Heather Bakes

Oooh, love me some old school Matchbox 20. Little known fact: In his high school/early college days, Brian bore a striking resemblance to Rob Thomas. But now he has a real job and a grown-up haircut, so no longer.

Anyway, today was a looooong, hot (104!) day. It started at 5:30 when I got up to go babysit. Luckily I realize that I’m pretty much non-functioning before 8am, so I went ahead and prepped breakfast last night. More overnight oats:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond breeze
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 sliced banana
• blueberries
• raspberries
• walnuts

Let that marinate overnight and then drizzled on some honey this morning.

The morning was spent dropping one of the kids off at camp, swimming, and watching some Scooby Doo. Lunch was, um, not so healthy. We met my mom at Coach’s Burgers in Lake Highlands. I had a turkey burger with pepperjack and avocado. Eh, at least it was on a wheat bun.

The fries were delicious.

This afternoon we made a return trip to good old White Rock Skate. I got a little misty when they played Thriller. Or not. Actually, I spent the good hour and a half we were there deleting photos off my camera. Literally over a THOUSAND photos of food. It’s ridiculous. If anyone ever found my camera and looked through the photos, they would think I had some kind of serious food porn addiction. Which I do… hence the blog.

Tonight was our monthly book club meeting, this time at Julie’s. We read Away by Amy Bloom. It wasn’t a BAD book- but one of those that sucks you in and then is basically a big let down at the end. Like the author got bored with the whole thing and just gave up.

But more importantly, the FOOD was great- of course.

We had a “picnic” theme: Fried chicken, fruit salad, banana pudding, sweet tea, caprese salad, “love dip” (from Central Market… I don’t know what’s in it, but it’s damn tasty), and my droopy little cobbler.

I’m off tomorrow- woohoo! I’m sure I’ll get all kinds of important stuff done. Like sleeping.

-SURVEY-

Weekend plans?

Friday night: I’m sure Brian’s planning a hot date as I type… and by “hot date,” I mean pizza from Tony’s and a Red Box movie. Probably ending something like this:

Saturday: Friend’s baby shower in the morning, possibly heading up to the lake in the afternoon.

Sunday: More cleaning out of the office/nursery. Dear God, it never ends.

Dishes in the dishwasher? Check. Kitchen clean? Check. Breakfast made for tomorrow? CHECK. I am awesome. Ahhh…

I woke up with more tooth pain today, so ran through the whole sinus rinse, Zyrtec, Tylenol routine (and added on the Sudafed this afternoon). And it seemed to help- but I’m still not convinced that there’s not a cavity somewhere up there.

For breakfast I had banana oats topped with blueberries, raspberries, walnuts and unsweetened coconut:

Lunch was a turkey sandwich with mayo, spinach and spicy pickles on whole wheat; a (tasteless- yuck) apple; and a cup of last night’s eggplant stew with goat cheese:

Tomorrow it’s back to babysitting, so I tried to get a few errands done today: car wash, eyebrows threaded and Destination Maternity for some shorts and tees. Most of my “regular” tee shirts are too short now- which looks REALLY cool when you have the stupid maternity panel sticking out of the top of your pants. Lovely.

Our house is overflowing with produce right now. I asked Brian to stop by Newflower on the way home for some kale, and he came in with a giant bag of cherries ($0.99/lb!) and blueberries. Then my mom dropped by with a big box of fresh peaches, squash, onions and MORE blueberries. I guess that’s not a bad problem to have:

For dinner I made the old Turkey-Spinach Meatloaf standby. If you want the recipe, click on the Heather Bakes link at the top of the page- it’s in the list. The great thing about this recipe is that you can play around with it; this time I used whole wheat bread crumbs, Spicy V8 (for the tomato juice), and added oregano and garlic powder to the meat. The glaze on top is a mix of ketchup and sriracha.

Newflower didn’t have the bagged kale so we settled on salad instead (w/ Annie’s Woodstock Dressing), along with a box of Annie’s White Cheddar Shells.

After dinner Brian had a softball game, so my mom came over for a walk around the neighborhood. My usual dessert craving just hit so I had a bowl of Dreyer’s Tart Honey Frozen Yogurt topped with a chopped peach and granola. Yummy… and healthier than a Frosty. Sorry for the orange photo.

Jack liked it too- he’s been kicking and rolling around in there.

Two more things:

1. Chloe wants to show you her pouty face:

2. Everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame, and apparently our friend Robert (aka, Bobby Dubbs, Robert “Awesome” Wallace, and Lauren’s husband) got his just desserts this past weekend. He and Lauren headed to a Yankees game and were seated a few rows behind Kate Hudson. Lo and behold, look what appeared on Popsugar. See that very intense and serious-looking fellow in the black shirt? The one who’s basically in the very center of the photo? Yeah, that’s Robert. Can I have your autograph, sir?

-SURVEY-

What’s your favorite summer-y dessert?

(This is a selfish poll- we have book club on Thursday and I’m trying to come up with something to make. I’m leaning towards peach cobbler.)

