Happy and Healthy Recipes

Puerto Vallarta was my favorite spot on this cruise. We did the Mexican Riviera cruise destination aboard the Norwegian Star Cruise Ship.

Puerto Vallarta seemed like the most developed place out of the three spots (Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas). It had a metro vibe to it with its modern buildings. We watched the sunrise, had breakfast and rushed to our meeting spot to begin the debarkation. As you might imagine it was a lot of lines. Then we boarded our tour boat, from Vallarta Adventures,towards Las Calletas beach. A private beach that is like a Themed Park. The ride was very entertaining. They had beverages and snacks and the crew put on a show with singing, dancing and sales pitches for different paid activities and services of course. Most of it was pretty funny. As we approached the beach then they showed off some of the activities available. A huge water slide that shot you high in the sky into the ocean, scuba diving and zip line.

As soon as I saw the hammocks on the beach I knew that was my spot. I kind of wanted to go on the slide but the hike to it turned me away. My husband on the other hand wanted nothing to do with that slide hahaha He will go down a steep rock mountain on a bike and think it is thrilling, while I think it is suicide. But he won’t come near a slide that shoots out into the ocean. Go figure…

The crew threw something in the water as we docked and all the fish came out to eat. They were beautiful and Hans was very intrigued. Kept saying “fish! fish!”

Our waiter Carlos kept bringing us drinks all day. I had Rum Punch and Ryan beers. The water was cold so Hans did not want to play there but he found entertainment filling the rock wall with sand. Baby girl did not like when I tried to put her down for a nap on the hammock. So under the hammock she went.

The lunch served was delicious. Definitely one of the best meals I had on the trip. It was served buffet style and it was Mexican food of course. After all we are in México! I had some guacamole which Iris also enjoyed a lot, some grilled chicken, rice and beans and salad. For dessert I had a bite of the flan. Which was disappointing because Brazilian flan is always better then the Mexican. Sorry but it is true. Its ok because Mexico has the best trés leches cake. There was fried fish and other food on the buffet too. The kids on the table next to us were loving the fish.

Hans also had fun with the wild life. He was mesmerized by the birds with all their different colors. There were green Macaws, red birds, white cockatoo birds, green parrots and parakeets. Most of which he had never seen before.

I would definitely go back to Las Calletas if I go to Puerto Vallarta again.

It was kind of sad when we had to leave.

This is the story of the childbirth of Iris, my second born. If you missed my original birth story here is the link. They say every pregnancy is different and indeed it is.

This pregnancy my morning sickness was way stronger and lasted longer. I actually lost weight in my first trimester from vomiting so much. I was also bigger and showed really early. Because I was bigger I suspected that Iris was going to be early but I did not estimate how early. I had planned to work until my due date of July 31st, in other words, until I gave birth and that I did. Given my first experience giving birth, this time I already planned for the epidural and on my 34th week visit I asked my doctor if he wanted me to have a birth plan. He said “No, that is what you pay me for”. So different from my previous care.

I went to work Thursday, July 20th, like everyday. Left work, went home, dinner, gave Hans, my toddler a bath and went to bed. I tried one last time to call my mom to tell her she did not need to spend the night and that my husband would drop off Hans at her house in the morning. I did not get a hold of her… So I fell asleep.

As usual I woke up in the middle of night feeling like I had to pee. Went back to bed and felt pressure on my lower abdomen. Pee again? But I just went. Ok… then the pressure kept coming back every 15 minutes. I thought it was early labour but decided to not wake up my husband until I was quite sure. Around 12:30 am I got up a third time to pee and as I wiped myself it felt a little too wet.

Now I decided it was time and so I called to him from the bathroom in a loud whisper “IT’S TIME”. My husband quickly got up and was ready to head downstairs. You see my toddler had lately been waking up in the middle of the night and my husband would put him back to sleep. So he thought I was saying it was time to go put Hans back to sleep hahaha.

I was like “It’s time to go to the hospital”, and then we both started to think fast. Who is going to take care of Hans? Is grandma here or not? We don’t have the bag ready! What do we need to bring again?” While my husband frantically started to pack the hospital bag, I went downstairs to check if my mom was sleeping downstairs. I assumed she was since I never did get a hold of her to tell her not to. As I came down the stairs I saw the bathroom light on. Thank goodness! She was here and awake already. I wouldn’t even have to wake her up. So I told her, I am in labour please take care of Hans and I will let you know as soon as the baby is born.

We grabbed the baby’s carseat and headed to Osborn Honor Health in Scottsdale. I regretted to not have done the maternity visit before because now I was already having intense contractions and we were driving around in circles trying to find where exactly we were suppose to go. Eventually we did find the right entrance which you had to be let in because it was after hours.

They quickly got me into the triage room. I got into one of those hospital gowns, laid on the bed and the process started. Getting fetal monitor, temperature, blood pressure. It didn’t take long for them to transfer me to my room and by that time I was so ready for my epidural.

