Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Eats

So, I should probably get back to blogging.  I've been a slacker on it lately, and its mostly because Id rather sit around and do nothing vs. sit around and lolly-gag on the computer even.  I have also been working my butt off before the baby comes, and have been too tired to think! Luckily, I feel I have a second wind these past few days.  In my lunch today was this amazing fruit salad ("Its yummy yummy".... thanks, Wiggles, for always being stuck in my head!)
Fresh Pineapple, Grapes, Blueberries and Strawberries
I cut my first fresh pineapple! Actually, the hubster did, and it is just so tasty and amazing.  I'm glad summer is here because it means that fruit is inexpensive and we can eat a ton of it (besides apples!!)  Along with my baking adventure last night, I also cooked up some pasta salad to take to lunch with me today.


Its veggie pasta with olives, orange peppers, feta cheese and cukes... extra cukes on the side for me. Some other good lunch eats Ive had recently... a BLT

Which I wrap everything separate and put it together right before I eat it so it doesn't get all soggy and gross.  A salad with spinach, nuts, cranberries and cheese


Some leftover pizza... it was Margarita pizza, and I spiced it up with red pepper, black olives and chopped spinach


Mikayla eating the pizza, along with the two kiwis she downed... the girl found out kiwis are her new favorite food, and made me buy SIX at the grocery store.  She pretty much attacks them and wont share with anyone!


Sushi... cooked, don't worry.  The one on the left is crab and the one on the right is eel with eel sauce... yum!


duck salad with cashews... from a Thai food place, which was amazing.  I have never yet eaten a spicy salad, and this was fantastic! I ate the leftovers in a wrap for breakfast the next day.


I brought a baby shower favor in the car with me... and ate the entire thing.  A girl needs sweets in her life :)

aaaand I took the one hot day that we had and used it as an excuse to get the hubby and I vanilla milkshakes from McDonald's.  Yeah yeah yeah... they're not great for you, but it was delicious!

Tonight there is an awards ceremony at the school Pete and I work at... awards, raffle and dinner.  We are taking Mikayla, it should be fun!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Cookies

The other day Mikayla and I went to the grocery store and she wanted to pick up baking stuff.  I decided I would like to make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies, since its something I have never made yet.  I also decided to go with a vegan recipe because I feel like you can healthify any baking recipe, and some vegan recipes are simple and healthy. 

I do NOT ever use the vegan recipes that use fake anything, or anything over a cup of sugar.  (Sometimes they use so much sugar its unbelievable!!) Anyway, I do enjoy vegan baking recipes, I enjoy the taste and texture of the maple syrup that most of the recipes use, and I just feel better not using butter in my baked goods.


These cookies were delish! You need to remember when you bake vegan that no, these are not going to taste like bakery-style-bad-for-you-sugar-and-butter-drenched-cookies, because... well... they're not.  What I can say about these is they tasted amazing, especially if you don't compare them to regular Macadamia cookies.


The bad thing about this recipe? They didn't make enough.  Next time, Mikayla and I will double the recipe

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Cookies (Adapted from here)
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup Macadamia Nuts


Preheat the oven to 350
Whisk together oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Add the chocolate chips and nuts, shape into balls and place on cookie sheet.  I always like to squish the cookies down before I bake them.  I baked them for 9 mins, took them out and let them cool.

*Okayyy, obviously if you were truly a vegan... which Im not... you would purchase vegan white chocolate chips, which they DO have, becasue I have seen them but never tried them.

Sweets for a Saturday

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Shower

This weekend was my amazing baby shower thrown by my beautiful mother, amazing mother-in-law, and fantastic sister in laws.  I only have a few photos taken from my Blackberry... so the quality isn't good.  Hopefully friends and fam will email me photos so I can have some better ones!

my fab mama

lil miss mikay
 The cake and centerpieces were so pretty! each table had flowers and blue gift boxes full of M&Ms, which I enjoyed some leftovers of today.  The cake was half vanilla half choc, and it was so delish!




Austin & I
This photo would have been great if my tech-savvy  mother didn't take 10 mins to take a photo (please, all moms do that!)
 This following photo was a creative gift that my friend Justine did - she hung baby boy clothes on a clothes line with clothespins.  It was super duper cute!!

I got a lot of nice things that I am pretty excited about.  I cant wait until Pete helps me put everything together and makes some room in our apartment so we can get everything done! I must have looked at my awesome presents 8 thousand times, baby stuff is so fun!!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Simplicity

So yesterday Mikayla and I played hooky because she had a dentist appointment at 10 and it really didn't pay to bring her back to school, since they don't do much after they eat lunch.  Plus, the poor thing arrives at school at 7am on most days, so its nice to offer her a break and spend some quality time with mommy.  We met my parents for lunch at Pizzeria Unos, one of my flavorite places to eat lunch! I got the flat bread pizza lunch special, which is a huge salad, followed by a gigantic pizza

ROASTED EGGPLANT, SPINACH & FETA With sun-dried & plum tomatoes, carmelized onions, mozzarella and pesto. 

very delish!! Once I was finished with my blog yesterday I got my big butt into the kitchen.  I cooked up some steak, some leftover rice, black beans, and an onion... then chopped up some tomatoes and crumbled some cheese and called them tacos.  On the side I steamed some corn on the cob, because Mikayla has been begging me for some!
While that was cooking Mikayla and I whipped up a quick batch of Alicia Silverstone cookies, and began baking them during dinner.  By the time dinner and a quick bath were up, the last batch of warm cookies were coming out of the oven.  I put two in each bowl along with a heaping scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.  We called this Alicia a la mode.  I had to eat Mikaylas because she only wanted the ice cream off of it.  This dessert came together so fast, it was amazing!
and here is a photo of the princess from this morning, while driving her to school.  Nana bought her this outfit last year, I think, and it fits perfectly now!! Thanks Nana, we love it!!

I just love her so mucho!!! Today at work I am filling in for the Industrial Arts teacher, meaning I am sitting in a big, huge, comfy chair watching Independence Day for 6 class periods.  Woot woot. This is the ONE highlight about not having a job of my own... I get nice, simple days.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dinner Date

Last night for dinner my hubby decided to take me out!!  I started my dinner with a Crab soup, which was basically chowder but without the potatoes, and a lil spicy... love.
 The for the main course I ordered a 6 oz petite sirloin smothered with bleu cheese.  It was so perfectly pink and bloody... amazing.  I also chose a side of roasted tomatoes and broccoli.
Pete ordered sirloin tips which were fantastic, and some kind of chicken which I passed on trying. 
 Mikayla enjoyed vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and a pink lemonade.
 And I absolutely adore how most restaurants have those mini-desserts now.  I always, always, always pass on desserts, but maybe its being pregnant or maybe its because its a low commitment level, but I enjoy ordering the mini-desserts. Mine was some PB thing: Creamy peanut butter mousse with crumbles of peanut butter cups paired with a chocolate chunk brownie. Drizzled with chocolate sauce. AMAZING.  I didn't want it to end.
 Pete ordered some Key Lime dessert which was good, but mine was better :)
And now I'm off to try and whip something up for tonight's dinner.  We shall see what happens!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Cute Comments

Yesterday I met the hubster for lunch at Dunkin Donuts because it was the only place that wasn't McDonald's located halfway between both of our buildings.  I got a bacon egg and cheese on an everything bagel, complete with a reverse Boston creme donut and a black hot tea. 

Because sometimes i just don't have enough time in my day to prep and pack three lunches.  Mikayla loves bringing her lunch and gets disappointed when she has to be a buyer, so I always try to pack her a lunch.  Its difficult to come up with things I want to eat, seeing how I'm not allowed to eat sandwich meat while pregnant.  It takes a lil creativity and a lot of prep time, and some nights I just don't have it in me.  I did chop up a ton of watermelon to snack on, along with a few other things, but I just don't consider that lunch. (Today I cut up two oranges and tons of veggies to snack on... but we shall see)

After work yesterday I went to the doctor for a quick check up - and I'm perfect, the baby's perfect, and everything is perfect.  Seriously, the doc told me everything is perfect and I'm right on track.  I am 34 weeks and 3 days pregnant today, and he said the baby will be full term in less than 3 weeks!! Any delivery past 34 weeks and the baby is still perfectly healthy, so I'm past any point of concern!! woot woot!!

I did, however, gain one of these:
That's right.  That lil princess weights 40.4 lbs...and I gained 39, weighing in at a hefty 159 lbs!! So, technically, take me and take Mikayla, glue us together, and that's what I weigh now :)  Needless to say, I felt like eating a nice, healthy, veggie-packed dinner, so I decided on another make-your-own-stir-fry night. Here is my kitchen in action
 I made rice for Pete and Mikayla and wanted to make a side of Rice noodles for me, and decided to make these
 Which ended up being a huge mistake.  I thought all these noodles were the same, but these are technically "bean threads" and not "rice noodles". I honestly am never a picky eater and will usually eat just about anything, but these were just plain GROSS.

 They were wet and jello-like and also reminded me of jelly fish.  Blechhh.  I ate some anyway, just to be a good food role model to my lil one, especially if she liked them and was willing to try them, which she did try them. when dinner was finished cooking I decided to make quick short cut Brushetta on the side, just so I wasn't eating jello-like noodles and veggies for dinner.
I also cut up a cuke and a kiwi and baby carrots and a mango, which I am also not feeling.  I like mango flavor, just not the actual mango. Mikayla dominated the kiwi and asked for more... she was super excited and thought it was the best thing in the world!
Ohh, and that Brushetta? It has anchovies on it.

I leave this post with something I cant stop thinking about.... I was giving Mikayla a bath the other night, and she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm so excited that we're having a little baby".  AWWWW, I pretty much just melted away. 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Rollerskating parties

Soo, I haven't blogged in a while because Ive been super busy and super tired.  This weekend was packed with family, friends, soccer, and not one, but two birthday parties at Roll-A-Rama.  Mikayla had an absolute blast, but I'm pretty exhausted! Saturday was her friend Delias birthday party
Mikayla with Matthew, Arielle, Sarah and Annalise

Rollerskating chica

Matthew, Sarah and Mikayla
 And then Jillians birthday on Sunday
Enjoying ice cream




Then, she got a new favorite bathing suit... and here she is modeling it.



Hopefully I will pick up blogging again soon, but lately I like to take cat naps on my free time.  Cat naps and laundry... what a life!