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One thing I have learned living the low-carb life, is that I don’t really miss pasta. You can have your favorite dishes without the actual noodles, and still feel completely satisfied. Making these parmesan meatballs and a chicken alfredo dish (recipe to come!!!) has completely taken over our typical “pasta night.”

This recipe is husband and child approved, so buckle up! Plus, you don’t even really need a lot of ingredients on hand and can be altered to fit your needs. It doesn’t photograph well, but trust me, it is delicious!

What You Need

1 lb ground meat (beef, turkey, sausage, pork, combo, it doesn’t matter)

1 egg

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/3 cup grated parmesan

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp minced onion

2 tsp basil

1 tsp salt

1/2 jar red sauce

pepperoni (optional, but highly encouraged)

Italian cheese mix, parmesan or mozzarella for top

What You Do

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Combine meat, egg, mozzarella, grated parmesan, garlic, minced onion, basil and salt to form meatballs. (It usually makes around 12)
3. Bake for 30 minutes
4. Top with sauce, cheese and pepperoni and bake another 15 minutes
5. Switch oven to broil for 3 minutes to really get that toasted cheese taste
6. Enjoy!!!!

As I am sitting in my office typing this up in live time, I can see the sun coming down on the front half of my neighborhood from the window. Hallelujah! The weather didn’t get as bad here yesterday as they predicted, but it still was an ugly day full of uncertainty.

We have slowed down a little at work, so I am hoping to take advantage of some time outside today with Zoe. But also, the state of the real estate market is a huge question mark right now and it makes me uneasy.

I have seen so many people post the Hell Zone twitter post this week. Here it is if you don’t know what I am talking about…

I have to say, I feel like I dip in and out of hell zone. Anyone else?

I have been taking my aggression out on our kitchen floors with the spin mop I ordered last week and a $20 box of powdered Tide. I think we have all fallen hard for the gocleanco account. I posted a story on my mop yesterday, and a local friend who isn’t a blogger was like “OMG I JUST BOUGHT THAT MOP BECAUSE OF THOSE BITCHES! ” So their reach is wide right now. (Can we all agree they work for O-Cedar or Tide??) At least we all have clean houses. Until your three year old spills chocolate milk all over the floor an hour after you cleaned them. My life right now.

Favorite Purchase: After weeks of looking at different outdoor furniture, we ordered some a few days ago! I cannot wait until it comes in!!!! We have an amazing back deck that has plenty of room for all of this, plus a dining table that I want to add later on. I thought I wanted a sectional, and that is what I had been looking at. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided that a couch and chairs was going to be the better route for us and how our deck is set up. I found a picture of it styled, and I have been dreaming of what kind of pillows and side table I want to get. We already have an outdoor rug to go with it!

Favorite Recipe: I made some parmesan meatballs earlier this week that turned out amazing. There are no breadcrumbs so they are keto friendly and super simple. Zoe kept saying “mmm mmmm mmmm these are delicious!!!!” after every bite, and dancing in her chair. So clearly she approves. I will try to share the recipe next week. If you can call it a recipe. They don’t look like much. I wasn’t really planning on sharing a picture, may need to make them again to make them look pretty hahaha.

Favorite Moments: Trying to make the most out of our time at home. And stay sane juggling work and homeschooling and just coming up with things to keep the kid happy. We both have our moments where we are over all this, and sometimes it happens at the same time. Lord help us! But I have really been enjoying quiet afternoons outside.

Or turning Tuesday into a special princess party breakfast, making banana nut muffins and using our fancy cupcake liners left over from Zoe’s birthday.

And these two are pretty sweet together. Even if someone can be a grumpy old man sometimes.

Favorite Funnies:

When you live in the south, you are very passionate about BBQ. Everyone has an opinion on who has the best, and sometimes it is hard to chose because every town has at least a few places. Even where we used to live, where the town radius was like a 3 mile stretch….we had a BBQ place. And it is on the top 5 list for the whole state in my book.

But you know the one issue with eating BBQ when you are trying to lose weight?? The amount of sugar and crap in the sauce. Because lets be honest, the sauce is what you are there for!!! Enter this low carb crock pot BBQ Chicken Recipe!!!

What You Need

Chicken breast (I had just over a pound, get as much as you need. You will have extra sauce.)

15 ounce can tomato sauce

2 TBSP Swerve brown sugar (can replace with real brown sugar or completely omit)

2 TBSP Worchestershire sauce

2 TBSP mustard

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 TBSP onion powder

1 TBSP chili powder

2 TSP Liquid Smoke

1 TSP salt

1 TSP garlic powder

What You Do

Dump it all in the crock pot on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours. Boom! can it be any simpler than that???

I threw some green onion on ours when I plated it for a little extra something something. Chris had his with a side of green beans, I ate mine over half a sweet potato because I am not longer doing keto.

