Bread.

This morning I woke up to rain. A gentle thunder storm and the drip-drip-drop of July showers coming down outside my window. I rolled over and looked at the clock. 8:00 am. I pulled Felix into bed with me around 4:45 am to make the last part of our night a bit less stressful. Side nurse. snuggle. Side nurse snuggle. "Yes, he slept in" I thought.

Big blue eyes sleepily opened and a grin that won't stop beamed up in my direction. The morning was lazy. Oatmeal with blueberries and walnuts, and coffee while Felix played and practiced crawling. A skype date with my good friend Liz and a bit of cleaning during Felix's first nap. Lunch with Josh. Felix tried pears, and loved them. All while the pitter patter of scattered storms kept me feeling cozy in my home. I decided today was a good day to make bread and to stay inside.

Kneading sticky dough. Adding a bit more flour. Knead some more. Let rest and rise. I lit a woodwick candle to pretended I have a fireplace. Vacuumed and swept. And then an afternoon walk with a friend morphed into an afternoon tea and chocolate with a friend on the living room floor. Felix wiggled about working out some of his little boy energy.

Two hours and some soul sharing later the dough was now twice its size. Ready to be formed and then rise again in bread pans. Baked till crunchy and golden brown on the outside. The gentle smell of yeast mixed with salt, water and flour. The most basic of ingredients. Timeless and warm. With the candle, the rain and bread all going at once, I almost felt like Autumn was in the air.

Sigh.

I love autumn. I'm so looking forward for this season to be over. This literal season of hot summer (even though as far as Tennessee summers go, this one has been mild) And the metaphorical season of life. This life season has pretty much beaten my entire family to a pulp and it's time for a fresh start. Fall always seems to bring a new beginning in my heart, so even though the temperature was in the high 80s today I mentally shifted into cooler weather.

With the aroma of bread filling my house, a sleeping baby, and the soft roll of thunder outside I took a deep breath in. Closed my eyes and breathed out July. Said goodbye to one of the most difficult months of my life and cut a slice of still warm home made bread. Bring on August.

Fresh 20: Fail

You Guys, look at this amazing Fresh 20 meal I made.

Just kidding. It's a Freschetta Frozen pizza with some added grape tomatoes and parsley as a garnish to throw you guys off. I posted last week about how awesome Fresh 20 is and how much we love it and how I planned to share some of our meals with you guys and then this week fell apart.

I was a good girl and went to the Franklin Farmers market on Saturday while Josh was out of town to pick up some of our ingredients for the week. Then Sunday afternoon got away from all of us with another epic post-church nap (why are those the best) and we never got the remaining ingredients for the week.

Enter Monday - Felix isn't napping so all hopes of making it to the grocery without a melt down are shot and the rest of the day is history. We wound up at Blue Coast burrito for some Baja Fish tacos and then Tuesday night we sort of just chose an easy route because we had lots of errands to run, Josh was meeting up with a friend and we weren't super hungry come dinner time.

But that's ok. Life is crazy and we are flexible! We used some of the grape tomatoes form this week's menu on our frozen pizza and we have plans to eat up the "Turkey" (read: chicken) cutlets for tomorrow nights meal. Stay tuned. I'm sure a riveting post about cutlets will be coming your way, or not. ;)

The Fresh 20

Food is important around here. In the past Josh and I would end up eating out for dinner probably 3 times a week and even though we are wanna-be foodies, we don't have the budget to hit-up every fusion, french or fancy restaurant in town. So we often times would resort to pizza, chipotle, chick-fil-a, or subs from somewhere quick.

We decided recently that this was NOT a good plan for our waist line or our budget and we wanted Felix to grow up in a home that had meals around the table together, so we committed to eating at home more often.

Now, this was a good idea in theory, but I lacked imagination in the meal planning department and had no knowledge about how to do this in a cost effective way. Often times I would plan a meal the day it was to be eaten and then go out and buy all the ingredients for said meal. Ending up in about 30 bucks spent at the grocery store. We would have left overs, but in my head if I was spending that much on one meal for 2 at home and still dealing with clean up afterwards, we may as well be eating out.

