Note: To our friends and family who may be surprised or hurt upon reading this that we did not share sooner, please know that we kept this close to home. Your love of us and our children means the world to us.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not to write about this...the pro's, the con's, how I would feel writing it. A lot of time.  I've started and stopped this post 5 or 6 times in the last four months and have wondered to myself if sharing would make any difference to me or anyone else. Josh even brought it up, saying it might be good not only for me, but for other people out there frantically searching Google for answers. And then this weekend I was reliving it all in my head while baby girl took a nap and decided that if even one person reads it and finds some hope or comfort from it, then it was worth sharing.

Right before my 30th birthday I found out I was pregnant. We were elated and I was sick almost immediately -  yay morning sickness. Everything progressed as normal. All my tests were great, the ultrasounds were great, the heartbeat was great. Life was great.
The morning of my 20 week appointment we were talking about whether we thought we were having a boy or a girl. In just a few short hours we would find out! In that moment I knew that if it was a girl, her name would be Olivia. Josh loved the name and had been really pushing it for weeks but I wasn't sure until that morning. 
We went in for our appointment and anatomy scan, found out that it was indeed a girl (I KNEW IT) and then we were told by the super sweet ultrasound tech that she was a little concerned because our baby had very short and very curved femur bones. Her femurs were measuring under the 5th percentile and even to our untrained eyes, were crescent moon shaped. Our midwife told us not to worry but that to be on the safe side we should see a specialist. We didn't panic. There was nothing to worry about. 
But then we got home and started googling (always a bad idea...but something you will do no matter what because well, it's there and it's free....and you have to know more). And the panic set in. All of these horrible genetic diseases starting swimming in front of our eyes and I called the specialist to push them for an appointment the following day.
Our specialist and his nurses and ultrasound tech were amazing. Truly some of the greatest people I have met in the medical field (next to our midwife who I will worship forever...but more on that another day).
We went in bright and early the next morning and after a full scan by another super sweet ultrasound tech (they must be trained to be that way because seriously...they are just darling and I want to be friends with all of them), we were brought into the doctors office. All of my hopes of hearing "everything is fine there was no need for you to come in" were dashed. Our baby girl could have a number of diseases but the doctor believed it was either a) Down's Syndrome, b) a form of Skeletal Dysplasia, or c) nothing. I had already had a test for Downs but he had the nurse draw some blood for a newer test that would be able to detect it more accurately.
And then we waited. We hunkered down, held hands more often, cuddled quietly, and found ourselves wrapped around each other in the middle of the night looking for some comfort. A week later we got the call that she didn't have Downs Syndrome but the doctor wanted to see us back again in a few weeks to check on her.
Relief was followed by more panic. If she didn't have Downs Syndrome she could have skeletal dysplasia, but what kind? They ranged from not so good, to bad, to worse, to deadly. 
We went back in a few weeks and the ultrasound confirmed our fears, her femurs were still very short and very curved. The doctor was concerned that our baby had something called campomelic dysplasia. He (quite bluntly) informed us that babies with that form of dysplasia have about a 5% chance of survival if they make it past the neonatal period. Josh had become an amateur doctor specializing in bowed femurs by reading more medical journals than I thought one person could handle outside of med school and thankfully he handled all the question asking and "what if" line of thinking while I just sat there stunned that this was happening. The doctor told us that the next step would be an amniocentesis if we were willing. We had discussed it in advance and agreed to the procedure. While we knew that a diagnosis wouldn't cure our baby, we wanted to be prepared to handle whatever it was. 
The doctor performed the amnio right there (shocking Josh who thought it would be done in a sterilized room in a hospital or something). I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It's not painful so much as emotionally draining and physically...well, weird. It hurt but the idea of what was going on was almost too much to handle. I got through the procedure gripping Josh's hand and almost fainted after he was done. I kept telling myself not to throw up during it because then they would have to stop and we'd have to do this all over again some other day. The results wouldn't be back for weeks. More waiting.
At this point in my pregnancy we had gone through weeks of ups and downs, of not knowing and then knowing a little bit, and then not knowing more. I had already spent hours lying on our bed crying, but knowing that I would get my baby the best care possible and that she would be okay. Her life might be difficult but we would make it beautiful. We had talked about what we envisioned her life would be like: how she would grow up big and strong, fierce like her mother, a survivor like her father. But now this...this 5% chance of survival. I spent the next two weeks emotionally curled in the fetal position. I was googling things like "how to handle a fatal diagnosis in a fetus". And I prayed, and held on to Josh, and hugged Elijah and kissed him fiercely (we kept him in the dark during all this). And one late night, as we held onto each other in the darkness, Josh looked at me and said: If we lose her, at least we had her. She is supposed to be our baby. And she will be so loved. If she is only here for a few minutes she will know that she is loved.
Those words became my mantra. My baby shower was coming up and we wouldn't know until afterwards what the results would be. We contemplated calling it off but immediately dropped that idea. Our baby deserved a party, no matter what. 
The Friday before my shower I was travelling for work. It had been a long week away from Josh and Elijah. I had spent a lot of my free time talking to baby Olivia. I had decided to talk to her everyday about anything, telling her I was walking across the street to pick up her brother from daycare, or that I was making dinner and how I was mixing the ingredients together. Telling her about my day, about her family, her history, about me. I would feel her kick and simultaneously smile and tear up. 
I was in a meeting when my cell phone rang and I recognized the number of the specialists office. Without a word I bolted from the room and answered the call. The nurse on the other end started with "Well...it's a girl, but I guess you already knew that." (OH MY LORD SERIOUSLY?! DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT I AM WAITING TO HEAR?! GIVE ME THE RESULTS OF THE TEST ALREADY!!!!) After a quick conversation we realized she didn't have the results I was waiting for and needed to call me back. I called Josh and broke down. I didn't have it in me to talk to them again unless it was with real actual results. Josh had to call them and it turns out, the nurse didn't realize the type of results I was waiting for. She apologized and said she would talk to the doctor right away.
Five minutes later I got a call telling me the results wouldn't be in until Monday. Five minutes after that I got another call saying the doctor wanted to talk to me. The results had just been delivered. 
My heart stopped.
He picked up the phone and I could tell he was smiling. I started to cry before he even had a chance to tell me that our baby, our beautiful, spunky, bow legged short little baby was going to be okay. 
I looked up to the ceiling, smiled and said thank you. To him, to G-d, to the universe. Thank you.

