Today Caleb is 8 months old, so it's no surprise I'm reminiscing about those early weeks after we brought him home from the hospital. During her visit to meet her new grandson, my mother-in-law threw this dish together from my (woefully) understocked pantry. Since then, it's become a household favorite. It's also a good opportunity for everyone to see that despite my high ideals, I still use some convenience foods!
Cheesy Beef Bake
Ingredients:
1lb(ish) ground beef
1 green bell pepper
½ of a medium/large red onion
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 ½ cups of shred cheddar
1 ½ cups of brown rice
2 cups of water
breadcrumbs
Directions:
Dice pepper and onion
Brown beef in skillet until halfway cooked, drain.
add pepper and onion until beef is fully browned, set aside
In a seperate bowl mix water, rice, soup, and cheese
Add beef/veggie mixture and stir
pour into 13x9 pan and bake at 375 for 45 mins
remove from oven, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top
bake an additional 10 minutes
There are two swaps that would make this a much healthier dish. If you are feeling adventurous you could try making your own cream of mushroom soup. Basic recipe here and/or for a less time consuming substitute you could make your own bread crumbs. Recipe here.
I haven't tried either yet, but I'm really excited about the bread crumb recipe- finally a use for the butt-end of the bread!
I love this recipe because it takes no time to throw together, it really stretches a pound of meat and it sneaks a decent number of veggies in there. If presentation is important to you, I wouldn't recommend serving this to company since it kind of comes out looking tan colored and uninteresting, but it's a great comfort-food dish.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Caleb: 8 Months
Tomorrow Caleb turns 8 months old and I'm reminded of a famous Navy Seal quote, "The only easy day was yesterday." Well, parenting an infant must be more challenging than the Seals because I'm so glad those yesterdays are behind us! (I am of course, kidding, I know our service men and women make sacrifices I can't even dream of.)
Crawling has brought a huge change to our home. Now Caleb can explore whatever he's interested in without having to hope we understand his desires correctly, which means a lot less frustration for him. Best of all, all that moving around is wearing. him. out. He sleeps like a champ. Naps longer than 45 minutes have been a rarity until this point. Now he takes 2 hour and a half naps each day! He's even starting only waking for one feeding some nights and sleeping in past 6:30am some mornings.
He's multi-tasking in this one- crawling and blowing a raspberry : )
He's also spitting up a lot less so I think his esophageal valve is finally doing it's job. I'm sure not having stomach acid coming up all the time is making him a much happier camper as well. Looking back, I do feel he probably could have benefited from reflux meds. However, I really didn't want to medicate him, so I'm glad that choice is behind me. It's so hard to know what is and isn't normal on baby #1. His happiness brings me so much joy and I am loving every day of this new season in his life.
We haven't gone in for an official weight check this month and we still don't have a scale, but based on photos from last month and the way his tummy finally hangs over his diaper a little, I'm sure he's gained some weight. Whether or not it's enough to bring him up out of the 3rd percentile remains to be seen. Either way, I feel fairly confident that he's healthy, especially now that he's also happy! Here's a pic where you can kind of see his itty bitty tummy:
For being such a skinny guy he certainly loves to eat. He happily devours everything I've given him and eats 4oz of food (or more) 3 times a day, plus nursing. New introductions this month have included: Peas, Carrots, Green Beans, Sweet Potato, Oats, Apples and Bananas. He went through a day or two where he'd make a terrible face whenever I gave him something green, but he seems to be over it now and loves his peas and avocado again.
He is definitely more of a handful to feed now. You'd think with him spitting up less my clothes would stay cleaner, but now that he's attempting to use the spoon (which usually ends with him throwing the spoon on me, the floor, etc.), taking his bib off and smearing food everywhere his hands can find...we both end up pretty messy. It's totally worth it to see him so happy and engaged in his environment. I got this super cute splat mat (also known as a folded vinyl table cloth) for $2.50 in the after Valentines sale. Not a moment too soon I might add.
Speaking of decor changes...now that Caleb is a master crawler I found myself spending this Tuesday rearranging the living room. Note the pack and play blocking the tempting TV gadgets (thanks for that idea Nya Nya Beth!) and blanket over the sliding door track.
The coffee table of death, as I not-so affectionately call it (I've never seen another coffee table with so many sharp edges!) also got a make over thanks to David.
Before:
After:
We've tried to keep modifications to the house in the "keep him out of the ER" category and not the "maybe we should just bubble wrap the baby" extreme. I think we must be doing a good job because he certainly has plenty of bruises decorating that poor little head of his. Of course, the worse is from his big tumble off the bed in St. Augustine (insert deep feelings of mom guilt here), but the rest are from more minor altrications. Head meets wall, floor, toy, etc. type events. Mama C was right to tell me to take a picture when he got that first bruise because now, I can't even keep track of where each one came from!
