Fruit and Veg Muffins

My muffin top is all that.

The rest of the muffin is delicious too though.

I made these for Shamblin but I could barely keep my little paws off them either. They were so tasty!

What You Need, Friends

1 whole zucchini 

1/2 cup shredded carrots

2 overly ripe bananas

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Cut your zucchini into bite sized chunks and steam it for about 10 minutes or until tender.

After it has cooled off a bit blend up enough to have 1/2 cup pureed zucchini.

mix the applesauce and brown sugar together.

Mash up the bananas and throw them in with the sugar and applesauce along with the carrots and zucchini.

Mix the two eggs into the batter.

then add the flour, salt, and baking soda.

grease muffin pan and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.

Then enjoy the heck out of them like this little guy did.

Quinoa Burgers

I always have such a hard time coming up with lunch ideas. Usually I will just make myself a sandwich or some sort of wrap and pair it with some pretzels. 

That can get pretty boring after a while though..

On top of that Shamblin is starting to eat solid foods! Well he has been eating purees for a while but I'm talking about little bits of food that he can feed himself with. 

Its like the dawn of a new era.. I can watch him feed himself and do the dishes! Or I can peruse Pinterest. Or I can eat myself! Talk about some freedom.

The problem is I can have a lack of imagination when it comes to toddler finger foods. At least delicious finger foods that I know he will eat and not throw on the floor.. on purpose that is.

So I found this recipe on pinterest for quinoa burgers. If you don't know what quinoa is, it is kind of like rice.. but healthier. At least that is my definition of it.

Well these little beauties were delicious. Shamblin loved them too! Which is always a plus. And they stick together really well so they are perfect for his little fingers!
I got the recipe from here.
I did modify it just a tad.. basically I just cooked the quinoa in beef broth instead of water so it would have more flava flave. oh yeah. I also left out some spices and used all purpose flour instead of wheat but you get my drift.

Quinoa Burgers

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups beef broth

1/2 cup kidney beans

3/4 cup shredded cheese of choice (I used cheddar)

1/2 cup shredded carrots

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon cream cheese at room temp

2 eggs

2 tablespoons white onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Heat 2 cups of beef broth in a saucepan. While that is happening go ahead and rinse the quinoa. When the broth is boiling add the quinoa. Stir it around a little bit then set on low heat. Cover and let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until it is done. Then let the quinoa cool off. I put mine is a separate bowl so it would cool down faster.

While the quinoa is cooking mash up the kidney beans until they form a thick paste. Put them into a mixing bowl along with the cheese and cream cheese. Mix those 3 ingredients altogether.

When the cheese and beans are mixed add everything except for the quinoa and stir until combined.

When the quinoa is good and cooled off add  it to the rest of the ingredients.

Heat a skillet on medium heat with a dash of olive oil. Make the patties as big as you like. I would spoon it out onto the skillet until it looked big enough to me. Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes or until crispy and goldenish brown.

And there you have it! Delicious quinoa patties. I served mine on a hamburger bun with lettuce, cheese, tomato, and a little bit of BBQ sauce. It was awesome.

God is Bigger than the Boogie Man

We have finally established a wonderful morning routine.
For a long time it was sporadic. It all depended on how well Mr. Shamblin slept the night before. For a few months it was rough..
It's nice now.
Paul leaves about 4:45 am to go workout with our friend Matt. I call that dedication.
He gets home around 6:30 and wakes me up with lots of kisses and makes me feel his muscles.
I very sleepily pat his arm and fall back asleep until 7:00. That is when the little bean starts cooing to himself.
I wake up and get Shamblin and we join daddy for breakfast.

It's good and it's sweet to spend time with family in the morning. I love it!

This morning Paul told me something a little shocking. He said when he left for work this morning our garage door was open. And it had been wide open all night long.
Yikes..
But that's not all..
Paul also said in the middle of the night he went into the living room to find his head phones.
He felt someone's presence. Someone was in our house.

