Turkey Sandwiches

For the first time in four years, I spent Thanksgiving with my family since being away at college made it difficult to travel home for the festivities. The food was great and we had all the classics-- turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, pie, etc. I wish baby Z had dropped already so I would have had more room for the food, but she is still taking up all my precious stomach room and making it very difficult for me to eat full meals! Anyways, after stuffing our faces we braved some of the Black Friday sales and watched some cheesy movies on the Hallmark channel. Good times.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is all of the leftovers! Last year we had so much I froze it in batches in fed us until Christmas.

Today Zac and I had Turkey sandwiches. SO GOOD. I even went through all the boxes in our storage unit to get the panini press for these babies. It was so worth the hassle and rearranging of all the storage boxes just to get to my precious box of stowed kitchen supplies. 

Day After Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwiches

Makes 2 sandwiches

Bread, Butter

1/2 thinly sliced onion

1 T Gravy

Shredded Turkey

2 T Mayo + 2 T Cranberry Sauce mixed together

Fontina Cheese (Or any cheese you prefer with a milder taste and creamier texture)

4 thick slices of country or sourdough bread, one side slathered in butter.

Saute the onion with a touch of olive oil and a pinch of salt to keep from burning until softened and browned. Add about two handfuls worth of leftover shredded turkey (I like a mix of light and dark meat) with 1 Tablespoon of leftover gravy. Saute until turkey and gravy are heated through

Place bread slices, butter side down on your work surface. Spread Cran-mayo on one side. Top with a layer of turkey-onion mixture. Top with a layer of fontina cheese. Cover with other slice of bread, butter side up. Press in panini until well browned and crisp or you can easily do this in a well heated griddle/frying pan.

Eat immediately.

Foodie Pen Pal Reveal and the Growing Belly

Last month I signed up for a Foodie Pen Pal program and received my first package this past Saturday from my October foodie pal all the way from Florida. I've always wanted to do a food exchange with someone and once I found the Foodie Pen Pal program I was sold!

The Conditions:

Sign up by the 5th of the Month

Contact pen pal matched with

Put together a box ($15.00) and include a note explaining all treats

Mail it by the 15th

Waited excitedly for a box in return

Yummy treats from my pen pal

Udi's Gluten Free Salted Caramel Cashew Soft Bake cookies

-These are INSANELY good for a gluten free cookie. The salted caramel flavor really came through nicely and I've already eaten half the box :)

Barbara;s Jalapeno and Blue Cheese Puffs

-Okay, these are brilliant. While I am a tad guilty of having had blue cheese even though I know I am supposed to avoid it these are a revelation. I get the blue cheese flavor without having to eat the actually cheese and plus it's spicy, which I love. I am already starting to freak out because I am almost through this bag and haven't come across this line of products before. I think I will go on a searching spree pretty soon.

These three I have yet to try: 

-Fall Spice Blend

-Chocolove Almonds and Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate

-Local Floridean Pumpkin Spice candy

I am skipping the next few months of the Foodie Pen Pal exchange with the craziness of preparing for baby Z, but pretty excited to get back into it starting the beginning of next year.

Anyways, I've been taking it pretty easy these past few weeks and trying really hard to stick to the "couch rest" prescription my doctor gave me and I am finally growing like crazy! One week the fundal height jumped from 30 to 35 inches. Scary. I was measuring pretty small for a while, but I don't think that is much of a worry now.

Five+ more weeks!

After two nights of sleeping on the shower curtain (see previous post) that I thought I was going to be okay with I had a breakdown with how hot it was making me and am now sleeping on a much more comfortable pad. It's one of those pads little kids sleep on and thats exactly how I feel, like a big little kid. At least I am not sweating like crazy though.

34 weeks- I got ready just for this picture and it just about took every ounce of energy out of me!

Wednesday is Snack Day

On Wednesdays Zac comes home earlier than most days so it's the perfect opportunity for me try out small recipes and snack type dishes for him to taste test when he gets home. If it were up to him, he would would probably have a tall glass of chocolate milk, a bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream, or half a box of cheeze-its and fruit snacks. Sounds like what my little brother would eat (if he wasn't so particular about his diet during wrestling season). Anyways, this past Wednesday, I decided to make some tea sandwiches and although we don't really drink tea unless it's herbal the weather was just calling out for a warm cup of orange spice.

A few months ago, I had a curry chicken and egg salad sandwich that I've kinda been thinking about for a couple days so I made my own version of it and it was so yummy!

