Babies eat too!

I also make my own baby food and freeze it. The latest batch was Calabaza pumpkin which I prepared in two ways: steamed and oven roasted.

Chicken ropa vieja

"Ropa vieja" in Spanish literally translates to old clothes. This Cuban dish is typically made with skirt steak, although my mom always made it with super lean sirloin, cooking the beef in a pressure cooker and shredding the meat to make "ropa vieja," and using the liquid from the pressure cooker to make an awesome beef soup.

This version of ropa vieja is made with shredded chicken in almost the same way my mother made hers, except I have used boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Ingredients

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

pressure cooker

olive oil

2 onions

1 red bell pepper

Spanish olives

1-2 large fresh diced tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes if fresh is not available

minced garlic

salt

pepper

garlic powder

cumin

white wine and/or chicken stockPlace the chicken breasts in a pressure cooker with water (there should be enough water to cover them). Season the water with garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. And cook for twenty minutes after the pressure starts. In a separate pan sautée onions, garlic, red peppers, diced tomatoes, olives, tomato paste and white wine. Drain and shred the chicken and add to the pan with the veggies. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste, and if you want the meat more wet add some more wine or chicken stock.

Brussels sprouts

Growing up in a Cuban family, I can honestly say I didn't have the typical American kid experiences. This includes stuff like never having eaten a Twinkie, or having a hate for brussel sprouts. In fact I don't think I've ever had a brussel sprout until today.

Today's dinner was baked chicken legs, oven roasted brussel sprouts with bacon and onion, and sautéed potatoes and onions.

I'm broke, and it's lent

Tomorrow my son will be celebrating his half birthday as he turns six months of age. After his birth, and my return to work three months ago I started to realize just how wasteful my husband and I were with money. Apparently we were loaded before, and just didn't know it. In the course of the past three months we have become broke...mostly because of my brief hiatus from my daytime job, and the fact that I stopped teaching my adult English class at night. With a few past due bills giving us the swift kick into reality that we needed, and the baby sleeping through the night we realized that we really needed to start cutting corners. So what corners can you cut, when you already live on the cheap? Our one vice was going out to eat, or ordering in. In fact, since I had given birth the pizza guy and I were on friendly terms. And really who can blame me? I was exhausted, I still am exhausted. Anyway, a few weeks ago I realized that lent was fast approaching and even though I am not particularly religious, and I was never really raised in a household where we would make promises for lent. I thought it would be a great challenge to hold off on eating out for 42 days. We started two weeks early, and have been cooking all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner at home. My husband and I didn't really set any rules before we started, but any cutting back on dining out will be beneficial for both our pockets and our waistlines. We are officially two weeks into lent, and I will admit it is incredibly hard not to pick up the phone, or just pick something up for dinner. I will also admit that we did "cheat" by going out on a pre-arranged double date to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza, and there was this one lunch out last week at Ollie's because I had a professional development training I was attending in downtown, but other then that we've been good. As for dinner in? It's been great. I already loved cooking, I just needed to plan my workday a bit more which would leave me with a bit more time to actually spend at home and cook a meal, plus complete all of my baby related tasks as well. Anyway, this space will be used to document my journey visually for the next few days, and who knows maybe it will stick.