What's for Dinner?

My hubby and his bromance partner, Matt (hehe) made this Beef & Vegetable Paleo soup at the Fire Station and had me over for dinner. I WAS OBSESSED! IT is absolutely delicious and ridiculously healthy. The flavor is flawless. So, just a few days later, I'm making it at home. I omitted the Cilantro on top (cause me no like). I added a couple stalks of celery because I had some extra in my fridge. And the coconut milk drizzled on top is a must. It may sound weird, but it's delicious. Also, if you don't like a lot of heat, take 'er easy on the jalapeno's and ground chipotle. Add just a teeny bit to give it some flavor or omit it all together. Nom, Nom!

Click here for the recipe. 

Just Quotes

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is interesting, clever, and thought provoking. "The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior "tempter" named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient".

I loved these thoughts from the book from the point of view of Screwtape, the tempter himself:

“The more often [a man] feels without acting, the less he will ever be able to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” 

“When He [God] talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.” 

“A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—” 

Carded

I know having to show Identification is important to safeguard over-the-counter drugs being sold to minors, however it was quite frustrating when I went to Wal Mart today (which i hate) specifically to purchase 2 items. 1 of which they didn't have and the other- nasal decongestant for a 3 year old. Trying to speed things along all I took in was my debit card and my child who has been whining and complaining about her stuffy nose. We get to the counter with the children medicine and bc I didn't have my wallet she refused to give it to me. Seriously? She wouldn't budge. The only reason I am here with my child who is miserable holding my hand and now I can't get her the relief!? Grrrr.

To top it all off, sweet Shan made another trip in to grab some medicine equipped with his wallet and he wasn't even carded!? Annoying!

Night Time Snack

I'm telling on myself here... but there is just something about a glass of ice milk and a few candy corns (or 5 or 6...) to kick off October.



*And since I no longer have a Facebook, there will be shorter posts like this one more often.

Bits and Pieces

Tip toeing into our bedroom little Keshy goes while Daddy is trying to catch a nap when returning home from a sleepless night at the station.

I catch her and have this conversation all in a whisper,

Me: “Kesh. What are you doing?”

Kesh: “Shhh. I’m sneaking in to find my Dad’s wallet.”

Me: “Why?”

Kesh: “To buy me a Sleeping Beauty dress.”

For crying out loud! She’s 3! Where in the world does a 3 year old come up with the idea to be sneaky and after her dad’s money already to buy her a dress!? Isn’t that supposed to wait until prom!? J She makes me laugh.

My little man cracks me up too. He just seems to be the epitome of a boy. He has this baby deep voice that he uses to mumble things to me. and he will run so fast that he becomes top heavy and crashes into EVERYTHING head first. He runs into walls and chairs and cabinets. But he enjoys his head taking the beating. As a matter of fact, he takes the remote control and hits himself in the head with it…on purpose. Over and over again. He laughs. He thinks he’s a comedian. When I tell him, “Owie. That hurts. Don’t do that,” and take it away, he uses his fist to beat himself in the head. Kesh thinks he’s hysterical. And yes, he leaves marks and bruises on himself. He likes to pick up a ball and attempt to throw it (he just drops it behind his back) and then he cheers crazily for himself by performing a thunderous applause. His body shape looks like a block. He’s just a solid kid that doesn’t stop running, falling, and self-inflicting pain. He sure is happy though. His smile brightens the whole room.

So you know how some people have feelings about what they’re having when they’re pregnant? I’ve never had that with my other two. But, this time I have a gut feeling it’s a girl…even though I would love to have another boy for a few different reasons. I had acne with Baby 1 terribly. My grandmother thought I had chicken pox. With Baby 2, I had none whatsoever. Now, I’m not much a believer in the old sayings like how you carry determines if it’s a boy or girl. I’ve squashed that “universal 100% truth” by my other two children. With my girl every other person would stop me and say ,” Oh you’re having a boy!” I would correct them and they would look at me puzzled and say, “are you sure?” To which I would have to eventually reply, “yep, I’ve seen her vagina a few times myself.” People loved that… And with my boy, everyone said it was a girl because of how I carried. Wrong again. I don’t believe that those “sayings” are always right. Every woman is different. However, for me, if this is a girl, then I will at least know that the “acne saying” is true for me because this time around…I have acne again. So is it true that if you have acne, it’s a girl? I guess we’ll see. And about that, I would like to wait until birth to find out while my hubby says he just can’t wait. So, I think I want to have a gender revealing party to make it a little more fun for me. Have you ever been to one or hosted one yourself?

