Roasted Beets and Carrots with Goat Cheese Dressing

Found this gem in Food & Wine magazine.
The reason you're getting a picture of the magazine is I did not separate everything out and the beets pretty much dyed the whole dish purple and it's not looking so appetizing!
But it was still so tasty!
And I have to say this post goes out to Sarah, my friend who has a love affair with beets just like me!

*I have amended a few things from the original recipe.





1 bunch golden beets with tops
1 bunch red beets with tops
3 T. EVOO
3 large garlic cloves, halved
Salt and Pepper
1 bunch carrots
1 T. sherry vinegar
1 large shallot, minced
1 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 425º. Peel the beets and cut them into 1 in wedges. Discard the tough stems and coarsely chop the leaves. Slice the carrots into 1 in pieces.
Coat each vegetable separately (to keep the beets from dying everything) with evoo salt and pepper and lay out on a baking sheet. Add 2 halves of garlic to each section of veggies on the sheet.
Roast for about 40 minutes in the oven.
In a small bowl whisk the vinegar and 1 T. evoo, season with S&P and add in the goat cheese.
In a skillet heat the remaining evoo and saute the shallot and beet leaves until tender, about 6 minutes. Season with S&P.
The recipe says to combine everything together and toss once or twice. I would still say just layer everything and drizzle the dressing on top - or have each person drizzle on their portion.

Enjoy!

This Year

I've resolved in 2012 to cut my cost of living as much as possible.
So I wanted to show you what I call my Do It Yo' Self Shelf!
I can't really say I did it myself, I should say it was "Dad can you come over and hang a shelf for me?"... But who's keeping track of that!?

I wanted some Pottery Barn shelves that were super expensive (to me) for Christmas and I didn't get them. So after contemplating do I really want to spend money to have particle board shipped to me from China..? I thought NO!
So I went in our shed and found an old piece of molding from the old kitchen before we renovated.
Here is the before and after.
It's not the straightest piece of wood but it is centered over the TV I promise!
Dad threw it up with a few screws and then I was able to set a few things that had basically been sitting on the floor for months!I'm still going to paint it, but it does have quite the rustic charm right now!
Total cost of the project? $0
LOVE THIS!

I'm doing several other things - if anyone is interested...
We've cancelled our cable, re-financed the house, cancelled our cleaning service (this gives me lots of apprehension but I'm determined I can clean this place like those amazing women!)
We're eating in more, using cash for all food purchases, and I really hope to grow some of our own food this year!
And I also recommend this book. I've enjoyed it so far, lots of good cost cutting ideas! And I checked it out from the library - even better!
I also wanted to tell you about the prints up there.
Toomer's Corner after Auburn won the National Championship.A silhouette of Greer that a good friend gave to me for Greer's first birthday. I get teary almost every time I look at it. Sweetest present ever for a new mommy!Print from a thrift store that I just love.

Merry Christmas!

I've been taking some heat from all three of my faithful blog readers for my lack of posting.
So this one is dedicated to Shaina, Allison and Joanie!

It has been a great Christmas this year so I thought I would share just a bit of our days.
We've celebrated with Adam's mom, who was with us for 3 days. We've celebrated with my family on Christmas Day. Adam's dad, step-mom and sister will be here for New Years! It's been full, busy and lots of fun.
On Christmas Eve there was no mistaking that Greer is a girl. (Strangers love to call her a boy)I'm in love with this dress and shoes from Gap. We headed to our Christmas Eve Service at church. Greer did really well most of the time, although she wanted to run around :)The tradition at Smoke Rise Baptist is to hand out an ornament made by church members. This year we received this. It is so beautiful and made me think of each one I received as a child and now my child gets one. I got a little choked up.

We did some "santa" this year.We've been discussing all of that and we're probably going to go the route where she understands that we put the presents out for her... but that's pretty complicated. Just refer to this post for where we're going with that! Jen Hatmaker can explain it much better than me!!

When Greer woke up she went directly for the tri-cycle, which was actually a birthday gift from my aunt and uncle and we hid it away for when she was older. We've now spent the last 4 days pushing her in a circle around the house - it's all she wants.
She also got a new key-chain, some puzzles, books and blocks.
It's been a good Christmas and we look forward to celebrating with the rest of our family this weekend.
I hope you all are enjoying the holidays with your family!

Happy Halloween

This will be the most "catch up" post of all time. It's been quite awhile since I've posted. I have made several things. I've barely photographed any of my cooking but I will share what I've done!

