11.26.2011

Easy Egg-and-Cheesy Crescent Comfort Breakfast Rolls {Recipe}

So I "invented" these recently and they've quickly become a weekend breakfast fave around our house...













I use the term "invented" loosely because there's no way I'm the first person who thought of this. But for reals, this is like the easiest, yummiest breakfast recipe ever and they are 1000% toddler approved (meaning Otto would fight you for one).

Here's what you need...
1 tube Pillsbury (or whatever) crescent rolls
3-4 eggs cooked in the scrambled fashion
Shredded cheese
Other fillin' ideas: cooked sausage, spinach, hash browns, bacon, you get the idea

Here's what you do...
1. Pre-cook your eggs and any other ingredients that would need to be cooked
2. Lay out crescent rolls on cookie sheet, add a layer of your fillins, then roll into crescent shape
3. Cook per directions on the tube

Voila! These were totally inspired by my friend Alana who was making tuna-and-swiss crescent melts recently. I thought, "holy sh*t I could be stuffing these bad boys?" and a breakfast classic was born.

These breakfast rolls are so so easy and so so amazing. I hope you like them too! And hope all my US friends are having happy Thanksgiving weekends and everyone else is just having amazing regular weekends!

xo,
lindsey  

11.16.2011

is that a baby in your belly or do you just eat too much chocolate?

 ummmm... both?
bu bu bump! i can't believe 3+ months from now this little lady will be making her appearance. i'm starting to go crazy trying to think of the perfect name. rob and i do NOT have the same taste in names at alllllll. but i really want to come up with a name we both love and then lock it in already. like really really badly. and i want to order Otto and baby matching embroidered Pottery Barn stockings! ugh! i'm making a sour lemon face right now...

anyways...

so we had a really awesome saturday! it was chilly but not cold and only rained in the evenings. so we took ourselves to the park. how pretty is oregon (and my kiddo)? I mean seriously...

Ot is working on his pedal skills. it's not so easy when you're a little guy! and we totally forgot his helmet at home so he got lots of assistance this time cuz we were afraid to let go. but he's getting the knack though. it'll be a bittersweet moment when he can finally get that bike going without us. yay and boo.

in other yays, rob volunteered to go on a pregnancy run for me tonight. i came home craving a serious chocolate bar and we have nothing around this crud hole that will satisfy so i'm totally getting the pregnant lady pamper treatment tonight! here is my "grocery list" : king size (or 2) dark chocolate w/ almonds candy bar(s). i can't wait til he actually makes this run. it's gonna be a down and dirty chocolate bar make-out session!

xo,
lindsey

11.13.2011

Oopsie Loopsie

so i just wanted to share this rad little etsy shop with you guys; it's where i found Otto's insanely cute puppy hat for his halloween costume and for reals... every. single. hat. ashley makes is Adorbs-ville, USA. she was also really cool about my request for a custom matching dog-tail to go with the hat. and this wasn't one of those i'll write about your shop in exchange for free stuff situations, no discounts were had, i didn't even ask. i just fell in love with all of her hats and am a super happy customer who's now trying to decide which hat i want to order for my little bun-in-the-oven so she has one too! Oopsie Loopsie Crochet and Design -->


and even though this pic could def make the list of "sad etsy boyfriends" i love this beard hat. i want one! and how insanely cute would this be on a little boy? don't answer, i'll answer. "beyond cute, thank you."

ok, so that is my post for today. obsessed with adorable hats for the kiddos! and with dark chocolate almond bark. tomorrow i'm posting my stepping out post and you'll see my bump that's about 1 1/2 pounds of baby and 8 1/2 pounds of chocolate.

so hope everyone is having relaxing, lovely, cocoa-filled weekends. can you believe thanksgiving is in like 2 weeks though? egad! good lord time is flying this autumn.

