Whirlwind of a Day - How I Ended Up on Fox News

screenshot of video clip

For those of you who have asked how in the world I ended up on the news yesterday afternoon, here's the timeline:

6:30am - Wake up call
7:00am - All three kids wake up
7:35am - First child leaves for school with Daddy
8:00am - Breakfast for other two and a mad dash to get dressed and ready for the day (thank GOODNESS I opted for real clothes rather than workout attire)
8:30am - Out the door for Mama and the two littles
8:50am - Drop off youngest child at YMCA Parents' Morning Out
9:00am - Drop off middle child at preschool
9:15am - Pull into parking lot of Knollwood Baptist to catch up on Bible study & emails before Eat & Greet with Lisa Leake
9:20am - Read email from Lisa Leake (she sent it much earlier) asking if she could share my contact information with Fox News. NOTE: I did not know Lisa before yesterday, but we had been in contact about her cookbook ambassador program
9:22am - Call to my sister in a slight panic
9:30am - email Lisa Leake back with "Absolutely!"
10:00am - walk into the 100 Days of Real Food Eat & Greet with several friends and sample some awesome food from the cookbook (onion dip, peanut butter cookies, fruit salad, etc)
11:00am - Stand in line to meet Lisa and have cookbook signed
11:10am - Am approached by Fox 8 News reporter asking if they can take me to Whole Foods for an interview
11:11am - politely decline because I have to pick up my children
11:12am - Alternate course of action proposed
11:13am - Mentally go through all the reasons to say no
11:13.5am - Reply with, "Of course! Just let me know where and what time to meet you."
11:20am - Call my husband in a slight panic...he agrees that I am CRAZY and then follows up with a very encouraging and supportive pep talk
11:35am - Pick up youngest child
12:00noon - Pick up middle child
(no time for lunch!!)
12:14pm - Pull into Whole Foods parking lot and call one of my best friends asking for immediate prayers
12:15pm - Meet Fox 8 News team with my two kids in tow
12:20pm - Start interview and immediately open organic strawberries that were thankfully within arms reach for kids to munch on to attempt to prevent meltdown
12:25pm - Lisa Leake comes around the corner with her husband and takes me on a personal grocery shopping trip (all filmed)
12:30pm - Lisa is finishing up her interview while my one year old is going into complete meltdown mode two steps away.
12:35pm - Walk out of Whole Foods and start immediately sweating thinking of my children downing strawberries and apples in the middle of the store (we did pay for them after the fact) and the baby having a major meltdown at the end of it all.
4:00pm - My best friend in Winston shows up to watch the news with me
4:20pm - Watch the Fox 8 News clip...kudos to the fantastic editors & reporter...and to Lisa Leake who is a pro!
4:25pm - BREATHE!

Lisa is truly lovely, personable, and so much fun to meet. She is passionate about real food while at the same time being realistic and down-to-earth. What a treat to meet her and her family yesterday and to hear first hand what their transition to real food looked/looks like. I am inspired by her and her excitement, and I am humbled that I got to go along for the ride yesterday.

Here's the clip from yesterday's Fox 8 News broadcast:

http://myfox8.com/2014/09/05/lisa-leake-food-blogger-from-charlotte-publishes-new-book/

I was totally out of my element yesterday, but I find that it's ALWAYS good to step out of my comfort zone...especially when my gut is tellilng me yes despite my head reasoning through all of the reasons to say no.

Happy Cooking!

Veggie Corn Chowder

This was super easy and took no time at all. I used my immersion blender as Lisa suggests, and I also used store-bought chicken broth (it's the first week of school for goodness sakes). My kids, my hubby, and I loved this soup. It was blended enough to "hide" some of the veggies for the pickier eaters in my crew and to thicken it up to the chowder consistency which is perfect as we are heading (hopefully) into some cooler Fall weather.

I have been following the 100 Days of Real Food blog for a while now, and I just got the cookbook that stemmed from the blog. I am SO excited to try some more of the recipes that use "real food." I know we are all more conscious of what we are putting in our bodies these days, and this cookbook has some great recipes that are easy and realistic to make for your family. A lot of my cookbooks are from our parents generation and use lots of canned items such as cream of you name it soup. Others are fantastic with recipes for clean eating, but a lot of the recipes are very complicated and only make sense for me to make for a special occasion or on the weekends when I've got back up with the kids. 

This cookbook truly gives you the best of both worlds...there is even a section dedicated the how and why this family started eating "real food" and one on their grocery shopping routine. You know that part of my cooking philosophy is one grocery store once a week. From what I've seen so far, I can get all of the ingredients I need at Lowe's Foods or Harris Teeter...obviously if you prefer Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, you're all set. The only ingredient that wouldn't have been on my normal grocery list for this meal was the whole wheat flour, but now that I have it, I can use it for many of the other recipes in this book. If you want to learn more, visit the 100 Days of Real Food blog and purchase this cookbook. In Lisa Leake's own words from her blog:

"I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about the recipes in the book, so all in one place here’s what you can expect…

• No white flour or any refined grains are used
• No sugar or any refined (or artificial) sweeteners are used
• No recipes call for packaged foods containing more than 5 ingredients
• Familiar and easy-to-find ingredients are used (you probably already have most of them on hand!)
• 71 recipes are (or can easily be) Gluten-Free
• 79 recipes are (or can easily be) Vegetarian
• 49 recipes are (or can easily be) Dairy-Free
• 42 recipes are Freezer Friendly (my secret weapon when it comes to packing wholesome school lunches!)
• A beautiful color photo is included with each and every recipe
• 70% new recipes – not previously published on the blog
• And lastly, all recipes were tested by 100 volunteer recipes testers – I think you’ll be really pleased with the results!"

