Weekly weigh-in

I lost a half pound this week. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that I probably won't lose weight this week. I am headed to Austin/Georgetown at the end of the week for my sister-in-law Emma's baby shower. I won't be able to work out as much and I'll probably eat worse (or should I say better?) than I usually do. We'll see!

7 months (almost)

Gooooood morning!Sitting up all by himself and playing...He knows how to tell time now.
Hanging out in the papasan before naptime.

Ezra isn't 7 months old for another few days, but I had some time so I thought I'd go ahead and blog about it.

At 7 months, Ezra is...
-Sitting up on his own, mostly. After a couple minutes (or less), he topples over to either side, but he can keep up his balance if he tips forward or backward. We still always sit behind him and spot him when he's sitting up. He is not at all interested in trying to crawl yet.
-Eating all the "first food" purees, and some mashed up avocado, puffs, yogurt melts, crackers, etc. We have moved on to the second foods. He doesn't like banana mashed up or pureed, but he will eat little bits pinched off from a real banana. He will eat any of this stuff even after he has stopped drinking his bottle.
-Sleeping great most of the time. He wakes up around 7:30 in the morning, takes around 3 naps a day, and is in bed by 7 p.m. He still wakes up every few nights hungry if he hasn't eaten enough that day. He is a lot better about being flexible during the day if he needs to be awake for longer than usual (Sunday mornings at church, for example). We still put him to bed awake and he falls asleep on his own. His favorite sleeping position is on his side, and when he is really tired, we will lay him in his crib and he'll roll right over to his side and go to sleep. It is soooo cute.
-Getting much better at his fine motor skills. Just a month and a half ago, at night, he would pull his pacifier out when he was going to sleep and just cry and cry and not be able to put it back in his mouth (and wasn't even aware he had been the one to pull it out). Now, he can find his pacifier in his carseat/crib/wherever it is within reach, turn it around and place it in his mouth.
-Still just has two teeth. We think he might be getting more soon, judging from his whininess lately, all the drool, and his desire to stick his entire hand in his mouth. All that might just be because he's a 7 month old baby, though.
-An easy baby. He really is so good. When I take him out to the grocery store or shopping, he will smile at anyone who stops to talk to him. Our friends the Parrishes watched him for a few hours when I ran my last race and afterwards so I could run some errands and when I picked him up, Toni said, "You are so lucky." And it's true. He is a very sweet, smiley, easy-going baby. I hope that this personality trait will continue through his life.

It's been 7 months now, and it has gone so fast. I know that his first birthday is just around the corner. I think since we've hit the "over-six-months" mark, it seems to be flying by. We love our little boy and the joy he brings to us every day.

Weekly weigh-in

I stayed the same this week. Oh well. I worked out a lot but my diet wasn't the greatest. I guess I'll be trying harder this week.

Growing up...

Baby boys in ball caps=cutest thing ever. Also, when I put Ezra's hat on him today, he looked like he was about 2 years old. Made me sad. Ezra has gotten better and better at sitting up on his own over the past few days. We still have to sit behind him and spot him because he topples over after about 15-20 seconds, which is why this picture is taken from behind.
He has also started to read on his own. Here he is reading the valentine's card that gramme sent him.

Weekly weigh-in...bye-bye baby weight!

I lost 4.4 pounds this week. And guess what? I am 1.2 pounds below what I weighed pre-pregnancy. That's a great feeling! Since I went into the hospital to have Ezra I have shed exactly 50 pounds. (Some of that was a 6 pound, 14 ounce baby of course :) It's true what "they" say, though: even if you lose all of your baby weight, your clothes still don't fit properly. So I am going to continue with my goal until all my pants fit well again. I will be so glad when I don't have to weigh in every week anymore.

So, this week I realized I was so close to my pre-pregnancy weight that I focused big-time on watching what I ate, and I worked out a lot. Obviously it paid off. Now if I can just keep it up for a few more weeks, I can lose the rest of the weight, and then it's on to the lifelong journey of maintaining that weight.

No recipes to report. I'm thinking about not posting recipes anymore. It takes a long time and I get the impression that nobody really cares that much, and that's fine. I might just start listing our weekly menu and y'all can type it into google if you're interested. So here's what we're having this week:
Southwest steak tacos (WW cookbook)
Chicken & herb dumplings (WW cookbook)
Chicken spaghetti, rosemary rolls (pioneer woman recipe), key lime pie (company coming over for dinner)
Cayenne oven-fried chicken and onion rings (WW cookbook)
Kung pao chicken & brown rice (WW cookbook)

Have a good week everyone!

My first race

At the finish line (Time: 42:20)Ready to get in the car and go.

I finished my first race today. There was a 14k, a 4 mile, and a relay. I did the 4 mile and ran a personal best time (in comparison to the pace I usually run just through the neighborhood). I was definitely toward the end of the pack, but I kept a steady pace, so I was proud of myself. Not to mention it was FREEZING and windy and the race started about 30 minutes late, so it took a while for my toes to unfreeze and to get warmed up.

I'm ready for the next one! Who wants to join me?

Recipes: pork tenderloin with spicy honey glaze, white chicken chili, strawberry cobbler

Pork tenderloin with spicy honey glaze

This was a really easy recipe. I have just decided after cooking with chipotle in adobo a couple times that it's not my favorite ingredient. Chad liked this more than I did. I prefer the pork tenderloin recipe that you can find in this post. Anyway, here's the recipe:

2 (12-ounce) pork tenderloins, silver skin removed
salt and ground black pepper
1 T vegetable oil

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees
2. Pat the tenderloins dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Head the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the tenderloins on all sides, reducing the heat if the fat begins to smoke, about 10 minutes. Transfer the tenderloins to a 13 by 9-inch baking dish.

