On blogging for me

Sometimes I like to blog. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes, I just really don't have anything good to write about, I'm sick or I'm in a bad mood. No one wants to read posts written during those moments. 

Really, there's not a lot of hobbies I stick with. We have a closet in the garage that Preston calls my Island of Misfit Hobbies. It's where I keep my tae kwon do gear, horse back riding pants and other miscellaneous items. It's kind of the same with my blog archives. We have the cooking blog phase, followed by the food allergy phase, the travel blog phase and what I expect will be the family blog phase soon to come.

And even in those moments when I think I never want to blog again, I'm still hesitant to click that delete button. I like having a journal. I like being able to update people about what's going on in my life and what's important to me, after all, blogs are selfish little things (I think I've said that before). Because the biggest thing going on my life, and Preston's, right now is that we're about to have a child, that's what will be on the blog. However, I also like to write about travel, and post links to my travel posts on travel forums, directing total strangers to my blog so they can get reference material for their upcoming travel adventures.

This is my current problem. I don't want to direct total strangers to my family pictures and exciting baby news. So I've separated the two topics by making a separate blog for traveling posts. It really takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I can write about anything! Well, I probably won't tell you when I'm sick or whatever, but you know what I mean.

If you want to follow the travel blog separately, here's the link to It's a Travel Blog.

 

Merry Christmas

20 weeks

Last day of work before the holiday! Keeping with tradition, I'm wearing workout clothes to work today. Why? Because there is only one other person in the building with me! But my workout clothes are all a "little tight" right now and when I stood up a second ago, my belly was sticking out under my shirt. It was Charlie, just saying hello, but I'm kinda glad that there was only one other witness. Did I tell you that the baby's name is Charlie? It is.

On another note, one of my pregnancy cravings is apples (along with spicy chicken sandwiches from Jack in the Box and Hersey's kisses). Every time I say, "I want an apple," Preston says, "Who are you calling an apple? I'm not an apple."

He's so clever.

Have a grand holiday!

Little Things

A few of the little things that keep our marriage interesting.

Husband's opinion on Sell By dates.

Pres has this obsession that if it is even one day past the sale by date on a package, then the the food inside said package has, overnight, become poisonous.  An example, from December fourth: Me, standing in front of the fridge, looking for something that could pass for breakfast. I say, "Oh, Pres. There's December second milk in here. We could have cereal." Pres stops what he's doing, stares at me, says, "It's fu@#ing December second milk. I'm not drinking it."

No amount of inspection or taste testing can change this.

My inability to operate the thermostat

There is hot and there is cold. In-between does not exist. I do not need a song to remember this (as seen on Modern Family) because it isn't real.

The Godzilla debate

Pres thinks the term Godzilla describes a type of monster and that these Godzillas are the monsters that appear in the movies. He therefore would use the following sentences: "Those two godzillas are fighting" and "There is a godzilla in that parking lot." I, however, believe that Godzilla is the name of a single monster that attacks cities and fights other monsters with different names. Neither of us have seen the movies, so we have no basis for our beliefs. However, the credible source Wikipedia is on my side.

(Note: spell check does not recognize Godzillas and tries to capitalize the word Godzilla, further proving that I am correct.)

Vegan Mac and Cheese... Again!

I've had these mixed food cravings/aversions lately. One second, I really want this creamy pasta from the local restaurant (Chicken Capone from Auntie Pasta's!) and the next, I'm disgusted by the creamy, cheesy sauce. So I did what any crazy pregnant lady would do... I made my favorite vegan mac and cheese last night. OF COURSE! It worked perfect because I got that creamy sauce without cheese or cream. Now if only I could eat the whole batch in one sitting without getting sick or gaining five pounds. And if only I could make this work as well for pizza.

DISCLAIMER!!! You might be thinking this right now: "Ew. It's vegan!" To most people, this probably doesn't taste like "real" mac and cheese. It definitely doesn't taste like Kraft. But it does taste good. ALSO - last night, for the first time, I used brown rice pasta instead of wheat or enriched pasta. It was just as good, in fact, I think it was better than whole wheat noodles. It can be hard to try foods like this if you don't have a specific reason, like eating a vegan diet or having food allergies, but sometimes, they are just as good as the "real" thing. I will admit, sometimes they are horrible, but not in this case!

Vegan Mac and Cheese

Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia Simpson (She has a blog too). I've made changes to the recipe to suit my tastes, but I think the original recipe is posted on her blog somewhere.

1 lb. Pasta 

2.5 to 3 cups water, depending on how long you cook the veggies

4 new potatoes, peeled

1 medium carrot, or 5 baby carrots, or 1/2 cup frozen sliced carrots

1 leek, or 1.5 cup chopped fresh or frozen leek 

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup cashews

1/3 cup macademia nuts

2 1/2 - 3 tbsp lemon juice (regular recipe calls for just 2 tbsp)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp cayanne pepper

1/2 tsp white pepper

Bread crumbs, panko

Chop potatoes, carrot and leek, add to pan with water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until tender (carrots can be cut with spatula). Meanwhile, cook noodles according to directions in seperate pot. Meanwhile, add to blender oil, nuts, garlic, lemon juice, pepper, cayanne, dry mustard. Blend until smooth (if your blender is not a super awesome high speed blender, the cookbook says to use 2/3 cup cashews and oimt the mac nuts). Add vegetables and cooking water to blender and blend until smooth. Add noodles and cheese sauce to baking dish, cover with breadcrumbs, bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until cheese is bubbly and absorbs into breadcrumbs.

Notes from my many attempts:

- this sauce may have killed my regular blender after the third time I made it, I had to buy a new super awesome one. So you have been warned.

- put leftovers in serving size dishes. If you leave in one big dish, sauce will go to the sides and the middle part of dish will be bland.

- cook noodles al dente before adding to dish

- DO NOT use sweet potatoes.  The original recipe calls for 2 regular potatoes, so that could be a substitute, but new potatoes have been in my best results.

- original recipe calls for only 2.5 cups water.  I use more because I cook the veggies for a long time, until I can cut the carrots with a spatula, so it loses more water.  You could try 2.5 cups for a thicker sauce maybe.

- to reheat in individual serving size containers, heat for 2.5 minutes, the sauce will be nice and gooey.

- I just found out that this mac and cheese is good for at least a week in the fridge!

Mustaches

I was looking through fabric swatches at Spoonflower for the baby room and got sidetracked by these mustache fabrics. I think they are hilarious.

That is all.