Tasting Life Abundant

"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea, You and me, you and me, Oh so happy we will be..." 💙 I'm daydreaming about last summer and all the beach picnics we had; the leisurely dinners in the warm sunshine with the smell of sea water on the breeze, the breathtaking sunsets filling the sky with color, the time spent with my husband and children, splashing and wading and searching for the perfect pebbles and shells; it makes me feel alive and well and I want more. Even on gloomy days though, the ocean soothes me. I drove past the bay yesterday, on the way to an appointment, and the sky was gray and cloudy, and there was a mist hanging over the choppy water, but it instantly made me feel good. The power of the waves never ceases to amaze me. I am always reminded that there is Someone in control of them, and the thought that there is a greater power than the ocean waves is very humbling, and yet comforting too. I think there is no better place to sit and think ...

Let me tell you a story about my lunch today... Once upon a time, there was a little girl, and she was a picky eater. She didn't like fruit. She never dared try an avocado. She thought sweet potato fries were so weird and gross. Then she grew up, got married and had babies. Out of the blue, she began having all kinds of crazy symptoms. The not so good doctor said, "Eat what you want, here's some pills." That didn't work or fix anything. Then, along came a very good and smart doctor who actually cared, and said "Actually, it does matter what you eat. Let's do some tests and figure what your body wants and doesn't want."  As it turned out, most of what the girl (now woman) was eating was actually making her sick. "Now what?!" she thought, "I can't eat anything!" But she was wrong. There was alot she could eat...but most of it was stuff she "didn't like" or had never tried. That was scary. But, being sick wa...

I made these pancakes for breakfast this morning. I normally just throw ingredients together and just hope for the best 🙄but my sister asked me for my pancake recipe, so I measured today. I've been experimenting with a good Dutch pancake recipe. If you aren't familiar with Dutch pancakes, they are similar to crepes. Thin and soft, sometimes with crispy, brown, lacy edges (due to frying in a good amount of butter), they are very tasty and fun to eat. These are a tiny bit thicker than the pancakes I grew up eating, but definitely not fluffy or thick. I wish I had a good picture of them, but they tend to get eaten as fast as you can make them. I actually just eat them plain or with a bit of butter, but I drizzled a little raw honey on Sophie and Nathaniel's pancakes. I grew up eating them with butter spread on as soon and they came off the griddle and then a sprinkle of sugar that melts into the butter, roll it up and eat it. Syrup or whipped cream and strawberries are g...

Scrambled eggs with spinach and goat cheese and chives, GF toast with butter- nice and brown and crunchy, that's the way I love it.   Homemade GF chicken strips, sweet potato fries, green beans, carrot juice, and fried onion slices. I hate throwing away the leftover flour I from coating the chicken pieces, so I will sometimes use it to make onions rings or slices. Brian loves them! Salad of butter lettuce, roasted sweet potato, avocado, fried egg, sliced turkey. Carrot juice and a salad for breakfast💛 Butter lettuce and spinach, drizzled with HM dressing, salt& pepper, topped with sweet potato, soft boiled egg, homemade chicken strip, avocado, green onion, and smoked gouda cheese from our local cheese shop. 😍 Pot roast from one of our cows; grass fed, raised on our property, the flavor of this meat, especially the fat, is unbelievably good. I bake the roast with lots of sliced onions and garlic cloves because we like to eat them alongside the meat. Sides are roa...

I've been eating this vegetable soup quite a bit lately. It's easy, cheap, and so healthy and nourishing. It's a lot like my chicken noodle soup, but without the noodles and chicken. :) So it's low carb and Paleo too. These are the veggies I've been using, but you could add others. Lots of garlic and onion means it has a delicious broth and is immune boosting and healing. I just chop these up and throw them in my Dutch oven! Add the onions and carrot and celery to the pan first. You can put some avocado oil or butter or even a dash of broth for them to saute/steam in, but you don't absolutely have to. Chop up the zucchini and garlic, but wait the add those til the other veg is softened. So pretty! I usually add white or yellow onions, but I was out of those the other day, so I used red onions, and it actually gives the broth a little more color, so...up to you which you use. Red onions have anthocyanins (that's why they're red/purple) which ...

 Happy New Year💛 I can't believe we're  almost a week into 2018 already. We had kind of a rough start over here, due to a stomach flu paying us a visit. I was out for three days; I spent literally all New Years Day in bed. The worst of it was that it was the last day of my sister and brother-in-law and niece's visit, so we didn't get to do all the fun stuff we had planned before they flew back home. So that was disappointing. The silver lining though was that since I was already two days into "fasting" due to an unhappy tummy, I decided to stretch that out into a "veggie detox fast" for two more days, so I had a "clean start" to the new year, diet wise.   I was also forced to take some time for self care, which was much needed after our hectic holiday season. A hot bath with some essential oils, herbs, and Epsom salt, beeswax candle, mug of herbal tea, magazine, and some calming music from YouTube are my favorite combination for rel...