My Trip Pt. 1 - Hibachi Night

Hey Everyone!

So I know it's been a crazy long time since my last post, two months to be exact!  What!  I actually thought I would have had way more time on my hands then I ended up with.  I even packed my new, and sadly still unused, photography equipment thinking I would be a traveling, blogging, superstar.  But alas... No.

I packed up the car and I'm pretty sure I burned 1.5million calories doing it.  Remember the whole two flights of stairs thing...

My little sardines.

 My only goal was to see out the rear view mirror.  And while I started out with some serious doubts of that happening, I did prove that I'm something of a pack-master.

I made it to Cali in about 12 hours snacking on root veggie chips, almond flour cookies, strawberry coconut flour muffins, sausage, olives, and cucumber rounds.  I found that we all would rather snack the entire way than have meals, so that's how we do.

We made it just in time to celebrate my Uncle John's 50th birthday!  It was a blast!  The night before the party, close family went out to Hibachi (and if you're friends with me on Facebook you will remember my not-quite-but-almost-coulda-been run-in with Gwen Stafani).  Our evening looked somethin' like this:

The Birthday Uncle and my beautiful Cousin Mic.

My Auntie and me (Points for posting a picture of me that I don't like haha)

The Hibachi(er) making onion volcanoes.

He did make me some pretty bomb calamari.

But then he started throwing shrimp at people.  Some caught them with their mouths...

Others used their eyes.

It wasn't long before I became the DD. #sakebomb

Well, I have an adorable little girl insisting I hold her so despite this post being unfinished, I'm going to go ahead and publish it now as "Part 1" so you guys don't have to suffer any longer without me... haha.  Which reminds me...!  When I logged in to blogger today, I had an awesome surprise... new followers and tons of pageviews.  Thanks for stickin' with this slacker! ;)

Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream

I had a serious hankering for ice cream, so rather than pick up some notoriously unhealthy ice cream from the store, I whipped this up instead!  It's only six simple ingredients and the best part, you don't have to wait!  This ice cream is ready to devour in less than five minutes.  It's super thick and silky and totally hits the spot. 

Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream - serves 4-6

1 can full-fat coconut milk
1 heaping cup frozen, organic strawberries
1 tsp. pure vanilla
2-4 medjool dates, pits removed
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
4 medium over-ripe bananas, broken into large pieces and frozen (I keep these on hand)

In a high-speed blender, puree all ingredients except bananas.  (When pitting your dates, be sure you don't actually throw a pit in the blender and the date on the counter... If you do, be sure to dig that thing out otherwise bad things will happen.  Trust me.)

When mixture is very smooth add in frozen banana chunks.  You will need to use a tamper for this.  The last step goes quickly so be careful not to over mix otherwise you will lose some of the thickness.  And there you have it, Paleo, no wait, Vegan, oh who cares... Delicious ice cream!  Enjoy!

Couple of Day's Happenin's

Hey guys!

The time is nearing for me to leave El Paso and do some visiting!  My first stop is So. Cal and then up to Oregon.  I'm starting to get anxious.  Not only will it be 28 hours of driving, one way, and you know, three kids, but I will be gone for months and months - and packing for two different seasons.  I also have random food stuffs I need to buy/pack, food to plan and prep, order and install new car seats, clean out my car, use up the food in my fridge/freezer, clean my house spotless, send out another package to Adam, make a new playlist, get my healthy-package-post up for you guys...  When I get overwhelmed I do nothing.  I literally shut down.  Somehow though, what should take two weeks I can whip out in two days.  My philosophy: "If you wait till the last minute, it only takes a minute."  Works every time ;)

I also have a few recipes I wanted to leave you guys with, hopefully my lightbox/lighting gets here soon!

