Saturday, November 10, 2012

I started writing this post at 5am today as I was up feeding my baby and feeling very awake. I had just had 5 straight hours of sleep. YES, 5 whole hours!! That's rare thing with my babe. She likes to eat every 2 hours or so. Well I wrote 2 posts and scrapped both of them. They just weren't right. Maybe because it was 5am. Who knows.

So in place of those posts, here is a new one - my top 5 favorite things!

1. Being a mom
Being a parent takes the cake. Quite literally - who has time to bake or eat cake?
I knew I'd love being a mom, but had no idea I'd love it this much. It's challenging, rewarding, amazing and so much fun wrapped into one big ball. Once the nerves and postpartum hormones went away, I felt like I was meant to be a mom. It probably helps that I have an amazing husband that is also an amazing dad :)

2. Miette
Miette is a pastry shop in San Francisco. I've never been there so I can't comment on the baked goods. But I do have their cookbook and I'm obsessed with it. I got it last Christmas and it's the cutest most charming cookbook I own.  The colors and pictures are beautiful and the page edges are scalloped. It's very unique. The desserts in it look so good - life changing good! My goal is to make something out of it before the end of 2012.

 


This image is from http://thelittleoaktree.blogspot.ca

3.

My name is Amanda and I'm a pin-a-holic.

Yep, I still love pinterest!
 I spend a lot of time there especially around 2-3am. When I'm up....feeding my baby :)
http://pinterest.com/cramandaberry/



I've decided to change my Top 5 to my Top 3. It's taken me over 6 hours to do this....that's life with a baby!

Have a great weekend!


Monday, October 15, 2012

Diaper days....

So what's happened since my last post in April?
I had the most amazing baby girl in the world!! Last post I think I was in April and I was around 27 weeks. Now it's Oct 15th and I'm 15 weeks postpartum and have a 3 month old baby.

We were shocked when the midwife told us "it's a girl!. We were sure we were having a boy.

Being a mom is by far the best thing in the world. All the nerves, sleepless nights and dirty diapers are totally worth it.
We are so lucky to have a happy healthy beautiful baby. I feel so blessed!

So obviously this isn't going to be a lengthy post as I have sweet little girl that needs/gets all of my attention.

And cue hungry baby....

:)

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Time flies....

I can't believe my last post was January 31st...time flies!

It's now April 1st and I'm 27 weeks pregnant today!! That means we'll have a bebe in 13 weeks give or take a few day ;-)
We're actually quite on top of things, I think!
We have a stroller, bottles, a bottle warmer, some cute socks that look like Chuck Taylors, onesies and most importantly, a crib and change table. And of course so much love and excitement for this baby!!

Since the last post a fair amount has happened. We've had 2 ultrasounds - one was the standard 20 week one. We had to go back because baby wouldn't let the technician get a clear picture of it's heart (yes, I said it - we've decided to not find out the gender. Some days we call baby he some days she). So when we went back they got all the pictures they needed. And we got to see baby moving around - baby was busy!!
Then last week I found out that I have gestational diabetes. I personally don't think that it's that big of a deal because the staff at BC Women's Hospital are amazing. They have a whole gestational diabetes team with nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, and dietitians. Other people are more worried about it than me. It's apparently very common and easy to manage. The next few days will be a bit of a pain as I have to test my blood 7 times a day!!!!
But I'll do whatever it takes to make healthy!!

So I guess over the last couple months, a lot and not so much has happened :)

Maybe later I'll try and post some pictures of the goodies we got for baby!!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pregnancy and self image....

I came across this http://offbeatmama.com/2012/01/loving-self-while-pregnant today and thought it was lovely.
If you don't want to read it, it's basically about a girl that hated her body until she got pregnant (while on the pill) and her body image changed because she realized she was making another life.

Now I've never been a skinny person. I've always been curvy/well covered/chubby, whatever you want to call it. It has never bothered me - I always say, if people don't like me or the way I look, they don't have to look at me.

When I met my now husband almost 4 years ago,  he told me that one of his favorite things about me was that I was confident it reminded him of the women back home in Montreal. He said that women in Montreal stand up for what they are doing, wearing and saying. I took that as a compliment because I had never really thought about myself like that. I've always just done my thing.

So all of that being said, when I found out I was pregnant I didn't even think or care about the weight gain, stretch marks and all the hard work that would come after the baby was born. I was too excited about the thought of being a mom and starting a family with my new husband (we were married September 3rd, conceived October 8th or 9th and found out that we were having a baby October 24th).

Very early in my pregnancy I gained 10-15 pounds and then lost 5 and then completely lost my appetite and 15-20 pounds :)
Between 11-13 weeks my little baby started to grow and I started to get a mini bump. When that bump started my body shape changed. I went from having a muffin top to having a belly that stuck out and not across!
I personally think I look better now than I did before. I love my new pregnant body - I celebrate every pound gained, every new stretch mark, and the fact that I'm making a little baby in there.
I hope our attitudes about self image will be passed on to our kid(s) boy or girl.


Like the story said, there's so many things in the internet on how to build self esteem when you're pregnant which is great, but there isn't much about women that love their bodies.


I had a really good way to end this, but pregnancy brain has kicked in and I have no idea what I was going to say....



Maybe I'll remember later? Probably not ;)
   

Friday, January 27, 2012

Sealed with a cupcake!

