Paleo Cinnamon Roll Pancakes!

Today, we're talking pancakes. I LOVE pancakes. They're quick, easy, and delicious. I love these pancakes because they taste like a cinnamon roll, minus the sugar crash and guilty feeling afterward. Also they make your whole house smell like cinammon-y heaven. Score.

I added some chopped walnuts to this batch because I like nutty pancakes, but you can totally skip those and achieve the same cinnamon roll goodness. Make sure to top with 100% maple syrup (none of that fake high fructose stuff!) and some protein on the side. Perfect Saturday morning breakfast for the whole family! 

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 Cup Almond Milk
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Tbsp Honey
1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)
2 Tbsp. Butter or Coconut Oil

Step 1: Whisk your eggs together for a couple of minutes until bright yellow and frothy. We wanna incorporate air to keep the pancakes light & fluffy!

Step 2: Add almond milk, vanilla, honey, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt to your eggs and whisk together until combined.

Step 3: If you're adding nuts fold them into your batter now.

Step 4: Warm a non-stick skillet or griddle on medium-high heat and melt butter or coconut oil on the skillet.

I used fresh grass-fed butter for super cinnamon roll-y taste!

Step 5: Ladle batter by about 1/4 cup onto skillet to form pancakes. Let cook 1-2 minutes until browned around the edges and bubbling, then flip and cook through.

Stack high, pour on some maple syrup & enjoy! Yum!

A Beachy Striped Coffee Table & An Almost Awkward Situation

Happy Monday! I hope you're not lagging because it's the first day of the week! Here to perk you up: a picture of this beautiful table I painted!

Isn't she pretty?! She didn't start out that way. In fact, she was a rescue!  Here's where the almost awkward situation comes in...

A couple of weeks ago a fellow Air Force wife on base posted on Facebook that she was tossing a coffee table and some end tables out on her curb and they were up for grabs. I headed out to check the tables out because we were currently looking to put a coffee table in the guest room to create a "man cave" and we needed side tables for our bedroom. What I found when I arrived were 3 tables in very good shape, just in need of a little facelift!

The Tables

The Coffee Table "Before"

I scrubbed the tables up really good and cleaned out all of the little crevices then gave them a quick sanding. Then I primed them all, I love Kilz spray on primer the original kind. It is so easy, dries quickly, and covers every little thing. I use it on everything. Then I gave the tables about 2 coats of an antique white color I got from Home Depot and let them dry overnight. The next day I distressed them all and the side tables were finished!

I used painter's tape on the top of the coffee table to tape off some stripes and painted them a turquoise-y color I got a little sample pot of from Ace Hardware. After the stripes dried I sprayed on a coat of MinWax to seal in the paint job and also for easy clean-up. Coffee tables are a high traffic area and need to be easily cleanable! I was super happy with the end product.

Oh wait, are you asking yourself where the awkward part comes in? Right, here goes. So after the paint dried and I had obsessed over the tables enough (I was really, really in love with them!) I came to the realization that we really didn't need them. I'm already seeing that a "man cave" isn't going to happen, we have enough guests coming this month and planning to come in the future that we are going to need 2 full-time guest rooms. Unfortunately you only need 1 coffee table per house pretty much and ours is only 2 months old, so replacing that wasn't really an option. So I decided to put the table set up for sale. I calculated my time spent on the tables along with the cost of products used and came up with a reasonable price. Even though the tables were Free, my time and the paint are not! I listed them on Craigslist and on a few local "for sale" Facebook pages. The tables garnered interested buyers almost immediately and I felt so proud that people really liked my tables!! One very interested buyer's name stood out to me, and I couldn't figure out why. I thought about it and realized... she was the same person who threw the tables out originally! ...Awkward. I sent her a text to let her know that she was more than welcome to purchase the tables from me but she should be aware that they are her old tables, just painted bright and pretty! I was nervous, was she going to be mad?! Would she think I just took the tables to paint and make a profit?! Did I look like a total jerk?! I waited anxiously for her to reply. Her response? "WOW! You are amazing!! I would never have thought to do that!" Siiiiiiigh of relief. Turns out she STILL wanted to buy the tables and came by the next day to pick them up. She was so gracious and complimentary of my work and I realized I didn't have anything to be nervous about in the first place. Now the tables have a new (old) home and very happy owners and I feel kinda crazy good about my artistry! Whoo! And in case you didn't get enough stripe-y table goodness here's a couple more pictures:

Have a good week everybody!
 

The Salty Chihuahua!

Happy March Everybody! I love March because it means Spring is coming! I am so, so ready for my first Florida Panhandle Spring. Lounging in the sunshine, reading a good book, drinking a sweet cocktail... umm yes I'm ready. I was browsing Pinterest aimlessly the other day like I do and I came across the prettiest pink drink- attention captured immediately, and then the title- "The Salty Chihuahua". EXCUSE ME?! Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a tiny chihuahua named Bo who runs my house. He is evil and wonderful all the same time. 2.5 pounds of furry love. So I knew I would be making this drink, regardless of ingredients, it was going to happen. I followed the link to the recipe and lo and behold it was a fitness magazine (http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/recipecomdetail.jsp?recipeId=25124278) and a low calorie drink! I'm always looking for those. 

