Mouth Watering Wednesday: Quinoa Meatloaf

Welcome to Mouth Watering Wednesday! Spice up your life and try a new recipe!  This week I am sharing a recipe that I got from my friend Vivid over at Things We Create and tweaked a little bit. We just had this last night and it was really good!  It is definitely going to be added to our list of regular meals! 

Source

Here's what you'll need: 

• 1+lb of ground beef (turkey/chicken/whatever you like)
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbs ketchup
• 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/2 cup sour cream (or ranch dip)
• 1 small zucchini 
• 1 small onion 
• Italian seasonings (to taste)

Here's what you'll do: 

• First start by prepping your veggies.  I used my food processor and pulsed the onion and the zucchini.
• Now, use a large bowl and combine the veggies and the remaining ingredients.  You really want to make sure that the egg and sour cream get mixed in thoroughly as they are the "binders" in this dish.
• Finally, place mixture into a baking dish and bake at 400 for 45 minutes. 

Enjoy!! 

Thompson Number Two: Week 11

Weight gained to date: When I went to the endocrinologist this past Wednesday I was still -2lbs from my starting weight! 

Estimated size of baby:  Lime (2 inches, .3 ounces)

Photo found here.

Foods I am craving: MMMmmmmm I LOVE Utz Kettle Classics Smokin' Sweet BBQ chips! They are so delicious... I could probably eat a whole bag of them! 

Foods I am staying away from:  No longer do I have to stay away from my beloved peanut butter!  I haven't really had any aversions to food this week. 

How I am feeling:  Still feeling pretty good!  I am mostly tired but that is definitely part of building a baby! 

Nifty Thrifty Friday: Halloween Wreathe

Nifty Thrifty Friday features items that I have either found a thrift stores or items I already owned and have given new life or upcycled.  These items may be as small as a shoe box or as large as a sofa! I hope you will join me on some of my thrifting adventures!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My friend Vivid posted a great tutorial on her blog, Things We Create on how to make a Halloween wreathe that uses items you probably already have on hand.  This is a cute and oh so thrifty idea and it is perfect for Halloween. 

Check out her tutorial for the play by play!  Here are a few pictures of mine! 

This is all you'll need!

In progress...

I LOVE how it turned out! 

Around the Nest: Family Bedroom: About 95% Complete

Looking for Mouth Watering Wednesday?  Not to worry! I am switching things up a bit and alternating Mouth Watering Wednesdays and Nifty Thrifty Friday/Nap Time Craft Time from week to week! I will be back next week with a delicious recipe for you to try! 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As promised (a while ago) I am finally getting around to posting about our house updates! I am trying to post about one room at a time and keep y'all updated! :) 

Here is what the family bedroom looked like when the previous owner lived here.  They used it as a master bedroom with a sitting area.  The bathroom is through the doorway on the right side of that white television. 

Here are a few photos of what the room looked like the day that we closed on the house.  It was pretty much a blank canvas.  We did end up taking down the two wall lamps and we replaced the carpet that was in there.  It was definitely getting a little dingy and I think that there may have been a dog or two to "mark their territory" in there! 

Here are a few pictures of the bathroom from closing day.  It is hard to get good pictures of that room! 

 

Here are the photos you've been anticipating! :)  Our newly redone and definitely improved family bedroom! You may notice my little helper in a picture or two!  

This first photo is taken from the same place as the photo from the previous owner.  As you can see we use the space a lot differently than they did. We still have some things that need to be hung on the wall.  We have a large mirror that will go on the back teal wall and we haven't decided what will go above the changing table.  The problem with hanging something over the changing table is that if it is low enough, Everett with most certainly mess with it! 

Now you can see why we call it our family bedroom.  This set up works for our family and that's all we are concerned about! 

One of my favorite parts of our room is that I have a great space to display my cross collection (above the dressers.)  They are not only beautiful but help to remind Tyler and I to keep Christ at the center of our relationship.  And yes, that is a Big Bird book in the middle of the floor! Thanks Everett! 

Here's the bathroom.  Not a lot of changes going on in here, mostly just adding our own stuff.  I still need to hang something on that back wall. 

Eventually the window from our old bathroom will hang on this wall above the toilet. It is going to look great in this bathroom, especially since all the tile is pink! 

So that's it! We still have a few things left to do in this room but we are pretty much done! 

