Dream Work Space.

Do you ever wonder where the magic happens? No, not THAT magic. The magic of the blog post composing. 

Do you wonder where your favorite bloggers compose that eloquently written post? Is it in a fantastic office complete with a comfy, stylish chair? Or just a simple work space like a comfy couch?

Well, I'll be honest. My work space is less than ideal. It basically consists of this :

or my couch. 

During the day, I usually blog or read blogs from the comfort of my dining table chairs and at night, I usually migrate to the couch so I can be sitting with Seth while I half watch a TV show and do stuff on the computer at the same time.

Glamorous? No. But it gets the job done. And for now, since we don't have room for an office, or for me to even have a designated table to myself, I take what I can get.

But, a girl can dream, right? 

And if we're talking about dreaming, I think my dream space would look a little like this...

...some sort of fun calendar...

left // right

...possible lights...

(I LOVE the way the white lights look)

left // right

...some sort of storage - a bookshelf with a wall papered background or an ombre dresser...

left // right

...and a large desk... maybe L shaped...

left // right

...maybe a little pop of color...

left // right

...and some storage, a GREAT view, and a fun "bulletin board".

left // middle // right

A girl can dream.

What kind of work space do you have?

Do you have an office? Or do you blog from your couch like me?

Looking for ideas on how to decorate your work space?

Check out my Home Decor Pinterest board and my Dream Home Pinterest board.

Check out WeWork's Pinterest boards here
and their amazing office spaces!

Happy decorating!

[A Year of Dates] February.

I had originally planned our February date for Valentine's Day... but then we decided to do the Whole30 and I knew there was no way we could do what I planned. So I contacted the company and asked if I could re-schedule and they were super nice about it and had no problem. So we postponed until this past weekend and had a little belated Valentine's Day weekend together.

Back in December, when I was trying to come up with fun, new things that Seth and I could do together, I came across a walking food tour on Living Social. We had such a good time on our walking food tour of Santa Barbara in November that I thought this would be the perfect thing for us, so I bought it.

The Living Social deal gave me the option to choose between 3 different tour options and I chose the walking food tour of Old Town Orange. We showed up on Sunday morning at our meeting spot inside a local Starbucks (meeting at Starbucks - always a good first impression!). We met our tour guide and started off the tour with a little sampling of the new Starbucks caramel flan latte (delicious! - but very similar to a caramel macchiato I thought). The tour guide, Linda, told us a little about what we would be doing, prayed to the rain Gods to let it stop raining (it worked!) and we were off to our first location.

Our first stop was a place that Seth had been wanting to try for forever - Felix's. Felix's is a Cuban restaurant and something I wouldn't typically go for (which is probably why he still wants to try it and hasn't had it yet - oops) but it was delicious! We had an empanada and a fried plantain and it was so good. Seriously, I am excited to go back and try something else!

Our second stop was to Francoli's Italian Restaurant. We started off with an amazing caprese, some wine (which we had to pay extra for - lame), and then some pesto pasta. Everything was delicious but your typical italian restaurant. 

Our third stop was to Paris in a Cup. It was a tea place that served tea, tea sandwiches, macarons, and apparently soup because we had baked potato soup there. It was good. Creamy, potato-y, and warm. I bought some macarons to bring home (because duh, I had to get French macrons to try!) and we were off to our next stop - Watson's. Watson's is a little antique store/restaurant. I had been there before, once, to get a cookie one night after dinner and it was super good so I was excited as to what we would be trying this time. I was surprised to find out that we were trying rice pudding. I always envisioned rice pudding to be warm, but this was cold rice pudding, and honestly, it was so good!

Our fifth stop was to a place called Grinders. Grinders is kind of a place that you could describe as a "mut" (like they say about dogs). We taste tested some sarsaparilla, a turkey sandwich, and some sweet potato fries with chipotle dipping sauce. Everything was super good! Except personally, I don't like root beer, and the drink tasted like that to me, but Seth was happy to finish mine. We went inside to check out the place and saw that they sold Thrify ice cream, homemade fudge (the dark chocolate caramel with sea salt was amazing!!!), burgers, fries, sandwiches, and mix and match sodas. 

Stop number six on our tour was to Zitos. Zitos is a New York style pizza place that we sampled margarita pizza at. Again, the pizza was good, but nothing overly special. After pizza, we went to stop number seven, our last stop, Cafe Lucca. Ahh, Cafe Lucca. We had the most DELICIOUS gelato to end our tour on. I ordered the chocolate hazelnut and I was not disappointed. The portion looked kinda small, which was to be expected on a tour with a bunch of samplers, but the portion was actually a very decent size. I am still thinking about that delicious gelato!

