Roasted Sweet Pumpkin Seeds

After the pumpkin fiasco this morning I needed to redeem myself so I made roasted sweet pumpkin seeds. This is one of those snacks that's really healthy until you add the brown sugar and butter.  Otherwise, it's practically diet food.
Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees while you clean pumpkin seeds and get rid of all the extra stringy bits. 

2. Mix together 2 Tbsp of melted butter, 1 Tbsp of brown sugar, and 1 Tsp of Cinnamon

3. Place parchment paper on large cookie sheet. You could probably skip this step and just roast them right on the cookie sheet but I HATE to do more dishes than absolutely necessary. Spread seeds evenly and bake for 45 minutes. 

4. Store seeds in a cool dry place or eat them all at once and pretend that you just had a healthy snack!

Baby in a Pumpkin

Or so I thought...
I found this adorable picture on Pinterest (duh?) from Enjoy This Moment. It's the sweetest looking little girl sitting in a pumpkin.  I thought 'Hey, I have a cute baby and I like pumpkins...why not?' This is why not...

Poor Baby

 

I knew finding a pumpkin big enough for my little man might be an issue but I apparently I truly underestimated the size of a human compared to a pumpkin. My poor sweet Mr.F was a champ about the whole thing though.  He liked running his fat little toes around the stringy inside and drumming on his new shell. After realizing it just wasn't going to happen I let him out of his holding cell at which time he crawled right into an ant pile. Today, I failed you Pinterest 

Painted Rug

This is one of those Pinterest projects that may or may not be worth the money saved.
Let me state the obvious, painting chevrons is a meticulous pain in the ass.
A friend of mine asked me to help her make a painted rug.  Seriously, whose idea was it to purposefully put paint on a rug? Anyway, I did a little research and decided to try my own first.  Pretty much everything I read raved about how it doesn't really feel like paint. Wrong. Maybe I need to wash mine first but it definitely feels and looks like paint.  However, if you still want a painted rug these are the steps I took...

I started with this awesomely cheap rug from Ikea, aka DIY Headquarters.  It already had a chevron pattern sewn in so that literally cut the work in half. If you have a blank rug making chevrons goes from being a pain in the ass to masochism.

Luckily, my head didn't explode during this tape job. The husband lovingly played with Mr. F while I had choice words with my tape.  Now for the first layer of paint.  I'm starting to add some red into my otherwise grey existence and this if officially my first "piece."

I will say that for the first time ever my tape job worked!

Instead of taping...again! I just pulled the tape off and free handed the grey paint.  It took longer but I really think my mental health was preserved. 

Any finally....

 What do you think?

Jolly Green Giant; Less Jolly More Giant

I've always been a sort of Giantess but today I got a slap in the face that made me feel more like Hagrid. It's definitely time to lose some serious post baby weight.  Oddly enough, I lost weight during my pregnancy.  Who knows why?  My weight came after he was born.  Then my body sweetly decided was the time to really pack on the pounds.  So today was the day...my mind is set. I must become shorter, skinnier, and smarter. As I can really only do something about one of those (shorter) I need you, my one and only reader...aka the husband, to help me stay accountable. When my alarm goes off at 5:30 and I think coffee and the paper sound better than the gym please, punch me in the gut.
I AM going to run The Race for the Cure 5k on November 4th in honor of my mom. This is also the day of  Mr. F's 1st birthday party, I like to torture myself. I started "training" today. I ran/walked 5 miles. I'm hesitant to post my times on here because I don't want to be totally embarrassed in front of the world (yes husband, you are the world ;)) I'll keep you updated on further progress...

A Good Day

Today was a good day...

Started the morning off in Little Man Heaven

Didn't quite get the whole chalk thing but really enjoyed the dust

Good clean finger painting fun

Climbed up his first slide with a little help from his cousins

Finally...a little relaxation on the swing

Marriage

The best part about being married?
Sleep conversations.

Tonight's discussion:
I turn off the light...
"Did you you get the stick?"
"What stick?"
"To beat them off"
"The Zombies?"
"Of course"

Love his apocalyptic dreams ;)

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I have some pretty wonderful friends in my life. Tonight two of them came over for dinner.  We like to pretend that we're healthy by making vegetarian dishes then drinking three bottles of red wine and calling it a night! Tonight we made cauliflower pizza crusts from Fat Girl Trapped In a Skinny Body (not fare right?) and they were amazing! Julia says if you're looking for the real pizza taste, you may not find it here.  She's wrong...they were wonderful! Again, may be the wine talking but we loved them.
I needed to make a few more crusts than the recipe called for so it's slightly altered from the original amazing recipe!

Preheat the oven to 450F degrees.

