Pregnancy Week 26

I’ve felt fantastic this week with energy enough to start cooking again, and even trying to bake a little with Lily! I think it was that boost from going to the U-Pick farm and celebrating my birthday. All the positive feedback from my family on my cooking has been really encouraging. I even made a Sunday Roast Chicken dinner that the whole family felt was special.

I do feel that life is picking up the pace and I’m trying to catch up, what with school starting back up and soccer underway. Even if I plan for nothing except to rest, I learn the day before that there’s 5 things all of a sudden happening on my “Nothing Day” and have to adjust. We did have some quiet peaceful moments, though, like when Jer took me out on a date to Main Street. The breeze was so nice and we just enjoyed strolling hand in hand checking out Italian gelato dipped in apricot balsamic vinegar as they allegedly do in Italy. We brought home some pan dulces from the downtown Main Street bakery to share with the kids. It was a nice evening, so we invited the whole family to the front lawn for a sunset picnic with our treats and mugs of milk. That whole night felt memorable to me.

Summer Meals with Garden Produce

Someday I’d love to have a garden with herbs and veggies that we cook with, some of our favorite fruits like berries and peaches, and beautiful flowers to brighten our day and attract all the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to our yard. Using fresh summer produce helps me keep to a meal plan and waste less food while making healthy meals.

With all the zucchini from our latest visit to Riley’s farm, we’ve been trying out a lot of new recipes! Clockwise from top left:

• Garden Zucchini Cheddar Quick Bread
• Simple Roasted chicken (stuffed with lemon and fresh thyme) plus fresh corn, and sautéed zucchini with spinach
• Zucchini Bread (made it using half the recipe’s sugar, and upped the protein by substituting Greek yogurt for the sour cream) with added fresh blueberries and pecans
• Pan-Seared Zucchini rounds (in a cast iron pan), with pasta noodles and olive oil and Parmesan cheese
• Spam and Zucchini served over rice – classic easy soccer night dinner
• Beef and squash skillet over rice (Not Pictured) – using zucchini and yellow squash for one of our go-to easy weeknight dinners in soccer season

I made pesto with our basil, and borrowed a spiralizer from a neighbor so I will also try some zoodles with pesto!

We had some fresh picked green beans that I really wanted to cook, so I searched on YouTube for a recipe that had ground beef, green beans, and potatoes, and stumbled on this gem!! The potatoes, tomatoes, jalapeños, onion, garlic, ground beef, and leftover chicken broth all happened to be needing to be used up, too.

I usually make a Filipino version of this using fish sauce and other veggies, but this was my first time making a Mexican Picadillo. Of course Jer and the kids loved it with the jalapeño flavor throughout. He’s requested that we have this weekly- which is no small feat as he doesn’t usually prefer my cooking over his own!

Love, Kat