Meal Pinning Monday

September 28, 2015

Today is the last Meal Pinning Monday for the next month! 

31 Days starts Thursday and this years topic is Semi Crunchy, I'll explain more on that Thursday though. 


 


[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]
MPM is how I meal plan for our little family. I once spent a lot of time searching the web and my recipe books hunting for new recipes and ideas for what to cook every week. Then, Pinterest came along and made meal planning much easier for me. Every weekend I look over what I have pinned the prior week and decide what I would like to cook and make my grocery list from these recipes. MPM came about as a way to share what I am cooking, and to also see what others are cooking every week to hopefully get even more dinner ideas from other bloggers. If you don't pin your recipes feel free to just share what you are cooking.

Monday - MIni Meatloaves with Mash Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday - All Day Frittata

Wednesday - Dinner at La Church! 

Thursday - Leftovers (because life has to be easy on life group nights)

Friday - date night

Saturday - Buffalo Chicken Salad

Sunday - Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders with Honey Mustard and Oven Fries

Breakfast - Paleo Bowl

Lunch - 2 hard boiled eggs, Sweet Potato, & Whole30 Sausage
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TGIF

September 25, 2015

Hi blog,

It's me, Emily.

Let's get this party started before someone sends out a missing person report on this blog.


\This week someone, who's smaller than everyone else but shall remain nameless, decided to make some grand attempt at reverse cycling. 

If you're from my mother's breastfeeding generation, that was called night nursing. 

It's just a fun way of saying "This child has gone bonkers and is trying to make up calories during the night!"

I've come to the conclusion that if a certain amount of fluids are not consumed before 3pm all heck breaks lose. My supply drops, because said nameless human doesn't eat as much. I get less sleep because low and behold he wants to eat... just not at the appropriate time. 

His preferred freak out from food has been roughly 5 minutes after I finished night pumping. 

Lovely, right? 

Well last night I got a break and snoozed until 4:30 am, which on one hand is great and the other is awful. While I'm ecstatic for the rest, I then woke up to a crying baby and realized I never pumped. So I pumped... and he had to be put off by Daddy for a hot second. 

Somehow with the extra sleep (if you wanna call it that) I had the energy to workout...we'll see how that's panning out come 5 this evening. 


In other child related news...

Baby Led Weaning is so amazing! 

H had chicken, broccoli, and sweet potatoes this week and devoured the chicken and broccoli. When we had the leftovers last night he demolished some chicken once again. 


What's everyone thinking about the new iPhone update?

It's coming off a little stalker to me. 

It knew Wednesday night I was headed to a certain street, but didn't identify it as church. Yesterday morning though... it said work. 

Leaving work it said "home." 

On the upside I now know it takes 26 minutes to get to work and can plan accordingly. 


After our recent church renovations the cry/nursing room hasn't had the sound hooked back up, so every week when I leave mid service to feed people (because at this point I'm sympathizing with dairy cows being hooked up to contraptions) Jeremy has to finish my notes. 

And finish my notes he does. 

Sometimes not correctly, but he says what I think I needed to hear in a sermon. 

Sadly his persistent sin in his life has been lying on church bulletins. I just don't know who would ever peg me for someone who would argue?!?


30 be creeping up and I ain't playing that! 

Especially the part where the baby weight ain't budging, wearing makeup looks like someone who isn't wearing makeup, and the creases or "let's see if more night cream will get rid of those wrinkles."

Nearly not 29 year old Emily knows that tanning is bad, and therefore is pasty white. 

Nearly not 29 year old Emily also doesn't like it when kids says I never wear makeup (because the day I cut my bangs those little boys thought I was wearing mascara.. umm no that's not the new part) when clearly I'm wearing it... or just spending time every morning to look as though I'm not wearing it. 

But... nearly not 29 year old Emily loves it when we get to wear workout clothing to work! 

Happy nearly weekend people!! 
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Meal Pinning Monday

September 21, 2015

I don't even know what to say here. 

It's fall, it isn''t. 

I just need it to get cold enough that fall food is generally acceptable in my life. Jeremy is currently blaming my need for Cracker Barrel on the fact that fall was kinda here and then kinda left. 

By the way... don't forget to enter the Spartan Race Giveaway


 


[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]
MPM is how I meal plan for our little family. I once spent a lot of time searching the web and my recipe books hunting for new recipes and ideas for what to cook every week. Then, Pinterest came along and made meal planning much easier for me. Every weekend I look over what I have pinned the prior week and decide what I would like to cook and make my grocery list from these recipes. MPM came about as a way to share what I am cooking, and to also see what others are cooking every week to hopefully get even more dinner ideas from other bloggers. If you don't pin your recipes feel free to just share what you are cooking.

