Potato, Potato!

My aunt wants some potato recipes, so here is going to be a ton of potato recipes. I love potatoes because (1) I think they taste very good, and (2) the actual time I have to spend in the kitchen is like 20 minutes.

Let's start with the easiest first. 

1. Mashed Potatoes

• Peel potatoes if desired (I hate the peels in there). Cut up potatoes, my general rule is 2 potatoes per person, throwing in an extra one if someone is a big eater, or just using 1 for children. I use 6 potatoes for JP and I, it's just enough for dinner and then leftovers for lunch one day.

• Put them in a pot, with water almost covering potatoes.

• Cook on an oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on how small or big you cut up your potatoes.

• Pour out excess water, but pour out as little as possible, because that's where the nutrients are.

• Add butter, however much you desire, I use one stick, and beat with a mixer. Add milk as necessary to reach the consistency you want.

• Add *garlic powder (2 T) and dill (1T) and a dash of pepper and salt (I prefer to let people do most of this on their own plates since JP and I differ in tastes there). 

• Eat.

2. Baked potatoes

• Scrub potatoes and poke with a fork.

• Rub butter on the skins and wrap in foil.

• Bake for 40-60 minutes @ 425, or 70-80 minutes @350

• Put on desired toppings (chili, cheese, butter, sour cream, etc…)

**Nutrition Information (per medium potato without toppings)

125 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g cholesterol, 28 g carbohydrates.

3. Scalloped Potatoes (One of my favorites)

     ½ cup chopped onion

     1 t bottled minced garlic

     2 T butter

     2 T flour

     ½ t salt

     ¼ t pepper

     1 ¼ cups milk

     4 medium potatoes

• Preheat oven to 350

• In a pan cook onion and garlic until tender

• Add flour, salt, pepper, and milk. Cook until thick and bubbly.

• Grease 1 ½-2 quart casserole dish.

• Slice potatoes and place half in the casserole dish, and cover with half of the sauce. Repeat.

• Cover with tinfoil, and bake for 40 min.

• Uncover and bake 15-20 min, until the potatoes are soft.

Nutrition Information (1/4 of dish)

187 calories, 15 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 44 mg cholesterol, 25 g carbohydrates

4. Optional preparation,

• add ¾ cup shredded cheese to sauce

Nutrition Information

273 calories, 15 g fat (9 g. saturated fat), 44 mg cholesterol, 25 g carbohydrates.

5.  Baked Potato Fans (one of JP's favorites)

     4 potatoes

     ¼ cup melted butter

     ½ t garlic

     ¼ t salt

     ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese

     ¼ cup sliced green onions

     2 T parmesan cheese

• Preheat oven to 350

• Scrub potatoes, slice potatoes, but don’t cut all the way through. One tip for that is to put the handle of a wooden spoon next to your potato, so it stops you from slicing all the way.

• Place potatoes in a baking dish and press down so the potatoes fan slightly.

• Combine melted butter, garlic, salt. Drizzle over potatoes, and in between slices.

• Cover with foil and bakefor 50 minutes.

• Uncover, bake for 10 minutes.

• Sprinkle potatoes with parmesan cheese, green onions and cheddar cheese. Try to get it in between the potato slices, or else it all falls off and makes a mess.

• Bake for 5 minutes.

Nutrition Information (per potato)

245 calories, 13 g fat (8 g saturated fat), 34 mg cholesterol, 27 g carbohydrates

6.     Cottage-Fried Potatoes

     3 T butter

     3 potatoes

     ¼ t salt

     ¼ t garlic powder

      Dash of pepper

     1 small onion, or ½ of medium onion

• Slice potatoes.

• Slice onion and separate into rings.

• In a large skillet, melt butter.

• Layer sliced potatoes and sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, and pepper,

• Cover and cook over medium heat for 8 min.

• Add onion rings.

• Cook uncovered, turning frequently for 10 minutes, until potatoes start to brown.

Nutrition Information (1/4 of dish)

168 calories, 9 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 25 mg cholesterol, 19 g carbohydrates

7.     Parmesan Cottage-Baked Potatoes

¼ cup melted butter

     3 potatoes

     ¼ cup Parmesan cheese  

Several dashes garlic powder    

      Dash of pepper

     1 small onion, or ½ of medium onion

• Preheat oven to 450.

