Five on Friday!

Happy Friday, friends!

1. Yesterday was Trav's birthday, so I was nice and made him dinner (a rare occasion these days!).

My friend Rachel recommended this Red Wine Marinated Flank Steak with Cherry Tomato Caprese Salsa, and oh my goodness it was DELICIOUS! I cannot stand to eat steak these days, but this was an exception! I could also see using the same marinade recipe for chicken and having Trav grill the chicken. Anyway, I'll be making some version of this again for sure! 

Also: I am not a food photographer. Obvi.

2. We also celebrated Trav's birthday by singing to him (Ella insisted) and giving him a new baseball hat and tickets to a baseball game!

You know I love a good theme, so I attempted to make him a baseball cake as well. It was somewhat of a disaster, but Lucas keeps eyeing it on the counter and saying "BEE-BALL!" so I'll call that a win.

3. Last Sunday was Ella's dance recital and oh my goodness, was it precious!

Her tap dance was to "I Like to Move It, Move It," which was hilarious, while her ballet number was "You Are My Sunshine," which made me ball my eyes out. (Also, let's not even talk about another dance that was not even Ella's class that made me cry! The pregnancy hormones are real over here, friends.)

She was not nervous at all, and loved being on the stage! We are so proud of our little dancer!

4. Also on Sunday...we found a mouse in our house! AHHHH!!!! Trav had spotted one the day before we left for the beach, so we set out mouse traps while we were at the beach. Well, we didn't catch anybody and just were just kind of hoping the mouse ran away (Ha! Wishful thinking). My kids were eating breakfast Sunday morning and Ella said, "Look! A mouse!!!" and I promptly screamed my head off and sprinted upstairs, leaving my kids in the kitchen with the mouse. #momoftheyear 

I DON'T LIKE MICE, OK?! I am seriously TERRIFIED of them!!!!! Had I been about 12 more week pregnant, this mouse would have put me into labor, no lie. Anyway, Trav was running on the treadmill, heard me screaming, came down and was my hero forever and ever. He put the mouse in a shoebox, took it outside and let it go wayyyyy in the very back of our backyard. I still have PTSD from this whole thing, and my throat hurt from screaming for a few days, not even kidding!

5. Moving on! I finished a really good book while we were at the beach!

I feel like everyone has been talking about this book, but I promise it lives up to the hype! Girl, Wash Your Face was not only funny but super relatable (I think the author and I are around the same age) and I wanted to highlight or take pictures of basically something on every page. I highly recommend it...and thank you, Kathryn, for buying it for me!! :) 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!! 

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10 Go-To Meals

I've been following along with Emily Ley's Simplicity Challenge on Instagram this month. Every day she posts a quick 15 minute FREE activity to do to simplify your life! Last week, one of the challenges was to make a list of 10 go-to meals for simple meal planning. 

I don't know if my list is worth sharing, but if nothing else, this is post for me to refer back to when I can't think of what to make for dinner!!

1. Thai Chicken Enchiladas

This is pretty much the only recipe that Trav requests by name. I make them every year for Selection Sunday in March, but I feel like we should be eating them more regularly than that. They are SO good.

2. Spicy California Shrimp Stack

I discovered these when I was pregnant with Lucas and craving sushi. These are just as good as the real deal, pregnant or not!!

3. Buffalo Chicken Soup

Every Sunday in the fall, I make a soup, and this one is by far my favorite!!!

4. Garlic Shrimp in Coconut Milk, Tomatoes and Cilantro

This is crazy easy, quick and it is SOOOO delicious.

5. Avocado and Lump Crab Salad

This is perfect for the summer, especially when it's too hot to actually turn the oven on. 

6. Spaghetti Bolognese

This is my go-to pre-race meal. I swear it helps me run fast! 

7. Tri-Color Stuffed Peppers

We randomly found this recipe on the back of a bag of Kraft cheese, and it's honestly my favorite stuffed pepper recipe. It's pretty basic, but I do swap out the veggie crumbles and use ground turkey instead.

8. Sweet and Fiery Pork Tenderloin with Mango Salsa

My favorite way to prepare pork tenderloin! This has so much flavor. Trav is not a fan of the mango salsa (he doesn't really like fruit with his meals), but I love it!

9. Crock Pot Picadillo

This makes a TON. You can eat it with rice, use for tacos, put on a salad...it has a distinct flavor that I like much better than regular taco meat. 

10. Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas

My friend Rachel brought us this for dinner when Lucas was born, and it is the BEST meal to take a family! It's super easy to prep and make ahead, and who doesn't like fajitas?! 

There you have it....10 things that even I can make (I'm such a bad cook)! If you have any good go-to recipes, please share!!!

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Five on Friday!

Happy Friday!! 

1. We got SO much SNOW here on Wednesday!!

I was expecting a dusting, if anything, so we were all so surprised when it kept snowing and snowing and snowing all day Wednesday!!!! 

The kids had an absolute blast the 140 times we went out in the snow. But now that we've had one big snow, I'm ready for it to be gone and spring to arrive!! 

