The new blog is finally here! Come visit!

I've decided to make some changes! I have a new blog with a new name and a new site, but with the same content. I hope you enjoy the updated look and features!

Please visit me at Stir Crazy and let me know what you think:

Coffee, please!

Little H has been so generous as to wake us up at 5:30am in the recent weeks, or maybe it's been months at this point. It's hard to keep track of time these days. No matter what time he goes to bed (usually it varies by no more than an hour), his internal alarm goes off at the same time in the morning telling him, and then us, it's time to start the day. He is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I, on the other hand, am quite the opposite. With a baby on my hip and a coffee in my hand, we make our way to the living room. He plays while I wait for the coffee to do its magic.

I can't really complain though. The early morning wake-ups have been happening since he started sleeping straight through the night... so it's a trade off. It was a long 9 months of waking up every night in the middle of the night, so that fact that he sleeps until 5:30 now (sometimes 6:00, if we're lucky) is a HUGE success. I never thought the day would come.

However, this means that my previous schedule of working out at home before he wakes up is out the window. I've had to shift my workout schedule a bit. I've been doing a lot more strength training at the gym, which has worked in my favor since there's a lot more I can do there than at home. That means I've been doing less cardio at the gym, but have been running outside with Little H instead (and really enjoying it). Since I also like to incorporate yoga and pilates into my workouts, I try to fit that in a couple of mornings a week while he takes his first nap. Switching between cardio, strength training and yoga/pilates keeps me from getting bored.

I've quickly learned that you can't get too comfortable in any type of schedule when you have a baby. Just when I think I have something figured out, the little guy has to go and change it up on me. So we adapt and adjust. I'm sure my "new" schedule will soon be my "old" schedule, depending on how Little H decides to surprise me next.

And he's full of lots of surprises!

Pesto, pasta, and peas

Normally, a recipe titled Pasta, Pesto, and Peas would not grab my attention. But I had some leftover homemade pesto I wanted to use up, so I searched online for a pasta and pesto dish. Don't let the unexciting name fool you... this dish was really good.

I originally made the pesto for this Mozzarella Grilled Cheese Sandwich that I saw on an episode of Tyler's Ultimate. It's made with fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, fresh sourdough bread and pesto....kind of an adult spin on the traditional grilled cheese. A great sandwich when you're looking for feel-good comfort food. And who doesn't love a good grilled cheese?

I made the pasta dish at the beginning of last week, and we had plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week. It's meant to be eaten at room temperature, but I made it as a cold pasta "salad". That worked out really well though because it was HOT here last week, and when you live on a 3rd floor walk-up with no a/c, 1) you do not want to be slaving over a hot oven or stove, and 2) you want to eat something cool and refreshing. And, of course, leftovers are perfect when you have limited time, aka kids. So, kids + great food + no cooking = a perfect combination. I served it with a side salad of local organic mixed greens and cucumbers, and tomatoes. Even I was surprised at how good this was!

If you want to make it even easier, you can use jarred pesto. But I thought the homemade pesto was worth the extra effort. For the pasta recipe, I made a couple minor changes. 1) I omitted the pine nuts (mainly because I didn't have any leftover after making the pesto, and they don't come cheap), 2) I used light mayo, and 3) I added diced chicken. I seasoned two chicken breasts with salt and pepper and baked them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then I diced them into about 1-inch pieces and mixed them into the pasta salad to make sure the chicken was coated with the pesto and spinach mixture (you probably won't need all the chicken for this dish, so you can use any leftover cooked chicken for something else). You could also buy a cooked rotisserie chicken to save some time.

Also, I cut the recipe in half since the original recipe yields 12 servings. I will definitely make this again. Another great dish for spring and summer.

You can find the original recipe here ~ Pasta, Pesto and Peas, from the fabulous Ina Garten.

Enjoy!