Tough week, but glad it's the weekend!

Hello everyone! So happy it's finally the weekend! This week was such a drag and felt like it was never going to end!! So glad I can finally relax and take it easy this weekend as I am just getting over a mild cold. Sneezing and constantly blowing my nose is no fun! Anyway enough of my whining.

This week my husband traveled for business across the country (California). He left on Sunday and didn't return until 11am Wednesday morning. He caught the red eye flight Tuesday night hoping he'd get to sleep on the flight, but failed to do so. Poor guy, then he had to work all day Wednesday! Luckily he was able to work from home!

I have been feeling pretty good lately other than my cold that I am trying to get rid of without any medication! It definitely takes a lot longer, but a cold is a cold. There's not much you can do other than suck on cough drops and hot tea to soothe your sore throat. Since my cold is affecting my taste, there wasnt much of an appetite this week. I actually took pictures of every one of my meals yesterday so here goes it.

Yesterday morning I woke up and went to the gym and worked on the elliptical for 40 minutes. My legs were definitely feeling it, a great work out indeed. Came home and had my chia pudding for the first time. Before I left for the gym, I soaked 2T chia seeds in 1/3 cup rice milk.  Once I was ready to eat after my shower, I cut up a kiwi, with skin on, sprinkled blueberries, walnuts and drizzle of sunflower seed butter. I took a before and after photo to show you the blueberries were really under everything!

 

I got to work and hung out with the little one for a while, played a puzzle game and she went off to play by herself in her bed room. I got to finish my Hypnobirthing book!! Such a great read for someone who wants a normal, natural birth without intervention.

Eventually it was time to eat again, my mid morning snack was consumed before the little one had her dentist appointment at 11am. A handful of baby carrots, strawberries, blueberries and pineapple. And water to get my fill in for the day. Hydrate, Hydrate! 

The little one didn't have any cavities, surprisingly because she eats so much candy! Her mother even lets her eat candy at 9am! Its crazy! We then went to the library to return some DVD's that we rented and read some books. Then it was lunch time when we came home! I love to eat and look forward to every meal daily!! We were crushed for time running around trying to get everything in because the little one had gymnastics. 

I even forgot to take a picture of my lunch! It consisted of chopped carrots, sugar snap peas, fresh basil leaves, shelled edamame, cooked broccoli, sunflower seeds in a lemon/mustard dressing. It was good but lacked flavor probably because of my cold. eh. I also had a half piece of an adora chocolate disc for something sweet. 

Went to gymnastics and came home completely wiped. With being pregnant, I do just fine in the morning until around 3p it hits me. All I wanted to do was just sit and do nothing, but that didn't happen. The little one wanted to go for a ride on her tricycle around the block, so we did that. It was actually nice out but then the sun hid behind the clouds and it got chilly!! We also had to meet her sister at the bus stop. After we picked her sister up we went for ice cream. While the girls got their usual sweet treats, I had my mid afternoon snack of an apple and the rest of the fruit I didn't eat from earlier this morning. I love me some apple, I always have one every single day!! I love it! Again, no photo. We ate our snack in the car while listening to music. 

Finally back at work with both girls at home, they were tired too so they asked to put in a movie. They relaxed while I folded laundry and tidied around the house. Finally the mother walked in and paid me (it's pay day every Friday)! I was so glad to be in my car on my way home!! I was looking forward to a delicious dinner planned. It was baked lemon salmon with caprese salad topped with avocados and a side of saute peas. Every bite was delicious, but I got really full! I was starving and have to learn to stop when I'm full! With having a baby in my belly takes up half the room, I can't eat as much. I can have more small meals throughout the day, just not a huge meal in one sitting. Lesson learned, many times! 

The husband and I finally sat down to relax and watch some TV. Caught up with each other on our day and then about 30 minutes later, I got a growling stomach, but I wanted sweets and didnt know what I wanted. So I decided to have a bit of everything! 

This was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Dark chocolate covered marshmallow, some tummy trouble chews from trader joes, two black licorice (ate the other one, not pictured), some whole dried cranberries and semi sweet chocolate chips. Chucked water after and felt a bit sick ;( I'm not sure if its because my body isnt used to eating this much sweets or I just drank too much water too quickly. I eventually decided to just go to bed because maybe I was tired too? I think that was it because I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillows!

So, that was my eats for the day! Hope you guys had a good week and have a wonderful weekend my friends! ;) 

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Wednesday eats.

Hello everyone, I apologize I've been MIA. This past week was hell for me at work with three full days with both girls. I am a full time nanny and take care two girls, a 3 year old and a 6 year old. It was just brutal with having both of them home and constantly fighting and being pregnant during this time is no fun! I don't like to get stressed out because I feel it affects the baby, but the week is over and I have a 3 day weekend!! So pumped! Instead of whining about my hell-ish week, I will provide you with my eats from Wednesday.

For breakfast, I try to change up my routine to get as many nutrients I can into my diet. Usually it's the same old thing, but when I try something different, it doesn't fill me up like my usual breakfasts. I had wish I added yogurt this morning, but instead I had a cut up galia melon, which is similar to cantaloupe and its a hybrid, not as sweet, kiwi, 2 T of soaked chia seeds with 1/2 cup of milk and sprinkled with sunflower seeds and cinnamon.

I had a midmorning snack of bran cereal flakes with pistachio nuts and craisins. I was starving and ate it before I remembered to take a picture! Oops.

