Girl Meets Snow

It's been a odd weather year with the hot dry summer and the warm (well, warm for winter) largely snow free winter. It's snowed a little bit by where I live, and by a little bit, you can still see most of the lawn! This morning, however, it snowed a little bit more. I could still see the lawn, but there was enough to shovel (Ethan was VERY excited about this!) and enough to play with.

I bundled Eva up, grabbed the camera and headed outside for some fun and pictures. After a few test pictures and adjusting the shutter speed and ISO, I got some pretty good pictures! Most importantly, Eva had fun :)

All bundled up and ready to go! The super cute pink bear hat was made by my friend Jessica!

"What is this white fluffy stuff?"

Having so much fun!

Just playing

Doh!

Baby girl <3

11 months old!

This is the hardest post yet. Not because it was particularly hard to write, but because as I started to write it, I can't help but think "Eva will be 1 in less than a month". My baby, my little girl, my Eva Marie will be 1. 12 months. Yikes - where has all this time gone?

Weight - a little over 18 pounds according to the scientific method of stepping on the scale with and without Eva. This seems a little excessive as she only weighed ~16 pounds last month and a 2 pound gain in 1 month doesn't seem right! Oh well, I'll find out for sure soon.
Clothes - not a whole lot of change here. 6 month short sleeve onesies are still in the rotation as layering pieces. The majority of our wardrobe is 9 month with a few 12 month pieces.
Diapers - has my daughter grown? We're still on the smallest rise setting with only 1 set of snaps showing for our cloth diapers.
Sleep - No change here! Miss Eva adapted to a schedule so nicely. Nap from 12:30 to 3:30. Another nap from 6:30 to Mommy's bedtime.
Eating - this girl will eat anything! She loves yogurt melts, her purees (she gets really excited when she's in her high chair and I'm at the microwave) and table food! We're still nursing 6x a day, but we'll be cutting down to 5 really soon. We're starting sippy cups of soy milk!
Likes - the girl still loves peekaboo. She'll even play it with her dolls. Eva loves crawling over to the entertainment center and pulling down the DVD's as fast as she can. She also likes to pull books off the shelves at the library :P
Dislikes - sitting still, having her non-toys taken away, having things in her hair (I say boo to this one!)
New tricks - talking (she says dada, mama and hi), waves hello and goodbye, high fives. She pulls herself up on EVERYTHING, crawls up a few stairs and if she's in the right mood, she'll stand independently. Miss Eva still refuses to walk.

I can't wait to see what the upcoming month brings!

Here are a few pictures of the past month in no particular order...

Cousin It can't decide between combing her own hair and going up the stairs

Chewing on mama's cell phone

Monthly sibling shot!

All bundled up for the cold

11 months of trouble!

Cuddling with Ethan under the Spiderman blanket

Best Ever Black Bean Brownies!

My favorite treat when I was a little girl was a brownie - I loved them in any shape or form. Now that I'm older, I still enjoy a good brownie, but a girl's gotta watch her figure! But I digress.

We've all had the "diet" brownies that are dry, chalky, bland and just plain nasty. Black bean brownies are all over the internet, food blogs, pinterest, etc and I thought I'd given them a try. The first attempt resulted in something that was perfectly delicious, but kind of flat, like a giant chocolate cookie. Then I came across this recipe in Melissa D'Arabian's cookbook and I thought I'd give it a try. YUMMY! These are moist, fudgy, chocolatey, but not too sweet goodness! It's hard to believe that they're relatively low in fat, high in fiber, low  sugar and practically good for you!

Here is my recipe, adapted from Melissa's.

Ingredients
-1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1/4 cup canola oil
-4 eggs (3 if you want a fudgier brownie, 4 for cakey. Keep in mind that as they sit, the brownies will firm up a bit)
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 tsp instant coffee
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1c chocolate chips, divided (I used mini chocolate chips for this batch, but dark chocolate chunks would be delicious!)
-2/3c flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt

Instructions
-Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray and set aside.
-Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
-Melt half the chocolate chips (in a microwave or double boiler, whatever's easier for you)
-Puree the beans with the oil in a food processor until mostly smooth (you may have to pause and scrape down the sides). Add the eggs, cocoa powder, sugar, coffee and vanilla. Process until combined. Add the chocolate and the dry ingredients and pulse until combined. Again, you may have to pause and scrape down the sides. Stir in the chocolate chips.
-Pour the batter into the 13x9 pan and bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
-Let cool before cutting.

I think the next time I make these, I will drizzle with a little homemade caramel and sprinkle with some Maldon sea salt!

Mexican(ish) Quinoa Salad with Guacamole!

Quinoa is a really delicious superfood! It is a really good source of protein (I believe it's the only complete protein from a plant source), fiber, iron, calcium and all sorts of other things. It's also gluten free! 

Quinoa also happens to be one of my family's favorite things, so I'm always on the lookout for new and yummy things to do with it. The other day I had a craving for Mexican food, so I threw together this yummy quinoa salad.

