Welcome to our House!

We live in the country in an old farm house. It's actually the house that I grew up in! Slowly but surely we are remodeling it room by room. It's been a little hectic, a little crazy, and so far a 3 year project! This is where I will be keeping track of our progress!

Facebook!

Hey guys, I made another easy way for you all to keep track of when I post new recipes!

Just head over to

https://www.facebook.com/LifeasTayy

Like my page, and I'll be sure to update every time a new one is added!

Thank you for all of your support!

Intro:

Since these guys are the bee's knees, I figured I out to introduce you all to them!

This is my husband, legal name 'Patrick'

But I will forever call him Patches, Patty, Patty Cakes, Patty Mayonnaise

And when he gets cranky, Krabby Patty.

This is my 7 year old, Aiden, 

and if I had to find a picture that sums him up,

this would be it.

He's sweet, and funny, and enthusiastic about EVERYTHING!

He is just all around outgoing, and a real people person.

Also, he has a pretty awesome hat collection!

This is Liam, he's 4!

He is one strong-willed little guy.

He's stubborn and on occasion, high strung, just like his momma.

He's smart, and courageous and very opinionated.

He also says some of the funniest stuff you could ever imagine,

and he LOVES music!

This is Carter, but we call him Burrito around here!

He is now 4 1/2 months old!

He is just the happiest baby I've ever seen, and has some pretty amazing hair under that hat.

Seriously, I'm pretty sure he's Elvis, reincarnated.

And he loves the word bacon, if you need more proof.

Hope you guys enjoyed "meeting" the gents!

Sunday Funday!

Well Sunday was fun! We drove to a pub named The Celtic Harp, it's about am hour from our house to hang with some friends. I managed to safely avoid everything but water and some AMAZING roasted chicken! One of the people working there recommended it and boy am I glad he did! I wish I had taken a picture, because it was amazing! If you live in New York, seriously, check it out! Everyone else was having booze and tomato pie, but I was D.D. and on top of that I'm not really a liquor drinker, so none of my preferred are low carb. It was a school night so we only stayed until around 7 so we could get home to the kids at a reasonable time. Aiden went to play at my cousin's and baby Burrito went to my other cousin's house to hang with his wife. It was my first time splitting the kids up like that, but they each have several of their own, so it was easiest and worked out just fine! 

It was also my mom's 35th (50th hehe) birthday, and since she lives in North Carolina now, I got around 60 of my friends to send her a birthday message/pics to her facebook. Also, now all of my friends think she's hot which she certainly found humorous! Anywho, there was about 40 of us that were able to make it, so here's a few pictures of the shenanigans!

Hooray for props!

This was as nice as it was going to get.

Courtney and I got a good laugh out of this one,

I think it looks like I'm yelling at her

And she looks like she's getting ready to sock me.

And of course I was the only one paying attention.

And Sean and I decided to make a hip hop album cover photo.

Chicken and "Dumplings"

I received a special request to do a low carb version of chicken and dumplings and I'm hoping I hit the nail on the head for Dawn Roberts! I decided to make a large batch so that I can freeze some of it to pull out for quick easy meals! With the following ingredients you should be able to get 12 big bowls at 6 carbs each!

Ingredients:

• 5 cups of bone broth
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1 16 oz bag of baby carrots
• 1 10 oz box of Birdseye chopped, frozen, spinach
• 1 large yellow onion
• 8 oz frozen cauliflower
• 1 rotisserie chicken dissected and chopped (or whatever cooked chicken you have on hand)
• 4 tbs (1/2 stick) of butter (I used salted)
• 2 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tbs parsley flakes
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

*Note because I made extra for freezing, I did not add cauliflower to it, I think to keep it from getting overcooked it would be easiest to add the cauliflower to the individual bowls when you defrost it. If you plan on scaling down the recipe for a one night dinner, be sure to add 1/2 cup of cooked cauliflower per serving, for 2 net carbs.

Directions:

Put butter in large stock pot and turn heat on low. Chop onions, celery and carrots, add to butter. Turn the heat up to medium, put lid on pan and cook for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in the microwave or on the stove, steam your cauliflower until it is VERY tender. Keep in mind, we will be mashing it up!

