Thursday, April 30, 2015

Boom!!! I finished Whole30


As I've been telling you about my Whole30 journey I kept wondering what will happen when I finish?  Will I slip back into my old habits of eating sugar everyday, pasta, bread, oats, and all of the other delicious yummy treats that you can't eat on Whole30?  Nope, I decided that I'm going Paleo now at least 80-90% of the time.  I've been doing really good in my transitional phase and still enjoy making my meals.  You can follow along on Instagram I'm JustWedeminute and also on Twitter @JustWedeminute.  I've tried to post daily pictures of my meals to help keep me accountable and also to encourage others that Whole30 and Paleo don't have to be boring or yucky meals.  Paleo isn't quite as strict as Whole30 so I'll have a little more freedom to play around with ingredients but basically you're not supposed to eat anything that a "caveman" wouldn't eat.  If I'm not sure I usually google it...LOL I'm kind silly like that.




I love making an egg frittata and just adding whatever veggies I have available to it.  This one was tomato, spinach and onions and was delicious.

As most of you know, my children are adopted from South Korea so we eat a lot of Asian food.  Which  means rice, rice and more rice.  Well, one minor detail...no rice allowed on Whole30!  I was really struggling with this rule because we eat a lot of rice at our house and I felt deprived.  I'd make rice for my family and sit and jealously watch them eat it until I found out about cauliflower rice.  I felt like a ray of sunshine was sent down and I was all happy and smiley.  All you do is chop up a head of cauliflower and add to blender, chopper or whatever you have that can chop it up into rice sized pieces.  I make a container a week and then just fry it up in some coconut oil with some garlic and whatever spices I feel like using.  Sometimes I also add a little coconut milk(no added sugar) to make it nice and sweet.  It's an easy way to get a helping of veggies in.

We usually order a Bountiful Basket once a week so we always have plenty of fresh fruit to make different types of fruit salads.

I do love to make pancakes on the weekend and sit around for a family breakfast, but nope you can't have traditional pancakes on this. So, I found a recipe that calls for a really ripe smashed up banana and 2 eggs and then fry in coconut oil. YUM!  I usually add some fruit and a dollop of cashew or almond butter to top it off because syrup has sugar or sweeteners in it.

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To go with many of my items I needed some bacon.  I searched all over the place for this Pederson's bacon with NO SUGAR.  It was well worth the search, I finally found it at Sprout's.





I just found out about using a sweet potato as a bun for hamburgers and I have to say that it's really delicious and I don't miss the buns at all!



Thanks for reading,
 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

When Calls the Heart- season 2 premiere






Thanks to Flyby Promotions I'm one of the newest Hearties, which means I totally binge watched the first season of When Calls the Heart that's on the Hallmark Channel.  I fell in love with this series and think you will too (if you already aren't swooning over it).  I'm a little bit obsessed with everything including the impressive wardrobe from that time period.

 A couple of days ago I was fortune to be in on a live conference call with Erin Krakow, the actress that plays Elizabeth Thatcher, we were able to ask her questions and hear her thoughts on the new season.
A special thank you goes out to Heidi over at Heidi's Head for asking this question.

 Your wardrobe on the show is fabulous, but I’m curious if the dresses are constricting and hard to work in?  Do you have a favorite dress that you have worn on the show?

  Erin clued us in that the dresses are very constricting to work in and that she does indeed wear a corset under those gorgeous gowns.  Erin mentioned that this was one of her favorite dresses while working on this season of WCTH.  





As a young teenager I read  Janette Oke's book series Love Comes Softly series and loved it.  So I was excited to find out that When Calls the Heart is loosely based on a series of books by the same name.  

About the series:
The series is inspired by Janette Oke’s bestselling book series about the Canadian West. “When Calls the Heart” tells the captivating story of Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow), a young teacher accustomed to her high society life, who receives her first classroom assignment in Coal Valley, a small coalmining town where life is simple, but often fraught with challenges. Lori Loughlin plays Abigail Stanton, a wife and mother whose husband, the foreman of the mine, along with a dozen other miners, has just been killed in an explosion. The newly widowed women find their faith is tested when they must go to work in the mines to keep a roof over their heads. Elizabeth charms most everyone in Coal Valley, except Constable Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing) who believes Thatcher’s wealthy father has doomed the lawman’s career by insisting he be assigned in town to protect the shipping magnate’s daughter. Living in a turn of the century coal town, Elizabeth will have to learn the ways of the frontier if she wishes to thrive in the rural west on her own.




Here's a sneak peek at some of the scenes from the new season!


Be sure to tune in and watch the season 2 premier of When Calls the Heart on Saturday 4/25/2015 at 8/7c


You could WIN the complete first season on DVD by entering below!


Giveaways valid in US & Canada only.