xo,
lindsey

11.09.2011

h a double-l o double-u double-e n

what? i'm not that late with the halloween pics. and really? (if i do say so myself) it was worth the wait for these puppy/fireman shots. cutest puppy/fireman ever! we had such an amazing night. Ot was a hard core trick or treating fool. only semi-worried that he'd get rocks instead of candy after watching The Great Pumpkin Thursday night.
and then my favorite part, the puppy butt...
i'll do a separate post soon of the Etsy shop that was amaaaazing enough to custom make Otto this hat and tail for the costume. it's like the cutest hat shop of all tiiiiime ::sung in a super high-pitched voice:: !!! then i just ran some wire through the tail so it would stick out a bit and sewed it to the fireman's coat. we got the fireman costume and rain boots both at Target. double-awesomeness is that the hat and boots are totally wearable on the daily, and in chilly, rainy Eugene they will get lots and lots of use this winter.

11.06.2011

Mama Steez - Life's a Coast

Egad I'm already annoyed doing this post and I haven' even started yet! When I changed jobs I had to send my old, snuggly computer back and inherited Rob's ollllld, POS laptop to take its place. Boo. I hate typing on laptops. I hate doing anything on laptops! It's like one of fifteen teeny reasons why I haven't gathered the strength to get back in the blog habit since The Great Gall Bladder Fail of 2011.

Reason number one being that I am pregnant! That's like a really great excuse to get out of anything right? As-of this weekend I am 23 weeks and let me tell ya, wayyyy bigger than I'm about to appear in the following Mama Steez pics. These are about 7 weeks ago and were taken at the tail end of my gall bladder diet that lost me almost 15 pounds in about 5 weeks. I'm back up those 15 pounds and dudes, it's all belly (and butt and, fun-ly, one boob more than the other one). But anyways, this is from the last time I actually Stepped Out on a Saturday. We went to the beach (sigh, remember the sun? I kinda do.) And it was all kinds of glorious. And then I was told that now that I live in Oregon we don't say "beach" we say "coast". Cuz everything's hipper in Oregon, even sand! So without further, here's what I wore...


top: Old Navy. scarf: from a street vendor in Paris jeans: c/o Denizen 



Coming soon: belly shots. I promise! I just need to wrap my head around the fact that this pain-in-the-ass laptop is my computer now. ::bangs head on desk::  Oh and IT'S A GIRL! Eek! Otto is so so so so so excited to be a big brother. He told me, "I will protect the baby from mud balls." ::heart leaps into mouth:: He is also ready to teach her how to eat cereal and color and sing songs. I'm so glad he's into this big brother thing. He's such a sweet heart.

9.22.2011

the what's what

oh my gosh, you guys, i am so out of practice on the blogging lately that i don't even know where (or how) to start this post. so much going on in my life (that i want to talk about and that will hopefully explain my silence a little) and so much going on in my head as far as what this blog is and where i want to take it... which is "i don't know" and "gee i really don't know". i'm just all un-grounded and un-focused right now...

We Moved Far Far Away...
so in July we picked up our lives and moved from Tucson to Eugene, OR. i was so excited about this move but almost immediately upon landing here i just fell into this gloomy slump of feeling cruddy and napping and feeling cruddy while napping. it was cruddy!

My Gall Bladder Broke...
not too very long after settling into our new life in (gorgeous, amazing, temperate) Eugene i had a gall bladder attack that was pain like nothing i've ever experienced outside of giving birth to an almost 10 pound baby. it sucked and forced me to go on a crazy not-allowed-to-eat-much-of-anything diet for almost a month while we waited to see if i needed surgery. which, it turned out, i did. so a couple of weeks ago i had my gall bladder removed. ouch. but i'm doing so much better now. i think a lot of the cruddy-ness i was feeling that i thought had to do with the move was really just my mood being affected by my toxic gall bladder. goodbye foul organ!

