Irish Beef Stew

I'm not going to link back to a recipe because I used several as inspiration but really made this one my own, and it was delicious! My first attempt at beef stew from the cow we bought didn't turn out well (totally my fault ... and the fault of all slow cooker recipes that say "cook on low for 8 hours OR high for 4 hours!" ... Liars.) but this one was a hit - London especially liked the meat!

Ingredients

1.5lbs stew beef

4 medium carrots, 

2 medium potatoes

1/2 medium onion

1 can low sodium beef broth

1 (small) can tomato paste

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

3 bay leaves 

1 bottle dark beer (I used People's Porter)

1c water

1tsp minced garlic

Garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Chop beef, carrots, potatoes and onion into bite-size pieces; throw them all in the crockpot

Throw everything else in with it (water can be added or altered based on your discretion as to how much broth you want)

I added more salt than I normally would to help tenderize the beef

Cook on low for 8h. I'm not joking about this!

22 weeks

I was waiting until my drs appt today to see if there were any fun updates. Nope! And I chickened out on asking about my weight gain, so no news there either. 

How far along?: 22w 3d

How big is baby?: the size of a spaghetti squash! Baby is about 8 in long and weights about a pound. 

Weight gain?: ???

Stretch marks?: no

Maternity clothes?: I am actually wearing post-partum jeans today and they're too big. If the pants are still too big at 22w pregnant, that's probably a sign to get rid of them, right?

Sleep?: still waking early, especially with poor London coughing in the early hours of the morning, but sleeping ok

Best moment last week?: we took London to the St. Patricks day parade on Saturday and she LOVED it!

Food cravings?: yesterday it was a burger (mmm MoJoe's!) and I've been enjoying a pepperidge farms coconut cake!

Symptoms?: still getting these sharp, sudden pains which the ob said are uterus growing pains and totally normal, so at least that's good news. She said the pains get worse with subsequent pregnancies; let's hope I don't have to worry about that

Exercise?: signed up for prenatal yoga starting next month!! Although I'm bummed the teacher I love isn't there anymore. 

Movement?: very active but not painful yet. Most active when I'm sitting on the couch to rest, especially at night. 

Belly button?: still in

What I miss?: I'm worried about the placenta issue enough that I feel like I can't walk long distances, which is hard now that the weather is nice. Praying & believing we'll get good news in 6w and I can take London to the zoo!

What I'm looking forward to?: continuing to work on clearing out the nursery so we can eventually paint. We finally decided on colors! Red, navy & aqua with gray undertones and dark furniture. Now if only we could pick a name...

Beef with Broccoli

So, we bought a cow. Well, only a portion, but even a portion of a cow is a lot of freakin' beef. And for someone who didn't do a whole lot of cooking with red meat previously, it's been really eye-opening. I have no idea what to do with a lot of the cuts, and I used to cook chicken 90% of the time. But it's pushed me out of my comfort zone and some of the results have been great, including tonight's attempt at beef & broccoli. 

Recipe inspiration from:

http://rainydaygal.com/2011/02/03/beef-with-broccoli/

Ingredients

1.5lbs beef cube steak (the recipe called for flank steak but I think cube worked fine if that's what you have)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp corn starch

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce (I ised regular because that's what I had; it was very salty but still good!)

1 tbsp water

2 tbsp canola oil

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 tbsp red wine

4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp canola oil, separated into 2 tbsp and 1 tbsp

Half a bag of frozen broccoli

Directions

Whisk marinade ingredients together

Cover steak with marinade in a medium bowl

Cover & refrigerate for at least an hour ( I let it marinade for 4-5hrs since I was using a less tender cut)

When ready to prepare:

Heat 2 tbsp oil on med-high heat

Sauté broccoli until cooked through and tender (about 3-5min); remove from pan

Meanwhile, whisk together soy sauce, brown sugar, flour, red wine and garlic in a small bowl

Heat 1 tbsp oil on med heat

Add marinaded beef to pan

Cover with half soy sauce mixture

Cook until beef is no longer pink

Add broccoli and remaining sauce; sauté for one more minute, stirring frequently

Serve with white rice

21 Weeks

20 weeks always feels like a great milestone, but 21 weeks might be even better. Why? Because, assuming all is well with me and Little Brother, my ob won't force induction until 42 weeks, so I'm officially at least halfway through the pregnancy, even in "worst case scenario". Because I am trying my darnedest to avoid pitocin this time!! So anyway, I'm 21 weeks, my belly is huge, and the man child still has no name. But all in all, life is good because hey! it's 60 degrees out and I have beef & broccoli marinating for dinner tonight and a new maxi skirt calling my name. Simple pleasures, y'all. 

How far along?: 21 weeks 2 days

How big is baby?: approx 7in long and 11oz

Weight gain?: my scale is broken. Oh darn!

Stretch marks?: no

Maternity clothes?: yes, but still not all the time. Rocking some shirt dresses recently with an empire belt. 

Sleep?: not bad. Still waking up earlier than I'd like to but I'd better get used to that. Hoping this daylight savings thing takes care of London's recent early rising. 

Best moment last week?: it was a pretty good week overall! I hit up a consignment sale and got some basics for the boy. Ben's been sick (boo) but it means he's been home more, which London & I love. I would say my best moment for the last week was getting a HUGE box of clothes for London passed down from a friend. What an incredible blessing! Oh, and singing "great is thy faithfulness" at church this morning. 

Food cravings?: ice cream; every night. Red meat. Shrimp tacos. 

Symptoms?: my boobs are so sore and itchy, it's awful. My nipples are bigger than should be physically possible and OH! do they hurt. The heartburn is really kicking up, and the tums have to be swapped out for Pepcid soon. But compared to where I was a few weeks ago, I'm grateful! 

