28 weeks down

Whoa, can you believe that. I'm at the awkward stage in pregnancy where I don't have much time left, but it still feels like forever until he gets here. This pregnancy has honestly flown by. I'm sure I can accredit that to everything that we had going on. We've lost 3 family members, went home for a visit, made a move across the country, and bought a house. Now we are preparing for a deployment. That's a whole lot of stuff to handle at once so I see how it's gone by quickly. Here's my 28 week bump (that actually looks like a bump now). I don't know why the bottom part is not fully uploading!

Anyway, let's play some catch up from the past 4 weeks. I've had a few doctors appointments. Just normal ones. Heartbeat is still around the 160 range and he's still head down. I've gotten this nice little symptom where my arms will go numb for days at a time. Apparently it's normal. I've gained 5 pounds since my pre-pregnancy weight. That is not a complete total since I actually lost weight first, but I'm only counting from pre-pregnancy for now. My pre-pregnancy jeans no longer fit. I can still buckle them, but sitting is very uncomfortable. 

We finished a majority of the nursery. I made the crib skirt and a valance with the fabric I bought. I also plan to make a pillow to sit on the glider. Haven't gotten around to that yet. All of the furniture is set up. Chris and I were trying to make a mobile, but that idea failed miserably, so we made a canvas piece instead. We thought we'd use some of our baby shower decorations. It turned out nicely, in my opinion. All of the clothes are washed and in the dresser. We are pretty much set from newborn-3 months. After that I will have to start buying outfits and sleepers. There are still a few miscellaneous items we need to buy, but we're about 80% ready. If he were born today, we'd be alright to bring him home. Let's just hope he doesn't. He still needs to cook a while longer.

Speaking of that, I have still been having some random, painful contractions. It's nothing to worry about though. They are no consistent and it seems I am still in the clear. My GERD has made a wicked comeback. I was doing okay for a while there, but for the past week it has felt like something is stuck in my throat. I know there is nothing there, but it's still painful. I will be discussing this with my doctor ASAP because I can not go another 12ish weeks feeling this pain. I have to go in for my second gestational diabetes test next week after this sinus infection clears up. Thankfully it is only a one hour this time. I think that's about it for now. Update again in 4 weeks!

slow cooker pulled pork fajitas

Slow cooker, yay! These were a huge hit with all members of my family. Now I'll have different things to do on 'taco night' lol.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lb boneless pork loin roast

2 tablespoons of fajita seasoning

1 cup of salsa

1 green bell pepper, sliced 

1 red bell pepper, sliced

flour tortillas

shredded cheddar cheese

sour cream

Place pork into a 4 quart slow cooker. Sprinkle with the fajita seasoning and top with salsa. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Mine was perfect at 8 hours. Remove the pork and place on cutting board. Using two forks, shred it. Return it to the slow cooker and mix well. Add in the bell peppers and increase heat to high. Cover and cook for 30 minutes. Heat your tortillas so they are easier to manipulate. I just pop each into the microwave for 10 seconds. Use a slotted spoon, place a heaping spoonful in each tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese and add sour cream if desired. Eat up!

breakfast casserole

Who doesn't like breakfast for dinner? I love it. Here is a casserole for you. This makes A LOT of casserole. Like, my family of 3 could have eaten this for 3 days.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bacon, chopped

1/4 cup ham, diced

1 bag (30 oz) frozen shredded hash browns, thawed and patted dry

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

9 large eggs

8 oz sour cream

1 1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

1 cup cornflakes, smashed into crumbs

2-3 tablespoons melted butter

Heat oven to 350F. Spray a 13x9" glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Cook bacon until it is crisp. Pat the extra grease off of it with a paper towel and then chop it up. Toss the bacon, ham, cheeses and hash browns together in a large bowl and then spoon into the baking dish. In the same bowl, beat the eggs, milk, sour cream, salt and pepper together with a whisk. Pour over the potato mixture. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. In a small bowl, mix together the cornflake crumbs and butter. Sprinkle over the casserole and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

homemade 'ice cream'

Why did I put 'ice cream'? Well, simple. It's not really ice cream. My 2 year old thinks it is, though! I originally found this on Pinterest with the title 'single ingredient ice cream'. Single ingredient? Now, I remember making ice cream in school when I was in like 3rd grade. We definitely used more than one ingredient, so this made me want to find out what magic was the cause of this single ingredient ice cream. One word: bananas. Seriously. You can make 'ice cream' from bananas. I owe a ton of thanks to the writer over at Use Real Butter for posting this for me to stumble on. Although, my 'ice cream' was not a single ingredient, since we wanted more than just the banana flavor. Here's how you do it.

