Just add water

It’s really that simple.  To make bone broth all you need is bones and water.  I went to the meat counter at my grocery store this morning because I didn’t see any bones on the shelves.  Not all grocery stores do anyway.  I asked, he delivered!  He went in the back where all the bones were and cut one in half so if fits in my pot.

The best part is that it cost less than $4.00!

I get an ENTIRE pot of bone broth for less than $4.00!

I had some carrots and onions at home so I just cut them in half and put them in the pot with a splash of vinegar.  2 hours later my house is smelling fantastic!

“Vinegar?!” you say.  Yes vinegar. Using an acid, like vinegar, helps break down the collagen and connective tissues.

Bone Broth is all the rage right now for their health benefits: from weight loss, joint health and improving their skin.   Personally, I’m going to joint health and improving my skin but if I lose some weight in the mine-toon, I won’t complain.

Once this is done, I fill up a Pendleton mug and sprinkle a dash of “Slap Ya Mama” seasoning on top.  Voila!  A spicy hug in a mug.

Now get your cauldron out and start boiling!  You can thank me later.

Happy Halloween!

 

Elbow Drippin’ Good

We went peach pickin!  Last time I went, I was wearing the little man.  So that means, 3 years ago.  Too long.  I had wanted to go earlier this year but patience is virtue.  If you go too soon, they are hard and, well, dry.  Wait until later in the season and they are plump, ripe and juicy!

This trip wasn’t planned honestly.  It’s not often I plan anything really.  I never know what mood the little dude will be in.  I never know what mood *I* will be in.  And my tip to parents everywhere, never, EVER, tell your kid what your plans are.  Oh dear me.  Keep it a surprise.  I cannot tell you how many times I told B where we were going and then it was either cancelled or a change of plans.  He doesn’t understand what a “change of plans” means.

I also made the mistake of tell him last week that I signed him up for soccer which starts on 9/15.  Nope.  He wants to go now.  Right now.  So until he has a better grip on time and the calendar, everything is a surprise or an adventure.

So back to the peaches……

Been Pinteresting some recipes and am super excited.  I don’t have enough to play with the whole canning and freezing thing.  (I kick myself in the butt everyday for not wanting to learn from my Daddy)  Choices are grilled peaches, peach salsa and peach pizza.  Stay tuned…..

 

 

Golden Milk and Zucchini Boats…but not together

It’s getting chilly!  I know summer isn’t over yet and I expect it to heat up again but I’m enjoying it while it lasts.  It’s tricky this time of year; you whip out your favorite sweatpants in the morning but you run the risk of being a bit overdressed when it heats up around lunchtime.

We’ve been hitting up as many farmers markets as we can lately.  Food inspiration for me and games for the little dude.  I have been craving beets but haven’t seen them anywhere.  Must not be in season yet.  Next on my crave list was zucchini boats.

 

Not too shabby.  Not too shabby at all.  I had a few vegetables I needed to clean out of the fridge before they went bad so I sautéed some onion, garlic, yellow pepper and mushroom.  Added some ground chicken, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Filled each “boat” then topped with cheese. 400* for 30 minutes.

On mine I added avocado and salsa right before I served it.  The little guy got picky and refused to eat it.  I managed to convince him to at least eat the middle part.  He eats plenty of veggies, needed to get some more protein in him.

I’m happy.  It’s not often I perfect a recipe but I did.  I made the most fantastic Golden Milk.  And it’s not putting a dent in my macros either.

Heat on the stove; 2 C of almond milk, 1.4 tsp turmeric, 1 T honey, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp vanilla extract.

And serve.

Oh my.  Only downside of this is that I drink it too fast.  Next up, Pumpkin Spice Golden Milk.

Everyone knows the benefits of working out; cardiovascular health, weight loss, reduced stress levels….etc etc.  You’ve heard it over and over.  I actually see it as more than just the obvious.

Writers block at work?  Go workout.

Cant stop snacking? (for those that work from home)  Go workout.

Restless?  Go workout.

Time to kill between meetings and don’t want to do housework?  Go workout.

Upset?  Go workout.

Stuck on a problem?  Go workout.

I’m in marketing and anytime I’m stuck on a problem, need ideas or get my creative juices flowing; I go work out.  (ideas actually come to me in the shower too)

If I ever owned a business, or at least managed one, I would probably replace one of the conference room tables with treadmills.

Now time to put on my mommy hat.  Make breakfast, pack a lunch and get this little man to school.  Happy Fri-YAY!

