On "Letting Go"

When we were "home" (in my hometown) for Christmas, I asked my mom and a few of my aunts who all had 4(+) kids, what they wish they would have known as young mothers with several small children.

Two responses that resonated with me went something like this:

"I wish that I would have cared less about how neat my home was. No one really cared but me and I was always stressed out trying to keep it that way. It consumed way too much of my time.  If I could do it differently, I would have played with and enjoyed them more rather than spending so much time on a clean house."

Yep. That response made my stomach hurt. I wish I could tattoo that wisdom to the inside of my forearm.  Maybe after looking at it 95,340 times I'd actually heed that message. I mean, really. Who do I try to keep this home so clean for, anyway? Charlie can operate in a messier house than I  can--he does not even see the mess that I do...and my kids don't notice either. I guess that just leaves me. I've acted like a major jerk to these people that I love so much all in the name of serving Jesus and my family by trying to keep my house clean. I'm pretty awesome.

"I wish I would have learned how to 'let go' a bit more with my children--and by that I mean, I wish I wouldn't have tried to control them so much. It didn't really matter if they weren't wearing the 'right shoes with that outfit' to the grocery store...you know, silly things like that. Too often I was more worried about how their appearance might negatively reflect on me than allowing them to be the silly kids I adored."

Again, such good wisdom here. I admit it: I'm a recovering control freak (which may have a bit to do with the first issue above.) But why am I not most concerned about their character or simply delighting in them rather than worrying about their appearance?

How ridiculous I've been.  And, when I come to think of it, both "issues" seem to be rooted in keeping up some appearance: I'm a really great wife/mom if I can:  (a) keep my house looking like a Pottery Barn magazine. (b) present perfectly well groomed, matching, put-together children that essentially look like GapKids models. I know how foolish that sounds when I put it like that...

So, yesterday my "shopping-girl buddy" (she makes sure I add "girl" every time b/c buddy alone apparently sounds too masculine for my dainty little companion) joined me on several errands yesterday. As we were about to walk out the door, she insisted that I let her wear her Snow White dress-up gown. I selfishly cringed inside, but before I could manipulate encourage her to simply wear the cute dress she had on, I heard my aunt's voice, "learn to let go" reminding me it wasn't such a big deal.  And can I tell you what came of it?

I think that one act of giving up some control really knit our hearts together in a new way. We had a delightful afternoon. Both of us. Together. Really enjoying each other. She lit up each time I referred to her as "Your Majesty" and the princess was given much attention throughout each store we visited.  Most people (elderly men, especially) commented on her dress and knew exactly "who" she was. On our first stop, Kroger, she received a plethora of stickers from the bagger for her royal cuteness. "Mommy, I don't want this on my dress. I want them on my body..." Can you believe something as silly as putting stickers anywhere else but the top of your chest/shoulder region used to bother me? I mean like really bother me. Me neither. How ridiculous. So, I relented and went with the theme of "letting go" and 15 minutes later at the next store, she told me they were too itchy and she was done with them.

By the end of our trip, I decided that costume wearing may just need to be mandatory on all future errand-running. Best behavior and costumes seemed to have some sort of a positive correlation.

I caught this sweet clip of my girl singing her newest favorite song, 10,000 Reasons (what she refers to as"Bless the Lord") as we pulled into the driveway from our trip. What a perfect theme song for all that He's teaching me through motherhood:

This is the way...

we go to the store with everyone in "position". Places everybody...

Blackened Blackberry Ribs

This is how we like to eat our Yonderway spareribs. The blackberry marinade was inspired by this recipe, but we've made our own adjustments to make it Whole 30 legal. Double the following recipe if you're using more than one big rack of ribs:

Marinade:

1 cup blackberries (instead of other fruit)

1/4 cup coconut aminos

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon sesame or olive oil

1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves (1 tsp. minced garlic)

Blend or process all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Pour the marinade over meat in an air-tight bag or container. Make sure the meat is completely covered with the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Grill for 4-5 minutes per side, plus additional time as needed.  We like them blackened so make sure the grill is low and cook them slow and you can't go wrong.

Paleo Valentines...

Oh, how we love thee.

