b.l.a.s.t. burgers

as you may have seen on fb, i made these blast burgers for dinner a few nights ago.  my mom and i saw rachael ray making them on her show and we both thought they looked so good.  here's the direct link to her website if you want, but i'll post the recipe too.

b.l.a.s.t. stands for bacon, lettuce, avocado, salmon patties and tomatoes.  they also have a yummy sriracha aoili and some red onions on a toasted everything bagel.  they turned out really good but the other thing that sucked is they are SO huge that there's no way you can fit it in your mouth in one bite.  i would use a regular bun next time so its not as tall.  also, the red onion is a little too strong in my opinion. skip it, use sweet onion, or just use it sparingly.

also, i had two patties leftover so i put a bed of mixed greens on a plate, chopped up the toppings and salmon patties and drizzled some ranch dressing and sriracha aoili on top. delicious and much easier to eat!

bon apetit!

ingredients:

• 8 slices bacon
• 1 1/2 pounds salmon (or substitute fresh tuna), cut into chunks
• 1 medium egg yolk
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, a combination of chives, parsley and dill
• 1 large clove garlic, grated or finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
• Canola oil, for drizzling
• 3/4 cup homemade aioli* or store-bought mayo
• 3 tablespoons Sriracha hot sauce
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
• 4 burger rolls or everything bagels, toasted
• For topping:
• Leaf lettuce
• Thinly sliced red onion
• Sliced ripe beefsteak tomato 

preperation:

Heat oven to 375°F and bake bacon on slotted pan or parchment paper-lined baking sheet until crisp.

Place fish in a food processor and pulse chop. Remove to a bowl and combine with egg yolk, herbs, garlic, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Form 4 patties.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of canola oil. Add patties and cook fish 6 minutes for pink center, turning once or 8-10 minutes for patties that are cooked through/opaque.

Combine mayo with Sriracha sauce. Dress the avocado with lemon juice.

Place burgers on bun or bagel bottoms, top with bacon, lettuce, avocado, onion, tomato. Slather bun top or bagel top with Sriracha aioli.

* For homemade aioli, whisk 1 medium egg yolk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard. Stream in 2/3 cup grapeseed oil, season with salt to taste

i bought my fresh salmon from costco

think about a bagel size as you shape the patties

tell me you could resist taking a picture of this cute face while cooking

all the toppings so people can do it themselves

with fresh salmon i suggest leaving them a little pink inside

good luck getting all that in your mouth in one bite

nom.

re-purposed into a salad the next day for lunch

and some pictures from the park :)

tons of "quacks"

pregnant and praying, again.

well hello old friend, long time no see.  its been almost 4 months since my last entry and that's about to change. (someone hold me to it if i start dropping the ball!)

i write this blog for a few reasons:
1. i love having a reference when i'm in a cooking slump and want a yummy recipe with the play by play written out
2. i have a terrible memory so it's nice to look back on some of my pregnancy and baby milestones
3. like 5 people enjoy reading it, so there's that too :)

as you all know by now, i'm pregnant again! since i am now 11.5 weeks along i'll guess i'll give a little backstory as to how i got here.  (well, we all know how i got into this situation...)

jon and i have always known we wanted our kids to be fairly close in age.  in our perfect world they would be 2-2.5 years apart, which would mean we would start trying for number 2 this past july-ish.  we had a big beach house family reunion planned for the end of august so we thought we would wait until then.  well, between jon and i, we are extremely fertile people.  i actually got pregnant in early august.  sadly, i experienced my second (early) miscarriage.  i was blessed that it happened much sooner than the first one but its still heartbreaking nonetheless. 

we ended up not even waiting a month to start trying again and got pregnant again right away! i'm crazy when it comes to peeing on sticks so i was able to find out really early (3 weeks 3 days along).

over the last 7-8 weeks i've been feeling overall pretty decent. as decent as any pregnant mom can feel in their first trimester at least.  its a whole new ball game this time around, considering i have a toddler to care for.  thank god she's an easy kid.  my two worst symptoms have been fatigue and morning sickness.  ugh, i've forgotten how exhausting it is to create a life.  i just wanna lay around all day.  with makena i had morning sickness as well but i actually threw up a handful of times with her.  i'm not sure if its not as bad this time, or if i've just learned how to avoid the puking.  with makena i would get out of bed and do too much moving around before getting any food in my stomach and it would result in a trip to the porcelain throne.  now, i keep a banana or granola bar on my nightstand to eat before i even step foot out of my bed.  that seems to help. 

