easing back into reality

the last weekend of christmas break went by all too quickly, as they usually do.  we tried our best to squeeze as much into those couple of days as possible.

with nationals quickly approaching, both of the bean's cheer teams completely revamped their routine, bringing in choreographers to change up their dance routine and upping their stunt sequences.  for one of the teams, the choreographers only had one opening - two days before christmas...i.e. the very day we were flying back home from texas.  luckily, one of the coaches was available to sub for the bean during that session and my cheer mom BFF was able to capture several videos of the new routine.  the bean was a little alarmed when she learned that she had been placed front and center for the dance sequence, but while she acted like she was freaked out about it i knew she was also secretly pleased to have been chosen for the spot.  the dance is her favorite part of the routine, and i was glad that the coaches had recognized that.  either that, or nobody else wanted to do it.  heh.

anyway, she spent a week and a half watching those videos over and over, practicing in front of the iPad and learning all of the moves.

the old lady had a few gifts that she needed to exchange for different sizes, and we decided to head out to the americana in glendale to browse the shops and grab some dinner.  they still had most of their christmas decorations up, and the fountain show was extra pretty with all of the lights around it.

with a 90-minute wait for a table at din tai fung, we took our time strolling through the shops and stopped at laduree for a little treat.

aren't they a cute couple?  the old lady thought so.

the time went by pretty quickly as we walked around, and then it was finally time to sit down and share some delicious green beans and soup dumplings.

afterwards, we stopped at sprinkles to grab some cupcakes to go.  the old lady and the bean opted for ice cream, while her special friend and i hit up the cupcake ATM for our treats.

the next morning, the hub took us to breakfast at an old favorite - norm's hangar, by the little airport at the fairplex in pomona.

and then on sunday evening, the bean finally got to show off her new dance moves at the first cheer practice of the year.  she was pretty nervous, but from the praise i could hear heaped on her as practice ended it sounded like she rocked it.

and now we have two weeks before nationals.  look out vegas, here we come!

lazy keto dieting

okay, so i've mentioned how the hub is on the keto diet (and has lost 40+ pounds since august!), right?  and for most of that time we've done a lot of eating out, or when i have cooked it's been just for me and the girls while he works at the lounge and grabs something from the grocery store.

once the holidays were over i promised myself that i was going to start cooking at home on a regular basis again.  i actually do really enjoy cooking - i just lack creativity and can never think of anything that sounds good.  but i started going through a bunch of recipes i've been saving from facebook groups or on pinterest, and as i was looking at keto-friendly recipes i realized that a lot of them are pretty easy to make.  there aren't too many weird ingredients (unless you start getting into snacks and desserts that call for sugar substitutes), and in a lot of cases the dishes are familiar ones with a few modifications to keep the carb counts low or non-existent.

of course, my first home cooked meal for 2019 was...not keto at all.  the old lady was craving some food from the homeland - namely, pancit.  i hadn't made it in awhile, but found that i had most of the ingredients on hand.  and i'd forgotten how easy it was to throw together, even after having to cook the chicken to shred and mix in.  and bonus:  i left the chicken unseasoned when i cooked it, which also left me with a nice amount of fresh, no-sodium broth to mix in with molly's food to make it more appetizing to her.  i topped my serving with some pork rinds and dug in.

while we ate i fulfilled a promise i'd made the bean to make some puto, something else i hadn't made in a long time.  she was at cheer practice while i worked on it, so i asked the old lady what color to make it and she chose pink.

for dinner on her first day back to school after the break, i made good on yet another promise - to make the bean some homemade mac & cheese.  i used a recipe that was pretty popular on my instant pot facebook page, and while i wasn't completely happy with it she definitely was.

i didn't take a picture of it because it really wasn't that appetizing to look at, but i made some chicken adobo one evening as an experiment.  the bean had never had it (actually, neither had her sister), and it's such an easy dish to make that turned out really delicious.  i served it with some steamed white rice and was happy to find that she liked it so much she asked to take some for lunch the next day.

when not on a diet, the hub is a major cookie monster.  i'd come across a whole bunch of keto-approved cookie recipes online and decided to give the chocolate chip cookie a try.  i managed to find these ingredients at our local sprouts:

when i mixed it up, i thought it looked exactly like regular old chocolate chip cookie dough.

he was pretty excited when he got home and found that the cookies in the kitchen were made especially for him.  i didn't even get a decent shot of the finished product.

he loved them so much, he immediately sent a picture of them to his fellow keto-dieting buddies (one who even hopped right into his car when he saw the photo and came over to grab a few).  the next morning, the bean took one to school for snack time and came home to report that she'd really liked it.  she shared it with one of her BFFs, who isn't allowed to eat sugary treats very often, and said that they'd both enjoyed the sugar-free cookie.  score!

two nights ago i did a pot roast in the instant pot, which i served with roasted asparagus.  instead of using cornstarch to thicken the gravy i used some of that xanthan gum substitute that i'd bought for baking cookies.  it was really tasty and is going to be added to the rotation.

and then last night, i decided to try a recipe for the instant pot for lemon garlic chicken.  and although i had a ton of asparagus left from the night before, i thought it would be fun to serve up something different.  that something ended up being a creamy garlic butter broccoli mash, meant to satisfy a craving for mashed potatoes.