How am I doing? That’s always a loaded question, isn’t it? Well, I’ve relocated to a small town and it has been an adjustment. Who am I kidding? It’s going to be an adjustment for a while…I’m from a small town so the “inconvenience” of the small town doesn’t really bother me (i.e. 20-30 minutes of driving to go to the movies or grocery shopping etc…) And it doesn’t bother me to run into everyone I know (eventually) in the gas stations. I’m down for that. What bothers me in a small town is lack of opportunity and complacency. People are very friendly but I think because there isn’t a high move-in rate here it may be hard to meet people. People have their families and their long-time friends. Not to mention it’s never easy to meet people when you’re busy with children. Granted I’ve only been here 7 weeks which I know is not a lot of time but so far I’ve gathered a few things.

1.) People don’t really “hang out” here. If you have a family here, then that’s who you’re always around. But if you don’t, you don’t. I’ve asked a handful of different people if they get together with other friends to go to dinner or for a group date or for a game night… The answer is always, “no, not really.” BORING! Lol Seriously, though.

2.) Some people are complacent and don’t welcome change. Traditions are great, but sometimes change and trying something new is good. I truly believe that. We need to open our eyes to more than one way of doing something.

3.) People in general aren’t motivated to take care of their bodies.  It seems majority of people do not exercise or care about eating healthy here. There is no gym here and so unless you are a runner, you really have to just figure it out and get creative. We have ordered all of our own equipment for the two of us and we’ll just be a mobile crossfit gym for now.  In the near future we will accumulate enough stuff for additional people to work out with us…if we can recruit anyone to be interested. That will be the real struggle.

Can you tell me why I’m 26 years old and I’m finding minimum of 2 gray hairs each day for the last 2 weeks!?!?!? WHAT!? I haven’t dyed my hair in about 1 year for a couple of reasons. 1) I wanted to just be me for a while and learn to be happy with my features. And even more so #2) I wanted to save money towards our next house down payment fund. $100+/month was getting a little old. But really? That many gray hairs!? I did tell Shannon I may have to go dye my hair brown before too long because I already feel frumpy and unattractive as it is with being pregnant again (I experience this frumpy funk each time) and with kids all over me all day long I can’t really feel sexy. So the hair…it’s gonna have to be fixed! Soon!

My little cheeks boy is allergic to wheat. People ask me if it is really hard with snacks and dinner. I don’t think it is at all. We don’t eat many carbs anyway so I don’t find it that challenging. My little guy is pretty much a “paleo” eater. Our go-to's are fruits, vegetables, and meats. That’s pretty much how we eat every day. It is nice that he can have rice and potatoes. Those are very filling not to mention quick and easy for toddler foods. I’m a sucker for trying new recipes and I’ve enjoyed this allergy pushing me to finally buy almond flour and experiment. I’ve been using coconut flour which I love for certain things but for other things like pancakes, they’re just not the best. If you are eating paleo, gluten free, or low carb diets HoneyvilleAlmond Flour is the only way to go. It is the best. I’ve made banana bread muffins and some BOMB blueberry nut butter muffins with the flour. It’s nice to have another healthy option for chubby cheeks and for me!

Fall is in the air…or just in my mind. The 100 degree weather doesn’t reflect the season. Can the weather come down a little bit so I can start to enjoy the most magical time of year for me?

Halloween crafts and treats are around the corner…

Recipe Box

I love recipes. Healthy and non. It really is a hobby of mine to collect, try, and organize them. I ask Shannon weekly what he would like on the menu and it's the running joke that he will ALWAYS, without fail say, "Orange Crumbed Chicken." It really is delicious and quite healthy especially if you opt for the coating to be almond meal or crushed cashews instead of the whole wheat cracker crumbs. If you're not worried about the carbs, serve over the Citrus Rice. It is such a delicious combo. If you are worried about the carbs, I more times than not skip rice and go for "riced cauliflower." With seasoning, it is just as satisfying as rice for me. (Side note: If you don't have Orange Juice on hand, you could always substitute honey or even apricot preserves.) Give 'er a shot. It's yum.

