Piggy Paint

My little girl is definitely a girly girl! When she was a baby I rarely dressed her in pink, rarely put big bows in her hair, and NEVER did anything princessy with her. Despite all my efforts to keep her from the standard frills, pink, and princesses that little girls are known for, now at the age of three she is as girly as they come. Her favorite color is...PINK and she will rarely dress in anything else. She adores princesses and often has to be referred to as Princess Bailey. Dress up is one of her favorite activities as well as pretending she is putting on make-up or sneaking into mommy's and really putting it on. UGH! I try not to fight it anymore and have somewhat given into her girly self. She often begs me to paint her nails. After learning what standard nail polish had in it, I was not comfortable putting it on her which did not go over well with "Princess Bailey." Then I discovered Piggy Paint. It's a safe alternative to regular nail polish and goes along with their slogan "Natural as Mud." Get it pigs...mud. Ok whatever. I thought it was cute. Anyway, now she gets her nails done and I feel good about the polish I am putting on her. You can find Piggy Paint online but there are also some local retailers where I live that carry it. That is where I got mine. If you decide to try this out for yourself, I have found that several thin coats works much better and stays on longer than one thick coat. Here are some pictures of Princess Bailey after her manicure and pedicure.

Homemade safe deodorant

I've been on the hunt for a good natural deodorant for quite some time. Most antiperspirants contain aluminum and other harmful chemicals that can be detrimental to your health. Aluminum has been linked to breast cancer and that's just one thing that I'd like to try to avoid if possible. I'd at least like to try to lower my risk by putting good things on and in my body. Antiperspirants also clog your pores and stop you from sweating and releasing toxins from your body. Knowing this, I began searching for a safer alternative. I've tried several different "natural" deodorants in the store and didn't have much luck with any of them, not to mention they can be pretty pricey. I'm not too smelly of a person and can sometimes go without deodorant in the winter, but after profuse sweating in the humid Missouri heat of the summer, I just feel more comfortable with something on. Once I won a giveaway on a blog for homemade deodorant and loved it! After that positive experience, I have been wanting to make my own. I recently made this recipe and so far it has worked out great. I feel good about what I'm putting on my body and know exactly what went into it. Try it out! See what you think.

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch
6-8 tbs coconut oil
2-3 drops of tea tree oil

Mix baking soda and cornstarch to combine. Add coconut oil and mix or mash together. Add a few drops of tea tree oil to increase antibacterial properties. Store in a small lidded container or in old empty deodorant container.

Note: If your house is hot like mine you may need to keep it in the fridge. Coconut oil is solid but begins to melt in temperatures above the mid 70s. I'm not sure how long this recipe lasts because I haven't used a whole recipe yet. I have a feeling it will last a VERY long time. Also don't apply immediately after shaving as the baking soda may cause some irritation. Wait a few minutes.

A Berry Happy 3rd Birthday

We celebrated my little girl's third birthday over the weekend. Oh what a three years it has been. It's amazing how much joy children can bring to your life and Bailey has brought more joy in our lives than I thought possible. Sure she can bring me to my breaking point in no time flat, but her smile can melt my heart in a second. To celebrate her three years with us, she wanted to have a Strawberry Shortcake party with her two best friends, Blair and Claire. The house was decked out in red, pink and green, covered in strawberry decorations and we ate strawberry cupcakes, whole strawberries, strawberry ice cream, pink sugar cookies, pizza, and fruit snacks. The party was a hit! The girls had their own child sized table to eat their delicious treats. Then we opened presents and they topped off the fun afternoon by enjoying a dip in the kiddie pool. The heat didn't stop these girls from having a great time. There was lots of giggling, squealing, and hugging so I'd say they all had a great time. We sent everyone home with a bucket full of goodies: strawberry sunglasses, fruit snacks and a Strawberry Shortcake charm bracelet. It was a Berry good day!

Her new pink bike...all she wanted. Such a big girl!

It's ROASTING in here!

