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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Sweet Little Blueberry


Sweet Little Blueberry Martinez,

I cannot believe you are that tiny in my tummy and yet you have been making me so violently ill this past week! :) It's okay, we love you VERY much anyway! Words cannot express how excited we are to welcome you into our lives. God's timing is everything, and while I admit I am a little nervous about going into my new job and announcing a pregnancy, I know you are the greatest gift I could ever imagine. We got to see your flickering heartbeat today, and it was such a miracle. :) Now, please be a good little blueberry and let mommy keep some of her food down. :) :)


Baby Martinez will make his/her world debut on 3/11/12!!

The due date is so funny... one of D's favorite bands is 311 and we are expecting our little munchkin on 3/11 day! In honor of that, I will end with our last dance from our wedding day, sung by 311!!

Love Song


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Must. Pinterest. :)

Welcome to Wednesday, home of pretty much my favorite meme EVER!

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absolutely lovely!


This is hilarious!!


Soooo cute, I need this dress!!
Source: eshakti.com via Shari on Pinterest




One day, our "Little Martinez" will  have this onesie!! ;)


I LOVE this for above the bed!


LOVE the map idea! Where you met, where you married, where you honeymooned, etc.


I feel SO blessed to know that this is the way it will be. :)


Bahahahaha!!!!


If you Pinterest, link up with us over at The Vintage Apple!

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

You Electrify My Life...

I realize I haven't been around much, but these last couple of weeks have been quite the whirlwind (more on that later)! I don't have much for you all today, but I've had this song dancing around in my head the past few days so I thought I would share! It's a great song; we had it playing when we exited our reception on our wedding day!

I LOVE Muse!! :)


Starlight by Muse

Thinking of the wedding makes me remember... this Thursday will be 7 years that D and I have been together! We will celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary soon as well; I just love being married to my best friend! :)

I will see you all tomorrow for "Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday"!Photobucket

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Healthy Jalapeno Coleslaw

I am trying a new slow-cooker pulled pork this week, so I knew I wanted to try my hand at making a coleslaw for the first time. I wanted to make something much lighter than your usual mayo-based slaw, and this one I came across at Food.com fit the bill! It tasted so good when I got it ready last night... and the word is it tastes better the next day! I will give you that final verdict after dinner tonight, but I had to share this with you all now!!

Healthy Jalapeno Slaw


You will need:

-6 cups pre-shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix
-2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
-6 green onions, chopped
-2 jalapenos, finely chopped (you can decide whether to keep the seeds or not; I took most of them out)
-1/4 cup cider vinegar
-3 tablespoons honey
-1 teaspoon salt

It's so easy, too! Chop all your veggies. 

Combine all ingredients. Cover and chill for at least 2 1/2 hours (overnight is even better!) 


D was ready to dive into this last night, so he definitely approved! I can't wait to have it for dinner tonight! Yum!!

Linking up with:
Cast Party Wednesday
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Oh So Pinteresting!!

Woah! I almost forgot it was Wednesday! Can't miss out on sharing some of my favs from Pinterest this week! Let's get to it! :)

Do you Pinterest? Come link up with all of us!

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Duh. ;)


I MUST have this for our home... I love my musician. :)


So true!


I love this! So cute!
Source: etsy.com via Yvonne on Pinterest


:) Heehee, he's cuuute!
Source: etsy.com via Yvonne on Pinterest


Oh wow, I love these SO much! Anthropologie...


Is it football season yet?


What are some of your favorite pins of the week?
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Monday, July 18, 2011

Random Monday Musings

Whew! Things are getting more and more busy as the summer goes on, and it won't be slowing down anytime soon! Right now we are in the process of finding homes closer to the school district I start at next month. That's right, next month! It's a brutal commute down 635 right now, and could probably take over an hour and a half in morning traffic. House hunting SURE ISN'T EASY, but we've seen a couple good ones are we are headed to see several more tomorrow evening! 

Our trainer was out of town all of last week, and I was in San Francisco the week before that. I did workout in San Fran, and also walked TONS, but I did not workout AT ALL this past week. Not once. Unless you count an hour of bowling on Sunday. FAIL! I swear, the weather in California ruined me. It was so lovely, and coming back into this Texas heat hit me like a ton of bricks.

Source: google.com via Yvonne on Pinterest

Thankfully, today is a new day and a new week! I spent all day hardcore cleaning my home, then had a butt-kicking hour with the trainer. Woo-hoo for not letting a bad week get me off track!

Any SYTYCD fans out there? I've voiced before how much D and I love this show, and I'm digging one of songs they used last Wednesday night so I thought I'd share!
Clarice is a gorgeous dancer, but we don't really like Jess... all beside the point! I don't really consider myself a Bruno Mars fan, and while his song "Just the Way You Are" is sweet... it's not really one of my favorites.

UNTIL... SYTYCD played Boyce Avenue's version of the same song. I thought it was just beautiful, and have since downloaded the full version! :) Enjoy!


I won't say much about this because I know it's been beat to death with a stick, but we saw Harry Potter this weekend! :) D and I both LOVED it; I'm sad that it's over!

I am still planning on sharing my trip to Alcatraz with all of you! I have all the pictures uploaded, I am just struggling to find the time to get them together into a post. Soon!

I also have several new recipes to share this week... 
a couple are slow-cooker meals 
(trying to give my oven a break from EXTRA heat)!

Until then, I am off to get some sleep - I am SURE to be sore tomorrow!!
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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Hobby Lobby Clearance Love


Price for both items together: $8
:) le sigh, I am in love. :)
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Berry Sopapilla Cheesecake

I am sure Sopapilla Cheesecake is a recipe that some of you are familiar with. It's a tasty, easy go-to dessert that we have been bringing to potlucks for several years now!

