I NEED TO HEAR THE OCEAN

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I mentioned earlier that we are planning a family beach trip with some friends (in September!) and even though it's months away we are already in the planning stages and it's kind of all I want to think about. I love looking at beach houses. I don't have a lot of requirements but these houses above certainly fit the bill. One requirement we do have is a private pool because we will have some new babies on board and new moms certainly deserve to relax! We are looking at the South Walton Beach area. If you know of any great houses that sleep around 10 with a pool, I'm all ears!

Also, I am so flattered to be in such good company over at the Homies Awards for best family blog on apartment therapy! It would obviously make my day if you wanted to vote for me. <3

HEALTHY DINNER CLUB 01

Last night was the first night of a healthy dinner club that I joined, led by my friend Paul. He sends out a couple of different healthy recipes to a small group of people, everyone brings the dish and then we all share. It was really cool to see different people's versions of the same dishes. They were all a little different. This week's "special ingredient" was curry. Listen, I love curry so I was a happy girl. It's a powerful spice full of antioxidants and these dishes are vegetable and protein rich and so, so yummy. I'm so excited to share these new-to-me recipes with you. We will be meeting one to two times a month. When preparing fresh food I find that it saves a lot of time to do a lot of the prep up front, that way when dinner time rolls around you can get a healthy, warm meal on the table in a flash.



Curry Chicken:

-Mix the ginger root, garlic, curry powder, sea salt and black pepper in a large bowl.
-Chop the chicken breasts into 1" pieces and put in the bowl with the ginger, garlic and spices.
-Coat the chicken with the spice mixture and set aside.
-Wash and prepare the mushrooms, zucchini and bell pepper. Set aside.
-Over medium heat, add 2 Tbs coconut oil to a large skillet.When hot, add the chicken, mushrooms, coconut milk and lemon juice to the pan. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes.
-Add the zucchini and bell pepper, and continue to cook until chicken is done (about 5-10 minutes).
-Garnish with chopped cilantro, cucumber and red onion.
*tip: marinate the chicken and chop all of the veggies in advance. i also added one can of coconut milk in the beginning and then the second can after I added in the peppers and zucchini.

Curry Cauliflower Rice:

-Wash and rough chop the cauliflower.
-Place it in a large skillet with coconut or olive oil and cook over medium high heat until slightly softened.
-Place the cauliflower, curry powder, green onion and cayenne into a food processor and pulse until it has a grainy rice-like consistency.
-Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The trick to the cauliflower rice really is a food processor. The people that used one really achieved a "rice-like" texture and it was so satisfying mixed with the Chicken Curry. So awesome. Enjoy!

WEEK 4

photo: whole living

This week's focus is on exercise. Exercise and I have certainly not always been friends. I tend to go in and out of workout phases. The outs usually end up making me feel flabby and lethargic. After celebrating for the last few months (eek) I've gained ten pounds. Happens fast, but after all of the hard work I've done I'm determined to work it off (and fast). I'll be starting week one this week to jump start my metabolism. Too bad my fridge is full of yummy cheese and bubbly wine. Sigh.

My Fitness Plan:

Monday: Download My Fitness Pal (although not entirely accurate, I enjoy the accountability and it helps me to see what I'm putting in my body). My username is homemadegrits if you want to play along with me.

Mon/Tues/Thurs: My go-to workout video is 30-day shred. I sort of loathe it, but it works!

Wednesday/Friday: Yoga keeps me relaxed and is amazing for stretching and elongating muscles. I love long and lean muscles. Not so into really buff arms.

Saturday/Sunday: Family hikes and running with the help of this app.

Notes: When it comes to protein powders for after workouts it's important to look for all natural ingredients. Avoid powders with high fructose corn syrup and sucrulose. This whey protein from Vitacost (sign up through the vitacost link and you get $10 towards your first purchase) looks like a good one.

We are in the process of planning a beach trip with friends in September. Extra motivation to get in shape! I'll be using the Getting Healthy Log to track my weekly progress. I like visuals. The more the better!