Here's another simple meal but packed with flavor and yumminess. I know that's probably not a real word but it's fun to say so yumminess it is. :) I love roasting meat and veggies. If you can turn an oven on and season some meat and veggies, you can roast too! For the chicken you can simply remove the insides, rub olive oil and salt and pepper on it and it will be delicious but for this chicken I put about five more minutes extra work into it for something a bit more special. I made an herb butter and put it under and on top of the skin. Herb butter...sounds fancy but it couldn't be more simple. Take about a half stick of butter and let it soften either in the microwave for a few seconds or on the countertop for a while. Add lots of dried herbs to the butter (whatever you have on hand-basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, herbs de provence, garlic, etc) and incorporate them into the butter with a fork. That's right, just smash it together and you have herb butter. See, told you it was easy. I also add salt and pepper. Then all you do is take some hunks and put them under the skin of a whole chicken and rub on top of the skin as well. Salt and pepper the outside and place in a roasting pan and into a preheated 350 degree oven. Usually it takes about 1 1/2 hours to cook through and juices run clear. Let it rest for several minutes after taking it out of the oven before slicing into it. And there you have it, you roasted a chicken. Simple and easy. You can get really fancy and use the drippings for a pan gravy but I didn't tonight and it was still delicious and moist. If you have any leftovers, you can use it in a million different ways: chicken salad, on top of salads, stir fry, sandwiches if you eat bread, etc. And if you really want to get the most out of your chicken, boil the leftover bones to make chicken soup. You can get several meals from a $5 chicken. That's why I love to make them!


For this meal I also chose to roast some veggies in the oven as well for a quick side dish. We had VBS this week and I didn't have a lot of time to spend over the stove. This way I could just spend a couple of minutes cutting up the vegetables and then let the oven do the rest of the work while I got my kids ready to go. On half of the pan I put asparagus and on the other half I put cut up zucchini, squash and onions from our garden. I seasoned these very simply with salt and pepper but you can use any seasonings you want. Drizzle some olive oil on top and roast in the oven when your chicken is close to being done. It took my veggies about 15 minutes but just eyeball it until your veggies are tender and a bit brown on the tips. The onions will get carmelized and sweet. It really made for a healthy, delicious and fast meal as far as time spent "cooking". So go for it and try roasting. I think you'll love it!

What we ate

I told you I would share with you what we ate this week with what I bought from the grocery store. This was a bit of an atypical week because we ate out three times. Once on Thursday night when I planned to meet with my partner for VBS for 30 minutes and it ended in staying until 9:00pm. I had porkchops thawing in the sink that I had planned to cook when we got home around 6:00. I had to throw them out when we got home and we picked up Taco Bell. Oh the shame! haha It was also my birthday so we had Texas Roadhouse on Friday with my family. I didn't eat too bad there. Saturday we had Mexican with friends and I PIGGED OUT and paid for it the rest of the weekend. I felt pretty ill. Anyway, here is what we ate. The good, the bad and the ugly.

MONDAY
Breakfast
Ken: yogurt and fruit
Tara: bacon and eggs
Bailey: egg, blueberries, blackberries

Lunch
Ken & Tara: salad, leftover Mediterranean chicken, and a peach
Bailey: yogurt with fruit, carrots and ranch

Snack: strawberries, macadamia nuts

Dinner: Zucchini "Spaghetti" (recipe to come)

Snack: banana "ice cream" (Recipe to come) and Bailey had some popcorn at church during our community group

TUESDAY
Breakfast
Ken & Bailey: yogurt and fruit
Tara: bacon and eggs

Snack: strawberries, blueberries and macadamia nuts

Lunch:
Tara: Homemade crab cakes made with homemade mayo and coconut flour
Bailey: PB&J (natural PB)
Ken: guacamole burger, salad

Dinner: @ my grandparents' house Chicken Divan, salad, canteloupe, jello salad

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast
Ken & Tara: bacon and eggs
Bailey: grapes and strawberries

Lunch
Ken egg salad made with homemade mayo in a lettuce wrap
Tara: salad: spinach, romaine, leftover bacon, carrots, avocado, cucumber
Bailey: hardboiled egg and pickles

Snack: cocoa dusted almonds

Dinner
Zucchini pizzas (recipe to come)

THURSDAY
Breakfast
Ken: sunflower seed butter, sausage, coconut flour biscuit
Tara: coconut flour biscuits and sausage
Bailey: strawberries, milk, granola bar

Lunch
Ken: egg salad, spinach, leftover cf biscuits, peach
Tara: loaded salad
Bailey: tortilla pizza and blueberries

Snack for Bailey: sno-cone @ church

Dinner: Taco Bell :(

FRIDAY
Breakfast
Bacon and eggs

Lunch
Ken & Tara: salad- spinach, romaine, carrots, grilled chicken, cucumber. zucchini, bacon, peppers, cheese

Bailey: cheese quesadilla & fruit

Dinner: Texas Roadhouse

SATURDAY
Breakfast
Tara & Ken: Eggs, Asparagus, Bacon
Bailey: egg & fruit

Lunch: Grilled chicken, sauted zucchini, collard greens

Dinner: Nacho Mamas & frozen custard

SUNDAY
Breakfast
Ken and Tara: nothing
Bailey: granola bar

Lunch: loaded salad

Dinner: leftovers Bailey: PB&J

Mediterranean Chicken

There's nothing really fancy about this dish. Really there's nothing really fancy about any of my meals. We are on the go most nights of the week so the main requirement for my dinners are that they are fast, easy, packed with flavor, and healthy. This was a fast pantry meal prepared in one skillet right on the stove. From start to finish took less than 30 minutes. I hardly ever use real recipes. I just throw a bunch of seasonings and such in until I'm happy with the way it tastes, smells and looks. I'll do my best to give you a "recipe" though. Keep in mind, this is just a guideline. Please feel free to adapt to your tastes and preferences.

