Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Okay, so it took me all week, but here is the recipe (with pictures) of the Chicken Gnocchi soup that my dad and I made last weekend. It was so much cooking with my dad! I had a ton of fun. Plus it was fun watching Gabby making bread crumbs with my mom (Has NOTHING to do with the soup, so don't worry).  For those that know me, I am not usually a soup person. The only soup that I ever eat is my mom's homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. I love the wide noodles she uses, and the love that goes into it.

Some of the ingredients - Gnocchi, cut so there is more pieces, Garlic puree and diced yellow onions

So when I went to my parents last weekend with Gabby and my dad said he was going to make this soup, I was a little skeptical that I was going to like it, let alone love making it. Oh how did I change. It is a wonderful soup and pretty darn easy to make. But I will say those that know me know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Olive Garden, and that's where this recipe came from.

Here are the ingredients for the soup:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoons extra virgin oil
  
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 quart half and half
• 1/2 cup celery, finely diced
  
• 1 cup onion, finely diced
  
• 2 minced garlic cloves
  
• 2 14 ounce cans of chicken broth if you enjoy thick soup, use one can
  
• 1 cup carrots, finely shredded
  
• 1 cup chicken breasts, cooked and diced (you can use a rotisserie chicken)
  
• 1 package gnocchi, cooked  (you may want to cut the gnocchi in half if it is large)
  
• 1 cup of fresh spinach coarsely chopped
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley
  
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Saute the onion, celery, and garlic in the butter and olive oil over medium heat until the onion becomes translucent.

Add the flour and make a roux. Let the butter and flour mixture cook for about a minute before adding 1 quart of half and half.

Cook gnocchi according to package directions.

Into the roux, add in the carrots and chicken. Once the mixture becomes thick, add the chicken broth. Once the mixture thickens again, add the cooked gnocchi, spinach, and seasoning; simmer until soup is heated through.  Before serving season to taste by adding additional salt.

One thing I do recommend is having everything prepped before starting, there is a bit of chopping, dicing and things and its easier to have it all ready to go.

Its a great soup and I can't wait to make it again. Also for those heat lovers out there, my husband added in some Tabasco sauce to give it a little kick.  Another note, this can be frozen as well and still tastes wonderful. Enjoy!

Parenting Consistently

As I sit here listening to Gabby cry and patiently waiting for her to go to bed I am thinking of how hard it is to actually be consistent when parenting. I think that Mike and I are pretty good, but there are times when I totally realize I am going back on what I said or giving into her just because it's easier.

We have had an easy baby when it comes to going to bed....usually we go through our routine: Brush teeth, change diaper, change into PJ's, milk, read stories and go to bed. The past few weeks she has thrown (because of me of course) into our routine rocking. It's not after reading stories she says goodnight to her sister and then  we rock. We rock and rock and rock and while we rock we sing. We sing ants go marching, twinkle little star and ABC's. Sometimes it's all three, sometimes just ants. Normally this isn't a problem, we do that (which I don't mind, it's not like she falls asleep while we do it) but lately it's that she (I think) is using it to stretch out her bedtime at night. Tonight it took us 40 minutes to get down.

Mike and I usually, when we are both home, switch off of going into her room and getting her down. Most people might not say that's consistent, but that's whats worked for us. She usually realizes that when Mike goes in there she can't get away with stuff. Tonight (at least so far) it was me.

After 4 trips of going in there every 10 minutes and having her want to be rocked, with us telling her no, and some of us (okay both of us the first two times) rocking her when we said we weren't going to (hence the title of this post), we think we have her down. The last time I went in there and was met with the typical "all done". She wanted out of the crib. I thought she might be hot, so I took off her shirt. This is how it went:

Gabby: "rock, rock, rock"
Mama: "No Gabby, we already rocked tonight, we can rock more tomorrow okay?" as I am setting her back in her crib
Gabby: crying "want out, want out".
Mama: "Gabby use your words and tell mama why you want out of your crib"
Gabby: Thinking.....thinking.....thinking..... (it was actually super cute, because you could tell she was thinking and trying to figure out what to say to get out of the crib)
Mama: "Gabby you don't have to sleep but I want you to sit down in your crib and have quiet time"
Gabby: "Shirt on" - I put her shirt on
Mama: "Gabby are you ready to go to bed and lay down?"
Gabby: "Bed" - She laid down, grabbed her chicken, asked me to fix her blanket and so far it's been 10 minutes and I haven't heard a peep out of her.

I am sure it was a fluke, but it really shows how you need to be consistent and stick to your guns. Even though these kids are only 2 years old (or sometimes younger) they sure know how to manipulate us and they are darn good at it.  I know this isn't our last struggle but at least it's one that we won - at least for these 12 minutes, we will see how long she stays down ;)

Manic Mommy Monday - Weekend at Grandma's

Another Manic Mommy Post - from the blog hop posted at The Gnomes Mom. This past weekend Gabby and I went down to my parents. I needed a break from the house remodel stuff and Mike was at the lake with his family.  Plus my parents haven't seen her in awhile for longer than a few hours at a time.  We had a great time. My mom is wonderful and has so many things for Gabby to do there.  Here is a sample of what Gabby did this weekend.

Dominoes with Grandma

Dominoes with Grandpa

Lincoln Logs

Lincoln Logs Game - Piling in her lap and then pushing them out

Connect 4

Watercolor painting

Dear Pineapple

Dear my sweet little Pineapple -

I wanted to take the time to write you a letter just like I did your sister. You have been making your presence know the past few weeks at every opportunity available to you. It's been a surreal experience. With your sister I never felt her until just now and here I have been feeling all the flutters, kicks, punches and movements for the past almost 10 weeks. I love it! It's the best feeling in the entire world and I wouldn't change it for anything. I am getting really excited to meet you. Now that I know you are a little girl I am trying to imagine if you are going to look like me or if you are going to take after your big sister and look more like your dad.

