I'm turning over a new leaf....

I used to cook a lot, and then the summer rolled around and we were going on trips, and packing to move and I got lazy and started cooking less and less because we weren't home long enough to use the ingredients and food was going bad, etc.... I got pregnant and then the cooking was really non-existant for about 2 months, but last night Cary said "Enough, is enough!" Ok, he didn't really say that, but in a round about way he was saying that he is tired of canned soup, frozen meals, lean pockets, and frozen pizza. Soooo, I've resolved to start cooking again, but I need your quick go to meal suggestions that you like to make at home.

It was a busy day.........

A day in the life of Aidan.....a very SMALL part. It was raining too hard to go do the things we had wanted to do this morning and Aidan was getting into EVERYTHING, so I took some pictures of all his favorite spots.

I missed the best photo op when he emptied my entire bottom cupboard in the kitchen.

Here he is busy in the bathroom...he's so helpful.

Then he moved on to the kitchen. (this was the cupboard he had emptied out earlier)

Another cupboard in the kitchen

Helping out with the laundry.

Loading the dishwasher.

He's pretty excited about this new spot.

Later that day after Cary was home we decided to go to Cafe Rio. Yay!

They even make little quesadilla's for kids (for free!)

I had been craving their salad all week.

Target was next door so we thought we'd go walk around and burn some calories. Cary got the better end of that deal (depending on how you look at it. lol.) and he got to chase Aidan around everywhere!

Life lessons

One of the first things I learned in the first little while of being married to Cary was not to take anything he said, or did while sleepy, personal. Being a Faber, he is prone to talking in his sleep, growling at me, or suddenly sitting up in the middle of night scaring me to death because I would think something was wrong. So I would usually be left sitting there with my feelings hurt or my heart beating out of my chest and he would lay back down and go to sleep. Or he'd sit up and ask some random question, and I'd be like "What the...?", and if I answered he'd just go back to sleep and I never know what it was all about. Of course, Cary would be oblivious since he'd still be asleep!
I, on the other hand, came from a family that generally wakes up happy and quickly so the grumpiness took some getting used to.

Fast forward to last night, Cary fell asleep on the couch and when it was bedtime I asked him a couple of times if he was going to go to bed. I got a growl and snarl in response (see?, don't take it personal) .......okay, I'll just turn off the lights and go to bed. An hour later Cary comes stumbling into bed. (I was still awake thanks to my chest being on fire from stinking heartburn)
He's probably STILL wondering why I never woke him up and told him to go to bed. :-)

PG update: I'm fat

We find out what it is on Monday. Yay.

Even though it's for a good cause and all that, it's hard to come to grips with your body expanding and your weight skyrocketing.

I really hate pictures of myself looking like this, but I do it for posterity, and to look back on later and laugh.

Like these pictures from when I was in the hospital with Aidan. Crikey!


Showing off my cankles, thats what 20 pounds of extra water weight looks like. The nurse that was with me the day after Aidan was born didn't even recognize me a week later when she saw me. (She was Aidan's NICU nurse a week after helping me out, weird, eh?)

I'm not sure why I'm torturing myself like this, maybe I'm reassuring myself that it could be worse. :-)

Pasta e Fagoli

Here is the recipe for Pasta e Fagoli. It's supposed to be a copycat of the soup at Olive Garden, but I've never had it so I can't tell you how it compares. I just think this stuff is pretty good! It makes quite a bit so either have it for guests or freeze. :-)

Pasta e Fagoli (makes about 6 quarts)

1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1/2 of a small
1 lb. bag of baby carrots, chopped
5 stalks of celery, diced
2 (14.5 oz.) cans of diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 (32 oz.) carton + 1 (14.5 oz.) can of beef broth (If you like a more brothy soup add more, I made up about 50 oz of broth.)
1 1/2 tsp oregano1
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped (I used dry)
3/4 tsp tabasco sauce
1 jar (1 lb. 10 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 cup dry small pasta (such as ditalini or elbow macaroni)
salt to taste


Brown ground beef. Drain if necessary. Add onion, carrot, celery and diced tomatoes. Simmer 10 minutes. Add beans, beef broth, oregano, pepper, parsley, tabasco sauce and spaghetti sauce.Simmer soup on low for about 30-45 minutes until carrots are almost tender.Add pasta to pot and simmer on low for about 15-30 minutes until pasta is just shy of al dente. As the soup cools, the pasta will absorb the broth. You can cook the pasta separate and add it to the soup after the soup has cooled.

(I browned the meat, pureed the onion and celery and added everything but the noodles and put it in a crockpot. Added the noodles to the crockpot about an hour before eating.)

How many people does it take......?

We like to try to buy our happiness...

so we bought a new microwave stand for our kitchen.

Ken, Nick, and Jesse were all over at our place so we put them to work.

I had to MAKE them read the directions. (I'm kidding, sort of....)

Nicks job. :-) Aidan is trying to figure out his phone.

Ken took over the job of containing Aidan.

It's almost done.

Aidan had to make the final inspection.

He approves.

Potluck!

The weekends that we actually stay in SLC, we go to the House of Aaron fellowship that meets on Saturday morning. Normally there are around 10 of us on a good day, but this weekend we had guest speakers, so it brought a bigger than normal crowd.

AND, we had guests staying at our place and they came too. (Yes, Sharon and Kenneth are guests now.) :-)

All in all, we had about 30 people for the meeting..

Jerald & Margo, and Jon and Mary came to tell us about their experience in Israel.

Here is "little" Sam...

He's not looking so little anymore. The kid is almost as big as Aidan. I realize Aidan is a little squirt, but Sam is a big, cute, chubby kid.


This is TROUBLE.

Just eating their crackers.

We had a little lunch potluck after the meeting.

I made and brought Pasta e Fagoli soup (you know, like at Olive Garden) It was really GOOD!

Not cause I'm a good cook or anything, I just happened to find a really good recipe.

I'll post it later for all to enjoy. :-)