7 Months Bump Update with Baby #2

We took this month's bump picture at Disneyland! Definitely the happiest place on earth...unless you've got a 3 pound coconut sitting on your bladder and all your bras are too small and suffocating. Throughout both pregnancies this is the first time I remember feeling so much pressure on my bladder. This pregnancy makes me feel old. I have to pee all the time, my back hurts (specifically my right rib cage), and I groan when I stand up. Even though 7 months is pretty far along, in my head I'm thinking "2 more months of this??! How??" 

Aside from all those fun symptoms, everything else has been pretty mild. My heartburn has gone away for the time being. My skin still itches from time to time, but not as often as in the beginning. No stretch marks (knock on wood!) and my belly button popped out awhile ago. Everything is going well except for the tiny little detail that my internal organs have officially run out of space.

I was talking with another 7 month's pregnant mama at Gymboree, and she said her baby always sits in pretty much the same spot and asked where mine was sitting. I'm pretty sure he's just swimming laps in there, swinging off my ribs like monkey bars. At least, that's what it feels like. He is one active little boy, and it makes me wonder how I'm going to keep up with two of them. It is comforting to feel him moving so much though. 

Not sure if there are any Shark Tank fans out there, but awhile back I saw this Almond Water on the show:

 I've searched every store we've gone to looking for it with no luck. Well, I finally found it over the weekend and it did not disappoint! Unfortunately it was in Burbank, which is a little far for me to drive just to satisfy a craving, but I hear they have them at Fresh & Easy too. 

Other than that, cravings have been more of the same: Honey Nut Cheerios, baked potatoes (which I've made for dinner pretty much every night that I didn't just eat cheerios), grapefruit, and pineapple. It sounds relatively healthy, but eating cereal all day long probably isn't the best. 

Not too much new stuff in the baby gear or shared boys' room front, but I did go through a de-cluttering streak this past week, which I think counts as nesting:

It's kinda embarrassing to share the before pics, but welcome to my life. #reallife #notaneatfreak

This week we got some happy news that Joe's cousin is pregnant, and we'll be adding another cousin to the mix around the holidays! We also got really sad news that Joe's grandma passed away. We had just visited with her last weekend, and even though she wasn't in great health, it was still shocking news. We thought she'd get the chance to meet her newest great grandchildren and she will be greatly missed, especially as we celebrate these new family additions. It's definitely a reminder that life is unpredictable and to make the best of moments with family while you can.

What I Ate Wednesday: Pregnancy Edition

It's been awhile since I've done a WIAW post, and I thought it would be fun to look back on what my pregnant self was eating/craving. As you can see for yourself, I eat a LOT when I'm pregnant. I included two days worth of food. The first is a normal weekday, and the second  is one of our weekend days in San Diego. I took these photos over a week ago, back when I still had enough room in my stomach to eat big meals. Lately I've been splitting my meals in half, and eating twice as often, but I think I'm still eating roughly the same amount. As you can see I eat a lot more fruits and veggies on a normal day, and a lot more french fries and dessert on the weekend. Too bad everyday can't be the weekend ;)

Day 1:

Breakfast (8ish): 1 packet of plain oatmeal mixed with 1 packet strawberries and cream oatmeal. This is definitely a weird pregnancy craving for me because I've never before in my life eaten strawberries and cream oatmeal, but now I'm slightly addicted. 2 pieces of toast, 2 eggs and half a grapefruit (another pregnancy craving). Ive been eating this exact breakfast for about 3 weeks now. This is double what I'd eat pre-pregnancy, but I wind up shaky hungry by 11 if I eat less. 

Lunch (noon-ish): Nachos are on constant lunch rotation over here. These are just corn chips, vegetarian refried beans, light mozzarella, and taco sauce, along with an apple.

Snack 1 (3ish): post-workout I ate a small bowl of Trader Joe's multi-grain O's with a banana and unsweetened almond milk.

Snack 2 (5ish): We don't eat dinner till 7, and I can't last that long without a second snack. This is the same green smoothie from this post that Ez and I have been drinking almost daily. 

