orange push up smoothies

So, I stumbled across this little gem on Pinterest and figured I needed to give it a try. I have three words for you friends: OH. MY. GOD.

This is like Heaven in my mouth. Yes, it's a lot of sugar, but WHO CARES!? Actually, I'll probably put less sugar last time because it's so sweet that I can't chug it like I want to haha.

Ingredients:

1 can orange juice concentrate, slightly thawed

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups of ice

Mix all ingredients in a blender except ice. Add ice and blend until smooth and creamy. DEVOUR IT!

mexican pizzas

I used to have a huge love for Taco Bell. In the past few years, my taste has suddenly changed. I can't stand the taste of their meat, and they ALWAYS end up getting out order wrong anyway. One of my favorite items on their menu is the mexican pizza. Here is a copy cat version, with one exception: you know absolutely everything that is in it! :)

Ingredients:

1 pd ground beef

1 can package of taco seasoning (or 2 Tbsp if you make your own like I do)

1 can of refried beans

1 can of red enchilada sauce

1 package of flour tortillas

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozz cheese 

(you can also do 1 cup of shredded mexican blend in place of the cheddar and mozz)

1 medium tomato, diced

Preheat your oven to 350F. Start browning the meat and drain. Add in the taco seasoning and water, stir. Meanwhile, spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Put 2 tortillas on there and pop it in your heated oven. Bake for about 4-5 minutes and then flip and do the same. Your tortillas should be nicely browned, so keep an eye out. You may need a little less or little more time. Once those two are done, put them aside on a plate and put in two more. This is much easier if you have two baking sheets. Then you can do them all at once.  Repeat the bake, flip, bake cycle with those. Heat up your refried beans in a microwave safe bowl. Once all tortillas are done, put a nice layer of the beans on two of the tortillas. You will have leftover beans. Add a layer of taco meat on top of the beans. Put the second set of tortillas right on top. Spoon enchilada sauce over the tops of the pizzas and then sprinkle cheese over that. Put those bad boys back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so, until cheese is all melted. Sprinkle your tomatoes on and serve! You can also add your favorite hot sauce or sour cream, whatever you like on your mexican pizzas. Delicious! 

By the way, it was hard for my husband to even finish one of these things. Two is plenty for our family. We end up having extra beans, enchilada sauce, and taco meat leftover, so our 2 year old gets some nice tacos instead of the pizza. For some reason he hasn't developed a love of the mexican pizza yet. In time, I bet he will!

and bean is a...

BOY!

Quite surprising since EVERYTHING pointed to girl. We went to Las Cruces, NM to this little place called Baby Cheeks 3D/4D Ultrasounds for an elective gender scan since I wouldn't be able to get my anatomy scan here in El Paso due to moving right around 20 weeks. It is usually about a 45 minute drive with no traffic, so we left early since it was Saturday and we didn't know what to expect. Turns out, it only took us about 40 minutes all together, so we got there SUPER early. To pass time, we went to Barnes & Noble so Conner could play around in the kids section.

At 10:45 we went back to Baby Cheeks and got to go in a little early. The first shot of the baby's 'area' made us all question it, but after the second shot, we knew this little bean was a dude. Conner was instantly upset and told her 'NO!' Chris told him it was baby brother Lucas and he just pouted. The tech offered to give him his own ultrasound picture and he was happy about that. We decided to take him back to the mall where Barnes & Noble was to let him pick out something to maybe get him feeling more happy about having a brother rather than the sister he wanted. 

We walked all over that mall and the only kids store was The Children's Place. Too expensive for my liking. We did find a cute little candy store and they had a jar that said 'It's a Boy' on it, so Conner got that a filled it with blue and green gummy bears. Then we started our drive back to El Paso.

We called all of our family, and for the most part received positive reactions. I think it was more than just us hoping for a little girl, but that's alright. We very happy to still have a healthy little boy growing in there, especially with all of the issues I have been having this pregnancy. He's still flipped with his head to my cervix, but he stretches out enough to kick my belly button. He's also measuring a few days ahead, which I find weird since I still have no appetite and sitting below pre-pregnancy weight. 

