whoa, craft and food overload.

my lack of food pictures on facebook may be a blessing to those of you who think its annoying to take pictures of your meal and post it.  sorry to those, because the food posts are coming back.  during the last 6-8 weeks, not much has sounded delicious and even when it has i've had no desire to make any extensive meals.  my poor hubby has been eating a lot of costco orange chicken, crock pot meals (which isn't bad) and frozen food. 

i hated not having an appetite but the good thing is that i'm almost 12 weeks pregnant and have actually lost 4 posts and not gained....yet.  i REFUSE to gain 45 lbs this time around, and to be honest my OB will hold me to that.  he was not impressed that i birthed a 9.8 lb baby and gained so much.  he even made me go take a 2 hour glucose test after fasting for 12 hours last week.  not fun.

  my patient little girl entertaining herself while we had to sit for TWO hours and wait. love her.

i've been enjoying spending my quiet time (aka nap time) working on some simple christmas crafts to give to family members "from makena".  a few we have worked on together and some i've done on my own. here's a couple. 

easy peasy decoration:
i got this cute frame at hobby lobby for like $2 or less and then just bought some small wooden letters, painted them white, and glued them onto the glass. done.

salt dough ornaments:
my mom actually found this for me so i figured i'd give it a try.  the dough prep and molding was the easy part. its the painting that's not that easy haha! mine doesn't look quite as nice as the original but its still cute.  makena had fun smooshing the dough.

wine glass markers:
i saw this last one in the latest rachael ray magazine and thought they were cute.  if you go to her website they have a template you can print out.  basically you just cut a slit in the bottom of the hat, write the person's name on the hat and stick it on their wine glass on thanksgiving. 

next up is dinner from last night.  my husband is obsessed with zucchini so i like to make dishes with zucchini in them often.  i found this on allrecipes.com and it was amazing. here's the link, below is the typed out version.  serve over a bed of rice-a-roni rice pilaf to really make it awesome.

 Stuffed Zucchini:

Ingredients:

• 4 zucchini
• 1 pound pork sausage (i used ground beef)
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
• 1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce (i didn't use the whole jar)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese  

pictures don't do this one justice.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Trim stems from zucchini and slice lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and put in bowl. Mix seeds with sausage, garlic, bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese. Stuff squash with sausage mixture and place in 9x13 inch baking pan. Pour sauce over squash and cover pan with foil.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until sausage is cooked. Remove foil and cover with mozzarella cheese. Cook until cheese is melted.

lastly, i feel like i would be robbing you if i didn't share the recipe of the snack i'm eating while i type this.  i actually may have posted this recipe before but i don't feel like searching so if i did i'm sorry.  i steamed an artichoke and then threw this amazing dip together.  it's paula deens recipe so you know its delicious (aka terrible for you). 

bacon rosemary dip:

4 strips bacon
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon reserved bacon grease
Nonstick, nonflammable cooking spray
Fresh rosemary sprig, for garnish

combine ingredients and enjoy.

 until next time :)