close button
katy rexing white icon

GET IN TOUCH

Contact

SUBSCRIBE

Get on the list and let’s become friends. Join our community of like minded women, and get all my latest recipes, finds and personal stories. I’m so happy you’re here.

Thank you for subscribing!

Soup & Salad

Crispy chickpea, kale and farro salad

Making meals for a family of six everyday can sometimes take its toll on me.  It’s a lot.  I think we all feel that way.  One of my good friends and I were laughing the other day about how our kids expect to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner….EVERY DAY!!  Six days a week I guess isn’t enough, they want all seven 😉

That alone is a feat in and off itself.  But than you add in trying to make everyone happy, and eating HEALTHY and it’s enough to drive you bonkers.  Just trying to come up with what to make is exhausting, let alone cooking it.

That’s why staying inspired and excited in the kitchen is so important.  Having fun in the kitchen (and not taking it too seriously) is the only way you’ll keep coming back and not get burned out.

 Read More

Motherhood

What I’ve learned from having four kids

I could have been a different mom. In fact, I was a different mom.

Who I am today as a mother of four children, is very different from who I was with one, two or three. Not just as a mother, but as a person entirely. I can say, without question, that I was not built to have four kids. But as it turns out, that’s exactly what I have. Four little people, who so desperately depend on me. Four little people who have totally shifted my view on motherhood.

With my first child I was so overwhelmed. I found the adjustment to motherhood hard. I was always worrying about what he needed, was it enough, would he be ok. I hovered. Not literally in so many ways, but with my over planning, over preparing, and over worrying. It consumed me.

Then my second child came and it doubled. The perfectionism. I was really good at creating the image of “perfect” kids (not so good at being a happy mother. That was harder.).

Continue reading the full article, here, at Fairfield County Moms Blog.

Breakfast

Brown butter waffles with a whipped maple brown butter

So breakfast is kind of a big deal in our house.  If you’ve been following along with us here, you’ve probably seen me share our favorite buttermilk pancake recipe once or twice (or a thousand times).  They’re pretty darn delicious.  What started out as JonPaul making pancakes on Saturday mornings when the babies were first little, has turned into a weekend tradition that is hardly ever broken.  Pancakes are our thing.

Until now.  Move over pancakes, and say hello to golden delicious brown butter waffles.

The kids got me a waffle iron for Christmas.  I jokingly said that I wanted one to JP in passing one day, and sure enough, that’s what I unwrapped Christmas morning.  I had never been much of a waffle girl.  I don’t even really remember my parents making us waffles when we were little.  So I didn’t have any recipes in my back pocket for this new device that the kids were eagerly expecting me to use (every weekend).  The pressure was on.

I played around with a recipe I found on Pinterest.  Then I tried the recipe that was included with the manual for the waffle iron (why are they never good?).

And then finally, by accident, JonPaul and I came up with a brown butter waffle recipe together that we are crazy about.

It uses butter that has been lightly browned to a nutty taste, a little cinnamon and yeast, and of course is topped off with a ridiculously delicious whipped maple butter (that, oh yeah, uses brown butter too).

 Read More

Soup & Salad

Vegetable barley salad with a lemon dill dressing

It’s funny how easily we can forget how little things matter.  How small choices, that can seem insignificant at the time, add up to such big change.

As of yesterday, JonPaul and I completed a 21 day cleanse.  I haven’t felt this great in years.  Honestly, years.  It’s not so much the physical change that I notice, but more importantly a greater sense of peace and contentment that is so refreshing.

I don’t want this feeling to fade.  So this week I’ve taken time to reflect on how and why the past few weeks have made such a dramatic shift. It’s dawning on me that this new feeling isn’t the result of a new diet, but rather the culmination of lots of little changes.  A lot of small choices that snowballed into something bigger.

 Read More

Sweet treats

Salted caramel coconut ice cream

I am a huge ice cream lover.  HUGE.  When I was a little girl chocolate ice cream was my favorite treat.  I used to eat as much as I could until my belly hurt.

To this day, I still love ice cream.  However I am not a huge fan of how I feel after eating dairy.  This past month since JonPaul and I have been eating clean, I haven’t had any dairy at all and I feel great.  So great that it got me thinking about switching out some of my favorite “go-to” foods with healthier, dairy-free options.  One of those being ice cream.

Now I am NOT a vegan chef, and I am definitely not vegan.  So this is not my area of expertise.  But I still wanted to give it a try.

