Hi, I'm Estela. I'm a Registered Dietitian & stay-at-home mom. Weekly Bite is a lifestyle blog centered around food, life, & mommyhood. Thanks for stopping by!
Comments (18) All I had to do was pee…
I was only gone for twenty seconds…. twenty-five tops!
And there she was… shoveling in her mouth… a brand new box of my favorite Kashi Triple Berry Crisp cereal….
Umm, excuse me? Can I help you with something?
The joys of motherhood….
Three weeks ago I resigned from my position as Director of Clinical Nutrition.
This decision did not come easy. I’ve worked very hard for my career…
I felt like I’d always work…. until my daughter was born.
After I went back to work, my husband and I would often talk about me staying at home to raise her.
I knew I wanted to stay at home, but I had to go back to work first to know that I at least tried.
After my maternity leave was over, I worked for seven months and throughout that time something was always missing.
My husband and I had a goal.
This goal was for me to stay at home with our daughter.
We obviously had to take a look at our finances. Dropping from two incomes to one is a big jump.
We wrote out a plan.
This plan included living a simpler life and spending less.
Truth be known… this is a huge financial sacrifice.
I’ve been known to be quite the spender… but we had a goal and I’ve worked hard to cut back.
This life changing decision is so much bigger than the money.
When you have a child… you will do anything for them. You will sacrifice anything you can.
So… yesterday was my last day of work.
Today is first day starting my new endeavor as a stay-at-home-mom.
I’m happy and nervous.
I know I’ll miss the socializing that work provided me… but I know staying at home with my daughter will be beyond rewarding!
This isn’t a complete end to my career. This hiatus is only temporary.
I worked very hard to become a Registered Dietitian. I still am a Registered Dietitian and plan to work again in the future.
The ideal situation would be for me to find some type of work that I can do from home (which I’m currently looking for).
For now… I’m so excited to be around this fantastic little girl each and every day!
Have a great weekend!!!
I’m sure you’ve all heard of pregnancy brain before… right?
I swear when I was pregnant I forgot EVERYTHING! Someone would tell me something and I would forget it 5 minutes later.
When I was pregnant, I would wear my flip flops on my way to work and change into my fancy heels when I got to work. Well one morning I forgot to bring my heels and mindlessly walked in to work with dress slacks, a cardigan, and flip flops… classy… I know. Needless to say I learned my lesson and always kept a pair of heels in my car to make up for my pregnancy brain.
After I had my daughter I was really looking forward to getting my head back in order… and think straight again. Well my friends… I’m here to tell you that pregnancy brain is replaced by mommy brain.
Yesterday morning I packed my daughter’s bag, took her to daycare, then drove to work. I felt like something was a little off. Well… shortly after I got to work I remembered my daughter’s lunch bag was sitting on our kitchen counter! How could I do that?! How could I forget to send my 9 1/2 month old to daycare without lunch?!?!!!!
Luckily I have a very understanding boss who is a mom herself. She chuckled when I told her what I did. So I left work, picked up my babies lunch, and took it to daycare. Lesson learned! Now I have a mini-checklist right by my keys so I make sure not to forget anything… let’s hope it works 
Phew! Glad I got that off my chest!
Over the weekend I made a batch of homemade pasta sauce minus the meat.
I like making big batches of things, especially sauces, and freezing them.
Now that I know how to make my own marinara sauce from scratch, I can’t imagine buying Ragu’ again.
I’ve mentioned before that I LOVE meals that have all the food groups in one meal. These stuffed shells are perfect for that!
These shells contain lean Italian turkey sausage, ricotta, and spinach. I know they make whole wheat jumbo pasta shells, but I couldn’t them in my grocery store, so I went with the regular shells.
This dish was so good! And it contained my husbands favorite ingredient… MEAT This dish makes plenty of food so it’s good for lots of leftovers for a quick and easy meal.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove turkey sausage from casein and cook in saucepan until cooked through.
Cook pasta shells according to box directions.
Combine turkey sausage, ricotta, parmesan, onion salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, spinach, and egg yolk.
In a 13×9 baking dish, spread about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of dish.
Fill each shell with about 2 tablespoons of filling.
Pour remaining sauce on top of shells.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Uncover and sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and bake for additional 10 minutes or until cheese in bubbly.
Enjoy!!
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Question of the Day?
Have you every had a “mommy brain” moment… even if you’re not a mom 