I called Josh, and my mother, and my sister. Some of my coworkers who knew what was going on got tear stained visits from me that afternoon as I happily told them the news. I hopped on a plane and flew to Connecticut for my baby shower with a weight gone from my shoulders. I remember feeling like my lungs had finally opened up and accepted clean delicious air. I was lighter than I had been in months, holding onto my belly, talking to Olivia the whole way there.

The specialist suspected that Olivia's normal was simply short femurs. We were released from his care. During our last ultrasound at 37 weeks, we saw that her femurs, while still short and in the 5% range, had finally straightened out. The specialist and his wonderful ultrasound tech visited us in the hospital after Olivia was born. He looked her over and confirmed that she really did seem just fine. 

We've had our moments of concern like when a nurse said the crease in her palm was a marker of Downs which caused us to look at her eyes and nose obsessively, or when she got a little stronger and started sitting up and we saw her legs were turned out a bit and oh my goodness are they really short? are they curved? do they look curved because they are or because her thighs are so chunky and that is just chunk?

But with every doctors appointment we are reminded that she is just fine and with every cold, ear infection, sleepless night, I am reminded how just a few short months ago I would have given anything for just a cold, just an ear infection, just a sleepless night.

When I think back on those weeks of not knowing, the countless conversations we had while I sat in this very seat, it is so clearly etched in my memory. It isn't foggy or grainy but clear as glass. However, those people don't feel like us. They feel foreign. We are so different, having grown and been so touched by the experience. And our child is healthy. For those whose results were not met with smiles and happy tears, their journey through the final weeks of pregnancy, birth, and life (as long or as short as it may be) of their child is one that will forever change them in profound and sometimes terrifyingly beautiful ways. I think of those families often. I keep them in my prayers and I hope that just one person frantically googling will find this post and experience some hope and peace from it. I know the forum posts and blogs that we read that had positive outcomes made those weeks a little less dark.

