Christmas Tradition

Merry Christmas everyone!

Even though we are having a very lowkey Christmas this year, I am very excited. This will be our first Christmas together as a family. Last year was our first Christmas as a married couple but we traveled for Christmas so we did put up a tree or anything. And we did not have Emily so this is our first Christmas where we can start new traditions together.

Breastfeeding and Its Trials

So learning to breastfeed was the hardest thing ever, for me anyway. One may think that it should be easy and instinctual; mom produces the milk, baby latches on and drinks the milk. This is not the case. No matter how prepared you think you are, experiencing it is another matter. Not only is this new to mom, but it's new for the baby as well. While mom learns how to have the baby latch on properly and her body produces milk, baby is learning how to latch on and suckle.

So here's my experience on figuring it all out.

A Very Natural Childbirth

It has been 7 weeks since I gave birth to Emily. And I just want to say that giving birth is still the most awful thing I have endured. Don't get me wrong, the end result was worth it.

One Year 10/11/13

One year has flown by. And I don't even mean it figuratively; I mean it literally. So much has happened since the day we got married, it's hard to believe that we are here celebrating our one year anniversary. Of course the most important being that we now have Emily in our lives. And today also marks her being one month and officially leveled up from newborn to infant. (And soon in the future, hopefully, I will be able to blog about that special day)

Honeymoon Adventures Part 1

Now that we are playing the waiting game and I am finding ways to fill my time to keep me distracted, I realized I never shared our honeymoon photos. Or even talked about it. And it was an amazing trip!! Well, one of the reasons why is that we have photos but we have a lot of footage on the GoPro that we wanted to cap and share. Unfortunately, that footage is inaccessible at the moment so when we can get access to them again, I'll try to cap some and put it up in the album so check back in a bit.

So, I am finally going to talk about our awesome honeymoon and share pictures of a time when I did not have a belly. Also, I am breaking this up in 2 parts because I want to talk about the food separately. It was so delicious that it deserves its own post.

Full Term! (Update, Hospital Bag List, Name Reveal)

I made it! I am officially full term at 37 weeks. A good time for an update and sharing what's in my hospital bag. Hopefully she won't come this early but you never know. And, really, it's not likely. Only 5% of pregnant women actually deliver on the due date they are given; hence why it's called Estimated Due Date. (A reason why I tended to tell people 'mid-September' when they ask when I was due. I digress.) And I learned the first time pregnant women have a tendency of going into labor PAST their due date. So yeah, ideally, I would love for her to arrive the first week of September but baby has all the control right now.

How close to the due date will she arrive?

Oh, and we finally have a name for Baby Lyons!

A Minimalist's Guide to Baby Things to Start Out With

35.5 weeks! Where has the time gone?! Although, I have to say that July was a little slow. It was the same routine with just a few things to look forward to. Nothing new was happening at my prenatal visits, which is good since that's what you want. No surprises or problems is most definitely a good thing. Sure I had the baby shower, concert and Harry Potter night, but the rest of my days were pretty uneventful. And there wasn't really much baby stuff to do.

August is looking to be more exciting because that is when everything is happening (besides baby coming). We have our baby classes to look forward to and other events that we are going to on the weekends. And since it's coming closer to baby arrival time, prenatal visits are going to be more interesting since we will be talking about the delivery process and having last minute tests done.

I did want to share my list of baby things that I decided on getting. Not only because every mommy puts up this list, but I feel there aren't enough lists for people like me, the minimalist. We decided from the beginning that we didn't want a lot of crap for the baby so when I created Baby Lyons' registry, I made sure it only had items that we absolutely wanted. And it was items that we would need right away or soon after Baby Lyons was born. I'm not going to lie, resisting the urge to buy all the cute clothes, blankets and toys for Baby Lyons has been hard but my will power prevailed.

Sure it's pretty, but you don't need half that crap

Definitely don't want this

So here it is, baby things for the minimalist:

Lasagna Debacle

This is the story of how this week's lunch is going to be sandwiches.

Originally, the menu was going to be this awesome looking recipe for turkey, spinach, and mushroom lasagna for lunch and kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) for dinner.

Turkey Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

(Healthy. Delicious.)

And

Kimchi Jjigae

(Maangchi)

Before I continue, I would like to say this to the lasagna lover, it is not for the faint of heart. And now I will start at the beginning.

