So sick. Oh so sick. Remember when I said Ninja was sick this weekend… yeah… my turn. So between vomiting, shivering, sweating and just plain moaning I managed to realize, sometimes it is sucky being a Mommy.
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| This is how bad I look today! |
Ninja AND all of our employees are sick this week. From Saturday until Tuesday Ninja was down for the count. Granted on Saturday HBear and I had a day together, dance class, shopping and swimming at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Ninja stayed with SBean… so it wasn’t the MOST relaxing day but you catch my drift.
On Tuesday night I began feeling sick. Wednesday morning Ninja was my hero and woke up, got HBean’s lunch together (it was blue day so she took fresh pico de gallo and blue tortilla chips!) and got her off to school. SBean and I pretty much laid in bed and cuddled for the day.
It was tough. Mommy’s do not get the day off. Ninja took out homemade soup from the freezer for dinner and took HBear to gymnastics. Seriously… my hero.
Today, it is back at it. Ninja is still weak and this flu is kicking the crap out of us but he went back to work and I had to get up and do laundry, play with SBean, get HBear off to school (picture day) and get dinner going. Ahhhh the life of a sick Mommy.
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| HBear all ready for picture day… I let her pick her outfit, can you tell? LOL |
I am hungry. I mean I haven’t had anything but toast and soup since pasta the other night… and not to be too graphic but that came back up and it is true what they say… pasta multiplies coming back up!!!!
So dinner tonight is one of my favorite comfort foods… Shepherd’s Pie! HBear says it isn’t really a pie though and she calls it Masterchef Pie LOL. So here is HBear’s Masterchef Pie J
HoneyBear’s Masterchef Pie
Adapted from Menu Musings of a Modern AmericanMom
For the meat layer
1.5 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups frozen veggies
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped
a handful of parsley, chopped
1 cup beef stock
2 tablespoons flour
For the potato layer
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
2 tablespoons margarine
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup marble cheese
fresh thyme leaves
fresh chives
So because I feel like crap I did this in stages. I started with making the mashed potatoes.
Peel and cut the potatoes and boil in some salted water.
In a small saucepan, melt your margarine.
Wait till it gets brown then add the milk and sour cream, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and nutmeg. Bring this mixture up to a simmer. When they are tender drain them and put them through a potato ricer if you have one. Then add the hot cream mixture. If you don’t have a ricer, add the hot cream mixture to the potatoes and mash.
Add the chives and give it a good stir, but not too much, don’t overwork them keep them nice and fluffy!
Now, I sat down J
After a rest…
Brown the ground beef in a skillet, breaking it up into small pieces. When it’s about halfway cooked through, add the onions. Cook them down for several minutes until they are soft and translucent. Now add the garlic, salt and pepper. At this point I realized I didn’t have frozen carrots. I am frankly not surprised. So I quickly chopped up 3 carrots and threw them in now too.
Add in the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, fresh thyme leaves, parsley, beef broth, and flour. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer for a few minutes. Now add the frozen veggies and stir gently. Cook for about 2 minutes or until all the veggies look bright.
Add the meat mixture into the bottom of your Pammed cooking dish.
Preheat the oven to 400
Drop the potatoes by the spoonful and spread them over the meat. Try to flip up so that it will brown nicely. Add a little fresh thyme to the top of the potatoes.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. In the last 15 minutes, add some shredded marble cheese.
This meal is some serious comfort food! It is full of flavor and so easy to make. Dad went back for seconds and we barely have any leftover for lunch tomorrow! I love fall dinners J
So, what I got out of today… it is hard being a Sick Mommy. It is even harder being a sick Mommy without a Mommy. Some days you just need a Mom hug. Today is one of those days.
I now realize what she went through… every day. Living with MS and being a Mommy must have been tough. I mean a word bigger than tough. Even when going through chemo she still made me my coffee every night after dinner. She made my coffee perfectly. I don’t even know how to make my coffee that good. She was a pretty awesome lady and one hell of a Mommy.
She would have loved seeing HBear getting her school picture today. Actually on the way to school HBear asked if we could go show Nana her pretty outfit after school.
She then asked if we could get Nana a pumpkin. She said “just because Nana died doesn’t mean we still don’t love her.”
