Yo, Baby!

I looooove Yobaby by Stonyfield! Maybe I'm out of touch, but I just discovered it and I'm so happy I did. If you haven't heard, then listen up!!

Yogurt, unlike milk, can actually be given to babies who are 6+ months. Check with your pediatrician first, of course. They recommend plain, whole milk yogurt. So I went looking for organic, plain whole milk yogurt and came across the Yobabys. They happened to be just what I was looking for, and more!

Not only are Yobabys offered in convient 4oz packages, there are a variety of flavors. There are single ingredient ones like blueberries, and meals, like pears with green beans. There's also a plain one, which you can add your own organic fruit to if you like. I give my daughter one for breakfast every morning, and so far, there isn't a flavor she doesn't like.

I've been only feeding organic homemade meals to my daughter thus far, because I don't trust what they put in those little jars. But, I trust Stonyfield and this yogurt. There isn't anything artificial about it. No additives, no hard words to pronounce. Just yogurt, fruit, and veggies. That's a recipe for perfection in my book!

Enjoy!

Trey's bacon wrapped, rosemary pork tenderloin!

My fiance rocks. He is seriously good at everything he does, especially cooking. This morning he woke up, fed our daughter, prepared the tenderloin in the slow cooker, ate breakfast, got ready for work, and took off for a full day of wheeling and dealing. Then he came home from work, played with our baby girl, gave her a bath, fed her, read her a book (sometimes with a British accent), and put her to bed.  Yes, I am one lucky girl.

He came up with this yumminess on his own. No recipe, no guidelines. Just a Southern boy and his first class palate!

I don't have a proper recipe for this, since Trey just threw everything

in the crock pot, but here are some guidelines:

2lbs pork tenderloin (or enough to cover the bottom of the crock pot)

1 1/2 cup beef broth (or chicken broth)

6 strips uncooked bacon

1/2 bag organic fingerling potatoes

4-5 carrots, chopped

4-5 sticks organic celery, chopped

3 sprigs rosemary

5 whole cloves garlic

Trey first browned both sides of the pork in a sauce pan. Then he placed the rosemary on each one, and wrapped it in bacon. He then placed the meat in the crock pot, added the garlic cloves, and poured the beef broth on top. He cooked the pork on LOW for 8 hours. With 2 hours remaining, so 6 hours into cooking, he added carrots, celery and potatoes. Serve. It will fall apart with a touch of a fork. So flavorful, especially with the sauce poured on top of the meat. Can't wait to have leftovers tomorrow.

Slow cooked cilantro lime chicken, yum!

My old college roommate, Paige, posted this on Facebook, so I decided to try it. Since I'm a "new" slow cooker user, I'm constantly looking for a good recipe to try. Well, let me just say, not only did it make the house smell good, but it actually tasted amazing! Lots of flavor, with just the right amount of citrus and spice. If you love cilantro, you will love this.

Since the chicken shreds apart with a fork, I put mine on a fresh corn tortilla, with a dollup of sour cream. It was perfect.

In a slow cooker, mix together:

One 24-ounce jar medium or mild salsa (I love Central Markets Organic brand)

Juice from one lime

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

One 1.25-oz. package taco seasoning (I used low sodium)

2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped, optional (I used one and a half)

Add 4-6 thawed chicken breasts and coat

Cook on low for 6 hours and serve immediately. I noticed the longer I waited to eat it, the drier it got.

ENJOY!

Post Workout Smoothie with Oatmeal!

This is mine, if you have a good one, please share! I like to change things up every now and then by adding things like flaxseed, hemp seed, fresh ginger, whey protein, yogurt, and a large variety of fruits, especially figs when they are in season. This month I'm addicted to adding oats to my smoothie.

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup frozen berry mix 

1 cup almond milk (vanilla or not)

1 banana

1 heaping spoon of Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)

Add oats to blender and pulse into a powder. Add remaining ingredients and blend until desired consistency. Enjoy!

Shrimp, avocado salad by Grandma!

I'm staying with my parents for a few nights while Trey is out of town on business. I'm still freaked out about the attacks on NYE, and it's nice to spend time with them. Fia totally knows both of them now, and really enjoys their company. They make her laugh, a lot. Plus, my mom is an AMAZING cook (ask any of my childhood friends), so thats a major bonus. Her specialty is Vietnamese, but everything she puts her hands on tastes pretty darn good! Tonight she made an avocado, shrimp, brown rice salad she found in Women's Health Magazine. She was super excited for me to try it, since we love exchanging healthy recipes. As usual, it was divine.