Even better than all these more easily quantifiable changes is the little personality we see emerging everyday. Caleb is so much more aware of his environment. He laughs when we do silly things, he has opinions about what he wants to do and where he wants to go, he looks to us when there's a scary noise or he takes a tiny tumble, he babbles and coos conversationally and grunts for things he wants.
David and I feel so blessed to be his parents. It's been an adventure with lots of ups and downs and has grown us in ways we couldn't have imagined before becoming parents. I'm also thankful that we still feel just as close (if not closer) as a couple than we did before Caleb arrived. He still goes to bed at 5:30/6ish and that time in the evening to just be together is so wonderful. The date and family vacation we took this month definitely were the icing on the cake.
This coming month I'm looking forward to soaking in the last of our time near the grandparents and continuing to watch our little guy grow up. Every month is my new favorite : )
Crawling has brought a huge change to our home. Now Caleb can explore whatever he's interested in without having to hope we understand his desires correctly, which means a lot less frustration for him. Best of all, all that moving around is wearing. him. out. He sleeps like a champ. Naps longer than 45 minutes have been a rarity until this point. Now he takes 2 hour and a half naps each day! He's even starting only waking for one feeding some nights and sleeping in past 6:30am some mornings.
He's multi-tasking in this one- crawling and blowing a raspberry : )
He's also spitting up a lot less so I think his esophageal valve is finally doing it's job. I'm sure not having stomach acid coming up all the time is making him a much happier camper as well. Looking back, I do feel he probably could have benefited from reflux meds. However, I really didn't want to medicate him, so I'm glad that choice is behind me. It's so hard to know what is and isn't normal on baby #1. His happiness brings me so much joy and I am loving every day of this new season in his life.
We haven't gone in for an official weight check this month and we still don't have a scale, but based on photos from last month and the way his tummy finally hangs over his diaper a little, I'm sure he's gained some weight. Whether or not it's enough to bring him up out of the 3rd percentile remains to be seen. Either way, I feel fairly confident that he's healthy, especially now that he's also happy! Here's a pic where you can kind of see his itty bitty tummy:
For being such a skinny guy he certainly loves to eat. He happily devours everything I've given him and eats 4oz of food (or more) 3 times a day, plus nursing. New introductions this month have included: Peas, Carrots, Green Beans, Sweet Potato, Oats, Apples and Bananas. He went through a day or two where he'd make a terrible face whenever I gave him something green, but he seems to be over it now and loves his peas and avocado again.
He is definitely more of a handful to feed now. You'd think with him spitting up less my clothes would stay cleaner, but now that he's attempting to use the spoon (which usually ends with him throwing the spoon on me, the floor, etc.), taking his bib off and smearing food everywhere his hands can find...we both end up pretty messy. It's totally worth it to see him so happy and engaged in his environment. I got this super cute splat mat (also known as a folded vinyl table cloth) for $2.50 in the after Valentines sale. Not a moment too soon I might add.
Speaking of decor changes...now that Caleb is a master crawler I found myself spending this Tuesday rearranging the living room. Note the pack and play blocking the tempting TV gadgets (thanks for that idea Nya Nya Beth!) and blanket over the sliding door track.
The coffee table of death, as I not-so affectionately call it (I've never seen another coffee table with so many sharp edges!) also got a make over thanks to David.
Before:
After:
We've tried to keep modifications to the house in the "keep him out of the ER" category and not the "maybe we should just bubble wrap the baby" extreme. I think we must be doing a good job because he certainly has plenty of bruises decorating that poor little head of his. Of course, the worse is from his big tumble off the bed in St. Augustine (insert deep feelings of mom guilt here), but the rest are from more minor altrications. Head meets wall, floor, toy, etc. type events. Mama C was right to tell me to take a picture when he got that first bruise because now, I can't even keep track of where each one came from!
Even better than all these more easily quantifiable changes is the little personality we see emerging everyday. Caleb is so much more aware of his environment. He laughs when we do silly things, he has opinions about what he wants to do and where he wants to go, he looks to us when there's a scary noise or he takes a tiny tumble, he babbles and coos conversationally and grunts for things he wants.
David and I feel so blessed to be his parents. It's been an adventure with lots of ups and downs and has grown us in ways we couldn't have imagined before becoming parents. I'm also thankful that we still feel just as close (if not closer) as a couple than we did before Caleb arrived. He still goes to bed at 5:30/6ish and that time in the evening to just be together is so wonderful. The date and family vacation we took this month definitely were the icing on the cake.
