delighted to be

DIY Play Kitchen / october 11, 2011

I know what I want to spend the next year making Jack. Maybe I’ll be finished with it by next Christmas?

It’s a DIY play kitchen, converted from an old TV unit. AWESOME, right? I love the fact that you can make it completely your own style, and make it even fit in with the decor of your house. I love that it has a fridge. Most don’t have refrigerators.

I’ve just got one teensy, bitty roadblock. When I showed it to Tyler, it went something like this:

Me: Tyler, come check this out. I know what I want us to make Jack for his 2nd birthday. He’ll love it!

Tyler: (walks over to the computer and sees a kitchen, heaven forbid) No. Absolutely not. It’s girly.

Me: It’s just a play kitchen!!

Tyler: No. Tool box. (Really truly, this was his two-word sentence.)

Apparently tool boxes and tool tables and pushing lawn mowers with the bouncing balls inside are meant for boys, not play kitchens. Apparently it’s cool for a boy to follow his daddy around with his handy toy tool belt on, but it’s uncool for a boy to pretend to cook with mama in the kitchen?

Thoughts?

I promise Tyler isn’t always this bad. He’s just particular about some things. But really, me and Jack get the final say a lot of the time, and he doesn’t even realize it. Like when I tried to teach Jack to blow kisses, Tyler objected. But now, without my help at all, Jack gives kisses on his own. Take that.

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Lately / october 8, 2011

First off, check out this hottie of a poster:

Yeah, I’m pretty excited about it. Remember when Tyler got it for me for my birthday? We were moving just a week or so later, so I never got the chance to hang it. I finally picked up a frame at Target the other day, and am so ecstatic!

Secondly, the same man also does the dishes for me, sporting this hot apron:

True story: we found it in his childhood memory box.

Tyler definitely gets the “greatest husband” award. Jack woke up screaming so many times last night I lost count (who knows why, either) so Tyler got up with him and let me sleep in this morning. When I woke up, the kitchen was spotless, the baby was happy, and the dining table had even been polished!

Jack and I have had some quality bonding time lately. Look, he even smiles for the camera now:

Well, he usually smiles for the camera. You don’t win ’em all, right?

His new favorite snack: peanut butter on a spoon.

Jack is in love with his daddy. He waits at the door for him to come home every night, and loves to sit and be anywhere near Tyler. I snapped this photo just a hair too late because Jack was actually just sitting in the same position as Tyler, right next to him looking at the TV. Just like daddy.

I should also mention that as of a few weeks ago, Jack gives kisses. Wet, slobbery, open-mouth kisses.

And there’s lots of tongue involved, did I mention that? Ladies, line up.

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Recipe: Veggie Burgers / october 8, 2011

These are my favorite veggie burgers! Straight from — you guessed it — ohsheglows.com.

Doesn’t this beast of a burger look delicious?

Perfectly crispy on the outside, while still chewy and thick on the inside. Lots of good flavor in there and totally worth the effort!

I added my own twist, using homemade hamburger buns and a homemade spicy tomato mayonnaise I whipped up. (I added leftover roasted tomato, garlic, and coconut soup to mayo, with a few pinches of cayenne.) If we would have had avocados handy, that would have been a delicious topping too.

Because Tyler loves homemade french fries, I fried some as a surprise side dish for him. We used the sweet potato fry method, where you dredge it in a mixture of cornstarch and club soda before dipping them in, but it turns out that only really works on sweet potatoes, not regular potatoes. Weird, huh?

Recipe here, from Oh She Glows.

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Recipes: Week 3 / october 3, 2011

via ohsheglows.com

We are now in week 3 of our vegan diet, and have no plans of turning back. Go health!

We feel great! I even exercised multiple times last week (gasp!). One night I took Jack running in the stroller (two miles…yeah, if I could only make that six miles instead) and a little old man on his way to the mailbox stopped to cheer me on. He told me I look great and all my hard work will pay off. I told him, “Yeah, it better pay off! Pushing this kid in the stroller is hard work! He’s heavy!”

Tyler seems to really like the things I am cooking so far, so no complaining there. Unless he’s lying. (Honey, are you being honest with me?) Jack seems fine with it too. But when has that kid ever rejected food?!

I get most of my recipes now from OhSheGlows.com. I like her flavor profile, and she cooks more “comfort” food, which is nice when you’re adjusting to eating this way. As always, I make little tweaks here and there, using what I have on hand.

Here are last week’s meals:

Butternut Squash Mac n’ Cheeze (pretty good, but takes getting used to. Tyler loved it.)

Tortilla Soup (YUM. Would definitely make again!)

Sweet Potato, Black Bean, Spinach, and Pepper Enchiladas with Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce (YUMMMM. We’d definitely make these again, too. We gobbled them up!)

High Protein & Oil-Free Basil Pesto (for pesto pasta and pesto pizza with grilled onions, garlic, and roasted tomatoes) (pretty good. Doesn’t taste like a traditional pesto, but we still loved it. Tyler likes it more than a regular pesto.)

This week, we are making:

Coconut Curry with Brown Rice

15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta + Artisan Bread + Veggies

Our Perfect Veggie Burgers + homemade whole-wheat buns + homemade french fries

Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto Pasta + Artisan Bread + Roasted Broccoli

Fajitas (which are really just a bunch of grilled veggies inside a whole-wheat tortilla)

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