The Saturday 7

*Warning: Don't read this post if you're on a diet or ravenously hungry!* ;-)

1. Lucy had her 15 month doctor appointment this week.  I'm sure most of you have seen the stats on facebook, but I want them here too. She's 21 lbs. (25th percentile) and 31" (75th percentile). I don't know how Justin and I got such a tall kid! Haha. It's probably just a growth spurt. She'll level out.

We talked about her egg allergy and the doctor recommended trying them again when she turns 2 because that's a commonly outgrown allergy. And I asked about how her left foot turns in when she walks. The doctor said it was minor, wasn't too concerned, and said we'll just re-evaluate at her 2 year appt. Sounds good to me!

Other than that, she's perfectly healthy and wonderful. :-)

2. Lucy's favorite word is definitely "uh-oh." I must hear it 6,000 times a day. This morning, she slept 'til 9:15! Unheard of for her! And I awoke to her chirping "uh-oh" from her bed. Haha. She throws her binkies on the floor then cries "uh-oh!" until I come in to get her and retrieve them.

3. I've been feeling bad lately about what a pathetic housewife I am. I don't have a vegetable garden, I don't can anything, I barely cook, I don't bake, I certainly don't sew.  But this week, my domesticity emerged! I got this idea in my head that I was going to make zucchini bread, so I looked up some recipes, borrowed Kelly's food processor, and whipped up some delicious bread:

It was so good! And the recipe actually made 2 loaves, so I froze one for later . . . and pulled it out about 4 days after I made it because I couldn't wait any longer! Haha. The recipe was super easy and I had all the ingredients on hand except for the zucchini.  This is the recipe if you want to try it yourself!

4. Then yesterday, Kelly came over and we whipped up some vegetable purees. My boss had the book Deceptively Delicious sitting out the other day and I asked her if I could borrow it.  Kelly and I both have trouble getting our girls to eat veggies, so we decided to get proactive and sneak it in their food! We pureed carrots, butternut squash, broccoli, and spinach. Then we each made a recipe from the book to sample. I did applesauce muffins with squash puree.*recipe at the end*

They were delicious! And I definitely didn't taste any squash!

Kelly made brownies with spinach and carrot puree.  

They were a little spongy, but we realized later that the recipe called for egg whites and we just used the whole egg. Think that may have contributed? Other than that, they were delectable! The book was very clear to wait for them to cool or you'd taste the spinach. We ate them lukewarm and didn't taste spinach at all! Amazing! We both had some leftover veggie puree to freeze, too. We're going to do it again next week. Stay tuned! :-)

5. This morning, I decided to try one of my Pinterest finds: microwave monkey bread. I'm not sure if I bought the wrong kind of biscuits or what, but it did not work very well. 

Where's all the caramel? It's about 1/2 an inch on the bottom. Not enough!

I ended up doubling the amount of caramel mixture (just brown sugar, butter, and water) and pouring it over the top, so they looked like this:

They were good, but not my favorite monkey bread ever. I probably won't make them again.

6. My long lost friend Carissa came over this week. We were best friends in high school, and roommates our first year of college, but we're both busy and don't do very well with staying in touch anymore. It was great to catch up with her! 

7. I'm about to put Lucy down for a nap and then I'm going to go to the library all by myself! I'm so excited! She loves the library, but she hates standing in one spot while I look at the books. I managed to grab a book earlier this week when we were at the library with the kids. I finished it yesterday, but it was nothing special. (Love Finds You in Sisters Oregon by Melody Carlson) I'm looking forward to taking my time browsing and finding something fabulous today!  

* Applesauce Muffins Recipe as requested by Missy:

Topping

2/3 c. old-fashioned oats

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. margarine, melted

- Stir together and set aside for later

Batter

1 1/2  c. all purpose flour (I can't type that number very well. It's one and a half cups of flour.)

1 c. old-fashioned oats

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. unsweetened applesauce

1/2 c. nonfat milk

1/2 c. squash or carrot puree (I'm sure you could omit this if you don't care about sneaking veggies)

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. vegetable or canola oil

1 large egg

Directions

To make the batter, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl or zip-loc bag and stir or shake to mix. In a second bowl, mix the applesauce with the milk, veggie puree, sugar, oil, and egg.  Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just moistened. Do not overmix - the batter is supposed to be lumpy.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups (sprayed with cooking spray or lined with cupcake wrappers) and sprinkle with the streusel topping. Bake at 400* until the topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the muffins, 18 to 20 minutes.