Monday - Slow Roasted Pork with Brussel Sprouts (totally forgot to make the mayo that went with it)

Tuesday - Chicken Broccoli Bake

Wednesday - Dinner at Church before bible study:)

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Pioneer Woman French Dip Sandwiches

Saturday - leftovers

Sunday - Grilled Chicken Legs with Honey Mustard & Oven Fries


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Easy Whole Wheat Challah

September 17, 2015

There isn't really much to say about this bread. 

It's amazingly good. 

The uncooked dough smells so good I'd like it to be the next Scentsy flavor. 

I ate the rest of it for breakfast with ghee this morning on the way to work. 

Hopefully that sums up how much I loved it?


The original recipe was much faster moving from start to eating, 
but I got started on this before work and let it rise all day. 

It just wasn't in the books for me to do this before dinner, 
we can't eat dinner at 8pm because I let bread rise all evening. 

Making this before work though, it worked out just fine. 


Easy Whole Wheat Challah

Ingredients::
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 package dry yeast
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup warm water (very warm from the tap)

Glaze - 1 egg beaten & poppy seeds

Directions::
Measure out all ingredients first. Combine whole wheat and all purpose together in the same bowl when measuring. (all whole wheat would make the bread extremely dense in my opinion)

From the sugar combine 1 tbsp of sugar with the yeast and warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let sit between 5-10 minutes until foamy. 

After the yeast is dissolved and foamy add the rest of the sugar, salt, and 1 3/4 cup of the flour, mix well either by hand or using a stand mixer with a bread hook. (I used the hook)

Add the egg and oil. 

Slowly start mixing in most of the remaining flour, the dough will become very thick. When the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead from 5-10 minutes. (I only had time to knead for 5 but 10 would give the gluten a chance to work its magic better)

Be sure to only add enough additional flour to make the dough manageable. (I ended up not using all of my initial flour before it pulled away from the sides of the bowl and used what was left to flour my counter, in the end I still had a bit left on the counter)

Place the dough in a large oiled bowl turn to get oil on all sides. Cover with a damp towel and allow to sit for at least two hours. (I let mine sit for 10 while I was at work and it was totally fine, this could also work overnight in the fridge. I would have liked to punch it down a few times but I wasn't home to do so) If you have time and want a bit faster route you can punch the dough down a few times and only allow it to sit 2 hours. 

When you are ready to form your dough turn it out onto your floured work surface. 

Divide it into 3 equal parts. Roll into long snake like pieces and begin braiding. From here you can either choose to get fancy with your braid and YouTube a tutorial, or go my route and make a basic braid. 

Transfer onto a parchment lined baking sheet and allow to rise for 30 minutes in a warm area (I let it sit on the counter near the oven while I prepared the rest of dinner). Before baking brush the top with your beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds. 

Preheat oven to 375. 

Bake for 25 minutes

After 25 minutes turn off oven and allow bread to stay in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

Serve!


I have grand plans of making a few of these over the holidays, maybe with cinnamon and another with Nutella. 

And then making french toast with them! 


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I Heart Pinterest Wednesday

September 16, 2015

It appears there has been relief from sick baby land. 

Which means Mama got time to blog. 

She also got a lunch date thanks to Granddaddy and Gigi, which made her feel like a new woman this week! But let's not talk in third person this entire post! 

Fall is upon us, which means it got lower than 80 one day in September in South Louisiana! I'm in love with this outfit as a fun transition piece, #whitejeansallyear! (well at least when mine start fitting again)


 This dish just screams fall to me. 
French Beef & Red Wine Stew. 
It shall be on the fall dinner rotation.

Jeremy bought me a giant plaid scarf that I lived in last winter. 
Now all I need is a good black tshirt and I'm belting that puppy and wearing it with jeans. 
Actually I also want some black jeans. 

This Halloween costume is to DIE for! If you've seen me in public since March you've probably seen me wearing Harrison. This particular get-up would be great for Trunk R Treat, especially if it's cold.

Also in the land of blanket scarfs - here's a great tutorial for how to make one. 
I'll be making one.
Or three.

Now this is an item I'll be scouring the thrift stores for - L.L.Bean Boots. 
They just seem like the perfect winter casual boot, especially for all the rain down here!

 Pumpkin Cheesecake, need I say more?

