Happy Halloween

Mac and Cheese

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups (12 ounces) uncooked penne (tube-shaped pasta)
• 1 (12-ounce) carton 2% low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray
• 3 tablespoons panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 375°.
• 2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; place in a large bowl.
• 3. Place cottage cheese in a food processor; process until smooth. Combine cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Add the cheese mixture to pasta, and stir well. Spoon mixture into an 11 x 7-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.
• 4. Combine remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan, panko, and parsley in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over pasta mixture. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.
• 5. Preheat broiler (do not remove dish from the oven).
• 6. Broil pasta 1 minute or until top browns.

source 

Rockstar

Chilln at Target

A Hard Realization

Me: Do I need to bring Cole in to follow up on his ear infection?
Doctor: No, unless he's still acting sick
Me: No, he's doing really well
Doctor: Great! In any case, they'll check his ears at his one-year appointment. Did you schedule it yet?
Me: No (rolling my eyes as its way too far out to plan that)
Doctor: Ok- just let us know what works and we will see you in SIX WEEKS
Me: (gasping for air at the realization that Cole will be a year old in six weeks- I promptly hung-up on the doctor)

Sent from my iPhone

Never to early...

To start pumping iron!

Babies everywhere

You Know It!

Sooooo good!!!

Caramel Apple Cookies

I haven't baked in a long time... like since I was prego! So I decided that this weekend I'm going to bake cookies... and not just any cookies... caramel apple cookies!

Here's the recipe - I'll post pictures if they turn out (aka if I actually do it):

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (7.4 ounce) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (*not sugar free*)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (14 ounce) bag Kraft Caramels, unwrapped

Method:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat.  (The melted caramel may stick to the bottom if you just use cooking spray on a plain baking sheet.)

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.  With an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.
Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut (about 2 tablespoons).  Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on parchment covered cookie sheets about 3 inches apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Once the cookies are done, carefully slide the parchment or silpat off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter.  Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment/silpat. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment/silpat or on a rack).
Yield: Approximately 4 dozen, depending on the size of your dough.

source: Gimme Some Oven 

Hehehe

Tough Guy

Now this is how you fight an ear infection!

10 Months Old

I think this is my favorite age yet! Cole has getting more of his own personality every day... and learning so much... it's insane! Here's a quick run down before lots of pictures!

Cole...
Has six teeth - four on top and two on the bottom
Has a underbite - I think its cute
Knows how to wave (this is new as of two days ago)
Is eating more and more foods... we're keeping our fingers crossed that the butt-flu doesn't come back
Is a ham - no clue where he gets that from :)
Has this laugh where he opens his entire mouth as he smiles and goes "haaa, haaa"
Whistles - it's so stinking cute
Does not like being told "no" - damn only children
Is eating three meals, and four bottles a day - I assume we'll drop a bottle soon
Sleeps around 11 hours at night and typically has two 45 minute naps a day (during the week - weekends he usually takes longer naps)
Has a couple of older girlfriends at daycare... but apparently a few of them also have lil' crushes on Jason...
Constantly has bruises on his head/face... he pulls himself up on EVERYTHING and thinks he can walk/ tries on a regular basis
Is wearing 18-24 month clothes and size 4 diapers
Is roughly 32" long and weighs about 25 lbs.
Loves music and dancing and dogs

Now for some pictures:

 

Just playing in the leaves   

Love that little waddle 

Helping dad rake 

"CHAARRGGEE!"

the 10 Month picture with Blue Bear

Trying to get away (notice the bruise)

"But I want it...." 

Trying to smile his way out of it 

Just Eatn' Lasagna

Whistling a Morning Tune

Another Fav Moment

Making Me Smile

I just got back from NYC last night - for work, not fun - and I was dreading going back. It's not that I don't like my job, it's just hard to jump back into the stress of it after being gone for so many days. Add to this that fact that Cole is home from daycare (more runny BMs)... I was feeling pretty bad for myself.
LAME!
I'm not going to get all sappy here, but I'm pretty damn fortunate. I've got a lot of great stuff in my life and I need to start focusing in on that.
So this will be a new weekly post:

Brit's Good JuJus: A Few Favs of the Moment

It's a collection of good stuff that makes me smile. Big and little... in no particular order:

*  Cole crawling his lil' butt over to me when I walked into the door after being gone
*  The fact that J felt guilty watching Fringe without me
* Getting an email that says someone re-pinned something of mine on Pinterest
*  The colors of the fall leaves
*  The BEAUTIFUL flowers my in-laws brought over that match the fall leaves
*  My planner coming into my office this morning, plopping down in my chair, saying "I missed you"
*  The morning pictures of Cole J sent me while I was gone...
*  Fall scarves and boots and sweaters and socks and...
*  Finishing a good book and then rereading it again!
*  Realizing I get to see a lot of old friends this weekend... and partially act like I'm back in college!

What are your good jujus this week? Do ours overlap? You should think about posting/writing yours down somewhere... makes you smile and makes you not think about the not-so-fun-stuff for a minute!

Walk with Jason

Oh how I'm missing this little guy:

Playing the Drums