7 Quick Takes!

It's been a long time since I've sat down on a Friday morning to do a 7 Quick Takes post from our past week, but I have a few minutes this morning and thought I'd try :)  Here's the latest in the Kennedy family!

**1**

We ventured out last Sunday on our first major outing--we took Aidan up to Forest Home for a day of all church camp.  It was a weekend long camp, which my husband attended, but the little one and I only went for the day on Sunday.  He did really well!  Slept all the way there and back which is a gift because I was imagining 2 hours of a screaming child who hates his car seat.  Next year we are super excited to go for the whole weekend!  

**2**

I have a new favorite baby product that should be added to my previous post.  I didn't really have a good front carrier to carry the little one in--he HAS to be facing forward when being carried, he refuses to face backwards, and he's over 15 pounds now which gets heavy after awhile!  So a hands free carrier was in order.  But they aren't cheap and there are so many different brands I didn't know where to start.  I found a boutique here that sells a bunch and let me try them on and try Aidan in them, and my parents volunteered to buy one for me when I found the one I wanted.  SO, I am SUPER grateful for my new Beco Baby Carrier which is SO comfy and ridiculously easy to use.  You can wear baby on your front, on your back, and even on your hip--and they can face forward or face into you depending on their age and preference.  Love this new addition to our house!  Thanks mom and dad!!

**3**

I also have a new favorite book about babies and sleep.  Thanks to the amazing Christie Kiley I ordered the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and have LOVED it.  It's FULL of ideas on how to get baby to sleep better and create a personalized sleeping plan for your family without letting them cry and scream themselves to sleep.  Yes, it's more time intensive and parent intensive, it's a lot of work training them to sleep in a really gentle way, but as I've gotten to know our little dude, he's not going to respond well to the cry it out method.  Especially with his reflux issues and how that's caused him pain while he sleeps over the past few months I just can't bring myself to let his crib be a place of tears and discomfort.  So I was searching for something new and Christie gave me this suggestion that they used with their son.  I'm letting Aidan's new reflux meds that he started this week have a full week to see if they are working before really addressing any sleep training (if he's not comfortable physically it doesn't matter what I do to train him, he won't be sleeping!)  but over this next week I'm going to be working on creating our family's sleep training plan for him--and I love that her suggestions are so individualized for each family.  So, if you need a good super easy to read and very practical book about sleep this is a great one!!

**4**

I've gotten back into menu planning and cooking this month which has felt so good.  I made this super fun menu board for my kitchen (thank you pinterest for the idea!) and every week I fill in with a dry erase marker what we're having to eat that week and where the recipe is located so I can easily find it.  It's been awesome to look up and see what I'm doing on a given day and we've been enjoying several yummy dishes because of the extra planning!  Today I have beef stroganoff in the crock pot and a delicious black bean salad with lime dressing in the fridge for lunch :)

**5**

My amazing mom came back out to visit again last week even though she was just here two weeks ago, and for that I am SUPER grateful.  May has been a tough month, feeling like Aidan's reflux was never going to improve, his sleep was bad, and i felt like I was constantly being fussed at.  My husband is super helpful but works long hours so I felt a little isolated and alone and I think my mom could tell (maybe me calling her crying a lot cued her in??!) So she volunteered to come back for another 4 days and I was so grateful for the help.  Everyone will be back in 2 weeks from today for Aidan's baptism weekend!  Yay for family visiting!

**6**

Our book club is up and running!! Hooray!  We had a ton of interest and even a bunch of men wanted to join us so we decided to make it co-ed.  Our first selection for June is the Poisonwood Bible which I read 2 years ago and loved.  I was surprised only 1 other person in the group had read it, so everyone was more than happy to select it for our first book.  So I just started re-reading it and am reminded again how much I love the way Barbara Kingsolver paints pictures with words.  Starting the club means I needed to revamp my list of 31 books i wanted to read before I turn 31 in September, but that's okay.  And realistically I am not going to finish my list this year.  I have a LOT of books left to read before September 23 and I'm just not sure how possible this is going to be!

**7**

Tonight is date night, and our plans?  (this was my husband's idea) We're walking to get ice cream after dinner here at home and then both spending the evening reading The Poisonwood Bible (yup he's joining our book club too!)  I am kind of excited :)  Have a great weekend everyone!

Parents Need to Eat Too!