Enter a few weeks of feeble attempts and frustration that led to a random discussion on Sunday afternoon about meal plans, a quick Facebook post asking for some advice and my friend Amanda suggesting The Fresh 20. It was down hill from there.

Being food lovers, busy and on a budget the Fresh 20 was perfect. It compiles a weekly menu (5 nights a week - not the overwhelming 7 like other meal planners) then gives you an itemized grocery list of 20  ingredients to purchase for ALL your meals that week. That's it. 20 items. Some ingredients are in multiple dishes, others are used up on one night. And because the list includes in-season items that you use multiple times throughout the week (so you can buy in bulk) it helps save money  So far our weekly dinner costs on the Fresh 20 has been about 70 dollars or less and many times the meals have leftovers to carry our lunches as well.

Meals like garlic chicken with massaged kale and avacado salad, Grilled sausage pizza with homemade pesto sauce and cantaloupe, or grilled chicken tacos with pineapple salsa are a few of our favorites. I'm loving it. I'm trying new dishes that I would never come up with on my own. And they are WAY healthier than my regular go-to dishes but these are still packed with flavor. I'm hoping to document some of our meals and share them here on the blog. Stay tuned!

How do you meal plan for the week? What are some of your go-to dishes?

Because I Need to Write About Something Less Heavy - Breakfast Quinoa

It's been heavy around here. That's the season of life I'm in, but there are also a lot of really great things happening. Like Felix is napping better. (two 1.5 hour naps today!) Like my husband works his butt off at his 9-6 job and comes home and continues to work his butt of on side projects. Hoping for one day more time with his family. (I'm so grateful for him) Like fresh baked cookies, skpye prayer meetings, homemade pizza, spontaneous late nights with good friends and wine, afternoon housewarming parties, baked oatmeal, and coffee with other mamas.

Like a fun trip to Barnes and Noble last week when Felix played with toys on the ground and I read Bread and Wine with a stack of other hopeful books beside me.  And one of my favorite moments recently was last Saturday morning when I decided I was going to make the breakfast quinoa from the above mentioned book. So on Friday afternoon I sought out the ingredients at Whole Foods.

Whole foods is one of my happy places. I needed out of the house so in between naps Felix and I ventured out. I strapped him into the shopping cart with a blanket tucked around him. Taking note how tiny he looked holding himself up in the front of the cart. His baby hands gripping the metal in front of him and his ear to ear grin of excitement to be sitting in the cart. Free to twist and turn all about to see whatever his little heart desires. I loaded up on 2 lbs of Whole Grain quinoa, chicken apple sausage, and bought a new pack of brown eggs.

The next morning was Saturday. While I was sautéing the onion in a bit of olive oil Josh realized we were out of coffee and headed out to Whole Foods for a pound of breakfast blend. I chopped sausage. boiled and simmered the quinoa and then fried 3 eggs. Two for Josh, 1 for me. A pinch of salt. A dash of red pepper flakes for Josh and our eggs and toast routine was turned gourmet and healthy. I plan to buy Bread and Wine sometime soon so I don't have to compulsively come up with excuses to go to Barnes and Noble just to read it. What I've read so far is amazing.

This was such a special morning. Felix was happy. Watching me cook, playing with toys on a blanket laid on the floor. Josh grinding beans and pouring us both a steaming cup. Me grating sharp cheddar, and chopping ingredients around the kitchen. It had been weeks since we were able to spend a laid back Saturday morning like this together and it brought about a sense of togetherness and restored a bit of peace to our home. Quinoa lightened our heavy load.

Recipes I'm Loving

I still can't bring myself to write anything really serious on here. After my unintentional blause earlier this year, sharing deep things seems harder than it was before. I'm can't say for certain, but I think it has something to do with the fact that serious posts seem like they have to be long posts...and long posts are hard to write. So I'm going to stay on the surface for a little while longer, if that's OK with you. :)

Here are a few fabulous recipes that i've made recently and I want to share them with you, the world wide interwebs, to enjoy as well...

