Giada 10 months

On September 13^th Giada turned 10 months old. Unfortunately, life happens and I am behind on posting her 10 months!

Words cannot describe the changes we have seen over the past month. Our baby girl is definitely growing up! She still takes a bottle four times a day at 7:00, 11:00, 3:00 and 7:00. When it comes to food, she insists on feeding herself and loves anything I put in front of her.  Naps are changing. She still takes a morning nap at 9:00, afternoon nap around 1:00 and the catnap is hit or miss. She is now wearing size 3 diapers and wearing 6-9 month clothes.

Giada is nonstop crawling, grabs a hold of everything to walk and laughs constantly. “Mama” is still non-existent, but she sure can say “baby”. Poor Drake has never had more hair pulled out and Coco has a new partner in crime. Giada loves to give kisses (open mouth, with tong – Dad is not happy about his), waves hi and bye, signs “all done”, has several silly faces, explores everywhere, very curious, loves to dance and is the absolute joy of our life.

Happy 10 months peanut!

Shrimp Alfredo Pasta Bake

Another wonderful recipe I stumbled upon and tweaked just a little.

·  1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

·  2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

·  salt/pepper to taste

·  8 ounces whole wheat bow-tie pasta (e wheat or penne pasta)

·  2-3 medium tomatoes diced

·  1/2 cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese

·  2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

·  2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves (optional)

·  2 tablespoons unsalted butter

·  4 cloves garlic, minced

·  1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

·  1 cup heavy whipping cream

·  1 ounce light cream cheese

·  1/4 cup chicken broth, or more, to taste

·  salt/pepper to taste

• Alfredo Sauce: melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently (1-2 min)
• Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in cream, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in cream cheese and chicken broth until smooth, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Turn off, cover and let sit.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.
• Place shrimp onto the prepared baking sheet. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste, and gently toss to combine. Place into oven and roast just until pink, firm and cooked through, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
• In a large pot, cook pasta
• While pasta is cooking, chop up zucchini and cook for 5-6 min (until tender) with olive oil, salt and pepper.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat an oven proof dish with oil.
• In dish, combine shrimp, pasta, tomatoes, mozzarella, zuccini and alfredo sauce. Add Parmesan on top.
• Place into oven and bake until golden brown and cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.
• Serve immediately, lightly sprinkle parmesan over top.

Vegas & Allegiant

This post is much overdue, but we had such experience we had with Allegiant, I had to share!

Friday, August 21st, my Mom, Dad, Annie and I headed to the Fresno Airport for a weekend in Vegas to visit my sister who was there for training.  Little did we know, there was going to be several delays and experiences in our near future. Prior to leaving for the airport we received a text message from Allegiant indicating that our flight was delayed by an hour. Adjustment on our taxi to the airport. After going through security with a few delays from my Mom trying to use the online boarding pass, we received another text that our flight was going to be delayed by another  hour. (more drinking time!)  This was only the beginning of trouble with Allegiant! After a  three hour delay we landed in Vegas just before 9:00 PM and late for dinner. My Sister picked us up at the airport and off to eat. 11:30 we were back at the hotel, exhausted and having FOMO (fear of missing out) because we were going to bed at 11:30 and we were in Las Vegas.  This was a first! We figured Saturday would be a new and better day.

Saturday, we headed to the strip to enjoy some pool time. Annie and I enjoyed some much needed mommy time and my sister and parents roamed the strip. We had a great time at the pool, but decided to call it quits and get some rest before we were off to Cirque de Sole, Zarkana at 7:00. The show was absolutely amazing! Dinner was at the Foundation Room which is located at the very top of Mandalay Bay.  Dinner and the view were amazing; then it was time to work off dinner with a little dancing. As we closed out the night, the casinos took a little more money than we planed at the tables - so it was off to bed!