I Got a New Job!..
right?! i really wasn't urgently looking for a new job when we moved because i've been working out of my house for almost 6 years. but i saw this position and really felt it was right for me. and i really haven't enjoyed being a work-at-home employee these past 6 years. like The Shining levels of cabin fever have been making me a dull boy for a long time now and really turning me sour. so in the midst of everything i find myself starting a new job on Monday! i'm so excited and, to be honest, just overwhelmed by this additional change in my life. things are starting to look super rosey around here and i'm just really excited to see what this new challenge has in store for me.

Otto Dealt With the Move...
in the midst of all this craziness, little Otto has been having an okay time transitioning into our new life. but i can't say it's been all cake. tantrums are up. naps are down. and i've felt really sh*tty about how un-energetic i was those first eight weeks or so after we moved here. i know it had to do with my body and was out of my control... at the same time, little man could have used a mommy who was functioning at 100% and i really feel like i dropped the ball and let him down. trying to make up for it now.

And Speaking of Otto...
so guys, Ot is 2 3/4. he's developing into this autonomous, testy, hilarious, genius, wonderful, grouchy person who i'm feeling less and less comfortable blogging about. my last post with Otto in it felt really awkward to me. i was thinking, "is he going to be ok with me posting this stuff?" because he's really not a baby anymore at ALL. he's a little person. and i don't know how comfortable i am putting pictures and telling stories about him on here anymore. i'm not talking about a complete shut down. but i don't know what i am talking about either. i'm still figuring it out.

And Then...
and then there's other stuff going on and on my mind too that i don't know if i'm ready to talk about yet. but needless to say, i'm a lil overwhelmed by it all! in my noggin and in my little corner of the world. and it's all just created a huge case of writer's block for this mama.

i dunno. that's all i got right now. i'm working through all of it and hope to be back on here more regularly soon. doing what i always did but maybe tweaked a little to match my updated life. i seriously miss the blogging and even more than that i miss the time i spent each week reading your blogs and interacting with you guys. i plan to dive back in soon. cuz y'all are awesome.

-lindsey

9.15.2011

this made me cry happy tears...


my friend posted this on pinterest last night and at first i was just like "what an awesome dresser!" then i read the sign and just teared up. amazing. the original image came from --> http://ilovechartreuse.com/

so i owe you all 1,000 explanations about my absence from this little corner of the interwebs lately. it's been a hot mess of a month with so much going on i don't even know where to start. i'll be back soon (i swear!) to lay it all out. but for now i just wanted to say that i've missed you guys. like a lot.

like a lot a lot.

xo,
lindsey

8.20.2011

where a kid can be a kid

there is a litmus test you can use to determine if your kid is officially a kid (and not an alien and definitely no longer a half baby/half toddler). the test --> take them to Chuck E. Cheese. if they run around like a chicken on 4 Loko for three hours, scarfing pizza, dancing, and throwing a pirate's bounty of tokens into blinky machines that spit out tickets you can use to buy plastic slinkies and temporary tattoos? you've got a kid. if they try to shoot you with a raygun? throw a cup of water on them! aliens hate that. so sayeth Mel Gibson.
my "kid". or should i say my "kids"...
can i just tell you how sad i was to not get to partake in this pizza? like drooling-out-my-tears level 10 (on a scale of 10) sadness. stupid gall bladder motha effa! and then like three lines worth of this %$+!@!!!!!!!. Chuck E Cheese's pizza is a new-and-improved recipe too... and the boys had no qualms about eating it in my face either, jerks. love em, but come onnnnn! cut mama a break. buy her some shoes. give her a backrub. something.
ok, the fact that Otto wanted to ride this carousel 5 (five!) times in a row? that kinda equals a backrub for my soul.
and whenever he legitimately won tickets -- this is kind of a funny thing, because on a lot of the games you just throw a token in, some contraptiony thing happens, and then random tickets spit out -- but whenever Ot legitimately won tickets, like above, he was so proud he would grab his tickets and run all the way across the restaurant to the stage and show Chuck E! omggggggg it was the cutest -->
unfortunately, Mr. Cheese was resting a lot of the time and wouldn't look. haha. Ot didn't seem to mind.

