Cupcake Cutie with My Little Cutie

So before I begin to elaborate on our latest cupcake adventure, I will be the first admit, " my title for this entry is a little lame and unoriginal!). Nothing came to mind except for those words, and was dwelling upon trying to find a unique title that would intrigue people to read my blog, but if you're in Memphis and love cupcakes as much as we do, I recommend reading this entry :) For almost a year now, Layth and I have been going back and forth between Gigi Cupcakes and Muddy's Bake Shop to get our weekly cupcake fix when he heard about Memphis' first cupcake bar located in the heart of Bartlett. And since I rarely ever go to Bartlett ( I can literally count the number of times I have been in Bartlett in my 4.5 years in Memphis), I figured this would be an opportune time to go. It also gave me an incentive to try a new cupcake shop with Nazia! It was nice to be able to call her as I was picking Layth up from school and ask her to join us, since it turned out she lived just ten minutes away. Layth, too, was happy to see her, since he loves being around people. However, I do not think Layth enjoyed the car ride too much. He could not comprehend why it took so long to get cupcakes, when Gigi Cupcakes conveniently has two locations, each 15 minutes away from his school. But when we arrived, it was definitely worth his while. Layth enjoyed being able to choose between a large and small sized cupcake, the flavor of his cupcake and his own icing. Once he decided upon a standard chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, it came time to choose his toppings: pretzels and fruit loops. Although they did not appeal to me, Layth could not stop himself from attacking the cupcake. I, on the other hand, choose a strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting topped with chocolate and vanilla flavored malt balls. Layth, of course, ate all the malt bells, before leaving me with just the cupcake to enjoy. And yes, the cupcakes were delicious! I also learned that you can host your own cupcake cooking party there in their second room, and create any design or theme, which gave me a great idea for Layth's third birthday party. The location may be far, but definitely worth the drive!

Tackling the Dirty

Everything is out and ready to pick up

Yes, we had an old television with a VCR player

Purchased when we first got married, it served us well both through medical school and residency

Hello Everyone,

A while ago, I wrote about cleaning my closets and finding a bunch of old, unused purses as well some unworn clothes with tags still attached. Unfortunately, my battle of cleaning the closets ended there when I saw how overwhelming it was going to be. Until recently, when I realized I only have four months to get the house packed up and ready for showing. And so, Chafeek and I decided to tackle the coat closets, the storage closet and his closet before moving on to mine. Surprisingly, we came up with a lot more unused pieces of furniture, clothes and appliances than I actually thought we had in storage. But the biggest item that shocked me most we were getting rid of was our coach. For months we have been contemplating about donating it, getting it reupholstered, buying a new one and throwing it away, until one thrift shop, Noble Causes ( run by Memphis Muslim Social Services) willingly agreed to take it. With that came the decision do we give it up four months early or keep it until we move. I think we got ahead of ourselves and away it went along with an old television, a coffee table, a chest, unused painting supplies, boxes of clothes and an old umbrella stroller. And although we donated all those items, we still have much more to tackle.... this move has really made me appreciate living in Memphis :)

Nutella Keeping Us Sane

Hello Everyone,

If everyone has not figured it out by now via my Facebook posts that two of tires need to be replaced, I'm informing you now. Normally, I would wait until Layth is in school to get my tires fixed to avoid worrying about keeping him occupied as my tires are being fixed, but each time I would call the wait would be anywhere from 2-3 hours. Since Layth is just in school from 9-12:30, that 2-3 hour wait would not guarantee I'd be on time picking up him. When finally I called and they agreed to take me in at 4 pm. I figured it would not be so bad since it would only take 45 minutes and I could stalk up on some things at Wal-Mart. Those forty five minutes, soon became an hour, and that hour, became an hour and a half. Even though we had finished our groceries, gone to the bathroom twice per Layth's request, watched a few episodes of Caillou, we still had forty five minutes to kill. When I decided to go back into Wal-Mart and stumbled upon these " Nutella On the Go" packs, and since both Layth and I love Nutella, it was the perfect fix. We didn't just stalk up on them, but finished two packs. Thankfully, in that time my car was ready to be picked up. However, when we got home and Chafeek had asked if I had gotten my tire fixed, he noticed they had fixed the wrong tires entirely. The tire with the nail in it was untouched, a tire that was still under warranty and not needing to be replaced was thrown out and my new tire was put on the wrong side. You can only imagine how upset we both were, since this meant I had to go spend another day at Wal-Mart. Thankfully, this meant another trip to stalk up on Nutella packs!

