Weekly meals

Jeff picked all of our meals for this week which was such a blessing! Sunday afternoon rolls around and I have been dreading planning meals and going to the grocery store. Thankfully I only had to run to the store yesterday which requires hardly any brain power :)
A quick rant note on crock pot meals: I made crock pot chicken tikki masala last week (or 2 weeks ago?) and while it is delicious it should never, ever be cooked in the crock pot. The whole point of crock pot cooking is to save time and energy by just throwing ingredients into the pot and pressing start, right? This recipe has you marinating the chicken, browning it in batches, AND making a sauce before finally putting all of the components into the crock pot. Really? What's the point? I could have spent the same amount of time cooking later in the day and would have been able to eat right away if I hadn't used the crock pot. If you want a good recipe that requires absolutely no work at all try this delicious mediterranean chicken. My only tip would be to leave the prunes out until the last 30 minutes of cooking or they get really squishy.
And now what you've all been waiting for...a list of our meals this week!

• Pesto noodles with ground turkey (1/2 package brown rice noodles, pesto, chopped walnuts, handful of sliced mushrooms, 1/2 bag spinach, ground turkey (cooked), salt. Mix together and enjoy!)
• Thai crunch chicken salad
• Burgers with sweet potato rounds and veggies
• Chicken lettuce wraps
• Sweet potato soup with chicken sausage
• Steak salad

Whats on your menu this week? 

Hop on over to Mother's mouthful to see our latest post -  Loving lately: baby!

Weekly meals

I'm lacking motivation in the meal department this week. Sometimes this happens. Cooking meal after meal gets tiresome and this afternoon I just couldn't think of what to make for the week. Here is what I have on the menu so far!

• Turkey salad lettuce wraps - made these tonight with a rotisserie chicken. Verdict: delicious! Leftovers would be perfect for a quick lunch. I added walnuts instead of slivered almonds because its what I had in the pantry
• Mediterranean chicken
• Corned beef, potatoes, and sour kraut!
• Rice Mac N Cheese (?)

i really want to make these soon:

• buttermilk biscuits
• salted caramel brownies

Happy First Birthday Little Lew!

One year ago today we met our little boy for the first time!
My water broke at 5:45 am and contractions started immediately after that. At this time last year Jeff and I were sitting on the couch watching the office, waiting to hear back from my Midwife. My contractions were about 7 minutes apart by this point but not incredibly intense and we were both so excited that the day was finally here! At around 11 contractions were very intense and hard to talk through. So we decided that walking would be a good idea. Ouch.

Feeling like I want to puke

And then many many more contractions later....Tada! Lewis was born

 

 

 Our first visitors from Colorado :)

One year later we love him even more then when we first met him

He is goofy and smart and contemplative. Loves to laugh and play and be chased! Its hard to believe he has grown and changed so much in just one short year. He is eating pretty much everything we eat now and loves it. He had pork green chili stew the other night and some chicken tikki masala last night!

Favorites:

• toast 
• bananas
• playing hide and seek
• his big orange ball
• bath time
• daddy
• reading
• playing the guitar
• looking out of the window

Words:

• bath
• ball
• mama
• dada
• more

Skills:

• climbing
• crawling
• clapping
• turning on and off lights
• dancing
• singing
• standing
• barking like a dog & roaring like a tiger

Baby Lewis we love you so much and are so glad God chose us to be your parents! Happy first birthday sweet boy!

Weekly meals

Finally an on time meal post! Just made my meal plan for the week and about to head out the door to grab some groceries at Trader Joe's. I'm dreading getting into the car, driving over there, walking up our 3 long flights of stairs...We have to eat dinner tonight though so I don't really have an option! Here is what we are planning to eat this week. What's on your menu?

