Two recipes, a sweet 23 month old and a kindergarten project

Please excuse my hiatus! 

Life comes fast and furious with three children sometimes. My two boys are in a great school this year. They are busy learning everything set in front of them, but with kindergarten and 2nd grade that means my afternoons are spent looking at phonograms, reading books, and checking math problems. 

You would think I'd get more sleep now and have more energy. 

Not so...so with that said, I decided to give Whole30 a try. 

I had tried to start jogging when Madeleine was a baby, but my feet quickly gave me problems. 

I thought it was medication, not stretching etc., so I stopped. 

A friend of mine started Whole30 in January and I quickly thought I really need to try something. My clothes are tight, my mood is yucky, I don't feel well, and my feet hurt.

I'm on week 3 and can I just say, AMAZING!!!!! The knot in the arch of my foot is gone. The pain is gone! I'm sleeping better, my energy level is better, and my clothes are loose!!!

With Whole30, you take out a lot of foods--foods that cause pain, inflammation, stomach illness, etc. So, I stopped eating nitrates, sugar, dairy, wheat, grains, and more. I took my favorite recipes and tweaked them to be compatible with Whole30. Our meals are full of protein, vegetables, and fruits. I can still eat many of the foods I always ate, just a healthier version of it. And pretty much anything looks great on Polish Pottery. My mom gave me a couple of these plates for Christmas. I keep adding to my collection as my pants get looser:)  It's a great incentive to keep doing things right.

So here are two recipes...

Squash Fritters

Let me first say, these were soooo good. I loved fried squash when I lived in Romania...dredged in flour and milk and eggs...so I decided to semi recreate it to satisfy my taste, but limit the wheat and dairy. You could do just yellow squash or just zucchini. The yellow squash does give the fritter a beautiful natural sweetness. I didn't miss the flour or milk at all!!

1 yellow squash, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

3-4 eggs

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp parsley

salt and pepper

In a large bowl, whisk your eggs. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. In a large saute pan,  heat up some olive oil. Spoon in each fritter. Fry on one side til golden, then flip. These are a bit messy and can tear apart easily. Make sure the fritter is done before you flip it. 

Here is my sweet miracle girl. She will be 2 next month and I can hardly believe it...or catch my breath for that matter. Her favorites things are playing with chalk on the sidewalk, eating dinner with her daddy,  and playing with her brothers. She loves church, monkey (Curious George), and her babus (brothers). She is a bundle of joy and energy and one of the main reasons I decided to start my Whole30 journey. I need to be able to keep up with her!!! 

  Did I already tell you how much I LOVE my sons' school? Friday is their Literary Read-a-thon. They can wear a costume portraying a character in a book they have read. 

The books must be classical, on their reading lists, or the supplementary lists or just a classic that their teachers said is ok. No pop culture. 

So my sweet Andrew, who is in kindergarten, chose to be the letter A in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We enjoyed cutting, painting, and gluing his costume for Friday! My second grader has read a book of Fables and is portraying the Poor Old Dog, who wears a furry green coat and found a lost gold ring. 

Chicken Salad

2 chicken breasts cooked

1 bunch of green onions, sliced on the diagonal

2-3 stalks of celery, sliced on the diagonal

1 granny smith apple, chopped

1 handful of pecans

1 handful of sunflower seeds

1 cup (give or take) of homemade mayonnaise

salt and pepper

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp parsley

To make homemade mayo (no dairy, no sugar), in a small bowl, put in a squeeze of yellow mustard and an egg yolk. Start mixing with a whisk. Add a stream of olive oil and stir until you like the amount. You want it to emulsify, so keep stirring. Add salt and pepper  to taste.

For the salad, combine all the ingredients and keep in the refrigerator until ready to eat. I served my salad with avocado and half a grapefruit. You could put it on top of salad greens too. Enjoy. The mayo lasts about 3 days in the refrigerator.

As I continue my journey, I hope to post many more tweaked recipes. Recipes I love and hope you will love and enjoy too.

