This weekend was full of relaxing at home. Thank goodness!
Last weekend I came down with mastitis and was way too ambitious for my own good. We went to a football game with a couple and their 6 month old on Saturday. And then traveled to the East Bay for a baby shower on Sunday.
It was really fun, but I my suffer-in-silence-and-just-push-through-it approach completely backfired. Come Monday I felt like crap and it was just me and pacman left to our own devices.
Raise your hand if you’re surprised by my stubbornness…nobody? Yeah that’s what I thought. Typical Elise, in denial about how much resting it would take to conquer mastitis without antibiotics.
Lots of easy food. Like steel cut oats in the rice cooker. And Halloween candy (yikes…that spiraled way out of control). And popcorn.
I just sprayed the kernels with olive oil (using my mister) in a brown paper bag and microwaved until the popping slowed.
It took me until Wednesday to recognize that setting my alarm to work out first thing in the morning was a really bad idea. Determined? Or bull-headed? Oh Elise.
God bless the crock pot!!
On the left: tempeh braised with figs and port wine over brown rice
On the right: green curry tofu & veggies
The tempeh and fig recipe is from Kathy Hester’s (amazing) book, The Vegan Slow Cooker.
Napping baby means it’s time to get chopping!
We just re-started our Tobin James wine club membership (it’s been on hold for the past 1/2 year because we were broke) and the shipment came this week. With port! Perfect!
The figs were harder to track down because the season is coming to a close. Neither the co-op nor Nugget market had them. But the Farmer’s market came through. So I got a bunch for this meal and for snacking.
I even had fresh thyme, thanks to the herb stash I took home from my mom’s garden last week.
The only change I made was doubling the amount of tempeh. Because Kyle and I are pigs. It was supposed to serve way more than two people but there were no leftovers.
Definitely tasted better than it looks.
This tofu and veggie curry was just as popular for our taste buds.
Guess who finally made it to the Trader Joe’s in Davis!?!
This thai green curry simmer sauce is one of several awesome products I came home with. Unfortunately I still have to go to the co-op for a few random things they didn’t have, which is a bummer. I wish I could do all my grocery shopping at one place. As it is I already do monthly Costco runs in addition to the weekly co-op trips. Too much! I don’t have time for this business!
I cooked the veggies in the slow cooker (broccoli, yukon gold potatoes, celery, mushrooms) and baked the tofu in the oven. [I could have thrown the tofu in the crock pot too, but I wanted them to be extra firm and baking them for a long time really gets that dense texture that I like.] Then I combined them and poured the sauce all over. Kyle’s was served over couscous, mine was over forbidden rice.
This sauce is great! Awesome complex flavors with just a bit of a kick.
I finally started to feel a bit better on Thursday, thanks to the newest additions to Netflix (I’m looking at you Sister Wives). Couch time is good for mama, but boring for baby.
I did manage to get a few park visits and some arts and crafts time in.
These were more of a hilarious disaster than they look. Rather than press his hand down to make an impression, P kept grabbing the flour dough and squeezing it between his fingers. In the end I got one decent ornament. I’ll take it!
FYI, the recipe I used was 1/2 cup flour + 1/4 cup salt + 1/3 cup water. Flattened into circles with handprint pressed. Baked for 3 hours at 200 degrees F.
Anyway, like I said before, this weekend was mellow.
Lots of football and park time.
I had peanut buttery oats for breakfast. Then we went to the farmer’s market to grab some stuff for dinner.
Back at home, I had leftovers for lunch. I made this hemp pesto earlier in the week, which I added into TruRoots brown rice penne.
I topped it with two fried eggs.
Dinner revolved around this guy…
My sister sent it to Kyle as a congrats, so we did our al fresco thing (minus the outside part since it gets dark way early now).
Milton’s crackers, olive oil roasted almonds, carrots, Fresh N Nova cilantro hummus, Mary’s Gone crackers, grapes, and Redwood Hill Farm goat bucheret cheese.
The highlight for me was the cheese.
It’s so tall! I also saw it being made when I toured their facility a few months ago. So cool seeing it go from fresh milk to curds to a moldy block of cheese to the product in my fridge.
It says to top it with honey, so I followed the suggestion. I used the local honey I bought at the Santa Monica farmer’s market.
Oh. My. Gahhhhhh.
I could have had this and the bubbly alone. Okay, that’s basically what I did. I love snack face dinners.
Sunday started pretty much the same way. Peanut butter-y steel cut oats.
Daylight savings really effed us because patty-cakes doesn’t really sleep past 7 am anymore. On the plus side, he is finally starting to nap a little bit better. I shouldn’t really complain since he still sleeps for 14+ hours. Uninterrupted.
For lunch I scrambled two eggs and topped them with pumpkin sage cashew sauce (recipe coming). Mary’s Gone crackers and carrots on the side.
Pumpkin banana smoothie as a snack. Also, (unpictured) kale chips. They’re so $$$ but so goooood.
