Portobello Prosciutto Burger!!!

Ok, this was one of the best dinner's I have made in a while. It was kind of like my own version of a burger and fries. These portobello prosciutto burgers did not disappoint, I even got a "wicked" out of Justin. You can find the entire recipe here. The blog I found the recipe on is AMAZING by the way, if you want inspiration for dinner check it out. Her pictures leave you salivating. I followed the directions exactly, even soaking the mushrooms in red wine (the closest I will be getting to my favorite beverage for a few months!), I did however leave the prosciutto off mine as preggo ladies are advised not to eat deli meats. The basil mayo was so good! I served with sliced sweet potatoes baked with olive oil and salt and pepper.

DELICIOUS. THE END.

Baked Banana and Blueberry Oatmeal

This is a must try breakfast! I love my oatmeal in the morning, but this is a fun way to mix it up.

Ingredients:
1 cup blueberries
2 bananas sliced

2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 egg, beat (*I didn't have eggs so I substituted for ground flax seed)
1 mashed banana
1.5 cups skim milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine together. I folded in my blueberries once the wet and dry ingredients were mixed thoroughly. Grease a pie dish and line the bottom of the dish with the sliced bananas. Then cover with oats, and layer the rest of the sliced bananas on top. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes at 375. At 25 minutes, remove the dish and sprinkle brown sugar over the top and place back in the oven on broil for a few minutes. Watch the oven so it doesn't burn, and the sugar will caramelize on top. Remove once you see the sugar bubbling. If you let it cool for 10 minutes you can cut the pieces out like a pie, I was impatient and dug right in! We save the leftovers in the fridge and have it for breakfast in the days to follow.*Did you know ground flax seed can be used as a substitute for eggs?!?! I never knew this! This was the first time I experimented with it and it came out just the same as if I had used eggs. I have made this recipe quite a few times, but always with eggs and this one with flax tasted just as delicious. I will have to try this out with other recipes!

Trip Pics

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to the UK and Germany.

Enjoying a walk through the Heath with Justin's parents

It was such a beautiful day for a walk.
At U2 in Frankfurt!!In Heildeberg, Germany. Such a beautiful city.

Back in London, last lunch with Justin's parentsClick here for the link to view all our photos.
We just wish it was a longer trip, but we are back in the UK for Christmas.

Long time no see!

Sorry for the lack of blogging! Our trip to London and Germany was so much fun. We had some good weather most days in London, which was so enjoyable, and got to catch up with a few good friends. Germany was absolutely gorgeous, and the concert was superb. The concert was much bigger than I had anticipated, it was in a soccer stadium and there were 55,000 people there! They were such great performers. I will post some pictures of our trip this weekend.

The real reason for my absence on my blog is that I have been so jet lagged this week. I am so used to taking sleeping pills to make me sleep when I travel abroad, but since I am PREGNANT I haven't been able to take them this trip. And there you have it, my big reveal!! I am expecting our first baby on March 4th, 2011 and am 12 weeks along!! The past 3 months have not been the smoothest of 1st trimesters, which is why we have kept quiet about the big news, but the baby is very strong, healthy and everything is on track. I will be doing updates of me and the growing baby on here so stay tuned. :)

We saw the doctor today and baby Nicolson was jumping around for us. It is already hyper active like his father. The baby even gave us a thumb's up. We find out the gender on our next appointment, September 17th, the day after my birthday.
Have a good weekend. xoxo

U2!!!

Last year while desperately searching for Christmas presents for my husband, who by the way is always hard to buy for, he made a random comment that before he dies he has to go to a U2 concert. Light bulbs went off in my head, and I searched for any upcoming tours and bought tickets for us to see U2 in Frankfurt, Germany next week August 10th. I am hoping that even though my hubby has had to wait 8 months to get his Christmas present, it will be worth it. I am so excited and we have pretty good seats!!! I also have never been to Germany, so double bonus. We leave tomorrow and are spending a few days in London catching up with family and friends before heading to Germany.

Here is a little taste of what we get to experience next week, this is one of my favorite songs. Our photographer put this song on a slide show of photos from our wedding, I watched that slide show SO many times and it still brings back vivid memories of the best day of my life.

Singapore

Since working with locals here I feel like I have learned so much more about Singapore and Singaporeans. My friends at work teach me a lot about Chinese and Malay culture and they also love to get me to try all sorts of different foods. Some of the food I LOVE, but of course there have been some that are not as great. For instance I do not like Malay desserts, no matter how many they give me I will not like them. The worst food I have tried with them so far though is durian. Durian is a fruit that is yellow inside and has a shell outside, it has a creamy soft center kind of like the consistency of brie cheese. That creamy soft center could quite possibly contain the worst smell on the planet! It is lethal. The first time my sister came to Singapore, we walked into a grocery store and she said "What smells like a$$?!" I had to explain to her that it was a fruit that people actually enjoyed eating. It is such a strong smell that taxis and hotels ban bringing in Durian. No joke, see below.So why on earth do people enjoy eating this fruit, I have no idea! When I tried durian for the first, and last time it was actually in a dessert at a company lunch. It was served over glutinous rice. I mean it doesn't get any worse than this, trust me. All my co workers looked on and laughed as the only white girl there slowly tried a bite. I was polite and said it didn't taste as bad as it smelled and passed the dessert to the next person, but trust me it doesn't taste much better than the smell. Here are some pics my coworker took.

This is the dessert, looks terrible doesn't it?This is me convincing myself to just try it despite all of my senses telling my not to.And in it goes. Never again!This week I learned an interesting new thing about Chinese culture. My Chinese boss is due to give birth any day now so I talked to a few friends at work saying we should all pitch in and buy our boss a little something, I suggested maybe getting a cute outfit for her baby or a diaper cake. These are normal gifts to buy for someone, right?! Well apparently not. My coworker informed me that the traditional Chinese gift is to give bird nest. Yep, bird nest. What would my boss want with bird nest you ask? Well, to eat it of course. You can buy dried bird nest that is made into soups or bottled bird nest that is mixed with sugar that you drink out of the bottle and this will help the mom in her recovery from the birth. The dried bird nest looks like this, it is obviously cleaned then dried.
I looked up some information online, and they say it has many benefits and nutrients in them and they have been eaten as a Chinese herb for many many years. This was obviously very new and foreign for me, I can only imagine if I bought bird nest for a pregnant friend back in the US! So with mild hesitation I went to the store today, just a normal grocery store, and purchased dried bird nest for my boss. I hope she loves every last bite. Oh the new things I learn everyday living in Singapore.