5 Ingredient Sweet Potato Brownies

I saw a post for a 5 ingredient, anti-inflammatory brownie recipe and I was excited to try it. I mean, how much could I possibly mess up with such a simple recipe?

I found the MaraNatha almond butter at Walmart. They have other flavors like maple, dark chocolate, caramel, and crunchy. I think I may try these brownies with another flavor or almond butter and see how they taste. The carob chips were a bit harder to locate but I did find them at Whole Foods for about 3 dollars a bag. 

Ingredients

• 2 cup mashed sweet potato (about 2-3 sweet potatoes)
• 1 cup smooth nut butter of choice (I recommend almond or cashew butter)
• 4 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2  cup cocoa powder
• 1-2 cups carob chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a small cake/loaf pan (I used 8x8 pan)
2. On the stove, melt nut butter with maple syrup
3. In a large bowl add the mashed sweet potato, melted nut butter and maple syrup, and cocoa powder and mix well
4. Fold in carob chips, as many as you want.
5. Pour mixture into greased pan. Optional: sprinkle carob chips on top.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan before slicing and refrigerating.

These brownies are best when cooled completely otherwise they will be too mushy and will fall apart. Store in fridge or freezer and ENJOY!

The benefits of these sweet potato brownies. 

Sweet Potatoes have a natural sweetness that can help you reduce your sugar intake, supports blood sugar management, if you have a serious sweet tooth. They have a relatively high glycemic index and can be great for those dealing with type 2 diabetes.

Anthocyanin (what makes a sweet potato orange) provides excellent anti-inflammatory benefits. The benefits of this compound are felt the most in the nerve tissue and brain.

Sweet potatoes are full of vitamins A and C, making them great for your immune system. They also have vitamin B6, B1, B2, B3, manganese, copper, phosphorus, potassium, and fiber; all of which are compounds that support the work of the digestive system, keep our blood safe and support our overall health.

Maple Syrup contains up to 24 different antioxidants that are beneficial for reducing free radical damage that can cause inflammation and contribute to the formation of various chronic diseases.

Verdict

When I pulled the brownies from the oven, the boys immediately asked me for a bite. They were saddened to learn they had to wait for them to cool. I was impatient so I went ahead and cut them while they were warm and they fell apart. Despite the fact that the texture is mushier than a normal brownie, these are REALLY good. If you like super sweet desserts, this may not be the one for you. Carob chips are not super sweet but they were perfect for my sweet tooth.

If you want another sweet potato brownie recipe, try Dr. Axe's 16 ingredient recipe. As for me, I am sticking with the 5 ingredient version.

*Post contains affiliate links

eMeals is what's for dinner.

One of the areas I wanted to focus on for 2016 was better meal planning for our family. Our schedules are getting busier and some nights we are not even eating as a family. It is difficult to get a nutritious, healthy meal when you have very few options and most of  them are fast food places. With meetings and activities, there is also little time to sit down at a restaurant just to get better options than a number 1 combo at whatever place has a drive through.

I chose eMeals.com for the menu plan options and the price.

Meal plans arrive via email or smart device app on Wednesday. Each menu plan contains 7 meals, a main dish and a side dish. A shopping list is included listing items needed for each meal.  If you choose a particular store where you shop, the shopping list includes pricing. There is also a smart device app you can download. If a particular week does not appeal to you, you can use the app or log in to your account to change the menu plan. The bonus is that you also get the previous week's menu plan for the new plan you choose. Tip: viewing the plans in the app is so easy, I prefer looking at them on the app, if I decide to change my plan, I do it there, then I log in from my desktop and print/save the plan. Keep in mind that you won't get an email if you change the plan.

I already had a weekly dry erase board with days of the week. To start, I chose a menu plan based on the days of the week we were going to cook at home. 

 First time ever eating Brussels sprouts and cooking with artichoke.

