ten things {in my pantry}.

here are ten things that are always (or almost always) in our fridge, freezer or pantry. the cornwell essentials we can't live without. i can honestly say we have all of these items in our kitchen right. this. second.

1. turkey bacon.

an absolute staple in the cornwell household. ever since we were married, every saturday and sunday morning, nick makes turkey bacon and scrambled eggs. even if i make waffles or cinnamon rolls or something else of the sweet variety, he still will make his faithful tb&se combo. love him. and loooove turkey bacon! only 35 calories per slice. please and thank you.

2. blueberries.

not as wonderful as fresh maine blueberries, but we always always always have a carton in our fridge. i'm obsessed with blueberries and cheerios these days. my daily weekly breakfast. and i'm super determind to make bella like them too. i don't really know why. but more importantly, i don't know why she is weird about them right now. i ate anything with blueberries allllll the time when i was pregnant. number one: blueberry pancakes. oh. yum.

3. steam-able veggies.

we eat these almost every night. if you open up our freezer, it is always packed with these lovely little packages of veggies. just pop 'em in the microwave and voila... you've got servings of vitamins and minerals within minutes.

4. yellow saffron rice.

we keep these yummy lil rice packets in our pantry as a staple to our weekly meal of tilapia, rice and veggies. so easy and suuuuuper delish. bella loves it too!

5. real maple syrup.

waffles love to make a saturday or sunday morning appearance in the cornwell household and we love our maple syrup. we always used to use light variations of hungry jack or aunt jemima until we watched jamie oliver's food revolution when he specifically talked about how much garbage is in that man-made-brown-concoction-of-stickiness. thank you, jamie oliver. and you are right: the real stuff tastes sooo much better.

6. hazelnut coffee creamer.

i *have* to have coffee creamer in our fridge. it's a must. i go on kicks in terms of my flavor preference. for a long time it was vanilla. then it was caramel-vanilla. then it was the holiday-inspired creamer. now it's hazelnut. i just love it. can't have my coffee without it. which is probably unhealthy but i don't care. it's one splurge i can live with, that's for sure.

7. tofu noodles.

these are my most recent discovery and i am in love! low in carbs, fat and calories these lil noodles are awesome. just be sure to rinse thoroughly and they taste great! i love adding them to a stir fry with fresh bok choy, carrots, garlic, ginger, broccoli, water chestnuts and a little soy sauce and honey. hungry yet??

8. laughing cow cheese.

i first discovered this lil gem when i did weight watchers a few years ago to burn off some extra graduate school weight. only 35 calories per slice. spread 'em on some crackers and they are simply delightful. perfect pairing? try wasa crackers... high in fiber and protein and low in fat and calories. also like whole wheat flatbread with them too.

9. cheerios.

oldie, but a goodie. especially necessary when you have a nine-month-old. as i said earlier, this is my breakfast staple. a bowl of these sprinkled with some fresh blueberries or banana? the perfect combo.

10. pink grapefruit.

when i was pregnant with bella, this was definitely my biggest craving. pink grapefruits... but more specifically pink grapefruit juice. weird, i know. but i still love them even when i'm not with child. a perfect breakfast side or a mid-afternoon snack. and good for you, too. what's not to love?

thursday three.

it's been a really great week! although, i am exhausted; probably the most tired i've been in a while. but it's a good exhausted. bella has been becoming more and more active and keeping us on our toes... so now that she is more on the move, so are we! active baby=tired parents!

so here is this week's thursday three. please excuse any typos or sentances that don't make sense. i'm on my second cup of coffee, but i can't promise anything. here. we. go.

nick

i'm going to go out on a limb and guess my husband's highlight of the week. i think it would be two-fold. the first one: saturday night was "guys night" for him. he went over to his friend, robert's apartment with two other guys to play robert's xbox kinect. i wish i could have been a fly on the wall to watch these four men. let's just say i got lots of text messages from nick that evening about how fun the kinect is and how we have to get one. i would guess that nick's second highlight of the week will be tonight... bella is going to hang out with her aunt jessica, uncle james and cousin wyatt and nick&i are going on a date! and we're going to one of his favorite places: johnny b's in southlake. if you live in the dallas area and like hamburgers, you have to check this place out. oh-so-delish. so, although it hasn't happened yet, i anticipate tonight will be one of his highlights for this week! if you have ever tasted one of their burgers, you will understand.

