What I've Been Eating Lately: Quick Healthy Meal Recipe's & Ideas

What I've Been Eating Lately: Quick Healthy Meal Recipe's & Ideas

 Ground Turkey Tacos:You guys know Im a sucker for mexican food, so i cook something mexican-"ish" at least 2x weekly.  I have posted on ground turkey tacos before, but here we added in some red and green bell peppers, corn, cilantro, and cabbage to mix it up and give it a new flavor. I also topped with lettuce, avacado, and cheese and wrapped it in a soft whole wheat flour tortilla.  I usually cook the ground turkey in a skillet with EVOO or coconut oil and put in some onion, garlic, garlic salt, chili pepper, cumin and a cajun spice spend we have. You can play with the spices or even add in salsa. Trader Joe's has a great taco seasoning if you'd rather do something easy.

 Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwhiches & Tomato Soup: One of my all time favorites is a gooey grilled cheese sandwhich and some hearty tomato soup. I made this a month or so ago and through in a little spin on the standard grilled cheese by adding jalepenos, artichoke, spinach and used monzerella and jack cheese. Grill it in olive oil and you're set! Its spicy and so delish! Serve with a side of tomato soup. I used frozen artichoke and spinach (they dont go bad as quickly so i have some time to use them up)

 Breakfast in Bed with Blueberry Raspberry Pancakes: I've posted on my applesauce pancakes before, we simply added in some blueberries and raspberries. Find the recipee here. 

 Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Pasta with Chicken Artichoke and Veggies: These lemon pepper noodles are from Trader Joe's and they are so yummy because they are packed with flavor so you can just coat the pasta with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and you dont really even need a heavy duty sauce. I sauteed some yellow, green and red bell pepper with onion and used minced garlic, basil, and italian seasonings with sea salt and pepper to taste. I separately grilled chicken and sauteed some frozen artichoke.  Toss together with olive oil in a bowl and serve.  I served it with TJ's Chopped House salad (my current favorite premade Trader's salad).

Ground Turkey Taco Salad with Homemade Dressing:  This is so easy and so filling and of course so yummy.  Cook the ground turkey in coconut oil in a pan with onion and bell pepper and season the same way mentioned above in the tacos i made. Toss over a bed of lettuce, add some cheese and whatever veggies you feel like. Then top with the taco sauce i have previously posted on for a light meal (recipe here)

Spicy Cajun Salmon, Broccoli, and Feta Spinach Brown Rice: This meal is healthy, quick and so easy. Sauteed TJ's preseasoned Spicy Cajun salmon (highly recommend trying this, its really good, a little salty but good) use olive oil or coconut oil.  Steam some fresh broccoli and season with Steak Seasoning or garlic salt.  Sometimes we'll sprinkle parmesan on our broccoli.  Make enough brown rice to serve your family and then on the side sauteed some fresh or frozen spinach in a skillet, when its ready add in the cooked brown rice and sprinkle on as much feta as you'd like. You can season with a little garlic salt and pepper. This blend is so good! It's definetly something i'll be making more often.

Ground Turkey & Cheese Enchiladas: These are easy to make and a new take on my chicken enchiladas i've previously posted the recipe on (here).  Instead of chicken you use ground turkey, you can lightly season with a little chili powder, and garlic salt.  I also sauteed some onion and through that in too.  

Chimichurri Steak Salad: This was TO DIE FOR. I loved this meal! You will need to cook a bag of TJ's Rice Medley (includes brown rice, red rice, & black barley, it cookes in 3 minutes in the microwave).  Cook some Edamame (i used frozen, from TJ's).  Cook some yellow corn, fresh, canned or frozen.  Then grill TJ's premarinated herb and garlic seasoned sirloin steak in Chimichurri sauce, cut into pieces and set aside.  First do a layer of the rice, then top with a bed of lettuce, then top with a tiny bit of cheese, then the steak, then corn and edamame. You will really love this salad. I used some of the left over chimichurri sauce to put a little atop the salad.

ENJOY!

Be sure to follow my blog on the side bar by entering your email! And thank you to all who have been so supportive and all of the beautiful people i have met since I began this journey. You are all so loved!

 Share with me one of your favorite meals or recipes in the comments section!