Overall, we had a really great time and just enjoyed being out together for a date during the day. We met some really nice people who were from a city nearby and were surprised to find that everyone on the tour was from nearby cities (I totally thought we would be the only ones from here on the tour!). I was so happy to be able to spend the day with Seth and just have it be us two. As much as we LOVE being with Mason all the time, it is important for the two of us to connect on an adult level every once in a while, hence my gift to him for Christmas, the gift of time together through a year of dates. We often get so wrapped up in daily life and get into such a routine that we forget that we need to get out alone, and this weekend was perfect for that.

Happy belated Valentine's Day, Seth!

You can find our January date here.

Introduction to "A Year of Dates" here.

[Whole30] Days 21-30

As most of you already know by my Instagram photo last week, Seth and I finished our first Whole30 last Tuesday and as a reward, I was finally able to have coffee creamer with my coffee on Wednesday.
It. was. glorious!

But even though we're done and this may seem like old news, I wanted to fully finish our recap so you just have to bare with me for two more Whole30 blog posts - today and our results next week.

Without further ado, here is the last third of our journey.

Day 21 // Sunday, February 8, 2015

Thoughts : Found some Tessamae's salad dressings on sale at Costco! Actually I walked right past them (I try to avoid all the sample carts because we can't have anything) and Seth pointed them out. I went over and tried all 3 kinds (and later found out that the French dressing I tried was not Whole30 compliant - eekk! oops - I don't really consider it a cheat because it was probably 1/4 teaspoon of dressing and I didn't meaningfully cheat. I thought all the dressings were compliant but apparently I should learn to read ingredients). They were a major score for 3 for $10.99. It was basically buy 2, get 1 free since they are normally $6 each. So we got 3.

We also made our first sweet potato crusted quiche for the week for breakfasts.

My little helper... he might need some driving lessons.

Meals : 

Breakfast : omelet with red pepper, mushrooms, and leftover shredded pork and topped with guacamole

Lunch : broccoli salad and leftover chicken with mushrooms

Dinner (at Seth's mom's house - she was so sweet to find out what we could eat and she cooked it!) : roasted turkey breast (with rosemary, thyme, and garlic), cauliflower mash (that my brother in law thought was mashed potatoes and was surprised when we told him otherwise!), zucchini, and a side salad

breakfast

lunch

sweet potato crusted quiche

Day 22 // Monday, February 9, 2015

Thoughts : I saw this on my IG feed and thought it was so fitting. We almost never used our crock pot until we started the Whole30 and now we LOVE it! I still forget we have it sometimes, but we have used it at least once, sometimes twice, a week for the past month!

Meals :

Breakfast : quiche

Snack : banana

Lunch : tuna with cucumber, carrots, and red bell peppers

Dinner : "naked" burgers topped with sautéed mushrooms, side of tomatoes, sweet potato slices, and asparagus

Day 23 // Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Meals :

Breakfast : quiche and fruit

Snack : banana

Lunch : leftover dinner - burger with tomatoes, guacamole, and sweet potatoes

Dinner : salad - lettuce topped with shredded lamb, tomatoes, mushrooms, guacamole and red bell pepper

breakfast

dinner

Day 24 // Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Meals :

Breakfast : quiche

Snack : banana

Lunch : salad - lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, red bell pepper, carrots (and later shredded beef) with my new Tessemae's balsamic dressing

Dinner : sweet potato topped with shredded beef, tomato, and red bell peppers with broccoli on the side

lunch

dinner

Day 25 // Thursday, February 12, 2015

Meals:

Breakfast : Seth was off so I got a good breakfast! - omelet with mushrooms and asparagus and topped with guacamole 

Snack : banana

Lunch : leftover dinner - sweet potato with shredded beef and veggies

Dinner : spaghetti squash spaghetti with ground beef and chicken and apple sausage

breakfast

dinner

Day 26 // Friday, February 13, 2015

Meals :

Breakfast : scrambled eggs and fruit

Snack : banana

Lunch : leftover dinner - spaghetti squash with sausage

Dinner : moroccan chicken with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts

dinner

Day 27 // Saturday, February 14, 2015 [Valentine's Day]

Thoughts : I will admit that it was a little hard to stick to the diet today. Seth made Mason some festive pancakes for breakfast and I wanted nothing more than to take a bite of the pancake that Mason offered me. It's so hard to say no when he is being so sweet and trying to share his breakfast with you. But alas, I held strong, ate my breakfast and told Mason to eat his. I didn't really have a hard time not eating candy (though I did want some) since we don't have any in the house right now (no temptations!). We had originally had plans to go on our February date today but we postponed it until next weekend so we could fully enjoy. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's not your typically Valentine's Day activity.

