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I had visions…

I had visions of being the ultimate badass chick and changing my own car battery.  Yup, ended up holding the flashlight.  Ah well, seems an appropriate way to end the month. 

Oh, October.  What a month it’s been.  Can’t say I’m terribly sad to see it go.  November can only be better, right?  That’s what I’m going for.  We did get the Halloween decorations up and Alan managed to carve one pumpkin.  The Arboretum was visited (unlimited mimosas!!), eating in a storm was done, and entirely too much money was spent on things we may or may not technically “need”.  But, trick or treating will be done tonight, so there’s that. 

I’ve been super slack about cooking.  This week I decided to get back on that and have made two really awesome meals, if I do say so myself.  And I do.  The first one was paleo meatballs in tomato sauce stuff (that’s a link, click it).  I was a little concerned about the amount of garlic, but Alan said it was just fine.  While that wasn’t my favorite meal, it’s definitely something that I can add into rotation.  Yesterday I made paleo pork roast (another link -yes, Liz, I’m pointing them out for you, click them!), garlic mashed sweet potatoes (yup, click it), and blackberry cobbler (you know you wanna).  At first, all the different smells of the pork roast kept messing with my smeller.  After a few hours, however, it smelled amazing.  Seriously, so much awesome-smell was happening in my house yesterday.  The sweet potatoes, I was a little concerned about.  I’ve only ever had them plain or doctored with butter and brown sugar.  But, these, oh man.  I’m making more of those tonight to go with another new recipe: sausage spaghetti squash bake (surely I don’t have to keep telling you…)  I’ve never bought a spaghetti squash until yesterday.  Hopefully, I don’t ruin it.  I’m kind of excited about this one and hope it comes out as good as it sounds.  The blackberry cobbler was…blackberry cobbler, I guess.  I’m not a huge fan of blackberries to begin with and the crumble part needed a sweetness to it.  Since it wasn’t baked in, we improvised and dumped ice cream all over it. 

Now, I’m going to go drink coffee and contemplate whether it’s really a good idea to start drinking beer at 10.45 in the morning so I can make room in my fridge for more…

 

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Cooooookies

There was a ridiculous amount of amazingness that happened in my kitchen today. 

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Wheat free chocolate chip cookies.  Good ones!  I found this blog post on how to make your own all purpose flour to sub into any recipe 1:1.  That right there was a win for me.  Then, I tried one of the combos in my go-to pancake recipe.  Oliver declared them better than his “normal” pancakes.  Which is big because if you tell that kid something doesn’t have bread (what we call wheat around here) in it, he automatically doesn’t like it.  So, I got to thinking about what else I could try it in. 

Colin has been a real trooper with giving up wheat.  I’ve made several things here and there to try to keep him “in bread”, but things have still been sorely lacking.  There’s been a bag of chocolate chips sitting on my counter staring at me for a few weeks, so I figured I’d give the cookie recipe a shot.  I’d love to lie and say it was for Colin that I was doing this, but, come on….it’s chocolate chip cookies.  This one was totally for me!  

I was super tired this morning after dropping the kids off at school so figured surely I could use my food processor to whip up the dough.  In looking for the proper way to do that (yes, I was looking that up), I stumbled across this recipe.  I’ve never had Doubletree Hotel cookies.  Didn’t even know that was such a thing.  Apparently, it is and it’s got a cult following.  If people are spending 9$ on 6 cookies, they gotta be good.  Which meant I obviously had to make that recipe.  So, I did.  Using my wheat free all purpose flour.  And, they were amazing.  Once again, Oliver declared them better than the “real cookies” and he’ll “save Daddy six cookies, take some to Gramme since they don’t have wheat, and Colin and I will eat the rest.”  There may be a cookie showdown later tonight…     

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Bragging

Now that Oliver is in first grade, he gets actual number grades for his work.  This week, we got his first progress report.

