• 6 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• peels from 5 oranges
• enough added sugar to coat peels after cooking

Yes, you heard me correctly, sugar. I am usually not a sugar person because it gives me wicked headaches but when it comes to Christmas candy traditions I stick close. Boil the orange peels until they’re very soft and supple which can take up to a few hours. I think mine took about three. You can set it up and forget about it for a while! It really is an eye ball process because of the many different types of orange peels.

Once they’re done cooking pull them out and place them on a paper towel before sprinkling them with sugar! Make sure they’re completely covered. I mean really slag it on.

In the winter time the next step is super easy, all you have to do is leave the out to dry over night! However, in the humid and melty summer I learned that it’s better to pop them in the dehydrator for a few hours! Once they’re nice and crunchy take them out and enjoy!

I store them in a ziplock bag to keep them from getting rehydrated and munch whenever I get the urge.

They’re crunchy, tangy and even have a little spice kick. SO DELICIOUS! Only two ingredients!

Now I feel like starting the holiday season:)

A few times during the day I’ll dose off because of sheer exhaustion but I’m running low on fuel.

I’m commanding him to come……,he’s already a rebellious little bugger though and won’t pay any attention to what his mama tells him.

I went to my appointment this week and I’ve dilated to 3 centimeters, 80% effaced and having contractions. You’d think that would mean something but it’s been dragging along for so many days now that I’m pretty much discouraged. I keep forgetting that he WILL actually come sometime soon and get into the mindset that it won’t ever happen. I honestly thought I’d be having this guy on Wednesday! I gained almost a pound and I consider that a bonus so at least that’s some good news. haha

So I’m terribly sorry about my lack of keeping up with everyone but I’ve been pretty much just trying to get rest so that eventually when I start real labor I won’t be completely unprepared physically. My midwife suggested I take benadryl before bed since it doesn’t affect labor coming or not and would allow me to sleep so that I can handle labor when it comes. However, like so many other drugs benadryl is listed as a ‘B’ on the pregnancy drug chart and I seriously don’t even use Tums, so I’m a little paranoid. We’ll see.

Now, I’ll leave you all to try the many tips and tricks other pregnant women all over the world have tried to accelerate labor from ‘early’ to ‘active’.

Question: Did any of you moms out there have long early labor that made it impossible to sleep or work? I need advice!

I also received the Versatile Blogger Award from Michal over at Earth Muffin! Such a sweetheart to choose me:) So here’s what I’ve gotta do now!

• Thank the person who gave you the award.
• Share seven things about yourself.
• Give this award out to 15 other bloggers that you think are fabulous, interesting and deserving.
• Contact each of the bloggers you chose.

Thank you sister! I’m flattered that you think I’m worthy of the title! I love our email convos and bloggy commenting. Someday we gotta meet in real life!

Okay, now, seven things about myself. This will be hard

1. I have a completely irrational fear of strong wind. I completely freak out and my heart pounds out of my chest when the wind reaches a certain point. I guess I feel like something important will blow away. When I was little I’d go to the sand box because that was the only place I was certain wouldn’t blow away. But I’d stress out that my family would get blown away the whole time I’d sit in that box.
2. I have an unrealistic dream of owning a self sustaining farm.
3. Once I seriously considered killing my dog and felt like I would become a bad mother when I had kids because of it. I still feel a bit guilty.
4. When I was thirteen and first heard Hanson I made a pact with myself to become a singer………that didn’t really pan out.
5. I was homeschooled all the way until college.
6. I love Disney more than a girl my age should
7. I realized at age 6 that I like sleeping as much as I like being awake.

Whew! That was hard. Okay, now for the fun stuff! I get to award fifteen bloggers I think deserve this award! It’s going to be hard to keep it to fifteen but I will do my best.

1. Beth at Dining and Dishing
2. Kacy at Low….and Behold!
3. Lauren at Eater Not a Runner
4. Katie at Lilveggiepatch
5. Leah at Simply Fabulous
6. Kate at This Place is Now Home
7. Kayla at Let’s Live Wholesome
8. Kristina at Good N Weird
9. Amy at Everything is Homemade
10. Cara at Cashews and Hummus
11. Chelsea at Chelsea’s Chew and Run Fun
12. Sophia at Burp and Slurp
13. Kristin at Flexy Fare
14. Melanie at She Runs Brooklyn
15. Holly at The Healthy Everythingtarian

You ladies all rock! Keep up the good work and blog away.

Now I’m chilling with the hubby listening to records and enjoying watermelon……

While being continually astounded by the insane thunder storm going on outside right now. Monsoon rains, powerful wind and bright lightning. I love summer storms!

Once I recovered my appetite I could only conjure up the will to put cereal in a bowl……this whole week has been really rough and mornings are often the worst. Yesterday all I could eat were two bananas.

If I’m ever going to gain weight I need to do better than that so this morning I put a little cereal in the bowl and then added two bananas…..just to make myself feel like I was trying.

I struggled through the work day trying to stay awake and away from the bathroom. Going to the bathroom is one thing but going there to throw up is another.  I didn’t manage to keep things down very well all day so when I got home I decided to make something that I’ve never tried, roasted broccoli. Of course I roasted up some potatoes too.

