fruit

WIAW: Fruit at Every Meal

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

I’m back to eating a ton of fruit again. I can’t help it – there’s so much good fruit in season and so much local fruit at farmers markets that I can’t help myself! And you’ll see that in today’s What I Ate Wednesday. I had fruit at every single meal.

Breakfast was a spinach banana muffin and  a few bites of cheese that I ate while putting together FW’s lunch, and then a peach when I got into the office.

 

My midmorning snack was a big cup of fruit salad (see – more fruit!) and some of these sourdough crackers. I LOOOOVE sourdough bread, and my coworker gave me these delicious crackers. They are so good! And Le Cracker is a local company!

Lunch was some leftovers from dinner – a homemade vegan chickpea patty, some sweet potato fries, zucchini, avocado and a handful of cherries.

And my afternoon snack to tide me over until a late afternoon/early evening meeting? You guessed it – more fruit! I had a nectarine and some cashews.

I had to present at a meeting that didn’t start until 4:30, so I knew that I’d be home late for dinner. So I decided to try out a new slow cooker recipe, Sriracha Peanut Chicken. It was pretty good – I followed the recipe for the most part but used fresh peppers and onions, homemade peanut butter, breasts instead of thighs (and only 1 lb) and a lot more sriracha.

I liked it but it isn’t one of my (or B’s) top 3 slow cooker meals so I’ll add it to the rotation but we probably won’t have it for a little while. (Confession – one thing I’ve started doing as a working mom is trying to incorporate a crockpot meal at least once a week. It makes my life so much easier!) I served it on top of some cauliflower rice. Oh, where’s the fruit you ask? I forgot to take a photo but in the top right of the photo you can see a tupperware that contained some mango. Yum!

And that was it! I was pooped after dinner and after catching up on emails from my meeting out of the office, I hopped in bed.

Some questions for you:

  • Do you have any favorite slow cooker meals?
  • Are there any fruits you don’t like?

Fresh Cherry and Double Chocolate Almond Scones

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

Do you like fruit? I love fruit. Fresh, juicy fruit is something I crave pretty much year-round. When I was pregnant last year, I couldn’t get enough fruit. And now, FW is a fruit fiend. He’ll eat pretty much any fruit!

This time of year especially, I can’t get enough stone fruit. Nectarines. Peaches. Cherries. So, when Northwest Cherries reached out and asked if I’d like to try some of their cherries, I of course said yes.

The Northwest U.S. is actually known for seven varieties of cherries, including Bing cherries, the most popular cherry in North America, and Rainiers. You can typically spot the sweet cherries by their darker red skins – in general, the darker, the sweeter.

So, while I’ve been enjoying eating cherries by the handful (and spitting out the seeds … so ladylike), I’ve also been enjoying testing out different recipes using my delicious bounty. In addition to making these cherry pie bars, I have also been dabbling in the scone game (or should I say Game of Scones? #nerdhumor).

These scones are a great way to use some fresh cherries, but also just great in general. The combination of cherry and almond is great, and the dark and white chocolate picks up on the cherries’ sweetness.

The only part about this recipe I don’t like? Chopping and seeding the cherries. But, if you can get past that, then I highly recommend you make these.

Luckily, B decided that he doesn’t mind chopping and seeding cherries, so I see more cherry recipes in my future. If you don’t have yourself a B to chop the cherries, I suggest you wear clothes you don’t care about and be prepared to have deep red cherry hands for a little while!

Fresh Cherry and Double Chocolate Almond Scones

Makes about 12 scones

Here’s what you need:

  • 3 1/4 cups flour
  • 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cups cold butter, sliced into pieces
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup of your favorite chocolate chopped up or chips – I used 1/2 cup semisweet and 1/2 cup of white chocolate chunks
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and chopped

Here’s what you do:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder. Using your fingers or a fork, cut in butter until the batter resembles coarse crumbs.
  3. Add in coconut milk and almond extract. Combine until batter is wet and sticky.
  4. Fold in cherries and chocolate. Combine with a spatula or spoon until dough is evenly mixed.
  5. Divide dough in half and pat down into two even circles about 1 inch high.  Cut into 6 triangles.
  6. Bake on an oven sheet lined with foil or parchment paper for 12-14 minutes. Enjoy!

