Greyere, Caramelized Onions and Apple Pizzas

I know, sounds terrible right? Wrong! It is delicious. When I saw this recipe (where? I don't remember) I thought it was either going to be wonderful or horrible and I am glad to say it is wonderful. I am also glad the author did not include "beans" in the recipe title or I probably would have skipped it over completely. So, since I do think it is wonderful, I am sharing the recipe with you. I tore this out of a magazine but don't remember which one so I can't cite the author- my apologies to the chef.

4 tsp olive oil
2 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 medium red apples, halved, cored and thinly sliced
2 cans white beans (I used great northern), drained and rinsed
2 tbspn fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled (or 2 tsp fresh)
4 whole wheat tortillas (8-in)
2 cups shredded Gruyere (or Swiss if you can't find Gruyere)
1/4 c chopped pecans

1. Heat oven to 450
2. In a large skillet, warm 2 tsp oil over medium heat. Add onions and toss to coat. Add 3/4 cup water, bring to a boil, and cook 5 min. longer.
3. Add apple slices and cook until apples are crisp-tender, onions are golden, and liquid has evaporated, 7-10 min.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mash beans with remaining oil (I didn't do that), lemon juice, salt, rosemary, and 3 tblspn water (I also didn't add the water)
5. place tortillas on 2 large baking sheets. Spread bean paste evenly over tortillas. Top with the onion-apple mixture, cheese and then pecans.
6. Bake about 5 min. until pizzas are piping hot and cheese has melted. Serve hot.

per pizza - 648 cal, 24 g fat, 36 g protein, 14 g fiber

Fancy that for dinner tonight!

Gluten Free! Why? Because Life Isn't Complicated Enough.

So, I thought on my next grocery rendezvous that I would try some gluten free recipes for the next couple weeks, just to see if it made a difference in how I felt or possibly Daisy (more in how Daisy's diapers smelled to be honest). Notice, I don't mention Micah because he is not eating at home right now because he is filming a movie. Notice also that I am doing this experiment while Micah is not eating what I am making at home!

I have heard many a time that gluten free baked goods are akin to rubber. Well, my first gluten free baked good was actually quite delicious and Micah happened to sample it and never knew it was gluten free. The taste of the batter on these Pumpkin Spice Muffins was quite gross and tasted like flax seed, but baked, they were great. So, I thought I would share the recipe with you! I got the base of the recipe from Glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com but some of the ingredients were too expensive to purchase for just a trial run at this, so I made a few modifications. So, here is what I did:

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan w/ paper liners.

2 & 1/3 c gluten free baking mix
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground flax seed
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I ended up adding a dash more at the end, along with the ginger)
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix the above till combined
Add in
1 & 1/3 c. packed brown sugar (I didn't say this was completely healthy)
1 cup pumpkin puree (or most of the can like I did)
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 tsp lemon juice
mix all together

Then add 1/2 cup almond milk (I ended up adding a little more than 1/2 cup)

Beat until incorporated. You can stir in nuts, raisins, chocolates...I did none of those. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack to keep the bottoms from getting soggy. You can wrap and freeze to keep for later but they do take a while to defrost or re-heat if you do that. I prefer the method of cook as many as you will eat that day and then save the batter. Hope you enjoy!

Daisy and Ellen

So, I still like to watch Ellen most days and I set the tivo to record it. What can I say, she makes me laugh!? Daisy has also seemed to pick up on Ellen being a happy time and whenever she hears the theme song start to come on, she starts dancing. So, here is a quick video montage of her reaction to the start of the Ellen show.

Daydreamer

So, my friend and fabulous photographer, Brenda Horan, just posted a link to this web-site and well, it is so fancy and creative that I too wanted to share it with anyone who reads this blog. This is such an inspired and creative mom! I love what she has done with her imagination. The picture above, titled "Gone Fishing," is just one of many scenes she has put her daughter in. You should definitely look at this blog here.

A Life Update (no, we're not pregnant)

So, I was talking to a friend who lives in another state a couple weeks ago, and shockingly she does not have a facebook account to keep up with life there, so I thought for her sake and anyone else, I would give a brief update. So here goes...

