Quick Italian Vegetable Pie

This yummy concoction was given to me by my mother in law who got it from an old friend of hers years ago. It is basically a quiche without the crust (so gluten free!). It turned out really yummy and you can get quite creative with it. I made the original recipe since I am eating diary through my pregnancy. (Poor Elijah had to have plain old scrambled eggs for dinner that night.) But there are ways to make this dairy free pretty easily and I will definitely do that after the babies are born and I am nursing!

Ingredients:
10 1/2 oz spinach - if frozen thaw and squeeze dry
OR 8 oz of broccoli or zucchini
Sliced fresh mushrooms (I love mushrooms so I used a lot!)
14 oz lowfat cottage cheese OR 8 oz plain yogurt. ( Coconut milk yogurt to make dairy free)
8 oz of shredded mozzarella (or non dairy cheese of your choice!)
1/4 cup of Parmesan. ( I omitted this altogether cause it just seemed like an awful lot of cheese)
2/3 cup of chunky salsa (drain juice) - I forgot to drain. Whoops.  Still turned out great.
4 eggs
1 tsp (or so) Italian seasoning or salt,pepper,onion powder,garlic powder,oregano ( I used the combo of spices and herbs so I could control portions and I always use a bit more than it says

Ready for the oven!

Directions:
Spray pie plate with olive oil or cooking spray. (I used a 9x9 pan and it worked beautifully. ) Mix together all ingredients. Put in pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to 1 hour or until set.  (I def recommend at least an hour. I left it in for a few minutes longer.

*Can be prepared ahead and refrigerate until time to cook. Can cook and reheat later!

I served with honey dew and breakfast potatoes. A yummy twist on dinner!

Slow Cooked Beef Stew

I just love soups and stews, even in the summertime! This beef stew turned out to be pretty easy.  There was a little more prep than your average crock pot meal but you have dinner for several days with it! And it was nice and thick and yummy! It does call for flour which is usually a no no for Elijah and me but we were having a guest for dinner (Hi JT!) so I didn't want to experiment and I figured the half cup of flour that goes in this giant pot of stew was not really a big deal.  I did use a little corn starch as well for thickening. Next time, I plan to use a GF flour and maybe potato starch instead. After tasting this stew, I realized there is not much you could do to mess it up. YUM!

Slow Cooker Beef Stew 

• 2 lbs of stewing beef, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil ( I used quite a bit more to prevent sticking and give it that carmel brown color)
• 2 medium sized onions, chopped into large pieces
• 2 ribs celery, chopped 
• 4 carrots, chopped ( I used 6-8)
• about 20 mini-potatoes, cut large ones in half, leave smallest ones as is (I like to use a mix of yellow, red and blue, no need to peel)
• 1  28 oz. can whole tomatoes (I use plum tomatoes)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 3 cups sodium reduced beef broth, divided
• 2 bay leaves ( I love bay leaves so I had several throught the stew)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (Honestly I don't overdo salt but this called for A LOT more salt. Add and taste throughout cooking then again at the end)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper ( again, I used a little more than this)
• 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and then lightly brown the meat in batches. Transfer browned beef to a plate and set aside.

Dump the tomatoes into the slow cooker (juice and all). Crush them with a potato masher or the back of a spoon.  Note: the tomatoes will squirt juice everywhere! Next time I may buy them already in pieces on use a food processor to break them into chunks. 

Add the onions, celery, carrots and potatoes. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning over the vegetables and then add the beef and any accumulated drippings. Pour 2 1/2 cups of the beef broth over the beef and vegetables. Give the mixture a quick stir. Add the bay leaves.

Cover and cook on low for 8 – 10 hours.

About 20 minutes before serving, add the peas (no need to defrost first), salt and pepper. In a small bowl whisk together the flour and remaining 1/2 cup of beef broth, creating a smooth paste. Stir into the stew. Replace the slow cooker cover and cook until thickened (about 15-20 minutes).

Remove the bay leaves before serving.  ( I actually leave them in there and just warn people to pick them out)

14 Week Pregnant

Okay first of all, I know there are weird dark spots on my pictures. Someone fuzz got into my camera lens...like IN the lens! It has taken FOREVER for me to figure out this is what was wrong, even after showing the problem to several photographers I know. Since it is a point and shoot and therefore does not have a removable lens, I will need to get it to a camera shop. However I have DSLR camera scheduled to arrive soon (um YAY!) so I wanted to wait until then to take care of this so I am not camera-less. ANYWAY, said all that to say, please excuse the dark spots.

14 WEEKS! Really not much has changed since last week. I went to the doctor on Monday and found out that I am anemic so I am now on iron, and on the market for an iron skillet  (as recommended by my doula/midwife). There are also a few other supplements she recommended that are supposed to help. I am really hoping this also helps my energy levels. I know insomnia and lack of sleep is really to blame the most for my fatigue but anemia can also cause that so I am hoping to get at least a little relief. Everything else at the doctor appointment looked great. He was happy with my weight gain but I am always reminded that for me it is especially important to keep my weight under control in order to insure a successful VBAC and I have been much more wary of carbs and concentrating on protein and calcium.

