It's All True

How can so many things be true at the same time? My brain is having a hard time coping with all of the information it's been receiving. Let me give you a few examples:

My daughter is finally potty-trained (praise be, Hallelujah!).

Beyonce walked the red carpet at the Met Gala... alone.

My 16-month-old's favorite word is "cheese" and she says it every time she sees a phone because she assumes it will be used to take a picture of her.

Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican party. 

It's time to plant my early crops in my vegetable garden even though warm weather may never actually arrive.

Jojo Gaines is officially the coolest woman alive. 

Mother's Day is this weekend and OMG I love my mom and need to send her something.

We don't hear even a quarter of what is actually going on in this world on the news.

Just finished a presentation to a group of Beachbody coaches about expanding their reach.

Princess Kate was on the cover of British Vogue and HOW DO I GET A COPY?

My husband is residing our house beginning this summer and the scaffolding he ordered just arrived.

I just heard a piece on NPR about two Syrian families living in refugee camps in Macedonia with their children and I just cannot imagine.

I think Charlotte may be getting ready to give up her afternoon nap. She is over 3, after all.

One of the children from the NPR story sits on her father's lap while he strokes her hair. She just vomited from food poisoning - a soup kitchen's egg sandwich.

Harper is just like her older sister- loves her warm milk after her nap. My sweet 16-month-old sitting with her big sister on the couch makes my heart swell.

One of the father's at the camp in Macedonia traveled with the rest of his family from Syria. The father and their 6-month-old daughter were separated from the rest of the family while being loaded onto boats. Rather than being breastfed, she drinks milk out of a bottle on his lap as he wonders how they will reunite with her mother. 

How can all of these thoughts coexist? How can all these realities coexist? How on earth can there be so much abundance and so much lack? How can there be so much beauty and so much need? So much silliness and so much gravity? 

I have no answers, I offer no wisdom. I'm just here witnessing to the fact that this world of ours is a paradox and we dwell in it. That when we open ourselves up to the extremities, we open ourselves up to the truth. It's all true. All of it.

We exist in paradox. We care about silly little things and huge, world-changing things. We get stuck in the weeds of every day life but also see the landscape of our time. And you know what? It's all true. It's all real. 

And if that makes you feel crazy sometimes, you're not alone. 

Easy One Pan Dinner: Roasted Pork Chops with Brussels Sprouts and Carrot & Sweet Potato Fries

Another super easy dinner that is easy to make COMPLETELY carb free if you want.

Ingredients, Serves 2
2 boneless pork chops, about 1 inch thick (about .5 lb)
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into "fries"
1 sweet potato, cut into "fries"
2 cups Brussels sprouts, peeled, trimmed and halved
Olive oil (I use a sprayer)
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 and line baking sheet with tin foil. Spray tin foil with olive oil and layer on carrots, sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Spray on a little more olive oil, mixing around to coat. Roast for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and mix up, turning over well. Create space for pork chops and place pork chops on pan, roasting the whole thing for another 15 minutes, until pork chops are cooked through. SO easy to clean up.

1 red container
2-3 green containers
1 yellow container

Easy Dinner: One Pan Roasted Salmon & Sides

Easiest dinner ever. Cleanest dinner ever, too! And I NEVER feel that way about cooking fish!

Ingredients, serves 2

Salmon fillets, 1/2 lb
Asparagus, enough for two!
Red Potatoes, small or halved
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
Optional seasoning for salmon (I like Chef Paul's Black Fish Magic - available at grocery stores)

Preheat oven to 400. Lay tin foil over top of baking sheet. Using an olive oil sprayer, coat potatoes and onions in oil. Roast for 15-18 minutes. Remove and mix up!
Use your olive oil sprayer to coat the asparagus and the top of the salmon (this is when I add my seasoning, too!). Place both on same baking sheet and place back in oven, cooking it all for another 15-18 minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy!

1 red container
1 yellow container
1 green container

Big Mama little person

Never before have I experienced my own worth more than when I become a mother. From day one of pregnancy, my body created this tiny human being that now walks outside of my body. If I didn't exist, she wouldn't either. My existence was also integral to her little life for her first few months. Because I decided to breastfeed (but, let's be honest, even if I hadn't), I kept my little one alive. Her very breath depended on my reassuring presence. I was straight up VIP.

