Mango Chutney-Glazed Short Ribs

I am always on the lookout for recipes that are easy, delicious (of course), and don't require a lot of babysitting, since my kids seem to regard meal prep time as their own competition time to see who can drive Mama round the bend the fastest.  This "witching hour" means that I pink sparkly puffy heart my crock pot, since I can just chuck everything in during nap time and forget about it for a couple of hours.

I adapted this recipe from one a friend passed on.  This night I served it with mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower (I usually try for a more colourful meal, but was trying to use these up before they went bad), but they are also good with rice (for a more Indian meal) or polenta.  You can also double or triple it to have a seemingly fancy meal for a crowd.  They're so popular in our house that every time I see short ribs on sale I have to put this on the menu!

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
     2 pounds (about 8 pieces) beef short ribs
          (note:  you can also use beef chuck short ribs, but will need to increase the cooking time)
     1 small onion, sliced
     kosher salt and ground black pepper, about 1 tbsp. each
     1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
     1 jar mango chutney
     1 cup beef broth
     2 tbsp. tapioca

First, slice your onion thinly and place in the bottom of the crock pot.

This is the bed for your short ribs.  Next, rinse the ribs and pat dry, then sprinkle both sides with kosher salt and black pepper.  Put them bone-side down on top of the onions.

Spread the mango chutney over the short ribs.  Pour the Worcestershire sauce, broth and tapioca around (but not over -- don't wash off the chutney!) the ribs.

Cover and cook on low heat about 4 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bones.

Enjoy!
Linking up to:  Make Something Monday , Tasty Tuesday , Handmade Tuesdays and Show Me What You've Got !

Makes It All Worthwhile -- Mother's Day Musings

A belated very Happy Mother's Day!

I had the best of intentions of blogging yesterday, but Mr. Z had some other ideas -- namely, trying to deal with 4 molars coming through at the same time by being on me at all times and crying hysterically if he wasn't.  "Happy Mother's Day, mama, I'm celebrating by being absolutely miserable and making you lose your mind!"  Sigh.

As trying as these kind of days are, I also relished having lots of snuggle time with Z.  There's something about having a baby's heavy head resting on your shoulder and feeling them relax completely that makes it easier to get through the moments when they're screaming in pain and you're at wits' end trying to make it better.

So I spent much of yesterday blog-surfing, and discovered Kami from No Biggie doing a series of posts with other bloggers on 5 Things I Love About Being a Mom.  They inspired me to come up with my own list.

5 Things I Love About Being a Mom

1.  Falling in love with my husband all over again as I see what an amazing Daddy he is.

2.  Being able to fix anything, even if it's just with a hug and empathy.

3.  Seeing each of my children develop their own distinct personalities (and sometimes wondering where on Earth they got certain characteristics from).

4.  Having 3.  I was raised basically an only child, and I am so thankful that my kids have built-in playmates, role models, and partners in crime.  Watching their sibling relationships grow is often mystifying for me, but also hilarious ("make her stop looking at me!") and touching ("I don't want Zachy to be afraid of the dark, so I'm letting him use my nightlight").

5.  Seeing the world through new eyes as they learn & discover.

Goalposts: The Obvious Edition

Last week I laid out some of the goals I'm hoping to hold myself accountable to.  First up?

A Cleaning Schedule That Involves the Kids.
I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about how I envision the house looking, what makes things easier for me, what age-appropriate chores the kids can help with, and how much (or little, in the interest of honesty) time I'm willing to devote to cleaning.  Here's what I came up with:

*I envision the house looking like something out of a magazine.  However, I loathe cleaning.  While the two aren't mutually exclusive, they are at odds.  Add 3 kids, a cat that sheds tumbleweed-sized fur balls and a desire to spend no more than 30 minutes per day cleaning, and the first thing I need to do is lower my expectations and don't let the desire for perfection get in the way of just getting something done.  

*Thinking about what makes things easier for me led directly to my list of chores to do every day:
     *putting the kitchen to rights (loading dishes, wiping 
       counters, putting away placemats, getting the coffee 
       maker ready for the next morning) every night.
     *scooping the cat box (on Wednesdays, change the litter 
       completely since trash day is Thursday)
     *clean off my side table (next to the couch)
     *take recycling out to bins.