Ingredients
-2c quinoa, rinsed
-1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1/2 bag of frozen corn, defrosted
-2 tsp chili powder
-1 tsp cumin
-zest and juice of 1 lime, reserve half of the lime juice
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-2 avocadoes (2 if they're on the bigger side, 3 if they're more medium'ish)
-1 clove garlic, finely minced
-big handful of chopped cilantro

Instructions
-Prepare quinoa according to package instructions. The ratio of water to quinoa is 2:1, so I'd use 4 cups of water for this particular batch. It should take about 15-20 minutes to cook.
-Whisk together chili powder, cumin, zest, half the lime juice, some olive oil and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Set aside.
-Make your guacamole! Mash your avocadoes with lime juice, garlic and salt to taste. Stir in half the cilantro.
-When the quinoa is done, toss it with the beans, corn and dressing. Serve with a dollop (or 2!) of guacamole and enjoy!

Fun with a Nikon D90

I've wanted a DSLR for a while. It mostly started when I started thinking about how much money I've spent this past year on having professional portraits done of the children! DSLR cameras are expensive, but I figure if I can learn to use one half way competently, it would balance out eventually.

I spent a LOT of time researching the cameras. I read forum discussions online (this largely confused me as the discussions were often too technical), read reviews on Amazon, asked friends who owned DSLR's (this was the most helpful) and asked a professional photographer her opinion.

In the end, I narrowed it down to 2 models - the Nikon D5100 and the Nikon D90. These 2 models were both highly recommended, so to help make my decision, my very bestest friend lent me her D90 for a few days.

It was a crazy few days! Julien, you know how much we chatted about all the fun things I should attempt! I will admit I still don't know a lot about cameras, but shooting in manual mode really wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

In the end, I ended up going with the Nikon D5100 because it was easy to find locally and Costco had what I thought was a good deal, but I loved the D90 too.

Here are a few of the fun shots I got!

Cousin It

Triple exposure

Double exposure

Star trails!

Sunrise over the golf course

Way too serious for a 3 year old!

Future supermodel!

Gaufre de liege <3

Ethan <3 waffles

Eva <3 waffles too!

Light painting with street lights

Bokeh -  Chris was super sweet to bring the Christmas tree back up from the basement and put the lights on!

My little man!

Pretty girl :)

One of my favorite landscape shots!

My favorite food picture - I think I nailed the angle and the lighting!

Friends :)

My friend Erica finally got to meet my Eva last week! She brought her daughter, Megan, along and we had a lot of fun. Erica, Megan, Ethan, Eva and myself hung out, went to Whole Foods (all 3 kids fit into the back of my car!) and enjoyed some yummy yummy Chick-fil-a for lunch.

Megan and Ethan played together quite well, especially when we got back from lunch and they had warmed up to each other. There were pizza deliveries, high speed car/panda chases and all sorts of fun things that only 3 and 4 year olds can think up!

Chili and Waffles!

Chili and waffles? Yep! That's what we had for dinner last night and it was tasty!

As you may remember from this post, we love waffles! I haven't used the waffle maker in a while though, so when we had chili for dinner last night, I thought I'd make cornmeal waffles to go with it instead of the usual cornbread.

And in line with the healthy eating resolution, I made a vegetarian chili! The recipe is here. Kelli is a dietician too and you can count on all of her recipes being tasty and nutritious! The refried beans sounded a little strange to me, but it really did a good job thickening up the chili in a clean manner. To make it a little bit zippy, I used refried beans that had chopped red jalapenos in it. It added just the right amount of heat so that you could taste it, but not so much that the kids couldn't eat it. Ethan ate a big bowl, and Eva had a few bites of mine as well. 

The cornmeal waffles were a hit too - just like cornbread, but a lot more fun! Even Miss Eva got in on the action. You can use any cornbread recipe you have, but in case you would like it, here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients
-1 3/4c flour (I used regular all purpose, but if you're gluten free, you can sub a gluten free flour or just use all cornmeal)
-1 1/4c cornmeal
-1 TB baking powder
-1 tsp sugar
-1 tsp salt
-2 eggs
-2 c milk (cow, soy, rice, almond, whatever)

Instructions
-Preheat your waffle maker.
-When the waffle maker is heated up, ladle the batter on 1/2 cup at a time and cook until done. This took about 4.5 minutes using a Kitchenaid Pro Line (seriously the best waffle maker ever!). This recipe made 9 good sized waffles.

Enjoy!

Apologies for the sidways view - blogger insisted on rotating the picture.

New Year's Resolutions - 2013 Edition

This will probably be a pretty boring post for those of you that follow my blog for pictures and stories about the kids, but I think it's important.

