Foodie Fridays: Tilapia with Garlic Cream Sauce & Asparagus

In an effort not to bore you with only stories of my crazy kiddos (though, I am sure I could fill a book with those!) I thought I would dedicate one day of the week to some of my tried & true recipe staples.

It's no mystery that I love food. I may not be athletic or coordinated and although I've tried, I just can't sew. I'm totally not crafty, can't sing or play an instrument...but man, do I love to cook, bake, and try new recipes. It's a trial & error process in my kitchen and on Fridays I'll share some of the recipes we've grown to love in our family.

Lately, because of Mission Lose Baby Weight I have been trying to stick to mostly clean-eating recipes. I say mostly clean rather loosely because, let's be honest, I have 4 little kids and one VERY picky husband. So I do what I can to cook as clean and as lean as they will allow me to without grumbling too much & threatening to order pizza instead. :)

Today's Foodie Friday recipe is a tried & true crock pot recipe that has Mr. Fix-It's stamp of approval. And that's saying a lot, actually. Granted, he does love fish and this is one of the easiest fish recipes I have found so far. It's a go-to staple in our home. (and the kiddos love it, too) 

Here are the ingredients: (bare with me here, I am no Pioneer Woman and my photos are quick shots with my phone while my kids scream "Mah-MEE" in the background)

Tilapia with Garlic Cream Sauce & Asparagus

To begin, mince 2 garlic cloves (or more, we tend to like garlic around our house...wards off all those vampires) and mix the minced garlic with 1/2 cup Mayo (we use the kind with Olive Oil and to be honest, I probably use closer to a cup of the stuff because Mr. Fix-It loves an extra helping of the garlic cream sauce) 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. 

(note: fresh lemons would work best but when you're in a pinch and running to the grocery store would literally mean 2 kids fighting over the front seat of the buggy, 1 squealer in the back, 1 baby on your hip drooling, and 3 meltdowns over candy in the check-out lane, then please feel free to make do with bottled lemon juice. No judgements here!) 

Your mixture should look like this:

Trust me, it tastes WAY better than it looks!

Next, take your frozen tilapia fillet and place it on a large piece of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Chop a bundle of asparagus into bite-size pieces and place a handful of asparagus on top of each tilapia fillet. Like this:

I buy a bag of frozen tilapia and just use them as needed. Typically for this recipe, I use 3 total fillets and we split them amongst ourselves. :)

Then, you take the garlic cream sauce as shown in the bowl above and dollop it on top of the tilapia & asparagus like so...

This is Mr. Fix-It's portion, and he tends to like it heavy on the garlic cream sauce. (I go a little bit lighter for me and the kiddos)

Then you fold up the edges of the foil to make packets and place them in the crock pot on the Low setting for about 4-6 hours. Or whenever your fish is flaky & done.

It's totally okay to stack them on top of each other. Mr. Fix-It likes his fish only lightly cooked so his goes on top.

This is truly our favorite way to eat tilapia and it's just so easy, which makes this busy Mama very happy! I would typically serve this with brown rice and rolls. Because no dinner is complete in Mr. Fix-It's eyes without some type of bread. ;) Here is the link to the full recipe. Hope you try it!

Tilapia with Garlic Cream Sauce & Asparagus (Crockin' Girls)

Bon Appetite!

Thursday Thoughts

I once read a blog that featured a "Monday Mind Dump." The blogger shared some of her random thoughts every Monday. It was hysterical to read and I often could relate to many of her mindful musings.

So I thought I'd create my own "Thursday Thoughts" to essentially do the same thing, dump my daily thoughts. Now, when you're home alone all day with a houseful of small kiddos, you tend to store a lot of random thoughts. Mr. Fix-it is a good listener (most of the time) but he's not always interested in hearing all of the rabbit trails my mind runs after in the span of a day. My blog gets to be my listening ear now. :)

So here's my thoughts for this Thursday. 

1. I wonder why fitted sheets are so darn hard to fold? And why Mr. Fix-it seems to always fold them better than me. What is up with that?
 

2. I wonder why my kids are obsessed with my drawer of plastic Tupperware type bowls? I mean, they have a crap ton of toys. What is so appealing about a bunch of mismatched bowls with lids? And why do they do THIS to them?

Boys will be boys!

3. I wonder why Baby CJ is an excellent nighttime sleeper but is a terrible napper throughout the day? This is how he likes to nap, with my hand on him and in his bouncy chair. Doesn't this kid know I need to get stuff done around here? :) 

This is how he likes to nap.

