can't get satisfied.

yesterday i talked about all that randomness of a lunch that i devoured ( those flax waffles + syrup are still haunting me ) and today i cannot get marshmallows of all things off my mind!!! i saw a pic on nat the fat rat's instagram, or maybe it was vine, the other day and she had a ginormous mason jar full of that pillowy goodness. then i started thinking about that one time when i got super martha on myself and made homemade marshmallows!!! have you ever had them? seriously, i don't know if i could ever go back to the jet-puffed plastic bag version again. they are SO good.

image cred and another recipe

so yeah, i think that's what this rainy day is going to include. going to ruin my morning run with some homemade marshmallows thrown into some hot chocolate and possibly a trip to the downtown library. a little bird told me that our *BIG* library is in jeopardy of being closed down. that's such a sad thought to me. i don't know who designed the building but it really is quite pretty. and huge by corpus library standards. i used to have my mom drop me off there and just read read read. or write write write. guess i need to start doing that again. or maybe just stand on the sidewalk picketing to the guys upstairs and preaching on how badly we need to keep those books in there!!!

on another entirely "i'm sitting at my big computer screen while the baby and puppy take naps so i have lots of quiet uninterrupted time to myself" note, i need some thoughts on double strollers. i know a lot of moms here in corpus that have kids the same-ish ages apart as what our two will be that only invest in a double jogger or a double umbrella. i really love our umbrella stroller because of convenience but when traveling, even though it's quick to break down and fits into the tiniest of rent cars, i would really prefer something a little more substantial. something like the bugaboo. along those same lines, i also realize that the stroller will spend a lot of time in our car so it needs to break down enough to leave room for our things in the back. as for the jogger, i'm afraid that i may have to just get one of those too. i run too much not to have but then i do also wonder how much i'm going to be running with BOTH of the kiddos. i mean, mila will start school in june so most of the time, she won't even be home while i'm running. clearly this is a big decision for me. last thing, if i do go the double stroller route, should i keep my stokke? i really love that stroller and would hate for it to just sit in our garage. augh! the stress of life with four!

i should be.

reading a book on all the things i'm not supposed to be eating or doing while pregnant. or maybe even finishing my re-read of 'the leftovers' for the book club that i myself started. but instead i'm spending my time eating lots of things that i bought for mila from the grocery store the other day ((flax waffles times three, vegan "chicken" nuggets times more than i want to mention, and a mango)) and wishing that this were my address. but my belly is full and now i think i'll be able to muster up a little nap before the little one wakes. some photos from the last few days of ours.

lots of food and feet in our recent history.

happy tuesday

;)

snacking.

lately m and i can NOT get enough of some homemade apple chips. taken from this recipe, they're quite possibly the best new afternoon snack we can get our hands on ( since the last time we made these ).

happy snacking.

dirty recipes.

in my opinion, there's nothing better and more honest than a recipe with stains and spills and spots spread all over it. i prefer the kind that are barely readable, so worn that you can almost squeeze the oil from previous nights spent preparing the dish.

i give you:

you've gotta love the french. you really do. especially when it comes to food.

this was a seriously laborious recipe, but one that proved worth the work. it was in the new issue of martha stewart living. love her recipes, so detailed in direction. if she's not explaining the exact details of how the food should look while cooking it, she always gives a good time estimate for how long each step should take. love her.

so here it is. my adventures with this famous french dish. we served it over egg noodles but i can just imagine how good it could have been with a hard crusted chunk of sourdough from here.

and finally:

happy monday.

tonight.

alice waters was my best friend.

after a longstanding fear of roasting a WHOLE chicken, i faced it. i stood up to what i expected to be ultimate defeat. and then. and then i found her. hiding on my cookbook shelf, waiting to help me make my easiest dinner yet.

//recipe//

SO easy that i was even able to sneak away from the house for a bit to enjoy a few sips of this with a friend. so thanks alice, until we meet again.
and oh yeah! this little stink butt decided to be my sous chef for the night. such a big help.

***i wish i could show you photos of the finished product but this family of three gobbled it all right up. yeah, it was that good.***

tea.

lately tea and i have had a really great relationship. so much so that i have random tea spoons sitting all around the house.

let me start by saying that i think my little friend "tea" has begun to understand that just because i'm not pregnant   ( and therefore not abstaining from coffee ) doesn't mean that it doesn't have a special place in my life. it just means that "place" doesn't really start until about three p.m., post coffee mornings,  when i enjoy this ( preferably with a little honey ) and ends with this. just before i go to bed and accompanied with an evening snack of choice. usually energy nuggets, homemade trail mix of vegan carob chips//unsweetened shaved coconut//raw cashews or coconut milk "ice" cream. or, i'm not gonna lie, a hefty mixture of all three.

happy WEDNESDAY.

tacos for everyone!

for cousins. and uncles. and brothers. and brother's girls-friends. and moms. and seesters ( especially those with birthdays ). and husbands & daughters. basically it was just a really nice evening spent with the ones we love.

but today we rest. while also celebrating the graduation of a very dear friend ( congrats barett! ) and a future wedding.

back to normal.

after one too many of these. my body was craving some juice. some sweat. some serious post-workout nutrients. and finally a healthy little 'treat' before bed.

