Honey Glazed Carrots

These carrots are easy to make and delicious! We had them with cauliflower mash and pork chops.Ingredients:
1lb bag of baby carrots (I just had regular so I peeled and chopped them into roughly baby carrot size)
2 T. butter
2 T. honey
1 T. lemon juice
Salt & Pepper
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley

In a saucepan, add some water and bring to a boil. You want to steam the carrots, not boil them, so the water should be about halfway up the carrot. Steam them (with the lid on) until tender, about 6 or 7 minutes. Drain the water and add the carrots back to the pan with butter, honey and lemon juice. Cook until carrots are coated and glaze is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley!


Enjoy!

Shelby's Wedding!

We spent this past rainy weekend back in Auburn. I got to eat at Big Blue Bagel AND Amsterdams, but the best part was attending Shelby's wedding. She is the little sister, of my best friend Whitney. I've known the whole family almost my entire life. The wedding was so much fun and a great time to catch up with people you don't get to see often enough!
Below are just a few pictures from the day. My dad was the photographer and he asked me and Adam to help out, which we gladly did!


I love the flower on her sash, and next are the delectable duo Miss Tucker and Miss Kennedie.
Shelby married Thomas Wright. Inside the church one stained glass was labeled "Thomas" and the other "Wright". Very cool.
Adam caught a side shot of me and it shocks me how pregnant I am.


This is a Strader tradition. "Seeing" each other before the ceremony.




As always I must leave you with the shenanigans of my children. Today I noticed this chunk missing from above Jackie's eye. I have absolutely no idea how it happened. Yesterday was slightly overcast, so she did not move from the comfort of her kennel all day!!!

Kitchen Renovation

I keep promising a post on our kitchen renovation, which we completed about 1 year ago now. So finally it is here! I hope it is all you dreamed about, because it sure is for me!
Here is the "before". We had a galley kitchen, very narrow and not open into the den. We had older cabinets that did not reach the ceiling and very limited space. No pantry-so we used the laundry room. You can barely see, but we went ahead and moved our fridge from the inside wall over to the outside. That move freed us up for demo including the floor, the kitchen was tile and the rest of the house is hardwood.We began demo and here you can see the difference in flooring. We removed all the cabinets, and counter tops (most which were reused in the laundry room and carport), appliances, and sink. And here we had begun on the wall dividing the kitchen from the den. That's my dad in there busting out some floor!After the wall and tile was complete we cleaned up for the day, the next step was to get matching hardwood flooring put in. Here is Jackie taking her first stroll on the bare floor.As you can see, they helped out a lot with the renovation!
This is right after the hardwood flooring had been installed. Our guys were GREAT! The company is Heritage Outlet Flooring, Inc. 770-982-7838. I highly recommend them! After the flooring, Adam's mom and step-dad came for a weekend. Cliff and Adam built the new wall for the peninsula and Rebecca stripped all the old layers of wallpaper off!
When that was done, I spent many late nights painting the new wall blue to match the den and the kitchen green.
Next came the cabinets. We got them from STOCK Building Supply. They are beautiful and were a great price. Regina helped us and she was super. 404-352-0880. I got a pantry and deep drawers on either side of the stove to hold all my pots, pans and corning ware! We purchased our hardware from Home Depot Expo and our installer, Trent, drilled holes and added them for us. He was great and I highly recommend him for any renovation you have. Trent Frederick 404-216-1067.
Counter tops were next and I love what I picked out. It is called Giallo Superior. The last appliance to go in was the microwave and we were done! We've been cooking paleo in it for a year now. The main living space is so much more opened now it's wonderful!

It was bad, but we are both okay.

I got into a car accident last night coming home from my parents house. I merged onto I-85 South from 316. A green explorer started to come into my lane and I over corrected and swerved hard to the right, then back to the left. I lost control and slammed head on into the concrete wall on the right hand side of the road.
I was taken to the hospital by ambulance (not with the lights on) and was thoroughly checked out by a doctor. I was given an extensive ultrasound and the baby is doing fine. I have read in all of my books to keep your seatbelt low and I am so glad I did that.
The car is totaled but I walked away with just some intense bruising, and a burn from the seatbelt.