Sunday morning rolled around and we could have never written a better "worst air flight experience" than what was going to happen. We arrived at the airport at noon and our flight was "on time" for it's 1:30 pm departure.  Security was quick (Mom was right on with her Allegiant boarding pass this time!) and we had plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before boarding the plane. Once on the plane we were still "on time" and ready to leave. While sitting in our seats, we wait and wait and wait for 30 min when the captain announces their is an issue with a sensor light. We are sitting at the gate on a HOT plane (remind you we're in Vegas in the Summer) without any AC. The sensor problem supposedly gets fixed and we are told the plane was ready to go.  We start to head out to get in line and don't seem to be going anywhere, we sit, and sit, and sit......Captain comes on and said that we are not cleared to take off as their is some sort of hydraulic problem and can't wait any longer since no one has air conditioning on the plane and we head back to the airport to disembark. We have now been on the plane for over an hour and a half, still no AC and on the tarmac.. Finally, after being on the plane for two hours and extremely hot we are allowed to deplane. It's been another hour in the airport and we're getting apologies from Allegiant for the delay and they tell us we're going to receive a $50 credit for future flights on Allegiant for our inconvenience. We wait another hour in the airport when we're told the problems have been repaired and we're asked to re-board. Well... now we're on the plane, ready to go and the pilot informs us we need to refuel.  Refuel?  Where did the fuel go when we were ready to take off the first time? Of course, we are not first in line so there is some jockeying to get us to the front of the line to get fuel.  We've got 'GAS' thank goodness as we still didn't have air conditioning.  Then, we sit and sit and sit and sit...... when the pilot comes on and says there is some other issue with the plane and due to the plane not having any air conditioning while we're on the ground that he's having us disembark AGAIN! and we're going to get a different plane.  At this point, the entire plane is fed up! Allegiant has now up the ante and has offered us $100 credit to a future flight and a whopping $8 food voucher.  If anyone has eaten in an airport lately, you know that there is nothing but water for $8.00! To top off the food voucher offer, our wing of the airport has now closed all it's food vendors and we have to go to another area to get food and beverages (WINE!) Customer service should be at the forefront of all airlines and it's a sad tribute to Allegiant how their customer service employees are trained (or lack there of)  Now, our new departure and new plane is "scheduled" to leave at 7:40. Do you think it left on time? No! An hour and a half later we finally get off the ground and head toward home. 10:00 We land in Fresno (7 hours late) and beat! I will say the pilot made amazing time  - 50 minutes - and retired at the end of the day!  The topper was, we had a ride to the airport, Anthony was going to pick us up; however, Giada is now in bed, we can't get ahold of anyone to take us home, there is not a single UBER driver available and have to get a taxi to get home. He was probably one of the best taxi cab drivers I've ever had in Fresno.  Thank you for ending our evening on a good note after a long, long day.

What I take away from traveling Allegiant... They have HORRIBLE customer service, no reliability, charge you for everything

Besides the horrible experience we had with Allegiant, I had a wonderful time with my sister, parents and Annie in Vegas. It was a nice getaway and some much needed time!

Tilapia Veracruz

This was absolutely delicious! I came across this recipe, but modified to my liking. The tilapia was served with pesto Quinoa and grilled veggies.

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 greeb bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• ½ cup tomato sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup olives, pitted and halfed
• ¼ cup white wine
• salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tilapia filets

1. In a large skillet (I used cast iron skillet) heat oil over medium high heat. Add chopped tomatoes, sliced bell peppers and onion. Season with salt and stir. Reduce heat to medium, cover with a lid and cook for about 15 or until vegetables are tender.
2. Add tomato sauce, minced garlic, olives and white wine. Season again with salt and pepper. Stir well and let simmer for about 10 min.
3. Season both sides of tilapia filet with salt and freshly ground black peppers, and place in the skillet. Spoon the sauce on top of the tilapia filets. Cover with a lid and continue to cook on the stove over medium heat for about 5 - 6 minutes, , or until fish flakes easily with a fork.