Food, food, food....

I feel like I can justify a third food posting in a row by saying, "I'm pregnant! I can't help it!" Just to get it all out of my system (for the next few hours, anyway) I'm going to share several thoughts and experiences from today about food.

1. This morning I had some of the most delightful pastries I've eaten in a long time. My mom called me up and asked if I'd like to run a few errands with her. I jumped at the chance, because the last three days, I haven't left the house til after dinner. I just needed to get out. (I know I need to get used to this....that's what life with a newborn will be like.) We first visited the bakery "Three Women and an Oven", where my mom had a few dollars on a gift card somebody had given her. We sampled a Chocolate Kahlua mini-cake, a German Chocolate mini-cake and I'm currently nibbling on a Mound of Joy bar with a glass of milk. Fabulous!!

2. Following the bakery stop, we went to Sam's Club, because my mom wanted to "buy some sheets for her new king-sized bed." Well you know how Sam's Club goes...don't you? You enter intending to purchase one thing, and keep thinking, "wow, what a great deal!" about everything--and your cart becomes full very quickly. We were there at least an hour and a half. I successfully left without buying anything, but we sampled our way through the food section. I decided Sam's is like attending a wedding reception. Appetizer after appetizer of delicious little bits of food. I tried cheese, Emeril's spicy sausage, fried shrimp, a nice tomato and turkey pinweel, organic chocolate milk, and BBQ shredded pork. And I didn't even try everything. I was actually so full after our bakery and Sam's stops that I didn't eat lunch!

3. Upon returning home, I checked a few blogs and noticed that one friend of mine had posted a few new websites she's recently found. I spent the next few hours getting lost on a site called Foodgawker.com. Just have a glimpse. I'm currently contemplating when I can find the perfect excuse to make the Hot Cocoa Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting!

4. My last food thought is one about Chick-Fil-A. If any of you already read the Grocery Weekly, you know about the free chicken you, too, can get on this coming Monday. Click on this link to Chick-Fil-A's promotional site to find out more. The website itself is very funny, with cheerleading cows and everything! http://www.cheerforchicken.com/ I'm not going to lie, Mark and I are pretty excited about free chicken strips! It's the little things in life....

Bread-Baking and Fajitas for dinner, a tribute to the "Pioneer Woman"....

Yesterday I checked another thing off the 'list' and baked some bread. One loaf to eat this week, and another to freeze and have on hand when James is born. (I eat toast for breakfast almost every morning--and breakfast toast is amazing with homemade bread!) This was a new recipe from my More With Less cookbook. I made Easy No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread. It had a few eggs (not so typical compared to the other two kinds I've made this summer) and three tablespoons of yeast in it. It's a good think I kept an eye on it, because it would have overtaken the kitchen, if I'd let it rise the recommended time. Something else different about this recipe: it makes a stiff batter, not dough, so it really doesn't expect you to knead it at all. Instead you pour (or coax, very messily, as I did) it into bread pans. Anyway. It made the nicest huge loaves I've baked this summer...and it is so moist! Verdict: recipe is a keeper.

Then I also made Fajitas for dinner. Mid-morning I thawed a few chicken breasts and then marinated them with a somewhat new marinade recipe mid-day til dinnertime. I love this marinade. So I felt inspired by, just not quite as talented as, the Pioneer Woman's cooking blog section. I love her photos, so I thought it would be fun to take a few step-by-step pictures. I didn't do this nearly to the extent that she does. (Made me wonder: how often does she have to have her camera cleaned?...my kitchen is messy when I cook...and just how much longer does cooking take for her when she stops every three minutes to get a great photo?)

The ingredients I started out with for the chicken marinade: 2 chicken breasts, slided thinly (easier done when still slightly frozen), 4 T veg. oil, 3 T lime juice, 2 cloves minced garlic, a healthy dash of chili pwdr., 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp. red chili flakes, and a small bunch of cilantro, chopped up finely (2-3T?)! I marinated this for about five hours, but I think maybe up to 24 hours the first time I made it. I used a few recipes from Allrecipes.com and tweaked all of them to come up with this earlier this summer. It's delicious!!! If you don't love cilantro, you could omit it, but I can't guarantee it would be as lovable as I find it.

