Pregnancy and Cooking

...are just two things that don't always mix!

I'm sorry for my absence, but I sure do hope that makes your heart fonder.  <3

Here's the skinny on what's been happening...

1.  I have had NO time to blog.  I started a crochet business called Made by Magissa and it boomed during the Fall.  A wonderful thing!  Just didn't leave much time for anything but crocheting and being a momma during what "free time" I have.  (I'm kinda okay with that.)

2.  I'm pregnant with Baby #2, a BOY this time!  He is due on May 16th and is currently the size of an ear of corn, to give you some perspective:

3.  This pregnancy has been tougher sickness-wise and cooking-wise, if you thought the last one was bad!  Though, that was mainly in the first trimester.  I'm happily sailing through the second trimester and have been doing lots of cooking to try to keep some of those inevitable pounds away (one of my New Year's resolutions).  I'm currently determined to add spinach back into my diet in the form of lots of yummy salads.  Stay tuned.

4.  I haven't forgotten about the blogging world!  I've been taking pictures of some things I've been making, just haven't posted.  Feast your eyes on these... can you guess which are pregnant cravings and which are attempts to be healthy?

I'll be honest, I don't remember what this is...

Seriously.  I've been sitting here looking at the picture and thinking about what it could have been.  Maybe a meatball sub?  Perhaps a cheeseburger attempt on a hot dog bun?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Pretty sure that's meat, cheese, and tomato at least... so... yeah.

Crockpot Maple Ham

This was sooooo easy to make.  Good, because I didn't want to be smelling everything!  Basically, you put a layer of carrots and sweet potato in the bottom of your crockpot... put a 1-1 1/2 pound ham on top of it... and pour some maple syrup over the whole thing.  It ends up cooking for about 6-8 hours, depending on whether you put it on low or high.  Yummy!

Yes, I know that wasn't pictured in the crockpot.  At least I remembered to take a picture as I portioned it out for my lovely hubby's lunches!

Mac & Cheese on a Stick

I did not make this.  I bought it at a Renn Faire.  It was A-MAZING.  Jealous?

Egg Salad Wrap

Just like it sounds... there are tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and spinach on there, too.  Maybe avocado?  I love all things avocado.  Guacamole, especially.  Mmmm... guacamole...

Enjoying my favorite!

Blueberry Oat Pancakes

You've seen the Oat Pancakes before.  Still an all-time favorite in our house.  We added blueberries because my daughter had been obsessed with "Curious George makes Pancakes" and wanted to add blueberries to them like he did in the book.  *heart melts*

My lovely helper!

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Mine were topped with peppermint marshmallows... just because it's what was in the pantry!  These were tasty, but got a little moist when covered up for too long.  I will say that I didn't add all the butter, but substituted applesauce for some of it instead.  That tends to make cookies a little more cake-y.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Recipe came DIRECTLY off the bag of Hershey's kisses.  Yum.  Yep, just yum.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were good, but also a little cake-y because of my butter substitution.  Don't worry, they still got eaten.

Soft Pudding Monster Cookies

BEST.  COOKIES.  EVER.  Pregnant me ate most of them.

Eggplant Parmesan

I cannot divulge my recipe, as it is from my wonderful uncle!  Come on over sometime, I'm itching for a reason to make this again.  Mmmm...

My helper, at it again!

Egg Salad on a Waffle

Haha, had to throw it in here... oh so good.  If there's hard-boiled eggs and waffles in my house, this is my go to lunch.  :-)

Okay, so I can explain all of the cookies like this... if you can't eat cookies when you're pregnant, when can you?

Happy Cooking, folks!  Hopefully I'll be back again before baby comes.  No promises.  ;-)

Fondue and Grilling Fun!

I hope you had a nice weekend... it was a busy one for us!  We went to a cookout, had a fondue night (just barely!), had lots of playground time, worked on the house, bought a new sofa, and I feel like the list goes on and on... 

I feel productive, yet exhausted.  Though I didn't feel exhausted until today.  In the rain.  The gloomy, gloomy rain.  Why does rain make you feel like that?  Is it just me?  I wasn't even all that tired today (and I do know tired), but I could probably have taken a solid 2-hour nap.  If I napped well.

I digress.  

It's the food you're here for, isn't it?  

First off, Fondue Sunday with Neal and Casee!  :-)  

They sure do look like a weird bunch, don't they?  (Love you guys!)

Things I learned on Fondue Sunday:

1. You can solder a cord and finagle it so that it works (if you can't find the real fondue pot cord because you moved).  Thanks hubby!

2. Hard cider is delicious.  Seriously, Angry Orchard?  Do it.

3. There's a fine line between cheese fondue and a big lump of gooey cheese that barely counts as fondue.

4.  Fondue pots are not easy to clean when they are filled with gobs of cheese.

5.  You cannot take a picture of someone stirring fondue without it being a blurry, action shot (See below).

We used a vegetarian broth base and then added some garlic, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, and cheese (Sharp Cheddar and Colby Jack).  Now, it's been a long time since we've had a fondue night, but I've found that pretty much whatever you put into a cheese fondue is delicious.  Tomatoes, mushrooms, tofu, apples, carrots, celery, oh, and crusty bread.  Rock on.

I heart fondue.  :-)

Oh, and yes, Jimmy did indeed solder a cord to make our fondue pot work.  We probably spent an hour looking for the cord and couldn't find it!  Ugh.  (I still haven't found it, for the record.)  I thought for sure it would show up immediately after we made the fondue.

Next up... last night's dinner.  I would say that this was something I would never have eaten as a child.

Chicken Sausage with Grilled Onions, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Carrots

I'll be honest.  Not my favorite.  Here I was, trying to like sausage.  What was I thinking?  I'm just not a fan!  With the exception of the Hot Creamy Sausage Dip my mom used to make.  Click here to see the blog post where it was included.

