31 Meals

Hey everyone! I haven't written in a while, I know, but I have been getting a lot of questions about the new meal plan I have started. 
When we started adopting the concept of baby led weaning with Beckett, I knew Mitchell and I's eating habits had to change. I've always just eaten whatever I have felt like eating and would eat until either my meal was gone and there was none left on the stove, or until it was uncomfortable to put one more forkful into my mouth. Since I do a majority of the grocery shopping and cooking for our family, I knew if anything was going to change, it had to start with me. 
I have a weird obsession with cooking blogs and when I find one I absolutely love, I feel like I have reunited with an old friend. For me to absolutely fall head over heels for a blog, it has to meet my 3 requirements:
Have a good variety of recipes that taste awesome
Be Casual ( I really dislike having to buy unusual ingredients for some uppity concoction)
and almost most importantly,
Look Pretty.
If a blog fits my style and visually appeals to me I am more likely to frequent it and make more of its recipes.
Enter Minimalist Baker.
I was browsing one day, trying to find an easy cinnamon roll recipe that I could just whip up. I came across hers and they were very good. My favorite thing about her recipe though, was there were less than 10 ingredients. AND they were vegan. Now I'm not vegan but I'm always up for trying new things and I felt pretty awesome that I just made quick, cinnamon rolls that were YUMMY and vegan. ( She also has notes at the end of every recipe of how to turn it vegan if it isn't already and how to make it gluten free) 
Every one of their recipes 

"require just 10 ingredients or less (sometimes 7), one bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare." 

I liked that. 
Upon checking out their blog more extensively, I found she put together an e-book of full of 31 dinner recipes (and 5 desserts) and it included a meal plan plus a grocery list! I think this is awesome because she tells you the entire week's worth of ingredients and nothing gets wasted. For example, one night we had chili for dinner with cornbread. Later during the week, we used the leftover chili to go on top of sweet potatoes one night, and the leftover cornbread was made into croutons for a salad another night. 

And their blog is pretty.

I wish I could share all the recipes with you but I can't because they're not mine. If you want to download the e-book click here! I've been posting pictures of dinner every night on my Instagram if you would like to peek in every once in a while, you're totally welcome to! 

Welcome Baby B!

Beckett Branning made his way into this world very early and unexpectedly. I thought I would share his birth story for all those who are curious to why he came almost seven weeks early. 

Sunday, June 9th while Mitchell was at work, I felt very odd. I felt light headed and my chest hurt. Almost like I had run five miles in the snow but I had done nothing that day but go to church. I decided to take my pulse using an app on my phone. I was concerned when the app said my pulse was 34 bpm.  I told Mitchell and he thought it was a mistake for sure but asked if I needed to come to the hospital. I told him I would be fine. By the time Mitch got home that night, I was having very painful contractions. Very different than the Braxton hicks I had since week 20 of my pregnancy. These contractions hurt so bad and were seven minutes apart. I kept timing them hoping they would slow but they didn't. At around 6 am Mitch finished studying and got into bed to finally get some sleep. It was then that I told him we needed to go to the hospital. The contractions were now 5 minutes apart and had been for over an hour. I had work in 3 hours and was just hoping they could give me something to stop the contractions and send me on my way. My poor sleep deprived husband and I walked into labor and delivery and explained to the nurse what was going on. She took my vitals as expected and told me my blood pressure was pretty high. I asked how high and was shocked when she said 180/110. She explained she would be able to give me something to lower it when she was done with the rest of my vitals. She checked my pulse and told me the machine was acting weird. "It's saying your pulse is 34, that can't be right. Let me check again" 

"No, that's probably right. That's what it was last night..."

