Food/Recipes

Currently – November 2019

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

Compared to last month, this month has been quite eventful. The first weekend of the month I went to a small baby shower for my sister-in-law. The second weekend we watched my nephews overnight at their house – 3 small boys in one house and another cousin that came to visit the next day, so make that 4 small boys. It was super fun, but super exhausting!

Mikey and I were also able to go on another date night (woot woot!). No pictures this time, but we went out to our favorite all-you-can-eat Mongolian restaurant and chatted the night away.

Then we went to a Friends-giving this past Tuesday, which was really nice and then there was of course acutal Thanksgiving…which turned out to be kind of a bummer. Gryffin came down with a nasty, awful cold, complete with a 103.5 fever…poor guy! We got his fever down, but stayed home all day and missed out spending time with family. My brother was awesome and brought us over some turkey, stuffing, etc. and we traded them with rolls and a bottle of sparkling cider. The fact we still ended with some turkey and pie made it somewhat better. :)

Anyway…here’s what else we’ve been up to this month.

Currently Watching

Helllooooo Disney +

Image result for disney plus

There has been lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (thank goodness we have a break from Blippi!), The Little Mermaid, The Aristocats, Cars, and Monster’s Inc.

Also, Doug! Did anyone else grow up watching this?? Gosh, it’s so nice to see parts of my childhood back! It was kind of exciting.

Currently Reading

Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life by Shauna Niequist

I finished a book! This, in and of itself, deserves to be documented because it has been that long since I have finished a book cover to cover. Granted, this was an audio book, but it still counts!

I enjoyed it overall. It’s not going on my “favorites” book list, but I don’t regret reading it either. This book was full of little snippets of the ups and downs in her life. Some parts were more relate-able than others, but I absolutely loved the way she wrote. Her descriptions were perfectly detailed, making it an enjoyable journey as she took you along with her as she shared each part of her life story and the lessons she learned.

My only “complaint” is that the stories she shared of her life were not in order. She organized them by subject rather than consecutive events. This kind of drove me nuts and made me wonder if I somehow had the book on “shuffle”. With that being said I wouldn’t let that stop you from reading it.

Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World that Loves to Be Noticed by Sara Hagerty

Ok, this is back on my list. I had to re-check it out as an audio book after I finished Cold Tangerines. This is the kind of book you let certain insights sink in and your marinate on it for a bit. I think it would be better if I read this as a book book, so I could underline and highlight and take my time, but for now I’m making progress with the audio book and it will do.

Currently Making/Baking

Dairy Free Potato Corn Chowder – You can click the link to the recipe and photos here.

This is my most favorite fall and winter soup recipe! I’ve mentioned many times that my little 2 1/2 year old is sensitive to dairy so it was so exciting to find the perfect fall soup that we can all enjoy. *happy sigh*

PC & Recipe from Regina with leelicious.com

Current Obsession

Deep cleaning!

While spring seems to be the most popular time to deep clean for most people, there is something about the holidays that makes me feel the need to clean like a crazy, mad woman.

After being cooped up inside for so long I start really noticing the grime that settles in over time – anywhere from the extremely dusty blinds in the bathroom, to the laundry room floor that I keep putting off, to the dishwasher base and filter.

I took advantage of daycare this week (before Gryffin got sick) and took some extra time off so I could spend an entire day scrubbing the bathroom from the ceiling to floor.

I created a detailed bathroom deep cleaning list and plan to share that with you in the months to come. I would share it now but I need to make a few tweaks to it. I also want to work on a few more deep cleaning lists as well, including the kitchen, laundry room, and living room…so just something to look forward to in future. ;)

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I honestly can’t believe December is here tomorrow! I hope you all had a wonderful November and a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!!

Much Love,

Cami

Currently – April Edition

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

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Happy April!  My goodness am I happy to see spring!  I was starting to get a little scared when it snowed the day after Easter, but here we are in the first full week of April and we are having super sunny 75 degree weather.  Summer weather = happy Cami.

So here is what I’m currently up to…

Currently Watching

We finished watching Flashpoint (sad face) and now we are on to Alias.  I loved this show when it first came out, but my goodness, I forgot how cheesy it is sometimes!  We just have to laugh at certain lines like “This is all C4…I can tell because all these boxes say C4 on them!”  Haha, yep, brilliant guy right there. It’s fun though.

Currently Reading

“Life Management for Busy Women: Living Out God’s Plan with Passion & Purpose” by Elizabeth George.

OOooh boy, this is getting embarrassing.  But, hey, at least I’m halfway through! I’ve been dying to read this weekend, but now that we have nice weather it has “forced” me to go outside and work on our garden.  I really wouldn’t care too much about pulling weeds, but we currently rent a house in an HOA community and our house just so happens to be right next to the president of the committee.  So yeaahhh, no slacking allowed on our end.

My “want to read” list is getting larger so I really need to figure something out!  :)

Currently Making/Baking

My husband and I are back on track on our healthy eating plan (for the most part) and we’ve been experimenting with different things.  this month we decided to branch out and get almond milk, however, we didn’t just get plain almond milk, we got Almond Coconut Milk which is actually really yummy!  I don’t love how thick it is, so I don’t drink it straight, but it’s a great base for smoothies.  Thanks to the recipe on the back of the carton we’ve found a great healthy breakfast option.  So because it’s rather tasty I’m sharing the recipe:

1 cup Silk Almond Coconut Blend

2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp almond butter (you can also use peanut butter)

1/4 tsp vanilla

½ small frozen banana (I personally prefer the banana soft, not frozen)

½ cup ice

Blend until smooth and enjoy!