Concert: Music of John Williams and the Movies

My nerd intake was happily fulfilled this night. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra was having a concert of movie music with John Williams being the focus. The concert was Tuesday but it was actually postponed from a week ago because it was going to be held at the Red Rocks Amphitheater but due to bad weather it got changed to Tuesday at Boettcher Concert Hall which is in downtown Denver.

For a weeknight, it was a pretty great night!

Baby Shower!

Being pregnant apparently does not stop me from doing a million things. I will do it SLOWER, but the amount of work does not decrease. But that's okay because it leads to awesome things!

This past Saturday, David and I had our baby shower for Baby Lyons. It wasn't anything fancy but it did take some planning and I did get a few decorations for the house.

Whoo, Winnie the Pooh theme!

Third Trimester Update

I am officially in my third trimester! Guys, I am two-thirds of the way there! I thought this would be a good time for a big update on my pregnancy so far.

29-week bump!!

Too Much Going On

I've been meaning to post a number of things for the past couple of weeks but it has been quite busy in the House of Lyons.

To summarize: we bought a house, moved, David was out of town for a week and we had friends over for the weekend who arrived while David was still out of town. This all happened in two weeks.

So, to the most exciting news.....

We bought a house! Well, townhome, if you want to be specific.

It's definitely happened a lot quicker than we expected (I, especially, was not expecting it) but, in the end, it was for the best. When we moved here from Florida, we moved into a one bedroom, one bath apartment. Then we found out I was pregnant. Well, we could have made do for at least the first year, but we would have needed a bigger space sooner than later. David was very anxious about space and the like so after discussing it, I agreed that we could start looking for houses, but there was no rush at all in finding one right away.

The only reason I was reluctant was because I didn't want to deal with the whole process of buying, moving and maybe even renovating a house while I was pregnant. Especially in my third trimester. There were plenty of sites that said you shouldn't buy a house while you're pregnant because it could cause a lot of unnecessary stress which then can lead to early labor. No thanks. So I told David we can start searching but if we didn't find anything by mid-July, we would stop looking. It was a good compromise since he promised he would take care of the bulk of the house issue. All I had to do was pick the one I liked.

So, it does seem like it's out of the blue but we have been looking at  townhomes for months. And we finally decided to go with the home we moved into. It had all the criteria we were looking for. The price was right, the location was good, the size was perfect, and it was ready to move in to. Sure there are several things that could be changed, and they will, but they are all things that are not urgent or dire that needed to be taken care of before we moved in.

It's all ours!

The day we closed on the house was also the day we started moving. And man was it a pain. Only because we didn't want to do any major packing until we knew for certain the house was ours. And the only way to know for certain was to close. So I focused on packing while David and Joe (thank God for Joe) started transporting things to the house (It was not far from the apartment). Then the next day he did all the heavy stuff and the rest of the boxes with the help from his boss and coworker.. oh, and boss' 4-year-old daughter (thank God for them).

Why didn't we wait a little or take our time? Three things. One, David didn't want to pay more rent since we had to break our lease anyway. Two, he was going to be out of town for the week. Three, we were having guests over the next weekend.

We pulled through and made it and while David was at his conference, I started to slowly unpacking the house. It got to a point, though, where I couldn't do much since I am unable to lift heavy boxes in my present condition, but I did what I could.

Last Thursday, our friends came into town for the weekend. Then David came home Friday. It was a fun time. Celebrating a birthday is always a great time to get together. And, as always, there was cosplaying.

Can you guess who they dressed up as?

I did not dress up but I was partying for a little bit. Until I got tired and went to bed around 11:00. You can even see that I'm tired.

So tired. But I stayed up long enough to play one game.

I'm impressed I even made it that late.

So, that's what happened the last couple of weeks. We are now finally having a normal week in our new home and it's exciting. Except for the unpacking part. But I'm not too stressed about that since I have time. And now, I can earnestly start baby shopping since we have the room for it!

Oh, and Baby Lyons was in top form this weekend and she was showing off to our friends. She was wiggling, punching, and kicking and they got to see and feel it. Seriously, that is the best part of being pregnant.

Lastly, to end the post, I am officially in my third trimester! I'm almost there! So the next post will be a lovely huge update on how it's been so far.