We went back today to see the damage. It shocked me and Adam both when we pulled up and saw this.It is put into perspective, how fragile we are, when you can walk away from something like this. With not only your life but the life of your baby.
Here are my plants I had just purchased with mom at the growers outlet. Not sure what I can save.
My dad sent me home with some TP and Paper Towels and they were all over the floorboards. Adam's bowling shoes were thrown into the front seat on impact, but I was not hit by anything.Thankfully the airbags and seat belt did their jobs. Here you can see my seat belt burn. There is another one on the tops of my thighs.The Paleo Kitchen is closed for the weekend. I'm laying down and taking my muscle relaxers. That was all the Dr. could give me since I'm pregnant. Thanks for all your phone calls, thoughts and prayers.
Drive safely everyone!

Great visit to the Ham

I got to visit Birmingham this past weekend. The weather was beautiful, and I got to visit with friends and family I don't see nearly enough.
I stayed with Ben and Shaina and here is one of their precious doggies, Lucky. She and Pancho are their children for now. Here she is on lookout.Saturday we headed to Lovell's for a crawfish boil to celebrate Ben's 31st birthday.I must say my crawfish eating skills are severely lacking. I have not had any since college and my first attempt left me with a gooey mess! I was much more into the cookie cake and spent my time grazing over there.
There were several prego's in attendance to keep me company! This group is rapidly expanding!
Here's the Birthday Boy with Audrey, who wore her crawfish shirt just for this occasion. She was a doll the entire day and smiled as we passed her around!I stopped by the In-Laws on Sunday for lunch on my way out. Always good to visit and catch up with them. Adam made it home from school about 11pm and crashed after a Saturday of finals followed by a Sunday of starting new classes.

Hope you had a great weekend, more from my paleo kitchen soon!

Easter and "Soup Rice"

I cannot believe it is Thursday and I am just getting to my Easter post!
I had a lovely Easter. How about you?
Sunday I got up and squeezed into a spring dress and headed off to church with Brittani and Dayton. The service was great and we came home and prepared a delicious Paleo lunch!The deviled eggs were my favorite so I am listing the recipe.

Ingredients:
6 eggs, boiled and peeled
1/4 cup mayo
1.5 tablespoons dill relish
1 teaspoon spicy mustard
salt and pepper to taste
paprika for garnish

The best way I have found to hard boil an egg is to place the eggs in a pan with just enough water to cover and toss in some salt. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Then remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes, covered. Rinse with cold water and peel.

Halve the eggs lengthwise. Remove the yolks and place in a small bowl with mayo, relish and mustard. Stir and mash until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fill the egg whites with the filling. I used a sandwich bag with the corner cut off to pipe them in for less mess.
Sprinkle with paprika! Delicious! They save for a few days and are a really yummy snack!

This week I also made a traditional Romine dinner, affectionately called "soup-rice". This is such an easy meal to make if you want to throw something together. It is delicious. My stomach is a little finicky at times being the pregnant girl that I am, so the rice was really nice. No harsh flavors!

Ingredients:
1 can chicken noodle soup
1 can cream of chicken soupChicken - I recommend bone in skin on - any cut will do.
Rice - the amount depends on how many you are cooking for. For the two of us I did 1 cup.
Chicken Broth
Salt & Pepper to taste

Place the chicken in baking dish and add salt and pepperPlace the rice in a mixing bowl and add cream of chicken soup. Then measure using your chicken noodle soup liquid and chicken broth until you have twice as much liquid as rice. Stir to combine.Pour soup rice mixture over, making sure all the rice is submerged in liquid.
Bake covered, at 350º for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until rice is cooked through and chicken is done.


The Easter bunny was good to the dogs. They were so excited with the new bone they had no idea what to do at first.