Fish

Wes and I are trying to eat more fish, since its lean and has a lot of good cholesterol, but there are only so many ways to make fish appetizing to me. Not when I could have a juicy steak, you know? But, I have made it a point to serve fish once a week in our house for the past couple of months. Some of the classics are teriyaki salmon, tuna steak, and some kind of marinated mahi.

This week I made chicken piccata on Monday and had to buy a few random ingredients that I wasn't sure I would use again. So, I looked for a fish marinade that would use some of those same things. That is how I discovered this recipe for Tilapia. Tilapia is really mild and cheap, but this is the best fish recipe I have ever cooked!

It looks like it has a lot of ingredients which always scares me away from recipes. (If I have to buy a lot of things, its not cheap anymore and we might as well go out to eat.) The gist is this: you coat the tilapia with mayo (it doesn't take much and you can't taste the mayo at the end). Then you sprinkle an assortment of spices on it. If you don't have all of them, its ok! Then you fry it in a pan. I served it with brown rice and green beans.

There's a part at the end where you add white wine, butter, capers, etc. I did this, but you don't have to. It just makes a sauce to pour over the fish.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/fishrecipes/r/blfish31.htm

So try it and let me know what you think!

Friends

So the past couple of weeks have been kind of boring, I have to admit. I'm SO thankful for the rest I am getting, but with Wes in school and most of my friends and family not close, it has been boring. I know in a few months I will be longing for these carefree days though!

The GREAT thing that has come from the past month or so is that I have gotten to catch up with several friends in my life who I haven't talked to in ages! A few have been via long emails, some by meeting in person, others by phone. Carlson let me pick the restaurant that served fried catfish because I was craving it and Laura met me for Mexican even though she had already eaten there the day before :) Katie talked to me even though she was sleep deprived from being up all night at work and Amber risked missing LOST to talk to me. Lindzey will randomly call and we can immediately talk about the most personal things on earth even though I haven't seen her in forever! Sallie Ruth is really busy being a doctor and she talked to me for an hour today over her lunch break. Erin is also super busy being a doctor but always responds to my emails within a few hours and makes me smile. Suzanne lets me wake her up from naps to walk for an hour in the blazing sun and ask her a thousand questions about getting induced (she's a labor and delivery nurse). Barbara wrote a blog about me, really special. I actually have time to read blogs now and hers always makes me smile.

On Saturday, I FINALLY got to meet my cousin Lindsay's fiance, Nic, at a couple's shower. They have been dating for years. He's really cute and I can tell they are so good for each other! That same day, I got to stop by and see sweet Emily for awhile! She got to feel A kick! Then, on Monday, I had my first junior league meeting. Just there, I ran into several girls I had known in the past, and it was great to catch up with them!

This list isn't exhaustive of all the great friends in my life, just a hint of the recent past. It hasn't been very long ago where the thought of driving out of town for the weekend for a shower would have been nearly impossible because of school work. Talking on the phone for an entire HOUR to a friend would have been laughable. And, signing up for volunteer work couldn't have been further from my mind. Now that I have graduated, I realize how much I probably missed in all my friends' lives, though I tried my best while in school. They were always so supportive, and never once made me feel guilty for missing out. i.e. My friend Carlisle had a ton of fun showers and parties while she was engaged and I could only come to one. She was so amazing about it!

As quickly as this relaxing period has come, I suspect it will be gone come August, at least for a little while. But, in the meantime, I cherish the time I have to catch up with friends and family, but most of all, I thank God for ALL the wonderful people in my life. Thank you for sticking with me through these past 4 years!

Cool Strawberry Pie

Cool And EASY Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

2/3 cup boiling water
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Brand Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
Ice cubes
1/2 cup cold water
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping, thawed
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1 ready-to-use reduced fat graham cracker crumb crust (6 oz.)
1 cup sliced strawberries

Directions

STIR
boiling water into gelatin in large bowl at least 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice to cold water to measure 1 cup. Add to gelatin; stir until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice.
ADD
whipped topping; stir with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in chopped strawberries. Refrigerate 20 to 30 min. or until mixture is very thick and will mound. Spoon into crust.
REFRIGERATE
6 hours or overnight until firm. Top with sliced strawberries. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

Devine Chicken Divan

Tonight I made chicken divan, which is basically a broccoli/chicken/cheese casserole, from the recipe on the back of a can of cream of broccoli and cheese. It was SO easy and when it came out of the oven, I was so excited to eat it that I couldn't stand it. I am not a great cook, but I do try to cook often. The result is that we don't eat a lot of really good meals. Many of them are just "good-enough." And, my husband never complains. Like, NEVER. He has stomached some pretty gross things in our 3 years of marriage.

