Hey all! How are you? How was your holiday? Did you eat carbs and cheese and sugar with abandonment like I did? Are you now suffering through the withdrawal of aforementioned carbs and cheese and sugar like I am? I have officially gone back to work after a wonderful 3 months of maternity leave (read about this experience in a recent essay I wrote for the Huffington Post HERE) and now begins yet another transition — figuring out how to work full-time and take care of kids/household full-time. Fun times! This results in a lot of sleeping and down time. I’m finding myself with SO MUCH time on my hands. It’s amazing.
Ha!
Just kidding. It’s currently day four of being back at work as a high school counselor after three months of maternity leave and I am FEELING it. And by “it”, I mean just how much time there ‘isn’t’ in the day. Time and sleep (and coffee) are the hottest commodities in my world right now. I get home at around 4pm every day so the husband and I get roughly 3.5 hours to spend time with the kids, cook dinner, clean dinner and the apartment, bathe kids, read to kids and then put them to bed. The oldest goes to bed at 8pm (on a good day) so this leaves us about 22 minutes of ‘free time’ before I pass out on whatever flat surface is closest. One of the best parts of maternity leave was having time in the day to cook dinner and enjoy it with the family. Now? Not so much. That said, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve for the dinner time rush. One of which is what we’ve loving dubbed “Mediterranean Night”. This includes sides of hard-boiled eggs, an Israeli salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, some herby basmati rice, humus, tahini and the star? Veggie burekas. The BEST part of burekas, aside being doughy little pockets of heaven, is that I use them as a way to clean my fridge of the veggies and/or herbs that are nearing the end of their freshness. I’ve included my favorite veggie/cheese combination for this recipe but truly, the choice is yours! Simply chop, saute (if you so choose), pair with your favorite cheese (or don’t but why wouldn’t you?), fold them into some puffed pastry dough and within 15 minutes, you’ve got dinner.
I’m having a love/hate relationship with food lately. By ‘love’, I mean, you know, I want to eat yummy food all the time. By ‘hate’, I mean I don’t have the energy for it any more. And this isn’t just a post-high holiday thing. This is all about trying to find the time and energy to feed a two year-old every. single. day. And I only have one! Good LORD! One of my closest friends has 2 toddlers and 1 baby! How the hell does she do it!?
For those just joining me in this weird journey, I’m currently living a life of temporary single parenthood. It’s important to note that this set up of mine is, in fact, temporary. I have the privilege of having a supportive and loving husband. We call each other, he offers me emotional support and he comes to visit every so often (more on why I’m in this situation here). The parts of this temporary single parent status that I expected to stink (time has become my most sought after currency. I got up at 5:30am PST just to finish this post) but the part of this situation that I didn’t expect is the effect this has had on our meal times.
For more on this story and the recipe for my roasted potato and leek soup with jalapeño oil, run on over to The Nosher. Click here!
I am astonished at how quickly this whole thing is happening. The month of August has come and gone and so has my mom who was here the whole month to help take care of Siona while I was at work. As I type this, my beloved husband is on a plane headed to us for a week of family love time. As much as I am thrilled that he is coming, I can’t help shake the thought that he’ll be leaving again in just 6 short days. I know that sounds pretty pessimistic and I don’t normally have that kind of outlook on life any more, but once we drop him off at the airport again it’ll truly just be me and the kiddo.
I swear some of them turned out looking like Midwestern States . . . and one Georgia.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I’m borderline obsessed with my kid so it’s not the thought of being alone with her that scares me (although I was singing a different tune when she was a wee baby. Being left alone with her scared the s*%# outta me. Ahh, how unprepared I was). No, it’s not being alone. It’s the exhaustion. It’s always been about the exhaustion. I’ve learned how to run errands with a two year-old (snacks and books, LOTS of snacks and books). I’ve learned the fine art of dropping everything in the middle of the aisle and bailing when I feel that a toddler tantrum coming on. I’ve learned how to do laundry while simultaneously feeding her, vacuuming the apartment and responding to a work email. The thing I haven’t learned to do is fight the fear of exhaustion. I go to bed so dang early because I’m scared of being tired with nowhere to run and no one to step in. I know that seems silly but that’s my thing. I’d like to stay up passed 9 pm one of these nights. I’d like to start crafting or reading again but I’m so physically and mentally drained that I just can’t do it.Thus, the homemade Hot Pocket. These are so easy and so NOT time consuming. I used to eat the s#%{ outta some Hot Pockets as a broke 20-something year old. It was absolutely normal for me to come home at 3 am from a night out at the club, turn on reruns of Sex and the City (ahhhhhh, 2002), and reach into the freezer for that delicious pocket of chemical cheesiness. The fact that you had to microwave it in a cardboard sleeve should have been a big red flag for me but I was living in DC on $25k/yr during the height of my Hot Pocketness so this was no time for pickiness. The thing is, I love any food in pocket form and as my beloved friend, Jessie, pictured in this post with my beloved kiddo, pointed out so do most cultures in this world. You got the samosa, the empanada, the krepalch, the pierogi, the dumpling, etc. Food in pocket form is just tasty and since the trashy eater inside of me yearns for a Hot Pocket but the smart, homemade cook inside of me knows that s{*# ain’t kosher or good for me I decided to make my own Hot Pocket. And the best news? Thanks to frozen puffed pastry dough, it takes about 10 minutes to make.
Epic pic – Between the creepy baby doll, Siona’s neon band-aid and Jessie’s boob. EPIC picture.
Defrost puff pastry dough according to directions on package
While dough is defrosting, combine ingredients except for cheddar into a medium bowl and mix well.
Once dough is defrosted, sprinkle a rolling pin and flat surface with flour and roll out dough until about 1/8 inch thickness (basically until dough nearly doubles in length and width).
Using a pizza cutter, cut rectangles into dough. Rectangles should be about 2 inches across.
Using a tablespoon, put about 2 tbsp worth of cheddar in center of rectangle. Top with about 1 tbsp worth of bean mixture (I REALLY like cheese).
Crack the egg into a small bowl and mix with a bit of water. Using this egg wash, wet the edges of each rectangle, one at a time, and press edges together to form your pocket. For added flair, roll edges as if making an actual pie crust. The egg wash acts as a paste for the dough so if you're finding it's not sticking, feel free to keep dipping and sealing until your edges stick.
Once you've made all your pockets, brush the top of each with the remaining egg wash.
Place pockets on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 15-20 minutes.
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