we had so much fun! and my kid got to be a kid (remember when that was the Showbiz Pizza motto?). i used to have a Showbiz album i got on my birthday and i would play it over and over and over again and sing along in this deep bear voice, "Happppy Happpppy Birthday Babeeeeeeee" to my little record player. the hot thing to collect back then was little plastic charms and i used my tickets to buy an Oreo charm with a bite taken out of it and another charm of a tube of lipstick. ack, remember charms!!!???

-lindsey
note: lucky ducks that we are, we were given a complimentary meal and tokens in exchange for my writing an honest post about our experience and the new pizza recipe at Chuck E. Cheese's. the opinions stated are mine all mine. 

8.16.2011

"i'm gonna wash you like a train"

otto was using a dishtowel to "wash" our arms and faces this afternoon when he comes up with this gem. kids are so awesome.

in a mini-update on me... i'm having a hard time adjusting to the "gall stone diet" and feel pretty cruddy and tired. low-fat, non-dairy was like my life when we were vegan for 5+ years but that was almost 10 years ago. i'm ok with all the fruit but i miss butter... a lot. so who knows if my ol' we-just-moved doldrums are inching back in (stay back, you damn doldrums!) or if it's like a physical reaction to the whole gall situation but i just feel sleepy and cranky. also i am the proud owner of 2 new pairs of sweatpants, so you know those badboys are lulling me into a catatonic place (because new sweatpants are amaaaaaazing!).

some really fun posts are on the way though. we took Otto to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend and he was hilarious. and then today i took him to a raptor (like owls, eagles, hawks) sanctuary center and it was pretty neat and woodsy. he really loves snow owls but vultures? he doesn't trust em for a minute! also my friend sarah made us some pickles and i wanna show you pictures because that's freaking awesome (gift me with pickles, i'll love you forever).

hope everyone is good. i promise to stop cuddling with my george washington book soon, but for tonight, it's me and the patriotic hottie with wooden teeth, all the way til my 8:30 bedtime. ::yawn::

-lindsey

8.13.2011

this time last weekend...

this time last weekend i had some serious stomach stuff happening, not gonna lie, but it was pre-gall stones attack so i was just rolling with the punches and we decided to road trip it to the Oregon Coast for a beach day. it was cold, windy, downright brisk! but it was also gorgeous and awesome and i wanted to share...
no feet!
found some driftwood. took his jacket off. i was like, "Otto, are you crazy? it's freezing!" but he wasn't havin it. meanwhile...
i put myself in charge of "minding" the picnic blanket by wrapping myself in it and not moving. ps. mama needs her hair did.
mama also needs a pedi. mama, lately, is a trainwreck. but it was totally worth passing gas while freezing on the beach, for this -->
a little bit of magic, right? and next time i won't be all secretly dying inside. also, next time i'm wearing pants instead of a skirt (read: comes from Arizona, wasn't prepared).

hope everyone's having happy weekends! eat an Oreo for me!
-lindsey

8.11.2011

i was thinking of calling this one "the gall" or "romancing the stones"

so just when i was all set to get back on this blog horse and ride, i end up feeling crazy sick for a few days and then wake up Tuesday morning at 1am like this...
and my hair really didn't even look that good. that fun lasted until about 9am. ugh.

so after a day at Urgent Care, 3 liters of IV, and an exhaustive round of ultrasounds on the ole belly it turns out i have a big cluster of gall stones, plus my gall bladder is all jacked to heck. i'm officially a hot mess.

anyways, it looks like i get to have gall surgery sometime pretty soon to remove the kit and caboodle. in the mean time i'm on an everything-restricted diet that's centered on oatmeal, avocadoes and blueberries for the next few weeks.

