Making Muffins on a Busy Morning

Last night I got a craving for blueberry muffins. It was a bit too late to start a batch, and I wasn't hungry at all so I decided it could wait until morning. The normal recipe I use is actually pretty healthy, substituting flax seed meal for oil to give it a rich, nutty taste.

But last night as I flipped through the latest issue of Self magazine (which is getting increasingly irritating as I can't wear any of the clothes, do most of the workouts and certainly won't be going on any diets anytime soon), I came across a few recipes from Gwyneth Paltrow.

You know, the waif-like movie star who happened to do her own cooking show with some famous Spanish chef and now has a cookbook and looks like nothing over 150 calories ever passes between her lips?

Yeah, her.

There was a recipe for--wouldn't ya know it--blueberry muffins that she asked her mom to make all the time while she was pregnant. Not exactly as healthy as my recipe, but looked much more delectably tasty so I thought I'd give it a shot for the morning.

If you're like me, though, mornings are usually pretty rushed and I pat myself on the back if I can remember to eat a bowl of cereal while I'm putting my makeup on. But hot, fresh muffins with coffee just sounded so darn good for breakfast I came up with a plan.

Last night I measured all the dry ingredients into a bowl, gave it a few stirs and covered it with a towel. I got the muffin pan out, a Pyrex 2-cup measuring bowl and stuck a stick of butter in it.

The next morning as soon as I got up I started the oven preheating. I unwrapped and melted the butter, and let it cool a tad while I ran upstairs to get the frozen berries. By the time I finished making the coffee the oven was almost ready, so I added the milk to the butter, added the two eggs and whisked around a bit. Added that to the dry ingredients already out, folded in the berries and poured in the ready muffin tins.

By the time I showered and dried my hair I had hot, homemade muffins that were just screaming EAT ME like the cakes in Alice in Wonderland. So I did. And they are very, very good.

Prep time at night? Probably 3 minutes. Total prep time in the morning? Maybe 5 minutes. Eating those steaming lovelies with fresh coffee? Priceless.

Give her recipe a shot...its pretty lip smackin' good!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk (I used reduced fat and it was still rich)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 tsp sugar, divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk butter, eggs and milk in a bowl. Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups; sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp sugar. Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.

THE SKINNY

232 calories per muffin, 10 g fat (6 g saturated), 33 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein

Bento Baby Girl Quilt!

I have to say I loove this quilt.  The back is so soft and cuddle and the front is so fun and funky.

The pattern is called "bento," and its the first time I've tried it out.  I think I'm a fan!

Its posted on the Etsy store, if you're interested!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71984152/bento-baby-girl-quilt

Living in Limbo

At the moment, Matt and I are waiting to hear if he's got a second interview at a store that's, quite literally, on the other side of the country.

The shortest driving distance is 2,850 miles, and if he gets it we'll probably be there by the first week in May.

We're really excited for this prospect as wherever we move will most likely be much more affordable on one salary, and if this doesn't pan out there's a few more opportunities that may open up for us to move before the baby is born in late July.

While this is great news long-term for us, in the short term it makes things a bit difficult to plan for.

I can't buy my plane ticket to California for my baby shower yet, because I'm not sure where I'll be coming from.

Do we spend $130 to renew our WA tabs, or wait a couple of weeks (while they're still not expired) and see if we need to be getting new state licence plates?

Our pantry/closet REALLY needs to be reorganized...but do I want to spend a few hours doing that if I'm just going to be packing it in boxes next weekend?

I want to make more soup, but should we spring for the Costco-sized portion of chicken stock that's a lot cheaper or do I pay more for each carton so we don't end up with 6 unused cartons?

As I'm looking at the immediate future I know I'll need to do a lot more meal planning, making my own household cleaners, and smart shopping to stretch our dollars. We know we can do it, since we've managed to kick our debt and build up about 3 months of emergency savings in a year and a half (and aren't we glad now!), but all of those frugal choices tend to be made with the long term in mind.