When he told me that I felt like my heart dropped to the floor. I was terrified! I couldn't believe it.
I think Paul saw the panicked look on my face because he quickly stated that he didn't think it was a person in our house.
He said he thinks he felt the LORD in our home.
He told me he felt like someone was there and the presence felt BIG.

I immediately calmed.
Wow. Just wow.
If I ever needed assurance that our God is here and our God is listening, it was this morning.
I feel his omnipresence. He is here all of the time. Even when I think I can't find him.
He was here.

Best of Both Worlds Sauce

We eat a lot of pasta in this family. Mainly because it is delicious but also because it is a cheap and easy meal to throw together. Well one fine day I had a little leftover alfredo sauce. It was enough for one person but not quite enough for two. 

I've been to restaurants where they mix alfredo and tomato sauce together so I thought I would do that.

Oh my lambs. It was the most delicious pasta sauce I have ever tasted. It is now the only pasta sauce we eat. The other day I was out of heavy whipping cream so I couldn't make this sauce so we settled for regular tomato sauce. And I was disappointed. That has never EVER happened to me. I have never been disappointed by regular spaghetti sauce. 

We have been RUINED! Ruined I tell ya... and we love it..

Here is what you need.. and this batch makes a whole lot so feel free to half it.

2 sticks of butter

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 cups parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons cream cheese

1-2 cups tomato sauce (I use Ragu)

parsley

basil

salt

pepper

You can use a sauce pan if you wish. I like this skillet that has deep sides. It is good for making sauce. Turn it on medium low - medium heat. My pans get super hot so I always tend to put the heat on a lower setting. 

ok melt the butter. All of it. and get excited.

When butter is melted slowly pour in heavy whipping cream and whisk away.

Get it all nice and mixed together and get it pretty warm. You don't want it to boil.

Throw in a few tablespoons of parsley.

Now add the cream cheese and stir it around until it melts.

Then add the parmesan! I like to do a parmesan and asiago mix. So really you could use any kind of mix and match you want.. just do about 2 cups of whatever your doing. Get creative.

Now add about 1 to 2 cups of tomato sauce. It just depends on what you like.

mix it. mix it good.

now add some more parsley. Maybe about a tablespoon or two.. and then 2 tablespoons of basil. or less. Do what you want to do! Season it to taste so they say.

There it is in all of its glory.

Pour over your choice of noodles, devour, and try not to go back and eat the rest.

Meeting Shamblin

I can honestly say as of right now my favorite day of my whole life was Mother's Day. May 12, 2013.
That was the day I met Mister Shamblin.

 

Ok so I will say that Shamblin wasn't exactly planned... I found out that I was pregnant 7 weeks after we had been married. OOPS! Nevertheless he may have been a surprise but I was excited for his arrival since I found out he was coming.

I have been around babies my whole life. I've always loved them. Even since I was a baby I loved babies. I wasn't nervous about being a mom at all. I was more nervous about labor day.. and even though it was tough and it was painful it was the BEST day of my life.
One of the best parts about it is that I can finally understand how my Lord loves me. I get all teary eyed just thinking about it..

My due date was May 8th but I had been told that more than likely he would be late. I expected that. I was scheduled to be induced one week after my due date. But by golly I was determined to have that baby naturally! Saturday May 11th my wonderful sister-in-law Mallory and my best friend Jessica were both graduating OU. My mom told me I would have to wait until after Mal's graduation before I went into labor. haha.. I told her it really wasn't up to me. Which is true.. Her graduation came and went and later that afternoon we attended her graduation party.

I loved the look on people's faces when they would ask me when I was due and I told them, "Last Wednesday." priceless.

After the graduation party I was doing everything I could to naturally induce labor! walking, yoga, eating pineapple... the list goes on. It quite an eventful day.
My husband suggested that we go for a ride in the car and he would drive really fast and then slam on the breaks and see if anything happened.. lol I love him. He is so goofy.