4. I wonder if you can buy stock in wet wipes? Because we sure do go through an awful lot of them around this house. Not just for diaper changes either, but for cleaning just about all sorts of things, wiping runny noses, cleaning up spit-up, I even use them for dusting....when I do dust, that is. Please reference the above picture for why I do not dust very often. :) 

 

5. I wonder why kids' TV channels are allowed to air ridiculous "as seen on TV" commercials for worthless products that WILL appeal to kids and then show those commercials at least twenty dozen times in the span of one Ultimate Spider Man cartoon? Because then the kids will beg, and plead, and twist our arms. Then we parents end up buying said worthless products like this: 

 

Let me just assure you that this ice cream shaker maker whatever you call it does NOT produce yummy ice cream after simply 3 minutes of shaking! I think I have carpel tunnel after shaking 3 of these stupid gadgets all night. And we still ended up with mush! 

It's all about the memories though, right? ;) 

Wordless Wednesdays

Weekend Recap: Memorial Day Weekend

Weekends are usually very much anticipated in our home because typically weekends mean more time with Mr. Fix-It. Buddy counts down the days during the week and gets extra excited when "Friday" is here because that means Daddy can wake him up the next morning.

Mommy gets just as excited about Friday getting here, too. Because that means an extra pair of hands to help out around the house AND some much needed adult companionship. It can get a wee bit lonely around here during the week when the only person to talk to is just about waist high.

But alas, Saturday morning arrived and Mr. Fix-It was called into work. Story of our lives lately. But before he left, he went into Buddy's room to wake him up (rather early, I might add) so that he could fulfill his promise of being there to wake him up on Saturday morning. Then off he scooted to work. Which left me with a very tired & whiny four-year old in my bed an hour earlier then he would normally wake up. Thanks, Mr. Fix-It. :)

Shortly after breakfast was finished, (Honey-Nut Cheerios, the staple of choice in our home) Buddy must have been battling with a guilty conscience because he mumbled something about stealing my eyebrow tweezers the night before and losing them in the grass. What???

Yes, so apparently he was trying to juice an orange and needed something sharp to pierce the orange. My eyebrow tweezers came to mind evidently and he managed to finagle them out of our bathroom upstairs and outside into the backyard before we noticed he was missing, where he then must of dropped them in the grass and lost sight of them. Yet, he didn't bother mentioning any of this until the following morning. So this is how we spent the next couple of hours on our Saturday morning...

kinds reminds me of the movie, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"

 

We never did find those tweezers. Even Mr. Fix-It came home and looked for them after he mowed the grass. No sign of the tweezers anywhere. So I apologize in advance for my bushy, misshapen, caterpillar eyebrows until I find time to run to Target and buy another pair. :-/ I told Buddy I was deducting the cost from his ice cream man fund.

Sunday was busy as usual with church, lunch, naps, errands, etc. Have you ever tried to get four small kids up, ready, and out the door for church on time while also fixing your own hair, putting on make-up and wearing something other than yoga pants? It's quite the task! Thankfully, Mr. Fix-It was home for the rest of the holiday weekend after his impromptu call to work on Saturday was finished.

Monday was a much-needed day of rest & relaxation. Well, sort of. I mean, it's not like the days of sleeping in, watching TV programs all day, catching a movie and going out to eat or anything. Those days are long gone, friends. But we did have some fun enjoying the beautiful weather at a local park & then grilling hamburgers on the grill back at home and even making homemade peanut butter ice cream for dessert. Family days are my favorite! (totally fell off the cleaner eating plan this weekend, though - getting back on track today for sure!) Here are a few of my favorite pics from Memorial Day.

My loves playing in the creek! My gosh, it was COLD!

Boo was having a bad hair day.

Baby CJ zonked out!


 

Hope ya'll had a Happy Memorial Day, as well. As always, we are grateful for the many sacrifices of our soldiers both past & present.

Meet The Family

So since my family is the biggest part of my life and what I plan to blog about the most, I think it's fitting to introduce the clan - or the Cast of Characters in my blog stories, if you will.

We'll start with me - "Mommy" as I've been called for the past few years. (actually, I was called Mommy by my students years before so it's a name I've been answering to for some time now. I think every kid accidentally calls their teacher Mommy a time or two, and they are always MORTIFIED by it! Cracks me up!)

This is me with my third-born cutie.

My real name, other than Mommy, is Jessica. I once tried to get my oldest two kiddos to say "Jessica" and it's pretty hysterical hearing your kids say your actual name. I am 29 years old and thoroughly enjoying my role as Mama Bear to my four little cubbies. Unfortunately, my body has embraced the Mama Bear image a bit too much over the last four years. Let me tell ya, four back-to-back pregnancies did NOT do this body good! Part of my ambition now is "Mission Lose Baby Weight." This mission launched in late January shortly after my last baby was born and the status of this mission is a Work In Progress! I am hoping to have this mission almost completed by September which is when I will embark on a new journey - my thirties! Eek! I will admit I am a little anxious about jumping into a new decade, and no longer being in my "twenties." I don't care how many times all the old people tell you age is just a number - they LIE, people. It's all lies! :) Here's to this new journey of a healthier lifestyle I am committed to now and oh so much more to learn as a wife & mother.

