Hotter Than Hot

It has been Hotter Than Hot here lately, I think our car hit 109 on Saturday.  Ridiculous, so we've been staying in doors where there is plenty of AC available.  We did get a walk in Saturday morning but it was 81 degrees at 8:30 AM!  Riley was invited over to a friends for a swim play date on Sunday so I made some rice krispy treats to bring over, not just any rice krispy treat but these were s'mores rice krispy treats, a recipe that I made up but that I believe is Pinterest worthy! :)  Jacob woke up while I was making them so I had to share some ingredients with him, he went nuts over the Cocoa Krispies that I was using. 

I think cocoa krispies are his new favorite

cocoa krispies, broken graham crackers, and marshmallows mixed with the usual melted marshmallows.  YUM!

In the afternoon we had her friend Vikram's party, we went a little late as to avoid jumpy houses as they are off limits with her sprain but she had fun playing with her friends, bowling, and running around.  Jacob had fun too!

Dancing boy

Jacob does this new thing, when he wants you to sit down and play with him he'll pat the ground next to him for you to come sit with him.  It's so cute!

Robo-Riley bowling

Riley's friend Trevor and Jacob

Riley with Trevor's sister, Sophia, they did a sibling swap!

Cooking Up A Storm

I've been baking and cooking up a storm these days.  First off we're in a huge eating rut, I feel like we always eat the same thing and I am trying to spice things up and second of all Marc has been doing this boot camp at work and we've been trying healthy, lower carb recipes (don't get me wrong, he still eats pizza 3 times a week but we've been trying the other nights to do some healthier alternatives).  I've been getting a lot of my recipes from Pinterest of course! 

These cookies are from the student union at Indiana University.  They are made with Special K and I used to LOVE these when I was in college!  Who knew that 10 years later I would be working for Kellogg's, kind of crazy.  We got a ton, I mean 100s, literally, of boxes of  cereal into work and we all took trunkfuls home.  I decided to do something with the Special K and remembered the delicious cookies from school, all of the IU basketall craze this season has made me nostalgic for my IU days so I decided to look for this recipe on Pinterest and viola!  It counts as part of my diet because it's Special K, right!?! ;)

One of Marc's co-workers sent him this recipe from his Paleo cookbook.  It turned out to be awesomely delicious (yeah, not Lucky Charms, that's not a Kellogg's cereal :) )  These lettuce wraps were amazing and so light but so filling because of all of the delicious veggies.  Marc and I basically had to negotiate who got the 2 leftover wraps for lunch the next day. :)

This last one the kids and I loved (as you can see from the pictures, they basically shoved their faces in the bowl).  Even Riley told me "this is really good!" in between shoving food into her mouth.  This was a Pinterest pin as well, chicken with artichokes and tomatoes served over pasta.  Oh and Jacob does not have a bottle of Advil, it's an empty bottle with dry pasta in it, he likes to shake it. :)

Calzone Night

We're trying to cook at home more so Friday night I came up with the idea of making our own calzones. I've seen the pizza dough at Safeway a few times and thought that it would be fun to make our own calzones, especially for Riley, it would be an easy fun way for her to get involved in cooking and maybe just maybe encourage her to eat.  I've seen a lot of stuff saying that getting kids involved in the kitchen helps with healthy eating habits so it was worth a shot since she is such a bad eater!  She loved it!  She was all about helping and felt like such a big girl creating her own meal and nearly ate all of her calzone that she made!  She loved choosing which toppings went in her calzone, she picked sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, chicken apple sausages, olives, and mushroom.  She even asked if we could do it again!  Friday night's dinner will definitely be a repeat, we all loved our calzones, they felt way healthier than take out and I dressed them up with a tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella salad that Riley also devoured. 

Sneaking some olives in!  I think more went in her mouth than her calzone!

Creating an edible masterpiece!

Jacob of course was eating while we were making

Marc's calzone

He was very proud of his work (more so than RIley I think!)

Little girl's, mommy's, daddy's!

Riley's all cooked up, looks deliciouso!

Mmmm, tasty!

Thumbs up!  "It's good momma!"

She devoured it, that's all that was left, just a few bites.  Pretty good work for her!

Pinterest Inspired

So I have a new obsession, Pinterest.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically an on-line bulletin board, you can follow people and if they post something that you like, you "pin" it.  I am so addicted, that's all I do when I pump, and I'm so addicted I find excuses to pump more often so I can "pin," hey it's win-win since I am also getting food for Jacob right??? :)  Well I've been using it to gather new recipes, I am so sick of all of the same old stuff that we eat for dinner but there are also fashion, home, exercise, kid ideas on there.  It's really endless.  So here are some of my Pinterest inspired meals that I have made:

Cheesy Turkey Meatballs

Pudding Sprinkle Cookies

Taco Pasta

I also made a ridiculously good Reese's Peanut Butter Cup dessert as well as a Crock-Pot Tortilla soup that was super tasty.  Next up are some S'Mores Hamentaschen, which I may make today since it's super rainy out and I don't feel like schleping Jacob around in the rain (although it has been almost a week since my last Target visit and I am jonesing for a visit!).  YUM!

Back in the Kitchen

With my latest weigh in I also decided to start eating healthier.  I've really been eating very badly, I had such a bad pregnancy with Riley that I've been enjoying this one to the fullest, as in enjoying blizzards, cheesesteaks, cookies, breakfast burritos, etc.  So I've decided to get back in the kitchen and start cooking again.  I guess you could say I'm officially barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen!  Ha!  So when I was on the treadmill the other day I was watching Food Network, yes, my life revolves around food right now, and I was watching the Hungry Girl, probably waiting for Cupcake Wars to come on.  The Hungry Girl's recipes intrigued me that day, probably because they consisted of bacon and peanut butter so I went out and bought a couple of her cookbooks and made this super yummy, bacon mac & cheese.

It's filled with spinach, bacon, tomatoes, yellow squash and for the cheese it uses Laughing Cow Swiss cheese, fat free sour cream, and some Fat Free cheese slices.  It is DELISH!  I was unsure about how it was going to come out but I can't get enough of it, next time I'm going to double the recipe and bring it for lunch all week!

I also made some peanut butter chocolate fudge from her cookbook! 

I'm committed to healthier cooking as long as my energy keeps up!