We made the decision to add another member to our family and picked what we think will be the perfect window. Our newest member is set to arrive in mid December during my only break from my graduate classes. Our oldest is very excited to have a baby on the way and our youngest is not quite sure about this but big brother plans to help teach her how to be a big sibling. I am sure that things will be a bit crazy as we embark on this next chapter of our story!

This we we tried our hands at gardening with a plot at Daddy’s work. We have had some success and learn that we need a better plan and layout for what we grow next year. My toddlers really enjoy watching the plants 🌱 grow and watering and weeding. Their favorite was the strawberries 🍓 which did not do very well and the tomatoes 🍅 which have been a bit late to grow but we are beginning to get a good tomato harvest. Our zucchini did really well and we tried out a lot of fun zucchini recipes.

With spring around the corner we are so excited to get the garden going again. A fun activity I remember doing as a child was growing a seed in a bag on the classroom window. So I decided to share this with my kids and when the seedlings sprout we will be able to put them in our garden plot.

Materials needed

*Ziplock bag

*Wet paper towels

*Seeds

*Tape

You wet the paper towel place it in the ziplock bag then set the seeds on the wet paper towel. Zip the bag shut and tape it to the widow now wait for the seeds to sprout!

So I love the joy that holidays bring and enjoy finding fun ways to celebrate them with my tiny humans. I heard about making Leprechaun traps so I looked into this a bit and decided it would be a fun activity to do with my toddler. He did some of the painting which he always loves and we got to do some gluing!

To make this I used some items we had in our recycling bin a paper cup and paper plate made the hat and the trey is from some corn we got from Trader Joe’s a few days ago. I did not have any gold coins but I had some gold paint so I painted a few dimes gold.

My toddler loves to paint and it can be messy which I am fine with the mess as he is a toddler and he can follow some simple directions like keep it on the table and let me clean you up BEFORE you run around the house touching everything. My 16 month old however is not there yet but wants to paint with big brother so until it’s summer and we are outside where big messes are no problem I came up with a solution! Paint in a bag, I took a ziplock and put a piece of card-stock paper in it and put some paint on it then zipped it shut and gave it to the little one and a huge paint brush that she could use over the paint that was on the paper in the bag.

This is how it looked before she was “painting”

Final product above my 16 month old made an amazing rainbow with no mess!

Had fun playing in our homemade hot air balloon talking about taking adventures into the sky and then took some fun photos for Valentine’s Day!

Leftover ham means soups this could also be made with bacon instead and it would be more of a loaded potato soup!

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil

• 2 Tbsp Butter, unsalted

• 1 small Sweet Onion

• 1 cup Carrots, diced (about 2-3 medium)

• 5-9 Cloves of Garlic, pressed or minced

• 1/2 Bay Leaf

• 1/4 tsp Ground garlic

• 1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp Thyme

• 1 tsp grey or black salt

• 3 cups Stock or bone broth (chicken, ham, turkey)

• 1 1/2 lbs Gold Potatoes, diced

• 2 cups Ham, diced (great way to use leftover)

To Finish

• 1/4 cup Flour

• 1 1/2 cups Half and Half (or heavy cream, or whole milk)

Optional

• 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated

• 1/2 cup Sour Cream

Directions

1 Turn on the Instant Pot Sauté function (Low heat). When the display reads “Hot” add the olive oil and butter.

2 Add the onion once translucent add carrots cook until they start to soften.

3 Add the garlic. Sauté for a minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant.

4 Add the 1/2 bay leaf, garlic powder, nutmeg, thyme, and salt. Stir.

5 Pour in the broth and stir.

6 Add the potatoes and the ham. Stir.

7 Place the lid on the pot and lock it in place. Turn the Steam Release Knob to the Sealing position (except on the Ultra model).

8 Cancel the Sauté function.

9 Select Manual (or Pressure Cook), and use the + or – buttons (or dial) to choose 5 minutes.

10 When the cooking cycle has finished, let the pot go into the Natural Release (Warm) mode. You don’t have to do anything, this happens automatically.

11 After 20 minutes of Natural Pressure Release, you can manually release the remaining pressure by turning the Steam Release Knob to the Venting position (or pushing the button on the Ultra).