Experimenting with Ingredients

Hello Everyone,

I do not know if you recall me mentioning about buying fresh pre-cut vegetables, but I did and stalked up on them as well. I figured I would find some use for them or worst case, serve them as veggies and dip appetizer one night. Nonetheless, I was able to find a great use for one of the packages that consisted of celery, carrots, potatoes and yellow squash. I was able to take the ingredients and mix them into one of Layth's favorite dishes of meatballs and vegetables. Layth, however, was not too keen on the new vegetables and choose simply to eat the meatballs instead. I was a little apprehensive the new mix was a little too extravagant for his palette, but surprisingly, it tasted good. Layth later came up to me and told me he did not like the new colors. And so, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

- 1 lb of ground beef

- 1 28 oz can of tomato sauce

-1 cup of water

-1/2 teaspoon of salt

-1/4 teaspoon of pepper

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

-1 /2 teaspoon of meat broth

-carrots

-celery

-yellow squash

- potatoes

Directions:

First, I had to season the meat with the salt, pepper and cinnamon. Once I was done mixing in the spices, I rolled them into meatballs and dropped into the pot with tomato sauce and water that was on high heat. Once the pot has boiled, turn it to low heat partially covered and let it sit for 45 minutes. At which, you would then add the vegetables and meat broth and once again bring it to a boil. Once that is complete, turn it on to low and let it sit for another 30 minutes, and dinner is served!

Stirring It All Up

So rather than my joyful greeting, I figured I'll just get right to this week's post and mention how I have spent all week cooking...well, almost all week, I am still adhering to my rule of not cooking on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully, I plan on going tonight with the little lion especially since I just finished doing the dishes. I honestly believe my lack of desire for cooking stems from having to do the dishes afterward. Even with the dishwasher I loathe having to do the dishes, God save me if I still had to do them by hand! And so, this week when I was grocery shopping, I picked up these two organize pre cut vegetable packs ( what appealed to me most about them was they were already cut and pre-washed) under the pretense I would figure out something to cook with them. And sure enough, they came in real handy yesterday when I choose to stir them into the crock pot with some stewed beef. I was a little apprehensive at how it would taste, but thankfully, the boys liked it since there was no leftovers!

Ingredients:

• broccoli
• cauliflower
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 medium onion
• baby potatoes
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 28 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 package of stewed beef
• carrots

Directions:

I simply added the meat first, then the vegetables before adding the tomato sauce, water and broth. Once I mixed all the ingredients together, I simply closed the crock pot, turned on the low setting and let it cook for seven hours. It was simple, easy and home cooked!

Reading with Layth ( The Little Lion)

Hello Readers!!
I hope you guys are enjoying the new year, as I mentioned in my previous post, ours has been to slow start. But hopefully, that will all change once this week is over and reality has set that we are no longer on vacation. Although one thing has not changed and continued throughout our vacation and that being, reading to Layth!! Ever since he was an infant, I was reading Dr. Suess to him and now it has evolved into a series of different books. Even though he still has a preference toward Dr. Suess. It was actually Dr. Suess as an author that helped to contribute to Layth learning his alphabet at the young age of 26 months. Every night he would fluctuate between Dr. Suess' ABC book, Ten Apples on Top and The Tooth Book, but it was the ABC book that always too precedence over the others. Every night Layth would have me read the book two or three times, acting out all the different letters and characters with different voices until one day, I realized he was reading some of the letters along with me. I thought I was hearing my own voice in my head repeating itself since I had read it so many times. It still remains one of Layth's favorite books before going to bed. Another book that surprisingly has become another one of his favorites is, Sandra Boynton's " Belly Button Book." Considering I had no intention of ever buying this book except that Layth has spilled his milk on it while enjoying some coffee at Barnes and Noble, I am shocked at how much he enjoys me reading it to him. I think he enjoys saying the word" beeboo" ( Boynton's hippo term for belly button), and pointing to his own belly button as we read the book. Tonight, in particular, Layth has me read the book three times, each time insisting, " again and again" before finally falling asleep. And on our cruise, since none of these two books were available, his favorite each night became, " Put me in a Zoo." Each night after a fun filled day exploring the ship and playing his cousins, Layth would wind down and insist either his grandfather or I read him the book. It melts my heart each evening, because for 20 minutes of each day, Layth and I have that special moment to connect and immerse ourselves into the story.

Suffering From the Vacation Blues

Happy New Year Everyone!!
It's a new year, and so far, 2012 has been off to slow start: mainly because, Layth and I are suffering from the vacation blues!! After spending ten fabulous days with the family, and when I speak of family, I mean my parents, cousins, aunts and some new extended family. And so, it's not much fun coming home to an empty house! Even Layth is having family withdrawal as he searches for his cousins and asks about their whereabouts. Thank goodness for skype because he can still keep in touch!! Besides missing everyone, I think for me, it's been hard getting back of the routine of being wifey ie cooking and cleaning. Our cruise spoiled me! So after a few days of ordering in, I decided to get back into the routine, but my heart still was not in it. I decided to keep it simple and choose to make a healthy version of a meal I had recently come across in Parents Magazine. A large flour tortilla loaded with mozzarella sauce topped with El Paso taco sauce baked in the oven. The objective is to use a large tortilla, divide it into 3-4 pieces and deceive your self into eating less. Unfortunately, that did not work for us, because both Layth and Chafeek loved the simplicity of the recipe, I ended up having to make more! Slowly, we're getting back in the routine, but my heart is currently still in Cali!