Sweet Potato and Kale soup

Nothing beats a hearty bowl of soup in the winter.  As I've mentioned previously, sometimes its hard for me to find really tasty vegetarian recipes.  Thanks to my awesome brother for this recipe.  Though he is not a vegetarian, his lovely wife is, and he does a great job of finding recipes that taste awesome, but also provide protein and lots of nutrients.  We all know Kale is a "super food" and that we should make it a staple in our diets, but c'mon, it's like eating leaves off of a tree!  Not with this recipe!  You'll be eating and loving it!

Sweet Potato and Kale Soup

Chop up one small or half of a large onion.  Add to large stockpot with 1 tbsp EVOO.
(Haha, right now, my bro is cringing because I said EVOO!  :)

 

 Add seasoning.  You could use a premixed blend of Italian seasoning.  I added parsley, oregano, and cumin.  I never measure - sorry!

 While onions are softening, chop up sweet potato into bite sized pieces.  I like to peel them, but you could always leave the skin on!

My bro's recipe calls for 12 cloves of garlic.  12!  I know that seems like a lot, but since it's added early, they really mellow out but still add a punch of flavor.  I only had 7 tonight, but they were big.  Feel free to adjust to your own person feelings about garlic.

 If those onions are soft, go ahead and add 6 cups of veggie broth.  I used 6 cups of water and two tablespoons of "Better than Bouillon" vegetable base.  Add potatoes and garlic.  Add two cans of beans, drained and rinsed.  I like to add white and kidney beans for color and variety.

(Side note: I have a 5:00pm Barnacle Baby.  That means that if I want to cook at all, I can only do it one handed since I'll have to support 22.5 pounds on my hip with the other hand.  So, I put everything together in the pot at this point (with the heat off) and went to pick up T from daycare.  All I had to do later was add kale and adjust settings on the stove - super easy for moms of barnacles!)

Really starting to look good huh?  Bring everything to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash and break 6 dense curly leaves of kale into bite sized pieces.  I love to use my salad spinner for this step.  Makes it so easy!

Add kale and let simmer for 10 more minutes.  I love how bright green the kale turns once you add it.

Add salt and pepper to flavor as desired, I didn't add any.  So yummy and healthy!  Not only will this soup have you eating kale, you'll actually like it!  It keeps its crunchiness without being overpowering.  My sweet hubs said this was my best batch yet!

My superstar!

What a bummer of a month, January is, huh?  Without fail, I am always very sick during the month of January.  This year, it was both T and I that were knocked down by whatever infection was going around.  Hers lasted a week (thanks to antibiotics), mine lasted almost two weeks!  Add to that writing up my thesis, having a committee meeting, and trying to graduate!  Phew!  I am worn out!  But the end is in sight.  I really, really do have some cool posts, tutorials, and reviews planned.  I just need to get to them!  Plus, I'll be sending a HUGE thank you to some lovely ladies for the surprise I got in the mail the other day - so stick with me, OK?

Today, though, I wanted to share what an awesome little lady we have in our house!  Miss T is growing up so fast and I'm so impressed by what she is doing every single day!  She's singing her ABCs, counting to 14 (although she always skips 10!), and potty training has been going so well!  In fact, we met a huge potty training milestone this weekend!  She used a big potty at a store!  Woohoo!  Bad mommy that I am, I even forgot her potty insert seat and had to balance her on the edge and she still did it and had no accidents the whole time we were out!  I'm so proud of my little girl!  On top of that, she did pees and poops on the potty at church yesterday!  She's also staying dry through naptime more often too!  Woohoo!

As I've said before, a lot of the credit goes to our amazing daycare!  But if you're interested, here was our strategy.  We basically went cold turkey from diapers to underwear (except for nap and bedtime), and didn't turn back.  If we went out, she still wore underwear, we just brought extra clothes and were prepared for accidents (although, we haven't had any outside of the house yet!).  Accidents were expected and viewed as learning opportunities.  "Uh-oh T, looks like we had an accident.  That's okay, we'll get cleaned up, but it's a yucky feeling right?  Let's try to go pees on the potty next time and keep our underwear dry, ok?"  We didn't do any sort of reward system, but tons of praise and being super excited for when she was successful.  We also got undies that she really liked, Hello Kitty, Elmo and Zoe, etc.  Just about every hour we would say "T, let's go pees on the potty".  Sometimes she wanted to and sometimes she didn't, we never forced her.  While on the potty, we supplied books, crayons, stickers, to keep her entertained.  Sometimes I even sang to her.

For now, we're only focusing on the awake times and not sleeping times.  Our house is difficult in that for her to get to the bathroom, she needs to go down and then back up some stairs.  Plus, she's still in a crib, and we're in no rush to change that!  I'm so proud of my little peanut!

