13 weeks...and the man behind the belly

I happened upon this shirt from Jelly Bean Apparel and decided to get it for James as a first Father's Day present. I think he got a kick out of it, and I told him that he can't actually wear it until I actually have a bump. But the next morning I woke up to find he'd worn it to his 6am bootcamp. I asked him if his bootcampers got the shirt, or even knew I was pregnant. And he said they knew I was pregnant, but they thought the shirt had more to do with him running a gym and trying to get people into shape--aka getting a six-pack. I thought that interpretation of the shirt was hilarious!

Today, I'm 13 weeks. Not much to report, but I still feel queasy here and there. I never quite know why, but I do know that if I wait a couple of hours between eating and if I take my vitamins in the morning, I can count on feeling sick. I'm still tired, but at this point, I feel about the same level of tiredness as I did before I was pregnant. Leaving home at 6:30am every morning and getting home at 6:30pm just does a number on a body during the week.

I'm still doing CrossFit workouts, but have cut back to about 3 times a week, which has been more dependent on my weekly softball games and horrendous traffic than my pregnancy. I'm slower at the workouts for sure. Instead of a good time, I'm focusing on a steady pace and taking quick water breaks during the workouts since it's summer and super hot. So far, this strategy is working nicely, and I'm not thinking about how I added almost two minutes to my Helen time! I'm still doing workouts prescribed, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But in our workout on Thursday, I did notice how tight my abs felt when I did kipping pullups. They didn't hurt, it just felt more difficult to fully open up my hips while kipping. As of Thursday, running had definitely changed for me, too. My bladder constantly felt full, which is quite normal, I hear. Thankfully, we never run long distances in CrossFit, so I can definitely handle 400 meters.

tomato-based chicken rouladen

Two weeks ago, we made a Sunday afternoon trip to the Harry's near us. I had never been to this store, despite its proximity, but James managed to find a deal where if we bought a rotisserie chicken, he could get 2 lbs of German potato salad free! Let me tell you, this was quite the deal because the chicken was $5.99 and a delicious vanilla pepper flavor, whereas the potato salad would have been $12 if we didn't get it for free. Crazy. They have to be losing money on this deal.

Or maybe not, because we did walk out of the store spending much more than $5.99. We stopped by the meat counter and got to talking to the manager, who, it turns out, went to culinary school several years ago. We were on the hunt for thinly sliced steak for German Rouladen--to go with James' German potato salad, of course. Thankfully, the manager knew just what we were talking about, and even educated us a bit by saying that rouladen is one of the first dishes they ask you to make in culinary school. Crazy, because I had never heard of it before dating James. He also mentioned that he often makes chicken rouladen, so this got my wheels spinning and I decided that, as much as I love traditional German beef rouladen, I'd probably love chicken rouladen just as much. And yeah, I was right! 

Chicken Rouladen

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts
• 3 strips of bacon or proscuitto
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• handful of spinach
• sundried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup of mozzarella
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 white cooking wine
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 packet gluten-free gravy
• coconut flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• almond meal
• canola oil

1. Trim extra fat off chicken breasts, lay on cutting board and cover with saran wrap.

2. Thin out breasts by pounding with mallet, or, like me, a heavy ladle worked just fine.

3. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

4. At the widest corner, lay a slice of bacon and top with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella. (I used raw bacon, but next time I'll probably cook it partway so that more of the bacon flavor comes out.)

5. Tightly roll up each breast. Secure middle and ends with toothpicks if needed.

6. Place on pan and put in freezer.

7. In pot, sauté garlic for a minute or two, then stir in cooking wine and let simmer for 2 minutes.

8. Add in tomato sauce and chicken stock, and simmer for 10 minutes.

9. Mix packet of gluten-free gravy with one cup of water, and pour into pot. Bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

10. Set up breading station by filling one shallow bowl with coconut flour, one with eggs whisked with heavy cream, and one with almond meal.

11. Cover bottom of sauté pan with oil, and set to medium high heat. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

12. Remove chicken from freezer, coat with coconut flour, drench with egg mixture, then coat with almond meal and place in hot oil.

13. Turn chicken every minute or two once bottom side has browned so that all sides brown. Then place in baking dish.

14. Cover chicken with gravy sauce, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees, depending on the thickness of your chicken. You can cut one in half to check to see if it's cooked.

Yum! I will say that the tomato gravy and sun-dried tomatoes really made this dish.