In a med-high hot skillet with an extra drizzle of veg. oil, I dumped in the chicken and marinade. (There's really not so much extra juice. I'd double the recipe if making more than two chicken breasts.) I let this cook for about 10 minutes. While doing so, I....

chopped up veggies. We had a yellow pepper from our garden. I bought a green pepper and white onion to add. I used a med.-sized onion.

I added the peppers to the cooking chicken and stirred frequently for 15-20 minutes, until the veggies were nice and soft and the onions a little caramelized.
We ate the fajitas with sour cream, fresh salsa, and the best Mexican Rice I've ever had! I included the link to Allrecipes, there, where I found it. The texture was perfect--it's all about cooking the rice in a little oil before adding liquid...this was new for me! In the recipe, I used salsa, instead of tomato sauce and one chicken bouillon cube in water, to replace the broth. It was my most successful Spanish/Mexican rice ever. I've tried about three different kinds. Anyway. Enjoy. I'm going to go eat something, because all this talk about food has made me hungry!

Some things I did today...and a recipe, by request.

Today is Tuesday. Yesterday we had an appointment at the doctor's office. No new news. Because of my frequent 'practice contractions', they did hook me up to a machine that let me hear James' heartbeat for 15 minutes. It was very sweet and soothing. Of course, in those 15 minutes, I didn't happen to have a single contraction, which is what they were looking for. I'm not making it up! Really! :) I've decided to just be thankful and content for each day I have to wait. About 3 and a half weeks to go.

Here are a few things I've done today on my 'relaxing' day. (yesterday I probably packed in too many errands and tasks).

1. I checked email and blogs (reading friends' blogs is a current favorite hobby of mine)
2. I went to CVS to "do a deal". I've recently joined the ranks of women who clip coupons and "CVS" in order to get really cheap, and sometimes free things. Today I spent 36 cents for $26.33 of merchandise. I owe it all to Shannon from Grocery Weekly and the Money Saving Mom blog. I've learned a lot from reading their blogs.
3. I watered the garden....I've been slacking on this one lately.
4. I talked with my retired neighbor Tom about his hummingbird feeder and his grandchildren.
5. I picked 7 tomatoes.
6. I ate 1 tomato that I accidentally dropped. It split, so it had to be eaten.
7. I watched the slide show again and cried, because I'm kind of a mush right now. http://www.sorellimages.com/waitingforbabyjames/
8. I searched for the song in the slide show....and found it here: http://www.pushplayer.com/plumb/b/
It's from an album called Blink, by the artist Plumb. She's a Christian artist. The song is called "Me". I listened to her little interview clip on the story behind the song, and cried a little more. Sounds like a great album--very sweet.
9. And now I'm going to post a recipe that Andrea requested. I mentioned elsewhere that I made Sour Cream Enchiladas last night. She said she'd like the recipe. It's easy and delicious!

***For just Mark and me, I "half" each ingredient, except for the green chilies...and it made 6 enchiladas in an 8x11.

Sour Cream Enchiladas
(from the A.C. Home cookbook, a great treasure trove of recipes that my mother-in-law gave me)

2lbs ground beef
1 lg. white onion, chopped
salt & pepper
garlic powder to taste
2 c. sour cream (I used lite--can't tell the difference)
2 (10oz) cans cream of chicken (I used 98% fat free--"")
1 (4oz) can green chilies
12 corn or flour tortillas (I used flour)
16 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

Brown beef with onion. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic pwdr. Drain fat. In med. bowl, combine sour cream, soup, and green chilies. Blend well. Spoon half soup mixture in bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Spoon heaping 2 tablespoons of meat mixture in tortilla. (I probably used more like 1/4 cup in each.) Sprinkle with grated cheese before rolling up. Place seam side down in dish on top of soup mixture. Repeat til all meat is used up. Pour remaining sour cream mixture over tortillas. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake @ 350* for 45 minutes. Serve with salsa.

I love these!! Enjoy!

Photo Slide Show

Friday night we had some pictures taken to document my pregnancy--it was really fun! A friend from church, Sarah Sorell, is a photographer and took them at a nearby park. We think they turned out great! I think she's so talented and worked with the beautiful scenery and sunlight to get some neat pictures. When she sent the slide show to us, she also put it to a little music, so turn up your sound to hear the sweet song she picked. We can't wait to meet our baby James!

