Wow was this weekend ever busy!  We had a blast though.

Saturday was pretty warm and we discovered that Lucy needs some clothes for warmer weather.  I put her in a dress that her Aunt Kelly and Uncle Ricky got her.  How cute is she?!?!?!

Shaun’s comment was that she just melt his heart everyday 🙂

Yesterday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was pretty cool.  It wasn’t as big as I was expecting but we still had fun.

Some cool pictures:

Jelly Fish!

Seahorses!

These aren’t plants-they’re sea horses!

No, really!

Feed time!

Hello shark!

Lu just kicking back:

Cute Lu pics!

She went around yelling “FISHIE!!!!” It was very cute.

Daddy and a very tired Lu:

Here’s Lu this morning playing with a new toy I got her.  It’s magnets and it sings the ABC’s.  When you put the letters into the big thing you see there it says “B goes buh, B goes buh. Every letter has a sound, B goes buh”.  She played with it in the cart yesterday at Target and listened to the ABC’s about 100 times.

This morning I woke up to Lucy singing “A B C D” hum hum “G” hum hum hum hum “L M N O P” hum hum hum “T” hum hum hum hum hum “Z!”  I about crapped my pants. Seriously.  The letters that she did remember were said in the correct place!  That was INSANE!  I have a kid-she’s no longer a baby!

Her 18 month appointment was this morning and here are her stats:

Height=30 3/4”-25th percentile
Weight=19 pounds 8 ounce-Less than 5th percentile
Head=19.25”-95th percentile

She’s trending exactly where she was at 15 months. She’s a peanut but she’s a just right peanut. She’s still pretty advanced in terms of language and talking and HOPEFULLY the tantrums will start to subside as she can communicate more.  All in all, it was a great visit.  She only had 1 shot and she cried briefly and then was okay. She was VERY proud of her sticker that she got.

In short, she’s awesome 🙂

The recipe?

This:

Plus this:

Plus this:

 
[source] (I wish that was my bathtub!)

Plus this:

 
warming sock treatment

Plus this:

castor oil pack

= 10 glorious, blissful, amazing hours of much needed sleep!

I needed it!

You read right on that first picture.  I got an hour long massage for $25! At Happy Feet. A new one just opened down the street from my office.

Did you see the Amazing Race a few seasons ago where they were in Beijing and had to endure a traditional Chinese Reflexology Massage?  This was pretty much like that. 

I saw the sign outside and walked into a waiting room and asked about the $25 massage.  I was told that they do a foot/leg massage for 35 minutes and the rest of your body for 25 minutes.  CASH ONLY.  I said I was interested and they brought me into a big room with about 15 leather chairs (covered in clean white towels) that fold into bed-like things.  The room is dim and there is relaxing music being played and relaxing scenes on a flat screen.

I was told to sit down and my masseur brought me out a wooden bucket, lined with a plastic liner of warm water.  I soaked my feet and he reclined my chair and started on my face, head, and neck.  The guy said maybe 2 words to me the entire time but he did a really great massage.

After my face, head, and neck he moved to my feet and legs and then finally had me turn over for my back.

You are fully clothed the entire time and you’re in a room with other people getting the exact same thing done to them.  They don’t ask you about pressure and this guy was STRONG.  Holy shitballs was this ever a deep tissue/shiatsu style massage!!  Holy wow!

For $25 (+$10 tip)-I would go back in a heartbeat!

The cons?

-The atmosphere-it’s like a massage fast food chain or something-but the chair is amazing and the place is CLEAN.

-My masseur was a smoker and while I couldn’t smell smoke on him I could smell the mixture of baby oil and cigarette hands. BUT my grandma was a smoker and it reminded me of her (strange, eh?).  I could imagine this really bothering some people though.

-Lastly, and this was STRANGE, at one point my masseur went to get more towels and I looked over to my right.  There was an old dude getting a massage and he was on the back part of the massage.  He was rubbing and kneading his masseuse’s legs (she was a woman).  It was quite sexual and for one moment I thought I had gone into one of those “happy ending” massage shops that you only hear about.  Thank goodness none of that happened to me!  I think the guy was just being highly inappropriate and the masseuse didn’t deal with it and just let the dude be inappropriate.  I felt bad for her 🙁

Overall it really helped relax me and got me started down my road to relaxation.  Tonight, I’m going to do steps 2-5 and Saturday night I hope to only have to do 3-5. I HATE taking sleeping aides!

We’ve got a really fun weekend planned.  Swim lessons tomorrow, followed by a trip to the pet store, bike store, and mall.  On Sunday, Shaun is going for a mountain bike ride down in Monterey and I’m going to meet him after and we’re going to take Lu to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Can’t wait!

