Louisiana Bride: August 2015

MPM - Whole September

August 31, 2015

To make it easier on Wednesday I've been eating at the church with Jeremy. It's only been two weeks of that plan, but I have to say it has backfired.

After eating dinner Wednesday I then go into a full blown "anything goes" mentality and eat whatever is in sight before finally getting my act together Monday morning.

That just won't fly if I ever plan on losing the remainder of the baby weight and fitting into more than 3 pair of linen pants that I own.

So for September I'm getting back on the wagon (even though breakfast, lunch, & dinner have been Paleo... after Wednesday the snacks go crazy) and officially calling this a Whole September.

With one stipulation - Sunday Lunch.

Sunday Lunch won't be Paleo in any sense and I will enjoy it and then behave form then on out. That way my fun meal for the week is what I what and not whatever is being served at church as a means of making life easier that afternoon.

So no crazy odd snacks, no saying oh well I ate at church now let me eat a coffee mug of peanut butter mixed with butter and powdered sugar (peanut butter ball). No nothing, because on Sunday I get to eat fun food. I can hold out until Sunday.

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]

MPM is how I meal plan for our little family. I once spent a lot of time searching the web and my recipe books hunting for new recipes and ideas for what to cook every week. Then, Pinterest came along and made meal planning much easier for me. Every weekend I look over what I have pinned the prior week and decide what I would like to cook and make my grocery list from these recipes. MPM came about as a way to share what I am cooking, and to also see what others are cooking every week to hopefully get even more dinner ideas from other bloggers. If you don't pin your recipes feel free to just share what you are cooking.

Monday - Chicken Cacciatore

Tuesday - Leftovers

Wednesday - leftover freezer meal for me/ church dinner for Jeremy

Thursday - Tandoori Chicken with Roasted Broccoli

Friday - Balsamic Roast with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy (for Jeremy)

Saturday - Leftovers

Sunday - French Bread with Hot Tomato Oil, Nana's Pot Roast over Rigatoni

I Heart Pinterest

I Heart Pinterest - is it fall yet?

August 26, 2015

Granted I know we've officially had only one morning at this point with below 90 temps....

but that means fall is in the air people!

I suddenly want to break open that can of pumpkin in my pantry

and get cracking on my pumpkin door hanger.

But until then...

here's a few pins I'm obsessing over until WalMart starts selling pumpkins.

August 25, 2015

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways,

I love the to the depth and height my bottles can reach.

When feeling as though my supply would never be what it was,

you made it happen.

A month of fenugreek and terrible hunger and I got nothing,

but thee lovely brewer's yeast produced.

A five ounce bottle after a month

of lowly two and one ounce bottles was just what I needed

to see at 2AM.

Oh dearest brewer's yeast,

it seems I'll be eating thoust lactation cookies for the next six months.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

But seriously, a straight month of not producing like I was in May and one batch of cookies later and I got a 5 ounce bottle! Wha what!

Now to go out and buy ALL THE BREWER'S YEAST.

#OhMyWordPumpingIsStressful

#BreastfeedingExclusivelyWasMuchMoreEnjoyable

#UghWork

mpm

Meal Pinning Monday

August 24, 2015

I'm starting to get sick of the Louisiana summer and long for the days of a football season filled fall!

Crockpot meals.

Taco Soup.

Drinking coffee without sweating. Coffee just tastes better in cold weather.

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]

Monday - Pork Chops & Fried Cabbage (never got to it last week)

Tuesday - Turkey Burgers (Paleo-fied)

Wednesday - Dinner @ Church

Thursday - Mustard Glazed Chicken with Butternut Squash

Friday - Sweet Potato Waffles with Bacon

Saturday - Chicken Marabella with Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes

Sunday - Lemon Butter Chicken with Brown Rice (because Jeremy loves it)

food/recipe

3 Ingredient Banana Custard

August 20, 2015

Flan might be my favorite dessert of all time, there's just something about custard.

