Well, I promised a new recipe on this RECIPE BLOG, so let’s get to it!
Chobani has recently come out with SUPER-SIZED containers of their basic flavors: 0% Vanilla, 2% and 0% fat free. This is GREAT news for Greek Yogurt fanatics because it means less trips to the store to stock up!
The folks over at Chobani were SO gracious to send a sample pack of their new products and we have been working our way through these Ginormous containers over the past week! Smoothies, parfaits, toppings on potatoes, nachos, fajitas- you name it, we top it with Cho in our house!
Perhaps one of the coolest things you can with Greek Yogurt, other than using it as a sour cream or mayo substitute, is BAKE with it!. I’ve made muffins in the past with the 0% fat free plain, but this time around, I wanted to give the 2% a try.
Blackberry Muffins
1 cup ww flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3Tb room temp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cups sugar
1 flax egg (1Tb ground flax + 3 Tb of water, mixed) or ‘real’ egg
Mix dry ingredients and set aside (flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Then mix wet ingredients (egg/flax egg, greek yogurt, vanilla). Cut in butter in small pieces and then whisk or use a spatula to mix thoroughly. FYI–> I like to use a flax egg because I have an addiction to eating batter…
Mix Wet ingredients into dry–>
Gently fold in berries. I went with blackberries because Trader Joe’s had them on sale, but you could use any berry you want, or a mixture! (Or if you are feeling frisky, add mini chocolate chips instead!!)
Spray a muffin pan with non-stick coking spray and spoon mixture into muffin tin. Bake on 350 degrees F for ~20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the muffins comes out clean (Mine were ready around 23-24 minutes).
These past 2 weeks have been SO crazy, I don’t even know where to begin!
For starters, I passed my 1 hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)!!! This tests for Gestational Diabetes and you usually take it between 26-28 weeks, when insulin resistance tends to show up during pregnancy. If you have gestational diabetes, it usually ‘goes away’ after pregnancy, but it also means that you are at in increased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes later in life. If you do test positive, it can usually be managed through diet and exercise, but some people do require insulin.
I was actually very nervous about this test because Type 2 Diabetes runs in my family. I’ve always tried to ‘keep an eye’ on my blood sugars (I check them at home every now and then). I did NOT take the test fasting–> I had a greek yogurt and 2 small pieces of toast with butter and jelly for breakfast and then took the test ~2 hours later. I had to drink about 100grams of this really gross medicine/fruit punch tasting liquid, it was SUPER sweet. I had 5 minutes to drink the stuff and then I had to wait an hour to get blood drawn.
In addition to checking my blood sugar, these labs were also checking my hematocrit and hemoglobin levels (checking for anemia/low iron), in addition to some other blood levels. Everything came back normal!!
Bring on the Fro Yo
At 26 weeks, Butter Bean was about the length of an English Cucumber–>
Now, at 27 weeks, baby center reports that she is about the size of a head of cauliflower and weighs ~2 pounds!!
I didn’t think my belly had grown that much over the past couple weeks, but it does look bigger!!
23 weeks & 25 weeks–>
I’m up about 14 pounds total. So far, I have been really proud of my body and how it has been handling this pregnancy. Of course I’ve had my fair share of aches and ‘pregnancy issues’, but nothing too major. My next follow-up is this Wednesday, fingers crossed the doctor tells me everything is still going good!
Many of the websites/books that I have been reading say that Brantley should be on a ‘schedule’ by now, but I haven’t really noticed. I definitely feel her moving the most at night whenever I am laying flat on my back in bed. During the day, its pretty hit or miss. Sometimes I feel her moving around after a meal. when I don’t feel her wiggling around for a few hours, I do start to get paranoid that something is wrong… I think I am supposed to start ‘counting kicks’ sometime with in the next couple of weeks, I am going to ask my doctor about this at my next visit. I hope she tells me not to worry about it too much because I think I am the type of person that would freak out if I missed a few kicks!!
I’m starting to think pregnancy is just one paranoid fear after another
Since New Years, I’ve noticed a decrease in the amount of energy I have during the day. I’m not sure if this is because I am no longer sleeping through the night of if I am actually more tired. For about 2 weeks now I have been waking up around 3-4am and I lay there for at least an hour trying to get back to sleep. Then I usually wake up at 6am with no chance of falling back to sleep for one last hour. I’m guessing this is ‘training’. Oh, Joy.
