Lots and lots of veggies

Today I went to work with the hubster, and ate really healthy.  We haven't gone grocery shopping in a while, so last night I actually made pasta for all 3 of us to take to lunch today.  I made some thin spaghetti with vodka sauce, and on top I threw in left over roasted veggies from dinner last night, that were marinated in Italian dressing and cooked on the bbq grill.  I also added in a spoonful of cottage cheese on the side, because I like to eat cottage cheese in my pasta when it gets warm out, it makes it much more refreshing.  Is that weird? My mother always did it, and I do it now too.

On the side I had a tub of mandarin oranges.

After work we went to the playground for an hour to let Mikayla get some energy out.  We also took the pups.  I'm going to try and take her every day this week, because its supposed to be beautiful out. When we came home I was starving, but still took the time to cook and not start shoving food into my face the second I walked in the door.  I decided on a make-your-own stir fry.  I wanted it like a taco night because Pete likes rice, and I don't; Mikayla does, and I like to eat mine over rice noodles or cooked bean sprouts.  So, to each their own, right?

On the table was a bowl of seasoned chicken, frozen schezwan (?) veggies, bean sprouts, toasted almond rice, roasted brussel sprouts (for a side) and two kids of stir fry sauce.

I'm super excited to get a lot of veggies in my diet today, because I have been lacking in this food group lately.  The make your own stir fry dinner worked really well and it helped keep everything fresh so nothing got all soggy. 

I will spend the rest of my night watching one more episode of Desperate Housewives and then call it an early night.  I was so tired today during work that I had Pete put down Post-it note "butcher paper" on the floor, and I took a nap on it during lunch!! I had to.  I was SO SO tired.  I hope to just make it through this week and enjoy a nice, relaxing weekend.

Fried Stuff, Clowns and Pony Rides

This post will be few words and many photos.  Lots of good/fun stuff happened this weekend. Saturday was Mikaylas soccer.

New Uniform

 Next, we spent time helping Pete taking photos in Lowes.

 Mikayla did her own hair

Pretty, pretty!

Sat night was the circus with the fam.

Mom, Mikay, Nana

Pregnant, but able to squeeze into jeans!

Sunday, Mothers Day, was Tulip Fest with Pete, Mikayla and I. First stop... to look at the beautiful Tulips!

I just love this one!

Playing at the fountain

Ponies for Hire was there, the pony people we got for Mikaylas 4th birthday, which she couldn't stop talking about while waiting in line for the pony rides.  They brought lots of baby animals to Tulip Fest, and she went on the pony, twice. 

We ate amazing Gyros, which I deleted by accident.  For dessert- fried Snickers, Fried Oreos, Fried Dough. Sooo healthy! 

Fried Snickers amazingness

First time for fried dough!!

Fried Oreos

And, theres the re-cap of my weekend.  It was spent with my family and I enjoyed every second of it.  There are always so many fun things to do Mothers Day weekend, I wish it was never-ending!

Pregnancy Pizza

Pete and I worked together yesterday, and once again went out for a quick lunch.  The pizza place we always go to was able to take requests for slices... and prepared us something special!

This is a pizza with blobs of Ricotta, black olives, and jalapeno peppers.  I know it seems weird, but its halfway to our favorite pizza without being greedy.  The place we always go to for lunch usually has unique pizzas out, so they were more than happy to take a request, especially from a pregnant regular.  Pete and I were happy, because some people came in, asked about those slices, and said they looked good! The guy was like, "yeah, these are for my regulars.  We take care of them".  Haha, makes me happy! It surprises me, but I find people eat weird things if they are out there.
Yesterday I came home from work and fell asleep! When Pete and Mikayla came home they went outside to play soccer together, it was so adorable watching them play in our nice lil backyard together.  Pete was acting like a soccer coach, and set up "cones" for her to kick the ball around.  She put on all of her soccer stuff, and enjoyed every second of it!

For dinner I decided to dump a pack of ground turkey in a frying pan, start cooking it, and then popped on the computer to see what I could make with it.  The result? not much.  I decided on taco night, because I didn't feel well, wasn't hungry, and it was easy. 

I wanted just a light taco salad, but didn't have any chips, so I decided to make my own.  All I did was cut up a few tortillas, sprayed them with PAM spray, and dusted them with chili powder, stuck em in a 350 oven for about 5 minutes.. and presto... insta-chips.

 They were actually really good, and different than Tostito chips. So, I ate a soft taco, with cottage cheese instead of sour cream because I didn't have any.  Weird, but you couldn't really taste the difference?

 And then I ate a taco salad.  Trust me, there are more than 2 chips under there.  In the salad went lots of chopped fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes, cheese, a scoop of ground turkey, tons of salsa, and cottage cheese.  Pretty big dinner for a sicky pregger girl who wasn't very hungry!