my first prenatal appointment was at 6 weeks, 6 days.  we were overjoyed to see that beautiful little flicker of a heartbeat on the screen.  all my dates were on track from the beginning and the heartbeat was strong. SO reassuring. pregnancy is scary as hell.  i'm due may 28th, which means makena and baby will be 2 years and 3 months apart...perfect!

first pic of baby munchkin

since i have a new OB this time i wasn't sure how everything was gonna play out when it came to my blood clotting disorder.  i had a high risk OB in georgia but my OB here doesn't think i need to be seen by a specialist.  i'm currently taking baby aspirin daily to thin my blood and will have to give myself the lovenox injections for six weeks postpartum (i'm already cringing at the thought. OUCH!)

my last appointment was just this week at 11 weeks exactly.  the ultrasound machine at the office is super old and tiny which is a huge bummer since i used to see makena on a big screen tv as clear as day at my high risk in GA.  i was spoiled.  anyway, the heartbeat was still very strong with a rate of about 155-160bpm.  makena's was always 170ish so i don't know what that means when it comes to the gender.

perfect little arms and legs!

with makena i could have bet serious money on the fact that she was a girl.  there was no doubt in my mind.  this time i have NO idea and its killing me! if you know me at all you know i have zero patience.  when my doctor asked if i was having morning sickness with this one i said, "no throwing up like i did with makena" and he responded by saying, "sounds like a boy!" i guess only time will tell.  he said he would take a guess at my next appointment which is at 15 weeks but it turns out i will be seen by the other doctor so i have no clue if she will try and find out.  if not i think i'll dish out the $50 to go get an elective ultrasound done.  i really want to know before xmas for some reason.

wow, i just scrolled up and realized that was a lot of info.  sorry if it got boring, i promise to follow up with some yummy foods or cute crafts next :)

i'm happy to be back and am excited to share my journey.  makena is going to be the BEST big sister. however, i don't think kona is amused that there will be ANOTHER baby to knock her down even lower on the totem pole.  i will leave you with a few pictures that i have refrained from posting before i announced. 

11 weeks and already looking like i'm 20. i'm gonna be huge...again. oy.

happy saturday! go penn state!

southern style.

first of all i just have to say that i feel really uncomfortable writing this post while watching an episode of extreme weight loss......and drinking a glass of wine. ok, i don't feel bad enough to change the channel.

i guess we can admit that we miss georgia a little bit.  summers are hell but the company and the food was amazing. *shout out to my EM i miss you dearly my sweet friend!* anyways, they were the inspiration for tonight's meal. i've been on a total spicy kick and i have (had!) a 2 lb bag of shrimp in the freezer just waiting to be spiced up.  some may call this a shrimp overload but it was perfect for us.  i decided to cook the spicy garlic shrimp as an app since it took 5 minutes and the boil took 35.  the pictures will tell the story.  my house still smells of creole/old bay/cajun spice and its heaven. i hope you enjoy as much as we did.

action shot.

stopped to creep on my adorable family playing so nicely

add lots of extra creole seasoning and go to town! nomnomnomnom.

snuggle bug

it's been a long day. i sit here typing this on my phone with my sweet girl sleeping on my shoulder. 

these moments never happen and she's being spoiled (ok I'm being spoiled) because we just spent the last 1.5 hrs at the dr. i'm fully aware that I had a paranoid mom moment but it was worth the peace of mind. makena woke up this morning kinda "off" and kept grabbing at her chest, right where her heart is. i didn't like the location so i watched it for a few hours. she did it a few more times and when i went to put her down for a nap her breathing seemed weird, like she kept holding her breath. to make a long story short, i set up an appt and took her in. turns out she probably just slightly pulled a muscle. her chest, very and lungs sound great so i'm a happy mama. 

kens and i have had a great week. kacy and madilyn drove down from merced. it means so much to me when good friends are willing to come visit. we did what we usually do when we get together. lounged, ate, shopped and simply enjoyed each others company.

 jon has been in vegas since sunday working nonstop so makena and i are happy to have him home in a few hours. that's it for now. i've made a few new dinners lately and fully intend to post them soon, once things quiet down around here (and i'm not holding a 20 lb toddler). 