Current Obsession

This candle called Joy + Laughter by Chesapeake Bay.  This candle, right here, smells amazing!  I mean, I seriously want to bathe in it.  I have it sitting on my nightstand and light it every night before bed.

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My husband and I always stop by the candle section in Target because I can’t walk by without smelling at least one candle.  We’ve never noticed the Mind & Body collection before so naturally we start picking up each candle to see what it smelled like.  We kept picking one up and putting one back.  This one, however, I couldn’t take out of my hand.  The second I smelled this candle, there was no question about it, I needed this candle.  The candle states Cranberry Dahlia – the scent is really sweet but not overpowering.  Describing it to you just isn’t doing it justice, I highly, highly recommend getting yourself to Target and smelling them for yourself.

So that’s all for now.  I’m off to do some laundry and enjoy having all the windows open in the house…I might even pick up my book and read for a while. :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

New Years “Resolution” Follow up – Week 1

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

As I stated in my last post here, I am really only working on 3 goals this year: positivity, eating healthier, and taking more photos.

SOOoooo here’s how it’s going so far

1.  Positivity  

OOooh my goodness, talk about setting myself up for failure.  First of all, I did not get enough sleep New Years eve, SO I woke up very grumpy.  It’s really, really hard to be positive when I am completely grumpy.  The more I tried to be positive, the more grumpy I got.  So yeah, day 1 and I was ready to completely bag it.  After the first day I realized it was a lot easier for me to be positive when I’m not trying so hard, so I kinda let it go.

As my week went on and I let up a little on the “I must be positive” thing, I started noticing 2 different things that really that helped me have the ability to think more positively.  The first being the small amount of time I spent before bed reading my bible and in prayer.  I’m still working on consistency in this area, but even when I’m not able to read a whole chapter, I at least make the effort to read a verse.  I noticed when I at least make a heartfelt effort to meet with God, he meets me halfway.  It’s nice to be able to come to God with complete honesty about how I feel and just lay my heart out to Him and just put everything in His hands and kind of say “here, you handle it.”.  And what’s even better is that God can be 100% completely trusted with everything you give to Him.

The second thing that helped me be more positive was a little unexpected.  Yoga.  I discovered “Yoga with Adrien” on Youtube and even after just 1 day I felt a difference, mainly because of the breathing techniques.  It’s funny, because especially at work I notice I tend to hold my breath when I get stressed or I take really short breaths, which doesn’t help anxiety.  But since I’ve been more mindful of my stress these days, being able to take note and then take a deep breath in and let out my breath slowly and just let go of the stress, even for a second, really helps.

2.  Healthy Eating

I am actually doing really good in this department!  Like I said in my last post, I don’t want to go too crazy with a healthy diet, because I know myself and I will burn out quickly from even trying.  So I’m only incorporating a new recipe once a week.  I have a couple healthy recipes that I cook with already, so I’m just trying to find more recipes to include in my arsenal.  Here are links to my favorite healthy (or at least not completely unhealthy) go-to recipes.

~ Doritos Taco Salad from Emily Bites

She has quite a few yummy recipes, but this one I think is my favorite so far :)  (Side note: I use my own no sodium taco seasoning: 1 Tb chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/8 tsp ceyenne pepper)

~ Tomato Basil Pasta found on Pinterest

Not a healthy additive, but I also brown ground sausage to include in this recipe, and sometimes I add spinach too.

~ Cauliflower Chowder from Damn Delicious

This is especially nice in winter. This is another site that has lots of really yummy recipes.

~ Paleo Nachos from Paleo Grubs

Very yummy!

And here are the new recipes I’m trying out.  The first one I’m making tonight. :)

~ Greek Marinated Chicken from Budget Bytes

I am using chicken breasts instead of thighs though, and will make a small side salad and steamed broccoli to go with it.  I’m getting hungry already!

~ Sweet Potato Sloppy Joes from Paleo Newbie

Looks delicious!

So there’s my healthy food follow-up.  You can also follow my “Health Recipes” board on Pinterest here.

3.  Photos

Ummm…..yeah…..about that.  Guess I should go charge my camera.  :)

So there it is, my January so far!  The rest of the day will involve cleaning our house, taking Kahlua (our dog) out to play and pick up the back yard (yuck!).  Then my hubby and I will go see Star Wars (it’s pretty amazing we haven’t seen it yet!), and then of course we will come back and I will make the Greek Marinated Chicken.  You know, since you all were just dying to know what I’ll be doing the rest of the day, haha ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

Hey Guys!

I mentioned in a recent post that I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (*Photo to come!*).  These are the absolute perfect fall cookie!  They are super soft and taste even better the second day.

I’m not going to lie, the first time I made these something about the texture had me worried that they might not turn out well.  I also didn’t think the dough would make very many cookies, maybe only a cookie sheet full, if that.  But surprise, surprise, they made the perfect amount and turned out great!  And an added bonus, the cookie dough can be kept in the fridge for up to three days, which I took advantage of for portion control – I was sure if I made the whole batch Mikey and I wouldn’t be able to stop!

I’m sure by now you are more than ready for the recipe, so I will not drag it out any longer ;).  You can find it here at Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Happy Baking!