Strawberry fields forever

Last week we went strawberry picking and came home with 5 POUNDS of strawberries.  Fresh berries are incredible, let me tell you.  P would agree – he ate a lot before they made their way to the bucket.

So what do you do with five pounds of berries?  Well, eat them raw mostly.  They are just so freakin’ good we have been having them with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  But besides that, I decided this chia jam was next on the list.  I don’t have the My New Roots cookbook, but I want it now!

I wish the photos properly showed off the brilliant color of this jam!

I tested out a sling while washing and de-stemming.  She was into it.

Do you see this luscious red?  BEYOND.

Obviously I made a few jars – some for the freezer so in a few months I don’t have withdrawal issues.

Side note: I may have added an extra scoop or two of chia seeds because I like a thick spreadable jam.

The next morning P and I sampled some.

On GF bread.

Winner.

I bet it would be really good stirred into oats or yogurt, or spread atop waffles.  Which is great since all of those have been on breakfast rotation this past week…and now will be even more exciting to eat!

Here’s to steel cut oats in the crock pot!  I had two really rough mornings last week (see below) and the root of the problem was I couldn’t get breakfast into my face at a reasonable time.  So I turned to my fabulous slow cooker recipe for steel cut oats.

It doesn’t look like much when photographed in the dim light the night before, but the next morning it is sooooo money to have a hot warm breakfast ready to go.

Kyle had some too (above), but I saved the edge pieces – the ones that get all hard and crispy from the crock pot – for myself.  Is that weird?

See those brown toasted chunks?  So good.  I drowned the whole thing in sun butter that I thinned a bit with coconut milk so it was like a saucy mess of heaven with each bite.

Can you imagine what it would be like with strawberry chia jam too!?  Kinda like a sun butter and jelly sandwich in oatmeal form, that’s what.  Coming soon.

As for the waffles.  Well, they were P’s request and I’m so glad I made a ton to freeze because waffles on demand are a hard thing to do with a newborn’s routine that you are just learning to balance with everyone else’s.  We are down to just a few more waffles because P and I have been splitting them on a regular basis.  I may have to do a bulk batch some weekend soon.

He’s a fan, that’s for sure.

This was the rather miserable scene from our Thursday morning, as I attempted to eat my own breakfast while swinging a crying V.  It was way past when I should have been eating breakfast because I’m nursing and need food at insanely frequent intervals but was focused on feeding the kiddos.  As you can see P is happily done with his meal and watching Sesame Street in the above photo.  I don’t even care if others judge me for putting on an episode while I eat, it is what it is.  He doesn’t watch any other TV so I am fine it.  Plus it affords me a very very valuable 40 minutes.

But as crappy as Thursday was it had nothing on Wednesday.  I ate the above yogurt (greek coconut with all the seeds and nuts and toppings I could find in the pantry) for breakfast at 11:30 with V in the ergo.  I was alternating bites with swaying while standing at the kitchen counter and dashing to the toy room to play with P.  Ridiculous.

I say this not to beg for sympathy, but just to present to you the unfiltered reality of my life.  I do NOT have it all together.  Like everyone else, I like showing happy pictures of my family doing cute stuff on social media because it’s fun to share those good moments, but make no mistake it’s not all rainbows and butterflies all the live long day.  However, I’m getting better and better every day and have shining moments of mothering awesomeness in between.  It’s hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  My kids are my everything and on average we are rocking it as a threesome while Kyle’s at work.

And then on the weekends I get to take the time to fry eggs for myself because Kyle’s around with two extra hands.

I had the above both Saturday and Sunday (two fried eggs with lactose free sour cream quinoa and sweet potatoes).  The only way to improve upon it would have been to add avocado (but we didn’t have any ripe ones).  I think sour cream and mayo are such underrated and underutilized condiments.  I’m a big advocate of adding them atop and in more dishes.