What Waves Is Eating
I’ve found that feeding a baby solids can be pretty overwhelming since you want to make sure that they get a variety of foods and their nutrition is solid. I thought that I’d share some of Waves’ current favorites so that maybe if you’re in the same boat you will get some new ideas and please feel free to share some of your baby’s favorites in the comments. Also, here’s a list of sites I’ve found some good recipes from:
· Wholesome Baby Food
· NutureBaby
· Weelicious
· BonzaiAphrodite’s What I Ate Wednesday Posts
· A Healthy Slice of Life’s “Munchkin Meals”
And now here are a few of Waves’ current favorites:
» quinoa and banana | I make a pot of quinoa, add some water, use the immersion blender to purée it, and then put it into these trays. That way I can just get a couple of frozen cubes, heat them up, add whatever extras (blueberries, strawberries, banana, etc) and breakfast is ready in no time. She really loves it with mashed up banana and sometimes I add ground flax seed or molasses as well.
» avocado, banana, molasses, whole milk yogurt | This is one that I even like to eat sometimes. It’s delicious, full of good fats, and she absolutely loves it.
» curried lentils | I made a batch of red lentils, mashed them with a fork, and added a little curry powder. I had some leftover roasted carrots so I diced them up really tiny and rolled them and the lentils into little balls. Waves prefers to feed herself so she really loved these.
» some other favorites
· baked apples and butternut squash with cinnamon and quinoa
· smoothies (frozen bananas, blueberries, whole milk yogurt, avocado, kale, thinned with water and served in this straw cup)
· egg yolk scrambled in olive oil
I hope this is useful and I’ll share some more soon!
Working It Out
Over the weekend we scored an incredible deal on a used treadmill. It is so awesome being able to workout at home instead of traveling to the gym which takes up quite a bit of time. It’s also nice being able to watch whatever I want on the laptop since that makes workouts go by much, much faster.
Greg has told me over and over again how awesome Jack Daniels’ Running Formula is so I said that I’d train using that plan and see how I do at my next 5k in July. Greg used it when he got his 19 minute 5k PR so I know it worked well for him and I’m excited to see how I do at the next race.
Last night I did a thirty minute run at my easy pace (12:30/mi) along with a five minute warm up and five minute cool down. Afterwards I wanted to do a quick ab workout and I knew Blogilates would have just what I needed.
I did this workout and yeah, it’s tough. Every time I do one of her videos I don’t understand how she is just talking away like nothing is going on and I can barely breathe. I had to take a couple of tiny breaks here and there because my core just isn’t what it used to be. I’m hoping that it will get better as I continue with the ab workouts.
Today is one of my off days from running so I am going to try out my new Tracey Mallett dvd I got yesterday. Online workouts and dvds have been wonderful since mine and Greg’s schedules just don’t sync up which leaves me unable to make it to gym classes. Waves has been pretty consistent at going to bed around 8pm every night so I have started working out then and it is going well.
I hope you all are doing well and things are good!
Weekly Love
Just a few things I’ve been loving this week…
I made these flourless peanut butter cookies yesterday and they were really good, but it would be amazing with chocolate chips which I was out of, unfortunately.
One of my friends makes her own jewelry and it is so gorgeous. I love really simple necklaces and she gave me this one, plus a beautiful ring, and I am so in love with both of the pieces. Check out her store, especially if you like sugar skulls and similar imagery.
This sweet potato hash with fried eggs recipe is so, so good. I usually just make it on the weekends, but had a serious craving for it this week so I made it for dinner one night.
• Gordon Ramsay’s broccoli soup recipe is so simple and easy that I really can’t even believe it. It has awesome reviews so I want to try it out soon.
• I found this morbid fashion tumblr and am in love. All the images and clothing are just beautiful!
• I’ve been really into couponing and the sites Totally Target and I Heart Kroger are great for finding the best deals and coupon match-ups. I managed to get bags of dog treats for 24¢ each and Benadryl for 39¢ this week with coupons!
• TheKitchn posted 7 vegetarian cooking blogs that post beautiful photos and delicious looking recipes.
• I posted about this last week, but I am still loving Tracey Mallett’s booty barre workouts. The sculpted arms one is my favorite, but the abs & flexibility and core workout are really good ones too.
Recipes that look amazing & I’m wanting to try! » sweet potatoes stuffed with chipotle black bean & corn salad /// quinoa breakfast bowl /// sweet potato nachos
Have a wonderful weekend!
Iced Tea Makes Everything Better
This week I got to hang out with two different friends who both moved to LA and happened to be in town around the same time. I ended up in Market Square to eat at Tomato Head on two different days since that’s where everyone wants to go or where I recommend when people come into town. I loved getting to catch up with them both even if it was too short of a visit!
On Wednesday, Market Square was packed since it was the first day of the Farmer’s Market. I stopped by one booth to buy cilantro and ended up with chocolate mint and an early girl tomato plant instead. They were all out of cilantro, but I am super excited about the plants I did get and I can’t wait to get an herb garden started. I’m not sure what I want to plant them in just yet even though I saw a couple of neat ideas on Pinterest.
It’s gotten a lot warmer out recently which always makes me want to drink iced tea. I went to the co-op to get some lapsang souchong out of the bulk bins and man that tea smells incredible. Just the smell of it reminds me of summer and makes me instantly happy. I just heat up water, put some of the loose tea in a fine mesh strainer, then leave it for awhile, pour it into one of these when it cools off, and keep it in the fridge. I don’t add any sweeteners, but honey would work well and is really great in iced jasmine green tea.
Last night I did these two workouts by Tracey Mallet and they are super tough. For the arm workout I use five pound weights and it feels like my shoulders are on fire the entire time. I really like her videos so I am going to buy one of her DVDs soon for when I need a break from Jillian.
This was my first time working out since my 5k on Sunday and I feel pretty good. My shin was hurting a bit so I’m definitely taking a running break and will focus on strength and core work instead. I really want to incorporate more yoga and stretching into my routine to help prevent injury. Someone on the Facebook page recommended The Ultimate Yogi, which I’d never heard of, and it sounds really great. Have any of you tried it before?
I’m off here to go catch up on cleaning and laundry while watching a few episodes of Kitchen Nightmares. I got so excited when I saw that they had added the US episodes to Netflix!
Weekly Love
Just a few things I’ve been loving this week…
I saw a recipe for a natural air freshener on Pinterest and I’m glad I saw it because it made the house smell so incredibly good. All you do is put water, vanilla extract (I used two tablespoons), sliced lemons, and rosemary and then simmer for awhile.
Waves had a playdate at the park with Priyanka’s son and she had such a great time! They babbled with each other, ate bananas, and kept trying to steal our food when we weren’t looking. She ended up taking a three hour nap afterwards which is the sign of an excellent time!
I had a 5k pr today! I ran the Dogwood 5k and my goal was to make it in 29 minutes. The last time I ran this same course I came in at 34 minutes so it was quite a jump, but I’d been training for awhile. The incline got me a few times so I had to really slow it down, so when I saw that the finish line clock was still in the twenties I gave it all I had and sprinted in at 29:57! It gives me a great base to go off of as I continue to train for the Fireball 5k in July.
• Here are some great tips for cutting garlic and onions, plus I found out the correct way to hold a knife thanks to these gif tutorials from a mission Chinese cook.
• I already use the crystal deodorants so the next step to me has always been making my own natural deodorant and this seems like an easy and effective recipe.
• Greg and his family speak German and I’ve tried different books, audio lessons, and websites to try and learn it, but always had a hard time. Since Waves is now learning it, I’ve stepped it up and am doing really well thanks to Mind Snacks German app. I’ve already learned 1-20, colors, and days of the week and am having a really good time since the games are so fun and well designed. They offer a few other languages and I’d definitely recommend their apps.
• I picked up Trader Joe’s super spinach salad yesterday and it was so good! The carrot miso dressing was awesome and I loved the combination of ingredients. I found a copycat recipe here and will definitely be making it this weekend.
• If you’ve ever wondered about Dita Von Teese’s beauty routine, this article breaks it down for you from the woman herself. This is an old article, but I came across it again this week and love it so much. She seems so down to earth and I love that she uses a lot of drugstore products in addition to the higher end stuff.
Recipes that look amazing & I’m wanting to try! » bbq tempeh sandwiches /// southwestern quinoa pasta salad /// garden of eden spring rolls with peanut ginger sauce (I probably won’t make these, but how pretty are the flowers in the rolls?!)
