This week's menu

I haven't posted any recipes in a while, but I wanted to share what I am doing this week because I like the idea so much. My sister told me about this blog, and as I was looking through it the other day I found this post. In case you don't want to take the time to go over there, the idea is this: roast a whole chicken the first day, eat part of it, then use the rest of the cooked meat for 4 separate, different meals the rest of the week. We just finished day 3. So far, each of the recipes has been delicious, with just the right amount of leftovers (1-2 meals' worth). Here's the menu:

Marcella Hazan's lemon roasted chicken with carrots and potatoes
Chicken picadillo with rice and black beans (our favorite recipe so far--wish we had more leftovers of this EDIT: I have now made this recipe twice. I liked it MUCH better the first time when I used already-roasted chicken that I had chopped into small cubes. The recipe tells you to grind the raw chicken in a food processor and cook it with some of the other ingredients, but I recommend cooking and chopping the chicken first and then adding it in. Also, I used On the Border salsa the first time and I liked that better than the Target salsa I used the second time. It made the dish less watery.)
White chicken chili
Sesame noodles with chicken (Another edit: I've made this dish twice now. The first time, I only had enough noodles for two helpings. The second time, I doubled the noodles and now we have yummy leftovers. Also, I used Chinese noodles found in the extremely tiny Asian foods section of Wal-mart, and I think it was a lot better using these than spaghetti. This is now my favorite recipe of these 5.)
Chicken curry

The blog claims that you'll spend $26 for all the meals combined, but I can't attest to that because I just shopped for the ingredients when I bought the rest of our groceries and spent way more than $26, but I can say that so far I am 3 for 3 and that RARELY happens. Also, I like the idea of not wasting anything, and I LOVE the idea of a grocery list being made for me. I tend to make a large meal, and then we are eating on the leftovers for days, and we both get so tired of it that I end up throwing food out, which I hate. It might seem like it's kind of boring to have chicken 5 days in a row, but the recipes are so different that I haven't even noticed that it's the same protein...plus it's much better than spaghetti for the 7th time in a row. And, the meals are healthy. I might get two chickens next time, but this time I'll be using boneless/skinless breasts for the last meal. And finally, try the chicken picadillo recipe, even if you don't make all of them, and don't bother grinding the chicken--I just chopped it really small and it worked great. I posted a recipe a while back for Moroccan meatballs, which were yummy, and this recipe reminds me of that. It has raisins and cinnamon in it, which kind of takes it out of the Mexican category for me and more North African. I just made brown rice and black beans and Chad and I both mixed all 3 things together and just ate it like that. Also, I should say that when I asked Chad today if he was going to eat the leftovers, he said yes, that he had been looking forward to them all day (which made me kind of sad...I was hoping he'd say no so I could have them. Yes, we were fighting over leftovers). The post also said that you could make a stock from the bones, which I will do next time. Then, you can use that stock for the white chicken chili on day 3.

I realize this is not a revelatory concept and that people have been using one chicken, roast, etc. to stretch their food dollars for years. I was just excited about this one because each of the recipes (so far) is SO good, healthy, and fits our "eating style"--meaning, it's all stuff that both of us like, which is not an easy task if you are cooking for more than just yourself.

Tonight, I am making oatmeal cranberry scones from another budget food blog (I think this person is a vegan so I don't use her recipes as much). If they're good, I will freeze them so we can have them for quick breakfasts.

If any of you try these, let me know how you like them!

The weekend, making baby food, teeth

This weekend Ezra and I drove to my mom's house and Ezra stayed with Granny while I spent the weekend with some friends to celebrate my friend Sara's upcoming wedding. Ezra had a great time, and I don't think he tired my mom out too much. I didn't get any pictures of the two of them together, but Erin & the kids came over and I got this picture of Kellen, Ezra and Bonnie. They love posing for pictures:
Ezra has become a pro at moving around in his walker. He can walk forward, backward, turn, etc. to get to where he wants to go. Here he is after realizing that he can open the cabinets in my mom's kitchen:
Changing subjects...I have started making my own baby food, for the sole reason that I just don't want to spend the money for store-bought food. I thought it would be complicated, or take a lot of time, so in case any of my friends out there are interested in making food for their babies, here's what I do.