PROS:

• Inexpensive program to buy into. $69 for a year. With the potential for 365 meal ideas, that comes to $.19 per recipe.
• You save the pdf file and you can print the shopping list as many times as you need.
• Ability to create freezer meals or do a meal dump.
• A chance to try foods you may not normally include in your family meals.
• If you don't like a particular list for that week, you can switch it to another plan. No limit to switching.
• There are options for breakfast, lunch, dessert, and special occasions.
• Smart device app gives you the ability to take your shopping list with you.

CONS:

• There is some duplication in menus. If you choose more than one plan, keep that in mind. I don't know what kind of duplication will take place year after year. 
• It would be nice to have pricing on all the weekly plans so that I have an idea on food budget for that week or month.

We have been using the meal plans for the last 2 months and I have to say I am glad for this service. My hubs gets to be involved in the meal choices, the list is practically made, I just have to add the household grocery list. The kids like seeing what is on the menu so they can complain about eating it before the plate is placed in front of them.

If you want to try eMeals, you can choose from a variety of menu plans. If you get a plan one week and you don't care for the majority of the recipes, you can select another plan.

Groupon currently has a deal for eMeals. 

Choose from Three Options

• 6 months of weekly online dinner plans (a $59 value)
• 6 months of weekly online lunch and dinner plans (a $83 value)
• 6 months of weekly online breakfast, lunch, and dinner plans (a $101 value)

I was not compensated for this review. I bought the bottle, liked it, wrote about it.

My kids have narcolepsy

That's the diagnosis from this Dr. Mom

Sam goes through periods where he fights naptime and this is the result of lack of sleep. Falling asleep...

While eating mac n cheese


Wha?


Still hanging on to that plate...


One of the funniest things is watching a kid fight sleep while trying to eat the last bit of food on his plate.

Valentine's

Valentine's Day is not a holiday Rod and I usually celebrate. But his year was different. I had a Groupon for 2 to see a movie at Alamo Drafthouse. I picked Just Go With It, a bonified romantic comedy. We got to the theater and was told there was no air conditioning in the theater showing this movie. It was still cool outside so we didn't think it would be bad. It was a blazing inferno in there. The only other movie option was The Mechanic, the complete opposite of a chick flick. It was not a complete loss because I enjoyed this movie. I could have done without the porn scenes though. I would have been a cheap date but Alamo raised their food prices. Grrr.

My sister held a Durex house party and I made her some party favors: Hershey's miniature wrappers. The message may appear dirty but it is a candy wrapper. And you have to slip it off to eat it. It's more like stating the obvious.



Treat boxes




Is it bad form that I am now transitioning from showing adult favors to my kids' Valentine's party stuff? S and D are having a party at daycare and I went cheap and lazy for this one. Fruit snacks, a Yummy Earth lollipop and a Toy Story 3 card all in a snack bag.



I dipped these and swished them myself. These are for the teachers.


I dipped the big strawberry marshmallows and swished those too. I had leftover vanilla so swished the strawberries some more.



They don't look as nice but I doubt anyone is going to complain about the extra chocolate.

And I cannot forget about my quality control testers:



Despite how this may look, S really did like it.

House Party - Gerber Generations

If you are not familiar with Houseparty.com, you should check it out. I had joined a few years ago and I never really applied to host a party until this year. I think I applied to 4 parties, one of which was the Star Wars wii game launch. That would have been more of a party for Rod.I am sure my household did not fit the demographic but if they knew my husband, when it comes to The Force Unleashed on wii, he is a 10 year old.

I finally got picked to host the Gerber Generation Celebration House Party. I knew I would be receiving some products but I had no idea I would get all this.



It was two huge boxes of samples of Gerber food products, bags, bibs, snacks, informational material and party supplies. I was super excited after seeing all the goodies. The House Party site is a great source for event ideas for games. You can get ideas from other people around the US hosting the same party. I printed out some of the games online.

They send you a how to manual and it explained the various products in the sample box. They also suggested a display of the products. This was what I came up with.

You don't have to spend a ton of money on a House Party. I already had several Gerber products so I used them in the display too. There are so many Gerber food products, I wanted to showcase as many as possible.

