Jan
2015

Southwestern Breakfast Casserole

categories: cooking, erin is ...

One of my favorite breakfasts to make and take (to church, brunch at a friend’s house, etc.) came to me years ago. No, not in a dream or a vision, but at my brother-in-law’s college graduation. We stayed at the home of some of his good friends, and they made this WONDERFUL breakfast casserole the morning of graduation.

I hadn’t been a huge fan of breakfast casseroles. Most of them involve bread and soaking overnight and just a big ol’ soggy mess, in my opinion. This one was different. The magical difference? Crescent rolls for the bottom layer instead of nasty old bread.

My genius husband also discovered that those “Grands” crescent rolls by Pillsbury cover the bottom even more thoroughly than the regular. Mmmm. Bread. You unroll them, spread them into a 9×13-inch pan, and press to make the seams and edges mostly meet. Meanwhile, you’ve got a pound of breakfast sausage browning on the stove.

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When the sausage is ready, you spread the crumbled sausage over the crescent rolls. Add this mixture of eggs, milk, spices, and green chiles to the pan … oh, and one of our favorite things to do is add Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming spice blend to the egg mix. It’s an absolute staple in our pantry now.

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Another trick I’ve discovered is to spread half a cup of green tomatillo salsa (or other salsa verde) over the sausage before the egg mixture. (Can you tell I’ve made this a few times?) You can do this in place of the green chiles or in addition.

Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top, pop in the oven, and YUM.

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An official recipe is below, linked from my Plan to Eat account. (It does give me a referral bonus if you sign up through my link.) I absolutely love this casserole, and I love that it reheats so well the next day! If you have any left, that is …

 

Print Recipe

Southwest Breakfast Casserole

A yummy breakfast casserole that uses crescent rolls instead of bread for the base.

Source: Erin

Course: Breakfast

Prep Time: 20 Min

Cook Time: 25 Min

Total Time: 45 Min

Serves: 8

Ingredients

  • 1 lb breakfast sausage
  • 4 – 6  eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2-3 tbsp green chiles diced or 1/2 cup green salsa (tomatillo)
  • 1 8 oz can crescent rolls (may want the “Grands” size)
  • 2 cups shredded cheese cheddar, mexican cheese blend, cheddar jack
  • 1 – 2 tsp seasoning salt and pepper, or garlic salt, OR Arizona Dreaming

Directions

  1. Brown sausage, crumbling as it cooks.
  2. Beat together eggs, milk, and seasoning until eggs are slightly scrambled. Mix in chiles.
  3. Unroll crescent rolls and press into bottom of 9×13 baking dish (can spray pan first with cooking spray if needed). Cover the bottom of the pan and press slightly up the sides. GRANDS crescent rolls more than cover and will slightly overlap.
  4. Spread cooked sausage across bottom of pan, on top of dough.
  5. Pour egg mixture over sausage, then sprinkle with cheese.
  6. Bake at 375F for 25 – 30 minutes or until egg mix is set.

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Jan
2015

Pregnancy Update: Week 15

categories: mommy

I can’t remember which baby it was, but I did one of these pregnancy questionnaires and LOVED it. Having the record (although I can’t google-fu it on the blog right now) was a fun way to look back at the pregnancy. I wanted to start it again, especially since this is our last baby!

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How far along? 15 weeks as of Saturday! My due date is June 27, 2015

Total weight gain/loss: I think 3 – 5 pounds. It’s fluctuating a bit.

Maternity clothes? I’ve had to start breaking out maternity pants, in particular. Most of my maternity clothes were on loan to my SIL and are on their way back, so I anticipate lots more comfy pants coming my way! Although I am wearing a pair of post-pregnancy sized pants that I bought after Jude, and they’re too big for my 15 week belly right now. YES!

Stretch marks? No new ones, but I’ve noticed that my ones from Seth (which I got AFTER delivery from all the IV fluids, grrr) are back to looking red/purple instead of faded white like they were.

Sleep: I keep veering wildly between needing all the sleep and having all the insomnia. Today was not a good example … Jude was up twice in the middle of the night, and that made things not fun.

Best moment this week: See the next question …

Movement: I definitely felt little champagne-bubbles of movement this week! Apparently I have an anterior placenta this time around, which can make feeling movement more difficult. I’ve noticed that the bubbles are down low and around the sides when I feel them. And believe me … these sweet little bubbles are nothing like the horrible pain or regular type gas bubbles I’m all too familiar with right now! (Yay Zofran …)

Food cravings: Ramen. Seriously, kid? I had to get up at midnight the other night and make Ramen. Also: Whataburger burgers and fries, and ice cold Coca-Cola (small doses, of course).

Seriously, baby? Ramen noodles are today’s craving?

A photo posted by Erin M (@treaclenet) on


Anything making you queasy or sick: Geez, just about everything. I almost threw up looking at the crock pot of soup we’d made for dinner last night. I almost threw up in the break room at work this morning because of the horrible trash smell from people’s holiday fridge purge.

Have you started to show yet: Most definitely! It’s still in the “Is she fat or is she pregnant?” stage, but I’ve got a bump that wasn’t there a few months ago.

Gender prediction: I really think this baby is a girl.

Labor Signs: Nope! I think I’ll move this question off until the third trimester (God willing).

Belly Button in or out? In. I’ve never had an outie, just a super-flat belly button by the end.

Wedding rings on or off? On and loose.