Creamy Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

I like this soup because it's fairly healthy with minimal fat and animal products and SUPER yummy. It's most definitely a fall recipe.

Bruschetta with Gorgonzola Cheese, Mushrooms, and Honey

Giada's fake accent every time she says an italian word annoys me. But this was just to fabulous to pass up. Her recipe skips the Mushrooms, but to bulk it up a bit a sauteed a few in olive oil and added them on top before sprinkling the gorgonzola. I made this at my recent wine night a few weeks ago, and it was a huge success!

Phyllo Wrapped Asparagus with Parmesan

I LOVE crispy buttery phyllo dough and you can't really go wrong with a Paula Dean recipe. If I were to do this again, I would cut the asparagus in bite size pieces before wrapping. Cutting through the phyllo with a knife makes it fall apart and loose the overall crunch.

Chicken Carbonara

Another Giada recipe - fake accent aside, this woman knows her italian cooking! This recipe is super simple, very rich, and SO good. We made ours with shrimp and angel hair pasta. The angel hair didn't work well because the sauce was so creamy it tore apart the noodles while stirring. 

Now that i've worked up a crazy appetite - i'm going to go make something fun for dinner!

Addictions

This past week I received an invite to pinterest. I'm officially addicted.

From my browsing and play time on pinterest i stumbled upon polyvore and developed another addiction. Here are some of my creations/inspiration.

I'm hoping these shiny outfits will distract you from the fact that i never gave a final update on the juice fast.

Did it work?

No.? ok...

Well, here's the update. We made it to day 6. I was emotionally dying inside (which is horrible that food had such a strong emotional connection to me - i think this post is appropriately titled.) Josh decided we needed to spend some quality time together and allow ourselves to be light hearted for the evening so we went out to dinner.

I don't regret breaking the fast early. I lost 15 lbs (and so far have kept off 8!) and truly felt like a "cleanse" took place. I obviously realized some unhealthy eating patterns (like my ridiculous mood swings, and constant eating when i'm not hungry + a carb heavy diet). Which I've tried to learn from and implement post-fast.

I think a more realistic plan moving forward would be green smoothie at breakfast (starting off the day right with tons of nutrients). A low sodium V8 at lunch + almonds as a snack throughout the day. and whatever I want for dinner (within reason).

This type of plan is much more feasible and would be a healthy structure/boundaries with lots of nutrients while still giving myself some wiggle room at dinner. I might actually give this a try sometime later this year for 20 or 30 days to see how it goes.

ANYWAY...onward to other things!

We're Breakfast People

Eggs and toast.
Bagels.
Omelets.
French toast.
Pancakes.
Oatmeal.
Cereal.
Muffins.
Fruit.
Coffee.
Tea.
Juice.
Milk.
Grits.

Ok ok, so we don't eat Grits, but all those other things we eat quite often. I can't remember a day in the last year - seriously) that i missed breakfast. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I LOVE breakfast!

Josh enjoying a beautiful breakfast spread on our honeymoon in Mexico, July 2007.

Josh and I love breakfast so much that we find ourselves having this conversation at least once a week...

Me: Hey babe, what do you want to do for dinner?
Josh: I dunno. Do we have anything to eat at home?
Me: Not really...we should probably save money and scrounge something up at home rather than eat out...
Josh: Yeah, you are right. Hey! What about B for D?
Me: HECK YEAH!

In case you were wondering B for D = Breakfast for Dinner? It seems that no matter how low the supplies in our cabinets get or how uninspired I am for dinner, B for D always pulls through.

I have so many memories growing up that revolve around breakfast. Saturday morning cartoons and papa's pancakes. Eggs in a Frame on the first day of school each year. Delicious sticky buns on Christmas morning. Meeting extended family half-way at the Amish-Breakfast buffet Der-Dutchman. Heck, my first job was at a little breakfast joint called Bob Evans. 