For finger foods, I had a veggie and fruit tray and chips and dip. I also had some recipes from Gerber using baby food as ingredients. I planned to make the Carrot Applesauce cake, Peach bars and Toddler Pot pie. These were my ingredients.

I ran out of time and did not get to make the Toddler pot pie. The peach bars were not my favorite. I was pleasantly surprised that the Carrot applesauce cake came out so well. It was really good. I ate half of it with cream cheese icing. Not all in one sitting of course.



I found some list pads, post-it pads and stickers in the Target dollar section and thought up a theme around these favors. My theme was "Fall-ing for Gerber." You don't have to have favors. With the House Party supplies, there are plenty of things guests will go home with. However, if you want to add some small token of appreciation for guests coming, the dollar section is an economical way to do that.



Gerber's biggest fans got to eat some crunchies while I was preparing for the party.

I wish I could have held this party on a different day. Being the weekend before Thanksgiving, folks were going out of town or already had plans. I will know better for next time if I get the chance. I want to do more parties, especially if I can bring products that I use and information to people.

Say no to 1 day only coupons for food

Anyone who knows me would immediately give me a strange look if those words came out of my mouth. But they did. And Pei Wei is to blame. I curse you Teriyaki Chicken bowl with a side if edamame.

Pei Wei had a coupon for 2 entrees for $10 in celebration of their 10 years. You know how things get passed around. I called Rod on my way home and he called in the order at 5:30 pm. I drove very slowly in the rain and fought my way through the millions of people waiting in line at the take out counter. Folks who were just ordering at the counter were told there was a one and a half hour wait. There was a lady there that placed her order online 2 hours ago and still did not have her food. Apparently, your order does not officially get place for web orders until payment is made. And because she had no online code and had to bring in that cursed email, she basically saw no benefit in placing the online order.

At 6:40 pm, I finally got my food and was headed home. I ate my $5 Teriyaki Chicken bowl but did not enjoy it. Curse you Pei Wei, you poor man's P.F. Chang's. Your marketing team gets a big fat FAIL for not thinking this one through.

Bacon

Rod made bacon and chicken pita pockets for dinner. Even the kids liked it because they had just eaten and were eyeballing my plate. Sam was particularly funny because he ate all the lettuce off my plate. All of it. That is a kid after my own heart because I love lettuce.

Tang generally does not eat much but Rod said maybe she doesn't like bacon. I said who doesn't like bacon? Even vegetarians like bacon. For some reason, he thought that would make a great bacon slogan. I on the other hand, think I would be inundated with hate mail from PETA and vegans.

But seriously, if vegetarians did not like meat, why would there be meat flavored patties, chili and chicken-like nuggets? If they did not want the taste of meat, wouldn't veggie burgers taste like veggies?

This takes the cake

I want this machine. This Cricut Cake cuts gum paste for decorating cakes. I want this so I can start my own cake decorating business.

I guess I need to learn to bake first.

This is so cool. I have the regular Cricut and I never even thought that this technology could add another level to the baking industry. I wonder if I can just stick gum paste in my machine and have it cut without getting paste all twisted in the gears.

Puree and Simple

The boys started solids around 6 months. I knew that I wanted to make baby food for a few reasons. With two mouths to feed, it would cut costs on buying baby food. I could also control the types of foods and reduce the amount of chemicals and unnatural ingredients that they would ingest. A surprise plus to making baby food is hubby and I had fun. We spent some time together making something good for our babies and we laughed at all the funny noises the food made when going through a mill.

I purchased the Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food Kit and the KidCo Baby Steps Food Mill with Carrying Case to start with but eventually bought two more food trays. That has really come in handy when we make large batches of squash and apples. Hubby uses the food processor and makes quick work of purees but that contraption is too loud. I like the hand crank mill because it is quiet and I can use it at night without waking the kids. A bonus is it really works the arm muscles.