Oh, and that's Trader Joe's gluten-free macaroni, in case you're wondering!

This recipe is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

pumpkin molasses cookies

Growing up, almost every year my family traveled to Camilla, Ga., for our Thanksgiving family reunion. With more than 100 relatives in attendance each year, we had ample second and third cousins to entertain us as we swang on an ancient tire swing and played truly southern games of Kick the Can and Ain't No Boogers Out Tonight. (Don't ask me to explain!) Since most family reunions center around the food, it's no wonder that the adults had cook-offs for the best Brunswick Stew and Caramel Cakes. My great grandmother, Granny Keadle, was famous for her Caramel Cake. And many a great uncle taught me how to slice my piece so that I got the largest amount of icing possible.

After a massive Thanksgiving potluck lunch of true Southern food, we went out to a sugar cane farm several years for an up-close look at how cane syrup was made. Each year, we walked away with a case of syrup, and out of those trips, a Thanksgiving homemade biscuit dinner was born. After all, we had to have something to sop up our syrup. One year, when I was in fifth grade, we took home a sugar cane pole and I asked my mom to come to my class and help explain the cane syrup process, and of course she brought a tray full of homemade biscuits so my classmates could sample the syrup.

This may seem like quite the introduction to a recipe for pumpkin molasses cookies. But, you see, molasses is a cousin to cane syrup, since it is also traditionally made from sugar cane. So when I bought a bottle of it last week and sampled it on my paleo pancakes, back flooded the memories of Thanksgiving and sugar cane fields in South Georgia. I only hope that I have deep memories like this to share with all future Hobsons.

On Friday night, James had planned a cookout at the gym after the workouts. Gym-goers have come to expect me to bring paleo treats to these cookouts, so I wanted to try my hand at something new. I settled on pumpkin molasses cookies and paleo cobbler. For the cobbler, I based mine off a recipe by Paleo Mama, except for the filling, I used peaches, raspberries and strawberries, maple syrup in place of honey and xanthan gum in place of tapioca starch. Others in attendance seemed to like the cobbler, but after one bite, I couldn't eat any more. There was some sort of taste I can't quite describe that repulsed me. Maybe it's my pregnant tastebuds talking here, but I wasn't very happy with the outcome. Not to Paleo Mama's discredit though. After all, I changed up the recipe quite a bit.

Thankfully, I also tried my hand at a paleo version of this recipe for Pumpkin Molasses Cookies, and from all the feedback, they turned out splendidly--even if they were better suited for a fall cookout :)

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 can of pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup coconut oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Add first 7 dry ingredients to mixing bowl.

3. In small mixing bowl, stir pumpkin, molasses and oil.

4. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture.

5. Roll dough into balls, place on baking tray use fork to mash down. You can use a crisscross pattern traditionally used for peanut butter cookies.

6. Bake roughly 10 minutes.

Though I forgot to take pictures, I served these with a dollop of icing on top. Simply blend 8 oz. of softened cream cheese with molasses and maple syrup. I'm not sure of the amounts, but add them slowly until you reach a smooth, but thick consistency with a caramel-like hue. I think this icing really made the cookies!

to those of you who wondered...

To those of you who wondered how I could possibly eat chili in the dead of summer

To those of you who wondered who that crazy girl was who frequently took naps in her car during lunch

To those of you who wondered how I could possibly go to bed at 8pm every night 

To those of you who wondered why I declined the Starbucks runs

To those of you who wondered why I turned down the happy hours

To those of you who wondered why I only drank water floating down the Broad River

To those of you who wondered why I finished softball games with only a water bottle in my hand

To those of you who wondered why I took short water breaks during CrossFit WODs

To those of you who wondered how I could be breathing so heavy after the dynamic warmup

To those of you who wondered why I began decreasing my weight halfway through Periodization

To those of you who wondered why I'm not competing in the Atlanta Affiliate League

To those of you who wondered how I'd gotten curvier in just a few weeks

To those of you who wondered why I looked a little green

To those of you who wondered how that girl at the office could manage to eat every two hours

To those of you who wondered why I wasn't willing to try an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch

To those of you who wondered why I stopped posting recipes

To those of you who wondered why I stopped posting at all

To those of you who wondered why I was beaming on April 19 as I walked to a meeting at work

...if only you'd known then what you can definitely guess by now...

I'm pregnant!