If you have known me for awhile, you know that cooking is one of my loves. I love menu planning for the week, grocery shopping, and setting a fresh meal on the table. As you can imagine, since our little one was born I have not done much cooking and that has been frustrating. It's not the fact that I have not been able to cook that has bothered me, it's the fact that when I don't have a menu and plan set I am so much more likely to succumb to fast food, frozen pizza, and other unbalanced meals just to fill our bellies even if it is completely unhealthy. This drives me crazy and goes against everything I was raised to value about food and meal times! A few weeks ago my friend Karen, also a relatively new mom, told me about a cookbook she found and loved. It's called Parents Need to Eat Too by Debbie Koenig and is full of easy meals that are designed for tired new parents. Some are crock pot recipes, some are "one handed meals" that you can eat while holding a little one, some create larger amounts of food so that you can freeze a portion for later, some are "nap friendly" recipes so that she has them broken into stages that you can put together during your kid's various naps throughout the day, and some are designed to help increase milk supply for nursing mothers. I ordered a copy of the book and while I've been here at my parents house I actually read through the entire book cover to cover. It has great tips, and the recipes look SO yummy and balanced and healthy. I decided to take advantage of the extra help I have here and created my monthly menu for April, and then went through all the recipes and made my grocery lists for each week of the month. Debbie has a website that goes along with the book (www.debbiekoenig.com) with links to a ton of recipes not in her book. In order to get you to purchase the book she doesn't link to those recipes. So in case you need some inspiration, new ideas, or are just plain tired of your normal menu, feel free to try some of these along with us this month! To make things easier for planning I assigned a different food category to a different night of the week. So in our house this month Mondays are Mexican food night, Tuesdays are pasta nights, Wednesdays are left overs, Thursdays are some type of meat and/or potato night, Fridays are free nights--so something out of our freezer, or left overs, or going out, Saturdays are slow cooker days, and Sundays are soup and salad nights. So many bloggers I read use a system similar to this to help their planning out, so feel free to borrow the idea as well!

Here's what we're going to be testing out this month--all these are from this new cookbook.

Quick Black Beans & Rice

Beef Ravioli Lasagna

French Onion Chicken (you caramelize the onions overnight in a crock pot and then add chicken in the morning to let it cook all day--so easy and it looks amazing!)

Balsamic Beef Stew

Quesadillas with cheddar and mango chutney

Pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes and shrimp

Chipotle Sloppy Joes

Moroccan Red Lentil Stew

Butternut and Gruyere Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Roasted Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

Blue Cheese & Bacon Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Curried Lentil Soup

My mouth is watering! Anyone else ready to get cooking!? I'll let you know later how these things turn out and if I'd still really recommend the book after cooking from it, but for now I'm just super excited to have a month of meals planned out and the shopping lists to go with them!

Well hello there little plum! And happy 4th of July!

It's been a fun week around here in our household, definitely a different pace from the past 7 months! Baby K has hit the size of a plum as he or she is starting his 12th week of life (almost done with trimester #1!), and is starting to make me look a teensy bit on the pudgy side. A friend of mine said about two weeks ago "if I didn't know you were pregnant, I never would say anything, but since I know, I'll just say you definitely are getting a tiny bump! If someone didn't know you well they'd never know, but to those of you who know you well, we can see it!" I had the realization the other day that I have the world's shortest torso. I thought the only problems this was going to cause in life was shopping for jeans (they are never long enough for my legs!) but on Wednesday I realized "umm....where's this baby going to grow?? There is nowhere for it to go but straight out!" I told my good friend Missy I wasn't sure how I felt about this and her response was to jump up and down and squeal "I feel very cute about it!!" So we'll see over the next few weeks how this little bump starts to form!

Since my husband is now finding himself with copious amounts of free time on his hands and since Bethany Pres (the church we're now going to, the church I am a member of from my college days) needed an extra male chaperon on their mission trip, he spent the past week helping them out. He had a fantastic time, and said it was a really healing experience--seeing a very healthy youth ministry, a ministry and church that cares about depth, not just entertaining kids. The youth director there is a friend of ours from Fuller, and the group he helped was led by Missy, one of our dear friends and bridesmaids from our wedding. They stayed at a church here in Seattle and during the day the 44 kids were split into teams of 7 or 8 and served at various spots around the city. His team spent the week at a retirement home doing landscaping and yard work for them.

Friday he flew down to San Luis Obispo for a job interview which was Saturday morning. He comes back super late tonight, and has had an incredible time. He loves the town, really enjoyed the committee, got to rent a board and surf yesterday and today, and said that even if we don't get this job it has been such a healing and life-giving weekend for him. It was so encouraging to see a church doing youth ministry the way we've been trained, and just to know there are still churches out there that would be willing to have conversations with him is always encouraging. His voice on the phone last night sounded happier than I have heard him in 7 months. So I don't know what this means, but I am so grateful for this time he's had in California.