• Slow cooker chicken tikki masala over green beans (i'll use coconut milk instead of cream)
• Pork green chili stew
• Crustless quiche  with roasted veggies & salad
• Potato leek soup with roasted beet salad
• Meatloaf with acorn squash
• Salmon topped with pecans with salad and veggies

The warmth of the sun & a day at the pool

Lately Lewis has just been wanting to climb up onto the couch and then stand on the windowsill looking out into the great beyond. He does this pretty much every morning (with my help of course). This morning the sun was warm and bright

Love

Yesterday we had a fun day with friends at the pool in Lynnwood! There were tons of little fountains and water toys to play with. Even a miniature lazy river. Lewis was a little overwhelmed but enjoyed splashing around and watching the bigger kids play

A lazy day + the best chicken stir fry ever

Its a rainy day in the neighborhood...
This morning we played in bed for a little while, Lewis was rocking his new Lion pjs:)

When he woke up from his nap we went to Whole Foods to pick up some essentials

And made it back in time to eat some delicious lunch! Lewis feasted like a madman 

Lunch consisted of leftover stir fry that we had for dinner last night. The key to a great stir fry is all in the method people. Here is the recipe that I like best:

Ingredients:

Chicken

• 1.5-2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch strips
• 1tsp baking soda
• 2Tbs water
• Marinade: 1/3 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbs rice vinegar, 1-2Tbs garlic chili paste

Veggies

• 1 head broccoli
• 2 large carrots
• 1 zucchini
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1 small onion
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 handful hericot verts/sugar snap peas 
• 1 red bell pepper

Method:

Chicken

• I first saw this method for preparing chicken in an issue of Cooks Magazine. I have been doing it ever since and my chicken turns out absolutely perfect every time. My main problem with sauteing chicken breasts is that they always get dry and rubbery. Not with this method! Your meat will be deliciously tender 
• Begin by cutting your chicken into strips and placing in a small bowl. Add 2Tbs water and 1tsp baking soda to the chicken and mix to coat. Let sit for 15 - 20 minutes
• In the meantime prepare your marinade by mixing your soy sauce, rice vinegar, and garlic chili paste
• Rinse and drain chicken well, put back into the bowl and pour the marinade over the chicken
• Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes 

Veggies

• The key to crispy not overdone veggies is to make sure they aren't too wet and that there is ample room in your pan when you fry them. If there are too many veggies or your pan is too small they will end up steaming, resulting in squishy, smooshie vegetables. I don't have a pan big enough to hold all of my veggies so I generally either cook them in two batches or use two different pans.
• While the chicken is marinating prep your veggies. Cut them all into 1 inch chunks

Fry it up!

• When your chicken is done marinating heat some oil in a large wok or pan. When the oil is hot dump the chicken in and cook on high heat until the liquid has evaporated, flipping every couple of minutes. This will ensure a nice caramelized finish on the outside of the chicken. Delish. Turn the heat down to medium and continue cooking until the chicken is no longer pink in the center
• While the chicken is cooking heat a little oil in another pan for the veggies. Again, you want the pan to be hot so that the veggies stay crispy! Alternatively, if you only want to use 1 pan for this, you can wait until the chicken is done cooking to begin the veggies 
• Begin by cooking the hard vegetables first: carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Cook on med-high heat for 10 minutes then turn the heat to medium and throw in the rest of the veggies along with a little soy sauce and some garlic chili paste, cook for 5-10 more minutes 

Serve it

• When your chicken and veggies are all done mix them together and serve with rice, noodles, or kelp noodles

enjoy!

Weekend adventures

This past weekend went too quickly, like they all do, but we had such a good time together! Saturday we took a long Walk at a park on the Sound. Lewis loves his new carrier, now he can see where we are going!

Sunday was pizza night so we walked over to Papa Murphey's and picked this little guy up

Lewis is getting so big and has such a spirit of adventure. I left him alone for less than a minute and found him here...Just standing on the blender looking out of the guest room window. So funny

Playing the day away. Our favorite thing to do during the day (especially during these winter months) is to just sit and play together inside. Such a big boy!

 Did some grocery shopping. Normally I put Lewis in the baby carrier and shop that way but this time I decided to let him sit in the cart. He LOVED it! He was holding on like he was on a fun ride the entire time

 This boy is turning 1 next Friday and got his first birthday present from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Jenn, and his cousins Conner and Graham! He has been having so much fun bouncing it around the apartment

Weekly meals

Here is what we will be eating this week! What's on your menu?

Pot roast over acorn squash with roasted beets and asparagus
Turkey burgers with roasted veggies and twice baked sweet potatoes
Chicken Stir fry with seaweed noodles
Salmon salads
Chili