I recently completed two sprint traithlons! The second one, my mom competed with me and I am proud to say we both finished. I think that will be one memory I will cherish forever!

Us before the race around 5:30am!

Micah may be changing jobs in the next couple months - to what? We don't know either.

Daisy is a full-on toddler!!! She is running her legs and her mouth quite frequently. Definitely has a will of her own, LOVES being around mommy, goes to Mom's Day Out Pre-school twice a week and generally just has so much personality! She loves to play with toilet plungers (we try not to let her when we see her with it), she still loves to snuggle any and all stuffed animals, and as much fun as she can be, she can also be a challenge with that spirited personality of hers. I am still reading parenting books, trying to find a "Growing Kids God's Way Class" and desperately praying at least once a week on how to be a better parent!

The Newman side of the family all went on vacation in the first part of August to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It was SO fun for all the cousins to play together. They loved it, and we loved it.

Micah's parents moved up from Texas to Bartlesville, OK so they are much closer and his sister moved to Frisco, TX with her fiance and they are expecting a baby! (Yeah! Another cousin for Daisy!)

We feel blessed in life with great friends, family close by, lots of love and all the physical necessities, plus some (including a new washer and dryer that Daisy likes to sit and watch run since it has a window in the front)! Thanks for reading my blog and being a part of our lives.

The Updated Home Exterior

So, I feel I must apologize now to all people who feel that stone and wood should never be painted (my in-laws included), because well, I paint them. Remember this:








Well, this time I painted stone. We had a darker, 70's style and tone stone - of which there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! However, for my personal taste, I felt it was a bit dark and cold in feeling and made our house feel somewhat squaty in stature. So, here is the before and after.




I really LOVE the way the new color shows off all of Micah's hard work on the lawn (and hopefully one year some really great landscaping to go along with that), and I also still love the new accent color which is my front door. I am undecided on keeping my flower boxes the accent color though versus changing them to the trim (cappucino) color instead and letting the flowers next spring inside the boxes be the color. But, I was too done with painting to re-do them. So, I will just decide next spring! Next project - re-doing my office and making it a bit more feminine since I do spend so much time in here now that I work from home!

Bedazzled Pacis

So, we had Daisy's one-year photo shoot today with the marvelous Brenda Horan of Brenda Horan Photography and Daisy skipped her afternoon nap. I knew it was going to be a doozy of a shoot because of that and for some reason every time, and I mean EVERY time we have had a photo shoot with her it has been a bad nap day. I am pretty sure Brenda thinks we have a very unruly child (and she isn't altogether wrong in that idea when it comes to naps either). So, anyway, I thought we might need a paci. As sad as it is to have a photo shoot with a paci in the mouth and at ONE YEAR old (hence my blogging absence - birthday party, photo shoot, sprint triathlong training and vacation pics soon to be caught up), I thought I might be that desperate to use a paci. In an attempt to make the paci a little more fancy for the photos, I bedazzled it. No, I unfortunately do not own a bedazzler, but I do own a hot glue gun and some fake diamonds! So, check out Daisy's new bling for her grill!

Livin' the Fancy Life

Apparently appreciating all things fancy must run in the family. This is my brother on a work trip; he was staying at a luxurious TBN home. He specifically asked if he would make my blog for this and well, it doesn't get much fancier than this so the answer was a resounding "YES!". I now only regret not talking to him in a French accent the whole time he was there to add that extra umph of Fancy because I am not sure there was enough.

My New Door

We recently had the house painted (pics coming soon) and my FAVORITE part is the door. I picked a beautiful persimmon color and I absolutely love it. Normally, I have such a hard time picking out paint colors, so I was thrilled it worked without having to sample multiple colors to find the right one. I also hinted at a craft project in a previous post I was starting on, and here is the finished product! It was my front door decoration!