Another weekend, another round of storms here in Alabama. I could do without all the weather anxiety during this pandemic…you know??? Luckily, it never warmed up enough to become unstable in my area. But man, did a loud and angry storm wake me up yesterday morning at 5am!!! The thunder shook the entire house, so I decided to move to the couch with my book. Chris and Zoe both slept in, so I got a few hours to myself for the first time in over a month. It was fabulous. I didn’t do anything but ready and scroll my phone…but that is what I needed. Shout out to Steph and Jana’s readathon for the inspiration.

Saturday morning, Chris and I decided to give Zoe the princess cottage we have kept hidden for a few months. It only took about 15 minutes to put together, and she had so much fun coming in and out of it all weekend with different toys.

We also put together the storage bench that we purchased for our back deck to house all of Zoe’s outdoor toys that were taking over the garage! I was surprised by how much actually fit once it was together! The assembly of this thing was not my favorite, and honestly, Chris told me he is blocking Wayfair on our server so I cant buy anything else from there. LOL. We had to get creative putting together my desk we purchased from there, and my jewelry armoire I got last year came broken. This thing is together, but the quality is lacking for the price. I saw some at Walmart and a few other places that were better quality than this.

Zoe and I finished up getting the yard ready for spring/summer Saturday evening by raking up and moving a huge pile of leaves that were all along the backside of our house. Talk about a workout. One of Zoe’s favorite outdoor toys is a rake she found at Bargain Hunt that she begged us for. I will take advantage of that as long as I can. Similar one found here.

I made keto friendly crockpot BBQ chicken for dinner Saturday. I have to say, I have made a few different versions of keto friendly BBQ sauce based on what I have on hand, and they have been some of our favorite BBQ meals we have made. Much better than bottle sauce, and a lot healthier! I will try to share the recipe I did this weekend, because even Zoe approved and ate like half my chicken.

Here is a PSA, Target is offering 30% off dresses through Tuesday!!! I had to order some essentials this morning, and I also added this gorgeous dress to my order. I have been eyeing it for months now, and so glad I waited to pull the trigger. I don’t usually do longer dresses, but since this isn’t a true maxi, I might actually be able to pull it off.

I purchased this ruffle hem dress a few months ago (in leopard but all the colors/prints are pretty in person), and it is so cute! You definitely want to size down. You can score it for under $20 right now!

I think this white Wild Fable dress is adorable. but I am not sure about the fit for me. It is also under $20 right now!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Here is to another week in quarantine and our new “normal.”

Happy Friday!!!! Does it even matter that it is Friday anymore? To me I suppose it does, that means I have two days where I don’t have to juggle work into my day. But I usually end up doing some work in the mornings before Zoe wakes up on the weekends to make up for the interruptions I get during the week.

The weather here has been amazing this week. Mostly sunny and in the 60s. We have spent a lot of time outside, with Zoe riding her new bike around our driveway while I walk circles. I have gotten over an hour of “exercise” time in everyday doing that on top my normal workout.

Yesterday was a hard day. I have had zero alone time for over a month now. I cant even shower alone anymore, because I made the mistake of having Zoe jump in with me one evening and now she wants to every single time. Any other moms feeling like they might break soon??? I get about 45 minutes of a workout in by myself at 5am, but then I have to start working before Zoe wakes up to get an hour or two of uninterrupted work in. I definitely don’t count that as alone time.

Favorite Part of My Day: Burning this Tobacco Flower candle every morning while I have my coffee in my office before Zoe wakes up. It came in on Monday, and I have burned it every morning. First of all, can we talk about how gorgeous it is??? The smell is amazing!!! I burn it for an hour or two every morning…and when I come in my office late in the day…I can still smell it. LOVE!!!!!

Favorite Purchase: I dont know what it is about the tile floors in this house, but I cannot keep them clean. I have decided that I am going to have to go back to an old fashioned mop and bucket. After doing extensive research on several different ones, I chose the O-Cedar Spin Mop. It has a ton of good reviews, and it seems relatively easy to find replacement heads for it that wont break the bank. I will report back after a month or so of using it to let you know!

Speaking of cleaning, what I can recommend after about 6 months of using, is the Shark Navigator vacuum!!! I was looking into Dyson, but several people said they aren’t what they used to be. I like my shark hand held that I had for years, so I figured why not. This vacuum just feels like it is built sturdy. You can definitely tell as it maneuvers around that it was made with a lot of thought behind it. I love that the center detaches and you can easily carry it around to do the stairs, curtains, hard to reach areas, your car, etc. Plus it’s pretty.

Favorite Recipe: I found this recipe for Disney’s Dole Whip and I cant wait to try it!!! This will be perfect for a nice spring/summer treat on the weekend!

Favorite Workout: Rebecca has us doing 50 reps each in this leg workout. Basically they feel like they are going to fall off, but in a good way.

And then if you want your shoulders to hurt for two days….try this one. I didn’t feel my abs as much as my arms!! I also played Just Dance several times after doing this workout, so that might be the real issue.

Favorite Funnies: