Happy New Year!!!

Well, it's 2012.  2011 went by soooooo fast!! Geez! I fel like I didn't accomplish much in 2011.

Do you have any resolutions? Or any goals for this new year? I prefer to use to word goals myself. Using the word resolution is a bit to serious for me.Here are a few goals I plan to accomplish this year and also a few things I plan to change about myself.

Get my credit score up! (I have been working on my credit for over a year and already it has improved dramatically!

buy a house

lose weight

learn new recipe's

spend more alone time with my husband

take a trip for my wedding anniversary (since last year, for our first anniversary I was busy giving birth to our little baby girl)

start calling people out (i am so annoyed with liars and pretenders, it's time to call folks out and encourage them to be real!)

cut back on gossip

go back to school for my masters

get my kids more involved in church

I could go on and on...but I'll stop for now.

Anyway, happy New Year to you and your family!

It's Christmas and I'm....sweating??

Thats right! My family and I spent Christmas in West Palm Beach, Florida. It didn't feel like Christmas at all.. since I am from Michigan and am used to it being cold as heck!! lol

Really, I'm looking at a palm tree thinking, so this is how it feels to be in warm weather for the hoilidays?

We didnt really do much. We went downtown, shopped, ate at The Cheesecake Factory. They had a red velevet cheesecake to die for!!!

I will upload pictures soon, until then.

Happy Holidays!!!

Taking you backkkk...My brith Story

So I have been gone for a little while! I had a huge 60th birthday party to throw for my mom, and I am still waiting on the pictures! I can't wait to show you what I came up with! We had a blast! And mom was super Happy with how things turned out.

But, while we wait on those photos, I wanted to share a few past photos with you. Remember how I disappeared for nearly 9 months..yeah, well it was because I was busy baking a bun in the oven. So, let me share some photos with you from the last days of me being preggo, the baby shower, the hospital and first pics of my son meeting my daughter!

P.S. Did I ever share my birth story with you all? No, I don't think I did...maybe I should do that as well?? Wanna hear it? Here is a recap:

Friday May 27th (38weeks and 2 days Preggo) I was at work, very uncomfortable. I had been joking with co-workers that today was going to be my last day so I cleaned up my desk and took personal items home with me.

Saturday May 28th (38 weeks and 3 days preggo). I had a few errands to run that morning. I also got my hair done. I wanted to look cute because the next day (May 20th) was hubby and I's 1st year anniversary! Yayy!! So I got my hair done, completed my errands and bot oh boy was I tired! So, while hubby took our son to a birthday party, I slept...little did I know that would be my last night getting some good sleep for a while. So anyway after the birthday party, hubby drooped our son off at my parents so he could spend the night. Once I woke up, I called and made reservations for hubby and I to enjoy Ruth Chris for our wedding anniversary. I then went back to sleep for the night.

Sunday May 29th (38 weeks and 4 days preggo) 9am I work up and was feeling ok, but strange. It was really weird. My plan was to start cooking up some meals to put in the freezer so that once the baby comes, I can just throw a meal in the oven. But as I walked around my house, I started to feel sharp pains and also didn't feel any movements from the baby. I woke up hubby and told him how I felt..So, I decided to take a shower to get the baby moving. As I stepped out of the shower, hubby seemed nervous. He was vacuuming our house like crazy..LOL He was nervous. But I assured him that I was not in labor..I wasn't dune until the following week!

11:00am Next, I still didn't feel baby moving, so I called the doctor. They told me to come in. So hubby really got nervous then. He packed our bags and off we went to the hospital.

(Mom called while we were on our way, but I didn't want to alarm her, so I didn't mention the hospital)



12:30pm While at the hospital, the doctor walked us into the back. He checked me and said "okay, so you are 6cm dilated"! I said WHAT!!? Huh?? "yup, you will be having a baby in a few hours".

I was so shocked!!!! 6cm?? Really??? So the doc told me to cancel our reservations for dinner because we were going to be busy!! LOL Hubby grabbed my phone (started crying) and called my mom! She didn't believe him, so he handed me the phone and I said "yup, make ur way..I am 6cm!".

