Quick & Crunchy Asian Slaw

Happy Friday everybody! This week has flown by for me, and I'm ready to power through this final work day and welcome the weekend with open arms. Hope it went by quickly for you too. Plans for the weekend here include:

- A trip to Trader Joe's tonight (I know, how fun, but we are seriously running low on a bunch of staples)
- Another baby shower tomorrow
- Superbowl Sunday! (Exclamation point on paper but not in heart, since the Pats are not playing ;)

I woke up this morning in the mood for a smoothie for breakfast. No surprise there since I've been drinking them almost daily for the last few weeks, but I was extra in the mood for it today since Matt reminded me last night that we had a full bag of frozen peaches hidden in the back of the freezer. Over the summer my MIL brought me a bunch of peaches she hand picked from a local farm, which I peeled, cut and froze, and then totally forgot about. Love peaches in my smoothies!

Into the blender went:

- About 2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
- About 1 cup frozen peaches
- 1/2 scoop raw protein powder
- 1/2 pouch Cocozia coconut water
- A small drizzle of raw honey (I don't usually put sweetener in my smoothies, but I realized after tasting it that the peaches were tart, which combined with plain yogurt made for a pretty mouth-puckering little drink. The honey evened everything out.)

A while back Cocozia sent me a case of their organic coconut water to try, and I've been enjoying it a lot. Coconut water is not sweet or thick like coconut milk, so it's perfect for hydration when you just need something other than water, like after the gym. I also like adding it to my smoothies rather than milk or plain water.

If you like coconut water, definitely give Cocozia a try. It's 100% organic and totally pure - it doesn't have any sugar or other additives like some mainstream varieties - and it has a nice fresh flavor. I like that the pouch also has a straw so it's easy to drink on the go. You can pick some up on Amazon here.

But the title of this post is "Quick & Crunchy Asian Slaw", so let's get to recipe sharing. Earlier this week I came home from a work day in the city to an awesome meal courtesy of Matt.

He had thawed some wild caught tuna steaks we had in the freezer and cooked them with black & white sesame seeds, virgin coconut oil and a splash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos. They were delicious (and huge - I could only muscle down half of that steak), but the real star was the slaw he made on the side. I literally could not stop eating it until it was all gone. When he told me he was making tuna steaks for dinner I suggested using up our Napa cabbage by making an Asian slaw on the side, but I honestly didn't expect it to taste this good.

It's slightly sweet, salty, crunchy - everything you need in a bite. I think it would even be good stuffed into pitas for Asian style fish tacos. Mmm. Maybe I'll make those this weekend.

Quick & Crunchy Asian Slaw

Serves 2

Ingredients
1/2 head Napa cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (plus extra for garnish)
2-3 Tbsp. chopped scallion

Add everything to a large mixing bowl, and toss well until combined. Let sit for about an hour before serving.

***

Have a great weekend!

Lindsay's Baby Shower

This past weekend was all about the babies. First we had our little gender reveal party on Saturday, and then Sunday was all about showering my good friend Lindsay and her baby boy who's due to arrive in March.

Some people say they don't like going to showers, but I love them. I love getting to spend the afternoon laughing and chatting with the girls, getting a little dressed up, eating lunch, having a mimosa or glass of wine (ok, not this time, but at least everyone else got to enjoy some wine), and getting a tad bit competitive over the games, mainly gift Bingo (I won a picture frame this time, which matches my living room perfectly!). 

I also just love the tradition of doting on the bride or mom-to-be, whichever the case, and making her feel loved and special at such an important time in her life.

And let's face it, I love the party details. So cute!

I knew I'd be eating whatever was on the menu at the shower, which was likely to not be super healthy, so I started the morning off with an un-typical Sunday breakfast for me. I made a yogurt bowl filled with plain Greek yogurt and topped with a medley of pears, maple syrup, walnuts and cinnamon, which I cooked for a few minutes so the pears would get soft and caramelized. It was the perfect combo of cold and warm, and was delicious.

I'm glad I ate a good breakfast because I definitely indulged in some appetizers when I got to the shower, including some warm bread, calamari, crab stuffed mushrooms and fried mozzarella. Yum. For lunch I had a salad followed by tilapia with tomatoes, olives and saffron rice.

I know tilapia is like the worst thing you can eat these days, but I had to choose between the vegetarian dish of penne vodka (carbs + heavy cream + parmesan cheese) or the fish dish (lean protein, but of the farm-raised, bad for the environment variety). I chose fish. And it was quite satisfying. ;)

I also ate an adorable and tasty little rubber ducky sugar cookie during the gift opening. Okay, one and a half cookies. Had to taste test the onesie one as well.

