HUGE announcement!!!
Hey everyone!! I'm super pumped to be sharing this post today. I've had to keep things under wraps for awhile, so it's incredibly exciting to get finally get to spill the beans!!
You may have noticed (or not, we can't all be super observant), but the blog got a facelift. And a new domain name. And a completely different layout. That is because.....I'M STARTING MY OWN PRACTICE!!!!
Welcome to Freedom Nutrition and Wellness! The website is now used for business purposes (people finding my business), but will still include regular blogposts with access to old blogs I've done. So although not a lot is changing on the blog, a lot is changing on the site and in my life.
If you follow along, you know that I currently provide nutritional counseling at a Christian counseling center. I absolutely love my co-workers and have complete confidence in the work they do there (it's really cool to be a part of such a great ministry). However, I've also had a long-term desire to own my own practice. With Isaac and I buying a home and wanting to start a family in the nearish future, it just made sense for me to get my practice up and running beforehand. So...after Christmas I will no longer be working at Cornerstone and will instead be accepting clients at my new office. Eek! How crazy is that? There are still so many details to get worked out (like what are my clients going to SIT on?!), but I am incredibly excited and grateful to get to start this new journey.
So with that, I am now accepting clients for January 2018 both online and in-person. If you're interested check out this page on services, or my contact page to set up an appointment.
Can't wait for all the new things to come. And thanks for all of the love and support thus far <3.
We bought a house!! + easy dinners lately
Phew!! Life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately! We have been saving up to a buy a house for the past few years and with our apartment lease ending at the end of October, we decided it was the perfect time to buy a house. Let me tell you, looking at homes is a blast, the process of buying a home is not. Talk about stressful!! And redoing a home...even less fun and more stressful. BUT, we own a home!! And when we are done with it, it will be a great place for us. I plan on doing several before and after posts for those of you who are interested.
This is it!! It needs some landscaping, but I think it has GREAT potential.
We bought a 1950s home that is 3 bed, 1 bath and in a pretty central location (I'm so excited about living 5-10 minutes from the majority of our friends, church, and delicious restaurants). With it being over 60 years old, it's got some quirky characteristics. Some of those characteristics give it charm and others give it "character" 😂. We are currently in the process of redoing the hardwood floors, painting all of the trim and walls, and knocking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Eventually we will have a completely redone kitchen (homegirl needs adequate storage and countertop space!!!). Unfortunately, when we move in, we won't have a working kitchen because the kitchen cabinets won't be ready in time. Yes, it's frustrating, and I don't like the idea of moving into a half-ready house, but it is what it is, so we're going to make the most out of it.
In the meantime, we are getting as much done as possible before we move in. We've had pretty busy weekends with various family functions and weddings, so we've been forced to mainly work in the evenings after work. As a result, dinners have had to be easy. It's been a bit of a stretch, but it's good to get out of our food ruts and to try new things. So here are a few of the dinners we've had recently with varying degrees of prep time and difficulty. Thank goodness for tupperware, a microwave, and paper plates/plastic silverware!!
Deli bakery bread, avocados, and rotisserie chickens have been my best friend lately. You'll see variations of these ingredients throughout. The above meal was an Italian salad kit (that was SUPER delish!) that had greens, sundried tomatoes, parmesan, black pepper and a dressing. Topped it with rotisserie chicken and served it with a whole grain loaf topped with avocado.
Taco soup I made earlier that day topped with cheese and avocado and served with blue corn chips. I know this is weird, but I was craving taco soup mainly for the yellow hominy, and I didn't even end up finding any for this 😩 😂
Mac and cheese from Aldi (LOVE that place!) served with rotisserie chicken and veggies I roasted earlier.
A new Papa Murphy's pizza that was having a deal for $9. I wouldn't get it again...it wasn't all that filling and it just wasn't that tasty. Served with a homemade version of the Italian salad kit from the first picture.
Spring roll bowl: farro, cabbage, red bell pepper, carrots, mango, avocado, rotisserie chicken, shrimp, cilantro, green onion and a Thai peanut sauce. Suuuper fresh. Mmmmm.
This meal was not a win. These chicken sausages were on sale at Sprouts, but the casing got tough in the microwave. I served it with steamable vegetables that were HORRIBLE. No wonder people think vegetables are gross. Thankfully that everything seed topped bread was great. I definitely got seconds of it and we used it for multiple meals.