The main reason I wanted to do an update this week was because I had a picture from 14 week with my Elijah pregnancy and I love side by side comparisons of my pregnancies.

14 Weeks - Sweet little apples. The babies are about 3 1/2 inches each from crown to rump!

14 Weeks! Yippee!!!

I just love being pregnant, especially when my shots are over! 

BIG BELLY!

My "little" Sweet P!

Then and Now. An experienced womb with double the fun!

Elijah Has His Last Serving Of Mama's Milk - 1 Year, 3 Months, 2 Weeks and 4 Days of Love and Nourishment!

It is the end of an era, or so it feels. From the very beginning, Elijah and I have had an incredible breast feeding relationship. He latched right on just 30 minutes or so after my unplanned c-section and nursed like a champ several times throughout that evening. He never once had trouble with his latch, even with an upper lip tie we would later (much later) discover. I fell in love with nursing right away quickly became an advocate for breast feeding.  The most precious moments and memories I have with Elijah are those spent feeding him at the breast, and after weaning, bottle feeding him my lovingly pumped milk.

As anyone who follows our blog knows, Elijah was conceived through IVF.  I knew the moment I saw this precious little baby boy that I was not done having babies. I wanted my children to be close in age for several reasons. One was that I wanted them to grow up together.  I have two brothers that are 8 and 17 years apart from me and I spent the ages 5 until about 8 wishing I had siblings, each of us feeling like an only child at some point in our lives.  I want a big family, and since we started having babies later in life, that didn't leave a lot of time for age gaps either. Knowing that breast feeding is one of the most important decisions you can make for your baby, and also knowing that I wanted Elijah to have breast milk beyond the one year,  if we did IVF when I hoped to, I wanted to make sure I had a great supply so that I could pump and freeze milk for his use after he weaned. Breast milk stays good in a deep freeze for about six to eight months, so for the first six months of Elijah's life, I happily and lovingly pumped and donated our "extra" milk to babies in need. It was an amazing and empowering experience and I am SO for milk sharing!

Once we made it to October, I started stockpiling our deep freeze with our milk. I eventually had about 2000+ ounces in there.   In early 2013, Chip and I began to discuss to reality of more children and beginning the IVF process all over again. By the end of April, (also Elijah's birthday) our plans were in full swing. Elijah was weaned, which was actually a very easy process for us, and he was enjoying the wares of my labors (pumped milk) every day! Would I have weaned him when I did if we weren't pursuing other children? Nope. In fact, I would likely still be nursing him for a while longer. Do I think he was ready? Absolutely. Even though I would like to still be nursing him, Elijah has hit his milestones so early and is very interested in all things "big boy" including the way he eats, walks up the stairs etc. And I feel good about the nourishment he received and the length of time he received it.

So since April, Elijah has had pumped milk every day. (with the exception our recent week in California which also happened to be the first plane trip where Elijah was not nursed in flight. I really missed nursing then!) Last night, I fed Elijah the last of the breast milk. It is so ironic that I am out of breast milk and as we speak, my body is busy preparing to make enough for at least two babies (hoping for an awesome supply again!). I keep thinking, if my milk would come in early, I could give him more! Heeehee. But I accept that this particular journey with Elijah has come to a close and I have a healthy, happy and beautiful almost 16 month old boy to thank for it!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our breastfeeding/Mama's milk journey!

Elijah's first latch. He was born by unplanned c-section at 7:22pm, never left our side and was having his first meal before 8:00pm. 

I fell in love with nursing right away. 

Later in our hospital room, the journey quickly continued. 

There was nothing more incredible than nourishing that little body

At two months old, Elijah took his first plane ride to San Francisco to watch Mama make a commercial. He ate happily on the set between shots. 

Excuse the ample bosom here but I love this shot. He would often fold his hands when nursing and it was the most precious thing I had ever seen. One of my favorite memories. 

I loved when Elijah would fall asleep at the breast. 

Participating in the The Latch On in August of 2012! Can't wait to do this next year with two babies!

Our first breast feeding photo shoot taken by my BFF, Heather. I just love these pictures. 

Was he ever this little???

We went on vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey and Elijah enjoyed many lunches by the sea 

Successfully nursing while in the Ergo on our daily walk! We did this a lot once we figured out how!

A couple months before we weaned, I wanted to get one more photo shoot. Love these shots by Rebecca Ware!

Oh how I miss this. 

The last of Mama's milk

The last time Elijah gets Mama's milk. 

The finish of a beautiful journey.........

13 Weeks Pregnant........A Really Cool Weekend!

THIRTEEN WEEKS!!!!  This pregnancy has seemed to fly by lately as my belly continues to expand a lot! I continue to feel great and am loving my round tummy as it continues to come in. I have started talking to Elijah about "the babies in Mama's tummy". Every time I do this, he tries to lift up my shirt and look. So I have to be careful to only talk about it to him in the comfort of our home. Heehee.

