Veggie Loaded Appetizer

This recipe is so versatile; I just love it!

Try it as a festive holiday appetizer, a fun kid friendly dinner, or a relaxing vegetarian and wine kind of night for one (which is what I chose last week while William was traveling.)

The recipe came from Celebrate Magazine's Christmas edition.  I tweaked it a little based on the ingredients I had.

Here's what I used.

I sauteed all of the veggies in garlic and olive oil.

Mixed together pesto and hummus - the recipe calls for garlic hummus, but roasted red pepper worked just fine.  I spread it over the rolled out crescent rolls.

Topped with veggies and rolled up.  Here's a tip...after rolling up, place the cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes.  This makes it easier to slice and stay together.

I added extra veggies, making them harder to roll and not the prettiest.  I wasn't really going for looks here. :)

Baked on 350 degrees for about 18 to 20 minutes.

So delicious!  And great as left overs, too.

10 days until...

Can you believe we are 10 days from Thanksgiving?  Things will be a little different this year with the arrival of sweet Maddi, and although we don't have any definite plans yet, I do know there will be eating.  A lot of it!

My friend, Amber, and I share a love of health and nutrition and decided to eat as clean as possible, adding in one Shakeology a day, for the 10 days leading up to Thanksgiving.  I made out our meal plan, and she and her husband rocked the first day!  I'm so proud of them. 

Breakfast was a chocolate shakeology with 3/4 cup of almond milk, 1/2 cup of coffee, and a banana.

All of this nutrition in one shake!

Lunch was an open faced turkey sandwich with tomato, avocado, and a melted laughing cow cheese.  We also had blue corn chips and fresh salsa.

Snack was an apple and peanut butter.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner of roasted veggies (I chose asparagus,) sweet potato (sliced mine into fries,) and grilled chicken.  After William grilled the chicken, I added a spread of pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese and placed it under the broiler for 3 minutes.  It added an extra and healthy flare to plain chicken.  We will definitely be making this again.

Making a commitment to healthy eating isn't always the easiest, but having someone along for the journey helps with accountability and makes it much more fun.  Want to join us? 

A New Week

Simply put, I'm sitting in the quiet of the yoga studio feeling thankful.  As I prepare for my morning class, my mind is inundated with gratitude for the little things.  Maybe it's the coffee...or more like the red Christmas cup that makes me giddy?  Maybe the moment to myself, or the gorgeous lure of the morning that has my mind calmed?  

This article from Elephant Journal is still on my mind and seems to disclose my heart, exactly.

At the beginning of the week, she thinks it is a long time before the next weekend, then all of a sudden it is Wednesday and then it is Friday and five minutes ago she was in high school. There are friends and there is yoga, a family dinner—a week passes, then one more and this is a life, she thinks.

This is her life.

There is the novel that she still wants to write: she scribbles down ideas and character notes, but she can’t seem to sit still long enough. There is the wandering she would do, except that wandering costs more money than she has. But she has postcards and dreams and she is happy.

~Bronwyn Petry

She is happy.  Because it's not about grandeur or monumental moments or life-changing experiences.  It's these things that make her smile...

Love letters
Smiling at strangers
Hallmark movies and hot chocolate
Going home
The charm of an old bookstore
Curiosity
Beautiful new life in Lucy, Griggs, Maris,and Maddi on the way
White Christmas lights
John Mayer's voice
The smell of salt air
Yoga pants
Life chats
A spontaneous slow dance while dinner cooks.
This boy and his best friend.

Enjoy your Monday.  Listen to the leaves crunch under your feet.  Be still.  And then find something simple to love.

Lately...

I know I'm so far behind...thanks for hanging with me (especially Caroline and your daily requests demands to update the blog.)  :)

Here's what we've been up to.

A busted lip at school that grew with each passing day.

Kids yoga.

I've never been happier to work from home.  I was able to be at Wills' Halloween party at Mother's Day Out.

And help the other moms set up for their festive lunch. 

A great Halloween night trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

Celebrating 5 years of marriage!  We spent our actual anniversary night at the fair with our little boy.  Romantic, I know.  But, I wouldn't have traded it for the world.  Wills was all smiles, brave as can be, and had the time of his life.

