Week 34

Where: Din Tai Fung (dumpling restaurant), Bellevue, WA (the guys behind the window are making thousands of dumplings)

Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +33lbs
• Sleep : Better this week than the previous week. I still wake up a ton to pee, some nights every hour!
• Best moments : Having a long weekend was really nice. Stephen, Ellen and I got some good work done in the nursery. Stephen and I got all the boxes of stuff out and put away in her room the best we could at the moment. The rug is laid out and I love it. Ellen and I sorted and put away most of her clothes. We have one more load of laundry that is washed, but just needs sorted and put away. It is coming together nicely. 
• Movement : Similar to the last few weeks. She's in there, not a big kicker but makes herself known. Mostly by being really to the right side of my stomach. 
• Symptoms : Unfortunately the swelling feet got worse this week. I had a few work days that I was in an all day meeting and did not get up as much as I normaly do to move. Needless to say after day one of this they were prety big and haven't had the chance to recover. 
• Maternity clothes? : Obviously
• Food cravings or aversion's? : Nothing stands out this week
• What I am eating : burgers, thai, stir fry, onion tart, fries, fruit, pastries, cheese sticks, salad, pasta, hummus, pretzle chips
• Exercise : :( I was bad again
• Gender : Girl
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : I don't think I miss anything new right now, not peeing every hour, beer, my feet. haha - all the same as normal. 
• What I am looking forward to : Stephen and I are doing another cooking class this weekend, on summer grilling. We had a really good time at the last one, so we thought we would get one more in before the baby comes. Also, next week starts up weekly doctor visits. Not that it is exciting going to the doctor every week, but it means we are getting close!
  
  
  Other Happenings:
  Stephen and I hit up the Ballard farmers market for the first time since moving. It was fun to walk around and pick up some good stuff. This picture makes me look oddly tan, I am not. 
  
  
  
  The dogs tried to run to safety on me/in my arms from their dad, who was going to brush their teeth. hehe
  

Fall is Here!

I love fall! So many things about it...the smells, the leaves changing colors, breaking out scarves, boots and hats, home decor and of course the food! Pumpkin is one of my favorites. I love pumpkin everything. So when I got a free pumpkin the last week of our CSA I figured why not make my own puree and cook the seeds. Mama told me I wouldn't want to do it, but I figured why not try!

I cut the pumpkin in half and put the halves face down on a cookie sheet. Then baked for an hour and 45 mins.

It made the house smell delightful! I then let it cool, scooped it out and pureed it in the blender. Since then I have used the puree to make pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin bread. Both of them were delicious.

While the pumpkin was cooking I made a butternut/acorn squash and sweet potato soup. It was beyond good...just ask Steve.

I also saved the pumpkin seeds from the one I cooked to make the puree and roasted them with olive oil and sea salt. We ate them as a snack all week. I just love fall!

CSA

One of our local grocery stores, Hen House, has a CSA program. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a program where you can get locally produced foods and for a good price. You should really look into if there is a CSA in your area! Everything that you get is so fresh and tastes like it too. It is awesome for Steve and I cause it is a pre-made grocery list each week, halfway through the week, and we are getting things that we would never have picked up on our own. Which is getting us to cook new things.

How it works is first we signed up and choose a pick-up day. For us this is Wednesday. We never know what we are doing on Saturdays(the other choice) to know if we would be around during the pick-up time. This also gives us a chance to not buy weekend groceries that we don't use or go bad. Our weekend shopping is now for just 2-3 meals, since we can pick-up anything else on Wednesday when we are at the grocery store to pick up our CSA. Each week they send you list of items you will get that week. Sometimes things change though based on the crops and weather effects on them. Each item is given a points value based on its price. You can exchange anything you want for things of similar points values. They also have a table set up with things you can exchange for not on the list that week. There is usually a meat item each week, a dairy item and then veggies. Ranging from 5 to 6 items each time too. If you can't pick-up a week you just tell them. Also, it is just $25, no matter what the actual cost of the items totals. Lately its always around $30 worth of stuff. Here are just a few of the awesome things we have gotten and some of the things we have made with them!

A whole chicken! I had no idea how to cook a whole chicken. Luckily Steve just got a new cookbook with a recipe for cooking a whole chicken. We also invested in a dutch oven for this. Got a great deal on it. This is one of those things I am not sure we would have ever bought, a raw whole chicken.

Fresh baked bread. It was delicious!

A melon(who knows what type this one was, we are getting to know all different types of melons. Did you know there was more than watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe?) Also heirloom tomatoes. I made a "bruschetta" with them. Used the above bread and some whole milk white cheddar cheese we received one week.

Baked some red potatoes with fresh dill...again all from the CSA.

This is not even a sliver of all the things we have gotten and made since signing up a month ago. It is such a great program, I really recommend looking into if you have one around you. And remember it is all local!