{chamomile + mint + ginger + honey}

today was a day.

for juicers. and food processors.

and so we wait.

on the surface it may look like i didn't get much done today {okay, maybe i didn't accomplish much beneath the surface either}, but all in all, today's day of waiting has actually been a pleasant one.

last night, nick and i went to his mom's house to make possibly the freshest salsa ever with loads of freshly-picked veggies from each of our gardens.

and today, when husband came home at lunch, he mowed the front yard while i micro-managed by eating some fruit curbside.

mind you, this is what our yard looked like when we moved in:

...pretty much burnt to a crisp.

then at about one, i felt something we haven't had for over a week now: cold air blowing through our vents. i do love the fact that on the sunny west coast and many parts of these beautiful united states, air conditioners are not necessary, but corpus christi is not one of those places. dry air and mild temperatures just don't exist here, it's humid and it's HOT. especially in the summer {which for us, ranges from about april to october}. so imagine my joy when i finally saw the complete installation of this

in our backyard. especially considering the fact that it's the most efficient system we could get and should cut our electricity costs by about sixty percent.

between all of the 'busYness' of today, i finally worked up an appetite that i knew only buckwheat pancakes could satisfy {and no, all of the above did not happen before noon arrived, my pancakes were definitely consumed riiiiight around three o'clock}.

i've made buckwheat pancakes from scratch before but today i just didn't have the energy, so i bought this mix from the store. it definitely needs a LOT of tweaking. i went by the instructions on the box and the only thing that got me through them {besides the fact that i was STARVing} was that lovely little bottle in the background of the last picture. sugar-free maple syrup, which makes just about anything taste better. especially oatmeal.

aaaaand, i may have watched last night's episode of 'the real housewives of new jersey'. i can't decide how much/little i like melissa {teresa's sister-in-law}, thoughts?

today's day.

according to my iphone.

had a blast with these two today. even if taylor did hog all of the grapes before jett and i had a chance to have some.

my 'first morning at home' necessities.

{a much more pleasant

workspace than 416 starr st.}

{npr via my tivoli}

{a little nudge for the little one

to come out and meet us}

happy monday!

so much for a 'lazy' sunday.

there is still much work to be done, but my new workspace {tomorrow marks my first day 'at THE office'} got a big nudge in the right direction.

i really don't know when my urge to change nearly every wall in my house from white to 'anything but white' will die. although, surprisingly, i actually love white walls....in the right space but our house just isn't that 'space'. so color it is and color it shall be. i'm still waiting on a new desk chair and a few other office necessities but until they arrive, i think i will be just fine working in this *new* room.

on another weekend note, the south texas summer is quickly approaching and with it brings lots of fresh produce that we took full advantage of this past saturday and sunday.

this thing weighed no less than eighteen pounds- no lie -had barely enough room in the refrigerator for it. luckily i realized this half-way into dicing it up, because that gave us a chance to use my very neglected juicer and drink our dose of lycopene with some strawberry + watermelon juice.

one thing led to another and before i knew it, i was filling two gallon-size containers with various juices.

and then the husband came in with some fruits from el jardin.

and if THAT wasn't enough, nick's mom has been so generously sharing some of her hand-picked tomatoes with us. nearly every year her tomatoes dominate her garden, leaving barely anything else to compete with them, fortunately it is a welcomed takeover.

a wee bit of some kitchen q.t.

with these...

{creamy banana and blueberry popsicles
from miss martha}

..because of this three-step recipe:

• puree  1½ cups almond milk, 1 banana, 1½ cups frozen blueberries and  ¼ cup agave syrup in a blender until smooth
• pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze

some pasta salad that i've been missing ever since i finished the final leftovers from our shower for miss mila a few weekends ago.

(thank you crystal for posting the recipe}

and you...

{perfect hard-boiled egg}

...because i love you and we have lots of you in the refrigerator right now.

our week {and a half} in pictures.

{assembled the stroller, thanks sister}

{some shoes in my dreams}

{fruit + salt + lime + chile = a gift from mexico}

{we received some perfect planters from this guy}

{i ate one too many of these}

{celebrated our one-year anniversary together}

{doing this}

{and catching this}

now a year and a week into our marriage and expecting our first baby. i love you nick.