New Recipes!

No blog post would be complete without photos of Brooke. These were taken today before we went out to the splash park (which she hated!)

Anyways, I've been experimenting lately, and have come up with some serious winners! Try them out and tell me what you think! 

This morning, I had the french toast bacon bake, and boy was it good! Next time, I'll have to remember to grease the pan, and maybe add in some brie cheese. But for now, it was great, as is.

French Toast Bacon Bake

Yield: 4 large servings

8 slices cooked, crumbled bacon

4-6 c french bread, cubed

1 1/2 c milk

6 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

4 T brown sugar

3 T melted butter

Grease 9x9 square dish with non-stick cooking spray or butter. Put bread and bacon in dish. In mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, salt an cinnamon. Pour wet mixture over bread and bacon, being sure all bread is wet. Cover and store in fridge overnight. In the morning, preheat oven to 350. Mix brown sugar and melted butter together and spoon on top of french toast. Bake for 1 hour or until completely set. Serve with syrup and powdered sugar. 

Healthier Fajitas 

Yield: 4 generous fajitas 

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, sliced

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 large chicken breast, sliced

1 cup coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrot)

1 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning

1/2 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper

whole wheat tortillas

Toppings 

shredded mozzarella cheese 

diced fresh tomatoes

cilantro

salsa

avocado

In fry pan, heat oil. Add onion, pepper and cabbage mixture. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add in chicken and seasonings. Cook for 5-10 minutes more. Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and heat in microwave 30-60 seconds. To form fajitas, spoon chicken mixture into a tortilla and top with desired toppings. 

Healthier Holiday Cookie entry:

Chewy Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Mint Icing

Yield: 36 small cookies

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup grated zucchini, excess water squeezed out

Whip butter, oil and sugars together until fluffy, 2 minutes. Mix in egg, vanilla and grated zucchini. Carefully mix in all dry ingredients until incorporated. Scoop onto greased cookie sheet and bake 7-9 minutes at 350. Delicious warm, or cooled. 

Icing:

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2-3 Tablespoons milk, depending how runny you want the icing

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Mix all ingredients together in small bowl until smooth in consistency. 

Decorate with red sprinkles.

Please try these and tell me what you think!

Home Sweet Home

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Brooke and I travelled to Utah to visit my friends Amy and Amy. I was originally looking for a ride, but then decided to drive myself and bring people with me. I brought 3 girls along and ended up making $20ish dollars. We ended up staying 5 days which I think was the longest we both have been away from Gordon. It was a little tiring, but really fun! I had a great time catching up with my friends and watching all the tv I could. One of the Amy's is pregnant and so we got to test her new baby stuff on Brooke! She absolutely loved the toy-saucer thingy (I ALWAYS forget what its called--You sit the baby upright in it so they are sort of standing/balancing with toys all around them in a circle) That in combination with the HUGE tv was good enough to keep Brooke pleasantly occupied for a good 45 minutes. 

I made a last minute purchase and got some photos taken of Brooke at Kiddie Kandids. 

Introducing-- my daughter, the baby model:

I was very impressed with the employees at kiddie kandids. Even though some of these are off centre, They still look good to me. 

We also went to Mimi's Cafe, a restaurant I've never been to. It was so good! For lunch, I had chicken gumbo and big salad which came with a huge muffin, a roll, and some fruit cake thing...all for $5.99! I was impressed. Too bad there isn't one around here.

On Monday, Amy made ribs and they were delicious! I never would have thought to put ribs in a crock pot. 10 hours later I was in 'fall off the bone' barbeque heaven. The other amy brought "homemade" potato rolls and coconut cream pie. I had great food over the weekend. 

AND!! I also had homemade panini's! I told Amy she needs to go into business because thats how good they were. Ciabatta bread, cream cheese, turkey, tomato, and avocado! Holy crap, were they good! 

Overall, a very fun trip! Driving back I was guessing how much weight I gained....to my surprise, I lost almost another pound. Don't really know how that happened......