1:30pm My mom and best friend arrive at the hospital..everything was cool. I was chilling, and just hanging out.

2:30pmDoctor breaks my water! I start REALLY laboring now! No meds, just straight up contractions. I got on my yoga ball and moved my hips to help the pain...I like to do this process alone..no holding my hand or rubbing me..Just leave me alone and let me labor! LOL

3:48pm baby Arrives!!!!6.6 lbs... 18.75 inches!

and while my mom and BFF held my legs..where was hubby......

Yup, in the corner with his back turned!!!!! Smh...

Well, that's the end of my birth story! Hope you enjoyed :)

Here is big brother meeting his sister for the first time:

I have been M.I.A....

OMG! I haven’t posted in a while~

Well, I have been a little busy! Here are posts to come!

-Recap of my Thanksgiving dinner

-Recap of my mom’s 60^th birthday party

-A Review on a AMAZING plus size clothing site!

-More frugal Fridays and Making Monday’s!

Be patient with me as I get through this last week of planning my mom’s 60^th Birthday party!! I can’t wait to show you all the great things I came up with planning this awesome event!!

Anywho, my baby girl turned 6 months on the 29^th! Here is a picture of her and my son!

Love,

Mrs. BP

Making Monday!

Let me start this post off by saying something regarding my "Making Mondays". No I do not think I am a professional chef, nor am I giving advice on how you should make your food..I am simply a wife and a mom sharing my food journey and unforunately fortunately (LOL) I am in charge if what my husband and kids eat on a day to day basis. So I may not have a certification in culinary arts, but I sure do have my certification in being a wife and a mom. So sit back, relax and enjoy my recipes..or not. Most of the time my recipes are a huge hit at home! But, there are sometimes my husband and son give me the thumbs down...that's okay! It's all about trial and error.

As a wife, mom and full time employee, sometimes you have to cheat when making dinner! I love those days when I cheat because their really isn't an chopping, sauteing, or heavy work involved! Cheating is great when you have a 6 year old running around the house pretending to be a power ranger knocking over valuables, or a 5 month old spitting and screaming the minute my attention is off of her, or a husband that needs to chat about sports, cars and blah, blah blah... Yeah, so lets just say..I cheat a lot!! And I would love to share some of my cheating techniques with you! :)

Moving along to this past Sunday's dinner:

Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and green peas.

So lots of people make mistakes when it comes to frying chicken.  My top 3 mistakes in the past were
1. not enough seasoning
2. fry it too long,
3.use too much flour

Well, I no longer suffer from any of those mistakes anymore. After years of practice, I have finally perfected my favorite thing to eat!! Fried Chicken!!!

Here are my ingredients:

Chicken Wings
Lawry's Seasoning Salt (YOU HAVE to USE LAWRY'S!!)
Garlic Powder
Pepper
Cooking oil - Vegetable Oil
Flour
***My secret ingredients..shhh!! i'm only sharing with you because I love you.. (LOL)
 Red Hot Sauce & Sazon Goya seasoning (A unique blend of seasonings by Goya)

1. AFTER CLEANING YOUR CHICKEN IN WATER, LEMON JUICE AND VINEGAR, SEASON YOUR CHICKEN. I really can't tell you EXACTLY the measurements because it really is about how you like it...I will suggest coverING each piece of chicken evenly with each sprinkle of seasoning.

2.COVER AND REFRIGERATE YOUR CHICKEN (I like to season them the night before I plan on cooking them - that way the seasoning REALLY settles on the chicken) OR AT LEAST LET THEM SIT IN THE REFRIGERATEOR FOR AN HOUR..

3. PUT YOUR FLOUR IN A FREEZER/PLASTIC BAG

***heat up your oil to about 375 dregrees

4. THROW 3 OR 4 PIECES IN THE BAG AND SHAKE IT UP REALLY GOOD.

**shake off ALL excess flour before dropping into your oil

5. DROP INTO THE DEEP FRYER FOR 20 MINUTES

6. Pull out of the deep fryer and let it sit in the basket for a minute... to let the execss oil drip off,  then place chicken on top of paper towel.