-Eat more healthfully. This one is especially important as the mother of 2 young children. I've heard so many parents say "I make my kids eat fruits and veggies, but I don't". I think that sets a poor example - kids want to eat what mommies and daddies eat! Prime example - I have a fruit and veggie smoothie for breakfast every morning (it's soooo easy to knock out a couple of servings of your minimum 7 servings a day), and I share with Ethan and Eva. One time when I was out of spinach, Ethan did not want the smoothie because there was no "salad" in it. I want them to grow up loving their fruits and vegetables!
Of course, there is nothing wrong with the occasional full fat no nutritional value treat (my personal favorites are chocolate covered bacon and chocolate croissants)
-Waste less food. Did you know that according to the National Resources Defense Council, we waste $165 billion worth of food every year? That works out to $529 per person. $529!!! I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be doing for that money! I will be working on this by buying only the perishables that I need, and any "wilty" fruit or vegetable can go in my smoothie. I have also been 
-Try new food. I'd like to think my family is adventurous in eating, but I think we eat the same fruits/veggies/meats in a variety of ways. This year, I'd like to try some new vegetables - I will just start by picking something new and interesting at Whole Foods, bring it home, and make something tasty!
-Get in shape. If you're my Facebook friend, you've probably figured out I'm doing Insanity. That's not it though - I'm doing a 30 minute jog on the treadmill (this is my warmup), 20 minutes of Insanity (more cardio), followed by 20 minutes of yoga (to cool down and tone). I think I will be alternating Insanity with P90X, since the wait list for the Insanity dvd's at the library is, well, insane (I sat on the wait list for over 2 months!). 
-Get close to my pre-pregnancy weight. I overindulged when I was pregnant with Eva and gained 40 pounds (vs 28 with Ethan). I've managed to lose nearly 30 of those already, and with my little fitness routine above, hopefully I'll lose those last pesky pounds!
-Spend more time with the family. I need to conscientiously work on this. I've signed both kids up for their individual story times at the library (my library has a really great kids' program!), so I can spend some individual time bonding with them. When the weather is nicer, I plan on spending more time outside running around! We will also be taking advantage of the zoo membership that we received this year :)
-Spend time with Chris. This will be a little tricky because our usual babysitter decided to get a job and move to St. Louis. Plus with Eva not taking bottles, it takes careful planning to be able to get out for date night!
-Blog more! This is tricky with my new fitness routine, but I will try to make it happen.
-Take more pictures. I need to try to take more pictures. There are so many moments that I'd love to capture and share! I am also going to borrow a friend's DSLR camera to try and learn how to use it, so I can figure out if it's worth shelling out the big bucks for a quality camera.

That's it for now :)

Target Post Christmas Shopping!

I LOVE Target! I go too often, at least 2 or 3 times a week. I have a favorite parking spot and a favorite cashier! And I love how easy it is to save money!

I love the annual post Christmas sales, but only the right price. I've been once or twice already when Target had their Christmas things at 50% and then 70% off and picked up a few things that I knew weren't going to make it to 90% off (25 cent bags of m&m's, free cake mix), but my Target had TONS of ornaments and decoration type things, so for that stuff, I thought I'd wait until 90% off to see what I could pick upH!

This morning, I took my little elf (aka Ethan) along on the trip. He serenaded the seasonal area with a loud off key rendition of Frosty, hehe, but I digress. The Christmas section was picked over, but there was still tons of good stuff. I bought ornaments, stockings, stocking stuffers and wrapping supplies!

Here is what I got (disclaimer, I rounded prices ended in .99 to the nearest dollar):
     -2 picture frames regularly $10 each, I paid $2 for both
     -Christmas CD regularly $10, I paid $1
     -snowman sugar bowl regularly $5, I paid .50
     -2 packs of tissue paper regularly $2 each, I paid .40 for both
     -5 packs of gift tags regularly $3 each, I paid $1.50 for all 5
     -plain green stocking regularly $1, I paid .10
     -Cars stocking regularly $13, I paid $1.30
     -kids' Santa hat regularly $5, I paid .40
     -5 simple little ornaments regularly $1 each, I paid .50 for all 5
     -snowman ornament regularly $6, I paid .60
     -Thomas the Train ornament regularly $8, I paid .80
     -box set of ornaments regularly $30 (my favorite find, see picture below!), I paid $3
     -bird ornament regularly $3, I paid .30
     -bag of bows regularly $5, I paid .50
     -2 spools of curling ribbon regularly $3 each, I paid .60 for both
     -3 sets of window clings regularly $2 each, I paid .60 for all 3
     -a little Nerf gun toy regularly $5, I paid .50
     -boys' clip on tie regularly $4, I paid .40
     -make your own garland kit regularly $1, I paid .10

Assuming my math is right, I paid $15.10 for what was originally $151 worth of stuff! All coupon free too :) Yes there were other things purchased, but they are not included in this post!

Here is what I got - let me know if you got any good deals this year and where you got them!

The haul

My favorite buy - a set of "12 days of Christmas" ornaments!