Tonight's Dinner Brought to You By Pinterest

Tomorrow is Trevor's birthday, but since the girls are going to their grandparents tomorrow, we did a mini-celebration tonight.  He's almost a St. Patrick's Day baby, so I went with that theme.  I'm just lucky that he happens to like the same foods I wanted to make.  Happy Coincidence.

I found everything I made on Pinterest.  The only alterations I made were either because I'm artistically challenged or because I had a recipe I preferred.  I'll link the originals as well as add my own spin just in case you're wondering.

We started with a rainbow fruit tray.  As you can see, mine wasn't as pretty as the original, but the kids ate it up. In fact, I think they enjoyed the fruit the most.

Pinterest Idea

 My version

Then I made mini Shepherd's Pies.  I thought these were particularly awesome, because you could actually eat them like a cupcake. 

Pinterest Idea

My version, which I dare say is much better than the original. By that I mean the taste, because mine looked like a hot mess but were oh so delicious.

And, finally we finished everything off with...I really don't know what to call these.  The kids kept asking me, and all I could think to say was peppermint balls.  And then I inexplicably kept throwing in the word "grasshopper", as if the kids would understand that some minty desserts and cookies were called grasshopper something or other and not immediately be horrified that I was serving them some sort of bug.  

Pinterest Idea

Hey look at that.  The name is on the picture.  Whatever.  Without further adieu, I present my Peppermint Grasshopper Balls.

You'll notice off the bat that I am not gifted artistically, especially with food, but in all areas, really.  I like to think I add a childlike charm to my creations, since it basically looks like my kids created all of this.  The important thing is that everything tasted delicious, and the birthday boy was pleased.  Here's a breakdown of how and why my stuff differed:

Rainbow Fruit: For some reason, I'm challenged and not able to create arches with food.  This also happens when I'm trying to draw rainbows.  I don't know what the secret is, but it still turned out pretty.  I don't think it's as evident that the marshmallows are clouds, and the candy is the pot of gold, but they kids loved it.

Mini-Shepherd's Pie: I don't think the original from Taste of Home really qualifies as Shepherd's Pie, since there are no veggies mixed in.  I used my own recipe (see below) and stuffed it inside the biscuits, which is obviously not as pretty, since meat and veggies are much lumpier than just a meat mixture.  It was really good, though, and again, the cupcake aspect of it was awesome.

Peppermint Grasshopper Balls (the name is growing on me): I used the same recipe, except Publix didn't have mint chips, so I used white chocolate chips with peppermint extract and green food coloring mixed in.  The thing with white chocolate is when you start mixing in food coloring, it goes from being creamy and liquid to somewhat of a frosting consistency, which is not so good for dipping.  I know there are certain types of food coloring you can use to prevent that, but I didn't have them, so basically when it got all stiff, I mixed in oil to loosen it back up. It worked just fine.  Mine are obviously not anywhere near as pretty as the originals, but they were pretty tasty.  Next time, I would probably refrain from adding peppermint to the white chocolate, because it was a little too minty for my taste.

Mini-Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Makes 18-20 mini-pies

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

Bag of frozen mixed vegetables (I used the microwaveable steam in bag ones)

Bag of frozen microwaveable potatoes

1/2 C sour cream

1/4 C milk

2 Tbsp butter

1C shredded cheddar cheese

2 cans of 10 count biscuits

Salt, Pepper, Garlic powder, Onion powder as needed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the ground beef, and add can of soup.  Microwave or heat bag of vegetables on the stove top and then add vegetables to the beef mixture.  Season with salt, pepper, and spices as needed.

Heat potatoes and then mash them with milk, sour cream, butter, salt and pepper.

Grease muffin tins.  Place raw biscuits in muffin tins and create a divot in the middle of each one.

Scoop out beef mixture (an ice cream scooper works great for this), and place in the middle of each biscuit.

Top each one with a scoop of mashed potatoes.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle shredded cheddar on top and bake for 5 more minutes.

I have a ton of these left over, so these would probably be great hors d'oeuvres for a party.  Everything I made was super easy to do and probably took me an hour total. 

Particularly Poignant Pinterest Post

How's that for some alliteration? Anywho, I was browsing my current obsession, Pinterest, and I came upon this little gem: 

I try to stay away from the cheesy, as it doesn't usually mesh with my sardonic, sarcastic (i.e. asshole)  personality, but this one actually fits right now.  When I last posted about my new job, I was riding high from sticking someone with a needle and drawing blood- an odd thing to find pride in, I know, but nonetheless satisfying.  Since then, I've been training with someone I'll call "Bitch who thinks she's better than everyone but really just feels bad because she never made it as a real nurse".  That's her Native American name.  I'll call her "Bitch, please" (BP) for short.

