weekly menu plan + a recipe

I meant to post yesterday, but our household got hit with a serious 24 hour stomach bug. We're talking about the kind of bug where you can't even keep water down and spend hours laying on the bathroom floor by the toilet. It started with Emmett on Thursday, then hit me Friday night, and hit my husband yesterday evening. Sooo... the only one left is Elliot. Oh, poor Elliot. We've never experienced a toddler vomit around here... and I'm really hoping to just skip over that lovely horrendous milestone completely, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. You never know, right? Maybe the kid has the immune system of a superhero... after all, he was a miracle baby. Heh. One can hope.

Well, as I got ready to post this salsa recipe, I was thinking, wouldn't it be kinda neat to post our whole meal plan? I mean, not only does it hold us accountable, but it could also give all you lovely readers some new ideas! So, that's how we came to a new Sunday feature here at my blog. From now on (I hope) every Sunday, I'll be posting our meal plan for the upcoming week, along with pictures and comments about last week's meals. My facebook friends are always asking where I get my recipes so- I think they'll be quite happy about this. :)

Monday: basil lime chicken

Tuesday: skinny slowcooker savory superfood soup (vegetarian)

Wednesday: spinach & bean burrito wraps (vegetarian)

Thursday: squash & zucchini stir fry* (vegetarian)

Friday: asian chicken salads* 

Saturday: southwestern black bean casserole (vegetarian)

Sunday: basil artichoke chicken bake

{this week's recipes can be found at skinny ms & my kitchen escapades}

meals marked with * = my own recipe

Goal & Focus this week: at least 3 vegetarian meals, black beans

Favorite meal from last week: black bean & corn salsa. I made this for lunch on Friday- the day that I got sick. But nevermind that, it was delicious!

Ingredients:

1 can of black beans

1 can of corn

2 cans of Rotel

1 medium chopped onion

freshly chopped cilantro

a dash of lime juice or one squeezed lime

Instructions:

- open can of black beans, place in strainer and rinse, dump in bowl

- open can of corn, strain excess water, then dump in bowl with beans
- open cans of rotel and add to beans and corn
- chop onions and cilantro, add to bowl. Notice how I didn't give a measurement for the cilantro? I LOVE cilantro- it gives the salsa such an invigorating, fresh taste. So I used a lot. The original recipe called for 3 tbsp- you can add as little or much as you want

- add lime juice to your taste

- LASTLY: once it's all mixed together, cover and chill in fridge for at least a couple hours before eating. This allows the flavors to meld and makes it that much more delicious.

- enjoy :)

{original recipe from spark recipes}

Google Friend Connect disappears July 1st, so let's find eachother on BlogLovin'! 

avocado face!

Elliot tried avocado today. At first, he wasn't too sure about it... but it was really thick, so I added some water. After that, he gobbled it right up!


Making avocados was super easy! All I did was cut a chunk off, scoop out the flesh, mash it up, and add a little water.



Stay tuned tomorrow for a really great review/giveaway!

"big people" food? Yes, please!

Elliot is absolutely loving all the big people food he's been getting lately. I have decided, for now, to just make his purees in a plain old steamer and blender. We'll see how long that lasts... if I get too tired of it, maybe I'll reconsider buying a fancy Beaba or Brezza. For now, though, the "old fashioned way" is working well!
So far, Elliot has tried apples and bananas. He likes them both in all forms- homemade applesauce, whole apple slices, big chunks of banana or mashed up. In fact, he likes them SO MUCH that he hasn't really been drinking bottles except for at night and before naps. Now, this wouldn't really bother me {formula, gross!} BUT he won't drink water. So we're still working on that.
Boy, does this kid like to eat! I'm not kidding. This morning, he had a big bowl of homemade applesauce, followed by half of a banana. Since he was still acting hungry, he then ate two apple slices in his mesh feeder, too! Yet he is still such a scrawny little guy! I don't get it. He must've gotten his mama's metabolism.
Next, we're trying avocado, and then we're venturing into the world of veggies... starting with either sweet potato or carrots. Fun, fun!

apples, anyone?

Elliot has been extremely constipated so I decided to temporarily give up on bananas and make Elliot some homemade applesauce. I'm glad I did, because it was easy and Elliot LOVED them! It also helped his little problem ;).
We're phasing cereal out of his diet and are going to continue with apples for the rest of this week, and then we're going to try avocado! After that, we're trying our first veggie-probably either sweet potato or carrots. I'm also experimenting with baby led weaning and plan to start using our baby safe mesh feeder soon, too.
Starting solids is so exciting!