Gender?: little brother

Movement?: daily but still faint and still very low. Ben gets to feel him from time to time. 

Belly button?: no change here

What I miss?: I'm being super indulgent with food this time around so I don't miss much besides sex (sorry if that offends but 10 weeks is too long!!). I had a delightful non-alcoholic beer last weekend to curb the beer craving and even had half a glass of wine last night with dinner. I'm pretty sure I was tipsy after 2 sips (kidding of course ). 

What I'm looking forward to?: warm weather hopefully sticking around!!

Half Baked

Little brother is officially half baked (assuming he doesn't go past his due date) and that's reason to celebrate! I'm actually feeling pretty decent this week, which is also something to celebrate. So how does a woman who's five months pregnant celebrate? With ice cream, of course!

How far along?: 20 weeks

How big is baby?: the size of a banana

Weight gain?: not sure

Stretch marks?: no

Maternity clothes?: I desperately need new pants. This isn't like with London where I could just make my pre-pregnancy jeans work when I needed them to (even at 9mo pregnant!). This kid is lower and the pants are too uncomfortable to wear for very long. 

Sleep?: not terrible. We've recently gotten into House of Cards, so I've been staying up until 11 (woah!) and sleeping until a little after 6am. 

Best moment last week?: We got a crib! Ordered online for an incredible price and we should be able to pick it up this week. Everything else we need is small so I feel really good about getting this out of the way!

Food cravings?: ice cream. And all the other normal stuff I've been craving. Cherry coke. More ice cream. 

Symptoms?: I had some spotting earlier this week, and with the diagnosis of placenta previa, that can be pretty scary. So I'm on "very light activity" and hoping it was just a fluke. 

Exercise?: I took London to open gym at a gymnastics place last week and that was pretty fun

Gender?: boy! Still no name

Movement?: yep! Feeling him daily, inside and out. 

Belly button?: still in

What I miss?: not having to constantly second guess if I'm "doing too much"

What I'm looking forward to?: co-hosting a sprinkle for my sweet friend Jenn & baby Reed tomorrow!

I made Little Brother his first homemade onesie (and one for Reed too!). Loving the boy clothes already!

19 weeks

How far along?: 19 weeks today

How big is baby?: as of Monday, 8 ounces. According to WTE, baby is about the size of a mango, weighing close to 10oz and 6.5 inches tall

Weight gain?: 3lbs. Finally in the black, womp womp. But that means vomiting has FINALLY subsided

Stretch marks?: no

Maternity clothes?: still back & forth. Squished into some normal jeans yesterday with a ponytail holder on the button hole

Sleep?: hit or miss. May break down and take a Tylenol PM soon bc last night I was tossing and turning all night (stressing about our name list!)

Best moment last week?: finding out we are having a healthy baby BOY!!

Food cravings?: everything? Starbucks especially

Symptoms?: the round ligament pain / cramping has gotten pretty bad recently. The ultrasound tech commented on how low baby is (big contrast from London) so I think that's contributing

Exercise?: the weather has recently been gorgeous, so London and I have been to the park almost every day to run around & play

Gender?: BOY!! I can hardly believe it. We are overjoyed!

Movement?: still infrequent and faint but I normally feel him at least once a day

Belly button?: the top part is starting to fold out already and I feel like it's very obvious when I wear tight shirts 

What I miss?: still missing sushi and sub sandwiches pretty often. I had a few sips of our favorite sparkling wine on valentines day and promptly passed out. Apparently Saturday is national margarita day :( not fair

Labor signs?: not really labor signs, but I learned this week that I have placenta previa. They fully expect it to correct itself, but in the mean time I'm under some restrictions until they do another ultrasound at 28w

What I'm looking forward to?: deciding a name for this little man. Much harder than with London!

18 weeks, but you get the idea

18 weeks

I'm getting a jump start on this week's post by 3 hours because I skipped last week I think. And tomorrow is valentines day. And there is a mess of snow & ice on the ground so we can't leave the house which means I'm going to have a wild toddler on my hands tomorrow. 

Have I mentioned I really don't like snow? It's beautiful but after the first few minutes, I'm over it. But don't worry, because this is our second "major" snow storm in the past two weeks, yay!! [sarcasm brackets]

So whatever, back to happy stuff. Maybe I'll add a photo soon but for now, here's my 18w update for Baby E2. It's so crazy to think that we already knew London was a girl and had named her at this point in the pregnancy. Hopefully both of those things will happen on Monday!!

How far along?: 18w

How big is baby?: 

Weight gain?: up a pound from last week I think, so yay?

Stretch marks?: nope!

Maternity clothes?: I bought new maternity (skinny!) jeans last week because mine from London are too big. Size small - so what do the people who are ACTUALLY size small wear? It must be so hard to find maternity clothes if you're petite 

Sleep?: I've been fighting a cold for what feels like weeks, so sleep is elusive but I've been going to bed at a decent hour to try to make up for it. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have to be up all night with a newborn in 6 months ... Cue the anxiety attack NOW!

Best moment last week?: Ben flew home early from his business trip because of the weather. I was really worried he was going to get stuck there!

Food cravings?: Ice cream. Spaghetti and meatballs. 

Symptoms?: vomiting is finally (!!!!) diminishing. I'm still desperately dehydrated judging by the way I chug glasses of watered down lemonade. 

Gender?: we find out Monday - omg!! Last chance to place your bets, is Baby E a HE or a SHE?

Movement?: yes! I was getting worried but now I'm feeling some faint movement, both internally and externally, especially in the evenings. 

Belly button?: shallow but in 

What I miss?: I'd like a beer

Labor signs?: nope

What I'm looking forward to?: spending the day with Ben on Monday and naming our baby!!