Here's the link to the slide show:

www.sorellimages.com/waitingforbabyjames/

Here's Sarah's website, if you're interested in her photography: www.sorellimages.com

Could be a long month...

Our due date is around September 20th. Today is August 20th. Yesterday I experienced about 38 Braxton-Hicks contractions. Yes, I counted...and wrote down the time each one began. By the time evening hit, I was having about 6 an hour! We were packing the suitcase, I was writing more lists, and Mark was researching contractions online. We're fairly certain it's false labor. The contractions just aren't persistent enough, nor are they getting any stronger. Mark read that it can be due to a very active baby or mother. Well, I haven't been very active the past few days, but we do have an extremely active baby....In the meantime, all I can think of are the things I need to still get done! So maybe I'll work on my checklist a little more today!

It could be a long month...

On another note, here are a few pictures of cute little outfits we've accumulated in the last week. The first is of a onesie that my dad spotted on vacation and the second is an outfit Mark and I picked out last weekend.

This one says "I may be small, but I'm a keeper"--sorry it's tilted

the onesie underneath has moose, raccoons, and bears on it...the hoodie has little bear ears on it, too. we thought it was way too cozy-looking to pass it up!

ps. Does anybody know how to upload a horizontally-snapped photo so that it remains horizontal when posted? The first photo above sure was saved horizontally, but it has flipped vertical both times I've tried uploading it. Any photo uploading advice? It didn't seem to be a problem in my other posts.

We had a fun time Friday night at an Ethnic Enrichment Festival. We ate food from India (chicken curry), Ecuador (empanada), Israel (hummus with pita), Vietnam (kabob), Greece (gyro), and Turkey (coffee). Sounds like a lot of food, now that I list it all out, but most of them were $2 or $3 smallish portions.
Delicious! Then at 8:00 we sat down just in time for a Scottish bagpiping presentation--we loved it when they played Amazing Grace! There were new presentations from different countries every half hour....and the festival goes all weekend!

In reference to the checklist in my last post, we also took a tour of the hospital this weekend. It made us really excited to imagine meeting our baby James there! My mom helped me put up curtains in the nursery. And at Walmart I found a stopwatch for Mark....the funny thing is, it came with a whistle! Just for the record, he was definitely joking about using the whistle during labor! :)

At my 34-week appointment on Monday, my doctor asked me to "take it easy" the next few weeks. Apparently, my body is doing a few things to sort of "warm-up" for labor and he doesn't want that to come too soon, if we can help it. I'm not too concerned, because a baby born at 34 weeks would still do well, just need an extra day or two in the hospital. (From what I've read, anyway). So I've cut back on walking in the mornings with my friend Nikki and her son Noah...which didn't take up that much time, really. But this, combined with the fact that the majority of my girlfriends in the area are back at school this week, has given me lots of extra time to think of things I still need to do before James arrives! I'm not feeling anxious or nervous--I just want to be prepared. And the suggestion of "taking it easy" has allowed me to think it might be sooner than I think! So here's my To-Do List. I sometimes can hardly function without a To-Do List. It's rather motivating to me, actually!

1. Borrow mom's amazing Dyson to vacuum the house.
2. Pack our hospital bag and make a list of last-minute things to toss into the suitcase. (his diaper bag is already packed...with so many options for 'ride-home' outfits, it's ridiculous)
3. Buy a stopwatch. Mark wants a whistle, too, for his "coach" position he'll assume during labor, but I'm not too keen on that. And he was joking...right?
4. Order wedding pictures. I know, I know. It's been a year and a half. Better late than never, though.
5. Shop for frames for wedding pictures.
6. Plan a few post-James'-birth meals to freeze. I'm totally copying a friend's blog on this one...but I think it's a great idea and something to do while I'm waiting...
7. Make the meals and some bread to freeze.
8. Hang curtains in James' room.
9. Read the owner's manuals for new baby things we've received and don't know how to operate yet.
10. Clean out my car (there are binoculars in the back seat from a baseball game we went to) and keep plenty of gas in it at all times!
11. Take a hospital tour. We might do this Saturday morning!
12. Pre-register at the hospital. Our appointment is next Tuesday.

Okay, I feel inspired. I'm going to go shop for frames and a stopwatch with my mom now.