We were waiting for the anesthesiologist to get there. It felt like an eternity but in reality it probably took him 20 minutes. When he administered the anesthesia I felt this shock down my left leg and twitched. He was like “what happened?”I explained and he said that it happens in 1 out 200 procedures and that he usually warns the patient not to move. Then I felt warm liquid running down my leg “oh ow I just peed myself” but then my husband was like “no that is blood”. I looked down and there was a small puddle of it. Again they reassured me it was all normal and ok.

We continued with the active labor, but my water had not broken yet and my doctor had not arrived. I was dilating well but the water was stopping the baby’s head from descending. They would have to break the water.

Soon my doctor showed up. He broke the water like a professional and after that everything went by really fast. I did notice baby’s heart rate dropping which from my previous experience had me concerned. Then at one point the nurses and the doctors started to shout, we gotta get that baby out now! They kept telling me everything is ok but their body language and tone of voice clearly told me otherwise. I knew they did not want me to panic so I just did what I was told and pushed with all my might. It took more than 4 pushed this time but still pretty quick she was out and screaming loud! This girl has set of lungs alright.

Afterwards they explained, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. Just like her brother…I don’t know why these children of mine like to do that. hihihi but the alarm was because the placenta was already detaching itself. That is not suppose to happen until after the baby is out. Because the placenta can come over the baby and basically suffocate her. Like putting a plastic bag over someones head.

Everything worked out fine and I had my beautiful healthy baby girl skin to skin on my chest. She latched on no problem at the first try and breastfed like a champ. Healthy baby, no UV lights needed. The hospital stay was short, which was nice. The hospital recorded Iris birth on  Friday July 21st at 8:37 am. We left the hospital Saturday afternoon.

Healthy or at least trying to be

That would be a more accurate title for my blog I now realize. Because let’s face it I am NOT perfect. Come on! Not even Gwyneth Paltrow with her Millions of dollars is. I sympathize with the main character on the show “The Good Place: Season One” when she says there should be a place for, you know, people on the middle. Because yeah I am not 100% healthy and I don’t compost, and plant my own organic vegetables but hey at least I try to be a good person and eat my fruits and vegetables, recycle, donate, take quick showers and so on.

I thought having this blog all cute and politically correct would be the way to go but I have realized you know what? I just got be me. So from now on no more bull. I will tell you exactly what I think and my experiences with the foods I make and life in general. So let’s start with my view of healthy, or at least how I try to be healthy.

Healthy for me is about getting your nutrition. That is #1. Because frankly I rather you get your vitamins and nutrients period than not all because it has to be organic and perfect. So if generic, frozen, processed is what you can afford to do ($ and time wise) do it! Don’t let that be your excuse. Like I don’t have organic apples to make that apple pie. Fork that! Make it with regular apples with pesticides and forget about it. Because if you going to worry about the quality of every ingredient you won’t eat all.

It’s like the more I research the more I see our food options are forked so lets just do the best we can do with what we have because there is no way I can grow all my perfect pesticide GMO free 100% organic food.  It’s like almonds are healthy, you should eat them. But wait, no don’t eat the almonds from the store because they have been through ultraviolet light radiation and now they are no good. You gotta eat RAW imported almonds. Eat fish because fish is healthy and has good oils like Omega, but wait don’t eat tuna because it comes from Japan and it has radiation from the nuclear plant and it will give you cancer, don’t eat tilapia because it is farmed and its bad, don’t eat salmon because you don’t know the source and it could be contaminated or have food coloring to look orange, don’t eat red meat it’s not good for you, eat red meat because you are in a paleo diet but is should be from organic grass fed happy cattle. How am I suppose to know what the cattle was like? Come on?! It’s enough to drive anyone crazy!

Yes I would LOVE to eat 100% Organic, local, in season unprocessed all the time but if I did I think I would be healthy and miserable. I would have to be some paranoid person with obsessive compulsive disorder in order to achieve that. I also would not be able to have a job since I would need all my time to plant, harvest, prep, cook all this perfect food.

So #2 on my least of healthy: BALANCE. Yeah I am going to eat some organic celery (because it is on the dirty dozen list from the EWG) but you bet I am going to eat regular pineapple and onions. I am going to eat a vegetable soup, but I am also going to treat myself to a banana, nutella, crepe once in a while. Hey that is me. You may not agree, that is fine but that is how I roll. So take what you want and disregard the rest. Oh and I might be a little funny and sarcastic on my posts. Again because that is just the way I am. No apologies.

So stay tuned for some education with my real honest commentaries about food and life styles.

The other day I was thinking on how I could make this site/blog better… I had an idea! Its not out of this world or anything but you will be seeing some big changes.  The big changes will not visually but content wise. I think you will either love it or hate it or maybe even love to hate it hahahahah Stay tuned!