Hi friends! I’m coming to you from Pennsylvania – I mentioned previously that we are staying here for the rest of December with my in-laws.
It’s really nice to be here and to have a change of scenery, and we were all excited to see “Grams and Pop Pop” as Riese calls them!
We arrived on Friday in time for dinner, and my father-in-law had prepared a variation of my Greek Lamb Burgers (he used turkey instead of lamb) for us – yum, yum! This has become one of our family favorite recipes – it’s so good and so easy!
We had them with some salad and sweet potato fries (similar to this Mexican baked sweet potato fries recipe of mine). It hit the spot and a yummy meal was very welcomed after a day of driving.
Other highlights from the weekend included a run/walk date with Matt yesterday morning:
Baby seems to have moved and is now hanging out on my bladder, so we didn’t run too far (2 miles maybe?), but the fresh air and movement was nice as always! (In case you missed the pregnancy announcement with first trimester details, here it is: Some Happy News!)
Sidenote – the leggings I’m wearing in the photo above were recommended by a friend of mine, and they are awesome! Only $25 on Amazon (affiliate link) and they have cell phone pockets on the sides and are super comfortable. They are even comfortably stretching with my pregnant belly!
Going to buy another pair because they are way better than my maternity leggings, which tend to fall down/shift around too much…
Anyway! After the run/walk we grabbed lattes from our local fave in Sewickley, Adesso Cafe, and walked around a little before grabbing takeout from Mediterra Cafe for all of us to enjoy back at the house for lunch.
I had their kale beet salad + pepperoni pizza + a bit of a toasted ham and cheese sandwich.
I’ve been really into salads recently – I remember it being the same when I was pregnant with Riese that I was really into raw vegetables (especially with a tart vinaigrette), but cooked vegetables were hit or miss.
On Saturday for lunch I was craving a big salad so I put together a feast for myself: lettuce, chickpeas (love chickpeas on salad), broccoli, red pepper, avocado, radish, lemon juice, and a really yummy Greek herb vinaigrette my father-in-law made for us the night before.
The meal needed some carbs so I had it with some pita, hummus, and tabouleh on the side.
I’m so grateful that at almost 17 weeks pregnant I’m starting to feel pretty good now – the nausea is (finally) just about gone and I can eat pretty normally. My energy levels are much better, too, although not as good as pre-pregnancy but that’s to be expected!
Meat and I are also friends again which is nice – I still don’t want a ton of meat, but it’s actually appealing again. For quite awhile in the first trimester meat was a big no-go for me – it made me so nauseated, especially chicken!
Thankfully eggs have been a good friend throughout this whole time, though. Especially quiche! I was excited when Matt’s mom made us a delicious one with bacon for breakfast on Sunday.
Speaking of quiche-adjacent things, I have an awesome egg casserole recipe coming at you on Wednesday that you won’t want to miss – it’s my new fave and go-to! We are planning to make it for Christmas morning, but it’s great as a meal prep recipe you can eat on all week, too.
Other meals this weekend were actually Blue Aprons – Matt and I brought our box of meals up here so we could all enjoy them. More on those soon. But for now, speaking of Blue Apron…
Giveaway!
I’m really excited to end this post with a fun giveaway, courtesy of my sponsor Blue Apron! As you know, we’ve been using and loving Blue Apron for 8 years now – their meal kits make our weekday meal planning routine so much easier (and more delicious/interesting).
If you’re looking for more holiday gift ideas, a Blue Apron e-gift card is a great option!
Recipients can use their e-gift card towards any of Blue Apron’s plans (2 person or 4 person signature, or the vegetarian plan), and you can choose any gift card amount you like. You can either print it at home and wrap it to put it under the tree or in a stocking, or simply select the option to send your e-gift card directly to the recipient via email! Easy.
To get you excited about trying Blue Apron in the new year, they are offering two lucky fANNEtastic food readers the chance to win a $60 e-gift card.
To enter to win, go check out the meal options on their website for next week, and then comment back here on my blog with what 3 meals you’d select that you most want to try! Good luck 🙂
I’ll randomly select 2 winners on Friday and will notify them directly.
Have a great day, and see you back here on Wednesday with the egg casserole recipe!
