March 2012

Foodie Pen Pals

by Lisa on March 30, 2012

Is there anyone in this world that does not love getting mail? Especially when that mail is a package? When I saw Lindsay’s Foodie Pen Pals program, I knew I had to jump on board. A package delivered to my door full of fun food finds? Yes, please!

This month, my pen pal was Jamie and here’s what she sent me:

A reusable bag, pink shoelaces and her take on vegan French macaroons. If you’d like her recipe, you can find it here.

Thanks, Jamie!

If you want to see what I sent to my pen pal, Katie, check out her blog!

I had a lot of fun for my first month participating in Food Pen Pals. Want to join us next month? Here’s how it works and how you can get involved too!

On the 5th of every month, you will receive your pen pal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your pen pal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your pen pal!
The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
Foodie Pen Pals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your pen pal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
Foodie Pen Pals is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for April, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by April 4th as pairings will be emailed on April 5th!

Thanks so much to Lindsay for organizing. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for April!

Have you had any fun things show up in the mail lately?

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Finding Balance

by Lisa on March 20, 2012

Remember when I told you about all of my goals for this year and that one of them was finding balance? I’m trying to do that, right now. And it means stepping away from The Splattered Apron for a few more days. The thing is, I’m trying to get things done that I want to do as well as what I need to do. I refuse to play the “I’m just so busy” card. I know there is a way to balance the needs and wants of my family with my time. There is a more efficient way and I’m in the process of figuring that out. Thanks for sticking with me, I promise I’ll be back soon!

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What I Ate Wednesday

by Lisa on March 14, 2012

I love reading What I Ate Wednesday posts. I think it’s fun to see what other people eat every now and then and it gives me ideas for ways to change up what I eat. Thanks so much to Jenn for hosting!!

I decided to participate not because I think that what I eat every day is interesting {it’s not} but because I want to take a serious look at the food I consume and make some changes. I’ve always had a healthy appetite and I enjoy eating whole, clean food, but ever since Caroline was born I have put my health and fitness on the back burner. I’ve eaten a lot more sweets than I should, even though I have lost all of my baby weight and then some thanks to breastfeeding!

I’m getting back on track with fitness through the Best Body Boot Camp and now it’s time to get back on track with my eating. I’ve never been one for dieting, I don’t like to tell myself I can’t have something because then all I want is that one thing. But when I work out, I find that I don’t want to eat the junk food—why ruin how good I’m feeling?

Here’s my first WIAW post!

As a breastfeeding and working mama, I have to plan all of my food in advance. Normally I work from home on Tuesdays but yesterday I had to go to the office and here’s what I ate!

Breakfast

On the way to the metro I drank a green monstah smoothie.

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Once off the metro, I normally go to a smaller coffee shop for my morning coffee but since I didn’t have any cash, I stopped into Starbucks. This morning was a venti kind of morning. Blonde roast with half & half and sugar.

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Breakfast #2

As much as I love starting the morning with a smoothie, I am starving by 10 am. So I bring a container of rolled oats, chia seeds and ground flax mixed with almond milk, water and a little bit of maple syrup. I leave that in the refrigerator overnight then heat it up at work and top with dried cranberries, coconut flakes and almond butter. My oatmeal was chased with a ginormous jug of water. As a breastfeeding mama, I need to stay hydrated even more than normal!

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Lunch

Salad in a jar! I saw this idea when Mama Pea posted her recipe and it seemed like a genius way to bring a salad to work without having to bring a separate container of dressing {which always seemed to make a mess in my lunch bag}. Mine contains Boathouse Thousand Island Yogurt dressing, grape tomatoes, edamame, Trader Joe’s 8 Chopped Healthy Veggies and arugula.

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Snack

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today! My first frozen yogurt of the season was absolutely necessary. Some vanilla, cake batter and dulce de leche. Topped with granola, strawberries, walnuts and chocolate chips.

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To be perfectly honest, I did snag a couple of small pieces of chocolate throughout the day too. My department always has chocolate on hand and sometimes it is just hard to resists!