2. This big guys is 20 months old today!!

How we are only 4 months away from his second birthday is beyond me. He loves dogs, books, Paw Patrol and any kind of sports/balls. If I ask him what he wants to wear in the morning, he goes to the sports jersey section of his closet and says, "Ball!" He is so funny....nice try buddy, but I get a few more years of you in smocked clothes before you convert to all athletic apparel!

3. Speaking of cute, non-athletic clothing...the Shrimp and Grits Kids Spring 2018 collection is here!!! And I am obsessed with it. 

My kids went over to our local rep's house to try on a few things a few weeks ago, and I want it all!!

{Shrimp Boat Shortall & Rainbow Scallop Dress}

{Shem Creek Crab Shortall}

{Birdie Golf Shift Dress}

{Sailor James Bubble...I could have literally eaten Lucas up with a spoon while he had this on! 😍}

{Magnolia Eyelet Dress}

{Pink Eyelet Top & Rose Bud Bubble Shorts}

Stuff is selling out super quick, so I went ahead and ordered the golf dress and jon jon for my kids before those were gone! If you'd like to order something, just let me know and I can get you free shipping! :) Or put in my code 70024 at checkout!

4. I finished another book!! 

I flew through The Husband's Secret...it was SO good!! I highly recommend, especially if you liked Big Little Lies (same author) like I did!

5. My friends Dana sent me this soup recipe forever ago and I finally got around to making it on our snow day!

Cheesy Taco Soup from Iowa Girl Eats

It was the perfect snow day meal! Super quick and easy, but it warmed me right up! Definitely making this again!

Also, I need to mention that today is my grandpa's birthday!!! He and my grandma occasionally read here (they're cool!), so Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

5 on Friday

Happy Friday, friends! I am so glad to see this week come to an end...it has been a doozy!

1. I almost burnt my house down on Monday. No, really. My friend came over to borrow some of Ella's old clothes from her 24 month/2T bin. Lucas kept trying to get into it, so finally I just put it on top of my stove (dumb) before we headed out the door to get Ella from preschool. We were gone only about 20 minutes, but when we got back from preschool pickup, our entire downstairs was filled with smoke. Apparently, somehow one of the burners had gotten turned on (I don't know if I bumped it, or Lucas was messing with it?), and smoke was pouring out of the tub of Ella's old clothes. I immediately took the tub and ran outside with it. It was still smoking, and I noticed little embers on the clothes, so I poured a bunch of water in the tub. Ella's clothes are now totally ruined.

The shirt she wore to the hospital to meet Lucas....some smocked dresses that I wore back in the 80s....some of my favorite Lilly print dresses. All totally singed and destroyed. I could just CRY. 

But I am so grateful that it wasn't worse. Our house smelled like burnt plastic for a day or 2, but my stove was not messed up and I still have all my other bins of clothes safely in the attic :) 

2. Once my stove recovered from the fire of 2018 (which wasn't even a fire but just a bunch of smoke), I actually managed to whip up 2 new recipes this week! They were both really good, so I thought I'd share!

Vodka Sauce Chicken Zucchini Noodles

(After the week I'd been having, I may or may not have been tempted to take a shot--or 5--of the vodka before pouring it in for the sauce)

Sheet Pan Balsamic-Herb Chicken and Vegetables

(This couldn't have been easier and my kids actually ate some of it!)

3. I finished my first book of 2018 last week: Present Over Perfect

Honestly, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I had pretty high expectations going in, but I thought she was going to explain more of how to get a simpler, more soulful life....instead it was just a bunch of essays about her journey. I guess I should have read the book description more closely?

Anyway, I'm halfway through book #2...The Husband's Secret...and oh my goodness, it is GOOD. I can't put it down! 

I also joined GoodReads (thanks, Rachel!) so find me on there and give me book suggestions! :)

4. Lucas, Lucas, Lucas. This boy keeps me on my toes, y'all. He was watching Paw Patrol in my bedroom while I was putting on makeup (it's the one thing that holds his attention for more than .3 seconds). I decided to quickly run downstairs to throw in a load of laundry while he was occupied. I came back upstairs from the laundry room, to find Lucas no longer watching Paw Patrol. He had snuck into my bathroom, pulled himself INTO the bathtub, turned the water on, and was just having a grand old time. With his clothes on. 

Eiyiyi. This boy. 

5. Surely this yucky week will be turning itself around today because a) one of my best friends is supposed to be having her baby SO SOON! and b) I get to meet Emily Ley tonight! She is going to be at Swoozie's for a book signing and I am so excited to see her!

If you're not familiar, Emily makes planners and writes books about simplifying your life.

I recently organized the apps on my phone by color, per her recommendation and it makes me alarmingly happy. 

Hope you all have had a better week than me!! Cheers to the weekend!
(And don't put large plastic bins on your stove.) 

Whole 30: I Survived!