Some questions for you:

  • What’s your favorite fruit?
  • Do you like fruit desserts?

Disclosure: Northwest Cherries provided me some cherries to sample. All reviews and opinions are my own.

Ice Cream for Dinner after the Dentist

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Happy Wednesday! We’ve made it halfway through the week, and this Wednesday is especially special because tonight B and I are going out to celebrate his birthday. His big day was yesterday (and of course we celebrated with a great dinner from Mod Meals and a cake I made), but tonight we’re having Aunt Mary babysit so that we can get dinner out, just the two of us. Our second date night since FW was born!

It’s also What I Ate Wednesday! This day’s eats aren’t the healthiest – but that’s what WIAW is about, sharing our eats, for what they are.

Breakfast was pretty good – I’m on an overnight oats kick again, mainly because I don’t have granola anymore, am trying to not eat a gallon of yogurt a day (I think FW doesn’t like that, so I’ll keep my dairy to ice cream) and they’re easy to eat with a baby around. This time I had some cinnamon and almond and peanut butter in my mixture of oats, chia seeds, honey and almond milk.20160908_090043

Midmorning, FW and I went to two farmers markets that are walkable from our apartment. We may have gotten a little overexcited and purchased a little too many peaches, nectarines, veggies and local bread.

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So  naturally, I snacked on a peach (it was SOOO GOOD) and nectarine that morning.20160908_114742

I also made some buckeyes that morning for a surprise for B’s birthday. So naturally I had one or two of those.

buckeyes homemade

For lunch, I had leftover grilled chicken (my parents had sent me home from NY with leftovers, yay!), half a baked sweet potato, sliced local tomato (SO much better than non-in-season tomato) and spinach.

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For dessert, I had a few spoonfuls of this deliciousness.

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AND of course, I had to try a slice of that cinnamon bread I had bought at the market. So good!

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B and I had dentist appointments that evening and after the dentist opted to stop by the local Dairy King for a quick treat to beat the heat. I had vanilla soft serve dipped in butterscotch. It was so good – but I was stuffed and not hungry for dinner after our 6 pm ice cream treat!
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So those were some of my eats from last week’s dentist appointment day to share for What I Ate Wednesday.

Some questions for you:

  • Do you have any traditions from going to dr or dentist appointment growing up? B’s family used to always go out for dinner or a treat after the dentist, which is one reason we went. 
  • Have you been to any farmers markets recently? What did you get?

WIAW: Enchilada Casserole

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

Cheers to Wednesday! I don’t know about you – but even with being on maternity leave, having Monday off makes the week fly by. How is already Wednesday? I’m not complaining – I’m pumped and ready to share today’s What I Ate Wednesday. This was last Wednesday’s eats!
The day started off with a trip to the West Side Market. I ended up buying a bunch of fruit while I was there, so breakfast was a lot of melon and watermelon, plus the last 2 Boobie Balls (aka energy balls for all you non-breastfeeding folks). 20160831_114126

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Lunch was a combo of a salad I had put together from leftovers (corn, beans, part of a turkey burger) plus some toppings from the Heinen’s salad bar, including tabbouleh, quinoa and tortellini!

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Afternoon snacks included some bread and sweet potato with a variety of nut butter (I had almond butter and two varieties of peanut butter) and some more fruit salad.

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Fresh fruit from the market. Yup, that’s a pacifier in the background.

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B’s sister was downtown after work and invited us out for beers. I had a nice saison- but I was pretty tempted to get a pumpkin beer!

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Dinner was SO good. FW had taken two solid naps during the day, so I was able to do meal prep and prepare Enchilada Pie from Skinny Taste. I had gotten most of the veggies from the West Side Market that morning and all day was looking forward to this enchilada-type casserole.

Speaking of enchilada casseroles, when i mentioned the dinner to B, he reminded me of the bit from one of his favorite comics, Felipe Esparza  (from the Whats Up Fool podcast).  I couldn’t fins the actual bit we saw him perform online but if you watch this you get the idea:

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The pie was so goos and easy. And we had leftovera for lunch plus another dinner now in the freezer! 

