The weekly menu

This one will be a bit different because we were in the hospital for part of the week.  And then we got home and were treated to a couple of meals (take out from my mom and home-made from my girlfriend).

A word about those people before I continue with the food stuff…oh my GOSH our support system!  I can’t even begin to put into words how blessed Kyle and I feel to have such incredible family and friends supporting us in so so many ways.  It’s been a phenomenal, invaluable, and just plain mind blowing gift.  I have no doubt it has already saved me endless amounts of stress and therefore relieved SO MUCH of the strain that accompanies such massive life changes.  I could gush forever about the kindness, but instead I will focus on paying it forward.  I know I will some way in the future.

SO.

Saturday (pre-labor) we did allllll our weekly grocery shopping including Costco, TJs, and WFs (three stores back to back to back with a 40 week preggo and 2 year old is quite a Saturday I’ll tell you what!).  Once we hauled everything home and unpacked, Kyle grilled some yummies for us on the BBQ while we all played outside.

I used this marinade for the shrimp (minus the scallions).

Kyle made them perfect.

Since P is an a no shrimp phase we bought chicken for him.  He ate one leg and the rest I shredded for leftovers throughout the coming week.

I’m sure you recognize this salad by now…

And that’s dinner!

Dessert included chocolate from my target binge.

I’d never heard of Russel Stover but these were delish.  I mean, totally disgusting junk food delish, but delish just the same.  I had some Reese’s peanut butter cups too.  And probably chocolate sun butter bites also because I doubt the above filled me up enough.

Sunday morning I went into labor so (not surprisingly) I don’t have many pics from the day.  I felt minor contractions from 6:45 am on, but wasn’t sure they were real until around 8:30.  Kyle and I went on our usual jog to Safeway(‘s Starbucks) for coffee/tea and on the way home I called my mom to tell her it was likely happening today.  She (and my sister/dad) were on stand by to take P in the event we had to go to the hospital so they were at the ready.  But it wasn’t urgent or anything so I told her I’d call when I felt like the timing was more imminent.  Back at home I made us breakfast, and we went about our normal morning routine..just with some cramping added in.  🙂

After lunch my mom came over and then the contractions got more real.  We went to the hospital around 3 pm, at which point I was pretty certain we were going way prematurely (but the hospital is almost an hour away so, ya know, better be safe…).  My contractions weren’t as horrible as they were with P and while they definitely hurt (duh) they were bearable and so I figured we were jumping the gun.  Turns out, not so.  I was admitted as soon as they checked me.  Anyway, I may or may not blog about that part in detail later, but for now I’ll get back to the food.

We spent two nights in the hospital (eating mostly take away from the Roseville WF) and came home early Tuesday afternoon.  While in the hospital and away from P I took full advantage and ate ALL THE ALLERGENS.  Basically I lived off hummus and Mary’s Gone crackers.  Oh hummus, you are so so missed.

The hospital eats weren’t amazing, but they did have vegetarian and gluten free options.

I dipped the green beans in hummus, so obviously they were yummy.  But then the tofu and noodles were bland so I added hummus to those too.

How cute are those little grape packets?  Those are tofu and black bean enchiladas.  Meh.

Both breakfasts were from WF (eggs and potatoes times two).  And the above dinner was as well (chicken and brown rice and baby carrots and dark chocolate covered almonds).

As you can see we accumulated a lot of food in just 2 days.  Breast feeding makes me huuuuungry.

And then we got to go home!

My mom treated us all to sushi that first night back home.  It was awesome.  I don’t have photos.

The next night was Wednesday so obviously we had to hit up the farmer’s market.  Sadly, the few options I really wanted weren’t there so I settled for a corn dog from The Hotdogger.  With several different kinds of mustard.  Some were too spicy.  Since it was a big trip just to get us all to market we didn’t stay very long.  Took the food home and ate while feeding P because I couldn’t wait.

On Thursday night my girlfriend brought us food.  She’s the best.  As you can see, the plates were labeled with allergens and P had his own plate (plain ground beef, wild rice and tomatoes, sautéed bell peppers/onions), with gluten free tortillas (they had soy so P couldn’t actually have them but we took care of them).

The rest of the plates had ground beef (with seasoning), black beans, corn, lettuce, and cheese (in a baggy because Kyle is the only one who eats dairy).

I made a taco salad kind of thing and added mega avo and salsa on top.  It was so easy and so yummy!  And the best part of all was P ate EVERYTHING and I didn’t even have to worry about his allergies because my friend totally understands our (his) food sitch.

She also brought me beer (hops for milk supply!), ginger chews, and lots of TJs chocolate.

I just can’t even get over the love.

This was also one of the very few times P has eaten “assembled’ food (as in not just a mise en place of all the separate ingredients used in the meals I made).  So much progress in one small meal.

On Friday night I MADE A MEAL!  I actually cooked chicken and chopped things and stuff.

I think this is actually worthy of a blog post!  I made it up and Kyle and I were both digging it.

I meant to use roasted chickpeas for the protein, but I had to use chicken because (a) Patty-cakes ate all the ones I previously roasted and (b) we had chicken that needed to be used asap.

And on Saturday our neighbor brought us chicken, couscous, and asparagus.  It. Was. So. Yummy.  (!!!!)

I’m asking for the recipe for the chicken because oh my yum.  I even ate the couscous despite the gluten because I am not in the position to turn down carbs right now.   Or ever really, but for wheat containing food that I didn’t have to cook myself, I’m especially lenient right now.

Now it’s time to get organized and plan things out so I can dip into the freezer stash as Kyle goes back to work and I adjust to mom-ing my two babes.