so far, everything i've made has been pretty tasty.  while the girls and i aren't going full keto by any stretch of the imagination, it's good for us to try new recipes and be able to share meals with the hub. and hey, if you happen to know any good ones that we should try, shoot 'em over!

christmas break random photo dump

the bean's winter break was actually pretty chill.  she was thrilled to have a break from cheer practice for a good chunk of it, as was i.  we really didn't have any commitments or responsibilities for most of the two weeks she had off, and it was pretty wonderful.  we were a little bummed that our disneyland passes were blocked out for the duration of the break, but from what i could tell we wouldn't really have enjoyed visits during the holidays anyway.  it's typically the most crowded time of year, and more than once i saw updates via twitter that said the parking structure was full, or that the park was full to capacity.  no thanks.

instead, we filled our time with lots of relaxing, napping and random outings.  one evening, we went out to old town pasadena with the hub for sushi and found ourselves exploring the peloton store.  he was pretty interested in the bike:

while the bean and i drooled over the newly released treadmill.  that thing was pretty sweet, and i might even get my running mojo back if we had one of these babies.

one evening, the old lady and her special friend asked me to make loco moco (basically a hawaiian plate lunch consisting of a homemade hamburger patty topped with gravy and a fried egg with rice) for dinner.  through the magic of google, i was able to find a recipe that i liked and served up bowls like this to the kids:

as we enjoyed our dinner, i got to open one more present that the old lady had forgotten to give me on christmas.  look at my pretty new ring:

one of my girl scout parents from our now-defunct troop was sweet enough to bake up one of her delicious christmas rum cakes for me.  i was super stoked - she first gave me one of these as a christmas gift three years ago, and then again every year since.  it just isn't christmas without her rum cake, and i treated it like gold.  it's so good.

since the hub's keto diet doesn't allow for the full loco moco experience, i winged it a little and served him one of the burger patties with a fried egg and a wilted spinach salad with sautéed mushrooms and bacon.

cousin seven met up with me for a barre class, which was super fun.  she always looks really cute, while i just look...old and busted up.  boo.

a visit to the anaheim packing house turned into my family's first hot pot meal.  it was really good, and everyone seemed to enjoy the swish-dip-eat concept.  even the hub, who typically hates "cook your own"-type joints.

the old lady picked up a fun tea drink at one of the other shops, while the bean got a shave ice/ice cream concoction.

and i wore my new fanny pack, much to the hub's dismay.  i was like "but you BOUGHT this for me!" and he said "i thought it was a JOKE!"  oy vey.  sorry, dude.  i adore this thing.  i've actually been wearing it every day since.  heh.

at my last orangetheory class for 2018, i busted out the brand new adidas kicks that the hub bought me for christmas.  i love these things.  they're so comfy, and really cute.  pink, of course, because duh.

new year's eve saw us hanging out at home again, having followed our typical tradition of trying to put something together last minute and finding no availability anywhere.  we swear every year to plan ahead the next year, and end up right here at home every time.  the hub and i both fell asleep on the couch in front of the tv, and i slept right through the ball drop and everything.  but first, i managed to throw together a pretty delicious dinner:

mollydog made her tv debut during the local news one morning.

and then it was time to pack everything up and put it all away until next year.  bye, christmas tree:

this is when you know the holidays are well and truly over:

and before we packed away all of the decorations i cut up one of our leftover christmas cards to put a picture in our annual family ornament.

sigh.  post christmas letdown in full effect.

not quite the holiday hoorah

a handful of SFAM members managed to pull it together a couple of days after christmas and got together for a delicious brunch at our new favorite pasadena spot, the crack shack.

as always, it was fun getting together and watching our kids interact with each other.  and amber brought her two adorable boys who were happy to hang out with 3/4 of the getalong gang.  despite the age difference, all of the kids got along really well and played together nicely.

the food, of course, was delish.  my favorite item on the menu is the chicken "oysters," which are a solid step above kiddie chicken nuggets.  they're so delicious, with the crispy skin and the perfectly cooked chicken...yum.

there's a spicy version too...i took a picture but didn't partake because i'm a wuss.

of course, there was good old fashioned bone-in fried chicken, too.  the bean says it isn't really fried chicken if there's no bone in there.  heh.

mini biscuits, because they're delicious.

and their spin on poutine.

we had quite the variety of menu items to enjoy together.

after everyone had had their fill, we had the kids recreate an old photo that had resurfaced on facebook that morning.  2011:

and with some pretty fantastic coaching from our friend weezermonkey, here's the 2018 version.

so funny!  i can't wait for another seven years to go by for us to make them sit down and do this again.  hahahahahahah.

of course, we had to get a group photo:

and then with all of the kids in it - the silly faces are easier to get them to do.

amber and i both received kate spade x disney collab handbags for christmas, which we happily showed off for the camera.  we probably should've moved the high chairs out of the shot.  oops.

she'd also brought us some fun treats, which were as cute as they were sweet.

and on our way home, the bean and i made a quick pitstop for some treats to take home.

ah, winter break.  how i miss you already.