This coming month I'm looking forward to soaking in the last of our time near the grandparents and continuing to watch our little guy grow up. Every month is my new favorite : )
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Our Family Vacation: St. Augustine, FL
We lead and incredibly blessed life. Through David's job, we've visited the Pocono mountains, DC, Baltimore, and Las Vegas. Traveling alone, David has been to even more places including Hawaii, New Mexico, and others I can't remember! We've been temporarily relocated to live within an afternoon's drive of both our families. I can certainly never claim we haven't gotten to travel! However, in between getting married, moving 1000 miles (twice), giving birth to the greatest blessing of our lives and buying a home- we found ourselves craving some time to just be us.
Not sharing a special trip with work, friends or even beloved family members is something we haven't done since our honeymoon. So when our plans for the 3 day weekend fell through we decided to take a mini vacation.
St. Augustine is some place I've been wanting to share with David for a while. He's never been and my last visit was sometime in middle school. I knew he'd love all the castle-like structures and long history of the town. Plus, despite living in FL all his life he'd only ever seen the Atlantic in Maine!
Finding a hotel turned out to be trickier than I'd anticipated. The Daytona 500 was Sunday so places were booked and some refused to even accept our AAA discount! I finally found this room in our price range:
It was perfect. We were able to put Caleb to bed in his pack and play with a blanket blocking his view of us and stay up reading, playing games and talking in the living room area without disturbing him.
Although we reserved the weekend as "just for us" time. We did make one stop on the way up to see my Granny Doris and Grandpa Doc. Sadly, none of my biological grandparents lived to meet David or Caleb, but Granny and Grandpa have always been my 3rd set of grandparents and I was determined that we get to see them while in FL. Since we were passing right by, it seemed like the perfect time. They were of course, delighted with Caleb and I enjoyed getting to sit in their house, visit with them and drink Granny's tea which I felt so grown up getting to drink as a child.
Once we arrived in St. Augustine, things got interesting. We checked into the hotel and the headed back to the car to go find some dinner. This is when we discovered the car wouldn't start. No big deal, we'd get delivery and call AAA. While we were waiting for AAA to arrive, Caleb's bed time rolled around so I was giving him his final feeding of the day. With all the excitement, he hadn't eaten much and spent a looong time nursing to make up for it. Unfortunately, this led to a big spit up. David came over to clean off the bed and I reached for a fresh burp rag for Caleb's face.
We were both within 2 feet of him when out of the corner of my eye I saw him crawling toward something he wanted on the nightstand. In seconds that seemed like an eternity, I saw his hand land on thin air and his tiny body plummet to the ground. I was able to break his fall at the very end, but not before his head hit the nightstand shelf. A bruise was already forming, but fortunately no blood. I called the pediatrician in tears, who assured me I was not the first mom to have a 7-9 month old go careening off a high surface. They are fearless at this age. She felt the height of his fall was not bad enough to be concerned, but gave us things to watch for the next 6-12 hours, just in case. Thankfully, there were no complications and while he has a nice bruise, it didn't swell up at all. I've recovered too, though I'm almost positive I have more gray hair than I started the weekend with! After all that was over, AAA came, replaced the battery and the car was cured.
Here's a photo that shows off his bruised area:
So, despite that inauspicious beginning, the rest of the weekend proceeded to go wonderfully. I decided in my heart early on that I wanted this trip to be about making a few really special memories, not a bunch of rushed ones and I think we did a great job at making that happen. We started every morning by taking turns getting ready for the day while Caleb played and then letting him take his big 1.5 hour nap before ever leaving the hotel room. This means most days didn't start until 10, but it almost meant we left with a happy baby. David and I enjoyed having this time to relax and be together with no other agenda.
Since we were lugging an almost 8 month old and a rather heavy diaper bag/backpack we decided to get trolley tickets to get around the city. The tickets are good for 3 days and I highly recommend it. We were able to get from place to place pretty easily and it was a nice break.
On the trolley. Caleb is trying to look at the world upside down, a new favorite activity.
Our first stop was the fort (also known as the Castillo de San Marcos). Caleb stayed awake throughout this one and wasn't even fazed by the cannon firing!
The next stop was lunch, for Caleb and us. After eating, Caleb promptly fell asleep on his daddy's chest.
That afternoon we went to the Spanish Quarter Museum and toured a house from the early 1700's.
The next morning we toured the Old Jail. It was built in the late 1800's and prisoners lived in appalling conditions- no mattresses on the bunks, bugs in the food and monthly baths in shared bath water. With all that to look forward to, I'm surprised anyone ever committed a crime!
Lunch time again, this time we ate at Gyro House and had the best gyro's we'd ever eaten! The price was also wonderful so if you're ever in St. Augustine, look them up.
Our last stop in the historic district was Flagler College. I was awed by how beautiful everything was.