And for those of us whose children live, with a diagnosis or without, I pray that we never forget that fear. Because it makes us more present with our children, more available and alive with them. The memory of that fear reminds me that I will always give anything for just a cold, just an ear infection, just a sleepless night.

"Though she be but little, she is fierce!"

This week marked the observance of one of the super fun Jewish holidays...and I'm being serious! There are fun ones! Purim began on Wednesday night and along with it, my need to bake hamantaschen. What are hamantaschen you ask? And what is Purim? Well...I could write it myself or I could just use these handy dandy links that already explain it: So....click to find out more about Purim and hamantaschen and why we eat them. 
So this Purim I decided to forgo the traditional and mix it up a bit. I went with Kitchen Tested's Black and White Cookie Hamantaschen. I embarked on this journey recognizing that I had only made these cookies once before and they were much more traditional (think raspberry filling instead of chocolate). But I have a pregnancy sweet tooth for chocolate as does the little guy (minus the pregnancy of course) so I went with it. 

And I am so happy I did.

It was an involved process and since I stopped before making the icing so I could go get delightfully pampered at Serenity Spa, it ended up taking me two days to make them. But once they were done it was so so worth it. Although the husband disagrees as he saw the amount of dishes in the sink and said nothing was worth cleaning that up :)

I couldn't find black and white cookies to use in the cookie butter 
so I used some Keebler Simply Made Chocolate Chip Cookies 
instead and it was still delightful. 

The dough tastes just like black and white cookies and was super simple to make. I did have to add a bit more whipping cream (I used heavy whipping cream since that's what I could find) at the end to make it easier to roll out.

It was at this point that I took a break until the following day and made the icing. I found it required a bit more hot water than the recipe calls for. I accidentally put too much in the chocolate icing and had to wait awhile for it to thicken up before I continued on. I also highly recommend icing all the cookies with white icing and then going back with the chocolate icing to allow it time to set. It's a much less messy experience that way.

As for the final product...the kid and I loved them. The husband isn't a fan of the dough but then it came out that he might not like black and white cookies very much in general so I think that solves that.

So I have a TON of cookies now...who wants some? :)

It has been far too long since I've written anything. Life definitely went into hyper drive these last few months. Our big news (as pretty much anyone who reads this knows) is that we're expecting a baby girl in 6 weeks 5 days. Which is close enough to 7 weeks that I could just say that but every day counts people. Between the aches and pains and my nesting habit that kicks into gear every weekend, we are busy and tired around the clock!
Thankfully I've been able to keep up CrossFit 2-3 times a week. I've discovered it is one of the few times during the day when I feel totally fine. No aches, no pains, super strong, ready to take on the world kind of fine. Baby girl is very active (as she has been since 7 weeks when the ultrasound tech told me I was really in for it), and loves the movement I go through during my workout so she tends to calm down and get into a good position during that hour.
My nesting has become a bit crazy. I'm already OCD and am always on my guys about picking up and putting away (a place for everything and everything in it's place). But these last two weekends I've gone a bit off the deep end. Last weekend I baked and cleaned closets. Today I organized tool shelves, cleaned the garage and our back porch, and I have plans for making a bacon caramelized onion jam tomorrow. The bonus of my nesting is that it makes the husband do things too :) So the house is clean and the baby bassinet and pack n' play are all unboxed, put together, and ready to go.
I'm all about quick and easy meals anyways but when I'm wearing myself out before dinner time it's a necessity. And recently we've become OBSESSED with soba noodles.
Our local World Market is closing and reopening 45 minutes away so we have been stocking up on all the items we love like mango french soda, seaweed cracker mix, sriracha chips, and noodles (soba, udon, chow mein...you name it, we have it). In the last two weeks we have had soba noodles for 3 meals. It cooks in 4 minutes and it goes with almost anything. I typically reach for chicken with a marinade and some veggies to make it simple. All three of us are in love. In love enough to have it on Valentine's Day :) Tonight I varied the sauce for the noodles and veggies a bit and it was a big hit.

