Pregnancy update: 17 weeks in!

Hello!

I don’t know about you but when the winter months linger, feel less motivated and rather stay indoors. So, I am happy that the weather is finally warming up and that I can go outside! With my last pregnancy, I was my most pregnant in the winter, and was always warm. This pregnancy I will be in my third trimester in the summertime, and as much as I love warm weather I'm afraid I'll not only be a walking inferno but that I will swell like mad! My plans are to stay hydrated, keep active, and eat lots of pineapple. The last one is mostly because pineapple always tastes better when I'm pregnant!

Speaking of food, I'm really into savory/umami rich foods, and before you guys say "you're having a boy!" (although I might, we don't know yet), I craved the very same flavor profiles with Lydia. Here's what my favorite things are: eggs, burgers, Asian food, bacon, french fries/potato chips, and cheese. I don't eat these foods all the time but will indulge in them every now and then. As far as food aversions, I was initially nauseated by coffee, smoothies, chocolate, yogurt and anything too sweet. It wasn't until the end of my first trimester that I was able to enjoy my morning coffee and those breakfast smoothies again! I'm still not as drawn to sweets as I was pre-pregnancy but when paired with saltiness, (hello, salted caramel ice cream and salted chocolate chip cookies!) I'm interested.

I am trying my best to stay active and maintain my endurance/strength throughout this pregnancy too. I have been successful with exercising 4-5 times a week and have been combining the Fitness Blender workouts (modifying when necessary) with lower impact prenatal routines in the mix, pilates, and of course making time for long relaxing stretches.

Going through this pregnancy-shin-dig again, I have to say the second trimester is the best out of the three and I'm going to indulge in these next couple of months! I thought it would be fun to end this post with the good old pregnancy questionnaire to any questions that weren't covered.

How far along: 18 weeks on Thursday!

Gender: Hopefully we'll know by May! Everyone keeps saying it's a boy though.

Total weight gain:  10 pounds. I notice that I always get curvier in my pregnancies, and I suppose it’s not much to complain about, just can be awkward at times and sometimes complicates picking modest clothing to wear. The other day Lydia ran into my butt and she fell over. She was okay!

Maternity Clothes: Maternity jeans! I think I gave up on my regular jeans around week 10 *sigh* I invested in a couple of asos petite maternity jeans and I love them! Denim shorts from Old Navy, and I also bought a couple of maternity shirts from H&M. And of course all the clothes I had from my previous pregnancy. 

Sleep: Good so far :)

Miss Anything: Don't judge me, but occasionally I crave a glass of wine, specifically red wine, and I normally drink white wine. Odd! 

Cravings: Juicy burgers, blts, grilled cheeses, Japanese food, and again, potatoes (fried, roasted and in the form of chips.) Oh, and pineapple and fresh lemonade!

Symptoms: Sometimes I get a little dizzy and lightheaded.  

Belly Button in or out: In.

Mood: Right now I'm tired mostly because my allergies are little haywire due to the weather... 

Best Moment this week: Finally having Spring weather and going on a walk with Michael, Zoe and Lydia this weekend. 

Looking forward to: Easter Sunday and seeing family!

Exercise: I explained this in detail earlier but I've been doing a combination of cardio, strength training, pilates and barre, and lots of stretching 4-5 times a week; I take off Saturdays and Sundays. 

On My Mind: I feel like I'm not as obsessed with all things pregnancy this time around. (I guess because I have been through all of this before!) I'm enjoying this time with Lydia and making sure she has what she needs. She keeps my hands full! I'm mostly looking forward to the aftermath of this pregnancy and bringing home our sweet little baby! 

Breastfeeding: The End of an Era

I think it’s safe to say Lydia has officially weaned herself. We’re going on day four without nursing and it’s been a gradual process ever since she’s turned one. Nursing three times a day quickly turned into twice a day, in the morning and before bedtime, and then a few weeks later she dwindled down to only nursing at night. Then suddenly she would go a day without nursing and then the next day she would want to nurse at night or in the morning. She was nursing every other day for about two weeks and would only nurse about five minutes or so. Nursing time decreased once Lydia was 12 months old, after that she always got to the point and quickly moved on, she had places to be I guess! 

Because she’s so active, I give her chocolate milk during the day and snacks in between meals. She’s always been a good eater which has been a tremendous blessing and might also be why she was ready to wean herself.

