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A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

Teacher gift guide

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Can you believe the end of the school year is almost here? It’s time to recognize and celebrate the lovely teachers in your little ones life. Be sure to remember the extras too….the aid, the speech therapist, etc. So many people work so hard to get your kid from one grade to the next. I’ve put together a gift guide just for teachers, should you be interested in gifting a little something. 

  1. Love these golden rulers. So cute with a note that says ‘thanks for making me grow.’
  2. Who doesn’t want a happy stripe pen? I can’t think of anyone.
  3. Paired with the happy striped pen and all wrapped up with a big bow, how cute this duo is together.
  4. Alex and Ani is such a great brand and this golden apple couldn’t be more spot on.
  5. Love giving teachers gift cards for manicure or pedicure. This fresh summer color would be perfect to go with.
  6. Ah this coffee mug! So so cute. I ordered five for my boys to gift out.
  7. Love the gold. Love the apple. Love the little slip to slide in a hand drawn note.
  8. With notes of pineapple and coconut, what a lovely way to send your teacher into summer vacay!

And that’s a wrap. Happy shopping!
C

Meal Prep Mondays: Detox Moroccan Spiced Glow Bowls

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Yippee! It’s part two of our new Meal Prep series. If you’re just following along, I made a miraculous discovery that meal prepping is not just for people that work outside of the home. Huh. I can’t tell you how many fast food or concession stand meals I’ve eaten during baseball season just because I didn’t plan accordingly. This changes all that. First up I enjoyed Greek Chicken Bowls and now we have the lovely Detox Moroccan Spice Bowls. 

Friends.

This stuff is magic I tell you.

First introduced to me by my darling middle sister for a girls night in, we devoured this recipe. Along with summer water, disco ball dancing, and a full viewing of Troop Beverly Hills. If you have not seen this movie you are missing out on life. I had actual tears from laughing so hard watching this again as an adult. 

As Shelly Long states ‘you can never be too prepared in the wilderness of life.’ So applicable to the world of meal prepping, don’t you think? Let’s help ourselves during the busy times by eating clean good for you food. These bowls have six spices, including tumeric, which is oh so beautifying. Heart healthy quinoa sits along the side of some fresh veggies: tomatoes and cucumbers which are tossed up with lots of herbs. A dollop of hummus brings it all together along with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top.

I’m telling you, not only are these delicious but you’ll be glowing from all the nutritional goodness.

So much better than a concession stand hot pretzel, don’t you think?

DETOX MOROCCAN SPICED GLOW BOWLS
Recipe adapted from Pinch of Yum
This recipe is enough for 4 individual bowls

Moroccan Spiced Chick Pea Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon each – chili powder and cumin
1 teaspoon each – turmeric and garam masala
1 teaspoon sea salt
small dash of each -cinnamon and cayenne (to taste)
2 14-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 14-ounce cans fire roasted diced tomatoes

Bowl Ingredients:

Seedless cucumbers
Mint
Parsley
Cilantro
Sliced tomatoes (I used cocktail sized)
Lemon
Quinoa, cooked according to package directions
Any flavor hummus, for topping

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion; saute until softened. Add the garlic, spices, salt, and chickpeas – stir around until very fragrant. Add the tomatoes (undrained) and simmer for 20 minutes or so while you prep the other ingredients.

Meanwhile, slice cucumbers and toss with fresh herbs. Slice tomatoes. Slice lemon into wedges. Cook quinoa according to package directions (I always use a bit less water than stated on the box).

Assemble your bowls with the spiced chick peas, layer up your veggies with herbs, put in a scoop of quinoa, top with a dollop of hummus and garnish with a lemon wedge. Enjoy beautiful!

C’s picks – week of May 14th

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Oh my yes, it’s Sunday, it’s Mother’s Day, and it’s BEAUTIFUL out! I hope you are all enjoying a lovely day in the sunshine with family and friends. I’m taking a quick moment here to sit down and plan out the week because, well, it just makes Monday’s that much better. Who is with me? Let’s do this!

Today is Mother’s Day and I have zero plans for cooking. What does that mean? Well, I’m sure take out somewhere will be in order. Hey, I don’t have to clean the kitchen!

