Weekend Wrap Up

Good Morning!! I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. (& if you didn’t get a long weekend, I am sorry, but hopefully your day was still nice)

Craig & I celebrated our two year anniversary yesterday! It was VERY low key- we didn’t do anything for it. We just enjoyed our time off from work and played with Gabriella. She was enjoying some extra Daddy time this weekend. 🙂

Does it get any cuter?! I mean really.

We actually ‘celebrated’ earlier. I gave Craig his gift on Wednesday only because he was having a really rough week and I knew he could use some cheering up.

This is what he came home to:

I got him the ‘new’ Ray Ban Wayfarer…

and a HUGE cookie, recipe courtesy of Sally, of course. 😉

As big as a PLATE! All I did was use a 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips total, instead of the 1/4 cup of Reese’s pieces. Look at how THICK this thing was:

Insane, right?!? He LOVED it though. I had a ‘hunk’ of it too & it was DELICIOUS! That Sally, she sure does know how to make amazing recipes, can’t wait to order her cookbook!!

My hubby got me pretty good too. Friday afternoon I got a text around 5:30pm telling me that he would be late, he was super busy at work because he was catching up on stuff for the long weekend. So I went ahead & fed Gabriella dinner (we feed her solids at night before bath time and then I nurse her before bed) and gave her a bath- both of which Craig normally does when he gets home from work so that I can make dinner. We planned on having leftovers, so it actually worked out perfectly, since I didn’t need to try to entertain Gabriella as I got dinner together.

Craig got home right as I finished giving Gabriella a bath, so he got to say goodnight to her, which she LOVED. Then I fed her & rocked to to sleep. As soon as I walked out of her room, I looked down & saw a post it that said ‘I Love you H Dub.’ <—what Craig calls me because my maiden name is Williams. As I continued down the stairs there was a little path of them leading to the dining room table, with the final one saying, ‘I made dinner.’ I looked up & saw a big plate of sushi from my favorite sushi restaurant, Shari.

And three of our favorite rolls. From the left, my VERY favorite Chiquita (topped with bananas, I PROMISE it’s so good- Craig doesn’t even like bananas & he likes this roll), Drama Queen (tuna tartare) & Ceviche. (just like the appetizer, and topped with cilantro & lime juice- perfect combination of flavors) Just looking at this picture makes me want to go to Shari right this minute!

He also had some wine for us and a candle in the middle of the table- a ‘Sugar cookie’ candle- haha! I thought he was baking cookies when I walked down, totally threw me off- sneaky guy. 😉

It was such a perfect night! Since we couldn’t go out, he got it for us at home!

Saturday we spent looks of time with Gabriella, since the little lady is against sleep (she still gets up 3-4 times a night- I typically only sleep in 2 hour chunks, if that) she was up bright & early at 5am to hang out.

Shirt says it all. 😉 Craig and I also watched Django Unchained- SO GOOD!!!!

Sunday was spent at Craig’s co-worker’s house- he was having a birthday & memorial day pool party. It was a fun time, and Gabriella enjoyed the pool (she is SUCH a water baby!)- sadly we couldn’t stay for the actual cook out because the little lady was ready for bed time. But it was still nice to see everyone & socialize for a bit.

As you know, yesterday was our two year anniversary & Memorial Day!! Thanks again to all of those who serve & have served in our military- you guys ROCK! We didn’t have any plans and just hung out with our favorite girl. Best part of the day?

Watching her spend about 20 minutes trying to crawl FORWARD, not just backwards.

And we got to see her move one of her knees forward! I know, I know, you are probably like ‘really Holly, you two were excited over ONE KNEE moving forward?!’ Well, yes, yes we were. 😉 It’s a big step in Gabriella’s world. 😀

For dinner I made Shrimp Scampi, some sea scallops sprinkled with Old Bay & summer squash and zucchini.

The shrimp scampi recipe I followed is found HERE, I just halved everything- actually only cooked 3 servings of pasta, instead of four- and we probably only ate HALF of that. The recipe was really good, I think I would just add a bit more lemon to it, but overall a nice light scampi sauce, instead of some of the recipes I saw that were LOADED with butter & oil, which would kill my stomach.

A little bit of a ‘fancier’ meal for our anniversary.

We also topped off the night with some frozen yogurt and a milk shake for Craig. Can’t think of a better way to end our special day!

Anyone do anything special this past weekend??

This week I PROMISE a new workout coming your way, and I am also going to write about the status of my Crohn’s disease 6+ months after having Gabriella.

Enjoy your TUESDAY! Yay for not being Monday!!

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Thursday Ramblings

1. My husband likes Chobani. I am a happy wife. Randomly he decided that he wanted to try it. I had given it to him before, but he didn’t love it. But he tried it again & he LOVES it. And he eats it almost every day like me. Mission accomplished 😉 His favorite flavors: Blood orange & lemon. Boy loves his citrus.

I had to stock up on it at Target when it was on sale- only $1 a piece!! SCORE.