I spent the week here, visiting with a couple different friends, putting the house back together after company last week, going on walks every day (you're right, Mom, they do make me feel better!) still napping, helping a friend wedding dress shop, and just enjoying the house to myself for awhile! My best friend from Portland drove up Friday to spend the night with me, and took me to get pedicures yesterday which was a fantastic treat :) Yesterday I video chatted with Miss Lily and she was cracking me up--that is a kid with a lot of personality! I am still "jah-jah" (or however you would spell her rendition of "Sarah") and I am very excited that Auntie Jah-Jah and Uncle Ca-ca (her name for "Charles") get to go play with her in person in about 2 weeks. Her newest obsession is mommy's heels. Except she wants mommy to be wearing them, not her. Megan said that she was eating breakfast in her boxers the other day and Lily brought the heels to her saying "mommy, shoes!" You can never be too stylish. Even in pajamas. She's also learned the word "no" and now everything is "no" even when it's really a "yes." Not sure how I feel about this particular stage! This kid is part fish--she started swimming lessons last week and LOVES the water. Even sprinklers. Seriously, how cute is she?? (this is after her first experience with the backyard sprinkler).

After so many people recommending it, I'm finally reading the book Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I'm still not entirely sure what it's about (only on chapter 2) but the writing is so beautiful it makes my heart ache. The way words are used, sentences formed, images employed--I am in love and almost don't care what the story is about.

I've also been in LOVE with summer produce and colors in my vegetable drawer this week. I cannot get enough of this beautiful food! I started buying mango for the first time, and am quite enjoying it (it's on the lists of things that are great for baby's development, so I figured I should try it). I've been going through strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, pesto, basil, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, and artichokes like nothing else these days. Here are a few of the meals I've been making with these ingredients--I'd highly recommend any of them!

Double Tomato Bruschetta
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Turkey Pesto Paninis

Okay, that's enough rambling for the day--you're probably sick of reading this anyways! Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

What's Cookin This Month!

It's been awhile since I've done a month of menu planning at a time, but with us moving in 2 months, traveling, house hunting etc I was feeling the need to do something organized! Here is what the Kennedy's will be eating throughout November, feel free to try any of these as well!

My crock pot is getting a major work out these days, as I started cooking all my own beans and then freezing them. It's cheaper than buying cans of beans, and I know that I'm not adding any sodium or anything to the beans when I make them myself. I had tried once before with a stovetop method that didn't work very well. Thanks to Sara over at Thriving Mama I have reconquered my fear of cooking beans, and might never go back to cans :) Each day this week my crock pot will be cooking up a batch of dried beans--black, garbanzo, and kidney, and at the end of the day I place 1.5 cups of cooked beans in ziplock baggies to go in the freezer (each can of beans is approximately 1.5 cups, so 1 baggie now equals 1 can of beans). When I cook something I don't even really defrost, I just toss the frozen black beans in the crock pot or soup or whatever I'm making and they heat up and defrost. Besides beans, here's what is on our menu for the month...(click on each item to go to the recipe)

Crock Pot Cranberry Chicken
Crock Pot Throw it in the Pot Chili
Homemade Cornbread
Crock Pot Chicken Azteca

Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime-Cilantro Dressing (one of our favorites!)
Go Go Mango Chicken
Broccoli with carmelized onions and pine nuts
Spaghetti with Speedy Red Sauce (vegetarian)
Crock Pot Bean and Vegetable Burritos
Mustard Crusted Salmon
Autumn Vegetable Soup
Stuffed Shells

Back in the Kitchen

It seems like I've taken a bit of a hiatus from the kitchen in the past month. Our schedules are such that we rarely get meals together during the week, so I got lazy about cooking. But we have found ourselves eating out way more than we'd like and never having leftovers for lunch anymore, so I'm back to menu planning and cooking even on nights we won't both be home. Here's what we're enjoying this weekend, stay tuned for next week's recipes!

5 Minute Hummus
Real Simple Granola
Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins with Oatmeal
Southwestern Corn Chowder

Adventures in Vegetarianism--week 1!

I have really enjoyed this challenge! And it hasn't been easy being at winter camp last weekend and having no control over the menu (I was so hungry one day I gave in and ate the chicken sandwich, I'll admit!). But it has been so fun thinking creatively about what I eat and thinking a little differently. For instance, I used to have turkey sandwiches for lunch and have had to think differently about that, and what I've found is that I have actually incorporated more variety into my diet. Some days I'll make a black bean and rice quesadilla, or today I made a delicious pita sandwich, stuffed with hummus, red peppers, onions, cheese, and tomatoes. SO yummy! Yesterday I hate a HUGE plate of sliced veggies dipped in hummus, a whole wheat pita with hummus, string cheese, and an apple with peanut butter. I was full all afternoon and it was SO delicious! Chuck has been awesome, he is right on board with all this, even telling me he's excited about the next meal to try. I'm sure I'll manage to make a few things he doesn't love, but he's been such a great partner :) (he was already partially vegetarian on his own, as we never eat meat at breakfast, and he'd been doing vegetarian lunches for the last several months, so he's on board with trying this new diet).