Xo

A Father's Day Thank You To My Husband

 A Father's Day Thank You To My Husband:

Happy first Father's Day to my husband, my companion, my best friend, my partner, my lover, and the best daddy to our little boy.  I love you so much and I am so honored to walk along side of you in this journey of parenthood. You are the most attentive, selfless, caring, giving, patient, loving father to our son and give him such a beautiful life full of joy and love.  Cash is so blessed to have a dad like you who thinks of his needs and always strives to meet each and every one. I am thankful for your tender sensitve heart and adore watching you two together. You love him so deeply and it reminds me of how our Father in heaven loves us, unconditionally, endlessly, without thought, its just pure innocent passionate love. My heart is so full as I watch on as you have become the person you are today, the father and husband you are, the man God intended for you to be. Cash has changed our lives in many beautiful ways, but my favorite way our lives have changed, in additional to having the most incredible gift in our son, is how you have blossomed. It fills my eyes with tears to think of how you have grown this past (almost) year. You are such an amazing person, I hope are son grows up to be just like you.

Happy Father's Day to my Pops, my father-in-law, my brother-in-laws, and our daddy friends, and to all of you daddys out there!!! You are so appreciated and so loved!

XO

Cash's Nursery Tour

Cash's Nursery Tour

Hi loves, its about time I showed you a little tour of this love of mine's nursery. It took me awhile to finish because i wasn't able to start until he was born because we moved when he was 6 weeks old.  Having a newborn at home doesn't really spark motivation to be moving around furniture, putting decals on the walls, and hanging picture frames and mobiles... but slowly but surely we were able to complete his room.  I have some changes i'd like to make, and probably will continue to shift things around until I have a new babies room to work on, its some weird mom nesting thing (or at least thats what i keep telling myself).  His room is definitely the cleanest and cutest, in my opinion. 

Lets just start with the decals ^^^ those triangle spicy orange decals are honestly a deal breaker. I knew we needed some the moment I spotted them in The Lovely Wall's shop.  They matched perfectly and add so much personality to the room. The best part is they are so easy to put on and take off! Theres no need for painting or wall paper when you have adorable decals that just stick right on and peel right off!!! Theres more where that came from below... But in the mean time go check out the cutest over at The Lovely Wall's decal shop here.

I made these Cash letters using paint and wood letters from Michaels craft store, and used a stencil to make the polka dots and stripes. Easy! I just LOVE DIY crafts! The fabric banner was made for my baby shower and we knew we wanted to use it for his nursery so we had the lovely Vintage Green Limited custom design it to match the colors and pattern of his room.

  

A lot of you have asked about his chevron rug, its Pottery Barn kids as well as his crib skirt, bumper, sheets, and that cable knit blanket and quilt.

The people at my work are like family to us and threw me a Story book themed baby shower where they gifted Cash with all of their favorite books and a note inside for him to read when he's older.  Here are some of our favorites. Im so happy he has a collection, we read every day.  This book shelf is also from Pottery Barn.  I have it hung on the wall because his infant swing was underneath it, but we've put that away now so we are going to lower it to the floor and hang a collage of 4 pictures above it. I'll show you that in a month or so when we make the changes.

We name our son after Johnny Cash, the famous musician, so we put a touch of music into his room with that DIY rock sign and metal picture.  On the right we have Stackable farm animals, the stuffed elephant, the adorable owl mirror, and white glass Owl piggy bank are all from Pottery Barn kids.  The picture frames are old frames i repainted in different colors to match his room. The shelf is from Lowe's.

I wish i had gotten a pic of the cute Anywhere Personalized Pottery Barn Chair! Its over there to the left. Its honestly become the cats nap zone, she liked to sleep right up next to the crib when Cash goes down for naps and bed, she's obsessed with him to say the least.  The Crib is the Delta Bentley 4-in-1 convertible crib, so we'll be getting a ton of use out of it because it converts from a crib into a toddler bed, day bed, and full size bed! 

His mobile is one of my favorite pieces in his room, it sort of goes with that rock vibe, and its Pottery Barn kids.  (I'm not only swoon over everything pottery barn, and my house may or may not be 75% pottery barn, but its because we registered there for our baby shower and wedding, so forgive the repetitiveness). His chair is from Amazon, its so cozy and Cash's favorite thing is to climb up on it and stand to touch the mobile or rock back and fourth laughing hysterically. He's the cutest. He also likes to stand on the chair and tug on the curtain (OH BOY!).

I spy Jellycat Bunny (Nordstrom).  Blanket also Pottery Barn Kids.