1. Cook the food. I research how to cook whatever it is to preserve the most nutrients. Here, I've baked a couple of sweet potatoes. I also use frozen veggies and fruits if they're not in season (edited to add: it is really important that you cook produce to kill e.coli. In the case of the blueberries below, I boiled them to get them soft before I pureed them).
2. Blend the food (with a little added water) to desired consistency. Here, I've pureed some blueberries. Obviously I didn't hold the lid down tightly enough. Usually I don't make this big of a mess--I just happened to do it with blueberries on my white countertops.3. Pour purees into ice cube trays, freeze, and store in freezer bags. Below I've got peas and corn, ready to be heated up and eaten.
4. Feed baby. (We're back to blueberries now. This kid has liked every food I have offered him, except bananas.). It is so easy and hardly takes any time at all, unless you have to bleach your counters after blowing up blueberries in your blender. :) I calculated that I'll be saving about 2/3 the cost of what we were spending on commercial baby food, so about $30-40 a month.

This last picture was taken this afternoon during a tough time for Ezra. He cried off and on all afternoon and never took more than a 30-minute nap until he finally went to sleep tonight. He would stick his entire fist in his mouth and just chew. I think he'll be getting more teeth soon. One just broke through on the top, so I imagine the one next to it is close behind.

The last weekly weigh-in

I finally hit my goal weight. As of today, I am .8 pounds below my goal weight, which is 5.8 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I am so excited! I already quit Weight Watchers, which was a huge help. I am still working out on a regular basis because I have that 15K coming up in April that I am training for. Well, thanks for coming with me on this journey. It was all the way back in September that I said I would lose 30 pounds, and it took me a while, but it finally happened. From the time I went into the hospital before I had Ezra, I've lost a total of 54.6 pounds (including a 6 lb. 14 oz. baby:). Slow and steady wins the race. I really think that for me it was all about accountability. So thanks everyone, for the encouragement along the way!

Eight months

Ezra won't be eight months old for another few days, but we will be out of town so I thought I'd blog about it before we leave.

At eight months, Ezra...
-is sleeping through the night (7 p.m.-7 a.m.) and takes 3 naps a day
-hates having his diaper changed because he wants to be flipping over, turning around and grabbing whatever is behind him on the changing table
-loves smiling at anyone who talks to him
-has learned how to walk around the house in his walker
-is sitting up on his own and loves just sitting and playing with his toys. Sometimes he still topples over, but he doesn't cry about it and just continues to play while he's on his belly. Also, the sitting up thing is great because now he can sit in a high chair and in a grocery cart on his own.
-eats about 4 times a day--milk, oatmeal/rice cereal, and baby food and a few cracker/snack type things
-has started making lots of consonant noises (d, b, m, etc...in case you forgot what a consonant was)
-acts like he wants to crawl when he's on his belly, but still hasn't figured out how to get up on all fours
-has officially moved up to the "big" carseat...no more infant carrier (Chad and I were about to get hernias carrying that thing around)
-still has just the two bottom teeth, but I can see a tooth on the top that is about to break through (maybe this explains the drool in the last picture)

I think that's about it...I'm sure there's more stuff, but when I actually sit down to record it, I can't think of it all. These past few weeks seem to have really been big milestones as far as Ezra realizing that he wants to be able to "do" stuff, so I don't think it will be long before he is crawling and just being more curious about everything. Next month we'll go back for his 9 month check-up, but my guess is they will say he is long and skinny. Happy 8 months!