For some reason, it won't let me upload Conner's picture that we took for the gender reveal, but here is an ultrasound picture of our little Lucas Reed. <3

I'll try to keep updating more. I've been slacking a lot.

burrito grande

As the title suggests, this is a GIGANTIC burrito. I bet it can feed like 5 people. It's really easy to make, was relatively cheap, and tasted delicious. Nothing like you get at a real Mexican restaurant, but it'll do!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound bulk chorizo sausage

1 can of chili beans with sauce, undrained

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 flour tortillas (10 in)

2 cups of shredded cheese (I used Mozz and Cheddar mix)

1 cup of red enchilada sauce

sour cream, optional

Preheat your oven to 375F. Lightly spray a 15x10 inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a skillet, cook up your sausage. You can also use ground beef if you don't like chorizo sausage. Drain the grease. Add in the chili beans and cumin. Mix well. Place your tortillas, overlapping, in your baking dish. Spoon the sausage mixture right down the middle of the tortillas. Sprinkle with a cup of cheese. Yes, it's a lot of cheese. Fold your massive burrito over, seam side down. Spoon the enchilada sauce over the top and sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese. Pop that bad boy in the oven for 15 minutes. Once cooked, cut it up (unless one person wants to take on this beast) and top with sour cream if you wish. Now let your taste buds explode with happiness! I should have made some rice to go on the side. I'll remember that for next time.

mini chicken pot pies

Here's another muffin tin recipe! Super fast and simple.

Ingredients:

2 (10 oz) cans pillsbury biscuits 

1 (10.5 oz) can of cream of chicken

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 chicken breast, cooked and diced

1 bag frozen mixed vegetables

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly spray the regular size muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl, mix all ingredients except the biscuits. Slightly flatten out each biscuit and press each one into an individual muffin cup. Spoon in chicken mixture into each biscuit cup. I used a heaping tablespoonful of the mixture and had a little left over. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the biscuits are a golden brown color. Let them sit for a few minutes once out of the oven and then serve hot!

mini corn dogs

My husband said that the dinner I made tonight was 'cute' so I needed to share it. I haven't shared any in a while anyway. Tonight I made mini corn dogs in a mini muffin tin. Super simple, and makes soo much! I know what I'll be making for future get togethers. Who doesn't like corn dogs?!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup of milk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup of cornmeal

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

10 hotdogs (or turkey dogs, whatever your preference)

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk until combined. Add in eggs and whisk again. Add in milk and whisk again. In a separate bowl, mix together the baking soda, cornmeal, flour and salt until well combined. Add the cornmeal mixture to the wet mixture and whisk well. Spray the mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Pour about a tablespoon of mix into each cup. Cut the hotdogs into 1 inch pieces and place into the middle of each cup. Bake for 8-12 minutes. This makes approximately 48 mini corn dogs. I only had 8 hotdogs, so I ended up having about 36 mini corn dogs and then 12 mini cornbread muffins. Delicious! Here is what they look like before and after. I only have 1 mini muffin tin so I had to do 2 batches. 

Easter crafts with the kiddo

Chris has CQ today, so for the next 24 hours, it's just me and Conner. He's been asking to color a lot, so up first, printable Disney Easter pages that I found over here at Disney Clips. Free to print off the pages. He loves Mickey Mouse and Pooh, so it worked out perfectly. Here is a picture of his masterpieces. 

Next up, making a family of bunnies out of toilet paper tubes! Paper towel tubes will work just as well. I cut the tubes to make a taller 'Daddy Bunny', a little bit shorter 'Mommy Bunny' and of course, the little 'Conner Bunny'. He had so much fun making a mess. We painted the tubes and let them dry. Since I knew he'd make a mess and I have no painting smocks, I made a makeshift one out of a garbage bag. Cut three holes, two for arms and one for his head and voila! After they were dry, I used a sharpie to make their eyes, nose and whiskers. I'm all out of mini pom poms, but if I had some, they'd have tails, too. For now, a drawn on tail will work. I cut out some ears from paper and glued them on. Here's our little bunny family.

