Cooking Adventures, and baby's heartbeat (recorded)

This week, we had an O.B. appointment; nothing too monumental, I guess everything must look good. I've gained about 1-2 lbs so far, which is appropriate. We did get to hear the heartbeat again, and now so do you!

(I took some editing liberty with the video quality since it's only sound we care about. You'll hear our O.B. say "yeh" in response to Matt's question if that's the heartbeat.) It's surprising how low the baby actually is. The top of my uterus is apparently only halfway between my belly button and my pubic bone.

We booked our ultrasound for October 18! So if you haven't made your pick for the sex and due date of the baby, DO IT by Oct 17: Matt & Gretchens Baby Pick'Em. There's a 97% chance that we'll be able to find out the sex of the baby.

Week 16: get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, baby will double in weight and add inches to length. Right now, baby's the size of a large avocado: 4.5 inches long (head to rump) and 3.5 ounces. Legs are much more developed, head is more erect than it has been, and eyes have moved closer to the front of the head. Ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of the scalp has begun. Baby's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, baby's heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as baby continues to develop. 

This week started off with my cooking adventures. Inspired by various freezer meal sites, I decided to try preparing some frozen meals for our dining pleasure later in the month. After a lot of grocery shopping, since we were low on virtually everything anyhow, I set out Sunday night to try to make a few freezer meals. I found out: 1- wow, it IS time consuming; I spent about 2.5 hrs and only made about six meals (though for us, each of those is probably two meals), 2- it's really hard when I only partially wrote down which recipes I wanted to make and didn't have a way on my grocery list app (Grocery IQ, and it's great) which recipes the items were for, and 3- I have a new appreciation for the people who do this once a month to make 30+ meals.

For those curious, here are some of the links I browsed:

• http://lifeasmom.com 
• http://pregnant.livejournal.com 
• http://jamiecooksitup.net
• http://onceamonthmom.com 
• http://www.skinnytaste.coml 
• http://lovingmynest.com 
• http://mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com
• http://www.myrecipes.com
• http://smithlive.blogspot.com 
• http://www.rachaelraymag.com 

I only ended up making two 8x8 chicken stuffing bakes, one chicken spinach lasagna rollup with the leftover lasagna noodles I had, one Mexican stuffed shells with the rest of the ground beef I had, and two chicken enchilada casseroles (my own modified recipe below).

Chicken Enchilada Casserole
- cooked chicken, cubed (1-2 large breasts?)
- 1 can of black beans
- corn (I used frozen... maybe a cup?)
- frozen spinach (maybe 1/2 cup?)
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1 can enchilada sauce
- corn tortillas (probably 8 or less)
- shredded cheese (probably 1 cup?)

Pour a little enchilada sauce in bottom of casserole dish. Dip corn tortillas in enchilada sauce and layer tortillas on bottom of dish. Top this layer with half the chicken, beans, corn, spinach and rice and 1/3 of the cheese. Top with another layer of enchilada-soaked tortillas; I try to press it down a little. Layer with rest of chicken, beans, corn, spinach and rice and another 1/3 of cheese. Top with another layer of enchilada-soaked tortillas; press it down a little. Pour rest of enchilada sauce. Top with rest of cheese. Bake at about 350'F for 30mins or until cheese is bubbly and just a little brown. Since the chicken and the rice are already cooked, you're just trying to thoroughly heat.

At the end of it, I'm a bit exhausted, wondering what the heck I bought all the rest of the groceries to make, and wondering how this would ever save someone time and money. I'm also bummed because I thought we'd bought a pork shoulder so I could make pulled pork, but found in the fridge a pork sirloin tip roast (what the??).

Last night, we tried the chicken stuffing bake. Matt liked it; I thought it was just okay. I didn't add enough chicken to it (tried just putting 2-3 breasts at the bottom, as much as could fit frozen) so it was a lot of just stuffing. Oh well. At least it saved us from cooking last night...