Meal Planning...

So, in order for us to keep from eating out a lot (which we really didn't do that much) as well as take away confusion over what to make for dinner, I have started putting together a weekly meal planning schedule. 
I love Pinterest and I think that my favorite part is the recipes I find on there. I have found some awesomely sinful and healthy things to cook.
A few things that I have tried and what worked / didn't work are:

 Coconut Chicken : Just made this last night... Rich loved it, Asher was ok with it, and I thought it was very good. I would have liked to have more of a coconut flavor and it may have been the oil I used. They said to use veggie and I used canola. It also stunk up my whole house. We paired it with mixed Asian veggies and steamed jasmine rice. Definitely will make again.

Creamy Chicken Lasagna :  This one I actually made for the first time when we had company over... Luckily, it was pretty good. I thought it to be a little too dry, since you don't have the usual red/ cheese sauce seeping from it, you should probably make more of the cream cheese sauce than they call for. Really load it down! Also, I used the no bake noodles and should not have. That was probably another reason that it was dry. Get the plain old lasagna noodles and cook them first.  Rich is a little picky when it comes to much of anything, but especially Italian food, so while I will make this again... it will not be too often.

Zucchini Fries
This one was tricksy.... I know Asher will pretty much eat anything except eggs, oatmeal and mashed potatoes... but I was really unsure if Rich would even try these. He doesn't often venture into the unusual vegetables, even though Asher and I love them. But I figured since they are breaded and baked he might. Here's where it went a little wrong. I thought I had purchased plain panko bread crumbs, when in fact I bought lemon-pepper flavored. I used them anyways, and while they weren't bad, per say, they were a bit too tangy and lemony.  Even for me. The ranch that I served them with did take the lemon down a notch, but next time we'll go for the original recipe served with the onion dip.  Definitely make this again!

Spinach, Gnocchi, and Sausage soup  

This one was a huge hit!! I made this right when Asher was down with the bug, so he actually fell asleep on the couch while I was setting the dinner table. About 2 hours later he woke up to eat a banana and milk and then went back to bed... so I can't judge on the kid front, but he does love gnocchi and sausage. Rich loves this soup and said it was even better the 2nd day. It says a lot about a meal for him to want to have it as leftovers. It was a super easy meal to make. I improvised with the veggies and had a leftover zucchini, and onion.  I also added some diced tomatoes. I chopped all the veggies and sauteed them together followed by the turkey sausage, which I bought at the store and just cut into pieces. Then I poured the chicken stock and cream in

and let it simmer for just a few minutes before adding the gnocchi. I also added a little parmesan  cheese. I did something you probably don't want to do though.... leave your lid off when you are cooking the gnocchi.. while it does make it cook a little faster, it boils the cream and cheese so your left with little cheese/cream curdles floating around. While it still tasted awesome, the texture was not ideal. Definitely will make this again!

Meal Planning has always been a part of my shopping, but I was always not in the mood to make what I had to come up with that night, and this just takes the guess work out of all that.
I do weekly meals because I price match at the stores and that helps me figure out what I can use things for.
I have been using THIS weekly meal planning sheet and just fill in the dates.
I usually have big meals to cook twice a week so that way we can have leftovers at least twice.
I keep working days light and fairly quick, so I'm not stressing about time and ,afterall, I am pregnant so pretty tired come evening.
I also plan in my breakfast, lunch, fruits and vegetables. Just cause I'm a little control freak like that.
Now... just because this is really working and hanging on our fridge doesn't mean that I
have stuck by it to a "T". Like I mentioned earlier.. we have had a sick household for about 2 weeks now. First Asher, and then me.  While we still ate what was on the sheet, eventually... I moved around a few meals for convenience. It's hard to make a big meal when your baby can't eat it and feels crummy.  We always have some frozen pizzas in the freezer for those nights too.
I actually enjoy it a lot and feel that even though I don't monetarily contribute a lot to the home, I can certainly save us some money and time on meals.
I'm hooked.

30 weeks...

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has flown by! I remember feeling pregnant forever when I was with Asher. Maybe it's because I have a few more distractions this time around.
Other than sleeping, I am feeling pretty great. It's a task to find a comfortable position... even with pillows surrounding every corner of this body. When I do fall asleep, I'm usually up within a couple hours to go use the bathroom anyway. I know... my body is prepping me for lack of sleep again.
That is one thing about new motherhood that just about kills me. I need sleep. I turn into this emotional, zombiefied, crankmonster that can hardly function. So, I have been praying that little Owen needs his sleep too, more so than his older brother.
I am very excited to see his little personality and what he will look like. Asher does not resemble Rich or I, so this will be interesting to see if Owen will. I imagine him to have dark hair, for some reason. Will he love cars as much as Asher, or will he be more of the artistic one who likes to draw? Only God knows, but whatever his likes or interests I know they have been placed in him to do something great for God's glory.
I do ask for a prayer request... Rich's cousin had their 4th little boy last night and he is in the NICU for possible brain damage. His umbilical cord somehow was compressed, slowing blow flow and after being born he has had a few seizures. They are cooling his brain and after 72 hours of this they will do some more tests and reassess.
It makes you realize how precious life is and who is truly in control.

A Funny Date night

I realize that the majority of my posts are child related, and while it is a huge part of my life... it's not all of my life. So I want to share about a special date night that Rich and I had that will go down in the books!
First of all, let me preface this by saying that we have 2 Grandmas that make it possible to for us to be able to have some time to ourselves... we are not very good at maintaining a good connection with the normal routine of life.
Since we have been busy, pregnant, and moving.. we have really lacked in the relationship field. Don't get me wrong, we love each other despite everything, but some days felt like we wanted to be as far from each other as humanly possible.
We needed a date night that didn't involve shopping for Christmas Presents or working instead as all of ours did the month of December.

Here is what we do normally on dates.... eat somewhere, shop a little around here or there, see a movie ( lately there has not been anything we have wanted to spend 20+ bucks to see... we have become movie snobs).

We wanted to try someplace new that we had made mental notes of, but couldn't remember any of them that we have mentioned before.
I occasionally read 417 magazine and always love to read their reviews of restaurants so I thought of one that I had seen a lot in there.
Rich was craving wraps, soups, sandwiches and so I recommended The Gallery Bistro downtown. I love to go downtown to eat; for the experience as well as they have such good food options there.
So we started on our way and I read a few reviews on the internet. Everyone said that it was great casual dining and the only thing that I could find wrong was that the drinks were overpriced. Since we don't drink I didn't think much about it.
We get there and while walking from where we parked we saw that Millie's was just down the way. We had only eaten there once and loved it so we contemplated going there instead, but decided to stick with The Gallery.
This was all on a Thursday night so most places were actually pretty empty... we were seated right away and given the menus. We order our drinks which was water for both of us, and open our menus.
"Shock and Awe" was what you could describe the looks on our faces! Apparently it was not just the drinks that were overpriced! Other than appetizers, not a single thing was under 15 dollars!
We have a running budget for our dates that mostly revolves around $40 with dinner and tip. We knew right away that this was not in our budget and we needed to find another place.
So, Rich pulls out his cell phone like someone calls and then tells me that we have to go. We walk over to the host and let him know that something just came up and we had to leave, but we'd be back to try it another time.
So, there you go.... we totally bailed!
We walked around the corner and ate at Millie's... which turned out to be the best thing ever! Rich found a sweet potato soup that he is in LOVE with. AND... we had enough money left over to pass by the Cup and get me a cupcake for dessert later. :)

A date that we will never forget!