She checked again and proceeded to tell me she had never seen anything like this. Great! Blood pressure meds were now out of the question because they would lower my pulse and I could not afford that. She was unsure of what to do so she called the on call ob since my ob delivers only at American fork hospital. It took the dr forever to get there and when he did he told me I had pre eclampsia and we would probably have our baby within the next couple weeks. I started to freak. He still had seven weeks to develop, he couldn't come out early! He had the cardiologist come talk to me about an EKG they had done on me while waiting for my ob to show up. The cardiologist asked me many questions about my heart in the past and didn't really have an answer for me other than we would probably be having the baby in 48 hours. I double freaked. Weeks was one thing. We were talking days now.y contractions were continuing and getting stronger than ever. I was in so much pain and was about to be in much more. The nurse told me I needed to get a steroid shot to help the baby's lungs develop. I was fine with that. I'd never had a steroid shot before but figured it couldn't be that bad. I will tell you right now, that was the worst part of my labor and delivery. Oh that shot hurt so bad. I cried. I screamed. I squeezed Mitch's hand as hard as I could. I hated that shot. After the injection from hell, the nurse wheeled me down to meet with the perinatologist. It was now almost 1 o clock and I hadn't eaten anything. My nurse Karen said after this she would bring me a menu and I could have whatever I wanted. I was so looking forward to that. We went into a little ultrasound room and got to see our little guy up on the screen. The tech printed off some pictures for us and left to get the dr so she could look at them. The perinatologist came in and looked at the ultrasound that was just done. She proceeded to tell me that as soon as the ob had an opening, we were having the baby. "I would say about 45 minutes how does that sound?" 

"No. I am not having this baby today. You are crazy. He's not ready, I'm not ready. I can't do this." 

She reassured me I could do this and told me that my body was rejecting the pregnancy. It was tired of being pregnant. She walked out the door telling us that June 10 would be such an awesome birthday and despite what Karen said about bringing me that menu, I couldn't eat anything.  Screw you lady. Afterwards though, I did really like her and felt bad for the awful thoughts I thought about her. 

Karen came back empty handed. She must have known I wasn't going to be able to eat. She tricked me. 

I was moved to a bigger room where I met Dr Martin the anesthesiologist. He gave me the choice between a spinal block and an epidural since I would be delivering via c section ( he was breech and I was not dilated at all). I went with his recommendation of a spinal block and he gave Mitch a white jumpsuit to wear in the operating room. This was happening very fast. I was rolling into the OR and all I could think about was how bad that shot would hurt me. 

I sat on the edge of the bed and held Mitch's hands while dr Martin got the shot ready. He was about to insert the needle when I got a bad contraction and made him stop. He was very patient and told me to tell him when it was over. I waited an extra 30 seconds just to put off the shot. I told him to go and he told me I would feel a pinch and that would be the worst part. I was sitting there looking Mitch in the eye. I was so scared. There it was. The pinch. " Ok Jordan. That was the worst part! Did you feel that pinch?"

I cried tears of joy. I was so relieved. "Mitchell, I did it! That was the worst part. It wasn't bad at all! That was the worst part!" There was supposedly another prick and 30 seconds later my legs were dead. What a weird/ awesome feeling. Now was the serious part. My baby was coming out within 15 minutes. Maybe less. All I felt was tugging and pulling. Not painful at all. Dr Martin was in my ear telling me everything that the doctors were doing (there were three just performing the c section). Soon enough he said " okay Jordan. He's going into your uterus now to get your baby out. Are you excited? Oh look there he is! Look Jordan he's beautiful!"

I will never be able to forget the first time I saw our son. He was perfect. He looked so scared and concerned but I knew I was going to take care of him. I cried tears of joy. I finally got to see the little guy who constantly had hiccups in my stomach. Who kicked me like crazy. The little boy  we would raise and take care of. This was it. The second my biggest dream came true. My dream of being a mom. I saw him for 3 seconds before they took him away again. Those were the greatest three seconds of my life. The rest of the surgery, I looked back on the day and came to the conclusion that if I could feel that joy I had just felt again, I would do the whole day over again. Those three seconds made everything worth it. 

Ka-Pow!

Oh hey, Babes.

What's kickin?

...And don't answer "My legs" because I know that already. In fact, whatever you were doing yesterday was so crazy that Dad, Aunt Ry Ry and Aunt Co Co ALL felt you thunder down under. I didn't mind. I mean how often do people beg to feel your abs of steel? Oh that's not what they wanted? Ok you win. Also, let me give you one little tip: There is no soccer ball where you are. That is my bladder. But whatever, keep doin what ya do.

I can't stop you and I won't stop you :)

Well what else is new? 

You are -21 weeks old now. On Wednesday, you will be halfway outta here!  (Not literally, I guess that will be closer to July 24th. Ok that's sorta gross)

Oh hey you're kicking again!