Last up, cookies! I will make some sugar cookies later tonight in the shapes of bunnies and eggs. Conner will get to decorate them with some icing. This also will get a little messy, so back to a makeshift paint garbage bag apron. Overall, I think we had a pretty successful craft day. Full of fun. If I remember, I'll snap some pictures of the cookie decorating and add them here.

16 week update

Wow! A whole 4 weeks has already passed by. It seems this pregnancy is going very quickly. I'm sure all of these appointments and the anticipations of a visit home and moving have something to do with it. I've already posted about a lot of the issues we ran into within the past month, so I'll just briefly update with the results I have on some of those. First, here is the tiny bump finally starting to form, although I am still losing weight. Sitting at -6 pre-pregnancy weight right now.

The 3 hour glucose came back normal, so no hypoglycemia like we had predicted. They still want me to continue to monitor my blood sugar because it helps a lot to visually see when I need to eat. I have to eat every few hours to try to keep it up. I've taken to carrying small snacks and bottles of juice with me when I go out in case I have a random crash. My thyroid is also alright. All of my bloodwork is fantastic. I opted out of the genetic testing. The way I see it is that I will love this baby no matter how he/she is when born, so there is no need for me to know ahead of time. Plus, my poor arms are spent from needles, so unless absolutely necessary, no more of those until labor.

My EKG and EEG we not exactly what they wanted, so their fear of possible seizure activity has not been ruled out. They referred me to have a sleep study done, but unfortunately nobody here can get me in until the very end of April or beginning of May. We have so much going on in those last few weeks with the movers coming and finishing up paperwork for Chris to clear, that there is no way we can squeeze any of those appointments in. They have officially been put on hold until I get to Fort Stewart.

I did test positive for Group B strep in my urine. No, this is not the same as strep throat. I was told not to look on the internet, but of course that made me want to google it even more. I am on antibiotics the next 7 days and have to have antibiotics in an IV drip while in labor since it can pass to baby in the birth canal. It's not like this is a super rare thing. About 25% of healthy women can be a carrier of it. It's just better that we've figured it out now so that we can get the proper treatments in order, because it could be fatal to the baby in the uterus or if it's transferred during delivery. It can cause miscarriage and stillbirth. It also can, if passed during delivery, cause meningitis in the infant, which ultimately could cause baby to die. The chances are VERY small, and mostly only exist if not treated, but they do still exist, so I'm taking any steps necessary to attempt to prevent the transfer of it to baby. This means that yes, I will be delivering in a hospital so that myself and baby can be watched before, during and after delivery. I'm completely content with this. 

I have still not been seen by the cardiologist for the halter monitor study. I have an appointment on April 16 for that. Hopefully they don't want to do a study longer than 15 days, or I will have to put that on hold, too. I also have one more OB appointment in 3 weeks (April 25). I will not be receiving another ultrasound here at WBAMC since I need my medical records for when we are travelling and it will be cutting it super close to us leaving since they don't do another one until 20 weeks. Chey told us about a place in Las Cruces, NM that is very cheap who does gender scans, so I set up an appointment with them. Thankfully, they do them on weekends which helps me out tremendously since I'm technically not supposed to be driving until all of this testing is complete. It also means Chris and Conner can be there! We go to that on April 21st.

Aside from all of that, the only other update I have is a heart rate. I've gotten to hear the heart beat twice. Both times it was 160. Seems this little one isn't a fan of the doppler, just like big brother. Takes forever to get a good reading, but it's there. I've also felt baby a few times, and he/she definitely prefers one side over the other. I still don't have much of an appetite, but have to eat every few hours to keep my blood sugar level good. The things I prefer to eat are dairy or citrus. So now I'm able to do a few more gender predictions before our big scan. According to these, our new team total is:

TEAM PINK - 6

TEAM BLUE - 0