Foodie? Me??

My friend Courtney recently referred to me as a foodie. I was surprised at first, but then I thought, yeah, maybe I am!

Recently, Troy and I made the decision to become mostly vegetarians. Actually, it was mainly my decision, but Troy is willingly going along with it (what a great husband!). Since I began feeding Ian solid foods I've read A LOT of books on nutrition. We also watched the movie, Food Inc, which I highly recommend. The wealth of information I've gathered inspired me to make some changes in my life, one of those being drastically cutting down on meat intake of any kind. I was toying with the idea of becoming completely vegetarian, but I realized that 1) my convictions aren't quite that strong and 2) it's not a realistic lifestyle for me at this point.

For me "mostly" vegetarian means that I won't cook with meat at home, but I will partake of meat in limited quantities when invited over to friends houses or when eating out (which we don't do very often). Another thing we've given up is milk, and we're limiting dairy. Again, my reading convinced me that milk isn't as good as I once thought, so we're drinking almond and soy milk. (Almond milk is delicious, by the way).

For those of you wondering how it's possible to cook without meat, it's really not that hard! We eat lots of beans (for which there are hundreds of varieties), whole grains (quinoa, rice, millet, amaranth, steel cut oats, barley), sweet potatoes, lots of veggies, and a limited amount of tofu. It's fun to try new recipes, and it's cheaper not buying meat. We joined the local CSA (community supported agriculture) and we get fresh vegetables weekly from that.

I'm not writing this to tell you all wonderful and "green" I am (or whatever), but just to share this lifestyle change we've made in our house because it's now a big part of who we are. These changes aren't always easy. Of course, I'm not perfect, and eating is one of my favorite things to do in the world. My weakness is ice cream and frapuccinos, so I indulge in those more often than I should. But as a woman who has struggled with my weight and overeating for most of my life, I'm feeling really great. I'm 10 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight, and I just feel better in general.

I don't love cooking all of the time, but I definitely enjoy trying new things with new ingredients. Is that what makes someone a foodie? Here are some of the good one's we've had in the past couple of weeks (let me know if you want any of the recipes):

Barley Casserole
Meatless enchildadas
Tofu manicotti
Sweet potato and lentil stew
Honey baked lentils
Moroccan couscous with squash
Cauliflower soup
Pinto bean stew
Split pea curry

And for anyone interested, here are the books I've been reading:
Disease Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right
In Defense of Food
Food Rules
The Kind Diet

Fun play dates

Ian had a full social calendar this weekend. Friday he got to hang out with two of his girlfriends, Sayla and Brynna. These little cuties are 9-month-old twins.














Saturday he played with Isaac Fair who's almost 4 months old. First he taught Isaac how to use the walker.



















Then he taught Isaac how to suck his finger. Ian's a pro at that one!

Vacation: Part 2

We spent about 2 days of our vacation in Atlanta visiting old friends and neighbors from Mission Year. How me miss them!















We stayed the night with our dear friend Furuzon and her two kids Orzu and Ormon who are Afghani. They became very dear to us. Here we are eating breakfast.




















Ian is enjoying his first nan bread. Yum!















Cute patooties Ormon and Orzu.















This picture makes my heart happy.















We also spent time with our Turkish friends the Mamedovs. Here is Omar, Suriya, and Suriya's daughter who is a couple of weeks older than Ian, but much tinier.















Suriya's daughter has been walking since 8 months, so it was funny to see her pushing hefty little Ian in the stroller. Ormon was 4 months old when we moved to Atlanta, now he's almost 3!















We didn't get a good pic of our Iraqi friends the Ali's, but here is Ian petting their pet bunny. Yes, it just hangs out in the house.




















We spent time downtown with our great friends the Odles. Here are Ainsley and "Inan" (that's what Ainsley calls him)




























We also visited the Jeff Delp (our Mission Year city director) and his wife Katie. Here is little Maya who's a couple of months older than Ian. She's enjoying a novel while Ian steals her snacks.


Last but not least, we visited my sister and bro-in-law in Nashville where my parents were also visiting for Easter.



















Ian and aunt Heidi testing out uncle Josh's scooter















Right before our trip home we went on a hike. Ian was wiped out. I'm pretty sure grandpa enjoyed the hike.

Family Vacacation: Part 1

After 1520 miles on the road, we made it home from our family vacation! We had a great time, but it was a bit of a whirlwind as we traveled from Gatlinburg to Atlanta to Nasvhille, TN, and then back home. Here are some pics of Gatlinburg:

We met up with Troy's family and stayed in a condo with an indoor water park.


















Ian in his fancy surfer swim gear:



















He's thrilled to be on the swing


















The fun kiddie area

Our favorite part of Gatlinburg was hiking in the Smokies. Ian spent 3 hours in the hiking pack and loved every minute of it.










































Ian also enjoyed eating a second round of birthday cupcakes.





























To be continued...

Ian's Birthday Party

These pictures are a little delayed because we've been out of town. Ian had a fantastic first birthday...here's the proof.
Anxiously awaiting his guests:














Of course, he got way more toys than he needed:










































We splurged and got him his own "reading chair." (and it wasn't even from a garage sale!)




























One of his favorite presents: avocado!














And of course, what one-year-old birthday would be complete without the cake-eating!

We had fun celebrating Ian's first year of life. Now, on to toddlerhood (tear).