I lighten mine up a little by cutting waaaaay down on the sugar and butter. The other night at my in-laws, they made one other slight change that just sent this dessert over the top!! Frozen berries. :)

Berry Sopapilla Cheesecake


You will need:

-1 (8 oz) package of neufchatel cheese, softened
(neufchatel has 33% less fat than cream cheese, and it melts better)
-3/4 cup white sugar (I ended up using even less than this)
-any type of frozen berries, I used cherries and blueberries
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 (8 oz) packages of reduced fat crescent rolls, refrigerated
-1/4 cup melted butter
-1 tsp ground cinnamon

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 inch baking dish
*Beat the neufchatel, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup of the sugar until smooth
*Unroll the first can of crescent dough into a 9x13 rectangle (don't separate the individual triangles)
*Press the sheet of dough into the bottom of the baking dish. *Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the dough, then place the berries throughout the cream cheese.



*Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and cover the berries and cream cheese with this layer of dough
*Brush the dough with the melted butter
*Stir together the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and the cinnamon, then sprinkle evenly over the cheesecake (I used just enough sugar to lightly coat the top)
*Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown.



Let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then drizzle honey over the whole thing. Cut into squares to serve!

Yummy! This is divine straight out of the oven, but also equally tasty cold out of the fridge the next day! 

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Easy-Peasy Lasagna for Two

Most of you know about my goal for 2011 to cook with fresh, natural ingredients and to stop throwing food away because it doesn't get eaten or used. Usually, this means when making meals, I portion out single servings and freeze them for use at a later date. 

Sometimes, though, it's nice to make just enough for D and I to have dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day. Especially on an occasion like this week... we are just returning from vacation (which means catch-up on chores, including July menu-planning) and D is having to run all over town for work, making it difficult for him to take his lunch often. 

That made this lasagna perfect for us tonight! I didn't need much of any one ingredient, I was able to lighten it up pretty nicely (one of my favorite things to do!), and it was extremely easy! 

Most people that don't make lasagna often complain that it's a labor intensive, multi-pan/pot meal so they rarely bother. This one went from saute pan to the oven in a lasagna pan with little work! Serve it with a green salad and you're good to go!

Easy-Peasy Lasagna for Two



You will need:


-half a pound of spicy italian sausage
*I usually use 1/2 pound of ground sausage, but the store didn't have any. Instead, I used 2 links of hot Italian sausage and just removed the casings.
*You can lighten this up even further by using lean beef or ground turkey. My honey just really likes the heat and flavor from the sausage, and I have to agree! You can use fennel seeds to add a "sausage flavor" to any of these ground meats!
-about 6 lasagna noodles, UNCOOKED (I used whole wheat)
-about a quarter of an onion, diced
-about 6 mushrooms, sliced
-a 10 oz bag of fresh spinach
-half a jar of Classico's Spicy Tomato Basil sauce (one of the tastiest and lowest calorie spaghetti sauces I have found!)
-about 6 oz of fat free cottage cheese
-grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
-part-skim grated mozzarella
-1 clove of diced garlic
-salt and pepper

*Preheat oven to 350. In a deep skillet, brown the Italian sausage (breaking up the links into small chunks). After a few minutes, add the onion, mushrooms, and garlic. While this mixture starts to cook down, roughly chop the entire bag of spinach. Add this on top of the sausage and vegetable mixture. It will look bulky and full, but place the lid on your pan and allow the spinach to wilt for a couple of minutes. Once the spinach wilts a bit, stir it all together.


-Next add the half jar of Classico sauce and stir in. Bring to a simmer and let cook for several minutes. 
*NOTE: The spinach will release quite a bit of moisture, causing this mixture to be watery. We are avoiding the need to pre-boil the lasagna noodles, so this is a good thing. Do not drain the mixture and be sure you don't use a slotted spoon when assembling the lasagna... we NEED the juice!!  :) If we don't have enough, the noodles will not cook in the oven!

-Now you're ready to assemble! I used an 8x8 lasagna pan. Start by putting a ladle-full of the sauce mixture on the bottom of your pan.

-Next, I took 2 noodles and broke one end on each to make them fit into the lasagna pan. The 2 leftover ends fit together perfectly to create the 3rd row of noodles. Next, layer more sauce. 

-With a spoon, dot the cottage cheese throughout the layer of sauce. Top that with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and then a layer of shredded mozzarella. 


-Next, add another layer of whole wheat noodles and repeat the same procedure as above until your sauce mixture runs out. Top the entire lasagna with a final layer of mozzarella.

-Cover the pan in foil and bake in a 350 oven for about 25-30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15-20, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Not only is this an easy recipe, it's also SO versatile! Sometimes I omit the sausage, add zucchini and basil, and it's a veggie lasagna instead! Ricotta cheese can also be a replacement for the cottage cheese, but I don't find the lighter version as readily available as fat-free cottage cheese. 

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Pinterest Addicts Anonymous?


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I can't stay away... and I KNOW there are others out there with a Pinterest problem, too! The proof can be found at The Vintage Apple, where I am linking up again for Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday!!

Here are some of my favorite pins on the week!

love this. It's so true!!



Sesame Street/Angry Bird Math - This is HILARIOUS!


I adore this outfit.


booyah.


I am completely in love with these!


I love the grey and the daisies are too sweet to finish it off!


I love this color palette! The browns and greens were our wedding colors, and I just can't resist a lovely blue! I could even appreciate a little of the above yellow splashed in...


Well, hello there, cutie pie!


Do you Pinterest? Link up with Michelle so I can check out your pins, too!
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