^that’s only about half of our current stash 😉

2. Gabriella is FOUR months. How did that happen??

Her new favorite thing? Her feet. She LOVES them. And a plus for us: it keeps her entertained for a few minutes. 😉

Another update: She STILL REFUSES the bottle. I mean ABSOLUTELY REFUSES. SCREAMS bloody murder. It’s terrible. We have just decided to kind of give it a rest right now. It just makes us all miserable & after a month of trying every night, and then ending up with a crying baby..it’s been hard.

3. You know I have to tell you something else about Gabriella, because well, she’s my whole world. Guess who can start solids now?!? Yep, G Marie!

We haven’t tried any yet, we may wait just a little bit, but I think within a week or two we will try the rice cereal. I picked this kind up at Target the other day, I hope she likes it.

We CANNOT wait to try solids with her. It’s going to be FUN!!

4. I have one of my VERY favorite races this weekend in Jacksonville!! The River Run!

I can’t wait. It is one of the VERY best courses I have ever ran. It is so scenic & a TON of cheering fans along the way. It’s going to be weird running without a stroller.

Anyone else out there running in it??

PS: I’m looking for more races in the Florida area- preferably half & full marathons. Would you happen to know of any?

5. New debate, which is better… Dunkin Donuts Dark roast or Starbucks iced coffee?

I had to try the Dunkin before the picture. (oops) I have to say, Starbucks still wins in my book. Just because it’s stronger, love the bold flavor. But Dunkin is a good alternative with their new dark roast!

6. We ate one of my favorite meals the other night.

Sweet potato, broccoli & shrimp with Old Bay. I could seriously eat this twice a week, every week. Easily. I always forget how good sweet potatoes- I need to incorporate them into our dinners more. Oh, and that shrimp…COATED with Old Bay. I don’t believe in too much Old Bay. 😀 (& believe it or not, that was actually before Craig too.)

Hope you have a good Friday Eve! One step closer to the weekend!!!

Old Bay Shrimp Cakes

Well guys, I hate to say it, but it’s another one of those Mondays. Yuck. It’s true they never get easier, but thankfully once we get past today it always seems to get a bit easier, right?

Today I have a new recipe to share with you, and all of the credit for the idea even popping into my mind goes to Craig. You see he’s a Maryland boy, through & through. He was born & raised there; and most of his family lives there.

He love crabs, crab cakes, Old Bay, & Natty Boh.

He is a DIEHARD Ravens fan. (well, we both are…but now you know where I get it from)

(that’s Craig & his cousin Steve after the win over the 49ers on Thanksgiving night. This may be one of my favorite pictures that I have ever captured. Emotion is ALL over their faces & it CRACKS me up everytime I see it 😀 )

I mean he even proposed to me on the Ravens field!

We are also big Orioles fans. In Craig’s vows to me, one of his lines was ‘in Orioles induced sickness & in health.’ I’m sure if you follow baseball, you will find that pretty funny as well. 😉 Even though the Orioles haven’t been doing so well for the past few years, we still love ‘em.

Now lucky for us, we can buy Natty Boh in Florida (even though it’s difficult to find sometimes), we can still be Ravens & Orioles fans, and Old Bay is in every grocery store. But we CANNOT find good crabs down here.

If you have ever had Maryland crabs, then you know what I mean. You will never want crabs again, unless they are from Maryland.

No more ‘k’ krab for this girl. Only ‘c’ crab will work! I guess you could call me a crab snob…and I’m ok with that. 😉

We both love crab cakes, and I hate only being able to have them like twice a year when we make a trip to Maryland. So I decided to come up with a substitution. Shrimp cakes! Even though nothing could ever replace crab cakes, these are do a really good job of satisfying my crab cake craving (say that three times fast 😉 ) …for the time being at least. 🙂 I think it’s because of all of the Old Bay that I used. Love that stuff!!

Old Bay Shrimp Cakes

Makes 8 shrimp cakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked shrimp
• 2 egg whites & 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup 0% plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
• 2 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. Old Bay + additional for topping
• 1/4 tsp. Cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 cups panko crumbs
• EVOO, for cooking

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a chopper or food processer, take you shrimp & pulse them in the chopper until they are no longer whole. This should be pretty quick, they chop easily.
3. In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Once it is well combined, add in the shrimp. Shape into 8 cakes.
4. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat, drizzle EVOO in pan. Once heated, cook the cakes for about 3 minutes each side, or until slightly browned. You will probably have to cook them in two batches.


5. Put the cakes on a cookie sheet, sprinkle them liberally with more Old Bay & then bake for about 17 – 20 minutes.

6. Serve with sweet and spicy sauce (recipe below), if desired.

Sweet & spicy sauce
(Recipe from Gina)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation:
Combine all & mix well.

The sauce isn’t necessary, but it adds more more flavor to them. Kind of gives them even more of a kick. I like the whole sweet and spicy combination, and this sauce is just that!

We enjoyed these yesterday while watching the NBA All Star game, which was right here in Orlando! It was pretty cool to see it take place here- only happens like once every 20 years.

Hope you have a great Monday! And if you need a little morning pick me up, you could always stop at Starbucks. I have a few excuses that you could use.