Tuesday, January 26, 2016

OUR TABLE || turkey meatloaf cups

It's been a little while since I've shared a meal on here. We still have been eating some good meals (here and there). However, it took a heck of a lot more effort on my part during the first trimester! BUT this baby brother and I are now into the second trimester and feeling more alive with energy to get back into the swing of things! and we'll start with sharing this favorite meal :)

During these winter days there really isn't anything like a home cooked meal. Am I right!??
The best is staying inside, enjoying a warm dinner right from the oven, and of course one that little effort and time.
and what's a better comfort food than meatloaf??!
Well the answer to that is these turkey meatloaf cups. I can absolutely promise you won't feel disappointed :)
In the past I made my meatloaf in my bread loaf pan, but discovered that these 'cups' cook more evenly and are easier to serve. This one is a favorite around here and gets thrown into the meal rotation quite frequently. Husband and toddler approved! A win win :)
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey breast
1 lb ground italian sausage
1 medium onion chopped
2 eggs
1 cup milk
3 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried oregano
salt + pepper to taste
1/4 cup dried italian bread crumbs
4-6 slices of bread*

Glaze Ingredients:
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp yellow mustard
1/3 cup ketchup (I like to use the HEINZ no salt added)

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Add all ingredients (except slices of bread and 'glaze ingredients') to a large mixing bowl.
-Tear slices of bread into small (dime sized) pieces and add them to the mixing bowl. 
*I save the heels of my loafs of bread, keep them in a bag in the fridge, and then use those in my meatloaf. It allows the bread to dry out a little by the time I am ready to use them for my meatloaf :)
-Now mix all ingredients in the mixing bowl together with your hands until well combined.
-Lightly grease muffin pan.
-Evenly fill all 12 'muffin spots' in your pan with your meat mixture.
-Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
-While meatloaf is cooking, mix the glaze ingredients together in a bowl.
-Once meatloaf is done, spoon glaze over each meatloaf cup.

Now add this to your weekly dinner menu and enjoy!!

Xoxo
-Brittney

follow along on instagram @brittneyhjelseth

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

It's a... BOY!!

How can it be that we already (at 14 weeks) know the gender of our sweet growing baby??!
We never expected we would find out this soon since with Harper we didn't find out until 21 weeks. With her we had two ultrasounds.
8 weeks + 21 weeks.
This time around we weren't able to get in for an early dating ultrasound until 14 weeks. I truly was bummed that we had to wait so long to see our baby, but I'd say in this case waiting paid off! :)
I didn't have my first appointment with my midwife until 9.5 weeks and since my period had really never gotten regular again since having Harper, we thought it'd be a good idea to get the early dating ultrasound done. BUT they weren't able to get me in until what I thought was 14 weeks. Well the ultrasound confirmed that we were just as far along as we had suspected. and b o n u s during that ultrasound I asked the tech, "it's too early for you to determine the gender, right?" Well to my surprise she answered "nope! do you want to know?"
...and there we had it... "it's a BOY!"
It's still taking some getting used to to say 'he', 'him', 'his'. But trust me when I say it's becoming more and more natural every day. Brandon and I feel so blessed that we are able to have both boy AND girl in our little family. The boy world is going to be so different than what we've been used to over the last year and a half, but we are so thrilled for it :) 
We have a son!



xoxo
-Brittney

follow along on instagram @brittneyhjelseth

Friday, January 15, 2016

BABY HJELSETH #2!

We are so thrilled to be adding a second baby to our little family! A family of 4! I can hardly believe it's true!
This pregnancy is already going by so quickly and I'm sure before we know it we're going to have our second little bundle home in our arms :) We're already at 14 weeks and into the second trimester. 
The morning we found out... 
Friday, November 13th. 
I took that pregnancy test with high hopes that it would be positive (partly because I had an unexplained 5lbs of weight gain!) and sure enough, two lines appeared! Positive! Now I had to share the news with Brandon - the most exciting part :) Harper was still asleep and I wanted to include her in this reveal. I very impatiently waited for her to wake and wrote and rewrote the chalkboard over and over. The minute she woke, I dressed her quicker than ever and brought her downstairs to hold the chalkboard for her daddy. When Brandon walked around the corner from the kitchen to see her and noticed what the sign in her hands read, oh I wish I had a picture of his expression! Priceless. He was sooo shocked and sooo excited + I cried + Harper didn't know just what was going on :)
And there we have it. Baby Hjelseth #2 with a due date of July 15th! The same month our Harper will be turning two :) her birthdate is July 13th so it's possible we could have birthday twins!
With the timing of this new baby it was so fun getting to do our reveal on New Years day!

xoxo
-Brittney

follow along on instagram @brittneyhjelseth