Dinner (7ish): Zucchini "noodles" topped with lentil tomato sauce and light mozzarella. Don't mind the watery-ness. Pregnant lady was too hungry to let the noodles drain properly. We ate this with mushroom cream cheese pinwheels, which were delicious, but I forgot to get a picture. 

Dessert: (8:30) Post after-dinner walk we had strawberry shortcake using cake mix soda cupcakes - which are basically just a can of soda and a box of cake mix (I used yellow cake + diet sprite). Normally we just use those dessert cups that taste like twinkies, but the store was out and I happened to have cake mix and soda already. This was a pinterest creation (of course!) and they actually turned out really good. Here are a bunch more yummy combos I want to try. We topped the cupcakes with strawberries and lots of cool whip. Yum.

Day 2:

Since I didn't take pictures of everything I ate over the weekend, this is a mish mash of pictures taken over two days to give an idea of a sample weekend day.

Breakfast: 2 fried egg sandwich on wheat bread with herb cream cheese. Ez and I split the fruit.

Post-breakfast dessert: We split these bite-size cakes. So delicious!

Lunch (at the zoo): Veggie burgers and fries followed by a soft serve cone that Joe and I split. Too bad for Ez that he slept through it.

Dinner: Fish sandwiches and Joe and I split the fries/onion rings. We also ate a few bites of fudge afterward, but it was disgustingly sweet and we threw it away. That's saying a lot, coming from me. 

So there you have it! I think my pregnancy cravings are pretty basic: eggs, fruit, french fries, sweets, and nachos. Got all my bases covered ;)

Foodie Friday: Cheesy Egg Breadbowls

This all started when I saw a picture of a deliciously cheesy, egg-filled bread bowl on Facebook. You may or may not already know I have an obsession with eggs. I think they're great, anytime, day or night. (See some of my other favorite eggs for dinner recipes here.) So of course I had to ask Google how to make it. Immediately. 

I reviewed a few recipes, and they all included sliced ham. After reading through the recipes to figure out the best way to make them vegetarian, I became convinced the ham was somewhat necessary, to prevent the egg from soaking into the bread, so I substituted it with sliced Tofurkey. For the bread I used par-baked mini paninis, and I used shredded lite mozzarella, both from Trader Joe's. And then I followed Recipe Tin Eats' instructions to the T. 

This recipe is ridiculously easy, takes less than 30 minutes start to finish, requires virtually no cleanup, and my pregnant self is already craving it again. Bonus: each bread bowl is under 300 cals (if you care about that kinda thing, which I do). We ate it for dinner, with a kale power salad from Sprouts, but I had leftovers for breakfast the next day, which I just wrapped in a paper towel and microwaved for about 30 seconds, and it was equally delicious. I can already tell this will be a go-to quick and easy post-partum dinner. 

What are some of your fave 30 minute or make-ahead meals?

Our Weekend: LA, Disney, and LOTS of Food!

Considering we didn't even realize it was a long weekend until Thursday, I think we did a pretty good job of packing in a lot of fun stuff. We kicked off the weekend on Friday (when Joe works from home) with breakfast with friends. Once again Joe got a little taste of being outnumbered by kids, and once again he did an amazing job at keeping all the kids happy and entertained. He'll be a pro by the time baby #2 gets here.

Saturday

Saturday we decided it was time for our bi-annual trip to Stan's Donuts, in LA. We saw them on the food network when I was pregnant with Ez, and of course we had to try them out. That's also where Ez had his first donut. (See here and here.) They do not disappoint, and this time Stan even personally came out to our table to bring us several more filled donut holes - because clearly we didn't have enough donuts already:

Since Stan's Donuts is right down the street from UCLA we decided to walk around the campus for a bit. We visited the same fountain that Ez loved splashing around in last time. It wasn't quite as warm, but we still let him dip his feet in. He also kicked his soccer ball around on the grass and we browsed the bookstore too. 