As happy as I am that she weaned herself and is moving on with her life, a part of me will miss our breastfeeding journey and I am a little sad it’s over. I know that may sound odd but she still seems so tiny to me, maybe time has just flown by so quickly that I’m not always prepared to let go. I laugh because when I was her age I was still nursing and my mom eventually had to force me to quit nursing (aka cold turkey) because I was well over two years old and asking her if I could have “nursings.” She told me that she had me sleepover a family friend’s house so I wouldn’t have access to the goods! I guess I figured Lydia would be the same because much like I was, she is a mama’s girl. Though Lydia choosing to wean herself couldn’t have been a more seamless transition, and I’m proud of her!

I feel fortunate that I was able to have a pleasant breastfeeding experience and am even more fortunate to be her mama! She is the sweetest little girl, quirky like Michael and I, and so incredibly sharp. So even though we’re ending this era of breastfeeding, I know we’ll have so much more to bond over as she grows into a little lady and the thought of that just melts my heart. I love you Lydia!

Friday Love! {6.10.16}

one // These pictures of Lydia eating corn last weekend. She was all about that corn and wasn't about to share with anyone either!

two // Buying 10 plantains for $1.99 and yucca for $0.69 a pound in New Jersey… It made part of me miss living in Jersey. We used a few of the plantains for tostones on Tuesday and now that the rest of them are ripening I'm going to make a pastelon tomorrow! And instead of making yucca fries, I'm going to boil chunks and serve them with mojo because it's been a while!

three // This blog post on protecting your marriage. Such encouraging list of things I know and have heard in different ways but always need reminded of. IE: raying for Michael, doing more of those little things, making time for him, etc. Life gets hectic being a mom, and unfortunately I haven't been making my most important relationship top priority. The list reminded me that I need to spend more time praying for Michael and being present for him. Fortunately we are going on a date tonight by ourselves to catch and spend much needed alone time with one another!

fresh out of the oven; feelin' confident with my results!

the next day after being transferred, prayin' ice cream will cover this up!

four // I learned a little lesson in pie baking. I baked a cherry pie with frozen cherries and it resulted in an extremely loose/watery filling, and then I transferred it all the way to New Jersey. Unfortunately when I took the pie out of the foil it was covered in the cherry filling and the once flaky crust became soggy. While I did have a mini meltdown, the pie was still 100% edible and was an excellent base for ice cream. I learned that next time I will be using fresh cherries in my next pie : )

five // Our CSA begins this Wednesday and I am so excited! It'll be our third year subscribing and I feel much more confident with knowing what to do with all the produce. I got a spiralizer attachment for my Kitchen-Aid on Christmas so I'm seeing a lot of zucchini pasta in the future, and possibly use my juicer to make fresh juices. (Confession: I've had my juicer for 4 years and only used it twice in my life!) Though I might need to do more research on kohlrabi and what the heck to do with it. That vegetable befuddles me. Any suggestions? 

source

six // I made these mini oatmeal cream pies and they were really quite good! I didn't get a chance to take my own picture but I found them to have the perfect balance of sweet & salty, the cream filling was delightful and not too sweet, the cookies had a nice kick from the cinnamon and were exceptionally soft as any oatmeal cookie should be!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!

My Method of Meal Planning and What We Ate Last Week

I thought it would a fun post to share how I plan out my dinners for the week. Menu planning is essential in our family because I don't like the feeling of not knowing what's for dinner and I feel more at ease when I have everything decided for the week; that way when I go grocery shopping I avoid buying unnecessary ingredients and not wasting food is such a rewarding feeling! However, if I'm being honest I don't always have a clear idea what to cook on the weekends, those days are either leftover central or something really simple like a grilled cheese or BLT sandwiches or if my in-laws are free we use it as an opportunity to go on a date!

So here's how my planning usually goes.

• On a Saturday I’ll take out a notepad and pen, write down: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Sometimes we eat leftovers in between days, so I usually cook 3-4 dinners a week. Leftovers are wonderful and should not be underestimated because as much as I love to cook, life gets busy!!

•  I seek some inspiration. If I’m having a hard time choosing meals for the week I’ll pick up an issue of Bon Appetit, Every day with Rachael Ray, or Real Simple and check out their recipes. Or I’ll just go onto Pinterest or The Kitchn blog. Sometimes I don’t even use the recipe’s I find but get inspired by the ingredients and flavor profiles.