We marinated the chicken overnight in an Island Teriyaki sauce and then cooked it on the stove top. In another pan I threw in green beans, broccoli, and onion with olive oil, soy sauce, ginger (I use the kind from a tube to keep things simple) and garlic.
And last but not least, I threw the soba noodles into boiling water for 4 minutes after everything was done. While they cooked we cut up/shredded the chicken and I whisked together the sauce. The last two times I've done (in order of quantity, largest to smallest):

vegetable oil
soy sauce
rice vinegar
lime juice
sesame oil
garlic
ginger
sugar (if it turns out too acidic the sugar helps calm it down)

and tonight I added a scoop of peanut butter. YUM!

I wish I could tell you how much I put of each ingredient but I just poured it all in the bowl and hoped for the best. I never put in more than a few drops of sesame oil. And the vegetable oil and soy sauce are by far the largest ingredients. I can tell I have too much vegetable oil in there if it's not whisking together well. Tonight I ran out of soy sauce and it honestly could have used a bit more to even it out.

The noodles were drained and whisked up with enough sauce to coat them followed by the veggies and a bit more sauce. Then we poured the rest of the sauce on the chicken to let it soak in while Elijah set the table.

And ta-da! Dinner was served! And heartily consumed while watching Modern Family with my two favorite men (three if you count my furbaby who watched intently for crumbs coming from Elijah's plate). 


Now if only we had chopsticks...

Being a New England girl at heart I am ready for fall. Football has started and my northern friends are all posting pictures of themselves drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes and sitting outside wearing cute boots and a light jacket. I hate them.

On a good day it's 85 and partly cloudy here. I've resorted to lighting pumpkin candles and putting the AC on high so I can wrap myself up in blankets. I want to make an apple pie and walk the dog when it's cool out and the leaves have begun to turn. Instead I get muggy evening walks with a dog who chases toads and cockroaches.

In my effort to push myself further into denial that I live in what feels like a year round summer (I know it will get cooler one day...but right now, I don't believe it), I decided to make something fall-ish and yummy. So I pulled out my recipe book that my grandparents gave each of the grandkids and flipped to entrees. There it was...chicken pot pie.

My grandmothers recipe (from an old Good Housekeeping cookbook if we must be specific) jumped off the page and I was hooked. According to her notes she made this meal when my mother's parents came to visit them in Cherry Hill, NJ so it's an in-law approved meal!!! Approved since the 70's! (and I will definitely be making it for my in-laws now)

After sending the husband to the grocery store and a few quick phone calls to my mom, I was off. Now...I didn't take a single in progress photo because I was too worried it was going to completely fail and while that would have been a funny story after we ordered Thai food for dinner...I wasn't in the mood to document said potential failure.

The recipe and my notes are below and I am happy to say...it was a smashing success. Not only did Elijah call it "the best meal he's ever had", he had seconds! We even reheated it in the oven tonight for a quick dinner after Taekwondo.

Boil water and add salt, celery and chicken. Reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for an hour. Do not overcook. (keep an eye on it...I thought it would take less time and it really did take an hour)
While the chicken is cooking, cut up the carrots and add to a pan with peas and onions and almost cover with water. Simmer while covered until they are slightly cooked. note: I don't suggest using normal onions if you can't find pearl onions...they have a very different flavor

Remove chicken from water and take off skin. Remove meat from bone and cut up. I stuck the chicken with a fork and used tongs to pull the skin and meat off. That sped the process up a bit. I only used white meat and cut it up into good bite size portions. note: you could use no skin no bone chicken breast and bake it or poach it quickly. I'm glad I did the bone in skin on (which is very out of the ordinary for me) because I think it enhanced the flavor a bit.

Arrange the chicken in your dish with carrots, onions, and peas. I used a large pyrex casserole dish and ended up using 6 out of 8 pieces. I saved the others for salads and sandwiches. If you have smaller dishes make two pies! Freeze one and you'll have a great ready to go meal on a busy night.

Sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy bottom sauce pan (or double boiler). Add flour and stir until smooth. I stirred long after it was smooth until it just started to change color a bit (barely noticeable). You don't want it to turn brown so be careful. I probably stirred it for 5 minutes.
Add cream and chicken broth (use low sodium if you have it) while stirring and cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Season with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Taste it and add what you want for your taste buds.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables. I was using a pretty big dish and had filled it all the way to the top with the chicken and veggies so I was worried the sauce wouldn't be enough but it was plenty. Just pour it all around. Then I pressed the filling down into the sauce a bit to get it all covered.

Cover with pie crust. Okay - so I used the seamless dough sheets. I put two of them together and painfully rolled them out (note: pillsbury dough sheets do NOT like to be rolled out). I had to really stretch the dough to fit it across the dish. I pulled it to the edges and the pushed the dough down the sides of the dish and made a little ridge all the way around (you can see it in the picture).
Sprinkle a bit of flour on the crust and brush with some cream (not too heavy - just enough to cover it). You are supposed to make slashes to vent the steam and I totally forgot! Probably why it cooked so fast....

I had to put a little smiley face on there...my mom always did so it felt right :)

Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes (I checked mine at 15 and the sauce was boiling over!)

Cook for a bit and then cut and serve. I suggest having a spatula and a spoon handy so you can serve it without too many dribbles.

If you're going to eat it in the next two days (like we are!) you can cover it in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge. If not, cover in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and put in the freezer.

I have to admit...I was shocked that it came out as well as it did and that except for it being time consuming...it really wasn't hard. And now I know to start the chicken WAY in advance :)

It was one of those days...it was hot, I had a bad day at work, and nothing was going right. I really hate those days. Those days when I drop everything, send emails with half my thoughts, and wonder where all of my productivity went even when I did everything on my to do list. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
So I made slushies. Yep...slushies.
I had read about it on one of those 16 ways to make parenting easier or 20 parenting hack posts that go around Facebook.
Take a capri sun, pop it in the freezer and 6 hours later....cut off the top and voila! Slushi.

I have Honest Kids Berry Berry Good Lemonade so I used that. I don't know if it was the difference in ingredients or what but that thing was ICE HARD after 6 hours. Not slush. So into the fridge it went and then back into the freezer. Once it felt right (hard but not rock hard) I poured it into a glass and put it back in the freezer to work on the extra liquid. 10 minutes later we were in slushie heaven!

Perfect snack before bed and since it was pink and not dark red, Elijah didn't go to bed with a weird red stained upper lip. So I succeeded at one thing! Well two if you count the snack :)

Ah....August. Summer is almost over. Except down here where it is deep hell for 6 months of the year and just hell the rest of the time.
I've taken a liking to cleaning up our yard, much to my fathers delight. I'm not sure where my domestic streak is coming from but my yard is thanking me for it. I cleaned out the brush and laid down some much needed new mulch this past weekend. Elijah made a concrete garden stone with colored pebbles in it at the Youth Centre today and it looks awesome out front.

Our boy came home at the end of July from 5 weeks visiting his mom. He had grown so much we needed to raise the seat on his bike so his knees stopped hitting his chin. We all fell back into our normal "kid in the house" routine pretty easily. Tuffy is still treating his human brother like another puppy. It's pretty funny to watch the two of them wrestle on the floor and play with rope....always followed by a loud "tufFFFYYYYYY" when the dog accidentally nips at him while going for a toy. Yep, life is back to normal. And while I don't think I was awful in the kitchen before this summer, if I was....life is back to normal there too!

Recipes just haven't come out the way I planned. Plus, many that I've picked I don't end up making for one reason or another (one recent one being: Josh doesn't fruit with his meat. So homemade orange chicken is a no go). Thankfully there have been a few that have passed the taste test. And ones where I learned my lesson.

#1 - The first was one we didn't even eat for dinner. This Paleo Slow Cooker Cinnamon Chicken was halfway done when Josh and I realized we both were craving Thai food and wanted nothing to do with chicken. But I did have it for lunch the next day on a salad and it was delish (but I really think it would have been better hot). Now, since I did not make mine ahead and freeze (which I assume makes everything mix together nicely), I rubbed some of the spices directly onto the chicken before putting it in the crock pot. I think I might try onions next time instead of bell peppers, but that's just a personal texture thing.