meg
while nick had guys night saturday, i got to have "craft night" with my good friend amanda (who is an amaaaaazing photographer, by the way... check out some of her work here when she took some family photos for us!) anyway, i had some craft projects i wanted to work on, including a few decorating ventures for our home. i got quite a bit done that i was really excited about, and having quality time with a girl friend? even better. crafting has been something that i've really enjoyed as of late and has helped keep my creative juices a-flowin' since becoming a stay-at-home-mom. just a few little changes and sprucing-up and it feels like we have a new home! love it. next up for my craft projects? some more wall art, hair clips, perhaps some pillows for our couch and my attempt to replicate this flowered belt for bella:

isn't that the sweetest lil belt you've ever seen? i'm going to try to re-create it. let's keep our fingers crossed, friends.

bel
our sweet lil pumpkin has been changing so much this week. probably more than any other week in her 9 1/2 month life :) on monday, she began pulling up in her crib and prompted nick to lower her mattress... tuesday, she began to sit up in her crib... so now whenever i put her down, i peek in on her about ten minutes later and she's sitting in her crib, talking to herself. so. cute. but making naptime a little more challanging... and wednesday night she interupted our girls prayer night by doing this:

she totally loved the audience she had, by the way. so sweet. it's SO amazing to watch her learn all these new things on her own, and how she grows and changes and develop! i love getting to cheer her on and encourage her as her mom and just watch her discover life. she is now such a little girl with her sweet lil teeth, budding (and crazy!) personality and giggles and squeals. i never knew how much joy i could find in such a tiny little person who i've only known for nine months, but it's true. i'm loving this stage sooo much and nick&i have so much love for our sweet bella grace and how much she adds to our little family :)

see you next week for another thursday three, lovely readers. same time. same place.

what's for dinner tonight {pulled pork sandwiches}.

i'm not originally a texas girl, although i do enjoy occassional barbeque (thanks to my meat-loving-husband) and i LOVE, love, love pulled pork sandwiches. i actually had these growing up at a little cafe in the center of our town... yes, it's true...they have pulled pork sandwiches in maine. and they're good. i created a health-ier version made with lean pork tenderloin that is just as moist and just as delicious AND... you guessed it, done in a crockpot (as all of my favorite recipes are these days!).

as i've said before, usually when i'm inventing in the kitchen i don't pay attention to how much of what ingredient i'm adding... i usually just add, taste, add more, taste again. so... here is my best attempt at giving measurements for the ingredients. you may need to add/subtract according to your taste! have fun!

pulled pork sandwiches

*3/4 c. barbeque sauce

*1/4 c. ketchup

*1/4 c. white vinegar

*1/4 c. light brown sugar

*1/2 c. italian dressing

*1 T. soy sauce

*2 T. worcestershire sauce

*2 cloves garlic, minced

*1 lb. lean pork tenderloin, frozen

*6 whole wheat sandwich/hamburger buns

- whisk together the first seven ingredients in a small mixing bowl. place frozen pork tenderloin in crockpot, cover with sauce mixture. mince two cloves of garlic, toss in. cover, cook for 4-6 hrs on high or 6-8 hrs on low.

- when pork is tender and cooked, use two forks to help shred meat (it should fall apart!) toast sandwich buns and fill with pulled pork.

YUM. i plan on these making lots of appearances next year during football season on lazy sunday afternoons. serve with salad, veggies, beans or a healthy version of coleslaw. enjoy!

thrifty decor.

this weekend i wanted to spice up our apartment a bit. i was getting tired of some of the existing decor and i wanted to add some things to our blank spaces. i went to work. my favorite place to look for items for decorating? goodwill. yes, you read that right; a thrift store.

i love scouring through a bunch of junk to find a few gems. and this weekend, i found them. here are a few ideas, a few of my projects over the weekend, and a few of my past projects that have all started as thrift store junk.

1. wall o plates.

one of my favorite decorating ideas is hanging plates on a wall. nick&i have a rather large wall behind our dining room table that used to have just two canvases hung on it. i was getting sick of the canvases and have been wanting to fill it with plates for a looong time but didn't want to spend alot of money. enter: goodwill. i bought 13 plates and saucers for $11. yes, please. here is the before/after. gotta say i loooove the "after" (which also includes a new vintage-y-hand-me-down table from some sweet friends!)

2. wall o frames.

these have been in our home since we first moved in almost two years ago, but i love this idea. we have another large wall behind our couch and i needed something to fill this large space... again, without spending alot of dough. i saw this idea at a friend's apartment when we were in college and i loved it. so, with a trip to goodwill, i dug through tons of really, really ugly picture frames and bought a few. throwing away the crappy pictures, glass and giving them a quick coat of spray paint did just the trick. i also used this idea to hang bella's name in her nursery (see here)... again, goodwill frames.

