Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Peachy Keen

A couple of things happened yesterday.
1. I became acutely aware of the last bit of ..."fluff"...lingering from my pregnancy that has settled itself around my midsection.
and
2. I was making Harrison baby food from the fruits & veggies I got at the store this weekend - specifically peaches.

The very helpful online resource I use for everything baby food related, Wholesome Baby Food, recommended baking peaches before pureeing them, which after a google search is how I ended up staring at this:

[source] 

More staring. My eyes got wide and my stomach grumbled. There was probably drool involved. And the urge to lick my computer screen. That's not weird, right?

And right then and there I decided that my baby didn't need two peaches worth of baby food, he only needed one, and the other peach was most definitely getting that drool-worthy treatment and going into my stomach.

Oh right - my stomach. There is a reason I brought that up - these babies, despite looking quite sinful, are actually pretty dang healthy. I mean obviously, it's a peach. A peach with some added goodness, but still a big honking peach nonetheless. Way low in calories and according to my trusty dusty baby food resource, they're high in Vitamin C and A.

So what makes it look so decadent? A small pat of butter (1/2 a tsp...for real), a touch of brown sugar and as much cinnamon as your little heart desires. Das it. Eat it almost as soon as it comes out of the oven and it tastes just as good as peach cobbler without all the unhealthiness. Charles agrees and that man loves himself some peach cobbler. It's a good thing we didn't have any ice cream in the house though, because it probably would have been devoured alongside the peaches and then suddenly the health(ier) dessert would become not so healthy. But some fat free whipped cream would be pretty delicious....

Here are the ones that we scarfed down, hunched over our bowls like little kids while Harrison slept.

So I was happy to discover that healthier choices for treats can still be melt-in-your-mouth good. Here's the recipe, via The Kitchen is My Playground. Go make it and die happy.

Brown Sugar Baked Peaches


Per serving:
1 fresh peach
1 tsp. unsalted butter, divided
2 to 4 tsp. brown sugar, divided
Sprinkling of ground cinnamon, to taste

Halve peaches and remove pit. Place in baking dish, skin side down. Place 1/2 teaspoon butter in the hollow of each peach, top each peach half with 1 or 2 teaspoons brown sugar, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees until peaches are tender, about 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Oh Hey, Internet....Didn't See You There (An Update)

I suppose it would be a bit of an understatement to say I took a hiatus from blogging, unintended as it was. It doesn't feel like it's been four months, but time does seem to scurry on a little faster than normal with a baby. Speaking of, when we last left off, he was two months old.

And then he was three months...



And four months...



Then five...



And suddenly my little big boy was a whole half a year old. I got a little carried away with his monthly photos this time around...


I ditched the onesie and dressed him in the one adorable preppy outfit he has, fearing this would be the last time he'd fit in it and threw in a stylin' hand-me-down hat for good measure. And then somehow, inadvertently, he ended up looking like the lead singer of Fall Out Boy. Ah, well...

My husband and I also hit a milestone, as we celebrated two years of marriage earlier this month, though the way we spent our anniversary was curled up on the couch at my mom's house because we both caught a nasty stomach bug on the same day. What's worse that getting sick at the same time as your spouse? Doing so when you have a needy baby. Thus we ended up spending the night at my mom's, who graciously took point with Harrison and allowed Charles and I to be pitiful. A few days later we were feeling much better and we snapped this photo to document our 2nd Year:


Look at that hotness. :-D I'm hoping to make taking a family photo a yearly tradition for our anniversary so we can line 'em up and see how the family grows. Hopefully not width wise.

Luckily before the crazy sickness set in, we celebrated our anniversary a couple of days prior with brunch, general relaxing, and massages (in honor of the 2nd anniversary traditional gift: cotton - husband's idea!) while the grandparents watched our little man.


So basically it's been a busy couple of months for us...what about you?