Summer Mountain Games

Happy birthday to me! And it's been a great birthday.

Today we headed to Vail for the Summer Mountain Games. We were supposed to go there in February for the Winter Mountain Games but weather and illness kept us from going. So I was very excited that we were going to the Summer Mountain Games for my birthday.

Just as a warning, this is going to be a pretty photo heavy post.

Because of gorgeous backdrops like this. And the guy's is pretty hot too.

The weather was absolutely perfect and there was a lot to see.

Hello, porcupine!

Meal Planning (A Link Up)

This is my first link up! A friend of mine Nichole and a friend of hers wanted to do a link up for those who meal plan for the week. And I thought it would be a great link up to participate it!

Art Festivals Galore

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Make sure to thank someone in the service or give someone you know in the service extra love.

It's been a pretty good three-day weekend here in Colorado. The weather has been beautiful and we kept ourselves nicely busy. It was a little on the hot side but there was usually a nice breeze to offset the heat. And it also helps that the humidity wasn't 200%. I don't think it even went above 50%.

As the title suggests David and I went into downtown Denver to walk around not one but two art festivals. Since we had the long weekend, I wanted to do something and have that something be cheap. Initially, I just discover the Downtown Denver Arts Festival. We both love walking around arts festivals because there are just so many interesting art forms to see. And it's usually outdoors, so you get some fresh air to boot. Festival of the Masters at Downtown Disney was the big one we always went to when we lived in Orlando.

Such a GORGEOUS day!

Mt Falcon - Trip 2

It was a gorgeous spring weekend this weekend! Especially Sunday. It rained a little Saturday but we went to see Iron Man 3 and did errands so it wasn't awful. By the way, Iron Man was good. I couldn't tell you which I liked best since I can't quite remember the first two movies well. But the third was definitely good.

We decided to go hiking Sunday since I haven't been hiking in ages and our friend Joe was hanging out for the day. After some thought, we decided to go to Mount Falcon since Joe had not been there and to try a new trail.

We went on the Castle Trail

Baked Buffalo Chicken

Hooray for slightly better versions of food that I love! Buffalo wings are delicious but they can be way too buttery and over-fried. I found this recipe that bakes the chicken with light breading, buffalo sauce and ranch. This dish also fulfills the spiciness kick that I want because I don't really want to eat my normal spicy foods although it's been getting better (yay!).

Here's the link to the original recipe, Buffalo Baked Chicken. I have made some adjustments though because I wanted more of a kick and I didn't want to use blue cheese either.

So here it is, my version!

Casa Bonita

Colorado has many wonderful, beautiful places to explore, see and experience. However, just like any place once you live anywhere long enough, the weird stuff comes to the surface. This is one of those times.

This place

David's work organized a casual get together for his office and employees' friends and family were invited. As you can see from the name Casa Bonita, it is a Mexican restaurant. But it's not just any restaurant.... it is the weirdest blend of Mexican, Chuck E. Cheese, and carnival.

Maternity/Nursing Bra Shopping

This will be a completely informational post! I've actually wanted to post this a couple of weeks ago but then I got sick and did not want to do anything. And then posting about the baby's sex was more important. So, finally, here it is!

I'm sure there are posts about maternity bra shopping but I haven't really found anything. Well, anything super useful. Bra shopping in normal circumstances is a pain and finding a maternity/nursing bra is no different. So I figure friends will like to have this information, be it for now or for the future.

Halfway There! (20 weeks)

I'm halfway there! I'll be in my 20th week this week and I think this is a good time for an update of things I've gone through and experienced. Time was really dragging for the weeks leading up to finding out our baby was a girl. I was so eager to find out. But looking back and taking in the whole picture, time flew. I can't believe 20 weeks passed and in another 20 weeks we're going to meet our baby!

It's only going to get bigger from here. My toes are barely peeking out.

Just be warned, this post may get a little detailed.

Boy or Girl?!

This is the moment you've been waiting for! The bean has been upgraded to Baby and we found out the gender yesterday!

Boy?   or   Girl?

Florida Wedding

I love weddings. It is a time of joy, friends and great memories. This past Saturday was the wedding of a good friend. And it was beautiful. Although everything was mostly indoors, the weather was perfect. The church was beautiful and the reception was decorated very nicely.