I had my 13 week ultrasound on Friday which is a pretty thorough one. Everything looks spectacular and both babies are measuring about 4-6 days ahead. Yikes. I told the ultrasound tech that I would love for her to guess gender and she said she was able to do so with Baby B however Baby A had cord covering the pertinent areas so she was unable to see any telltale signs of gender. There is also a new test on the market that detects gender in the mother's blood. This is not something I had heard about when I was pregnant with Elijah so I think it is pretty new. The test will detect some sort of hormone in your blood that is only there when you are carrying a boy so with twins, if there is no hormone, we will know it is two girls but if there is hormone detected, it could either be two boys or a boy and a girl. The test was surprisingly covered by insurance and they were taking my blood anyway that day so we went ahead and did it (results come back in a week or so) but we will still be doing our gender ultrasound in three weeks if a boy is detected to find out exactly who is in there! Everything else in the ultrasound looked great! All the measurements were exactly as they should be and both Petite Parishes were moving and grooving all over the place. In fact, Petite A was doing somersaults!

Here's a nice side by side of our sweet babies!

Petite Parish B all comfy and cozy

Baby A rocking and rolling

I love taking belly shots and am really excited about the addition of the fruit and belly shots for this pregnancy. This week the babies are peaches. The only peaches I could find at the store were huge! I picked the most average looking ones in size but they still seemed a little big. Of course, according to the ultrasound, the babies are pretty big as of right now so this fruit is probably pretty accurate! Now I have to admit that this first trimester due to extreme exhaustion, I have not eaten as I know I should.  Not bad but I was told by my doctor I need to be extremely careful about my weight, especially since our goal is VBAC, then there was vacation. Now that we are back (and not going anywhere for a while), I am getting more sleep (more on that below), and the first trimester is over, it is time to get serious about diet and exercise. I have stocked up on lots of protein and calcium (calcium is something I struggle with so I am back on dairy for this pregnancy) and I am going to try to start walking again. It is really tough to commit to that in the Houston heat. Really it must be done before 8am to be bearable otherwise you miss your window of opportunity. I plan to begin doing some yoga as well but I was really hoping to start the working out with morning walks with Elijah. That is my goal for this week. To walk at least 5 mornings!

My sweet little peaches.

13 Weeks!

A bump is my favorite accessory!

A belly full of babies and a heart full of love!

A lot of belly

Extreme close up!

Getting silly

Because of my struggle with OHSS and the additional bed rest at the beginning of my pregnancy, followed by lots of traveling on my part, Chip and I did not get a chance to really celebrate our pregnancy and how awesome it is to be carrying TWINS! Because 13 weeks (+3 days) marks the end of the first trimester, we decided that we would go out for a Mexican dinner (my craving this pregnancy) and celebrate the life within, Elijah becoming a big brother, us having a family of five and completing our first trimester! Once we were out, we realized how rare it is that we go out to dinner as a family of three. It was really a nice treat! I enjoyed some beef fajitas (sans tortillas!) and Elijah chowed down on some beans and rice, pretty much ignoring his tamale. That baby is a bean kid! It was really a fun night and I look forward to all the second trimester brings including lots of kicks (I can't wait until Elijah can feel the babies kick for the first time!), finding out gender, choosing names (though that is pretty much narrowed down), planning a nursery and celebration the completion of the second trimester in early/mid November!

Yay for a complete first trimester!

Elijah really enjoys our little photo shoots

Ready for some grub!

Love this little boy. Now let's go eat!

Good water!

Our little boy loves to share!

Love having dinner with my boys. 

Soon to be BIG BROTHER!

One more cool thing that happened this week was with choir. For the past several years, the choir at SBC has gotten to sing the National Anthem before an Astros game. Ever since I joined choir and saw this on the schedule,  I have been super excited about this opportunity. It was neat to have Elijah and Chip there to see us sing and it is really cool that this is a memory that will go in my pregnancy journal for the twins to see how they were there too! While we were at the stadium, I got to wear Elijah for the first time since I've been pregnant! I knew I missed it but how much he really missed it showed as soon as I strapped him on. I was given the okay to wear him by my RE but then we had the spotting scare so I have been nervous about it. I don't think I would be able to wear him for long periods of time but I am thrilled that I feel comfortable doing it here and there.  I used my Ergo because that is what Chip had (he was wearing him at the game) but I think I will do better to wrap him while pregnant because I can tie the wrap up by my chest where the Ergo or Becco goes around the waist. I really wish I had my Mei Tai but I am selling my Babyhawk because it is not comfortable and am going to have one made from a wrap but am still in the process of procuring the materials. ANYWAY, it was a really cool experience followed by such an awesome attachment parenting treat!

SBC Choir about to sing!

Love that my little boy gets to see Mama sing with choir

Wearing my baby for the first time since late May!