WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesday

Wow!  Is it really Wednesday again already?!  My goodness, this week just flew by!  Are y'all finding that you are keeping busier lately with the weather cooling {for most} and the fall festivities picking up?  I feel like we have hardly stopped for a minute around here!

Mitch's POM leave {his pre-deployment leave} starts next week and I know that we will be on the go then, too.  We are going to get Sandra and Bryson {our older rugrats} and we're taking all of the kids to Sea World in Orlando!  We took The Sophster right before last deployment and she loved it then, so I know that they will all enjoy it this time!  The Mister and I are also trying to plan a small overnight getaway.  Just the two of us.  That will be fantastic!!

Anyway, with us staying so busy, I have been a little lazy in the kitchen.  Luckily, we had a lot of leftovers to get us by on the days that I didn't cook and I even cut a few corners on days that I did!

Thursday night I decided I didn't want to cook, so we went out for some wings and a beer.  We also ordered a lot of fried stuff.  I knew I would pay for it.  Boy did I ever!  I was laid up on the couch with terrible stabbing gas knots in my tummy for the duration of the evening until I finally gave up and went to bed.  I think I said to Mitch something like "I freaking hate paleo for making me healthy!"  But seriously, I don't.  I love it.  :)  It's just a hard pill to swallow that this is how I used to feel all.of.the.time....and it felt normal.  Gross.

Friday night was a nice easy meal to make.  I was going to make pork chops {ended up making these on Tuesday night}, but we picked up a rotisserie chicken from Target instead.  It was delicious.  I made the Rosemary Carrot Mash from the Beyond Bacon cookbook, and some simple roasted brussels sprouts with bacon.

Edit** I found the recipe for the carrot mash, here, on the Paleo Parents site.  It's fab and you should totally make it.  Also, how awesome does that meatloaf look?!  Clearly, I haven't read the whole cookbook yet!

The brussies are a regular staple in this house, now.  It's funny how we used to protest brussels sprouts and swore we would never eat them.  We were wrong.  Have you tried them roasted?  I just cut them in halves or quarters {depending on the size}, toss them in some melted bacon grease {or coconut oil}, chop some bacon up over them, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and roast them at 400* for about 20 minutes.  They are SO good, you guys!!  The carrot mash was fantastic, too!  I'll definitely be making that again.  I had a half bottle of GTs Synergy Kombucha  to drink, and the Mister had an Angry Orchard.  I am in looooove with GT's kombucha in the Gingerberry flavor.  They are a little on the pricey side, so I swing by Whole Foods once a week and buy three.  I drink half of a 16oz bottle a day.  One of my upcoming deployment goals is to learn how to make and bottle this stuff on my own!

Saturday was super busy for us.  We had The Sophster's fall festival at the Discovery House, which is quite possibly her favorite place in the known world.  Then, home for a nap and right back out the door for a fall/Halloween mini photo session with one of our favorite local photographer mamas!  I definitely did not have the energy to cook that night.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I dined on dark chocolate covered almonds and a glass of red wine on the couch and passed out under my snuggie while watching Person of Interest with The Mister.

Sunday was also a busy day.  My girlfriend, Kim, was throwing a baby shower for her daughter-in-law, Melissa {also a friend}, to celebrate the arrival of Kim's first grandchild!  I spent the day cooking and prepping food and helping her get things set up.  We went with a tea party theme, which ended up being so much fun!  I ended up staying after the shower was over and helping Kim clean up.  Mitch was home with The Sophster.  I didn't get home until after her bedtime, so they had to fend for themselves for dinner.  I ate some {read: A LOT OF} bacon wrapped dates...and some petit fours {whatevs, it was a party}.

If you follow this blog on Facebook, you may have seen the picture of the beef oxtails that I posted on Monday morning.  I had never cooked with oxtail before, so it was a bit of an adventure, but seriously you guys, it came out SO yummy!  I ended up mashing two recipes together to get this meal.  I made the Crockpot Caribbean Oxtail from Stupid Easy Paleo and I took inspiration from The Paleo Cupboard's Mashed Rutabaga and Veggie Gravy.  

What I did different: I added about a cup of {preservative free, no added sugar} red wine into the slow cooker about an hour and a half before the oxtail and veggies were done.  This added such a nice flavor profile!  For the mash, I used a little chicken broth {which it calls for}, but I also added some grass fed butter and some bacon grease, for a little more creaminess.