The happy, newlywed couple!

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Life has been pretty normal. Except for the swelling belly that is. Things seem to be progressing nicely so there's no complaining here. My sinuses have been bothering me a lot though. I had an infection a couple weeks ago that kept getting worse and my normal ways of handling this was not working. I eventually spoke with the midwife and she gave me some more tips on helping out my sinuses without taking antibiotics. It took about 2 weeks but, thankfully, it got better. HOWEVER, a symptom of pregnancy are swollen and stuffy sinuses so it's not like my sinuses will be getting back to normal any time soon. But I know I got better from a sinus infection. Thank God, because I really didn't want to take antibiotics. Going to a midwife has been a great decision. So back to food...

Les Miserables Review

We finally got around to watching Les Mis last night. It snowed all day yesterday and the only time we left the apartment was to go eat dinner. We thought about going to the movies but we didn't see a movie that we really wanted to watched for $25.00. So we went home and rented Les Mis.

I give it a solid B/B-, depending how I feel. Before I start into why I think that, here's some background. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LES MIS. It is one of my all time favorite musicals. My friends and I sang it all the time in high school in the chorus room. And I was really bummed I never saw it on Broadway during a class trip. Two of my most favorite songs are from this musical (both sung by Eponine).

So now here's why I gave it a B/B-:

Goodbye 1st Trimester!

I am officially in my 2nd trimester! And, thankfully, I am starting to feel better. The best part, no more nausea!!!!!! That makes me the happiest. Now I know that I'm just always hungry. I have my other symptoms but it's so much more easier to deal with now. The most important thing is I have no more nausea!! As long as I keep my appetite in check.

I had another appointment with the doctor a few days ago and so far so good. I am actually doing pretty well with the weight gain (and, yes, it's a good thing =p) and the Bean seemed okay. I didn't have an ultrasound done but she did use a doppler to check the heartbeat of the Bean and that was normal. David came with me this time so he got to listen to it as well. I have listened to it before, but it's still pretty incredible to hear something we have created feeding off of me. And, I just thought of this.... I am part TIME LORD!! For the next 6 months anyway. After all, time lord/humans aren't meant to be.

Unfortunately, I'm not quite up to working out yet. Every time I do a set of push-ups during work, I feel hungry/nausea after I'm done. I feel like it's a pretty obvious sign that anything more strenuous will not be good. Once that feeling goes away, I will be a happy camper. Days have been really nice and I've been wanting to do something outdoors that's not just walking. Running would be fun or even a more rigorous hike instead of a leisurely stroll.

Since finding out I was pregnant, I've been doing a lot of research about, well, everything. A great website I found that has very good general information was FitPregnancy. It's a great site that talks about the stages of pregnancy, health, nutrition, babies, working out and the like. The one thing that really caught my interest was that it had a focus on health and exercising (the Bump doesn't really do that) and articles have just enough to where I get the information I need. If I need more detail then I know what I should google for.

Pinterest has been giving a more personal insight into pregnancy where I would read women's blogs about their personal experience. As usual a lot were not so good, but there were a few that were really helpful and interesting. If you want to see the things I have pinned so far check out my Baby Board!

And I've been doing a lot of baby product research. Just like weddings, everything is so much more expensive when you tag on the word 'Baby' to stuff. Thank God people give away a lot of baby stuff. Our first stop will be Goodwill and the like. However, there will be a few things that will not be used, like strollers and car seats. I will gladly spend a reasonable amount of money for stability and safety. I know that eventually we will have to go out buy this stuff, but man it's intimidating. A lot of crap for a lot of money for a small amount of time. Luckily, there are a few things that are versatile so I'm hoping that I could get most of those.

I have my super important ultrasound in a month so it's more sitting and waiting until then. Which I hate but I know it can't be helped. Can't rush the Bean.

Obligatory bump photo

I would like to note that most of that bump is bloating and fat. Oh and my internal organs being shoved up towards my diaphragm. But it's a bump, nonetheless, I guess. Yes, I am vain. I'm just really looking forward to when I really look pregnant. Just a few more weeks!

So far, 4 people have told us that we are going to have a boy. Anyone else have thoughts?

