Wind chill is 20 below.

When it's snowy & the wind chill is 20 below all you want to do is the sit in front of the stove and smell a nice roast in the oven. Mike picked up this pork tenderloin, seared it on all sides in the cast iron and then baked it on 400. Meanwhile he threw some potatoes, onions and carrots into the skillet with the pork juices, deglazed the pan with some red wine and then threw this into the baking dish with the pork in the oven. Wow. This was heavenly & Carmen ate her entire plate. Which meant she got some popcorn after dinner. & no microwave popcorn either in this house. Straight kernels on the stove and shaking that pan till they pop. That's our style. & it doesn't get any better than that!

Cod. It's what's for dinner.

I stopped into the rest. on Saturday morning to grab some dough & I also picked up these 2 filets of Cod. Toasted up some ciabatta and made some fresh breadcrumbs. Some white wine, a pat of butter and lemon and this pound & a half served 3 for dinner with 2 pcs of fish leftover for lunch the next day. Can't beat that healthy eating on $12!

Breakfast.

I only eat breakfast on the weekends. sometimes. M-F I juice every day.
I whipped this up with some leftover veggies & topped it off with some super hot salsa & sour cream. Awesome.

Play dough. Homemade.

I followed a recipe online to a T and made 4 batches of play dough...this was before my muffin failure & these 4 mounds of colors ended up in the trash too. They were pretty for about 5 minutes and then dried out. We tried a second recipe and made a huge batch of red & nailed it. We've got backup play dough in the fridge for days. Yes, this is what I do on a saturday afternoon off....who would have thought? huh!

Paleo gluten free muffins.

So clearly I think I am a baker and I can just find a recipe and completely modify it to fit my desires and it will all just work out OK, right. Wrong.
I had borrowed a recipe from a gal at work, almond flour raspberry chocolate chip muffins.
I headed to the market and decided to substitute coconut flour instead of almond and blueberries instead of raspberries.
Little did I know coconut flour is an exception to the baker's rule. You need much less coconut flour than a regular recipe calls for and you need like 6 times the liquid. So my first 2 trays, sadly, ended up in the trash. What a waste of some delicious ingredients.

I had to come up with plan # 2 because Britney & I had an event @ her Healing center scheduled for Sunday morning and I was baking these Saturday afternoon. So I found a paleo recipe with coconut flour that called for maple syrup, mashed bananas, cinnamon, etc. etc.

I made 2 batches and again modified it since I knew I had the right consistency with flour & eggs, I threw in some apple sauce, some mashed blue berries, banana, cinnamon, maple syrup, a pinch of salt, coconut oil, chocolate chips & walaa! They were awesome!!

But sadly, we awoke Sunday to a sloppy snow storm and had to cancel our event so it looks like we are now forced to eat them all up ourselves!

Friday night. Pizza night.

It does seem lately that Friday night is becoming homemade pizza night.
We have not consumed red meat in what feels like ages so Mike whipped up some meatballs, using milk since we were out of eggs. Thanks chickens. What... is it too cold?
Anyhow, here's a little heart shaped meatball pizza...because we're corny like that!

New England Living

As long as I don't have to shovel it, it's quite pretty....but I am still looking forward to Spring ;)

This girl knows what's good for her.

This is a ritual in our house. For me, this is breakfast. We've been juicing for almost 5 years now. Most of the time, we are very consistent & juice several times a week, but for the past year, it's been our daily regimen and it is amazing. We go through more than 5lbs of carrots each week and we have a new love for beets, turmeric and ginger, as seen here. Carmen helps her Daddy make the juice and often goes right for the pitcher. Cutie.

Me time.

This doesn't happen often. But when it does. Oh so good. Kicking my feet up, a little poetry by Erica Jong. A happy ol' girl on the bed. On the bed!? Sure, why not. It makes her happy. & she's 12.....just stay off my leather couches. STELLA!

No better pizza than homemade.

It's true. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE a good Peppe's pizza but nothing touches this homemade dough, sauce and veggies like the one Mike makes. I have a hard time not eating two entire pizza's by myself.

Snow angel.

It doesn't get more precious.

These shots are from our 3rd snow storm this year (last Monday). I get to work from home when it's shitty out and I'm so grateful for that. I love this little angel and all of her expressions. 

Oh & please note, there is a little tiny red dinosaur in every shot....even out in the snow. Why? Oh that's because that's SAMANTHA. & Samantha goes EVERYWHERE with us. Oh yes, I don't exaggerate. Everywhere and she does EVERYTHING. She goes to the bathroom on Carm's potty, she takes naps, she get's her own bed. She makes homemade pizza, get's covered in flour and takes a bath in the washing machine. Jackie McGrath gave her to us. Little did she know this red Dino would become Carmen's most prized possession.

Special delivery.

So fun to open a box of goodies from my Aunt Cindy. As per her usual shipments she always sends me the best makeup and jewelry. This time she added in some very cute leggings as well as a skincare line AND these babies from the tree in her back yard.

We've been adding them to our veggie juice every morning. I've never had a lemon this good before!
Keep 'em coming! They are ALL GONE!

Brunch- Sunday

Sunday in general is always a treat. Starting the day off slow, lazy with Carmen. By brunch she's already on her 3rd breakfast. I whipped her up some strawberry wheat pancakes for hers and for Mike & I, leftover linguini in a marinara ricotta sauce with 2 fried eggs. This is his favorite breakfast meal.

In the 9+ years we have been together it's always been his favorite and for some reason the thought of it has always been unappetizing to me... Until now. Yes, it is true, people can change... for I just devoured this and it was good.
He was right. Perhaps I should listen more ;)