The neighbor kid was over to weed my garden (yes I paid the kid to do it since I can’t) and so while I was out chatting with him I picked a few ripe and lovely tomatoes to grace my plate.

Still warm from the summer sun! I was originally going to put some balsamic vinaigrette on them but they were just too sweet and complex to do that and so I ate them straight up. It was truly a delicious summer meal.

Now I’m chilling at the local coffee shop enjoying the wifi and a delicious iced peach ginger tea to calm my stomach.

Shane mentioned that we need to put together the hospital bag so I may do that tonight. If he’s saying something than I REALLY need to get to it because I’m usually the crazy preparation freak!

Tomorrow is Friday so that’s the last work day I have to endure before the weekend! Yippee!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about minimalism. It’s not really a new concept with me as I’ve always loved throwing things away and organizing but with my busy life I seem to get lazy about it and sometimes clutter builds up. I hate clutter and it really sincerely depresses me, however, during the process of preparing our house for a baby we were forced to do a few things like get rid of furniture that we don’t actively use and clear out spaces to make room for the baby. All this I did in nesting mode so I wasn’t really thinking of anything but preparation for the baby but after his space was completed I started to think hard about how our house is. We have a small house. I love the design of it and I love that it’s small but it really does force me to make sure all our belongings have a purpose and if they don’t have a purpose there just isn’t space for them.

The past couple years have been rather hectic for us since we both work full time and have busy lives together so I feel that a real purge is completely necessary. I really started this purge when I started nesting but now I’ve fully embraced minimalism and my journey to a simpler, cleaner and less cluttered house has begun.

This takes a change in thought process. It’s not really about what you want/like it’s about what you actually need and will use. So last night as I started getting rid of clothing I found myself rationalizing thing like “Oh I love this scarf, I’ll definitely use it…..” when I really had four or five scarves very similar. So instead of holding on to it I told myself to choose two scarves. As soon as I threw away the others I suddenly felt lighter. How liberating! Next I hit the jackets, yes, I have way too many jackets and so I cut it down to two as well. My goal, once I finish (still working on it!) is to be able to fit my clothes comfortably on one side of the closet (the other side is Shane’s) as well as in my little three drawer plastic cabinet. Right now I have those three little drawers crammed to over flowing, I have one drawer in the dresser that’s crammed to over flowing and then a few nails on the wall that I hang long dresses on. When I stopped last night I already had a full trash bag for Goodwill and a half of one for actually throwing away……..it’s sad that I keep clothes until they’re unwearable.

So I wrote down areas of the house that could use a minimalistic make over and here’s the list……

Spice shelf

Medicine cabinet

Kitchen appliances!

Desk

There is one other place that needs it bad but I can’t seem to face it yet……the loft. We have a one room loft that we use as a storage space. In this space goes wrapping paper, Christmas decorations, a twin bed for our future child, an unused loveseat and much more. I feel like it’s a place that we just tend to throw things into because it’s out of sight. Once I’ve tackled my other projects I’ll think about that one!

The other night Shane and I somehow stumbled into a conversation about what it would be like if the house burned down. His comment was, “That would actually probably be the most liberating thing that could happen.” . I really tend to agree with that. As Americans we hold so tight to our ‘stuff’ and I do think it fogs our thinking. When you’re suddenly lifted of stuff you’ve been hanging on to you’re actually freed up and more comfortable. When Shane and I were first married we found that we had to combine a lot of belongings like my set of dishes and his set of dishes and to keep things simple I packed away all but four plates, four cups, four forks….and so on. It was so nice to have a small volume of dishes because they never piled up and our small kitchen didn’t get cluttered. Since we entertain more now I do have more out but I still try to keep things trim in there.

Minimalism saves money too because you immediately begin to think objectively about your belongings and it keeps you from spending money on things mindlessly. I plan on putting a ‘one in, one out’ rule in place for myself so that if I buy something I then need to get rid of something. It’s pretty basic of a principle. The items do not need to  correspond in any way so if I feel the need to buy a DVD I don’t need to get rid of a DVD but can get rid of something else in the house that I don’t use like a pair of shoes that I don’t wear or an old purse. That way I can expand on things that are meaningful (say, a DVD collection) and slowly tack away at things that aren’t (unused items around the house).

With less ‘stuff’ around your house you can more easily find things you need, spend less time cleaning and spend more time doing things you really love. For example, when I get home from work the last thing I want to deal with is a messy house, I usually want to take a run or blog or make dinner and watch a movie. However, if the house isn’t clean I can’t relax by the time I get the house decent enough for me I’m exhausted! I’ve been stepping quickly in the right direction lately though so I come home to a peaceful, simple house.

So, I’m going to track my journey of minimalism and occasionally update you on my progress. I hope you can learn along with me!

The first muffin I made was posted by Jessica on How Sweet It Is a little bit ago and I knew that I needed to make them. So the other day when we grocery shopping I bought avocados but they were totally not ripe yet so they’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to be baked into these nearly savory muffins and last night, was it. I should warn you, these do come out green. How could they not when the wet ingredients look like this!? Here’s the recipe since I can never seem to follow anyone else’s.