Last Tuesday, I finished the Whole 30 challenge! If you are not familiar with Whole 30, it is an elimination diet where you remove all alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy, added sugar and sulfites from your diet for 30 days. You can read more about it here.

WHY would I do this to myself?
Basically I needed a big time detox after we got back from Las Vegas. I was in Vegas drinking mojitos from sunup to sundown (I promise I'm not an alcoholic!). I also got into some bad, bad habits when I was pregnant and nursing, where I would eat TONS of carbs and sugar (I'm talking 4 packs of stevia per cup of coffee, bowls of Cocoa Krispies after lunch and dinner, huge plates of pasta with no meat/protein...). I definitely needed a reset and I was hoping this would help me get back to healthier eating. I was also hoping Whole 30 would help my knees and hips ache less (from running) and improve my energy levels.

What happened:
I did lose about 6 pounds over the 30 days, which I was really surprised about when I weighed myself last week! (You're not supposed to weigh yourself during the 30 days, so that's why I really had no clue.) Other than that though, I really didn't notice any drastic changes. I didn't feel less bloated, I didn't feel like my energy levels increased (in fact, I feel like they decreased because I was drinking less coffee....whoever thinks you can get used to drinking your coffee black is lying!), my skin broke out more than ever and my hips and knees still hurt from running. I also was majorly grumpy the majority of the 30 days, and still had an occasional upset stomach (I have a very sensitive stomach and get IBS-type pains a lot).

So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Whole 30 is not for me. I honestly don't think I will do it again. If you're into Whole 30, that's awesome! I'm just not a fan of it for myself. Life's too short for me to be drinking black coffee and avoiding foods that are everywhere!

If you are curious, though, here's a look at what I ate for 30 days:

WEEK ONE

For breakfast, I thought maybe a Larabar would cut it (I don't normally eat big breakfasts), but I was starving by like 10 AM. So I made these egg muffins and they did a great job of holding me over till lunchtime.

Lunches:

I made big batches of salads to last me a few days.

Taco Salad

Broccoli Salad

Asian Chicken Chopped Salad

Dinners:

Jerk Chicken & Mango Avocado Salsa

Paleo Pizza Potato Skins

Jalapeno Turkey Burgers
Trav ended up grilling these for us and they were delish!

Firecracker Pineapple Chicken
This is where the recipes started to fall apart on me. This was disappointing dish #1. 

Baked Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
These were also really gross.

Week 1 was definitely the hardest. I was constantly hungry, peeing all the time, exhausted, nauseous, bloated, SUPER moody (my poor family!), had frequent headaches and running was the hardest thing in the world. Basically, I felt like I was 6 weeks pregnant (I promise I'm not...I can't imagine doing Whole 30 pregnant)! 

WEEK 2

Lunches:

Fiesta Chicken Salad

Cauliflower Rice Tabouleh
I became obsessed with this! I will probably make it again, not on Whole 30.

Dinners:

All of the dinners this week were just ehhh. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

Slow Cooker Creamy Southwest Chicken

Paleo Shrimp and Grits

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Greek Chicken Skillet

WEEK 3:

Lunches:

Thai Chicken Chopped Salad

I also repeated the Asian Chicken Chopped Salad and Cauliflower Rice Tabouleh from the last 2 weeks. 

Dinners:

This week's dinners were flat out AWFUL!

Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

This was decent...but it was basically like a baked potato that you would get from Wendy's, so not entirely sure how healthy this is?!

Thai Chicken Sweet Potato Flatbread
This tasted like crap.

Orange Chicken
This was so bad, I ended up crying after eating it! I was totally over Whole 30 the day we had this; I was so sick of eating crappy food! 

Egg Roll in a Bowl (different recipe than last week's)
This was by far the best thing we had all week. 

Lemon Chicken with Asparagus
This was ok...I finally figured out that the almond/coconut/tapioca flours was making all of these previous dishes taste like the meat was rolled around in dirt. So, I skipped coating the chicken in the tapioca flour this time and it definitely made it more edible!

WEEK 4 (+ LAST 2 DAYS)

Lunch:

Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad

And then I ate that Cauliflower Rice Tabouleh for the rest of the week because I got lazy and didn't want to try another salad.

Dinners:

Now that I had finally figured out that all of the "fake" flours were messing up some otherwise delicious meals, I avoided them at all costs. I also stopped searching Whole 30 specific meals, and ended up finding some really good things that were still compatible!
All of the dinners we had this last week were actually really good!

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Tuscan Pork Loin

Chicken Puttanesca

Korean Beef Bowls

Roasted Chicken Legs with Potatoes and Kale

So there you have it. An interesting 30 days of eating super clean and healthy. But as I sit here eating my turkey sandwich and drinking my coffee (with creamer!), I can honestly say I am much happier eating whatever I want in moderation. I think those last 2 words are the key!
To reward myself for surviving the Whole 30, I got an Instant Pot (thanks to my in-laws for the Amazon gift card for my birthday!). If you have any good (not Whole 30!) instant pot recipes, please share!!!

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