A Fall Re Cap

I took quite the hiatus from blogging.  I actually considered deleting this blog as I just haven't had time to update it and I have had a bit of technical problems.  I figured a few technical problems out over the weekend and was inspired to post so it is around for awhile longer I guess.  Here is Oct/Nov/ in pictures.

In November we celebrated Telia's 4th Birthday with a "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" themed party that I put together in about one week. The girls had fun making pixie dust, coloring picture of Jake and his crew and eating cupcakes with treasure on them. We continue to be amazed and grateful to God for the gift of Telia in our lives. She is easy going, loves a lot, extremely imaginative and has become the peacemaker in the house. Happy Birthday T!

New Recipes

We have had a busy and fun summer which means little blogging.  Here are some things that I have been cooking.

Sweet and Tart Rhubarb and Berry Dessert Sauce
Brian and I ate this atop plain whole milk yogurt with a bit of honey.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
It calls for a total of two cups of honey (or maple syrup) but I used a total of about 1/2 cup because I ran out.  I also subbed half the strawberries for blueberries.  This page has a lot of other rhubarb recipes so you will have to scroll down to find the crumble. 

Stuffed Pizza Peppers/Mushrooms
I got this idea from some friends who made them for us one night.  I stuffed red, green, orange and yellow peppers along with a few portabellos with ground Italian sausage and ground beef mixed with tomato paste, tomato sauce and some Italian spices.  I topped some of them with cheese and left some of them plain.  They were delish!

Homemade Coconut Milk
This was really easy to make and tasted good.  I felt very domestic while I was making it until I broke my blender.

Primal Stuffed Eggplant
Brian asked me to put some variety in the veggies that I make so I bought some eggplants.  This was actually a tasty meal but will probably not be a staple around our house because eggplant is not a favorite.

Chili Sweet Potato Fries
YUM!  This was such a great meal.  You should go make it this week.

I've also been making egg less salmon patties weekly.  I just mix canned salmon with either a mashed sweet potato or mashed avocado and fry in coconut oil.  They turn out great and the whole family loves them.

My New Room

After reading my friend Sarah's blog about the cool things that she is sewing for her girls I realized that I really am such a lover of fabric. That being said, I don't sew.  Not. At. All.  One day when the kids are bigger I am sure I will get to it but for now I will just admire Sarah's projects from afar.

Recently, I found some fabric that was just my style and went perfect in my bedroom .  My friend Julie, who just happened to be staying with us for a few months, turned them into pillows for our bed.  In about a two day period we painted my whole bedroom and made pillows for my bed.  This room went from a catch all place that we didn't like being in to a warm, comfortable, relaxing space that everyone likes to be in now.

Of course I didn't think to do true before and after pictures.  I found this one on my phone that shows the color of the wall (that I hated) and our old bedding (that I did like but was worn out) and some of the random things leaning against the wall plus furniture that I didn't like before we painted (i actually like our furniture now that we have a new wall color).  Also notice the adorable girls.

 The picture above is in the midst of our painting.

 The pic below is the finished walls.  Ignore the mess please.

 The blue and white pillows that Julie made.  The material cost five dollars and we just tore apart old pillows for the stuffing.

We even had some leftover fabric that we put on top of our old dresser. 

Julie and Telia taking a break from painting.

Looking Back-Celebrating

Caius celebrated both his sisters birthdays this year with our family & friends.  Here he is holding the balloons down.

Halloween 2012

I don't think I ever blogged about our Halloween this year.  Caius was 8.5 months old for his first Halloween.  Our neighbor and friend, Lauren made our costumes with the help of her mother.  The girls are M & M's and Caius was a M & M Fun Size Bag.  We had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood with our friends.  It was cold so Caius went in early and hung out with my parents.

Picture Credit goes to my Dad, Terry Faith.

Meal Plan

Chorizo Balls with Roasted Whipped Carrots and Sour Kraut

Butternut Squash Soup

Sweet Potato Jalepeno Chowder (my friend gave me this recipe)

Pumpkin Cocoa Chili

Beef Taco Salad with Avocado Dressing (this is on pinterest and I made it yesterday with our fish tacos...soooo good!  I subbed coconut milk instead of yogurt).


I made truffles this weekend too.  I sort of used this recipe:
http://lowcarboneday.com/2012/12/chocolate-almond-butter-truffles-low.html
I had to add some honey & coconut milk because the chocolate I had was not sweetened at all.  They were a delicious treat and definitely confirmed that I still have little to no self control with chocolate.  That is why I don't keep it in the house.

I also made some muffins for the kids that they actually liked.  I kind of used this recipe
 http://www.thelittlefoodie.com/2013/01/sunshine-paleo-muffins.html

Meal Plan

Fish Tacos (from last week)

Steak with Kale and Onions (from last week)

Almond Chicken Soup with Sweet Potato, Collards and Ginger

Hamburgers (made double last week and froze the extras) with salad and carrot fries

Sweet Potato Soup- I will sub. full fat coconut milk for the regular and chicken broth instead of veggie.

Hot Wings with Mashed Cauliflower and Salad

Here are a few other recipes that we tried this week:

Sausage and Butternut Breakfast Hash
Brian actually cooked this one up on Saturday morning while I was getting ready.  He really likes opportunities to cook so I have been trying to hand over the spatula to him a little more lately.  This was so yummy.  Everyone in the house ate it up (only after one melt down about not wanting it from one child).  It will definitely go in the rotation for breakfast foods.

Meatza (like pizza)- Admittedly, this sounds disgusting but it was great.  The recipe calls for an egg but I replaced that with a half of a small sweet potato.  The toppings I used were arugula, shaved brussels sprouts, spinach, mushrooms and cut up chicken bratwurst.  Next time I will leave out the meat topping. 

Butternut Squash Fries

Paleo Chocolate Chip Scones I really wanted to make some baked goods for my family so I decided on starting with this recipe.  I subbed refined coconut oil (has less of a coconut flavor than extra virgin coconut oil) for the vegan shortening (whatever that is).  I also subbed 2 bananas for the eggs.  These two subs worked out fine...just had to bake the scones for about 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for.   Here is where everything went wrong.  Since going Paleo I haven't really researched what kind of chocolate I should buy so I panicked a the grocery and bought unsweetened Bakers chocolate.  BAD IDEA.  This stuff is super bitter because it is straight up chocolate...no sugar, not milk, nothing.  Shredding it may have worked better but the big chunks were not good.  Telia took one bite, spit it out and started licking her sleeve to remove the flavor.  Next time I will not use that chocolate.

First Trip to See the Horses

Last May Caius got to take his first trip to Churchill Downs to watch the horses.  He went twice the week of the Kentucky Derby...lucky guy.  To be honest, he didn't really watch much but he was indeed there and we took a couple of pictures to document it.

Cai's First Easter

Going Home Day

A couple of pictures of the day we got to take Caius home.

Looking Back-Sibling Love

His sisters loved him from the moment they met him for the first time. Ruby and Telia get a good look at their brother in the hospital last February.

Counting Down to Birthday #1

As I did with the girls, I am going to take a look back on Caius' first year. I love looking over the pictures and seeing how he has changed and grown over this past year. So, here we go. Caius' birth February 2012.

Recipes and 3 to the 4

It is kind of strange that today I am 34 years old.  I feel older and yet like I am still 18 years old all at the same time.  It has been a great day full of friends and family, good food, spa time and coffee.

I have been on a new eating adventure (as I like to call it) for about 12 days now called Paleo.  I signed up to do a 30 day challenge on the Wellness Mama Blog.  This is a great website with lots of information if you are interested in reading more.  Basically, I am grain, dairy, processed foods, legumes, refined sugar and processed oils free (on top of being egg free and peanut free due to Caius' allergies).  I am adding more grass fed pature raised meats, nuts, delicious organic vegetables and fruits to my diet.  I am cooking with coconut oil and sometimes bacon grease from quality bacon.  I am snacking on blueberries, pumpkin seeds and larabars.  I am drinking water, some coffee and kombucha.  I am feeling great and excited about these changes and the new healthy foods my family is eating.  Here are some of the recipes I have already tried and approve:

To start off, tonight we made some desserts for my  birthday and they were delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (grain, egg, and dairy free)

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Brownies

along with Banana "Ice Cream"--simply take some frozen bananas, cinnamon, vanilla extract and coconut milk and blend it all together!

Here are some yummy dinners I have made

Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Arugula Salad

Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

Brussel Sprouts, Bacon, Avocado and Lime

 Bacon Beef Butternut Squash

Creamy Curried Cauliflower Soup

A few sides

Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Mash

Roasted Carrot Whip

Christmas Cheer

Telia Turns 3!

At the beginning of November we celebrated Telia Abigail turning 3 years old. We had a great time with about 10 of her friends at her Minnie Mouse themed party.

Lots of sweet little girls 

We ate Minnie Mouse cupcakes and played pin the bow on Minnie Mouse. The girls played outside and all over the house.  It was great to shower Telia with attention this day.

Farmyard Party

Ruby turned 5 years old in September and when I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday she said she wanted to go to the farm.  My mom has a friend who actually has a farm with animals which is what she was referring to but I figured hey, lets just run with this idea.  So, we had a farmyard party.  We had a lot of fun and a lot of people.  Here are some pictures of that Friday night.

We had fun with the food.  

Below you will see Chicken Feed, Pig Tails, Straw and Wagon Wheels

 I think this cake was really cute and really easy.  Actually, icing an eggless cake was not easy but since they were supposed to be in the farmyard I figured it was ok if it was messy.

 The Dessert Table

 I put farm animals throughout the house for decorations

 It was really hot until the sun went down but the kids didn't care and played in our backyard the whole time.  

So thankful to have a backyard and a fence

 This is seriously not even all the kids that were there.  We are missing a couple of kids and lots of babies. 

 Instead of a pinata we filled balloons with one piece of candy and then made a little pointer that the kids used to pop the balloons.  They loved it and I think the parents did too since the kids only got like 2 pieces of candy.

 Me and my sweet friend Kristyn with Anna and Ella

 Caius with his Aunt Heather

 In the side of our yard we have a dog run...perfect for pony races.  Brian ran the races with two kids at a time.  They had a blast and did not even care who won.

 On your mark...

 Gift opening time got a little crazy...we had to do some crowd control