Avocado Lime Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 6 Tblsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 avocado
• zest from 2 limes
• juice from 2 limes
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup warm water

I combined the wet ingredients and mixed them with a mixer until completely smooth and then added in the already mixed dry ingredients. As you mix adding warm water helps get the consistency right. Then I baked them for a bout 15 minutes on 375!

It really was the most gloriously colored batter all soft and green. Also, this is a vegan dish for anyone interested in a vegan muffin recipe. They filled the house with a zesty lime flavor as they baked and came out AMAZING.

Barely sweet with a wonderful burst of lime. I love this kind of baking because it’s so full of surprises. I can’t take any credit!

Next up I wanted to make some sort of carrot cake muffin bread and after searching around for a good recipe I could really find one I liked so I made one up. You really should be proud of me for writing it down!

Carrot Bread Muffins

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• loads of cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups maple syrup
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 2 eggs
• 6 Tblsp olive oil
• loads of vanilaa extract
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups grated carrot

Combine wet ingredients and mix thoroughly and then add in the dry ingredients. This may look very much like a cake batter but don’t add more dry ingredients! I baked these for about 15 minutes at 375.

Mmmm very soft and light. I should warn you that they are also not extremely sweet but if you want a sweeter touch just drizzle them with maple syrup when they come out.

Shane and I shared one hot from the oven with melted butter on top.

Magnificent! Shane ate his half in one bite.

I fully plan on making more such meals for freezer breakfasts. I figure as long as I still haven’t had the baby yet I may as well be productive!

Question: What is your favorite kind of muffin?

My first project was enchiladas, but before getting to work I strapped on my favorite apron that a friend made.

It’s just about the cutest apron I’ve ever seen:) It works great too! Especially when I’m up for a very big cooking project! I decided to do a more fajita style enchiladas since I thought that might be a good unique take on things and so I whipped out the poblano peppers we had picked up earlier and plopped them in a skillet with oil and salt to roast.

I roasted them until they had nice color and were cooked all the way through.

Don’t they look gorgeous? I love roasting peppers because they completely change texture and flavor.

Next I caramelized some onions using salt, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar and water.

While they were working I put together the enchilada sauce. I should let you know that I’m NOT a fan of enchilada sauce at all. I’ve never liked it and so when I made mine I tried very hard to make it likeable. So hard I pretty much put EVERYTHING I could think of into it.

The ingredients are as follows.

• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 6 garlic cloves
• sea salt (to taste)
• 1 1/2 Tblsp cumin
• 1 Tblsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1Tblsp chili powder

I then blended it together until it was no longer chunky so that it was more sauce like.

When I had everything together I put the casserole pans out and lined it all up so that I could quickly and easily make my enchilada pans.

Each individual enchilada had sour cream, cheddar cheese, roasted peppers, onions and tomatoes.

I plopped them all in the pans and topped them off with the sauce and more cheese.

Three batches! I’d say that’s a success! Shane liked the smell so much that I actually baked one of these up for dinner along with some corn on the cob (marinated in a vinaigrette).

Topped off the enchilada with more sauce which proves this sauce is good and not like all other crappy enchilada sauces! It even had a nice little bite to it! We ate just over half of one of those pans which means these will be great for a dinner and left over lunch! Perfect.

Next up was lasagna but I didn’t want to make traditional lasagna after making my reconstructed lasagna last time. So I didn’t get lasagna noodles but used penne and quickly went to work. This casserole takes MUCH less time than enchiladas so that made me happy camper…..or should I say makes my back a happy camper. It takes a lot to stand up that long these days.

I cooked the noodles and tossed them in sauce and laid them out on the pan. Then I put my cottage cheese mixture (cottage cheese, salt, garlic powder and parsley) down and after that I topped it with spinach. Here are the three pans in progression.

Mmmmm, after spinach I put a small layer of noodles and topped it with sauce before covering it with mozzarella!

See all that spinach goodness? I love green. I mean, aside from it being my favorite color it’s also the tastiest of foods.

Three more meals and halfs into the freezer for future use! It does feel good to be prepared. I bought all the disposable dishes this weekend as well so that we won’t have to worry so much about dishes piling up while we’re adjusting to the new one in the house.

I made one other dish tonight since I had a lot of extra noodles. I was inspired by the balsamic vinegar in my pantry that had a fancy bottle and so Mediterranean pasta salad came to mind.

I made a quick dressing of balsamic, olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and lime juice and tossed the noddles up. Then I added

• 1 can black olives
• 1 can garbonzo beans
• 10 pickled pepperoncini peppers
• a couple large handfuls of fresh spinach
• pepper flakes

So simple and easy and it made quite a bit more than would fit in this pan (which is about twice as large as the other pans I was using) so I socked away two lunches for Shane! Definitely worth it.

Now I have the majority of the meals I wanted that should get us through that first bit of baby time until I’m up and back in the kitchen!

After chilling and watching a movie with the hubby I’m ready (and by that I mean my back is now ready) to get a few more things done around! Laundry to fold and floors to vacuum!

Have a lovely evening all.