Salmon & Couscous

I love to cook!... It hasn't always been that way though. My love for cooking really started to surface once I got married and had someone to cook for. And I probably didn't become all the great of a cook until after the first year of marriage ;)

I'm a little addicted to watching the Food Network cooking shows too. My favorite Food Network stars are Giada De Laurentiis, Ina Garten, & Paula Deen. I even subscribe to the Food Network magazine- which I would recommend to anyone- it is packed with tons of great reciepes! Its one of those magazines that you just have to read cover to cover so it always takes me so long to finish an issue.

Since I have a great love of cooking, I thought I would start to share some of my favorite reciepes in some of the blogs I post...

This one is SUPER simple & SUPER fast! It's for a baked salmon & couscous dish that has become one of Jeremy & mine's favorite simple & healthy dinner meals... The recipe is from Bobby Deen...

For the salmon:

Preheat oven to 350

Drizzle a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) on the bottom of your baking dish

Put salmon in dish (When I make it, we just use 2 pieces of salmon, but you can use up to 4 pieces)

Squeeze fresh lime juice over salmon (for 2 pieces of salmon, I use 1/2 a lime)

Sprinkle a little salt, pepper, & garlic powder to taste

And top with a little tab of butter on each piece

Bake salmon for 20 minutes

For the couscous:

Bring 2 1/4cup chicken broth to a boil

Stir in 10oz box of couscous & follow directions on box {The directions on my box just says when you stir couscous in boiling liquid, take off burner & cover for 5 minutes. Then fluff with fork}

Once cooked, add a little butter to taste
Add diced tomatoes, crumbled feta, & sliced green onions

To plate it, I just put a heaping scoop of the couscous on the bottom & top with the salmon. I also add a few extra diced tomatoes, feta, & green onions on top to make it look pretty... :)

So YUMMY!! Hope you enjoy! ;)

It's harvest time at our house...

So I've spent most of my day cleaning, organizing, and putting out fall decorations today. I just have to say this is my absolute favorite time of year!! The weather, the leaves changing colors, the start of the Holiday season, fall time decorations, pumpkin flavored candles & food galore!!... I just adore this time, I get so giddy thinking about it! :)

Anyhoo, so Jeremy & I registered for a vacuum cleaner on our baby registry because the one we have belonged to my mom, so there's no telling how old that thing is! It's so hard to push that Jeremy actually did all the vacuuming because my puney arms just weren't strong enough! :) Plus, I really don't think it sucked that well so we were really overdue for a new one. {Trust me, I've put off buying a new one for a while cause I kinda liked that Jeremy always did the vacuuming, but with the new baby & me being at home all the time, the time was finally right} Jeremy's boss gave us a very generous gift card to Target so we used part of that to buy a new vacuum. {I had debated between the vacuum & a jogging stroller, but decided the jogging stroller can wait another month or two...}
Let me just say, I was like a little kid on Christmas morning with this new vacuum! I bought it yesterday & hadn't taken it out of the box yet and while trying to fall asleep last night, I was literally dreaming of vacuuming the house from top to bottom! {ok so in my dream I was wearing an apron & high heels, but that's beside the point!} LOL :)
Anyhoo, today when I was vacuuming I was totally grossed out at what was being sucked out of our carpet! Its like we had never vacuumed before! {our old vacuum is one of those that has a bag and this new one is bagless so you can see instantly all the junk inside!} When I emptied it, there was so much dog hair- and we DON'T have a dog!! (the previous owners of this house did)... so needless to say, after seeing that, I was on a mission! I think I vacuumed for 3 hours straight! I even vacuumed the vacuum when I was done cause it was covered in dust! :)
I've also already decided, Jeremy & I's next home purchase is going to be a steam carpet cleaner (or we are paying someone to professionally clean our carpets)... Just thinking of Sweet Anniston crawling around on this carpet makes me sick!
So while I was on my vacuuming spree, I was also on a mission to get our downstairs organized so it didn't look like baby gear has taken over the house... Looking around now, I think I did a pretty good job. I can't stand clutter! So sitting in this house everyday, all day long with baby stuff EVERYWHERE was driving me bananas!
I feel like I can finally breathe a happy sigh of relief with my house in order, the fall decorations out, & my favorite new fall-time candle burning... all I need now is a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks & I would be in harvest heaven! ;)

Newborn pics...

So I have totally been neglecting my blog!! I knew I was gonna be busy being a new mommy, but I had no idea how full my days were gonna be! LOL ;)

First let me just say, I LOVE BEING A STAY AT HOME MOM!! It truly is the best decision I have made! Nonetheless, there are times and things that I miss about being a career woman, but I would never trade places back if I don't have to. I just think all the time about how God truly was guiding our path and we made the best decision for our family when we decided for me to stop working. Especially with Anniston being a preemie, we have to be extra careful about what and who we expose her to. Her doctor doesn't want her to be around any kids because her immune system is so fragile still, so I couldn't imagine if we had to take her to a daycare! -aside from the fact that I miss her dearly even if I'm away from her for a couple hours! ;)

We are finally getting into a good routine too- and I am a BIG fan of structure & having my days organized. She still wakes up every 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the middle of the night to eat (the last few nights, she's slept about 6 hours straight so that was refreshing since I hadn't slept that long in I don't know how long! :) so we'll usually stay in bed til 9 or 10 o'clock. Then we'll come downstairs and I'll have breakfast while she swings in her lamb chair. We fill the rest of our day up with me reading to her and making up silly songs & singing to her throughout the day. We have a lot of fun together! (Well I think so... since she can't talk yet she might think I'm a lunatic with a really bad singing voice! LOL ;)

Since the weather's been so nice lately, we've been taking long walks around the neighborhood too. It's been wonderful! I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!

She's also been going through this phase (well I think its a phase) where she likes to be held & cuddled all day long! She'll usually fall asleep in my arms or on my chest & as soon as I try to lay her down somewhere, she wakes up and starts to cry :( so needless to say, its hard to get things done sometimes with a sleeping baby attached to my hip! :) But I love cuddling with her & I just think when she gets older she's not gonna wanna cuddle with mom so I'm going to enjoy it while I can!

Here's some of Anniston's newborn pictures we had done back in August that I never posted... She's actually doubled in size since we took these! She weighed only about 5lbs when we had these taken... now at 2months old, she's about 10lbs (the size of some newborns!)

Well, that's it for now... I'll try to be better about posting more often! :)