Maternity Monday

I am actually posting on Monday this week! The shirt is slightly outrageous, but its so fun to wear.

This week is Ryan's last week of classes and finals, and I CANNOT wait for this weekend when it will all be over and we have a couple months to breathe!

Me:
Shirt-Thrift store (Wouldn't have had the guts to buy it if it weren't for my crazy sister Hannah)
Belt-Thrift store (Sorry you can's see it, its one of my favorite belts)
Skirt-Motherhood Maternity
Bracelet-Good Ole Target
Shoes-Can't remember for the life of me! I have had them for a couple years now.

Caleb:
Shirt-Hand me down
Pants-Old Navy
Shoes-Gap
Fat cheeks and wrist rolls-Mom's milk, avocados, sweet potatoes, and chicken.

Have a great week!

Colors Link Up-Coral

       My favorite color this spring is coral. Its so bright and cheerful and rich. I have been wearing light coral nail polish and a pair of coral earrings every chance I get for the past month. I especially love coral paired with navy or white.

But I will let the color speak for itself.

 

Linking up with Haeley for "A Month in Pictures"

Maternity Monday

     Yes I know it is not even close to being Monday. This week was crazy and each day just kept slipping by without me getting a chance to post. Ryan had law school finals last week and has MBA finals this coming week so we are just trying to get through as best we can.

     So it is wedding season!!! We have been invited to four weddings this spring and summer and went to the first one last Saturday here in New Hampshire. It was a beautiful day and I was excited to wear a sleeveless dress and open toed shoes.

     My bump doesn't show very well in these pictures, but I feel like it is huge already! As usual, trying to get a picture where both Caleb and I actually look normal was a little hard.

 

 

Me:

Dress-The Limited (Non-maternity! And the dress I wore to my Erasmus graduation. I was quite proud that I actually fit into it...barely)

Shoes-Macy's (Cant remember the brand. These were my wedding shoes and are so comfortable)
Earrings-Target
Bracelet-Banana Republic-Actually a necklace

Caleb:
Shirt-Gap
Tie-Target
Pants-Old Navy
Shoes-Gap

Cake for Company

       Baking is not really my thing, unless its Christmas and I am in full Martha mode whipping up extremely decadent truffles and such. Other than that I am a little too loosey goosey with my measuring and not very good at reading recipes, so most of what I bake turns out ok but never amazing.

      I volunteered this week to bring something to my monthly mom's discussion group (we are currently reading Mulieris Dignitatem by JPII which I highly recommend). I decided to explore the world of coffee cake and promptly googled "healthy coffee cake," I know I know that is an oxymoron. I did find one that sounded good and looked reasonable healthy, waited until the last minute to put it together, realized that I didn't have all the ingredients and had to make some adjustments. I think I baked it slightly too long as it was a little dry, it was quite sweet but very good.

Skinny Coffee Cake

Serves about 12.

 Prep time: >8 minutes

 Cook time: About 25 minutes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

 •1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (I didn't have any so used oil)

 •2 tablespoons unsalted butter

 •2/3 cup brown sugar (I used coconut sugar which worked quite nicely)

 •2 large eggs, room temperature

 •2 cups all-purpose flour

 •1 teaspoon baking powder

 •1/4 teaspoon baking soda

 •1 teaspoon vanilla

 •Dash of salt

 •1 cup nonfat vanilla Chobani

Topping:

 •1/4 cup white sugar

 •1/4 cup brown sugar (used coconut sugar again)

 •1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (didn't have any, so I just mixed up a little of my own)

 •1/2 cup chopped almonds

Directions:

 1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until mixed.

 2.In a large bowl, beat the butter, applesauce, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamed. Mix the Chobani into the applesauce mixture until fully combined. Add the flour mixture and stir until fully combined. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared baking dish.

 3.To make the topping, mix the sugars, pumpkin pie spice and almonds together. Sprinkle 1/2 of the topping over the batter. Cover with the rest of the batter and then sprinkle the remaining topping over the batter.

 4.Bake cake for about 35* minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

 

 

Linking up with Francesca and her delicious creation.

This Week in Caleb Land

A few photos of the little guy from this past week.

His latest accomplishment:

 Climbing onto the dishwasher the second you turn your back to get more dirty dishes.

Hangin with his pal Luisa:

They both wanted to use the walker. Unfortunately the rest of the pictures I took of them were terrible.

 



 

Breakfast this week:

Mangos! (And a few bananas.)

 

Mom's favorite:

Is there anything cuter than a baby in a onsie who also happens to have just woken up?

Selfie

Nothing quite like a selfie to make you look like a teenage girl! All for you Haeley!

Linkin up with Haeley

Easy Week Night Dinners

         With Ryan buried in law school and MBA classes, and me trying desperately to work at least 30 hours a week, we tend to keep our week night dinners simple. We are on a pretty steady rotation of salads, burritos, and chicken. Pretty boring, but we spice it up here and there when we have guests or on the weekends.

          One great easy dish I cook often is whole roasted chicken. Most of the time I just rub it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Herbs de Provence and cook it in my dutch oven. Roasting a chicken in a dutch oven is almost fool proof in terms of cooking a moist chicken, and if you like some crispy skin you can take the lid off for the last bit. Sometimes we don't even eat it right away, and I just pick the meat off and put it in the fridge. We use it later in the week for salads and wraps or reheated with some roasted potatoes. Caleb loves it too, and will munch on little diced pieces of chicken while grunting and banging on his tray.

       
        If I am feeling ambitious, I chop up some vegetables and throw them in the bottom of the pan. If I am feeling extra ambitious I may even make a little gravy out of the juice in the bottom of the pan.

         Today was an extra ambitious day, so I added carrots, asparagus, and red potatoes and cooked up some gravy.

What are some easy week night dinners you make?