🙁

Shaun got in biking accident last night.  He’s okay!  But he’s got a bunch of strawberries (and not the kind you want to eat) ALL OVER his body.  He was THANKFULLY wearing a helmet-as he always does-and will need a new helmet.  The most interesting thing though is his finger.  Check this out!

This picture doesn’t even do it justice.  It’s blue and purple and swollen :(  Poor guy.  If it doesn’t get better, he will be going to the doctor.

Feel better honey!

Everyone-WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!

I haven’t been sleeping well :(  On Sunday night I only got about 2.5 hours of sleep and it was all I could do yesterday to get through work, hence no post!

I got about 6 hours last night but I’m still pretty beat.  I know that if I do a warming socks treatment, I sleep like a baby so I’m going to do that tonight.

Lu turned 18 months old yesterday 🙁 and 🙂 at the same time.  Here’s the big year and a half girly rocking her skinny jeans.

I love that girl.

Foodwise, everything is going really great.  I made some killer granola bars this weekend but need to get some good pictures before I post the recipe.  This one doesn’t cut it.

SO YUMMY!

With that I have to go try and stay awake and get some work done!

Question: What helps you sleep?

Ever since I was told that gluten was off limits, my sister has been sending me recipes to try.  I usually get an email that’s like “You probably already know about this but look at this recipe!”  She has sent me some really AWESOME stuff.  A couple weeks ago a friend of hers made her these pancakes and she raved about them.  I knew I had to try them.  It looks like her friend combined these two recipes.  I altered mine a bit too. 

Here’s my adaptation.

Ingredients:

-1 cup almond meal (also called almond flour)
-2 eggs
-1 banana, smashed
-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or any milk substance)
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1 tsp vanilla
-Oil or non-stick substance of choice

Instructions:

-Preheat a pan on medium high heat.

-Combine all ingredients.

-Place oil in pan-I noticed that I had to use a little extra because these stuck to the pan at first.

-Cook about a minute and a half on each side (the bubble thing WILL happen).

-Enjoy!

-This made 18 VERY filling but small pancakes.  I only needed 3 to feel full.

How did these rate?  I give them a 4.  Lucy gave them a 5-she ate 5 (!) pancakes (and 3 strawberries).  Shaun did not rate them since he doesn’t like banana in ANYTHING.  I’m going to make a banana free version next.

Thanks Liss!

On Monday, I said I would post more pictures of Lu at swimming and at the beach.  Then work picked up and that didn’t happen. For the curious, here they are (with some bonus pictures!).

Here’s a first, I looked at these pictures and didn’t cringe.  I don’t look too bad-YAY!

At the beach (I LOVE the next 4 pictures):

My two favorite people in the whole wide world:

And a good-ish picture of her St. Patty’s Day outfit for Amber:

I saw my doctor yesterday and had some acupuncture. I expressed concern that other than the initial drop (once things got, *ahem* moving) that I hadn’t seen any change in my weight.  She’s confident that once we start dealing with my thyroid issues that I’ll see improvement.  She doesn’t want to start treatment of that until I’m down with my antibiotics though which is about 4 weeks from now.

As part of my antibiotic regimen I am taking the Allisyn supplement.  It is:

…an excellent broad-spectrum antimicrobial preparation of garlic and cinnamon extracts, specifically formulated to safely and naturally act against undesirable bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa.

When I first put it in my mouth I think “mmm cinnamon” and then when I go to swallow it I think “ick garlic”  the two DO NOT go together.  After taking it I burp garlic. YUCK.  I am trying to have faith though.  It’s not as bad as the Candicin.  That stuff is NASTY.  It’s peppery tasting or something.  I rotate the Allisyn, Candicin, and Berberis Formula (doesn’t really have a taste) weekly.  That’ll be done in 4 weeks-YIPPEE 🙂

In food news, last night I made some broccoli beef (topped with ground sesame seeds):

I took pictures to post a recipe BUT it wasn’t quite right.  I need to work on it a bit before I present it to the masses ;).

This morning I made a PURPLE monster that had:

-1 cup unsweetened rice milk
-2 HUGE handfuls of spinach
-1/2 a banana (shh don’t tell)
-1 cup frozen blueberries
-1 TBSP raw almond butter
-2 TBSP ground sunflower seeds

I neglected to get a picture but it was good, not great, but good.  In the future I think I could eliminate the nanner and add a little honey.  I’m also on the lookout for some gluten free, sweetener (including sugar) free, super processed free protein powder.  I have a feeling that plain egg white powder may be my only option.  We shall see.

