Saturday, January 14, 2012

Felt Flower Embellishments

Before Hudson was born, I was on the hunt for a diaper bag that was both cute and functional.  A lot of my friends had recommended Skip Hop bags, and there was a pattern with colors that I liked, but I wanted to add an embellishment to up the cute factor.  I searched felt flowers on Pinterest for inspiration and used felt and embroidery thread in the colors of the bag to craft some of my own.  I sewed the finished felt flowers onto a strip of felt with velcro to wrap around one of the diaper bag straps, so the flowers are removable.
This bag has been getting a lot of use!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Food For Friday: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

These muffins make a delicious breakfast or quick snack.  I love muffins and as I have been looking for ways to add more whole grains to our diet, the whole oats and whole wheat flour in these muffins were a great way to do that.  And without all of the chemicals that come in most packaged muffin mixes.  They have a hearty, dense texture, but not an overly wheaty flavor.  They freeze well, so I often make a double batch and freeze half.  Pull a muffin or two out of the freezer the night before to defrost for breakfast, and then heat for 15-30 seconds in the microwave just before eating.
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (Be sure you are using pastry flour!  I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk (I use 1%)
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup peanut butter chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place 12 muffin papers in a muffin pan.
In a bowl, soak 1 cup of oats in the milk for 15 minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder & salt.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.
After the oats have soaked, add the egg, vanilla, and oil to the oats & milk and stir to combine.  Add the oat mixture to the well in the flour mixture & stir quickly with a fork until the flour mixture is moistened and combined. Mix in the peanut butter chips.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Hudson's First 3 Months

I have been wanting for months, literally, to share more photos of our adorable little guy!  But, my days have been full of cuddling him and kissing his sweet cheeks instead.  I am trying my best to soak in every moment with our sweet boy because I know how fast they grow.  He has already changed so much!  Mixed in with the love and joy I feel when I stare at his precious face is a little bit of sadness because every week I wish I could freeze him exactly as he is.  Each new week brings new things learned, a little more chub, new expressions, and change.  Even though we think he just gets cuter every week, I can't help but wish that each stage could last a little bit longer because we love him so much and there is nothing quite as sweet as holding your baby boy in your arms.  Each week I think he will never again be the exact same kind of cute as he is this week.

When I think of a word that sums up what Hudson has brought to our life, I immediately think of the word joy.  He has brought a fullness of joy to our home and our lives beyond what we could have imagined.  He has the sweetest demeanor and a huge smile that he can't keep to himself.  He is truly a happy baby.  My sweet husband has always brought smiles to my face on a daily basis, but I think our smiling has multiplied a hundred times over with this cute guy to love.  We can't help but smile every time we look at that sweet face.  I love that he brings a smile to the face of others as well.  When we are out, nearly everyone that sees him smiles.  What a blessing that our little bundle of joy can bring joy to others!

Here are a few of my favorite photos of Hudson's first 3 months:
Not sure what to think about his 1st car ride on the way home from the hospital.
We figured out in his first days home from the hospital that he loves music.  He loves watching his mobile and kicks his little feet whenever we lay him down and start winding it up.
He LOVES his hands, and in his first months, they were always somewhere on or near his face if he wasn't swaddled.  He literally fell asleep with his hands like this one afternoon and we thought it was so funny!
His first snow in mid-October.
Our little giraffe dressed up for Halloween.

He really enjoys his playmat and he especially loves looking at and talking to himself in his mirror.  He started rolling over at 5 weeks!  So, he doesn't get much tummy time because he just wants to roll over so he can play with his toys.
 Our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3.  We have so much to be thankful for this year!
 We even think his pouty lip is adorable!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

A Very Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Food For Friday: Taco Soup

After Hudson's birth, my friend Rachel brought us Taco Soup for dinner.  We thought it was delicious, and especially in the winter, I love easy, hearty soups.  When it can go into the crockpot and be ready to eat whenever we are, that is even better!
Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 can of crushed tomatoes, 14.5 oz (you could also used diced tomatoes)
1 can of low sodium chicken broth
1 can Rotel
1 can of corn (I used frozen corn and measured it with a can)
1 can of black beans
1 pkg. Taco Bell taco seasoning
1 pkg. dry ranch

Garnish:
Shredded Monterrey Jack & Colby cheese
Tortilla Chips or Fritos

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a crockpot.  Simmer on low for 2 hours.  Serve topped with shredded cheese and crumbled tortilla chips or Fritos. 
You can also cook it in less time on the stovetop, if you'd rather.  Combine all the ingredients in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Food For Friday: Chicken Pad Thai

Food for Friday is finally back!  I tried a new recipe this week for the first time since Hudson was born, and it got two thumbs up from both me and Truman.  I had turned on an episode of Ten Dollar Dinners on the Food Network one afternoon earlier this week and she was making a Turkey Pad Thai dish as a suggestion of how to use Thanksgiving turkey leftovers.  The flavor profile of the dish sounded delicious, so I made a mental note that I wanted to look up the recipe.  While I was at the grocery store that night, I spontaneously decided to pick up the ingredients she used in the dish so we could try it.  But that required me recalling the ingredient list from memory.  Surprisingly, despite new mom brain being in full force, I made it home with all of the ingredients I needed that weren't already in my pantry.  I made a few changes to the recipe, and used chicken breast instead of turkey, since we didn't host Thanksgiving and therefore didn't have any leftover turkey!  It isn't a difficult dish, but there is a lot of chopping involved, which makes it a little more time consuming.  But, the end result is worth the effort and we agreed that this dish is going to be in the regular rotation at our house!


Adapted from a recipe by Melissa d'Arabian on Ten Dollar Dinners

Ingredients:
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 limes, 1 juiced and 1 cut into wedges for serving
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce (you could also substitute fish sauce, but I used soy sauce)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sriracha hot sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded or cubed cooked chicken breast
8 ounces whole wheat linguini, broken in half
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups bean sprouts
3 scallions, cut into small pieces
    Directions: 
    First, make the sauce.  In a medium mixing bowl, pour the boiling water over the brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the lime juice, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sriracha and stir. Place the cooked chicken in the pad Thai sauce and let it absorb the flavors while prepping the rest of the dish.
    Next, prepare the pasta.  Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the linguine according to the time on the box.  Drain, and set aside.
    While the pasta is boiling, work on washing and chopping the vegetables.  
    Heat the peanut oil in a wok or large saute pan over high heat until very hot, almost smoking. Add the onions and stir fry 1 minute. Add the garlic and stir, cooking until the onions are soft & translucent. Then add the eggs and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring, until the eggs are cooked through. Add the linguini, chicken with sauce, and grated carrot, and cook for a few minutes, stirring until heated through.  Remove from heat and put into a large serving dish or individual bowls.  Top with the bean sprouts, chopped cilantro, scallions, and peanuts. 

    Wednesday, November 30, 2011

    Christmas Mail

    One of my favorite things is real mail.  Stamped, handwritten, personal notes or cards that arrive in my mailbox.  And one of the many reasons that Christmas is my favorite time of the year is the joy I get from opening the mailbox each day to find Christmas cards from friends and family.  Starting after Thanksgiving, I get excited when I hear our mailbox hinge squeak every afternoon and can't wait to see what cards arrived that day.  I love that photo cards have become popular in recent years and enjoy displaying the festive photos of loved ones during the Christmas season.  I have a project up my sleeve for a fun new way to display all of those cards this year, and I was hoping to have it finished for this post, but that was a little ambitious with a 2 month old at home!  Hopefully it will be coming soon, though!

    We have sent a photo Christmas card every year since we've been married, and for the first few years, I struggled to find a card design that fit the look I envisioned in my head.  So we ended up designing our own cards for several years.  Last year, we received several Christmas cards & birth announcements from a company called Tiny Prints and I immediately fell in love with their designs.  Their modern designs are exactly the style that I would design myself and the quality of their cards is fabulous.  I knew that this year, I would find a favorite design from Tiny Prints for our Christmas card. 

    I have decided on the styling for our Christmas photo, and even purchased a cute new outfit this week for the star of our family photo this year (smile), and we'll be taking our 2011 Christmas photo this coming week.  I haven't made a decision yet on which card we'll pick, but I took a quick look at this season's options from Tiny Prints and here are a few of my favorites:

     

    Have you designed your Christmas card yet?  You can find hundreds of fun designs and some great sales right now at Tiny Prints!  I enjoy designing our Christmas card for friends & family just as much as I enjoy receiving them, and I am looking forward to getting started on a card to wish our loved ones a very merry Christmas this year!

    This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tiny Prints.  I am really excited about this new option for photo cards and wanted to share it with you!