It was nice to get up early again this morning and have a little bit of quiet time checking emails before Keenan woke-up. I’m really liking this, but we’ll see how long it lasts!
Before I forget, since it is the last Tuesday of the month, I am linking up with Healthy Living Blogs today for Healthy Living Tuesdays with my article that I posted a couple of weeks ago: Health Lessons Learned Lately: “We eat our way, the way that works for us.” If you haven’t checked it out, I encourage you to do so!
Keenan woke up a little after 7:00 a.m. this morning and was in a silly mood! He asked me to get in his crib with him and go “sleepy sleep!” We also read a couple of stories. My husband climbed into his crib a couple of weeks ago, after he woke up from his nap, and Keenan loved it! Since then, he loves having us climb in with him and pretend to sleep or just read stories; it is too cute! Next time, I will have to take a picture!
After we both got out of the crib and I changed Keenan, we headed down stairs to have a quick breakfast of our “usual,” Fage Greek yogurt with strawberries, chia seeds, flaxseed and Kashi cereal. I don’t know why, but I have craved yogurt the past few days! But, I have something different in mind for tomorrow’s breakfast, so I think we will change it up a bit!
After breakfast, I took my latte to go and we headed to our local firehouse for a tour, an outing that was planned through my MOMs Club. I told Keenan about this yesterday and he was SUPER excited, especially since he is all about being our little “Firefigther” these days! During breakfast, I asked him if he remembered where we were going today and he quickly replied in a loud voice, “The Firehouse!” He was SO excited that he ate his breakfast in record speed and was ready to get dressed and head out the door (with his fire hat and boots on!) quicker than I’ve ever seen him!
My little Firefighter!
Buddies!
As soon as we got to the firehouse, he was excited, but apprehensive. At first, he didn’t want to walk, he wanted me to carry him and he wasn’t sure of getting into the fire trucks. I’m not sure why he acted that way, especially since he loves everything that has to do with Firefighters! Since there were a lot of kids there, I think he might have felt a little overwhelmed. As soon as he climbed into the Fire Truck with his friend, he was all smiles! He listened intently to what the Fire Captain said and took everything in. But, as soon as the Fire Captain slid down the fire pole, Keenan started crying. I’m not sure what made him scared! After that, he didn’t want to take a picture with the Fire Captain, he only wanted to give him a high five (with me carrying him). All, in all, it was a great experience (I even learned something!) and Keenan definitely enjoyed himself, because on the way home and during lunch, he only wanted to talk about the firehouse!
For lunch, I made Keenan his favorite: peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich with some applesauce and a glass of milk. He devoured everything in minutes; he was hungry! I made myself a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and some yogurt jalapeno dip from Costco (they finally have it again!). In addition, I had some baby snap peas, carrots and a small peach. It was very satisfying!
Once Keenan wakes up from his nap, we are heading to CrossFit (they moved into their new space today, so it will be great to have more room!). Yesterday, we had a challenging, but good WOD. I surprised myself on how well I did! The WOD consisted of: run 400 m, 21 chest-to-bar pullups (I was finally able to string 5 in a row!), 15 thrusters, run 400 m, 15 chest-to-bar pullups, 12 thrusters, run 400 m, 9 chest-to-bar pullups and 9 thrusters. The prescribed weight for women was 65 lbs and the time cap was 16 minutes. I completed it as prescribed in 14 minutes and 8 seconds! I was so thrilled! It was probably one of my best WODs! So, we’ll see how today goes!
After CrossFit, we are heading home for dinner of leftover cheesy pasta bake with a salad. After Keenan goes to bed, my husband and I have a date on the couch to catch-up on a few of our favorite TV shows! As promised, the recipe for my cheesy pasta bake is below. I think this was the best batch that I have made because it was so gooey and flavorful (even my husband agreed!). Keenan even loved it because he ate all of his portion in minutes! Sorry, we were so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of it, after it came out of the oven!
This is the cheesy pasta bake (prior to being baked) that I made for a mom in my MOMs Club who recently had a baby.
Cheesy Pasta Bake (serves 6):
Ingredients:
– 1 box of whole wheat or brown rice rotini or elbow noodles
– 6 Italian pre-cooked sausages (diced)
– 5 roma tomatoes (diced)
– 3 cups spinach
– 2 cups mozzarella cheese
– 1/2 cup feta cheese
– 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
– 4 Tbsp garlic no-salt seasoning from Costco
– 2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
– 1 tsp pepper
– pinch of salt
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9X13 glass dish with olive oil or cooking spray.
2. Cook pasta according to package, making sure to add a pinch of salt to the boiling water. Once cooked, drain and place into a large bowl.
3. Add all ingredients, except for bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, to the pasta and mix well.
4. Place pasta mixture into prepared dish.
5. Mix bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese and sprinkle on top of the pasta mixture.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until brown on top and bubbly.
Notes: If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can use two small cans of diced tomatoes. You can also use different seasonings, especially if you don’t have Costco’s garlic no-salt seasoning. If you want to store this meal for later, you can prepare it as directed above, cover it with plastic wrap, then foil and freeze until ready to bake. When you are ready to bake it, take the plastic wrap off, but leave it covered with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Lower the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes, uncovering it the last 15 minutes so it can brown.
Question: What health lessons have you learned lately?
Your son has good taste…I love peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches!! Health lessons I’ve learned lately-read ingredients and eat as whole/real as possible! Then you have to worry less about calorie counting, etc.
Keenan definitely gets his love for peanut butter from me, because I love anything with peanut butter! I just have to control myself and not eat it all the time! 🙂
Good lesson! I think if more people ate more whole foods and less processed ones, we would be a much healthier nation!
I love your blog Melissa! We have a lot of similar healthy eating habits & beliefs. Our parents did good jobs. 🙂 I hope I can pass on my passion for health and nutrition when I have kids like you are doing for Kennan. P.S. I made homemade cinnamon almond butter last night (for the first time) and it was sooo easy and amazingly good! Never buying store bought again.
Thank you, Molly; it means a lot! 🙂 Homemade cinnamon almond butter sounds delish! How did you make it? I have been tempted to make my own nut butters for a while.