I came across a recipe for a Paleo custard (that doesn't contain a nut flour... can I get a Amen!) and had to make it. Every Paleo recipe out there seems to contain some odd flour so when I find recipes that contain reasonable ingredients that don't cost stupid amounts of money I'm all in.

Since discovering it nearly two months ago I made this almost weekly.

I'm a dessert person so a cool creamy something at the end of the day is right up my ally, and keeps me away from Jeremy's ice cream.

3 Ingredient Banana Custard

Ingredients::

3 large eggs

1 can of full fat coconut milk

2 medium - large bananas

Directions::

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 2 cups of water in a tea kettle or sauce pan to boil. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor (to save time I sometimes use my immersion blender in a large bowl). Pour mixture into 6 ramekins or small mason jars. Place in a glass dish with high enough sides to hold a water bath. Place jars in the glass dish and pour boiling water around the jars, careful not to get any in the custard. Bake for 45 minutes. Allow to cool in the water bath. Serve cold for thickest consistency. Top with fruit, or eat it as it is!

Next month I'll be sharing a fall version of this that I just happened to make this week when I was trying to use up a few things in the fridge before they went bad, so stay tuned for that!

August 19, 2015

I don't know what's gotten into my lately, but I seem to be forgetting everything outside of my work life.

Work is going well, aside from teaching Language at the wrong time today... I feel like I have it together there.

Home?

Not so much.

Here's the run down of how I've been losing my mind. Friday the baby slept great but I kept waking up with anxiety over milk supply and pumping. Saturday the baby slept awful and I wanted to sleep great but had to pump at 2am to start getting my supply back up. Sunday... no good sleep. Monday...

You get the picture.

No good sleep.

Saturday though, I freaked out because I thought I was supposed to bring someone a meal the night before and forgot. I didn't, luckily.

Sunday I tried to leave the nursery with the diaper bag and couldn't figure out what the nursery ladies were talking about... they wanted the bag. Then I went to a friend's house and changed a poop diaper on the living room floor...and remembered after I had been home for an hour that I left it right on the floor.

Monday is where the foggy memory and lack of sleep got real.

If you follow me on Periscope (@labride) you now what I'm talking about.

I drove around for an entire day with very little gas in the car trying to remember to put gas in the car, fast forward to Monday and I get to work with 4 miles to empty (so says the car) and no time to stop for gas before work.

So after work I pull into a gas station and low and behold... I don't have my wristlet. No wallet. No driver's license. No credit card.

Only a quarter and a penny in the floor board.

Not even enough gas to turn around and go back to work to get money out of my desk.

At this point I'm hoping and praying and wishing and everything else they include in that song... that the gas station has updated their credit card thing and takes Paypal.

I've got Paypal.

They don't have Paypal though.

I told the clerk what happened and she just looks at me like I'm some strange creeper who stands outside begging for money, we all have been approached by the people who scam outside gas stations. I promise I'm not one of them.

So I start calling Jeremy who is roughly 15 miles away, he is on the phone with work and after several back to back calls realizes I need him right now and answers!

He picked the baby up first, because it would have been past time to get him and costing us overtime, and off he comes to rescue me.

And rescue he did.

The man was out in 100 degree weather putting air in my tires on top of the "your sleep deprived wife left the house with no money or gas" issue.

In all my insanity, because I can't for the life of me remember where this post was going since I started it two days ago and the baby has prevented me from finishing it, not once did Jeremy say a cross word at me about it. He happily came to my rescue which cost him as hour of his day (and I have to say he is a busy man and that's why we make a point to have dinner together every night) and on top of what I asked him to do he did even more.

So maybe this post has turned from a laughing at myself to a praising my husband... but after sitting on this incident for a few days it's really made me think this:

Ephesians 5: 22-33 "Wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord."...

Maybe it's that we've been reading through "You and Me Forever" by Francis Chan, but that little act of kindness, with zero nagging that could have totally been warranted, made yet another point for why it's easy (as easy can be in this case... which isn't always easy really) to submit to my husband.