Dinner

I was going to make risotto for dinner but since it was such a gorgeous night, we decided to grill. We had chicken sausages, some with sage and apple and the other with sundried tomatoes and basil. Accompanied by baked kale, grilled asparagus and bread with Earth Balance {I had two!}.

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Snack

I ended the night with a cup of tea, sweetened with a little agave nectar.

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What did you eat today?

{ 15 comments }

Lemon Curd

by Lisa on March 13, 2012

I’ve told you before about our lemon tree. Let’s just say that this year was very good to our tree and we have close to 15 lemons ready to be harvested. Two fell off the tree a little early and I don’t like to do just anything with these lemons. They’re Meyer lemons so they have a delicious sweet and tart flavor. They deserve more than just being squeezed over fish or into tea. They deserve to become something decadent, luscious and delicious. Something that allows their remarkable flavor to shine. They deserve to become curd.

Lemon Curd

by The Splattered Apron

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10-15 minutes

Keywords: boil condiment lemon

Ingredients (about 2 cups)

6 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
finely grated zest of one lemon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 12 tablespoon pieces

Instructions

Separate the eggs. Set aside the whites for something else (like an omelet!).

In a pot, combine the egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice over medium heat. Whisk constantly.

Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly, and allow to boil until thickened, about 4-5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Allow to cool before serving.

It’s hard to be in our house knowing that this is in the fridge. I just want to eat it.

It’s tart, sweet and smooth-ish. If you want your curd to be more smooth {I didn’t, I like it slightly rustic}, run it through a fine mesh sieve when it’s still warm.

A little bit goes a long way.

Normally babies do not like the flavor of lemon, but when we let Caroline lick a little bit of juice off my finger {while I was making the lemon curd}, she wanted more. Apparently, she has a well developed palate.

Poor thing was a bit clingy on Sunday morning, so I cooked with her in the Ergo for the first time. Don’t ask me how I’ve avoided this for seven months!

But back to the lemon curd. Once you make this you’ll want to slather it on pretty much everything. Nothing is safe.

Enjoy!

Recipe from Family Kitchen.

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Seven Months and Busy!

by Lisa on March 12, 2012

The past month flew by and I don’t think it’s just because February is a short month. Caroline grows and changes each and every day; it is mind boggling to compare her first month photo to her seventh month photo.

1 Month

7 Months

Caroline spends her days now being very busy. She is no longer content to just sit and observe she wants to be an active participant. Which is great for playing, not so great if I want to make dinner.

She is very mobile, she rolls all over the place and is starting to figure out the mechanics for scooting and crawling. Right now she will roll and spin herself in a circle to get where she wants to go. Her newfound mobility makes her weekly and monthly photos nearly impossible.

This month, Caroline seems to have finally figured out her napping schedule. She has settled in to two naps a day, though it’s anyone’s guess how long they’ll last. She seems to nap for a total of 1.5-2 hours each day, with one shorter and one longer nap. She sleeps through the night so it’s hard to be upset that she doesn’t nap longer. My mom told me that I wasn’t a good napper either, so we know where she gets it from! She and I still enjoy taking afternoon naps together on the weekends.

Caroline loves going on the swings and being in the stroller when I take her for a run.

Her palate continues to expand, the biggest development being chicken. Girlfriend cannot get enough! She has also mastered drinking water from a sippy cup without our help.

Caroline has made it pretty clear that she does not enjoy sitting in her car seat at restaurants so we tried putting her in a high chair. Success! She has a lot more fun being able to sit with us at the table and not be confined in her car seat. We enjoy not carrying the car seat into the restaurant.
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Maybe the biggest news of this month is that we have some teeth! Without us even noticing, Caroline’s bottom two front teeth are coming in. She hasn’t been drooling more than usual, doesn’t have a fever and hasn’t been cranky so we were shocked to feel and see them coming through. I’ve heard the first teeth can be a lot easier than the rest.