This week started out awful! It was bad for both my husband and I - worse for him :(
But, we're pushing it all aside, moving on and hoping that we win the $50 million lottery tonight.

I think one of the worse things of the week was dinner the other night. I'm all about trying new recipes, the one I chose the other day.....major fail! It was this creamy lemon pasta casserole thing that looked and sounded delicious. I actually followed the recipe too - well I changed it a little I omitted some of the lemon. I can't even explain what was so gross about it, but it was too lemony and creamy and yuck! Normally we like the new recipes I make, but this one, no amount of hot sauce, pasta sauce or ketchup could fix it.
That reminds me, I better take it off of pinterest!

To make up for that, tonight I was checking out some of my favorite baking blogs and started drooling over some mighty fine looking cupcakes. Maybe it was the pregnancy talking or who knows what, but I decided that I needed to make some. They are divine - vanilla cupcakes with green buttercream. Yum!
I also tried a new buttercream recipe. I actually like it better than my tried and true Wilton recipe. At least one new recipe this week was a success!!
Here's the recipe:
http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2011/08/american-buttercream-frosting-recipe.html

Enjoy!

Monday, January 23, 2012

New obsession....

One word....Pinterest Logo

A friend of mine introduced me to Pinterest a few months ago. I didn't really understand it. I thought why do I need a website that saves my favorite things when I can just bookmark them?? Well, when you like as much stuff as I do,  your "Bookmarks" drop down thing (I can't think of what it's actually called - pregnancy brain strikes again!) fills up fast! And really, it's a pain to go through a huge list to find the link to something you think you like.
So when my amazing husband bought me a new Mac Book for Christmas I decided that I didn't want my bookmark list filled up so I figured I would try out Pinterest. Smart move!!
I don't think at this point of the night I can describe what it is in it's full glory,  if you don't know what it is, check it out http://pinterest.com/

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Finally a full meal with dessert!!

Today is probably the third, maybe fourth time in almost 15 weeks that I have cooked a full dinner and made dessert to go with it!
That is in big part to the fact that I'm almost 17 weeks pregnant!!! So needless to say, I have had no appetite and no energy. For the most part if I ate, I ate like a 6 year old - chicken strips and mac & cheese. The last week or so I've had a bit of an appetite. It's odd how I now love certain things that I didn't care about before (oranges, chocolate and pork) and don't like the things I once loved (chicken and cheese). It's weird, but so awesome. We are so thankful, grateful and excited to be having a baby!!!

Anyways, all my cravings lead me to tonight's dinner!!
  • Pork tenderloin with a cranberry glaze
  • Scalloped potatoes
  • cream corn
And then for dessert, I manged to combine my 2 (current) favorite things, chocolate and oranges....
  • Homemade Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
  • Orange Whipped Cream
Deeeeelightful!!! Recipes are below.


Molten Chocolate Lave Cakes from foodnetwork.ca

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter plus 2 tablespoons for greasing ramekins (125 ml plus 25 ml)
  • 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (175 grams)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup sugar (50mL)
  • Pinch salt
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons for dusting ramekins

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C).
  2. Butter and lightly flour 6 -6oz (175mL) ramekins.
  3. Tap out the excess flour. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.
  4. In a double boiler, over simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
  5. In a medium heatproof bowl, beat eggs and egg yolks with sugar, and salt until pale yellow and light.
  6. Quickly fold the melted chocolate mixture into the eggs.
  7. Fold in flour.
  8. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter into each ramekin. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes are set and the centers are still soft.
  9. Let the cakes cool in the ramekins for 1 minute and then invert them onto dessert plates.
  10. Let ramekins stand for 10 seconds before lifting them off the cakes. Serve immediately
 Orange Whipped Cream from sunkist.com
(I changed it slightly and used pink oranges - they are sooo good!)

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed Sunkist® orange juice
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh Sunkist® orange zest, chopped
  • ½ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Instructions: (Makes 4 servings)

  • Whip cream until soft peaks form.
  • Stir in freshly squeezed Sunkist orange juice, fresh Sunkist orange zest and powdered sugar.
  • Continue whipping until peaks are firm.
  • Refrigerate until needed.
Enjoy!!!

Saturday, January 07, 2012

This week was a tough one!
As far as work goes, it was short - Monday was a stat holiday thanks to New Years Day!
I always find that the week drags when Monday is a day off.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I just wasn't meant to be there this week! Maybe it's because this was my first week back after being on holidays for almost 3 weeks. Or maybe I'm just whiny and lazy....Either way, here's to hoping that next week will be easier!

I don't have all that much to say today, but I figured that if I at least make the effort to write something every few days then I will be able to get back into the swing of things in no time.
My goal is to be blogging about my Top 5 weekly faves and cooking/baking in the next few weeks. After all I did get a new laptop and camera for Christmas (thanks husband!!) so I have no real reason to not blog!!

And like I said in my last post, I have a really good reason for neglecting Amanda Ever After ;)

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Goodbye 2011 - Hello 2012

Happy New Year!!
I can't believe that it's January 1, 2012. It's crazy/awesome!!

I think in my last couple of posts I mentioned that I was on a cooking mission. I was going to make 2-3 new recipes each week. Well that was amazingly successful for about 2 weeks. But I have a really good excuse why it ended so quickly. It's really good - honest. But, more on that later....as in another day ;-)



Now that the madness of the holidays is over, I'm hoping to get back on track and blog/write more. We'll see how it goes.

That being said, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and all the best for 2012 :)