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That’s right, my kid’s got straight A’s.  Yes, it’s only been 3 weeks of school.  And yes, he’s only in first grade.  So!  He’s a genius!

This school year, Colin got moved up to the big kid class in his montessori.  He had a really rough time in his last class, so it’s been a relief to see him transition so well.  I think between him actually being challenged with work and them learning that he loves to be a helper, he’s enjoying school again and isn’t acting up nearly as bad. 

That’s all I got.  Bragging complete.

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Yes, we have a new pet.

Meet Lola. 

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Oliver kept trying (and succeeding) to photobomb her picture, so I left it to look like she’s attacking him.  It made me laugh.  The boys LOVE her.  Every time they go out the front they have to go check on her.  Then, they look for bugs to throw in her web and then watch her wrap and eat said bugs.  

I learned that she eats her web every night and then rebuilds it in the morning.  While I read that on the internet, I did make it out early enough one morning to watch her rebuilding, so I believe that part of the internet is true.  The sad part is, it said that she’ll probably die around the time frost starts, so she won’t be out there for too long.  But, she’s already grown twice her original size (to us), so hopefully she’ll just keep getting bigger.  

 

Yes, I’m horrible about updating this thing.  We’ve had quite a few things that I had imagined I’d update it with, but obviously haven’t.  So, I’m done saying I’m going to try to be good about updating it.  We’ll see how far that gets me.   

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Let go!!

Every time there’s someone beside me on the treadmill and they’re holding on with both hands, I want to scream that at them.

I had a physical yesterday and part of that was getting blood drawn.  For whatever reason the thought of getting poked with a needle will break me out into a full body sweat.  Getting a tattoo, not so much.  So, the nurse had me lay down and went through her spiel of telling me not to be scared and then looked down at my arm and said “What are you even worried for??  You’ve got huge veins, I could do this in my sleep!”  To which I politely asked her not to.  Then she said “You’re lucky.  You’re skinny and usually you skinny girls have skinny veins and it’s hard to get them.” 

The whole point of that story was: someone called me skinny!  (AND! while I’m in a very not skinny phase, you know, due to the whole donut phase…) I’ve had numerous comments on my weight loss, but I can’t remember one where the person flat out said skinny (it’s possible it’s happened).  Thankfully, she said that right before poking me with a giant needle and then draining me of most of my blood so I was slightly distracted. 

I made these the other day.  The batter was super thick so I thought they would be better to make into cookies.  Downside to that was, cookies need sweetness.  Yes, they have chocolate chips, but…  Now, I warm them up for a few seconds in the microwave and then drown them in honey.  While not great on taste, they do help with the late night snacking cravings.  And are full of protein!  Double win. 

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I cut my hair.

I’ve decided I’m going to go all caveman on little Ms. Motivation.  Just club her over the head and drag her butt back here.  Tomorrow.  While I did eat well today (and do my cardio today !!), I’m finishing my bottle of wine….that I started a little while ago….and then I think I’ll try the whole not drinking alcohol for a while.  Just saying (or thinking) that makes me start laughing.  But, I’d like to see if I can do it.  You know, that whole control thing.  *Not* that I have control issues or anything….ok, all of you STOP laughing!

That’s all I got.  Here’s a picture of my new haircut.  Yes, I love it.  No, I don’t know why I keep growing my hair out and hating it the whole time instead of keeping it short.  I think somewhere along the way I got programmed to think men across the board preferred long hair.  Right at this moment, I’ve decided I don’t care what I’m *supposed* to think, I like it short.  (full disclosure, Alan says he has no preference and likes it both ways.  Seeing as how he’s seen me with much longer and shorter hair than I’m currently sporting, I’ll believe him.)

Oh yeah.  Here’s the picture.  No, I’m not smiling.  I don’t in selfies.  Just feels weird.

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I have a blog.

I have this thing.  Mostly I ignore it, much to the chagrin of people who were excited that I started it.  I’ll take pictures of the boys, or think of something witty (or sometimes actually intellectual) and think I’ll post it here.  Then I don’t.  I rule. 