Recipe, with permission, from 100daysofrealfood's new cookbook 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake.

photo of recipe used with permission by 100daysofrealfood 

Happy Cooking!

I wrote this as a cookbook ambassador for 100 Days of Real Food with all opinions being my own.

Oh so crazy and oh so fun...how we survived the birthday week

On the menu for this week:  Mini Shrimp Calzones, Chicken & Corn Chowder, Green Chile Pork Tacos/Quesadillas, and Spaghetti Pie

This week was oh so crazy and oh so fun.  The big finale was the PINK first birthday party, but we'll get to that.  As far as the rest of the week went...

A friend of mine needed a meal more than my family did on Monday night, so the chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole that was left over in the freezer from a couple of weeks ago went to them, and we ate sandwiches.  Actually, it was a nice change of pace since we very rarely eat sandwiches and chips for dinner.  It was so fast, everyone was happy, and I may just start making sandwich night a staple around this house...probably not, but it's a nice thought.

Tuesday night, we had the Baked Veal...I mean Chicken...Parmesan.  This was really easy and everyone loved it.  This one would be difficult to make ahead because the breaded chicken goes directly into the hot butter when it comes out of the oven, so I suppose I could've breaded the chicken earlier and pulled it out when I was ready to cook, but I don't think that would've saved much time, and dirtying extra dishes just isn't worth it sometimes.  Like I said in the notes, the sauce was a little sweet for my taste, but everyone else thought it was great.  The arugula salad is super fast and easy, and a nice addition to any pasta dinner.

Later that night, things got interesting as one of my children got sick, which meant a day at home on Wednesday.  I had planned on the kids eating at church and feeding my husband the tomato tart after the kids went to bed for a little date night in...well, we clearly weren't at church, so that plan went out the window.   Luckily I had ordered Dinners on the Porch on Tuesday and saved it for Wednesday...it was delicious and we had PLENTY to feed our family and probably another one too!!!

My extended family arrived for the party on Thursday night, and I made the tomato tarts for my mom and my grandmother.  These are seriously so easy and yummy.  You will need to give these a little forethought as there is time involved for thawing the puff pastry and letting it set in the refrigerator.  My grandmother had never seen such a thing ;) so it was really fun to introduce her to something new and simple.  She's planning on serving it to her church Circle group the next time they meet.  I love grandparents!!

Earlier in the week, I made the menu for the birthday party and ordered my groceries online with a pick up time for Friday morning.  I assumed I would have pretty much all day to prepare with my mom and grandmother while the baby slept and the boys were in school...well, you know what they say about making assumptions.  As we were waiting in line to get the groceries, I got a phone call that my child's elementary school was under lock down.  It was short lived, and thank The Lord that everyone was safe.  It was a VERY long morning waiting to hear something, and to say I was a frazzled mess would be quite an understatement.


Luckily, I had my mom and grandmother here to hold everything together, we recovered, and resumed our party planning activities.  We went ahead and prepared the ham appetizer sandwiches, boiled and peeled the shrimp, sliced the fruit, and laid out all of the serving pieces.  That night, we needed a break from the kitchen...my grandmother had picked up Maurice's BBQ in Columbia, SC on her way up to Winston-Salem. It is right off of I-20 right before I-77 (well, the one location we frequent.)  Totally worth stopping and getting some the next time you're headed that way.  We whipped up some coleslaw and some rice, and this fed all of us, my aunt, uncle, mom, grandmother, and dad for dinner Friday night and again for lunch on Saturday...and again for lunch on Sunday.  It's a good thing we love it so much!! 

Saturday, we were all in go-mode for the party.  My mom (who is an excellent baker) had baked the smash
cake and about 60 mini cupcakes before she came up here, so we spent the morning making the frosting, trying to get the perfect shade of pink (we had to toss one entire recipe of frosting because I made it a lovely chartreuse, and we were going for baby pink...clearly I need some lessons in tinting icing!) and icing the cupcakes and the cake.  I must say, they turned out pretty well!  The asparagus and the cranberry brie tartlets were really the only things we had to make at the last minute, which was great because it gave us time to get the tables decorated like we wanted them, put the flowers all in their spots, set up the bar (I found a banquet table at Target for $35 which worked perfectly!) and get the food right where we wanted it.  This would not have been possible if it hadn't been for my family...mom and grandmother helping in the kitchen and with the baby, my aunt and uncle running to get my dad from a golf tournament in Greensboro, my dad making a trip to ChickFilA to pick up the nuggets, my husband and uncle raking and blowing leaves, my mother and father in law entertaining kids, ironing, and helping set up tables.  Thank you to each of you!!!!  It was a great party celebrating with close friends and family, and it was so much fun to watch my daughter prance around in her little pink dress!  Side note...evidently she did not want to mess up her party attire, because she would have NOTHING to do with the smash cake!  Ha!  We even tried again on Sunday, and she wouldn't touch it!!

Sunday night, my mom, dad, and grandmother were still here, and I made the black bean pumpkin soup, which was satisfying and delicious on a cool, rainy evening.  It truly was such a special weekend with family and friends, and dinner last night was the perfect way to end a happy, chaotic week.

Happy Cooking!