I hope these pictures give it justice. Sorry about taking a picture of the actual recipe, I'm feeling lazy tonight. Email me if you can't read it, and I'll send you a typed-out version, but not till tomorrow:)

Here's my mom playing with Fia this morning around 7am. Thank god for Grandmas!

Alright, gotta go, being beckoned by my parents to beat them in rummikub!

Free swim classes!

Ever since Fia was 3 months old, I been taking her to a class called Bathtime Babies at Emlers swim school here in Austin. It's once a week for 16 weeks for babies between the ages of 2-6 months (they are flexible, give or take a month). And the best part is, IT'S FREE!!

If you've just had a baby, or have one within the age bracket, I highly recommend that you sign up for this class. Actually, I can't recommend it enough. It's a mommy and me class, and it's super fun. Not only will your little one become more comfortable in the water, but it's a great activity to get you out of the house, and meeting other moms.

Sadly, our 16 weeks have expired, and quite frankly it ain't cheap to take the next level class, Waterbabies, but...I'm doing it!! To me, it's worth every penny. In Texas, the number one cause of death for children under the age of 5, is drowning. I don't want to be a statistic. Besides that, it's really good exercise, and helps promote independence.

It's been so much fun watching Fia grow in the water. She kicks, strokes and puts her head comfortably near the surface. She even floats, and doesn't mind getting water in her ears, mouth, or eyes! This is a huge difference from her first class 16 weeks ago when she clung to my neck the entire time!

For more info check out Emlers website. I'm pretty sure they will be starting a new session soon, since mine just ended.

P.S. My friend Maya, who is an infant swim teacher on Maui, told me to take showers with Fia the minute her umbilical cord fell out. This way she could get use to water flowing over her head and eyes. To this day, 7 1/2 months later, we still haven't used her infant bathtub!

Lentil with carrot and Brown Rice, for baby.

Found this recipe on wholesomebabyfood.com, and decided to make it. I love their recipes, so heathy and hearty. Not too mention, so cheap and easy! These 3 ingredients cost me $5 and will yield baby food for months! I went ahead and bought all of these in their conventional form, since none of them are on the dirty list.

I found that I had to simmer them for a little longer then what the recipe called for, in order for the rice to be tender. Once in the blender I used almost a cup of water to make it into a puree, without it, it was more like a paste. I think this dish would be fantastic with some curry powder or allspice, I think I might add some tomorrow! She loves spices, just like her momma!

 

Lentils with Carrots & Brown Rice

2 cups of water
3/4 cup of red split lentils
1/2 cup peeled and diced carrots
1/4 cup brown rice
pinch of curry powder (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil and then simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Check on the level of the water and add water as needed. The mix will be finished when the rice is done, the carrots are soft and the lentils have "melted".

Blend the Lentils with carrots and brown rice as needed to create a texture acceptable for your baby. 

Tomato Basil Soup with Ginger!

I love tomato basil soup on cold rainy days like this. So, I went to my "go to" online recipe book, Allrecipes, and found this awesome recipe! Because I'm a ginger fanatic, I modified it a bit by adding an inch of freshly grated ginger as it simmered. It was deee-licious!

Oh, and don't forget the grilled cheese. I made mine on 8 grain bread with provolone cheese (gouda is yummy too)! So, do yourself a favor, and stop by the store on your way home from work and make this for the whole family to enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes - peeled, seeded and diced (I didn't peel mine)
• 4 cups tomato juice
• 14 leaves fresh basil
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (I used half n half)
• 1/2 cup butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 inch grated ginger (optional)

Directions

1. Place tomatoes and juice in a stock pot over medium heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Puree the tomato mixture along with the basil leaves, and return the puree to the stock pot.
2. Place the pot over medium heat, and stir in the heavy cream and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Heat, stirring until the butter is melted. Do not boil.

"Hawaiian" Chicken in a crock pot.

Well, I fell on the "Hawaiian Chicken in a Crockpot" bandwagon. Everyone on pinterest seems to be doing it. It's simple and cheap, so why not? Before I go on, let me add that I can't believe I am sharing crock pot recipes, I am officially a MOM. I have a dust buster too....and I just cut my hair short....and I drive a Chevy Tahoe...alright, enough stereotyping.

Ingredients:
4-6 frozen chicken breasts (I prefer thighs, but I did use breasts)
1-bottle Archer Hawaiian BBQ sauce
1-20oz can crushed or diced pineapple (drained)

Dump it all in your crock pot. Cook for 6 hours on LOW. In the last 10 mins, shred the chicken with a fork so it can really absorb all the flavors. That's all folks.

