Bean Family {Seattle Family Photography}

Back in April, I got to photograph this lovely extended family! It was Mom/Dad (grandma&grandpa’s) 35th wedding anniversary! What a gift to be able to get everyone together for photos. It isn’t normal to have a family make it 35 years. Love this SO much!

It was a windy/cold day out at golden gardens but everyone hung in as long as they could and I absolutely love how the images turned out. Thank you so much Bean family for inviting me to photograph your beautiful families and to help celebrate your Mom and Dad! Here are some of my favorites from our time together =)

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Baby C {Newborn Session}

I got to hang out with sweet baby C when he was only 4 days old. I absolutely love newborn sessions, and this was no exception =) His “big brother” (Angus the bulldog) was also quite the sweetie, wanting to know what all the fuss was about =)

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Kim&Vance {Trash The Dress}

Kim and Vance got the full shebang when they hired me as their wedding photographer. First was their engagement session then their beautiful wedding, and just last month we rounded off with a trash the dress session! This was my first “trash the dress” session and we picked a gorgeous day!

Since their wedding last summer, these two have started their lives down in CA and added a puppy to the mix. It was great to see you two again!

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Grain-less and feeling it {Paleo}

It has officially been just over a week and we are pretty much rocking the Paleo thing. Everyone is “feeling” some sort of backlash of no longer feeding our bodies with grains/dairy. I’ve never had to kick a Heroin addiction, but WHEAT on the other hand…..holy.shit.

Besides the desire to punch the wall every now and then (I am kidding), we are actually all feeling really well and noticing positive changes. Brian and I are not nearly as “bloaty” as we usually feel, and we both have noticed a bit more energy. The kiddos have been really REALLY excited about this whole idea of “eating like a dinosaur”.

I haven’t been able to keep up like I’ve thought (Imagine that), but here is a “catch up” post on what our kitchen has been up to.

Brian picked out “Chicken in a pot” which was fabulous. All 4 of us gave it 5/5 stars! And there was enough stock left over to make a pot of homemade chicken/vegetable soup! BONUS

CHICKEN IN A POT – Recipe is from The Paleo Diet Cookbook

BRIAN – 5 stars

SARAH – 5 stars

KOEN – 5 stars

DIESEL – 5 stars

Brian also picked out this number called “Dandelion greens with a bite”. This was our first experience with dandelion greens, and is most likely our last. It was terrible, and we thought the recipe combination was terrible. The idea was good. Saute onions, add the greens, and as soon as you are ready to serve them, squeeze lime and sprinkle some red pepper flakes. Like I said, the idea was good but the Dandelion greens were SO tart (best word I have to describe them), and then you squeeze lime on them? Bad combo…..

Dandelion greens with a Bite is also from The Paleo Diet Cookbook

BRIAN – 0 stars

SARAH – 0 stars

KOEN – 1 star (he actually still ate most of it)

DIESEL – 0 stars

Bread! We have been using this PALEO BREAD recipe that we have already gone through twice

My bread sure does not look like the picture in the recipe, which still has me baffled. AND, I think I either need to try doubling the recipe or get a smaller bread pan, because these are small slices of bread =)

Brian has not yet tried the bread, he has simply “cut it out” at the moment. Maybe eventually he’ll give it a try, but can’t imagine a “replacement” for breads/crackers. Koen on the other hand can not get enough of this Paleo bread. He wants a slice with everything, and so far we are okay with that….

I also like this recipe and have used it quite a bit for sandwiches. I’ll probably find a few more recipes to try once the initial shock of a whole new way of eating settles down, but for now this is the one we will stick to. Diesel is 50/50 with this recipe. Sometimes she likes it and sometimes she doesn’t. However, we just discovered sunflower butter today, and she ate SO MUCH sun-butter sandwich on this bread, I think she is beginning to like the bread more than she doesn’t =)

Here is just one way we have used it this past week:

Rosemary Herb Crackers - These were SOOOOO easy to make, and so far Koen, Diesel and I love them for a good snack or dipping into soup. I think once I start making some dips, these will be going really fast!

The kids have been mostly interested in the dessert category. They have been responsible for picking out and making some dessert items to try and so far they have rocked it!

THIS chocolate pudding recipe has been a HUGE hit! The only thing I added to the recipe was about 1/2C of coconut milk. Without it, it’s pretty “chuncky”, and I’ve never had a chunky pudding.

Diesel was playing with her playdoh the other day and brought me a plate of “Paleo”

These beauties are “Paleo Pancakes” – or “banana pancakes” as we like to call them =) It’s such a simple recipe found HERE. For the first time, I added chocolate chips to help the kiddos try something new. They were really sad their cereal was gone =) But, once they had them they couldn’t stop. seriously.

I have also made a lot of burger pattys and froze them! I got a new gadget from William Sonoma and put it to use right away!

These are what I like to call Paleo sliders =) I found THIS fantastic recipe and made the “buns”. Again, mine definitely do not look like the picture, but they were really good! Especially because I used bacon grease as the oil! YUM!

I experimented with Kale chips. A few turned out, the rest were burnt so bad they tasted like popcorn. I actually can’t wait to try them again because I could tell how good they would be had they not been burnt!

And one last little image for now =) This is a snack plate I made today. In the past we would have salami, cheese, crackers and carrots. Now our plate is filled with fruits veggies and EGGS =)

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Paleo Mayo – fail

Well, where to start on this mayo biz. I’m kind of on a “Paleo high” right now trying to make as much as I can to restock our fridge/pantry. So naturally I thought, “I’ll make mayonnaise” – of course.

I googled and found THIS recipe. Looks good right? Over all result: absolutely DISGUSTING! I will elaborate more in a bit.

First of all, I’m not one to follow directions, surprising right? I didn’t realize making mayonnaise would be so technically insane. What I did was look at the ingredients, realized I had everything on hand that it was asking for and went to work!

Here is my first batch….gross.

Emulsion failure. Once I saw this, I decided to read the “technique” portion of the instructions and the fact that I am a very impatient cook was starring me back in the face.

Clearly, mayonnaise is not for the impatient.

Attempt #2 was a fail as well, I went slower but apparently not slow enough =)

I hung my head, cleaned the kitchen and went elsewhere.

After I had put the kiddos to bed that night, tidied up the house and sat on the couch defeated from mayonnaise, I decided I wasn’t going to go to bed until I either conquered or ran out of ingredients. I’m impatient and stubborn =)

Turns out, 3rd time was the charm!

 

And although I actually blended mayonnaise, and totally won; I learned a valuable lesson. This particular recipe is NOT GOOD.

Not only that, when a mayo recipe calls for coconut oil, DON’T MAKE IT! What they don’t tell you is that, the next day when you go to make your much desired paleo chicken salad, and get out your mayo container, that it would be the consistency of a candle. This is not mayonnaise. If you call it mayo, it needs to act like it!

So, I heated it up, made my freaking chicken salad, tossed the rest of the “mayo candle” in the trash, and shed 1 tear on the cup and a 1/2 of coconut oil wasted (that stuff is expensive!). Lesson learned. PALEO MAYO FAIL

 

I have since found some other recipes to try that do not contain coconut oil, and actually read much easier! Can’t wait to try them because I LOVE mayo!

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