Dear 3 Boys

Baking is something I've always enjoyed doing - way before having kids!  I used to love baking and bringing in treats to my classroom for my students and colleagues.  I can't say I'm super talented, but there's something I really just love about following a recipe or mixing ingredients creatively and seeing the end result be something other people love.  It just feels so satisfying seeing the end product come together.  Lately, as a mom of 3, I have less and less time to bake compared to when I was just a first-time mom of one.  And so I look for recipes that are simple and quick to make - like this Buttermilk Pound Cake I adapted that took me only 10 minutes to prepare while the twins went for a nap.  Another added benefit was that I mixed all these ingredients in just ONE single bowl, which means clean-up was quicker too. A few weeks ago, I had no idea how to use buttermilk, other than having heard people use it to make pancakes.  I am thankful...

These creamy scalloped potatoes make the perfect side dish to almost anything!  As a busy mom of 3, this dish takes me under 10 minutes to prepare, and I just set it to bake in the oven for about an hour.  There are many different versions of this dish out there, but I like to think this is the simplest, most basic one for the busiest of mamas!  This dish is also super easy to make ahead and reheats perfectly thanks to the heavy cream!  I have partnered with Farmland Fresh Dairies to use the richest, most natural heavy cream for my recipe. You can pair these potatoes with any kind of meat and veggie, and they will be delicious.  Everyone, including the kids, love them in my house.  And when you get the hang of this easy recipe, you can really get creative by adding in some fresh herbs or sliced onions when you salt the potatoes, or by sprinkling some shredded mozzarella or parmesan cheese on top for an extra cheesy kick.  The more shallow your bakin...

As the eldest daughter of two parents who immigrated to the United States, my mom as a child and my dad as a young adult, my upbringing was definitely heavily impacted and influenced by my Albanian culture.  I was born and raised in the Bronx, and was even lucky enough to grow up living with my grandparents who traveled back and forth from Montenegro to the U.S. for months at a time.   As a mom of 3 boys now, I realize how much my Albanian culture has impacted my ways of parenting.  Growing up, I definitely struggled to balance between my Albanian self and the American self.  Sometimes, my parents don't necessarily agree with my personal "mom style," and other times, I realize how foreign my ways of parenting are to my non-Albanian mom friends.  And just to keep things in my parenting style interesting, my husband was born and raised in Montenegro - it's been quite the journey for us to figure out with each other how to parent 3 little boys together.  But ...

Pasta is a dish that I make 2-3 times in a week for our family because it is quick (usually about 15-20 mins), involves simple ingredients, and all the boys (including my husband) love it.  Also, one meal in 2 pans sounds like a sweet deal to me (less to be cleaned afterward).  We make it in different ways, but I decided to share this simple and quick recipe I use most often to make the meat sauce for our pasta that everyone at home loves - my "secret" ingredient I use consistently is Farmland's H eavy Cream.  I'm partnering with Farmland Fresh Dairies to share with all my fellow mama readers about the Heavy Cream being the key ingredient that makes our sauce taste amazing:  it thickens the tomato sauce and compliments the cheese used for an amazing taste. Ingredients: Pinch of Salt Oil to grease pan 1-1.5 lb of ground beef, or italian sausage, or ground sausage 1 small onion 16 oz. jar of tomato sauce (flavor of your choice) 1/4 cup Farmland Fres...

Just before the twins were born, I sold our Uppababy Cruz I had for my first son, and was so thankful Grandma and Grandpa offered to buy me the stroller of my "twins plus one" mom dreams - our Uppababy Vista, with two seats and a piggyback board that could actually accommodate all 3 boys to ride on! Our Evenflo Minno Twin double stroller for Grandma's house To me, the stroller is the top item every mom should splurge on because it really should last a long time and it's used constantly!  I felt like we were outgrowing our precious Uppababy Vista stroller after the boys turned a year old and my oldest was not really using the board to ride on as much anymore and the twins began kicking the seats and throwing things at each other depending on who got the higher seat- and with the summer weather approaching, I decided it was time to really invest in a good double umbrella stroller and go from the in-line to a tandem side-by-side stroller (a huge decision for a mo...