And thennn I ate a cupcake. I mean at this point I was all in. Can I blame pregnancy?

Good thing Monday came quickly and I'm back off the sugar. I was starting to feel a little sickly after eating so much cake this weekend.

I'm currently on the bus ride home from the city and Matt's in the kitchen whipping up some wild caught tuna with Asian style slaw, so I'm looking forward to a nice clean meal when I get home.

How was your weekend? Hope it was a good one!

Sharing Some Big News

It's time to share some big news with you all that I've been wanting to share for a while now. It's been pretty hard to keep it a secret considering all the lifestyle changes I've had over the last few months, which you may have noticed. There have been fewer paleo dinners and more carbs appearing in my meals on a regular basis; there have been fewer workouts and more early bedtimes; and there have been no Friday night glasses of wine or weekend beers, even during big football games. If you haven't guessed it by now...

We're expecting Baby Baratta #2!

I'm 5 months pregnant now and can hardly believe that on or around June 10 (so soon!) we'll become a family of four. Eek! We are so happy and really looking forward to this next stage of our lives. Even Riker is excited - he can't wait to become a big brother. He is always asking to see my belly and "kiss the baby". Every time we sit next to each other on the couch he protectively keeps his hand on my tummy. Guh cuteness overload.

The first trimester was pretty rough, as it was with Riker too, in that I was exhausted all the time and plagued by morning sickness non-stop. I had tons of food aversions and could really only bear to eat plain toast, pasta or other carby foods with little flavor. It also didn't help that I was sick with a bad cold and bronchitis for almost two months, which lingered on since I couldn't take medication. But thankfully as soon as the second trimester came on, everything cleared right up. No more sickness, my energy came back and I've been able to work out again, and I don't have food aversions anymore so I can eat seafood and veggies again (woo!). I still need to eat more carbs than I normally do when I'm not pregnant - they seem to be the only thing that keeps me full and not on the verge of nausea - but hey, my motto is to listen to your body. And if the body says, feed me grains, I'm not going to object. ;)

So at 20 weeks something exciting happens. We finally learned the sex of the baby this weekend!

The "gender reveal party" trend didn't exist when we had Riker, so with him we found out the regular way at the ultrasound office. I'm glad we experienced it that way our first time, since we could have a private moment just the two of us to get all emotional and teary eyed when we found out it was a boy. But with our second one, I wanted to do a gender reveal and share the experience and excitement with our whole family.

We decided to keep it small and just have our immediate family, so I was really happy that all my out-of-town family was able to come. My mom, stepdad and grandma came down from Vermont on Friday night, and my sister Amanda and her boyfriend Justyn came in from Philly on Saturday. All of Matt's family arrived to our house around 6:00 last night and the party kicked into gear.

We had a simple spread of appetizers to start off - spinach dip, crackers with some fun cheeses (peperoncini asiago seemed to be the big hit), olives and roasted red peppers. I didn't snap any pictures of dinner, but we made citrus rosemary whole roasted chickens (I buy free range organic chickens, which not only are more humane and healthier, but apparently taste a lot better too), green beans almondine, mashed potatoes, salad and garlic bread. I made a piece of cedar plank salmon for my protein since I don't eat chicken. We had a bit of a snafu with the chicken cooking (it was my first time making whole roasted chicken...thank goodness my mom was here to help me!), but everything came out great eventually.

After dinner it was finally time to cut the cake and see if there was pink or blue inside. The anticipation was killing me!

Matt, Riker and I cut the cake together, and I really, really, REALLY expected to see blue frosting on the inside. It was a boy for sure. Except when I made the first cut and pulled the knife out...

........

........

It was PINK! A little baby girl is on the way. :) I actually squealed and jumped up and down like a little kid. While I loved the idea of having "my boys" and two little brothers to play with and torture each other, Matt and I both secretly wanted one of each. We feel so lucky to be able to raise both a boy and a girl. And for months Riker has been insisting that he wants a baby sister, so he's pretty excited to have gotten his wish. ;) The whole family is ecstatic. Time to redecorate the nursery!

So there you have the big news. I'm hoping the next few months are a smooth ride and before we know it our new little bundle will be here.

And with that, I'm off to get ready for another baby celebration. My friend Lindsay's baby shower is today, which means I get to spend the whole afternoon with my best girls and dote on the new mom-to-be. Can't wait!

Enjoy your Sunday. :)