has anyone else gone through this? recipe ideas are greatly appreciated. as are any other coping tricks. i'm just trying to fend off another attack until i can consult with the surgeon at the end of the month. they said if it happens again in the meantime i have to go into the ER for emergency surgery. no bueno.

xo,
Lindsey

8.06.2011

beachward, ho!

today we are packing up our pale selves, grabbing Starbucks on the road, and driving about an hour west of eugene for a day at the beach. an ocean beach! we have a kite that i'm hoping to launch and i am dreaming of someone (someone please!) selling beachside icecream. i hear the beaches here are cold and choppy - the sea, she be a fickle lady, arrrgh - but i don't care. i'm just really looking forward to exploring a little of our new state, getting my feet sandy, and feeling a little salty breeze and hopefully sunshine on my skin.

i hope everyone is having great weekends. [to those of you in san diego today, my cup of jealousy runneth over! see you at BlogHer12 though] xoxo

-lindsey

8.03.2011

wordless... a river runs through it (eugene i mean)

ok, i am a huge title liar! there will be words, but just a few. after our playdate on saturday, Otto and i walked down to the river's edge and watched the water for a while. Otto was literally like, "whoa!"...
 if he looks extra pink-cheeked here it is 100% raspberry jelly from our bagel breakfast.
like whoa ♥

-lindsey

8.01.2011

Otto's Big Boy Room Makeover

so i was all kinds of tempted to call this post "Jewels Phone App and Snuggling George Washington" because i'm still rocking this uninspired-womp-womp funk and spent the last few days snuggled up whenever i could, under covers, either playing this phone app that's like the old 90s game Bejeweled or reading my George Washington bio "Washington, A Life". so yeah, i just won the 2011 So Cool She's Fonzie, Ayyyyy award, right? but i'm honestly trying to jump my motorcycle over these blues. i really am! ayyyyy.

we even went out this weekend. socialized! on a bagels-and-coffee-in-the-park playdate with Katherine and Rylee of Little Miss Rylee blog. that mama is rad; totally fun time. and then on sunday we went to a neighbor's little boy's first birthday party. i made friendly with a few moms at that party and we might all go swimming with the kiddos later this week. see, Lindsey, things are looking UP! i says to myself. still, the Jewels and Founding Father are calling my name, "lindsey, come snuggle, i can not tell a lie, i need you and more cheetos, lindseeeey, don't shower!" must. not. snuggle. dead. president. any. more.

ok, i'm pretty sorry about all that nonsense. if you're still with me i'll totally butt-thump a jukebox to play your song. ayyyy. and now, onto a few pics of Ot's new big boy room. he really loves it...
we're really excited about the shiny red clock. now in the mornings when Otto wakes up (usually having crawled into bed with us) (and usually at the first sign of sunrise, like 5am, egad) we put him in his room with the baby gate up and show him "when the big hand gets to *this* you can wake us up". it's a teeny step towards telling time and he's been really great about it, watching the clock and playing independently every morning for about 30 minutes before the whole house JUST HAS TO GET UP. clock win!

ok, that's all i got. xoxo,
lindsey

7.28.2011

naps and comfort food

if anyone has been wondering what i've been up to instead of blogging lately, there's the answer. dudes. i think i'm in a funk. a lazy, mayonnaise-framed funk. boo. ::goes and takes a nap::

for reals though, i just can't seem to hit my stride yet. we love it here so far. the food is amaaazing. the weather is amaaaazing. it's gorgeous. we planted edamame and watermelon. Otto loves his new school. Rob and I have gotten back into our work routines. yadda yadda apple pie. yawn.

