Have no fear cooking LAMB!!

I cooked a lamb in my crockpot, it turned out amazing!!

This was my very first time cooking a near 4 pound hunk of lamb meat, I'm amazed how it turned out!

I found the recipe on my good friends son in law Josh Axe's food blog.

I tweeked the recipe a little bit by:

Adding less water, half way up the lamb, extra Rosemary, and 10-12 cloves of garlic. Added all ingredients, cooked on low for 10-11 hours.

Also I took off the butternut squash, and baked the butternut squash in the over at 350 for 30mins, then sprikled the squash with brown sugar and turned the over to broil until the sugar melted and Brower a little.

Enjoy! It was very moist and flavorful

Nutrition in Las Vegas is possible, and shopping on a budget!

When arriving in Vegas the first thing we did was pay a visit to our favorite store. Whole foods!!

My youngest and I had the pleasure of traveling to vegas. We stayed at the Trump hotel, I would highly recommend. And here is why:

The trump hotel has a Full size refrigerator! Yes, you heard me correctly! And it was glorious to have when you travel with an infant.

To add to that it also came with a full size kitchen about the size you would see in an apartment. It was wonderful!

We shopped at whole foods and bought essentials for the week:

Eggs

Orange juice

Cheese

Milk

Cereal 

Pre made Dinners

And my favorite, straus ice cream! And etc. I should have got a picture of things in the refrigerator but I forgot.

I did get the ice cream though :)

If you have yet to go to Vegas, you will find it hard to eat there cheap. Free breakfast is'nt heard of at hotels, and they have buffets but it's around $20 a person.

So, while we were there, we made breakfast at hotel, and typically ate out for lunch and dinner. 

I would also like to add there are cheap places to eat that are reasonable priced and somewhat healthy. 

The "fashion show mall" has a chipotle. We ate there for under $8

Or this place called "lobster me" inside the palazzo hotel was yummy food and reasonably priced

More pricey lunch places would be: 

Not healthy, But so.... Yummy!

Delmonico steak house was on the pricy side but amazing!! They also have grass fed beef steaks, perfect portion and amazing flavor!

We also ate at Serendipity 3 and had some frozen hot chocolate. Yes once again you heard me right! Best drink /frap you will ever drink! Ok and I have to add this picture of a donut we ate there from serendipity 3, it was massive! The biggest donut I've ever had, and by far better than pikes peak donuts you get in Colorado.

This picture is only half of the donut. I ate the other half before I could get a picture. Amazingly unhealthy, but hey you can't just eat only healthy stuff, you have to live a little right?!?

 We visited our favorite make up store called "nars" and bought some make up you can't get in Dallas location stores

Like this eyeliner

Great color. 

A couple other stores in Vegas, I love their malls there

3 story HM 

Paris is beautiful at night and during the day.

This coffee shop was neat

They provide seed to cup coffee I thought that was pretty cool, just like the company young living oils promote seed to seal oils.

We saw a few shows the bellagio water fountain was by far amazing and that one is free. But the "KA" show and "la rev" show are great too, but keep in mind pricey.

All in all a great trip, I would go back to Vegas. Proof to show you can go and have a great time even with a 9month old baby. I didn't gamble one time, but still had a fabulous time!

Chicago part 2

I 

Chicago is a beautiful city, and they have every store you can imagine on Michigan street!

Fannie May was a must! This chocolate melts in your mouth divine. Worth every penny... And it's a lot of pennies ;)

Maggie pointed to every tall building, and would say" that looks like daddy's work"

They wanted a picture next to every fake horse they saw.

And their was a lot of them!

I let them get on the last one!

We check out Nordstrom they have a lot of floors 5 to be exact!!

Daddy's favorite pear place

Mommies favorite store!

The girls favorite store

I also found nod this beautiful art!

Last but not least I went through Chicago's whole foods. Not bad, but much smaller then Texas, and way more expensive. A small jar of organic almond butter there cost $19.99 Dallas stores are  $8.99 for the same jar. :/ 

Crazy!

The isles are more thin too.

Late night flight home was fast!

Next week we will be in Las Vegas, so it will be another week before I post.

*thanksgivng meal plans next!

Banana bread to amaze you!

After

Before baked

INGREDIENT

1 cup white un-bleached flour

3/4 cup of whole wheat flour ( I use Bob red-mill brand found here http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Organic-Whole/dp/B0052OMUC0 )
1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of himalayan salt (or any salt)

6 very ripe bananas peeled

1 stick of organic unsalted butter, melted then cooled slightly

2 large organic eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar/ or regular cane sugar

1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon of cane sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray ( I use coconut oil spray from trader joes) Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl.
   2. Place 5 bananas in microwave-safe bowl; cover with plastic wrap and cut several steam vents in plastic with paring knife. Microwave on high power until bananas are soft and have released liquid, about 5 minutes. Transfer bananas to fine-mesh strainer placed over medium bowl and allow to drain, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes (you should have ½ to ¾ cup liquid). 
   3. Transfer liquid to medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced to ¼ cup, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat, stir reduced liquid into bananas, and mash with potato masher until fairly smooth. Whisk in butter, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla. 
   4. Pour banana mixture into flour mixture and stir until just combined with some streaks of flour remaining. Gently fold in walnuts, if using. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Slice remaining banana diagonally into ¼-inch-thick slices. Shingle banana slices on top of either side of loaf, leaving 1½-inch-wide space down center to ensure even rise. Sprinkle granulated sugar evenly over loaf.
   5. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, 55 to 75 minutes. Cool bread in pan on wire rack 15 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and continue to cool on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Healthy foods to take on airplane

Chicago travel

We all know it's hard to eat healthy when traveling. So, with kiddos, or without kiddos. Here are a few things I like to take when I travel:

Lots of snacks

Bags of nuts and dry fruit

I took a cold pouch (stays cold for 10 hours I bought mine at bed bath and beyond for $19.99) I put some celery and carrots in it. Then we squeezed some almond butter and walnut butter on  our celery and carrots.

Pre made Baby food

 

Things we ate in Chicago:

Lots and let lots of our favorite resturant Giordano's 

We ate here atleast 4 times, not the healthiest, but you can't visit chicago without eating some Giordano's! :)

We also ate at another amazing resturant I wish we had here in Texas called "olde north" the best breakfast you will ever order!

The girls and I shared two dishes because there is so much food!!

Our last special meal before coming home, "Italian village" if you have yet to go to Chicago, this place is a must. Especially the dessert stromboli ice cream is amaZing!!

We ate there in a castle, the girls felt like princess.

We walked through millenium park chicago, the weather was beautiful and the the girls enjoyed jumping in leafs!

The girls and I also rode a camel!!

I forget, everytime I go to Chicago in the fall, how beautiful it is! 

These are ginko trees, and boy are they pretty, but they grow these fruit ball like things that smell aweful!!

We went swimming at the hotel, and this picture gets me everytime I look at it how old my baby girl looks! She's 5 now going on 12!! :)

Playing in the leafs with my girls, we spent hours on our trip building piles and jumping in them. This was a highlight of the trip.

I must end with this, but I'll have a part 2 of chicago post. About food/clothing shops in downtown Chicago!

-Dollie