Orange Crumbed Baked Chicken

2 TBSP OJ

2 TBSP Dijon Mustard

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup whole wheat cracker crumbs, panko crumbs, or almond meal

1 TBSP grated orange zest

1 shallot, finely chopped

¼ tsp ground pepper

1 lb of skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts cut into strips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease baking sheet.

In a small bowl, combine the orange juice, mustard, and salt. On a sheet of wax paper, combine the cracker crumbs, orange zest, shallot, and pepper. Brush the chicken on both sides wih the mustard mixture, then dredge in the crumbs, firmly pressing the crumbs to coat both sides. Place the chicken on the baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes; turn over and bake until cooked through. 15-20 minutes more.

Serve over Citrus Rice

Brown rice prepared in chicken stock

Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

Salt and pepper

Toss to taste with citrus vinaigrette when finished. 

Psst...trying to be healthier but have a sweet tooth? I just tried some amazing raw brownies for the first time the other day thanks to my friend, Annie. You should give them a try here! But...if that's not your thing, you should try these scrump-didily-umptious brownies I made for the first time last week and ate 85% of the batch by myself...spread out over a few days of course. :) They're cake-like brownies made from (drum roll please...) sweet potatoes. Not yams. Sweet potatoes. There is a difference. I actually prefer the flavor of a sweet potato over a yam. There is zero guilt while eating them and THEY WERE SO GOOD! I actually used 1/4 cup of raw honey instead of 1/3 cup and next time I want to increase the cocoa a bit for an even stronger chocolate flavor. Seriously. Give them a shot. Recipe here. Julie ALWAYS amazes me over at PaleOMG.  

Stares

Well let’s see. K girl fell through the back of her chair and made a huge blunder. She refused to whisper, sit, or obey. She whined and threw a fit. K boy was fussy, whiny, was dissatisfied by any food or drink (even though it was his lunch time), threw everything he could get his hands on, and eventually moved to a full-out cry. She tells me to shut up. Children sitting near us with their families are sitting oh so quietly. No snacks. No toys. No fuss. Sitting. Not laying. Not squirming. SITTING! You could hear a pin drop. If I weren’t there.

Stares.

My strap to my dress broke. I escape to the bathroom to rig it to last a few more minutes. Everything in my big "mama bag" was dumped out by a little K boy. I frantically try to collect all of my things. He wants food, he doesn’t want the food. Throws it. Angry. K girl wants to dance in the aisles. Speaking in one volume: loud. Couldn’t hear anything being said. Nothing. She’s being disrespectful and sassy. Out of control. 

More stares. Sympathetic stares. Annoyed stares. Judgmental stares.

Of course I take my children out in the hall to try and not disrupt others who have the luxury of listening. And of course it is not a fun time in the hall way. Quite the contrary. It is time to chill out. We sit. Or shall I say I make them sit? To realize it is never fun to be outside of the chapel. It is a privilege to be in the chapel. It was all a fight. No, no. A nightmare.

I take my fussy children out to the car and stand there ready to burst into tears but trying to remain composed. Call Shannon at work for some moral support. No answer. I decide that I would stay and take Keshlyn to nursery cause she could use some extra churchin'. I spent the last 2 hours of church in the hall with a fussy, whiney, baby. Fun. Cries the whole time.  Doesn’t feel well. I feel sorry for him. But to be honest, I feel more sorry for me. Breaking point. It’s all pointless. Or so it seemed on these 2 past Sundays which I have just described. 

I complain a lot. I know it. It's not a good thing, but somehow I feel like I have some legitimate things to complain about sometimes. :) Like the rationalization?

At least my kids do cute things too...it's just that sometimes it doesn't seem to cover up the negative. Luckily sometimes it does. 

Kyden is saying, "hi," "momma," "dada," "yeah," "thank you," "eat, " "banana," He signs eat, please, thank you, mom, dad, bath, hat, milk. He mimics every sound you make. Adores cars and making them go "vroom." Loves animals and making their sounds. Smiles constantly. Is squishy and handsome. 

Keshlyn is writing pretty well. Getting better at reading. Composing lots of song lyrics! :) Dances like a crazy person. Loves to read story books with me. Says "Mom, I'll take care of it" when Ky is doing something naughty. Is a great big sister. Very helpful. Loves shoes. And makeup. And cooking. She makes me laugh a lot too. (When she's not making me weep as I pull my hair out). The other day she asked when the baby was going to come out. She then said, "If it's a girl, her name should be Shamequa." Seriously!?