But it just seems like the easiest (only?) time of day I have to actually photograph and sit down with my food. Fortunately, I had the foresight last night to put together some overnight oats. My only regret is that I didn’t make 2x this amount.

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup coconut milk (the boxed beverage, not canned)
• 1 T maple syrup
• 1 T ground flax

Then this morning I cut up an apple, sprinkled some cinnamon, dipped a spoon in almond butter and called it all breakfast. It was exceptional. And very fall-like.

Also, I skipped coffee this morning in hopes that I’ll be able to take a nap soon. Adrienne has completely forgotten how to sleep thought night. In fact, she’s forgotten how to sleep more than a three hours at a time. Teething, maybe? I need advice. Or an all-night babysitter.

***

Go Vote! (’ll only bug you about it everyday until September 9th)

It’s been raining all day here, so we’ve been pretty house bound (except for trip to the grocery store and a twenty minute reprieve from the rain, during which Adrienne and I went for a brisk walk).

Breakfast

Admittedly, an odd one.

We went to Meeker’s parents’ for dinner last night came home with a tub full of roasted veggies – best.leftovers.ever.

For breakfast, I sandwiched them in some bread, added some feta cheese and panini pressed them.

Lunch

Look familiar? Same veggies with mustard and bbq sauce on top.

Then I had one of my favorite snacks as of late…

Applesauce, oats, ground flax seed, chocolate chips and almonds – you’ve got to try this, it’s incredible. I think I’ve had four bowls like this in the last two days. And probably another one for dessert tonight.

Another snack later on…

Dinner

Ginger, red bell peppers, garlic, shallots

I (sort of) followed this recipe – cut way down on the butter (really 11 tablespoons??) and left out the black pepper because I don’t really like it. Both Meeker and I agreed it was the best tofu dish I’ve made – looks like Meeker likes tofu.

Thoughts on tofu?

Have I mentioned that I love my new life?

Breakfast

toasted banana bread with almond butter and fruit

plus coffee – luckily, my 2^nd hand coffee doesn’t seem to affect Adrienne too much, so I’m gonna keep on drinkin’ it.

Lunch

a little sandwich on a ww English muffin – turkey, cucumber, avocado, and mustard

plus two cowboy cookies that my mama brought us yesterday

Dinner

I was really craving salad for dinner, but we didn’t have any leafy greens, so I combined all the veggies I could find and put them on a plate, and covered it all in balsamic vinaigrette.

asparagus, cucumber, celery, and roasted potatoes

Dessert

a pinova apple

How was your Monday?

So instead, we hung out inside doing things like laundry, singing, dancing, reading, and watching TV. We also had some family come over to play with (hold) Little A.

Breakfast

½ cup oats, 1 tbs. chia seeds, 1 cup water, ¼ cup vanilla soy milk, plus almond butter and…

My 3 secret ingredients

Lunch – light and snacky.

Dinner

Turkey lasagna and salad – same as yesterday – even better on day two.

In the baby world…

Adrienne is one week old today! It crazy to think that we’ve only known her for seven days – it seems like she’s been part of our family all along. So far, her interests include eating and sleeping – both which she did a lot of today.

Happy birthday, Sweet One!

I woke up at 1:39am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I read part of this book. I cleaned the house. I played with the cat. I went to the gym.

After I got home, I managed to fall back asleep around 4:30, and slept like a rock until about 6:00.

Whereupon I drank some juice…

ate ½ of this bowl of oatmeal (it lost its appeal midway through)

and finished it all off with a few bites of cake.

Lunch

Two veggie wraps: spinach, cucumber, bean sprouts, spicy mustard

mangoes are hard to slice with a butter knife

Obligatory gala x2

Dinner

The roasted veg.

Zucchini and carrots were eaten plain. Sweet potatoes were dipped in spicy bbq sauce.

In the 3^rd grade world…

I get called a lot of things throughout the day:

Mrs. Unger, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Mr. Mendez (the other 3^rd grade teacher’s name).

I respond to them all.

But there was a new one today that made me laugh. A little girl walked up to me today, gave me a hug, and addressed me as Mrs. Baby…

Apparently, my kiddos are as preoccupied with Baby Cake’s approaching arrival as I am. Maybe it’s because my bulging belly squished her in the face when she attempted to wrap her arms around me for a hug.

Mrs. Unger eats like a pig.

Pre-workout breakfast: juice and a slice of toast.

Post-workout breakfast:

Cookie dough smoothie

I was a sleepy sloth this morning, so I decided to have some real coffee when I got to work. My first cup of caffeinated coffee in 10 months.

Mistake. This left me as jittery as a coke addict. I think I’ll have to ease myself back into caffeine after Baby Cakes arrives.

Mid-morning snack: apple and almonds

Lunch #1

apple + tortilla with peanut butter and spinach – don’t knock it until you try it.

Lunch #2

Spread on a toasted ww bagel

Plus some fruity goodness…

I just walked in the door from school, and so far I’ve hoovered a leftover spring roll, a bowl of grape nuts, and I’m sure there is more snacking to be done tonight. I’m still as hungry as a bear.

I’ve lost my will to cook, but definitely not my will to eat.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Because my departure from school is impending, and I’ll most likely miss the spring concert, my kiddos begged the music teacher to accompany them as they sang their end of year song to me today.

So, they serenaded me with Fireflies – and I bawled like a baby.

Sure, it was probably hormone induced, but I was a wreck just thinking about leaving my little nine-year-old-nuggets for the year. Any day could be my last day… and that is kind of exciting, and kind of heartbreaking.

(Any mamas out there have tips on sleeping through the night when you have a 5lb. squiggly basketball attached to your belly?)

Breakfast

Grape nuts, frosted mini wheats, banana, coconut milk

Lunch

Toasted bagel with cucumber, spinach, and mustard

Snack Drawer

I had never had that type of Clif Bar before – but it was yummy. The only Clif Bar I’ve met and didn’t like was blueberry. Ick.

Dinner

asparagus, buffalo brisket, and salad

I called my grandma last night and asked her how to make brisket. She told me to put it in a covered pan with liquid smoke and worcestershire sauce, and cook it at 225* for 8 hours. And when your 90 year old Nonnie tells you that’s how you cook brisket – you don’t question her.

It was perfect.

Dessert

cakey brownie and a dollop of cool whip

In the 3^rd grade world…

This is actually from last Thursday (St. Patrick’s Day), but I felt so lousy last week, that I’m just NOW getting around to posting about what the LEPRECHAUNS did to our classroom!

Those sneaky little buggers. (Surprisingly, they only dumped out the really messy desks – imagine that??)

Luckily, they left a treat for those students who helped clean up…

8 year olds will do just about anything for a peppermint patty.

Baby Cakes is making me hot, and, as someone who is freezing cold 90% of the time, I love it.

Breakfast

Pinova apple and my homemade nut butter

We had ½ cup(ish) each of cashews, walnuts, and almonds hiding in the back of the cabinet – so I threw them all in the food processor with some salt, turned it on for about 3 minutes, and voila – mixed nut butter. Deeelicious.

For lunch, I had leftover tortilla soup.

After school I had a doctor’s appointment, and I haven’t gained any weight in the last few weeks. While that’s okay with me, it’s apparently not good for Baby Cakes, so I resolved to eat all of my dinner tonight.

Not a problem with these Jamaican Jerk Fajitas. I had no idea what I was doing – I just wikipediea-ed “jerk seasoning” and then went wild.

The veggies: zucchini, two bell peppers (yellow/red), red onion, two rings of canned pineapple (okay, not a veggie) – all sliced

The “jerk” seasoning: allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, thyme, salt, pepper – I think it was about 1 tsp. of each

I sautéed it all with about a tablespoon of olive oil.

Just like the doctor prescribed, I ate the whole thing (granted, it was a taco-sized tortilla) – and it was seriously good.

Then I drank a sip of water. Then I burped – and I threw up. (Luckily, I was standing next to the sink.) I guess it was too much food for my squished stomach. Lesson learned. I’ll figure out a way to squeeze in those extra calories somehow.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Another fantastically entertaining journal response.

This morning’s prompt was:

If you were given a plain white shirt to decorate however you wanted, what would it look like? Why?

I would make an awesome shirt. It would have the words NO GIRLS on the back. It would have a bomb. There would be flames on it. But before all that, I would get it to be black. Maybe I’ll put paint ball splatters. Then I’d put a face that’s flaming. It would be awesome. That’s the way I’d decorate it.

Your best guess…written by a boy or a girl??

Guess who already has a snow day tomorrow? No, not Punky – she doesn’t go to school.

This 3^rd grade teacher – who incidentally has a piece of mushroom in her teeth in this picture.

The other happy news?? I got a new camera today!! I’ve been saving up for months, and Meeker surprised me and ordered it last week. It came in the mail today. It was like Christmas when I came home from work…a snow day for tomorrow and a brand new camera to play with?! When I called my mama to tell her all the good news she exclaimed…oh double happy day!

So, most of the day I took pictures with my old camera, but dinner (and the 2 above photos) are from the new guy. I have SO much to learn about it, I can hardly wait.

Breakfast

Protein shake made with almond milk and chocolate protein powder + ½ a frozen banana. As an afterthought, I had a piece of millet bread with peanut butter and raisins as I was walking out the door.

Lunch

This salad delicious and was really only $3.99.

Plus a new (to me) kind of apple…

A pinova! It was delicious and crispy – almost like a sweeter gala. And yes, this picture was taken while my kiddos were in the room. It was about 2 degrees outside today, so we had indoor recess – which is when I ate my lunch.

Snack

Ezekiel sprouted grain wrap with peanut butter, cinnamon and raisins + another apple. I love these wraps – so grainy and good.

Dinner

Portebello mushroom burger – from the Engine 2 Website – my new favorite place for recipes. Meeker couldn’t believe he was eating a meatless dinner. Especially one that had the word “burger” in it.

But after a couple of bites, he said he really liked it, and if he had to go on a “vegetarian diet” – he would eat meals like this. I win.

And I was so excited about my new camera – I photographed and took a bite of my burger before I remembered to put the caramelized onions on top.

That’s better.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Well, it doesn’t really get more exciting than snow days, however, this math project came pretty close.

She got an A+

Apple Wheat Scones

2 cups flour

2/3 cup wheat germ

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

a pinch of ground nutmeg

1/3 cup Earth Balance (or any butter substitute)

1 large Gala apple, peeled and chopped

½ cup vanilla soy milk

¼ cup agave

Topping:

2 tsp. wheat germ

2 tsp. sugar

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, wheat germ, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg) in one bowl. Combine the apple, milk, and agave in a smaller bowl. Then cut the earth balance into the flour mixture until crumbly. Add the milk mixture to the dry bowl and mix until just combined.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and pat into a disk – about ½ inch thick. Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle over dough. Cut into eight wedges and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400* for 15 – 18 minutes. Remove and cool.

I’m currently at my last childbirth preparation class, and I can say – taking this class is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I went into it terrified of giving birth, and I can honestly say that just 12 hours of class has made me feel confident and so excited to bring little Baby Cakes into the world. Now I just have to wait about 3 more months…

In the 3rd grade world…

We are reading a story that takes place during the Great Depression, so I had my kiddos research 5 facts about that period of history this morning.

Two fashion forward boys came up with this little nugget…