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A Bit of a Rough Week

Well, this week was a little rough for me.

After such a great weekend full of family the days after sort of just fell short. I settled into my routine of cooking, cleaning, and toddler duty and the days went by; but, they were lonely. I was able to have a brief visit with Mom Wookey on Wednesday as she was my much appreciated babysitter while I went to the lab for my gestational diabetes blood work, but other than that I didn't exactly get much adult contact. Chad has been gone for suppertime three nights this week so my morning to night has been filled with dogs and a toddler who only speaks one word sentences. Not that I'm totally complaining....I LOVE my one word conversations with Abby :) her vocabulary is growing immensely! But, it's not at all comparable to full sentences and the thought processes that adults have.

Being a stay at home has some great perks but it also can be really tough! No one tells you or prepares you for the reality of losing day-to-day interactions with adults. Going to a job every day is sort of like a built-in socializing opportunity. Even if it's only strangers or your co-workers every day, there is interaction and conversation and people around. It's an aspect of the working world that you don't even acknowledge or appreciate until you're no longer a part of it. Needless to say, I've been feeling the separation from that type of community lately and am now trying to figure out how to build a new one of my own.


I did have a bright moment yesterday though! Have you heard of Flatter:Me belts? If you haven't, I highly suggest checking them out here. This is a company that my friend started and she's got a great product! I received my belt in the mail yesterday and it put a smile on my face, so thank you Claire!


And who doesn't like being told they're looking gorgeous?! haha, Such a great touch :)

Abby had a sad moment as she did a bit of a face dive off one of the kitchen chairs...the poor little munchkin had a nicely swollen upper lip and a little blood loss, but it buffed right out in a couple days. Here's her all cleaned up but still feeling a little sorry for herself.


I did get a little creative yesterday and used up some not-that-sweet peaches I had sitting around. If you remember, I talked about how great of a deal I got on these peaches last week in my post but they weren't that great in the end. I hate wasting food - especially when I'm trying to cut costs - so I got a little creative and used them up in some brownies. 

Chocolate and fruit is one of my favourite combinations so I couldn't resist. I also have a fantastic brownie recipe that our whole family loves so I put the two together and, voila! A yummy treat!

To be honest I wasn't sure how they would turn out but decided to give it a go anyways. Instead of using butter or margarine in a recipe you can actually substitute with apple sauce. Odd, I know, but it totally works! So, I decided to take the idea one step further and see what the result was. Instead of the apple sauce replacing the butter I took my three peaches, mashed them with a fork, and used them as my butter replacement. It was more than the 1 cup I needed but I wanted to use all three peaches so I just went with it and added maybe 1/8th of a cup more flour. In the end, they turned out awesome! The fruit instead of butter makes them nice and moist (though, these are nice, moist, gooey brownies to begin with) and I couldn't even tell that the peaches were only okay tasting because they were surrounded with chocolate. Delish! 

I ended up eating an entire row to myself yesterday so I opted to send the rest of the pan with Chad to work. His co-workers always appreciate (and devour) any baking I send their way - plus, it gets it out of the house so this prego lady doesn't gain 10 lbs in one week!

Here's my very simple, amazing brownie recipe:

Basic Brownies

1  cup butter or margarine
2  cups sugar
3  eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa, rounded
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or maraschino cherries (optional)

Cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs and vanilla. Add cocoa, then flour, salt, and chocolate chips/nuts/cherries if using. Mix well. Spread into a greased 13x9 pan, pushing plenty of  batter into the corners so brownies back evenly. Bake at 350F for approximately 30 minutes.

From: The Basics and More Cookbook


I'll give you an update on my grocery challenge next week. 



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