On a mommy and T breakfast date at my new favorite Dunkin Donuts!

Overwhelmed with joy

I've been working on this baby for quite some time now - 5 years and 5 months if you're counting.

We've suffered though ups and downs, achievements and set backs, sickness and health.

Through it all, I've had my friends and family supporting me, loving me, keeping me sane, and generally putting up with me, getting me to this point.

There have been days where I could never see myself doing anything else.

There were those others days where "Plan B" was formulated and rehashed - cosmetology school, wedding planner, beach bum.

In the end, I wouldn't change a thing.

I have finally set a date for my thesis defense!  Woot! Woot!

I still have some work to do in the meantime, mostly writing, a few quick experiments, but I can see it.  Not just the light, but the actual end of the tunnel!

I'm going to need some extra prayers to get there as I'm starting to feel the burn out.  If you've been with me all this time, thank you for everything you have done.  Whether you realize it or not, you're support has gotten me here.

On February 24th, my fate will be decided.  From that point on, I will be taking questions directed only to Dr. Hayes! :)

Yes, I'm still alive

OK, so where were we...

Right, right, T was sick last week, I caught it and thought I was getting better and then things started to nose dive.

I have been sick for over a week now.  That thesis that I didn't look at last week went untouched again this week.  Crafting?  Sewing?  Yeah right, unless you call the creative mountain of tissues in the waste basket crafting, I haven't accomplished much.  I did actually get some sleep last night and the one before (woohoo!) and I was able to catch up with my awesome friend Aubrey yesterday.

On the mommy front:
We have had some ongoing potty training issues.  I've been waiting to write about it until I could call it a success, but it appears that, like everything else, it's going to take a bit longer than I expected.  She is doing great at it though, and for having started at 20 months, I'm a very proud momma!  My dear friend/cousin Erica has been having awesome success at training her son who turned 2 last month.  Glad I could be an inspiration!  Just hope our successes start to pile up like yours!

Let me state for the record that we aren't pushing her into this.  She has been showing interest for a long time, mostly because her friends at daycare were potty training (and are 4 and 6 months older than her).  One day she decided she didn't want to wear a diaper and so big girl underwear it was!  We've had a few set set backs though.  The week she was sick, we didn't do any potty time, just diapers.  The poor girl had no energy.  She's been using the potty at daycare consistently and almost never has accidents, but for the last couple of weeks, has not wanted to use the potty at home.  Poor girl would hold it all evening until we put her in her night-night diaper!  We had some success last night though, and she went on the potty at home! Woohoo!  I know there will be more set backs and accidents, but that little girl of mine is doing great!  Her teacher at daycare told me that she is the youngest to start potty training.  Everyone else was at least two years old.  Yay T!  On the other hand, not so sure how I feel about her being so influenced by the kids around her - peer pressure! ;)

Hopefully, I'm on the road to recovery and will be able to start getting some things done/made around here.  I have a huge list of things I want to make for Baby#2 as well as getting my shop back on track.  Here's hoping I can manage my time and get some things done soon!

The Plague

I think we're finally on the winning side.  For the past week, we've been house-bound.  T spiked a fever last Monday at daycare and is finally recovering.  I started getting sick on Friday and I think I'm getting better.  Super mom that I am, I can't take all the credit.  We had a little help from amoxicillin and tylenol.  I ended up taking her to the pediatrician (we love her doctors!) on Thursday because she just kept getting worse.  What they told me made me even more scared - she was developing pneumonia!  My poor baby! 

I remember having a mommy meltdown that afternoon when we got home and I was finally able to get her to take a nap.  I felt so helpless, that I couldn't do anything to help my little girl get better.  Each of the next few days saw improvements and I'm happy to report that she is going back to daycare tomorrow. 

Needless to say, we got very little done this last week.  No crafting, no sewing, still haven't figured out how to use my serger yet. (OK, I did try my hand at making a maternity tunic, stay tuned for that post and let me know if it was a win or fail)  Haven't even looked at my thesis in a week!  I can say that the final experiment to complete all that I proposed will be finished tomorrow and I have the green light from my mentor to plan a defense date!  Woohoo!  The bad news is that he won't be available for the two weeks that I would prefer to set a date.  Oh well, it will be done soon thereafter.  Plan on hearing updates from that by the end of February!

So, here are a few snapshots of my last week.  Poor little girl would go from funny and playful -

to miserable and exhausted in a split second -

We watched a LOT of Sesame.  By the end of the week, she had discovered some DVDs, so we watched a lot more Elmo, but also some Nemo and Horton.  Every puzzle and Christmas gift was played with.  Every single book was read, over and over again.  This is how we rounded out yesterday -

snuggled up on the couch and watching football (yes, even I watched it too!).

I think we'll all be happy to be back in our routine!