Pesto Veggie Shells topped with Fire Roasted Marinara

Well, I made the Manicotti on Wednesday, and if you are a ricotta cheese lover then this dish is for you! I ended up using large shells instead of the actual manicotti pasta. It seemed to be much easier for me. I got the recipe from Molly's Happy Meal blog, and used her suggestion of putting the mixture in a Ziploc bag then just squeeze it out into the shells. Piece of cake! I prepped the mixture on Sunday, and boiled the noddles Wednesday morning before work. So, when I got off work all I had to do was squeeze in the mixture, make the sauce (5 min), and slide in the oven for 25 min, and DONE!!! This whole prepping meals on Sunday works works works!! I know people have been doing it forever, but hey...I'm new to this!!

So, here are the shells before they went into the oven....

and here they are cook, and ready to eat!!!!

Overall this dish was ok. Like I said before, if you like ricotta cheese then you would love it! Darnell didn't really care for it, and I thought it was ok. I did, however, love the sauce! I made extra and froze the rest. I do like the concept fo stuffing the shells, so I'm off to find other recipes I can use the shells with...

So far so good! Baked Shrimp Scampi

Well, I just completed day 2 of the new plan to prepare meals on Sunday for the week. I must admit, I'm loving it!!!!!!! I can totally feel the difference between last week when I was super stressed about determining what was for dinner, making dinner, and still trying to squeeze time in with Joshua. Those days are behind me...at least for the week! I feel stress free now when I get off work because I know dinner is basically already done! For example, today was baked shrimp scampi day. All I had to do when I got home was place the shrimp in a dish, put the butter mixture on top (was already made), and pop it into the oven for 10 min!!! I took it out and dinner was ready!!! Here is the recipe.

Here is a pic of it right before it went into the oven...

All Done!

I paired this dish with a broccoli & rice that I got from Country Crock. Darnell said the shrimp was just ok...nothing to write home about. That means that I won't be making it again lol! Tomorrow is Mannicoti! Again the "stuffing" is already prepared. I just have to boil the noddles, make the sauce, pop it into the oven. It shouldn't take me more thatn 20/25 min tops! I'm looking forward to this meal, so I hope it's delish!

My Weekend!!

This weekend kept me busy. It started off with Darnell and I attending the Black & White party that Cherie hosted to try and raise money for the Humane Society. While at the party, Jennifer was nice enough to watch Joshua. We dropped him off around 11p, and I missed him so much that I was back at her house by 1:30p to pick him up lol.

Saturday morning Joshua, and I picked up Makeda to do some shopping at The Eastern Market. I made sure to make a list prior to going so I could make sure to buy what I needed, and not buy what I didn't! That worked out great! I got a bunch of fresh vegetables for a much better price than what I would pay at the grocery store. I got everything in the below picture for $20 even. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

We actually had a great time. We got down there kind of late, so it wasn't all that crowded. As you can see from the picture below, Joshua sat directly in his stoller. This was the first time he has done that, and I wasn't ready for it either! I started to pull him out of the car in his carseat, but Makeda said he can just sit in the stoller. I was floored!!! It was, and still is hard for me to handle. It just seems like he is growing up way too fast. So, I pushed him in his stoller with him not facing me. It was weird because I couldn't see his little face as we walked through the market!!!! :( He must have liked it because he was perfect the entire time. Towards the end we decided to put the food in the car along with the stoller so we could go into a cheese store I wanted to check out. I then swaped him into the Bjorn and faced him out (for the first time), which he seemed to enjoy as well.

Sunday was spent making dinner for the evening, and prepping dinner for the week. I must admit, it got to a little overwhelming at times, and there were times that I wanted to say FORGET IT, lets just go back to eating out every night!! LOL! However, when it was all said and done, I was very pleased with the results. Here is a picture of everything after it was cut, diced, prepped, mixed, seasoned, etc.

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Chicken, Bean Patty (for me), mac & cheese, red beans & rice, asparagus

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Baked Shrimp Scampi, Broccoli & Rice Pilaf

Wednesday: Pesto Veggie Manicotti w/ Fire Roasted Marinara

Thursday: Fajitas

Friday: ??