Monday is looking to be a beautiful night to grill. Let’s get this grilled chicken caprese (YUM) going along with some grilled asparagus. Perfect!

We have games Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so, let’s get some lighter slow cooker recipes going to help mom out. It’s easy to associate slow cooker with more heavy, winter type dishes, but there are actually a lot of fresh and light ‘summery’ options! To start, let’s get these cilantro lime tacos going for taco Tuesday!

My boys looooooove ribs. I can’t wait to test out these slow cooked ones Wednesday. Perfect for post baseball game.

Thursday I’m going to get this spring pasta and grilled chicken made during the day. Come later at night when we are finally home all I will have to do is plate up!

And, fingers crossed baseball schedule wise, it looks like we may have a night out Friday. Can’t wait.

Happy cooking!
C

Mother’s Day Check In.

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I love Mother’s Day, so much. Aside from the delicious brunch and yes of course, a baseball game, I always take this time of year to reflect on how it’s all going as a mother to my own two boys. So much changes year to year as the boys grow and as I grow as their mom. I feel it’s important to not only recognize those changes to see how far we’ve come together, but, also to see where we are going.

I’ve definitely graduated into the ‘bigger kid’ stage of mothering. I’m not changing diapers or washing pacifiers or (mostly) dealing with temper tantrums anymore. I’m in the whole make school lunches do homework shuffle kids here and there and everywhere with the appropriate items stage of life. And I’m thriving. I’m right in that sweet spot. Still totally involved, my kids still want and need me, but not in an order to survive type of way that comes along with those younger years. Friends, ages ten and four absolutely rock. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I absolutely 100% would press pause right now if I could. 

Speaking of ten, since when do I live with a legitimate pre teen? Logan is so big. He is a giant kid. He’s always been years ahead size wise, but now that is mixed with age ten approaching eleven and him being bigger is turning into having actual real shoulders and being pounds and inches away from mama. What? How when WHY? I can’t. But then he plops down on top of me like he’s still fifty pounds and wants to sleep with me every single night when Dad travels and still brings his blankie downstairs in the morning and has a phone but rarely uses it ever and all is A OK in the world. And none of that better change. Ever. Amen.

Then there is B, oh B! My how we have grown together. He was that toddler that would scream when the grandparents would come over simply because he thought that meant mama was leaving. How lovely. From about nine months until closer to three he spent the majority of his days attempting to re enter my womb. Attached would not even begin to describe what we went through together. He was his happiest on my hip and I, for the most part, was happy with him there. (Hey, he was heavy!). Yet now he’s the big FOUR and thriving at school and thriving in the yard and running here and there and everywhere with buddies and grandparents and family friends. It’s great to see how develop his little sense of self aside from me, and I can’t wait to see what he does in kindergarten this fall! 

This biggest shift that has come along this past year would be the whole ‘put mom first thing’ once in awhile. I’m sleeping and actually taking care of myself better than I have in years but of course that came with growth of my children. B is at longer days at preschool which means I have the space to do more things on my own. Long walks, grocery shopping in peace, and of course, blog blog blog. The break each day is beyond lovely, and I am recharged more than ever when the school bell rings for each of them and I am fully engaged and on duty until they are tucked away asleep at night. Self care is so ‘in’ right now but it’s much easier said than done when you have very little ones in tow. The thought of sleeping well and eating well and exercising well is all so lovely, but, in those earlier years it’s a very serious challenge. Don’t beat yourself up. You’ll get there. And you are doing the best you can – we all are, right?

And that’s just the thing. We are all doing the best we can. I will have days where I have my mom fails. The time I completely forgot to show up as ‘mystery reader’ in L’s classroom or the time I forgot to send pasta to B’s classroom for cooking day or the time I forgot to send L to baseball with a cup and he had to do pushups. I have to remind myself it’s OK. I can’t do everything absolutely perfect as their mom 365 days a year. I am going to mess up. And hopefully it’s all little stuff and nothing to send them into therapy over. And hey, if it is, I promise I’m trying here. Really really hard. Nothing matters more than those two goofballs above. 

So Happy Mother’s Day to you. To my wonderful mom. To my mother in laws. To your mom. To mom’s of 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or more. To women who want to be a mom. I’m on your side. And you are doing a wonderful job.
C

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