#2 - The next meal I made came from The Clean Program which I did right before I met Josh. I don't remember if this is the exact recipe or adapted over time but it's a balsamic chicken recipe and couldn't be simpler to make.

• A couple of leeks chopped in rounds (I tend to sub onions because I haven't been able to find good looking leeks in awhile)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• Chicken breast with salt and pepper and rosemary

Lay the leeks in a large pyrex dish with the chicken on top and pour the vinegar over it all. Bake at 350 until done!

Usually this meal goes over well but this time I used Herbes de Provence because I didn't have any rosemary and I put way too much on. Plus I used SO much vinegar which is what happens when your dog comes in to interrupt your cooking with feet licks, you have a giggle attack, and the bottle empties over what you're making. Lesson learned.

Josh said it would have been better with pork loin - so there's an option for next time.

#3 - There was one saving grace of the meal though...Paleo Garlic Mashed Cauliflower. You really do have to try it to believe how good it is. Josh thought I was nuts and begrudgingly ate it the first time I made it and LOVED it. Just goes to show how your wife is always right. (well...about that at least) If you have a food processor I beg of you to try these asap. And don't feel you need to have a steam basket - I just boiled my cauliflower and they came out great.

#4 - And last but not least: Shrimp on a Stick. I made these on my quest to make meals that all three of us will eat with little to no substitutions. Considering how picky Elijah is and how hard that is to accomplish just between Josh and I...this is no easy feat. But these were fast, easy, and a family hit. I didn't use skewers and I made them in a non stick pan because our grill is way beyond it's last leg. In addition, I used panko instead of bread crumbs. Elijah isn't a huge fan and probably would have liked bread crumbs better but he did eat all of them. Success! And Josh loved their simplicity. He added some sriracha and I added some dill and everyone's stomach lived happily ever after.

What have you been trying out this summer that you love? What has tanked? At least when it really tanks we live in a world where takeout is a viable option.

For the 4th this year Josh and I ventured up north to Massachusetts to visit my parents, my sister and her family, my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and three cousins. It was a packed house which means lots of hands on deck for meals and baby watching (my niece and nephew are 2). Unfortunately the 4th itself was the day Hurricane Andrew came our way so it was dark and stormy and resulted in a pretty quiet day around the house. My mom gave me a needlepoint piece that she found that I had been working on 6 years ago when I lived with them! I had never finished it so she had helped it along and I almost made it to the finish line while we were there. Josh and I had a ton of fun playing with the babies. They repeat everything you say and got a huge kick out of Josh's funny voices and noises. 

We had some excellent food while we were there. Swordfish and quinoa salad with roasted vegetables one night and baked salmon, couscous, lentil mini burgers, and more veggies the next. Friday night even ended in a delicious lemon meringue type pie. Which reminds me...I need to get that recipe. The quinoa salad was my contribution and with the help of my aunt and her serious chopping skills, was super easy to make. I made it once before and it's so easy and delicious. We doubled the recipe this time around but unfortunately didn't have enough limes to double the dressing. It was needed but still ended up alright. Light, summery, and super colorful. Play with the colors of peppers like we did for a really beautiful result. It's great for large and small gatherings and keeps well for 1-2 days in a sealed container.

My sister came to tell me how good it was and I had to admit it was a recipe I found in my email that she sent me in 2011!

Quinoa Black Bean Summer Salad
Yield: ~5 cups

For the salad:
1 cup uncooked quinoa (recipe calls for red...I use regular white)
1 (14oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup fresh Cilantro, finely chopped
2 Green Onions, chopped
1 cup fresh corn (optional) (frozen is fine, or sub frozen peas)
1 small avocado, chopped into 1 inch pieces

For the dressing:
4-5 tbsp of fresh lime juice (Juice from 2 small limes)
1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup fresh Cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin, or more to taste

Directions:

1. Cook 1 cup quinoa according to package directions.
2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare the chopped vegetables and whisk together the dressing.
3. Allow quinoa to cool after cooking for about 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Add the beans and vegetables and toss well.
4. Drizzle dressing over salad and toss well with salt and pepper to taste. Bring salad to room
temperature before serving.