• Slice potatoes.

• Slice onion and separate into rings.

• Layer potato slices and onion rings in a baking pan.

• Pour butter over potato slices and onion rings.

• Sprinkle garlic powder, pepper and parmesan cheese over potatoes and onions.

• Bake for 30 minutes, until potatoes start to brown, turning once.

Nutrition Information (1/4 dish)

197 calories, 11 g fat (7 g saturated fat), 30 mg cholesterol, 19 g carbohydrates

8.     Roasted Potatoes.

     3 potatoes

     2 T olive oil

     1 t minced onion

     ½ t garlic powder

     ¼ t salt

     ¼ t pepper

     ¼ t thyme

     ¼ t dill

     ½ t paprika

• Preheat oven to 325 or 450.

• Chop up potatoes into eights.

• Grease a small square baking pan and place potatoes in it.

• Combine olive oil, minced onion, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, thyme and dill.

• Pour mixture over potatoes, and toss to coat potatoes.

• Bake for 45 min @ 325, or 25 min @ 450.

• Stir potatoes and bake another 10-20 minutes until potatoes are tender and starting to brown.

Nutrition Information (1/4 of dish)

145 calories, 7 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 19 g carbohydrates.

*I love garlic, so most of these recipes are very garlic-y, if you're not a huge garlic fan you should probably put in less garlic than I say.

**Nutrition Information is an estimate.

***Almost all recipes are from the Better Homes and Gardens Special Edition Pink Plaid Cookbook, (which is one of the best cookbooks ever, and it supports the fight against breast cancer) with a few alteration made by me. I think my Grandma Larson gave that cookbook to me for my wedding; thank you very much Grandma, I love it!

Why I Learned Algebra

So the House passed a bill that mandated that I have health insurance. I think I don't qualify for medicaid according to the FPL ($18,310 per year for a family of 3, FPL standards). So either I can pay $344.67 a month for health insurance (note: this doesn't include my husband who was denied coverage) which adds up to $4136.04 a year, which I hardly ever used. Or I can pay a $695 annual fee per person, times two (Baby is covered by Medicaid) so $1390 a year. Now since I doubt we'll make $73,240 a year, so we'll qualify for a subsidy to help purchase insurance (up to 400% of the FPL), but I doubt it'll be enough the close the $3000 gap (or more, depending on husbands coverage) to make it financially worth it.

Hmmm.... interesting math. I think I'll continue on in the ranks of the uninsured, be illegal, and visit the very cheap student health center if something ever does come up.

We took Jelly Belly swimming for the first time today. I know it's two, almost three months, past the 6 month okay mark, but finding rubber pants and a baby swimsuit (which are required at this pool) in the middle of winter in Logan wasn't the easiest.

Baby modeling her new swim suit

It was so much fun and she was so cute. JP and I always joked that our kids would be great swimmers, but we didn't realize how amazing. She took both of us by surprise, we're both used to screaming, frightened babies. Okay really, I'm going to give credit to her personality. She's a very calm baby, who doesn't cry a lot (unless she's hungry or tired), she's also very curious and loves new things. I'm sure it helps too that it was her parents, who are both very comfortable in the water, not some random stranger, that were with her.

Decked out in her robe, all ready to go

Note: To all parents that want to teach their children to swim; and I personally believe that all kids should have some basic swimming skills, and feel comfortable in the water as a safety precaution. Not to mention swimming is fun and a great fitness tool, swimming fast and correctly can burn 700 calories an hour. Anyways my advice is to start getting them used to the water at a young age, the further you delay it, the more frightened they are, and the more hesitant to learn. If you wait until they're 8 and need some pin or belt loop for boy scouts, it's going to be very, very difficult. Also, there is this get in with them the first couple of times, take a Parent-Toddler class, it's a very important step. The most important part of which is being calm. Your child is looking to you, and they can tell if you're being anxious and that'll worry them. And if they slip and get their face in the water, don't panic, I know it's instinct, but that'll show them that it's something to be scared of (which it's not). Okay, off my soapbox now.