The Fresh Baby cookbook was a great resource for what foods you can start introducing at certain months of the babies age. It provides recipes for simple, single ingredient fruit and veggie purees with the option to add spices like cinnamon or nutmeg if you choose. The premise is you can combine the cubes to make meals. This concept is perfect when you are first introducing solids. I picked a food and would feed them nothing but that veggie or fruit for 5-6 days. If there was no reaction, we moved to the next food item. I recommend the first foods to be vegetables to get them used to the texture and not so sweet taste. The boys got fruit four weeks into solids. They were so excited to get that burst of flavor in their mouth.

After 2 months, we went through the basic veggies (peas, carrots, green beans, squash) and fruits (apples, pears, bananas) with no reaction. Although I believe the boys have an intolerance to bananas. It gives them the worst gas and diarrhea. I know they did not get that from me because I love bananas.

As the boys progressed, we would mix the frozen cubes and maybe add some single grain cereal or oatmeal to thicken up the mixture. Around 9-10 months, I introduced avocado and recently added tofu to their menu. I used silken organic tofu which breaks up so easily and the boys can easily chew and swallow it. I plan to use a firmer tofu for finger food snacks.

One of my favorite food items to make which happened to be he first puree we made was butternut squash. This particular squash cost about $7 which in my opinion is a little high but I never bought a BN squash before. It yielded approximately 48 one ounce cubes. Basically, it would be about 24 of those plastic baby food tubs, stage 2. Each of those 2 packs can run you anywhere from $.88 to $1.12 depending on sales and organic ingredients. It really is a cost savings making your own baby food.

Butternut squash, (farmer's market) carrots and sweet potato


Boiled butternut squash


Frozen butternut squash cubes


carrots in food mill


We have a large supply of frozen cubes on hand but I also buy jarred food. Mostly meats, combo meals and DHA jars. I use coupons of course and scour ads for sales. Frozen cubes are great for home feedings but jars are so handy to take along when we are away from home. When at home, I use one jar and add about 4-5 frozen cubes to stretch it out and that is enough to feed both boys. For breakfast, I will usually defrost some fruit cubes and mix with baby oatmeal, yogurt or cereal.

I have not had the time to make meat purees but plan to soon. I will probably start with slow cooking a small chicken and then puree that into a thicker stage 3 type puree. Then I can combine the meat cutes with fruit or veggie cubes and the boys will have a three course meal all mushed together.

I don't really have a favorite recipe although I recently got Top 100 Baby Purees and it has some good looking meat and fish recipes that I am itching to try. One site that has excellent information on making baby food and lots of recipes for purees is Wholesome baby food. The site even has teething biscuit recipes.

I would encourage parents to try making baby food. There are lots of resources to help you get started and you don't have to spend tons of money on supplies. If you have ice cube trays, a food processor and a freezer, you are set to make baby food. And afterwards, maybe some margaritas.

First feeding

The boys got their first taste of solid rice cereal this weekend. I started with Sam on Saturday. I mixed the cereal too thick and it sat on his lips. It was so funny to see him smacking his lips to try to get it off and he didn't know what to do with it.

I added some more liquid and he started sucking on the spoon. After a few spoonfuls, he started getting used to the new sensation in his mouth. After a while he was really itching to get more food and tried to grab the spoon.

Rod tried to feed Dean but Dean was having a tough time with the texture. He did eat a little but Rod decided to give up.

The next day, I gave them some more and Sam was going to town. He got mad everytime I went to feed Dean. I think Dean could take it or leave it but Sam loves the Gerber single grain rice cereal with DHA. I am going to have to check with the pediatrician about starting them on other solids so that they get more iron nutrients. According to this article, the boys may get constipated from all that cereal. I am hoping they are not too affected since it is one nighttime bottle with cereal and maybe every other day with cereal.

I am so glad that they aren't pitching fits about the cereal but it sure is messy feeding two boys at the same time. I am surprised food didn't end up all over them, on the floor, on furniture or even the ceiling. Although I think that will soon be coming when they learn to grab food and throw. I'll let hubs deal with that.

Sam

Dean eating directly from the bowl

Sam loving the Gerber rice cereal

Hungry Hippo

The pediatrician told me babies should have between 24-28 ounces daily for a four month old and 28-32 ounces for a 6 month old. I remember reading the Similac guidelines being more than that. We give then 4-5 ounces about 6 times a day but they seem to be hungry even after feedings.