Meanwhile, if we do have to move it will be a very quick turnaround...not giving this pregnant full-time worker much time to plan, prepare, pack or clean.

Here's what we're trying to do in the short term, as we wait in this odd-limbo-time.

I'm trying to use up what's in the freezer and the pantry. Tonight we're probably going to go vegetarian and have Potatoes Romanoff that were made and frozen a couple weeks ago, with some sauteed asparagus and mushrooms before they go bad. Tomorrow I'm eyeing the half bag of navy beans and some frozen greens from last summer's CSA box for some sort of "anything soup." Not having been the biggest fan of chicken the first half of my pregnancy, I think its time stir-frys make a re-entrance as they're an easy way to throw together veggies, a protein and a carb in a short amount of time.

And Matt recently requested, yes, requested red beans, cornbread and fried okra for dinner. Not only is this something I was raised on and is definitely part of my comfort food list (I may be a California girl but my Mama's from Texas and raised us right on white gravy and chicken fried steak), but this is a pretty cheap meal to make from scratch. We may have to be making a weekly comeback of this meal as I have oodles of cornmeal, pinto beans are cheap and you can always find frozen okra. Plus its just darn good...oh man, now I want that for dinner.

The past two weekends I've made it a point to do a little bit beyond my regular house cleaning. Scuffs on the baseboards got wiped off, drains got cleaned out, the oven got a good scrubbing.  My thought is if I don't clean it now, I'll have to clean it later anyways. So, if we end up in a different state a month from now, I'm just saving myself future hassle of more cleaning.

We go through paper towels pretty slowly, and are nearing the end of our Costco-sized pack that we've had for almost a year. I'm trying to really stretch those last couple of rolls to avoid the high prices that single rolls in grocery stores cost. We have a cubby of rags and a bucket where wet/dirty ones go and it fills up fast every week...I can't imagine how many paper towels that would normally be!

Those are a few of the ways we're trying to not spend too much money while we wait in limbo. I'm sure there'll be a deluge of take-out pizzas and Torero's enchiladas if we do find we're moving and I'm coming home from work to pack until I go to sleep, but for now I'm trying to make do with what we have.

Any other tips you have for Living in Limbo?

Birthing Class and 24 Weeks Along

After searching through not-too-many-options for birthing classes that were either more natural-birth focused or during the time slots we could make it, I signed Matt and I up for The Birth Zone classes led by Liz Chalmers.

Oh yeah, before I dive into that, here's what the Tater Tot's looking like at 24 weeks:

So the class.

Seeing as we're sort of in this transitory-limbo-state-of-living (more on that later), and we don't know exactly where I'll be popping this baby out (not as in hospital or birth center, as in which state), I wanted to take classes early to be prepared for wherever we end up in July.

Matt was all for it, rearranged his schedule on Wednesday nights for a month and a half and went with a willing attitude, but I don't think he quite understood the point of 6 weeks of 2 1/2 hour classes. Thankfully he was fully supportive even while chugging caffeine en route to the class to try to wake up, so really, what else could I ask for?

We walked into the guest house, slipped off our shoes and found our seats amid 5 or 6 other couples in a comfortable living room. I won't lie, I was checking out the other mom-to-be's bellies and trying to guess how far along they all were. 

The instructor, Liz, is a very personable, charismatic woman who clearly has a passion for what she does. Having given birth to two of her kids in a hospital, one in a birthing center and one at home, she has a very well-rounded perspective it seems. 

When everyone arrived Liz gave an introduction, then  we set out introducing ourselves and giving ourselves a descriptive adjective to go along with our name to help Liz remember. Seeing as there aren't too many K adjectives and in the past few weeks my sense of depth perception has become increasingly off, we're now Klutzy Kait and Mountain Matt.

I was surprised to find how varied the bellies on the various mamas were. One women, who I was certain was due a month before me, was due a week after. When I got home I Googled pictures of women at week 24 of pregnancy and there was definitely the whole gamut of belly sizes!