Fun with the Parrishes

Ezra LOVES spending time with the Parrishes. Toni, Charlie, and Anna Beth sit next to us in church every Sunday, and from the time he was born, Ezra has loved being held by Miss Toni on Sunday mornings--he would even fall asleep in her arms when he wouldn't let anyone else rock him to sleep. Toni gave me some pictures of the last couple times they have watched him at their house, and it's pretty obvious that he loves them. Here he is sitting on Charlie's lap while Charlie plays the piano:
Toni, this was the only picture I could find of you on this CD and it is of the back of your head. Anyway, here's Toni and Anna Beth introducing Ezra to their cat, Pansy. I think that's her name anyway. Pansy's getting a closer look, and Ezra's going in for the kiss. I love that Ezra gets to spend time with other people's pets--that means we don't have to get one for a long time. Here are a few shots of Anna Beth and Ezra that I thought were really cute:

Thank you, Parrishes, for loving our son as if he were your own! We are blessed to have you in our lives.

3/16/10

This is going to be a post with a lot of miscellaneous stuff, but let's start with the real reason most of you read the blog...to see pictures of Ez. Can you believe he is almost 8 months old? (Check out those blue eyes...we think they are going to stay this color but I guess they can still change.)I just love this face and those cheeks.I walked in one day after I heard Ezra wake up from his nap and this is how he had his legs. He wasn't bothered, just laying there chillin'. Ezra recently saw his first episode of "Sesame Street." He loved it, of course.
Know what else this kid loves? Pulling hair. And his mom. And his many A&M t-shirts.
He also gets excited these days when he spends time in his bouncer that dad & Ginny gave him for Christmas. No, I mean SUPER excited.Ezra gets almost as excited about jumping as I get when I get behind the wheel of my new ride...Thats right, ladies and gentlemen. Chad and I are the proud owners of a brand new 2010 Toyota Sienna. This is actually a picture of a 2011 model, but I didn't want to spend 20 years googling a picture with a high enough resolution to not be pixelated, and I wanted to show the color to those who care, so this is what you get. Yes, go ahead, call me a soccer mom, that's fine. Frankly, I don't care what you call me, as long as I can open the sliding doors with the push of a button, fit all our stuff when we go to camp for the summer, be able to fit 3 people (or children) in the second seat and still be able to fold down the third seat for cargo space...you get the idea. We've had it for a couple days and I already love it. I'm sure Chad loves it too, but he probably wouldn't admit it in public.

And finally, I realize I haven't updated a while on my weigh-in situation, although I have been keeping up with it on the side of the blog. I am one pound away from my goal weight, so at this point I'm 4 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. Suh-weet!

Gracie Tidwell

15-month-old Gracie Tidwell was taken off life support and passed away at about 11:45 this morning. You can read about Gracie here. Please pray for peace, comfort and strength for the Tidwell family.

The weekend

Ezra and Gramme at Emma and Levi's baby shower
Ava and Ezra-cousins

We had a great weekend! Ezra and I flew into Austin to go to my sister-in-law Emma's baby shower. Levi will make his presence known in a little over a month, and I am so excited that Ezra will have a cousin who is fairly close to him in age. We flew in on Thursday, and the flight went without a hitch. Going through security was quite a production because of all the stuff (stroller, carseat, carry-on, taking shoes off, testing the bottles to make sure I hadn't put explosives in them), but it went fairly smoothly. We flew out at 6:30 in the morning and Ezra was asleep before we even took off and slept the whole way. PLUS, the flights both there and back weren't full, so they let me take the carseat on the plane and that gave Ezra a place to sleep, because he is awful at falling asleep in my arms. Anyway, we landed in Austin, got our rental car, and were on our way! The first stop was breakfast at Magnolia Cafe with dad and Ginny. Then, I had a couple places to stop and shop while I was in the south Austin area, and then we were on our way to Georgetown to Shawn and Emma's house. Thursday night I got to have dinner at Chuy's with my friend Sara, and then Friday I went shopping pretty much all day. Ezra made it with me to REI and Target, but then I thought it would be good if he spent some quality time with his gramme while I went to the outlet mall. :) Saturday was Emma's shower, and the hostesses did a wonderful job. We flew back Saturday afternoon. The two pictures above are ones that Emma sent me because I did not bring my camera. I had to pack light, and packing light means not being able to take a large SLR with you. I might need to invest in a small camera to carry in my purse and take on trips. Anyway, I love that picture of Ezra and Ava. Ava adores Ezra and she is so sweet with him. She will make a wonderful big sister.

