A Week of amazing food!

I thought it would be interesting to do a post on a week of meals for Fraser and I. I also had a few new recipes I wanted to try, so I thought "hey, perfect thing for a blog post!".

We started off the week with some delicious and simple marinated steaks and baked potatoes! Yum. We normally buy our marinating steaks from Costco, which come with two JUMBO steaks for about $20. These steaks are super thick and can sometimes be tricky to cook properly so that they're not tough (I don't like my steak where it looks like it should still have a pulse). So this time around we tried some other marinating steaks they had that came in a 4 pack for $24 dollars and weren't as thick. Holy crap they were delicious. 

I marinated them for 3 hours in the fridge with the Diana's steak marinade and a bit of salt and pepper. Wowza they were sooooo tender, it was melt in your mouth delicious. This is when Fraser announced we would be having steak on a weekly basis. Ha. The baked potato was as good as a potato can be - a little butter, salt and pepper. The shining star was obviously the massive piece of mouth watering meat. Even the leftovers the next day were tender and soft. Yum.

The next day I wanted something a little lighter. So I made us bacon ranch/caesar turkey wraps (Fraser had ranch, I had caesar), with some tomato basil soup. Super easy and quick to get on the table. I used the following "ingredients":

- 6 grain Dempsters wraps

- Roman Lettuce

- Oven roasted turkey deli meat

- Half fat mayo

- Bacon

- Ranch or Caesar dressing

*It would be delicious to add some cheddar or mozzarella cheese, but since Harper is lactose intolerant and while I'm breastfeeding - I can't have cheese :(

The soup we had was one of Campbells that come in the cartons (next to their broths), tomato basil. It was not my favourite. It's a very heavy soup, lots of cream and butternut squash. It's also not the healthiest, I much rather prefer their tomato and roasted red pepper soup. It's more than half the fat of the other one and is nice and light. 

In the end though, for a quick and simple meal, it was pretty tasty. And Fraser loves anything with bacon!

The following night I tried something new, baked sweet and sour chicken over rice. OMG. This was amazing! Possibly one of the most tastiest things I've made in a while. It taste like Chinese food you would order from a nice restaurant but nice and fresh!

Here is the recipe and cooking directions:

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  1 hour

Total time:  1 hour 20 mins

 

Amazing restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken that you can make from home!

Ingredients

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1½ cup cornstarch
• 3 eggs, beaten
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.
2. In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture.
3. Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.
4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour. 

* I made an extra batch of the sauce because I made a ton of chicken so their would be lots of leftovers, and we like everything saucy :). I also added cut up green onions to put on top.

Seriously, if you like Chinese food, you need to make this!

I then made lasagna soup and home made garlic bread. 

 

 This is Frasers, which I topped with mozzarella cheese.

 This is mine without cheese. It was still super duper yummy!

 

Here's my garlic bread. Just butter, garlic and parsley. No cheese unfortunately. 

Here is the recipe and cooking directions:

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Yield: About 5 servings

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 large yellow onion, diced (2 cups)
• 3 - 5 garlic cloves, to taste, minced
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 (14.5 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 3/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 8 lasagna noodles, broken into bite size pieces (6.5 oz)
• 1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (5 oz)
• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese (2 oz)
• 8 oz ricotta cheese

Directions

• Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once hot, crumble beef into pot, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring occasionally until browned. Drain majority of fat from beef and set aside (you can drain it all if you want it to be healthier I just like the little bit of flavor a small amount of the fat gives). Heat remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil in pot, add chopped yellow onion and saute until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add in garlic and saute 30 seconds longer. Add in chicken broth, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, rosemary, fennel seeds, thyme, sugar, parsley, the cooked ground beef and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring just to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare lasagna noodles according to directions listed on package, reserving 1 cup pasta water before draining pasta.
• Add cooked pasta to soup along with 1/2 cup - 1 cup pasta water as desired. In a mixing bowl, using a fork, stir together mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta.
• Ladle soup into bowls, dollop with a large scoop of the cheese mixture and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Okay, now I'm hungry - BBQ sausages for dinner tonight! Nom. 

Harper is 8 months old today

It makes me sad that time goes by so fast. It doesn't feel like Harper is 8 months old already. I just wish I could slow time down and enjoy her being a baby for longer. I feel like I am going to wake up tomorrow and she's going to be walking and talking. I'm not ready for that yet. I'm excited for that to happen, but not ready for it to be right now. 

Things that have changed in the past month would definitely be her sleeping in her crib for her naps and eating her solids a little bit better. I even got her to sleep in her for the first part of the night last night. I'm going to be honest, it felt to weird going to bed without her. I actually missed her in bed with us. My little cuddle muffin. I'm hoping I can get her in there again tonight, even if it's for a few hours - whatever I can get, its an improvement. 

