Beef Freezer Cooking Day

Whew!  It's really been one of those days...Ellie has been in a mood since mid-morning and my patience is running thin.  I'm hoping it's just teething, since she's been working on getting some molars lately.  Just last week she got 3 new molars, and I know that had to have been miserable for her.

I had my 37 week appointment with the OBGYN this morning, which went great!  My blood pressure is good and low and Piper's heartbeat is a healthy 140, so all is well.  Now we're just waiting for her to decide that she's ready to come out...which I have a feeling will not be on my time table =).  If I had it my way, she'd be born right after we get to see The Hunger Games next Friday...haha.

Because I'm in the home stretch of my pregnancy, I'm constantly trying to stay busy and occupied.  If I get bored, I start to fret over how the birth will go and end up wasting so much time wondering about things I really don't have control over.  Luckily this week has been super busy for us...we've literally had something scheduled for every day this week.  We got Shelley groomed on Monday for the first time (at PetSmart) and she smells amazing!  Yes, we paid $27 to get our dog bathed, nails clipped, and ears cleaned, but it was so worth it.  It's something we really dislike doing (and being as big as I am, it's hard enough for me to bend over the tub to wash Ellie, let alone a huge squirming dog!).  She is now wonderfully clean and good-smelling...and I don't feel guilty one bit for that extra expense this month!  Tuesday Ellie and I went to MOPS...I am SO glad I have that to look forward to twice a month!  It really is a wonderful way to meet new moms and to talk to other adults while the kiddos are playing in the nursery.  Wednesday I had my pre-registration appointment at the hospital, so that's all done and taken care of...today I had my OBGYN appointment, and tomorrow Ellie and I are going to Charlottesville to see our good friend, Jenn!

Since our obligations for today were completed pretty early this morning, I took Ellie to the park for about an hour and a half, which I *thought* would be fun for her, but that's really when she started to get grouchy.  She enjoyed playing, but anytime I told her not to do something or set some sort of boundary she freaked out and threw a temper tantrum.  Just part of life with a toddler, I guess =).

This afternoon I accomplished my beef and pasta freezer cooking...I ended up making 8 meals (4 recipes doubled)!  I made double batches of stuffed shells, spaghetti casserole, baked ziti, and beef tacos.  For recipes, see my Chicken Freezer Cooking Day post.  I meant to link the recipe for the tacos and totally forgot, so I'll include it in this post.  We used to always buy the taco kits from the grocery store anytime we wanted tacos, and then I found this recipe for DIY taco seasoning and decided to give it a try...I am so glad I did!  I think this seasoning tastes great (and Billy loves it, too!) and it's so much cheaper than always buying a seasoning packet or taco kit.  The sodium is also probably infinitely lower than what you get in the pre-packaged stuff, and you can tailor the recipe to your specific preferences.

Anyway, my freezer cooking session today didn't go as quickly as I had hoped (because little munchkin kept having issues), but I cooked all 8 meals in two hours...pretty good for a newbie like me!  And now we have 14 dinner meals already made in the freezer, which makes me SO happy!  I've kind of run out of room in the freezer...but realized that we have another refrigerator in our basement with an attached freezer...duh.  Not sure why I didn't think of using it before (it's our landlord's, but it stays plugged in...so we pay for the electricity, might as well use it, right?).  Here's a picture of what I accomplished today:

Sorry the angle is kinda bad...I was too short to get a good aerial shot and too lazy to pull out the step ladder just for a picture. =)

I also tried a new recipe this week for Fruit Pizza to take to our MOPS meeting.  I don't know why but I somehow got it in my head that I wanted to make fruit pizza, so I searched high and low for a recipe that wouldn't require too much effort or money on my part and this recipe was very easy.  I modified it for my personal tastes...so here's my version of fruit pizza:

Ingredients:

• one roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 8 oz. Cool Whip
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• kiwi (I used two)
• blueberries
• strawberries

1. In a pizza pan or casserole dish (I used a 9x13 because we don't have a pizza pan), roll out cookie dough in an even layer so that it's one giant cookie.  *I actually sliced the dough into cookies and then pressed them together in the pan since rolling out the dough would take forever.*  Bake according to package directions.
2. Allow cookie to completely cool.  Meanwhile, blend Cool Whip and cream cheese together.
3. Once the cookie is completely cool you can "frost" it with the Cool Whip/cream cheese mixture.
4. Top with fruit however you want!

This was a very easy dessert and I really liked it because it wasn't super sweet.  The original recipe called for powdered sugar, but I just thought that would make it way too sugary for me, especially considering the sugar cookie on the bottom and fruit on the top.  

And to end this super long post on a high note, here are some recent pictures of Ellie....

Snuggling with "blankie" on the couch after a busy time at the park

Eating a hamburger bun...no meat, just the bun.  What a strange kid =)