 

 

 

Don’t knock my eggs…

Remember in “Forest Gump” when they went on and on and on about things you can do with shrimp?  I think the exact same thing applies to eggs.  You’ve got hard boiled, scrambled, fried (sunny side up, over easy or over hard) or poached.  Heck, you can be one of those crazies that adds a raw egg to their smoothie.

You can mix ’em with a few ingredients and make cake or cookies, a hollandaise sauce, mayonnaise, Instead of alfredo, you can add an egg directly to hot pasta and toss with parmesan to make it creamy.  They are so versatile!

My favorite way to eat them will get a double-take.  Bear with me.

Scrambled egg white (with NO seasoning) on top of a sweet rice cake with peanut butter.  Why does it work?  Because egg whites are a blank canvas.  They can go either way; sweet or savory.

Don’t knock it til you try it.

Beach Days and Pizza Nights

Been having a little more fun in the kitchen lately.  I don’t know if it’s the house, the town or what but I hope it stays this way!  Many people want more money for travel, clothes, and nice things. I want more money to experience different foods!

(Let this serve as a reminder to pick back up on planning my food/running centric 40th birthday trip)

After we had an last minute beach day, because the “Jar of Happy” told us to.  (That’s the next post)  We headed home and I made portabella pizzas.  Not because I’m low carb or anything but because I saw some beautiful portabellas in the store and it was the first thing I thought to do with it.

This here is the recipe I followed.  https://cafedelites.com/portobello-pizzas/ Because I give credit where credit is due

Seriously, who doesn’t love a 10 minute dinner?  15 TOPS when you include prep.  This easily fit my macros including the one that my son didn’t eat.  What did I expect?  The kid loves pizza and who am I to mess with it?  If it’s not on crust, he doesn’t touch it.

More for me!

(Still) Alive and Kickin’

Well hello!

Yes I’m still very much alive. VERY much alive.  My little dude wants my undivided attention most of the time and when I’m not with him, I’m at work.  So basically, I’m indisposed 24 hours a day.  So busy that I haven’t even stripped the pee-soaked sheets off the bed yet.  However, I could be changing those sheets rather than blogging….which would you choose? I’ll get to it some time today.

(…..8-hours-and-sheets-laundry-dishes-grocery-shopping-and-B-at-the-neighbors-for-a-playdate-later…..)

Lately neither one of us has been very impressed with the food around here.  I can’t blame him for not wanting dinner when I don’t want it either.  I admit it, I eat too healthy, don’t salt my dishes enough…..my stuff is just plain boring.  Pinterest came to the rescue!  I needed something fast and delicious and that is what I got.

Creamy Salsa Verde Chicken foil pack.

I followed the recipe close enough. First off, I skipped the rice.  Not to cut calories or anything but quite frankly, I’m not a fan of rice.  I’m only a fan of it when it’s in my sushi.

Since I skipped the rice, I didn’t think I had to follow the weight of the chicken and cooking time so closely….and for once I was correct!  Given my track record with straying from a recipe when cooking, I was expecting a disaster.  Never happened.  *happy dance*

No rice, huge 11 oz pieces of chicken, sealed in the packet (with all listed ingredients) and cook for 40 minutes at 400*.

Holy crap this was good.  Why B wasn’t as crazy about it as I was blows me away.  Sometimes I think he doesn’t have taste buds.  Long story short, I ate almost all of it.  In 3 sittings.  *burp*

I MUST add that I was able to fit half a foil pack in my macros for dinner.  SCORE!

I used to have 2 desks in my home office and since becoming a Ma, my office now serves as my office/play room. No room for that 2nd table anymore.  So the hubs sawed the legs off the table to make it short enough to B.  A simple fix makes my man a genius.  I never would have thought to do that.  (Husband needs to be on flea market flip?)

Of course the table is mostly used as a step stool to get up in the bay window.  Not my favorite but I let him every once in awhile when I’m in the room.  Plus, how adorable does he look watching his daddy work on the truck??

 

My latest hobby is making to-do lists.  I love that satisfied feeling you get when you mark something off your list (and pray it doesn’t make its way back on).  I even enjoy buying the cute paper I write my to-do list on!  There is NO way I can function without it and anyone who says they can is lying.  Or sans kids.

Speaking of which, need to get started on that list.  Just crossed off number 1; “drink coffee”.

 

 

Homemade minty butt paste

So I found some no-no foods that hard way….with a major MAJOR diaper rash. I felt horrible for the little dude. He was even walking funny.  On top of that, he was trying so hard to keep having fun and playing even though his butt was hurting so bad.

