.bacon.

The trainer I was working out with in Georgia told me once "A day without bacon is like a day without sunshine." I agree, but do try to limit our bacon consumption to a little less than once per day. For the last few weeks though, when we wanted a bacon fix this has been my go to side dish, with a few changes depending on what veggies we had in the house. Bacon pretty much goes with every single vegetable I can think of so, go crazy!

Bacon and Brussels Sprouts serves 2

10-15 large Brussels sprouts

3 slices of bacon

1 cup of chopped tomatoes

1 avocado, cubed 

In a non-stick skillet fry up the bacon. While that's cooking peel the outer leaves off the Brussels sprouts and then cut each sprout into fourths. Chop the tomatoes and avocado. 

After the bacon is done remove it from the pan and place it to the side. Now you can leave all or some of the bacon grease in the pan, or take all of it out and replace with a cooking spray or olive oil. It's up to you, we use a portion of the bacon grease. Put the Brussels sprouts and tomatoes in the pan with the grease, stirring occasionally. 

Once the Brussels sprouts are cooked through, roughly 7-8 minutes, place the veggies in a serving platter, mix in the avocado and bacon and serve! 

We have also done this with broccoli and it is equally as delicious. 

XO

.homemade frozen soy yogurt drops.

Store bought baby snack foods are easy. There I said it. They are convenient, they are quick, and they are just plain easy. Because of this we have been reaching for these snacks for Tyler a lot more than I would like to admit. In between the prepping for the move, the move and now getting settled into our new house in Washington, I just didn't have the time or motivation to be making her labor intensive snacks. We try to give her the healthiest things we can, and it helps that she loves fruits and vegetables, but sometimes there is just nothing easier than a handful of cheddar bunnies or Kix cereal, ya know?

The more settled we get, however, the more I try to change this. One thing I've been seeing at the grocery store are yogurt melts. I haven't been able to buy these for her because of her dairy issues but I have found soy yogurt that she loves and that actually gives her some protein instead of all the carb filled snacks that seem to be so popular with the bebes. After seeing the yogurt melts in the store and then seeing this on Pinterest, I knew I just needed to take matters into my own hands!

The soy yogurt my local grocery store has does come in a few flavors (vanilla, peach, blueberry, etc) but these usually have some added processed sugar and we would like to avoid that, so I bought the plain soy yogurt and then added some particularly ripe raspberries. This would also be great with pretty much any fruit, so over time I'm sure I will make them with strawberries, kiwi, peach, blackberry.... maybe even a little bit of honey or peanut butter!

Frozen Soy Yogurt Drops makes multiple snack servings
1 cup of soy yogurt (or regular if your bebe can have it!)
1/4 cup ripe raspberries

Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil or wax paper.

Mash the raspberries and yogurt together until they are completely mixed. If you wanted them to be smoother you could throw it in a food processor, but Tyler doesn't mind the texture. Using a small spoon place drops of the yogurt mixture onto the cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes, or until frozen. Pop the drops off the foil and either place them in a tupperware container to store them in the freezer or eat immediately!

I've got to be honest, these are so tasty that I find myself sneaking them sometimes. I might even have to make some of my own soon with my greek yogurt. Tyler is absolutely loving these and I'm glad I found the soy yogurt so she can finally enjoy stuff like this! She loves it unfrozen with some granola too!

For those of you looking for soy yogurt, I found our's at Fred Meyer in the natural food section. I have never seen it anywhere else but I also have never really looked so it's entirely possible other places have it, especially if they have a natural food area.

XO

.la bebe has an un-birthday.

I can't believe it took me so long to write this up. Wait, no, I can. This is me we're talking about. :) Regardless, 2 weeks ago we threw an early birthday party for la bebe. We dubbed it the Un-Birthday and it was a wild and crazy awesome time. We had it a month early because we knew we were going to be moving before her birthday but not the exact date. We wanted to throw her a party where our friends could come, versus it just being the three of us on her actual birthday half way across the country.

The "theme" was nice and simple, polka dots. I had a ton of fun doing everything and I'm so glad everybody who came out could join us! Now here's what everyone really wants from first birthday's; the pictures!

I decorated her high chair with ribbons and she had this cute sash for the cake smashing. 

Don't mind that stupid balloon that died.

Her cute little tutu'ed* booty.

We played pin the candle on the cupcake**!  

The spread! I was really proud of how it all turned out! We had turkey meatballs with sweet chili sauce, goldfish and teddy grahams, guacamole and pita chips, a fruit salad, chocolate dipped oreos with sprinkles, cupcakes and the smash cake! 

Chocolate dipped oreos with sprinkles, shredded coconut and nuts are super easy! I did them the night before and it was pretty fun. They also tasted great! There is a great tutorial here.

No recipe for the cupcakes because I totally used a box mix! Yeah! Ha.

Made the little lady a vegan chocolate cake. No recipe for that either cause I didn't like it. 

She seemed impressed though.

Tentative at first.

And then not so tentative. :) She didn't really eat a lot of the cake but she went to town on the icing.

Sugar high!!!

Close up of the aftermath. 

All in all it was a fantastic day. I'm so glad for all the awesome friends we've made here and I'm glad Tyler got her 1st birthday party! Even if it was her un-birthday. 

XO

.long time no see.

Hello!! Man, what happened there?! Things have been a little crazy around this casa. We haven't been doing much of anything that has been blog worthy and big news! We're moving! Not sure of the exact date but it is most likely in the very near future and it is another cross country move, Georgia to Washington. The Alaska to Georgia move was incredible but we will see how this one goes with a baby and a cranky cat. Eek!

For now though, I have something delicious to share with you for Father's Day. The man requested oatmeal waffles for breakfast and that's what he got! This is one of our favorite, quick and easy breakfast recipes. I've made them multiple times now but have never gotten around to taking pictures before we gobbled them up. Today though I made it a point!

These waffles are super tasty. They are soft and fluffy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and the oatmeal adds a really great texture to them. Even la bebe loved them. Although, that's not saying much, she eats everything.

Oatmeal Waffles makes 3 waffles
1 cup oats
1 cup buttermilk (or almond milk or regular milk, with a small amount of white vinegar added)
1/4 whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine the oats and the buttermilk in a small bowl and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. I usually try to let them sit for at least 15 minutes.

In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients, mix. Add the egg and melted butter to the wet ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Pour into the waffle maker or you can make pancakes with this recipe as well (we prefer the waffles though!).

Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, chocolate chips... whatever your heart desires! Enjoy!

XO