7 Quick Takes: 16 months

Every month since my baby was 2 months old, I have attempted to take her picture in the glider with her elephant (as seen here). This is getting increasingly difficult now at 16 months, as you can see. Enjoy an all-photo 7QT.

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Finally, a winner.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

5 Favorites

1.

Fort Wayne Zoo

I hadn't been to a zoo since I was 8 months pregnant, and that zoo was not very good and made me sad for some of the animals (namely, the monkeys). When we were moving here to Fort Wayne, everyone and their mothers said that we had to go to the zoo! It's fabulous, they said. Your kid, no matter how young, will love it!

So we went! Sure enough, we loved it. Kangaroos and giraffes were favorites. We'll definitely be coming back. (I bought a membership! I even tacked on an "add-a-guest" option, so if you come visit me, I'll take ya there!)

Zoo buddy babies

2.

Eating this for breakfast

A scrambled egg on top of a toasted English whole wheat English muffin, alongside a smoothie made with random fruit, spinach, yogurt, and applesauce.

I'm not a morning person, and my usual breakfast of cereal and milk reflects that. I just need something super-quick that requires zero effort because I'm usually in zombie-mommy mode. However, I always find myself really hungry around 10am and usually start scrambling through the pantry for unhealthy crap around then. But I'm taking this Child Nutrition and Cooking and our assignment last week was to make a balanced breakfast with protein, grain, and at least one fruit or vegetable. I had this, and it sustained me well until lunch. (The picky toddler loves the smoothie, too, so right now it's one of the only ways I can get her to eat green veggies. Sigh.) My new goal is to make this at least once a week for breakfast. I did it again yesterday, so I'm on track! I think I might freeze the smoothie as popsicles and then thaw them down back into smoothies in the morning--is that a decent idea? (I have no desire for a popsicle at 7am, sorry.)

3.

Daphne Oz

Speaking of food, I love the show The Chew on ABC. If we're hanging around the house on a weekday at 1pm, I turn it on. My favorite host is Daphne, who I had never heard of before the show! She's Dr. Oz's daughter, if you're curious. She also has a new book out called Relish, and I had it on hold at the library for the last month and it's finally my turn. Lots of delicious (and healthy) recipes and general Daphne Oz-someness. (Get it?)

4.

trulia

It's no secret that we're on the hunt for our first house. Although we now have a realtor and pre-approval for a mortgage and all the jazz, we started our house hunt on the trulia website. It has a lot of great searchable features (I narrowed it down to school system + price + age of house + other picky stuff), and we found a few open houses to look at on our first day out through it. I now just have it email me when houses that meet my criteria get listed. Which is like, every day. I guess we're not as picky as it sounds. We do have our first meeting with our actual realtor on Thursday, in case you were wondering.

5.

Lindt Chocolate Cremosi Assortment

I won these from a blog giveway (thanks to The Young Retiree!), and they are so good! There are 3 types in the bag, and I love them all. I got B to try one and he just popped it in his mouth like a piece of popcorn. I asked him what flavor it was, and he was all, "I dunno, chocolate..." Oh, I got so mad at him! I told him he wasn't respecting the chocolate and that he can't have any more of them. This would be a great gift for someone who respects the chocolate--check out the whole collection here at The Young Retiree's shop.

Chicken Biscuit Roll-ups

I have been making this dish for a few years now and have found similar recipes on Pinterest, but they all over-complicate it and either over-do it or under-do it. Those like to add random types of cheese in places where you don't need it or make it too dry so that nobody wants to eat it.

So let's get on with it and do it right. Here is the finished product, so you don't waste your time on something that's not vegan, not gluten-free, not paleo, not even all that healthy. It's comfort food, y'all, so get over it.

Chicken Biscuit Roll-ups
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 can crescent rolls
1 lb. chicken (1 or 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts will work)
4 oz. (half package) of cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
½ cup milk

Directions:
1. Boil the chicken breasts until they are cooked. Preheat the oven to 375° or whatever it says on the back of the crescent roll package.

2. Shred chicken breasts. (I have heard that stand mixers are good for this, but small kitchen and lack of counter space means no stand mixer for me. 2 forks and/or your hands also works.)

3. Mix cream cheese with shredded chicken. This is easier if it's softened, which can be done in the microwave in about 10 seconds or so. You may not use all the cream cheese, and that's okay. (I suppose you could opt out of the cream cheese entirely, but then it wouldn't be as comforting as comfort food should be. So don't do it.)

Steps 1 through 3. Easy peasy chicken-shredded cream cheesy.

4. Place a spoonful of the chicken mixture in each crescent roll laid out on a baking sheet (greased or parchment-papered if that's your thing).

5. Roll up the roll. Pull the point and the opposite side toward each other, and then pull the flaps around to make sort of a ball.

6. Put roll-ups in the oven for as long as called for on the crescent roll package (usually about 10-11 minutes). Take out when golden brown.

7. While roll-ups are cooking, mix the cream of chicken soup with ½ cup of milk. Heat over stove or in microwave, stirring occasionally, until well-mixed and heated thoroughly.

8. When roll-ups are done, serve over rice and top with your soup gravy. 2 roll-ups is a good portion per person. Yum yum!