recipes from last week

Well, I am excited to say I actually made everything I planned to make last week; except the cookies which I'm making tonight. That doesn't usually happen. I plan, shop, and then I only end up making a few of the dishes. But this week I made them all. I guess that says I'm better at planning. All the recipes I made last week were recipes I have made before so my reviews are all positive.
The ham n' cheese soup is always a hit and always very filling. To the Spicy Beef I add a drained can of green beans in with the meat at the end to incorporate the flavors and heat up the beans. The cassoulet was an adventure this week. I was so sure I had all of the ingredients, I didn't check ahead of time. I usually use a Jimmy Dean ground sausage roll for the sausage but I was out so I used kelbasa. The flavor was fine, the mistake was smelling it throughout the house all day with my delicate pregnancy nose. But ok. I also usually substitute white wine for apple juice but, lo and behold, I was out. Luckily, chicken broth is an acceptable substitute. I also didn't have the cannelloni beans so used chickpeas instead. Really, I substituted almost all of the ingredients.
The Cambodian chicken stew is always delicious. The na'an bread was the adventure this time. I have a black thumb when it comes to making bread. It doesn't rise. This time I'm pretty sure I had bad yeast. It didn't proof, and then didn't rise. But I used the dough anyway since na'an is a flatbread. It was dense but still tasted good.

20 Weeks

So I'm halfway done. It doesn't seem like it. I mean, I'm due in June, that seems like a long way off. But morning sickness is gone, thank goodness, I'm tired a lot of the time and I get bad lower back pain every once in awhile. But, I also feel the baby a lot. Aaron has yet to feel him but I feel him moving all the time. I have a list of things that need to get done before he comes and I'm slowly knocking it out, so I have something to do especially when Aaron is traveling; which seems to be happening with greater frequency of late.

Here are some of the ultrasound pics.

Next Week's Menu

So here is my menu for next week starting on Sunday. I’ll review them as I make them

Sunday

Ham'n Cheese Soup    from Fix it and Forget it

2 cups pototoes, cubed

1 1/2 cups water

1 1'2 cups cooked ham

1 large onion, chopped

3 Tbs. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp. black pepper

3 cups milk

6 ozs. shredded cheese

1 cup frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped

Combine all ingredients except last two into crock pot

Cook on low 6-8 hrs.

Add cheese and broccoli, Stir well. Cook an additional 15 min.

Monday

Spicy Beef                    from my mom. Not actually spicy.                

1 lb.  ground Beef

½ onion2 cloves garlic

3 tbs. fish sauce

3 tbs. lemon juice

1 ¼ tbs. basil

½ tsp. grd. Chili pepper

Brown Burger, drain fat. Add onions and garlic. Add everything else and simmer over low heat until served.   Serve over bed of rice.

Tuesday

Slow Cooker Cassoulet 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-cassoulet/detail.aspx

Wednesday

Leftovers

Thursday

Cambodian Chicken Soup

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cambodian-chicken-soup/detail.aspx

Naan bread

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/naan/detail.aspx

Friday

Taco Salad in homemade tortilla bowls  My recipe

Lettuce

Corn

Black olives

Taco meat

Salsa

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Tortillas

Dessert

Coconut Macaroons  Atkins website (1 net carb per cookie) This ones for Aaron

Ingredients

• 1 cooking spray
• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 2/3 Cup Splenda
• 1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 2 Cups unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Spray two baking sheets with oil spray. 
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg whites until medium peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar substitute, vanilla extract and salt. Turn speed up to high and continue beating until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. 
3. Using a rubber spatula, fold in coconut. 
4. Drop tablespoon-sized mounds of mixture onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 1 minute before carefully transferring to wire racks to cool completely

First belly picture

So here I was at 17 weeks, I look about the same now at 20 weeks.

Let's try this again

This is making me feel like my history with trying to keep a journal. I start, make a few entries, then stop. But here it goes again. I was thinking on doing some recipe stuff this time around. I'll post what my meal plan is for the next week, along with recipes. I'll then post photos and reviews, along with all the other stuff I might want to blog about. Who knows, we'll see what happens.

