Piquant Chuck Roast

My cook book "Fix-It and Forget-It: Big Cookbook" arrived today. This is what I made for dinner tonight:

Piquant Chuck Roast

3 lb. chuck roast
1/2 cup orange juice
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Put the meat in the slow cooker. Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour them over the meat.

2. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hour, or high for 5 hours.

I served this with snow peas and Potatoes Poupon.

We all liked it. If you try it out, let me know!!

Bubba's back... and a Magoo update

Bubba is a bottomless pit. So much so that I can officially call him Bubba again. He's sick right now, so he literally only nursed twice yesterday. BUT this has not stopped him from eating anything and everything. I am a lot less nervous with him than I was with Ellie. When I was a first time Mom I waited until she had an appointment with her Early Intervention Service Coordinator before I tried "real" foods with her. I remember the first time I gave her peanut butter a little before a year old (I know that's early, but it has a lot of fat and protein and she needed it) my mother shoved some in her mouth while I held the phone in case I had to call 911. (Do you remember that Mom? LOL) With Charlie I just throw food at him and see what happens.

He's a little over 7 months old. He has been eating Cheerios for a few weeks now. In the last couple of weeks I've gotten daring with him. I knew some day he would eat more than Ellie, which isn't hard to do since she's my sweet little bird, but I had no idea it would be so soon. The other day while grocery shopping Ellie wanted pepperoni. I got a little bit from the deli and she ate it through the store - so did Charlie! He had at least four slices while in Wegmans. It was spicy! He loved it! He has eaten ham and cheese for lunch. The other day at Panera he ate some of Chris' cheese and broccoli soup AND some of both of our rolls. I gave him graham crackers a couple of days ago. He devours them. They are very messy though so I'm not sure how much longer I (the girl who usually doesn't mind a messy kid - so you know they are MESSY) will be giving them to him. I am trying to find some Mum Mums for him. They are an organic baby teething cookie that Ellie use to like. I found the toddler ones at Wegmans, but not the baby ones. I'll keep looking.

Ok back to our future foodie, this morning he ate two stage two's AND a waffle! Ellie didn't even eat her entire waffle. While pieces of his ended up on the floor I'd say he ate a good 75% of it! I think at lunch I am going to give him a slice of wheat bread and see what happens. I just love this age. He is so much fun and I'm starting to enjoy the two of them together again.

Magoo, as most of you know, has had some MAJOR regression issues as of late: potty accidents, acting out against Charlie, not sharing, being a BRAT! Enough that it has tried our patience as parents and Chris and I were beginning to wonder where we went wrong... but I am happy to report that she went all day yesterday with no accidents. She has been waking up in the morning, making her bed and getting dressed for the day, in big girl undies, all before she comes into our room in the morning. While she did kick her brother in the nose this morning, it was an accident. She is like a new kid and I'm really enjoying it. I'm sure now that I wrote about it I have jinxed thing, but I'll take it for as long as I can get it!!

The Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Quilt Project

Ellie has a quilt block on quilt #50 as part of the The Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Quilt Project. They had a showing this morning in Fall River and since we're five hours away and I just found out about it this morning, my fabulous sister and mother went to see it in person for me. I've seen a picture of it before, but was so happy someone saw the REAL quilt!!

Her block has her name, birthday and CHD. They put princesses on there because she LOVES her princesses! And ballerinas because she use to dance all around the house when she was a toddler. The caterpillar is from "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," by Eric Carle, which is still one of her very favorite books to this day. "Good Night Moon" is another favorite and we use to read it to her every night at bed time. I recently started reading this to Charlie on most nights. The turtle is from a Disney movie, but we put that on there because Ellie's cousin Kenny brought her the stuffed version when she was in recovery in the hospital after her Glenn.
I am sad I wasn't there to see it myself, but so happy someone got to see it!!!!!