Recipe Remix - Turkey Santa Fe Zucchini Boats

Josh jokes that I can't follow a recipe for the life of me. And he's probably right about that. I always read a recipe before cooking but once I get going I combine steps or ingredients. So I wanted to share with you one of our favorite recipes I found on Pinterest and tell you about my modifications.

Turkey Santa Fe Zucchini Boats:

I do use the same ingredients as she lists except in different quantities

Ingredients:

• 1(ish) pound ground turkey - I buy ground turkey in 3 pound increments so I just guess what a 1/3 of the container
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, chopped (this can be left out if you don't like them)
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• cumin to taste
• 2 tablespoons cilantro - fresh or dried (okay I was out of this ingredient today but I normal use it) 
• 1 tomato, diced
• 15 ounces can black beans, drained
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 5-6 zucchinis
• 2 15 ounce can salsa
• Mexican-blend shredded cheese

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. This is where I combine a lot of her steps. I brown the ground turkey, onion, jalapeño, garlic, salt, pepper and cumin together.
3. I completely skip the boiling the zucchini part. Cut the zucchinis in half and hallow them out and set a side
4. Once the turkey is browned (I don't drain but feel free to), I add the tomato, black beans, corn, cilantro and hallowed out zucchini guts. Warm through.
5. Empty one can of salsa in to each 8x10 glass pan. Place zucchinis on top of salsa.
6. Fill zucchinis with turkey mixture. Once the zucchinis are full, if there is still turkey mixture, just continue to spread it over the zucchinis. 
7. Top with Mexican-blend shredded cheese
8. Bake for 35 minutes

9 months on - 9 months off

There's a saying that is commonly heard to postpartum women. "It took 9 months to put the weight on, it will take 9 months to take off."

Tomorrow Eleanor turns 9 months old. It's an exciting time. She's crawling around and pulling up on everything. She's starting to cruise around the furniture. She's babbling and trying to make conversation. We are pressuring her to eat solid foods. She doesn't enjoy them but she seems very interested in forks, spoons, and feeding herself.

While I'm excited for the progress she's made over the past 9 months, there's part of me that is disappointed in myself for the past 9 months. I've jumped on and off the eating right and working out bandwagon so many times I can't even remember which side of it I'm on.

It upsets me to see that I'm closer to the weight I was when Eleanor was born than I am to my pre-pregnancy weight. I am unsure what I'm doing wrong.

I guess one can only say, stay tuned...

Merry Christmas

A look back at our Christmas holiday and trip to Indiana:

Genevieve at her Happy Birthday Jesus party at school

Cute plate Genevieve made at preschool

Ever since she had RSV she wants to lay on the couch with her pillow, and blanket while she watches TV

Making sugar cookies with mommy

Eleanor loves her pacifiers. Boy are we in trouble

Sign while driving back to Indiana "Even Santa wears a seat belt"

Selfie at the Indiana State Museum 

Riding the Santa train at the Indiana State Musuem

Family picture with Santa. Genevieve would go near him till after the picture

Christmas morning aftermath 

Christmas Day selfies

My grandma's mushrooms

Christmas is exhausting 

Christmas at my father-in-laws

Eleanor helping cook Christmas at my mother-in-law's

Genevieve kept asking to go home so she could ride her bike

Sleeping beauties

It's cold in Indiana

Go Pacers!

Genevieve didn't get a nap and crashed in Josh's arms before bed

Traditional Walker family Christmas meal

Riding the giraffe at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Eleanor loved the Children' Museum too

Family photo at Christmas Eve service

Eleanor - 8 Months Old

This post is a few days late due to traveling back to Indiana for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Eleanor is crawling all over the place. She is starting to pull herself up on to her knees. I'm thinking she will be walking by 10 months. Then our lives will be even crazier (although that doesn't seem quiet possible). She even got moved up to the crawling classroom at church last Sunday.

Eleanor is trying lots of new solids. So far we've tried peas, sweet potatoes and green beans. She has only liked the green beans. In fact she made herself throw up when she tried the peas. Maybe carrots or squash next?

Eleanor still isn't a great night time sleeper but I think we are making improvements. She went a stretch of 4 hours last night and 5 hours the night before that. I really think her poor sleeping is due to calorie intake during the day. She will only take 4 ounces from a bottle. If I prepare a 6 ounce bottle, she leaves exactly 2 ounces left in it. We are working on tricking her into drink more and hoping the solids help her. She does nap great during the day - 1 hour morning nap and 2 hour afternoon nap.

I don't think Genevieve is a fan of Eleanor getting into "her" things. We try to explain to her that all the toys are both of theirs but some like puzzles and crayons are too small for Eleanor to play with. So we must maintain a good balance of sharing yet teaching them to respect when someone says no. Fun times.

Not so easy to get her to stay still anymore

I think they teamed up to make this more difficult

Everybody was kung fu fighting

Less than 10 pounds different. No idea how many inches.