When Josh came home yesterday and asked what I was making for dinner I told him it was a secret because I didn't want him to have any preconceived notions! I was making Thai veggie burgers and was worried I would get this look he gives me without realizing it. The look that says: "I love you but can't we just have chicken." or more likely, the one that says "Hmm I bet if we added a few things, took a few things out, and ended up with something completely different it would be great." Don't get me wrong: his willingness to experiment with ingredients and recipes is something I truly love about him. But when it comes to my turns in the kitchen, I am far too controlling (at least I can admit it!) to change what I'm making as I'm making it. It stresses me out. 

It turns out I should have more faith in my husband because when he did find out what I was making he made the "hmmmm that sounds delightful...I think I'll go watch Sports Center" face. 

I found this recipe in an old email from my sister and really wish I had tried them earlier. The lack of a food processor deterred me before but knowing how they turned out I would have used my mini prep to get the job done!

Thai Veg Burgers
Ingredients

1/3 cup rolled oats
14oz can chickpeas
large bunch cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp natural peanut butter
2 tsp sesame oil
3/4 cup broccoli slaw
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp ginger

In blender or processor, grind oats into coarse flour. Then add all the rest of the ingredients and blend until well combined but still a little chunky. Chill the mixture for 30 minutes in fridge (I did this, my sister did not. I think it helps but she said it was still yummy without it.  Form the mixture into 4 burgers with your hands. Heat a little oil or cooking spray (I used the latter and a non stick pan...old habits die hard) in a skillet over medium high heat and plop the burgers down.  Cook about 5 minutes on the first side, then flip, and press down a little bit on the browned side to flatten them a bit. Cook another 4 or 5 minutes. I chose to then put them in the oven at 350 for 5 minutes to really crisp them up.

I made a 'Best Ever Cilantro Lime Sauce' to go with them and I chopped up some avocado, and cherry tomatoes, mixed them with some corn and salt and pepper and threw all of it on a bed of lettuce. Easy, quick, and incredibly delicious! Also great for left overs and pretty healthy! The burgers came to 282 calories a serving and the sauce was 110 calories for 2 tbsp.

One thing I learned very early on in our relationship is that Josh's food tastes and mine are seriously different. He's has a Tex Mex, Cajun, "I grew up in Colorado" palate, and I have a "it better not be spicy even though I grew up in Singapore" Asian flavor loving palate. Thankfully we have been able to agree on a lot of dishes and on the ones that are a bit to bland for him, Siracha always comes in handy. But because I love him and he was having a long day at work, I decided to go out on a limb and make empanadas. But instead of fully giving in to his weird taste ways, I made the stuffing more Asian then Latin and our food compromised for us :)

I baked them to make them healthier and found a great recipe at laylita.com. With the help of my handy new food processor the dough came together super easy:

When summer comes around there is only one thing I want: Crunchy Thai Salad. My mom's friend is a chef and adapted it from Jamie Oliver's recipe. It's light, refreshing and goes with pretty much anything. I made it to go along with the Honey Lime Shrimp Tacos when we had friends over and it went perfectly with it. I waited until they arrived to throw the ingredients together because we were running late and the pre-dinner party prep had just been completed. But it's easy enough that we hung out in the kitchen with a glass of wine while I made it.

Ingredients:

1 bag of broccoli slaw
1/2 bag of coleslaw
Scallions, chopped
Cashews
Dried Cranberries
Handful of chopped Cilantro





Dressing

8 tbsp lime juice (I have used both fresh and from a squeeze bottle)
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp sesame seed oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 large pinches of brown sugar (see note below)
2 tbsp ginger (i have used both fresh grated ginger and the tube kind - for ease I recommend the tube)
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

The recipe also calls for 1 red chili, seeded and finely sliced. I have never added this because I don't like red chili but I'm sure it would be a great addition. 

I recommend starting with one large pinch of brown sugar and then adding more if needed.

Throw the broccoli slaw, coleslaw and scallions into a large serving bowl. Mix the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad, toss and add the cashews, dried cranberries, and cilantro along with some salt and pepper to taste and you're good to go!