His Favorite Jam

 

His iPad skillz blow me away.

Related: We are starting to set some hard limits on his iPad time.

Meal Planning: Week of November 20th

Review from last week:

This week hasn't involved too much cooking.  One night we had bacon and eggs.  One night we had the slow roasted cherry tomato pasta recipe.  I added chicken and a side of asparagus with prosciutto. 

 

Tonight I'm made the Roasted Red Pepper and Prosciutto stuffed Chicken Breast we love so much, with a side of roasted beet and goat cheese salad.

 

 

Here is what we have planned for next week:

Monday: I'm going to assume that we will have left overs from the baby shower (although you never know!).  So it will either be leftovers, or take out :)

Tuesday: Chicken and black bean enchiladas. This is a recipe I have stolen from Rachel - chicken, (rotisserie to make it even easier) black beans, corn, enchilada sauce, cheese - all rolled up in a tortilla, topped with more cheese and sauce. Bake at 375 until it looks done. (20-25 minutes).

Wednesday: Left overs.

Thursday: Lemon Caper Chicken w/ a salad.

Friday: Orange chicken and salad.

Saturday: Out to eat

 

 

2 Year Olds Have A Lot of Feelings

They also get sick a lot.

They find joy in the simplest things.

And they make you laugh SO hard. (Unless you are a cat, in which case you probably aren't laughing).

They can make you feel like a kid again.

And they are your constant companion.

Oops I forgot to meal plan

I totally forgot to meal plan last week.  Actually, I guess I didn't actually forget to meal plan... This coming weekend is Rachel's long-awaited BABY SHOWER, so I decided that I would let myself off the hook during the work-week and focus all of my food-prepping energy for the big event.  So. Excited.

But this last week, particularly the weekend, was pretty successful.  During the week we didn't try any new recipes, but over the weekend I went a little nuts.

On Friday I decided that instead of not cooking, I would whip up some Roasted Red Pepper and Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breast.  If I had known how easy stuffed chicken breasts were to make (or really, chicken roll-ups), I would have made this type of dish ALL THE TIME years ago.  You simply pound your chicken breasts flat (or even easier, use chicken cutlets), lay whatever type of ingredient on top of it, and roll it up.  I've experimented with the "inner" ingredients a few times now, and have found that it's best to use something that will help the chicken keep it's moisture.  Bacon (and all it's grease) or in this case, roasted red peppers (from a jar with oil inside it) both worked wonderfully.

I also got my dough started for the loaf of bread I made.  Yes, I'm bragging - mostly because I can't actually believe who I have become.  Apparently, I am now someone who wears an apron and makes their own bread from scratch. #helladomestic

But to back up, we had this bread over at our friends Denali and Kyle's house a few weeks ago.  I remember asking them, "WHERE did you buy this bread".  Kyle then responded that he MADE it.  I was in shock.

While the bread definitely took a lot of time-management planning, it actually was pretty easy. Here was the beautiful end result.  I wish I could have been as modest as Kyle was, but on Saturday when our friends arrived, I was definitely all, "Hey you guys, check out the bread I MADE".

Which brings me to Saturday.  We had Jamie and Collin (the McCoys!!) and Breanne and Sonny over for dinner.  It was so much fun to cook for them and catch up (while we enjoyed the delicious red wine they brought).

We did end up making the crab stuffed halibut, but instead of the quinoa we made green beans.  

Action shot!

Greg's face LOL.

The next day we had breakfast sandwiches with the left over bread.  (And now I'm officially going carb-free for a week).

Oh wait, no I'm not.  

Here is what I have planned for my week of limited cooking:

Monday:  Tonight we will have a Angus beef roast with carrots and potatoes from Costco (pre-packaged meal).

Tuesday:  I have made this before, but I don't think I included the recipe (from InStyle Magazine).  This is a great and easy recipe to make when you have cherry tomatoes to use up (which I have a ton of left over from a Costco run). 

Wednesday: La Palmera maybe?

Thursday:  Boursin and Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breast

Friday: Owen's first birthday party!

Saturday is a full day dedicated to baby shower preparations, so Greg can bring home take out.  We both have been craving Pho lately, so maybe this will be a good night for that!

Photo Catch Up

Playing with a digger at Greenlake Park.

Getting cray with Violet on their last visit.

John and Hil at Jamie and Collin's wedding reception.

Me and Hil with the lovely bride. 

Ben helping me make cookies to celebrate baby Max's arrival.  "This is cookie".  