Classic French Toast

I love french toast. It is definitely one of my favorite breakfast foods. I haven't eaten it a lot since it's bread but it's definitely a nice treat once it a while. And a treat it is since today was the best I felt in a long time! I still get tired easily but the nausea is gone as long as I keep my hunger under control.

So to continue celebrating I am sharing my awesome french toast recipe with my friends so you can join in on the yumminess. Sidebar: When I cook something that's not from a recipe, I tend not to measure things, but I will explain/describe to the best of my ability (sorry).

Serving: ~7 pieces of french toast
3 eggs
7 pieces of bread
2% milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon sugar
Powdered sugar (optional)
Syrup/Honey

So, before I get to the recipe part, a few notes to the ingredients so you know why this is the best french toast (I'm so modest).

Yum!!

The recipe makes 7 pieces but if you want to make more or less, here is the formula to make it work and you won't worry about making too much or too little batter. For every egg you add to the recipe, double the amount of bread + 1. For example, for this recipe I used 3 eggs so I used 7 slices of bread. This definitely depends on how much batter you put on the bread, but I found it to be a good rule of thumb. OR, if you don't care how much you make just keep making them until you run out of batter!

I know people these days are afraid of whole milk but skim and 1% milk are too watery for me; I think 2% is a good compromise. Making french toast today was a whim so I used whole wheat bread. BUT if you are planning to make some ahead of time, buy Pepperidge Farm's Cinnamon Bread. IT HELPS MAKE THE YUMMIEST FRENCH TOAST. But seriously, use whatever fancies you. Just don't get super porous bread, then the french toast gets too soggy.

So you have your ingredients:

I love recipes that have minimal ingredients

1. Once you crack the eggs in a medium bowl, pour the milk until you see only the yolk and little bit of the whites
2. Add the vanilla and cinnamon sugar (measure at your discretion) and whisk it all together
3. Grease (or PAM) your pan/griddle and once it is hot enough, dip the bread in the batter on both sides and place on pan
4. After 2-3 minutes, flip and cook for another couple of minutes
5. Keep doing that until you use the whole batter

This is what I mean by not measuring. Make sure your milk and eggs look like this

So you finished making the french toast but it's a little boring so it's time to add a few embellishments. I sprinkled a bit more cinnamon sugar (I really love cinnamon sure) while they were toasting. And then I sprinkled a little powdered sugar to make them look pretty. Lastly, I added some fresh strawberries.

So now enjoy with your favorite syrup! Happy Sunday!

Simple Turkey Burger

I wouldn't say that my diet is incredibly limited but it has become a little more difficult to plan for meals. We used to decide meals together where each of us would choose something for lunch or dinner. Well, since my body went all wonky, David learned early on that I should just choose all the meals because there are certain foods I don't want to eat. So I am now scouring Pinterest to find meals that I will want to eat.

I came upon this recipe for a simple turkey burger. And because it is a burger, the variations of ingredients are almost endless. So I took this recipe and changed up some of the ingredients to make it more palatable for myself (David will eat just about anything so he has no say).

Servings: 4-6 patties

1 lb ground turkey

1 medium yellow onion

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 cup chives (or any other herb you prefer)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Toppings:

lettuce

tomatoes

cheese

whatever else you want

Dice the onion and if you have fresh chives/herbs, chop them up finely. Toss the onion and chives in a bowl with the ground turkey, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Form into patties. Grill or pan-fry them. We don't have a grill so I pan fried them. Sidebar: when you do buy ground turkey, make sure to get the one that is not so lean. This way your patties will hold better together and be juicier. I find 15% fat works pretty well. There is a time and place for lean turkey meat, burgers is not one of them.

Besides the burgers being better for you than beef burgers, having the onions and chives in the patty helps the flavor of the burger and if you don't want anything on your burger, you'll still have flavor in your burger and not just the taste of meat.

This is dinner for the week

Denver Art Museum

I love it when I go on a trip on the weekend. Since I work at home, going out on the weekend is a real joy. Of course it won't happen all the time (ex: bad weather, illness), but it feels like an extra treat. Besides being the weekend, Saturday called for sunny skies and warm-ish weather, high 50s. Great weather to be out and about. So we went into Denver.

