TGIF… and a 3-Day Weekend

February 16, 2013 nk330Leave a comment

I have been working at one of the CDCs on our base for 5 months now. Those first few weeks were really tough — I didn’t know the kids, I didn’t know my co-workers, my schedule changed frequently, and I was not used to coming home exhausted every day. I’ve been in the same pre-toddler (children 12-24 months) classroom now since the end of October. Since then, we’ve moved to a different classroom, gotten a new lead teacher, and found out we will be turning into a toddler classroom. Lots of changes! But it’s been nice being in one classroom and getting to know the kids and the families.

Our kids are now ranging in age from 18 months to 24 months, and it’s been fun seeing how they grow and change. Going along with that are plenty of side issues though! With growing independence come plenty of toddler scuffles. We deal with pushing, hitting, kicking, yelling, crying, and, of course, biting. I think biting was our biggest issue a couple of months ago. The ones being bit became the biters, the biters became the ones being bit… what a fun cycle! And parents don’t like being told that their child is on either side of the biting. We still deal with the occasional bite here and there, but we’ve gotten a lot quicker at preventing them from happening.

With our oldest kids approaching their 2nd birthdays, the new exciting thing was potty training! We have two little girls pretty much fully potty-trained, and our oldest little guy is working hard at it. With all the excitement surrounding the only potty in our room, our younger kids have become very interested in the potty, flushing the potty, and the toilet paper. We now have about half of our classroom potty-trained, potty-training, or getting acquainted with the whole process. I see more bodily eliminations in one day than I would care to see in a lifetime.

With our pre-toddlers becoming toddlers, we’ve been seeing our kids get a lot more coordinated, independent, and defiant. It’s getting a lot harder to “make” our kids do things. If they don’t want to eat, we can’t force them. If they don’t want to go potty, we can’t force them. I’m sure realizing you have control over your own body makes you very proud… and very smug when you find out you have power. And those power struggles can be SO FRUSTRATING! I am constantly reminding myself that I can outlast any toddler’s willpower, and that I don’t have to react to anything they say or do. But it’s not easy!

Living in England throws one more obstacle at us: rain and cold. Do you know how frustrating it is when the sun decides to only come out at naptime? Or when the majority of the kids show up without hats or gloves? So we haven’t gotten to take our kids outside to play nearly as often as we did in the fall, when we would bring them outside twice a day for a good half hour at least. I think our kids are suffering from a bit of cabin fever, and it’s driving us all a little nutty!

This past week seemed REALLY long. It was mostly just the normal everyday ups and downs of working with toddlers, but I’ve also been fighting another cold, so I’ve been sleep-deprived and cranky. Maybe knowing we had a 3-day weekend coming up made the week seem longer too. I couldn’t wait to sleep in, and I have no plans to get out of my pajamas today. 🙂 I’m hoping to get this bug out of my system and go back to work refreshed on Tuesday, because my job is a lot of fun when I’m healthy and well-rested. Thank goodness for long weekends!

Recipes

Spinach & Artichoke Baked Pasta

February 9, 2013 nk330Leave a comment

This is one of the hearty meat-free dishes that I make. I like this one more than Andrew does, but that’s partially because I follow the recipe. He would prefer that I cook fresh spinach and chop up the artichokes more finely. Now who’s picky? 🙂

Spinach & Artichoke Baked Pasta
Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8

12 oz short pasta, such as rigatoni
1 T. olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt and pepper
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 c. lowfat sour cream
4 oz lowfat cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 c. grated Parmesan (2 oz)
2 t. lemon zest, plus 1 T. lemon juice
1 10-oz pkg frozen leaf spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess moisture
1 13.5 oz can artichoke hearts, rinsed, squeezed of excess moisture and chopped
4 oz mozzarella, shredded (about 1 cup)

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender, 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
3 Heat broiler. In a large bowl, combine the sour cream, cream cheese, Parmesan, lemon zest, and lemon juice; stir in the onion mixture.
4. Add the pasta to the bowl and toss to coat. Stir in the spinach, artichokes, and 1/4 cup of the cooking water (adding more liquid if the pasta seems dry). Fold in 1/2 cup mozzarella.
5. Transfer the pasta mixture to a broiler-safe 2-1/2 to 3-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and broil until golden brown, 3-5 minutes.

Per serving: 330 calories, 11 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 29 mg cholesterol, 509 mg sodium, 16 g protein, 42 g carbohydrates, and 3 g fiber.

Don’t Forget Your Vegetables

February 9, 2013 nk330Leave a comment

I don’t consider myself a picky eater, but there are a few things that I don’t really care for. Andrew thinks I’m weird for not liking nuts (it’s a texture thing) and melons (I only like watermelon). Mushrooms are not a favorite of mine, although I still put them in recipes for Andrew. And like a lot of people, there are some vegetables I don’t care to eat. I have found a recipe for carrots that I actually like (I’ll post that recipe soon), and I like the Brussels sprouts Andrew makes (with bacon), but now I have a recipe that gets me to eat peas. It’s not my favorite recipe (because of the peas!), but Andrew likes it, and it gets me to eat a vegetable I usually avoid.

Spaghetti Pie
Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Makes: 6 main-dish servings

1 lb. spaghetti4 strips bacon, chopped (I added 2 extra slices to help cover the taste of those peas!)
1 lg. red onion (10-12 oz), finely chopped
1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese
4 lg. eggs
2 c. 2% milk
1/4 tsp. cayenne (ground red) pepper
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
2 c. frozen peas (I would happily decrease this to 1 cup…)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Heat large covered pot salted water to boiling on high. Cook spaghetti as package directed.
3. Meanwhile, in 12-in. skillet, cook bacon on medium 6-8 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally. With slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain To fat in pan, add onion. Cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.
4. While onion cooks, in very large bowl, whisk ricotta, eggs, milk, cayenne, half of Parmesan, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
5. Drain spaghetti well. Stir into ricotta mixture along with peas, bacon, and onion. Spread in even layer in 3-quart shallow baking dish. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until set.

If following the recipe above (no extra bacon or higher fat milk or ricotta), each serving has about 660 calories, 36 g protein, 76 g carbohydrates, 23 g total fat (11 g saturated), 6 g fiber, 175 mg cholesterol, and 700 mg sodium.