Couch games with dad. 



Side note: We (I) always put this ottoman up like this when I'm vaccuming (Which is almost daily. I have an unhealthy relationship with my Dyson). Anyway, I had gone into the other room for a brief moment when I heard a thud, followed by a not hurt but totally terrified cry. Ben had decided to slide down the ottoman, unsupervised, and managed to get pinned underneath it. It was cushion side down, and he was okay, but it looked exactly like this:



Blurry birthday hugs from my sweet boy:

Playing with his new trucks from Rachel:

Driving trucks over every surface he can reach.

More dad games. I love it. (Too bad our yard was covered in leaves again the next day)!

Ben helping fit as many leaves as possible into the yard waste bin :)

So, apparently this is a trick that all the moms knew about and hadn't shared with me yet, but Ben was ALL OVER this whole apple.  Previously, I had cut it into tiny pieces, but he ate all of the skin off of this and we now have a favorite snack!

Finally, moles. Our new enemy.  #homeownerproblems

Meal Planning: Week of November 4th

Review from last week:

The week(end) started off with our Halloween Party!  We made Little Italy Paninis, Roasted Turkey w/ Arugula Pesto Paninis, and Tomato Soup.  Yum.  Greg had leftover soup with his dinner every single night until it went bad (and maybe even beyond that point).  He loves that stuff.

The carnitas and chicken tortilla soup were things we have made (and loved) before.

Sadly, the meatloaf was not a hit for any of us.  Greg and I agreed that we just aren't fans of sweet beef.  That's (obviously) what she said.  It ended up being totally fine with me, as it meant I could snack on my latest shipment of Naturebox snacks.  (PS - still a huge fan).

 

We also had a very lovely evening enjoying dinner with Brenna and Noah in their beautiful new home!  Thanks for another delicious meal, guys!

 



I'm very much looking forward to Thai food tonight and Chicken Pot Pie on Sunday (and alllll weekkkk longgggg for lunch).

Plans for next week:

Monday: I've been wanting to make this Chicken Parmesean again since we had it a couple weeks ago, so we shall.

Tuesday: HH with Kim = Pesto/Alfredo meatball boboli for the boys.

Wednesday: Halibut Chipolte w/ mushrooms and onions.

Recipe:
*2 chipotle chiles in adobo
*3 tablespoons tequila or vodka
*2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
*1 tablespoon ketchup
*1 tablespoon adobo sauce, from chipotle can
*1 clove garlic, chopped
*2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
*1/4 teaspoon salt
*1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions:
~Throw it all into a blender and hit puree, it really is that easy
~Just keep tasting, everything is too taste in this, you can only go wrong if it’s too salty
~If it is too spicy for you, just add a little more brown sugar until it reaches a level you can handle
~It should be almost fluffy if you have blended it enough, a bold, beautiful red with remnants of chili seeds scattered all the way through it.

(via youngmarriedchic)

Thursday: Chef Salads.  My new easy week night go to.

Friday: Something that involves no cooking.  Like a lean cuisine or cereal ;)

Saturday: We are having some friends over for dinner...but I have yet to put together the  menu.  I'm thinking we might do a halibut stuffed crab type dish (since we have a bunch of halibut in the freezer right now) with lemon quinoa w/ cherry tomatoes.  And maybe a berry crisp for dessert.

Sunday: La Palmera maybe?  We always purchase whatever Groupon/Living Social/Amazon Local deal that pops up because we love that place so much.

Halloween!

 

I will be honest in saying that after already celebrating this past weekend, I was a bit Halloween'd-out come Thursday.  I had already begun taking down the various Halloween decor, and I was over Ben constantly pointing at the candy jars I had displayed all over the house and saying "this is cookie", "more", "Dada"?

 

But after Ben woke up from his nap, I put him in his pilot suit and started to get a little more into the spirit.  I put on Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin while I got dinner ready and we waited for Jess, Becca and Myles to head over for a little trick-or-treating.

 

Myles was such an adorable carpenter.  Since Ben refused to wear his helmet, he wore his bear/panda (?) hat instead.

 

And off we went!  We literally only went to the house on either side of us, but Ben was AMAZED that these people just put candy into his bucket.  I've never seen him hold something so carefully in his life as he grasped tightly onto his bucket walking away from each house.  

 

Back at home, he enjoyed his first Tootsie Pop :)  I think this holiday is just going to get more and more fun!