For More info about When Calls the Heart click on any of the following links

Twitter

Facebook


Be sure to tune in if you can during the live premiere (April 25th) on Hallmark Channel — there will certainly be activity on Twitter amongst the hearties!  I'll be Tweeting live and would love for you to join in I'm @JustWedeminute on Twitter and you can look for hastags #hearties and #faithTV to join in on the fun!





a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”


Thanks for reading,

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Canvas Pop review and giveaway

CanvasPop


 I know that I'm late to this whole canvas picture thing that I keep seeing on my friends walls.  I've just never got around to doing it until I received a message from CanvasPop asking if I'd like to do a review and giveaway of their canvas products.  I said sure, why not!

I worked with a guy named Steve to set everything up.  He was great to work with and really quick to reply to any questions I had. OK so far so good.  I'm all about customer service and if they give good or amazing service and wonderful products I will sing your praises!  In this day and age you can pretty much go anywhere and get a canvas printed from your favorite picture but many of them are cheap looking and of course I wanted more for one of my favorite memories.  I looked around and decided I wanted to have my very last memory of Orange Beach, Alabama hanging on my wall so we can remember those amazing days laying on the beach and just hanging out.  I looked through all of my pics and found this one and if you notice it's square which means I had saved it from Instagram.  I thought oh no what am I going to do?  I looked around for the original and couldn't locate it (remember we've moved 4 times in the past 2 years).  Steve said no problem we can do a square canvas for you and it won't even be pixilated.  Hmmmm my first thought was ok I guess we'll give it a try, I do have some pretty cool Instagram pics that I could have printed in the future if this one turns out ok.
The next day I received an email with the proof in it and I ok'ed it and was told it would be 10-14 days before they would ship my canvas.  Much to my surprise I received another email from CanvasPop the very next day saying that my order was shipping.  What??? Are you kidding me?  That was a quick turn around time. Very efficient!

CanvasPop has a wide variety of shapes and sizes to choose from.  I knew that my Instagram friends would be happy to hear about this square size.  Another exciting option is the triptych.  You supply the picture and they can print it on 3 different canvases.  Look how amazing this wedding photo looks printed as a triptych.
love triptych example red



In only a couple of days this package arrived on my doorstep.  I couldn't wait to tear into it and see how our last memory from Orange Beach had turned out.


 They had it all wrapped up nice and neat in bubble wrap and even included the nails and hangers so you had everything you needed to hang it.  Now that's what I call some amazing customer service.

I absolutely love it and we're so please with the finished product.  It's not cheap looking at all, they offer gallery quality prints.  I'm not kidding they are AMAZING!!!  CanvasPop was very generous and has offered all of my loyal readers a 35% discount if you use code WEDEMINUTE35 and it's valid for 2 months from today April 21st, 2015.  They're also giving away a 16x20 with 0.75" wrapped canvas to one of my lucky readers!



a Rafflecopter giveaway If you're looking for CanvasPop on social media they are all over the place.  Here are some of their links to help keep you connected.

CanvasPop on
 Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
YouTube
Instagram
Google+

Thanks for reading,

 





Friday, April 03, 2015

Stuffed Portobello mushroom-whole30 day 11






Everyday since starting Whole30 I've been posting a picture or 2 on Facebook and Instagram.  I started posting the pics to keep myself accountable and so my other friends that are on it or have finished it can help me out. Yesterday, I received a lot of comments asking for the recipe for my stuffed mushrooms but I had just made it up as I went so no recipe.  I decided this would be a good place for me to post my recipe so I can remember it for next time.  I'm kind of forgetful sometimes.  My kids say it's old age but what do they know?  Oh, BTW my kids are both teenagers now Kylan's 13 and Kenzie's 14, I can't believe my babies are young teens now.

I started off with a large portobello mushroom that was just a little smaller than a salad plate. Next, I pulled off the stem and chopped it up. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and then put your mushroom on a pan (make sure it has edges or some of the liquid will drop on your oven bottom and start smoking).   Just a heads up people, no need to make a mess like I did!  I baked them for about 10 minutes stem side down while I was working on the next step.

Next, I got my cauliflower rice out and fried it up with some garlic. I wilted some spinach and also chopped up a yellow squash and threw it in the pan.  Now, I needed some protein and couldn't decide what to add so I grabbed some leftover salmon and diced it up and added it to the mixture. I pulled the mushroom caps our and turned them over.  I just filled each mushroom cap with the mixture and popped them back in the oven for about 15 minutes.  They were to die for!

I saw someone used portobello's in place of hamburger buns.  Has anyone done this?  Sounds good to me!








Thanks for reading,
 

The Flirtation Experiment-book review and giveaway

About the authors:  Lisa Jacobson  is an author, a podcaster, and the founder of Club31Women.com, an online community of Christian women aut...