Farmers Market recipe

My family took a trip to our local farmers market.  Its definitely harvest season here, right now.  We found so many colorful veggies.  I bought some heirloom tomatoes in yellow and purple, and some beautiful red, yellow and purple peppers.  Along with red and white radishes as big as my daughters fist, and some other yummy foods, including baked goods and jam from our local baker at Karens Kitchen.

Some of my veggies were placed in the fridge, but I never ever refrigerate tomatoes.  It changes the texture and flavor greatly.  So I had to think of a recipe to come up with quick.

Heirloom tomato salad.

3 large heirloom tomatoes. any color you wish ( i used yellow and purple)
2 peppers any color ( I used purple and red)
1 small onion
Half of a cucumber
1\4 cup of italian dressing
1 tsp of dried basil (or a big handful of fresh)
light dusting of garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1\2 tsp of red pepper flakes
and salt and pepper to taste.

You can chop this big or dice it small.  I diced it small because I have 3 girls, two of which can be picky when it comes to tomatoes.  When you dice it small, they can really pick out which veggie is what, and have no choice but to take spoonfuls of all the veggies together.  If your serving it to adults I would probably cut it into bigger pieces.

Dice all the veggies, and add the dressing and spices. Stir gently and let it soak in the juices for about a half an hour.  Please dont refrigerate before serving, you will thank me.

Life as I know it

I have received a few emails from my very favorite clients asking for an update. Its been a long while.  To start,  our son was born in August. A very healthy happy baby boy. He was born via c section after a very long hard 4 days.  He was a very special birthday present to me. We joke around about the surgery because it was a surgery that enables me to get pregnant and a surgery that helped him be born. I have 5 scars that I wouldn't trade for the world, because they remind me of my perfect little miracle.

Life as you can imagine is really busy. He keeps me busy all hours of the day and night and my daughter and nieces keep me pretty busy too.  Between ballet and middle school and making homemade healthy dinners every night. There isn't much time left.

So i have decided to retire for the time being.  I will still post from time to time. And still will do sessions for family and friends and by request from those of you who have been loyal and loving to me. But for now im being completely selfish and just doing life the way I know how. By giving my all to the children God entrusted me with. By being the best wife I can to my husband. And by using my skills to document this amazing life I have been given.

Thank you all for sticking around,  by standing beside me, and especially for all the prayers and support you all have given me. I love y'all more than I can express.

Recipes from my garden.

This year we have taken on the task of making a vegetable garden.  Its our first time ever, growing our own veggies.  I helped my mom grow veggies, when we were younger.  So I had some memories of that, and some knowledge to fall back on.  I will admit, not everything grew like it should, but we feasted heavily on our small bounty.  We also have big plans for our garden adventure next year.

Our biggest crop was, of course tomatoes.  Yesterday I sent my niece out to gather all the colorful tomatoes from the garden.  We had a huge basket full after the rain fall last week.  I wanted to make good use of them.  I also had a few bunches of basil growing on my deck, and we always have chicken on hand.  This is the recipe I came up with.

Tomato, basil and chicken pasta.

I had a pretty good sized basket of grape tomatoes, and a few regular sized tomatoes.
a huge handful of basil
3 large chicken breasts
2 large cloves of garlic
1 med onion






To start, I put a little oil in a big pan, and sauted the garlic and onion.  I sliced the chicken and put that in next. I just wanted the onions to be soft, and the chicken to no longer be pink on the outside.  This took about 10 minutes on med heat.  If you cook it too high, you will burn the garlic, and it will taste bitter.

Next step, I quartered the bigger tomatoes, and halved the grape tomatoes and added those to the pot.

I cooked them on med heat, uncovered until they started to blister and melt down.  Then I added the handful of fresh picked basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let simmer on med, for about 8-10 minutes.  It simmered away while the pasta was boiling.  

Serve over pasta and enjoy.  

unexpected life, pregnancy through obesity

As of tomorrow I will be 30 weeks along in this pregnancy.  Or the last week of my 7th month. We have found out the gender of the baby, and picked out a name.  We are trying to put together a nursery for our little miracle.  This pregnancy has been so much different than my pregnancy with my daughter almost 9 years ago.  All the symptoms are different, my body is so very different than when I was 25.  But its so much more than that.  Knowing this is the last baby I will hold in my body, knowing this baby was a miracle.  It makes everything different.  I still cry tears of joy over this miracle.  I take joy in every single little kick or baby flutter.  I sit and rub my tummy and just tell him how in love with him I already am.  I look over the baby items we have for him, and just touch them and think about what my baby will look like.  And I thank God constantly for this gift.