We ended the day at St. Augustine Beach. Caleb thought the ocean was the best thing he'd ever seen. He started wiggling and kicking with excitement as soon as he saw the water.
Afterward, he offered to drive us home, we told him he'd have to wait a few years.
It was a wonderful vacation with my two favorite people in the world.
Not sharing a special trip with work, friends or even beloved family members is something we haven't done since our honeymoon. So when our plans for the 3 day weekend fell through we decided to take a mini vacation.
St. Augustine is some place I've been wanting to share with David for a while. He's never been and my last visit was sometime in middle school. I knew he'd love all the castle-like structures and long history of the town. Plus, despite living in FL all his life he'd only ever seen the Atlantic in Maine!
Finding a hotel turned out to be trickier than I'd anticipated. The Daytona 500 was Sunday so places were booked and some refused to even accept our AAA discount! I finally found this room in our price range:
It was perfect. We were able to put Caleb to bed in his pack and play with a blanket blocking his view of us and stay up reading, playing games and talking in the living room area without disturbing him.
Although we reserved the weekend as "just for us" time. We did make one stop on the way up to see my Granny Doris and Grandpa Doc. Sadly, none of my biological grandparents lived to meet David or Caleb, but Granny and Grandpa have always been my 3rd set of grandparents and I was determined that we get to see them while in FL. Since we were passing right by, it seemed like the perfect time. They were of course, delighted with Caleb and I enjoyed getting to sit in their house, visit with them and drink Granny's tea which I felt so grown up getting to drink as a child.
Once we arrived in St. Augustine, things got interesting. We checked into the hotel and the headed back to the car to go find some dinner. This is when we discovered the car wouldn't start. No big deal, we'd get delivery and call AAA. While we were waiting for AAA to arrive, Caleb's bed time rolled around so I was giving him his final feeding of the day. With all the excitement, he hadn't eaten much and spent a looong time nursing to make up for it. Unfortunately, this led to a big spit up. David came over to clean off the bed and I reached for a fresh burp rag for Caleb's face.
We were both within 2 feet of him when out of the corner of my eye I saw him crawling toward something he wanted on the nightstand. In seconds that seemed like an eternity, I saw his hand land on thin air and his tiny body plummet to the ground. I was able to break his fall at the very end, but not before his head hit the nightstand shelf. A bruise was already forming, but fortunately no blood. I called the pediatrician in tears, who assured me I was not the first mom to have a 7-9 month old go careening off a high surface. They are fearless at this age. She felt the height of his fall was not bad enough to be concerned, but gave us things to watch for the next 6-12 hours, just in case. Thankfully, there were no complications and while he has a nice bruise, it didn't swell up at all. I've recovered too, though I'm almost positive I have more gray hair than I started the weekend with! After all that was over, AAA came, replaced the battery and the car was cured.
Here's a photo that shows off his bruised area:
So, despite that inauspicious beginning, the rest of the weekend proceeded to go wonderfully. I decided in my heart early on that I wanted this trip to be about making a few really special memories, not a bunch of rushed ones and I think we did a great job at making that happen. We started every morning by taking turns getting ready for the day while Caleb played and then letting him take his big 1.5 hour nap before ever leaving the hotel room. This means most days didn't start until 10, but it almost meant we left with a happy baby. David and I enjoyed having this time to relax and be together with no other agenda.
Since we were lugging an almost 8 month old and a rather heavy diaper bag/backpack we decided to get trolley tickets to get around the city. The tickets are good for 3 days and I highly recommend it. We were able to get from place to place pretty easily and it was a nice break.
On the trolley. Caleb is trying to look at the world upside down, a new favorite activity.
Our first stop was the fort (also known as the Castillo de San Marcos). Caleb stayed awake throughout this one and wasn't even fazed by the cannon firing!
The next stop was lunch, for Caleb and us. After eating, Caleb promptly fell asleep on his daddy's chest.
That afternoon we went to the Spanish Quarter Museum and toured a house from the early 1700's.
The next morning we toured the Old Jail. It was built in the late 1800's and prisoners lived in appalling conditions- no mattresses on the bunks, bugs in the food and monthly baths in shared bath water. With all that to look forward to, I'm surprised anyone ever committed a crime!
Lunch time again, this time we ate at Gyro House and had the best gyro's we'd ever eaten! The price was also wonderful so if you're ever in St. Augustine, look them up.
Our last stop in the historic district was Flagler College. I was awed by how beautiful everything was.
We ended the day at St. Augustine Beach. Caleb thought the ocean was the best thing he'd ever seen. He started wiggling and kicking with excitement as soon as he saw the water.
Afterward, he offered to drive us home, we told him he'd have to wait a few years.
It was a wonderful vacation with my two favorite people in the world.
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