And with that, it’s time for Friday!

My grandma, Ma, used to make some amazing stuffed peppers.  I’ve updated and “healthified” and “deglutenized” her recipe.

Ingredients:

-3 bell peppers
-1/2 onion, chopped
-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
-1 pound leanest ground beef (ground poultry works well too)
-8 ounces of mushrooms, chopped
-1 cup (uncooked) grain-I used amaranth this time but rice and quinoa also work well
-1 TBSP Braggs Amino
-2 tsp garlic powder
-Ground pepper to taste
-1-16oz can of chopped tomatoes (optional-I can’t have tomatoes right now but I usually do add this)
-Cheese (optional)

Instructions:

-Cook grain according to package.

-Preheat oven to 350*.

-In a pan brown the onions and garlic until glistening.  Add ground beef.

-Chop up ONE of the bell peppers and add it to the meat mixture with the mushrooms.  Add seasonings.  Cook until done-taste the mixture and adjust seasoning to your liking.

-While the meat mixture is cooking.  Cut 2 of the bell peppers in half and take out all the seeds and membranes. (side note: traditionally you cut the top off of peppers and stuff them that way.  This method adds the step of blanching your peppers since they don’t cook as quickly standing up, if you cut them in half, no blanching is needed)

-Mix the grain and the meat mixture.

-Fill the peppers with mixture and place in an oven safe pan.

-Cook for about 20 minutes or until pepper is tender.  If adding cheese, top the peppers with cheese when there’s about 5 minutes to go.

-Enjoy!

Shaun LOVED this. He rated it a 4.  I thought the amaranth got a little lost in this and would probably use rice next time (like normal) but he actually liked it better with the amaranth.  He said that he didn’t know any grain was there and he thought it was all meat which is a good thing in his world ;).  Lu only ate the filling and really REALLY liked it.  It’s pretty quick and easy.

Of note, this is my basic “filling” recipe.  When I make stuffed cabbage, this is exactly what I do as well :).

We’ve developed a rating system in our household so that I know what recipes are winners and which ones I should never make again.  It’s a 5-point scale.

1=Never EVER make this again
2=Make this again but it needs some tweaks
3=Make this again
4=This is really good, it should be a regular
5=OMFG this is amazing.  5s are usually reserved for “special occasion” recipes but every once in awhile my easy peasy recipes will garner a 5.

Shaun is a tough judge 😉

This is where you’re supposed to see cute pictures of Lu in her green outfit.  Instead I have these:

It seems Daddy needs a little tutorial on using Mommy’s camera. 😉 I AM NOT complaining though.  My wonderful husband let me sleep in today while he got up and got Lu ready and took her to daycare.  I’m finally not feeling bone tired BUT Daylight Savings hit me HARD this year.  I’ve had a really hard time getting to bed and subsequently waking up.  It’s worth it though-I love it being lighter later!  This morning I could not get out of bed and so my husband was my savior.  Love that man!

I was able to have a leisurely morning before coming to work.  I don’t have to be in at a set time but Shaun does thus our normal rushed mornings.  Shaun does IT for his entire organization and most things need to be done while no one is there.  He works with a bunch of night owls who get into work around 10 am but don’t leave until 10 pm or sometimes later.  His most productive time is from 7:30-10 am and so we rush in the morning to get out of the house by 7:20 (or thereabouts).

I made myself some oatmeal this morning.  I wanted to make it green but didn’t have any dye and didn’t really want to put spinach in it.  I actually thought for a good 30 seconds about the spinach idea. I decided my placemat would have to do.

This was DELICIOUS.  Oh my, so good!  I do miss my banana but my new special ingredients almost make up for it.  What are these special ingredients you ask?

Vietnamese Cinnamon:

And Madagascar vanilla with NO added sugar or sweetener (turns out this is hard to find):

Tonight, I think I had leftovers planned but I’m feeling very inspired to do something with cabbage.  I made stuffed peppers last night (recipe to follow):

And those are a bit too close to stuffed cabbage so I’ll have to get creative.  Too bad I don’t like corned beef!

I did make GREEN curry on Monday night:

But sadly I ate all the leftovers for lunch yesterday.

And finally, Lu must be reading my blog.  Yesterday I mentioned that if Lu asks for something to eat and it won’t hurt her, I give it to her.  Even if I KNOW she’s going to hate it.  Well, last night I was chopping mushrooms and she was BEGGING for one.  I know that she normally hates cooked mushrooms and I’m not a fan of raw but I gave it to her anyway.  She loved it.

And ate it all.

What cabbage-y thing should I make for dinner tonight?