Sundays during Lent are considered "mini Easters" where we remember the resurrection in the midst of our season of giving something up, so typically on Sundays you can break your fast, which we are by eating some type of fish for dinner Sunday evening. We have found an incredible salmon recipe that was SO easy and delicious that we've made twice this month, so I've linked to that below. Here are a couple other things we've cooked this week that we've both enjoyed:

Baked Salmon
Vegetarian Spaghetti (served with salad and garlic bread)
Chili with Cashews (served over brown rice with corn bread and salad)

Next week I'll give you the new recipes we're trying!

The Menu of the Month

I've had a couple people actually ask how I went about getting food organized for a month's worth of meals, and I know everyone has a different system for accomplishing this task, but I thought I'd share mine here, along with the recipes I'll be using this month for anyone who was curious :)

I started by printing off a blank calendar for the month--for us it was the middle of November until we leave to visit our families for Christmas break on Dec. 17. I filled in all the evenings I knew we already had commitments that would have us away from home during the dinner hour (knowing that this may change over the month as schedules change, but it at least gave me a place to start). I generally cook about 3 meals a week--something in the crock pot on Mondays while we are in class (leftovers will be dinner Tuesday), we always eat dinner with our youth group on Wednesdays, I cook something else on Thursday, and then depending on weekend plans I do one more over the weekend, usually on the smaller side. (I wish I had a big freezer but I don't, I have to be careful about leftover portions!). Then I start again on Mondays.

Once you have an idea of your schedule, I started going through recipes (which wasn't hard, I just scroll through my recipe blog which you can find here) and chose 4 main dishes. I decided I would make two of them one week, the other two the next week, and then week 3 go back to the first two meals and week four would be a repeat of the second two meals. This way when I had to buy groceries I just made a list for those four meals and bought two of everything (or bought a bigger package of something at Costco). We like to eat a lot of different salads, so the third night of the week I'll do a big batch of a different salad each week to vary our menu a bit.

Then I made my grocery list, and this part took a bit of time (about a 1/2 hour) but was totally worth it. I had 3 lists going (I just used a word document on my computer). One was stuff I could buy at Costco. Several recipes used chicken breasts, several used shredded cheese or frozen corn, to top things with etc. These things can be bought at Costco and kept in the freezer. My next list was the non-perishable items I could buy at a normal grocery store because I only needed 2 cans of something and not a case that would come from Costco. On my way home from Costco I ran by Albertsons and got all the rest of the non-perishables for the month, just to have on hand so I wouldn't have to go each week. So my chili recipe calls for a can of black beans, and so does my chicken azteca--since I'm making each of them twice throughout the month I bought 4 cans of black beans etc. My 3rd list was the list of produce or perishable items that each recipe calls for. I broke it up by week, so I have a short list of the produce I'll need for each week already made. On Mondays now I can just add to that short list the things like milk, bread, lunch meat etc that we're out of and do one quick grocery trip. We'll see how this continues to work in the future but so far it's been great! I love having a plan (that is totally adaptable if schedules change but which gives me a place to start!)

Here are the main meals for this month, which will be repeated once each, with salads, veggies, rice or pasta as side dishes being mixed in here and there. Feel free to try any of them :) (Click on each to get to the recipe)

Crock Pot Chili and Cornbread
Crock Pot Chicken Azteca
Enchilada Casserole
Pesto Chicken Pasta
Club Salad with Homemade Honeymustard
Chinese Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing
Crock Pot Minestrone
Cobb Salad with homemade Garlic Ranch dressing

kitchen tip of the century!

So if you are like me, then you LOVE pomegranate seeds. I do. I really really do--its one of my favorite fall flavors. BUT, seeding a pomegranate is an absolute mess, and very time consuming, so I rarely take the time to buy one and seed it. But the farmers market next to us had them for $.80 which really can't be beat, so I bought one and then sat and thought about how to make this a much less messy process. Google came to my rescue and what I learned (and then tested myself) was way too good not to share! SO, if you want to seed a pomegranate without staining everything in your kitchen follow these four super easy steps.

1. Put a small incision in the pomegranate.
2. Fill a mixing bowl full of cold water and submerge the pomegranate. Use your fingers (or a knife) to pull the pomegranate apart.
3. Use your hands to remove the seeds and let them settle on the bottom of the bowl. Because the pomegranate is under water, no juice will squirt anywhere.
4. When the pomegranate is seeded, pour the bowl of water with seeds through a strainer and voila! A strainer full of clean, ready to eat pomegranate seeds with NO mess!