Hip to be Mom

Simple weekday meals

Clairity — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:57:27 +0000

On school days, our meals are pretty simple. I typically don’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen when the weather is this hot.

Monday was meatless Monday and the girls’ request was for scalloped potatoes (oops, forgot to take a pic) while I had myself a sweet soup of red beans, green peas and horse beans slow-cooked to yumminess. I couldn’t resist tossing in a few ice cubes.

After a meatless day, we’re like a pack of hungry wolves. For lunch, I cooked salmon shrimp linguine with broccoli, plum tomatoes in creamy red sauce (again forgot to take a pic). So so good we licked the platter clean. For dinner, I made 14 buffalo wings for the 3 of us. Mmm.

Of course there were leftovers. Enough to go nicely with homemade spaghetti marinara with carrots, broccoli and plum tomatoes.

What am I cooking tomorrow? I don’t know, we’ll see.

The path to beauty

Clairity — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:57 +0000

It used to be that only vainpots went out of their way to look beautiful. Well, not anymore. In these day and age where everyone has a handy-dandy camera in that unassuming cellphone sticking out their back pocket, everyone wants to look good for that perfect photo opportunity.

Girls start experimenting with makeup young these days. And oftentimes, they’re in their rooms checking out beauty advice in magazines and online and I’m sure many of them would love to have a beauty expert show them the finer points of makeup or even to attend a cosmetology course at the Regency Beauty Institute if their parents allow it.

It’s not a bad idea actually. Who knows, this early interest could lead them to a lucrative career in the booming beauty industry later on.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 3583 Alpine Avenue NW – Walker, MI 49544

Parenting, sieved and seasoned to taste

Clairity — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:00:22 +0000

I think I’ve probably read all of 2 parenting books in all of the years after my babies were born. As you can imagine, with my kids being teens and megateens now, it’s been a while since I put Dr Spock back on the shelf. So you’ll excuse me for not having heard of attachment parenting… until this past week, or tiger mommying or detachment parenting for that matter.

I have to say I did glean some useful pointers from Dr Spock and company and I’m grateful for the free and plentiful advice handed down from older relatives. I value their wisdom and experience which, if you think about it, comes from years of having been there, done that. There’s so much we can learn from them without having to make those mistakes ourselves. I’m all for short cuts.

But still, me being me, I run it through my giant sieve for good measure and filter out the ones that fit in with our situation and beliefs. And throw in a few of my own. And that’s basically my randomly put together, sieved and seasoned to taste parenting style. What’s yours?

Weekly Schmooze #6

Clairity — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:42:00 +0000

1. Ask me a question, any question. How about – what day is today? For me, this would be bad hair day. I took one look in the mirror this morning and screamed in fright. On a more positive note, this new shorter haircut is much more practical for my workout routine.

2. The plus side of ramping up your workout is that you feel 10 times more energized. And I have no sore muscles to report today.

3. They should draw squares on the floor next to the escalators with a sign that says “Decision Box. Stand inside this box until you’re done deciding if you’re going up or down.”

4. Doncha just hate it when a song you hate gets stuck in your head. Like that Zombie song by The Cranberries. Duh!

5. I love it when I try to tell someone they’ve undercharged me and they insist they are right. I would teach them to count to 3 but I have more important things to do aka shopping!

The eleventh hour

Clairity — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:56:33 +0000

This is the typical scenario in our house on the weekend before the exams.

“Mom, I need to go to the bookstore. Got to buy some workbooks.” — “Okay, when are the exams?” — “Next week.”
“I can’t find my Biology book! Has anyone seen it? It has a blue cover.” — “Isn’t it on the table? Thought I saw it there.” — “No, that’s not the one! Can someone help me find it please? My test is tomorrow!”
“Has anyone seen my test timetable? Think I need to text my friend to text it to me!”
“How can you study with those headphones on?” — “Music helps me remember.” — Wokay !

4:00pm with book over head: “Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!” — “Wake up and get studying!” — “I am, Mom… by the process of osmosis!”
20th trip to the fridge: “Where are you going – again!?” — “Hungry, Mom, gotta eat!”
10:00pm: “Going to sleep, Mom, goodnight.”

No grades were harmed in the actual exams.

Dinner on Mother’s Day

Clairity — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:34:56 +0000

So how did your Mother’s Day go? I came down with a chronic migraine shortly after breakfast and cradling my head, dived back into bed before lunch. With that and the blazing 90+ temperatures, I was eager to avoid the kitchen at all cost. Dinner out sounded like a great idea. It wasn’t meant to be a Mother’s Day dinner per se, more of a regular Sunday dinner.

We were trying to beat the crowd and thought if we got there early, we might be able to snag a table. As expected, the crowds had beat us to it and there were long lines everywhere. So we decided to try Chicago Ribs, a restaurant that’s new to us. We were in luck because they weren’t even offering a Mother’s Day menu and we got a table right away. No waiting.

For starters, we had Buffalo Wings which were okay but not nearly spicy enough for us. The girls still prefer my homemade Buffalo Wings, I think.

Their Nachos were scrumptious. As Raine says, topping the nachos with pulled pork is pure genius. When something is this good, you can bet the next I’m going to be doing is to replicate this at home.

This is the Rattle Snake Chicken Pasta. Interesting name but the rattle snake somehow failed to jump out at us. The chicken was toasty but flavorless but we didn’t mind that. But then the pasta didn’t exactly ss-sing out with flavor either.

The Pork Tenderloin with Cinnamon Applesauce, well, the meat was dry and bland, the veggies soft and overcooked and that plain old baked potato would’ve done a lot better with a handful of bacon bits and a ton more chives.

Skye’s choice of Fish and Fries turned out great. The portion of fish was generous, crispy and not greasy. And my potato lover somehow 2 potato sides.

Their food definitely could use a lot more flavor, more toppings and bigger portions for the price they charge. Most places go crazy with their salt and fat. This is probably one of the few places I’ve dined at that’s low-sodium, and that’s really great.