Next on the Cast of Characters is my partner in crime - my hubby! We'll call him Mr. Fix-It.

This is the best I could find for a recent photo. Mr. Fix-It hates his picture to be made. This is us at our son's 4th birthday earlier this month with our second-born cutie, Corky!
 

Mr. Fix-It is the hard-working provider for our family since I left my teaching profession two years ago to become a full-time homemaker. And let me tell ya, this man works ALL.THE.TIME now. We're talking 80 hour work weeks, people. Whew! It's rather exhausting for him because he's working outside of the home so many hours a week and for me working inside the home without an extra pair of hands to help out with this crew of four ages 4 & under. This man of mine is the hardest worker I know and I am so grateful for his job (despite the crappy hours), his dedication, and his willingness to provide for us! Mr. Fix-It is my right-hand man AND a handy man, too! He can fix just about anything I manage to break, overflow, or clog up around this house. We complement each other well with our different strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn't want a houseful of little kiddos with anyone other than Mr. Fix-It. :)

Now enough about us boring adults! Let's get to our houseful of cuties - our kiddos!


Buddy - our 4 year old cutie!

This is Buddy, our four year old son. No, that's not what we named him. But it is the nickname his little sister came up with all on her own when she was just learning to talk. We don't know where she came up with Buddy but it sort of stuck with the rest of us and now I find myself calling him Buddy more than his actual name. Funny how that worked out. Anyway, this just-turned-four-year-old is a piece of work, let me tell ya. I believe he literally came out of the womb rearin' and ready to GO! He was walking steadily by himself at 7.5 months old and was literally running circles around me shortly thereafter. He is every bit of BOY that I was never prepared to parent. :) He is very stubborn & independent and he likes to see just how far he can push his limits. This child has increased my prayer life tenfold and I think I am learning just as much as he is. Prayer & grace-based parenting, folks! (we'll save that for a future blog post...) But beneath a very thick surface of dirt, daredevil, and disobedience is a little boy who loves to learn about the big world around him, give big bear hugs and snuggle with his Mommy. I am determined to polish his rough little edges so he can become the man God is preparing him to be with that headstrong personality of his. There's nothing quite like the place in a Mommy's heart for her first-born son!


Next in our clan is our sassafras, 2.5 year old daughter. Buddy calls her Corky. I don't think he has yet to pronounce her first name correctly. He is just in the habit of calling her Corky, so that's what we'll call her, too.

Our Princess girl! "Corky"

Corky made her way into this world 4 weeks before her due date and this Mommy was not prepared for that since her big brother had arrived exactly on his due date. Every since her early arrival, this premature baby girl has proven that she dances to the beat of her own drum in more ways than one. Corky is more mature than we expect from most two year olds and she definitely reminds us of this every day. She has been dressing herself, using the potty, brushing her own teeth, and even putting herself down for her own naps for quite some time now. In her mind, I truly think she believes she is a teenager. I see little glimpses of what's to come in her teen years every morning as we BATTLE over what she is going to wear that day. Corky thinks there is only one acceptable outfit - her Minnie Mouse shirt & a pair of blue jeans. Which ironically is not the clothes you'd think this girly-girl would want to wear. But that's what she insists on every morning and Lord forbid these items are not clean, then we must deal with a ten minute melt-down. She doesn't want to wear shorts or capris, just blue jeans.(she calls them her "black pants" even though she knows they're not black, Again, not sure where she comes up with some of these nicknames) She will wait patiently in the laundry room asking if her pants are clean on days I do force her to wear something else. This child is one persistent little lady! She is also my biggest helper. I can rely on her to go fetch whatever I may need when I am busy doing something else. She is also quite the little Mommy herself & my heart melts as I see her carry around her little baby dolls. (she strips off all their clothing though and just prefers them to be naked - is this an issue I should be concerned with??? lol) She really is such a sweetheart, with a touch of sassy & a whole lot of shyness! It takes forever for this girl to warm up to new situations and people. (I actually think she inherited that from me, unfortunately. Her Mama is certainly NOT outgoing!)


Our third-born cutie is endearingly called Boo around our house because she really reminds us of the little girl Boo in the movie Monsters Inc.

