It's Only Two Weeks

  As most of you already know, J has been gone for a few nights now.  He's training at a base not too far from here, but he's not allowed to come home so that they get the real "feel" of war.  *insert eye roll*  Whatever.  Although I hate any amount of time that he's away, I was looking forward to these next couple of weeks.  I thought, "Yay for me time and one-on-one time with Monkey and a lower grocery bill."  What I didn't realize was how much I'd actually miss him.

   I know that must sound horrible, but as a seasoned Navy Wife, I thought that a couple of weeks would be no problem.  After all, we've been through a nine month separation swiftly followed by one month of home time before he was shipped off on a six month deployment.  Two weeks?  What's that?

   What I didn't take into account was the fact that I've gotten used to having him around.  This is the longest J has been home since Monkey was six months old, and I guess I've gotten spoiled.  So yesterday when I drove home from work you can probably guess how excited I was to see his car parked outside of our house.  I was so happy, giggling at the thought of him trying to surprise us,  that I swung into the driveway without stopping to pick Monkey up from my friend's house first.  As the garage door was going up for me to park, it dawned on me.  J didn't take his car.  I dropped him off, and the buses drove him to the base.  Sad times.

   Tonight I had another realization of what having J around means to me.  With him in the house, I'm not really that worried about crazy things like burglars or ghosts, but when he's gone every creak in the floor is a robber or a demon from Hell.  (And our floors squeak a lot.)  As I was upstairs bathing my Monkey, I heard a loud bang downstairs.  The dog (who is a good warning signal) raced downstairs, barking.  Fearless, as I am when forced into the protective mother-bear role, I ran to the closet, grabbed J's hammer and creeped downstairs, ready to bludgeon some bad guy for entering my home uninvited.  That's when I found out that the cat had knocked the laundry detergent off of the shelf.  No one got bludgeoned, although I seriously considered the cat as a likely target for a moment or two.

   It's not all bad though; Monkey's room and mine are more spotless than ever.  She goes to bed on time, and without being wound up by tickle attacks.  I get the whole bed to myself.  AND, we get to eat all of the food ourselves.

   On that note, I'm going to share two recipes.  The first recipe is for a month's supply of breakfast burritos.  The woman who thought of this was a genius.  J goes through two boxes of cereal a week on his own, so I think having these stock-piled in the freezer will not only fill him up more, but also cost less.

You'll need:
2 lbs bacon, diced
2 lbs sausage (I used Johnsonville, b/c it's good, and I usually have a coupon.)
1 large onion, diced small
1 diced bell pepper
20 eggs
30-35 fajita sized flour tortillas
1 (8 oz bag) shredded cheddar cheese (I just realized that I accidentally used two bags.  Oops.)

In the biggest skillet you own, cook the bacon.  Once brown and crispy, take out and put on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess grease.  Brown sausage in the same skillet.  Remove from skillet.  Place on another plate lined with paper towels.  Cook onion and bell pepper in same skillet until onions are translucent and bell pepper is tender.  Meanwhile scramble your eggs in a blender. Add eggs to skillet, and scramble with onion mixture.  Once cooked add sausage and bacon.  Remove from heat. Add cheese.  Cover pan and allow cheese to melt.  In a frying pan warm your tortillas to make them more pliable before topping with a 1/4 cup of the bacon/egg mixture.  Wrap it all up in plasitc wrap and place them into a plastic freezer bag.  The original poster said she made 36.  I made 30, so I guess it just depends on how generous your 1/4 cup is.

Next up is a house favorite from Paula Deen's Sept/Oct 2010 issue:

Italian-Seasoned Chicken, Pasta and Vegetables

You'll need:

8 oz linguine
1 1/2 TBS red wine vinegar
2 TBS olive oil, divided
1/2 tsp slat, divided
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/4 tsp gr. black pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup of water
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced
1 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 TBS chopped fresh oregano

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain.  In a small bowl, combine vinegar, 1 TBS olive oil, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Set aside.  In a large saucepan, heat remaining 1 TBS olive oil over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle chicken with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt and pepper.  Add chicken to pan, and saute 3-4 minutes or until chicken is browned.  Add onion and garlic, and saute 2-3 minutes or until tender.  Stir in water, and bring to a boil.  Add broccoli and tomatoes, and cook 2-3 minutes or until broccoli is crisp-tender.  Remove from heat, and stir in cooked pasta, olives, lemon zest, and oregano.  Drizzle with desired amount of reserved vinegar mixture.

Enjoy.  Now I'm going to finish watching Grey's Anatomy.  :-)