David wanted to go to REI, which is a HUGE outdoor/sporting goods store, because they were having a members' only clearance sale. Apparently it's a huge big deal so we had to get there early. So we headed out early and took the light rail into the city. Unfortunately, we left so early that it was pretty cold so I had to make sure I layered myself so I could stay warm during the morning but not swelter in the afternoon. While David was doing his special shopping, I walked around the store (warehouse really) and was amazed at how huge the place is. Three stories and each department was in its own section of the store. Aside from men, women, kids, there was also, hiking, winter outerwear, bicycles, shoes, winter sports equipment, and I know I forgot a few.

After David's shopping spree, we decided to have breakfast before we arrived at the Denver Art Museum. It wasn't like we were at the store for very long but I need to be fed every couple hours now. So we found a breakfast place that was pretty decent called the Delectable Egg.

The logo is so cute!

It was a nice place. And the food was pretty good. I didn't even finish my food there was so much of it.

Seriously. Who actually needs that much butter?!

After breakfast we decided to walk to the museum since it wasn't too far and the weather was nice.

Nothing like still seeing snow in 50 degree weather.

When we got the museum there were some funny statues heading to the entrance.

One of the entrances to the museum

It was a pretty cool museum. They have a thing every first Saturday where admission is free. And, well, yay free culture! When we first started walking around, I thought it was pretty small, really interesting, but small with only a few galleries. However, we realized that the first three floors were connected and the rest (7 floors in all) you had to take the stair or elevators. The two buildings that made up the museum were also connected. A lot of great things to see. But what made it really awesome was that there were a lot of stations for kids where there were interactive toys the could explore or actual art stations. Then, while we were there, some kind of yoga session was also going on. That's what I call my kind of museum.

I would definitely go back.

The Big Announcement... It's a... an Alien Bean!!

I have finally announced to my friends that I am pregnant. And I thought this would be a perfect time to talk about my other life from these last few months.

And let me just say how crazy we are before I go into detail about my time so far.

We got married in October 2012 and at this point we agreed that we would try to have children starting 2013 or after David got a job and we moved. Well, David had a couple interviews since the wedding and we knew for a fact we would probably be moving by the end of 2012. So we decided, what the hell, we'll start trying now. That was December. David got the job and we were scurrying around getting our ducks in a row to move and squeeze in a trip to my parents for Christmas. We moved here at the beginning of January 2013 and one week later I found out I was pregnant. One month later I got confirmation at the doctor's office. This was all in 4 MONTHS. We may be a little crazy.

Like I said, a little crazy

So, back to me being pregnant. I am in my 12th week and, no, I am not really showing. I have packed on some pudge, but my pants still fit even at the waist, except when I sit. There is pressure on my abdomen when I sit. Very annoying.

Actually, there are a lot of annoying things. I've been doing a lot of reading. And everyone says the first trimester is always the worst. That's when the morning sickness, constant hunger, constant bathroom breaks, painful breasts, mood swings and fatigue all happen at once. Thankfully, my morning sickness hasn't been so awful where I've been vomiting. But I have been having constant nausea. I eat all the time but at the same time I don't want to because of said nausea. And my bedtime is at 9:30, but I'm actually tired by 6.

Now I understand that my symptoms aren't horrendous, BUT it's been messing with my normal routine and that's what's really bothering me. I can't workout because I'm either between I just ate or I'm really nauseous. And then when I do eat, I have to do it carefully because sometime I can't tell if I really am hungry, full, or nauseous. I'm usually fine in the mornings, but when 2 o'clock rolls around nausea hits me for the rest of the day.

And how on earth am I maintaining my health if I'm not working out? I've been really conscious about what I eat. I definitely have been eating more, but I've been eating a lot more frequently and smaller portions, which is what experts recommend. I've also been eating a lot of wholesome food like fruit with plain yogurt, lean meats, veggies, cheeses and the like. The one thing that came back into my diet, and I'm not too thrilled about, is gluten. Before it used to be that something super gluten-y was a weekend thing and I really wouldn't eat it on the weekdays. Not any more. If I had a craving, it was to have gluten carby stuff. I needed bread (or pasta) back in my diet and the only thing I can think of is that my body needed quick energy which is what carby grains provide. I haven't gone overboard but it is a daily intake. Oh, and I really don't want to eat anything kimchi (which saddens me) and super garlicky foods (which also makes me sad).

Yay wholesome food!

