Bye Bye July!

Wow, maybe it’s just me but it appears that summer is flying by… I imagine I will probably say the same thing about August because I already know we have a good amount of great stuff happening 😊 (My baby brother is getting married! My cousin is coming to visit us. We are going for a family cabin trip and a couple of other fun things.)  As we say sayonara to July let’s check out some favs for the week… 

1. Thank you Chrissy Teigen for helping me get two nights of cooking accomplished this week.  

Her Roasted Cauliflower, Feta, and Orzo salad (picture above) which is shared on ABC’s website. AMAZING.. The only change I made was to use dried cranberries instead of cherries… Justin went back for seconds and brought the leftovers for lunch the next day. 

Her Dutch Baby recipe is fantastic too which we had for dinner on Thursday night. I’m really enjoying her cookbook and I can’t wait to try some of her recipes. 

2.  It’s kind of old news but for some reason I keep forgetting  to share… My best pal, Alli  and I are going to see my favorite Food Network star… As the picture above shows… I might have all of Ina Garten’s cookbooks. It might not be till November but I am sooooo excited… I just may start a countdown soon 😉 

3. I’m not sure who is enjoying the discovery bins I am creating more Little guy or me… I love watching to see how he explores each bin and what items he finds the most interesting. 

Another thing I love capturing is moments like this one below. 

And one more because…I’m a really proud mama that he is starting to feed himself more.

Also this high chair mat we are all loving because little guy is having way too much fun flinging food lately.  Thank goodness for Leo, our little vacuum. 😊

Hope your weekend is full of fun! ( I’m looking forward to some fun with friends and manicures/pedicures with my mom 🙂)  

Erica

Friday Favs- staying cool

It’s hot in Minnesota… Like really hot… Like omg it’s southern hot… Humid… Sticky… Sweaty… All I want to do is be in a pool or hiding indoors watching tons of episodes of the OC on Hulu 😊… Anyways…. This week was one of those weeks where I felt like we were all over the place and when I finally took time to catch my breath I was shocked that it was the weekend and time to blog… (One day I will get my act together and blog more than once a week… Maybe when the little guy starts school this fall.)  Let’s go on with our favs this week. 

1. Little guy went to his first splash pad this past weekend and omg… He loved it. 💚💚💚 I have started calling him my water baby/ fish. He is walking with assistance and not crawling so it was a bit of work to hold him or to convince him to sit on the ground but he had a great time. 

2. I have no cooking pictures or recipes to give you because we cooked a whopping 2 meals this week.  One dinner was hot dogs and a stewed bean recipe which I will try and blog soon. Our other meal was the tequila lime chicken with rice and black beans that we made last week and I wanted to remake this week. I loved that dinner and so did the guys so it wasn’t hard convincing Justin to have it again this week. 

3. This week with the heat wave we have spent a good amount of time indoors.. No stroller walks 🙁 but on the plus side little guy is starting to play more with Leo. He has started throwing Leo’s toys to him and it’s too cute. 

4. Also this ball pit we got him for his birthday he is starting to enjoy more… This week he has decided though it is fun to throw the balls at mom instead of keeping them in the ball pit… Ah work in progress 😄

Happy Weekend! 

Erica 

Friday Favs- success

This week we “cooked” and I put it in quotes because it’s not near what my cooking used to be but its way better than take out. Also we moved more this week. Those were my two goals and I am so proud of our little family for accomplishing both. Here’s our favs for the week. 

1. Dinner was made 4 nights this week! I’m not shocked at all  because we called in help. 

Sunday’s dinner could not have been easier thanks to the rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It’s not a pretty picture but it’s quite tasty. I like adding roasted chopped pecans, grapes, dill, garlic powder, and celery seed to my chicken salad. Also I use my food processor for some help. 

We invited my mom over for dinner Monday and had her basically make the hamburgers that Justin then grilled with her assistance. We served it with roasted cauliflower and chickpeas from It’s All Good . I promise mom next time we have you over we won’t make you cook. 😉

Tuesday’s dinner was made in less than thirty minutes. Justin and I are both loving  the chicken sausages that we grabbed from Costco. We keep them in the freezer and pull them out the night before we are going to eat them to thaw in the fridge. We served them with slaw. Easy peasy 

Wednesday’s dinner we prepped on Tuesday which made it an easy meal to get on the table. We made Barefoot Contessa’s Tequila Lime Chicken. We bought bone in chicken breasts and marinated them the day before and Justin grilled them Wednesdsy night. We served them with Kats Cilantro Lime Rice  and her blackbeans. Yum! This was my favorite meal of the week.  Already we have decided to make this meal in the form of rice bowls next week. 💚💚💚

2. I’m not sure if I would call the next thing a fav for little guy but the outing with our good friends, Nadia and Ava was really fun. We went to the Crayola Experience at Mall of America. Kids that are under three are free. We had a coupon so it ended up costing each parent $15.00.  We went right when they open at 10 AM which was smart because it just gets more packed as the day goes on. The toddler area is pretty small. The little guy did enjoy the lite brite wall. He spent the rest of the time being pushed in the stroller. They have lots of interactive play areas and places designed for kids to color pictures with crayons or paint with watercolors. Nadia and I really enjoyed the area where you get to melt crayons and mold them into shapes like rings, race cars, and animals which you get to take home with you (no additional cost, it’s included with your admission). My opinion is that I will not be bringing Ross back until he is in the 3-4 age range. It’s a great place for older kiddos. 