March 14th is the day we are waiting for! We get to find out if you are a boy or a girl. I think you are a girl because you like me best and won't kick for your Dad (except for yesterday. you were going nuts.).

Dad thinks you will be good at soccer. I, on the other hand, think you are more MMA material. Just by feeling you. 

We are so excited to learn more and more about you!

We know right now that you are about the size of a grapefruit, and weigh about 8 oz. Your arms and legs are correctly proportioned to the rest of your body and hair is even starting to grown on your head! 

One new thing that I learned this week is that Vernix is starting to form on your skin already. Vernix is that whitish creamy stuff that you may see on newborn babies. The vernix is actually on your skin to prevent you from pickling in the amniotic fluid. That might be kind of gross but I had never known that before and thought it was interesting!

Keep kickin and having fun in there! We love you so much already and can't wait to meet you and give you constant snuggles and kisses!

-Mom

Hey Baby Hey Baby Hey!

Hey Baby!

How are you doing in there? The doctor says you're doing well. Let's hope you agree (although, you did not like those burritos last night, huh? Trust me, I'll never do that again.)!

I am currently 17 weeks pregnant with you and I get more excited as each day begins. I am nervous like never before too but lets agree that's out of love.

Your friends might want to know a little bit about you, so here's the spotlight.

• Your organs are well developed! Your heart rate yesterday was 155 bpm.
• You can hear!
• You are about 5 ounces, or the size of an apple.
• We don't know if you are a boy or a girl yet. How embarrassing!! Don't worry, we will in 3 weeks ;)
• You can move your joints now. -Kick me, I DARE you!

Daaaang, look at you!

We are so excited to meet you! 

How we met

Mitchell and I met at a job we both had, first moving out to Utah. It was a crappy job. My two best friends worked there and almost everyone else were the "do drugs in the back, say creepy things to you" kinda people. Except for Mitch.

I wasn't really looking to meet boys at work because
1: I had a "sorta boyfriend" and
2: They almost all were doing drugs in the back
 

I remember my first week at work I saw this so-called "Mitch", who my friends had been talking about. Saying he was one of the only funny and really nice ones at work. Mitch had on Khaki Hollister shorts, a black shirt and hat and a towel tucked into his shorts. He didn't introduce himself to me like all the other guys did but I knew it was him. 

I had to talk on the phone to some guy at work asking me some information about taxes. Enter: Mitch and I's first conversation ever.

   The man on the phone asked me, "So, Jordan. What is your job title?" I had no idea . I turned to Mitch and spit out the weirdest most awkward sentence.

"What are we?"

   Mitch always jokes that he knew our fate and wanted to reply "Eternal Companions" But instead he just said, "Uh, Crew Members? I don't know." He went back to what he was doing, I finished up with the phone guy, said a measly, "thanks." and was on my way. Didn't talk for the rest of my shift. 

   Time had gone by and I hadn't really seen, or thought about Mitchell (no offense). I was at my friend's apartment and she had told me that she had a crush on one of the guys at work. It was Mitch. "Cool," I thought. "I hope things work out." She decided to text him to see if he wanted to come over. He was kinda hesitant, but I wanted him to come over so she could spend time with him so I texted, "Hey! Its Jordan. You better come over. Or else."

   I don't know if it was the "or else" part that convinced him or something else but within the hour, he was outside the apartment. My friend and I had made cookies earlier that day and I wanted to take some to my "sorta boyfriend". I told them both I was leaving and didn't know when I would be back.
   Well, as luck would have it, he wasn't home. I came back and Mitch had the idea of driving up to Bridal-Veil falls. Both my friend and I agreed and Mitch proudly offered to drive. If I had not been in that car, I don't know if I would be married to Mitch today. On the way back home, we had so much fun. I was so comfortable with being myself in front of this boy that it was shocking. I was singing & laughing so loud.. and he was joining. We came back and he left. My friend went home and I went to hang out with my "sorta boyfriend".

   That evening was what caused Mitch and I to get to know each other. We started texting outside of work and talking to each other more at work. We were pretty good friends. One day I was really sick. I stayed home from school all day and I expected SBF to come hang out with me buuuut I hadn't heard from him all day. Yet, I could see him with his friends outside my living room window. Then I finally get a text. It wasn't SBF but instead, Mitch asking how my day was going. "Oh you're sick? Let me bring you something." But I insisted I was fine even though I knew right THEN that I was interested in this guy. It was at that point that I had a crush on Mitchell Branning.

