WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

CHICKEN PICCATA WITH PASTA AND

ARUGULA TOMATO AND ONION SALAD!

(photo taken from Itouch quality not that great)

CHICKEN PICCATA PASTA

Ingredients

• 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied and then cut in half
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup brined capers, rinsed
• one box of spaghetti noodles

Directions

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add 2 pieces of chicken and cook for 3 minutes.

When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes.

Remove and transfer to plate. Melt 2 more tablespoons butter and add another 2 tablespoons olive oil.

When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the other 2 pieces of chicken and brown both sides in same manner.

Remove pan from heat and add chicken to the plate.

Into the pan add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Return to stove and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor.

Check for seasoning. Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

 Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to sauce and whisk vigorously.

On the plate add your boiled soft spaghetti noodles and add your chicken ontop, than pour your sauce right over every thing.

ARUGULA TOMATO AND ONION SALAD

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups young arugula leaves, rinsed and dried
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Lemon Juice

PREPARATION:

In a large plastic bowl with a lid, combine arugula, cherry tomatoes, and your chopped up onion

Than create your lemon vinagrette.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add vinagrette to the arugula.

 Cover, and shake to mix.

FINDING THE TIME

 If it's not work than its taking care of Aevah who is becoming a very adventures little one. She has been keeping us on our toes 24/7. As cute to see her grow into the little girl she is today, I must say J and I find it quite hard to do things now. For me, I used to be on task with editing videos, keeping up with our family blog and updating my facebook but now I find myself away from the laptop for days. Which is pretty unusual for a computer addict. But I'm used to it now, I finally learned how to break away from the computer and take care of things that is much more important. So sorry! For the lack of posts, this pretty much explains what's been going on.

Sooner or later I will be posting up our spring cleaning project which  is long over due because we are coming to the end of March, a 4 year anniversary video of me and J, my pregnancy updates for week 28 and 29, and of course updates on our soon to be one years old Aevah. So keep an eye out for that and yeah! Guess I'll talk to you folks in the next blog......

Love From, J & A

OUR ELEVEN MONTH OLD AEVAH

AEVAH AND HER BUDDY "KOKO"

About 2.5 years ago J and I got this gorilla at a thrift store for our god daughter

Shanya because she was into gorillas and monkeys. But sadly we never got the chance to send it to her and now she is no longer into the gorilla and monkey phase, so Koko which J named this gorilla,was stuffed away in our closet. And now our Aevah girl loves Koko the gorilla. She lounges back on him as she drinks her bottle or sometimes she just lies on Koko's big belly and reads a book! So I must say Koko came in good use after all!!!

27 WEEKS AND 6 DAYS PREGNANT

 Just like week 26, week 27 flew by in a blink of an eye... I am officially in my third trimister! And lets just say, I’ve been torn between a deep urge within my gut to get things taken care of and the opposing weight of complete exhaustion. As much as I'm into this pregnancy, I remember my pregnancy with Aevah that Nesting turns from an interest in browsing every possible website that carries cute girly baby items to a need to scrub my floors.  And this is coming from me, someone who loves to keep things organized, but doesn’t enjoy any kind of cleaning that actually involves soap or a rag. I must admit though, everyone at work loves me. Now that I'm nesting I've been able to maintain three dept. in a 4-5 hour mark all by myself. Talk about saving the company money huh! Thank god I got reconized for my pregnancy nesting mode and made employee of the month. haha!

 Any ways, beside my crazy nesting symptoms. I've also been experiencing some off and on back pains. It is so annoying, constant aching and no solution. I mean every night at around midnight, my back has this aching pain right smack in the center. ARRGH! Nothing can make it go away, J tries to massage me so I can go to sleep but that doesn't help. I tried changing different sleeping positions but that doesn't help either. So I lay awake for hours till my eye lids feel as if a menehune (little people) is standing on top of it It's been pretty harsh for me. But I wonder if it could be I'm overly working myself at work or if its because my bed is just too soft?

As for cravings this week I would say it is still the same! Nothing really changed. What can I say, I love my sweets!!!

All in all, this pregnancy is going great. I couldn't be any happier with how things are progressing. Aiyana is very active and she loves to move around when Aevah talks to her so that is too cute!!! I cannot wait till this is over with though, I am anxiously waiting....

Good bye Second trimister, Hello Third trimsiter! 82 more days left YAY!!!!

UPDATE ON US

 So it's been approximately 3 days since we updated our blog and we apologize for that. J and I have been extremely busy spring cleaning our girl's room. We are almost done but still have some things to take care of, but its really hard with a little active Aevah around. Normally she takes an hour nap twice a day but apparently on the days we do our spring cleaning, she decides to stay up and take only a 15 minute nap or no nap at all. J and I try to trade off so one or the other can entertain her, but she demands to have both of us there! So we pretty much have to stop what we're doing, tend to her playful needs and hope that all the running around and play time we do with her will wear her out, but nope! She loves play time... So we pretty much do every thing, every two hours or so. This is not what we hoped for. But hey! That's life as parents, nothing goes as planned some times, you just have to go with the flow and work with what have... Later tonight the girls room should be done, if Aevah continues on her awesome 7:30pm sleep schedule....  FINGERS CROSSED!

OUR LITTLE SLEEPING BEAUTY!

Here is two cute photo's of Aevah taking a nap in the middle of the day!



26 WEEKS AND 6 DAYS PREGNANT

                      I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. This week just came and went! Just a little bit of 3 months to go, and I am still in disbelief on how quick this trimister is progressing. It's crazy! I am definitely showing, and I find it really difficult when it comes to carrying my soon to be one year old. Last week I was able to pick her up fine, but I guess with this rapid growth I'm experiencing (not just me but also my developing little Aevah) the things I'm normally used to doing  is not the same. My back has been bothering me and so has my legs. I'm not sure if its because the pregnancy or if its due to work, but I think its because of both. Although work has lessen my hours since I'm pregnant, I still find myself limping in the end of night. When it's time for me to go to sleep, it takes me literally an hour to find my comfortable spot. So I must admit this week is completely different from the week before. And that is why, I am getting nervous yet! Very excited as I am getting closer to my due date.

