Weekly meal plan.

So, WW is going ok. It's hard, because all I think about is food. I'm hungry ALL the time because of nursing and while apples are great, I'm hungry again in 5 minutes. I'm trying, though. I really want to be successful and as long as my milk supply stays ok, I'm pressing forward.

I discovered a great website with a ton of recipes and she's calculated all the points! I really want to make her dark chocolate bread pudding, but we have no ramekins to speak of. Darn.

Anyway, here's the line up:

1. Spaghetti (will start using whole wheat pasta again)

2. Crock pot taco chili (with multgrain chips and light sour cream)

3. Baked chicken parmesean (with whole wheat pasta)

4. Mexican surprise

5. Turkey and bean chili

6. Pancakes

7. Fend for yourself!

4 months!

This girl is 4 months old. Seems so old to me! Moving out of the newborn department and into infant territory. We had her well child check up today and she got a great report. Two interesting things we learned about Miss Lucy this month: 1. She has a mongolian spot. 2. She has Sandifer's syndrome. Both of these really mean nothing, just noting for the record. The mongolian spot looks like a bruise on her tush, right at the top. We learned about these in child welfare training since well, it looks like a bruise. Our pediatrician noted it, just in case something ever comes up. Sandifer's is really just naming a behavior of babies with reflux. You will often see Lucy arching backwards and bringing her feet back towards her head (future Circ de Soleil performer, perhaps?), especially when she is eating. This is Sandifer's. It's a function of her reflux and when that goes away, so will this behavior. I'll be glad for that. Nursing her is like wrestling a wildebeast.

Her official stats:

12 pounds, 8 ounces (with her diaper on)

23.5 inches

25th% for both

We don't start any vaccines until 6 months, so no shots for her. Doctor says she looks wonderful. We are toying with going up on her Prevacid dose, since it seems like her reflux isn't in good control right now. We may do a whole tab in the morning and half at night. I HATE medicating kids, so that's why we are thinking on it. Our pediatrician doesn't want any solids introduced until at least 6 months old, which is what we did with Theo, so we are just continuing with nursing, of course.

She's having more and more times of being happy. She hoots a lot, smiles and continues to be very strong. She started rolling on the day she turned 3 months and can almost go both ways now. She loves to sit up and can hold herself for a few seconds. She bears weight on her legs easily. I predict an early mover, for sure. She adores Theo and he is an excellent big brother. Whenever we go anywhere, he always asks if Lucy is coming. If not, he asks about her several times while we are out. I am so proud of him.

We go back in 2 months and in the meantime, it's status quo!

This moment.

Weight Watchers, Day 1.

I finally signed up for Weight Watchers last night. I am sick of not fitting into my clothes. There will be no more babies in my belly, so it's time to finally lose all this weight. Thanks to breastfeeding, I get like 6 million daily points, so there should be no excuse. It's a work day which is good because I really only have the food I brought with me to eat. I entered all the points last night and still have 2 to eat somewhere. Today's menu:

Breakfast
Oatmeal w/splenda + 1TBSP peanut butter
Coffee w/splenda + creamer

Lunch
Leftover steak (small)
Yoplait light yogurt + strawberries
Diet Coke

Dinner
Spaghetti w/turkey meat sauce

Snacks
100 cal Chex Mix (chocolate caramel)
Dark Chocolate Granola Thin
Animal crackers

Plus lots of water and Mother's Milk tea. Can't earn activity points today because it's a work day, but now that it's warming up, I am hoping to walk daily with the kids.

Starting weight = 173
Goal weight = 150 (this is the max healthy weight for my height, so less would be great!)

Since I am nursing, I am not supposed to lose more than a pound a week. Sigh. Ah well, slow and steady wins the race, right?

What Valentine's Day looks like when you have kids.

We couldn't go out for Valentine's Day because we have small kids. We had a babysitter, but we haven't seen her since August, and well, Lucy is really hard and should only be left with people related to her right now. So, armed with some funds graciously provided by Susan's parents, I hit up Whole Foods for the makings of a nice dinner. We put the kids to bed, cooked and ate in peace. It was lovely. No tip required, we got to eat in our PJs and didn't have to drive home. We did have to do the dishes, but it was a good trade off.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Weekly meal plan.

(I never assign things to days, I just come up with 7 meals, shop for the week and then make whatever makes sense for that day)

1. Steak quesadillas w/leftover steak from Valentine's Day dinner

2. Spaghetti (Theo's request)

3. Tacos

4. Shake and Bake chicken breasts w/roasted asparagus and sweet potatoes

5. Breakfast for dinner (didn't ever do this last week)

6. Stir fry chicken and veggies w/brown rice

7. Fend for yourself!

Food 'n stuff.

I am happy to share the flank steak marinade, as requested. I almost didn't, because I think it's one of my best meals and the one I'd probably serve you if you came over for dinner. But, I swiped it from someone else, so it's not exactly *mine* anyway. This is easily my favorite meal, I could eat it weekly.

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced (I have one of those masher things)

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 small can of tomato juice

Put this all together in a gallon bag and toss in your flank steak. Marinate OVERNIGHT. Don't skimp on the marinating time, trust me. Grill it about 5 minutes each side, depending on how you like it. Slice really thin. Seriously. Good stuff.

I finally made the creamy chicken chili (recipe linked a few posts down). It was good and I would make it again. I made it into a crock pot meal, though, because that's like half the reason I even make chili. So, if you want to do that, here's what I did: I put the (raw) chicken in with the broth, spices, chilis, beans and onions on high for 4 hours. I then took the chicken out, shredded it and put it back in. Susan hates sour cream with a fiery passion, so I took some out for her, then removed it from the heat and mixed in the sour cream and half and half as per the recipe. Came out just fine.

Enjoy those and keep posting yours! My family thanks you, so we don't have to eat spaghetti 4 times a week.

Meal plan Monday (on Tuesday).

Finally getting this back on track. I didn't think it mattered, but who knew people actually read this thing?? (Hi, Katie!) And, I heard from another friend (Hi, Daisy!) that she linked to another friend's site (Hi, Kelsi!) (not a mutual friend) and got a recipe idea from her. So cool!

We've been hit by the plague. Theo got it first, then Susan and I and Lucy is still sick. So, we've been in survival mode - cereal, take out and whatever our wonderful parents who came in to rescue us were willing to cook. So, this is the first meal plan I've done in more than a week and most of it is just looking around the house for what we've got. Maybe next week I'll be up to the grocery store.

1. Frozen pizza

2. Flank steak (I have the BEST marinade recipe), mashed sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus

3. Meatloaf, rice, fresh broccoli

4. Creamy chicken chili (never got made)

5. Turkey burgers and waffle fries

6. Breakfast

7.Baked ziti (from the freezer)