First, peel, core, and chop 5-8 apples of your choice. I think these are Braeburn.


Next, put the chopped apples into a steamer and steam until soft.


Blend, adding the steaming water if neccessary, until smooth.


Pretty sure he loved it- he ate the whole bowl!


We're slipping and could REALLY use some votes. I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I promise to post much better posts full of adorable pictures as soon as my new computer gets here- which should be tomorrow or the next day!

not a banana boy

If Elliot had a personal ad, it would go something like this: "Hello! My name is Elliot. I'm six months old. I like long walks on the beach, drooling, and my plastic keys... but I don't like bananas."
Did you catch that?? Elliot is six months old today!" To celebrate, he tried banana for the first time. I was fairly confident that he would like them, since all my books said that bananas were one of the most widely accepted {and enjoyed} first foods. Well, apparently Elliot didn't get the memo. He didn't like them at all! First, he tried a bite of the whole banana, and he didn't like that. Then, I mashed it up and mixed it with a little formula. Nope. Finally, I tried to just sneak some into his cereal... and he wouldn't eat that, either!! I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. The bananas weren't super ripe yet, though, so we'll try it again in a couple days.
The official six month post will be coming later. For now, some more pictures of the birthday boy this morning:









Could you spare a moment and vote for us? I'd like to get back to where we were. Thanks!

He's getting SO BIG!

Elliot has officially entered "that stage." You know, the one where he's starting to seem a whole lot less like a little baby and more like an independent little boy. He no longer likes to be cradled in my arms, which has made getting him to sleep lately quite challenging, since I used to rock him to sleep. He sits up in his walker now instead of using the back rest, and he can also sit up unassisted in my lap for a few minutes at a time. And... here's the biggest news... he's now eating rice cereal!!
It was a tough decision to make, because I really wanted to wait until he was 6 months to start solids, and that's only a short two weeks away {the blink of an eye in parenting speak}. HOWEVER, he has been eating an incredible amount lately- much more than "average" for babies his age. He is still eating every two hours... sometimes we can stretch it out to three, but not very often. And he eats 5-6 ounces at every single feeding now! That's 50-70 ounces a day! HOLY MOLY! His doctor told us we should think about starting him on cereal {but nothing else} just a couple weeks early.
At first, I was adamantly against it, but... the more I read about baby led weaning and starting solids when your baby is ready, not when "they say" your baby is ready... the more I began to waver on my stance. And you have to watch this kid like a hawk lately at mealtimes because he will steal food off your plate {or, if you're not careful, the spoon or fork OR the whole plate!!} and put it right into his mouth. He also follows the spoon to and from my mouth and chews whenever I'm chewing, even though nothing is in his mouth. He's more than a little interested in food and is literally been chomping at the bit!
So, yesterday, I thought, why not? After all, we're already breaking all kinds of rules around here anyways. {Elliot sleeps with a pillow and a blanket. This is a bad habit that started in the NICU and I haven't been able to break it.} Guess what?! HE LOVED IT! He would get all excited and reach out for the spoon in between bites, and if I couldn't get it into his mouth soon enough, he started shaking his mouth around {the way he still roots for his bottle}. He ate the whole bowl and wanted more. In fact, he was pretty mad when I said "all done" and took him out of his bouncy seat. Of course, I didn't want to push my luck so he had to wait until later that evening to get another bowl. He had another bowl this morning and he managed to snatch the spoon away from me. I held the bowl of cereal in front of him and he proceded to wave the spoon around in the cereal and then put the spoon right into his mouth. Of course, more ended up all over his face then in his mouth, but it was pretty cute!
So yes, my son is now eating organic brown rice cereal two times a day, and he's five and a half months old. It may be a couple weeks early, but I think he'll survive. I can't wait to start making him baby food! He is going to try bananas on his six month birthday. :)


Manning the spoon all by himself.


So big!!


OH HAI, MOM! {doesn't it look like he's waving?}


Sitting up in his walker... and being a ham. :)

Baby food literature.

Honestly, I'm about as excited about starting solids as Elliot is! I think it will be such an exciting new stage in Elliot's life, and hopefully the beginning of a healthy relationship with delicious, wholesome foods. I've already decided that I'm going to try to make all of Elliot's baby food. I'm no chef, but hey, how hard could it be? I'm also thinking about doing baby led weaning... I'm not exactly sure about that yet, though. To be honest, I don't really know that much about it.
So, in order to make the next five{ish} weeks until Elliot turns 6 months go by quicker, I ordered a couple books that I can't wait to dive into!