When we got back Tuesday night, Gordon said 'I'm so glad you're home' about 6 times. He was lonely....poor guy. BUT, on the bright side, he is caught up with lots of his homework, so when he got back from class today, we just hung out! That never happens! We had fun today! 

I found a bunch of recipe contests to enter, one of which is 'Cook with Paula Deen'! I figure I'm bound to win if I have butter and/or mayonnaise in the recipe, and, come on, if I fry it too?! Please.....I've got it in the bag. I know a way into an old southern woman's heart.

Would you guys eat a peanut butter brownie cheesecake? I'll be experimenting with this idea for the upcoming pillsbury bake off. I missed the 2009 cut off by a month, so this will be for 2010. Tomorrow, I'm going to send in my recipe for white chicken chili to a Better Homes and Garden recipe contest. I think I get $250 if they pick mine. Long shot, but it would be really cool to see my recipe in a magazine! And, I need to come up with a recipe using ground beef in an original way. How can ground beef be applicated in original ways, you ask?! I have no clue. I'll think about it and get back to you. Any ideas would be helpful! Maybe I'll put it in a panini....haha. 

Amy convinced me to run a half marathon next April. I wasn't thinking clearly. I don't really want to train for it, but I know I'll be happy once I complete it. That would be cool. I have always had trouble running, but lately its been easier to do. I have a method that seems to work for me that I'll keep using until it doesn't work anymore.  And, no shin splints yet either. My new asics are TOTALLY AWESOME. (thanks, Mitch, for the discount!) 

Anyways, tomorrow I'll be going to the gym, the library and maybe the grocery store because I want yogurt. Anyone have ideas on heathy snacks I could munch on? Anything you have to say is appreciated! Thanks! 

I did it!

I reached my goal! Actually, I surpassed it by almost a pound! Officially, I reached it yesterday! Hooray! It feels good to be lighter than I was before I got pregnant! Not by much, but still. Guess all that running is paying off! Funny that I didn't go to the gym today....not a great start to 'maintaining' it, but there's always tomorrow. I attribute my success to the treadmill and the vast amounts of water I drink. (BTW, Karen, I think I forgot my water bottle at your house).

Now I'm going to try and loose 10 more pounds to make me at a healthier BMI, and focus more on strength training, especially abs and arms! Stay tuned! 

Today was nice and relaxing. That's what we love about weekends. I get a break from homework, and can be home a little more with Lauren and Brooke. We took a lot of fun pictures of Brooke today and we wanted to share them. 

Up close and personal on the wide eyed drooler.

Here she is advising me on my next move on the game Cargo Bridge.

She is very calm and collected

Right before she had some tummy time. 

She wasn't as happy afterwards because she was pretty hungry.

Yay for tummy time! 

She is getting pretty strong and she enjoys it until she's so tired she can't lift her head off the ground. It's cute!

Boo to my car

My friend Amy is traveling from Chicago to Utah next weekend and I want to go see her (and the other Amy who lives there). These are my best friends that I met at BYU-Idaho. I lived with both of them freshman year in the dorms. The second year, we got smarter and lived together, but at a different, larger complex. We have been really good friends for almost 6 years! I'm talking bridesmaids at each other's weddings good, and come to see me and my new baby from chicago good. I want to go, but I swear the world is working against me.

Here's my dilemma- our stupid car has (yet again) something else stupid wrong with it and of course we don't have enough stupid money to fix it (but what college student has $500 just lying around?). I've sort of gotten over the whole 'our car will always suck' mentality, but when it comes to interfering with me wanting to live my life and travel a little, thats when things get ugly. And by ugly, I mean puzzled?! I don't know what to do. Surely SOMEONE is traveling to Utah over memorial day weekend who could give a crazy lady and her baby a ride, right? Checked the ride board, looked into the shuttle. I'm crossing my fingers for a possible ride with Amy's sister, but it looks bleak. 

I guess there's always hitchhiking. Thats semi-safe, right?

From the Brooke Archives

Brooke is getting so strong! See for yourself!

