Tuesday Things....

I've been wanting to write on this blog but haven't found the time and when I do have the time, I lose the motivation.  So this post will be so random. Random Tuesday Things!

But at the end, I promise I'll have a recipe!

• We hired a cleaning lady, finally, after living in our house for nearly 6 years.  It's the best investment we've ever made!  I was sick of spending every weekend during naptime running around the house trying to get all my cleaning done in a short amount of time.  I don't enjoy cleaning (AT ALL) so now it's nice to know I don't have to do it!  And now we can enjoy Dylan's naptime as a family.  Twice this weekend, we took Dylan out on a walk during his normal naps.  He looks all around until he just passes out...

And when we're not out and about during his naptimes, we like to take naps as a family in bed.  It's the best!

• I still feel like a superhero for everything else I get done even if I'm not running around the house during his naptime.  Over the weekend, I did four loads of laundry and got it folded, Grocery shopped, menu planned, cooked dinner for us, cooked food for Dylan, took a million pictures, edited a ton of photos, visited with friends and family.
• Speaking of friends and family, it was my sister-in-laws birthday Saturday so we celebrated at my moms.  I absolutely love it when we get the boys together.

• My dad used to live in track suits when I was growing up so seeing the boys in these made me smile.  Made me feel like my dad is still with us...
• We also visited with Dylan's bff Dane who is a month and a half older!  And a lot stronger, as he totally tried to beat up my son...

But then would try to kiss him right after...

Dylan wasn't so sure about the kissing...

• In other news, Dylan started eating little chunks of food and I've found the easiest appliance to cook all his food in is my rice cooker.  We got a rice cooker for our wedding (almost 5 years ago!) and sadly, I had never used it.  But now I've been using it weekly to make softened apples and apple sauce and to steam carrots and sweet potato. It's as simple as peeling your apples, coring them, chopping them up and putting them in the rice cooker with water.  At the same time, you can dice up some sweet potatoes and carrots and steam them on top.  And Dylan's been loving it!

• Other random things... Dylan seems to always get sick on Tuesdays.  I got home from work yesterday and he looked absolutely miserable.  We went to the doctor this morning and sure enough, another ear infection.  My poor baby.

• I've been getting an insane amount of spam on this blog- anyone else having issues with Blogger and Spam?

• Also, I've started to plan Dylan's first birthday.  His nickname is Picks, so let's just say it will definitely be Pickle themed! If you have any amazing pickle-themed recipes or dishes that go great with pickles, please send them my way!

• Okay, enough rambling for one post... want a recipe?  How about an easy Slow-Cooker recipe that sounds really weird but tastes really good?  Pretty much everything I've been cooking lately is with my slow-cooker. My friend Kerry recommended this to me and it was so good!  I changed a few things but for most part, kept the recipe the same.  Kerry got it from a Slow-Cooker recipe book.

Kielbasa Chickpea Slow Cooker Stew

Ingredients:

1 large can of chickpeas or two 15 ounce cans

10 baby carrots sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

1 teaspoon of dried basil

1 teaspoon of pepper

1 package of turkey kielbasa, sliced (or sausage would be great)

2.5 cups of Chicken Broth

1 container (8 ounces) of hummus

1 can (6 ounces) of tomato paste

salt to taste

Instructions:

Throw everything in the slow cooker except the hummus and tomato paste and cook on low for 10-11 hours or on high for 4-5.  Once ready to eat, add in the hummus and tomato paste, mix well, adjust seasoning, cook for 10 minutes more and serve.

The easiest kind of recipe!

Happy Tuesday!