7QT- Starring my 33-34 Wk Pregnancy Nesting

It has certainly been a fun and crazy week! As is the case with most families, we've had fighting and laughing and everything in between.  

But did your family have this this week?

1. Dress-up and tea parties

So posh.  

2. Book of the Week

This was such a sweet little find at the library this week.  ALL the girls loved the love and sweetness in this lovely picture book. 

3. Baby Names

In case you missed it from an earlier post, we did a baby name consultation with Kate at Sanctanomina.com for fun this time around.  Definitely check it out and tell us your thoughts!  So far, I believe the top suggestions from people center around Zoe, Zelie, and Tessa for girls and Blaise and Jude for boys, but there are seriously a TON of great suggestions both on her list and in the comments section too.  

4.  Family walks

We took one every night this week (and planning on a nice one tonight).  One evenings walk was to a concert at a nearby park.  2-4 miles every night and the kids slept great. 

 

And we all enjoy the beauty of God's creation all around us.  So beautiful. 

5. Craving?

I don't know if I'd call it a craving yet, though it probably will be as soon as this bag runs out...

These Boulder Canyon sea salt and cracked pepper chips are my new favorite thing.  I ate 3/4 of a bag of them yesterday...

6. Freezer meals

In this post last Sunday, I mentioned a few freezer meals I'd made.  Well, I had a whole list and had found some great deals at the store, so this week I made a bunch more....

Savory Chicken and Sausage & Peppers from this website (I just did one bag of each for now)

Beef Roast with Carrots from here and a slightly different version of Cilantro-Lime Chicken found here (minus the corn).  I actually made two recipes of that and threw one in the crock pot for dinner that day.  It was really good.  I made rice to put it over, but you could obviously make it into burritos/tacos too, and I had a bunch of salad greens, so I made my meal into a big salad (just add tomatoes and avocados and it gets even better). 

Sweet Balsamic Pork roast

2 bags of meatballs (I used a similar recipe, but I'm gluten-free, so used almond flour instead of bread crumbs and there was no ketchup in the version I used)

I made like 4 lbs worth of meatballs, and used some of them to make this Meatball Soup as well.  Additionally I froze 4 cups of homemade chicken stock to add to it when it's time to cook and eat. 

Teriyaki Chicken  (though Kayla isn't a huge fan of pineapple, so I omitted that and added a cup of water and a little ground ginger and a heaping tablespoon of honey)

&

this Cranberry Pork Roast

So far, I've got 16 meals all ready and I think I'll make a few more as well since we have the freezer space (a nice benefit to having a fridge of our own and renting a place that came with one). 

7. Smoothies

I'm also freezing up bags of fruit mixtures to make into smoothies for an easy and healthy breakfast/snack after baby comes.  Thanks to some awesome fresh and frozen fruit sales at Sprouts this week, I have well over a dozen baggies already and tons more fresh fruit cut up in the fridge for some healthy goodness now.  

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Pink Drink for the Princess

Kayla's 4th birthday is coming up soon so I developed a variation of this watermelon drink for a cool, refreshing, PINK drink to serve on her big day.

What you need:

Cubed watermelon (chilled so your drink will be nice and cool)

Vanilla extract

Greek yogurt

Yes, all I did was add some Greek yogurt to the previous drink.  Adding this one little ingredient made it a very pretty PINK and also improved it's overall appearance of straight blended watermelon.  The vanilla extract takes some of the edge off the somewhat overpowering Greek yogurt taste, so add as much or as little as you please.

Post-Potluck Smoothie

We had a potluck at church on Sunday.  It's a very small community and we are THE young family who attend regularly, so (of course) we are the ones that get sent home with the majority of the leftovers afterwards.  This potluck the majority of the leftovers were various FRUITS!  Score!  So I started throwing things in the blender....

2 parts strawberries

1 part pineapple

1 part cantaloupe

1 part blueberries

a few scoops Greek yogurt

1-2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. coconut oil (heated briefly to liquefy)

And the end result of this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink smoothie?  Delish. 

The girls and I thoroughly enjoyed this tropical goodness.

Everything Orange Smoothie

Everything Orange Smoothie

(makes enough for a very generous serving)

1 orange (peeled and broken apart)

1 cup peaches (you could use canned-I used some peeled peaches that I had put in the freezer back when peaches were on sale)

1 carrot (peeled and grated)

1/4 cup cantaloupe 

1-2 tsp. coconut oil (heated briefly to liquefy) 

1-1 and a half tsp. vanilla 

It makes a bit more than this- I shared a bit with my girls.  They are my taste testers.  

If you've ever had an Orange Julius at the Mall, this is like a pulpy, healthier version.  Mmmmmm!

Cantaloupe Berry and Watermelon Burst Smoothies

Cantaloupe Berry Smoothie

makes 1 generous serving

1/2 cup cantaloupe
a few strawberries
1/4 cup blueberries
2-3 ice cubes
1/2 large banana
1/2 tsp flax seed
1 tsp coconut oil (heated briefly to liquefy)
1/2 carrot (peeled and grated)

Blend together and enjoy your tasty treat!

Watermelon Burst Smoothie

makes 1 generous serving (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup watermelon

1/2 cup strawberries

1/4 cup- 1/2 cup pear puree (or chopped pear)

1/2 carrot (peeled and grated)

5-6 ice cubes

1/2 tsp flax seed

1 tsp coconut oil (heated briefly to liquefy)

Blend ingredients together for a delicious blast of fruit goodness. 

Banana Berry Smoothie

I am doing a detox to get all the harmful toxins out of my body.  Something like this from Farmacology Organics' blog .  I am focusing on Steps 1-3 (the food aspect) though I wouldn't mind trying some of the other steps if I'm able.  Step 9, of course, would utilize prayer instead of all that "guided meditation" crapola.
I plan to read my Bible for 15 minutes to start and end my day with my Rosary thrown somewhere between the two, maybe during a run.  :)

Anyway here is a simple smoothie that I came up with this morning to help me get lots of fruit and some veggies as well!

Banana Berry Smoothie

Makes 1 generous serving

1 large banana
3-5  ice cubes
1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup grated carrot
1-3 grated radishes
1/2 tsp flaxseed
1 tsp coconut oil (heated briefly over low heat to liquefy)

Blend it all up and enjoy!




I am going to eliminate the last two ingredients, add a bit of water and make this into a Popsicle recipe for the girls to enjoy too!

UPDATE: We made the Popsicles!