Brown bag popcorn, big boy beds and bouncy frogs

How is that for random!?

A few nights ago I was up late, blog hopping {does anyone else do that for hours..click on one link, hop to a blog, click on another and keep going until you can't remember what you were looking at first?!} and stumbled upon a blog (sorry but I can't remember which one) that talked about making popcorn using a paper sack, in the microwave.

I know you're thinking '' Um, yeah...it's called microwave popcorn" but it's not that. You literally use a brown paper lunch sack, a 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels and your microwave. That's it. Top it with whatever you like; butter, salt, cheese, bacon salt, ranch dressing seasoning...whatever fits your fancy. It's obviously much much healthier than the butter-lovers, chocked full of preservatives, store bought stuff that could sit on a shelf for 3 years and not go stale. Here is my super self explanatory ''tutorial'':

-Measure out 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels. Pour them into the brown paper bag.

 Fold the bag's top over a few times, tightly. Push out most of the air.

Place the bag in your microwave. I used the 1.7 oz popcorn button/selection but just listen until the pops are 1-2 seconds apart. {Like when you would normally make popcorn}

 And in my case, less than two minutes later....Tada!:

We then poured the popcorn into a bowl, sprayed with a touch of ''I can't believe it's not butter'' spray, shook some Parmesan cheese on it and the boys inhaled it! {ignore the above pic that has cooking spray in it...I had a brain fart moment and got the wrong thing out}.

Peanut's look of approval ;)

So easy, much cheaper and healthier and honestly, a heck of a lot more fun. Maybe I am totally lame, maybe everyone else already knew you could do this but I thought you had to have an air popper or pop it on the stove if you wanted to make popcorn yourself...not true at all!

So now that I have that craving planted in your head....on to big boy beds!

You may remember in my last post {you know the one that involved vomit} that I mentioned moving Peanut to a twin sized bed. Well due to unforeseen illness, we didn't get it picked up til Tuesday evening. Every other time I've transitioned my kids to a bigger bed, I've always made the move at naptime. Well that wasn't going to work because B couldn't even pick up the bed until after work. So instead I opted to not let Peanut nap yesterday. He stayed in the living room with me, playing with puzzles and reading books. My hope was that by the time we got the bed set up and he finally got to sleep, he'd be too tired to fight the change.

I'm a bit of genius, if I do say so myself.

By the time he was in bed, he fussed maybe 25 minutes before heaving a huge sigh and crawling into bed. Literally B and I could hear him at the door {we put up the baby-gate so he can't get out and wonder in the middle of the night but we can see in} and he was saying/yelling/whispering/yelling ''Mommy's bed" then ''Dad....DADDY!". This went on and off a bit but overall he didn't protest near as much as we thought he would. {Just in case I hadn't mentioned it, he's been sleeping in our bed since he got his cast on} And in case you were wondering we opted to switch him now, using the injury to our advantage; he can't climb the gate or get into Sissy's crib, etc with a cast on!

Anyway, I had also mentioned trying to find fabric to make his quilt but yesterday while at Target I found a twin sized thick fleece ''PolarTec'' blanket on clearance for $6.98. Hello, cheaper than 2+ yards of fabric and the color matched Sissy's bedding set so, viola super easy blanket! This weekend {if it doesn't rain} we are going to Ikea and most likely getting him this bed in white. So, please disregard that his mattress is currently on the floor:

Don't mind his giant Sealy pillow, it keeps him from banging his cast on the tile when we crawls in/out

You can't tell in the pic but his sheets are these from Target. They are stripes with vehicles in them. I also ordered this for his wall...from etsy shop Decomodwalls:

But, I ordered it so the alphabet is a deep brown and the vehicles are in lime. Ideally, they should nicely coordinate with Sissy's butterflies and wall hanging of her name...

In my mind, it looks really great, lol! Making a boy/girl room match isn't easy. Especially since I made all of Sissy's stuff...I'm not about to go out and re-buy or re-make all of that!

And speaking of Sissy; she finally has enough upper body control and is alert enough to play in her jumper. She absolutely LOVES it. Her feet don't touch the bottom yet but she loves the teether, the big froggy eyes and how her brothers can gently make her spin and they also bat at toys for her.

 

 In the next pic, she looks like the frog, lol

and a little bit like another kiddo of ours...

 but can you guys which one???

Easy-Peasy Cheesy Potato Soup

bubba and i ♥ potato soup. love, love, love it. there is a local eatery that has a potato soup that is wonderful! after months of eating that every other week (or so) and a few attempts at emulating it at home, i finally figured it out! and because i'm nice, i'm going to share it all with you. i don't actually measure anything so sorry if you're a stickler for measurements, just eyeball it and go with what you like.

you will need:
24-32oz shredded hashbrowns
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 block of Velvetta (or more, personal preference)
water
onion
garlic
salt
pepper
cooked bacon/diced ham/ hamburger
small amount of olive oil or butter
*milk

1. on medium heat, using either EVOO or butter, sautee a little minced garlic and chopped onion until translucent in your soup pot (personal preference as to how much...if you don't want to do this, your probably don't have to)
2. add the whole bag of shredded potatoes then add water, just to cover the top of the potatoes. bring to a boil.
3. while waiting for that to boil, cube up your velvetta, open your cream of chicken (i assume cream of mushroom would work too!) and dice up your bacon or ham.
4. once the potatoes are boiling, turn the heat down til it's at a high simmer/low boil. cook until the hash-browns are completely thawed (about 7-10mins)
5. when your hash-browns look like this, you're ready for the next step. (you want to be able to squish them against the side of the pot and have them mash up a bit.
*optional step* if you want to mash up your hash-browns a bit, do that now using a spoon or potato masher. i like to mash them just a little bit so they aren't so 'stringy' but the place that originally makes this soup, doesn't seem to mash theirs at all.

6. add your cream of chicken soup, velvetta and meat.
7. stir until melted into soup. add salt, pepper and if you have it, onion & herbs mrs. dash is good too! let simmer on low low heat 5-30mins depending on when you want to eat. *if your soup is too thick, you can thin it down with a bit of milk. if it's too runny you can always add more velveeta!
7. tada! you're done! you can top with shredded cheese, green onions, more bacon, etc or nothing. i like mine super cheesy so i add more cheese.
doesn't that look so yummy? it makes alot. typically we have enough for all of us to enjoy a bowl, plus 2-3 servings leftover. (and it freezes really well. i actually like it better thawed from the freezer). we usually enjoy ours with a bit of crusty french bread. it's so easy (no peeling!), it's cheap (you totally can't tell if you use store brands at all!) and we usually have everything on hand. perfect for this cold weather!

* you might be able to make this using a reduced fat cream of chicken soup and the reduced fat or 2% velvetta if you're worried about calories--i'm not sure how it would turn out, but you could try!*