Where Have We Been? A Little Life Update

I cannot believe I used to do these weekly! Actually, I may be able to start doing them again now that we finally have a napping schedule with the baby and my son is back in school five days a week. But this one is going to be extraordinarily long!

I really am going to try to post these more often, especially since the holidays are about to start and life gets crazy. There’s so much to catch up on, so let’s get into it!

The daily breakfast around here has been these protein cottage cheese pancakes with chicken sausage, all drenched in organic pure maple syrup. So good, especially with our got-to berries protein smoothies.

We’ve still been going strong with our library trips! Honestly, sometimes I think I love going even more than my son. There’s just something about the nostalgic smell of the library, wandering through all the books, and getting to read kids’ stories again that I love so much. Of course, we’ve also turned our library days into a little tradition with pizza at Inizio and coffee at Flora. It’s become one of my favorite ways to spend the day together.

One of my close friends had her baby girl toward the end of the summer, and I made their family my favorite chicken fajita pasta for one of their meals. It’s one of my favorite meals to make for new parents because it’s comforting, easy to reheat, and always a hit! She’s one of the lucky ones with kids that will eat almost anything and everything.

The last few weeks of summer were pretty slow, mainly because it was too hot. With two small kids, there’s only so much you can do when it feels too hot to even be outside! We’d get our morning walks in and hurry back home before it was already 90 degrees at 9 a.m. We filled the rest of our days with lots of pool time, baking, Legos, and finding little ways to stay busy (and cool!) at home.

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies

For my husband’s birthday, he requested his favorite, my homemade bibimbap! I’ve made this several times now, and he’s such a fan. I love when a homemade meal becomes someone’s birthday dinner request!

Lots of baking, dinner making, and meal prepping around here the past few months! I have many recipes sitting in my camera roll that I need to get published soon. I swear, the cooking and photographing part happens much faster than actually getting the recipes onto the blog!

One night, I turned my son’s pancake dinner into a pirate ship! I printed out a few pirate decorations, cut his protein cottage cheese pancakes into the shape of a boat, created a little landscape with fruit, and used bacon to make the ocean. This was SUCH a hit, and he devoured the entire thing! It’s funny how making dinner a little more fun can make all the difference.

Lots of nights at the soccer field! I’m still not entirely sure my son is that into soccer, but hey, at least he’s participating! If you have kids, when did they start finding the sports or activities they genuinely loved? I feel like right now we’re just trying different things and seeing what sticks.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Frosted Banana Bars
Sourdough Bagels

My sourdough bagels have become a staple in our house! I make a big batch, freeze them, and then we eat them throughout the week. Also, the St. Môret cream cheese they had at Costco was THE BEST EVER, and I was sad when they discontinued it. Costco, if you’re listening, please bring it back! If you’re on your sourdough journey, definitely try making the bagels!

One super easy meal that my son absolutely loves is taco biscuits! I make turkey taco meat with Siete taco seasoning (I buy it in bulk at Costco), then use Annie’s crescent rolls and roll them up with the taco meat and cheese. I bake them until they’re golden, and that’s it! He actually eats these these, and they’ve become such an easy dinner to throw together. They are easy to heat up the next day for leftovers, too. I usually pair them with sliced cucumbers or fruit.

One of our favorite sugar free desserts…this blueberry crumble!

Our summer was filled with pool dates, Carowinds, sports, indoor playgrounds with friends, and so many walks! We definitely kept ourselves busy and made the most of those long summer days.

I’m still working on perfecting a sourdough burger bun that reminds my son of the store bought ones he loves. He LOVES a good fried chicken sandwich, and I make them homemade whenever I can, but I’m still trying to get the bread just right! I recently started using a little yeast along with my sourdough starter, and we’re getting there. Hopefully I’ll have a perfected recipe to share soon!

The sandwich bread pictured is from the Measure With Your Heart cookbook, and it’s delicous.

Never enough sourdough bagels in my freezer.

I feel like this fall has been going by too fast, and it honestly makes me a little sad! Maybe it’s because everyone is going to have their Christmas stuff up by November 1st, and a lot of the farms are already closing for the season to prepare for Christmas. There are still farms we love that we didn’t get a chance to visit this year!

One we did make it to was The Union Exchange, and if you’ve been reading here for a while, you already know how much I love this farm. It was actually the first farm I ever brought my oldest son to years ago, so getting to come back each fall always feels a little extra special.

We met up with our friends on the most gorgeous fall afternoon, grabbed coffee, and found a spot by the playground so the kids could play, the babies could sleep, and we could actually drink our coffee in somewhat peace. I also always look forward to the sandwiches at the farm because they are so good!

