Momcation, Part 2: The Keys!!

We dropped my mom off at the airport and she's currently in the sky. We had a great time this week, especially at Anne's Beach in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. I love this spot for it's proximity, it's calm shallow waters, and for its feeling of exclusivity. We visit this beach quite a bit. It's literally right in the middle of the ocean. 

We had the best day kicking back beers and waters, playing frisbee and playing in the warm waters of the Atlantic.

We stayed at Harbor Lights Motel this time. A motel on an island is automatically better than a motel on the main land! Relaxing around:

 Breakfast of pastries and fruit. One of the many mangoes we consumed this week.

Bully found some time in his busy schedule to relax.

More family portraits!

 At the Wild Bird Sanctuary:

We called this bird Pickles. We loved watching his sweet bent beak & claws extract the sunflower seeds we were feeding him.

Family Portrait time again:

 Did you know Islamorada is the Sport fishing Capital of the World?

 At the Pier of the Islander Resort. It takes forever for a fisherman to explain what chum is. But I figured it out. We caught 4 fish and a crab!

  Highlights of the trip:

  Mom's: everything. 

Mine: Anne's Beach. 

Shawn's: exploring shops

Shops and restaurants along the Overseas Hwy look cheesy from the outside. Very deceiving!  We enjoyed Bentley's Seafood Restaurant, Bitton's Bistro Cafe, and Lattitude 25 (you can see Shawn & Bully on their Facebook Page, btw.)

 and we can't forget the Shula Burger. Here's my Shula Salad. It's basically a burger with out a bun. It's perfect because it comes with 5 fries and 3 onion rings. I only half as guilty eating it.

We had the best time. For only being an hour and a half away, it's the best escape from another paradise that is Ft. Lauderdale. If you visit us, we'll share our favorite places with you, and will be willing to discover more! 

'Till Next time!

 Later, 

LRW

Momcation, Part 1

Here we are at Chuck's Steakhouse. Photo via Instagram after a BeautifulMess App touch up.

Here is this household, Momcation, means my mom visits for a week. Shawn & I take a vacation from work and host her or go on a short road trip. Momcation means mom, mangoes, and  May (or June). She basically babies us by cooking. Our pantry is full, our fridge is full, and so are our hearts.

Momcation is like a break from adulthood!

My momma arrived and we weren't quite ready for her. It takes a visitor to get us to get our butts in gear, meaning she should visit more often. Shawn spent the majority of the day transporting a sleeper sofa to the house. Then, after dinner, they spent the majority of the evening trying to squeeze it into the guest room. There was lots of hammering and some dismantling. In the end, she slept on the couch. (I offered our room, to be fair, but she said the couch was very comfy. I am a good kid, I swear!) I snapped a pic from said comfy couch:

I am a good kid, but a little lazy after dinner. Also, three's company when you're squeezing a couch into a narrow doorway. Lots of stray fingers.

The next day was a thunderstorm of a mess. It rained all afternoon and foiled some plans. So we watched the Great Gatsby beached it up the next day.

                 Shawn's helping her face the waves-sooooo sweet!

 And the the clouds come

 Here in South Florida, we calculate the best "beach hours" by checking the hourly forecast.
The later part of the day was all about checking out Farmer's Markets, Nurseries, Sawgrass Mills mall, the Italian market, and the Asian Market. 

 Here we are at Flamingo Gardens looking at mango trees. I forgot to mention the first thing my mom did the morning after we arrived was buy 24 mangoes from our neighbor. We're deep on mango madness here. Shawn expects a cubed mango after ever meal now.

 Anyway, it's dinnertime (mom's cooking is another post), so I'll write about our trip to the Keys soon!

Love,

LRW

Superfood smoothie

Playing with the new #Abeautifulmess photo app. Oops, its a lil off!

 My hubby had been diligently working on the house this week. We're crossing a few things off the to do list while we prepare for my mom's visit next week. I knew he needed a super breakfast.

Smoothie:

a mango

2 Leaves of Kale

Handful of spinach

14 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Pinch of chia & flax seeds

3/4 cup of almond milk

1/2 cup of orange juice.

I just interviewed him:

Me: Did you like your smoothie?

Him: Mmmm hmmm

Me: What did it taste like?

Him: a nice little fruity veggie flavor.

(Little does he know I sometimes blog in real time.)

Also: he just told our dog "Mamma makes the best french toast. I want to kiss you in the mouth"

and that's our family.

Coconut french toast

Today's smoothie

looks like mud.

But tastes like banana!

Handfull of spinach

1/3 of a large carrot (chopped)

pulse

6 slices of frozen peaches

5 frozen strawberries

pinch of chia seeds

half a banana

3 oz almond milk

blend

Makes 2 smoothies. 

He liked it.

This morning's walk

got me some free mangoes!

Here I'm cubing and freezing for smoothies.