For dinner we made Vicolo pizzas. I ate 3/4 of the large size making my dinner kcal count in the upper 900 range. I think I’m going to breastfeed forever. It’s awesome for my metabolism.
And now that I’ve gotten in all the rest I should have gotten last weekend and my mastitis has seemingly resolved, I’m excited to get back on the fitness wagon this week. Wahoo!
How did the mastitis develop? My boy is a month older so I’m worried….
I’ve been on an egg kick for breakfast lately but your peanut buttery oats look so amazing that I might have to go back to steel cut oats for a few weeks! YUM! Hope you’re feeling better! Oh, and I’m making your lentil and mushroom loaf for dinner! Can’t wait!
I am sorry you were sick, but glad you are feeling better! P is looking less like a baby and more like a little boy…super cute!
Courtney
Haha…That last part had my laughing! I want to breastfeed forever too!
I am obsessed with homemade popcorn as a snack right now! Where did you get your mister? I was thinking of getting two: one for olive oil and one for coconut oil. Not sure if coconut oil is a good idea though since it turns solid…
i know right?!?!!
i got mine at target. i dont think coconut oil would work for the reason you mentioned. im just not sure you could keep it in a liquid state and you cant microwave the mister…
from what i understand its more rare once you pass the 3 month mark. it typically develops from a clogged duct that results from not being properly drained. so like if your babe doesnt eat well and then you dont nurse on that breast for a while. unlike most people i can pretty much tell exactly how/when it happened because he was super tired one night and fell asleep before he nursed very much. and since he sleeps for 14 hour stretches at night my boob was still full…and by morning it was red and swollen and really sore. i was hoping it was just a clogged duct but i felt like i had the flu later that day…mastitis…womp womp. i think my head throbbing was the worst part of it, but it sucked all around. lots of hot compresses, massaging (ouch!!!), and fluids. and rest.
Oh no! Sorry about the mastitis. I haven’t gotten it (yet), but it’s worried me since day one! I’m glad you’re feeling better though!
And are there new seasons of Sister Wives on Netflix?! If so, I need to get on that.
oh man, mastitis is hard. glad you are feeling better. I’m starting to think that “type-A ambitious control-freak mom” syndrome is really like an addiction. For people with higher-needs babies, like my first was, it requires hitting rock bottom and then a change as the baby’s needs are elevated. But with a baby who isn’t higher-needs like your sweet LO, you might be able to hang tight and ride it out. Sometimes I miss my old ways, but not really, it was my old life. My daughter is now 4 and I am finally ready to include her in football games and baby showers. Barely. But def not back to back!
That curry looks awesome. Wonder if I could do the veggies in a steamer as I think I’m gone too long during the day to use the crockpot for just veggies?
There are more episodes!! Haha. That show is so addictive.
I wish you lived close by so we could have play dates and mommy dates.
Mastitis sucked. Just try to make sure you empty your breasts each time you nurse. It’s unemptied boobs that leads to clogged and then infected ducts. See my first response for more. My mistake was not pumping after he had a poor feed. Had I done that before the long nights sleep I’m sure I would have dodged it.
I hear ya.
And yes I’m sure the steamer would work.
Pumpkin sage cashew sauce?!?! I’ll be dreaming about that until it’s posted here.
Made your grain free banana bread. Amazing! Only thing is I used stevia in the raw baking blend which gave me a huge headache. I think I will try maple syrup next time. I also baked it in a regular loaf pan and just got a shorter loaf I only baked for 30 minutes.
How many servings did you get? I got about 5.
Ahh I see. My boy doesn’t ever more than 4 hours so it doesn’t look like I will have the same issue. Good to know just in case he decides to let mom get a full night’s rest. That sucks though, sorry you went through that!
Oh btw, the egg in oatmeal thing-it just makes the oatmeal have a richer french toast-esque taste. You have to beat it well and stir it in slowly so it incorporates like when you make ice cream vs having scrambled eggs in the oatmeal. Works really well I swear and isn’t weird as well. P is gorgeous as usual-still reminds me of my blue eyed boy too. Can’t believe my little guy will be ONE in less than 2 months, just ordered his birthday invites and almost cried picking out the pictures. He is losing the baby look too:(.
that cheese + honey…. I NEED it!!!
That fig/port/tempeh meal sounds awesome!! Its weird but i actually prefer dried figs, the texture of fresh weirds me out. But i love to soak the dried figs in a bowl of heated port,add a splash of basalmic and salt/pepper and blitz together for a sauce.
The snacky dinner is still brilliant-especially the bubbly!
are you doing the 30 day shred by jillian right now? i seem to remember previous posts that you have done it before. what do you think? i need to get my butt in gear and i’m hoping this will be something that will help kickstart that. 🙂 thanks.
Yup! Doing each level of the shred each week w 1-2 running days. I workout first thing in the morning. So my sched is something like: level 1, run, level 2, level 3, run, level 1, rest day. Repeat! It’s working! I feel stronger already!
That last pic of pacman is suck a Kyle face!! I love it! Great blog post 🙂
that sounds like a good routine! thank you 🙂