Lately…

Well hello there! It’s been far too long since my last post and I ambitiously thought that I would be able to blog our first week in or new house but well as you can see that just didn’t happen. We actually didn’t even have internet until Friday and let me tell you six days with no internet was a huge challenge for me.

Taking a break from unpacking to go to the farmers market - smiles all around!

Taking a break from unpacking to go to the farmers market – smiles all around!

 

Okay, so I had some internet because our new complex has Xfinity Wifi but for any of your who have experience with Xfinity Wifi you know that basically equals no internet. For those of you who don’t have experience with Xfinity Wifi let me just tell you it’s like using dial up – slow as molasses and constantly dropping on top of that. If you have never experience dial up internet well consider yourself lucky. Anyways I had hoped to get out of the house to a coffee shop or even just over to the clubhouse to get a post or two up but moving + unpacking + toddler + newborn = no time.

Well we have internet now (wahoo!) and we are slowly getting unpacked so I am finding myself with a little more time. Bonus my parents come into town this week which means that I will have two extra sets of hands to entertain Edith and hold Alder which means free hands for this mama to catch up on blogging and finish unpacking.

I had planned to work a little bit tonight but after a busy week and weekend I am going to call it a night and relax on the couch with a glass of wine (yay for not being pregnant anymore!) and watch a show or two with Neil before heading to bed. I’ll be back this week with some fun new posts though!

XO. Lindsay.

Currently 8.13.14

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Doing: PACKING! Holy crap we are moving in 3 days. It seems like we still have so much to pack and as much as I hate the thought of it I am guessing we are going to have a few random throw it in a box and sort it out later boxes. Today we actually get to go and see our new townhome which I am excited about. I know you’re probably thinking wait you haven’t seen your new place yet? We are renting a townhome at an apartment complex and when we went for a viewing there weren’t any three bedrooms available to view so we were just able to view their demo apartment which is a two bedroom layout so we are going to view our three bedroom today.

Thinking about: Unpacking and figuring out what we will need for this new place. We are in desperate need of some new household items such as linens and frying pans.  We also need baby gates because this place is three floors. Oh and we have three bathrooms and a new kids room to decorate.

Watching: Too many kids shows. We have been more relaxed with screen time the past few weeks so there have been lots of kids shows on and at night Neil and I have been watching Alphas.

Looking forward to: Moving!

Reading: Nada. Besides children’s books.

Loving: My little family of four. Friends who bring us dinner and friends who bring us doughnuts. Not being pregnant. Sleeping on my back.

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As always this post is inspired by Sometimes Sweet.

Book Feature | Plant-Powered for Life

Plant Powered Cover

I have been wanting to share this book with your for awhile now but honestly have just dropped the ball a bit when it comes to regular blogging due to pregnancy, birth and now moving (we move in 9 days!!).  I have a moment this morning while Neil is our running, Edith is watching an alphabet show and Alder is napping in my arms so I wanted to share one of my new favorite books Plant-Powered for Life: Eat Your Way to Lasting Health with 52 Simple Steps and 125 Delicious by Sharon Palmer.

I received an advanced copy of this book to check out and to feature on the blog if I so chose (<–disclaimer). I often receive books and don’t end up featuring them because they just aren’t ones that I love or ones that I think you will be interested in but this book has easily become one of my favorites and is feature worthy. That being said if I didn’t own it already I would buy it for myself and I see it being a perfect gift this holiday season for family and friends.

This book is NOT about becoming a vegetarian or vegan but rather about incorporating more plants into your diet whatever that may be. The aim is simple: to show how anyone, from meat-loving omnivore to junk-food vegan, can benefit by making room in their diet for more whole plant foods.

Delicious Arugula Pizza recipe that I made - so good!

Delicious Arugula Salad Pizza recipe that I made – so good!

The book is laid out so that there are 52 different steps that one can take to become more plant powered.  Along with tips on how to incorporate more plants into your diet each step includes 2-3 recipes that go along with the theme of that step.  One idea that I think would be great is to use this book as a jumping off point to add more plants to your diet by following one step and the recipes in that step each week for one year.  It would be a great way to transition your diet to a more plant powered one without becoming too overwhelmed. Now I don’t know if that is why there are 52 steps but I think it would be a great plan and of course you can go in any order you’d like, although I would do step one first because it has you set a goal such as you want to go 100% vegan, you’d like to become a more plant focused vegetarian or a plant powered omnivore.

The steps are really inspiring and even though I would consider myself a plant powered veg I could always use room for improvement because it really is easy to become a junk food veg or slip into that at times especially when life gets chaotic.

So what about the recipes? I have been cooking up lots of the recipes in this book because they all just sound so good. I also love how easy most of them are to put together.  There are a few more time consuming recipes or recipes that I have had a difficult time finding the ingredients for but the majority of the recipes are healthy, easy and tasty. The book also includes great photos for most of the recipes, tips and side notes and nutritional facts.

So far my favorite recipes are the Arugula Salad Pizza, Tofu Ratatouille and Neil and Edith love the Black Bean Brownies with Walnuts (recipe below). Have you read this book yet? If you do or if you try this recipe come back and let me know what you think!

Plant Powered for Life - brownie photo

Plant Powered for Life brownie recipe Plant Powered for Life – Black Bean Brownie Recipe – PDF

Credit line: Recipe from Plant-Powered for Life: Eat Your Way to Lasting Health with 52 Simple Steps and 125 Delicious Recipes, copyright © Sharon Palmer, 2014. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Experiment. Available wherever books are sold. Photo credit: © Heather Poire

Amazon affiliate links included in this post. 

Pancakes & Clean-Up Confessions

PAM Logo

Life has been a little crazy the past few days since adding in a new baby to the mix but we are all adjusting to the changes as well as one could imagine. I have been spending a lot of time hanging out on the couch trying to heal and nursing Alder.  That being said, most of the cooking has been taken on by Neil (and Edith).  

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PancakeLearningTowerWhile this pancake breakfast occurred a few weeks ago now this is just a sample of the fun times in the kitchen that Neil and Edith have together. While they are making delicious meals for me I have been thankful for easy clean up afterwards. 

To help make the clean up process easier I like to fill the sink with hot soapy water so I can just drop the dirty dishes in as I go along or I make sure the dishwasher is empty and leave it open so I can just place dirty dishes in as I go along. I also make sure to wipe up the counter as soon as I am done so that we start and end with clean counters. 

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PAM coconut oil spray has also been great for easy clean up especially for our pancake breakfasts because it keeps our pancakes from sticking and makes cleaning the pan super easy. Plus PAM’s 99% less residue formula helps to keep me from spending extra time scrubbing pans when I’d rather be spending that time with my family. 

Pancakes- Pouring Maple Syrup Pancake tops

What do you do to make cleaning up after cooking meals easier? 

Leaving up to 99% less residue, PAM is your ally in the kitchen and allows you to save time during prep and clean up.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by ConAgra via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of ConAgra.