Meals :

Breakfast : egg scramble with shredded beef and red peppers with a side of "heart strawberries"

Lunch : leftover dinner - moroccan chicken

Snack (at the movies) : pistachios for me, almonds for Seth, and some mandarin oranges and grapes

Dinner : in n out (double double protein style, mustard grilled, no spread, no cheese)

Seth and my breakfast

Mason's breakfast

Valentine's Day date movie theater snack

dinner

Day 28 // Sunday, February 15, 2015

Meals :

Breakfast : omelet with shredded beef and asparagus and topped with tomatoes

Lunch : tuna with carrots, cucumbers, and red pepper

Dinner : mushroom chicken with cauliflower mash, asparagus, and tomatoes

breakfast

dinner

Day 29 // Monday, February 16, 2015

Meals :

Breakfast : quiche

Snack : banana

Lunch : leftover dinner - chicken, cauliflower mash and asparagus

Dinner : "naked" burgers topped with guacamole, side of tomatoes, sweet potato slices, and asparagus

Seth and my dinner

Mason's dinner

Day 30 // Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Thoughts : It's the LAST DAY!!!!!!

Meals :

Breakfast : quiche and fruit

Snack : banana

Lunch : leftover dinner - burger with tomatoes, guacamole, and sweet potatoes

Dinner : red pepper stuffed with shredded beef and topped with tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and guacamole with a side of broccoli

dinner

Recipes :

mushroom and pepper quiche with sweet potato crust 

(I'm not sure if the link is broken or not - when I tried to go to it to get the link to post here, it didn't work, but we obviously got it for the recipe. If you are interested in the recipe and can't access the website, comment below or email me at chasinmasonblog@gmail.com and I can send you the recipe by email)

moroccan chicken

mushroom chicken

We did it!!!!! We finished our first Whole30! 

Stay tuned for our results next week. Spoiler alert : they were good!

If there was a recipe that I didn't link to that you would like, please leave a comment below (and make sure your email is associated with your blogger profile so I can respond) or email me at chasinmasonblog@gmail.com and I will be happy to share!

Friday Faves.

I have to admit, every Thursday (yes, I am a procrastinator) when I start to prepare this post, I get pretty excited that it is the day before Friday. It makes me feel like I am THAT much closer to the weekend! And this week seemed to go by exceptionally fast. Monday was a holiday for most and even though I had to work, we were closed, so the day flew by and I was super productive. And now... it's Friday!

ONE.
Essie nail polish.

I'll be honest. I don't really buy nail polish. I'm more of a "go to the nail salon and get my nails done" kinda girl. I've definitely tried the cheaper route, but let me tell you, it's not pretty. In fact that last time that I tried to paint my own nails, Seth said "what happened to you???" LOL. Yeah, it's bad. But when I was at Target last week and saw they were having a sale on Essie nail polishes, I knew it was my time to try them. After all, you can always bring your own nail color to the salon, right? So I took advantage of the buy 2, get one free sale, and picked up these goodies. I think I'm in love!


TWO.
Amazon Fire TV + Sling.

Thinking about canceling cable and getting Amazon Fire TV. Does anyone have one? Thoughts? Likes? Dislikes?

Our HOA pays for basic cable so we would still have those channels plus Sling ($20 a month) would give us channels I would be missing like HGTV (!!!) and many others. The only think missing would be baseball for Seth but we are trying to figure that out now. I've been talking about switching for a while, but we've never fully committed. I think March might be our month! Saving $50 a month by canceling is too good of a deal to pass up.


THREE.
Starburst Puzzle Valentines.

We had the best Valentine's Day weekend! If you didn't catch it, I shared some super cute starburst puzzle valentines on Monday that we made for a little valentine exchange with some blog friends!


FOUR.
Whole30... completed!

You guys, WE DID IT!!!! We officially completed a whole Whole30! We officially finished on Tuesday night (I will be sharing Days 21-30 and our results soon) and I couldn't be more proud of us! We feel super good and while I am enjoying the fact that I can eat a muffin for breakfast and use creamer in my coffee, we are trying to stay on the same healthy food path from now on. I don't think we will continue on the Whole30 path forever (it is far too strict to do all the time) but we are thinking we might go more paleo. If anyone has healthy and/or paleo recipes that they really like, please share!