it's really not that hard.

i'm fully aware that all of my writing is lower cased. i actually have to force my auto correct to let that happen, which is why it baffles my mind that people can get these wrong so often. i'm no english major and i'm sure you will be able to find 5-10 grammatical errors in this post alone but the following typos make me cray cray. it's like schools don't even teach this anymore. ok rant over. 

i think i blame facebook. it seems like people became dumber once we started using it, myself included haha. 

anyway, here's the recipe I talked about last time. it was decent. I suggest doubling the "dressing" and also adding some additional salt and seasoning. otheriwse it's good and makes for a healthy side dish. 

i'm too lazy tonight to type it all out so i've taken a picture. enjoy.

and of course here's some ridiculously cute pictures of my child. who, by the way, stood unassisted by herself for the very first time today for a good ten seconds!!! proud mama.

hi.

nothing too exciting to post, just a few pictures of the weekend in san diego that has now turned into what will be a week and a half long stay. jon will be gone so much i decided just to stay here til next monday when we were gonna come back to drop makena off before camping for the 4th. 

my weekend consisted of yummy food, good company and some line dancing. my old college roommate diana is in town for the week (she's actually the one who introduced jon and i...sure glad she did). we went dancing at incahoots which is always a blast. celebrated my brother-in -law's graduation, had a nice dinner in old town, had play date for kona with tina's dog eika and went to the beach today. makena was NOT a fan but we will break her in. ;) also, my baby turned 16 months this weekend. so big!

i finally made the green smoothie for breakfast the other day and it was delicious! you really don't taste the spinach at all. i'd suggest cutting the portion size in half. i couldn't drink it all and it kept me full for a long time. mmm now this sounds so yummy I may make it as a snack. 

making some greek style squash as a side for dinner tonight. will post the recipe and pictures later or tomorrow. 

remember san diego friends, i'm here all week and would love to play! xoxo

blogging in traffic.

don't worry, i'm not driving. heading down to san diego yet again for a few reasons. 

1.) my mom is my best friend and I would rather hang out with her than stay in redlands and make my own friends. i'm so cool. text me sd friends, i should probably stop going to bed at 9:30 and actually do something social.

2.) jon is going to be working like a mad man over the next week so instead of being a single mom in redlands i'd rather be a single mom in san diego.

so i lied about my breakfast today. i had every intention of making the green spinach smoothie but then I saw my beautiful ripe avocado sitting there just waiting to be eaten so I changed my mind. my wonderful friend emily gave me this recipe and i've been wanting to try it so I did. here you have it:

i don't actually know what it is called so i shall name it the avocado egg melt. super high in protein and healthy fats. good for you and delicious 

ingredients:

-whole avocado 

-2 eggs

-cayenne pepper and garlic salt 

-shredded cheddar cheese 

remove the stone from an avocado. scoop out a little more avocado to increase the size of the stone's crater. crack an egg into the crater. sprinkle with cayenne pepper and garlic salt (cheese too if you desire). bake in the oven at 400 degrees until egg is cooked to the level you like, about 10-20 minutes

and here is a picture of my good little traveler, super excited to see dida and pap pap. 

of course I did my costco run a few days ago without knowing i'd be coming to poway this weekend so i decided to make one of my upcoming meals to bring to eat and share tonight. haven't actually tried it yet but it looks yummy and healthy. 

it's a cold orzo pasta with chicken and vegetables. 

recipe:  

you'll need: 

-8 ounces uncooked orzo pasta 

-juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)

-1 tsp dijon mustard 

-1 shallot, minced (i used a green onion cause its what i had)

-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 

-salt and pepper to taste 

-2 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken 

-1/2 english cucumber, chopped 

-1 large carrot, shredded 

-1/2 red bell pepper, chopped 

-1/2-1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved 

-1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

directions:

1. cook pasta as directed on box. strain and transfer to a very large bowl (it needs room to cool as well as room for all of the other ingredients--and stirring room!).
2. while the pasta cooks, prepare dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, mustard, shallot, oil, salt and pepper.
3. add dressing and chicken to warm pasta and toss to combine. place in fridge to chill.
4. while the pasta is chilling, prep your vegetables and parsley. Add them to cooled (or mostly cooled) pasta and chicken mixture. serve immediately or store in fridge until ready to eat.

happy weekend friends!