(Seriously..those freaking legs and feet - I am obsessed)

Harper is sitting up a lot better - not tumbling over nearly as much. If she gets too excited and tries to grab something that is out of her reach, she might tumble (if I wasn't there to catch her). Now, if she wants to get something, she will lean forward to go onto her belly. It's so funny because she can't crawl yet but she will roll and pivot to get what she wants on the floor. I know it's going to be any day now when she decides she wants to try crawling and it's very exciting and terrifying at the same time.

It means we will have to watch her like a hawk and I will need to be obsessive when it comes to cleaning our floors!

This weekend I am looking forward to getting lots done. Fraser and his friend Kyle are going under the addition again to shovel out the rest of the cat pee soaked crap - thank goodness it's not me. I also want to get Harper's book shelves up on her wall and get her books all organized.

I'm excited for a few blog posts I have lined up - my craft room, some DIYS I want to do for Harper's room and some decorating of the house! xx

Emotional few days

I've been getting really down about going back to work in November - not because I don't enjoy my job, because I do - it's the fact that I will be saying goodbye to this beautiful face in the morning and leaving her for eight hours. Ugh. Even just thinking about it makes me emotional. Fraser and I are very blessed that we have both of our mothers to watch Harper while we're at work because if I had to drop her off at a strangers house - I wouldn't be returning back to work.

SO I've been trying to get myself out of this funk by spending every minute with this special little girl and taking lots of photos (duh, nothing new there). I want to remember every minute of getting to be home with my girl for the first year of her life. 

It makes me sad that I'm going to miss out on some of her milestones while back at work. At times I have to remind myself of why I need to go back to work - don't get me wrong, I could never just be at home forever and not work - just until she's old enough to go to school :) ha. God forbid anything happened to Fraser, I would still have my job and be able to provide for her. This is the main reason why I could never be a stay at home mom.

It also makes me sad because I feel like everyday shes grown - her hair keeps getting longer, she seems taller or her clothes don't fit her the same anymore. I found myself this past weekend, watching all of the short videos of her when she was really small and I got emotional. People would always tell me how fast they grow and that the baby stage seems to fly by - I didn't want to believe them. And now its happening, my baby is growing up so fast! Obviously I'm excited when she meets another milestone but I want her to stay my chubby baby forever!

 

 Look at those ARMS!!

 And I have to mention that we've really been seeing Harper's personality blossom lately. She is freaking hilarious! Fraser will roar like a dinosaur and she will roar back - but will continue to do so for 30 minutes at a time. It's the funniest thing. She has this weird obsession with her feet. Anytime we're laying in bed, they're always in her mouth.

 She's also obsessed with breastfeeding. I've said this before, but she finds comfort in nursing and I love that we have that together. I love that when she's nursing, she looks so peaceful - to the point that she will drape her one arm over her eyes and fall asleep. It's the sweetest thing ever.

She LOVES our dog Josie. I mean - she is slightly obsessed with her lately. It is sooo freaking adorable. She will give Josie her hand to lick and will bust out laughing and giggling. 

 She is always smiling and not just a little smile but a full face smile that is completely contagious. I've never seen a happier baby than Harper and I want her to stay that way forever.

 Everyone says their baby is brilliant - but Harper truly is a little genius. She's known how to turn the fish tank in her crib on and off for for months now. She has a treasure chest that makes music when you put a coin in it - after watching me do it, she will sit there a repeat it over and over. Anything that has a tag on it, she works her little fingers and grasps it and puts it in her mouth!

I've said it once before and I will say it 100 more times - I am so lucky to be this little ladies momma. She is my whole world.

My Big Girl

So much has changed with Harper in the past few weeks, it's sorta insane. Firstly, she is napping in her crib. IN HER CRIB. Whhhhhaaat? A couple of months ago, if I even tried placing her down in her crib for a nap, awake or deeply asleep - she would scream her little face off. I used to try nursing her and rocking her so she was in a deep sleep, and try to get her in her crib without waking her up. Big fail. She would last maybe 20 minutes and then lose her mind. Then I realized the problem with this was that she was waking up, realizing I wasn't there and getting upset, understandably. 

Now at this time she was still sleeping, for the most part of the night, in her rocking bassinet. So here I was trying to get her to sleep in her crib, on a flat mattress, when she was used to sleeping on an incline position in a rocking bassinet. Obviously I failed miserably in my attempts. I was beginning to get very frustrated, not at her (obviously) but at our current sleeping situation. Not only was she not sleeping her crib, but she was waking every couple of hours looking for a boob, and wanting to be rocked back to sleep after each waking. So here is the breakdown of what our nights at this time looked like:

- Go to bed 9pm (she's a night owl)

- Wake at 11pm: Nurse (10 minutes)

- 11:10pm-11:30pm Rocking into a deep sleep

- 11:30pm First attempt at putting her back in her bassinet

- 11:45pm Rock her again and second attempt at putting her back in her bassinet (because she woke up the first time I tried putting her down)

- 12am Trying not to breathe too loud because I finally got her back in her bassinet, asleep

- Wake at 2am: Nurse (10 minutes)

- 2:10am-2:30am Rocking into a deep sleep

- 2:30 Try very carefully to put her back in her bassinet

- Wake at 4:30 am: Nurse (10 minutes)

- 4:40 am Rock her back to sleep

- 5am back in bassinet (first try if I was lucky)

- Wake at 7 am: Nurse (10 minutes)

And we would manage to get a few more hours of sleep, usually sleeping in until 9 or 10 in the morning. We both needed the extra sleep, so there was no getting up and starting our day at 7 which I would have preferred.

And this was a good night. Some nights she would wake every hour, hour and a half. I was going insane. One night I had enough. This is what I did.

1) No more bassinet. I had enough with that damn thing. It was our savior when Harper was really small and had tummy problems. The incline sleeping position was the only thing that allowed all of us to get any sleep. However, Harper's tummy problems were no more as of 3 months - so no more need for the bassinet. And obviously the only option at this point was to bring her into our bed as the crib was definitely not an option (unless I was willing to let her cry it out, which I wasn't). 

This made the night feedings a lot easier. Anyone who has breastfed their babies, knows how nice it is to lay on your side and breastfeed as oppose to siting up at 3am. So with her sleeping next to me (on just the mattress, no pillows - and pretty much the whole middle of the bed to herself away from our blanket and our pillows), she would wake to nurse and all I would need to do is pull a boob out.

2) Teach her to fall asleep on her own - without nursing or rocking. I was fed up with spending 30-45 minutes getting her back to sleep, especially since she was waking so often in the night. So I started this process by nursing her until she would get really sleepy - and then pulling her off my boob. I would lay her next to me in the bed awake, tell her it was bedtime and let her fidget and whine until she fell asleep. 

The first night was the worst. She got pretty upset and her whining quickly turned into a screaming. She was pissed off. She wanted to nurse until she was asleep but I wasn't caving - no more. To Fraser and I, this wasn't the same as crying it out. We weren't leaving her in her bedroom in her crib, alone, to pretty much cry to the point of exhaustion. The cry/whine she was doing was more of a pissed off tantrum that she wasn't getting what she wanted and the whole time I rubbed her belly and kissed her cheeks. There was no sense of abandonment because we were there laying next to her the whole time. I wanted her to learn that she didn't need to breastfeed to fall asleep. 

After about 45 minutes of whining she quieted down and fell asleep. Now the whole time this was going on I was gritting my teeth because I hate when she's upset and I normally would have caved and breastfed her until she fell asleep. But I knew this was better for her to learn for herself. From that night on she would wake, nurse for maybe 5 minutes, I would pull her off and she would fidget (no crying) and fall asleep.

So now she wakes up maybe every 2 1/2 - 3 hours, nurses for a few minutes and falls asleep. So instead of being awake with her for 45 minutes to an hour every time she wakes in the night, we're both awake maybe 5 or 6 minutes. I no longer feel like a zombie when I get up in the morning.

3) No more bassinet for naps. While she was sleeping in our bed at night, for a few weeks she was still sleeping in her bassinet for her naps. We also still had her crib in our bedroom. One morning, I just up and decided that I wanted her crib back in her bedroom and I was going to try her in her crib again. I was optimistic because she was doing so much better at night, that I figured now was the time to try her crib again.

I was freaking amazed. I nursed her in the chair in her bedroom, until she was pretty sleepy, placed her down her crib...she opened her eyes briefly and fell asleep. WWHHHAT. At this point I didn't know how she would do - in the past the most I got out of her was 30 minutes. She slept for an hour and 40 minutes in her crib. I couldn't believe it. She even woke up at one point and cried..I went in, rubbed her back and she fell back asleep - fully aware of the fact that she was in her crib. 

That was was two weeks ago. She goes down for two naps during the day, each one averaging from 45 minutes - 2 hours...in her crib. 

What I think helped with this was transitioning her from her bassinet (incline position) to our bed (a flat mattress) and also teaching her to fall asleep on her own. These two things together is what I believe made a successful transition into her crib during the day.

Now for the night time, I'm wanting to do things slow so I don't mess up a good thing. They say to do things one step at a time when it comes to transitioning a baby who is having a difficult time with the crib. In the next week or so, I will try to get her to sleep for the first part of the night in her crib and then maybe the second part of the night in our bed. My hope is that she will last longer in her crib as time goes on. Fingers crossed. Already I feel a lot better and I think she is doing amazing.

 She's getting so big, I can't believe that in a week, she's going to be 8 months. My sweet baby - ugh she needs to slow down! She's eating her solids SO much better now. Before it was a fight just to get a few spoon fulls in her mouth. Now she actually opens her mouth and finishes a whole bowl! This makes me feel so much better, especially since I make all of her food and spend a lot of time and money doing so!

Her favourite foods seem to be:

- Apples

- Pears

- Carrots

- Butternut Squash

I will admit that we buy her organic meat baby food - because I have no desire to be blending up beef or chicken into a puree (I think I would gag).

All in all, these past few weeks have been amazing and she's doing so much better with her sleeping and eating! So proud of my little chub!