In other EXCITING news…
We put an offer in on a very well maintained FORECLOSURE and the bank ACCEPTED!
This house really is our DREAM HOME (for our price range that is!). It sits on .6 acres, 4 beds and 2 baths, AMAZING location, good schools. We feel very, VERY lucky to have the bank accept our offer since we were one of FIVE total offers on the house!!
Ben & I have made some HUGE decisions over the past couple of months, and while it is VERY exciting, its also very stressful and nerve wracking. I keep hoping we are making the right decisions financially and that we are making the right choices for our future as a family. I feel good about our decisions so far though…
We still have a lot to get done and nothing is ever final with purchasing a new home until the paperwork is signed, so I will be spending the next couple of weeks hoping that everything goes smoothly!
Wish us luck!!
P.S. I am actually working on a new RECIPE to post very soon!! Imagine that, a ‘food blog’ with a recipe for the first time in months!
We are currently leaving Nashville, TN and headed home to Charleston, SC. I honestly couldn’t tell you which city I like better, they are both AMAZING!! Nashville is gorgeous and I LOVE the live music at every single place you visit, but it is landlocked. There is water everywhere in Charleston and so much history/charm, but traffic is horrible since many of the places around Charleston are islands with one way in and one way out (And driving around in downtown Charleston is a nightmare!). if I ever had the opportunity, I would totally pack our stuff and head to Nashville for a few years!!
We stayed 3 nights in Nashville at one of my best friend’s house. Rachel & her boyfriend Andy made us feel right at home! We toured the city, did a little shopping, ate LOTS of yummy food, went to the Zac Brown Band concert, got manicures, and enjoyed each others company. It was the PERFECT way to spend our ‘babymoon’, my birthday, and to celebrate the New Year!
My 30th Birthday was New Year’s Eve, and (thanks to butter bean), I will actually remember this one!! I can’t believe its already time to say good bye to my twenties and hello to my thirties!!! Just seems crazy!
LOVE this girl!!
And her cupcakes…
Happy Birthday To Me!
Her boyfriend Andy was able to score some INCREDIBLE seats for the Zac Brown Band concert–> 4th Row!!!! The concert was amazing!!! As much as I LOVE all ZBB songs, I really think my favorite song of the evening was their version of ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia‘ by Charlie Daniels. WOW, wow, WOW! I would have a hard time picking just one favorite ZBB song… It would probably be a tie between ‘Highway 20 ride‘ and ‘Colder Weather‘.
THANK YOU Rachel & Andy for an AMAZING Vacation!!
Its hard to believe Christmas and New Year’s has come and gone, but I can honestly say this was one incredible holiday season for us!
Butter Bean had her last update about a week ago–> her little heartbeat is still pounding away at 153-155bpm. According to my Doctor, I’ve gained ~8 pounds so far…. I think its closer to 10-12 pounds (according to my scale). Our follow-up visit was short and sweet and she said everything looks good! I have to take my glucose tolerance test at my next visit in a few weeks–> EEEEK!!
Check out this belly:
No hiding that belly now!
According to baby center, our little girl is about 13.5 inches long (!!) and weighs ~1.5pounds (which is about the size of a rutabaga, which I don’t think I have ever had)
I’m still feeling really great, just tired and having to go potty… A LOT! (We enjoyed visiting EVERY rest area between Nashville and Charleston ). My appetite is still pretty insane too!! I’ve been overdoing the sweets these last couple of weeks with the holidays and celebrations, so I do plan to cut back on that a bit! Butter bean is still very active on an almost daily basis. She is pretty predictable too–> I feel her almost every night when I lay down on my back in bed and around meal times the most. Its been pretty exciting these past couple of weeks because Ben is now able to SEE her moving around in my belly! Its kind of weird watching my stomach bounce around, but VERY exciting too!
I don’t know if we will ever drop ‘Butter Bean’ or not… We have started to refer to her as ‘Brantley’ on occasion, but I’m sure we will still be calling her butter bean when those dirty boys start to come around! Yikes, I don’t even want to think about that!
For Christmas, Ben & I decided to give gifts that benefit Brantley instead of buying stuff for each other–>
LOVE my new diaper bag with Brantley’s initials on it!!