One of the best ways to kill some time before bed has been hanging out at the neighborhood playground now that the evenings are finally tolerable again. These boys LOVE to swing! Also, please send me all the tips for teaching a four year old how to swing on his own because mine would happily sit in the baby swing and have me push him forever.

We had some family in town for our son’s baptism, and of course I had to make my go to Italian pasta salad! We served it alongside chicken salad sandwiches, and it was the perfect easy lunch to have for everyone.

I tried recreating one of my favorite pizzas from the farm using my sourdough pizza crust recipe. I topped it with a homemade white garlic sauce, grilled zucchini, onion, mozzarella, and prosciutto. I’m glad I made three because they were going FAST! This combination was so good and definitely one I’ll be making again.

One farm I cannot believe we had never been to is Hall Family Farm. WOW! I already have a feeling we’ll be back again and again. There was so much to do, including tons of free activities, and the food options were incredible. They had brick oven style pizza, chicken fingers for my chicken only kid, donuts, coffee, desserts, and so much more!

I took the kids there one afternoon while my husband stayed home to watch the Eagles game. Even though I love watching football too, I always feel guilty wasting a beautiful fall day inside with the kids. So, I packed everyone up and we headed out for a long, fun fall afternoon at the farm. I’m so glad we did because we had the best time!

They had an old firetruck that had been turned into a slide, and my son was in his GLORY. I’m pretty sure he went down that thing at least 100 times that afternoon. It was easily one of his favorite parts of the entire farm!

The pumpkin patch was pretty, especially for fall photos! I snapped a few photos of these two that I already know will be making their way onto our walls.

I’m linking all the baby clothes I bought on my SHOPMY account.

I broke the no sugar rule with my son because everyone deserves a fall donut! Some things are just worth making an exception for.

The hayride was so much fun! I’ll include a video below so you can see the farm come to life a little more. The baby was dancing like crazy the entire time. It was hilarious.

I’ll never turn down a brick oven style pizza. And with mini pepperonis? YES!

My oldest son wore this same outfit when he was two…

It’s crazy how different your kids can be! My second is an absolute monster, weighing in at 29 pounds at just eight and a half months. He’s also been on the move since he was six months old, so I think he’s determined to keep up with his older brother!

We had a really cold weekend so I made my favorite classic chili recipe!

Love them…

We haven’t done too much chalk lately because it’s been hotter than ever in the afternoons, and the front of our house gets blasted by the sun all day. But we did squeeze in some time before school one morning to draw If You Give a Mouse a Cookie! We are big fans of that show in this house, so this one was a hit!

Soccer season! Truly, I think he’s only there for the post game snacks…But he shows up, runs around, and participates, so I’m calling it a win!

Last week, I made a chicken pot pie and chocolate chip cookies for one of my friends who had a baby! There have been SO many babies this past year, and I’ve loved getting to make meals for everyone and snuggle all the new little ones.

We also spent an entire week in complete survival mode. My whole house, minus me, got extremely sick, and I was running around trying to solo parent and take care of sick kids while everyone was down for the count. It was actually a nightmare. I think I got a total of five hours of sleep in 72 hours. I have never been more thankful to see everyone feeling like themselves again!

Lemon olive oil cakes for a church cake walk!

And of course, lots more happening in the kitchen! Homemade granola, apple crumble (I used my blackberry cobbler recipe but swapped in apples!), homemade mac and cheese, tiramisu, and SO much more baking. My camera roll is basically food at this point. 😂

One of our favorite things to do on our walks is look for all the neighborhood cats!

I’ve been putting in some crazy miles lately so the baby can get a good morning nap after school drop off. Six, seven, sometimes eight miles, and with this weather, I feel like I could just keep going! It also feels SO good to finally have my post baby stamina back.

I’ve been fueling up with my favorite salad lately: kale, roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, dried cranberries, almonds, blueberries, chicken, apples, and a honey vinaigrette. It’s basically fall in a bowl, and I could eat it every single day!

I made a grocery list yesterday and planned out ALL of our meals for the week instead of walking into Trader Joe’s without a plan or a list, which is usually a dangerous game. I’m going to keep track of everything I make, what I bought, and how we use it all to share some weekly meal ideas with you!

Stay tuned because I’ll probably share a lot of it over on Instagram too, so make sure you’re following me there!

And before I wrap this up, make sure to check out my newest blog post sharing everything about our very first cookbook club! It was such a fun night, and I shared all the details, recipes, photos, and everything we did to put it together. I’m already looking forward to the next one!

Thanks for stopping by to read! Sorry it only took me three months to get one up.