More photos from our beautiful weekend…posted during a decidedly not beautiful couple of days. (Cold. Rainy. Blech.)
The girls had fun with their baskets and Easter egg hunt in the front yard.
At least they are both facing forward – smiling and looking at me at the same time would take an act of God.
Some other random cuteness:
TV zombie
More outside fun – I bought them a little golf set. Tessa thought it was great fun to carry the club and balls around. Sabrina actually tried to hit the ball around.
Love the joy in this photo:
Tessa’s golf cart (you can see her club in the back)
(*Another obvious movie quote if you are from my generation)
For those following along with the saga of Tessa’s weight, we went for a weight check this week. In February, she hasn’t gained enough to satisfy the doctor since our prior visit. He sent us for a cystic fibrosis test (negative). In March, she had actually lost 4 ounces from our February visit. He did a panel of blood work and it all came back clean. This month, she was up 1lb 3oz from our March visit. He decided that coupled with the blood work would allow him to stand down the alarms about her weight for the moment. We must remain vigilant (downgraded to code yellow?) and keep up our efforts to keep her gaining weight.
She loves to feed herself but does much better w/a fork and items she can stab. Scooping with the spoon wasn’t working for her on this bowl of mashed potatoes.
With the lovely weather, we’ve been enjoying a lot of time outside. I’ve been snapping a lot of photos. I have so many that I think I’ll break this into a couple posts. Sabrina doesn’t want to smile for a photo unless I am taking a photo of Tessa. Tessa is too busy to be bothered with stopping to smile for photos. As a result, the photos aren’t exactly amazing shots – but they do showcase the girls’ personalities.
This is what happens when the Imagination Movers come on. Even Daddy is sucked in.
Bubbles, bikes, and sidewalk chalk are big hits so far this spring.
One day last week, I found some beef stew meat on super sale (nearing its sell by date) so I picked it up for $2. I came home and contemplated what to do with it. It was a gorgeous day – not a stew kind of day. I didn’t have anything else defrosted so I didn’t want to freeze it. I was in the mood for Greek food. So I improvised. I marinated the beef in some Greek spices. I made tzatziki sauce based on this recipe. (I used a whole cucumber and grated it rather than slicing it. I also used 2 cloves or garlic and a little extra dill because it was a little bland for my palette.) And I made a big Greek salad with this Greek dressing (scaled down to 10 servings instead of making a gallon). The dressing has nothing but raves on All Recipes but I don’t know that I would rave about it. It tastes very much like a dressing in a Greek restaurant…we liked it – Steve more than me probably. But it wasn’t AMAZING.
I marinated the beef for about 5 hours in this:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons grill seasoning, (I used Montreal Steak Seasoning)
I broiled the meat because our grill is currently out of commission. I used light original Flatout Flatbread instead of Pita bread for sandwiches (just because it was significantly fewer calories/carbs). I hadn’t tried them before and they were good.
Verdict: We liked it. I don’t think I would use that cut of beef again. But I’m seriously thinking about doing the exact same thing with chunks of chicken this week since we have tzatziki and flatbreads left. It would also be yummy with chunks of lamb and maybe skirt steak cut into strips.
I’ll link this up to Rachel’s Mouthwatering Mondays once it is up.