   A couple days later, at school, my friend cornrowed my whole head. I thought this was awesome so I went into my work to show my other friend.. and Mitch. Everyone was like "Chica, por que?" But Mitch told me it looked awesome. I went home and hung out with SBF who was now turning into "Friend" and he didn't seem to mind. He took one look at my head and said "Oh, sick. Take those out now!" and within a couple minutes left to go work on some vehicle. So I just went back home and continued texting Mitch. We were both so bored. He invited me to go to a movie with him. When in Rome was playing at the dollar theater and I was so excited to go. But he was going to be there to pick me up soon! Good thing I took my corn rows out. I could tame the poof, change my clothes, put on some makeup and be out the door in ten minutes flat. And I was. 

   The movie was good. No hand holding, no cuddling no anything and I was totally comfortable with that. However on the way home, I got extremely car sick and we had to stop the car so I could get out. Mitch offered me his hoodie and I refused. Good thing too, because he forgot he didn't have a shirt on underneath. We worked our way back to my apartment and he left. No kiss. No hug. Just bye. But again, I was comfortable with that. I wasn't upset or disappointed. I was just glad to have a fun time. 

   By this time, I had told my friend who liked Mitch earlier, that I liked him and thank goodness she said "Oh cool! No that's okay. I'm kinda interested in this other guy now." We were locked out of our apartment and called Mitch to hang out until our roommates got home. We decided to go to the park up the street and when we got back our friend totally bailed. Said she had to go to the bathroom. Yeah she never came back. She texted me and said "Hey have fun with Mitch! Now you two are alone!" Mitch saw my face turn mortified and totally called it. "She ditched us didn't she."
   "Yeah she did. That was kinda weird"
"Yeah totally weird. We were having fun."
   "I don't think she had to go to the bathroom, she was just trying to get me alone with you" stuttering because I was kinda embarrassed. I didn't want him to think I planned this.
"haha weird"
   "yeah. umm so well we can like watch a movie  or play a game or I can tell her to come back." so.awkward.

   He agreed a movie would be good so we put in The Blindside. This movie was different than the last we watched together. Suddenly I was worried about my hands. I was moving them like crazy. Lap, folded, couch. Lap, no that looks too awkward. Folded, no now he can't hold them if he wants to. Does he even want to? Couch. okay this works for now. What happened next was Legen-wait for it-dary. We still talk about it today. We call it The Brave Pinky. His pinky crept under my palm and either lifted my hand on top of his or scooted his hand under mine. I couldn't tell you, all I remember was my head spinning.  He went from holding my hand to putting his arm around me and pulling me close. My head resting on him, I kept thinking he was looking at me so I looked up at him just to see his eyes change from the tv to see what I was doing. I did this a couple of times but the last time I just kissed him. Right. on. the. mouth. Except now Mitch argues that it was him who kissed me first. Whoever it was, I'm glad they did it because I now am not a crew member, I have been promoted to Eternal Companion. :)

Roasted Veggies

Mitch & I have been trying to eat healthier and it's been hard for a number of reasons

1: It heats up our whole apartment and makes me constantly feel like Hades in Hercules with fire hair.

2: Our schedules don't really coincide well. While he's working, I'm not and when I am he's not. So it almost seems like a waste to eat the food I make all by myself.

3:  I like food. Fake food. Fatty, overprocessed, super sweet and creamy food.

4:  We haven't quite mastered the "don't spend a kajillion dollars on produce that is going to go bad before you eat it" plan

Despite our hardships (I know, call the waaambulance) we have made some pretty great, healthy meals! It's been way easier once I got to know www.skinnytaste.com

Skinny taste is a great website that has so many good recipes for healthier, yummier food. Our favorite thing is, it tells you the calories, fat and all the other relevant nutritional facts per serving!

One of our most raved about (by us!) side dish we made last week, I had adapted from the site. 

We made roasted veggies topped with Parmesan cheese and it was so so so good! I used her roasted yellow squash recipe but added zucchini, carrots, chopped green onions, chopped cilantro and potatoes. It was so good and we felt awesome after eating it because we knew it was way healthier than previous choices. 

If you haven't yet, check out Skinny Taste. I swear you will be in Heaven!

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