The meal came out wonderful!  It actually felt like we were eating such a guilty pleasure type meal.  Kind of like mashed potatoes, gravy, and pot roast.  I will most definitely be making this again.  We also had a small side salad with some Tessemae's Red Wine Vinegar dressing.  We love this dressing and I'm sad that our local Whole Foods only carries this flavor.  We want to try them all!

The Sophster's plate was not much different from ours.  Her Daddy put more grapes on there than I usually would.  What happens is, she eats the grapes and then claims she is full and will hardly touch the rest of the meal.  Plus, she was in a particularly sour mood that day.  Oh well.  Can't win 'em all, especially with a two year old!

I also bought 3.5lbs of oxtail and quickly realized that it all was not going to fit in my {much too small, apparently} slow cooker.  We are {slowly} trying to transition the dogs over to a raw food diet {that's a whole other future post}, and they know that when there is extra raw meat around the kitchen, they are in for a treat!  So, we weren't the only ones who enjoyed those oxtails!

Tuesday night, we had Shaken and Baked pork chops from Beyond Bacon, leftover Rosemary Carrot Mash, and one of our favorite things ever, sweet potato hash with sausage {that I made for breakfast that morning! So versatile!}.

We love these pork chops SO much!  They are easy, fun for The Sophster to help with, and so so delicious!  Not that the other recipes in the book aren't completely fabulous, but I would recommend buying this book solely based on this one recipe!  The Mister drools all over himself eating them and The Sophster always finishes her serving!  Win!  And besides...

Our plates came out looking pretty orange with the chops/carrot/sweet potato combo {it's time for a farmer's market run for more green veggies!}, so I made a side salad with organic salad greens, organic grape tomatoes, and crumbled some raw jalapeño cheddar on top.  We dressed it with some Tessemae's red wine vinegar and had a fabulous meal!  

The Sophster actually ate everything except for her carrot mash.  She just is simply not a fan of all things mashed, apparently.  We were thrilled that she ate what she did, though, so we left it alone.

Apart from these meals {and our other daily meals}, I also cooked up a large batch of chicken broth and a bunch of paleo brownie bites for the fall festival we went to on Saturday.  I was so excited to see that they were the first things to go on the cookie walk!  Makes me so happy to see people getting serious about their health and the health of their children. :)

This week I'm going to make a big batch of beef broth, and I may try to make the yummy looking pumpkin seed recipe I saw over at The House of Boys & A Girl!  I just love fall!  How about you?!

So those are our dinners for this week!  I hope you saw some things that you may want to try!  What did you make for dinner this week?  Don't forget to check out what The Pajama Mama had on her menu for this week and check out anyone else who is linking up over there!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

A Spooktacular Visit to The Jacksonville Zoo

It's that time of year again.  Time for our kids {and some of us grown-ups, too} to dress up in elaborate costumes and enjoy the festivities of the season, get a little spooked, and do some trick-or-treating!

As a parent, I try really hard to not be the overly paranoid type, but taking my two year old out trick or treating on Halloween with all of the older {read: insanely obnoxious and rude} kids in our neighborhood kind of freaks me out.  She's into it this year, though.  Picked out her costume and everything!  Who am I to stand in her way??

In comes the Jacksonville Zoo!  We are pretty lucky to have a great zoo here.  I mean, I know there are zoos all over the place, but this one is within short driving distance, and though I've never been to, say, the San Diego Zoo, I think ours is pretty nice.  Anyway, they put on this big "Spooktacular" event every year for Halloween.  Mitch and I took Sandra when she was about Sophi's age, so we thought it would be something The Sophster would enjoy.  Not to mention, it was cheap!  It was only $14 for all three of us to go.  Thanks, Jax Zoo, you rock!

So we bought her a Minnie Mouse dress and some shoes, and I tried to burn my finger off making the ears.  They came out great, though, and she loves them!  She's also much cuter in them than I am.

We were so excited to find out that my little brother and nephew {Justin & Jaiden} and our good friends Tabatha, Adam, and baby Ezra would all be there, too!

Justin and Jaiden were dressed up like zombies.  Their costumes were so great!  Justin went to Goodwill and bought some clothes, cut them all to shreds and threw red acrylic paint all over them.  Who knew my little brother was so crafty?!  He also did their face paint, which was awesome! 

The people at the zoo either loved them and wanted to take pictures with them or they were completely terrified.  Justin stayed in zombie mode pretty much the whole time, which made things even better.  

The Sophster was not a fan.  She eventually warmed up to Jaiden, but wouldn't talk to Justin the whole night!

