Baby blues?

I'm irritated.

There I said it.

My sweet little baby is driving me crazy.

I'm tired. I'm stressed. Everything is bugging me. Life is not rainbows and butterflies. It's wet diapers and no wine in the house.

Is it still baby blues if it's 10 months postpartum?

I need a break.

A working mom's lament

So I've been informed that the masses have been waiting patiently for my next blog...

My apologies to the masses, but I've been slightly wrapped up in Lukas.

Here's the deal. In 3 weeks I will be away from Lukas for 6 days for work. I've known about this trip for a while, but 3 weeks is going to be here in a flash, and I'm dreading being away from that sweet boy for nearly a week. Not to mention the fact that I'm still breast feeding, and trying to pump on a work trip is going to suck. I can picture it now- mascara running down my face while I am attached to the devil suction cups. (Can you tell I love to pump?)

So in anticipation of my trip, I am overloading on hugs, and kisses, and snuggles, and giggles, and baby's breath for the next three weeks. I will be holding him, and whispering how much I love him, and singing to him, until he can't stand me.

The fact of the matter is I am absolutely dreading this trip.

I hate how I constantly feel torn between my baby, and my career. I hate that when my son is sick my first thought is "can I afford to use a sick day?" I hate that when I'm at work I'm thinking about Lukas, and when I'm at home I'm thinking about work. I hate feeling like I'm going to miss my son's milestones. I hate feeling like the backup parent. I hate being away for the majority of my sons waking hours. It's absolutely heart-wrenching.

...but if I'm honest with myself.. I love that I feel a sense of fulfillment, and pride in my work. I love the fact that I have balance in my life. I love that I can trust that my husband is more than capable of making good decisions in the rearing of our child. I love how I feel like super mom because I am doing it all every day. I love how excited Lukas is to see me when I get home.

It's a balancing act, and some days I just want to bawl in my coffee, but I get up and face the day because this is real life. This is my life. And some days it sucks, but most days it's pretty great. I want to dwell in the pretty great, so I'm going to be snuggling for three weeks

Ciao bellas!

Baby food diaries...

Lukas is 8 months old today...

I literally don't want to blink for fear I'll miss something.

He is crawling, pulling up on things, and is now going through separation anxiety.

Patrick and I tried to go on an all-too-rare date last night, and we got a call from my sister in law saying she's tried everything, and he won't calm down. After listening to Lukas scream over the phone Patrick was convinced it was time to go home.

He calmed down as soon as I picked him up... What a turkey.

...we ran out of baby food today, so off to the co-op we went.

I like to put lots of healthy fats in Lukas' foods. (Egg yolks, avocado, goat cheese, etc) It's so good for brain development.

Today we made roasted red peppers, with goat cheese.

Patrick said Lukas was eating better than he was. (Absolutely not true! Patrick is a regular Mario Batali)

This is a super simple recipe, and really yummy! I'm all about keeping foods simple.

To start, set your oven to broil. Coat the peppers lightly with olive oil. I used three medium sized peppers. Set them on a cookie sheet, and put them in the oven. There really isn't a set time for them to be in there. Watch them. The skin will get some black spots, and start bubbling. That's when I turned them. Let them bubble for a few more minutes, and then take them out of the oven.

From there you needed to have kept the plastic grocery bag your produce comes in. Put the peppers in the bag and tie it closed. The bag will start to inflate, and condensation will form. This helps release the skin which is what we want. Let the bag sit for 5-10 minutes.

Take the peppers out and start peeling the skin. If the skin doesn't come off fairly easily chances are you probably didn't roast them long enough, but that's okay- trial and error! You want to try and get as much of the skin off as you can because its tough for babies (and adults) to eat.

After skinning the peppers remove the seeds, and give them a rough chop. From there, mix in about two tablespoons of goat cheese. I used my hands to really incorporate the goat cheese in to the peppers... That and I like to use my hands when I cook. 

I put in a dash or two of sea salt. This is optional. I know some mommas don't like to put salt in their baby's food, and I agree with them to a point, but sea salt has some good minerals in it, and Lukas is much more apt to chow down when his food has a little seasoning to it. 

After that was all said and done I decided that the chunks were a little too big for Lukas so we gave it a few quick pulses with the baby bullet to get the chunks a little smaller. If your little one is not quite ready for the chunkier foods this still makes a great purée. 

Not only that, I'm thinking about using this over some pasta with some salmon, and mushrooms, and... My mouth is watering.

Lukas loved the peppers so much that he wanted to feed himself... Great success!

Happy cooking! (and eating!)

homie don't play that...

So my blog yesterday had several hits from Germany...

I can't say that I know anyone from Germany, so I think that's pretty sweet. Don't be shy Germans, drop me a line!

and send beer...

Today has been rough. I woke up this morning to a baby with a cough that sounded like a seal. This momma doesn't scare too easily when it comes to health. I usually take the laissez-faire approach choosing homeopathic remedies vs. rushing off to the doctor to over medicate, but when it comes to anything respiratory- homie don't play that. So Lukas' butt was in the doctor's office today.

Needless to say dinner tonight was quick, easy, and of course delicious.

Walnut crusted chicken with goat cheese and a raspberry sauce.

It is out of this world good, and great for crazy days like today because you can make a big batch of the raspberry sauce and freeze it, and take it out as needed- which is what we did.

Total prep and cook time tonight approx. 30 minutes.

You kind find a version of the recipe here. The original calls for hazelnut instead of walnuts, but pish posh- it's freakin' delish either way!

We did forget the goat cheese tonight, but it's been hectic today. Give me a break.

Since the little one's finally asleep I'm going to call it a night...

Happy trails, love bugs!