Since I am new to this whole dairy-free ice cream making world, I did a little searching on the superweb and played around with some recipes.   I was definitely a little skeptical at first (especially when I was soaking cashews and dates on a Saturday night).  But low and behold to my surprise, I was blown away.  The texture is outstanding, and the flavors are rich, deep and decadent.

 Read More

Main Dish

Southwest chicken quinoa bowl

JonPaul has been so patient with me this entire month.  Like husband of the year kind of patient.  Drinking green juices for breakfast, taking countless supplements, going to bed at 8pm, and eating whatever I put in from of him (he’s a good boy).  This cleanse has been teamwork, and he’s held up his end of the deal.  So I’m trying my hardest to reward my guy.

We aren’t totally done with “clean” eating, but we are so close, so this recipe is for him (I mean who wouldn’t want a quinoa bowl as a reward ;)!

This may sound silly, but I know one of his favorite places to eat at when he’s out and about with the kids is Chipotle (I mean come on, Chipotle is pretty darn delicious.  I’m not gonna lie, I I’ve been known to crush a burrito or two).  He always gets a bowl with brown rice and chicken.  Not bad, right?  But I thought maybe I could step it up a little…and make it a tad healthier.  So I put together this southwest chicken and quinoa bowl.

 Read More

Breakfast, Drinks

Our ultimate smoothie recipes

January is a time to set new routines and make new starts.  For JonPaul and I, one of those was to be mindful of how we eat.   Trying to be better about eating real, whole foods.   For the most part, eating healthy for lunch and dinner came somewhat easy.  But where we often struggled was breakfast…..because let’s be honest, this house lives on pancakes (although they really are sooo good, it’s kind of not my fault).

We had to revamp our morning routine.  For me, that meant no more bagels or eating left over waffle scraps from my kids plates (am I the only one who finishes off my kids plates?!  It’s like I consume an additional meal just from their scraps!  Oops!).   And for both of us…it meant putting our Vitamix to a morning workout and enjoying some smoothies.

Smoothies are an easy, fast way to get all the nutrients and fuel you need to get your day started.  While we have played with lots of variations of smoothies over the years, I’ve rounded up my three favorites for all of you.

 Read More

Main Dish

Sweet potato and black bean taco

We are big taco lovers in our house.  And  I mean BIG.  We probably have tacos every week (creatures of habit, what can I say).  It’s one of my kids favorite week night meals.

While the kids and JonPaul love a recipe I make for chicken tacos (chicken thighs and enchilada sauce in a crockpot for three hours. It’s embarrassing how simple it is ;), as a vegetarian it’s not always as easy coming up with healthy and delicious options.

I’ve shared with all of you previously on the blog my spicy portabella tacos with avocado puree (which by the way, the avocado puree is heavenly…..I can not get enough), but I wanted to share a new twist I’ve been loving lately.

This new recipe uses quinoa, sweet potatoes and black beans.  All tossed together and then topped with a crunchy slaw of radish, red onion and just a touch of jalapeno.

 Read More

Wellness

A more mindful way to start your day

As of today, my coffee maker is officially put away (well, at least in the pantry where I can’t see it).  Our relationship was getting out of hand, and we both needed a break.  You see over the past few months, I had overworked my poor little coffee maker.  So I’m taking a break.

I am not a huge believer in cutting things you love out of your life (and I love coffee).  But I am a big believer in balance.  And I needed to find a better balance.

Balance for me is all about being mindful.  Aware of what you put in your body.  Coffee, for me, had gone from something that I was mindfully doing, to well let’s just say, autopilot.  So I’m making the choice to take a short break from caffeine and instead will be starting my days with something that I feel serves me better.

For the month of January, I’ll be staring my days off with a warm cup of lemon water.  Lemon water has a host of benefits (which I share below), but most importantly for me, it gives me an opportunity to make a more conscious choice of how I’m starting my day.  I notice that the more aware I can be as I begin my day, the better choices I make throughout the day.  And during this winter season, that can at times feel overwhelming and stressful, I can use all the help I can get in making better, more mindful, choices.

 Read More

Lifestyle

What I’ve learned over a decade of entertaining….

One of the very first dinner parties I ever threw, I lined the table with hand painted metallic pumpkins.  I think 24 to be exact.  24 pumpkins I painted…for a table.  There was no magazine photo shoot.  Martha Stewart wasn’t stopping by.  No front cover of good housekeeping.  I just did it so I could have a pretty table.  Literally, just for one night, on a table.

Fast forward 10 years, and now most of my dinner parties consist of paper plates, pizza and opening up a few bags of chips.

 Read More