Hope your weekend is full of smiles and sunshine. 

(I think we are getting a lot of rain ☔️) 

Erica 

Friday Friday Friday!

 I really enjoyed  4th of July falling  on  Monday. It felt like a staycation having Justin home Saturday through Tuesday. Our favs this week are a mix for everyone (even our favorite four legged pal, Leo) 

1.  We are really enjoying walking around the neighborhood after Justin gets home from work. My mom got our little guy this awesome stroller/tricycle for his birthday. It changes as he grows bigger and he loves riding in it. 

2.   Little guy had his 1st S’more on Sunday at the farmers market. All 3 of us really loved these marshmallows from North Mallow and Co. Also how cute is the make your own s’more set up. 

3. I’m so glad the meal I had planned for Tuesday night was super simple. When we started prepping our dinner this crazy storm was happening and our lights were flickering… I was freaking out because I did not want to lose power. We ended up not losing power and enjoying an easy yummy meal. I roasted some beets in the oven, sliced up a grocery rotisserie chicken, and made some garlicky dill potatoes.  (My photography skills are not superb but trust me it was quite good.) 

4. Leo (the pup) is all about his toys. I found a new rubber toy for him (this brand also makes some of his other favs (Harriet, some of you know 😉) I am thinking this one could really hold up which would be great. 

5.  Little guy is not in school yet and the teacher bug in me has been itching lately. I have found some great ideas on instagram. My favorite thing to make him are discovery bins. I walk around the house and just plop a bunch of random stuff in a small plastic bin and then I let the little guy look through it and explore. One of my favorites from this week was a rainbow bin. 

Hope your weekend is full of farmers markets and friends! Our goal is to go to 2 farmers markets this weekend. 
Erica

5 Friday Favs

I’m trapped in the car and parked in the driveway  right now as little guy snores soundly. He has decided his afternoon nap needed to happen on our way home from lunch. My favs this week are a bit of a jumble… I was looking through my album on my phone and realized I had neglected to share some stuff from previous weeks. Bring on the mish mosh: 

1. My new favorite salad is the Mediterranean salad at Potbelly with hummus instead of dressing… sooo good and I don’t even miss the bread 🙂

2. We went strawberry picking on Tuesday and had a blast. It was Justin and my 2nd time at Berry Hill Farm and Ross’s 1st. I wish I could tell you I had big plans with all the berries but we ended up just eating them as is. 

3. Justin and I went for a much needed date night on Sunday night to Mucci’s in St Paul. It opened earlier this year and it has been on my list. The star of the show was definitely the garlic montananara… It’s like a revved up garlic bread. The pizza is also made from that same dough and omg I ❤️ it! Justin raved about the lasagna and I was quite impressed with the gnocchi appetizer. Also if you know me really well then you know my ❤️ for tiramisu… I said goodbye to it for 9 months while pregnant and it seems like ever since then when I see it I have to have it… This tiramisu should not be passed up because even Justin couldn’t stop eating it and he kept saying but I don’t even like Tiramisu! 

4. Yes, this is little guy’s changing table and you are probably wondering why this is in the favs well… Look at the map above it… Ever since Justin and I started dating I was keenly aware of his obsession with maps… The way I decorate with fun finds from art fairs is the way he did with maps… When we got married I got rid of the maps all over the walls and I knew Justin missed them… So… Compromise! for Father’s Day we got him this USA map and told him he could hang it anywhere in the playroom or if he wanted he could put it in Ross’s room… Well this is where he picked and its staying… 🙂 I love how sometimes I hear conversations between the two of them during diaper changes such as this is where your mom is from and this is where your great grandma lives 💚💚💚

5. One is fun but omg it’s also really busy.  Even though he’s not walking or crawling on his own we have to watch him like a hawk… Exhibit A (above picture) he gets into things that I don’t expect. I have been doing tons of discovery bins by color and plan on moving on to textures and etc… 

What’s your favs this Friday? 

Hope your weekend is full of popsicles and fireworks! (I’m probably going to miss the fireworks but maybe next year.) Happy 4th of July! 

Erica