Instead of making a wreath, which was a little too intimidating and expensive for me, I painted a "B" in the house color and then added some pearlized paint on top, and then used my especiality of crafting - a hot glue gun! I am quite pleased with the finished product. It really was so simple too - just picked out a hydrangea flower, and some green berry looking sprays that I liked, tore them apart, and then glued the sections on in the places I liked them best. It was done in an hour (not including the painting part which had to dry of course). I like the unique factor that most doors don't have an initial but rather a traditional wreath, and I think it turned out pretty too! The light color on the persimmon door is a strong contrast, and it being close to the house-color still makes it seem tied-in too. Hope you enjoy as much as I do, and now you can easily recognize my house if you are ever coming by!

Why I Started This Blog

Remember the cute headband post from a few days ago? Well, that same friend, Brenda Horan, just posted a link to this site that sells the MOST FANCY AND AMAZING BABY SHOES I HAVE EVER SEEN. I could easily spend all my money buying these, so since that is the case I probably won't buy any because I wouldn't be able to stop. It's like those chips, you can't have just one. It is these kinds of "fancy" things that make my heart smile and why I started this blog; well, these shoes and imagining my most beautiful daughter wearing them.




Speaking of my most beautiful daughter. One of my biggest struggles as a mom was the whole sleep issue. Having watched the babywise DVDs and read numerous books on the subject of baby sleep, I thought I understood everything I needed to do to get my daughter to sleep well from the get-go. Turns out, the books just don't give room for the babies that have to grow into loving to sleep and learning to nap, which was the case with my little flower. I fortunately found another mommy-blog that was also a "baby-wise mom" and her baby didn't learn to nap longer than 45 minutes until 13 months old. Reading that blog was so comforting because after trying cry-it-out a couple times and various other less extreme methods, nothing worked. Well, I am proud to say that Daisy is doing significantly better on her naps, and it is now more the norm for her to take 1.5 hour naps than the 45 minute naps. If she wakes up at 45 minutes, most of the time she is able to put herself back to sleep. Tonight, when I laid her down still awake, she flipped over onto her stomach grabbed her bear and put her butt in the air as fast as she could, looked at me and then just calmly closed her eyes as if she couldn't wait to go to sleep. It was such a great moment for me. So, for any other moms out there struggling wtih sleep issues, your baby can learn to sleep and sometimes they just have to grow into it!

Born Shopper

We discovered today, at Home Depot of all places, that Daisy is a born shopper! Well, at least she is born to push a cart. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the video proof.





Also, I started a new craft! Here is a hint of a picture. Any guesses as to what this will be?

A Fancy Headband

My fashionable and sweet friend, Brenda Horan (also stellar photographer), recently wore this headband to a baby sip-n-see. If you haven't heard of a sip-n-see, it is such a fancy party that it deserves it's own post but it is basically a post-baby baby shower, usually just drinks are served (and by drinks I mean some sort of Southern cocktail).

You can get the headband here.

Seared Tuna Steaks with Wasabi Butter Sauce

Yes, that was dinner the other night. MMM, it was so delicious with capital "m's". I salt and peppered the raw steaks, and then using a cast-iron grill pan, I seared the tuna on both sides, about 2 min. total per side (I like them nice and rare in the middle). The recipe for the Wasabi-Butter sauce can be found here. I served it alongside a bitter green salad of baby arugula and romain with mango, sesame seeds and chives. It was delicious! In case you make this at home and you don't think it was as good as I claim, you may have to forgive me because it was my first meal coming off a week-long diet cleanse! This was a surprisingly simple dinner but it looks oh-so-fancy! Bon apetite!

The Finished Nursery

You thought I was finished blogging? No, just taking a sebatical! Those are needed every once in a while.

I never posted pics of the finished nursery, mostly because it wasn't finished until, oh this last week! The bedding was finished around 6 months, the window valance around Daisy's 7.5 month birthday, and the painting I commissioned at 7.5 months, well that was completed this last week. So, it is finally complete!


This is the great wall of photos. I have a baby photo of each Micah and I, and then a variety of pictures of Daisy. I spray painted all the frames orange and hung pink ribbon vertically down the wall to line up the photos. I painted the changing table to match the crib.
My mom found the armouir and Micah and I picked out the chair both pieces from Sunshine Furniture. Side table from Ikea. Daisy loves the lamp from Grandma Barnard because it is sparkly.

I don't think I could love the window treatments or the chandelier more. Two of my favorite features in the room.