The dresser was given to us from a friend and i believe its an antique she painted and it just so happened to match his room perfectly! The 2 little birdies canvas painting was picked up from Hobby Lobby (a Christina SoCal craft store), on top of the shelf is a silver baby rattle, a glass cradle and little white drummer boy & they are all antique vintage pieces we picked up while thrifting on our baby moon so they hold special meaning to us, the Jesus Loves Me print is from my good friend's shop BC PRINTS, they're a must check out online store!  The 3 baskets hold his diapers, lotions, creams, brush etc and thats from Pottery Barn as well.  The basket to the left on the floor was made by a family friend and holds all of his blankets.  

The "Dream Big Little One" decal is probably my favorite thing about his room and its custom made by The Lovely Wall to match his room. You guys have to drop over there, Megan makes the raddest decals for any room or theme for your home. I wish I had some decals for our bathroom and bedroom because they're in need of some dressing up.

I SO wish we had our own home so I could do something about this carpet. It doesn't really fit well with his colors but what are you gunna do?! So forgive this clash and just focus on those cute little chevron toy bins. These are Pottery Barn Kids, who would've guessed? 

I hope you enjoyed the tour! It was tough to get a picture of the entire room but all that I really left out was the two closets, one holds my husbands clothes since he gave me our closet, nice man he is! And the other holds some of Cash's toys and we store things in there like extra diapers and such.

XO

What We Wear: Dear Cub + 15% Off Coupon Code

What We Wear: Dear Cub + 15% Off Coupon Code

We love love love Dear Cub baby & toddler tees and this "drum machine" tee they sent us was perfect four our little music man.  We have previously posted on how much we adore Dear club and if you'd like to see Cash and all his cuteness a few months ago, see (here).  This shirt is a gun metal gray, its soft  and i'd put it on him any day, because well, just look how cute he looks in it!?!  Scroll to the bottom for a 15% off coupon code just for you readers! And be sure to shop the Dear Cub website and etsy to see all of the fun T's they have!

 

Shop Dear Cub on Etsy here

Dear Cub website here

Coupon Code 15% off all order $20 or more!

"SUMMER15"

(offer expires June 15th at midnight & is good for both etsy & website)

XO

Our Hawaii Family Vacation: Part I

Our Hawaii Family Vacation: Part I

Sorry the posts have been lacking these past couple of weeks, we were on vacation, and then i was in serious study mode for my state board licensing exam which was last weekend and I PASSED!! I am so relieved and so excited! I have been soaking up all the joy and celebrating with our family and friends.  I have one more test to go, but this next one is a little easier than the last.  I gave myself a week off and just tried to relax a bit and not go full speed 24/7 like I had been. So i hope you all were enjoying some other blogs or articles in the mean time (wink).  

I love sharing our memories with you all, I adore having this place to write out my emotinos, expose my heart, and store memories in this space that I can always come to and reflect back on.  My in-laws planned to take us to Hawaii the moment we had Cash, they wanted to be able to share one of their favorite places on Earth with their first grandson. Hawaii is a special part of the world for them because my Father in-laws mom lived there so they would visit for many years when my husband was little and as he grew up.  We stayed in two different parts of the island of Mauii so Im breaking this post up into two parts. This first part will be photos and memories of Kaanapali.  I hadn't been to Maui in a long time so I was very excited when we landed and had been looking forward to this trip for many many months.  We stayed at the Aston condos which was perfect for all of us (My in-laws, our little family unit of my hubs, me and Cash, and my brother-in-law and his friend Cole).  We were able to score the master bedroom so we could have a place to put the crib.  It was nice having a condo because after our little one went to sleep we could leave the room and go out and hang with everyone else instead of having to sit quietly in the dark while our baby sleeps.  It was the perfect way to travel with a baby. Ill probably share more on traveling with a baby in a separate post to avoid making this one too lengthy.

Cash adjusted to the time difference so well.  They are 3 hours behind California so his bed time is usually 7pm which would be 4pm their time.  Most of our dinner reservations were at 6:30/7:30pm so needless to say he didnt go to bed until 9 most nights, which was 12am California time.  He would wake up at 4 or 5am Hawaii time which is 7 or 8am California time but since our bodies were use to Cali time as well it wasnt too bad getting up with him. Grammy would do a great job of offerring to take him on a jog with her so we could sleep in, she was such a sweetheart always offerring to help.  He usually naps after being awake for 2 hours so he would be back in bed by 6 or 7am for an hour to an hour and a half.  It was nice because we could eat breakfast and get ready and once he was up we could go out for the day.  He would nap again 3 hours after being awake and we would either nap him in the car on the way to wherever we were going or go back to the room and nap him and eat a snack or one person would go up with him while the rest stayed at the pool or went to the gym or to lunch etc. It was so easy having him nap,he would be pretty tired and worn out from the sun and swiming so putting him down was a piece of cake, plus im still nursing so he would basically nurse to sleep.  We brought his sound machine, rented a rib, and hotels always have black out blind and curtains so he was comfortable even though we were in a new environment.