Dessert came in the form of a Cadbury egg that the hubster brought home for me because he ate the one I was saving for emergencies and felt bad... or maybe was just annoyed that I notice every single morsel that he eats :)

157 lbs of woman:

Okay, so the shirt isn't very flattering, but its okay, I don't feel bad.  I estimated my weight to go up to 165... so that would be about a 45 lb weight gain.  not good, but not as awful as last time.  I also feel like I'm carrying the weight differently this time... I know those photos aren't flattering... but I haven't gone up in size or anything, which shows its mostly in the belly and evenly spread out all over!

I just keep telling myself... if I can lose it once, I can surely lose it again!!!! (right?!)

Yummy Greek Food

If there is one thing you need to make, it is Spanakopita! I have wanted to make it ever since my mother bought me a lovely cookbook.  I love Phyllo dough, and spinach, so I knew this would be a win-win.  I'm not sure how much faith I actually had in it though, because on the side I made Pete and I BLT's in case it came out gross.  Do you ever make a back up plan in case a new recipe doesn't work out?  I have honestly only ruined maybe 3 dinners in my life.  One being the pizza from the other day, and another time I tried to make my own pizza dough... yuck.  The third time I will just toss in there because I'm sure theres something else that came out gross or horrible.  I think cooking is easy to save.  Its the baking I need to worry about.

Anyway, I began by heating up a pan and chopping a bag of spinach.  I like to use kitchen scissors instead of knives sometimes, because scissors are easier to use and reduce the chance you will cut your fingers off.

When that was finished cooking (be careful to not over cook it - you don't want it soggy) I threw the spinach in a big bowl, and then melted the butter and cooked the chopped onion in the pan.  When that was done, I added that to the big bowl, along with the eggs, cottage cheese, crumbled feta, spices, and flour.

I mixed everything together, melted some more butter in a small pot, then began the Phyllo dough. I halved the original recipe to a 9x9 pan.  First, I took a kitchen pastry brush and painted some butter on the bottom of the pan, and I took one Phyllo sheet at a time and layered it in the pan.  Because I used a smaller pan, I just folded the sheets over, so one sheet = 2 layers. After each sheet (every 2 layers) I painted on a little butter.  After 8 layers I spread about 1/3 the mixture, then 8 more layers, 1/3 mixture, then 6 layers and the rest of the mixture.  Then I just kept layering and buttering until all of the sheets were used up.

When I make Baklava I always cut it before I bake it, but this time I didn't because I was unsure about the cheeses and spinach inside and didn't want it to be a big ole mess.

I baked it on 375 for exactly 45 minutes, and let it cool for about 2 minutes before cutting into it.  It was pretty amazing. The pictures just wont do it justice, because they were taken at night from my camera phone.  It was just so simple and so delish... you should dooo ittt!



Not as messy at it looks... I promise!!!

Spanakopita
10 oz chopped spinach
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp butter + more for melting
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs + 1 egg white
1 tbsp flour
basil, oregano, salt, pepper
1/2 lb Phyllo Dough

Back-up dinner plan... BLT and Veggies

BBQs and Alone Time

Today I'm home, enjoying my pregnancy.  Whenever I have a few minutes to myself I am usually cleaning, doing the dreaded chore of laundry, or cooking.  Not today.  On today's agenda is a nap and a few episodes of Desperate Housewives before Mikayla comes home from school with a friend.  Breakfast was enjoyed on mah belly...literally.   

Insta-Table

Breakfast was a Vans waffle with white chocolate PB, maple syrup, sliced strawberries and naners, and Chia seeds. Soo good. 

Yesterday the day was spent nesting, and I totally re-did my dining room and kitchen

Ahhh, nice and clean and I got rid of all of the clutter that was around.  For dinner, Mikayla and I decided to cook on the BBQ.  We were hanging outside, and did not want to come in to cook.

It was a lil chilly, but we braved the cold to make this nice, huge, juicy steak, along with eggplant parm pizzas

First, Mikayla and I took the dough, rolled it out into 5 balls, then flattened it to make mini-pizzas.  I threw em on the 'cue for a few mins to get some nice lines and crispiness

Then I spread some sauce on the crust, thew on some leftover eggplant parm, mozzarella cheese, and blobs of ricotta cheese. 

I obviously put some hot peppers on mine too.  Then I bbq'd the pizzas until they were nice and crispy.

I told ya I love getting creative with the bbq.  the best thing about this meal was it was completely made outside, on my lap.  So easy and delicious! Mikayla and Pocket were quite sleepy after a long evening of running around after each other...

And now I'm going back to snuggling with my pups while watching some well-deserved TV time.