just another manic monday

At work, we have a bi-monthly employee magazine with an article called "A Day in the Life." In each issue, the article profiles employees throughout Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and shows you what it's like to walk a day in their shoes. One month it will profile a member of our Transport team who flies patients in a helicopter, and another month you'll see life through the lense of a feeding specialist. I always find it interesting to see exactly what others at Children's do each day.

So, I thought I'd try to mimic this by offering a glimpse of a day in my life. I started writing this post last Monday, when this timeline actually happened. But I got sidetracked throughout the week and am just now getting back to it. I can't promise it will be super interesting, but here it goes...

Manic Monday

4:45 a.m. - James' alarm goes off and he goes to the kitchen to cook a full breakfast before heading to run the 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. classes at CrossFit Addiction. I wake up at this time, but lay in bed until my alarm goes off.

5 a.m. - I get up, often welcomed by the aroma of sautéing onions and bell pepper, and head straight to shower.

5:30 a.m. - After James is out of the kitchen, I whip up a pot roast and put it in the crockpot to cook all day. Then, I cook breakfast--either some version of paleo pancakes with sausage or scrambled eggs with bacon. I take my time eating, drinking a cup of coffee and checking e-mail. I'd rather enjoy my mornings than have to rush around just for 15 minutes of extra sleep.

6:35 a.m. - I'm finally ready and out the door heading to work.

7 a.m. - I log into my computer and my workday begins. I get busy and update our company Intranet, write up some articles, flesh out the next step of a communications plan, help a client develop campaign communications, assist content editors in updating their content and spend time mulling over our content management system implementation.

9:30 a.m. - At this point, I'm starving. It's rare that I get through the morning without a snack.

11:30 a.m. - I take an early lunch and go to a nearby bookstore to read a 20-page transcript of some interviews that I'm using to write a freelance article. In a way, it's a working lunch. But it's better than blowing money at Target!

12:30 p.m. - Lunch at my desk. Today, I had my current salad obsession (spring mix with sliced strawberries, feta, toasted pecans, avocado and pear white balsamic vinegarette with grapeseed oil), along with a quiche I whipped up Sunday night (sausage, tomatoes, red bell pepper, onion, artichoke).

4 p.m. - Work, work, work until I leave. I'm lucky that most days I can leave at 4 p.m. to beat the traffic up I-75, especially when I go to the gym.

5 p.m. - CrossFit! Dynamic warmup, sumo deadlifts (5-5-3-3-1-1...I got 235lbs...PR!), max wallballs in 3 minutes (14 lb ball, 10 foot mark...this killed my quads), 20 minutes of yoga.

6:30 p.m. - After 12 hours, I finally make it home. Next on the to-do list is figuring out dinner. Thank goodness I threw stuff in the crockpot in the morning, so now, I simply cook some mashed parsnips and relax for a bit.

6:45 p.m. - Relaxing for me means baking, so I whip up two coconut flour chocolate chip loaves so I can freeze them for later.

7:15 p.m. - I clean up the kitchen, catch up on blogs I'm following and monitor my parsnips.

8:10 p.m. - James calls to say he's heading home. Lucky him, I've timed dinner so that we'll eat exactly when he gets home.

8:30 p.m. - Dinner is served and we watch a 20-minute episode (sans commercials) of last week's Modern Family.

9:15 p.m. - We're in bed reading. I just finished the last book of The Hunger Games series, which I recently learned was a young adult book. Sigh. I'm 15 at heart.

9:40 p.m. - Lights out! Yes, we have the bedtime of a 10 year old. But getting up early will wreak havoc on us if we don't get enough sleep. If you're doing your calculations right, going to bed at 9:40 gives us exactly 5 minutes to fall asleep so that we get our 7 needed hours before waking up the next day. Five minutes is plenty of time to fall asleep. James takes about 2 minutes and I average roughly 3.