I'm still desperately needing to make some pumpkin butter this fall. That on toast, or put in between layers of phyllo dough as a mock Toaster Strudel just seem like a divine way to kick off the most wonderful time of the year!
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Fittest Bride & Spartan Giveaway

September 15, 2015

A few years ago I was able to get acquainted with the beautiful Riverside Farm in Vermont, which is known for beautiful weddings, and partner with them to giveaway a weekend getaway to their lovely bed and breakfast.


I was contacted recently about something our family personally enjoys, races. Marathons for my hubby & 5ks for me typically... but in the past few years he's gotten into good ole muddy courses like Spartan. So when I heard Spartan was partnering with Riverside Farm for a race and it was going to be for brides I had to jump on and share it with y'all!



So here's what's going down - 


  • Spartan Racing will have a race at Riverside Farm in Vermont the weekend of October 17-18, 2015.
  • The first 15 brides to sign up for the race will get free lodging at the Farm that weekend!
  • Spartan Fittest Bride Challenge will take place on Sunday the 18th
  • Fastest time up and down the mountain course wins the event
  • The contest will be filmed and televised
  • Max of 100 contestants to compete!
  • Contestant must be formally engaged or planning to wed Summer of '16
The grand prize winner will receive a reception for up to 100 guests at Riverside Farm, reception will be held at their classic Brown Barn on a Saturday night, party will also include gourmet cuisine for the guests. There is also free lodging for Bride & Groom as well as 6 guests -  all coordination by Riverside staff - & dates are subject to availability. 


If you're looking to enter (this would make an amazing destination wedding!) you can enter [here]

I swear if we were engaged I'd be working my tail off to win this race! 

Now what's in it for my lovely reader friends? 


Spartan Racing is giving away a code good for a free race (open heat with non-confirmed start time) in any Spartan Race in the continental US. 

Man, woman, bride, or been a long time since you got married can win a free race with Spartan, just help us spread the word about the Fittest Bride Challenge! 



Giveaway ends September 29, 2015 @ 6am.

I was in no way compensated for this giveaway, I just wanted to offer it because I knew my readers would love to win a free face!! 
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Meal Pinning Monday

September 14, 2015

It's almost fall. 

Like we are just on the verge of happy temperatures around.

So I'm making chili this week, because it's obviously going to convince the weather to turn cold and what not. 

Also, all the recipes are paleo this week, in case you were wondering. I also got sucked into the Our Paleo Life blog and every single recipe is coming from there!


 

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]
MPM is how I meal plan for our little family. I once spent a lot of time searching the web and my recipe books hunting for new recipes and ideas for what to cook every week. Then, Pinterest came along and made meal planning much easier for me. Every weekend I look over what I have pinned the prior week and decide what I would like to cook and make my grocery list from these recipes. MPM came about as a way to share what I am cooking, and to also see what others are cooking every week to hopefully get even more dinner ideas from other bloggers. If you don't pin your recipes feel free to just share what you are cooking.

Monday - Beefy Ratatouille

Tuesday - Bacon Bison Chili (but with beef)

Wednesday - dinner @ church

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - eating out

Saturday - Sweet Potato Souffle, Eggs & Bacon...and probably grits

Sunday - Chicken Bacon Ranch Skillet with Roasted Potatoes

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Part Time Pumping Full Time Tired

September 11, 2015

You've probably (or more than likely been just as insanely busy as I have been and haven't) noticed that I've been awfully blog silent this week. 
 After the baby cold to end all breathing we found the small child version of my "almost had to go to the hospital for a virus at 9 months pregnant" virus. 

It was quite the opposite of lovely. 
 That then led into the phase this week I'll be referring to as "Oh you thought you wanted more kids?" Some people might call this teething. 
 I'm assuming teething is supposed to do one of a few things:
 1. prevent parents from having children too close together. About time you want another one, possibly a dozen, this nonsense starts. I told several church friends last night 
that if they walked off with him they may not come back to find me around. It was a "finder's keeper's" situation. 
 2. give us an Earthly representation of what separation from God will be like in hell. I'm quite poisitive this is one of the big one, teething alone should have people flocking
to God. Hell is obviously going to be full of teething. 
 3. a true test of marriage. If your husband hasn't run away yet it's the final proof that he's not going anywhere. I went so far as to appologize to Jeremy for the fact that I was out 
of my mind exhausted and overly cranky and didn't want to make him think it was directed at him. In fact it was directed at not being asleep. 
 All that to say this...

I think I'm done with middle of the night pumping. 
 From what I've read on my beloved Kelly Mom site I should cut out the dreded 2:50am alarm. 

She suggets pumping if you wake naturally to go to the bathroom or if you wake up from engorgment. 
I'm fine with that, I can only recall once in my life not waking up to 
use the bathroom.
 Another suggestion I saw, in the event I don't wake up to pump, is to do a short pump before I shower and feed at our daily wake up time. 
 That one also work... kind of... but the Kelly Mom suggestion will work better for me. 
 After multiple nights of pleading with God to knock me slap out into an almost coma state of sleep I'm turning off the alarm. 

Hopefully my supply won't decrease though, because I have been able to rely on that pump for getting one decent bottle. The rest of the pumps (all 3 at work) combine 
to make 2 bottles. 

Has anyone else had luck with this? 

I feel like pumping adds another level of anxiety to life.
 If I were staying home and exclusively nursing I wouldn't be worried about how many ounces I was getting and 
happily sleeping through the night. We would just nurse when we did, just like I did over the summer, and that would be life. 

Plain and simple.
 So part time pumping moms, help me out! Did you end up in this situation and how did you handle it? 
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Meal Pinning Monday

September 7, 2015

How is it really already September? 

Also, after 3 months of Whole30 dinners, I've seen a revolt staged in my kitchen. I've been asked to incorporate more not Paleo foods (see also pasta and enchilidas) for the sake of my husbands sanity. 

So I bought the poor man donuts Saturday morning and added Chicken Spaghetti to the menu this week. 

I'm afraid he might run away soon. 

He ate the Nana's Pot Roast from last week like it was manna from heaven. So obviously my pasta strike has caused a stir in the house. 

 

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]
MPM is how I meal plan for our little family. I once spent a lot of time searching the web and my recipe books hunting for new recipes and ideas for what to cook every week. Then, Pinterest came along and made meal planning much easier for me. Every weekend I look over what I have pinned the prior week and decide what I would like to cook and make my grocery list from these recipes. MPM came about as a way to share what I am cooking, and to also see what others are cooking every week to hopefully get even more dinner ideas from other bloggers. If you don't pin your recipes feel free to just share what you are cooking.

Monday - Salsa Chicken (with brown rice for Jeremy & coconut milk instead of regular)

Tuesday - Crock-pot Rotisserie Chicken with Roasted Broccoli

Wednesday - Dinner @ Church for J & breakfast for dinner for me

Thursday - Spicy Brazillian Burrito Bowls with Guac & leftover chicken

Friday - Chicken Spaghetti with Homemade Bread
(here's an oldie that needs to be rephotographed)


Saturday - leftovers

Sunday - Prejeans (if you live in the Lafayette area they are having a great September special - 3 courses for 2 for $35. Since the hubby loves that place and I could do without it I figured going after church for a good price was worth his happiness lol) 

Breakfast - Paleo Breakfast Bowl

Lunch - Grilled Chicken with Kale, Shredded Carrots, Cucumbers & Balsamic Vinegar

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Chocolate Cobbler

September 3, 2015

Years ago, and I do mean years... like Monroe living years, I made this yummy little cobbler and posted it to the blog. 

My photography has come a long way since then, although not perfect today, so I thought I'd reshoot and reshare this yummy tidbit since I dug it out of the recipe vaults for Sunday lunch around these parts this past weekend. 


This recipe is terribly easy, and I guarantee you if you have coco powder you already have everything you need to make this. 

This recipe doesn't contain a single egg and is reminiscent of my Chocolate Butter Rolls in it's recipe techniques. Which makes me think it's probably an old one. 

Then again these are the only two recipes I've come across that suggest pouring hot water over the top of it. I still don't entirely understand why... I just obey. 

Then again anything that contains tons of coco powder and zero eggs always reminds me of recipes from around the 1940's. 

I served this up in big bowls after lunch and we vegged out in bed soaking in the chocolate goodness while the baby napped. 

This is a dessert to be savored, not to be eaten in a hurry while a wild baby is clawing at your spoon. 


Chocolate Cobber


Ingredients::
1 cup All-purpose Flour (I used whole wheat this time, it's what I had on hand)
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided
1-¼ cup Sugar, Divided
½ cups Milk
⅓ cups Melted Butter
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed (I subbed 1/4 cup of it for coconut palm sugar because I ran out of brown)
1-½ cup Hot Tap Water

Directions::
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.
Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish. I prefer my small oval Corning Ware glass dish.
In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.
Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR!
Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set. It took me about 50 with the oven we have now. 
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