Active-wise, I wish I could be better. But the food/nausea thing really screws me up. Luckily, I've doing some sort of walking (mostly hiking) on the weekend and I do some small exercise sets while I work. And I got a yoga ball to sit on for part of the day (this also helps with my digestion). Thank God or I would go crazy.

Here's hoping to a better second trimester.

Smash

(from imdb)

I wasn't immediately hooked when I saw the first episode. One of the main reasons was Katharine McPhee. She has a really great voice but I wasn't too keen on her character and her acting. It also took some time for some of the other characters to grow on me. But I had a feeling that the little things would not matter if I kept watching. Also, I saw that Jack Davenport was in the show and I thought, "Steve and Norrington guy is in this show?! He's awesome!" He plays such a great jerk. Anyway, I was right. I LOVE this show now!

Granted I am still not a fan of Karen or Katharine McPhee and the storyline is pretty typical. HOWEVER, at least it's written well and the music is fantastic. I can handle a cookie cutter story as long as it is kept interesting and the characters are memorable. And that's what I think Smash does. You can definitely see a lot of the plot unfolding from a mile away but the characters are engaging and you get pretty invested into their development. I may not have been completely fair with the typical plot, there are some moments where a kink is thrown in and it's pleasant to come across. And, I will say it again, the music is FANTASTIC!

And season 2 has gotten to be pretty drama-filled. And I can't wait to see what happens to Bombshell. Although it's great to see that they are not completely focusing on that. I was kind of curious how they were going to keep going once Bombshell would be on Broadway, but they found a good way to keep that from happening in a pretty realistic way.

I just finished watching the last episode, which wasn't too song heavy, but Ivy has an amazing voice and I love listening to her sing. And the end of the episode wasn't earth shattering or cliffhanger-y, but it only gave you a snippet of what was to come. A very good ending.

This is how Glee should have been in my opinion. Have a great consistent story, stable characters and stop trying to cater so much to the fans. That's what made Glee fall apart so much. Although it seems that Glee is trying to bounce back. We shall see. Smash is still superior.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Flourless)

I am not the biggest peanut butter fan. I don't like peanut butter jelly sandwiches and you will never see me eat peanut butter out of the jar. That's David's go to quick snack. However, I do enjoy peanut butter cookies. Probably because the extra sugar helps mask some of the peanut taste. So I definitely enjoy these cookies.

They are especially tasty because they are gluten-free. When we decided to cut back our gluten intake, I started to be on the look out for desserts and snacks that were gluten-free. We both love sweets and dessert-y stuff, so finding recipes that were gluten-free was a little important. I happened upon this recipe in a Southern Living magazine a couple of years ago and immediately copied it so I could bake it at home. It was a huge hit for everyone in the apartment. Not only are they good cookies, but we found they were a good snack after a big workout and great travel food. If they didn't have some self-control the guys would have probably eaten a good 3.5 dozen cookies in 2 days.

The cookies aren't exactly healthy, but if you are cutting back on carbs and/or gluten, this is a great cookie to have around. I made a few adjustments to the original recipe because I felt too much sugar was being used and the chocolate chips weren't quite right. One more note before I share the recipe, 1 cup of peanut butter is about half the jar. So I just use the whole jar at once and this way you don't have leftover peanut butter if you don't eat a lot of it and you make more cookies at one time. The recipe I'll be sharing is for using a whole jar of peanut butter and yields 3.5 to 4 dozen cookies.

1    jar creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
2    large eggs
1    tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 bag mini-chocolate chips

*If you are going to half the recipe, keep using the 3/4 cup of sugar because that was in the original recipe. Or half it if you want to still cut back on the sugar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir peanut butter, sugar, eggs, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl until well blended.
3. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
5. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to continue cooling.

The batter will be a little mushy but will stiffen up when the chocolate chips are added.

I spray baking Pam on the tablespoon so the batter won't stick to it and will drop onto the pan easily.

If you use regular metal pans, I highly recommend using parchment paper. But if you use a stone pan, just spray a little baking Pam and it will work great.

The cookies are REALLY soft when they are taken out of the oven, so definitely let them sit and cool for a few minutes before transferring them to the cooling rack.

They are great with tea or milk or coffee. And perfect as a dessert or a snack.

Enjoy!