My "Boo" - 17 months old

Boo was born just 375 days after her big sister, Corky, and she couldn't be any more different. After having two blue-eyed, bald-headed, skinny babies - Boo took us by surprise when out she popped with the fullest, darkest head of hair I've ever seen on a baby and lots of baby fat rolls. No joke. It took me a few minutes to process that this was MY child (Mr. Fix-It is probably STILL wondering if she's his....HA....totally kidding!) and if I hadn't of birthed her out myself then I'd never believe she belonged in our crew. But Boo stole our hearts pretty quickly and she is quite the charm in our family! Those chubby cheeks, those chunky thighs (hey, maybe she's more like her Mommy than I thought! lol) her little pouty face when she wants something and that darling little smile of hers is honestly the highlight of my days. She pretty much has her Daddy wrapped around her finger, too and he'll be the first to admit that. ;) One thing about Boo that you must know is that she doesn't talk - well, not REALLY talk anyway. She can say Mama, Dada, Nana, Uh-oh, etc. You know, the stereotypical words of a 17 month old I guess - but most of the time, she communicates with her mouth completely closed and just makes the SOUND that the word makes that she is trying to use. It's hard to explain, it's just....odd, really. HAHA! My Papa says she is going to be a ventriloquist. :) But despite her limited vocabulary, this little stinker is smart as a whip! She KNOWS what's going on around her, and I'm sure when she does start verbalizing then we'll never get her to be quiet. :) She is also our little climber. If it's to be climbed, this girl will climb it. Stairs, table tops, shelves, counters...she has a touch of daredevil in her like her big brother, I'm afraid.


Last, but certainly not least is the youngest of our clan - Baby CJ - just 4.5 sweet months old.


He loves his paci & his Mommy!


 

Baby CJ is everything one would hope their fourth-born baby would be - completely content, laid back, and easy to please. He has already begun to roll over and tries so hard to get-up and go like his big siblings. He watches them with delight and they all take turns making him giggle. And boy does this boy love to giggle! I don't remember my other three kids laughing as much as he does at this young of an age. He is such a sweet baby. He sleeps through the night and has for as long as I can remember, actually. He's not the greatest napper during the daytime hours, though. I'm still training him on this. (note: this Mommy begins "Operation Sleep Through The Night" as soon as these babies are born! Mommy likes her rest, I won't lie) Baby CJ has been such a blessing to our family and I truly feel like our little clan is now complete with our 2 beautiful girls and our 2 handsome boys!

I really am blessed beyond measure to be Mr. Fix-It's wife & our four cuties' Mommy. There are good days and not-so-good days in our home. Stressful days and days of accomplishment. Days where I feel like I'm on top of the world and days I just want to crawl into a burrow and cry. As an old TV show use to say (and Mr. Fix-It and I quote often to each other) "It might be a crazy life - but it's OUR life!" :)

Until next time....


Blogging? Me?

Back in the day, (read: before a career, husband & kids) I use to write all the time. In fact, I loved writing! I wrote & made up stories as a child, entered them in contests, kept diaries and journals, etc. I told everyone I planned to be an author one day, when I grew up. Well, that hasn't happened yet, but I swear I passed college biology only because I could write an awesome paragraph all about microorganisms, using big words that made me sound completely knowledgeable about information I truly knew nothing about. Kids, it pays to learn to write! :)

I guess I got burned out on writing throughout my undergraduate & graduate degrees because I've been terrible about keeping a journal or really writing anything every since. The amount of essays I had to write for these two degrees in early childhood education was insane! And then while teaching third grade, I was always busy writing tons of lesson plans and GRADING writing all the time that I guess I never picked it up again just for leisure. I did enjoy encouraging the students who loathed using a pencil in class and somehow making little writers out of them by the end of the school year, though.

Now, I am a stay-at-home Mommy to four small kids and I don't even have time to think half the time. (my oldest just turned 4 so technically I had 4 under 4 for three and a half months, ya'll!) People have mentioned to me that I should start blogging because I like to write, have plenty of crazy stories to share, blah blah blah. It's what all the cool kids are doing after all, right? HA! I've always brushed it off with excuses muttering about time constraints, laundry to do, etc. For the woman who has to hide in the bathroom pretending she's taking a long poop just so she can have 5 somewhat quiet moments to herself (and even then, little sticky fingers are shoved under the bathroom door beckoning for me) I didn't think blogging would exactly fit in my schedule. Hey, I'm just being honest here.

Yet here I am. I decided that blogging would be a way for me to share with others this crazy road of life God has me travelling on by giving me a place to process the day with all of its successes & failures. It would be an opportunity to sharpen my dulled writing skills once again because Lord knows the biggest word in my vocabulary these days is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the only thing I have time to write is my weekly grocery list.

I am no Super Mom - in fact, I haven't even started baby books for 3 of my 4 children. And the first baby book I did start has just a handful of pages completed. Yup, I am *that* Mom, don't judge me! (okay, in all fairness, I DO make a photo book for each of them documenting their first year of life. So I'm not totally a failure, okay? hehe) Blogging is my opportunity to remember these years as a new wife and a young mom. I've always been told these precious years slip through our fingers pretty quickly and this is one way I can stop to reminisce. So here's to new beginnings, a new blog, and a chance for me to formally document the comings & goings of our lives in a way I haven't been able to before. Enjoy the ride, my friends!

Happy Reading!