I'm joining in...

Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday

Ahhh, summertime!

Squash Croquettes

2 cups yellow squash, finely chopped
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
vegetable oil
In a large bowl, combine squash, onion, egg, salt and pepper. Mix well. Stir in flour. In a skillet, heat ½-inch oil over medium-high heat. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls into oil. Cook about 3 minutes per side or until golden brown, turning once. Drain croquettes on paper towels.
http://farmflavor.com/squash-croquettes/

I didn't chop my squash finely, but they were still so good. Since my squash is doing NOTHING, I bought some from the local farmer's market.

No grow squash...

 May was just way too busy. Both boys had program after program, parties, picnics, field trips and more. I barely sat down, let alone stopped to edit pictures. We've been frying squash and zucchini twice a week, eating fresh cucumber and tomato salads and enjoying sauteed green beans weekly. My uncle gave us two stalks of Brussels Sprouts to clean and eat....too much work, but the end result was delicious and I had plenty to share. I'm waiting for his buckets and buckets of tomatoes to make salsa. My jalapenos are plenty and HOT. I made poppers for our Father's Day dinner yesterday.

I have been busy watching my SPURS in the semi finals and finals and hosting RUF students, cousins and more. I hope life will slow down a bit, but I doubt it.

 In late May...

 This morning...June 16

Happy tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans!!! 

 This was our Memorial Day trifle...yellow cake, vanilla custard and whipped cream layered and topped with berries to make a flag. It would be perfect for July 4th!!

I hope this finds you well. I plan on blogging more often this summer!

Dinner...with bento leftovers

Dinner is served...

This is what is looked like first...

I'm a mommy of a 5 year old and almost 3 year old...boys, so I can't always take my time in the kitchen. I've learned from a few cooking blogs and tv shows to cook in stages. For instance, I cooked off a 1/2 pound of ground beef last night, used some of it for sloppy joes and some tonight for quesadillas. I make a small batch of guacamole for snacks, and add to it if needed. I keep some frozen vegetables on hand, like corn. I threw half the bag in a hot skillet with a little butter, add 3 sliced tomatoes (from my mom's garden...still growing!) and it's done...about 2 minutes of my time. The slaw...is a quick version of spicy slaw. Half a bag of slaw mix, 3 onions diced, lime juice (I was already squeezing it for the guacamole), a little chili powder and salt, and I'm done. My boys were playing outside while I made this...maybe 20 minutes, but I can see them from my kitchen.

I often get asked or criticized about wasting when I use cookie cutters for sandwiches for bentos. For the most part, the birds and squirrels get the crust. It's cheaper than birdseed:) The meat usually goes in a sandwich for me and the cheese...perfect for quesadillas or nacho night! It melted. No one cares if it's the scraps!

something for everyone...

 Egg salad in a Toast Cup

So my husband loves deviled eggs, but egg salad, not so much! Who knew?

I watched an episode of Jamie Deen's new show on Food Network the other day and he made Chicken Salad in Toast Cups. I had already boiled eggs, so I made egg salad first. The chicken is cooling in the refrigerator now, and I will definitely try his recipe!

Toast cups are simple...butter your bread and squish it in a muffin tin, bake at 350 until golden. Add your filling and enjoy. I made scrambled eggs and cheese for my boys. You'll see that post next Monday!

Egg salad

3 boiled eggs

1/4 c Duke's Mayonnaise

1 Tmustard with horseradish or whole grain mustard

celery, sliced and cut thin

green onion, sliced

salt & pepper

celery seed

parsley

paprika

Mix and chill til ready to serve.

 My husband got sent to work with 'street tacos', 
homemade salsa in the little bird, apples, 
and spinach salad with the last tomato:(

               

  Park fun Bento

I saw a couple bentos like this, 
so I tried my own deli ham, salami, muenster and havarti roll ups. 
The bottom layer had red grapes. 
My big boy shared this with me!

Used in this lunch


I'm joining 
Miz Helen for Full Plate Thursday
Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday

Muffin Tin Olympic Breakfast of Champions!!!

 My attempt on representing the Olympic Rings. I didn't have anything black, so I left it empty. The star is just to add to the whole Team USA theme!

We had bacon, toast, red grapes, USA cheese letters, bananas and a sliced cheese stick.

The elephant strongman is showing his muscles!

A couple other meals we ate this week..

Dinner in a muffin tin. My boys ate all their vegetables with the cute giraffe forks from Japan!

 They each had grapes, sausage, honey mustard for dipping, vanilla yogurt, Colby Jack Ducks and peas, carrots and green beans. 

These froggy cups are from my HEB. The picks and forks are from Japan via eBay.

 

This is our Goodbyn. It is great if you have a big eater or need to pack for two or three! We packed a lunch to eat at my parents' house. We had Choo Choo train ham and Havarti sandwiches, sun chips, red grapes with Choo Choo picks, carrots and ranch dressing in the little green birdie sauce cup and homegrown tomatoes in the monkey cup.

The picks are from a cake supply store. The sauce cup is from Japan. The monkey cup is from Dollar Tree.

Used in this post

I'm joining Muffin Tin Mom for Muffin Tin Monday!

and 
JDaniel4's mom

Fig jam tablescape

 I set a table for one, while my boys were eating and getting ready for swim lessons. 

Toast with fig jam. 

I used my favorites

Runner from World Market

Rattan Charger from Walmart

JB Denmark Blue plate

Wallace Antique Bead Stainless

my grandmother's silver butter knife

water glass from Target

PB Wine stem for juice

Napkin from Target clearance

napkin ring from my mom's stash

Fig preserves are just figs cooked down with sugar and canned. It's an easy process with amazing results. For half my batch, I added two fresh jalapenos to the food processor. It's so good and I have Christmas and teacher gifts already in my pantry!

Here's my garden...I live in South Texas, so it's hot. I've been asked how my garden grows so well...grow native. Most of my plants are Texas natives and drought resistant.  

 Purple Grass

 Texas Sage 

 Autumn Sage

And if you have a garden, plant herbs!!!

My mint is flowering

Basil

 Chives, Lavender, Thyme, Parsley

I'm joining 

Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish

BNOTP for Tablescape Thursday

Happy 4th of July!!!

 

 I set my table for seven 4th of July guests. I'm using blue and white plates, but  two different sets because I have 4 of the JB Blue Denmark from last week and 6 of the Blue Willow...

I used Libby Gilbralter Iced Tea and PB Blue Swirl Wine Stems, Wallace Stainless Antique Bead, Red and Blue Cloth napkins in wired rings from Pier One.  

  I went to check on my mom's garden this morning (they're in France!) and cut this beautiful basil for my centerpiece. Basil is so pretty when it begins to seed.

Same WM runner and a few red candles.

  

 My mom gave me a bag of homegrown potatoes and I pulled a handful of onions today to make this salad. The potatoes are baked instead of boiled!

Baked Potato Salad

8 small red potatoes cut in chunks

Green onions chopped

Salt & Pepper

Garlic powder

Olive Oil

Dill

Parsley

Duke's Mayonnaise 

1 T Mustard (I used horseradish mustard, but whole grain would be great)

Put potatoes on a baking sheet with oil, S&P, garlic and parsley. Toss to coat. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 or til knife tender.  Put in a bowl, add dill and onions, mayo and mustard and toss til you like the consistency.

I also made pesto the other day with fresh basil, so I made a Pesto Pasta salad with homegrown tomatoes to serve along side our menu of

Grilled Chicken and Sausages

Tomatoes and Cucumber Salad

Baked Beans

Grilled Corn on the cob

Chips and homemade salsa

Flag Cake

Triple Berry Pie Bars

I'm joining

Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish

BNOTP for Tablescape Thursday

Miz Helen for Full Plate Thursday

Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday