{Almost} Wordless Weekend

Friday night Costco dinner

Exactly what a WW needs next door...a burger joint!

Saw this at the mall...I always knew this Johnny Cash kid would make it big one day!

Ran my #blend5k Sunday morning.  Proof I finished alive!

Sasha enjoyed an afternoon of protecting her toys from the neighborhood cats!

Gary's weekend project. New vertical blinds on the back slider.

Used this to get what you see below:

Venti non-fat Mocha Cookie Crumble Frapp during Happy Hour!

 ***How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun?***

{Almost} Wordless Weekend #2

We spent Saturday in the Bay Area for a birthday party and got to cuddle with our Godson...

...and each other!

I am LOVING this picture of me & my handsome hubby!

Sunday we took a journey into Costco and somehow didn't cry when we saw our total on the cash register.

My big find were these 2 bags of broccoli.  There are weeks where I am so ridiculously busy that I am more than willing to pay a little extra to have my veggies pre-chopped. 

Serves 16....or 2 VERY hungry adults!

I spent the rest of Sunday doing laundry, catching up on blog work and making 2 HUGE batches of roasted broccoli.

I am as ready as I can be for the week....what about you?

Can you believe it is the last week of March?!?!

The Best Pizza Crust You May Ever Make

I have not been able to eat "regular" pizza for almost 6 months.  This should be against the law!  For some reason, any pizza other than one with a gluten free crust makes my stomach sick.  I found some "just okay" pre-made gluten free crusts a few months ago, but the ingredient list was still a little too long for my liking.

So how excited was I when I found a link to a gluten free/Paleo pizza crust on Tina's blog!!  I decided to try it out this Saturday and I was so happy with the results.  It was thick and hearty, which made it great for holding all of our toppings.

You wanna piece of me??  YES!!

Here s the link to the original recipe, but I thought I'd post it for you as well.

Almond Flax Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 cups flaxseed meal
• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp natural baking powder
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 tsp Italian mixed dried herbs
• 3 large eggs, beaten until smooth
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• ½ cup water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425° F.
2. Combine flaxseed meal, almond meal, sea salt, baking powder and Italian herbs together until lump-free.
3. Beat together eggs, olive oil, honey and water until smooth.
4. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture. Blend well until smooth.
5. Press into desired shape.
6. Place on a pre-greased or non-stick pizza pan or sit on a silicon baking mat.
7. Bake for 15 minutes in the center of the oven until cooked.
8. Add favorite toppings and then return to the oven to bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.

I topped mine with some organic tomato sauce, ground beef, sauteed onions and bell pepper, diced tomatoes, mushrooms and just a handful of shredded raw cheddar cheese.  Gary & I were both surprised at how well the crust held up with all those toppings.

I didn't think ahead to make a salad or anything with this, but 1 1/2 slices was plenty for me!  Even Gary struggled to eat 2 slices.

My future self is telling me that this might just have to be a weekend staple in our house (add a salad and we have leftovers for lunch the next day).

Go ahead and drool...I won't tell!

Back To Normal

So it ends...I have enjoyed 3 weeks off of work, which has given me plenty of time to clean house, catch up with family & friends and relax as much as possible!

I have spent the first part of today running to the store to pick up some last minute grocery items, doing laundry {does it ever end?} and prepping all my veggies for the week.  I have found that the easiest way to stick to my meal plan is to chop up all my vegetables on Sunday.  It makes it really hard to come home after a stressful day at work and not make my planned meal when half the work is already done.

I also tried a new breakfast recipe from a new Paleo cookbook I bought last week and will share that with you later this week.

Hope your weekend is great!  We are off for a walk to the park with Sasha.

(Almost) Wordless Weekend

Here is partially what my 3-day weekend consisted of:

 Friday Night!

 Saturday AND Sunday morning!

Yumm-o!

Shared a Gyro for Sunday lunch

We also cleaned out our 2nd bedroom, but it wasn't much fun, so no pictures of that.

Here's to a 5-day work week!

Weekend Recap - Trying New Things

3 day weekends are the best!  Especially when you are under the weather...it's one more day to recover.  Luckily, getting lots of sleep from Friday to Saturday was all I seemed to need.