Here's some of what we've been up to lately:

The weather has been a little crazy to say the least!  Some days are warm, sunny, park days.  Others are rainstorm days.  And all the other days are dust storm days.  Boy have we had dust storms!  Along the freeway going west there are sand drifts against the concrete barriers and in gutters of streets going the same direction.  Crazy place.  I love it :D

Calliegh is my official scrambled egg maker.  She was helping me prep for these bad boys:

Egg and Bacon breakfast sandwich on an almond flour biscuit.

I went to Costco to stock up on some necessities for being gone like coconut oil, almond butter, sweeteners, and chips.  I feel like such a hippie when I take my cupboards with me on vacation, haha.  My receipt total was $136.    I thought this was really good!  I got two big bags of sweet potato chips, 52 oz. total almond butter, 1.5 lbs organic banana chips, 3 lbs asparagus, 4 artichokes, yogurt covered strawberries, raw honey, real maple syrup, pepper grinder, 4 pkgs Hebrew National, 54oz jar of organic coconut oil, 6 avocados, 1 lb blackberries, 3 English cucumbers, and (not pictured) a box of raspberry/apple Squeezies for the girls.  

Last week I was super irritated because I saw a post by some unknown-to-me blogger on like 50 healthy or paleo foods, or some such, that you can find at costco.  K.  Why did I not think of that?  I seriously lack... What would that even be called that I'm lacking... I don't think it's creativity...  But it could be.  I seriously lack blog-topic creativity.  Grrrrrr.....  I should still do it though.  I think I have been bragging about my Costco finds long before that dang post.  If I have to be docked points for unoriginality, so be it.

By the way, see those TrueBliss strawberries?  O.M.G.  Ok so, we were basically ready to check out when I thought I should check the snack section.  I saw these Greek-yogurt-covered-freeze-dried-strawberries and thought wow... those sound really good.  Bonus that the ingredients were pretty clean.  I held them in my hand for a good minute trying to decide if I should get them or not.  I actually decided not to and put them back on the shelf.  Well, low and behold, two isles over they were giving out samples!  So I tried one.  Bought the bag.  Now they're gone. 

So, pretty much other than that and this yummy paleo-chocolate-strawberry ice cream I made last night, I've been good on my diet!  The other day I was coming home from a friend's house and it was getting close enough to dinnertime to where I would have to start it as soon as we got home... Well, typically if I had blown it with those strawberries I would have stopped by the store and picked up a pizza or something.  And although I threw the idea around in my head, I went straight home instead.  And I'm actually happy I did because this amazingness was created:

Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Zucchini from leftover Mexican Stew.

The girls don't like zucchini, but all three were standing at the stove with spoons eating the filling as I was stuffing the zucchini!  So good.  Will definitely share the recipe as soon as I get my light box ;)

The other day as it was nearing lunchtime Calliegh brought me this picture:

She explained it's what she wanted for lunch: Steak, blueberries, broccoli, and mashed sweet potato.  Hahaha.  She's so cute, I happily obliged:

Some other yumminess that happened:

My new go-to dessert: Coconut cream.

Mexican Stew and kale.

Delicious Bavarian-Berry Iced-tea.

Girls' breakfast: eggs, kiwis, and almond flour biscuit.

Breakfast: Vanilla Sponge Bread with almond butter.

Pork and Mushroom Stew with avocado.

It's been perfect weather for soups and stews :)  Also recently made a delicious creamy ham and sweet potato soup with canned coconut milk... Mmm...

Some super exciting news:  My jeans are annoyingly too big and I need a belt :D  The other day I was wearing some workout pants and I went down to check the mail.  I had Sarah on my hip, Becca holding my other hand, and my phone in my pocket.  As I was walking the weight of my phone made my pants fall down!  I just barely caught them in time, haha.  It was a great feeling.


I'd also like to give a huge shout out to all my supportive friends and family <3  I have people sending me motivational pictures and quotes regularly.  My friends who have welcomed me for meals have checked with me first to make sure it's diet-friendly.  I appreciate this more than I can say!  Thanks everyone!