It's no wonder I'm exhausted come Fridays!

mango upside-down coconut cake

I'm not a partier, a clubber or a groupie. Gosh, I sound downright boring. But what I am is a dinner party or cookout kind of gal. There's something about food and fellowship that really unite people. A family from our gym invited us over for dinner tonight. And because my mom taught me to never go empty-handed, and because I love to bake, I decided to bring a paleoish dessert.

Last night after the gym, I came home and scrounged around for ingredients and ideas on what kind of dessert to make. I found two mangoes, and used them as a spring board for mango upside-down coconut cake.

I love me some coconut flour, and coconut products in general. And I've never made anything with coconut that I didn't like. But I'm going out on a bit of a limb here by posting the recipe before I'm even able to sample the cake. It smelled great coming out of the oven, so let's just hope my nostrils and my tastebuds sync up tonight.

(After I made the cake, I realized I could have easily made it dairy-free by using coconut oil instead of butter. Just a thought for those of you who don't do dairy.)

Mango Upside-Down Coconut Cake

Ingredients

• 2 mangoes
• 6 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1/2 cup palm sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 coconut flakes
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1. Peel and thinly slice mangoes, and set aside. (The orange mango was almost over-ripe, while the yellow one was under-ripe. I figured they balance each other out!)

2. In iron skillet, melt 3 tbsp of butter.

3. Stir in 1/4 cup palm sugar, and let it simmer about a minute. Set aside to let cool and turn oven to 350 degrees.

4. Meanwhile, blend/whisk 1/4 cup palm sugar, 1/4 cup coconut oil and 3 tbsp softened butter. (I recently killed my blender, so I resorted to the whisk. If you decide to whisk, make sure your butter is softened because you can see how I warped my whisk!)

5. Whisk in eggs, one at a time.

6. Blend/stir in coconut milk, coconut flakes, coconut flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

7. Place mangoes in skillet on top of butter/sugar mixture. I arranged mine so that the orange and yellow slices alternated, more for flavor than aesthic appeal.

8. Spoon batter on top of mangoes, and spread evenly.

9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

10. Once it cools, use a plate to flip it upside down.

I'll report back soon on how it tasted!

This recipe is part of Fight Back Fridays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Real Food Wednesday.

pot roast with mashed parnips

Breakfast for dinner. Yum. So quick and tasty. Earlier this week, we switched up our gluten-free version of the McGriddle. I added coconut flour to the pancake batter to thicken up the flapjacks a bit, we cooked hot breakfast sausage in leiu of bacon and, instead of an omelette, we used scrambled eggs (which makes it very fun when you try to take a bite). But, I will say that the thicker pancakes really made it this time. And since we were out of maple syrup, we just drizzled our McHobson with honey.

This really has nothing to do with the recipe I'm about to share, except that they're both food!

One morning early last week, after I cooked breakfast at 5:30 a.m., I decided to throw a pot roast in the crockpot for dinner that night. For those of you who think you don't have enough time to cook, it's all a lie! It's not fun cutting onions before dawn, but the payoff is worth every tear shed (luckily, I didn't put on any mascara until after I prepped the veggies!)

During the snowstorm earlier this year, I posted a pot roast recipe. This time, I wanted to make a more of a traditional pot roast, sans white potatoes, but that doesn't mean I didn't try to fake the white starchy stuff. That's where the parsnips come in.

Pot Roast and Mashed Parsnips

Ingredients (amount varies based on size of crockpot and meat)

• onion
• carrots
• rump roast (mine was 2.27 lbs)
• celery
• baby portobella mushrooms
• gluten-free gravy
• 1 cup water
• 1 lb parsnips
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• dash of sea salt
• dash of black pepper

1. Add diced onion and carrots to crockpot.

2. Trim fat off bottom of roast and place in crockpot.

3. Add in diced celery and sliced mushrooms.

4. Mix gluten-free turkey packet with 1 cup hot water, then pour in crockpot.

5. Turn crockpot on low for 7 to 8 hours.

6. Wash, trim off ends and chop parsnips into 2-inch chunks.

7. Place in pot of water, bring to boil, then turn down heat and simmer for roughly 25 minutes, or until tender.

8. Drain water, then add milk, butter, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper.

9. Blend with hand mixer.

Spread mashed parsnips in shallow bowl, and top with pot roast mixture.