In Kaanapali we mostly hung out at the hotel pool, walked along the beach, played soccer, lounged, ate, enjoyed our balcony, went into town to go to the beaches and walk around there for lunch, and always went out to the most delicious restaurants.  If i could remember all of the names id totally share them with you because everywhere we ate was perfection! I do recall eating Sushi at Sansei which was really delicious but the rest of the names of the restaurants ill have to get from Cash's Grammy since she made most of the plans, which was sooooo awesome, because we really just got to kick back and relax!  We also all took a tour of Maui on a helicopter ride our last day in Kaanapali. THat was such an incredible experience, I dont think ive ever been on a helicopter before! Cash stayed behind with his grandparents because we didn't want him to have a problem with his ears with the altitude.  And sometimes people get nauseas and sick so we just didnt feel comfortable risking it.  Cash enjoyed hanging with everyone and his favorite part was definitely playing in the sand with sand toys and going in the pool and the ocean. He was such a well behaved little dude, especially being out at nice restaurant WAY past his normal bed time. He never lost it, he would just get alittle antsy and one of us would walk him around, which we took turns doing when he was overtired and wanted to leave.  

We also were able to pull off the road and go on a spontaneous hike alongside this gorgeous bluff where we could see sea turtles swimming below us. It was pretty gorgeous and an insane view. We were the only ones there and that was one of my favorite excursions of the trip because ya'll know i love adventure!

^^^Riding along in grandpas wheel chair at the airport (he has an upcoming knee replacement surgery, so he was on crutches most of the trip but was such a champ for coming to hawaii in spite of all that is going on with his knee)^^^

^^^letting your littles play on the ground and get some crawl time or walk time is CRUCIAL at the airport if you're going to be on a plane for a while.  They need to stretch out and get in some exercise before theyre confined to a seat^^^

^^^watching the boys play soccer with a basketball (ouch!)^^^

^^^Cash was pretty happy about all the uncle time he scored on this trip^^^

^^^sand toys with grammy was a hit^^^

^^^Grammy took this pic of my hubby and i getting some one on one ocean time. This picture makes me so happy because it really captures how much fun we have with each other and how much i love this man of mine. This was one of my favorite days, my husband and i were hysterically laughing as we threw our bodies, like kids, into the waves that were crashing on the shore line. Then we would roll on the sand like beached whales because you'd get knocked over by the power of the wave, to the point where all you could do was laugh and make sure you didn't lose your bottoms!^^^

^^^I sure wish i could remember the name of this restaurant! IT was soooo good! THey're known for their seared Ahi, which my husband ordered and it was ridiculous (in a good way)!^^^

^^^morning walks with my love. also we rented this jogger, it was so much easier than bringing all of the pieces of our nice stroller and having to haul them across the state, and I didn't want to worry about lugging my stroller through the sand etc^^^

^^^ we all got in some gym time probably 1/2 the time we were there, which is pretty good for vacation^^^

^^^The Aston^^^

^^^I could honestly drive all day looking at the terraine, it is so beautiful!^^^

^^^& there he is, the man of my dreams^^^

^^^Where we all hiked, Cash napped in the car with Grammy and Grandpa^^^

^^^this kid is such a crack up, feet up, kicking back as grammy plays with his hair (his favorite)^^^

LOve me some Armstrong boys

^^^ we also discovered that Cash thinks the front seat is pretty much the raddest place on earth..like disneyland^^^

^^^breakfast was always yummy at this little joint at the Aston, I pretty much stuck with the veggie omlet and switched up the veggies and cheese every morning^^^

^^^it wasnt hard keeping this little guy entertained^^^

^^^i mean, baby havannas>!?!^^^

^^^Eating guac on the balcony, while the baby napped.. we'd also go out here in the morning and sip on coffee, and even spotted whales and dolphines out there!^^^

 ^^^I know the highlight of our families trip was being able to experience waking up to this little guy in the morning. There is NOTHING Like seeing that smiley face fresh out of dreamland^^^

^^^Dinner at Sensai Sushi^^^

Part II will be continued...

XO