I'm pretty sure that Tabatha had a different costume picked out for baby Ezra, but he decided he was going to be a puppy for Halloween.  Isn't he just the cutest puppy ever?!

The zoo had different themes as you walk through.  There was Charlie Brown's pumpkin patch with probably 1,000 pumpkins all lit up along the pathway, characters dressed as Charlie Brown, Linus, and Snoopy.  There was a Wizard of Oz theme with Dorothy's house, the yellow brick road, people dressed as Dorothy, The Scarecrow, The Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. There was a Nightmare Before Christmas theme with Jack and Sally characters!  I wish I had taken more pictures of the displays, but chasing after The Sophster the entire time led to not as many pics of much other than the children.  But you guys love to see pics of my kid, right?  I mean, I can't imagine you would be here otherwise!

Outside of the Range of the Jaguar, they had a DJ set up and the kids stopped to jump up on stage and bust some moves {aka burn some candy off}.  

After shaking their groove thangs, we moved along to the carousel.  This is always The Sophster's favorite part.  She HAS to ride the merry-go-round every time we go to the zoo.  Which is a lot.

After the carousel, things took a turn for the worse.  

The zoo had "scare zones" set up throughout our path.  You could choose to enter or bypass the scare zones.  We bypassed all of them...until I thought "How bad could this really be???  It's for kids, right?" Wrong.  I decided to hold {an already sleepy} Sophster and walk through the scare zone.  Of course, it had to be zombies.  She actually did ok until we were almost out.  A zombie jumped out at us and she even startled me a bit, which really scared Soph.  She started crying...and kept crying...for about 5 minutes.  Saying she wanted to go home.  It was around 9:00 by that time, which is past her bedtime, so we quickly made our way through the rest of the zoo and headed home.

Over all, we all had a great time at Spooktacular.  I was so proud of The Sophster for getting through the whole thing and especially for actually going up the the candy stations and saying "trick-or-treat!".  I thought for sure she would pull the shy card out on us, but she proved us wrong yet again!  We've also decided to go ahead and take her out this Thursday for some trick-or-treating.  We will go early and visit the houses of neighbors we know and we won't go too far from home.  This has been the best Halloween yet for us, so far, and so we are all very excited about what's to come. :)

Have you done any pre-Halloween partying or trick-or-treating?  What have you/your littles decided to dress up as this year?  Will you be taking your children around on Halloween night for some tricks, treats, and boos?

Happy Halloween!

Taking Advantage of the Moment: An Impromptu Photo Op

If you are a parent, then you likely know the feeling of seeing your child wake up one morning and feeling like they have gone from one lifestage to a complete other, over night.  I swear to you guys that last night, I put a chubby faced toddler to bed and what arose this morning was a beautiful little girl!  Not that she isn't alway beautiful...but...you know what I mean, right?

So, after I met her in the hallway for a good morning hug and kiss and we had our usual conversation about how she slept, if she had good dreams, what her dreams were....etc...I did what any normal mom with a blog would do....

I grabbed my camera!

No, the lighting is not perfect and the house is a bit of a mess... but this morning...that didn't matter.  My girl woke up happy and willing to let me take pictures of her {after a little bribery, of course}, so nothing {except my camera} was going to get in between us!

She has this wild, beautiful hair.  It's so perfect even when she first wakes up in the morning.  Her cheeks are always pink and warm from spending the night nestled into her pillow and blankets.  This morning, you can also see a smudge of chocolate just below her mouth.  She has gotten so great about waking up and going to the potty and we are on the m&m system here at the Casa de Sophster.

You can't tell in these pictures, but this morning I noticed she is starting to get a few very tiny freckles right across the bridge of her nose, like mommy has.  Her features seem to have become more defined over night!

So there you have it, our little beauty's impromptu photo session with mommy.   I'm so glad that I took the time to start our morning out like this, because it was a fun start to a great day!  It's so easy sometimes, as busy grown ups and parents, to let those special little moments slip by, unnoticed, but I encourage you to slow down today and soak up those moments!  You never know when you will wake up one morning and have a different kid than you did the one you kissed and tucked in the night before. 

Happy Weekend!

It's Supposed to be a Good Thing...

This morning, as Mitch and I sat having some quiet snuggle time, I said with a heavy heart, "It's already Thursday...".

Usually, that statement would be a great thing.  It would mean that the week has gone by quickly, that tomorrow is Friday, and that we get to have our weekend together very soon.  While this is true and we will be spending our weekend together, it also means that the weeks are flying by and there is not much worse than time zipping by when you are in the wake of another deployment.