Photo credit: Mallory Parkington Photography

After giving birth to my first daughter, I was out and about on my own (at Target, obviously) and I had a morbid thought: Well, officially nothing can happen to me now because I am just too important. Some of this was the hormones talking (never before had they been so. very. opinionated.) but some of it was my new reality. I had graduated from just being loved (which is an amazing privilege given to me by my parents, my husband and my friends) to being absolutely and utterly needed.
Oh my word, it was overwhelming. I was needed. Really needed. I was the one who knew what to do when she cried, how to get her to sleep and when to feed her. As much as my husband was so wonderful during those early days and weeks, it still felt like a one-woman-show much of the time.
Talk about feeling so valuable, so necessary! I was bigger than big. My purpose was abundantly clear and my feeling of self-worth skyrocketed. I was MOM. I transitioned from being a woman, a wife, a friend (and whatever else) to this superhuman, life-giving, diaper-changing sleepless NINJA. Those early weeks and months when you don't know which way is up? Yes, I was seriously, a freaking ninja.
Yet something else was happening to me at the same time. As I was becoming this larger-than-life mother, my sense of my own unique personhood shrank. Things I did before I was a mom fell to the wayside. Some of this was necessary. You can't teach a yoga class with a 3-day-old baby, for example. I wasn't going to pop on over to my blog in the middle of breastfeeding my newborn to hammer out an entry. I couldn't "be there" for my friends like I had been before (few will go to the lady with a brand new baby for emotional support).
All of this shrinkage (gosh, such a weird word to use but I'm committing) was 100% normal and healthy for a short time period. The newborn haze is exactly when this NEEDS to happen because a) you need to figure out what the @#*% you're doing and b) you need to take a respite from who you were before to figure our who you're going to be.
Once the dust settles and the world makes a little more sense again (and this may take anywhere from 3 weeks to 18 years...), the two parts of you can coexist once again. Or at least start to.
Your needs as a person will begin to be met again. Hell, you'll even be able to recognize what those needs actually ARE again.
In addition to your needs, your wants and desires will be once again recognizable. Thank goodness! Not that catering to the wants and desires of tiny humans isn't amazing and life-giving but they are not the only wants and desires that are important. There is a season where you come secondary to the wee one(s) you create but that season is NOT all the time, in my humble opinion.
Once you step out of the haze that IS that season of life (and a truly blessed season, indeed), it is time to work on joining your identities. Rather than leading a dual life (woman by day, ninja mom by night), I believe that we don't need alter egos. That all that we are can coexist. Actually, I believe that if you go after what you want, have your own needs and even desires met, then you'll be an even better mom than ever.
But this takes time, I think. The season of tiny babies -- of being "in the weeds" with the wee ones -- is an intense one. Incredible? Yes. Intense? You betcha.
I don't know exactly when I came out of that season but, when I did, it felt like I was breathing new air. I was so "in" my early motherhood that I lost my tight grip on my personhood. Myself as a mother eclipsed myself as a person rather than just having the two merge.
I think this is normal and even, perhaps, what is "supposed to happen". We have to become larger-than-life mothers in the early stages of the game and, because it is such an immense privilege to take on that role, other things have to take a backseat (like washing my hair, for example).
But we also have to learn how to meld that amazing new identity we have as mothers with the rest of ourselves, or else we risk losing those parts. Parts of us that our children would be privileged to know! The parts of us our friends know, our spouses know and even our employers. The parts of ourselves we may be missing immensely, even though we might not realize it in the newborn haze.
I am beyond grateful to be a mother. It is a gift and a truly the most meaningful role I might play here on this earth. It's certainly the role that has brought me the most joy and I'm excited for all joy it will continue to bring me.

Baked Chicken Mozzarella with Basil

This is a great healthy version of Chicken Parmigiana that will make its way into your weekly menu! I served mine over zoodles to keep it super fix-friendly but served it with pasta for the rest of my family.

Serves 4

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into strips

4 tomatoes, sliced

Fresh basil

1 cup fresh mozzarella

2 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup marinara sauce

Optional: Panko breadcrumbs

2 zucchini, spiralized

Preheat oven to 350. Pour marinara over bottom of casserole dish to coat. Layer chicken over top and, if you are using the Panko crumbs, sprinkle on about 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Lay spinach and basil leaves over top, a thick layer is ok! Top with tomato slices and a generous helping of mozzarella. Bake for 35 minutes, finishing with a 2-3 minute high broil to brown the top.

Heat raw zucchini in pan over high heat for about 2 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

1 red container

1 green container

1/4 purple container (depending on the kind of marinara you use! Here is my clean tomato sauce recipe)

1/4-1/2 yellow container (if you use breadcrumbs)

5 Tips for Eating Clean

Eating clean is ALL THE RAGE right now. This is so funny to me because at the beginning of this century, eating clean was the only way to go. Meaning, it was the only option! You see, eating clean means avoiding processed foods and sugars and those things didn't even come on the scene until the 1940s. So basically what we are doing is going back to the basics. It's really quite hipster of us. Yet, trendy as it is, our bodies will thank us.

Here are some of my favorite tips for eating clean:

1. Make Your Own. Take almond milk, for example. So much of what you find at the grocery store is filled with extra stuff I can't even pronounce. Have a sweet tooth? Make your own treats from scratch! I have two little lady monsters running around that are always dying to make a mess help me out in the kitchen. 
2. Read the Label. This one seems like a no-brainer but we really really really need to get in the habit of reading what's IN our food. If you don't know what it is or if the ingredient list is really long, be skeptical. BE VERY SKEPTICAL. Especially if it's something like pasta which should have about 3 ingredients in it. 
3. Shop the perimeter of the supermarket. This is my absolute favorite tip from food expert and U.S. food policy critic Michael Pollan. The best stuff is around the edge and should be 90% of your cart! 
4. Don't eat in front of the television. Once you sit down on that couch, mindful eating goes out the window. And there is something about your favorite show that makes you reach for something with a crinkly package...
5. Start a meal with greens. I don't always do this (for example, if my meal is a salad this would be just silly) but it's a good one. Before I eat, I will frequently serve myself a big handful of greens with a little olive oil and vinegar. I eat this first and then head for the rest of my meal. I invite my body to feast on the really valuable stuff first (leafy greens are just about the perfect food) and then dig into my proteins and the rest. 

Eating clean shouldn't be as hard as it is. We should be able to shop without scouring the labels like a crazy person. We should be able to trust that there aren't superfluous ingredients in our food. We should be able to eat our food without wondering whether or not there are hidden additives that will make us keep eating it. 

We should be able to do a lot of things when it comes to food but we can't. In the meantime, do your best and follow these tips! Happy CLEAN eating!

Easy Vegetarian Lunch

Enjoy this great vegetarian dish! It's also an easy meal-for-one.

Ingredients, serves 1
2 eggs
1/2 red onion, chopped into large chunks
1/2 bell pepper, chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
Olive oil
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 375.
Toss vegetables in olive oil or use an olive oil sprayer. Combine with goat cheese and add the mixture to a small crock or baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
Crack eggs over top of vegetables and return to oven for another 15 minutes. Eat as is, with whole-wheat toast, over quinoa or with couscous.