I served mine on top of brown rice with a salad on the side.

It was good, not great. Not sure what all the hype is about on pinterest. The chicken tasted like dark meat, it was so tender and juicy, but the sauce lacked something. It was sweet and that's it. No spice, no smokiness, no real defined flavor. If you decide that you MUST try this, than add some flavor to it. Maybe some cayenne or ginger. Or, if you have simple palate, then this just might be the recipe for you! 

Stenciling

I discovered how easy stenciling was when I was decorating my daughters nursery. I wanted to put something pretty on the wall above her crib, but I was too scared to hang anything in the event it might fall on her while she slept. I know, I'm super paranoid. So, I looked around and found wall decals, and stencils. I've heard that wall decals come off the wall easily, especially if your wall is textured, so stenciling was the obvious choice.

After shopping around, etsy once again came to the rescue. I found these awesome lotus stencils.

I ordered the medium size, got it in the mail a few days later, and went to town! It was stressful at first, making sure the paint didn't run out of the lines. But, in the end, it came out really beautiful, both times! Since we just moved, I used the stencil for her new room too!

Here are some tips:

1). The instructions say to use a roller brush, but the guy at Lowes suggested a ponce brush. That way you can literally "pounce" it on. It was only $7 so I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did, it made the job so much easier.

2). It's hard to get the stencil to lay flat against the wall. So, along with double-side taping it in various places, I held down each section with my hand as I painted it.

3). Don't put too much paint on your pounce brush, it can cause bleeding. This happened to me the second time I did it. At first it bugged the crap out of me and I had plans to fix it with a tiny artist brush, but realized you couldn't notice the imperfections from far away, so I left it.

Wa-la! Your stenciling is complete, and your room looks fabulous! If it doesn't just paint right over it, and start again!

Bioluminescent Bay, P.R....Go here A.S.A.P!

Glow while you float, or float while you glow!
Whatever, just do it!!
It's the craziest, coolest thing ever.
It's cheap to fly to PR, and travelling around is easy breezy.
Plus, PR has some of the most beautiful beaches in the WORLD!
Okay, have a safe flight.

I did not take this photo. Frank Borges did. 

This is not me, but I'm sure this is what I looked like.

The best place to swim/kayak with the bioluminescent, is at Mosquito Bay on Vieques Island, P.R. due to it's high concentration of these tiny little organisms. Click here for more info.

For more Puerto Rico pics, click here.

Wanna see a Favela? As in, a slum, in Rio?

Now you can! I was in Brazil a couple of years ago, and this American dude, who had lived in Brazil all his life, was offering tours of Rochina, a favela in Brazil. I couldn't believe it. The only thing I knew about favelas was what I had seen in the movie "City of God." The movie was named after an actual favela in Brazil, the rival favela of Rochina! So, when a lad at my hostel asked me if I wanted to tour the favela on my birthday, the obvious answer was, "hells yes!"

The slums were exactly how I pictured them to be, dirty, smelly, and dangerous. Yes, there were young men walking around with pistols in their pants. Yes, everything was stolen, including their electricity. Yes, it was scary, and intriguing, and WAY better than seeing Cristo Redentor!

If you want to see more pictures of the favela, Rochina, or my time in Brazil, click here!

Fia and the Cookie Monster!

I haven't yet had professional pictures taken of Fia, but I have this, and this just rocks. Makes up for all the money I haven't spent on photos!

Wish I could say I just happend to "capture" this photo, but it was staged, and took me numerous shoots with my Canon Rebel! 

DIY Christmas Cards 2011

I love how our Christmas cards came out this year. They look so professional, even though they are so not! After looking through pinterest for ideas, I decided I wanted to do black and white with red highlights. This is what I came up with.

We took our Canon Rebel XSi with our 50mm lens to Town Lake, and started playing around with the setting and lighting. Once I liked what I saw, I asked someone walking by to take this picture of us.

I took the picture home, cropped it, turned it into black and white, and then sent it to my friend who highlighted the bow with saturation in Photoshop. I then added the template on Costco.com, and wa-la, super duper cheap, yet professional looking Christmas cards! 

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes, with Almond Milk!

My fiance made these for me a couple of months ago. They were freakin' delicious and totally reaffirmed why I said yes when he asked me to marry him. If you don't feel like mixing, you can buy the pre-packed whole wheat mix, just use almond milk instead of whole milk.

We use a cast iron griddle to make our pancakes, but of course, you can do it on a stove top skillet as well. We had bananas and organic blackberries laying around, so he threw those on top. And of course the syrup, we like the all-natural kind without the high-fructose-corn-syrup. Target sells the "Archer" brand for cheap, seems to be expensive everywhere else. Enjoy!