And that was it. There we go – another What I Ate Wednesday. 
Some questions for you:

  • Have you had any pumpkin beers or other pumpkin themes treats yet?
  • Do you have a favorite podcast?

Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. All views are my own. 

WIAW: Double Ice Cream Day

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

It’s Wednesday already? Thank goodness – only three more full days until the weekend and it’s also What I Ate Wednesday – time for sharing and checking out a random day of eats. I love seeing everyone’s eats and sharing my own. These are my eats from Thursday – and it just happened to be a day with ice cream more than once a day.

Breakfast was a huge fruit salad.

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Followed by some more fruit.  I had bought what I thought was a cantaloupe at the store, but when I cut into it – it was green! It wasn’t a honeydew either. No idea what it was – but it was delicious. 20160818_104248 20160818_164244

Lunch was a mishmash while FW slept. A salad and a black bean burger. Plus a sweet potato and some spaghetti squash with cinnamon, honey and a little bit of peanut butter (not pictured).20160818_135450

Snacks that afternoon included some some chex mix – thanks to Cuoghi! Her mom made a ton and she shared some with me.

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AND ice cream#1. It was on sale at the store and oh so delicious. I had to have a few scoops 🙂20160818_165308

Dinner? Some chicken, and farmers market/local farm fresh veggies. Tomatoes from B’s coworker’s garden, plus zucchini and potato and onions roasted (all veggies from the farmer’s market).20160818_184229

And then, dessert! B and I took a walk to get ice cream sandwiches. Cathy’s creamery downtown is the best. Cookie dough ice cream, one chocolate chip cookie, one peanut butter cookie and white chocolate chips.

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Dessert was definitely a surprise, but SO GOOD. Ice cream #2= amazing.

Some questions for you:

  • Do you have dessert every night? Any go-to desserts?
  • Favorite kind of chocolate? White, dark, milk, etc.?

WIAW: Case of the Mondays

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

For some reason I thought that Mondays during my maternity leave would be easier. I wouldn’t be waking up earlier than usual to go to work … I wouldn’t have the usual pre-workweek anxiety about getting everything done in  time. I wouldn’t be recovering from staying up late evening night during the weekend.

Well. I was wrong. Mondays are still hard. Why? Mostly because B goes back to work- which means less help for me with FW,  less sleep (I sorta sleep in on weekends because B able to watch FW in the morning) and the slight anxiety of wondering how FW and I will survive the week ahead of us.

Needless to say, Mondays are still hard. Thankfully, this last Monday was a little easier. One of the reasons was because of food. B made me lunch (so I wouldn’t have to prep something during the day with FW), I had made snacks ahead of time and dinner was an easy semi freezer meal. It’s amazing how much a little food can make the day even better!  Anyway, onto today’s What I Ate Wednesday.
Breakfast was some yogurt and fruit. I get into breakfast habits and have been really enjoying nonfat plain Greek yogurt with honey and berries. I would also usually add granola, but I haven’t made some in a while and I need to do that. B also surprised me with a skinny cinnamon dulce latte- I haven’t had a caffeinated beverage like that in a year!

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For snack, I had nearly this entire large container of fruit salad.

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Lunch was a salad B had made me. It was awesome- under the corn/bean/tomato/cilantro salsa (courtesy B’s mom) was some chicken, pepperoni and cheese.

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Snacks were some grapes and one of these whole wheat oat peanut butter and jelly muffins modified from Running with Spoons.

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Dinner was zoodles with some meatballs B made and homemade pasta sauce I had made plus a delicious salad. I was starving – we had gone to B’s softball game and didn’t get home to start cooking until after 8! I was pooped and tired. Thankfully B also feed me some cheese and pepperoni as a snack (unpictured) while dinner was being prepared.

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There we go – another What I Ate Wednesday. And not a bad Monday!

Some questions for you:

  • What is your favorite day of the week?
  • What’s your go-to breakfast?

Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. All views are my own. 

WIAW: Housesitting in the Suburbs!