Cauliflower Crust
3 Eggs
3 Cups of grated (I used my awesome food processor) raw caulifower
3 Cups of mozzarella cheese (yuuuuum!)
1/4 Cup Fresh Basil ( I used about an 1/8 of a cup of dried...yah yah yah, lazy)
Mix all of these ingredients together and form 6 "patties" on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
The original recipe says to bake for 12-15 minutes each.  I baked mine for 18 minutes and really liked the crunchy bits (I'm a fat girl in a not so skinny body ;))

Healthy? Duh...look at all that mozzarella 

Took every bit of self control I had not to dig in right now...

Toppings
Anything!!
We used...
Red bell pepper
Onion
Zucchini
Pepperoni (you know...for the husband)
Bake at 450F degrees for about 10 minutes.

YUM

Dig in and pretend like you're eating diet food!

P.S. My pictures aren't nearly as pretty as Fat Girl In a Skinny Body

He Walks!

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before this isn't cute.  For now though...SO AWESOME!

Eating My Words #1

Before Mr.F you never would have seen me at a consignment store or even a Ross. It wasn't because I was a brand name junkie or super snob (though my husband would say differently) it's because I hate to dig. Digging is a problem for me for several reasons...
1. I'm not creative. Putting two things together without seeing them first on the way too skinny manikin, with her size 2 clothes pinned behind her, isn't easy for me.
2. My OCD kicks into overdrive as well. I want nice neat racks with similar colored items placed 1/2 an inch apart.
3. My third item is what the husband says makes me a snob. I truly believe in quality over quantity. I love to shop but unfortunately I look less like Kate Hudson and more like Kirstie Alley. So when I find a pair of pants that not only fit but also look good, I don't care how much they cost...I NEED them!
Now I could just be incredibly unlucky but I've never found an outfit at a "digging store" that has been able to help me overlook the previously stated issues. That is until I had a kid. I hate when I have to use cliche terms but that kid is growing like a weed! He's only 10 months old and already wearing 18-24 months clothes! As we are now a single income family his wardrobe was eating up my entire "kid budget" and apparently he still expected to eat. So I put on my big girl panties, sucked it up, and went to a consignment sale.
Oh My God!
Those mamas can get crazy! It was like a wedding dress sale in there. No one was actively pushing that I saw but I definitely saw some snatching going on. I quickly grabbed what was left and found a secluded corner to sort through my finds without worrying that Gollum was behind me ready to take my loot. I then stood in line for half an hour while watching my back AND keeping Mr.F from bolting out of the stroller. However, I will admit it was worth getting to the register and having a new(ish) winter wardrobe for Mr. F and some toys for $85. Seriously, $85. Who knew?
I can't say I'm a convert for myself yet but until my little man stops blowing through sizes every three weeks I think I'll brave another digging session.

New (to us) clothes!

He may actually have the fattest little feet on the planet.  These brand new hideous Crocks (still had the price tag on them) retail for $40! We got them for $15.  Yes, please!

He can't get any of these in his mouth and he still loves this toy!

Plant Stand

I have this kind of amazing husband and father-in-law that are able to build just about anything. Their newest creation is this awesome plant stand made from a pallet! Up until now Mr. F has basically been the coyote with pots falling on his head as he mindlessly looks for his roadrunner. Thanks Husband! Our future football player thanks you too for keeping the concussions at bay.

First Hair Cut

Mr.F has one of those amazing grandmothers that can do anything.  We like to call her Lucy. One of the things she does best is cut hair.  Some ridiculous person talked her out of doing it professionally so now we get to reap the benefits of her talents for free!  

As you can see in this post Mr. F's hair was getting a bit long but I had some sentimental ties to those scraggly little curls. They were his first! Cutting them meant another mile stone he was passing. I was per usual, neurotic about the whole situation. Thankfully, Lucy is sane and took care of both of us. She had this fantastic idea to not put him in a strange place and make him sit perfectly still and then bring scissors close to his face and hope for the best. Instead, she did it in her living room (barber shop) while he played Hungry Hippos. He even almost understood that the hippos were supposed to eat those little marbles...not him.   My sweet (ok not so sweet) boy is already growing up so fast!  Yes, apparently every parent must say that at least once.  Somehow, thanks to Lucy, we both survived this monumental event.  Now he looks like a big boy but kind of adorable ;)

Prep Work

Hey!  What's going on here?

Oooh...that's not too bad

"Let me get this straight.  They eat these?"

Big Boy in his cousin's big seat

What's left of his sweet baby curls...yes, I kept them.

Halloween Sensory Box

I've really been trying to working on finding activities that interest Mr.F.  As you can fry an egg on the sidewalk at the break of dawn we're looking for indoor crafts.  Yesterday I found this ridiculously awesome website with about a million kid crafts! After 3 trips to the store, (why would I want to buy everything the first time?) we made our first Halloween Sensory box.  Mr.F like putting the eyeballs in his mouth (duh) the most but came around to checking out the other items too.  Looking forward to playing again tomorrow.  Maybe by then he'll realize the awesomeness of that green spiky rubber ball and how many hours he can waste by squishing it until it pops! Oh wait...

First...the beans

Then the goodies

Exploration

And...eating eyeballs