This is how my veggies looked once I tossed them in.

This is the cauliflower after I cooked and strained it.

After the veggies have cooked for a good 10 minutes, add garlic, and chicken broth. Let it cook for another 10 minutes on medium-high. In the meantime, add the heavy cream to the cauliflower and mash. I actually used my new Nutri-bullet for this step. The goal is to use this as a thickening agent for the broth, so it really needs to be liquefied. After the veggies have cooked for 10 minutes, add the cream/cauliflower mixture to the soup. Add the spinach and chicken and cook for another 10 minutes on medium. Add the parsley, thyme and nutmeg. Salt and pepper to taste. I kept my veggies a bit under-cooked so that when I pull it out to re-heat they don't turn to mush. If you're making this for just a single dinner, I would cook the veggies for an extra 5 minutes.

This is how mine looked (sans cauliflower to sub for dumplings)

And here is the small bowl I made for Aiden! (I tossed a few pieces of cauliflower in there) For a kid who hates veggies, he sure did kill it pretty fast. :)

And I may have ended up grabbing a bowl for myself! ;)

So there is my take on chicken and dumplings. Honestly, with all of those amazing veggies I didn't even miss the dumplings! I hope you guys enjoy!

REAL Chicken Parm!!!

Who the heck decided on the name Chicken Parmesan? You Google it, you go to a restaurant and order it and you always get the same thing A breaded piece of chicken with some sauce and mozzarella cheese. Maybe Chicken Mozzarella doesn't have the same ring to it? Well let me tell you ladies and gents, I have seen the light! And upon this blindness I have come up with a recipe for REAL chicken PARMESAN!!

Seriously, upon going low carb, the biggest thing I've missed is saucy cheesy Italian American food. This is by far the best low carb meal I've ever had and yes, that includes anything made with bacon! Whether you're low carb or not, you're going to want to try this!! Also, total net carbs are only 5!!!!

Ingredients:

• Oil for pan frying
• Chicken breasts (I used 3)
• Sauce of choice (I used 'Trader Giotto's organic spaghetti sauce)
• 3 oz Mozzarella Cheese
• 4 oz Parmesan cheese blend (I used Trader Giotto's Quatro Formaggio)

For Breading:

• 1/2 cup Carbquick mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 water
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder

(chicken not pictured)

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix together all ingredients for breading. It should wind up looking something like this:

Get out your frying pan and dump enough oil is there to make it approx. 1/2 inch deep. I used my small frying pan and did them one at a time. I feel like it cooks more evenly and it wastes less oil! Start heating the oil while you get your battering station set up.

(This is how mine looked)

As you see I took a small plate and put the Parmesan cheese blend on it. I took the chicken breasts, dredged it in the batter and then coated it in cheese! Next step was frying!

How's that for action shots?!

While these were frying I took my sheet pan and sprayed it with some cooking spray. And then put the chicken on there one by one to get ready for baking. As you can see I didn't get my breading very dark. The reason why is because it's going to continue to darken and crisp in the oven and I didn't want it to burn before the chicken cooked through.

This is how they looked going into the oven.

I cooked them for 17 minutes, flipped and cooked for another 7 minutes. Then I pulled them out, added some sauce and cheese, and popped them back in until melted. I used 1/2 serving of sauce, which was actually a lot!!

 Mine is that bad boy all the way to the right!

And that beautiful cheese

I had mine served with broccoli covered in butter,

 while the gents of the house had spaghetti.

And the final result!

Seriously, I think this chicken could create World Peace. I think this is going to be the official food for every occasion. Break ups, weddings, pregnancy, you name it. This chicken should present itself, because it is THAT good! Would love you guys to try it and let me know what you think!

Recipe Suggestions

Hey guys and gals! As you know, I've been playing around in my kitchen a lot lately coming up with new low carb recipes. I have TONS of ideas still, but what I wanna know is: What is one food that you love that isn't low carb?! I'd love to try and make a low carb version of it. I'm all about trying to find realistic ways for people to stick to this lifestyle, and all I ever see is people saying they're sick of eating the same ole' stuff! So stop reading this, and get to the comments! Tell me what you'd like to see!!

If you can't think of anything, just enjoy this ridiculously awful picture of me and the hubs.