*I am extremely lucky to have a cleaning dude twice a month (best birthday/Christmas present EVER, mom!).  Because of that, my list of chores to do weekly is pretty short:
     *vacuum tv room twice a week
     *vacuum rest of house
     *change sheets on beds
     *change towels in kitchen & bathrooms
     *water plants (inside & out)
     *laundry:  Z, the girls, mine, sheets & towels
       (darling husband does his own)
     *wipe down bathrooms

*The girls (5 and 3) can most definitely help with keeping things clean.  As Z gets older he'll be expected to help, too, for now we'll model picking up toys after we're done playing.  We tried breaking down chores between AJ and Ellie, and usually ended up with "but I wanted to do that!", or "but why do I have to do my chore now and she doesn't?"  So for now, the chore belongs to both of them (especially since they'll need supervision).  Their chores:
     *put away placemats & take napkins down to laundry
     *wipe off table after meals
     *take recycling out to bins
     *water outside plants


Right now I am writing the list down in my dayplanner so I can make changes as we start out, but eventually I want to have a checklist with daily and weekly chores.  For the girls, they each have a dry-erase chore chart like this:

This is what the lists look like broken down:

You can see on the bottom my meal plan for the week.  Which brings me to my second goal:  get 5 fruits and vegetables every day.  Thanks to the stomach bug the kids all shared last week, I've mainly been concentrating on my eating.  It quickly became apparent that in order to get 5 servings in, I need to actually feed myself.  In other breaking news, water is wet, and fire is hot.
Seriously, though, there are too many days when all I've had is coffee for breakfast, yoghurt or a granola bar or a couple bites of the kids' PB&J for lunch, and then I'm cranky and craving chocolate and not carrots.  So in addition to planning out the dinner vegetables, I'm making an effort to have something in the morning.  My favourite so far?  A green smoothie!
There are tons of links to recipes online, but I've kind of winged it with the stuff I've got in the fridge and I haven't been disappointed yet.  A little milk, some strawberries, blueberries, or banana, a big handful of kale and a couple of ice cubes (to make it frothy), et voila! My only issue is with our POS ancient blender, but I'm adding this to my wish list -- supposedly as good as a Vitamix yet $400 cheaper!

Later this week I'm going to share how we're trying to incorporate the other 5 things -- time to create, be outdoors, learn, exercise & clean into our schedules.  I'd love to hear what goals your family has & how you're working towards them!

Easter Run-Down

This Easter, we had a bit of ham, thanks to AJ.

Ellie, who is still not feeling 100% after being sick this week, provided some w(h)ine.

And Z just gave us his big sad face when he was more than a few inches away from Mama.

We did do a bit of crafting -- the girls cut out Easter eggs and butterflies from sheet foam and went to town with glitter glue and stickers, and I borrowed their thumbs to make "Hoppy Easter" cards (thanks for the inspiration, Sarahndipities !).

Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

I'm linking to Everything But the Kitchen Sink at A Little Knick Knack , Weekend Wrapup at Tatertots and Jello , What'cha Got Weekend at lollyjane boutique and Make Something Mondays at Sarahndipities today!

It's All in the Journey, Right?

We are still mostly laid up.  Ellie now has the stomach bug, I am still breathing-challenged, and AJ & Z. are in the whiny-wounded-tiger stage, where they want nothing more than to be on my lap constantly and react to any of my suggestions for feeling better with growls and tears.

So, where do we go from here?

Besides the obvious get-to-the-point-we-can-leave-the-house-again, I've broken up all my wishes & wants into 3 categories:  the home, the family, and the mama.  I fully expect these to evolve over time (hopefully as goals are achieved!), and I'm trying to not set us up for failure by radically changing a bunch of things overnight.

The Home
Most of the time our house is in a state of CHAOS -- Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome (to borrow a phrase from FlyLady).  Darling Husband and I are constitutionally rather disorganized & dislike cleaning, so we do what's necessary (dishes, taking out the trash), but have no routine.  We haven't gotten the kids involved beyond the occasional "please take your plate to the sink" or "let's pick up all the legos before bed", and most of our stuff doesn't have a particular place to go.  The goal here is to set up a cleaning schedule and get the kids involved.

The Family
 Recently on Say Yes to Hoboken, Liz wrote something that resonated with me:  everyone needs 5 things every day -- time to be creative, time to be outdoors, time for learning, time for exercise, and time for cleaning.  I can't remember the last time we got all 5 in.  Another part of this is our nutrition.  When I mentioned an appalling lack of vegetables in many of our meals in my introductory post, I wasn't kidding.  Fruit, too.  So I'm calling this goal get 5 squared every day -- 5 fruits or vegetables for everyone, and the 5 times for creating, being outdoors, learning, exercising, and cleaning.


The Mama  (that'd be me)
Save for a couple of short-term projects, I haven't worked since AJ was born 5 1/2 years ago.  I am a lawyer by training, but I've let my skills lapse.  I don't have any immediate plans to return to work, but I have been feeling that my brain cells are starting to atrophy.  Plus, in order to keep my license (and I don't fancy taking the bar exam again), I need to take some continuing education classes.  My goal is completing my CLE classes before the end of the year.


I'd love to hear what goals you have, or suggestions on how you've accomplished similar things!