Weekend Recap

We took a walk up to the middle school and played:

 

Greg snapped this on Friday night after a long, tiring day.  Sometimes, I love when Ben has a slumber party with us.  (Although, it usually will only last until 1 am or so, when he starts to insist on laying horizontally, kicking one of us constantly).

We had the Broady's over for a fiesta on Saturday - I have never seen our boys play better together than they did that night :)

 

Playing in daddy's toolbox.  Greg fixed our gates so they now close all the way - so nice to be able to trap Ben in the backyard now!

Being clingy to mama.

 

Greg stretching before his run on the Burke Gilman.  Ben and I walked down to the park and met him there.  Also noteworthy, the Lake Forest Park Farmer's Market is now open on Sundays, and they have SO much great fresh produce!  I am going to try to do my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons now (when possible) and make a stop at the market first to buy produce.

Self Soothe?

I debated even posting this, because pre-teen Ben may kill me for putting this out there, but I find too cute/random/weird not to.

Ben has gone from always needing to touch some sort of bare skin (my arm, his cheek) when he is tired or getting ready to fall asleep, to now narrowing in on his own nipple.  If he has his binky or a bottle, you can bet money on the fact that his hand will be down (or up) his shirt.  It seriously cracks me up.

Teamwork!

PCC Cooking Class with Mom

 

For our "official" Mother's Day celebration, my mom and I attended a cooking class at PCC.  They have SO many classes to choose from, but we chose the "Springtime Sunday Supper" class.

 

The chef, Pam Sawyer, was really nice, helpful, and gave a little talk about how she tries to always shop in season with what is fresh and local.  It was kind of motivating :)  I wish I had the time to shop every day for what I plan to cook that night, but since that is impossible, I will happily settle for coming away from the class with a few new recipes that I seriously cannot wait to make again!

 

My mom and I were in charge of making the Chicken Paillard with Lemon, Capers and Olives.  It was by far my favorite part of the meal, so I'm happy we got to make that one.  The group also made Lemon-Thyme Spring Pea Crostini, Asparagus Soup, Sauteed Carrots with Herbed Butter, and Strawberry Financiers.  YUM.

 

Here is the recipe from the chicken we made.  I'll probably make this within the week.  It was so good, and my mom told me that the leftovers she had cold were delicious too! 

 

I can't wait to take another class!

 

 



Edamame Hummus

While going through my freezer today, I noticed I had a few bags of edamame hiding in the back corner.  I remembered this recipe for edamame hummus that I used to make ALL THE TIME, and thought I would make a batch and see if Ben liked it, too!

Well, my kid is full of surprises.  He LOVED it. 

Edamame Hummus

Ingredients:

1 bag (12 oz) frozen shelled edamame
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons tahini (or you can grind up sememe seeds with a little olive oil)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Serve with chips, pita bread, bell peppers, whatever.   I am obsessed with the multigrain chips that Costco sells, so I eat them with that. 

Enjoy!

Meal Planning: Week of May 20th

I've got a Costco-sized bag of quinoa, and I'm not afraid to use it.  Here is what I have planned for meals next week.

Monday: Breaded cod, roasted asparagus and arugula salad.

Tuesday: Grilled Flank steak (marinated in this) and Pesto Caprese Quinoa Salad.

Wednesday: BBQ quicken quinoa salad.  This time, we will actually BBQ the chicken (instead of cooking it in the crockpot).

Thursday: Boca burgers, arugula salad

Friday: Lemon pepper cod and Herbed Quinoa Salad.

And since I will already have cherry tomatoes and green onions on hand, why not make a batch of my favorite Tuscan-Style Tuna Salad to have for lunches this week?

I also have a Costco-sized (double dozen) carton of eggs (brown, organic, hella-cheap) to use up this week, so I'm going to try to cook omelettes (1 egg, 2-3 egg white) for breakfast on the days I have a few spare minutes in the morning.

To save time, pre-chop onion, bell peppers, and spinach.  Then all you need is a sprinkle of cheese (cheddar, goat cheese, whatever sounds good) and breakfast is ready in no time!

Quick side-note - since Ben has reached an age where we officially are trying to avoid restaurants unless there is an event where it can't be helped - we have been making more meals at home over the weekend, when we used to probably go out more. I may have to start planning meals for 6-7 days week for the time being, because as the mid-week approaches, we have already gone through all of our proteins and most of our produce.

Mother's Day Weekend

This past weekend felt like one long Mother's Day celebration!

On Saturday morning, my mom and I went out to breakfast together.  She brought me these amazing potted flowers as my gift - which looks absolutely beautiful on our deck!  It already  has me inspired to work on my green thumb and to get more pots and planters for our outdoor spaces. 

 

While I was at breakfast, the boys went shopping.  And Greg dressed Ben like this:

 



 

We then headed over to Rachel and Peter's house to drop Ben off for a few hours.  They had agreed to babysit so that Greg and I could go see The Great Gatsby (which was an amazing movie with an amazing soundtrack - download it!).  Greg and I snuck out while Ben was playing in their back yard, and weren't sure how that was going to go down, but apparently it went great!  I later saw this picture, and received a text saying that we should head back to their house and crack open a bottle of wine - because Ben was still having fun playing at the beach....!  

 

So, we did :)  When they got back, I snagged a few more pictures from Rachel's phone so I could share their adventures here:

That evening we headed back to our place (with Rachel) and Greg made the flank steak chilaquiles for dinner - and they were pretty delicious.

On Sunday morning, I woke up to breakfast in bed - banana and nutella french toast!  It wasn't quite "breakfast in bed" though, because as soon as Ben saw that I was awake, he climbed up on the bed and wanted to sit on top of me - which didn't quite work well with a plate of food.  :)

After opening my gifts - perfume, truffles, and a couple fun bracelets - we headed to the zoo to spend a few hours!

Ben was more interested in this water fountain than he was any of the animals ;)

 

 

But we did get to see a few animals very up close and personal!

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!  I am so happy that I get to be Ben's mom :)