Mediterranean Chicken

4 chicken breasts
garlic powder
Can of diced tomatoes
Jar of artichoke hearts (chopped)
Small jar or packet of whole olives (I used a packet of kalamata olives)
Half an onion diced
2 cloves garlic (pressed or chopped)
Oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to taste

Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano. Brown in skillet with olive or coconut oil on Med- Med/High heat until almost cooked through. When almost done, add diced onion and chopped or pressed garlic around the chicken. When onions begin to soften add tomatoes, drained artichoke hearts and olives to the pan. Add seasonings to taste. Make sure you taste the "sauce" before you add salt since the olives can be pretty salty. Turn down heat to low, cover and let simmer until chicken cooks completely through. Enjoy!

I served mine with a nice spinach salad but you can pair it with whatever you like!

3 months

Eli is 3 months old already. Where has the time gone?! No doubt time will fly by even fast as the years go by. He is such a big guy always wanting to sit up and look around, never wanting to be held like a baby anymore. He can roll over both ways and is smitten with his sister even when she is torturing him. Here are just a few pictures of my sweet little guy. I just adore him.

Talking to Momma

Bailey's handiwork. Eli not sure what to think. Bailey with her mischevious look.

Thinking she is hilarious!

Taking it in stride. Such a sweet boy!

Healthy real food

I am revisiting this blog again because I want to use this blog for more than just to show off my cute kids. :) I want it to be about life. I want to show you what choices I made at the grocery store, share healthy recipes with you, show you my craft projects, discuss parenting choices, faith topics, etc. Please feel free and dialogue with me. I want this to be a learning process for me and those that read my blog. I am constantly searching for ways to make myself and my family healthier, not just how we eat and exercise but also by how we live. With that said, here is my first post showing you what I bought at the store. I'm not a couponer but I do try to stay within a reasonable budget. I don't like to spend any more than $100/week on groceries for my family. This will include all meals that we eat since we try to eat most meals at home. I also include all toiletry, household, and dog food in this total because I do it all at one store-Scnhucks. My food philosophy is to eat REAL food. You won't see anything that comes in a box. It's all fresh food, sometimes canned. You also won't see anything low fat, fat free or a substitute for something else. Fat is good for you. Healthy fat that is. What you will see is protein, vegetables, and fruit. I buy a lot of organic food. Milk, eggs, butter, canned goods, and anything from the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/ ) I try to buy organic. Schnuck's Full Circle Organic brand is very affordable which makes it possible for me to do this and still stay in budget. Eating healthy doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. So without further adieu, here are the goods.

Bag of kale

romaine lettuce

baby spinach

strawberries

asparagus

peaches

blueberries

blackberries

baby carrots

2 plain greek yogurts

sausage

mozzarella cheese

plain organic yogurt

3 pkgs of bacon

macadamia nuts

pepperoni

1/2 gallon org. whole milk

tomato sauce

3 dozen organic eggs

simply orange juice

simply apple juice

2 pkgs girly bandaids :)

Total: $98.04 (I just realized they charged me twice for the kale. Grrr... so the real total should be $95.05)

There's not a lot of meat this week because I already had a freezer full of it. I buy it when it's on sale. This week nothing on sale interested me so I didn't buy any. In the freezer I have ground beef, chicken breasts, pork chops, and a whole chicken. We also have a garden so right now a lot of our veggies are coming from there such as zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and green beans. Stay tuned to see what I made for dinner this week out of my haul.

Buss, Party of 4!

It's been forever since I've kept up with this blog. Two years to be exact. Lots of changes have happened in the past two years. Our little girl is almost 3 and recently became a big sister. Eli Harrison made his big debut into the world via c-section after 28 hours of long hard labor on April 9. The little booger just didn't want to come out very similar to his sister. I was not the happiest camper when he was born, in fact I barely smiled due to the fact that I had so desperately wanted a VBAC with him, but this sweet little boy has brought me nothing but pure joy since he entered my life. Our family is now complete. Here are a few pictures of our sweet little boy and family.