• I use meal templates. A meal template is like a formula for a meal. For example: fish or chicken + grain or starchy vegetable + roasted vegetable, homemade pizza + salad, tofu/beans stir fry + grains, etc. I like cooking at least one meatless meal a week to save a little money and because sometimes I need a break from eating meat. I like to use meal templates because they help me stay focused, adapt a well-balanced meal and at the same time be changed based on what we're in the mood for. 

• and sometimes I’ll ask Michael if he has any requests! :)

• We typically go grocery shopping on a Sunday afternoon. Most of the time it’s just Whole Foods, sometimes we go to Costco and Whole Foods! My husband is such a trooper and helps keep Lydia entertained while I do my thang. I don’t know where I would be without him;)

• On Sunday evening I schedule the meals for each day of the week and because I’m a silly girl who thinks I own a café I write down the first dinner on our chalkboard wall. 

And that’s it! Hope I can inspire you by sharing what we ate last week based off of my own little method:

Monday:

Turkey Meatloaf with Batata Fries and Roasted Asparagus

Tuesday and Wednesday:

Pork Chops with Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower and Tostones

Thursday: 

Black Bean Burgers with Smoked Gouda Cheese and Sauteed Baby Broccoli with Spinach

Friday:

Grilled Coconut Lime Honey Shrimp, Mango Salsa, Coconut Rice and Blackberry Margaritas to drink. (A rare Friday that I cooked)

I was feeling ambitious last weekend and actually cooked Saturday evening too, the thing is I didn't photograph any of it. My bad it was a late dinner!! We had roasted Korean glazed chicken wings, leftover coconut rice and mango salsa. And on Sunday we ate leftover wings, only I had to make more rice so I made ginger brown rice and huge kale salad. Deeelish!

How do you plan your meals for the week?

I'm baaaack, with a boat load of pictures!

I have been somewhat distant on here…. I mean I’ve been around here and there tweaking and attempting to make this blog prettier for your viewing pleasures. I used the verb attempting only because I am not quite sure I am succeeding. Honestly I’m not finished. But I missed writing and decided I should just go public and do the boring stuff later. During my little hiatus, I have been enjoying what’s left of the summer. Can you believe we’re already in the middle of August?!

Here I’m going to allow these pictures to summarize my summer: 

Pizza... This one stars roasted beets and carrots. Lately I have been really into using pesto as a sauce rather than traditional tomato sauce. It isn't anything wildly new but it certainly lightens up a summer pizza pie, and allowed me to use up garlic scapes and basil we received from our CSA; which is a total win win.

We got family pictures done by Sandra ! 

Michael got a grill for Father's Day so he's been promoted to the grill-er of the family. Pictured is the flank steak we used to make grilled steak tacos with chimichurri; pretty amazing!!

Lydia getting kisses from her big cousin DJ!

  

Bridgefest 2015! We didn't stay long due to exhaustion from arriving at Jersey around 3am; but we did get ice cream at Days... They sell dairy-free ice cream now so I got mocha almond on a sugar cone!

Lydia celebrated her first 4th of July and got to experience fireworks : ) She had no idea what was going on but look how adorable she was with her ear muffs on... I still melt.

Cookies 'n' Cream ice cream on a sugar cone... One of my favorites I've made! I also really appreciated the Salted Rum Caramel ice cream too. I'll try to share the recipe before the summer ends; but who stops eating ice cream when summer ends? ;D

Brunch at Marty's Market in Pittsburgh before exploring the Strip District and then going to Picklesburgh. It was possibly the hottest day in July but we had fun people watching and eating chicken and waffles for the first time! I opted for the bagel and lox which was delightful.

Mom W. removed the nasty weeds and planted beautiful flowers on our front lawn.

I got over my pie baking fear and made this beauty. Classic blueberry pie! 

Lydia loves her wuelo!

I got a haircut!

Aria and I went to Terhune Orchards in Princeton with the babies (I wish we had taken more pictures) and enjoyed lunch, wine and seeing the animals.

Celebrating Michael's birthday with a BANG. We made grilled lobster (and by "we" Michael killed it and I watched in horror and made the garlic parsley butter), yucca fries with mayo-ketchup sauce, and garlicky sauteed green beans. 

Fun fun. As far as blogging goes, I'm going to try my best to set aside time for writing content on here and will commit to a post once a week... Rather than those irregular posts I've been posting throughout the month. It's not fair to you guys! Once a week doesn't sound like much but I don't wanna put too much on my plate. Hopefully I can eventually commit to twice a week? We shall see my friends...In the meantime I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer!