Sayonara Sugar!

     
     I'm giving up sugar. 
     Let that sink in a moment. Because I mean, we live in America. The land of apple pie. And cake and ice cream and cookies and...
     Now, I'm planning right now to only do it for a month. Thirty days. Starting September 19. Why that day, you ask? Because it's the day after my husband's birthday and you better believe I am eating one last piece of cake. 
     I'm not going to go crazy or anything. I've done a little research online and there are people who cut out basically everything because sugar has been included in practically every food on the planet. But I don't think that's realistic for me. I need to start small. I'm not going to start shopping at Whole Foods and using agave nectar or anything like that. I'm not going to cause our grocery bill to sky-rocket. I'm just going to try my best to avoid the white stuff and be mindful of sugar in various prepackaged foods that I eat. I'm not going to cut out fruit or stress about the sugar in spaghetti sauce, for instance. I think the hardest things for me to give up are going to be ice cream and coffee creamer. 
     The reason I'm doing this is because I have really noticed how sugar affects me lately. It's basically my gateway drug. Once I eat sugar, I start craving other sugary and not so sugary foods and I overeat and I get a sugar high and then I crash and it's just not a pretty picture. Too long have I used sugary foods to comfort me when I'm upset or lonely or to reward myself. And I have practically trained my body to think that no dinner is complete without dessert.
     And as I was making Owen's baby food using organic fruits and vegetables the other day, I tasted some and marveled at the deliciousness of just plain no-sugar or spice added food. And I wondered why I cared so much about what I put in his body without worrying about what I put in mine. 
     I have been hovering at my pre-pregnancy weight for a couple months now, but I'm not where I want to be. I have been working out three times a week for the last couple weeks, but I want to try and get my eating in check too. I know it's going to be hard, but I'm hoping with the support of my husband and some accountability from posting this on my blog, I can do this. 
     Anyway, I will keep you posted as I start this journey. And let me know if you want to join me!


The above picture was taken by Suat Eman and was downloaded from freedigitalphotos.net. 

Tasty Thursday

     I have three new recipes to review this week. And then my menu for this week. I am making a few larger meals this week so that we can have leftovers and I can take a little break from cooking every night. It will also save us some money at the grocery store. Last week, I shopped at the grocery store with a special 15% off coupon so I was able to stock up on some meat. My menus for the next few weeks will probably revolve around the meat that I have stored in the freezer right now. 


Malboro Man Sandwich: B+

This new recipe was really easy and definitely a man-friendly meal. In my opinion, it was a little one note as far as the flavor, though the worcestershire sauce was nice. It used a lot of butter which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask. Not sure if I will ever make this again unless Tim specifically requests it. 

Man Rating: A

Pork chops with apples and bacon cheese grits: A-

This recipe was a little more complicated and time-consuming than some of the others I have made recently. I think it turned out pretty good though the maple syrup sauce in the apples was a little runny. The grits were definitely good (and I'm not even really a big fan of grits). I had to buy polenta because the only grits my grocery store had were instant. Polenta and yellow corn grits are actually the same thing, only northerners like to call it polenta because it makes them feel more sophisticated. Elitists...

Man Rating: B+

French toast with berry butter: A+

This was the best homemade French toast that I have ever eaten. I dream about it every night. The berry butter was also a really nice addition (I made blackberry).

Man Rating: A

Here's our menu for this week:

Thursday: Grilled chicken marinated in Lawry's Buffalo Barbecue Sauce with carrots and corn. This was what we were supposed to eat last night, but when Tim got home he announced that he was not in the mood to grill, so we had take-out. 

Friday: Chicken pot pie with cheddar crust. This is a recipe from the October issue of Food Network magazine. It looks really tasty and includes thyme, which is my favorite herb at the moment. I will be making the recipe as it is listed in the magazine, except I will be leaving out the mushrooms. Because I am not okay with fungi. Actually, it's not so much the taste as the rubbery texture. Ew. Anyhow, I will leave the cheddar in the crust because believe it or not, I do like some bread-type items with cheese in them, such as the Cheddar Bay biscuits from Red Lobster. So here's hoping it tastes something like that. 

Saturday: Leftovers.

Sunday: Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and lima beans. It is Tim's birthday so he got to choose what he wanted for dinner. Of course he chose a meal consisting of meat and potatoes. Oh, and gravy. 

     For dessert, we will be having chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. This is a recipe I found on a blog called My Baking Addiction. I am beyond excited about making these cupcakes. They actually remind me of some cupcakes made by Emilee Greer who used to own The Daily Neighborhood Deli in Georgia. Her cupcakes were red velvet with chocolate chip cheesecake in the center. 

Monday: Grilled chicken marinated in Lawry's Havana Garlic and Lime sauce with sauteed spinach and sweet potato fries. Again, this meal is part of my ongoing mission "Operation Clean-out-the-fridge-door-of-the-5,200-million-bottles." Leave no half-used bottle of marinade behind! 

Tuesday: Pot roast. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe. I bought an on-sale beef roast last week at the grocery store and wanted to do something with it. The recipe seems pretty simple and I will make it in the slow cooker. 

Wednesday: Leftovers. Tim has a meeting after work so we'll be having leftovers of the pot roast since I'm not sure when he'll be home. That way it can be ready quickly and I don't have to try and guess when to start cooking. 

Tasty Thursday

    I only have two new recipes to review this week. Additionally, Tim thinks that I should include his ratings of the meals as well, because sometimes they deviate from my scores. He would also like to stress that the Malboro Man pasta from two weeks ago was really good and deserved higher than a B.    

Peach Whiskey Barbecue Chicken: A

     This new recipe was really good and really easy. I just browned the chicken thighs and then plopped them into my slow cooker with the other ingredients, minus the whiskey. So I guess I can’t say that this exact recipe is a winner because I haven’t made it like Pioneer Woman does. But the recipe with chicken broth substituted for the whiskey is really good. I cooked it for about four or five hours on low and the chicken meat was falling off the bones and so tender. The sauce was really tasty and there was a lot leftover so I froze it to use on something else in the future.

Man Rating: A-

Italian Drip Beef: B+

     I made some alterations to this recipe so again, I can’t really accurately judge Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I omitted the juice from the jar of pepperonici peppers because I didn’t think Tim would like the flavor. Instead I added some more broth. The meat was good, but I really didn’t like the flavor of the dried Italian seasonings. It was kind-of like having dirt in the au jus. If I made it again, I would probably use an Italian dressing seasoning pack instead of dried spices. Tim on the other hand thought the meal was really good. 

Man Rating: A

And for this week’s menu…

Thursday: Malboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich (and soon to be my husband’s favorite sandwich, possibly) It is a Pioneer Woman recipe. It uses cube steak, which is one sale at Albertson’s this week. And we have leftover sub sandwich rolls from our Italian drip beef last week. I’m all about saving money by using up what I have when I plan my weekly menus.

 Friday: Cajun chicken pasta. This is my absolute favorite meal of the moment. I love everything about it. The reason I am making it is because we got take-out from a restaurant over Labor Day weekend and I ordered a Cajun pasta dish. When we got home, it had mysteriously transformed into basil pesto pasta with mushrooms. So anyway, I am still hankering for the Cajun chicken pasta so I’m going to just make it myself. This recipe is from Pioneer Woman. It is warm and spicy and creamy and contains lots of vegetables. The first time I ate it, I died and went to heaven.

 Saturday: Pork chops with apples and creamy bacon cheese grits and fresh green beans. This meal of course hinges on my ability to find grits at the grocery store. Do people in Washington even know what grits are? It seems like a really good comfort food meal. And if last week’s UGA game against Boise State is any indication, we’ll be needing some comfort after the Dawgs play South Carolina Saturday afternoon.

Sunday: Steak marinated in Dale’s Steak Sauce with sautéed onions, asparagus, and mashed red potatoes. My mom was awesome and sent us a care package this week and included the steak sauce. I haven’t been able to find any here so Tim and I are really excited to be able to grill steak with it.

 Monday: Breakfast for dinner. We’ll be having French toast and I am very excited about it. I’m going to try and make it like the French toast that was my favorite at Café Marigold in Winterville, Ga. It was never soggy and always delicious. We haven’t been there in a really long time and I’ve heard rumors that the restaurant has closed. That would be a travesty. If it’s not closed, you should go there to keep it in business until we can come home and eat there again. 

Tuesday: Pork chops with leftover peach BBQ sauce from last week, steamed broccoli, and sweet potatoes. The leftover sauce is from the Peach Whiskey (but not in my case) Barbecue Chicken that I made last Friday. It resulted in so much extra sauce that I chose to freeze it and use it again on pork this week.

Wednesday: Grilled chicken with one of the approximately 8.5 million half-bottles of marinade in my fridge door. This is something that my Dad and I would always rag my mom for when I was living with them. Oh the irony. Anyway, we will eat it with lots of veggies, most likely corn or spinach or carrots or broccoli or some combination of the above. And maybe that will make up for the maple syrup and mass quantities of butter that I will be using this week. 

I'm a Baby Bulldog!

     Saturday was the start of the college football season for our family when the University of Georgia Bulldogs played Boise State to kick off the year. Thanks to several family members, Owen has a wealth of UGA-themed clothing and accessories. The kid could have changed his outfit for each quarter of the football game and halftime! We got him all dressed for the day and sang every UGA fight song we could think of and let him play with his very own UGA football. Owen didn't really know what was going on, but he loved the attention. Check out our baby bulldog.

Owen is five months old!

I'm five months old!

At five months old, Owen was:

Weight: 15 pounds, 25th percentile

Height: 26 inches long, between the 50th and 75th percentile

Eating:

     Owen still eats about every three hours during the day, about five or six ounces at a time. He is still bottle-fed. Owen tried rice cereal for the first time on August 2. Most of it ended up on his shirt, but he didn’t seem to hate the flavor. He just didn’t know how to swallow it yet. Now, he has definitely gotten the hang of eating and loves rice cereal. We will introduce him to oatmeal cereal before we start him on pureed fruits and vegetables later this month.       
     According to most of the baby books, there are several factors that indicate a baby is ready to start solid foods. Owen definitely shows interest in eating and also watches us closely while we eat. He drinks more than 32 ounces a day and can hold his head up. The only indicator that he does not fit yet is the one that says a baby has generally doubled his birth weight by the time they're ready for solids. Owen isn't quite there yet, but I think he's definitely close to being ready.

What did you just put in my mouth?!

This is so good, I could kiss you!

To truly appreciate rice cereal, you must smear it all over your face.

Sleeping:

     Owen is doing really well at sleeping through the night for the most part. Owen slept through the night for the first time on August 3. He slept from around 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. We tried to feed him at around 10 p.m. to help him make it through the night longer, but he slept through most of the feeding. Since then, we pretty much get him down for the night between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., wake him at about 9:30 for a final bottle of the night and then he will sleep until anywhere between 5:30 and 7 a.m. During the day, he generally has about three naps, a longish one is the morning and two shorter ones during the rest of the day.

Other Things I Want to Remember:

     Owen is wearing 3-6 month size clothing. I recently packed up all his newborn and size 0-3 month clothing. It was a sad day for Mommy. 

     Owen doesn't wear shoes really, but if he did, he would be in size 2. He wears size 2 diapers. His hair is starting to come in more, especially in the place where it was rubbing off on the back. His eyes are getting darker and are currently a greenish-hazel color. 
     Owen found his feet this month and has been playing with them.

Where have these things been my whole life?

      He has also learned to roll over this month. He rolled from his back to his front on August 17. He can only do this one way (over his right side) at the moment. He rolled over from front to back on August 30. He also rolls over his right side. So basically now, he rolls over and back over and over and over. Thankfully he hasn't yet learned to keep on rolling as a mode of transportation around the house.
     He loves being around us so I generally put him in his Bebe Pod seat when I'm working in the kitchen so he can see what I am doing. 

I'm helping Mommy bake brownies for Daddy.

     We also put him in his seat when we eat at the table. That way, he can hang out with us and Tim and I can eat at the same time! Yay!

This is me crashing Mommy and Daddy's romantic anniversary dinner.

     One of Owen’s new favorite books is called “Baby Giggles” by Rachael Hale. It has lots of photographs of babies in it and he enjoys looking at the pictures a lot. Another new favorite is "On the Night You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman. He still loves his Jesus Storybook Bible and babbles the whole time I read it to him.

     We bought Owen a jumperoo this month. He really loves to play with the toys all around him and he can sort-of bounce in it if we have a box under his feet. I think the main reason he really likes it is because he can stand up in it and gets to see everything that is going on. 

My jumperoo is so very fun!

My feet don't quite reach the floor yet so we use this box.

     His other favorite toys include his musical Baby Einstein lion, Sophie the giraffe teether, his bug teether, and his crinkly elephant. He loves anything that makes noise. Something he thinks is a toy, but is not, is mommy and daddy's cell phones.

     Owen loves when we sing to him. One of his favorite songs for Mommy to sing to him is the Beatles’ “Blackbird.” It always makes him smile. He also loves "Baby Bumblebee" and "You Are My Sunshine."

     Owen is definitely more vocal now. He "talks" to us quite a bit. He also whines quite a lot, which doesn't always mean that he is unhappy. It's just the way that he "talks" sometimes. 

     Here are some pictures from his five month photo shoot. He was pretty uncooperative this month. He did not want Mommy to put him down and once he was okay with that, he kept grabbing the sticker on his shirt and trying to eat it.  

Why did I never notice before that Mom put these stickers on me each month?

I like to wiggle when Mommy tries to take my picture. It results in some pretty funny looking faces.

This sticker is pretty tasty.

Tasty Thursday

     I know, I know. If it's called Tasty Thursday, I should have posted yesterday. But I have excuses galore. Perhaps the biggest excuse is that after last week's Tasty Thursday went so well and I had lots of compliments on my sense of humor and biting wit, it was harder trying to live up to everyone's expectations this week. And really, who has any jokes about grilled chicken? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? Yeah, I didn't think so. Anyway, on to the menu. And less humorous jokes. 