Ingredients:

4 bananas, slightly over ripe (some brown spots)

and then if you want flavor, I used:

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Slice your bananas into about 1/4" thick pieces. Put them in a bowl (or on a plate and cover) and freeze. It'll take at least an hour, depending on which you use. If you put them in a bowl, it will take longer since they are stacked on each other. You need them nice and frozen. Do not freeze an entire banana or you will have trouble cutting it up. Once the bananas are frozen, plop those suckers in a food processor (or a blender if you are me). Use the pulse setting. It will first look like tiny bits of gravel, but keep pulsing. After a few minutes, it looks like soft serve ice cream. You can stop there if you love banana taste, or if you are like me and want some more flavor, add in the peanut butter and vanilla (or whatever other tasty ingredients you want to add) and pulse until it's well blended. There you have it. 'Ice cream'. It's really soft in this state, so you can always put it back into a bowl and put it in the freezer for a bit if you want a firmer 'ice cream'. Here is what mine looked like:

I ate some soft right out of the blender, but froze the rest. As you can see, scooping it out after frozen was a bit difficult. I'd let it sit out for a few minutes before attempting to scoop. :) I'm so glad I found this recipe. My favorite part is that I can try so many different variations by adding in other things like blueberries or cocoa powder and my kid will think he's getting this delicious treat, when it's actually good for him! Yay!

mini ham and cheese quinoa cups

My friends and family will tell you, I love baking everything in my muffin pan. From desserts to dinners, if it can be miniaturized, best believe I'm going to attempt it. So I was really excited to stumble across Iowa Girl Eats recipe for mini ham and cheese quinoa cups. These little things are really filling, so we had a lot left over. They'd work great for a pot luck! As always, I altered the recipe to suit my family.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa

3 eggs

1/4 cup green bell pepper, diced

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup diced ham

1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Cook quinoa according to package directions. In a large bowl, mix the cooked quinoa and all other ingredients. Spray your mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon in mixture to the top of each cup. Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes. Once the edges are a golden brown they are done. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tin. They should pop out pretty effortlessly. Enjoy!

creamy garlic pasta

So, I haven't posted a recipe in a little while. I have some to share, but no pictures of them. It's been a hectic time. My husband really loves pasta so I thought I'd try out this garlic pasta. It's very simple and even my 2 year old liked it. I found the original recipe over at The Cheese Pusher.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of butter

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

3 cups of chicken stock

1/2 lb angel hair pasta

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

3/4 cup of heavy cream

2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped

In a large pot, heat up the olive oil. Add in garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add in butter until melted. Mix in the salt, pepper and chicken stock. Raise the heat to high until boiling. Add in the pasta and cook using the package directions. If your's turn out like mine, there is no need to drain as the chicken stock will have evaporated by this point. Lower heat to medium and mix in the parmesan cheese until melted. Turn off heat and add in the cream and parsley. Serve hot. 

belated father's day post

We aren't big on celebrating Hallmark holiday's. I personally don't think there needs to be a specific day to celebrate being a father (or mother). We should do that every day :). This year, however, I made an exception. If you read my last blog, you know that Christopher is going to be deploying shortly after the arrival of our second baby. I wanted to make sure he had a good day by doing something fun. So Conner and I set to planning a day out. We made this neat little card that we found on Pinterest. He was so proud of it.

We wanted to go one step further, though. We printed off a generic treasure map. Around the edges I wrote this message: "It's time for an adventure. Don't ask any questions. Grab the pink backpack, blue cooler and wear comfy clothes. Enter this address into the GPS: Strand Ave, Tybee Island." I was going to take him to the ocean for the first time. He's never seen it, and neither has our son. I packed the bag and cooler the night before and was able to sneak off to the store to buy a few last minute items which I stashed in the trunk. Sunday morning, we got up early and I got his favorite doughnuts for breakfast. After breakfast, Conner gave him the card and treasure map. Chris happily complied and off we went. 

We found a good parking spot and walked up to the beach. We spent a few hours building sandcastles and swimming. After we got tired out, we went to this little place for ice cream before we headed back home. It was a very successful day. Here's my favorite picture from the beach.

I don't know how I'm going to top this next year, especially since he won't be here physically. Sigh.