For the glaze:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup juice from 4 limes
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced
3/4 t cumin

After browning the pork, pour off the fat left in the skillet. Add all of the glaze ingredients to the skillet, stirring and scraping up any browned bits, and simmer until slightly thickened and fragrant, about 2 minutes.

3. Brush the entire recipe of glaze over the tenderloins before roasting. Roast them until the thickest part registers 135 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 10 to 15 minutes, flipping the tenderloins over halfway through the roasting time.
4. Transfer the tenderloins to a carving board, cover with foil, and let rest until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees, 5 minutes, before slicing into 1/4 inch thick pieces.

White chicken chili: this recipe was pretty good. It takes quite a bit of prep work (chopping especially), but it is an easy recipe. It also takes a while to cook with all the simmering. It made a LOT of soup, so I saved a little bit for leftovers and froze the rest so we'll see how that works. 320 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 39 grams of protein, and 9 grams of fiber per 1.5 cup serving.

3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
salt and ground black pepper
1 t vegetable oil
3 medium poblano chiles, 3 medium anaheim chiles, stemmed, seeded and chopped medium
1 medium jalapeno chile and 1 small jalapeno chile, seeds and ribs removed and flesh minced
2 medium onions, minced
6 medium garlic cloves, minced (about 2 T)
2 T ground cumin
2 T dried oregano
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 (15-ounce) cans cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
4 scallions, sliced thin

1. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper (note: I just used 3 large skinless chicken breasts and it worked fine). Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Sear the chicken, skin side down, until browned, about 4 minutes. Flip the chicken and sear on the second side until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and remove and discard the skin.
2. Add all of the chiles except the small jalapeno, onions, garlic, cumin, oregano, and 1 t salt in a large Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the vegetables are softened, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer half of the chile mixture to a clean plate; set aside.
3. Stire in the broth, chicken and beans. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is fully cooked, about 20 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a large plate. Continue to simmer the chili, uncovered, until it has thickened, 35 to 40 minutes.
4. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces, discarding the bones. Stir the shredded chicken, reserved chile mixture, lime duice, cilantro, scallions, and small jalapeno into the chili. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the chili is too thick, stir in additional water to thin it out. This chili can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Strawberry cobbler...my favorite recipe of the week! We went to some friends' house for dinner last week and brought dessert. It uses a biscuit-type crust, kind of like an old-fashioned strawberry shortcake. Very easy recipe. 220 calories, 5 g fat, 3 g protein, 3 g fiber (8 servings in recipe)

Filling
2 quarts strawberries (I used the frozen ones in a bag from Wal-Mart. Recipe says if you are using frozen, use the smaller amount of sugar and double the amount of cornstarch. Amounts in recipe are for using fresh fruit)
1/4-1/3 cup sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 T cornstarch

Biscuit topping
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
3 T yellow cornmeal
1/4 C plus 2 t sugar
1 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/3 c buttermilk
3 T unsalted butter, melted
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/8 t ground cinnamon

1. For the filling: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the fruit filling ingredients together in a 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Place the pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the fruit releases its liquid and is hot and bubbling around the edges, 20 to 30 minutes.
2. For the biscuit topping: Meanshile, whisk the flour, cornmeal, 1/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, butter, and vanilla together; set aside. In a third small bowl, mix the remaining 2 t sugar with the cinnamon; set aside.
3. When the filling is ready, stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined and no pockets of flour remain. Remove the cobbler filling from the oven and stir. Pinch off 8 equal pieces of the biscuit dough and arrange them on top of the hot filling, spaced 1/2 inch apart. Sprinkle the tops of the biscuits with the cinnamon sugar.
4. Continue to bake the cobbler until the biscuits are golden brown on top and cooked through and the filling is again hot and bubbling, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool the cobbler on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving.

Weekly weigh-in

I gained a little over a pound this week. I know I did what I was supposed to do as far as working out. I did the 30-day shred 4 times (even made it to level 3 and did that 3 times) and I ran 8.1 miles (the most I've ever run). It's annoying that I worked that hard as far as exercise goes and I still gained weight. I just didn't watch what I ate closely enough, and I realize that, and I realized it at the time. That's easy to do considering I only get about 1100 calories a day on the WW program. So I just have to be more diligent this week with watching my calorie intake and continuing my working out. On a good note, my clothes are starting to fit better, so even though I'm not losing as much weight as I would like at this point, I know I'm still on the right track. Just gotta get down to business. And, no more superbowl parties where sopapilla cheesecake is present.

Recipes to come later: strawberry cobbler and pork tenderloin with spicy honey glaze, both from the best light recipe cookbook.

What Ezra's been up to lately

Oh, you know, the usual...writing his dissertation,Getting really excited about avocado (especially the squishing it in between his fingers part),

Getting prunes all over his face,
Swinging,
and watching mom give dad a haircut outside.
No big deal...but I knew the grandparents might be getting antsy for more pictures.

Weekly weigh-in

I lost .8 lbs this week. I thought this was good considering I ate horribly, but I did work out a few times. I have 1.8 pounds to lose to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. Maybe I can do that this week. I can't wait until I am done with these weigh-in posts.

Also, I signed up for my first race. It is in a little less than two weeks. It's only 4 miles; I wanted to start out small since I've never done a race before. I'll let you know how it goes.