The flower balls I made in honor of my wedding, and the recently completed painting by Mrs. Judy McIntosh. It is from the verse Isaiah 60:1 which was the verse we used at her dedication.

All in all, I love it! Lots of work from me, my mom (bedding and curtains), Judy McIntosh, and of course Micah to assemble it all!

Daisy Cupcakes!!!

Yes, this is a pan to make cupcakes in the shape of Daisys! I saw this at William's Sonoma and I couldn't resist. These will be the most perfectly suited, and fancy cupcakes for my little girl! I am planning on breaking these out for her one year birthday which is only 5 months away!!! Ahh, she is over half a year old already!!!!

Valentine's Day

Micah is working on a feature film at the moment, so our time together is about 1.5 hours each evening until we both collapse in bed around 10:00pm. (I know, we are party animals!) So, knowing he wouldn't want a full dinner and that we would be too tired for much, and that we didn't have a babysitter, we had a small celebration of our big love, and no, not big love as in multiple wives. There is just me, and I am pretty sure he would say that I am plenty to handle. Micah had flowers delivered for Daisy and I on Saturday, and on Valentine's evening I tried surprising him with heart shaped brownies with raspberry whipping cream (so it would be pink), steamed artichoke and sparkling French limonade. I say "tried" because I didn't have it all ready when he walked in because it happened to coincide with bath, dinner and bed-time for Daisy, so it was still sitting on the counter when he came home. Oh well, it was the effort that night! After, Daisy was finally alseep, I served it candlelight picnic style to step-up the romance a bit. It was a small celebration, but still a wonderful evening and a good nod in a busy schedule to something so incredibly important - Love. I do love my husband very much.

Everytime I have tried (4 times) to include pictures on this post, it crashes, so since it is already so far after Valentine's Day, this is going up without the pics of our picnic or heart-shaped brownies.

To make the heart shaped brownies, I made them in a pan, then cut out a square portion and stamped the square with the cookie cutter. For the raspberry whipping cream, I added some of the Torani Raspberry Flavored syrup and a little sugar to whipping cream. It was really delicious and I don't usually like fruit and chocolate together (unless it is strawberries)! However, If you have never tried a steamed artichoke, I would highly recommend you make that, serve alongside some lemon butter for dipping- mmmm I think I want celebrate Valentine's all over again!

My First Pair of Heels

So, you already know Daisy has her first LBD (Little Black Dress), well, now she also has her first pair of high-heels. There is hardly anything fancier than plush heels for babies (well, maybe the rinestone studded pacifiers) who can't even walk yet. I couldn't resist. They were an early Valentine's Day present from her daddy. I think he will have to take her out on a date with them soon. (pic will follow of that for sure!)

6 Months Old!

Daisy is half a year already!!! She laughs, babbles, has two teeth, army crawls, splashes, sits up on her own, loves eating green peas and also refuses to nap. She is so much fun and sometimes so exhausting too. Our friend Brenda Horan took some great 6 month photos of her and they are so incredibly fancy so of course I have to share.

Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup

Tonight's dinner was a Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup and it was delicous! So, I thought I should share the recipe! (click here) It really does only serve two so if you are feeding more than 2 people, or even just one of my brother Jordan, and you want more, you will need to double this recipe. The first time I made this, I served it alongside smoked gouda grilled cheese sandwiches. I probably wouldn't do Gouda next time, but grilled cheese of any sort is delicious with this. This soup has alot of texture, and you can really taste all the layers from the wine, to the cream, to the tomatoes of course. Hope you like it!

I'm Back with Ribbons and Bows!

Well, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue blogging, but since I kept thinking about it, and with Micah's encouragement, I decided I would go ahead and start blogging again. They may be more sparse than before I had a baby and a new business, (especially this next month as I am basically a single mom because of Micah's work schedule), but I will be blogging. So, to start off my return, I thought I would share a few new fancy hair accessories I have made for Daisy. Lucky for Kinsley, Daisy's friend who is 8 weeks younger, she will also be getting matching ones! Tutorial coming soon, but for now, here are the finished products.

I call this the Aunt Jemima T-shirt Headband- she has one in white too.