FIVE.
Initial necklace.

image via

I've been searching for an initial necklace for FOREVER. I find some that I like but then I am indecisive and don't get it. Then I find another and same thing. I originally wanted one just with an "M" for Mason but now I kinda like the 2 letter ones. I'm sure it's for your 2 kids, but I almost think i would like that kind but with an "M" and an "S". And if there could be a heart in the middle, that would be perfect!


Happy Friday!

[Mason] A Preschool Update + Doctor Appt Update

:: Preschool Update ::

A couple months ago (all the way back in September!), I shared that we started Mason in preschool. It started off a little rough, especially with drop offs and pick ups but as the months went on, it got a lot better. He started to get used to their routine and started participating a lot more and made some friends. When the teachers sent home the January newsletter, they made note that the kids would be getting progress reports (kind of like how kids get report cards quarterly in school) at the end of January/beginning of February. I wanted to provide an update here, mainly for myself to look back on for quick reference, and also to share his progress.

:: From the school ::

They rank the kids according to certain criteria. If a child is proficient at something, they get a 3. If a child is developing that skill, they get a 2. And if a child is just beginning that skill, they get a 1.

Social-Emotional Development

3 : interacts well with others, participates in group activities, keeps hands to self, shows self confidence, achieves and sustains eye contact.

2.3 : respects and obeys the rules of the school

1.5 : takes care of one's own needs (I think this is mainly because he is not potty trained yet)

Work Habits

2.5 : listens attentively, follows simple directions

2 : handles materials carefully, has good clean up habits

Fine Motor Skills

2 : holds pencil/marker correctly

1 : fits small items together, can print first name

N/A : uses scissors effectively

Gross Motor Skills

3 : jump, catch and throw a ball

2 : skip

1 : dress myself

N/A : tie my shoes (he wears velcro shoes)

Language Arts/Reading Readiness

2.5 : shows interest in books/stories

1 : answers questions about stories, retells familiar stories, shows interest in writing, writes using pictures/symbols/letters, identifies same and different, recognizes own name in print, identifies upper case letters, identifies lower case letters

Math/Science Readiness

2.5 : one to one correspondence

1 : sorts objects by color, sorts objects by shape, sorts objects by size, identifies 8 basic colors, identifies 4 basic shapes, verbally counts forward to 10, counts 1-10 objects, identifies numerals 0-10

N/A : compares quantities to sets, arranges sizes in order, makes simple patterns

Teachers Notes : Mason is a happy and sweet child. He is loved by all. He has improved on staying in his seat for circle time and is participating more in group activities. We will continue to work on cognitive and his fine motor skills.

:: From our own observations and experiences ::

Drop offs and pick ups : a million times better! We have discovered that the key to success (at least for me in the mornings) is the following : I park, get Mason out of the car, he is usually pretty happy. I help him push the door bell and I open the gate. We walk to the next door and he pulls that door open by himself. I let Mason help me check him in on the computer and then we walk to the classroom. I kiss him (a million times) and tell him I love him and hope he has a good day. I put him down and open the door and he runs in. If I can shut the door quickly enough before he realizes that I'm gone, he's good. But on Valentine's Day when I had to go in to drop off some stuff with the teacher, he started crying and didn't want me to leave. So basically, the faster I leave, the better. Though I did ask the teacher and she said that he stops crying within a minute of me leaving, so that did make me feel a lot better. Pick ups have gotten better too in the fact that Mason is SUPER excited to see Seth and basically just runs to him and jumps into his arms for him to take him home. No more meltdowns and crying on the floor.

Progress : Overall, we fully agreed with what the teachers said. We have seen almost all of the things that they say that he can do and we know he can't do the things that they say he can't do. We were a little surprised that they said that he could jump, since we rarely see it, but he did do it the other day, so maybe he just jumps more at school than at home. We have noticed that he has become a lot more vocal, obviously not actual words, but in noises. It's hard to explain but he a lot more vocal in the fact that he screams (happy) a lot more like when he is in the bath or watching a show that he likes or just whenever he wants (in fact last night I had to close our sliding door because I was afraid people would think we were hurting him with the amount of happy yelling he was doing). He also comes over and asks for help more often when he needs it. He will come get one of us, pull us by the one finger, and bring us to whatever he needs help with. He also wants to do things more on his own and gets pissed when we do something he wanted to do himself. He seems more aware of things now and fully knows that socks belong on his feet as well as shoes and is more helpful when getting dressed in the morning. He also like to climb into his car seat on his own and do the top buckle on his own and gets super mad if we try to help.