So, I trained for 2 days with BP, and they were the 2 worst days of my life- professionally speaking.  She eradicated any confidence I had gained in sticking someone within the first few minutes of training me when she hissed at me to never walk in front of the patients and always walk behind them, as if I had committed the ultimate sin.  She proceeded to point out every error I made and made pointed comments regarding her ability to catch on quickly and the initiative she took when she was new.  She rarely let me do anything, and according to her what I did do was wrong (it wasn't).  She embarrassed me in front of patients and made more than one statement about my possibility (or impossibility) of making it there.

At the end of the second training day, I was done.  I decided to not only throw in the towel on this job, but the whole medical profession as a whole.  I couldn't cut it as a Nursing student/Nurse Tech, and I couldn't cut it here, so maybe it just wasn't meant to be.  In the meantime, I have been interviewing with a state agency regarding a position doing something very similar to what I did before I decided to switch careers.  I only applied as a safety net in case I didn't get into the Nuclear Medicine program, so I was pleasantly surprised when they called me for a phone interview and then a formal one. The thing is, I was good at managing employee benefits.  Dammit, I was awesome at it, and the employees loved me.  I knew I could build the same rapport in this position and really excel, but when I was formally accepted into the NMT program, I thought my path was solidified.  That was before BP threw my world into chaos.  I had initially turned down the final interview for the HR position, but I ended up calling them back, and practically begging them to give me a shot.

Cut to yesterday when I trained with 2 ridiculously cool chicks.  They were patient and actually stopped to show me things.  They continually told me how well I was doing and boosted my confidence back up.  They quizzed me, and I answered correctly most of the time.  And the best part was the one of them had trained with BP herself and stated that she was, in fact, a bitch who thinks she's superior to everyone else.  Oh, thank God!  It wasn't just me.  Everyone else up in there acted like BP hung the moon, so this chick's blatant honesty was so refreshing.  It is her, and not me.  Maybe I'm not a total fuck up, and maybe I can make a go at this profession.  I also must note that the hubs has been super supportive and has repeatedly told me that I will be great in this field, if I just give myself a chance.  But, you know it's always more believable when it comes from people you're not sleeping with.

So, now I'm scheduled for and interview for the HR gig, because I can't very well cancel on them after begging them to take me back.  I also have 1 more training sesh with BP and 2 more with one of the cool chicks, so I'm still trying to decide if this job thing will be something I can handle.  We'll see how it goes, but for now, I think I'm back on track with the Nuclear Med thing, but it is nice to have options.

Like a Ton of Bricks

Today is the first day of school for all of my children.  This includes my little 3yo shadow.  I thought today would be all about celebrating the silence and peace, but the silence is deafening, and I'm thoroughly depressed.  I'm supposed to be out starting my Couch to 5K program, and I had intentions of finally putting my multitudes of Pinterest pins into action, but instead I'm bawling my eyeballs out.  I never went through this with the other two.  Hell, I didn't go through it with her when I put her in daycare at 6 weeks old.  I don't know if it's because she's my baby, or because I've been home the last two years, or because I'm realizing that my work as a stay at home mom is coming to a close.  I never wanted to be home with the kids, but when circumstances changed, and that became my life, I really did enjoy it.  I guess it surprised me how much I needed it and how sad I am now that it's over.  So today, I'm going to feed my emotions with terrible food, distract myself with a lunch outing with my friend, and cry intermittently throughout the day.

First Day pics and then some tearful songs to bring you down as well.

This soundtrack is playing in my brain, and that's part of the reason I can't stop boo hooing.

And another one from that film that's even more approriate.

And just to torture myself to the fullest, the video I made for her 3rd birthday.

Easter

It's 9:30 a.m., and I've already been awake for 3 hours.  I blame my husband who decided to come into our bathroom at 6:45 and flip on every light he could, awakening myself and my 2 bedmates.  Surprisingly Sophie was the only on in her own bed last night; it was the older 2 bunking with me.  Vic is milking the arm thing, and Trev...I don't know what his reason was, but I was too tired to argue last night.  I'm just as exhausted today, so I see a nap in my near future.  Anyway, the big kids had to wait about an hour for Sophie to wake up, and then we gave them their baskets.  The Easter Bunny was super generous this year, and everyone got an Ipod Shuffle.  She knew how annoyed I was fighting with all of them over my own Ipod, so she decided to get them each one, even the baby, despite Mr. Easter Bunny's protests.

Last night we did a night time Easter egg hunt, an idea I got from Pinterest, natch.  It was super awesome, and I think I enjoyed it just as much as the kids did, because it was so pretty.  Oh, and I must say that it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to put those little glow bracelets inside the eggs, but the hubs was quite helpful with that.  The key is to tie them in knots.  I also taped the eggs, so they wouldn't bust open, and you must get JUMBO eggs, not the bitty ones.

I think it's been a pretty good Easter so far, especially considering at this time last year, the big kids had already been banned from the egg hunt, and everyone pouted for the rest of the day,  It's still early, though.

 The girls planted "magic" jellybeans yesterday.

This is what grew from the magic jellybeans.