I found some new (to me) recipes that I wanted to try, so I figured I would share them here with you! I am hoping to cook these up this week, so feel free to stay tuned
I think I've found a nice little groove for this old blog here, and I'm excited to execute it. Since I'm focusing on 'gratitude' this year, I want to dedicate a weekly post to what I am loving in life. I figured since I can be rather random, this would be the perfect place to post all things I'm happy about.
First up? I've been loving the deals my style customers are getting with dot dollars!! $25 off of a $50 purchase. If you've got your eye on something, today is the last day to redeem! I have a few unused codes if you'd like, message me.
I am dying to get my hands on this engravable with our land coordinates. I have seen so many meaningful pieces engraved, and they look so chic! Love this idea too!
I'm also really happy that my Mystery Hostess Trunk Show already has rewards! I'll be going live on FB 1/17, but the pot is already growing. Some lucky lady is going to earn some freebies! If you'd like in, just shop this link. Every order counts! https://www.stelladot.com/ts/ko8o6
My favorite Brio Tassel is only $44 with one dot dollar code. I adore this necklace.
My other pick would be the Genevieve. All the heart eyes! This has got to be my favorite from the Fall line. You can wear it so many ways!! {use code: QTCIKLBU to save!!}
Food. I just love food; correction, really really good food!! I ordered some Tastefully Simple from my girl Cathy and this recipe screamed New Year's Day. I had fully believed we were going out NYE, so I wanted an easy dinner to cook itself. Well, we stayed in but it was still really nice to just let this simmer in a crock pot all day. It smelled so good!
The pork shoulder literally fell off the bone and I just shredded it. I remove all the fatty parts and then placed it back in the sauce.
You could dip, but you really didn't need to. OMG. I want another one.
This was the sauce I used!
Another recipe is one that my husband found!! Back Alley Ribs. He has now made these twice, they are THAT good! {Clearly we enjoy pork...I need to get back into chicken!}
All the fanciness ground up.
Pom/Lime juice.
I'm loving that I started the New Year off on the right foot! I found this to be inspiring.
While the kiddos napped, I took Holly on a long walk. The sun was shining and I had to take a photo, since ya just never know when the sun will come out again!
And lastly, books. I am on a big old book kick again lately and one that I am listening to currently is this. It's quite interesting and if you pick it up, you may find that you learn a thing or two. It's eye opening because even though you may think you're being positive and manifesting what you want, your thoughts could still be going in the wrong direction...more on that later. I have to re-listen to parts of it. Highly recommend it though!!
If you're like me, sometimes you don't know what's exactly for dinner until you look in the kitchen around 3pm. I try to menu plan, but it may be vague like, "chicken thighs." I had no idea what exactly I was going to make the chicken thighs with, but I knew that I wanted to cook them up.
I found this recipe via Tastefully Simple as I had the ingredients on hand. If you're a mom, or just a busy person in general, you need to check out their dinner ideas!
The recipe called for chicken breasts so that you could make chicken tenders/fingers and dip them. I only had thighs on hand, so I just used a previous recipe's baking time:
I thought I'd share a drink recipe today! Since I kicked my Coffee (and Spark) habit, stupid reflux, I still craved something in the morning a little more than just a cup of plain old green tea. I knew matcha was powerful, but I didn't know how amazing. Check this out!
I kept hearing about "Green Tea Lattes" and finally tried one at Starbucks---wow! Total game changer. Now of course, I've gotten some flack because it's got quite a bit of sugar in it, and the powder they use is not like anything I have found in the store (or Amazon) But I really watch what I eat (typically) and try really hard to limit sugary items. I found myself venturing out for these almost daily, so my wallet and health needed an intervention. It's taking me a few months to figure out the best way to make these, but finally I found it!
Here is how I make my matcha lattes.
1. I enjoy soy milk, and I prefer the reduced fat only because of the taste and consistency. I've tried vanilla soy and that's okay too. I've also invested in a milk warmer/frother---TOTALLY worth every penny.
2. I bought this kind off of Amazon. Use 1/2 teaspoon.
3. It's very clumpy so I mix it with a tiny bit of hot water to help smooth it out.
4. This thing does all the work with one button--you can get it super frothy or just a little, I love that it has two options.
5. Pour and mix the green tea & water with the milk.
Here is what the warmer looks like. I am not a kitchen gadget person; I find that too many tools are a waste of space, but this is super easy to clean.
You'll get a little bit of film from the milk, (which I was getting waaaaay more from heating in the pan, and then the mess of boiled milk spilling over!! Oh, it was bad!!) You just use the handy little brush and scrape it out.
I do it right after I use it and it looks brand new.
So again, here are some awesome perks of drinking this fabulous latte! You could just make it with water, add a little honey, but I prefer it straight up with my soy.
I haven't tried any of these, but you could add it to your juicing recipes, smoothies or even bake with it! I have read you don't want to take too much, as with anything. I try to limit my use to once a day and sometimes I will just go for a chai instead.