Did everyone have a good holiday weekend? Mine was great until last night. I’ve had a tooth that’s been a little sensitive for the past couple months- but last night it started THROBBING. It was awful. I took a couple of Tylenol (yea pregnancy… god, I miss Excedrine) and it subsided a little. Then today it kicked up again and hurt off and on all day long. It’s pretty unbearable- to the point where I was literally in tears in the car today. We put in a call to the dentist but in the meantime I’m drinking through straws and making full use of the Orajel. Brian’s being so sweet. He’s going to be such a better parent than I am. Case in point: When I’m sick/in pain, he makes me soup, calls the doctor, buys me medicine (and straws) and is generally super sympathetic. When he’s sick/in pain- which is pretty much NEVER, healthy bastard- my response is usually along the lines of “Suck it up.”

Back to the weekend…

-FRIDAY-

Brian was off on Friday and my mom was sweet enough to lend us her housekeeper for the day. We were up at 7:30 and tried to stay out of Zoyla’s hair by running a few errands. Lone Star Baby to look at cribs/gliders, anthropologie to buy some letters for Jack’s room (here… except J-A-C-K, of course), then Panera for lunch. I had the poppyseed salad with chicken and a cup of vegetable soup:

SO GOOD. I loved the pecans in the salad- next time I might leave off the chicken and add gorgonzola. And you know I inhaled that big hunk of bread. With butta.

Then we headed home, grabbed the pug and set off for the lake. Spent the rest of the day riding around in the golf cart, watching Confessions of a Shopaholic, then heading out for Mexican food in Kaufman. I had a big mess of chicken: tacos, flautas, enchilada…

-SATURDAY-

Got up early and had a yummy breakfast of fresh East TX peaches (I probably had 6 of these over the weekend) and toasted Panera cinnamon-raisin bread:

My grandparents showed up later in the day and my parents invited a few of the neighbors over for lunch as well. Every holiday my mom announces that this time she’s not going to go crazy with the food, and yet…

Brisket, sausages, cornbread casserole, fresh cucumber & tomato salad, potato casserole, cabbage, BBQ beans. And not pictured: hamburgers, brats, and probably more that I can’t even recall.

Cherry pie with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream for dessert:

Needless to say we were pretty much stuffed for the rest of the day. I did sneak in the kitchen to polish off the rest of the cucumbers and tomatoes. Mmm.

That afternoon Brian and I floated around in the lake for a while, then later watched fireworks courtesy of the Cedar Creek Country Club. Good times.

-SUNDAY-

Not too much to report from today. Watched Wimbledon and then headed home. Lunch was a hummus and red pepper Which Wich sandwich with lots of veggies. What a hot mess:

We tried to go for a walk around the neighborhood, but my tooth started throbbing again so I threw in the towel after a few blocks. It’s seriously difficult to concentrate on anything right now (I know, I know- I sound like a huge baby). Found these Archer Farms whole wheat personal pizza crusts at Target, so we each had our own little creation for dinner tonight. Mine featured Barilla marinara, mozzarella, turkey pepperoni and pineapple:

Now I’m off to take a bath and try to forget about the tooth pain. Ooooh, if only for a big glass of wine… sigh.

-SURVEY-

What was the best part of your 4th?

Hanging out with the sweet hubby and family, and eating all of the fresh, local fruits and veggies.

I debated posting at all tonight because my guess is that most of you are going to be off partying tomorrow (as well you should) and not cruising food blogs. But just like the mail, the blog must go through…

Breakfast was some plain Oikos topped with a chopped peach, raspberries, granola, almonds and honey:

My tummy loves Greek yogurt; my wallet, however, does not. But it’s a good every-once-in-a-while treat.

Lunch was kind of a Mediterranean tuna salad: tuna mixed with chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, capers, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. I scooped it up with some Food Should Taste Good Olive Chips.

This morning I babysat for a couple hours, and afterwards I headed over to my parents’ house to swim some laps. The high today was 101, so the only thing to do outside (other than die of heatstroke) is swim. Plus it’s a good pregnant lady workout- pretty much the only activity that doesn’t make me feel huge and awkward.

Speaking of, I’ve had a few requests for bump pics. So here ya go… 18 weeks in all its glory:

For dinner we headed to Matt’s Rancho Martinez (what happened to their website??). All day I’d been craving their Mexican shrimp cocktail: basically a giant beer glass of shrimp, peppers, celery and avocado in a tomatoey sauce. It’s a great summer meal, especially with a few corn tortillas. My summer meal craving used to be the ceviche from La Calle Doce, but sadly that will have to wait until December.

Definitely hit the spot, but I’d forgotten how spicy it is.

Remember how I told you about my Snoogle pillow? Well apparently Chloe is a fan. I found her like this:

And then we wrapped her up a little tighter:

And finally:

Hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July holiday!!!! Eat lots of good food for me! We’ll be heading to the lake tomorrow to hang out and watch fireworks.

PS: My BFF Lauren recently moved to NYC for the summer (LAME) and she just started a food blog (NOT LAME). Drool over it Check it out here. I can’t decide if I’m more jealous of the Jonathan Adler store or the olive bread.