Feeling all the Feels or Just Some of the Feels? I feel like my emotions went into overdrive this week. I cried at some commercial. I cried at a news report that wasn’t really worth crying about. I teared up reading a blog post. Ugh. I hate crying.

Weekly Wisdom: My monthly massage subscription + my great chiropractor may be the best thing ever for pregnancy.

Milestones: Getting back into some sort of fitness routine! The first trimester kicked my butt so hard in this area that I basically haven’t done anything since October. So I’m counting two walks and a yoga session in one week as a total win.

Pregnancy Fitness: Oh, okay. I should be consistent. Walked 2 miles and did 25 minutes of yoga during Week 14. My goal is to walk 6 miles and do yoga for 45 – 60 minutes each week.

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Jan
2015

Thinking & Planning Ahead

categories: erin is ..., mommy, running, thinking

Yes, it is definitely the time of year for resolutions, goals, purposeful declarations, positive intentions, claiming your destiny … um, did I cover it all?

Okay, good — it’s my turn to do all of those things. I don’t care if they’re goals, resolutions, intentions, whatever … choose the name that works for you. What’s important is to clarify what you want out of a situation or time period, state it so you understand it yourself, and then put it out there to keep yourself accountable.

I work with organizations in strategic planning a lot of the time, and that usually involves some sort of goal-setting. It’s super-easy to get caught up in the headiness that comes with making goals. “We can change the world! We can improve everything!” A lot of the times, though, we set our sights so high that it’s totally impossible to achieve any steps toward those ultimate goals. I mean, you don’t want to set your sights so low that you’re not actually challenging yourself, right? But you DO want to set your goals, resolutions, and purpose so you actually see progress toward your goals.

Here are my five goals (using the #AMRResolution template from the lovely ladies at AMR):

* Keep moving and stretching while growing Baby #4 (walking and yoga)
* Respect & appreciate my “mother’s body” through pregnancy and beyond – don’t push too hard, but challenge myself
* Be finished or in the middle of a 13.1 training plan by the end of 2014
* More Bible reading – spiritual nourishment
* More greens, less browns – physical nourishment

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Small steps. The moving and stretching has already been a challenge because of ongoing morning sickness and lingering fatigue, even though I’m a few weeks into the second trimester. Last night I did get the old running shoes and the old dog together for a good walk. I’d like to blame the dog for the slow pace, but let’s be honest … it was me. We kept a decent 15-16 minute mile while walking, but the poo breaks for her did give us some pause time.

I’ll be honest – after two years of trying to reclaim fitness (after Jude’s birth), it’s been a bit of a mind game to see my middle thickening and belly pooching more again. Other than the fatigue and nausea, I haven’t had many indicators of “Hey – baby in there!” That makes it hard to remember that there’s a reason for the pooch and the weight gain, instead of just getting discouraged.

I don’t want it to be an excuse, though. I pretty much need to stop giving myself excuses in all areas, which is where the rest of the goals come from. Respecting the body and life is one thing … letting yourself off the hook for the things that make you better? That’s something different.

There you go: positive intentions, purposeful statements, hopefully realistic goals. That half marathon training might be a stretch, but that’s my challenge goal, right?

The beauty of life isn’t in the plan, it’s in being resilient and embracing how your plan changes.

Or so I try to tell myself.

And for the first time, I’m joining a link-up I enjoy reading on other runner blogs: the Friday Five from the DC Trifecta of Mar On the Run, You Signed Up for What?, and Eat Run Pray DC. Cheers, friends!


Dec
2014

Revise THAT Training Plan …

categories: erin is ..., mommy, running

Back in the summer I started a half-marathon training plan with the women from Another Mother Runner. It’s the 13.FUN challenge, and I did the run/walk training plan. It was a great plan and a lot of fun. We had a private support / accountability group on Strava, and I really enjoyed having that network during the training plan.

In mid-September I did an 8-mile run that felt absolutely great … except for a tweaked left knee and hip. Not really a surprise to me since I’ve had multiple long-standing issues on my left side: torn ankle ligament, lateral release on my left knee, scar tissue/blood clot behind my kneecap (from a fall), piriformis syndrome, IT band syndrome … You get the picture. I took some time off from running and slowed down my training plan. “No biggie!”  I thought. “I’ll take a couple of weeks slowly and then get back to it.”

8 mile run for Gray

Well, by the time I got back to it in early October, I was starting to feel winded and slow. UGH. I hate that feeling, but attributed it to being off the plan a few weeks. I tried again. I went for a run on the National Mall in DC in October, which should be great compared to Houston. My same nice and flat, but with the bonus of cooler temperatures. Why, then, was I so much slower and struggling to breathe?

Somewhere around the end of October, I figured it out.

Newest Baby M - due June 2015
Newest Baby M – due June 2015

(This picture is almost 9 weeks after that, btw …)

Yes, that would be baby #4, quietly making his or her presence known when I tried to go for a run. Even at 6 weeks pregnant, my heart rate was climbing too fast and my breathing was too labored. My heart rate calms back down when walking, but I can’t shake the shortness of breath. I’ve tried to be a pregnant runner twice now (with Jude and now with this baby), and it just doesn’t work for me and my body. Whatever my body does to grow babies, it isn’t very compatible with still running.

So let’s just say that I’ve moved on to a new training plan … a nine-month walking and yoga strength and conditioning plan. I’ll follow that up next summer and fall with a “back to running” and eventual half marathon training plan. This could also be a great time to get focused on the healthier eating choices.

Well, once this morning sickness goes away. All bets are off until then.