After all that Ez still wasn't in a napping mood, so we headed over to Joe's work, which also happened to be the scene of a pool party on the first episode of the Bachelor. Not sure if any of you are watching that show, but can they please bring Jimmy Kimmel back for every episode?? He makes the otherwise dull, generic conversations on the dates so much better! I was pro-Chris during Andi's season, but he's just coming across so boring this season. Anyway, here's the pool:

And here's Joe's view from the office:

Ez loved the bird's eye view of the freeways below.

This statue sure does make me want to run out and get an office job...

because Ez hadn't had enough sugar for the day ;)

Can you tell he's got a sweet tooth??

Sunday

On Sunday we decided to put our brand new Disney Annual Passports to use! Unfortunately they were doing the Star Wars marathon that day, so traffic was crazy. Then, once we finally got to the gates and were about to walk into the park, the attendant informs us that our passes expired last month. Exactly one week after we bought them. Huh?? We had to stand there for what felt like forever while they sorted it out. Definitely feels like Disney dropped the ball on their normally efficient ways lately. It took us 90 minutes last month to actually buy our passes, and then they only made them valid for a week? Not to mention they charged us for our expired passes this month... Needless to say we were a little annoyed by the time we finally made it into the park, but it's impossible to stay annoyed in Disneyland for long. Especially when the weather is perfect and cinnamon rolls are on the agenda!

Considering how often I go to Disneyland, it's surprising to me that there are still so many things I've never done. This trip we took a ride on the pirate ship, which Ez loved so much he cried when we had to get off. I'd also never been on the storybook boats or Flik's Flyers before. I think Ez got a teensy bit bored on the storybook boats, possibly because we had to wait for half an hour, which is a long time at that age, but he loved Flik's Flyers. He even loved watching them from the line, and then once we got on them and they started flying I think he was a little scared at first, but he got into it and was smiling by the end.

While we were over at Disney California we also got to meet Mickey! It was the shortest line I've ever waited in to meet a character. Ez was actually really excited to see Mickey...until we got to the front of the line and got/had to stand next to him. Then the picture couldn't be over fast enough. Now we're just missing Donald, and Daisy as far as the classic characters go. We also saw the genie, Aladdin, and Jasmine when we first got into the park, but then we had to wait forever for our passes to get sorted out so we didn't get a picture :(

Ez's standard get-me-outta-here pose

If you're keeping track, I basically ate some form of fried dough every meal this weekend.

Funny story bout that giant piece of toffee (bottom right): Joe was alone in line for the candy while I was next door getting us Starbucks, and apparently when he got to the front of the line the lady helping him yelled out, "Yay! I get to help the cute one!" Then she proceeded to tell him that he reminded her of a Puerto Rican lover she had when she was younger (she was about 70), and started speaking Spanish to Joe. To top it all off she said something along the lines of "the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice." We've been cracking up over that ever since.

Veg Recipe of the Week: Sweet Chili Tropical Salad

Now that I'm in my third trimester and back from vacation, I'm easing back into healthy eating. The second trimester was a free-for-all, and even though part of my brain knew that you could gain weight that quickly, the majority of my brain is shocked at how much weight I gained in three short months. That was my inspiration for the February Salad Challenge, and so far I've been doing pretty well. I don't eat a salad as a meal every single day, but it does happen most days, and there have even been days where I've eaten spinach at breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not by itself, of course).

In honor of my salad month, I'm going to share one of my new favorite salad combinations for this week's Veg Recipe. It all started in Kaua'i with the salad above, which I ordered on our first full day there at a burger restaurant in Poi'pu. This salad is a Nina special - I mixed and matched several salad toppings from about three different salads on their menu. And then (this is the best part), instead of the balsamic dressing I asked for on the side, I poured on the leftover sweet chili sauce that came with our onion ring appetizer. The end result: grilled mahi mahi, pineapple, shredded carrots, tomatoes, croutons, spring greens, and the magical sweet chili sauce.

Since I've been home, I've purchased a few bottles of sweet chili sauce and recreated this salad a few different ways. As long as the two main ingredients are there (pineapple + chili sauce), it always tastes delicious.