"It's already Thursday" means that we are almost one week closer to putting him on a plane.  It means one week closer to shipping half of my heart away.  It means we are one week closer to heartache.  It means I am one week closer to having to console a toddler who doesn't understand why Daddy isn't coming home from work to play, to have dinner, to put her to bed.

As the days grow closer to deployment, I feel myself sinking into more of the sad moments.  I feel myself trying to hide in my cave.  We have to give each other more pep talks and snuggle a little closer at night, hoping for a good nights sleep.  I hate it.  We hate it.  Being apart from the ones you love is never fun.

But, as always, we will get through it.  We always do.  We have God and we have each other.  I'm thankful for this life that I've been called to.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I'm so proud to be not only a military wife, but HIS military wife!

Are you a military spouse?  What are some ways you prepare for/get through deployments?  Do you have any suggestions for getting young children prepared for a deployment?

WFD {What's for Dinner} Wednesday

You guys!  I am super excited to be starting a new link up this week!  I'll be linking up with the always lovely Pajama Mama for a WFD {What's for Dinner} Wednesdays!  The timing on this could not have been more perfect for me.  Let me explain why:

You know how I just came back from a couple month hiatus?  A lot of that had to do with the fact that we decided to take a different approach on the foods that we put in our bodies.  We decided to try out the Paleo lifestyle.  I have to say, it has flipped my whole world around.  In the best way possible.  I have spent hours with my nose either in books or in the kitchen trying new recipes and patiently trying to get The Sophster to come around and like veggies!  I'll post more about this later, but I just wanted to say that linking up with The Pajama Mama has come at the perfect time and has gotten me excited about getting creative and blogging again. Yay!

Since I just decided to do this on Sunday, I only have a few meals to post this week, but I promise there will be more in the future.


Sunday night was a late dinner for Mitch and I.  I honestly don't remember what I threw together for The Sophster early on, but we got so carried away with outside play/work, that we didn't eat dinner until after she went to bed!  I ended up making  Beef and Broccoli from the cookbook Eat Like a Dinosaur written by some of my fave paleo bloggers, The Paleo Parents.  I used coconut oil instead of EVOO and I added fish sauce for more umami flavor, and some toasted sesame seeds as a finisher.  Also, the recipe suggests that the whole meal simmer on low for 30 minutes and that was just too long for us.  The broccoli ended up being WAY over cooked.  The flavors were so yummy, though!  I'll definitely make this easy meal again, just will cook the broccoli about 10 or so minutes less next time!  We also had a glass of yummy Layer Cake Shiraz to accompany dinner.

Monday night, Mitch and I had the Lemon Rosemary Broiled Salmon from the Practical Paleo cookbook, along with some roasted asparagus, inspired by the same book.

This is the second time we have had this salmon and it is so simple and SO tasty!  Definitely a favorite for us!
For the asparagus, I just toss the asparagus in coconut oil, season with pink himalayan sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder and roast for 10-15 minutes {depending on the size of the asparagus.  It's best to just keep an eye on it}.  When it comes out, I sprinkle lemon zest on top.  Delish!

Also, I love that this meal is such an easy clean up!  I just line both of my pans in foil and at the end, I just toss the foil and put the pans away.  Only have to wash plates and silverware!

The Sophster is not a big fan of salmon or asparagus, so she got her own dinner Monday night.  She ate a 100% grass-fed beef hotdog pan-fried in some coconut oil, some broccoli sautéed in coconut oil, some baby carrots, banana slices, honey mustard for dipping {not the best for her, but I'm working on a recipe that she will actually eat}, and she demanded a slice of my meyer lemon.

Tuesday night, I went all out and made a southern comfort food meal, y'all!  We had the Shakey Pork Barbecue ribs from Eat Like a Dinosaur, cauliflower mash, and collard greens, with a yummy Apple Orchard Gluten-Free Hard Cider beer to wash it all down. 

This meal was so yummy!  We didn't have enough gas in the grill, so I just cooked those puppies in a foil pack in the oven and then smothered them in some fantastic Bone Suckin' BBQ Sauce!  Seriously y'all, this stuff is the real deal.  I found it at Whole Foods, love the ingredients {no added garbage}, and the price was right!  

The Sophster had the same thing we had.  She also loved the BBQ chops with sauce and she ate almost all of her collard greens!  She is not a fan of the cauli-mash, but she was never a mashed potatoes fan, either, so I think it might be a texture thing.  The fourth item on her plate is half of a Go Go Squeeze.  I don't give her the whole thing or she will eat that first and then say she's full, so I just squeeze it out onto her plate.