Remember how much I love this day? Well, no way were these (most of the time) gluten-free eaters going to miss out! My, how far we've come since last year.

My kid's heart pancakes are a tradition that we could not crush...so, we "paleo-ized"them. I really want to make these someday. Even though I'm not much of a pancake person, I am a butter person. (And the maple pecan butter sounds like reason enough to make 'em!) This morning we made these because they are simpler. (And by we, I mean Char) b/c he's the flapjack flipper in this house! He's pretty much taken over breakfast completely these days...and it is WONDERFUL...I can actually get going in the morning. Another reason why I'm in love with you, Charlie Apel! (These were surprisingly good.  Best paleo-pancakes I've had! They do taste coconut-ty but with butter and maple syrup, they were great!)

And...we added these to our Valentine's Day Breakfast.  We "heart" bacon 'round here.

Char and I may or may not have indulged in these late last night DIPPED in chocolate!  I've always wanted to try bacon and chocolate...and incase you're wondering, it is ALL the rage! We didn't have much success the first time with the hearts keeping their shape, so this morning, we used toothpicks at the top and bottom to keep them together. Meh...they looked okay.  The kids were impressed. Mission accomplished.

Chocolate Dipped Bacon:

If you want to make the chocolate dipped bacon, here's how I did it: After getting them to just the level of desired crispiness, let cool on a plate for about 15 minutes.  Then, I used the chocolate ganache from Health-Bent's cupcakes (1/3 cup dark chocolate chips + 2 Tbs. coconut milk, microwaved for 30 seconds and whisked together.) and dipped half of the bacon in the chocolate. I know you're going to be tempted to try them then, but don't. You'll be disappointed. Let that chocolatey bacon-goodness cool in the fridge an hour or so. Then take them out of the fridge until they reach room temperature: 15-20 minutes or so and serve them to the ones you love.

Dessert for the Kiddies: 



I mean...it is all for them anyway, right? And...I couldn't decide which to make...I mean, I didn't want one to totally be a bomb and have a bummer Valentine's dessert. So, I just made both of these cheesecake brownies and the chocolate cupcakes.  Health-Bent, oh, how I love YOU! I wish I could send you a virtual-valentine. Why did I ever doubt that you may not come through? You ALWAYS do. We loved them both...but I'd have to say that if I were to pick a fave, I'd go for the cheesecake brownies! They were DIVINE! These could totally be passed of to your non-paleo eating friends. (The chocolate cupcakes tasted like a chocolate banana muffin to me, still good...and the kids loved them...so I was happy.)

Like always, I'm a little fashionably late, but I made both these desserts in an hour last night! (And that's counting sending the hubby for a late night grocery run for the cream cheese!) So, you still have plenty of time to make these.

Paleo Fried Rice

I've been making this almost weekly for about 8 months. And we still aren't sick of it. Usually I double the recipe. Even then it's goes really fast around here. Not one person in my family doesn't love  adore this stuff.

We eat it for lunch. We eat it for dinner. We eat it for a snack. I've even eaten it for breakfast a time or two. We eat it hot. We eat it cold. We eat it room temp. You get the idea...

This recipe was inspired by Health Bent's Pork Fried Rice...but this is the way that I make it. I'm giving you the proportions for a "single" batch. Then, if you like it as much as we do, you can double it next time. (Don't pay attention to the number of each food ingredients in the pic below...I was doubling a batch but not all of my eggs are there...I think they began to roll off my hutch at that point.)


The trickiest part of this whole thing is the mess that it makes preparing it.  A food processor is almost mandatory since it cuts out so much work. I've also found that if I use one big saute pan (or wok) and one huge serving bowl to transfer the "fried" ingredients to; it helps to minimize the mess. You've got to work in batches with this one.

