Good morning! Some of our mornings are super smooth and others are a bit of a hot mess. We all overslept this morning and the school traffic was a bit over the top. Not a big deal, but needing extra coffee this morning to reset and get back on the right track. Can any of you relate? If you are new around here, I take a moment on Monday morning to wrap-up our weekend with casual iPhone shots. So here is a peek of what we were up to.
EASY DINNER
If you follow along on Instagram, you’ll recognize this dish. I tried Barefoot Contessa’s Mexican Chicken Soup and we all loved it. I will post the recipe soon. The one thing I would cut is the Coriander Seed. It was a bit too sweet for all of us.
DO YOU HAVE THESE?
Curious if any of you have either of these cookbook. My mom and I stumbled upon them at Target and I didn’t get a chance to flip through them but they sure look good. Anyone?
TILE LOVE
Local friends!!!!! Why didn’t I know about this store? My sweet friend Candace let me know that the Last Layer is an amazing tile store in Rancho Santa Margarita. They have a fantastic collection of counter tops, too. Just FYI if you are currently designing a space.
HALLOWEEN READY
Halloween is around the corner and my friends at Martha Stewart sent us a little care package. My daughter is having her friends over and decorating is on her mind! She can’t wait and these cute decorations are perfect. I am crazy about the light up bats and the bat lanterns. So cute. They can all be found at Michaels!
EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING
Sunday morning we came downstairs and all of the ingredients for pancakes were already out. My son’s subtle way of saying he wanted them! So my husband kept an eye on him while he made them for us himself. Sweet way to begin the day. We are all fans of the protein pancakes from Kodiak. I used to get them at Target, but now Costco has a large box. We add eggs to the mix to amp up the protein.
SHIPLAP PROGRESS
Sunday was a pretty exciting day around here. We are installing shiplap in our pantry and my husband rocked the first wall. I definitely helped but I am scared of the nail gun so it’s safe to say he handled that portion.
I will do a post on installing shiplap soon. We are thrilled with how it’s turning out. I can’t wait to get the other wall installed so I can paint it all white! It’s slowly coming together!
HUGE SALE
Heads up that this cute sweater is 48% off! What?! I stumbled upon it while trying to nail down our family photo outfits. It comes in three other cute colors, too.
Ok, my friends. My list is long and I am ready to hit the ground running. What about you? Are you easing into Monday or hitting it hard? No matter how you are approaching you day, I hope it’s a great one.
I really like the Cravings book . The basil chicken recipe is worth the book , it’s in constant rotation in my house.
One of my favorite cookbooks this year is by far Small Victories by Julia Turshen . All the recipes have variations at the end and all the ones I have done are delicious, Doesn’t hurt that there is a great chocolate cake ( one bowl no less) recipe.
I think I am convinced I need the Cravings book. And I hadn’t heard of Small Victories so I am super excited. Thank you for sharing. I am not great about cooking out of a book but now that I want to try a new recipe each week I better branch out!
I have the cravings cookbook and love it. Sometimes I do tweak them a bit to add another veggie or remove a little fat. Our favorites are the chicken lettuce wraps. the asian chicken salad. I was just thinking this morning that I was going to order the whole30.(need to drop some stress weight)
Your Mexican chicken soup looks yummy. I just made a chicken tortilla soup from Pinterest. Lets just say it went into the trash after one serving….
Have a good week..
Oh no! Bummer about the recipe you tried. So frustrating when that happens. Ok, I think I need to buy that Cravings book. Everyone seems to love it and I am happy to hear you can easily makes some changes if going for a more healthy take on it. Thanks for letting me know!!!
I have the Whole30 book. There are some great recipes in there. My husband and I did the Whole30 challenge in July. It seriously changed the way our family eats! We both felt so much better – slept better, more energy, identified foods that cause us issues (dairy, gluten, beans) and lost weight! It was definitely tough to eat “Whole30” for 30 days, but I am so glad we did it.
That’s so fantastic! I am proud of you. We have never done the program but we eat very similarly to the strict Whole 30 diet. Thank you for letting me know you like the book so much. If I have a plan we eat well. If I don’t, it’s a hot mess over here!!!
Hey there – it’s the carrot in the soup that is making it sweet and not the coriander – I would recommend reducing the quantity of carrots you add.
See! This is why I need all the help I can get. We thought that could be it but when we all ate one coriander seed it had the sweet taste we were not loving. But the carrots make more sense. So much to learn over here.
I’m sad to say that I never knew Martha Stewart was at Michael’s. I’m definitely going to have to take a little trip over there for those! I like that they’re Halloween-ish but not cutesy or too scary. I love Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook, too! Her Roasted Garlic + Ricotta Cauliflower Mash is AMAZING!
https://batalidioranddeweywalkintoabar.com/
Well I need to try that Roasted Garlic + Ricotta Cauliflower now! That sounds delicious. I have to say that Martha Stewart always nails the Halloween decor for all the reasons you mentioned. Always a favorite over here. And happy with the quality. Have a great week. Thanks for the heads up on the cookbook and recipe being so yummy.
Can’t wait to see the pantry when it’s done. I think you’re using the same cabinets we used in our pantry – Ikea?? If so, you’ll be glad to know that we’ve been very happy with them. We picked them because we wanted something that looked good but was a bit more economical than what we got for the kitchen but the quality has exceeded my expectations.
Yes!!! That is what we are using. I am so excited to hear that you’ve been happy. We are using them for all of the same reasons and can’t wait to have the room ready so we can test them out. Makes me thrilled to hear you love them. Have a great week.
I agree that something else is probably making the soup sweet; coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant, so I can’t imagine it adding sweetness to anything
You shiplap looks great.
I don’t have either cookbook but I did do The Whole 30 twice now and I loved it. I get most of my Whole 30 recipes from Pinterest.
G is so grown up, but looks so little in the pancake pic! Reminds me of little G from a few years ago 🙂 Miss you guys! xo
Do you feel like the eggs “fluff” the pancakes a bit? I made the Kodiak pancakes for the first time recently and they were a little flat.