That was a really large meal, which is great, because I had my military wives small group at church tonight and the Mister does not claim to be a cook, so him and The Sophster had plenty of leftovers for dinner and I didn't have to worry about rushing to throw something together for them this afternoon.  Yay me!

Did you make anything fun and exciting this week?  How do you feel about me posting our meals for the week?  I hope that I can be an inspiration to you for the coming week! Don't forget to pop over to The Pajama Mama to see what they ate this week along with others in the link up!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

Fall Tree Craft: Bringing Nature Indoors

Oh hello there, readers of this blog.  You may have all thought that I disappeared into the abyss, but alas, here I am!  Actually, if you've been following this blog you will know that I take time off occasionally.  Either way, I took the latter part of the summer off and now....cue music....I'm back!  From outer space!

Anyway, it's Fall here in Northern Florida, and by Fall I mean that the leaves are falling down and it is still 90 flipping degrees outside every.single.day!  Do you think some of you could send some cooler weather this way?  My boots and sweaters are BEGGING to be worn!

We did get one nice cool day....one.  I quickly threw The Sophster into a pair of leggings, boots, and a {light weight} hoodie and she was actually able to stay in it for most of the day!  We spent the day outside picking flowers and playing in the yard at Granny's.  :)

We have also been to a couple of pumpkin patches this year.  The Sophster is seriously so so much fun right now with all of the Fall/Halloween festivities.  I'm saving most of the news on this for another post {that's right...I'm not doing one post and then disappearing again! You've got me for at least three...lolz}.  I do want to share a couple of my favorites from the first "Puntin' Patch" {<~~Sophster}

Family Pic {I'm in so much love with this!}:

The girl with her cousin.  Belly laughs are contagious!

But that's not what you're here for, is it???  You want to see what we did for our favorite fall craft, don't you?  Ok here we go, then.

Fall Tree Craft:Bringing Nature Inside

What you'll need:

• Leaves, twigs, acorns, whatever you want to bring in from outside.  I don't recommend squirrels. Those bastards are crazy.
• Washable paint {for the tree trunk/branches}
• Paper
• Glue
• A toddler looking for a good time

So we went for a walk one day.  We had to be on base for some reason or the other and The Sophster wanted to go play in the field full of old airplanes and helicopters.  She loves that stuff.  We played there for a bit and then she decided she wanted to go to the playground, which was just a short walk.  So we set off on foot.  The pathway to the playground is lined in several different types of trees and they had all started dropping their leaves, so of course we had to stop and investigate!  We found leaves of different sizes and colors.  Even found some baby acorns on twigs and an oak leaf with a little fuzzy thing on it!  Anyway, I had no idea what we would do with all of these leaves {I'm not crafty by nature}, but The Sophster insisted that we bring them home....and I hate to disappoint that girl, so bring them home we did.

They sat outside on a shelf in our garage for several days when I thought I remembered seeing something somewhere about using your kids arm/hand as a paint brush and making a tree!  Heck yes I did!  This is what we were going to do!  Oh man...The Sophster was so excited when I told her we get to paint her ARM!  WOAH!  

Here's what we did.  I sat her at her table in the middle of the room, painted her forearm and hand with brown washable paint, then pressed her arm/hand down onto the paper.  Then, I had her do a couple more handprints to make the branches of the tree.  I ended up going over the "trunk" more with a paintbrush because Sophi's arm is so tiny that it looked like some giant branches on a wimpy little tree.  No, my kid's arm is not really that fat. ;)

At this point, you kind of let your toddler take the reigns and get creative on where and how each piece of nature will be placed on their paper.  The Sophster loved picking on her own and telling me exactly where each thing would go.

We have used the glue stick many many times, but this is the first time that The Sophster has used a bottle of glue.  I have to say, I was pretty impressed with her ability to hold the giant bottle of Elmer's, glue a straight line onto a leaf, and hardly make a mess!  

This was a relatively quick craft to do, but we had so much fun!  

Once the glue dried, I made sure that all of the pieces were secured, The Sophster helped me pick out a nice spot on her playroom wall, and we hung it.  We actually did this craft a couple of weeks ago, and she still wants to show it to everyone who comes over! 

The final product, on the wall:

What do you think?  Does this seem like something you would do with your kids?  What kinds of fall crafting projects have you been up to?