely be underground in VA which means fewer if any power outages. In which case Maryland friends you can crash with us. :)

Teaser Picture

Me and Liam at the Tybee Island lighthouse. More family vacation pictures and a more detailed blog to follow. This is just for those who keep asking for more pictures ;)

The Days of Darkness

It's no secret that we lost power for several days last weekend/week. And with the massive heat wave plus humidity it was extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable. The first 24 hours I was just annoyed, but as we ventured out Saturday we saw....




this was a common sight all over. Our street was closed and patrolled by 3 cop cars for several days. We could get out, but to get back we had to drive the wrong direction on the wrong side of the street. Now as I was telling a sister about this she asked me if we lived in the boonies.... no, no I don't, but one would think with this sort of mess and the length of time we all had to wait to get power back you'd think that we didn't live just miles away from where the leader of our country lives. To be exact I live 11.8 miles from the White House. Luckily we had already planned a family vacation for last week so I was just trying to get to Tuesday and we'd be okay. Here's how the weekend went:

Friday night/Saturday:
We spent all day inside in the dark just hoping and praying for a miracle and that our power would be some of the first to come back. We were bored a lot and slept a lot. Luckily because I am a bit obsessive I had batteries and back up batteries for the necessary items...  also lucky that baby toys seem to be battery operated and already had batteries, hmmm maybe that's why I had back ups. These black outs have happened before and for some reason we always think that they won't happen again, but then they do. And it always seems to be the hottest week or coldest week of the year... remember snowpocalypse 2010?


and snowmageddon just 2 weeks after that?(actually I'm not sure which one came first but they were one after the other)


So what's worse? Hot or Cold? I'd say the heat... at least when it was cold we could warm up and I could run the gas stove to provide a little extra heat, but when it's already so hot you try to avoid adding any kind of heat to the already overly hot space so any kind of cooked food was quickly ruled out and dry cereal, fruit and peanut butter sandwiches became our diet. And being that we were all put under strict water conservation advisement's I filled up every empty container we had with clean water just in case the water purification plants didn't get up and running. But speaking of water the lack of power also meant the lack of warm water and thus added the shock of cold showers to the list of misery. Again when it was cold we could heat water on the stove and take a warm sponge bath, but as I said the use of the stove was out out out.

Sunday day 2: I have never been so excited about going to church in my life!!! The church building had power and AC and I was going to enjoy those 3 hours of coolness. About an hour in, a couple friends who were lucky to get their power back the night before had offered a cool place for us to hang out and electricity for us to do laundry. At first I was like oh we'll be fine it's only a couple more days, but about 20 min before church ended I was fighting back tears as I was dreading the fact that I would need to return home and realized if there was ever a time to be needy and not self reliant it was now. A thousand thank you's to the Atwood's for opening their home, their freezer, washer/dryer, warm bath for the babes, and offering a hot meal and fantastic company. I still tear up when I think about what a blessing that afternoon and evening was.

Monday day 3: We were done! Almost made it to Tuesday, but why wait? When you've already planned a family vacation, have hotel reservations and friends on notice that you are going to visit why prolong the wait? So as soon as Aaron finished his partner/lunch meeting I had big plans to get out of here. And so get out we did. Aaron packed his suitcase before he left for the office and I was sooooo happy that babes took a super awesome long nap that morning allowing me to get everything packed and ready so when he woke, we took off in a fully packed air conditioned car hours before the lunch would be over. But we were excited and so we ran some errands, did some shopping, made some phone calls, and picked up Aaron to leave straight from work and put an end to the mess we were leaving behind. 

I'm not quite sure when we did get our power back, but we got home early early Sunday morning to the delight of electricity and rejuvenated from a wonderful family vacation. So now that we have a very empty fridge and freezer we will be doing a full load grocery shopping spree this evening. Gotta go on a health kick after that nice Paula Deen buffet and all the other southern fried chicken I devoured.... and I wonder why I'm not bouncing back to my pre-pregnancy body ;) 

My first camera lesson

Last week I was so excited to have a photo shoot with a professional photographer! She is a friend of my husbands and was willing to show me how to set up my camera to get some great shots when I'm out with my family. Liam wasn't the best of subjects, but I got a few pics. We're going to try and get another set of photos before she moves at the end of July and if I can convince my husband maybe... just maybe one day we'll do a family photo shoot with her at her new home in Paris, France. But that could be a long shot, I'm lucky he's taken me there twice, I'll just have to watch for some super super cheap tickets.

Liam's Baby Blessing

 Liam's Grandparents, Me and our little fam, My Sister and her Son

 Stephanie- You take the best pictures ;)

Liam and his Fairy Godmother- Steph we need to get you some wings and a wand... I'll work on that, I'm getting crafty these days.

Well this little man is officially William Russell Miller. Grandma and Papa Wilson, Auntie Maralee with cousins Jack and Nora, and fairy godmother Stephanie all came to town for the occasion. We had a wonderful visit and were lucky to have a babysitter for Aaron and I to slip out on our first date since he was born... it was last minute and I was sooooo not cute for the occasion, but we were excited all the same. Next time maybe we'll put some thought into it ahead of time.

April and May Update

 Family Picture at Scott's Wedding in NYC

 The gang together again- Matt, Stephanie, Scott, Me- the last time we were together like this was at my wedding almost 5 years ago. I am very blessed with lasting friendships.

Goodness how time fly's! I can't believe it's already summer and Liam will be 3 months old tomorrow! He is growing and getting so big. He is such a good little bebe I can't believe how lucky we are! In April we had 2 wedding weekends in a row, both out of state, both parties Liam slept through. But he is such a good traveler, even the grouchy woman on the airplane said so at the end of our long 4 hour flight. And as a sweet gift to his mother and father, on return from the second wedding Liam started sleeping through the night and has done so ever since. Which now brings us to May :) Starting with my birthday, Liam rolled over 3 times in a row during tummy time! And has yet to do it again since.... I guess it was a special birthday present. Weekend number 2 was our first Mother's Day. I got the day off! Almost, aside from feeding Liam, Aaron took care of him, in addition he made dinner, and let me take a peaceful, uninterrupted Sunday nap in my favorite lounge spot on the couch it was lovely. And for a finishing touch Aaron took us on a family outing to the Macy's jewelry counter (this was the Friday prior to Mothers day) and bought me a beautiful long colorful pearl necklace (see Liam's blessing pictures). You know that one thing that you put on and it just makes you feel glamorous? These pearls have that effect. Seriously I have been known to wear them around the house on a rough day when Liam doesn't want to nap and wants to be held non stop, I haven't had a shower, barely eaten anything, and I'll admit it a tooth brush hasn't touched my teeth... I know gross... but just wearing the pearls make me feel okay about all of it. Life is good. Life is wonderful.

P.S. There are lots of wedding pictures from both weddings on facebook, check them out!