Two Months

I can't believe my baby is two months old already! And what a difference another month makes. Aimee is becoming a little person who does more than just eat, sleep, cry and poop....okay, those things still make up the bulk of her daily activities but now she smiles and coos and is beginning to really notice the world around her. It's pretty exciting to watch...I can't wait to see what the next month brings.

2 Month Stats: 8 lbs 6 ounces (staying strong on the 4th percentile growth curve) and 22.5 inches. 

Holy moly! She's grown 3 inches in the last two months-- newborn sized footie pjs are no longer possible and, as you can tell from the pic, even newborn size onesies are getting a little tight....which means we are officially into the 0-3 month clothes (or 3M in Carter's) although they are definitely a little big on her still.

She had her first round of vaccinations this week and did pretty well-- there was some intense crying but thankfully the nurse was really fast and had all three injections done in less than a minute. One of the keys to calming her down-- I nursed her for a few minutes before we got her dressed and headed home. She slept pretty much the entire afternoon but was pretty much back to normal by the next day.

Aimee at 1 month

From the Slow Cooker: Ratatouille and Orzo

I know I am overdue for a post on life with a newborn, but, in keeping with my blog's original theme, I thought I would first share one of the things I've learned about trying to cook dinner with a baby on hand so far.

I am on maternity leave until after the holidays, and aside from taking care of Aimee during the day, I try to make dinner most nights. Early on, I focused on frozen meals but we quickly got tired of our Trader Joe favorites and the baked pastas and casseroles that I had made prior to Aimee's birth. So I started trying to think about quick and easy dinners that I could get on the table with relative ease.

So far, I have found that the trick to cooking with an infant (for us anyway) is to either a) cook something all day (in a slow cooker/crock pot) or b) cook something really quickly right before you are going to eat (when Jason is home to keep an eye on the baby). Cooking all day has actually been the easier thing for me--I can get things ready to go during Aimee's morning snooze in her swing and then pretty much "set it and forget it" until Jason is home from work and we are ready to eat.

Aimee snoozing in her swing the day we brought her home from the hospital!

Unfortunately, I am short on good slow cooker recipes that aren't soups, stews or pot roasts. I have tried a few in the last 6 weeks but was only really happy with one of them -- ratatouille and orzo. This was insanely easy-- chop up some vegetables and throw them into the slow cooker with some olive oil and a can of diced tomatoes. Cook on low all day and add some orzo in at the end. Top with fresh basil, goat cheese, and a little balsamic vinegar and you've got a delicious and healthy meal. It's also easy to eat with one hand if you need to hold/calm a crying infant with the other!

Do you have any suggestions for good slow cooker recipes?

Ratatouille and Orzo
From Parents Need to Eat Too

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 red peppers, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
3 large zucchini, cut into 1 inch rounds
3 TBL chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup orzo
Goat cheese
Balsamic vinegar

1. Combine eggplant, onion, pepper, tomatoes and half of garlic in the slow cooker. Add olive oil and toss to coat. Cover and cook on low for 2-3 hours.

2. Stir in zucchini. Cover and continue to cook on low for another 2-2.5 hours.

3. During the last hour, add remaining garlic, 2 TBL of basil and salt and pepper to taste.

 4. In the last 15-20 minutes, add orzo. Before serving, top with crumbled goat cheese and remaining basil and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

From the Freezer: Chicken Tamale Casserole

One of my third trimester goals was to fill our freezer full of delicious homemade meals that we could easily reheat once Aimee arrived. I had initially planned to make a few dishes each weekend in August until our little girl was born, but that did not end up working out exactly as planned thanks to the fact that Aimee decided to cozy up to my sciatic nerve and I was left with pretty terrible back pain when standing or walking the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I was able to suck it up long enough to make a few items the weekend before she was born and supplemented with some of our favorite frozen items from the neighborhood Trader Joe’s*.

I tried a couple of new recipes including one for a chicken tamale casserole that we really enjoyed. The recipe comes from one of my favorite “lifestyle” bloggers— Kate from Elefantitas Alegres. The original recipe includes making homemade enchilada sauce and roasting up fresh chiles—no doubt these extra steps would make the dish even more amazing, however I decided to go with her time-saving suggestions (since I was also trying to bang out a few other freezable meals the same day) and went with canned instead. It was a cinch to make and froze/reheated beautifully. I made it in two batches—we ate one on our first night home from the hospital and the second a few weeks later with chips and guacamole (from Trader Joe’s of course).