Even though I am almost 8 months pregnant, and I gained 75 lbs with my first pregnancy, I have only gained 25 lbs with this baby.  I work every day to be healthy.  I do not want to gain back the whole 60 lbs I lost last year.  I do not want to struggle to keep my blood pressure managed, and I most definitely do not want to develop diabetes.  I work out 5-7 days a week.  I ride my recumbent exercycle, I lift small hand weights, and I walk.  I drink smoothies to make sure I am getting enough fruits and veggies in my diet, and I started a veggie garden in my back yard.  I cant wait to harvest!  So far all my efforts to stay healthy are going pretty good!  I still allow myself the occasional bowl of chips, or ice cream.  Most importantly though, is the happy face I see with both my regular OB and my High risk Dr.  My blood sugar has been tested twice through this pregnancy, and so far its looking fantastic.  My blood pressure has had a few minor issues, that I work very very hard to resolve.  I am learning my body does not like traveling in a car over long distances, and this effects my blood pressure greatly.  I am also learning my body LOVES working out, and reacts very positively.  Both drs are always suprised when I sit up from the table with no effort.  I keep telling them, I have been fatter than this, this weight is easy for me to carry.

The baby is getting big, and he does take up alot of room.  Some days i struggle with breath, because he is up so high in my tummy.  It makes it very very hard to walk on those days.  I find however than riding my bike on those days is much easier because he is not so heavy to carry on my bike.  What makes me so proud of myself is that, I have not given up.  I havent stopped trying to stay healthy.  I havent done like I have done in the past, and use any excuse to stop working out, and binge eat.  The down side of all this however, is that I am very very hard on myself.  I wish i didnt gain any weight.  I beat myself up when i have a hard time breathing.  And i know i do this, because i remember what it feels like to be so unhealthy, and I am so afraid i will let myself get that way again.

In other news, I have shut down my portrait photography business.  This choice came very easily to me.  Much easier than I thought it would.  My baby, My health are my number one priority.  My daughter, husband and nieces who rely on me are also a huge priority.  I cant focus my energy on all these things and still even try and manage a business.  I felt some guilt because I just got a new expensive camera before Christmas, and havent used it much.  But I also feel fantastic joy when i do use it, to capture family and life events.  I also take great joy in working with my first passion, nature.  And I take great comfort in knowing my husband always supports all my decision, and also has always been such a hard worker, and takes care of his family, so their is no financial burden by me closing Rivera Artistry.

I always count on God's timing for everything.  I rely on his plan, that is unknown to us, to push me in the right direction.  And I thank him daily for his many many blessings.  This month alone, not only do we celebrate the 8th month of this pregnancy, but my daughter turns 9, my husband graduates from his masters program, and my little sister marries her soul mate.  This unexpected life, is a miracle.

A perfect Miracle.

I just realized how long its been since I blogged.  Not long after my weight loss update in September, I had to have emergency surgery.  This part of my blog is somewhat personal, and you may not want to read on.

I had some serious tumors on both my ovaries.  They were so big and so heavy, that because of the strain from my workouts, it actually twisted my fallopian tube.  This was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life.  Morphin wouldn't touch the pain.  I spent 4 days in the hospital, trying to manage the pain.  I spent another week getting tests and preparing for my surgery.  In the process of all this, my left ovary died completely.  During surgery my entire left ovary and tube was removed, and the right side was so over run by the tumors, that they had to take MOST of my right ovary.  The doctor said I can expect menopause symptoms almost immediately, but they never came.  This was in September.

I will say now, that my husband and I have had a lot of issues with trying to conceive.  My oldest daughter (who is 8 now) came as quite a surprise after a miscarriage and years of trying.  We starting trying again not long after my daughter was born, to conceive again.  Years and years and years went by, another miscarriage, and no baby.  So when this surgery happened I gave up.  I knew in my heart the quest for another baby was over.  I mourned the baby I would never have.  I cried  month after month for 8 years.  I suffered mostly in silence feeling like a failure.  Wondering what was wrong with me, why was my body betraying me?  Why cant I do what other women have such an easy time doing.

I have no problem saying jealousy overran me, when someone I knew became pregnant.  Trying to fake happiness for someone, when inside you feel like your dying of heartbreak.  Infertility is a painful thing to live through.

A few weeks before Christmas, I realized I had only had one menstrual cycle since my surgery. I chalked it up to the loss of hormones, the loss of my ovaries, the menopause symptoms I was told to expect.  But I just felt unusual.  So I took a test, then another, then a few more.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  5 positives later, I decided to see my doctor.  His first words to me "God is good".  Having already experienced 2 miscarriages, the first ultrasounds are always so scary for me.  Waiting to hear that everything is ok, is so hard.  But when the tech turned on the volume and I heard the most wonderful sound, I burst into tears.  Holding my husbands hand, and hearing that beautiful fast thumping of the heart beating away.  I cant express the feelings I felt at that moment.  It was as if I had just witnessed a miracle.


This pregnancy is high risk for a few different reasons.  I still worry that it could all go away.  So for now, we are just taking it easy.  Every day I am making a full effort to be healthy and keep this baby healthy.  My life right now consists of me taking care of me, and my family.

If you have taken time to read through this whole post, thank you.  I also ask that if you pray, please say a prayer for me and this miracle inside of me.  If you don't pray, please have a nice thought for us, or send some positive energy this way.