We headed out the next morning for a night on Lake Oconee.  We started with hoppy beers and the Georgia game.

And ended with a dinner for two at the Silver Moon.  It was romantic, rustic, and lit with white lights and lanterns.  Loved it.

Endless entertainment on the train table.  Thanks, Uncle Tone.

Planning and daydreaming about Christmas parties!

Waiting on baby Maddi....only a week to go.  I can hardly stand it.

Still trying new veggies.  Eggplant on the right.

Grilled cabbage with olive oil, Worcestershire, sea salt, and bacon bits.

And of course lots of cozy fires with my boys.

In a rut...

We've been in a vegetable rut around here.  I rotate spinach and romaine salads, sauteed or grilled asparagus and zucchini, and steamed broccoli.

This week I'm changing it up!  It's all about variety.

I started with Brussels Sprouts.  Go big or go home, right?  William immediately turned his nose up.

I wasn't sure exactly what to do with them.  But, I chopped the little stem off the end, cut them in half, and placed them on a roasting pan.  Topped with olive oil, sea salt, and aged balsamic vinegar. 

I roasted them on 425 degrees for 15 minutes. 

I was surprised with how good they were!  Crispy and caramelized. Excited to have a new vegetable in the rotation.  

Up next....eggplant, butternut squash, and cabbage.  Yum!

Halloween Treat

It's getting festive around here.  Tomorrow is not my favorite holiday, but I sure do have one excited little "Indian" on my hands.  And I'm always up for a reason to celebrate!

I'm secretly reading this and texting with my mom and sister about Hallmark's Movie Countdown to Christmas that starts Saturday.

But, I'm in charge of a Halloween "sweet" for Wills' party at Mother's Day Out, so I got in the spirit and checked out Pinterest.  I decided on Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats.

Here's what I used.

I melted 2 Tablespoons of butter and 3 cups of mini marshmallows in the microwave.  Then added a box of orange jello.

This might be the easiest recipe ever...

I poured in 4 cups of rice krispies.

Molded them into little round balls, added a pretzel stick stem, and green icing leaves.

A perfect fit for little two-year old hands.  Happy Halloween!

Tree House Slide

Here's the truth:  I'm a recovering scaredy-cat.

My little boy: he's the opposite.  He's fearless, bold, brave, and I sometimes find myself nervous with butterflies, biting my nails, worrying about what he is going to jump off of next, but I love it.

We took him to our church Pumpkin Palooza this weekend, and with one look at the tree house slide, he started tugging my arm.  I took a deep breath, looked at his dad, and said quietly, "let's just watch the big kids."

I knew it when I said it.  Nope.  He's doing it; I'm not teaching him to sit back and watch.  He'll be the only two year old climbing 30 feet in the air, but he wants to try, he's begging and crying to try, it's safe according to the guy in charge of the slide, so he's doing it.

Up he went.  The ladder was pretty steep, and he fell backwards once, only to stand up and start again.  One foot after the other.  That's my boy.

He made it to the top, slid down much faster than I was hoping, flipped at the bottom, stood up and said "more."

You see, that's the thing.  I've been watching for years.  I don't want to watch anymore.  And I definitely don't want my little boy to sit back and watch (unless of course it's illegal or unsafe.)  I don't want him to watch a dance party and be scared to dance, or watch someone get bullied and be too shy to step forward, or watch me or his dad cook and be embarrassed to try, or watch his buddies play in the woods and not want to muddy up his shoes, or watch his college friends travel abroad and be worried to leave home, or one day watch the love of his life walk away because he's afraid to say how he feels.

I do want him to be careful, and William and I will ALWAYS stress and demand this, but I also want to raise a brave, courageous little boy, unafraid to be creative, genuine, confident in his opinions, and step into new adventures.  I want him to live fully and soak everything out of life that he can.

He promptly got in line for the next slide.

This one even bigger.  So much so, that William had to ride with him.  I'm not sure who loved it more, but they were both smiling ear to ear.  

Sometimes, it's appropriate to sit back, hang out, and watch from the pumpkin patch.  Other times, it's about going for it, stepping out of our comfort zones, and going down the "big boy slide."  

Falling and flipping along the way is part of the ride, as long as we stand up on the other side and say "more."  It's time to stop watching.