3. shelf of bottles.

as i've said before and will say again, i love anthropologie. it's whimsical, vintage, fun style is just what i *love*. i enjoy walking through the store and getting ideas--in clothing and in home decor--that i can try to replicate for much, much less money. last year while i was wandering around, i saw a display they had of a shelf filled with lots of old bottles. i loved it and immediately copied. we bought a wall ledge shelf at ikea and mounted it above our tv. i found a ton of bottles from--yes, you guessed it--goodwill and added this cherry blossom branch i found at world market. i'm in love.

4. antique accesories.

i love little knick knacks and accessories that i can display in our home. they add so much character for not alot of money. i like to browse through these sections at goodwill, and again, dig through alot of ugly stuff to find little beauties such as this sweet lil creamer i got this weekend for only .99 cents.

fill it with some cute flowers (i'm obsessed with these yellow ones i've been drying out to add pops of color around the house) and it's the perfect addition to my kitchen.

with a little imagination and minimal cash, these little thrift store finds can give your home a whole new look. and as julie andrews would sing, "these are a few of my favorite things."

multitude monday.

104. the sight of bella's little teeth when she smiles. they are just *so* cute.

105. eating pizza in bed with nick because we were just that tired.

106. craft nights with a good friend; feeling inspired and creating new things.

107. family photos.

108. green spray paint.

109. midnight snuggles with my baby girl on the couch.

110. cherry blossoms just starting to bloom.

111. god's word.

112. dancing around the living room with bel and hearing her laugh.

113. nick: everything.

thursday three.

this week has been fun, exhausting, long and happy all at the same time. my cousin, rachel is a 20 year old photography student at rochester institute of technology, and she chose to come visit us for her spring break! we were happy to have her. that was the fun, happy part. the exhausting, long part? our poor baby girl was diagnosed with rsv last friday (which included coughing until she threw up her oatmeal and prunes all over herself just as we pulled into the dr's parking lot... poor baby; and poor mama!). and she had a few pretty awful days before that. so, all in all she has been pretty sick for over a week now. fortunately, her rsv hasn't been a serious case--thank you jesus. it's just been a nasty, nasty cold that we will gladly bid adieu. we are ready to have our sweet, fun, cute baby girl back!

now that i have given you that intro... (drumroll please)... here is this week's thursday three.

nick

i cannot even begin to describe how thankful i am for this man. not only am i so blessed with him as my husband, he is such a wonderful father. i *love* watching him care for bella and so naturally fill this role over the past nine months. he is so gentle and loving as he cares for her, as he rocks her at night, and prays over her before bed. he is so patient as he disciplines her and tells her "no". and he is so playful and fun; this week bella squealed and shrieked as he gave her several rides around the living room and through the kitchen in the laundry basket (which does double as a pretty fun go-cart for little ones, i must say). this week nick&i had to juggle our schedules quite a bit so we could keep bella at home to get healthy and still try to work as much as we could. nick was in heaven to get off work early--or miss it altogether one day--and get to be at home with his baby girl. he played with her, rocked and watched "baby einstein" and "praisebaby", administered all the saline drops, steam baths and suctioning, and even cooked chicken enchiladas one night when i got asked to work late. while he said he had a whole new appreciation for moms, this was definitely his highlight of the week... and i'm sure it was bella's too :)

meg

as i said in the intro, my cousin rachel came to stay with us this week for her spring break. since i am ten years older than her, we haven't really gotten to spend a whole lot of time together as i've been out of state for college, graduate school and our life in dallas. even though we had to change our plans a bit because of a sick baby, we did manage to get out and have some fun. we took bella for a walk to the park and for fresh air one day, got mexican food from one of our fav restaurants, watched movies, got sprinkles cupcakes, went shopping at two of my favorite malls, walked around deep ellum (a funky, artsy area in dallas) and did a drive-through-downtown-dallas-tour. we had a lot of fun and it was a good distraction for me... it's not easy for me to watch my sweet bella feel so bad :( i missed her a lot this week... i think it was the most i've ever been away from her since the day she was born, since i usually get to bring her with me every afternoon to my babysitting jobs. this week i was so glad she got to have some special hang-out-time with daddy, but i missed her. alot. so it was nice for me to have rachel's comany and go do some fun things! it was a great visit and definitely the highlight of my week!