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! We are halfway through a crazy week- it is madness in Cleveland because it’s the RNC! Yes, the RNC is in Cleveland and all our favorite places have been taken over by groups and media – and there are barricades and security checks all over our neighborhood.  SO – this week we have escaped downtown! We are housesitting in the burbs. So, today’s WIAW features some suburban eats 🙂 (yes it’s the same as downtown eats I suppose).

Anyway, I still haven’t gotten the hang of being productive and keeping a newborn happy. I’ll work on it – but I’m SO MUCH more productive and things are SO MUCH easier when B gets home from work.
Because we were planning on not being home this day, our meals were pretty much planned in advance. We brought over meals and just ate them at the house. So, here you go – day of pretty planned and delicious summery meals!

Pre-breakfast (yes, there was one) was some of Arman’s black bean brownie bars again. I got up at 5 am to feed FW and then B and I went for a walk to get some coffee, so I was needing some quick and easy fuel before my real breakfast.

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Here’s my iced tea I got at the coffee shop. I love Ruthie’s Tea at Phoenix Coffee and it’s not too bad iced!

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Here’s the real breakfast- I didn’t get a photo of it  all together (life is hard with baby) but it was plain yogurt, tons of fruit and very delicious.

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Lunch was this great salad. I also had some dressing on it (not pictured) and cheese. And some bread and peanut butter because I love the two together.

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And a peach for a snack.

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For dinner, we grilled some vegetables and halibut steaks that we had gotten at the West Side Market. They were so good! It is nice having a grill to use because we don’t have one downtown.

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And it dessert? Coffee ice cream. Eaten a few spoonfuls a time while the baby was crying. That’s life I guess?

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But who can complain when he mostly looks like this?

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And that was my What I Ate Wednesday eats. Some questions for you-

  • New moms and stay at home moms- do you prepare your meals ahead of time so they’re easier to eat during the day?
  • What’s your favorite type of yogurt? And favorite yogurt toppings?
  • Is it still called brunch if you already had breakfast? Or is it just breakfast for lunch then?
  • When was the last time you had Swedish Fish?

WIAW: Can’t Get Enough Fruit

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

I’ve said it before – but I can NOT get enough fruit during this pregnancy. I don’t know why – but it’s what I constantly crave. Yes, there are other cravings, but a big, heaping bowl of juicy fruit salad? OMG I could eat it every day. And you’ll see that in today’s What I Ate Wednesday. I started AND ended my day with fresh fruit. And today featured some amazingly delicious, super sweet Skylar Rae cherries. Which yes, I also started and ended my day with.
Breakfast was one of my favorite yogurts- Siggis! And of course a ginormous bowl of fruit. These cherries are seriously amazing. I’ve never been one to go out of my way to intentionally buy cherries (they’re not my favorite fruit) but I would definitely buy therm again.
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See how pretty they are! Stemilt sent me a package in the mail and I can’t get enough. Here’s what they told me about them: known as Skylar Rae, this is a brand new type of cherry cultivar and one of only three commercial varieties in the world. It is the sweetest cherry on the market, but has such a sad story! After suffering the loss of their infant daughter, the Toftness family – long time Washington State cherry farmers – discovered the never-before-seen cherry on a single tree growing in their orchard. They felt it was a gift from nature meant to honor their beautiful daughter, whom they chose to name the cherry after.
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And some dried cranberries. So special story behind these cranberries.
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Lunch was leftovers. Leftover baked eggplant stacks- they are one of my favorite meatless dishes. And I added a side salad I got from the salad bar.
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And of course some more fruit. A nectarine this time!
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Snacks included some candy (yay! Another pregnancy craving) and mixed nuts.
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I made dinner for B and me – some deconstructed veggie spring rolls and salmon.

These are the deconstructed spring rolls. It was great to break out my spiralizer!

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And all together.
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For dessert I made some of these black bean chocolate brownie bars. They’re actually breakfast bars but they’re delicious for dessert!
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And surprise, surprise- more fruit. Again- these cherries are SO so good. 20160611_112615

And see- this is how pregnant I am. I don’t often share selfies – especially on WIAW posts – but since I’m talking about preggo cravings ….
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I’d say it was a good, satisfying What I Ate Wednesday. Not bad for a 39 week pregnant chick, huh?