Last night was Halloween! My spunky little one is not happy with anything on her head, therefore her puppy costume was a no go. But I did manage to get a picture of her picking out our pumpkins. And one with her after they were carved.I made my pumpkin seeds again.

I have taken a few pictures of our CSA Boxes lately. They have been filled with lots of goodies and I've enjoyed trying some new things.Here are some Turnips. With them I made this. Scalloped Turnips. They were delish. I omitted the flour but I use dairy (some paleo people don't) so this was a really cool treat for us. It was SOOOOO good!

I made a spaghetti casserole with gluten free noodles. For a busy week it was a great dish to last us. Again, I'm pushing the boundaries of what most people consider "Paleo" but for us it works.


Another meal we have a lot is grilled steak, sweet potato fries and a salad.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

One year ago

One year ago today we were blessed with our sweet Greer.
Time has flown by, I can't believe a full year has passed.

If you recall, I had her early in the morning here at home. This is my favorite picture of her. The color is horrible and it's barely in focus, but to me, this is her, lying on my yellow sheets, in the sweet outfit we bought for her. Everything happened so fast I'm just happy to have a few pictures.

I've been filling out a baby book and at the one year mark, it has asked me to write down my thoughts on motherhood.
There are lots of things I've learned.
If I think back to that first day my first thought is how happy I am with my birth experience. It could not have gone better and I will plan to have a birth at home again!

I now know I should have rested more. I never relaxed and let my body heal after Greer's birth. I was working and running around like a crazy person. I'm going to park myself on the couch next time and eat and drink lots and lots of water. I've never been so thirsty in my life!

In addition, I will slow down and enjoy motherhood. I have learned how quickly time passes by and how important every moment is with Greer.

I was surprised how I was not immediately attached to her. In those first few hours and days I let anyone hold her and even took a couple naps in my bedroom while others kept her. Then suddenly my attachment was so strong I never wanted to be away from her. And even now, at 1 year I have a hard time leaving her.

I learned that nursing is a full time job. It's hard to get the hang of in the beginning. I was so tired, so hungry, so thirsty. But I am so glad that I did it. Greer has never been sick other than a runny nose or cough and I fully believe nursing helped in this.

Lack of sleep is THE hardest thing I have ever gone through. Seven months of not getting a full nights sleep was so miserable. That's all I have to say about that. I try to block it out. I do not function well with interrupted sleep and I'm not a good napper.

But overall I would say motherhood is amazing. I was surprised along the way to enjoy it so much. I feel like I am doing the hardest, most important job out there. Being Greer's mom. And I love it.

It's also the busiest job out there so this post is short :)

But here is Greer 1 year later, in just the same spot!
I'm so happy to have her, so happy she's healthy. This morning at breakfast I thanked God for how lucky I am.

Happy Birthday Greer-bo-higgens! We love you!

Meal ideas

Thanks to my new iPhone, I've taken some quick pics of food over the last few days.
If you need any paleo ideas here's what's being eaten around here!

Breakfast!!
2 Scrambled Eggs
1 Piece of Bacon
3 Slices of Avacado
3 Slices of Tomato
1 Cup Coffee - BlackLunch!!
Caresse Salad with CSA Tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella from Publix, Fresh Basil from my yard. Drizzled with EVOO and Balsamic Vinegar, and some Salt and Pepper.
Some people who follow Paleo do not eat dairy... I do :)
And this is not all I had for lunch, believe me I eat a lot!
Dinner!!
Boston Butt slow cooked in the crock pot all day. yum.
CSA Green Beans, squash, broccoli, and sweet red peppers sauteed in olive oil with Salt, Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes.

My Gallon Challenge

With that title, some of you might think I might mean drinking a gallon of milk in 1 hour.
Let me assure I do not!

I'll show you where I'm going with this when I say...

I feel like I am always thirsty!!

I've tried counting how many bottles of water I drink or how many cups each day. But I still always feel thirsty.
So I decided to buy a gallon of water and see if I could drink it all in one day.
It surprised me how little of the gallon I was able to finish.
On my first day at 5:30pm the gallon looked like this.
It took me 4 days before I was able to finish the full jug in one day.
A gallon is 128 ounces. So I understand if you do not want to drink that much. It works for me though.
Every day I finish it I actually do not feel thirsty, but the days when I don't, I still do!
So I challenge you to see how much of a gallon you can drink in one day.
Just fill the jug each morning and see where you are before bed.
I feel like it has really helped me stay focused on how much water I'm taking in!