Here's our to do list:

• New carpet
• Take down wall lamps
• Paint
• Move in furnitrue
• Hang crosses
• Hang pictures

Letters to Everett: 10/22/12

Dear Everett,

This past month you have changed so much! You are really chatting a lot now, mostly gibberish but there do seem to be a few recognizable words here and there. You're favorite world to say is probably "bood-ball" which we think means football! It is really cute because you run around the house yelling it!

This month you started playing with Mowgli! You love to throw the tennis ball for him and you laugh and laugh every time he runs after it. I love watching you play!

You love to run and play outside, although you didn't really like playing in the leaves. We took you to Graves Mountain for the Apple Festival this past weekend and you loved seeing all the dogs! Every time you saw one you would sign the word dog and yell "dog!"

You are settling into our new house and love to run up and down the hallways and around the living room! You even lay down and roll over and over... maybe you've been spending too much time playing with Mowgli!

Here's what you've been up to this month:

9/25/12: You started nodding yes today

10/1/12: You said cookie

10/11/12: Today was the first time I heard you singing

10/13/12: You said football today and did the Gators clap

Momma and daddy love you to the moon and all the way back!

Xoxo,

Momma

Around the Nest: Playroom- It's Done!

Looking for Nifty Thrifty Friday/Nap Time Craft Time?  Don't fret, come back next Friday for a fun and exciting craft project! 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well the first room to be completely done in our new house is, of course the playroom! A lot of work has gone into this room and I can't wait to share the final product with the world! 

So here is the blank canvas that we started out with. 

Here's the room with the landscaping added...

So we have been working on getting all of Everett's toys and fun stuff in there and having a great friend of mine, Lisa come and paint Dr. Seuss characters on the wall.  She did an AMAZING job and if anyone in the Fredericksburg area needs a mural painted please contact me and I will get you her info. Without further ado, here it is folks! :)

  

  

We LOVE how it turned out and Everett really enjoys playing in there! 

Mouth Watering Wednesday: Paleo Lasagna

Welcome to Mouth Watering Wednesday! Spice up your life and try a new recipe!  This week I am posting a recipe for all you Italian food lovers!  Lasagna, paleo style! 

Disclaimer: I originally found the inspiration for this recipe here, however I changed it so much that I am sharing my version!  I hope you like it!  

Here's what you'll need: 

For the meat sauce: 

• 1 onion, diced 
• 1.5 lb ground beef (or ground meat of your choice)
• 3-5 tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 can of tomato paste (the small can)
• 4 tbsp Italian spice blend (oregano, basil, garlic etc) 
• 1 carton mushrooms (chopped)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp pepper

For the cheese sauce: 

• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 head broccoli, roughly chopped

For the "noodles":

• 2-3 zucchinis and/or yellow squash, cut into medallion rounds

Here's what you'll do: 

• First, saute' up your onions in a skillet (I usually use olive oil the keep them from sticking) 
• Add your ground beef and cook until meat is browned
• Add your remaining ingredients for the meat sauce
• In a separate bowl combine the ingredients for the cheese sauce
• Now, in a casserole dish (you'll want to use 9x13 or larger) start layering up your items. You should get at least two layers of each.
• Zucchini/squash, meat sauce, cheese sauce

• Top with extra cheese (if you like) and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Thompson Number Two: Week 9

Weight gained to date: I am still -2 lbs from my starting weight 

Estimated size of baby:  Green Olive (1 inch long)

Foods I am craving: I am still loving Subway (even though it's not paleo!) I think that it is something about the pickles, lettuce, turkey, salt and pepper, and olive combo that makes it so delicious! 

Foods I am staying away from:  My love of peanut butter is still suppressed.  I am hoping that soon I will like it again! 

How I am feeling: Pretty good.  I am waking up feeling nauseous but I usually am pretty good after I take some anti-nausea medicine and eat a few crackers (again not paleo).  I am still feeling tired but that might have something to do with the fact that Everett has decided to protest sleep lately.  Boo! 

Notes:  What the what!? I am already wearing maternity jeans! This is crazy and I really don't remember having to wear any type of maternity anything until the second trimester last time!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Tiphany and Micah, Stephanie and Jaxson, and Everett and I went to the pumpkin patch this week.  They had all sorts of fun things for the kids to do, like a cute little cottage that was "toddler size" as well as a sand box, tire swings, a rope swing, kittens, baby cows, sheep, llamas,  chickens, and of course pumpkins!  We had a blast! Check out some of the pics I snapped! 

Just for fun, here's a side by side of Everett at the pumpkin patch last year and this year! Time sure flies!