Recent Things: Birthday Celebrations, Hummus Loving and Busy Times Ahead (RT#9)

Is the earth spinning faster than usual or something? How is it Friday again?! Phew! 

This week has been quite busy for us! Jesse was sick from Sunday right through til yesterday and he's also been working nights. Whenever he's working nights, I get totally confused - he's home during the day so it feels like the weekend and then he bangs everything humanly possible crawls into bed at some ridiculous time of the morning. 

But let me tell you about what we've been up to, there's lots to share!

Recent Birthday Celebrations: As you may already know, yesterday was Jesse's Birthday. He had the day off so we had somewhat of a quiet day. In the morning he had pancakes for breakfast (his favourite Better than IHOP Pancakes Recipe from the blog), complete with birthday sprinkles. Of course that picture was pre-syruping ;P 

Then we headed to the shops to pick up a couple of things and then headed back home so we could pack up lunch and Chanel and head to the park for a picnic. 

The picnic was somewhat unsuccessful. Jesse wanted to have a "family picnic" with Chanel - I knew it probably wasn't going to work as planned but Jesse wanted to try anyway. You see, Chanel is a Chihuahua cross Shitzu and her Chihuahua side means that she has a tendency to get really anxious when in a new place. She just wants to run around and explore but then she doesn't want to go near other dogs or people and isn't sure what's going on so she whines. 

She also gets really dirty when at the park so we ate our lunch quickly and then headed home to give her a bath. She had fun, but Jesse was a little disappointed that she wouldn't settle so we could enjoy some time outside. 

And would you believe this! I made a pumpkin pie and Jesse has yet to eat any of it. Jesse and I are totally different as he likes savoury food more, whilst I would much rather save room for dessert. 

He ate too much for dinner last night so the pumpkin pie didn't get to put on a show. I did, however, pour the leftover mixture into some ramekins for myself and had my own deconstructed pumpkin pie with some gluten free cookies ;P Yum yum yum! And of course, it was our favourite Healthy Pumpkin Pie recipe - but this time I used some organic canned pumpkin I bought from iHerb!

Recent Wow: A friend of mine from church, the very talented Mie Mawson, did this incredible pastel drawing of me. It's drawn from the photo on the left which was taken on our honeymoon. 

I'm a terrible drawer/painter unless it comes to drawing cartoons to make plushies so I'm in awe of Mie's talent!

Recent Laughs: Katrina and Jesse's "Glow Stick Party" on the weekend and the funniest thing this week? Check out this video - we couldn't stop laughing when the house started randomly singing "Happy Birthday Jesse". It turns out Dad had programmed our Sonos system to start playing it at 9am as he knew Jesse would be awake then :P 

Recent Improvements: I prettied up our Facebook Page and have relaunched our Weekly Newsletter (because I've been so slack and haven't been sending it out!). I'm also looking at fixing and tidying some things up on the blog and working out a recipe search system that allows you to search for multiple recipes types (eg: gluten free and dairy free and sugar free)

Recent Cuteness: My little Easter Bunny! Jesse bought me an early birthday present that is totalllly cute. I had originally wanted this bunny from Woolworths that Jesse told me he'd buy me later and then they totally sold out - so I think he felt a bit guilty and bought me one ASAP from Kmart ;P 

Recent Food Obsessions: Hommus/hummus, however, you want to spell it - but this Obela Hommus is TO DIE FOR - smooth, creamy and super thick. Can we also take a second to acknowledge how awesome my stomach is because I can now eat it again?! Happy happy happy.

I'm also currently obsessed with quesadillas. When you combine my new sandwich press with gluten free corn tortillas, you have a new obsession. Chicken, cheese, mushroom and spinach quesadillas topped with avocado. Heaaaaven. 

Also, weird fact, I've only just been able to stomach meat again after my iron infusion. I think my body must have been in overload mode as any time I thought of eating meat or tried to eat it, I'd get incredibly queasy where just before my iron infusion I'd started craving meat (totally foreign to me as I don't like meat that much anyway). 

Recent Plans: This weekend is quite busy. We've got Youth Group tonight, we're going out for lunch for Jesse's birthday tomorrow and then Sunday we have Church at 10am then I'm racing back home to cook up a storm as we're co-hosting a Southern Style dinner after our Discipleship Explored course at church in the evening. 

I'm cooking up a big batch of cornbread (and I've come up with a new recipe that is incredible and so fluffy!), making BBQ Ribs and also making up a bunch of mini Cheesy Quinoa Bakes so I can join in too whilst our friends are making some more ribs (as we have plenty of mouths to feed), salad and baked potatoes. 

Next week I've also got my follow up appointment with my haematologist to see where my iron levels are at after my iron infusion!

Recent Garden Process: Black thumb?! PSSHHH!! Check out our little GardenKit - it's GROWWWWINNGGGG!!

But tell me, 

What foods are you loving at the moment? 

What are your weekend plans?

and Are you a savoury or sweet person?