I would love to hear your thoughts on fitness. What works for you?

FIVE DOLLAR FLOWERS

When Matilda and I went to the store to stock up on a few party supplies we discovered that the roses (leftover from Valentine's most likely) were only $5 for two dozen?! I was so excited that I picked up a bunch of pale pink and a bunch of cream. I also threw in some inexpensive pink carnations. I like to mix flowers with herbs from my garden, makes them look fuller and a little messier. I used thyme, rosemary, and parsley. I love having flowers in the house. It makes me feel so happy. I was able to make FIVE arrangements out of all of those gorgeous roses. It was such a fun night with a small group of some of my favorite girl friends that I've known at least 10+ years. Everyone brought wine and cheese and we had olives and spinach dip. My expert dessert friend brought this which is always a hit. She used real whipped cream and Pamela's cookies. Yum. I made a tomato salad out of heirloom tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, and salt + pepper. I also made roasted chickpeas with chipotle pepper and cayenne pepper. So easy and fun to snack on. It was a truly special night missing a few of my dear friends that are scattered across the country.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

It's friday! The last couple of days have been a whirlwind but I wanted to share with you what a special day I had with my sister and family on my birthday. I started the day with my beautiful co-workers and then Rachel picked me up and we headed to Empire State South which has been on my restaurant list since it opened. I was not disappointed! It was such a beautiful space. We had lunch at the bar: I had the cauliflower soup and brussel sprouts (insane brussel sprouts) and Rachel had the croque monsieur. The show stopper however was the dessert: cake + ice cream in a pie crust with homemade vanilla bean whipped cream and candied kumquats. Seriously, if you live in Atlanta or are visiting, this one is a must!

Then we headed to the W (where I took this picture of Rachel in front of the living wall) to get our nails done at Bliss (thank you mama for the gift card!). I got my toes shellaced (sp?). Have you heard of this? Apparently it lasts forever (and will probably be murder on my nails).

We followed that up with some shopping and dinner with my family at Miso. Go here, get the the soft boiled egg on a rice cake, and thank me later. Then, we had my favorite cake (lemon cheese) at my Mama's. Such a sweet day, perfect really. So many thoughtful calls and notes and fabulous gifts! Thank you all for your sweet comments. I felt so loved on my birthday. I'm really thankful. I'm not usually a big fan of my birthday (love other people's) so it was really nice to soak up the day this year.

Hope you all get to indulge in something fantastic this weekend. I am so excited to have some of my oldest friends over for wine and snacks tonight. Any fun plans?

A YEAR AGO TODAY...

I was celebrating my 30th birthday in Costa Rica with my man and our good friends. These pictures gave me serious wanderlust. No tropical locale this year, but I am however looking forward to a day of pampering and shopping with my sister, getting sung to by my favorite little singer, and eating my favorite cake: Lemon Cheese.

PENDANT LAMP DIY

Inspiration photo from Martha Stewart

I've been wanting to switch out the builder-beige light fixture that has been in Matilda's room since we moved in. Keeping our budget in mind we purchased this pendant lamp from Ikea. Although I like it just fine, I wanted to give it a little more whimsy. I was so inspired by these copper dots as seen here and here. I appreciate modern design, but it has to be softened to live in our house.

You'll need:

poster board
circle cutter
gold spray paint
paint thinner

I used the 2 3/8 hole to make my circle in the middle of a rectangular-shaped piece of poster board, about the size of a standard shoe box. You may need a helper for the second part. Sam held the lamp and sprayed inside the circle while I flattened the poster board on to the lamp to create the circles. Contact paper would also be a really easy way to do this. Simply cut out all of your circles and stick them accordingly on the lamp. I wanted the circles to be big and spread out to keep them looking a little more sophisticated. We finished the lamp by spraying lightly in a straight line at the bottom. Any smudges or overspray we removed with a cloth and a little paint thinner. That's it!