Raegan has been doing great on the potty for almost 2 weeks. She just decided one day that she was ready, and we haven't looked back. We tried with her a couple of times in previous months, but she was resistant. We backed off pretty quickly because we didn't want it to be a long, drawn out, hair-pulling process. We half-joked that one day she would just be potty trained in the way that she has accomplished other milestones. When she learned to walk, she just started walking one day on her own and didn't crawl anymore afterwards. She doesn't ease into those kinds of things. Something in her decides it's time and she performs the task like she's been doing it forever. With the potty business, she wears undies and we've had a few accidents at home and one at Target. She seemed a little embarrassed, but the Target employee was very understanding about it. (I bet he has kids of his own). Other than that, she tells us she needs to go or willingly tries when we ask her to. She's very proud of herself! She has also been dressing herself from head to toe lately. Sometimes everything is backwards, but her face is beaming with pride so I wait a while before telling her the shirt is backwards :)
In non-bathroom news, we've tried some yummy recipes lately, most of them in keeping with our 2012 goals:
Chicken Marsala with Whole Wheat Pasta - This was delicious, especially the sauce. I love a good recipe that calls for heavy cream, and I'm not even sorry. However, I try not to use it too often, maybe every other week at most. I'd much rather cook with cream sparingly than use lower fat milk to have a dish more often. Milk just doesn't even compare to heavy cream. I even like it in my coffee. But I digress. I made this with whole wheat linguini from Whole Foods. It was by far the best whole wheat pasta I've ever had. Other kinds I've had taste funny, kind of doughy, maybe?
Panko-Crusted Salmon - I had been preparing salmon in a steak marinade, and Ryan and Raegan liked it. I just tolerated it because salmon is good for us. This recipe was really flavorful with a nice touch of lemon, Dijon mustard, and a little crunch from the Panko crumbs. It goes well with fresh roasted green beans (which I'm finding to be very delicious).
Quinoa - I've wanted to try quinoa (keen-wah) for a while, but kept forgetting about it. I used a basic recipe a couple of weeks ago and thought it was pretty good. It's very versatile, and I'm going to try it again this week with black beans, corn, and cilantro.
Crock Pot Oatmeal - The key to this oatmeal is using steel cut oats. They puff up nicely when cooked slowly. I've put this in the Crock Pot a few times right before bed and it's ready when we wake up. You can add all kinds of mix-ins: cranberries and other dried fruit, fresh blueberries, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, walnuts, etc.
Chocolate Chip Cookies - I don't make cookies very often, but I made a batch after Christmas that didn't turn out so hot. This photo on Pinterest caught my attention. It's a trouble-shooting guide for cookies along with a recipe promising perfect cookies. I spotted my cookies as soon as I saw this photo, #4 - ugly, crunchy edges, and chewy center. I usually use the recipe on the bag of Nestle chocolate chips. This new recipe has a few differences: a little more flour, mixing in chocolate chips before the flour (to keep from over-mixing), and chilling the dough before baking. Ugly cookies #4 are due to too little flour and the cookie spreads too much. I'll go so far as to say this new recipe produces a perfect cookie; there's nothing I would change. Ryan is more and more convinced that he chose a good mate.
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