So I happily place his plate before him, steaming with broccoli and melting cheese and start eating with the fervor of someone who hasn't seen food in 3 days. He asks nicely, "Do you think there's any part of this that won't taste like broccoli?"

Huh? I mumble between bites. Oh... shoot. I completely forgot that Wes hates broccoli. That means I get to eat the whole casserole... It was a fleeting thought, don't judge. I did feel really bad as I watched him shuffle the broccoli around the chicken and do his best with it. I offered to cook him something else, ANYTHING else. But he declined. So, naturally, I had to eat the rest of the casserole since its the last time I'll ever get to make it.

In summary, I highly recommend the casserole. The only alterations I suggest are 1) use 3 chicken breasts that you have cut into cubes and boiled, instead of the canned chicken they recommend. 2) Add a little diced onion... which I didn't do because Wes doesn't like onion...

28 weeks

Today my sweet little girl is 28 weeks old! I can't believe it. It feels like only yesterday I was getting faint in the bathroom reading the pregnancy test! The second trimester was amazing... I felt so good and got to buy maternity clothes, we found out it was a girl and she started to kick. The third trimester is good, too, but in different ways. Then there are a few things that aren't so fun. My ligaments have started to loosen (which is normal) so sometimes when I walk, my hip kind of "goes out." I've also gained a LOT of weight and had to stop wearing my wedding rings after I woke up in the middle of the night to a throbbing swollen finger! And now, she kicks hard. None of those things really matter though and just let me know that the day is quickly approaching!

Speaking of "the DAY"... at my 28 wk visit, the Dr. schedule me for an induction on Aug. 5, which is a week early (39 weeks). Also, I BARELY passed the glucola test which checks your blood glucose level. Yikes, I probably should cut back on the sweets. I don't think icy pops really count though.

I decided to start doing some reading and preparing for her arrival this week. There are a LOT of books telling you how to be a good parent. I am planning on reading several to get different opinions, but yesterday I read Babywise. It is about getting your child on a feed, wake, sleep cycle which is crucial since I can only take a couple of weeks off work. But, the first chapter is about preserving your relationship with your spouse through the stress of a baby. I liked it and it felt good to start getting prepared for her arrival. Later that night though, I started worrying like crazy... what if she doesn't get on a good schedule, what if I can't breastfeed, what if we are clueless parents and don't do it right, what if what if what if. I've never been so excited about something and felt so unprepared in my life!

Luckily my husband is amazingly calm and talked me out of my insanity. The one thing I can be sure of in all this uncertainty is that Wes is going to be an awesome dad and that makes me smile.

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe

We are expecting our own Annabel in August and a few months ago, I heard about this poem by Edgar Allen Poe. Still an English major at heart, I fell in love with it and wanted to share it.

ANNABEL LEE
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Icy Pops

Since I'm 27 weeks pregnant and loving food more than ever, it only seems natural that my first blog should be about food. Specifically, icy pops. I re-discovered these delicious treats recently while I was hanging out with my sister. When I got back to Columbia, I went to Publix and got some, and haven't stopped eating them since. I was relieved to have found a snack that seemed pretty low on the guilt scale (as opposed to my other loves, pepperjack cheese and ranch flavored kettle chips). I couldn't find a nutrition label, so I assumed they must have basically NO calories. It wasn't until Wes showed me that they did, in fact, have a nutrition label attached to the mesh bag that I saw the calorie content--45 calories. For a stick of ice! Ergh. So now I try to keep it to a few a day.

Sidenote- I also re-discovered screwballs when the ice-cream truck came to our house in Spartanburg last week. YUM. You remember, the one with the bubble-gum at the bottom...