At about 10:15 pm I decided to hop onto my husband's exercise bike. We were watching Futurama. I slowly pedaled while I watched the show for about 15 minutes. Then I went and sat on the couch with my dear husband.

about 10 seconds later I thought I peed my pants a little bit...or was it..???! So I called my doula, Shelby.
"Shelby I'm not sure if my water broke or if I just pee my pants.." She told me that if it was my water it would just keep coming. So it did! Oh my goodness I was so FREAKING excited! She told me to go on a walk around the neighborhood since I was not having any contraction yet.
Paul and I walked around in the dark. He kept asking me what we need to do and I told him we would call Shelby after the walk but that wasn't really good enough. You see my husband is a planner. To the exact detail.. and God forbid if that plan was to change.
Me.. I'm the exact opposite. So I went through what I figured was going to happen. After our walk we would go to the hospital.
So I called Shelby and I was having irregular contractions and they were not painful at all. She told me that since my water broke I should go to the hospital.
Before I told my husband that he asked if we could go to bed and leave when I started having more contractions.. poor soul. He was already so tired. I told him we had to go to the hospital so off we went! We got there around midnight.

That was when I called my mom. She was so excited but she had just gotten home from Norman! So she said to call when I had dialated to a 6. At that point I was at a 4.
So I get to my hospital room and all of the nurses were so lovely.  They asked me a million questions and got me all hooked up to a bunch of different machines. Finally around 3:00 am they told me they were done and I could get some rest. I still had not had any painful contractions yet.
So the nurse left and turned out the light. Paul was instantly asleep and I laid there a little too excited to sleep. about fifteen minutes later I started to doze off when I felt this huge pop in my back.
It was weird.. really weird.

and then it started.
ok yeah.. that contraction hurt a little bit.
five minutes later...
yep that one hurt too.
3 minutes later.
ooohhhhhh that one was more painful.
3 minutes later.
ow. owowow.
3 minutes later.
OOOOWWWWWW. Paul wake up! I need you!

and so it began. Shelby got there to help out with the pain. And she was amazing. She helped Paul coach me through all of the contractions. We walked around the halls and tried a birthing ball. They checked me around 5:30 am and I had dialated between a 6 and a 7.

unfortunately little Shamblin was facing the wrong way. So I had been having horrible back labor.
It was rough. It hurt.
I had been on my side for a while. At about 5:00 am was when I decided I was done walking. I was just trying to breathe through the contractions.

At this point the room was full with my mom, sister, husband, doula, and my nurse.They were all just so amazing.

I slightly remember Paul's parents coming in. I couldn't really talk to them because I was concentrating.. very hard..

My dad was there too.

sleeping. as per use. :)

Around 6:00 I decided I was done with all of this pain business. I mean why choose it when I didn't have to right?

Thank the Lord for epidurals. I know he cursed woman in the very beginning telling us that bearing a child would be painful.. but after centuries of seeing that I think he decided to give us a break ;-)

After my epidural I was feeling so much better.

 Like.. a lot better.

I could finally get some rest!

and so could my family

Since I had an epidural it did slow my labor down so they had to start me on pitocin.

Then a little before 11:00 am they came in to check me again.

I was dialated to a ten!

and it was time...

time to start pushing!!!

 Good job Shelby!

 Look at how excited he is.  Like a little kid on Christmas.

This is the face of a man who is about to meet his son.

I pushed... and pushed.. and pushed.. I pushed for TWO hours and fifteen minutes.

Obviously Shamblin was comfy where he was and didn't want to come out.

But finally he did.

I think this is the point where I started bawling. Like a.. well like a baby.

Look at that long noggin. 

7 pounds and 15 ounces of pure pride and joy.

That is one proud papa.

Yep. Best day of my life.

Thanks be to Champagne&blush for taking my pictures. I have the best sister ever!