high fives & secret handshakes

At 17.5 weeks, I am finally, without a doubt CERTAIN I have felt the baby move. Everyone had been telling me to expect a ‘flutter’. Which I’m pretty sure I felt within the past week and a half.. but I didn’t want to get excited just in case it was gas. So I just told myself it was nothing. But this afternoon, after coming home from work & plopping down on my couch to rest a bit- I felt it for sure! And it was more than just a flutter. I don’t know how often it will happen, but IT IS RIGHT NOW AS I AM TYPING THIS! Ahhh!! All I can say is… wow. :)

Oh, and we find out the sex next Friday. 8 days!! 

This whole experience has been so amazing. Loving it.

I made some rainbow cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day. They’re cute & fun. The kids liked them. They’re very simple, just a little more time consuming than the usual cupcake. I just used store bought cake mix. Mix the batter according to the instructions on the box. Divide the batter among 6 separate bowls, and tint each bowl a different color.

If you are using liquid food coloring:

• Red: 18 drops red
• Orange: 4 drops red, 12 drops yellow
• Yellow: 12 drops yellow
• Green: 12 drops green
• Blue: 12 drops blue
• Purple: 9 drops red, 6 drops blue

I used gel food coloring which is a little different. You don’t need as many drops to get the desired shade. Experiment using your favorite colors.

In each muffin cup, place about one teaspoon of red batter. Add 1 teaspoon of each color batter until you have used up all of the colors. I could only fit 5 colors in my tins. Maybe I used heaping teaspoons- oops.

Bake according to package directions. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes, then frost.

Makes 12 cupcakes, so you’ll need to double the ingredients, and use 2 boxes to get 24 cupcakes.

14 Weeks: I feel great, and have not one thing to complain about! I don’t have any weird food cravings or aversions. I’ve been sleeping fine, only having to get up once at night to pee. I have a lot of energy- most days. Everything has been so awesome. I seriously love being pregnant. So far, anyway ;)

15 Weeks: My belly is growing for sure and though I am still comfy in most of my jeans, I have been using a ‘belly band’ over the top of my pants and belly so I can leave my pants unbuttoned and zipped down a bit. Though it mostly does its job- I have to keep pulling my pants up every time bend over or stand up from sitting. My work pants are pretty uncomfortable so I’ve been wearing yoga pants that I can fold underneath my belly. I’m going to have to do some shopping pretty soon.

16 Weeks: So far the only thing we’ve bought baby-wise has been diapers. There was a great deal on diapers.com and I ended up saving $21 plus free next day shipping. Couldn’t pass it up! We’ve been starting to pick out a few things we want to register for. (Well, mostly I do- and then I just show Cody to make sure he likes it!) Pinterest and Amazon have been a big help. I think we’re going to register with Amazon. A bunch of items we like are less expensive on there.. but we’ll probably also register with BRU for smaller items. Cleaning out the baby’s bedroom and redoing the closets in there in the next couple weeks! I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning and re-organizing on my mornings off and Cody has been helping out with laundry, which is nice. He suddenly knows how to fold… hm, strange..! We’re starting to work on a pregnancy book for our little one, which should be fun :)

We find out the sex in about 2 weeks!

This is the first time I’ve made any sort of chicken marsala dish. Now that I have marsala wine in my cupboard I will be on the lookout for new recipes to use it with! I apologize for not taking a photo, we were quite hungry! ;-) I adapted this recipe from What’s Cookin’ Chicago so if you follow the link you will find a photo of the dish there.

I only changed the recipe slightly. The pasta to sauce ratio was just way off, so I split the pasta amount in half. Also, the sauce came out very thin- so I had to change a few things as I was cooking. The way I have it written below will have it come out creamy and delicious! It had great flavor- if you make it let me know how it turns out. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts; cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 pkg. sliced mushrooms (about 8-10 ounces)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup Marsala cooking wine
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 pound dry whole wheat penne (to make it a bit healthier!)
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese + more for serving
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• minced, chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet. Cook chicken until lightly browned. Transfer to plate when done. 

Boil water and cook pasta according to the directions.

Melt additional 1 tablespoon of butter in large skillet, add garlic, mushrooms and onion and cook for about 6 minutes. Add cooked chicken back into the skillet. Add the Marsala, chicken broth and cream and bring to a nice boil. Let boil for about 5 minutes. Then bring down to a simmer until sauce is slightly thickened.

Drain pasta, and add to skillet with the mushroom/chicken mixture. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. Cook a few minutes until the pasta has absorbed some of the sauce. It should also thicken up a bit more.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with additional Parmesan cheese (yum) and a garnish of chopped parsley.

This casserole is absolutely delicious! I made it as a side dish for dinner last night. I am in love with stuffed mushrooms which is practically what this is- just in casserole form. I think this a bit more simple to make and I will definitely be making it again soon. In the mean time, I wanted to share the recipe with others who have the same love for stuffed mushrooms as I do! Enjoy!

*Both the photo below and the recipe are from the blog An Edible Mosaic.

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients

• 1 oz grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large stalks celery, finely diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 lb button mushrooms (or any kind you like), thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 4 oz sharp Cheddar, shredded (divided)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F; lightly grease small casserole dish with butter. Transfer 2 tablespoons of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to a small bowl and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add the celery and cook 3 minutes, then add the onion, salt, pepper, and bay leaf and sauté 7 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook until all the veggies are tender and the mushrooms are browned, about 7 to 10 minutes.  Add the garlic, rosemary, and thyme and cook 1 to 2 minutes more; cool slightly.

Stir together the veggie mixture with the breadcrumbs, egg, Worcestershire sauce, the larger portion of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and half the Cheddar in a large bowl.  Place the stuffing mixture in the casserole dish.  Sprinkle the remaining Cheddar and the reserved 2 tablespoons of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese on top.

Bake until the cheese is melted and golden brown in places on top, about 10 to 15 minutes.  (Broil it for a couple minutes if you want it to have more color.)

12 Weeks: Sick with a cold & non-stop cough for a week and a half, so I felt very rundown and very ‘blah’. No pregnancy symptoms, which made me a little nervous for some reason.

13 Weeks: Starting to feel better. Energy started picking up big time. We met with my doctor, everything was great, blood work was all fine. Found out my blood type is “O-“. Had another ultrasound, which was longer than last time- about 20 minutes! It was a lot of fun- the ultrasound tech there is the best. ‘He’ (I’ve been switching back and forth between he or she, rather than ‘it’) was SO busy moving around. Arms were everywhere, and he kept opening up his mouth. It was cute.

While making dinner tonight I decided I also wanted a dessert. :) I recently came across a recipe on Pinterest that looked extremely tasty and I happened to have a can of pumpkin left over from the holidays… so below is the recipe I followed. They are very quick & easy to make. The original post was by Let’s Dish. Oh, and you could also refrigerate them before you eat them! Enjoy!!!! I am now, with a glass of milk. ;)

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 
2 large eggs 
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin  
1/4 cup water 
2 cups flour 
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened 
1/4 cup granulated sugar  
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 
1 large egg

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and water until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin/butter mixture and combine until well blended. Spread about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the pumpkin batter. Dollop the remaining pumpkin batter over the cream cheese batter and spread out as evenly as possible.  Use a table knife to swirl together the cream cheese and top layer of pumpkin batter.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the center of the pumpkin batter springs back when touched. Cool completely in pan, then cut into bars.