The beginning...

Well here we are, 5 1/2 years into a wonderful marriage and 2 kids later and I am for the FIRST time responsible for all things "Kitchen." It started with the dishes a few years ago. Then once I became a stay at home mom cleaning the areas outside of the dishes were added. Now, I have two beautiful children and Ben is teaching 4 classes so I have to also cook the food that goes into the dishes and dirties the counter tops. This task has me more stressed and overwhelmed than I ever was when pregnant. Now, I should clarify I am only responsible for lunch and dinner. Lunch is easy since it's just G and I and mostly we eat leftovers. So dinner is my main challenge. I also realize that up until this point I have been spoiled. I should have learned/paid attention WAY before now. But that doesn't change the reality that for me this situation is truly overwhelming.

So tonight is the big night. It was supposed to be last night but Ben ordered pizza because I had a busy day so I did a little prep yesterday. Chicken Enchiladas are what's for dinner. Yesterday I cooked the filling and then placed it in the fridge until today. For a side I planned beans and rice but Ben said we don't need rice and since the rice was freaking me out I am more than happy to put that off for another time.

G woke up at 4 from his nap. I was worried it might take me two hours with both kids to make this meal so I went ahead and started prep at 3:30. I thought I could get it started then when G wakes up I could give him a snack and quickly do the dishes and then clean up the play room before Ben got home. WELL, Ben came home early Yay.... Seriously I am so happy he came home early but it threw me. I apologized that the front room was dirty, he said he didn't care, he asked why I was already cooking at 4 in the afternoon, I said I didn't know.... Anyway, Enchiladas are in the oven now they will be ready one hour in advance...hopefully they won't be too soggy by the time we eat them. Beans should be easy..yes?

I will be sure to add more info before bed on how it all went and the recipe. Quickly before I tend to the food and babies I want to add that although this is new to me I am very excited to learn how to be in the kitchen on this level.  I know things won't always go well but when they do I will be so excited and so will Ben! I hope that this blog will help me to save recipes, learn from my mistakes, vent and gather advice from friends and family. Here we go!

I also made "power bars" today. I needed something packed with all kinds of good stuff to keep me going on the run. I am finding myself to be super hungry all the time because of nursing and taking care of G and Ruthie. I forget to eat and when I do it tends to be unhealthy. These bars are delicious and they are full of great ingredients to keep me energetic and BONUS they will help me in breastfeeding Ruthie.
Recipe for "Power Bars"
1 cup old fashioned oats , 1/2 cup ground flax, 1/2 cup toasted coconut, 1/4 dried cranberries, 1/4 dried blueberries, 1/4 cup mini choc chips, 3/4 cup pnut butter, 1/3 cup honey, 1tsp vanilla. Hand mix all the dry ingredients in a med bowl. Pop the p butter in the microwave for 45 sec, add the honey and vanilla to the pbutter mix and pour into the dry. Stir till its coated. place in rectangular dish of your choice, let cool in Fridge and Wallah, a yummy treat. This recipe can obviously be altered in multiple ways. So I plan to have lots of fun with it. 

Well, dinner is over the kids are asleep and I can finally finish this post. As I was writing the above I thought the beans were warming and the enchiladas were heating up in the oven. I thought wrong. I went to check the stove and the beans were cold. The oven lights were on but there was no heat. So I ran downstairs to tell Ben. He pulled out the stove, unplugged it and plugged it back in and it started to work again. Dinner was saved. We all sat down to eat and after our first few bites we both agreed it was delicious. Ben would have been happier if he hadn't gotten a mouthful of onion skin that I missed when chopping veggies but otherwise there were no complaints. Georgie didn't eat very much but as we cleaned up he decided to cook for us. 

Here is the link to the recipe. I made a few alterations; no sour cream, instead of tomato sauce I pureed whole tomatoes, instead of taco sauce I used the leftover filling that didn't fit into the tortillas, I used pepper jack instead of cheddar (which would have been mozzarella if Ben hadn't caught me in time. He kindly explained that mozz is an italian cheese and therefore it would not be good in a mexican dish). We added the "Frog Ranch Salsa" after it was served on our plates. 

I told Ben about the Blog after dinner we both agreed we hope this blog is a "flash in the pan" (pun intended). I hope to Conquer the Kitchen very soon. Feel free to leave me your Chicken enchilada recipes or tips.