Share Meal Ideas

I am late in writing this considering our last produce share is gone and we are picking up again this Friday. But we tried some new meals this go round- one of the best things about the share it makes me think outside the box and come up with new meals to incorporate the produce. This was our last share:

Apples: It is hard to tell from the picture but we got a bad of the smallest apples EVER. I am talking 3 bites and its gone small. While I had no idea how we were going to use these, Charlotte has been loving them. I washed them all and put them in the fruit bin in the fridge and she helps herself. They are perfect for a toddler!

Cauliflower: We used it to make Cauliflower rice fish taco bowls. This is a meal we have had before but it has been SO long that I had forgotten about it. Our cauliflower made quite a bit of rice so we actually had enough to make beans and "rice" for lunch the next day.

Broccoli: Although not healthy AT ALL we added broccoli to this recipe for Crockpot Pierogi casserole. I knew I was going to have a late night at work and needed something that would be ready when I walked in.

Kale, tomatoes and mushrooms- I had a butternut squash at home that needed to be used which I roasted. I also had some cooked sausage crumbles leftover. I sautéed the kale, mushrooms and tomatoes with onions and garlic. Scooped out and mixed in the cooked squash and sausage crumbles. Loaded everything back into the squash, topped with cheese and broiled for a few minutes. Tim and I both loved this meal. Its weird that often the most "thrown together" meals turn out the best. I will definitely be making this again!

Pears and grapefruit: Breakfast staples for me. I have been obsessed with pear and brie quesadillas. I use whole wheat tortillas, a pear, some brie and a dash of cinnamon. I press it together and eat it with one of the grapefruits from the share for an easy breakfast.

Red Peppers: One of my "easy" go meals is chicken fajita bake. I don't follow the spices exactly as listed here ( we like more kick) but here is a general idea. The nice things it is we typically both get dinner and a lunch for the next day out of this meal. Lunch is usually served over a salad versus on a tortilla.

The persimmons STILL are not ripe! I have been reading up on them and they are supposed to be delicious but the key is to wait till they are ripe. I have them stored properly and am waiting for them to soften!

Looking forward to a new week of ideas to plan out!

Brayden: Month 3

+ I seriously CANNOT believe my baby boy is 3m old already.

+ He is quite the happy guy: smiles and laughs.

+ He loves sitting up: propped up, in the bumbo, on our lap.

+ Needs to be moving.. He is not happy unless the car seat or stroller is in motion.

+ We don't have a doctor's appointment until next month but we think he is over 15lbs.

+ Charlotte has taken to calling him " Mr. B" or " Little guy" which I think is hilarious.

+ Is a total mama's boy!

Let's talk produce...

Let me start by saying, I think we eat pretty healthy. However, I also always think there is room for improvement. That being said, organic produce and meats are expensive! I have been purchasing organic chicken and grass fed beef at Costco since they regularly carry those for reasonable prices. While Costco does often offer organic produce, it is very inconsistent and the assortment is not that great.

A member of one of my "mom groups" started up a new local pickup site with Annie's Organic Buying Club. Tim and I wanted a way to incorporate more organic produce both into our diets and our budget.  I did a little research and decided we would give it a go  They offer lots of different size options and add on items. I like that you can order weekly or biweekly and there is no "contract". One of the things I like about it that it forces me to meal plan around what the share offers that week.

So far, we have been getting the 3/4share. Right now, I am signed up for weekly however, if there aren't enough people in your area for that week, you may get moved to biweekly which so far is the only con to me.  Anyway, this was our latest share.

So, how did we use our share this week? Here is a breakdown of my meal planning.

Pears- used them to make Pear and Almond Steel Cut Oats. This was my first time making this and everyone ( including the Toddler was a fan). The nice thing about baked oatmeal is you can make it ahead of time and eat it throughout the week.

Eggplant- I LOVE eggplant parm but don't like that it is fried. I adapted this recipe a bit and made a Baked Eggplant and Chicken Parmesan Casserole served with a side salad. We got dinner and lunch out of this meal.

Sweet Potatoes- Tim doesn't really "like" potatoes. He will tolerate them but I have been able to get him to eat sweet potatoes by making BBQ Chicken Sweet Potatoes. I also add caramelized onions and garlic on top. YUM! We also had enough for dinner and lunch for 2!

Zucchini- We have a Veggeti and often use it to make zucchini noodles. This week we mixed some shrimp into the mix!

Sweet Peppers- Used to make sweet pepper nachos. This was my first time trying this and they turned out AWESOME! We had this as our main dish with a few adaptations... we skipped the olives and I mixed the chicken with spicy Latin beans.

Cauliflower- I decided to FINALLY try a cauliflower crust pizza  after seeing it all over Pinterest. I will say that it was very tasty but the consistency was a bit off. I will try it again though. We served this with a side salad.

Apples, Bananas, Kale - lunches, snacks and smoothies. If the bananas start turning, we chop them up and put them in sandwich bags and throw them in the freezer.

Avocado and tomatoes- Salads, thrown in eggs. Charlotte LOVES avocado slices with her dinner. Tim doesn't like the consistency of Avocado but I can usually sneak some in the BBQ chicken sweet potato mentioned above. Sometimes he will even put some in a smoothie.

We pick up our next share on Friday and I haven't meal planned it yet. We also got a fruit add on this week which has persimmon which I have never had before but I am excited to try. So far, I am loving the share and trying to incorporate more veggies in our diets :)

Brayden: Month 2

+ Usually wakes up once a night but has given us a few glorious nights with NO wakeups!
+ Is a mama's boy... only mama will do, especially between 6:30-8:30pm.
+Weighs 14lbs, 4oz. He is 25 inches long and in the 98th percentile!
+Gives us lots of smiles.
+ Is too long for 3m jammies already.
+Got his two month shots and handled them wonderfully... no fever!
+ Charlotte is full of snuggles for her baby brother.
+ While I still think he looks a lot like Charlotte, there are times when I think he looks like my dad and other times when he is ALL Tim.

Brayden: Month 1

+My *little* man weighs in at a whopping 11lbs, 9oz. He is 23.25 inches long and in the 97th percentile!

+ Good sleeper. Usually waking up once a night.

+  Took his first swim in the pool.

+ Looks SO much like Charlotte as a baby.

+ Big sister is warming up to him more and more.

Harrigan Party of FOUR

It has been a really long time since I updated. Between the addition on the house and the new baby, life has been busy. Hoping to get caught up some posts in the near future!

We welcomed our baby boy, Brayden Tate, on August 10th.  He was born weighing in at 9lbs and 3oz, quite the contrast from my little Charlotte! This pregnancy and birth ended up being a completely different experience for me. Much like how I shared Charlotte's birth story, I wanted to share Brayden's. Even if I am the only one who reads it!

At 28 weeks, I mentioned to my doctor I felt very large in comparison to my previous pregnancy. She measured my stomach and sent me for an ultrasound that day. Baby was already over 3 pounds and measuring ahead. Then  I failed my 1 hr glucose test by just a few points. As is common practice, I was sent for the 3 hour glucose test at the lab. Going to the lab to have blood drawn is a big deal for me. I have very thin, rolling veins. This typically leads to multiple attempts to draw blood from various parts of my body and is (often) accompanied by me fainting. The three hour glucose test meant 4 fasting blood draws!  My doctor told me to schedule an appointment at the lab ASAP for the test. I could not get an appointment at the lab for more than 3 weeks out. So I took my chances and showed up when the lab opened. I was 7th in line. Due to computer issues, I waited almost 2 hours before being called back. They got my veins on the first try and I was able to get the glucose drink down. This time they made me drink the entire 100g bottle. 13 minutes in, I thew up the entire drink and was sent home. I am not sure if it was because, at that point, I had gone SO long with no food and my empty stomach just could not handle THAT much sugar? In the meantime, I started testing my blood sugars 1 hour after meals with an extra glucometer I got from my mom. All of my levels were within the normal range.

At my next doctor appointment I told her what happened. She was adamant about me taking the test again despite showing her evidence of good numbers and pleading my case that even if I tested positive, it wouldn't change anything with my diet. Yet again, there were no appointments at the lab. Ultimately, she gave me the option of skipping the test but proceeding with Diabetes Education classes and continued monitoring OR attempting the test again with Zofran. She called me in a script for 1 pill and gave me s referral for Diabetes Education classes and left it up to me to decide before my next appointment. I was really unsure about what I wanted to do. I scheduled the Diabetes class but ultimately ended up going in for the 3-hour test again. I was able to keep the liquid down and tested my own sugars after each draw. I knew I had failed before I left.

Since I had already been testing, I was able to bring that information with me when I went to meet with the Diabetes Educators. They made a few changes to my diet, gave me a glucometer and set me up to come back in a week. I followed their diet for a few days and noticed my sugars were increasing. My insurance company was GREAT. They have a Diabetes Care program and covered all my supplies at 100% and assigned me a nurse who checked in with my once per week. She called me that first week and I was able to talk to her about what was going on. We made a couple of changes to my nighttime snack to help with my fasting numbers. I also started walking 1-mile each night. This was the ticket for me... my numbers were perfect!  I feel SO thankful that I was able to manage without medication!