I would highly recommend this dish—whether you are making it ahead for yourself, for a friend, or simply planning to eat it the same day. Yum.

*In case you are interested, here are some of our favorite Trader Joe's frozen foods: meat lasagna, eggplant Parmesan, chicken tikka masala and naan, tamales (cheese and green chile and the chicken ones), and Mandarin chicken).

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Adapted (barely) from Kate at Elefantitas Alegres

Ingredients:

1.5 c. of corn muffin mix

2 eggs, beaten

kernels scrapped from 2 small ears of corn

½ c. milk

2 4oz. cans of chopped green chiles, drained

2 ½ c. cheese, grated (Kate suggests pepper jack-- I used a "mexican cheese" blend from the grocery store)

¼ T. chili powder

½ T. cumin

1 10oz can of your favorite red enchilada sauce

Meat from one natural rotisserie chicken, skin removed and shredded

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Fold eggs, corn kernels and milk into corn muffin mix. Add green chiles, 1/2 cup of grated cheese, chili powder and cumin and combine. Pour into a greased one 9×13 or two 8×8 inch baking dishes. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the middle of the mix is firm.

3. Pierce tamale base all over with a fork. Pour the majority of the enchilada sauce over the tamale base, then top with shredded chicken and remaining cheese. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the whole thing.

4. Casserole can either be baked immediately for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or wrapped and frozen. If you decide to freeze it, simply bake at 400 for 40 minutes or until hot.

One Month

It’s hard to believe that Aimee is one month old already! In many ways, it feels like barely a week has gone by since we brought her home from the hospital. And although we don’t tend to accomplish much in a given day (eat, sleep, cry, diaper change…repeat), somehow they pass rather quickly. The first few weeks were a little rough as we (Jason, me and Aimee) began to adjust to our new way of life, but I think we are starting to get into the swing of things.  I am hopeful that in the next month, I’ll be able to spend a little more time on the ol’ blog; in the meantime, however, I’m hoping you’ll enjoy a retrospective of Aimee’s little life thus far :) It’s amazing how much she’s changed in such a short amount of time!

Happy One Month Birthday Aimee!

What a Week!

A week ago today, our lives changed....

Welcome to the world, Aimee Katherine!


More to come :)

Mission Accomplished!

Now that is what I can a stocked freezer.....

In addition to the normal freezer fare we already had (bread, ice cream, chicken breasts, etc.) and the vast quantities of Omaha steaks that were given to Jason as a congratulatory gift when he got a promotion recently (which you can see on the top and third shelves) we now have 

-Homemade baked ziti
-Homemade chicken tamale casseroles
-Homemade vegetable strombolis

(Recipes coming once we've had a chance to sample them.)

As well as a variety of our favorite frozen selections from Trader Joe's.

Sadly, I know this won't last all that long but at least it will be there when we need it! Good thing to, since Baby's estimated due date is T-minus 3 days and counting!

The Final Countdown

Sorry I have been a little MIA lately. Between work and getting things ready for the arrival of the baby, I haven't had much time or motivation for things like trying new recipes or even blogging. The good news is that I think we're about as ready as we're going to be. And good thing too, since Baby Watch 2012 is officially on: at 38 and a half weeks, this baby could make her debut at any time!

 38 weeks and counting! Notice the pack and play set up in our bedroom too.

We have accomplished a lot in the last month or so. The nursery is pretty much done (although we are still waiting the delivery of a chair we ordered a couple of months ago-- I'm keeping my fingers crossed it finally comes in this week; once it does, I will do a nursery reveal :) ), car seats are installed, many loads of baby laundry have been done, an initial supply of diapers has been purchased, and, as Jason likes to say, we now have "baby-holding devices" on every floor of our multi-story townhome. We even took a childbirth class at the hospital where we will be delivering. The one thing I still have on my list to do is to stock the freezer with some homemade food so we can continue to eat well after the little one arrives. That will likely have to wait until next weekend, assuming the baby doesn't arrive before then. I had hoped to get to that today but I've been trying to stay off my feet given that I have been dealing with some pretty intense lower back pain. Apparently the baby has decided it's more comfortable to lean against my sciatic nerve which has made walking pretty fun the last few days. I keep hoping that she will move again, but am starting to prepare myself for the fact that his may last until she makes her debut.

Despite the recent sciatica, I continue to be pretty lucky with this pregnancy. I still feel pretty good although I have started taking more naps again on the weekends; perhaps my body is trying to tell me to rest up while I can! We're pretty excited though-- it'll all be worth it in the end :)