DIY Kitchen Upgrades: Go Green!

From the moment I first saw this kitchen I was OBSESSED with it!  It has been the heart of our home for several years now and it was time to give it a little love. 

We painted the cabinets, updated the trim, added a new light and drawer pulls.  I am absolutely LOVING the fresh look and have included links to the products below.   

Here is our kitchen before...

...and after.

Pendant Light
D converted the can light over the sink to a pendant light using this kit. He then hung this antique steel finish pendant. Since the light bulb is visible we splurged for these LED Edison bulbs. 

Drawer Pulls
These drawer pulls vibe with the hardware we already have and work so much better than the knobs.   

Paint
We chose Miller's Cove Sage for the color, it feels so much more grounded than the blue that the cabinets used to be.
 

Here are a few more photos, I love this kitchen even more after the years of cooking, baking and quality time that I've spent in it with family and friends. 

(Also, I have to say it because I can't stand overly staged photos - I really was making a smoothie for myself, then my littlest fell asleep in her bouncer and I didn't want to startle her with the noise.  We'll give her another month and she'll be just as immune to all my crazy noise as her big sister!)

D really took this project home, I had started this project during my LAST spring break, thinking I could knock it out in a week...um, that's a NO girl, no you can't!  The top and bottom cabinets were mismatched for ALMOST an entire year!  Mucho thanks to him for finishing the painting and also for his craftsmanship on the trim that adds a little elegance.  

Cheers to many more recipes, art projects, gatherings and giggles in this wonderful little kitchen,  

D & H

Easy Way To Teach Kids Their Address

I had an "aha" moment a few weeks ago as my toddler was reciting the names of the Bubble Guppies - why does she not know our address and phone numbers?   

God forbid she ever need the information, but the thought of my kid running around this earth knowing the Bub-bub-bub-bub-bubble Guppies and not her address just seemed insane. 

So I taught her the same way I accidentally taught her the lyrics to "Body Like a Back Road" - repetition.

Each time I pull into the driveway, I recite our address and phone numbers. 

This is how it goes for us:
"E do you know where you live? Where do you live?" Then I say our address. 
"Do you know how to call mommy? Say call my mommy," then I say my phone number.   Within a few weeks, she had it memorized.

I love my kids. I'd low jack them if I could, but I can't, I asked. So this is giving me some peace.  

I may not be there at every moment to hold their hands, but I pray that no matter where they go, they will always find the way home. 

If you give this a try, or have other ways you teach your kids about basic safety, I'd love to hear it! 

~D & H

Lumen

She showed up with big blue eyes; eyes that have a piercing & illuminating joy. 

Lumens are the amount of emitted light that our eyes can see.  Our family is brighter because of her light.

Welcome to our world little one, you are a gift from God.
  

Book Club: Setting Limits With Your Strong-Willed Child

Parenting is teaching your children that there are no limits to what they can achieve, while teaching them that there are limits to what they can do.  

This dichotomy is challenging to teach and is the driving force behind the ever growing wine (whine?) industry. 

Okay, maybe it isn't the driving force, but it certainly plays a role. 

Our toddler is a sweet, earnest, intelligent and loving little human who is more stubborn than anyone I have ever met. 

A friend pointed me to this book "Setting Limits With Your Strong-Willed Child" and after buying the book, I realized I made a $7.70 mistake in thinking I could power through the book this month.  So I subscribed to Audible and got the audio book. 

ABSOLUTELY worth the listen.  I feel like I have added tools to my parenting toolbox in a simple, straight-forward and data driven way.  The author lays out examples, guides you in examining your personality and the personality of your kid, and has you walk through typical struggles with your kid to highlight what ACTUALLY WORKS when you are setting limits. 

The takeaway for me has been that kids learn through our actions. If our words say "put your shoes on" and our actions don't require that of them, we are teaching them not to value what we say. 

I hope my daughters know that the world is theirs to conquer - whatever that means for them.  I hope they understand limits, why they are there, why they are meaningful and why they aren't.  

There will be limits that I hope they always respect, and there will be limits that I hope to God they fearlessly break through.  Maybe good parenting looks like teaching them which ones are which.     

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” -Pablo Picasso

The world is yours kid. Except that. That belongs to your sister. Put it down. 

~D & H   

 

Flavor of the Week: Bone Broth

"I don't get sick" 

This is what I tell myself when everyone is getting sick.  

In addition to combating the latest cold outbreak with sheer will-power, I've started drinking bone broth and trying to include it in my cooking so that the entire family can reap the benefits as well.

Chicken soup inhibits neutrophil chemotaxis in vitro, or as our parents said "it is good for the soul".

Who knew right?

There is a lot of info online about how to make it, the benefits and where to buy it.    

For the fam I've been cooking rice in it and adding it to pasta sauce (sneaky!) and for me I've been drinking it warm with some salt. 

It's not quite my morning latte, but hey, no one ever said lattes are good for the soul.

Stay healthy!
~D & H


        

Deja Food: Grocery List & Recipes for Two Chorizo Dinners

The goal of this "deja food" is to save time by preparing the meat once then using it twice, and to save money by ensuring that the food you buy is used.  

Also, the second dinner is a one dish meal...YAASSS! 

On the Menu:
Chorizo Burgers
Deconstructed Stuffed Bell Peppers

I have to say, I'm not proud of calling one of these dinners "deconstructed", it is a little too hipster for me, seriously I might be one morning away from making avocado toast.  In my defense, this dinner did evolve from trying to make the difficult-to-eat-but-delicious stuffed bell pepper easier to eat (dare I call my variation the stuff-able bell pepper?).  If you have a less pretentious sounding name, throw it at me, I'd love to hear it! 

For now, I guess I'll call it deconstructed.    
    
Grocery List:

• 2 pounds of hamburger 
• 1 package of bacon
• 1 package of chorizo
• 1 cup of white rice
• 2 avocados 
• 1 bell pepper
• parmesan and romano cheese blend
• caldo de tomate (tomato bouillon)
• 1 can of tomato paste (optional - see bell pepper recipe notes below)
• 1 sweet potato or yukon potato

Chorizo Burgers

Tons of protein and flavor, these burgers are delish!    

What you need:

• 2 pounds of hamburger
• 1 package of chorizo
• 1 package of bacon
• 1 potato
• avocado

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the chorizo and hamburger and form into patties.  

Place in a 13x9 pan and bake approximately 20 minutes.  Place bacon in a foil lined 13x9 pan and bake until crispy.

For the yukon potato version:
Wash the potato, poke several times with a fork and microwave for 1 minute at a time until it feels tender when poked with fork.  Enough poking. 

Cut potato into 1/2 inch slices, melt 1 teaspoon of butter in a skillet and cook each potato slice on each side until brown.  Give it a quick sprinkle of salt.  

 

For the sweet potato version:
Peel and thinly slice the sweet potato.  Place on foil covered baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 405 for ~20 minutes or until slices are slightly crispy. 

 

For the burgers stack the potato, burger, bacon and avocado.

Eat like you mean it. 

 
Deconstructed Bell Peppers
Recipe Note:
Typically the "stuff" in the bell peppers is a mix of tomato paste, rice and hamburger meat.  D isn't a huge fan of tomatoes so I leave out the paste and use my mexican rice recipe for the flavor.  

If you're into tomatoes or like a dish that is a little saucy, and don't I love a saucy dish, add a small can of tomato paste at step 3.  

You can totally use leftover plain or mexican rice for this,  I used leftover mexican rice that had some corn in it.  If you're using leftover rice start at step 2.

1)  For the rice:

• 1 cup of rice
• 1 teaspoon butter or olive oil 
• tomato bouillon
• 6qt (big!) pot with lid

Heat 1 teaspoon of butter or olive oil in a quart pan on medium heat, add one cup of rice and stir until brown (5-7 minutes), don't skip this step, it makes the rice soft & fluffy!  Add roughly two teaspoons of caldo de tomate and 1 & 1/2 cups of water, bring to boil.  Once mixture is boiling, stir, reduce the heat to low, cover and allow rice to cook for twenty minutes. 
 
2) Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the big pot on medium heat.  Chop the bell pepper, add it to the pot and cook for about 2 minutes while stirring.  Add your rice. 

If it is leftover rice, cook for about 5 minutes or until it is warm and looks fluffy again.    

3) Add the chorizo burgers and use a whisk or your favorite blunt object to smash them. 

At this point, you've been working those muscles, seems like a good opportunity for a protein break, this is normally where I have a peanut butter spoon.

Cook until the meat is hot, we like it a little crispy.

Add a sprinkle of cheese to the top and enjoy!

Hopefully these recipes add a few more tricks up your sleeve of easy dinners, 
D & H

Recipe for Naturally Curly Hair

My hair is naturally eight kinds of crazy, so every morning is like the taming of the shrew.  I wish I had low-maintenance, air drying, no heat necessary behaving waves but that is just not even close to my reality.

If you have curls you already know to keep a hair product rotation because let's face it good curls depend on the humidity, your hormones and the hair god's alignment with Jupiter, and since the hair can't stand being washed daily the products you pick have to have some staying power. 
       

These are the products that are working for my hair right now.   (BTW, all of these are drugstore products and all have sulfates.  I've tried the whole "sulfate free" routine and  WHY?)

Shampoo/Conditioner: Herbal Essences Hello Hydration

Add to wet hair: TRESemme Make Waves Gel Cream 
This gel cream feels a little gooky (gooey-sticky) so you need less than you think. For mine, I work a quarter sized amount through the top half of my hair, then another quarter sized amount through the bottom. 

Then two pumps of this:  Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine

Let hair air dry.  Or blow on it a little.  Absolutely no touching.  

Okay now you can touch.  

Touch up the bottom two inches of hair and the front with a curling wand like this one from Hot Tools.  One recommendation - pick a curling iron barrel size based on the size of your curls (doi right?).    

I definitely go through phases where my curly hair annoys me and I punish it with a flatiron, but really, this wild hair is just like me - a little crazy but soft and tameable if you have the right tools. 

I hope this helps you rock your curls, embrace your crazy and just be yourself!

~D & H