Every time they finish a bottle, they cry. I would give them a little more milk but because of what the doctor said, I worried about giving them too much. The doctor wanted to wait until they were six months to start them on solids as well. At the time, they were 4 months and I agreed because I felt they were not ready. But the fact that they stare at us and smack their lips whenever we are eating, I feel they are now ready. They can sit in a Bumbo or in the exersaucer and even with their adjusted age into consideration, being 4 months, they should be able to tolerate solids.


I went to my moms of multiples meeting on Monday and we had breakout sessions where we got to discuss issues with raising multiples. My main concerns were the crying after feedings and sleeping through the night. The other moms said that you can't overfeed a baby. If they are hungry then they need to eat. I do think you can overfeed a baby but I also agree that if they are legitimately hungry, then they should be fed.


I just happened to have Rod pick up a can of rice cereal on Monday. They got a little rice in their night time bottle and it seemed to decrease the amount of times they stirred and woke up. I think we will increase a little cereal at a time until they sleep through the night. Then mommy and daddy can sleep through the night and every one wins.

We're freezing

Rod is still looking for a job so now would not be a good time to make large purchases. I made an exception this weekend and sent Rod to get a deep freezer. We had discussed getting one because we simply have no room in our refrigerator freezer. I don't store breast milk in the freezer any longer. Not only is there no room, frozen breast milk really does not keep that long due to the number of times we open and close the door.

I was looking on the Sam's Club website and found a 5 cubic foot model, which is the smallest they have, for $156. I thought this was plenty big for us.

However, when Rod came home, he was dragging in the 7 cu.ft. model. He got it because it had a lock and that will definitely come in handy when the boys are older and start getting into things. We do not want them falling into the freezer and not be able to get out. For the, I would gladly pay and extra $40.

We got it set up and it is huge. Rod can fit in it. This picture is very misleading because it is much longer then it looks on the website. I thought I would never be able to fill it up but after my grocery shopping adventure, I can see it would not be hard to fill it at all. I had all these coupons for frozen goods burning a hole in my organizer and it was so liberating to be able to buy food without worrying whether or not I had room in the freezer. I know this may sound crazy but I got giddy. I never realized how irritating that was for me. There was never enough space for storage for when meat or frozen foods were on sale and then we never a wide variety of things to make meals. Now, we should not have to say, we have nothing to make for dinner. Just look at my precious!

36 years

I was going to post some crazy April Fool's joke today but was too exhausted. It is a heavy burden being born on this day. People expect me to be funny but as Rod puts it, I have no sense of humor. Just because I don't laugh at his jokes, the man thinks I have no sense of humor.

Rod asked if I wanted anything special. Of course I always say I don't want or need anything but this time, I wished for Dean and Sam to get over their bronchialitis and for Rod's back to heal. I also asked for my rash to go away. This wish is purely selfish in nature. I want to stop with the steroid meds so I can stop pumping and dumping so the babies can start back on breast milk so their poop isn't so explosive and smelly. How can something so foul and abundant come out of two sweet little creatures? In all of my mom's 60 plus years on this earth, especially having lived through a war, she is nearly knocked unconscious when she opens their diapers and sees the horror. Oh the horror of formula fed baby poo. It is so beyond what baby wipes can handle so mom gives them a baby bidet in the sink. They hate getting their but washed but love the cool fresh feeling after it's done.

I thought about us going to a movie but figured we would both pass out given a dark room and movie theater seats. Mom watched Dean and Sam while we went to dinner at a Cuban restaurant that we used to frequent prior to babies. I decided on that place because I had bought a $25 gift certificate through Restaurant.com for $3. The kicker is you have to buy $40 worth of food. We were trying to decide what to get to add up to $40 because we never spend that much there. We got empanadas for appetizers, two steak chimichurri dinners and bananas foster dessert for about $30 including tip. Yep, I bring my own coupon to my birthday dinner. Rod, you got it easy for my birthday so you better bring it for mother's day.