Then for lunch I had a spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, carrots, leftover salmon from my weekend dinner, and about 1/2 cup of hummus from Trader Joe's. It. was. so. good! I just used a whole lemon and olive oil, salt and pepper for the dressing. Simple and delicious!

Also, after two full days with both girls home from school, it was nice to spend some quality time with the three year old.  We baked cupcakes for the older sister to bring to her classmates for Valentines day. She requested yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I went to Party City and got her Valentines day cupcake papers and heart shaped toothpick banners. She loved them!!

The house smelled so good and I was being good and didn't have one lick of the frosting! With being pregnant, I find that if I have sweets that aren't good for me, or artificial sugar for that matter, I feel crappy and so yucky. I rather have fruit instead, that's my candy! ;)

Wednesday my husband had a client dinner in the city so I was on my own for dinner. When I am on my own, I go crazy with my creativity and make the oddest concoctions for my meals! I have been craving goat cheese and sauerkraut. I know a weird craving but it was so good. I topped it over a bed of mixed greens with carrots and avocado (good fats) and topped with sauerkraut and goat cheese. Sounds strange but dont knock it til you try it. It was a mixture of sour, sweet and crunchy!  

I usually try not to eat anything after dinner, but now being pregnant I find that I must have some kind of carb snack to help me sleep through the night. If I don't then I wake up with a growling stomach in the middle of the night wide awake. If I can remember, I had a bowl of Fiber One 80 calories chocolate cereal with milk. It was my first time having it and it satisfied my chocolate/carb craving! 

That's all I have for you today. I'm off to enjoy the rest of my long weekend! Enjoy my friends! 

Yesterday's eats.

Good evening friends. I'm still trying to get used to this adjustment of posting more often and how I can manage this blog as I am new to all of this. I want to be able to post about my pregnancy journey as well as my daily eats. I would like to start a new page just for my pregnancy pictures, thoughts and rambles aside from food. If anyone could help me with how to do that, please let me know in the comment section. I would appreciate it!

Just so you know, I'm an early riser and a morning person. I spring out of bed daily at 6am to get to the gym before I head to work for 8:30a. Yesterday was different. My husband and I woke up to 30 inches of snow! We had shoveled the night before and we were shocked at how much accumulated overnight!    So, there was no way to make it to the gym with 30 inches of snow in our driveway and our street wasn't even plowed yet! So instead, we ate breakfast and watched Shameless all morning. For breakfast I made myself a bowl of greek yogurt (1 cup) with 1 T of soaked chia seeds in water, 3/4 cup of cantaloupe, walnuts with a splash of milk. We were trying to save as much milk as we could because we didn't know how long we would be snowed in!

After I finished my breakfast, we continued watching Shamless. We just discovered the show recently and we enjoy watching it! We have been watching a bunch of shows but we watched all of them! Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland and tried the Walking Dead, but I am not a fan of horror shows. I know, I'm a cry baby! We just completed Season 1 and just started Season 2. Eventually, we pulled away from the couch and got moving. My husband went outside to start shoveling and I really wanted to help him, but being 17 weeks pregnant, it would be too much for me to lift heavy snow, so instead I stayed in and cleaned the house. I vacuumed with a broken vacuum cleaner and stretched for 20 minutes. Finally, after about 45 minutes to an hour, I looked outside and the husband had done 60-70% of the driveway (wow, he is a strong man!).  I was proud of him!

Then, our stomachs started to growl, it was lunch time! I made myself a salad beast with a slice of toast with almond butter for protein and my husband a turkey, ham and cheese sandwich. I had forgotten to take a picture so no picture of my salad.

My husband went back outside to finish off the rest of the snow and I decided to go up to the nursery and paint the samples on the walls. We are going for a light gray look. I will do another post on the nursery. We showered and cleaned up and relaxed, caught up with our families to see how everyone was doing. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner!

Luckily, I had bought pork tenderloin from Trader Joes when I went on Thursday to do some shopping before the storm! I marinated the pork in rice wine vinegar, fresh rosemary, dried mint, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil. I broiled it in our miniature convention oven on high for 10-15 minutes until it reached the temperature of 170 degrees for pork. I also made roasted asparagus and a small chopped salad that had cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and avocados in a dijon mustard vinaigrette. Everything turned out delicious and we were one happy couple and baby in my belly after a long day of shoveling for the husband and me lounging around the house being snowed in! Our street still wasn't plowed by 9pm last night!

For dessert I tried something new I've seen on the blogsphere. Blended cottage cheese (in love) over strawberries! It was so so good and perfectly satisfying! 

I promise you it was so good!

That was my eats for yesterday! I hope you enjoyed what I ate. I usually eat the same old thing, same routine daily, but try my best to change up my meals daily. So far, it's working! Thank you for making it this far and I will be back later this week! Happy Sunday friends! Enjoy the rest of your day! By the way, the plow truck finally came today around lunch time and we are no longer snowed in! Horrayy for not being trapped in the house and now I can go to the gym tomorrow morning!

My first post!

Hello my readers, stalkers and friends!! Here I am, finally gave in and started a blog, Bartlett Bite. My name is Kristen Bartlett, I am a full time nanny, wife, health nut and soon to be momma.  I love to cook, create recipes and aim for life of laughter, health and good eats. Hope you tag along and enjoy my journey as I blog my eats and pregnancy.