Ingredients (For 2 Tea Sandwiches)

1 hardboiled egg roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon chopped celery
1 Tablespoon chopped red onion
1/2 Tablespoon minced cilantro (fresh basil would be a great alternative)
1/4 cup cubed chicken breast (I used deli rotisserie carved, but any type will work)
1 Tablespoon Light Mayonaise (HELMANS please)
1/2 teaspoon Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
Dash of Curry powder (my measuring spoon says "dash" which is probably equal to a 1/8 of a teaspoon, but feel free to add more just know that Curry can be very over powering)
1 fresh crack of black pepper
Slightest crack of sea salt (totally optional)
Spritz of lime juice, about 1/4 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon white sugar

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate for at least one hour before spreading onto your favorite sliced bread (pumpernickel, rye, white, and sourdough or even pita work great). My husband would not even give this sandwich a second glance if I did this, but if I were alone I would top my filling with some thinly sliced english cucumbers.

We also had my standby turkey and swiss pinwheels. Costco sells a wrap like this that I love and this is just the way I like to make them. It's the cranberry cream cheese sauce that really makes the wrap.

1 Large tortilla wrap
Thinly sliced smoked turkey breast
Green leaf lettuce
Thinly sliced  ripe vine or steak tomatoes
Swiss cheese

Cranberry Cream Cheese Sauce (makes about 1/2  CUP)
2 Tablespoons whole cranberry sauce (any brand will do)
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 Tablespoon Light Mayonaise

Spread a layer, as thick as you desire, of the cranberry cream cheese sauce on tortilla but leave about a 2 inch border. Layer turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, and swiss. Roll a quarter of the ways (going upwards), tuck in sides and continue rolling. Slice and enjoy.

Texas State Fair and Bump Updates

We almost missed going to the Texas State Fair, but thanks to some shuffling in our schedules and serious prioritizing of time we made it there on the last Thursday and had a blast! Both Zac and I are major fans of anything deep fried and we planned our route through the fair so that we would be able to easily hit up the stands selling this years winning deep fried concoctions. We tried the most tasty first which was the Deep Fried Cuban Roll. SO GOOD. Zac was in heaven with the savory pulled pork and gooey melty cheese. I also tried the BBQ pork wing which had a great sauce that was pretty awesome too.

After getting completely sucked into all the product demos we ended up buying a set of peelers and mandolins that Larry Scheidt, aka best salesman in the world, swore by. I have tried them already and am pretty impressed. These swiss made peelers shred, slice, peel, cut perfect french fry style match sticks, and glide like no other peeler I have ever used before. We also saw a stand selling the vitamix with an extra blending container for a 100 bucks! We almost caved in but we decided if we saw it again next year we would resist all rides/gimmicks/over priced food offerings and just buy the blender. The only thing we probably won't resist is the Horchata. It cost us 10 tickets or the equivalent of 5.00 but oh my heavens was it worth it. So worth it, that after taking a sip of Zac's I walked straight back and got my own 21oz of horchata.

Zac and I walked through the car shows, watched the pig races,  indulged in really yummy fudge, took pictures with the Big Texan, walked through aisles of incredible Texas merchandise, and scoped out all the different games and rides for next year. We also tried the fried nutella, which was actually a big disappointment since it was about 80% greasy fried filo dough, 10% whip cream, and only 10% nutella. It took us a while to find the stand selling the most creative state fair food--the deep fried Thanksgiving Dinner. It was pretty delicious. It was a nice balance of stuffing, turkey chunks, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Quite tasty. My ball of Thanksgiving had more Turkey than Zac's so he was a little disappointed, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Top left to bottom right horchata, t-day dinner, bbq pork wing, fried nutella, t-day dinner balls

We ended the day by sharing a funnel cake and vowing to get a corndog the moment we made it to next year's State Fair since we were way too full to get one that day. The Gator shish-kabob is on the next year list too. All in all it was tons of fun and we can't wait to go again especially with baby Z!

Some updates on my pregnancy:

- Just a little over 6 weeks to go!

33 weeks and 4 days = Feeling HUGE

-Still have an innie belly button, feet haven't swollen up yet, and I still have 2 pairs of prepregnancy pants that I can squeeze in to.
-Currently obsessed with mashed potatoes and Silk Vanilla Soy milk.
-Just started sleeping with a shower curtain under my fitted sheet in case my water breaks at night (according to Zac I can sleep through anything and he wouldn't be surprised if I didn't realize I was going to labor. How he figures that I have no clue!). Thank goodness I do not have princess and the pea syndrome and that I value my sleep way too much to care about the constant wooshing sound that the shower curtain makes every time I move.
-Currently prescribed to bed rest/couch rest but having a really hard time not noticing all the things I could be cleaning/dusting/arranging around me.

Oh yeah, and this doctor to be had his white coat ceremony two weeks ago.  So proud of him! But really trying to overlook all the red hair that is over-taking ALL of his face. 

Happy Fall!