Are you going to come out with a lot of hair or none at all?? is it going to be light blonde or dark brown like your sisters was? So many questions run through my mind every day and I just can't wait to meet you!

Your big sister loves you already. She gives you a hug, kiss and tells you that she loves you every night before she goes to bed and when she wakes up in the morning. If I or someone else asks her where her sister is, she giggles, smiles and says "In mama's tummy". Sometimes she gets confused and says in her tummy, but it's pretty funny.

Daddy and I are starting to pick out names for you. We are probably going to do what we did with your sister and pick out two names and decide when we meet you. We aren't able to really decide yet, so hopefully we can get it down to two names before you decide it's time to meet us.

We love you with all our heart and can't wait to meet you.
Love always and forever
Mama and Daddy

Wordless Wednesday

It's a....

GIRL!

We found out on Monday that we are having another little girl. Gabby is going to have a little sister. We were disappointed a bit, but are super excited about having another girl..and at least I don't have to buy a lot of new stuff :)

Why Breastfeeding

Welcome to week 28 of the Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by The Slacker Mom, The Gnome’s Mom, Happiness Redefined.

This week's topic is why you breastfeed or your influences.....This one is a bit tough for me because I guess I never really gave it another thought. To me it just made sense...I was going to try everything I could to do it, I never thought I wouldn't be able to. I was lucky. A lot of my family breastfed at least the first 6 months and so did my friends. There wasn't anything I really knew different.

I did all my research and decided that one it would be helpful for the baby and two it would save us a TON of money. Mike was very supportive, one because that's how he is and two I really think he liked the saving money part ;)

I had set a goal for 6 months and when I got to 4 I was like, I can do a year and then when I got to a year I was like I can do 2 years.. I didn't quite make it to two years, but I made it far enough and totally gave Gabby the nutrition that she needed.. No matter how long you can breastfeed it's helpful. My hats off to all those mama's that just try. even if it's just one day it's better than not trying.

I am excited to breastfeed Pineapple and see how it goes. It will be really interesting to see how different it's going to be. Now that I am a "seasoned" mama will it be easier because I know a lot of the tips, or will it be harder because I "should" know everything. Guess we will have to wait and see.

Wordless Wednesday - Pineapple

Well we had our 20 week ultrasound and pineapple is a.....

....sorry I can't tell you. Mike and I aren't telling until we tell our families this weekend. So keep an eye out for my Manic Mommy Monday post, because I will announce it then! Only a few more days...

Baby is healthy and looking good. Pineapple was swallowing - if you look close you can see it's mouth open. the baby is weighing about 1lb right now and measuring 2 days ahead. He/She was kicking and punching and moving around a TON during the ultrasound. The tech made a comment about how she had to be quick to catch pictures of pineapple. It was so awesome to see Pineapple for almost and entire hour.

Wordless Wednesday - My little observer

Watching the Prairie Dogs

Smile for the camera - You can sort of see the prairie dog in the lower right hand corner

Watching the puma

and watching....

and watching.....

Let me get a better seat.

We had to peel her away from this cat. I think she would have sat there for hours.

20 Weeks!

20 Weeks, can you  believe it! I can't believe we are already at the 1/2 way mark. I am having mixed emotions about this pregnancy. Which I guess if I look back is the same that I had with Gabby at times. Times I love being pregnant and times I hate it, and times I feel both feelings. 

Overall I really can't say that I don't like this pregnancy because it's been a dream compared to some I know.  In the past five weeks my diabetes has been stable. Vacation was a bit rough, but isn't that the time to eat worse then you normally do??  I met with my nutritionist again and she feels that we will probably have to up my meds, but we will cross that bridge in August when I meet with her again. She also was a little disappointed that I didn't gain more weight than I did. I think because I am on the diabetes diet and have had to watch it so early (plus the morning sickness) I am about at the weight I started with. I lost about 7lbs or 8lbs over the first few weeks and I have slowly gained that back. One of the only times a doctor tell you to gain weight.

My back has been killing me lately, I have been to the chiropractor about 3 times this week and I am going again on Monday. It comes and goes, mostly when sleeping and then in the morning. If it hurts during the day it's when I get up and sit down. but it's manageable. Mike has been a sweetheart about it and lets me sit in the good spot on the couch. ;)

Pineapple is a mover and a shaker. S/he is moving all the time, in the morning, during the day and a lot at night. I love that feeling. Mike tried to feel s/he on the outside last night, but of course just like Gabby, Pineapple stopped moving when he touched my stomach. Although I think it's too early for him to feel s/he on the outside. It's still just inside movements. It's weird because sometimes I forget that I am pregnant and then I have those movements and there is the reminder.

Mike and I are starting to look at stuff for the baby's room. We are going shopping this afternoon to look at cribs. Since we are keeping Gabby in her crib, I might just get her a new bed and give the new baby her old crib, but we haven't decided yet. Guess we have to see what's out there. So different then with Gabby. With her I already had the crib by now and assembled, the dresser and the nightstand were there already. most of her clothes I had. We are mainly taking our time now because of the remodel and I realize that this baby will be in our room for the first few months so I don't need a crib before they are even here. But we just need to decide if this baby is getting a new on or if Gabby is. As we are moving Gabby into her room soon and I don't want to have to disassemble, reassemble twice if I don't have to.