Overall, I gained 30lbs this pregnancy. I really didn't think I would make it to my scheduled C-section. Despite my controlled glucose levels, I knew baby was measuring big so it was almost a blessing to have a repeat C-section this time around. We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 6am on 8/10/15. It was VERY weird knowing we were checking in to have a baby. They immediately took me back to start my IV, take my blood and monitor the baby. I did not have a spinal with Charlotte since I labored before having an emergency C-section so I was a bit anxious about that. I also really nervous that they would want to put the catheter in BEFORE the spinal but they assured me they would not do that to me!

I had an awesome team of doctors. Not only did I get my two favorite doctors from my OB practice, but the anesthesia team was amazing. Since Tim was not allowed in the room when they gave the spinal, they stayed with me the entire time, walked me through everything I would feel, and held my hand when I panicked. I felt pressure when they were trying to get Brayden out as he was stuck under my ribs. When they pulled him out they called him a linebacker and had us guess the weight... I was shocked to hear 9lbs! Since the primary doctor also delivered Charlotte, she even joked about getting a 9lb baby out of 6lb incision  :) He was born at 8:07am.

I was taken to recovery and gained feeling back in my legs within 2-hours. My recovery this time was SO much better. I had very little pain and swelling compared to my first C-section. I was up and walking the halls that evening. One of the things they worry about with Gestational Diabetes is the baby's glucose levels which they monitor for the first 24-hours. Brayden's were completely normal and he took to nursing right away. My glucose levels also returned to normal as well.

Charlotte got to meet Brayden the next day. Initially, she was not very interested. When she left we asked her to kiss her brother and she said no. Then she cried all the way home because she didn't get to kiss her brother...toddlers! :)  We got discharged a day early and have been loving being a family of FOUR! There are definitely days were things have been a challenge but my heart is so full with love for these two kiddos!

Harrigan Update

Obviously, I have been updating a lot about the progress on our house. I have kind of brushed over some of the other exciting things that have been going on around here lately.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we are expecting baby #2. Before Charlotte was born, Tim and I honestly weren't sure if we wanted more than one kid. Pretty much as soon as we got home from the hospital with Charlotte, we knew we wanted a second baby. I am an only child and Tim and his brother are quite a few years apart. We thought 2 years apart sounded perfect for our family. Shortly after Charlotte's first birthday, we decided to try for a second. We found out the first week of December that I was pregnant!

The first 10 weeks or so were rough. I wasn't "sick" but very queasy and very tired. Dealing with that, work and chasing a toddler during the holidays was difficult and I was so thankful to get some relief. We held off on telling our parent's until after my first OB appointment. It was SO hard to keep it a secret over Christmas!

I definitely started showing MUCH earlier this time around. I took out the maternity clothes at 14 weeks and have been enjoying my maternity pants ever since. We were really on the fence about if we wanted to have an elective gender ultrasound this time around. Mainly, the cost of doing so. Ultimately, curiosity got the best of us and we scheduled an appointment without telling anyone art 16 weeks, 5 days. I thought we were having another little girl and had a name all picked out. Tim and my mom also thought it was going to be another girl. My pregnancies were pretty similar at that point and I kept having dreams about two little girls. When we went in for our ultrasound, the tech said "first impression is it is a girl"... a few minutes in he said " I am going to change my mind on that, you are definitely having a boy"! Tim was ecstatic, I was going to happy regardless!

We went that evening and bought some "It's a boy" balloons and told our parents who are SO excited we will have one of each. This is the picture we posted on facebook.

I had an anatomy scan at 20 weeks to confirm gender ( along with other important developmental milestones). I was SO nervous. The first thing the tech says... "so you are having another girl" immediately followed by " Oh wait, its a BOY".  Apparently, our little guy is just a little shy at first :)

We have decided to name him Brayden and have started working on his nursery. We are both excited and nervous. I think the nervous part is more about how Charlotte will react and how that period of transition will go. I know its normal to feel that way so I try not to let the anxiety get to me too much!

I have been feeling great and am just hoping that will last through the summer! I am now 26 week a long and will likely be a repeat C-section at 39-weeks. I feel a bit guilty about not doing weekly posts with this pregnancy like I did for Charlotte. I am taking weekly belly pictures and posting on Instagram. It is SO much harder to be consistent with things when you already have a toddler running around. I am going to post about Brayden's nursery in the upcoming weeks because it is starting to look AMAZING :)