We are SUPER happy with the progress that he is making since being at preschool!

:: Post Hearing Test // Doctor Appointment Update ::

I shared a week ago that Mason recently had a sedated hearing test where we found out that he has fluid behind his ear drums and slight hearing loss. He also has some abnormalities in his brain waves and the audiologist recommended him seeing a neurologist. I'm happy to report that our pediatrician is AMAZING and fully supports us and had no problem putting through the referrals that we requested. Our insurance is also AMAZING and approved them very quickly (thank you insurance!!!). I called to schedule his appointments and I am happy to say that we have an appointment with a neurologist and with an ENT doctor in the coming weeks. 

Now please bare with me. I will try to share as much as I can, when I can, but it may not be right after the appointments as I want to make sure I fully have a grasp on what's going on, tell my family personally (i.e. not read through the blog), and we have a plan. Cross your fingers that we get some answers during our first appointments and/or can make more appointments ASAP. I want so badly to find out what's going on with Mason and make him all better. He is the sweetest, happiest, most loving, caring boy and Seth and I would do anything for him.

[Whole30] Days 11-20

We did it! Or rather, we're doing it! We're more than 2/3 of the way done (and actually since I'm posting this later than I anticipated - we're on our last day today!!!) and it feels FANTASTIC! I am so proud of us for taking this on and for making it so far with no cheats!

Day 11 // Thursday, January 29, 2015

Thoughts : Today was the day of Mason's sedated hearing test and we were up and out of the house by 5:15am. Seth and I knew we wouldn't be able to eat anything at the cafeteria and we didn't know how long we were going to be at the hospital so I packed tons of snacks in my purse. We ended up going home before lunch time so we just had to get creative with breakfast.

Meals :
Breakfast : a banana and some almonds on the go
Snack : some pistachios and an apple
Lunch : salad topped with shredded beef, tomato, carrots, red bell pepper, and guac
Dinner : sweet potato topped with shredded beef, a fried egg, some veggies, and guac and brussels sprouts on the side

dinner

Day 12 // Friday, January 30, 2015

Meals :
Breakfast : 2 sweet potato and sausage cups and a banana
Snack : an apple with almond butter
Lunch : tuna with cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers
Dinner : sweet potato topped with shredded beef, a fried egg, some veggies, and guac and brussels sprouts on the side

Day 13 // Saturday, January 31, 2015

Thoughts : Since I had Thursday off and today is the Saturday before school starts, I volunteered to work in order to get my 40 hours in. I was running slightly late so I made breakfast at work.

Meals :
Breakfast : sweet potato and sausage cups made into a hash with strawberries and blueberries
Snack : banana and almonds
Lunch : sweet potato topped with shredded beef, some veggies, and guac and brussels sprouts
Dinner : almond crusted chicken, cauliflower mash, asparagus, and heirloom tomatoes in balsamic

breakfast

dinner

Day 14 // Sunday, February 1, 2015 [superbowl sunday]

Thoughts : Today was suuuuuper hard not to cheat. We hosted a Super Bowl party at our house and there was lots of food that we couldn't eat. This was super hard. We made the main dish so we knew that there would be something we could eat and then worked around the other stuff. Some of our friends brought beer, a black bean salsa, chips, bacon wrapped hot dogs, and pepperoni bread - all of which we couldn't eat. Then a couple other friends brought guacamole and a veggie tray (we ate the veggies dipped in guacamole) and we made some prosciutto wrapped dates, sweet potato fries, some onion rings, and burgers (eaten bunless).

Meals :
Breakfast : banana pancakes with scrambled eggs, strawberries, and mandarin oranges
Lunch : egg salad lettuce wraps, a couple pieces of leftover chicken, and more heirloom tomatoes with balsamic
Snack : veggies with homemade ranch, veggies with guac, prosciutto wrapped dates
Dinner : "naked" burgers with all the fixings, onion rings, a deviled egg, and sweet potato fries

breakfast

lunch

dinner

Day 15 // Monday, February 2, 2015

Thoughts : Today marks the first day of school which means it is day 1 of 4 of me working 12 hour days. I have to take 2 lunches at work since I'm working more than 10 hours a day. I want and need to be creative and pack enough food so that I won't be hungry since I won't have time to get anything healthy anywhere if I didn't have enough food. Today also marks the first day of me asking Seth to document our dinners (he would eat dinner at normal dinner time and I would take dinner for lunch the next day). His pictures are... not my typical pictures... but he meant well and did what I asked and for that he has a heart of gold.