Some questions for you:

  • Do you like cherries? Have you ever had these Skylar Rae cherries?
  • What’s your favorite type of fruit?

Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. All views are my own. 

WIAW: Rhubarb Crisp and Ice Cream

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

Happy What I Ate Wednesday party people! Hopefully you’re enjoying a great week and it’s feeling more and more like summer where you are (if you’re in one of those places that’s lucky enough to enjoy seasons and in North America … BIG if I know). It’s finally feeling warm again here and it’s only fitting that on this WIAW I had a rhubarb crisp dessert with ice cream. Because that just SCREAMS summer, doesn’t it?

Yes, I had other food too. The day started with a smoothie slash smoothie bowl.

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And a snack- a cut up apple.20160519_135402

Lunch was breakfast! Or brunch I suppose? Egg whites, lentils, spinach and a veggie burger. VERY satisfying.

But I also had some toast and a peach. We had no more nectarines and I really wanted something juicy. 20160519_131642

Some Swedish Fish for a snack! When was the last time you had these bad boys? It had been YEARS and someone brought them in for a meeting we had in the office. They were so good!20160519_134935

For dinner, I had plans to go out with a coworker who was celebrating her 20th anniversary at our office. We were also celebrating my future bebe 🙂

We went to Spice, one of my favorite local places. I had an amazing goal cheese tomato salad, flat brea and we split this rhubarb crisp. With ice cream. 20160519_183520 20160519_190556 20160519_194758

I got home around 8 and normally would have gotten ready for bed, but had to play catch up with some work things. I was up until around midnight, so it called for a midnight snack – some homemade granola!

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Don’t worry – I ate it before midnight so it still counts as my Thursday, right? And that was my What I Ate Wednesday eats.

 

Some questions for you:

  • Is it still called brunch if you already had breakfast? Or is it just breakfast for lunch then?
  • When was the last time you had Swedish Fish?

WIAW: Every Day Should End With Ice Cream

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

It’s Wednesday, it’s Wednesday … woopwoop! Which means it is a day for sharing eats and seeing what other people eat. Yup, I love What I Ate Wednesday and all the foodporn that it results in!

Here are y eats from earlier in the week – a pretty boring weekday. But on a non-boring note, spoiler alert – the day DID end with some ice cream!

The day started with some of my favorite overnight oats. Same as last week but no yogurt this time – just oats, almond milk, banana, honey and some peanut butter. So delicious.

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I had an apple and some nuts as well for a mid-morning snack.

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Lunch was a mishmash of random things. I had plans to eat lunch out with coworkers at a new BBQ place (which would have made for a WAY more interesting WIAW post), but I ended up getting pulled into a few meetings and having to work through lunch. Luckily I had a random assortment of food at my desk – leftover tabbouleh and baba from Friday night, carrots, plus a sweet potato (half with honey and cinnamon) and half an avocado. YUM! It hit the spot.

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I had some assorted hard candy for snacks that afternoon. Per usual.

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And a pear. Because pregnant Melissa LOVES FRUIT.

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B and I had our hospital tour after work that night. We got a quick tour of where I’ll be giving birth – wow. Somewhat made things a little more real to us! Anyway, that meant a late but quick dinner was needed – so we stopped off and had dinner at The Soupermarket.  I had their jambalaya soup, some amazing bread and B and I split the Market Greens salad.

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And I pulled the whole “I’m pregnant and want ice cream” and we stopped off at Sweet Moses on the way home. B got a root beer float and I got some salted caramel ice cream with toffee topping. SO GOOD. But I was stuffed!

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I tend to get VERY full during pregnancy – I’m well into the third trimester now and after some meals I just can’t get comfortable. That was the case after the ice cream. But so worth it! A perfect way to end my What I Ate Wednesday day.

 

Some questions for you:

  • Do you need dessert every night? What do you have?
  • How much fruit do you eat on a daily basis? I eat fruit at least 2x a day.