Two-fer Turkey Roast

Yesterday, I braved the crock-pot again to make a turkey tenderloin.  It was really easy, just the turkey, little red potatoes, carrot “dip chips”, frozen Brussel sprouts, frozen pearl onions, and some better than bouillon.  Super easy and really delicious.

Tonight, I had fully planned to put the leftovers over mixed veggies and rice.  But I stayed at work late and by the time I picked up Boog she was a little extra punchy.  At some point between walking into the daycare and getting into the house, I assured her that we were having pasta.  So, turkey over pasta it was.  Soooo good and really easy!

Side note question: Does anyone have good tips on how to remove the pit from a nectarine/peach?  I’ve been eating them as snacks at work recently, so I chop one up the night before and I’m just terrible at it.  I’m fairly certain I’m going to slice off a finger tip or stab my own palm, so I’m open for any tips you got!

Next up tomorrow, I go back on my word…  Let’s hope it works out for me.

Breakfast Feels Left Out

I’m always focused on dinner on here, so you probably all wonder if that’s all we eat.  Nope!  We can’t forget the most important meal of the day – BREAKFAST!

Breakfast is tough.  The mornings are hectic enough as is, trying to all get out out the door to our respective places of responsibility (school, work, shop) on time.  I try to start my work day out at 7:30, so I can leave and have more time in the evenings to spend time with the Boog (and cook!)  Pair that with the fact that I’m not a morning person, and you have a recipe for driving through Dunkin’ Donuts every day.

For awhile, Husband and I were splitting responsibilities – I got the Boog ready for school (dressed, vitamin, breakfast, hair, etc.) and he got the dogs fed and me ready (coffee, breakfast).

Boog’s breakfast mainly consisted of frozen waffles, French toast, or pancakes.  On the weekends, I could do whole what English muffins with peanut butter or oatmeal, but during the week, all of the “better” breakfasts were messy and slowed us down.

Husband’s and my breakfast consisted of oatmeal that I could take to work with me, or an egg/egg white/eggbeater sandwich I could eat on the way.

Fast forward to the terrible twos.

I would say, about 80% of the time, my daughter has some terrible aversion to me in the morning.  Literally, she will get up and I walk/look in her general direction and she will tell me to go away, stay away, go back to bed, that she doesn’t want Mommy ANY MORE, etc.  I’m not sure why, she loves me any other time of the day, but if I mess with her before 6:30, the horned beast comes out.

Getting her dressed in the morning had become quite the challenge.  If I did it, there was screaming, crying, frustration and no one started the day out right.  If my husband did it, it threw off our whole delicate balance resulting in a run through the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru.

So, we’ve been slowly working out better options for breakfast.  Every few weeks we stock up the freezer with heat-and-eat items for the whole family.  We have three main stand-bys:

1) Homemade waffles!  On a Saturday or Sunday morning, Husband will whip out the waffle maker and make a huge batch, freezing what we don’t eat.  These work great, except we like to have blueberries or other fruit in them and those can be messy weekday breakfasts for the Boog.

2) Breakfast burritos!  These are our new favorites.  You can put whatever you want in them.  We usually get a big package of tortillas and fill them with egg beaters, onions, peppers, salsa, turkey sausage crumbles, and cheese.  Roll those bad boys up and store them in the tortilla bag in the freezer.   Awesome protein boost in the morning.

3) Zucchini Muffins – My favorite!  I follow this recipe pretty closely, with a couple of exceptions.  I do cut the oil in half and substitute applesauce.  I also use all whole wheat flour, but substitute 1/4 – 1/2 cup of it with flax seed meal.  They end up super moist and the Boog loves them.  Sometimes I’ll put some berries in here as well, but then it’s messy for a weekday morning again.

Zucchini Muffins

The best part about the zucchini muffins is that Boog can help me bake them now!  We have matching aprons and made some last weekend.  She got to put all of the ingredients into the bowl and helped with some stirring.  When she saw the aprons on Monday, she said she wanted to make muffins again.  So sweet!  See, I’m okay in her book after 6:30 am!

My Little Baking Boog