That’s a lot of “I”. 

There’s a girl (woman, lady, whatever) that blogs and I occasionally read it.  Sometimes I think she’s strong to write it all down and put it out there.  Other times, I want to say “get over it!  Move on!”, then immediately chide myself because that response is made mostly out of jealousy at not feeling like I can be as free with myself.  Of course, the immediate response to *that* is wondering who the hell bloody cares about my intellectual thoughts!!  🙂  Ah, the inner workings of my brain. 

I have pictures of the boys and fireworks and the zoo and new tattoos (well, just one), but I’m too lazy to wait on them to upload.  Maybe I’ll do it another day.  Or, maybe I’ll just keep all those pictures to myself.   

We’re going to a wedding in Seattle in just over a month.  Somehow, I have to re-find my fat melting motivation.  That shit is so gone.  Not even just hiding under the couch kind of gone.  Like, “bitch packed her bags and moved the hell out” kind of gone.  But, I won’t lie.  The donuts have been soooo good.  Now, I have to gravel and beg and plead to get her to come back and give me another chance.  I gots a dress to buy!  Shopping blows. 

I haven’t even made any good recipes lately.  I have chicken legs in the oven, but not fancy ones.  Just bakin’ in beer.  Wish they’d hurry up, I’m hungry….and bored….

 

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Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

That’s a lie.  It doesn’t really taste anything like cheesecake.  But, large chunks of heaven in your mouth?  Oh yeah.  The best part is (that’s another lie, there’s lots of “bests” about this cake), the more days that pass the better it tastes.  Originally, I wasn’t too crazy about it.  It was very keylimey and I’m not a huge fan of keylime.  Now?  Now I could eat the rest of it that’s sitting in the pan and be upset there wasn’t more. 

There’s four layers to this thing.  Each one is awesome in it’s own way.  I super love it because the crust is very graham cracker tasting and would go awesome as a pie crust.  The de leche sauce, I could make crackers out of the crust and dip them in the de leche sauce and be super happy with just that.  The recipe creator lady doesn’t lie, though.  The sauce takes forever to reduce down, but totally worth it.  The “cheesecake” part was my least favorite.  The day it was made, and the day after, it was heavy on the lime and cashew taste.  While it wasn’t bad, per se, it just wasn’t great.  Again, after a few days those mellow out big time and the result is just awesomeness.  The final layer is chocolate.  And, it’s chocolate.  Can’t go wrong there. 

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http://swisspaleo.ch/dulce-de-leche-cheesecake-bars-oh-my/

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I fail at waffles.

Epically.  I was never great with them in the first place, but throw in funky ingredients and I’m a goner.  Twice I’ve tried and twice they went horribly wrong.  The first time, they tasted horrible.  Ugh.  Just, bad.  I looked around off and on for a different recipe and finally settled on one that I was excited about making (side note: it was one of the main reasons I was so excited about getting my food processor and it took me weeks to use it for the actual waffle recipe).  So, yesterday I decided I was going to give it another go.  The first one came out great.  Not the greatest of presentations, but it held together and tasted pretty darn good.  Then, I tried to make a second one.  Then a third.  Those, those did not turn out so well.  I don’t know what the crap happened, but it ended it mass failure.  At least I got to eat the one good one. 

Yesterday, I realized that I missed biscuits.  Granted, it was only after hearing someone telling me they had biscuits and gravy for breakfast that I realized it, but still, I realized!  So, off to the internet I went.  I found this one that looked easy enough so I made them this morning.

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While they aren’t bad, and in fact are pretty decent, they lack any sweetness.  After a dab of butter and a dollop of honey, I think I may have found my biscuit replacement.  You know, come to think of it, they remind me of cornbread in the texture….random thought.  Now if I can figure out how to make gravy…

Other random thought, I take crappy food porn pics.