Back to the baby, she was very calm. We got in with her, and she just looked around with her I'm-trying-to-figure-this-world-out look. After a while she discovered she could splash, just like in her bath. We also had fun tossing her in the air, and making her laugh. I was blowing bubbles, trying to get a smile, and she decided to imitate me and stick her face in the water. Yeah, that's right, my baby is that awesome. First time in the water she sticks her face in of her own accord! And there wasn't any crying at all! She stuck her face in several more times, all on her own. The first time she cried was when she let go off her rubber ducky and it floated out of her reach, and it was more a disgruntled yelp. Later, since we were encouraged by her sticking her face in, and how well she was dealing with it, we decided to submerge her, and she hardly fussed, just for a short time, and it was never a full on cry. I am bursting with motherly pride!

With her Daddy and Ducky

My Ducky

Baby and I!

So Elder Ballard came to stake conference last Sunday, and told us that we need to be more active in blogging. Yep, for reals, so here I am. However it is getting late, so this will only be a brief catch-up post and better posts will (hopefully) come a little later. So the last time I posted was.... October. Wow.

So after October here is what happened, school got really busy and really hard and the blog dropped on the priority list. In November there was Thanksgiving, which we spent with my family. In December JP got swine flu, which was all sorts of nasty and took forever to get better from. He also decided to time this to be during finals week, so I had to do all of the parenting with zero help, during one of the most stressful weeks of school by myself, darn him. I also had to sleep on the floor of the baby's room, since JP was under quarantine, this resulted in Baby Girl and I waking each other up as we talk in our sleep. Well, our quarantine was apparently pointless anyways because the next week, thankfully after finals and after JP had been fever free for three days, I got swine flu (yes, that means the apparent latency period of 48 hrs according to Pres Obama is wrong). By the way swine flu sucks really bad, it's like the flu but worse, and even after you're "better" you still feel like crap for weeks.

Somewhere in the midst of this JP also graduated from school (however we are still waiting for that diploma, which is probably at his parent's house). Yeah, go JP, he's all growed up. All joking aside I am proud of  my husband. Then came Christmas, which we spent as his family's house. After that we went to Disney World. It was a lot of fun, but I don't think I slept the whole trip. Apparently the jet lag really screwed the poor baby up, so she slept at all the wrong times (read: the entire day, no matter how hard you tried to wake her up) and therefore was awake when she shouldn't be (the whole stinkin' night, every night).

Then the next semester of school started. JP started his new job as Event Coordinator for Campus Rec, and I think he is ridiculously lucky. First off, he loves his job, second, his office goes skiing every other week or so, and  it's called working, and he gets paid to do it. Seriously, who gets paid to go ski, unless you're an Olympian? Gabrielle had to start to go to a babysitter. Well, there's another baby there who is 2 months older than her, and this baby crawls. After a couple days of being babysat Gabrielle started getting up in crawl position. She sits there and stares at the other baby and then tries to imitate her. And the other day when I went to pick Gabrielle up, this other baby was cruising. Darn it! I don't want Gabrielle to learn that, I have no idea how to baby proof our house. And well after all these changes for the rest of the family, what did I do? I went to school, like I always have and will for the rest of my life. I am taking Organic Chemistry (which I hate with a passion), Biochemistry, and Medical Anthropology. Yes that adds up to a full time student, 12 credits right there. There you go 5 months in 15 minutes. I'll try to update again, but when the last half off the semester is here, all bets are off.

358,560 minutes

You know what I just noticed, every post has the same font except one, the one about labor and delivery. Weird, don't know how I did that, but I really don't care. It's actually kind of cool. I mean, if any post deserves to be special and a little bit different, it gets to be that one.

So today, my Baby Girl laughed for the first time, or so I'm told. I wasn't there. I was in class. It really hurt that I wasn't there for that milestone. It just like, I'm here mother and I wasn't there and I should've been. It was a little bit of a kick in the gut. It made me wonder if I was being selfish for going to school, and wanting to work. Am I going to be there enough for her? Is she going to someday resent me for never being home? How many other things in her life am I going to miss out on by not being a stay at home mom.

But the thought of just staying home makes me want to cry. I don't think I have the patience or sanity to do that everyday. And I don't know what I would do without school or work, or some form of getting away and having other responsibilities. It's what's keeping me sane right now. It's what makes me happy, but so does Gabrielle.

I changed the blog background. Everyone else was changing them due to Halloween, and I'd been getting bored of my old one so I decided to change it. But it was a hassle. I've changed many backgrounds many times, comes from being fickle and having 3 blogs, but none of the other times that I've changed blogs has it been any trouble. I don't know what blogger's problem was this time around, but somehow, eventually I fixed it. Oh the cleverness of me!

I know it's not really Halloween-y, seeing as there isn't any bats or pumpkins, and there is no color orange anywhere (I hate the color orange, by the way). But it is black, and dark, and therefore more Halloween-y than blue with silver swirls. And this way I don't have to change it right after the 31st, it'll still look okay if I get lazy. Hey, and it has red, does that mean I can claim that it is Christmas-y too?

Also I am so proud of myself, I used Photoshop. Normally I use Digital Image Pro because I'm more familiar with it, and in my opinion it's more user friendly. And I know it doesn't do as many cool things as Photoshop, but I've never needed to do the cool, extra things, all I do is fairly basic stuff. But we leant Digital Image Pro to my sis-in-law, and meanwhile our poor computer crashed. (Ah, that was a very panicked day in this household, with a certain male's life under threat. But said male managed to fix the computer and live to see another day. Oh, and he will want me to mention that he is amazing for reviving the dead computer.) And we haven't gotten Digital Image Pro back from sis-in-law yet, so I don't have it on my computer, and have been learning how to use Photoshop.

For this post's picture it is the background, so you just get to enjoy the beauty of my background and my cleverness.

295,200 minutes

So today was my first day of school with Baby. I was so excited to get back to school. I love school, yes I know that makes me crazy and weird. But it works, since I want to be a professional student. I'm taking a smaller course load, and I think it's a good amount. Enough that I get out of the house enough to preserve my sanity and I get to feel like I'm doing something I love. Yes, I love Gabrielle, but I'm just not the type to do that day in and day out. And yes, in a few weeks I will be complaining about school and the time and hard work and frustrating professors, but in the midst of my complaining I always know that it's what I want.

Anyways, I was on the bus riding up to campus, and I was just so happy. You get to see some familiar faces, like the alibino girl. I don't know her name, the newspaper did an article on her and her brother, apparently albino twins are really rare, so I should know her name but I don't. She has the coolest pale white hair that goes all the way down her back. Also on the bus is all the freshman, they're easy to pick out, looking nervous, lost and asking directions from anyone who looks like they know what their doing. The A-team was out on Blue Bikes today with little flags so answer question and give directions. Their flags said they would give you candy if you asked a question. It's a good idea, poor A-team that it was raining all day, I hope they didn't get too cold. I was thinking, well I know I've been here three years but I'm sure I could think up some question to get candy. I didn't ask a question.

Baby got to come with me to O Chem today. When JP switches over the Head Guard duties next week, the scheduling is supposed to work out better, but we'll just have to deal with it for this week. Unfortunately she was fussy the whole class, so I had to stand in the back and rock her so she would be quiet. I missed about fifteen minutes while she was busy screaming, where I tried to shush her outside (not outside the building but outside the class). I don't think it mattered so much since the teacher just went over the syllabus. Yeah, he took a whole 50 minutes to go over the syllabus. I don't understand teachers going over syllabi, they handed it to us, and we're college students, we should be able to read the syllabus on our own. But apparently there is some mandate that teachers need to go over the syllabus. This is probably due to the fact that most students aren't responsible to read the thing on their own, though they should be, and then they will go whining to the teacher about how they didn't know. These students will still whine about how they didn't know, but I guess teachers feel better about saying, "Sucks to be you, it was in the syllabus and I went over it at the start of the class." So teachers read the syllabus to us on the first day of class. I just wish more teachers went over it in ten minutes, answered questions and then went on to lecturing.

After class I had to go pick up some last minute supplies at the Bookstore, I know on the first day of classes, I'm a fool. I thought I'd gotten most of them before, but new supplies kept popping up. My most exciting purchase was a lab coat (I got to pick inbetween a size 6, 16 or 49, go figure), a dissecting knife, and a scalpel.

I wanted to take a picture of Baby by the A, but it was cold and she was not happy so I decided that probably wasn't a good idea. But look what else I got from the bookstore instead!

Yes, I'm pretty sure I just violated something by putting my baby in a bag.

So that was my first day of school, I survived, and I did it on 4 hours of sleep.