The longer we are married, the more we grow in how we treat one another. We have learned to disagree better, even though we still have a long way to go there. However, the big one is acts of kindness towards one another.

I know how much he loves me by how he acts towards me, and I know the spiritual responsibility he has with our little family and I have a lot of respect for what I see him doing to lead us. I don't get showered in expensive things, or lavished in material belongings... we couldn't afford to do that anyway; but I do get showered and lavished in love.

After 7 years of learning to live with one another and how to treat each other I have to say I wouldn't want to go back to our wedding day. I might have liked him a lot then compared to how I feel about him now. I would want to start at right now, because right now is better than the past minutes have even been.

Who knows how this post went from me forgetting to put gas in the car to how easy it is to submit to my husband... but it is what it is.

And I'm about to take advantage of a quiet house for he next few minutes.

mpm

Meal Pinning Monday

August 17, 2015

Another week, another menu plan.

It appears the theme of the week of bacon.

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]

Monday - Paleo Eggs Benedict

Tuesday - Grilled Pork Chops with Fried Cabbage (using ghee)

Wednesday - Dinner @ Church (breakfast for dinner for me)

Thursday - Curry Chicken with Roasted Broccoli & Potatoes

Friday - Buffalo Chicken Chopped Salad

Saturday - Praise Team Fellowship - off the hook on cooking!

Sunday - Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Honey Mustard & Oven Fries

Breakfast - what you're seeing in the Wednesday meal

Lunch - Grilled Chicken with Sauteed Kale & a Red Potato with Ghee

Visit Louisiana Bride's profile on Pinterest.

August 14, 2015

Today marks the actually first Friday of the school year!

Last week surely didn't count because the babies didn't show up until Friday. I do have to say that this year is going to be fun, I didn't know if we would top last year but this one is going to be equal.

The kids are such a fun group of personalities, there are a couple that totally get my sense of humor so we are all the thumbs up emogis!!

This upcoming Wednesday we are starting Children of the Day by Beth Moore at church as a class in the evening. There are a couple of studies for women throughout the year during the day so us working ladies live for evening classes.

I had to bite the bullet and lead this one. Four years ago you would have never seen me leading anything, but slowly and surely God has put me in situations way beyond my comfort zone.

I think Jeremy thinks his life job is to drag me kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone. The man has no comfort zone, he's good with anything.

I on the other hand have been hoping and wishing for another women's only study in the evening and finally got the hint that I needed to offer to lead one.

Pray for me.

And pray for all those poor women who have to put up with me.

Are you on Periscope?

You should be? It's awkward and oddly like a live Youtube that you can't edit... but it's fun. Fun-ish.

I made my mayo that I am so in love with on there this week as well as talked a bit about how I meal prep.

What you're seeing above is what I did with my mayo, hello beautiful ranch goodness! (It's just a splash of coconut milk, pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chives, parsley, and dill to taste)

This baby.

He wants to grab this dog.

That dog doesn't want that baby to grab her.

She's nearly 9 and has been around the baby block a few times before.

She knows what comes from babies touching you, nothing good.

That baby though, he does his best to reach the dog and then sighs so big when he can't.

It's pretty hilarious.

I have a new breakfast obsession that actually holds off hunger and satiates me. Rarely anything satiates me, I could eat a bucket of food before finding what I really wanted. Or craved for that matter.

Here's the recipe::

Paleo Breakfast Bowl

Ingredients::

2 small prunes

1 medium apple, cored, skin on

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp flax meal

1 heaping tbsp unsweetened coconut

1 tbsp slivered almonds

spoonful of almond butter

splash of coconut milk

Directions::

Place all ingredients except almond butter and coconut milk in a food processor and pulse until apple is chopped up and there are no big chunks hopping around. Pour into a bowl and top with almond butter and coconut milk. Serve.