For dessert, we had a slice of coconut chocolate bread. I made it three weeks ago, and it was just as tasty this time. I probably need to limit myself on how often I make this recipe!

may i introduce...the new hobson homestead

Woohoo! Last night Lindsey from Designs by Linds installed my new blog design. For months, I've wanted to create a unique blog design, but when I started looking at how to redesign my blog, I realized that my creative and html skills weren't quite up to par. Luckily, Lindsey was able to swoop in and save the day year.

What's my favorite part of the new design? The little house in my logo!

product review of indian sauces

A couple weeks ago, I stopped by Whole Foods during my lunch break to stock up on coconut flour and palm sugar, my baking staples. At the end of one the aisles, I spotted a couple of Indian sauces on sale, so I decided to give them a try and get out of my palate comfort zone. I've had a few bad Indian food experiences, but my visit to an Indian restaurant a few weeks ago gave me a new outlook, even though there was only one clear dish winner in my book. But still, I was hopeful.

When it comes to sauces, generally marinara is the only pre-made sauce I use. But I thought about how nice it would be to stock the pantry with a couple jars of semi-healthy sauces just in case I need to whip up a quick dinner every now and then. And James has a short fuse when it comes to chicken; he can't handle eating it that often and can't stand chicken if it's too dry. So my thinking was I could still make chicken, but help to mask it with some new sauces, and maybe, just maybe, I'd pull one over on him.

Product 1: Cashews & Cream

The first cooking sauce was called Cashews & Cream, which the label dubbed as part of Portugese and British Indian cuisine. No idea what that means. I've been to Portugal, and I don't remember anything like this, but maybe it's their take on Indian food. Interesting.



I wasn't exactly sure where to start, but since the directions said to add the sauce to your favorite meat and veggies, I began by sauteing some mushrooms, onion and yellow squash in coconut oil.

While the veggie mixture was cooking, I boiled some broccoli. Then I threw it in with the veggies, as well as the remainder of my stewed chicken and the jar of sauce. I stirred it and let it simmer for a while so everything melded together.

Verdit: B-

I'm still getting used to these international flavors, but overall, it was pretty good. The texture was a little gritty for a sauce, but after all, it was made from cashews. I thought it could have used a little salt, which would have been perfect in the form of cheese, but I stayed strong and refrained. After all, there was already cream in the sauce and cheese would probably be a blasphemy to Indian food everywhere.

The best part? It only took 20 minutes to make dinner. Even if I didn't have stewed chicken on hand, I can't imagine it taking but 5 or 10 minutes longer.

Product 2: Tikka Masala
When I came across this jar of Tikka Masala on sale for around $2, I couldn't pass it up. I wanted to see if recreating this food at home was as tasty as the restaurant version, especially since it's about the only Indian dish I've found that I like. The label described this sauce as "a mild curry sauce that's top-of-the-charts in the UK." Comically, that description even sounds British to me.



I tried to think back to what veggies were in the restaurant version, and I couldn't remember exactly, but started off dicing onions and green and red bell peppers to saute, when I realized the onion was a siamese twin. That had to be a good sign, right?

I trimmed and cut some chicken breasts, and seasoned them with ground pepper and sea salt before throwing them in to the mix.

Once my veggies and chicken were cooked, I threw in the sauce and let it simmer for a while. Gosh, doesn't it look way more appetizing with the sauce? Before, it just looks naked.

Then I served the concoction over cauliflower rice. I must admit that I sprinkled some cheese over mine (bring on the blasphemy), and it was delicious.

Verdict: A-

Yum, yum. I think my tastebuds are more used to tomato-based sauces than nut-based. This kind of reminds me of a creamier version of marinara, with some Indian spices in it. This experience even inspired me to want to make the sauce from scratch one day. Serving it over cauliflower rice was the final touch that really made the dish stand on its own. This dish took about 30 minutes from start to finish.

If I had to choose between the two sauces, I'd go with Tikka Masala, hands down. It wasn't quite as rich in flavor as the Indian restaurant I visited, but I'm certain it was much healthier.

Thankfully, James enjoyed both meals. But who am I kidding, there's rarely a meal he doesn't enjoy!

seafood, thrift store shopping and family time

This past weekend in Bluffton visiting my sister was amazingly short. Time flew by, but not so fast that I didn't get to detach from the bustle of Atlanta and briefly settle in to a slower pace of life, if only for 48 hours.

There's just something about being near water that does wonders for the soul. And, of course, an amazing sunshine doesn't hurt.

We passed so many amazing houses by the sea. I wondered just what it would be like to walk out the front door and be greeted by the ocean each day.

Despite the strong sun, the couple hours we spent at the beach on Saturday were a bit chilly.

Though you couldn't tell that from some crazy people who were out there in bathing suits! Snow birds?

We went for a long walk to stay warm.

And also threw the football and kicked the soccer ball.

I spotted this house which faintly reminded me of touring Gaudi's Casa Batllo in Barcelona a few years ago. I guess it was the curves.

Mom asked me to take a close up of the birds. We all know her fondness of them. But unfortunately, I could only get so close before scaring off this bird.

We also came upon several huge stumps along the beach. We weren't sure exactly how or why they were dotting the shoreline.

Ellen bought a kite, but, of course, we forgot it. So we had to settle for watching someone else, with a way fancier kite than ours. The wind was perfect for kite flying.

My sister has these awesome beach chairs that you can carry on your back. I implied these would be nice for my birthday. We'll see if they get the hint :)

We probably spent 4 hours thrift store shopping. Finally, at our fifth store, we really lucked out. My mom, who is redecorating her basement, found pictures, lamps, decorative plates, a mirror and some sort of bamboo tree.

I was super happy to find these glass containers--all for $4.50.

I love these prints my mom bought.

Ellen loved the bamboo tree, as evidenced here.

Friday night, we ate at Steamer Seafood, and I indulged in some corn fritters, she crab soup, then split the crab stuffed flounder with my mom.

Saturday night, we ventured out to Bluffton Seafood House, which seems to be an upscale hole-in-the-wall kind of place, if that even makes sense. You could tell all the locals knew about it. We were the youngest group by far. Or maybe that's because we went at 6 p.m. 

See that guy singing behind us. I recognized him right off the bat as the same guy who we heard in October when I visited during the Bluffton Seafood Festival, minus the bright purple jacket.

Once again, I got she crab soup, which was delicious.

For my main meal, I ordered flounder, and I almost ate it all before I remembered to take a photo.

Ellen, my dad and my brother's girlfriend Megan ordered half buckets of oysters for $10 each. It was a steal, if you like oysters, of course, which I don't.

Ellen broke down her oysters and slurped them down in record time.

Taking the time to show me what she called a 'big one.' I couldn't muster up the courage to try one. I was afraid I might make a scene. Just the thought of eating something that texture makes me gag :)

When I got back to Atlanta Sunday, I promptly cleaned my new containers and filled them with coconut flour, dark chocolate chips, palm sugar, turbinado sugar and coffee.

This jar was my favorite.

Besides thrift store shopping, we made a quick trip to World Market. There's one 10 minutes from me in Atlanta, but I never shop there...and good thing. I saw lots of stuff I wanted, but managed to walk out with only three items: a popsicle mold, a dish drying pad and coffee.

In Atlanta, I decided to go ahead and make a batch of popsicles.

I added roughly 1/2 pint of strawberries to my blender.

Then added in 1 cup of plain, whole milk yogurt...

...2 tbsp honey, 1 tsp vanilla extract and a handful of spinach.

It made two cups.

I had one last night and they were super yummy and a great option when I'm having a sweets craving.

Now, I'm hopeful of a Memorial Day vacation in Hilton Head with some higher temps!