That was what I had to ask myself when I woke up this morning to the hungry grunts of little Wesley. I rolled over, and the clock said…well, an ungodly hour, but it was very close to 5 a.m. In my sleepy haze, I did the math – 5.5 hours since I last fed the little guy. WAIT! NEARLY 6 HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP! AND HE ISN’T EVEN A MONTH OLD YET!!! Austin didn’t hit that milestone til…10 ? 11 months? longer? And didn’t officially “sleep through the night” till 13 months. 13 long, sleep deprived, hazy months. I vaguely remember them, kind of like I vaguely remember my college weekends, or months ski instructing in Australia. Same haziness, different reasons.
5.5 hours. That is a full night’s sleep to many, and an eternity to any mother of a newborn.
Not only that, but after nursing and getting him back to sleep (which, admittedly, took a while), I didn’t get woke again, by either kiddo, till nearly 8 a.m. That is a solid night’s sleep in any new mom’s books!
I’m crossing my fingers that I am not jinxing this, that Wes isn’t just dangling the “sleep” carrot in front of me only to cruelly take it away. But he has been a much better sleeper than Austin from the start, and I am banking on this continuing. Please.
Perhaps it was the wonderful dinner we pulled together last night that set us up for sleeping success:
Cheater Meat Pies with Potato-Parsnip Mash
Lyndon loves a meat pie. I’ve never been the biggest fan – mostly because I don’t love pastry crust (something I’m thankful for) or brown gravy (ewww….) but these things are a staple of the Australian diet, available at every “servo” (gas station) and corner shop. Lucky for me, he also likes a version made without the brown gravy, and a tomato-based sauce instead. Making these into pies is time consuming, and in my books, unnecessary unless you need to sell them in a tidy little package. They taste the same “deconstructed” and are infinitely easier to make.
Cheater Meat Pies
1 onion, chopped
1 T Olive Oil
1 lb. ground beef
1 can crushed tomatoes
pinch sea salt
1 T tomato paste
2 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 T Brown Sugar
1 1/2 cups frozen pea/carrot mix (or just peas, or just carrots, or fresh carrots…you get the point)
1 Sheet Puff Pastry
Preheat oven to 400. Brown onion in oil till softened. Add beef and cook till browned. Add undrained canned tomatoes, salt, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar, stir till combined and let simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors. Add frozen veggies and cook 5 more minutes, till warmed through. If the mixture seems dry, add up to 1/2 cup beef stock.
In the meantime, cut up puff pastry into 6 squarish rectangle guys. Bake till browned and puffy.
Austin ate this plain with his mash. Lyndon added heaps of hot sauce. I added a good dose of horseradish because it sounded good – and it was!
Potato Parsnip Mash
I heart parsnips. They are wonderful, and really spruce up your traditional mash.
4 small-medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 4 chunks
4 medium potatoes, cut into chunks (we leave peels on)
1/2 cup cottage cheese
splash milk
sea salt
Boil potatoes and parsnips till tender. Drain and mash, mix in milk and cottage cheese (option, but so tasty), add salt to tasty.
Serve potatoes with a scoop of meat pie, topped with a square of puff pastry. We included a side of peas to get in another serving of veggies.
SO TASTY, FAST, and EASY!