Hooray for street food! 

Tacos so good we forgot to take pictures and other weekend highlights

Our Cinco de Mayo was a success. I made the bean, corn & quinoa tacos from yesterday's post. They were so  surprisingly delish, that thought of photographing, as aforementioned, didn't even cross our minds. This was only my second quinoa experience, and my hubby & friends first.

Oh, wait, here's some prep photos:

 But no actual pic of the taco. Please refer to Cooking Classy's post to fulfill that desire. I followed this recipe with the substitution of pinto beans because that's what I had in my pantry. I recommend organic canned beans if you don't have all night to soak your beans and a few good hours the next day to cook them. These pintos from Aldi were large and tough, but they were a good value. I also used organic blue corn tacos & chips, lettuce, tomato, sour cream and sharp cheddar. My friends loved them and went for seconds. No one had room for the chicken fajitas second course!

A good point was made during tonight's diner. Most of what we made was from Pinterest. It's a life changer.

Not my salsa, though, the recipe is straight from the archives of my head.

 Ingredients:
-Handful of cilantro
-pint of grape tomatoes
- small can of diced tomatoes and chiles
-half or less of jalapeno
-juice of a lime
-half an onion

In a food processor, pulse the grape tomatoes and canned until chopped and chunky. I drained some of the juice, but If you like more liquid, skip it. Add the onions, cilantro, jalapeno, and lime juice and blend until you have small scoopable chunks! Mine turned out really spicy. Use less jalapeno if this is a concern. Skip it all together if you are making this for my mother in law. She hates spicy!

 And that made about 6 servings!


On Saturday, Shawn and I ran the Big Cardio 5k. I actually ran it and finished not last, but second to last in my age group! I finished in 42 minutes. Whoo hoo for a non-runner!

 Cheesing and a sweating with our friend.

 Shawn finished 10th in his age group, an 8 minute mile. Not bad for his first 5k.

 The remainder of the weekend was spent watching the Mayweather fight, napping, going to Home Depot, and fertilizing our palms. Can we have more weekends off together please, Universe ;)

Happy Cinco de Mayo

 Bully's ready to celebrate this day of Mexican Pride!

He knows his momma was Mexican in another life by the way she eats.

 The Fifth of May is not Mexico's independence day, but in fact, small Mexican army's victory over France, according to the History Channel (and they know what they're talking about). We in the States just like to drink beer and eat food on this day. So that's what we're gonna do!

I'll let you know later how the Pinto bean and Quinoa tacos turn out...
 
In the meantime, enjoy a 1994 flashback via Liz Phair, my favorite indifferent indie queen from my adolescent days:

Smoothies

Loving smoothies lately. Drinking one right now, in fact. This one has spinach, asparagus ( the hubby's idea), cranberry juice, a little almond milk, berries, and peaches.

My favorite combinations so far:

.  -half a banana 

-handful of spinach

-handful of kale

-pinch of chia seeds

-frozen pineapple

-strawberries

-3oz of almond milk or more if you like a liquid smoothie

For more fabulous recipes see the Glitter Guide's post:

Detox Smoothies You'll Love

 and

Say Yes to Happy's post

Smoothie recipes for everything

   Here's a little anectdote: My family had a fruit shop when I was growing up in Downtown Atlanta. I worked there from age 13 until the summers home from college. My dad perfected his smoothie recipes and that was one of our trademarks. The summer of the 1996 Olympic games, I probably made over 1000 smoothies. I longed to be somewhere else, but it was a good experience and it kept me off the streets. Wait, no it didn't. It kept me on the streets of downtown Atlanta, but kept me out of the mall. I loved Fridays, when I got my weekly $300 and went to Lenox Square for a shirt at Banana Republic.

  Since perfecting the smoothie at Grace & Leilani's (our store's real name) I can always concoct the best combinations of fruits. And I'm always judging others when I go grab one from a cafe. The mark of a good smoothie starts when the blender stops and they pour it in the glass. If there's some left over in the blender they've miscalculated and sacrificed the flavor of your drink by diluting it. I hate that! 

Go drink some fruit!

Mango Madness has begun

The best part about living in south Florida is the flora & fauna. Every dog walk is very interesting as I try to figure out things such as airplants.

 The bougainvillea and fragipani is in full bloom right now and the mangoes are beginning to fall off the trees. My neighbor has put up her "Sale: 3 for $1" sign on her front bench with a pile of felled mangoes. I had my first local, I mean really local, mango the other day. It was so sweet and stringy, the kinds that leaves you a little orangy mess.

Like I sad before in this post, mango season means my mom visits. Right now she's in Greece and I'm a little jealous, but I know we'll have a blast making mango smoothies in a few weeks!

I'm kinda obsessed with Instagram and instaframe apps. I'm always late to the party, but I catch up pretty quickly.  I may never pick up my camera again. Follow me here!