i've been cooking. a lot. and then sweating off the extra calories by taking really long naps under heavy blankets. like just the other night i made AVOCADO-VLTs (that's Veg-bacon, Lettuce Tomato) with pan-seared corn on the cob. And OMGAvocadoVLT --> wallows in mayonnaise.
this was like the best food porn dinner ever. and it really only took about fifteen minutes to throw it all together. and i mean it's ORGANIC mayonnaise. i get all kinds of healthy "good mom" points for that, right? right??? give me stars!
i found this pan-seared corn on the cob recipe from this month's Parents magazine (here) and i will never use the tinfoil/bake method ever again. for once in my life i followed a recipe exactly and shocka! it turned out amazing and full of flavor and only took about 8 minutes to cook. Otto? ummmm, a fan.
and he busted out with, "do i get to use those corn-eaters?" so of course we'll be using the term "corn-eaters" for the rest of our lives. because duh. you should too.

so that's me, in a nutshell. ugh. totally feeling like a limp lame little noodle. or like a cheetoh puff. SOS, send xanex. whatever, i need a nap.

-lindsey

7.25.2011

Mama Steez {stepped out, yo} #2

we actually did a little steppin out in Eugene this weekend. first to the farmers market on saturday (a crazy mob scene, no good pictures were taken, one grubby toddler ran amuck, much amazing produce was snapped up, mucho mucho good foodthings were consumed).

then on sunday to breakfast at Studio 1 where i, ahem, outdid myself. if i do say so! as did Otto with some scrumptious french toast berry explosion plate that he took one bite of and said, "probably we should come back here again." then later on sunday for an evening walk and picnic dinner. it was WARM for like the first time since we moved here, so i pulled out the summeriest thing i could find. here's what i wore...
i'm wearing: onesie (Target), shoulder bag (thrifted), and loafers (Kenzie).
i lerrrve those shoes but egad! on the white legs. s'embarrassing.


anyways.. THAT is how i stepped on (in the hood) this weekend. i can't believe july's almost over. booooo!

lindsey

7.24.2011

the new kitch, unchicken soup, and our new after-din tradition

happy sunday morning to you. i'm so freaking happy it's sunday morning!!!!! i get to "sleep in" today (so of course i'm using my time to do this post) but if feels really chilled out and relaxing. and in about an hour we're all going for a walk to a nearby cafe for breakfast. i'm still having a hard time finding my groove in our new life. i find myself taking thousands of naps and sleeping like 10 hours at night. i think it's all still catching up with me. i keep wanting to post, but then feel so overwhelmed by the idea that i go to bed early instead. it's a hard knock life, yo.

anyways, so here is our new kitchen!
it's teeny, but i think we made it cute and manageable. and my only real complaint is that there is carpet IN THE KITCHEN. What?!! Yep. We ordered this Mad Mat (in a smaller size) to go in there but i still fear the day my butterfingers drop a boiling pot of chocolate pudding or something <-- bound to happen --> doom.

one of the first meals i made our lil fam in the new kitch was my famous unchicken soup. i'm a chicken soup FREAK but the hubs is still a vegetarian (i stopped when i was trying to get pregnant with Otto and feel like someday i'll go back, but since we give Otto chicken and fish regularly, i've found it really hard to deny my chickeny fishy desires). anyways... during my vegetarian days i perfected this recipe for unchicken soup that tastes just like the real deal. no joke. so this was our dinner the other day...
organic carrots and onion from the farmers market ♥
Notes on the above... that Imagine "no chicken" broth is like a miracle! i drool! amazeballs! and i've found after trying lots of products that Quorn nuggets (because they're so dry i think) really soak everything up and make the best unchicken for soups.

after a hearty dinner we set out on our evening walk to the park (which has become a fast tradition already). it's so so so so so so so pretty here and we have this great park less than a half-mile from our house.
so there you have it. this is pretty much what we do after dinner every evening now. and because the local produce here is so killer, i've been inspired to cook fresher, more vegetable-powerhouse type dishes.

ok, off to breakfast. what do you think of the kitchen? too small? or manageable? so far we're making it work but i fear the day i attempt a tofurkey feast! doom.

-lindsey