We're two weeks early, but I've kind of done a soft start to Baby Led Weaning. I caved and gave Harrison a pear with the skin on and then Wednesday night he has a potato wedge, brussel sprout, roasted grape tomato, and carrot.

His favorite was by far the tomato.

The faces he makes when he's eating though?

You can tell the poor child doesn't understand why his toys changed taste and are chewy, it's just not at all like breast milk!

I'm afraid he thinks we are going to nurse well into his teen years. Sadly when March rolls around we are closing up shop.

Nursing is enjoyable, sending him off and pumping is so stressful. I would so love it if suddenly I was able to just stay home the first year. No worrying about how many ounces he's taking in would be a breeze.

Well I'm off, hopefully everyone has a good weekend and I'll be back Monday for MPM!!

food/recipe

Baked Oatmeal Cups

August 13, 2015

This recipe falls in the category of breastfeeding friendly and eat in the car on the way to work.

Both of which have major importance to me. During the school year all breakfast is consumed in the car, and from the last week of trying to eat a backed sweet potato and fried eggs in the car I can promise you these are easier to consume.

Oatmeal is also a big help in milk supply.

I had nixed oatmeal the entire summer during Whole30 and did fine.

Absolutely fine in fact.

However the stress of the first week at work, pumping again, and sending the baby to a sitter when all I wanted to do was stay home caused me to see a big dip in my pumping output.

So this past weekend I baked up a batch of these again and chomped away while also guzzling Powerade to help boost my supply. (I'm holding off on the fenugreek until Tuesday if I haven't seen a big boost.)

I'm thinking it's already worked though because the child wasn't entirely emptying my breasts, they still felt firm after nursing. Which is good for pumping. I can't stand leaking all over creation but I certainly don't want to send him off without enough food.

I lived on these dreamy cups the entire month of May when I returned from maternity leave and had excellent pumping output the entire month. They are just sweet enough and have a great cinnamon taste. If you wanted to add toppings you definitely could, I just love the simple cinnamon flavor.

Baked Oatmeal Cups

Makes 12 Oatmeal Cups

Ingredients::

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted ghee (or butter)

1 cup coconut palm sugar

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 1/2 cup almond milk (cashew or coconut works too)

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

Directions::

Preheat over to 350. Line muffin tin with wrappers. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, ghee, and sugar. Add in applesauce, milk, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine and then add remaining ingredients. Fill muffin cups with oatmeal mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating.

These freeze well, I ate what I wanted this weekend and popped the rest in our deep freezer to get one for breakfast when I wanted it!

mpm

Meal Pinning Monday

August 9, 2015

First official week of school. Let the hectic crazies commence.

Last week was just full of professional development, and only one kid day. Once the kids come I'm a lot more wore out in the evenings.

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]

Monday - Buffalo Grilled Chicken Legs with Roasted Potato Wedges and Paleo Ranch

(Chicken marinaded in Louisiana Hot Sauce & Ghee > Potato wedges seasoned with S&P and garlic powder > Paleo Ranch - homemade mayo, coconut milk, dill, chives, S&P, garlic)

Tuesday - Chicken Marabella with Roasted Sweet Potato

Wednesday - Balsamic Chuck Roast with Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Carrots

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Jalapeno Burgers with Shredded Lettuce and Guacamole

Saturday - Chorizo Hash (chorizo, potatoes, onion, bell pepper, topped with a few eggs and baked until done)

Sunday - eating out (I'm giving myself one day as a break until I start another Whole30 in September)

I know I just put roasted veggies a lot and don't link a recipe to it, what I typically do is heat the oven to either 375 or 400 depending on my mood and season with EVOO, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

August 8, 2015

I had every intention of blogging more this week, but that one hour I get in the evening with a napping baby gets devoted to bottle washing and the 21 Day Fix workout I borrowed from my sister.

I got a bottle of Infusium23 from Influenster in the Sunshine Voxbox to test out and I have to say I really like it. I've used Argan Oil for probably 6 years and this works just as well on my hair.