Not only is this drink beautiful, sweet, yummy, and named after a chihuahua it is ALSO under 200 calories. I think I've officially found my summer drink. Don't be scared off by the tequila, this drink is delicious. It tastes like something they bring you with a little umbrella in it :) And because of the name I had to do this...

That's my chihuahua and The Salty Chihuahua. Bo was less than thrilled about posing... 

Ingredients: (for 1 drink)
3 oz. Tequila
1.5 oz. Orange Liqueur
7.5 oz. Grapefruit Juice

If desired salt the edge of your rim with kosher salt (that's where the Salty part comes in...) Fill your cup with ice, pour all ingredients over top and mix well. Garnish with lemon, lime, or grapefruit slices!

I thought my Margaritaville cup was very fitting...

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of these drinks... can you tell?!

 And because it's his namesake, here's some gratuitous pictures of my little man: 

Posing in the leaves in Little Rock

Lounging on the beach!

Keeping warm in my hubby's hoodie

We were feeling the love on Valentine's Day!

They make the most handsome pair, don't they?! And yes that's a polo doggie shirt, and he popped his collar. He's a diva.

Cheers! Enjoy your weekend :)

 

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken!

Good afternoon friends! How is everyone's February going? We just had about 4 days of rain, storms, and cold weather- then today it's sunny, beautiful, and about 70 degrees. Gotta love Florida weather. I'm just so grateful for the sunshine today! The constant rain was making me so lazy! It's just hard to feel productive when the view outside is so dreary. Slow cooker meals are my fave for a rainy day, because they do all the work for you! So you can grab your snuggie and your puppy (or kitty) and catch up on your DVR. Or you know do something productive if you're more motivated than I. 

I saw a recipe on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago for a crockpot salsa chicken, and it sounded so yummy! The only issue I had with it was that it included cream of chicken soup and some other kinda sketch ingredients. So I said to myself, let's clean this up a bit and make a meal out of it. Turns out Chicken + Organic salsa + Rotel + slow cooker= DELICIOUSNESS. You don't need anything else. If you want to make it even CLEANER, in place of the salsa and rotel just chop some tomatoes, peppers, and onions. That's essentially what's in there anyways. Make sure to add some seasoning too, of course. 

Ingredients:
About 2-3 Chicken Breasts
1 Jar Your Fave Salsa
1 Can Rotel (Tomatoes & Chiles)
1 Tbsp. Taco Seasoning (mine is here)

Step 1: Place your chicken in the crock of your slow cooker in an even layer.

Step 2: Pour the salsa and rotel over the chicken and top with the taco seasoning.

Step 3: Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Step 4: Pull your chicken breasts out and shred with 2 forks, OR if you have a stand mixer toss your chicken in the bowl and use the paddle attachment on 1 or 2 for 30 seconds to get the perfect shred with zero work. (TOLD YOU I WAS LAZY!)

Perfectly shredded chicken, every time!

Step 5: Put your shredded chicken back into the salsa sauce and stir to coat completely. Put slow cooker on "warm" and let the chicken soak up the sauce while you set up your taco bar. Or salad bar. Or however you wanna eat this chicken...

Our Taco Bar! Avocado, shredded cheese, sour cream, & Lettuce

ENJOY! We used low-carb tortillas to make to make tacos, but this chicken is great over a salad or wrapped up in lettuce for a carb-less taco! Yum!

 

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef & Broccoli!

I've got a good one for y'all today! This is probably my hubby's FAVORITE dinner. Which makes me super happy, because it is sooo easy! The crockpot does all the work for you, you just chop the steak & veggies. It's like takeout Chinese that's waiting for you when you get home. Minus the MSG. And way cheaper. Skirt steak/flank steak is SO CHEAP! I bought the particular one in this post at the commissary for $3.50. The ENTIRE meal ran me less than $5. 2 servings. <$2.50 a piece. Can you beat that at the local Chinese food joint? I DON'T THINK SO. 

Pretty right?! Okay I'm done talking- you need this recipe. Now.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Skirt steak or Flank steak
1/4 Cup Corn Starch
1 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
1/2 Cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Hoisin Sauce (find in the Asian food aisle, next to Soy Sauce)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Chopped Fresh or Frozen Broccoli

Step 1: Cut your steak into strips.

Step 2: Place your steak strips into a gallon sized ziploc bag. Pour corn starch over the steak and toss to coat. Let rest, & make the sauce while the steak is resting.

Not the clearest picture, but that's the steak in the bag coated in corn starch. Promise.

Step 3: In a medium sized bowl whisk together garlic, soy sauce, water, hoisin sauce, & brown sugar.

Step 4: Place your steak strips in the crock of your slow cooker, pour sauce over top.

Place top on slow cooker & cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. When you're about 20 minutes away from eating toss in some broccoli. Stir to combine everything, replace top and let cook an additional 20-30 minutes on low. EAT.

Enjoy :-)