By all means, if you enjoy sausage, cook some up!  I got chicken sausage that was already de-cased or whatever you call it.  I HATE de-casing sausage.  It's icky.  Anyway, since the sausage was already de-cased, it was certainly one of the easiest meals I've made in a long time.  Just chop everything up and throw it on the grill pan.  Enjoy!  :-)

Okay, this post is getting out of hand.  Bear with me!  Here's what I had today...

Moooooore Eggsalad!  (On an Arnold Sandwich Thin)

Can I tell you that it was amazing?

For dinner, I was going to make Grilled Eggplant with a side of Red Pepper Sauce.  Then I realized that you actually need to have a real grill to make that happen.  So, I chopped up an eggplant and grilled it with some mushrooms and red pearl onions (better than the white, yum!) and applied it to some spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce and roasted red peppers.  Mmmm...

Eggplant Spaghetti?

Not exactly the prettiest dish, but it was delicious.  AND... it made enough leftovers so that the hubs has lunch for a week.  I'm not kidding you.  A WEEK.  Score!

Until next time...   

Eating More Plants

Happy August!  I can't believe it's August already... once August hits, it always seems like the summer is going fast (even if it's not).  I think this summer has felt very long, partly because I've been staying home with my sweet baby girl and she's grown so much!  We've been keeping super busy, too.  It almost seems like we are busier than we were during the school year, thought I know that can't possibly be true. 

On that note, I'm sure it will seem like summer is even longer than it already has been when I don't go back to school this year.  I'm a pretty lucky girl to be able to stay home.  <3

Anyway, with summer in full swing, I've been trying to eat more plants.  Plants are tasty!  Good for roasting, grilling, salad-making, etc.  I've been thoroughly enjoying corn-on-the-cob, which I've never really appreciated before this summer.  Why?  I don't know.  It's delicious! 

Spicy Black Bean Burger, Corn-on-the-Cob, and Grilled Eggplant

I also have a new appreciation for veggie burgers.  I know, right?  Who am I?  What have I done with Alissa?  Veggie burgers?  What's the world coming to?  Yeah... so, Morningstar products (at least the ones I've tried) are pretty good. 

You're probably wondering how I cooked everything.  I'm glad you asked!  I cooked it all on my grill pan.  Have I told you lately how much I love my grill pan?  I have?  ;-) 

The picture below is dinner I made tonight.  I'm not even sure what to call it... I kind of threw some things in a pan and cooked them up.  It consists of ground chicken, cream of chicken soup, pinto beans, frozen corn, garlic, and some seasonings (cumin, cayenne pepper, poultry seasoning, red pepper flakes, and a touch of garlic salt).  It's scooped over some brown rice and next to some grilled potatoes and mushrooms. 

I must also say that that's the saddest salad I think I've ever made.  It's just baby spinach and tomatoes... but it worked.  Initially I was debating about adding the spinach and mushrooms to the chicken mixture.  It probably would have been just as good.  By the way, this was a success!  Hubby liked it and even went back for seconds.  :-)  That's always a good sign.

Untitled Dinner...

These are just blueberries covered with strawberry yogurt (it's what I had in the fridge) and put in the freezer.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  :-) 

Yogurt-covered Blueberries

I hope you're making something amazing in your kitchen!!!

Grilling Veggies

Check it out, two posts in two days!  Go me!  :-)

Tonight I made this:

Angel Hair Pasta with Eggplant-Tomato Sauce

It's all part of my more veggies plan... the picture is a little deceiving, though.  You grill up all the veggies and then make the sauce and toss it into the noodles.  I took the picture prior to tossing.  However, I think eating just the veggies would have been amazing... and spicy!

 Grilling eggplant...

 Grilling zucchini... (the recipe says to use strips of red pepper, but I hate pepper and I had some zucchini lying around) ...I should really make some zucchini bread or something!

 Chop up grilled veggies...

 ...and non-grilled veggies like these tomatoes. 

 Heat up some garlic...

 Toss it all together in the pan...

Season it up... mmm... I love this part!  It always smells so good!

Put it on some pasta... or don't.  Like I said, it probably would have been good by itself. 

Next time I may even be so bold as to add other veggies.  I think it would be good with squash and mushrooms, too.  Maybe a little more tomato.  Maybe even topped with some chicken or tofu.  Who knows?  Go crazy!  ;-) 

By the way, if you can't have an actual grill, I highly recommend a grill pan.  Mine was a cheap-o one from Walmart, but I love it!  You could easily spend $100 on a really nice one, though.  Just a thought!    

Eggplant Parmigiana :-)

I'm tired of thinking.  Stop thinking.  Start cooking.  Go.  Make.  This.  Now!

Eggplant Parmigiana (WW recipe)

I made that last night in between grading about 500 things, writing a paper, planning out the next two weeks for work, doing laundry, and watching the Superbowl.  It was fabulous.  It's baked, not fried, so that cuts down on some of the calories.  Just yum! 

 Aren't eggplants supposed to be purple?  This is the first time I've ever really paid close attention to a real live eggplant... but I could have sworn they were supposed to be purple.  These were more black than anything else.  Am I wrong?

Lovely husband took a picture of me dipping the spongy eggplant slices into the egg and bread crumb mixture.  I must have looked like I was having fun or something.  ;-)



Before Sauce and Cheese



After Sauce and Cheese

You could eat it just like this, but I made a pot of whole wheat spaghetti noodles and put the eggplant on top.  I feel like if you're going to cook some saucy cheesy goodness, there needs to be a little pasta underneath.  Maybe that's just my Italian side coming out.  Mmmm...