If you follow me on instagram, you'll see these in my instastory quite often! Even if you're a huge coffee drinker, you may surprise yourself and enjoy a cup of this. I love how mellow I feel and truly get no crash or high off the caffeine. It's a slow and steady awake feeling and I appreciate that. I still stop at Starbucks now and then and definitely enjoy them at fancy coffee shops, but I am so happy to have found something to replace my coffee habit. Sure I miss it and especially this time of year with all things pumpkin spice etc, but when you listen to your body, and find something that makes you feel better instead of worse, you listen to it.
I hope you're having a beautiful day. I wanted to share some things home-related on the blog, so I figured I would just lump them all together in one post!! I know it's not easy keeping up with the cooking, the cleaning, the organizing, plus doing everything else that we have to do in a day with littles. I have found a few tricks or routines that may actually work!
What I struggle with most at this stage, is being able to complete a task. I will start several things, but sometimes (most times) I get side tracked with changing diapers and trying to keep the kids both occupied so that I can clean, I feel like I'm running on a hamster wheel.
I will say that starting to use "Snap Chat" @mrsdellefave really does make me feel good about my day!! I literally look through my story and realize, holy cow, I do a lot and even though the floors may not be clean at 9pm, they were at 11am!
Really though, I know that it's a season and soon the kids will not be here making messes all day while I try to entertain them and clean up. So here are a few successes I had last week:
Brisket: I loved being able to throw it in the dutch oven, place it in the oven and let it cook for a few hours.
I steamed some carrots and then tossed them into some melted butter, honey, sage, & lemon.
I can't go wrong with my bread; everyone loves it!
The kids liked everything, but Brooke really only likes raw veggies. She "couldn't like the carrots" they were "yucky".
I like cleaning on Thursdays. I don't know why I prefer that day, but I do. I also like grocery shopping on a Tuesday. I think this is because Mon/Weds are late nights and that leaves more room for the kids and I to go and do something fun since Daddy works.
He pulls everything out of all the cupboards. Thursday he discovered parchment paper.
I run my dishwasher 1-2 times a day. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the dishes, bottles and cups seem to multiply. I need to get some more paper plates for Summer to help cut down on this haha. I really don't enjoy dishes, but I do find it best if I prop my iPhone up and watch Youtube or TV on it.
I was really having an issue with my produce. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, and they were just falling out of my bowls. I decided to use a big platter to hold everything and it works much better!
Decor:
I had this bowl that my mom gave me awhile ago for a birthday present. I finally found something to put in it! I grabbed these for $8 at T.J. Max
When I'm feeling overwhelmed, I know that the first place to start is my room. If I can clear the clothes, clutter and make the bed, life feels so much easier and more put together!
I ended with a quick steam mopping session. I go back and forth whether I like an old fashion mop or the steam mop, but I really love that there's no harsh chemicals.
Another simple dinner winner- Pasta with turkey meatballs. Everyone loves it and I served it with some organic frozen veggies. For my plate I gave myself 1/2 cup of pasta and filled the rest with veggies.
Want to know a secret? Today is day #4 with no coffee. I know. I'm just as shocked. I ran out of creamer and decided that would be the day. I don't miss the flavor or the feeling I was getting after drinking it (reflux) and I have replaced it with a matcha latte. It's green tea powder and I heat up some vanilla soy milk---use my immersion blender and voila. Gives me a boost of energy and no yuck feeling! Starbucks makes them and they're super tasty; I'm still perfecting mine.
How Jen Does it is really inspiring me to get my cleaning in order!! Check out her latest video.
My favorite thing? This. It was so hot out yesterday, I gave them two bowls of water and a few measuring cups. They instantly soaked each other and ran around squealing. I love that I have the deck to lock them in, and I can get some kitchen work done [since it's never ending!] I'm very excited to enjoy the nicer weather!
As odd as it is, I never had a Cuban sandwich!! I don't know why, other than I thought that I would not like it? It was something that just never popped out at me at restaurants or sub shops.
My husband and I were watching the movie Chef a few weeks ago {it was an alright movie!} and the guy was making these Cuban sandwiches in his food truck. Since I didn't have Cuban ingredients, I will say that I did make us some late night grilled cheese sandwiches because the movie made our mouths water!
Needless to say, the search begin for local Cuban sandwiches and we actually found a delicious place not too far from us called Bomberos.
I realized I could probably make them fairly easily, I just needed a few things:
Good bread
mustard
pickles
pulled pork
ham
swiss cheese
Thanks to our Pig guy, "Norm" we have fresh pork weekly. We know exactly how the pig is treated and are grateful he doesn't use any hormones, antibiotics etc.
So I took to the web and found this recipe for a visual:
I realized that the Cuban is seriously the perfect go to if you're pinched for time and/or have leftovers! Simple and cheap. Plus it's tasty, so you can't beat that!
This is the book I use all of the time for my fresh bread. I will leave a bowl of the dough in the fridge and cook from it when I need it. It is so easy and tastes so good!
Press in a panini press until the cheese melts and everything is heated through!
It was so good and I believe that my husband was pretty impressed!! Like I said, next time I'd like to do the pork in the mojo marinade to give it that extra flavor, but I was trying to use leftovers.
