Busy March

Veggie month is officially over. It was an interesting little experiment. I learned that vegetarian does not equal boring at all. You have to be more creative with vegetarian cooking. We didn't miss meat which was surprising. Brent even lost 10 lbs! Also, vegetarian does not necessarily mean healthy because carbs are vegetarian, so is cheese - both are my weakness. All in all, I'd say it was a success.

I've added our most favorite recipe that we made this month to the bottom of this post. It's very delicious. I got the recipe from the food network Every Day Italian.

In other news, Eli's music classes ended last week. We both really enjoyed them. Eli had become very comfortable in class. He loved the instructor and was getting very independent. His favorite part was chewing the instruments and interacting with the teacher. He also met lots of other boys his age since there was only one girl in the class!

Brent and Eli started swimming lessons at the YMCA today. I went to watch and got busted for attempting to take a picture - I guess not everyone wants their photo taken in their swimsuits. I can fully understand. I did sneak this one in though.


My running clinic starts on Friday. It's perfect timing because I keep getting thrown off by all the snow. I start getting into it and then a big snow fall happens and I have to stop for a few days. This class will be good motivation.

Brent's been off work on parental leave for one month now. It's been wonderful having him home. We are loving it. It's going to get even better once the weather starts getting nice.

And a photo of me with Eli - since usually I'm the photographer :)

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (1 1/2 to 2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup water
3 amaretti cookies, crumbled
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups whole milk
Pinch nutmeg
3/4 cup (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 1/2 cups shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:
Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the squash and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the water into the skillet and then cover and simmer over medium heat until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly and then transfer the squash to a food processor. Add the amaretti cookies and blend until smooth. Season the squash puree, to taste, with more salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a heavy medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the nutmeg. Cool slightly. Transfer half of the sauce to a blender*. Add the basil and blend until smooth. Return the basil sauce to the sauce in the pan and stir to blend. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste.
Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.
Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Drizzle 1/2 cup of sauce over the noodles. Repeat layering 3 more times.
Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake the lasagna for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the lasagna. Continue baking uncovered until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 15 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving.

First steps

Eli has been cruising on the furniture and letting go for split seconds. He doesn't quite have the balance to stand on his own but he loooves to practice. We took the brakes off his walker last week and he took off with his first steps. I'm nervous to let him go on anything except the carpet since the walkers that we have are so tippy. He needs a little bit of friction to slow him down too!

Smart cookie

The past month has been a big one developmentally for Eli. He has figured out a lot of things that he didn't understand before. It has been fun to watch him make the connections and do things on his own. He's quickly becoming a toddler and so much less of a baby.

Some of his accomplishments include:

- How to get the shapes in and out of his walker - with a little assistance putting them in the right shape hole.

-Putting the balls in the top and getting them out of the gumball machine all by himself.

- Waving Hello! (although not all of the time)

- Arms up when he's all done eating. (He likes to do this super early in the meal though, he doesn't quite get that it means no more food)

- He finally understands that the sippy has to be tipped to get the liquid out and does he ever tip it!




One another note, I finally figured out one feature that Eli has of mine. My small head. His head is 25th percentile, just like mom.

Carcassonne - the best game you've never played

A few months ago Brent came home with a new board game. It's called Carcasonne. Generally speaking I am not a fan of strategy games, I much prefer party games but Carcasonne is really so much fun. You would never guess it by the box. We probably play it at least 3 times a week.

The premise of the game is:
"The southern French city of Carcassonne was founded on an important trade route between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Because of its strategic location, the city was often conquered and has known many rulers. As a result of this varied history, the city is famous for its unique mixture of Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players develop the area around Carcassonne by placing land tiles. Each turn the area becomes larger as the players expand and add roads, fields, cities, and cloisters. The players may also deploy their followers as thieves, farmers, knights, and monks to control and score points for the roads, farms, cities, and cloisters. As the players have only a few followers, the wise player will plan his moves carefully and deploy followers when and where he can earn the most points. Carcassonne is a simple, clever tile laying game that brings new challenges with every turn. "
The beginning of our game last night - setting up the river

The final city


Brent won this one, but I will redeem myself!

What I like about it is that it takes less than an hour, is fun for just 2 players (or up to 5), every time you play it is different, there is both skill and luck involved, it's not too expensive and you can buy expansion packs to keep changing it up (we're on our 2nd expansion). If you know a board game fan, it would make a great gift. We're enjoying playing it in the evenings together and we even could squeeze in a game on work nights.

If anyone wants to come try it out, we would love to have you over to play! I have yet to play with more than 2 players, so that would be so fun.

So cool

I've started running again. I'm hesitant to post this because I've started running plenty of times and it never seems to stick. I used to run in University and loved it. It was the best stress relief during school and I had the prettiest route along the river valley and through the parliament building. Once I started working it was suddenly harder to find the time and motivation to go. I've tried getting back into it a handful of times, with Brent, with friends - each time not sticking to it. I've learned that I can't run with Brent since he's so much faster than me. I'm a jogger more than a runner. This is my last ditch effort to shed these baby pounds since Eli's birthday is suddenly right around the corner.

Another mom from Eli's music class asked me to join her in a running room 10K clinic. She is super fit, so I'm probably crazy for doing it, but I signed up. My only condition was that she doesn't run with me, again, I am slow :) Our goal race is the loops for the troops race on June 15th.

I bought the nike+ Ipod sensor and it's sooooo cool. It tracks your runs, talks to you and tells you your progress and everything is tracked on the Nike website. I love it. If the 10K course, running partner, and new gadget doesn't help to keep me motivated, I don't know what will! Check out my progress on the right hand side of the blog.

Nice buns

B said he would make fresh bread when he was on leave, and so far he has been true to his word. He has made Indian Naan bread, French bread and today was cinnamon buns. The buns were a great activity when you are stuck in the house on a freezing cold March day. I even just happened to have some lemon cream cheese icing in the freezer from the last cake I made, how perfect.

Ready to go in the oven:


Freshly baked - they smelled incredible:


They tasted even better!


Umm...excuse me, what is that I smell? Don't forget about me!


No Eli, not THOSE kind of buns...

A new toy

My Christmas gift to B was a telescope. The one I purchased didn't work, so we had to return it. The hunt was on for a different model and after a few months of research, B finally made his choice. He was eagerly waiting for it to arrive, and it finally did. So far, it's working perfectly and now we just need the sky to clear up (and our neighbor in the back to turn off his outside light!).

The much awaited package:

I'll help you open it Dad:


The scope:

Hiding in the telescope storage bag:



(I am no longer typing out B's name for security reasons. With his job he doesn't want people to be able to google his name. I may have to start a new blog since if you google Chmilar, this blog comes up)