What's been goin' on

David, Hyrum, Gordon and Brooke at Nathan's wedding

Probably my favorite family photo of us taken at the wedding

The happy couple! Nathan and Sarah tied the knot!

Tammy and her girls- Saige, Ambria and Rylan

All of the Brennan siblings. I guess its been a while since they all have been together.

Last weekend, we were able to fly back to Oregon for my brother-in-law's wedding. Nathan and Sarah were married in a gorgeous vineyard in The Dalles. It was a beautiful day until the wedding started--thats when the down pour started! I hear its supposed to be good luck if it rains on your wedding day...at least thats what people told me on my wedding day. We had a great time, but again, it was too short of a trip! We had too many people to see and too many things to do to rest. Boy were we tired when we got home. OH! And, our flight from Boise to Idaho Falls was delayed because something was wrong with the plane. We were supposed to arrive at 10:30 Sunday night, but ended up arriving at 2 am. After the drive back to Rexburg and 'getting settled', we got to bed at 3. And, to top it all off, they lost our luggage! That whole ordeal sucked. Luckily, I had a spare toothbrush that I picked up in some hotel somewhere. Brooke did great on all the flights and went to bed 15 minutes after we got home. What a crazy day! 

Brooke at the wedding! 

Our happy girl! She's a drooling master!

On the plane from Portland to Boise. Cute!

The next few days after that trip were kind of tiring for me, but luckily, Brooke is a good sleeper, so I was able to catch up on some zzz's. Gordon on the other hand is a different story. He has so much homework that he'll work on it all day at the library, come home, work some more, eat dinner, Hang out with us for 20 minutes, then go to his actual job, be there until 1 am, come home, work until 3, go to bed, and then wake up for class at 7. What a trooper! He did this twice this week. The other nights he stayed up until 2. He is such a hard worker! Even though it sort of sucks now, it'll be worth it in the future, especially once he graduates! I am definitely looking forward to that day. 

I've gotten back into the habit of planning meals for the week and going shopping only once. I forgot how much better it is to plan instead of flying by the seat of your pants, trying to come up with something healthy and good for dinner. Needless to say, we've been eating much better. AND, a big plastic container of baby spinach was on sale for $2.99! I've been eating that with a new pesto salad dressing. Its really good.  

Weight Loss News!!!!! I've lost 3 more pounds since my last blog about this. Its a smaller number than I had hoped, but only 2 more pounds to go until I've reached my goal. I wanted to reach it when Brooke was 3 months old (which was yesterday) but nope! My body had something else in mind. But, I've realized that I'm probably dehydrated cause the more water I drink, the thirstier I get. Maybe I've been parched this whole time, making my body hold on to anything liquid it could get. If you give your body the stuff it needs, then it gets rid of the crap (figuratively speaking....and I guess literally speaking too....haha) Today, Gordon watched Brooke while I went to the gym and man did I kill it! I outran the 3 girls running on the other treadmills. (Sometimes what keeps me going are the people around me--I don't want to look weak!) Its shallow, and trivial, but I don't care. I ran so hard that I felt it in my abs! Now, thats a good feeling. I'm excited to go back!

Mother's Day is tomorrow... we'll see what happens. 

Stuck at the airport

We're stuck in the Boise airport! Apparently, something was wrong with the plane that we were supposed to board and we're waiting for them to fix it. We originally had a 3 hour lay over which was long enough, but our layover has turned into a never ending hiatus. Total time here so far: 6 hours, 12 minutes. Yikes. Luckily, we found some comfortable chairs and couches. Brooke has been really good, so I shouldn't complain. There are 4 more people waiting in the same spot we are for the same plane, including the pilot. I am so bored and tired. All the restaurants closed, so Gordon left to go look for some vending machines. We'll see what he comes back with.

In other news, I got my hair cut. I thought it was way too short at first, but I think I like it now. What do you think? I like hearing people's opinions. 

(This photo was taken in the airport when things weren't so depressing.)

I love this photo of Brooke! She's a cute girl.

And, a special thank you to Becca who made us the blanket Brooke is wrapped in. We've had quite a few compliments about it!