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 1/2 cup organic blueberries

Blue Quinoa baby food

I found this recipe at Wholesome Baby Food but made some modifications to it. It turned out great, and it's super nutritious for babies. Well, for anyone really!

Ingredients:

-One pint organic blueberries, make sure to use organic as blueberries are a dirty dozen.

-One large sweet potato, potatoes are a dirty dozen, but sweet potatoes are not.

-One cup quinoa

1). First, I brought my quinoa to a boil in 2 cups of water then covered and simmered for about 10 minutes. Like rice, quinoa is done when all the water is absorbed. Set aside.

2). Then I washed, peeled and chopped my sweet potatoes. They cook faster as chunks, and it's best to discard the peel before cooking since you will be using the water you boiled them in for the puree. Boil potatoes in pot for 10 minutes or until you can pierce through with a fork. Do not drain. Keep water.

3). There are several ways to soften blueberries. First pick through to remove all stems, then either simmer them, or put in a glass bowl in microwave for 15 seconds. I used the microwave because it's fast, and with a 7 1/2 month old baby, you ain't got much time!

4). Put cooked sweet potatoes, blueberries and about 1/2 cup of the water you used to boil the sweet potatoes in, in a Baby Bullet or blender. If you don't have a Baby Bullet, get one, it rocks. Puree to desired thickness, adding more water as you need.

I then poured this deliciousness into my Baby Bullet storage containers (which have date dials on the lids for freshness), and the remainder into the freezer containers. Remember, baby food is good in the fridge for 3 days, and freezer for 3 months!

WE ARE NOT DONE YET!!!

Remember that yummy quinoa??!! Well, I put it in a freezer bag and stuck it in the fridge. Like this...

So, all I have to do when Fia is ready to eat, is pull out one of my Baby Bullet containers and top it with some quinoa! Also, keeping your quinoa separate allows you to add it to whatever you are feeding her/him, not just the blueberry, sweet potato puree. Genius, simply genius, if I do say so myself;)

UPDATE: So, this might be TMI, but Fia was pooping out quinoa, in it's full form. Like, it looked like it did when it went in her mouth! So, worried she wasn't getting the nutrients out of it that she needed, tonight I milled the quinoa before boiling it. I milled 1/4 cup and boiled, while constantly whisking in 1 cup water. Looks like baby cereal. I will add this to her meals instead, and hopefully she will reap the benefits.

Quinoa, the Peruvian super food

I've always loved quinoa, but it wasn't until my trip to Peru in 2009 that I realized I couldn't live without it. Packed with amino acids, iron, fiber, magnesium, and with a protein content of 18%, it almost seems silly not to make it part of my daily life! It's a great, nutritional alternative to rice as well, although there are some things that just taste better with rice!

I buy my quinoa at Costco. Not only is it super cheap, $7 for a big bag, but it's also organic. It's not on the dirty dozen list, but if you can buy organic for the same price as conventional, then why not? This is what it looks like, just in case you find yourself looking for it...

So now that my daughter is almost 8 months, I've decided to include it in her diet too. I make a cup, which yields about 4-5 cups once cooked, put it in a zip lock bag in the fridge, and add it to whatever I'm feeding her that day. So far she loves it. 

Cooking quinoa:

Add 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water to a small pot. Once boiling, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or when all the water is absorbed. It's a good idea to stir it every couple of minutes. 

Quinoa Recipes:

Blue Quinoa

Kale Chips

I'm sure y'all have heard all about them by now, but have you mastered them yet? Believe or not, these easy, nutritional snacks are hard to perfect. You need just the right amount of cook time to get the perfect crunchiness! After several trials and errors, I think I've got it down.

-First start with a bunch of organic kale. Don't forget to buy organic, kale is listed as one of the "dirty dozens."

-Wash, chop and dry the kale thoroughly. Wet kale causes uneven cooking.

-Lay kale on cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and olive oil. I then like to toss the kale to make sure each piece gets coated.

-Place in preheated oven at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. I've found that 11 minutes works best in my gas oven. Check it frequently, it cooks fast. When the edges of the kale are brown, your kale chips are ready! They should be crunchy, if they are soggy, they were either not dry enough or over seasoned with oil.

When done right, they taste like potato chips and are impossible to stop eating once you start! Get creative and use other seasonings if you like. I think something spicy on them would be delicious. Next time, I might use sesame oil instead of olive oil to add an Asian flare!