Ingredients
1/2 lb. smoked link sausage or ground pork (I try to stretch our meat consumption around here...you can do a one whole pound of meat. It sure is delicious...but I'd rather use the other 1/2 lb for breakfast the next couple mornings in our eggs. We don't seem to really notice much of a difference.)
1 onion, diced
4 large carrots, diced
1 large head of cauliflower or 2 medium (regular) sized (The ones in the picture are LARGE!)
2 T coconut aminos
1 1/2 T  chili garlic sauce  (You can adjust the spice on this...start out with teaspoons and if it's not too hot for you...move to Tablespoons. It doesn't seem to bother my kids, but they've grown up eating "spicy" foods.)
6-8 eggs
coconut oil for frying


Begin by browning the pork. If you use smoked link sausage, cut in about 6 pieces and throw it in the food processor to get nice crumbles. (The kind I buy is fully cooked, so I don't have to worry about cleaning the raw meat out...but I'll still brown it in the skillet like normal until it's nice and caramelized.) While the pork is browning, you can get to work on prepping all the veggies.


Put onion (remove peel and cut in quarters) and carrots (remove stems and cut in thirds) in food processor until finely diced. When pork is done, pour it in your large (HUGE if you're doubling this) serving bowl. Depending on how fatty my pork was, I may add a little coconut oil to the pan, if there's not enough grease to the pan and saute the carrots and onions until carrots are a dark orange (you want them all the way cooked) and until onions are translucent.  (Go prep your cauliflower while this is cooking.)  Add 1/2 T of garlic chili sauce (or teaspoon, if you don't want the kick!) to your onion carrot mixture and 1 T of coconut aminos. Dump in serving bowl when done.


"Rice" a head of raw cauliflower: Remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like rice.  (I find it much easier to pulverize the cauliflower in several batches.  It's less messy AND I have better control over the consistency.  I like mine to look like large feta cheese crumbles....any smaller and I think it gets too mushy.) I usually set my processor on a 2-3 (out of 6) and pulverize away. 


Add coconut oil to your hot pan and fry that riced cauliflower. This may take about 10 minutes or so. Just stir every couple minutes and add 1T of coconut aminos  and 1T (or teaspoon) of garlic chili sauce. When you think it's done, taste a little bit...if it still tastes cauliflower-y then cook it a little longer until it doesn't taste like much (kinda like rice.) When it's done, dump it in your serving bowl. You're almost done.


Turn down the heat just a bit and scramble those eggs.  Dump into serving bowl and give it a good mix until all the ingredients are well-combined.


It's ready...be prepared that this may disappear way quicker than it just took you to make all of that big heaping pile of fried "rice".

First Dance Class

The first words she spoke at 7:30 this morning were, "When do I get to go to my dance class?"

The Miss Suzanne is teaching her Pre-Primary class, which is a combination of ballet and tap.

What a natural. I say, "strike a pose!" and this is what I get...

This is the look I got when I said, "Okay, I think I got a good one...we're done!" Apparently, she was NOT done posing...

So...I told her we could take a few more, but to make it quick because I was freezing!

And, of course, as with any other monumental day around here, a picture with Lucy was a requirement.

Caveman Chili

...or Beanless Chili...whatever you want to call it. Need a sneaky way to add more veggies to your family's diet? This is your recipe.

The inspiration to substitute the veggies for the beans came from this recipe, but I adapted it to fit my family's favorite "Kramer Chili" recipe.  And...they didn't even notice, or at least mention, that it was missing the legumes. In fact, my boys (the big one and the almost 5 year old one) each had two bowl-fulls. 

2 lbs ground beef

1/2 large onion

1/2 green pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 and 1/2 Tbs. chili powder

2 Tbs. cumin

1 tsp. black pepper

salt, to taste

1 Tbs. cocoa powder

1 large bottle of Vegetable/Tomato juice (46oz)

1 can of tomato paste (6oz)
1 large can of diced tomatoes (28oz)

1 cup beef bone broth (Make your own...I keep them in my freezer in Mason jars)

1lb butternut squash, cubed (Sam's and Costco sells this right now!) or 1-2 sweet potatoes, cubed

1 zucchini, sliced and quartered

In a large pot, brown ground beef. While beef is browning, throw onion, green pepper, and jalapeno in a food process and pulverize. Add the veggies to the pot with meat and let them cook for a few minutes. Add seasonings. Stir in all remaining ingredients (except butternut squash and zucchini...if you're using sweet potatoes instead of squash put it in now since they take longer to cook). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Stir in squash and zucchini and allow to cook for 15 more minutes.


We love to eat this topped with red onions and avocado slices.