We also found a rocker for the nursery!! We wanted something that could be used outside of the nursery in a couple of years and something that was SUPER comfy. I didn’t care for any of the $500+ gliders at Babies R Us or any of the other baby stores we visited. We decided to try out furniture stores next, but most of the chairs were well over $700 and not that comfy. While in Columbia over the holidays, I went to Value City Furniture and found about 3 chairs that I really liked for less than $400! But my tush knows best and it wanted this chair–>
SUPER comfy, Cute, and only $300.00!! In the past, we have had bad luck with customer service at Value City (Issues with delivery/pick-up, service in the store) but the furniture that we bought there has held up pretty well over the years (Couch, chair, dining room table + chairs, coffee table, end table). The salesperson helping me the other day was very nice and We are supposed to pick up our new rocker in a couple of weeks… Hope all goes well this time…
In my last post, I mentioned that Ben & I were car shopping since my Pontiac Grand am simply wasn’t big enough to hold a family of 3 plus 2 large doggies. Well, after reading online reviews, visiting every car dealership in the area, and test driving several different vehicles (including a ford explorer, the volvo xc90, a toyota highlander, and the honda pilot), we finally found THE car for us–>
Obnoxious Bragging Alert:
2009 Honda Pilot EX-L, fully loaded!!! Leather seats w/ warmers, DVD player (for the kiddies!), built-in garage door opener, sunroof, 4-wheel drive, back-up camera, 3rd row seating, 6-disc CD changer, dual zone climate control (Nice because I like it warmer than Ben!), and many more features! We got a GREAT deal on it!! I’ve been wanting a Honda Pilot for about 5 years now, but I didn’t think we would be able to afford the payments… We found this Pilot at the Chevy dealer at a great price (about $4,000 cheaper than the other 2009s/2010s we were looking at) and they gave us a pretty good deal on my Pontiac Grand am as a trade-in. The payments on this beauty are only $125.00 more/month than what I was paying for my 2004 Pontiac Grand am!!
On the ride home, Ben snuck into the back seat to stretch out and watch a DVD!! SO awesome!
We switched after a couple of hours and I played around on my laptop, then stretched out for a nap!
We briefly looked at the new(er) electric/hybrid cars as well. Personally, I think electric is where cars are headed in the future and I would LOVE to have one someday, but they are just too pricey for us right now! While vacationing in Nashville, we enjoyed breakfast at the famous Loveless Cafe. I was surprised to see 2 electric hookups for cars in the parking lot!!!
Back to our new Pilot: It has a few more miles on it than we were originally looking for (~55,000 miles), but it came with a life-time warranty on the engine and transmission (as long as we keep up with the oil changes). So that gives us a little peace of mind, eventhough Hondas usually have a really great reputation for lasting a long time.
We also looked into leasing a new car, but they wanted a LOT more for a down payment than we were willing to spend, especially for a lease! (I was okay with putting money down for BUYING a car, but not for LEASING a car). Plus the payments were significantly higher to lease than to buy used! We plan to keep this car for at least 6-7 years. Its definitley big enough to hold two kids (We plan/hope to have at least one more), 2 big dogs and luggage.
So far I LOVE every single thing about our Honda Pilot and I definitely feel like we did a good amount of research and made the right decision.
And as if all of this wasn’t exciting enough…. My husband received a phone call about a week ago to come in for a job interview with a small, local construction company. A couple of days later, he received another phone call with a JOB OFFER and he ACCEPTED!!! He starts next week, but it sounds like exactly what he was looking for–> small, local construction company with room for growth, home every night, little to NO weekends, 40-45 hours /week (instead of 80+ hours/week like he was working before). We will know a little more in the coming weeks, but, if all goes well, we plan to restart the house hunt in the next couple of months too!!
2012 is shaping up to be one of the BEST years yet! We have a lot of exciting things to look forward too–> New car for me, New job for Ben, a new house for us (hopefully) and the birth of our daughter. I hope everything falls into to place and we continue to be blessed in the future.
That being said, I also hope that YOU TOO are blessed in the New Year and Life brings Joy and happiness to each and every one of you reading this post!
HAPPY NEW YEAR Y’ALL!!!
Here is a little New Year’s humor–> This Video about ‘Getting Real in the Whole Foods Parking Lot’ is HILARIOUS!!