Variation 1: Side Salad with sliced red peppers, spinach, pineapple, & chili sauce:

Variation 2: Side salad above + Gardein Chicken (minus the sauce that comes with the chicken):

Joe used to love eating the chili sauce with chicken, but now that's he's vegetarian he's gotten into the habit of eating it with veggies too. Trust us and try it, it's soooo good!

And here's a little update on some of my other salads of the month:

1. Chuck E Cheese Salad Bar: romaine, spinach, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, light ranch dressing, cottage cheese, gold fish, and jello salad (not pictured)
2.  Crab Cake Salad from Sesame Grill on Valentine's Day: two crab cakes, spring mix, shredded carrots, one sliced tomato, delicious sweet creamy dressing (not too much - just the right amount), and little flowers and grass adornments (I don't eat those)
3. Red Robin Southwest Salad with Fried Fish (instead of chicken): mixed greens, black beans, fried jalapenos (gave most of those to Joe), avocado, cheese & tortilla strips (took most of those off), fried fish (only ate one piece - tasted really salty to me), and salsa as dressing
4. Sweet Chili "Chicken" Salad
5. Sweet Potato Bean Veggie Pattie + avocado, mixed veggies, and a kale salad mix from Costco all sauteed with salsa, and then topped with more salsa and a slice of american cheese
6. Blueberry Mac Nut Salad: spinach tossed with a spoonful of honey greek yogurt, blueberries, pineapple tidbits + the juice they came in, and crushed honey macadamia nuts. Yum!! This was unexpectedly good. I was craving a fruit salad, and decided to add spinach to make it a "real" salad. The only ingredient I wish I could have added was coconut (I went out and bought some later, so I will have to make this again)
7. Sauteed Veggie & Hummus Salad: zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers sauteed with parsley and pepper for a few minutes, then tossed with spinach and eggplant hummus (from Trader Joe's) - so good!
8. Spanish Rice Salad + Black Bean Enchilada - Instead of a full serving of rice, I just used a spoonful as a topping to my salad, along with spinach, salsa, and sauteed bell pepper
9. Pineapple Chili Salad

Weekend Recap & Cravings of the Week

La Brea Tarpits, Round 2

This past weekend we went back to the La Brea Tar Pits with Joe's mom. This was my first time actually going inside the museum. It's amazing how many skeletons they've recovered from that area, and they're still finding more. We also went to a short, informative show that had a life-size animatronic Saber Tooth Cat (lesson #1: they are not called Saber Tooth Tigers). Lesson #2: the edges of the cat's Saber Teeth were serrated - so they theorize the cats would saw at their prey, not stab them. Personally, I disagree. My cat has much smaller teeth and he's punctured my arm with them. Maybe the teeth were multifunctional - good for stabbing or sawing?

 

Water on Leaves by Joe

Cravings of the Week

1) For Thursday's Date Night, we had Mexican food for dinner, watched Silver Linings Playbook, and for dessert we went to Merengue in Monrovia. Joe got a "Carrot Cake Ball" - which looked like a really tall carrot cupcake, but after dissecting it, we decided it looked like two cupcakes stuck together with frosting. Whatever it was, it was yummy. I got bread pudding and it was delish.

 

2) A Friday night shopping date turned into another reason to stop by Cinnabon. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea, because their line was loooong. (But so worth it!)

3) We bought a Groupon for Pita Jungle, a place I've been wanting to try for awhile. Joe got a veggie burger with roasted potatoes and I got a falafel wrap (my second falafel wrap this month). The wrap was good, but I couldn't finish it because we started off with the 4-bean nachos on blue corn chips. Just looking at all that melty cheese is making me hungry!

4) You can never go wrong with Violet's cupcakes. We got four mini ones to share: Vanilla, Carrot Cake, German Chocolate, and Peach Cobbler. My fave was the Peach Cobbler, followed by the Vanilla.

5) Pre-Tar Pits we stopped by Veggie Grill. It was our second time there in under a month, and I went with the same as last time: Santa Fe Chick'n Sandwich (bottom right corner) and Chili Cheese Sweet Potato Fries (to share). Joe branched out and tried the Crab Cake Sandwich (top right corner), and Joe's mom got the Chick'n Plate (top left corner).