Any other Anglophiles out there? I hit the royal mother load, my neighbor is also a royal watcher and had some fun books I'm borrowing.

I also realized that Youtube has a ton of British documentaries.

Score!

It's become obvious that the second we get home that Harrison has to go down for a nap.

It's great for me because it gives me an hour to start prepping bottles for the next day and wash all my pump parts and bottles that were used that day.

I also get 30 minutes to squeeze in a workout if he doesn't wake up.

Speaking of health... I'm gonna have to do another Whole30 in September. That two weeks of celebrating Jeremy's birthday got to me.

Someone had his first Cafe Du Monde experience. It didn't help that it was nap time and he WASN'T napping. His Daddy let him try the back side of one that didn't have sugar on it (like fried dough is any better) and he was in love.

As in, when we took it away he screamed like he was covered in ants.

This isn't exactly how I planned to start Baby Led Weaning.

The classroom is done and the students came Friday! I'm hoping a few organization tricks will help this year. 5th grade is so transitional for kids, we don't baby them and the mama's still kind of do.

We tend to sprinkle in a bit of independence and organization throughout the year.

This year I made bookmarks (duct taped ribbon to the inside back cover of their writing journals) and had a full on sit down talk about how I organize my planner... and used my big ole Erin Condren as an example. We also set up the notebooks and everything else I could squeeze in.

This was the first first day that I've literally had the bell ring on me and I still had stuff we could be talking about for the year.

If you teach and see these at Target grab yourself one. I know lesson plans are done online these days, but I'm using it to organize what I want to teach every week. Mainly just jotting down page numbers and what is happening in each subject.

Nothing too detailed.

Now, I've met my goal of catching up on life on here. Since kiddo is starting to fuss we are going down for a nap.

I may take one too!

giveaways

Win a Shopping Spree with Leonisa

August 4, 2015

It's no secret that after having Harrison I was a little obsessed with tummy binders.

Truth be told I've had a long time love of shapewear.

When I was a majorette in high school I wore shapewear to smooth out my hips and tummy in those skin tight sequined outfits. Throughout college I wore something that went from below my chest to my knees for every wedding I was in.

mpm

Meal Pinning Monday

August 2, 2015

Commence sad Mama posts.

Leaving the baby with Dad was easy, prepping to go to a sitter (even though everyone says amazing things about her) is stressful.

[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]

Monday - Honey Thyme Pork Chops with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Tuesday - Jeremy's Birthday & he requested Ribs!!!

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Pressure Cooker Pork with Onion, Tomato, & Cauliflower

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Patacones with Chicken Carnitas, Pico de Gallo, & Avocado

Sunday - Leftovers

Pages

Lifestyle

MPM - Whole September

August 31, 2015

I Heart Pinterest - is it fall yet?

August 26, 2015

an ode to brewer's yeast

August 25, 2015

Meal Pinning Monday

August 24, 2015

3 Ingredient Banana Custard

August 20, 2015

3 Ingredient Banana Custard

grace when you don't deserve it

August 19, 2015

Meal Pinning Monday

August 17, 2015

High Five 4 Friday

August 14, 2015

Paleo Breakfast Bowl

Baked Oatmeal Cups

August 13, 2015

Baked Oatmeal Cups

Meal Pinning Monday

August 9, 2015

weekend wrap up

August 8, 2015

Win a Shopping Spree with Leonisa

August 4, 2015

Meal Pinning Monday

August 2, 2015

Pages

Lifestyle

SOCIAL MEDIA

August 31, 2015

August 26, 2015

August 25, 2015

August 24, 2015

August 20, 2015

3 Ingredient Banana Custard

August 19, 2015

August 17, 2015

August 14, 2015

Paleo Breakfast Bowl

August 13, 2015

Baked Oatmeal Cups

August 9, 2015

August 8, 2015

August 4, 2015

August 2, 2015