     In case you were wondering how my meals from last week went, I thought I would grade each of my new recipes from last week. That way you know which recipes you should try and which you should steer clear of.

Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp: A

This was super easy and quick. I cut the recipe in half, but next time I would probably use the full amount of seasonings even if I use less shrimp. I think it needed more lemon and garlic flavor.

Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork: A+

This meat was fantastic. Though a warning to anyone who may want to try the recipe--only use about half of the can of chipolte peppers or you will hurt yourself. Bad. The shredded pork was delicious in tacos and on sandwiches with coleslaw on top. I think I prefer the sandwich way best because the coleslaw helped cut down on the heat of the meat.

Easy Mulligatawny: B+

This was surprisingly good for how weird it was. And after hearing the story from my mom about the deadly curry of 1982 (that even the dog wouldn't eat), I was a little apprehensive. This recipe is basically a curry soup with onion, chicken, and green apples in it. The broth was very tasty and the apples were not as strange as I imagined they would be. When I make it in the future, I will maybe not use apples and will instead add some other things to make it more filling.

Pasta Alla Malboro Man: B

Not the best meal ever. I don’t really like using canned tomatoes when making pasta sauce because it ends up having a strange metallic-y taste to it. But overall, it was a pretty easy-to-make dish. And for some reason, Tim really liked it. 

     Additionally, we did not use Pioneer Woman’s steak recipe for our anniversary and instead just marinated the steaks in a store-bought sauce and grilled them. I did make her mashed potato recipe, which she featured on her TV show last week. I didn’t use cream cheese in the recipe because I think that is weird. They turned out okay. I wouldn’t say they were the best I’ve ever had.

    Another recipe of hers that I did try this past week was her “Knock You Naked” brownies. I made them for our anniversary (ha ha) and they were really, really good. They taste great both warm and chilled in the fridge. 

 Now, on to this week's menu!

Thursday: We ate out. Because I deserved it. And my kitchen was a mess. And Owen was cranky and clingy all day. And did I mention I deserved it?

Friday: Peach Whiskey Barbecue chicken, minus the whiskey. Yeah, yeah, I know. Some people may think I left out the best part, but I'm a breastfeeding mother, ya'll. And I didn't want to spend the money anyway. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe. It just looks really good and I love peaches. I will substitute chicken broth for the whiskey and it should turn out fine. We're having it with mashed red potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Saturday: Hamburgers and corn on the cob. And maybe some coleslaw if my cabbage from last week is still good. We are grilling out, because A. We are having male company and B. It is the start of College Football season! Go Dawgs! Stay tuned for Owen's game day outfit(s). The kid seriously has lots of wardrobe options for tomorrow. 

Sunday: Italian drip beef with sweet potato fries and some type of green vegetable. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that I picked out specifically for Tim. I get to use my slow cooker, which makes me very happy. I just love making things in the slow cooker because 1. It is easy and 2. It fills the house with yummy smells. This particular recipe uses pepperonici peppers so it should be a bit spicy. 

Monday: Grilled chicken with Lawry’s Havana Lime marinade. We made grilled chicken with this marinade a few weeks ago. After having tried about five or six of the Lawry’s marinades, we have concluded that this one is by far the best. We'll probably have it with black beans and corn on the cob.

Tuesday: Taco meatloaf. Meatloaf gets a bad rap. When I say I’m making meatloaf, generally people give me a look like I suddenly grew a second head. Meatloaf, you say? You mean a dried out, hunk of tasteless ground beef straight from the 1950s? And to that I would say no, an intensely flavorful, juicy hunk of ground beef tasting of Mexican spices, salty tortilla chips, and fresh cilantro. It’s delicious. And I swear, if you give it a try, I will make a meatloaf convert out of you. You will find yourself dreaming of this meatloaf, you will want to make babies with this meatloaf, you will be campaigning to have Meatloaf for President… are you getting the picture? Give meatloaf a chance, people.

Wednesday: Grilled chicken with Lawry’s Buffalo Barbecue marinade. We've never used this marinade before, but it was on sale at Albertson's for 99 cents. We’ll have it with vegetables of some kind. 

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Two years ago, we did this.

I married the man of my dreams.

My husband.

The father to my sweet baby boy.

It's been a wonderful two years.

I can honestly tell you that I love him

more today than I did the day I married him.

Moving across the country and having a baby haven't been the easiest changes to deal with so early in our marriage, but we have refused to let everyday stresses come between us,

and we are working towards being stronger than we have ever been. 

It's been quite an adventure!

I'd like to say thank you to Tim for loving me when I didn't deserve it,

overlooking my flaws,

and always believing that we can tackle anything if we're together.

Happy anniversary to the one who holds my heart.