Bread with the Brisels

  It's Friday, I have a long weekend, and that makes me a happy lady. 😉 As usual. I'm linking up with  Erika  and  Andrea  and sharing my favorites from the week!  My day on Thursday started off pretty snuggly. Jack woke up when I was wrapping up my workout, so I headed upstairs to help him. We were snuggling in the rocking chair, and Sammy woke up and joined us. 😊 Those few minutes of snuggling and rocking my boys absolutely warmed my mama heart.  I love this picture of Jack. He was working on a piece of bread about the size of his head! He's at the point where it appears that he's eating really well, but then you lift him up out of his highchair and wonder if any food *actually* made it into his mouth. Haha.  My  Greek Inspired Pasta Salad  was another favorite from the week. It made for a yummy, easy lunch to bring to work! We're reaching the point of the school year where I'm gradually losing steam with packing lunches. 😅 I shared on  What's Up Wednes

Happy Friday Eve! I've been loving making and eating pasta salads, and I made up a yummy little Greek-Inspired pasta salad this week. I love a greek salad; it's a very typical side dish for us during the summer months. Here's a tasty variation that's perfect to take for lunch or a side dish!  Greek Pasta Salad Serves: 6-8 Ingredients: 1 box of rotini pasta (I used rainbow rotini, but really anything will work just fine) 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved 1 yellow pepper, diced  1 red pepper, diced 1/2 purple onion, diced 1 English cucumber, diced Feta Cheese Greek-Inspired salad dressing Optional - black olives would be yummy in this, if your family enjoys them. Mine don't so it's omitted.  Directions: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When a rolling boil is reached, cook your pasta until it is al dente.  Place all of your cut vegetables in a large bowl.  Dump in your drained, cooked pasta.  Top with a big squirt of salad dressing and mix until all of the ingr

  Happy What's Up Wednesday! It's the last Wednesday of the month, which means I'm linking up with  Shay  and  Sheaffer  to share a little bit about what's up in my world. Here we go!  What we're eating this week Sunday - we had pot roast, roasted potatoes and asparagus Monday - Dustin and I had to attend the School Board Meeting, so we grabbed some Taco John's afterwards.  Tuesday - We grilled brats and had pasta salad  Wednesday -  Crockpot BBQ Chicken  is cooking away for us to eat tonight! We'll shred up the chicken and serve it with some steamed broccoli.  Thursday - Ham Balls  and green beans  Friday - Something meat free for Good Friday 😊 We've also been eating on my homemade sourdough bread! This bread has been a journey. I started with a dehydrated starter and it took me 9 whole days for it to become "active." I made my first loaf two weeks ago, and made another loaf over the weekend.  And oh my word...  It was heavenly with a little

It's Tuesday, and Easter is 5 SLEEPS away! Sammy is pretty excited. I love how excited 5 year olds get for holidays. 😊 It makes me even more motivated to make things extra special and memorable!  I'm sharing a few of the items that are in the boys' Easter baskets, in case you are in need of some last-minute inspiration. These are all from Amazon!  Some highlights from Jackson's Easter basket are... This cute sippy cup. This bath toy. And these bubbles.  I really loved them because the containers are small - perfect for little hands! 😊 & some highlights from Sammy's Easter basket are... This terrarium. Bluey toothbrushes  are always a great idea.  The Easter bunny is also bringing  this baseball bat  for Sammy to use during tball season.  Those are just a couple of highlights! We have a couple of filler items, too. Jack will be getting some puffs and a new pair of pajamas, and Sammy also has some candy in his basket. Both boys are getting a new book as well. 😊

This weekend was not awesome weather wise. and by the time Sunday evening rolled around, I realized that I hadn't been in the car since Friday night. Some people [my husband] might go crazy in this scenario, but I thrive in it. I love being all cozy at home and with my people.  We laid low this weekend because we were trialing wheat with Jackson, per the directions of his allergist.... And it was a hit. 😀 We first tried wheat on Saturday morning using Cream of Wheat cereal, and then switched to a slice of my homemade sourdough bread on Sunday. Little brother was a big fan. Yay! Having wheat as a safe food makes life a whole lot easier for our family.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week! This week is short for us due to Good Friday and I'm looking forward to the upcoming long weekend. 

It's Friday again! This week went by pretty fast, and I can't believe that we're about to see the end of April. Crazy! As usual, I'm linking up with  Andrea  and Erika  to share some Friday Favorites.  My first favorites have to be from St. Patrick's Day. 😊 Sammy had been looking forward to this day for weeks, and we pulled out all the stops. I recapped it  here  if you want to read more about the fun. Toilet water was green, pancakes were green...it was just a fun little morning at our home. 💚 Now that it's officially spring, I've changed out menu accordingly. We've been enjoying all the lighter meals that come along with spring and summer.  This week we had my  Spaghetti Salad  along some grilled burgers.  And then we had  Honey Mustard Chicken Salads later on in the week. These were extra delicious!  This week I switched up my workout routine. Typically I do a 20 minute Peloton ride, followed by a 20 minute strength class. This week I did Rebecca K

Earlier this week we fired up the grill to cook some chicken. Rather than eat the chicken alone, (that gives me the "ick" 😂) I decided to chop mine up to make a yummy little salad. Here's what I did!  Honey Mustard Chicken Salad Ingredients for the chicken marinade:  2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1/2 cup of dijon mustard 1/4 cup of honey Salt/Pepper Ingredients for the salad: Romaine lettuce Cherry tomatoes Bell Peppers Cucumbers Avocado  Green onions Cheddar cheese, shredded Ingredients for the dressing: 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1 tablespoon of honey 1 tsp minced garlic Salt/Pepper Directions:  Marinate your chicken using a large Ziploc bag for at least 2 hours. All day or overnight is even better! Grill your chicken until it is completely cooked through. Cut into small, bite-sized pieces.  Fill a large plate with your salad ingredients.  Feel free to add, or substitute based on your preference

Being an "allergy mom" wasn't something that I ever planned on or anticipated, and yet both of my boys have struggled with food allergies. Our oldest had a milk allergy that was diagnosed around his first birthday, that he has thankfully outgrown. My youngest started his FPIES journey with his first reaction a few days before he turned 6 months old.  FPIES is short for Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. It is a rare food allergy, affecting less than 1%  of US children. FPIES reactions typically emerge in infanthood, with first reactions following the introduction to rice and oat cereal. An FPIES reaction is much different than a typical food allergy. There are no hives and the reaction takes place 2-6 hours following consumption of the trigger food. The reaction is intense vomiting, with other side effects being lethargy, pallor (yellow-paleness), dehydration, a rash, and diarrhea in the hours following the reaction. The symptoms of FPIES mimic a typical stomach