Farro and a pork and green bean stirfry that I made earlier in the day. Meh, it was okay. I don't plan on making it again anytime soon.
Cauliflower Italian nachos and the everything seed bread with more avocado. I happen to love roasted cauliflower and saw cauliflower nachos and thought it would be right down my alley. I think it would have been even more delicious with a meltier cheese and feta, but I used what we had. I really enjoyed it but will definitely need to make them more substantial in the future.
Pumpkin chili 😍 with cheese, avocado, plain Greek yogurt, a squeeze of mustard, and fritos. Fall, frito chili pie, and me were all MFEO. This chili had red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion beef, tomatoes, canned pumpkin and a bunch of spices that included cocoa powder and cinnamon. It's SO fall and super yummy.
So there you have it! I hope this gives you some inspiration for easy meals that can be made, transported, and reheated with minimal prep. When we're living in our new house without a stove, I'm gonna have to get super creative, so I'll be sharing what I come up with during that time.
Hope you're enjoying this fall season!!
A day in the life...
I get questions all the time about what my schedule looks like. Goodness, it looks different EVERY day and every week. I'm still in the process of building up my clientele, so there are days when I have 6 clients and other days where I have none. There is no real consistency, which can be difficult and discouraging at times, but I also like that it keeps me on my toes. Anyways, I thought I would share a day in the life along with the foods I ate. Hope you enjoy!
6:00 AM Alarm went off
6:10 Got out of bed (mornings are a little more rough now that it's dark outside when I wake up)
6:20 Made Isaac breakfast
6:35 Curled hair, put on makeup, and got dressed
6:58 Poured myself a cup of iced Vietnamese coffee for my first session, because coffee...
7:00 Online session with an out-of-state client
7:35 Ate breakfast-soaked oats and chia seeds in almond milk with pb2, maple syrup, blueberries, and pecans. Not pictured is a turkey and cheese rollup for some protein. 💪🏻
8:00 Left for work at my office
8:30 Client session
9:05 There is a Great Harvest Bread Company across the street from my office that I enjoy sitting outside at, so I walked over, got an iced latte and worked on some things on my laptop until my next appointment.
10:00 new session
11:00 client session
11:45 Headed home after my last session to get some lunch. I was getting really hungry so I ate half of a homemade rxbar to keep me from getting too hungry before lunch.
12:00 PM Made lunch: threw a bunch of leftover veggies in the skillet with eggs and topped it all with avocado, blue cheese crumbles, and pepitas. Served with a thin slice of banana zucchini bread and two chocolate covered almonds (not pictured).
I've got a little inside info for you. I felt a little uncomfortably full after this meal. Now, I don't want anyone comparing their usual lunch to mine--there are days when this wouldn't be enough. But on today day, it was a little more than enough. I just want you to know that I don't always "get it right" when it comes to my fullness cues. But instead of judging myself, I observed what led to me eating a little too much at that time. And guess what? Fullness subsides. I got hungry again later in the day. That discomfort of being a little over full goes away 😊
12:40 Washed dishes, vacuumed, etc while catching up on a show
2:15 Left to run some errands downtown
Can we just celebrate my parallel parking job?!
3:20 got to the YMCA to work out. I was a little sore from my workout yesterday, so I decided it would be a cardio day to work out the soreness. It felt really good to move my body
4:20 I ate the rest of my homemade rxbar while driving to get some last minute dinner ingredients at the store.
5:00 Started to make dinner
5:40 Isaac and I sat down to eat dinner. I had tried leftovers of this dish with my sis and wanted to make it afterwards, so I made it for the first time this night. So delish!
6:10 Talked to my sister-in-law on the phone about plans for getting together in a few weeks. She's the absolute best.
6:15 My 3rd night of cookies and cream ice cream with frozen cookie dough added 😍 while Isaac and I sat outside and I hung out on my laptop
7:05 Went for a walk around our apartment complex. It was 80 degrees outside and felt glorious!! I'm really going to miss the regular walks and incredible beauty when we move to our house.
7:35 We just hung out: worked on this blog post, web surfed, watched Friday Night Lights (SUCH a great show...so many warm fuzzy feelings..and a few tears). Had another thin slice of zucchini banana bread with peanut butter.
10:00 Hopped into bed. I meet with a girl from my church every week at 6 am, so it's gonna be an early morning.
Hope you all have/had a great day!!