Munchin' Monday

Another new weekly segment here at Learning the Mommy Name is going to be "Munchin' Monday". As the name suggests I will be posting a recipe that we enjoy in this house every Monday. There may be more than one or recipes on other days of the week, but you'll always find a new one every Monday! 

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BAKED CHICKEN and PASTA

This week - I made a classic Freezer Meal Staple in this house. If you are not familiar with Freezer Meals I will be making a post explaining the process and the benefits to you sometime this week, but for now - I am just going to go through the recipe with you. 

Utensils:

Pot for Pasta
Sauté Pan
Spoon for Stirring
Spatula
Colander
Large Mixing Bowl
Baking Dish – 8X8X2 or larger **(1)**
Aluminum Foil (If Freezing part)  

Ingredients: **(2)**

• 1 box Penne Pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 or 2 large boneless/skinless Chicken Breast (cubed)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 small sweet pepper (diced)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Flat Leaf Parsley
• Salt to Taste
• Black Pepper to Taste
• Bread Crumbs (as desired)
• Parmesan (as desired)
• 1 tablespoon butter (Plus a little to butter baking dish)

Directions:

• Preheat Oven to 400 degrees F.

·         Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta and put into a large mixing bowl. **(3)**

·         Heat Oil over Medium Heat in Sauté Pan.

·         Cook Chicken about 4 minutes or till mostly done.

·         Add Onions and Garlic, cooking till chicken and Onions are fully done.

·         Combine Chicken with Pasta in large bowl.

·         Add Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers, Cheese, Parsley, Salt, and Black Pepper and combine.

·         Distribute mixture into buttered dish and foil pans if freezing.

·         Sprinkle or Cover top with Bread Crumbs and Parmesan as you like.

·         Dot top with butter

·         Bake for about 30 minutes, or till top is golden brown.

****NOTES****

(1)   – I always make a large batch of this to freeze part of it. With the amounts of Ingredients given, I usually bake the 8X8X2 dish and then have 3 Mini-Loaf Aluminum Foil pans that I wrap with foil, date, and Freeze for lunch and quick single dinners. If you do not want to freeze any, simply bake in 2 dishes or a larger baking dish.

(2)   All the ingredients should be measured according to what you like. This is a variation of the original recipe that I was given – modified to fit what my family enjoys, feel free to modify it to fit yours. This is designed to have extras for freezing, so scale back accordingly if you would like a smaller batch.

(3)   You want to just slightly undercook the pasta. It will finish cooking in the oven.

Singing Saturday - Baa Baa Black Sheep

Another Classic that you can't help but love.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!
One for the master, one for the dame,
And one for the little boy who lives down the lane

Belly Button Blues

We have the Belly Button Blues in this house today.

Let me start by saying that it took almost 11 days for Baby K’s umbilical stump to fall off. It bled afterwards, which everything says is alright. The doctor said not to worry if there is a little bleeding after it comes off.

At this time – I thought it was bleeding more than the little we were instructed to anticipate. My husband found some instructions telling us to press a piece of gauze on it for 15 minutes and if it hadn’t stopped bleeding then we needed to call the Doctor right away. We did this, and the bleeding seemed to stop.

Exactly one week after it fell off she woke up with dried blood around the belly button. I called the DR’s office and the nurse/receptionist told me that it was normal and fine and not to worry… well I worried and I WISH that I would have followed my instincts.

While this may not seem like a huge deal to anyone else, it is to me…

This morning at the DR appointment, he looked at her belly button after we told him it was really red and inflamed looking. He said it is not closing properly, but now it’s too far for him to be able to put the silver nitrate on it to help close it up, and we just have to wait for it to heal on its own.

Is it a huge deal? Probably not. Am I a little bit upset that my daughter has to be uncomfortable and in pain because the office worker that answered the phone didn’t say, “It’s more than likely ok, but since it’s been a week let’s go ahead and have the DR take a look”? You bet.

My Advice: Don’t wait if the belly button is bleeding or oozing more than what YOU consider a little. I did, and although I called the doctor when there was bleeding after a week – I wish, wish, wish, that I would have insisted on bringing her in to see the doctor if not when it first fell off and I was worried – I should have done so at that point when I found dried blood on it that morning a week later.  Please don’t make the same mistake. It may not be life threatening, but who wants to put their child through more pain that necessary?

Baby’s First Halloween Costume

Being just over 3 weeks old, it was rather daunting to consider a Halloween costume for Baby K. At first I wasn’t going to do any costume, but then I thought that it would be fun to have her dressed as something when the neighbors came over with their little ones to trick-or-treat.

I am all about homemade anything and everything as you will learn, and still recovering from delivery I didn’t have the energy/strength/time or the means to make a costume. ….Luckily, there is a Mom’s group on Facebook for my city. There I scouted out a WAHM (Working at Home Mom) to make me a beautiful Cocoon for Baby K.

For her first Halloween Baby K was dressed as a FOOTBALL. My husband and I are huge football fans (Go Colts) and I thought that this was original and unique to our family. She was beautiful and I loved that it was a handmade costume. =P

What did your children dress as?

Singing Saturday - Thirty days hath September

A simple classic and educational too!

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
February has twenty eight alone
All the rest have thirty-one
Except in Leap Year, that's the time
When February's Days are twenty-nine

Diaper Rash Dealings

 Baby K has a diaper rash, that I’m actually not sure is not yeast. Chris and I have tried Desitin (and were later warned off by the NP in the doctor’s office because of the fact that she is so small right now, the thick cream just makes it worst – and to support her opinion I had used some of the Desitin on my own rash that a acquired thanks to the MEGA sized pads at the hospital on my inner thigh areas way up there – and I must admit that it was super gross and crusty I literally squatted there and scratched the stuff off.)

Instead she suggested A&D or Aquaphor Healing Ointment. We bought a tube of Aquaphor to try, but it didn’t seem to help and her skin on the upper, inner thigh actually began to look as though it was peeling now. We started Baby K on disposable diapers until her cord fell off, then went to cloth- the rash started when we ran out of Seventh Generation diapers, and had to use Pampers, but it seemed to get worse even after we switched to cloth...although I'm sure we weren't giving her skin ample time to dry before putting the new diaper on her (we didn't know!).

It constantly had a wet look to it – so I busted out the hairdryer and have used it to help dry my baby out between diaper changes on the ‘cool’ setting – of course.  I have only given this a try twice (not giving up on it) – but simply also decided to let Baby K hang out in the Family Room on a soft fleece blanket (safer than plastic, more resistant than any other cotton to keep my carpet dry, and I got it at the Goodwill for fifty cents, so I really don’t care if she poops on it) – and she has been seemingly enjoying the open-air time. Her cute little butt cheeks look to be a much lighter pink than they did an hour ago, so here’s to hoping we can get on top of this rash situation…. Updates will follow this post as I plan to have her diaperless again for most of the day tomorrow.

I also got a little squirt bottle and soft rag ready to go for cleaning her between changes instead of the wipes - we'll see if a combination of things work, if not it'll be off to the doctor tomorrow afternoon.

Projectile Vomiting

Baby K has been having issues with Projectile Vomiting. The Nurse Practitioner at the DR office said sometimes babies will suffer with Pyloric Stenosis, or sometimes the ….stomach… is too small and the food comes back up.

Thankfully, we don’t appear to have this issue since Baby K is only doing the projectile vomiting every once in a while…pretty random and not every time she eats, so we were instructed not to worry unless it happens after every feeding.