The Start of the Recipes

I am starting to cook again this week. Yay. Of course, I am not really unpacked yet so it should make cooking more interesting as I search for cooking implements. We moved into a new apartment on Thursday. The movers came and delivered everything. We are in an apartment with a garage, the garage is a little bit down the street. I had the movers put some things in the garage but had them put all the boxes upstairs so I could sort through them. Well, now that I look at them, most of them will go in the garage. Crap for being on the third floor.

So Thursday I was getting stuff out of the corporate apartment. I was dragging a 40 lb bag of dog food down the stairs (again with the third floor) when the bottom decided to disintegrate. Dog food everywhere. Luckily I had just gone to the store and got one of those dog food containers. So there I was scooping up 40 lbs of dog food one cup at a time. Fun stuff huh?

Saturday we went to the new movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" or something like that. It was pretty funny. I recommend it. Nothing else out really looks good. I mean it is either R or stupid.

So here is my menu for the week, feel free to cook along with me. Ask me for the recipes.

Monday:

Tender Pot Roast, Salad

Tuesday:

15-Minute Chicken and Rice dinner, Salad

Wednesday:

Cinnamon and Lime Chicken Fajitas, Salad

Thursday:

Avocado-Lime Shrimp Salad, Garlic Bread, Spicy Green Beans

Friday:

Chicken and 3 cheese Potato Casserole, Salad

Saturday:

Avocado and Green chili Soup, Taco Salad

Sunday:

Mexican Haystacks, Salad

Playing Catch up

I am no better at keeping up with this than I am at keeping a journal. I thought if maybe other people were reading it I would be motivated to keep at it. I just really suck at this.

Well, I am now in South Carolina. Guess what. It's cold. The first week I was here it snowed like, 6 inches in one day. It was funny to watch the dogs though. I showed it to them on the patio. They walked out and then turned right back around and came inside. Then next day we took them to an open field and let them run around and they began to really like it.

Everyone keeps asking me how I like it here. I really do not know how to answer them. I don't spend too much time outside, and it is just like any other city I've been in. I mean other than the temperature and the fact that absolutely everything is brown and dead, my life is alot like it was in Florida. I am at an awkward stage right now though. I am out of school and I won't be going back. It is so weird to think that this is the rest of my life. College was really such a small part. I mean, it's like in church. You start out in Primary, and you're there till you are 12. Then you join the youth organization and are there till you are 18. Suddenly you are in Relief Society. And guess what, you're there till you die. Not to be a downer or anything it's just weird to think that there are not any more stages. Bam, you're an adult. I feel like that now. I mean I left home and went to college. Vacations, hobbies, weddings, all were planned around school breaks. Now I just realized that I no longer have that constraint. Together as a family, we have constraints, but if I want to go to someone's wedding or visit someone, I don't have to worry about planning around a break.

I am at loose ends however. I relish that freedom I loath to give that up for a job. But I need to be doing something, not only to keep busy but also to grow. I mean, where is the challenge in staying home with no kids. I've been drifting these past weeks since coming here because our living situation is temporary and all of our belongings are in storage. We will be leaving this apartment for a different one next week. I hope to get myself back into some semblance of a schedule. Befoer, I would get up to make my husband breakfast before work. But now he is getting up a 6 and to be quite honest, that is not really my favorite time of day. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and start going to bed earlier. Grrrr. I am so a night person.

I am looking forward to having my sewing and cooking stuff back. We are going on a cruise the middle of April and I've been designing some cool stuff I want to wear.

I'm also looking forward to cooking again. I have got tons of recipes I want to try out and I have started to get them all together in a database. I am going to review them and share them on this blog. Fell free to cook along with me.

I feel bad for Max. He was running around yesterday and he ran into a set of bleachers (note to everyone, don't run full speed while looking the other way) and scrapped the bottom of his paw pad off. It bled everywhere. We wrapped it and it finally stopped bleeding this morning. Now he walks on his toes and lays around in his crate, I didn't put him there. He just wants to be there. It is driving Toby crazy because he wants to play. Oh well.