bel

getting extra time with daddy this week was definitely a highlight for our little girl, i just know it. she also squealed and kicked and laughed every time she saw rachel and would just stare at her. she loves people, our little social butterfly. and she loves having company in our home! which works out well, because we do too :) since we had to be extra careful bella wouldn't get dehydrated along with her rsv, her pediatrician told me to get her some pedialyte and add it to her bottle. since we don't give bella juice, this was like a little treat. it was orange flavored and she *loved* it. let's just say when i mixed up her bottle, it looked a little bit like a creamsicle. i was a little jealous... although i'm pretty sure it didn't taste like a creamsicle. anyway, bella grace managed to have a pretty good week even though she was feeling so crummy. i know i can safely say that us suctioning her nose with that blue-suction-bulb-they-give-you-in-the-hospital was definitely NOT the highlight of her week. but holy cow, i never knew you could get that much snot out of someone so tiny. phew.

hopefully next week's thursday three will be sick-free! we have high hopes. if not, you may find me wandering around the street barefoot. why, you ask? because i will probably lose my mind. happy almost-weekend, everyone!

ten things {around the house}.

so i'm doing a new blog-thing called "ten things". it will be random posts of exactly what it sounds like... ten things. this week is ten things around the house: ten of my favorite things in our home. some of them i just think are pretty. some of them are helpful. some of them i couldn't live without. well, maybe... but they make my life a whole lot easier.

1. chandelier table lamp (target).

i've had this lamp for seven years... i purchased it for my room when i first moved to dallas (awww). now it is the perfect addition to bella's nursery. i love this character piece and it adds so much elegance to a room for under thirty bucks. love it.

2. letter stand (anthropologie).

i bought the "c" version of this home accessory when nick and i first got engaged. it was our first decoration that we had in our first apartment and looked great on our mantle. i love, love, love anthropolgie and these vintage little stands are $28. which meant i could actually afford it. i love this as a wedding gift idea!

3. toaster oven (ge).

this, in my opinion, is one of life's greatest inventions. not only can you use it to toast your bagels or bread in the morning, but you can make pizzas on english muffins or tortillas, heat up pastries or items that would dry out in the microwave or take too long in the oven, or cook frozen items. such a time saver. makes my life so. much. easier.

4. parker bowls (crate&barrel).

hands down my most-used wedding gift (besides my dishes). i l-o-v-e these bowls. one of them are always in my dishwasher. perfect everyday use gift for someone else, or for yourself. cute enough to use as serving dishes too for a fun, casual dinner.

5. neti pot (neil med).

my savior. i get terrible allergy headaches and i discovered this goody when i was pregnant and couldn't take any medicine. it quickly became my best friend. it's pretty disgusting, i'm not gonna lie but if you have allergies--and especially if you're pregnant or limited in what you can take for meds--buy one NOW!

6. media baskets (target).

stocked up on these babies when i was doing bella's nursery. perfect for stocking diapers, toys, hair accessories, and i have one on her changing table to hold wipes, lotion, medicine and other items. perfect for storage for grown up items, too. we have one on our tv stand to store cords, our flip cam and camera for quick accessibility. a mama- must-have.

7. hair straightener (chi).

an investment, but *well* worth it. priced at $99.99 at target.com, its is definitely the most expensive item on this list, but i couldn't live without it. with my thick, kind-of- curly hair this is the best thing i've found to help smooth and straigten. and you can also use it to add wave or curl to your hair as well. love. the. chi.

8. mug collection (starbucks).

my name is megan and i'm a starbucks mug addict. i have a thing with mugs... i can't stand puny ones. i love the big, oversized ones and it doesn't hurt if they're really cute. nick has banned me from buying any more since we have no room in the mug section of our cupboards, but i *love* them. buying them puts a smile on my face.

9. lamp pendant (ikea).

this lovely lil lamp hangs in the corner of nick&i's bedroom. i just think it's really fun and cute. for some reason i also see these lamps hanging in frozen yogurt places. strange, i know. but it's only 34.99 at your nearest ikea. have i mentioned i get the warm fuzzies just walking around that place? i mean, everything is so cheap and the whole store smells like fresh cinnamon rolls. it's like disney world to me. almost.

10. garlic press (pampered chef).

my mom got my sister and i these for christmas and it was one of my favorite gifts this year. not even joking. i realize this probably makes me sound like a huge nerd, but i really don't care. if you get one, then you will understand. i looove using fresh garlic in my cooking but i abhor dealing with it. whacking it, peeling it, chopping it and trying to get the smell off my hands... this lil beauty minces garlic--peel and all. it has changed my life.