Neither Gary or I wanted to stay inside on Saturday, so we headed out to Modesto for some window shopping...well, that was the plan.  I got 2 new plates at Cost Plus World Market. I also got THIS for later that night:

I am only halfway done with it...so good!

Then Gary dropped me off at Ulta while he went to Best Buy.  I was in there for over an hour just browsing, until I found these 2 beauties.

I have always wanted to try the crackle polish trend and figured since I had a 20% off coupon, this way a great time to try it out.  I'll let you know what I think once I actually get around to painting my nails.

Shopping makes me hungry, so we stopped off at BJ's for lunch and an Irish Root Beer.  For those of you who do not know what an Irish Root Beer is, I feel sorry for you.  It's root beer mixed with Whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream.  I've made them at home a few times, but nothing beats one from here.

"Adult" Root Beer makes me a happy girl!

After we devoured lunch, we walked around the mall in a food coma before heading off to the new Sunflower Market for some grocery shopping.  WOW!  They had a great variety of organic produce, specialty cheeses, and overall healthy food.  I found this, which I am using in a pumpkin cake this week.

I ran into a bunch of current and former students while there, which is always nice (only because I had my hair and makeup done).

Yesterday, I decided I needed a little "me" time, so I took a few hours to do some shopping around town.  I ended using a gift card my mom & dad got me for my birthday at Dress Barn to get some pants, a sweater and a purple top.

This morning, my whole breakfast was made up of things I have never tried before.

I found the tea at Cost Plus and I think I may go back and stock up!  It felt like I was splurging on a coffee shop drink.  I seeped the tea bag for about 7-8 minutes and added a splash of milk.  The GF waffles I found at Safeway.  I rarely have waffles, so layering them with Justin's chocolate almond butter was a treat.  I love the Justin's line of nut butters.  I have tried about half of the flavors and have yet to be disappointed.  After that, I just added some chia seeds and half of a sliced banana.  I ate it while checking out all the blogs I love to read!

I'm not the only one who enjoyed their morning.  Our sweet Sasha turned 5 today!

In addition to her regular breakfast and TWO treats, I cut up 2 apples for her to enjoy.

 You can tell she is excited because she is looking right at me.  We always make her sit, shake our hand and do the "look at me" command before eating.  When she get something exciting to eat, she sits and look at us right away, trying to make the process go quicker!

The way she ate was really cute.  She would go get an apple, then take it to the grass, chomp it down, lick the juice off the grass, the go back for another.

I spent most of today prepping my meals for the week. There are some really good ones, so stay tuned.

 As a preview, here is a picture I took while prepping one of my meals.  Can you guess what veggie this is?

 What did you do this weekend?  Do any of you celebrate your animals birthday?


Happy Halloween!

Sweet Potato Hash Browns

Hash Browns have always been a staple in my house.  Sunday mornings are not complete without a few cups of coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon and crispy hash browns. 

In an effort to make more food from scratch, we have stopped buying frozen hash browns at the store and I decided to try my hand at homemade sweet potato hash browns, since we are not fans of regular potatoes.

First thing you need to do is wash and peel you potatoes. 

Now, you can either shred them with a hand grater OR (what I do to save time) use a food processor.  It seriously took me maybe 2 minutes to shred them this way.

Clean up is a breeze because you can wash all this stuff in the dishwasher.  

You now want to lay out a folded non-linty towel (I use lots of my own lingo).  Lay the shredded sweet potatoes on it, and, using another non-linty towel, apply pressure to remove as much moisture as possible from the potatoes.

Start warming up your pan on the stove top with the oil of your choice (I prefer coconut oil).  

Add the potatoes and seasoning of your choice.  We only use salt & pepper.

Arrange potatoes as uniform as you can on the bottom of the pan and let cook for 10-15 minutes on medium-high heat.  Flip and cook another 10-15 minutes.

Depending on how crispy you want them, you can add a few more minutes on each side (I do).

When finished, serve with bacon & eggs.

Please don't be jealous of our Sunday "fine china."  Only the best!!