Meals :
Breakfast : 2 sweet potato cups and some strawberries and blueberries
Snack : banana
Lunch # 1 : tuna with cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers and a couple mandarin oranges
Lunch # 2 (aka dinner for me) : leftover burger with tomatoes and guac and a couple mandarin oranges
Dinner (for Seth) : leftover burger topped with a fried egg, tomato slices, sweet potato chip slices, and asparagus

lunch # 1

lunch # 2

Seth's dinner

(please disregard his feet lol)

Day 16 // Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Thoughts : You might start to notice a theme with lunch # 1. But hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And it was yummy and it was easy.

Meals :
Breakfast : fried egg topped with guacamole, leftover sweet potatoes from dinner, strawberries
Snack : an apple
Lunch # 1 : tuna with cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers and a couple mandarin oranges
Lunch # 2 : leftover burger topped with a fried egg, tomato slices, sweet potato chip slices, and asparagus
Dinner (for Seth) : red bell pepper stuffed with shredded pork (from Costco), tomato, and lettuce and topped with guac

Seth's dinner

Day 17 // Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Thoughts : Seth texted me a picture of a box of donuts that someone brought in to his work. Orange juice and donuts for a meeting. But Seth refrained! He said he had his coffee so he was good :)

Dinner was made at Seth's mom's house. We had a freak power outage and so Seth packed Mason and our food up and took him over to his mom's and didn't skip a beat. Dinner as planned was made. I was at work but I was impressed!

Meals :
Breakfast : fried egg topped with guac, sweet potato and sausage cups turned into a hash, strawberries, and some hot black tea
Snack : a banana
Lunch # 1 : tuna with cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers and a couple mandarin oranges
Lunch # 2 : salad topped with red bell pepper, tomato, shredded pork, and guac
Dinner (for Seth) : spaghetti squash spaghetti with meat sauce

breakfast

Day 18 // Thursday, February 5, 2015

Meals :
Breakfast : fried egg, sweet potato and sausage cups turned into a hash, and a banana
Snack : an apple
Lunch # 1 : tuna with cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers and a couple mandarin oranges
Lunch # 2 : spaghetti squash spaghetti with meat sauce
Dinner (for Seth) : sweet potato topped with shredded pork, tomato, and guac with brussels sprouts on the side

breakfast

Seth's dinner

(please excuse the dishes in the sink lol)

Day 19 // Friday, February 6, 2015

Meals :
Breakfast : 2 sweet potato and sausage cups and 2 little oranges
Snack : a banana
Lunch : sweet potato topped with shredded pork, tomato and guac and brussels sprouts on the side
Dinner : chicken salad (chicken made in the slow cooker) - lettuce topped with tomato, red bell peppers, mushrooms, and chicken salad

our dinner

Mason's dinner (leftovers from last night)

Day 20 // Saturday, February 7, 2015

Thoughts : I finally had one of those food dreams that they talk about! It wasn't any of my cravings (which is currently those dang Lindt salted caramel truffles) but it was that we were at a BBQ and I was making myself a hamburger (don't know if the burger was compliant but for this story, let's assume it was). I put some lettuce, some tomato... and then put it all on a bun. BREAD. Bread that I can't have. And it didn't even dawn on me until... I took a bite! And then BAM it hit me and I freaked out and spit it out. And then I think I woke up.

Meals :
Breakfast : omelet (eggs, bell peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes) and some heart shaped strawberries
Lunch : chicken salad
Snack : pistachios
Dinner : baked garlic mushroom chicken, cauliflower mash, and asparagus topped with diced tomatoes

breakfast

our dinner

Mason's dinner




20 days down, 10 more to go!

Recipes :
baked garlic mushroom chicken
sweet potato and sausage cups
beef in the crock pot.
almond crusted chicken
smashed garlic cauliflower
sweet potato and sausage cups 
sweet potato fries
homemade ranch dip (from It Starts with Food)
broccoli salad (put our own spin on it and made it compliant)

onion rings

spaghetti squash spaghetti with meat sauce (spaghetti squash, ground beef, and pasta sauce from Costco that is compliant)

Recipes are all linked to above in blue. If you can't find what you're looking for (some of them are embedded in the post that I linked to) or you want more info on any of the recipes, just leave a comment below or shoot me an email : chasinmasonblog@gmail.com