Baby Hobson, due NYE

thank you children's!

When I got home from work today (my plan to go to the gym was foiled when an accident had four lanes of 75N closed), I stumbled upon a package in front of our door. I didn't remember ordering anything, but after I ripped open the box, I saw a little something familiar that I had only ordered two days ago!

Let me explain. At Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, we have an employee recognition program called Celebrations. All manager-level employees and above are allotted so many Celebrations points each year to distribute to employees who go above and beyond. Employees can receive them from any manager or above from any location or department. After 2.5 years of working at Children's, I had accumulated 97 points (lots of people earn three times that amount!). I had yet to redeem my Celebrations points because I wanted to rack up something good. I didn't exactly know what that something would be, but I decided to set my sights on one big item instead of several lesser items (such as Spa Sydell gift certificates--I know!).

This past weekend, it dawned on me that I should purchase a camera with my points. James uses his 'nice' Nikon for the gym, and as a result, it most always remains at the gym. He doesn't like toting it back home every night, and understandably so.

So, on Tuesday, I redeemed 96 of my 97 points to purchase this Samsung camera, which retails for $280 at Best Buy. One cool feature is the front LCD screen that makes it easier to take self shots. If you're taking pictures of kids, you can also set it so that a cartoon plays on this screen to get their attention. Smart, huh?

Sure, there are much nicer cameras out there, but how many of them are free! I'm super excited because obviously this is a purchase I would never have normally made. It literally pays to be a good employee :)

Now, I just have to hone my photography and Photoshop skills!

baked fish casserole

Has it really been forever since I've posted a new recipe? Sources say yes. In past posts, I've alluded that I've been pretty busy the last couple months, hence the lack of creativity in cooking and posting. But maybe this wave of summer heat in Atlanta has me reinvigorated. Or, maybe I'll continue to average less than one post a week. Sad, I know.

But of all recipes to kickoff high aspirations of more regular blog posting, this one is it.

Since I'm still getting my act together, let me apologize for the lack of step-by-step pictures. I wasn't prepared and the camera was at the gym. As I was cooking this, I kept imagining how great it'd look in pictures--with all the different colors of ingredients. But you'll just have to imagine them for yourself! This is definitely worth cooking--despite that it's such a hot meal to make during such a heat wave. Trust me--your taste buds will outweigh your body temperature any day. At least mine do.


Baked Fish Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 3 strips of bacon
• 1 can artichoke hearts
• 2 handfuls of spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• dash of garlic salt
• a few grinds of black pepper
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• dash of oregano
• 3 small tomatoes
• 3 striped pangasius (or any thin white fish)
• 1/3 cup whole milk greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1. Trim cauliflower, place in pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for roughly 20 minutes, or until soft.

2. Meanwhile, cook bacon and crumble when cooled. Drain roughly half of bacon grease from pan.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Drain artichokes and quarter, then add to pan with bacon grease and sauté 2 minutes.

5. After 2 minutes, add in handfuls of spinach and sauté 2 more minutes.

6. Then, fold in heavy cream, parmesan, salt, pepper, garlic and oregano. Cook 2 minutes then turn off heat.

7. Dice tomatoes and fold into mixture, along with bacon crumbles.

8. When cauliflower is cooked, drain water and use knife to cut large florets into smaller chunks.

9. Layer chunks of cauliflower in bottom of 13x9 cooking dish.

10. Spread sauté mixture evenly over cauliflower.

11. Place fish on top of mixture. Avoid overlapping fillets if possible.

12. In small bowl, mix yogurt, milk, dash of garlic salt, grind of black pepper and cheddar cheese.

13. Spoon over top of fillets.

14. Bake for roughly 40 minutes at 350 degrees, or until fish is flaky.

This is a picture of leftovers for my lunch. Not near as pretty as it looked stacked in the casserole dish, but I know it will taste just as delicious! James had two hearty helpings last night!

congrats baby sister

He timed it perfectly, really. Mitch proposed to my sister on Monday, May 23--his birthday. My sister was totally caught off guard and surprised.

Two days later, the Shuler family traveled down to Hilton Head for an extended Memorial Day weekend vacation. It was great celebrating with the newly engaged couple--and we even started to help Ellen plan. We came up with a bachelorette party at Hilton Head--how creative :)

I'm super excited for Ellen and Mitch, and wish them all the happiness life has to offer.

Grow old with me! The best is yet to be. ~Robert Browning