Eating breakfast out at the Pfunky Griddle

There is nothing better than eating breakfast out. When you eat a leisurely breakfast out with friends and family it sets the tone for the entire day. Laid back. No agenda. Plenty of time for sipping coffee and chatting away the morning hours. Some of my favorite breakfast-out places include First Watch (fresh fruit crepes!), Merridees in downtown Franklin, J. Christophers, and of course, the Bob.  

A culinary "break-feast" at our house when family was in town visiting. 

A typical weekday breakfast in the Michael house-hold consists of scrambled eggs (half regular eggs half egg whites) with a bit of cheese added to them and a side of health-nut bread turned into toast and topped with some smart balance.  Washed down with some orange juice or fat-free milk. yum yum! However, this morning the hubs made me oatmeal topped with a bit of brown sugar and slices of strawberries. 

Are you a breakfast person? What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

The Soup of My Childhood

49 of the 50 states have some sort of snow right now. This stat includes Hawaii. Granted, the snow in Hawaii is on top of a volcano, so it barely counts, but that's beside the point. The only state without snow right now is Florida.

What better way to warm up from all this cold weather than with some hot potato soup. Ewing-potato soup that is. This soup recipe is one of the main dishes i remember my mom making as a child. It's so comforting and cozy and filling, easy to save and reheat, and fairly inexpensive to make. Good for big families on a budget or small families that like leftovers (like me and josh!).

The Players:

1 onion

2-3 stalks of celery sliced thin

4 Tbs of butter

8-10 potatoes

3-4 carrots

parsley

chicken broth/stock or bouillon cubes and water to cover all

salt / pepper

dill seasoning

Can of evaporated milk

Cheddar Cheese

and try not to gasp too loudly...

1/3 - 1/2 a loaf of Velveeta or other processed cheese product of your choice. Me...I go for generic Publix brand Cheese Blend pasteurized process cheese!

The Game:

Chop the onion.

Thinly chop the celery

Saute in large pot with 1 - 8 Tbs of butter (depends on how fatty you wanna be, but works with any amount)

 Peel and chop the carrots.

 Peel and chop the potatoes to about 1/2 - 1 inch.

Put potatoes and carrots in with sautéed onion, celery, and butter. Barely cover with broth (or water and bouillon cubes (1 cube per cup of water you use). Add parsley.

 Bring a low boil till potatoes are soft enough to poke easily with a fork. (approximately 10 mins or until you realize you've forgotten you were making dinner while surfing facebook and rush back to check it.)

Once potatoes are soft, drop heat to low and add cheese in chunks (1-3 inches). (Velveeta cheese is essential cause of it's awesome melting capabilities....add as much or as little cheddar as you want.)

Grab your potato masher and hold it awkwardly above the soup

Just kidding...mash up some of the bigger potato chunks and pieces of cheese. *Note: Be careful not to burn your hands on the steam from the soup!

Once cheese is melted and when nearly finished add evaporated milk salt, pepper and dill to taste. Don't boil the milk or you will get some nasty curdles and dill does best when not heated for a long time.

Cut up some tasty french bread.

Thanks to Josh for being a hand model!

Chill some delicious white wine.

And Enjoy!

(p.s. i stupidly forgot to take a picture of this delicious soup before was gone so how the end result lookst will be a mystery till you make it!)

Milkshakes

Tonight was a good night. It consisted of reading by my "WoodWick" candle, which gives off the sound of a crackling fireplace. Then going to church and then to a great restaurant with called Genghis Grill where we all piled high bowls of "stir fry" type food and stuffing our selves. Then we came home and made milkshakes.

It was interesting the flavors of milk shakes that everyone chose to make. I stuck with a classic Peanut Butter Chocolate shake. It was thick and rich and beautiful. Jo wanted the same thing, but more Chocolate than Peanut Butter.

The boys both made weird concoctions... Of course. They had to add spices and weird chunks of things to their shakes. Josh added truffles and cinnamon to his...He ended up finishing mine and regretting his weird decision. Nate started with a base of Peanut Butter and added cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and caramel. This one actually turned out really good! Very "fally"

Tonight was a perfect night spent with friends and drinking shakes. Nothing too deep about it. Just good times!