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.

Six months!

Today is Ezra's half birthday. I cannot believe we have had him in our lives for 6 whole months, and he is such a joy. To celebrate this special occasion, we took him to the doctor. He had to get 5 shots (regular vaccinations plus both flu vaxes), and he was a trooper. He weighs just shy of 16 pounds and is about 27 inches long...which is LONG. He is skinny-in the 25th percentile for weight. He is a very healthy boy and we are SO thankful.

At six months, Ezra...
-Turns from back to front, front to back
-Has one tooth and another one coming in, and still chews on his hands, feet, or anything else within reach
-Sleeps great at night...most nights (last night he went to sleep at 8:45 and woke up at 7:30 this morning). He has gone from 4 naps a day to 3.
-Eats 5 to 6 times a day...a bottle at each feeding and then a fruit or veggie a couple times a day. He has had (and liked) peas, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, and peaches.
-Loves to smile and laugh
-Still loves to talk...he has discovered that he can blow raspberries and has started making consonant sounds...mostly "B"
-Doesn't care to sit up on his own. We're still working on it.
-Has been going to Bible class on Sunday mornings for a couple months but just recently started going on Wednesday nights too. I was worried that he would be a wreck on Wednesdays since it's past his bedtime, but he is so distracted by what's going on that he does fine.

Happy half birthday little man! We love you!

Recipes

I made some new recipes this week from a blog I recently started following called the Weight Watchers Blog. This has been a crock pot kind of week. I love that thing, when I have liners for it so I don't have to clean it. I've used the crock pot twice (lasagna and roast), and plan to use it a third time when I make the Mexican chicken.

-Skinny chili cheese fries...this is actually a video. I wish she would have just put the recipe in normal recipe form...I had to watch almost 10 minutes of video just to get the recipe. Anyway, this was fine, it just used canned turkey chili and the recipe calls for fat-free cheddar cheese, which I call nasty, so I used my 50% fat free. It did teach me a good technique for making oven fries though.
-Slow cooker lasagna...this was a good recipe...easy and not a lot of ingredients. It makes a lot for two people...I think Chad and I have both eaten it twice and we still have leftovers (which, in my mind, is a good thing because it means I don't have to think about what we're going to eat so often). The recipe calls for no-cook lasagna noodles, but I couldn't find those at my grocery store, so I just used regular and par-boiled them before adding them to the crock pot. I think I could have just put them in raw and it would have worked too. Another thing I did was drain the ground beef after cooking it and before adding the other stuff for the sauce. To me that is a no-brainer if you are trying to eat healthy, but oddly enough this recipe didn't say to do that.

-I'm making Mexican crock pot chicken to make chicken tacos with as soon as we're finished with our leftovers. I have an entire roast in the refrigerator that I had to make today because it had already been sitting in the fridge for a couple days.

-I thought this popcorn brittle was going to be my demise this week. True, it is supposedly "light," but I had a hard time eating just a little bit, and a serving size is about 1.5 ounces. It was good though, so try it if you're looking for something sweet that is a little bit better for you than cheesecake or something. Also, we used 94% fat free kettle corn instead of "popcorn popped without salt or fat" like it called for.

I hope these recipes are useful for someone. I know I am always looking for new stuff to make, and I try not to repeat recipes a lot. Enjoy!