Breakfast "Milkshake" {and yes, it's healthy!}

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Ya know those "hungry days" that happen out of the blue?  You wake up and for some reason are ready to devour a large pizza or plate of enchiladas?  As any nursing mom will tell you, those days are quite frequent.

Weekday mornings are always pretty fast-paced for me.  I get up while A is still asleep so I can get myself ready for work before he's ready for his breakfast.  He usually wakes up at 7 and is ready for a change and a snack, then it's time for Momma to get dressed and out the door while he and Daddy snooze.

Busy mornings don't leave a lot of room for healthy breakfasts, so I try to think of ways to pack in a nutritious on-the-go snack for the morning drive to work.  I also happen to have a wicked sweet tooth.  This smoothie is perfect for busy mornings and is deceptively healthy!  Bananas and agave give it a sweet, decadent flavor, and all-natural peanut butter and greek yogurt provide a punch of protein to keep the munchies away all morning.  The addition of unsweetened cocoa powder sends this smoothie over the top, making me feel like a little kid who's been allowed to have a chocolate milkshake for breakfast.

This recipe makes about 10-12 ounces of smoothie.  Feel free to adjust to your liking.  I think next time I'll add in some oats and flax for an added boost!

Breakfast "Milkshake"
2/3 c milk (almond milk would be a fabulous substitute)
2/3 c plain greek yogurt (Fage is my favorite)
1 large ripe banana
1/2 c all-natural peanut butter
2 tsp agave (or honey), to taste
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3-4 large ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in blender and whirl!  Serve with a fun stripey straw because it tastes better that way.

PS - I would love to be able to make this the night before.... Thoughts?  I feel like it will be a soupy mess if I try...  Talk to me, people.  Let's make this happen.

Annnnnnd.....

Happy 6 months to our sweet little muchacho!

Dusting off the ol' blog... and a little life update

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*knocks...  hears hollow echo of knock*

Queue creaky door squeak, Halloween style

Hello?

*blows dust off blog...  cough cough*

*waves away cobwebs*


I know what you're thinking...  "Well, well, look who finally decided to come back to the party!"  My absence on the blog has been embarrassingly lengthy, I apologize.  I promise there's a good reason for it.

So the last time I was around these parts, posting yummy things like pizza with peaches, prosciutto and basil, I was harboring a teensy tiny little secret...

Think you know what it is?

Take a guess.....

A bun in the oven!!

Last summer we learned that our family would be increasing in size, and were over the moon!!  While making dinner one Friday evening, I decided to take a test.  All day I had just had that "feeling" that I was maybe (read: definitely, without a doubt) pregnant.  Three incredibly loooooong minutes later - a big fat positive pregnancy test!  It took me a full hour to make tacos for dinner that night, thanks to my distracted daydreaming and constantly going back to check the test to make sure it really was positive.  I think I half expected the test to change as soon as I walked away from it.

I fully planned to keep blogging and cooking my way through my pregnancy, but a little thing called morning sickness had other plans for me.  (Who decided to call it "morning" sickness, anyway??  False advertising, folks.)  So between that and me just being flat out lazy, SWAW got pushed to the back burner, so to speak, and sat collecting dust while I collected baby weight. Ahem.

And speaking of baby weight, I think it's downright cruel that pregnant women are made to stand on the scale at every OB appointment.  Like we need the weekly reminder that our cankles and our waistline are having a contest of which can expand the most?

Fast forward many months, to February of this year.  At our weekly appointment with our amazing OB, she said it was time for baby to arrive!  We were instructed to report to the hospital that night for induction, and the excitement (err - anxiety!) was palpable.  After 19 hours of labor, at 7:24 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, our sweet baby was born.  We hadn't found out the sex of the baby beforehand, and I can still hear the awe in R's voice as he announced "It's a BOY!!!"

Ayden Lucas, 6 lbs., 12 oz. of pure perfection.

Each day with our sweet boy is pure joy.  He is so amazing!  It's a wonder how love can grow and grow with the passing of each moment.  We are so in love with him and have been blessed with the best baby!  Truly, he is such a good boy.  We joke that he is such a good boy that we are afraid to have any more in the future, for fear that they will be the complete opposite.  Ha!

Being this boy's momma is such an honor, and I can't believe we were given this sweet little angel to look after.  Not only that, to see the love of my life as a father is so lovely it moves me to tears.  R is a complete natural!  So much so that I was actually jealous in the first few weeks because he took to it so easily while I felt like I was a hot mess (I was) and had no idea what to do with this tiny creature with big lungs.  Seeing my boys together ...  it's indescribable.  It is every wonderful thing one can imagine, multiplied by a thousand to the hundredth power and then some.  They complete me.

My loves on Father's Day

So, now that we've caught up a bit, I hope you can forgive my absence.  I'll have some yummy recipes to post for you soon, and I'll probably toss in some baby spam with my posts from now on.  In the mean time I'll be knee deep in diapers.

And loving every minute.

I mean, really...