Baby Shower

2/16/09 - 33w5d

Rhonda, Winnia and Sarah B hosted a beautiful baby shower for me at the end of January. I think it was the perfect time to have had the shower as I still felt good at that point. It gave me a bosst to hear that I looked good and had a healthy pregnancy glow. The theme was pair of pears and and I could not have asked for a more perfect day.

Rhonda designed the invitations and all the little pears are hand cut.



Sarah took pictures during the shower and created an awesome ABC scrapbook complete with printed photos ready for me to take home.



The food was fabulous and everyone commented on how beautiful the presentation was. I looked like it came straight out of a Martha Stewart Living spread. (I have to say Chelsea Deli & Cafe in Kingwood has the best chicken salad. I could have eaten the whole tray of sandwiches)





I got to visit with some old friends that I had not seen in quite a while. A lot of Rod's family was able to make it and it was so good to be able to see then again and celebrate a special occasion with them. I felt very special and I know these boys will be super loved by lots of people.

My office also threw me a shower about a week later and it was a surprise to have a full blown party in my honor. I have such a great crew and it was nice to see how much they respect me as a manager and actually like me as a person. At least I know my team doesn't hate me as a boss. Unless my shower was just a reason to have a party or they could be celebrating my leave. :P

Thank you to everyone who made both my showers so special, for all the well wishes, gifts and great words of wisdon. A special thank you to Winnia, Rhonda and Sarah for giving me the best shower ever.

All the pictures can be seen here: Shower pictures

All that Jazz

1/20/09 - 29w6d

(What's with the food posts lately?) I discovered Jazz apples last year and it immediately became my favorite apple. Sorry Fuji apple, you are now second favorite apple. Even Rod says they are the best tasting apple and are now his favorite.

After finding them on a couple trips to Kroger early last year, I could no longer get them. I did some research and found they are available from November to April. I patiently waited for November to come around so I could buy them again. November and December came and went but no Jazz. I didn't think we would ever see them again.

Then, lo and behold, Rod got his hands on these apples at our last grocery shopping trip. I have never been so excited about apples in my entire life. They are a great size for snacks and uniform enough to do caramel apples if you wanted. Rod wants to try the Chilled out JAZZ™ Apple salsa. That will have to wait until our next trip because we ate all the ones we had bought.

Seriously, you have to try this apple. It is that good. But make it quick because you only have until April to get them.

My Low carb favorites

1/19/09 - 29w5d

I have been on a low carb diet for 10 weeks and it's getting to the point where I am tired of half a cup of bran wheat flakes and egg whites for breakfast. I have been good about my portion size guidelines: half the plate should be free vegetables, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carb. My glucose readings have been good too. This is mainly due to sticking with what has been working for me.

Granted there are those rare days when I try something and it doesn't agree with me. Black Eyed Peas' Chicken Fried Chicken is not my friend. It's good, just not good for me. It's weird because I can eat Treebeard's chicken fried chicken with a side salad and and a side of green beans and my glucose is fine. It must be something in the breading.

I started putting a little variety in my diet by slowly adding new foods. Then I see how my sugar levels react. These are a few of my favorite low carb/low sugar products:

Voortman Sugar Free Vanilla Wafers - This was the first sugar free snack item I bought while awaiting the results of my glucose tolerance test. I loved these wafers as a kid and thought they would surely be ok to eat. A serving size is three cookies and at 17g carbs per serving, is a little higher than a normal snack for me. These cookies are so light and sweet that I eat just one wafer. I could eat the whole pack but I have to exert some self control.

Breyer's Carb Smart Vanilla Ice cream - This is the best tasting Splenda ice cream ever. It touts 4 net carbs per 1/2 cup serving. I like this better than the Breyer's no sugar added variety because the carb smart has a smoother vanilla bean flavor. I can eat a good size bowl as a snack and my glucose is still good, even when I pair it with 1 sugar free oatmeal cookie.