12 When the pressure is all out of the pot, you can open the lid.

13 Whisk the flour into the half and half and then whisk it into the soup. Turn on the Sauté setting and keep stirring until the soup thickens. Then cancel the Sauté setting.

14 Stir in the cheese and sour cream , if using.

15 Add sour cream, if using, and stir.

16 Garnish and serve

Winter is a great time for soups and stews and left over ham is a great thing to make some split pea soup with. Listening to an Audible book for grad school while prepping this meal with my tiniest tiny human having a snack and the other one at his desk coloring allowed this prep time and the Instant Pot allowed this to cook without needing me to babysit it!

 

Ingredients

2 lbs Dried Split Peas

1 Small ham bone and about 1 pound of leftover ham cut into chunks

1 cut up onion

5-8 garlic cloves (or to your liking we LOVE garlic!)

3 carrots chopped

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon ground garlic

8 cups of stock (ham, chicken or vegetable) or water if you do not have stock on hand

 

Instructions

Step 1: Put Instant Pot to sauté low then add oil and onions sauté for a minute or so once onions begin to turn translucent add garlic sauté for another minute then add carrots and stock or water

Step 2: Add dried split peas, ham bone or ham chunks, and spices to the Instant Pot. Cover, lock the lid, and check that the vent is closed. Set to Manual High Pressure for 20 minutes.

Step 3: Allow pressure to release naturally, about 15 minutes or so

Step 4: If using a ham bone, remove and pull off all of the meat and add to the soup. Taste and adjust seasoning.

We had gotten a ham on an extreme discount a few months back and put it in the deep freeze to cook for New Years Day so this morning I woke up and prepped it to cook it for tonight’s dinner. I decided to try something new this year when cooking the ham I cooked it in one of the Reynolds Kitchens cooking bags  these are often advertised for cooking turkey in and why we had a spare one lying around. I prepped the ham by cutting it to allow the glaze to get in and make it really flavorful.  The glaze I made was the juice from a can of pineapple slices (in juice only), a half cup of water, 1/4 cup of  molasses, 1/2 cup of natural sugar, 2 teaspoons of ground mustard powder, 1 teaspoon of ground garlic powder. Once mixed well I heated the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Once the ham was prepped and in the baking pan inside of the Reynolds Kitchens cooking bag that a tablespoon of flour coated the inside and the ham had the pieces of pineapple rings pressed into it with toothpicks, I poured half the glaze over the ham sealed the bag and baked in a preheated oven at 225 degrees for 2.5 hours then opened the bag and cooked for another 45 minutes with the second half poured over it. This ham came out the most tender and moist of any ham I have ever eaten.

Once the ham was cooked my dear husband stripped the meat off the bone and I took the juices and set aside for my black-eyed peas and collard greens in the instant pot.

Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas

1.5 cups of black-eyed peas

1 cup of baked ham juices

6 cups of water

2 tablespoons of garlic powder (or garlic cloves I was out 😢)

2 tablespoons of dried minced onions (I do not like cutting up fresh onions 🤣)

1/2 tablespoon of smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon of thyme

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon of butter

the ham bone 🍖

Steps

Put Instant Pot On sauté feature once hot place some butter in and then sauté the onions for a minute or so then add the ham juices and water then the spices and mix well add the ham bone and then the black-eyed peas. Then place the Instant Pot on 30 minutes high pressure. Let pressure release naturally then add the collared greens and cook for 10 minutes.

 

 

A New Year is such an exciting time, many see it as a chance to new beginnings and trying to do better. I find New Year’s Resolutions are quickly forgotten and not followed through so instead I like to look at the new year as a chance for gratitude and hopefulness for the new adventures that it has in store.

2018 was a hard year for our family an unexpected deployment that turned into one of the scariest days of my life getting a call from my spouse while he was deployed that he may have had a heart attack. It turned out to be myocarditis and we are still waiting to know what that fully means but he is home and safe and his health is doing much better. We had a second family member diagnosed with a rare type of cancer which is heart breaking and we are hoping this year for some more positive outcomes for these loved ones. Our daughter was diagnosed with PFAPA a type of periodic fever syndrome, this one is very recent and still setting in honestly. As 2018 is behind us we are hopeful for a better 2019 but mostly just thankful for the new adventures that it will bring our family. I look ahead with hope and gratitude for the chance to experience it with the ones I love.