On one hand, I can’t believe its already Sunday! Then, on the other hand…that means baby B is only 5 days old and it seems like he has been here forever. Crazy how time works.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day. After getting things situated around the house in the morning, we headed out for a couple of errands. We had to stop by Babies R Us to stock up on a few essentials…like diapers. They had a deal this weekend for a $15 gift card back when purchasing 2 boxes. You  have to take advantage of things like that.

After our Babies R Us trip, we headed over to Peter’s parents’ place for a birthday celebration. My little niece, Avi, is now 7 years old!

We had lunch while there. The Italian family always dines on pasta at get-togethers, so my lunch consisted of a small bowl of fettuccine alfredo and some salad.

Normally I am a hater of alfredo…but when breastfeeding, you eat. I was starving! I even managed to down this plate of dessert (scoop of icecream and a brownie) plus another brownie before leaving.

Even after that, I still felt hungry. Breastfeeding hunger can rival pregnancy hunger. I guess that will happen when your body is fueling itself for a kiddo that likes to eat every 2 hours on average throughout the day. I don’t mind. I think it helps him sleep for those longer stretches at night.

I continued to eat well with dinner last night. Remember when we bought a share of a cow from a local source to get higher quality beef? We pulled some steaks out for dinner last night with my parents before they leave today. I had a small filet alongside a baked potato with chives & plain Greek yogurt, some sautéed mushrooms, and a small salad.

I have to say I could get used to people cooking for me. It helps us so much!

A New Idea – Your Thoughts?

Before I sign off this post, I wanted to let you all in on an idea that struck me this morning. In September of 2010 I shared a series of posts called the 30 Days of Self-Love. I adored writing these posts and reflecting on the various topics.

I know many of you were around during that time, but I have had some new readers (hi friends!) show up around these parts. Quite a few have emailed me or left comments about the 30 Days and shown interest in the series. I quickly learned during the posting of that series that these topics were fairly heavy to reflect on each day. The thought struck me today, however, that I would still like these messages to hold a special place here on FFF.

For that reason, I am going to see how it goes posting one of the messages each week (on Sunday night) as a topic to reflect on for the week. Hopefully this will allow us to continue thinking about and discussing such topics, but not overtake FFF with super serious topics day in and day out. If you have already gone through the series I hope you don’t mind seeing these posts re-published once a week. If you’re new, I sincerely hope they bring a message to brighten your day as they did mine. I think it will be rewarding to go back through them again a bit slower and more informally. I’m excited for it, in fact! Look for the first post to go up tonight!

Question of the Day – What do you think would be the BIGGEST help to you after something like having a baby, being ill/injured, etc?

Were you around for the 30 Days? Thoughts on the 1x/week republishing of these topics?

Happy Saturday! You know what I love about winter? It’s totally normal to eat soup numerous times a week. I adore soup. I even crave it during summer…although Peter usually doesn’t go for the idea of hot soup in a Georgia summer. What can I say? It’s easy to cook, flavorful, light, and pairs perfectly with sandwiches – which are another favorite of mine.

Yesterday for lunch we had some homemade tomato soup. Love. Is there anything quite as comforting as tomato soup on a cold day?

Ingredients

• 6 vine ripe tomatoes
• 2 medium red peppers
• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
• olive oil
• 1 - 6 oz can tomato paste
• 2 boxes of organic vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice tomatoes in half and remove all seeds. Slice and rough chop the red peppers into large pieces. Quarter the onion.

Place the tomatoes cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper along with the other vegetables.

Drizzle everything with olive oil and cover with fresh thyme sprigs. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

In a large pot, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add tomato paste and allow to heat for a couple of minutes. Add all the roasted vegetables and thyme (remove from sprigs!) and stir for another few minutes until blended.

Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Then, reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.

Ladle into a blender 2-3 cups at a time and blend to a smooth consistency. Be sure not to overfill the blender. Repeat as necessary.

A perfect wintry soup dinner served. We had ours alongside some light chicken salad sandwiches for a delicious lunch.

This recipe is courtesy of my father. He actually just started a blog as well. I apparently am rubbing of on the family. 😉  His blog is a political one though, so I got the pleasure of sharing this recipe. I assure you it is GOOD!

Now we are off to a busy day with a few errands and a visit with Peter’s family.

Question of the Day – What are you up to this Saturday?