It looks like its going to be a great class, and I think Matt now understands how helpful the class is going to be, as well as having heard some positive perspectives for giving birth in a birth center as opposed to a hospital. And we found out Matt's insurance does cover birth centers, which is great news! 

That's all the news I've got for you today. I'm sure there's more, but I can't seem to remember anything else so oh well!  Hope you're having a great weekend!

First Etsy Listing!

I just posted my first listing on Etsy ever! 

Yay!

I was originally making this as a gender neutral quilt but when it was all said and done, it looks like a boy quilt.

To see the listing on etsy, you can go here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71021486/baby-boy-jungle-quilt

What Must Eve Have Thought?

First off, let's leave out the whole part about how she got pregnant in the first place. I'm sure there was more humor than anything else...

Second, what must she have thought when her belly expanded and she was throwing up every time she smelled a grapefruit and was making Adam hunt for a wild goat because she just HAD TO HAVE roast goat that night? Did she think she was losing it when she couldn't remember which wine skins were old and which were new?

I'm sure she saw the actual progression of getting pregnant, a belly growing, and birth just in the animals that surrounded her. But that horse can't explain how bad its back hurt or that the flatulence was nearly unbearable or how uncomfortable it was to sleep.

She had no one to give her "when I was pregnant" stories or suggest ginger to help with nausea.

Did Adam give her foot rubs? I sure hope so...

And how did they cut the umbilical cord? Isn't that thing pretty fibrous?

So many questions run through my mind of what it must have been like for her with each new phase of pregnancy. 

Did she worry about stretch marks or did she have no self-image issues at all since she had no one to compare herself to?

Just some random thoughts going through my head as we pass into week 23 and Matt and I can watch little girl moving and kicking around inside my belly.

And lastly, did she find relief from back pain in a tree like this?

The Babymoon and The Gender Is...

Gee golly winkins, has it really been three weeks since I posted?

Why don't people say that any more? Its so much nicer and funnier than some modern alternatives.

So The Babymoon.

A wonderful week on Maui, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is expecting! No, it may not be the most financially sound choice, but if you can manage it, its a great way to connect, refresh, and get ready for what's coming ahead.

In Maui we did just want I wanted to (and Matt too, of course). We snorkeled. We lay in the sun. We watched the humpback whales breaching.We walked around in the sun. We ate and ate. We watched more whales. Then we snorkeled some more. Then we ate some more. Then we got gelato.

It was heaven.

And I miss having the ocean as my hair stylist.

Here's a visual recap of our time there. We actually didn't take too many pictures the first couple days because...honestly I think we were too blissfully happy just being there to think about a camera!

Our first night in Ka'anapali

While whale watching, a mom and calf surprised us by surfacing about 50 feet from the boat!

Dad was around too...though he took a dive

My handsome hubby

We got to watch a pod breaching 5 or 6 times and I actually managed to snap the camera in time!

mmm mmm yes please.

We did about half the Road to Hana and walked around a nature trail

At the Maui Ocean Center...I just love whales 

It was fun seeing the names and info of fish we had seen while snorkeling...or maybe we're just nerds...

At 20 weeks...

Snorkeling at Ahihi Kinau Natural Reserve

We finally saw a sea turtle! I just love them!

One of two pics of us together on the trip, lol

A few days after we got home, Matt and I headed to the ultrasound lab to find out the gender. Seeing as Matt, his dad, my grandma and I have all dreamed that it was a boy, you can imagine our surprise when it was a
GIRL!!!

Yup, we are having a baby girl and are starting to shift our minds from football and mud to...well let's face it our daughter will probably like football and mud as well as princess stories.

Here's our Little One at 20 weeks

The new 3D is really great to see! It looked like she was waving at us! She was so squirmy it took a lot longer than usual for the nurse to get all the measurements she needed...I think she's going to be an active one!

That pretty much catches us up to date.

Oh, and here's a belly update as of Week 22:

I finally had to break down and buy maternity pants. Bye bye skinny jeans...