So we let him run around the house diaper free.  How much worse can it be than having a puppy?  He only peed on the floor a handful of times. And he was such a good sport about it that he helped me clean it up.   *swoon*

So while I was trying everything under the moon to help him feel better, I ended up calling the doctor.  For the first time, coconut oil wasn’t the answer.  Desitin wasn’t exactly doing the trick either.  So our lovely nurse told us to mix Aquaphor with Maalox.  Say wha?

Long story short, I use this and only this from now on.  I have bought a jug of aquaphor and have pre-mixed several containers; 1 for home and 2 for daycare.

My son’s butt now smells like mint.

How *I* make a lemon zinger

I was talking to my mamma last night.  She thinks she is coming down with a cold….which means I’m going to make me a lemon zinger to help her feel better.  Yeah, I’m like that.

So here is how it goes……

Pour lemon juice in a cup
Walk to water jug for hot water
See the pellet stove is running out so fill with pellets
Head back to water jug
Pour hot water in mug with lemon juice
Water runs out
Remove empty jug to replace
See dog peed on the floor
Clean dog pee and throw soiled paper towels outside

……what was I doing again??

Run downstairs and get fresh jug of water
Finish pouring hot water in mug with lemon juice
Add Tablespoon of honey
Add 2, and I mean LITERALLY TWO, red pepper flakes

Enjoy 🙂

Hope you are feeling better mamma!

 

The deets on roasted beets

Every so often I will buy something out of the ordinary in the produce section.  It’s not always delicious but it keeps things fun in the kitchen.  So when I saw these beautiful beets at the grocery store I jumped at it.  This past summer I was eating them fresh from my father’s garden and man were they good!  Growing up, the only way I would eat them was pickled.  I guess I had to wait quarter of a century for my tastes to mature because now I’m obsessed with them roasted.

The beauty of it is that it’s so simple.  Wash off the beet, wrap in foil and put in a 400* oven for 100 minutes.

Now before you roll your eyes, I realize that 100 minutes is too long but that’s what it took before I could easily insert a knife.  I was told that I could cut them in half and they would be done in 15 minutes but I’ll try that next time.  In case you haven’t figured it out yet, these were large beets.

Once they are done, peel the skin off and cut them however big (or small) you want.  Toss them on a salad. Eat them plain.  Eat them with butter and salt. I don’t care how you eat then, just eat them.  And yes your poop will look like blood.

Doesn’t this look like guava paste?

Winter Storm, Food and Play-Do

With Winter Storm Jonas on the way, with any storm on the way for that matter, I always feel like cooking up a storm. (yes, pun intended)  Not that I thought we would get hit hard.  In fact, when all was said and done, we only got 3 inches.

Back to food.

I had everything I needed for this Thai cabbage and beef dish.  I have been craving Thai food lately so though, why not?  It turned out pretty good!

In this instance, I used about 5# of 80/20 beef, cumin instead of turmeric, onion instead of shallots and no peanuts.  (all spices were doubled)  I’d make it again.  Can’t say that B liked it but I didn’t expect him to.  He’s going through a picky eating stage.  I hope it doesn’t last long.  For this dish, I just put some in a bowl with avocado on top.   Simple and delicious.  Another version of a garbage plate I guess.

3 days later, it’s almost gone.

Like I said, I didn’t expect Jonas to hit us so I made my way to the gym.  Today I did my own programming because Outlaw hadn’t posted in a few days.  From one blogger to another, I completely understand.  🙂  It’s hard to keep up everyday.

Then my girl showed up so we did the last part of the WOD together.  Not for time though. She’s just getting back into it so if I push her too hard, I’ll never see her again!

One of B’s favorite toys right now is Play-Do.  Granted, he is mainly either throwing it across the room or eating it.  Which is why you will find me playing with him so he can learn just what exactly he is supposed to be doing.

As any fellow mother will agree, you need to pick your battles.  When we were leaving to head to the gym, B just had to take his play-do with him. I don’t prefer to bring his toys to any daycare because then we will never see them again.  On the flip side, he has a TON of it.  So instead of dealing with a meltdown when I took the play-do away, I just let him bring it with him.

Picking him up from daycare at the gym, I noticed this on the bottom of his shoe.  Play-Do. I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is the worst!  Now I have to use a butter knife and an old toothbrush to clean it.  Not how I want to spend my evening.

Anyone have any tricks up their sleeve?