7.31.2012

Avocado Chicken Salad

With the weather being so hot, I try not to turn on the oven or stove for our meals and it is hard to come up with new ideas.  I had pinned a recipe on Pinterest for Avocado Chicken Salad.  I like just traditional chicken salad, but this is a good variation.  It tastes very similar to guacamole- maybe a little too similar that next time I would use more mayo and less avocado.  This took about 10 minutes to throw together, so is also nice for a quick dinner!

Here were my ingredients:
2 Green Onions
Handful of Cilantro
1 Avocado (forgot to put in the picture...oops!)
2 Bags pre-cooked diced Chicken
2 Spoonfuls of Mayo
Sprinkle of lime juice (recommend using fresh lime juice)
Salt and Pepper

I started with the Avocado in the bowl so I could get that smashed up.  I then added in the Mayo and stirred until I got the desired consistency.  I added the rest of my ingredients and let refrigerate overnight so the flavors melded.  I really think this would taste good on several different things- Bread, Pita, Nacho Chips, Crackers, etc.  Enjoy!

7.30.2012

Lachlan - 7 Months

This post is a couple weeks late (once again), but this month has flown by more so than any other!  Here are a couple 7-month pictures:

What's Lachlan up to at 7-months old?
  • First and foremost, he can now SIT!  It only took him a couple days to go from only being able to sit alone for less than a minute before falling over to sitting for 5-minutes or a decent duration to play.  (Notice DAD is super paranoid and always wants to surround him with pillows in case he topples)

  • He eats some cereal each morning and a fruit/veggie in the evening.  We mix about 2 T of dry oatmeal up and he gets about 2 oz. of the fruit/veggie.  So far he has liked every single food (as far as we can tell) except for some fresh avocado that I mashed up for him.  I think the consistency was just too thick for him compared to his other baby foods.  We typically alternate between fruits and veggies to keep mixing up the flavors.  So far he has tried squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, peaches, applesauce, pears, avocado.
  • He got a new "big boy" carseat, stroller, and bathtub.  We have had an insanely long heat wave, so he has barely been able to use the stroller, but seems to love it.  I drove myself crazy with researching them and trying to decide if we should buy one where you can add on a doubles kit for when we have another kid...but then decided against that and figured we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  So then the next decision was if we spend some money to get a really nice one or not-- we opted to get a cheaper stroller since we aren't sure how long we'll use it for and we primarily use it for walks around our neighborhood which is all on nice pavement.  We went with this Jeep Liberty stroller and we LOVE how it pushes.  It has a cute steering wheel that Lachlan is intrigued by, and I love the huge basket underneath- it even has a basket underneath the baby's feet to catch any items they drop.  The carseat (The First Years True Fit Recline) does not appear to be as big of a hit, but he was ready to outgrow his infant carrier and I thought this would be more comfy giving him more room....but he has fussed A LOT in it this last week.  And I HATE loosening and tightening the harness- it is very difficult to reach.  We got an inflatable duck tub that we really like- the beak even quacks when you press the button inside it!

  • His 2 bottom teeth are really growing!  He has been on the fussy side lately and drooling like a fool, so we are guessing that he is getting more teeth.
  • The day after he turned 7 months, he had to say bye-bye to his friend Luke who is moving to Florida.  It was a sad day :(
  • Hopefully this was the worst Father's Day that we ever deal with.  Saturday night we had gone to Spooner's (a local ice cream shop) and it was our first time trying it and I LOVED it.  However, both Dustin and I got very sick during the night, so we don't know but are thinking we got some sort of food poisoning from this ice cream.  It was a miserable way to spend the day! So at an un-eventful moment later, Dustin opened some gifts- grill tools and ties...yes, probably the most generic fathers day gifts one can find!

  • We have a new song that is his favorite.....10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!
  • He has a few books that are his favorites...and if you try to read any others, he will definitely let you know by starting to cry/whine by page 2.  The ones he loves are Baby Faces, Peek-a-Who, and Whooo Loves You.
  • Since he seemed no longer interested in the wubbanub, I took that away a couple weeks ago and he's done just fine without it.  My mom was here last week and she hung a few toys from his crib- Lachs loves to just look at them and sometimes reach up trying to touch them.  The last week or so, he'll spend 10-20 minutes after waking up just nicely playing in his crib.
  • Favorite toy is definitely his Jumperoo-- if he's sleepy, he'll still doze off in there.  I came home from work last week and my mom and grandma were baby-sitting....and there is Lachlan sound asleep in his jumperoo!
  • I love giving Lachlan his bedtime bottle- he's so relaxed laying in my arms, but will reach his arm up to feel my face- he loves grabbing and exploring my nose and mouth.  His latest is now he transitioned to reaching up and feeling his own hair.  Sometimes he really pulls at it hard, but doesn't seem to bother him.  When giving himself his bottle, he loves to get his feet up there and hold the bottle with his feet so his hands can roam feeling other things.

  • I've been able to drastically cut down on the pumping cause my supply really tanked when I got sick.  Basically I'm just pumping morning and night, so about every 12 hours-- and I am not getting all that much, so am moving to just doing once/day next week and my goal is to completely stop when we go on vacation at the end of the month.

 Some other random pics I love: