Reasons To Celebrate

There have been many happy occasions this July!

1. Our cousins' baby's 1st birthday.

He had a pretty big birthday party (which we were out of town for), so we assembled this gift of health-conscious goodies figuring he'd received a number of clothing items and toys at his birthday bash. 

2. Our 2nd anniversary. Time really flies when you're having fun. 

3. A friend's wedding. 

The groom is in the army, and the wedding theme was patriotic, so I wanted the card to go along. 

(See, Lauren! I do reuse everything) 

 Perfect weather for the beachside wedding

4. Cousin's birthday party. 

Ready For On The Go

Unhealthy snacks are so much more convenient sometimes... ugh! But I've stocked up on different kinds of nuts. In a real pinch, I eat them raw, but when I have time to prepare ahead, they are so useful in recipes that I can stock up on.

In an effort to organize,I dumped them out of their bulk-section bags and put them into glass jars I saved from salsa, tomato sauce and other sources. 

Another quick and healthy snack I go to a lot are my smoothies :) Ryan's aunt gave us a bunch of premixed bags of frozen fruit so all we have to do is pour the baggie contents in the blender and add a liquid. Pretty fast and portable! 

And this is what I ended up doing with my blackstrap molasses I purchased last week. A great snack- I took two today for a professional development meeting and avoided the temptations of potato chips and fritos. 

Romance in Bloom- Our Second Anniversary

Our two-year anniversary came up so fast! Since we both have summer birthdays and would like to take a mini-vaca soon, we said NO PRESENTS! 

But it's still nice to do something to differentiate today from any other day.

 I met Ryan at his work and we went to lunch, then I had a free afternoon. With nothing purchased and no plans to go shopping, I really was dead set on not buying him anything.  And so I didn't. 

But, like I said, I had to do something!

Flowers, paper and words are all things I wouldn't have to spend money on, so I put the three together and came up with this:

1. Find all of the vases in your house and cut pretty hydrangeas to fill them. How did we get so many vases???

2. Make a sign on the door for when he gets home from work (so he senses there's a theme and won't be surprised you're not downstairs). This says "One petal for..."

3. Then write corresponding sweet notes on cards to go with each vase.

4. Place the flowers around the house with the cards. 

5. Hide and try to gauge his reaction hehe :)

Corny? Sappy? Sweet? Romantic?  Ryan thought it was the latter two. Me too. I like making my man feel special, cuz that's how he makes me feel in little ways, in big ways, or just by being able to manage an "I love you" every day. 

Now on to dinner. We decided no presents this year and we also decided to stay in for dinner. I know, we're really roughing it. Actually, we had planned the place and everything, but yesterday decided not to dine out. Why? Well, first, I was home all day today (not complaining!) and figured I could put myself to use in the kitchen. Second, since I'm trying out the paleo diet, my most likely option at ANY restaurant is salad. It gets old. So we did lunch instead and I found some recipes that kept me busy indeed. 

 First two from the garden!

Recipe here

We ended the night walking the pier :) 

Rural Retail with My Sister

I got to spend the whole day with my little sister yesterday. To start, we drove out into the country to shop at a designer barn sale. We got some good buys, and Kara picked out two early shower gifts from me to her :)

After the barn sale, we stopped at a local Mennonite grocery shop that Kara had been to before. While she was buying deli meat, I perused the aisles and found two uncommon items that I've seen in paleo recipes. The blackstrap molasses I had looked for at Trader Joe's this week with no success, and the arrowroot powder costs an arm and a leg for a 1-lb bag. The beauty of it was that these two items together cost me $2.26! I'm not sure yet what I'll use them for, but now I have something to play with this week :)

We then went to dinner with our grandpa and Kara's fiance, and ended the night at a comedy club with both our men. With her busy schedule as a nurse and grad school student, being able to spend so much time together was a precious thing. 

Recipe Experimentation- Summer Inspired

 This week I tried a variety of recipes that were either new, a spin on old ones, or just good old repeats. Some were terrible flops, but others were quite delicious. Two nights this week for dinner we ate using unconventional wraps. I'm still sticking to my paleo experimentation, and along with that comes the elimination of delicious carby breads and wraps. So the tuna avocado salad below would have worked between two slices of whole grain, but I wrapped it up in slices of cucumber. The ingredients were just tuna, avocado, homemade mayo and carrots and red onions for more crunch and flavor. This dish fell more on the "flop" side. It was just okay, but I do not think I'd make it again. I would certainly try some tweaks, though, because I like the idea of the cucumber wrap. 

The next night we had chicken, bacon and grape salad in romaine wraps. Again, this would be yummy in a traditional wrap or as just plain salad, but we both love the crunch and crispness of the romaine lettuce. This was one of my favorite recipes pre-vegetarian days, and now that I'm trying to make more things from scratch I changed some of the ingredients my mom used.

      

1. 1/2 lb (organic, free range) chicken breast

2. 2 1/2 strips bacon (from grass fed farms)

3. about 15 red grapes, halved

4. 2 tbsp red onion, cut finely

5. 2 tbsp homemade mayo

6. 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

My mom's recipe used traditional mayo and Good Season's Italian dressing. I made this about 4 hours before we ate dinner to allow everything time to marinade. It made a small amount, enough for the two of us, but we probably could have eaten double the recipe :) 

Ryan steamed broccoli and green beans (from the garden!!) for a yummy, healthy side. 

Here are some other things I tried this week: 

Thyme onion rings with almond meal. I had leftover egg from dipping, so I scrambled that up to make a light dinner. 

Sunflower seed pesto with our garden's basil :) 

Grilled chicken with roasted red peppers and the basil above. 

The cookies are the BEST paleo cookie I've tried to make so far.  The ice cream, on the other hand, was not a keeper. Mint chocolate chip is my favoriteeeee flavor of ice cream, and since getting an ice cream maker for my birthday, I've tried to find dairy free, more natural versions of my favorite. This was the second recipe I tried and it was very disappointing. I'm thinking of moving on to a different flavor that might be a little easier to imitate with the simpler ingredients I'm willing to use.

lemonade and strawberry smoothie popsicles

Cooking/baking/experimenting aside, some things are just guaranteed deliciousness with no effort involved. 

Happy picking! Because summer really is a bowl of cherries :p