Shrimp Lo Mein

This fine evening my amazing husband cooked me a delicious dinner! (That was a lot of adjectives :o) The recipe for shrimp lo mein came from the Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine that I received in the mail. I have Chris's grandma, Ladonna, to thank for the subscription!!


This dish was very tasty and I highly recommend it. And come on, if Chris can make it, it can't be too hard right? :o) Just kidding hubbs!!

Ingredients:
1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 ounces uncooked whole wheat linguine
4 tsp cornstarch
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp sherry
2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 celery rib, sliced
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup fresh broccoli florets
2 tbsp chopped cashews
1 can (8 ounces) unsweetened pineapple chunks, drained

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, combine the shrimp and garlic; set aside. Cook linguine according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, water, ketchup, soy sauce, sherry, honey, ginger and red pepper flakes until blended. Set aside.
3. In a large nonstick skillet or wok, stir-fry shrimp in 1 tbsp oil for 2-3 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove with slotted spoon and keep warm.
4. Stir-fry celery and carrots in remaining oil for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, broccoli and cashews; stir-fry 4-6 minutes longer or until vegetables are crisp-tender.
5. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to the pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Drain linguine; stir into skillet. Add shirmp and pineapple; heat through.

Enjoy!

UK trip anyone?

So after seeing the adorable rocking elephant in the last picture of my previous post, I have become interested in finding my own adorable rocking animal. My amazing husband came across this one on the net:


The only problem? It is sold by a store in the UK, and as far as I can tell they only ship throughout the UK. Boo! So... if any of you plan to head to the UK any time soon, would you like to pick me up one of these?

Or, if anyone happens to know where I can find something very similar, or know of anyone who makes custom plush rocking horses (or elephants for that matter :o) please enlighten me! It would most definitely make my day.

inspiration: nurseries

I've decided that every other week or so I'm going to post some inspiration photos. This week I've settled on, surprise, nurseries. :o) All things baby are basically all that invades my brain lately, so you're stuck with it. Sorry! Onto the goodies:

Click the credit link below each photo to view more photos of that nursery!

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I'm pretty sure I saw this on Rate My Space...

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There are so many other great nursery inspiration photos to be seen here, but I couldn't figure out how to save any of the pictures to put directly onto my blog. Lame I know.

I truly love nurseries that don't scream baby. Obviously, with the crib, the rocker, etc. you know the room is for a baby, but they aren't completely pastel covered with characters like Winne the Pooh.

bump check: 28 weeks

Well I thought for my 100th blog post and my 28 week bump check I would be getting to share some awesome 3D ultrasound pictures of our little girl. Unfortunately she has an attitude and refused to cooperate today! She currently has her head lodged in my right hip bone, with her face towards my spine, and she was not going to budge an inch. We rescheduled for a few weeks from now, so hopefully with a little talking to, and maybe a little caffeine :o) she will decide to be good for the camera.


Our lovely little girl should be weighing about 2.25 pounds, and measuring 14.8 inches from head to heel. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. Her eyesight is developing, which means she might be able to see light that filters into the womb. She is also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

My back has been feeling a little bit better over the last few days. I think the heating pad and stretching is really helping out. But now I'm paranoid about every little thing. I analyze ever little pain I have, and worry when she isn't bouncing around all the time. (Which can be explained by the fact that she is facing my spine I suppose) To tell you the truth even though we aren't really ready for our little one to make her entrance, I'm ready to be done being pregnant. It is fun and enjoyable sometimes, but I think I'm going to like having a baby to hold so much better. Hopefully I'm down to 12 weeks or less left...

How far along: 28 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +13 pounds
Maternity clothes: I feel like this line isn't relevant anymore
Stretch marks?: nope
Sleep: sucks
Best moment this week: getting a delivery date for the furniture
Movement: at about 4 am! this kid needs to learn day vs. night
Food cravings: fruit
Gender: girl
What I miss: a glass (ok a bottle) of wine would be great right now
Milestones: another week down

Can you tell this was a slightly bitter/crabby week for me? :o)

my labor and delivery adventure

I will preface the post with this: I hope the next time that I spend any number of hours hooked up to monitors on the labor and delivery floor of the hospital, 1. doesn't come for several more weeks (like 10 or more!) and 2. I get to come home with a baby. And sorry, this is another long one.

Lets rewind to Sunday morning. I woke up feeling rather chipper. I had slept until 7:30am (which most people who know me really well know that I struggle to stay asleep until 6:15am most of the time) and was feeling incredibly rested. The nesting instinct has really been kicking in and I couldn't wait to get up and do a little cleaning and organizing. I merrily waddled my way into the bathroom and did my business. However when I wiped I caught a glimpse of bright red blood on the toilet paper. Not a ton, but enough to make me take a couple more swipes and come up with a few more bright red streaks.

Now spotting in pregnancy can be perfectly normal. Lots of things can cause it. But its not supposed to be bright red. So then I was a little bit on edge. I debated waking Chris up and even telling him, but ended up doing it. Of course it freaked him out and the two of us spent the next 20 minutes on google seeing what all it said about spotting during the third trimester.

Ultimately I decided I would just take it easy that day (which means, park it on the couch!) and if I didn't have any more I would just call in the morning. I quickly learned that I would be horrible at bed rest :o). It hadn't even been two hours before I was getting incredibly antsy about sitting around, and really wanted to get up and do something. Somehow I managed to make myself stay on the couch for the majority of the day, and luckily I didn't seem to be having any more issues. I thought we were in the clear.

Around 9pm I decided I wanted to go into the bedroom to watch TV and fall asleep. As I was walking towards the bedroom my lower back slowly but surely started becoming incredibly painful. By the time I reached the bed I could barely breath my back hurt so bad. I tried to lay down and get comfortable, but that wasn't working. I tried to walk it off. No such luck. Around 9:45 I took some tylenol and made myself lay still hoping the pain would just go away. I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and when I woke up my back was still in extreme pain.

I was pretty convinced that I wasn't having any contractions and didn't really think I was going into preterm labor, but Chris was worried that I possibly might have a kidney infection, or something might be going on with the baby. So he made the decision that we should head to the ER around midnight. The drive to the hospital SUCKED. Being cold and shivering made me 1000x more uncomfortable and I was starting to get really freaked out about what was going on in my body.

When we arrived at the ER we didn't really know where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to do. Everyone staff person would ask are you hear to have your baby? Um, I hope not! Finally I was wheeled up to labor and delivery and hooked up a couple of monitors. Baby's heart rate was good, and I wasn't having any contractions of significance. But I was still in pain! After some more tests it was determined that I didn't have any infections, and was most likely just suffering from the pain of having a small human being growing inside my body. I suppose that is good news, but it made me feel pathetic, like I couldn't handle being pregnant.

I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor today, and based on everything they did at the ER, combined with my great blood pressure and what not today she agrees that there isn't really anything going on that shouldn't be. Most likely our baby girl just had a big growth spurt, and that combined with my smaller torso = my muscles and ligaments are literally being stretched beyond their limits. Doctors orders? 20 minutes in the morning and at night with a heating pad on my back, stretching after that, followed by a back massage. I may be uncomfortable, but at least my doctor is prescribing that my husband give me a massage. I think I can handle that :o).

Hopefully with some stretching and massaging I will start to feel a little bit better. If not, I guess it is just going to be a long 12+ weeks!

do you fondue?

As one of our wedding presents Chris's mom gave us a fondue pot. I am embarrassed to say that until a couple of weeks ago we hadn't even taken it out of the box. But for Christmas this year I received two fondue cookbooks. So a couple of weekends ago we had a few friends over for some fondue. Lets just say it was a major success!


We made a cheese and a chocolate fondue, with both recipes coming from The Fondue Bible. Enjoy!

Quick Cheese Fondue
6 oz aged Cheddar cheese, grated
2 oz sharp processed Cheddar cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, halved
1/2 cup unsweetened apple cider
1 (10 oz) can condensed cheese soup
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. In a bowl, combine old Cheddar and sharp Cheddar cheese. Set aside.
2. Rub the inside of a large saucepan with cut sides of garlic. Discard garlic. Add cider and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in cheese soup; mix until thoroughly blended.
3. Without reducing heat, add cheese mixture by handfuls to saucepan, stirring constantly after each addition until cheese is melted and smooth. Stir in Worcestershire. Season to taste with pepper. Transfer to fondue pot and serve immediately.

Black and White Chocolate Fondue
3/4 cup whipping cream
8 oz white chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp Amaretto or Kahlua
4 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1. In the top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water, heat cream until warm. Add white chocolate, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in vanilla and Kahlua. Transfer immediately to dessert fondue pot. Stir in chocolate chips with a butter knife to create a swirl effect.

beautiful burpies

Thanks to my wonderful mother I am now the proud owner of this gorgeous stack of burp cloths. Now my little one can spit up in style! :o)



A few of the burpies even got the royal treatment with a little bit of embellishing...


Although I didn't actually make them, I can give you an idea as to how it was done. My mom and I went to the fabric store together and picked up some of the 'fat quarters' they had. That was entirely too much fun in itself, so many little squares of bright adorable fabric! For the back side of the cloths she used white chenille.

My mom washed all the fabric first, and then cut them into approximately 9 x 16 rectangles. She sewed the wrong sides of the fabric together (machine sewing three sides), turned them right side out and then finished the remaining edge. Lastly she put a decorative stitch about a quarter of an inch in all the way around to finish them off.


I think they turned out wonderfully and I can't wait to use them!