Saturday: ??

As you can see, I got a lot of my dishes this week from Molly's blog My Happy Meals. I love to see what she cooks up next, and always waits to read her reviews before I make the dish as well. For the most part her taste has never steered me wrong :)

After everything was prepared, I decided to take Joshua out to the local playground. We went to 3 playgrounds in search of one with baby swings, but we didn't have any luck. I still took him to one where we walked around, went down the slide, and hung out on the swings for a few. It then go really windy, so it was time to go!

Overall, great weekend...can't wait to see how my dishes turn out!

I need time to be on MY side!

Something that has made it to the list of things that are now SUPER important to me is...TIME!! With being back to work, I must be very mindful of how I spend my time once I leave. I'm unable to spend as much time with Joshua as I used to, which I'm not happy about, so when I get off work I want to make sure that I do what I can so I can be with him before it's bedtime. Let me tell ya...that is hard to do! I get off work at 4:30p and the earliest I can make it home is 5p. That's granted if I don't have to pick him up from his grandmothers, or if I have to stop at the store, or anywhere else. Once I get home it's time to make dinner...eat...bath...pj's...bottle...bed! :( It just isn't fair! Making dinner takes up a lot of time that could be spend with Joshua, but I've recently started making dinner every night to save money, and to get into the habit of making dinner so Joshua can have a home cooked meal every night. No more eating out! If we eat out it will be a rare privilege. This will be a change for us because we used to eat out all of the time. Anyway, I've been trying to figure out a better way to manage my time. I thought about preparing the meals in the morning before work, but that will be difficult because I already wake up at 4:30a on the days I work out. However, this morning I was able to get up at 4:30a, pump, do the dishes (I know should have been done the night before) defrost chicken, and boil pasta for tonight dinner. I was hoping to also cut what needed to be cut, but time totally ran out and I was late to the gym. However, every little bit helps. I was thinking about asking my manager if I could start work at 7a instead of 8a so I can get off earlier, but then that would cut into my workout time which is desperately needed. I have no idea how I'm going to work all of this out, but I know God has already done so!

I actually posted this question with some other women that are mothers, and they gave the advice to prepare all of my meals for the week on Sunday. I've heard that before, but never really tried it. Some even suggested that I prepare the meals for the entire month. How great would it be to do something like that! However, preparing for the month is overwhelming for me right now, but I think I'm going to try and start with the week suggestion for now. I'm sure that will help out tremendously! I'll begin that task this Sunday! :)

Joshua is feeding himself!

Darnell sent me this video clip while I was at work. To be honest, it mad me a little sad! My son that isn't even 4 months is already able to feed himself. Pretty soon he won't need me at all :(

Weight Loss Challenge Day 11

Day 11 of my weight loss challenge. For the most part I have been doing pretty well with eating right. However, I haven't been in the gym as much as I should. I MUST get more exercise in my daily schedule!! I cut down my carb intake drastically, and try to snack more throughout the day. As of last week I had lost about 6 pounds with equals roughly a pound a day. I hope to get in the gym this week at least 3 times, and plan to weigh myself again on Friday or Saturday. Wish me luck!!

Mother's Milk Tea

Well, I'm back to work now which is a bitter sweet. I started back on July 29 which was a Friday. Starting back on a Friday was actually not bad since it wasn't has crazy as a Monday. I was able to catch up on a lot of things, and start fresh on that Monday morning. I of course missed Joshua a great deal, but was at ease knowing that he was at home with Darnell.

Since returning to work I've had to pump in order to provide milk for Joshua while I'm away. That has been a task in itself! Having to step away from my desk in order to pump has been a lot of work. I get so busy at work that time gets away from me. The next thing I know I'm so engorged that I have to leave immediately to pump. I've noticed that my supply hasn't been as great since I started back to work. We actually ran out of milk, and had to give him formula. I was a little bummed since I hoped to exclusively breast-feed for at least another month. I was informed about a supplement tea called Mother's Milk that is suppose to promote healthy lactation. It came highly recommended, so I purchased some Whole Foods, so we'll see how that works out. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue to supply Joshua with breast milk exclusively again, and we can hold off on the formula for awhile.