Voortman Sugar Free Oatmeal Cookies - I decided to try another item from the Voortman sugar free family. I like oatmeal raisin cookies and although these cookies are sans raisins, they are still really good. The cookies are not as soft as an Archway oatmeal raisin cookie. However, being able to eat one Voortman cookie at half the amount of carbs, I can live with that. A serving is one cookie at 10g carbs. When I want something sweet as a snack, having one cookie is enough to satisfy that craving.

Heinz reduced sugar tomato ketchup - Heinz has a reduced sodium variety also and it would have been awesome if there was one ketchup that was both low sugar and low sodium. I guess that would have been called a tomato. This product has 75% less sugar than regular ketchup which brings it to 1 g per Tbsp. When I eat ketchup with burgers or eggs, I eat lots of ketchup so this product helps me keep my carbs low.

I bought a box of Pillsbury Yellow cake mix that is made with Splenda and has half the sugar of regular cake mix. I will try it out and see if it taste like fake sugar.

This is my recipe for a healthy, carb conscience, peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipe:

Nature's Own double fiber wheat bread - it has Omega-3's (DHA/EPA) and is only 8 g carbs per slice. It is the softest double fiber wheat bread I have found. I am a white bread type of person when it comes to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but this makes me feel I am eating healthy, I think it's the sprinkling of oats on top that do it.

OR

Nature's Own Wheat 'n Fiber bread - has 9 g carbs per slice.

Simply Jif creamy peanut butter - is lower in sodium and 33% less sugar than regular peanut butter. It has 6 g of carbs and 65 mg sodium per 2 tbs serving. I compared it to regular Jif which has 7 g carb and 150 mg sodium. I love this peanut butter that sometimes I may go over the 2 Tbsp serving limit per sandwich.

Polaner sugar free seedless raspberry preserves - it is sweetened with Splenda has 5 g carbs per 1 Tbsp serving. I don't even use a full tablespoon so that makes it even less carbs for the jelly.

That's 29 g carb for a yummy peanut butter jelly sandwich. At less than 30 g carb, this can be a great snack or a meal.

Thanksgiving weekend

11/25/08 - 21w6d

Rod and I had a good weekend in Dallas visiting friends and family. I saw a childhood friend who just had a baby. Her six week old son is the cutest thing. And she gave me some swaddling blankets. Then I saw my best girl friend and she brought me lots of baby boy clothes. My middle sister gave me a ton of baby stuff too. Bottles, double breast pump, pack and play bassinet, Boppy, Baby Einstein activity play pad and clothes galore. I am so grateful for all of this and it will save us so much money. Thank you!

My middle sister loves to cook and she does a great job of entertaining with food. We normally have a non-traditional Thanksgiving feast like steak and bacon wrapped shrimp. But this year, she made her first turkey and it was really good. She used rosemary, butter and ginger to flavor the turkey and then wrapped it in cheese cloth. That's the secret to moist turkey while giving it a crunchy skin. We also had bacon wrapped asparagus, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, salad, mixed veggies and stuffing. I have never had Brussels sprouts before but I am thinking it needs to be bacon wrapped before I ever eat it again. (I am all about making things yummier by wrapping it in bacon but this is too much) I did pretty well on my diabetic diet, even though I ate 2 carb exchanges of mashed potatoes.

This is the first time my family has seen me since becoming pregnant. I think everyone was happy for me and Indy. Even my father, whom I do not have a relationship, hugged me and told me he loved me. My sister says he loves his grandbaby and he acted like that so he can steal my boys and sell them on the black market. He's definitley not baby sitting.

My younger sister is a photographer and she took some pregnancy/belly pictures. There was a wardrobe malfunction and my perky business was showing so she is going to try to photoshop those photos. But here is a belly shot.

Are you what you eat?

11/18/08 - 20w6d

This pretty much sums it up. And after a week of being on a restricted diet, I could go for some chicken fried rice. Or lo mein. Or egg rolls. Actually, anything I can't have, I could go for right now.

You Are Chinese Food

Exotic yet ordinary. People think they've had enough of you, but they're back for more in an hour.

What Kind of Food Are You?