   At my previous doctors appointment, I was scheduled to do a gestational diabetes glucose test. Let just say I was nervous! But with the specific instruction I was given by my doctor on how to take the test to get the greatest accuracy, I was well prepared. With Aevah, I failed my GD test and it completely stressed me out and taking the 3 hour test was not fun at all so when it came to that time again! I made sure I did every thing right. And guess what? It paid off. Cause that day I was the only patient who passed my glucose test, and it felt really good. I have to say too, that Jeremy played a big part with this preparation. He made sure I followed the rules, and he made sure I drank the nasty yucky drink an hour before my appointment and no later! He really guided me through.

   Overall week 26 was not a bad week! Cravings are still the same, my belly is developing rapidly, my symptoms varies depending on what I'm doing and my health is right on point. So just 14 more weeks to go!!! YAY =)

  

FIRST FAMILY ROAD TRIP PT04

HAPPY GIRL'S DAY!

HAPPY GIRL'S DAY TO MY GIRLS.

LOVE, DADDY!

GLUCOSE TEST YUCK!

 Most healthcare practitioners routinely recommend a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy to check for gestational diabetes, a high blood sugar condition that some women get during pregnancy. ("Baby Center")..

How is the screening test done?

When you arrive for the test, you'll be given a sugar solution that contains 50 grams of glucose. The stuff tastes like a very sweet soda pop (it comes in cola, orange, or lime flavor), and you have to get all of it down in five minutes. Some centers keep it chilled or let you pour it over ice and drink it cold.
An hour later (bring a book or magazine!), your practitioner or a technician will take a blood sample from your arm to check your blood sugar level. The idea is to see how efficiently your body processes sugar. Results should be available in a few days.
If the reading is abnormal (too high), which happens 15 to 23 percent of the time, your practitioner will have you come back for a three-hour glucose tolerance test to see if you really do have gestational diabetes. The good news is that most women whose screening test shows elevated blood sugar don't turn out to have gestational diabetes.

My Update:
 Well I took the test yesterday and I'm proud to share with you that I passed, in fact I was the only patient that passed yesterday so I was super happy. I am not a diabetic nor do I have any thing to worry about.... I guess me not eating or drinking any thing after midnight and in the morning after waking up was worthy afterall. YAY!!!!

ONE MONTH PROJECT

It is the beginning of March... And that means it is the start of our "one month general clean project". . Jeremy and I are giving ourselves exactly one month to turn our 2 bedroom / 2 bath apartment into not just a place we rent, but into a place that feels like a home. So we will be cleaning, organizing and re-decorating each and every room in our apartment. Due to the fact that Jeremy and I work 5 days a week, we have only two days out of the week to get things taken care of (Wednesday and Thursday). So our project needs to be done by March 31st...

Why did we choose to do this?
Jeremy and I have a past of being big time procrastinators, we have never gotten things done on time, we in fact have this tendency to put things aside and wait till the last minute. So we wanted to change that, and start off the new year more responsible, organized and committed. We are also currently expecting baby#02 in less than 4 months so before things can get out of control we needed to start off by taking care of our apartment, the messy and unorganized part of our life. So we both agreed to do this big project when I'm 5 months pregnant and still filled with energy.

SO WHAT'S THE PLANS?

Week one and Week Two:(March 2-3) (March 9-10)
(Tackling the girl's room)
We have used our daughter's room as a storage room for the past 5 months. We pretty much throw every thing in that room, so it is a complete mess. In fact, sad to say but you CAN'T even walk in there. Every thing is literally all over the place. We know and we are prepared to be spending lots of hours in the girl's room. We want to make sure it is safe, organized for a soon to be one year old and a new born and of course baby friendly...
Week Three - Week Four: (March 16-17) (March 23-24)
(Tackling our room)
Like the girls room, our bedroom is off limits. During the holiday season, I've let the room go out of control. It is such a mess in there, I can't believe I let it get that way I'm kind of embarrass to be honest. In fact, because it is so messy and freezing cold in our room, J and I literally dragged our bed into our living room and sleep in there instead. So we don't really have our own space to go to. We want to change that, we want our bedroom back! So we are going to be turning our messy room into our master bedroom we always wanted.
Week Five: (March 30-31)
(Re-decorating our living room/kitchen)
Jeremy and I have been using our living room as if its a studio. We have my daughter's pack n play (which is where she sleeps), our big queen size bed, a coffee table and a couch smack in the middle of the living room. We also have our daughter's toys piled up in front of our beautiful fire place, her walker next to the front door and a high chair right by the couch. So with all the big and bulky items we have, we don't really have the space for my daughter to crawl around in the day/night time. But all of this will change this week, cause I've been researching online for the past two months on living room ideas and I have few ideas on what I can do... I'm so excited!!! As for the kitchen, well I'm actually proud to say that this is probably the less messy part of our house. What we plan on doing here is child proofing all the cabinets and drawers, purchase a few more of cooking utensil and de-clutter our counter tops and purchase a few storage things so every thing can be neat and not taking up any space. But other than that, we pretty much kept our kitchen under control. So yay!

So now that we have shared with you our plans for this month and your are informed on our apartment condition, we welcome you to follow us on this project. Each week will be posting up updates on our progress, so keep an eye out for that. We are excited, we are ready and we can't wait! Here is to a new and improved lifestyle... 

OUR FIRST FAMILY ROAD TRIP PT.03