For sides I just used already made homestyle mashed potatoes
* DONT JUDGE ME!!

...now, typically I like to make my own mashed potatoes from scratch..i'll blog about that later. But on weekdays, it's just easier to pull out the great tasting already made mashed potatoes! They taste amazing! I just add butter and warm in the microwave for 4 minutes! I want to let the world know that I am NOT a fan of powdered mashed potatoes...I feel that powdered mashed potatoes are a DISRESPECT to human kind!!! LOL yuck!!


 I also boiled up some frozen sweet peas and added garlic powder and a little bit of butter.

You think Hubby liked it??? LOL

Frugal Fridays!!

Oh, this is going to be one of my FAVORITE Frugal Friday posts!!! It's not just because I think I got an amazing deal, its because it involves shopping for myself! :) As you know, Old Navy is one of my favorite spots to shop. I really like their clothing for the entire family. I also enjoy being signed up to receive multiple emails regarding sales, coupons, etc!

I received a VIP email from Old Navy saying this:

SAVE 75% off ALL Adult Outerwear on Saturday 11/19 from 12-5pm only!!!

I thought 1. That's an awesome deal. 2. I REALLY need a winter coat 3. Old Navy has some really cute coats! 3. Hey, I have some $10 old Navy Cash to redeem!!! If you are wondering what $10 Old Navy cash is, this is it...They periodically give these out when ringing you up sometimes and(typically a few weeks later) you can redeem them. So for every $20 you spend, you can use your $10 Old Navy Cash..SWEET!!!

Alright, on to the fun part. This is what I purchased:


Regular Price: $79.94

Regular Price: $79.94

 Regular Price: $59.94

 Regular Price: $89.94

After a Savings of 75% off and $20 Old Navy Fast Cash, I spent.....$60.86 for 4 wonderful coats!!!!! Amazing!!!

The "Big Mac" at home Challenge....

Before I give you the Big Mac sauce recipe, let me tell you a little story.

About 9 years ago, I completely stop eating beef At first it was a bet, then it turned into a lifestyle. The bet was that 2 of my friends and I wouldn’t eat beef or pork for 2 weeks. We were college students, gaining weight and we decided that we should try to lose weight by cutting out what we ate most, FAST FOOD! So we thought maybe eliminating beef and pork would help us cut down on eating fast food and lead to weight lost.

Well, I totally won the bet because I stop eating pork and beef for a long time (Pork 4 years and beef, 9 years).

I became pregnant with my son in 2004, that lead me back to eating bacon and pepperoni (due to the cravings), but no other pork.

I once also had a craving (during my 2004 pregnancy) for a chipped beef frozen dinner, I ate it and then completely threw it up within 5 minutes of eating it!! I will NEVER touch beef AGAIN!!!

With all this being said, I REALLY missed eating a Big Mac. It used to be my favorite burger! I now eat turkey burgers and still am trying to perfect the recipe, but they are still pretty good J I decided to do a little research and try to see if I could find a recipe for that famous Big Mac sauce, and guess what, I did!!

The sauce turned out pretty good; you really couldn’t tell it was homemade. My husband enjoyed it. (But he’s a man and totally satisfied with any burger I make – LOL)

I on the other hand was a little disappointed because I had high hopes that my turkey burger would now taste like a Big Mac (by adding the sauce), but boy was I WRONG! The thing is, you just can’t duplicate a Big Mac.

So, sauce a WINNER, but BIG FAIL on duplicating the BIG MAC ATTACK!!!

Dear Big Mac…I really, really miss you!!!

Love,

Mrs. B.P.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

1/2 Cup of Mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons of French Dressing

4 Teaspoons of sweet pickle relish

1 Tablespoon of finely minced onion

1 teaspoon of white vinegar

1 teaspoon of sugar

1/8 teaspoon of salt

-Combine all ingredients in a bowl, whisk really well!!

-Refrigerate for several hours, or even better- overnight (so that flavors mesh well together)

-Stir well, again before serving

Here ya go!!!!!