The end of spring and beginning of summer mark the anticipated start of barbeque season for me and my family! One of my favorite summer meals is fresh salmon or halibut with corn on the cob and a big salad. Simply thinking of that meal makes my mouth water and then I start craving fish. I don’t always have a fresh cut of fish on hand but I do always have canned salmon- which is what sparked my love of salmon patties. Bonus: I can whip them up anytime! Here is my keto friendly recipe which was adapted from my mom’s famous salmon patties. Enjoy!
Salmon Patty Recipe
2 – canned salmon (I buy my canned salmon from Costco) 1 – large egg ⅔ cups almond flour ⅓ cup avocado mayo ¼ cup or less – fine chopped sweet/yellow onions (I like to lightly saute my onions) Sprinkle of dill, salt, and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spray baking sheet or line with a silicone non-stick baking mat. Form salmon mixture into a ball and then squish into a patty. Bake for 20 minutes.
Pro tip: Eat the salmon patties the same day or the day after. I learned the hard way when my salmon patties dried out after a few days in the fridge.
My favorite side to the salmon patties are salad, steamed broccoli, or asparagus. Please comment below if you end up trying out this recipe!
I don’t have a lot of fancy words to use for this recipe. It’s good. It’s easy. It’s Keto. It’s freaking delicious. AND it’s filling. It’s perfect for an easy spring and summer time meal because the prep is minimal so you can spend more time outside!
Without further ado:
Kendall’s Easy Keto Pizza
Ingredients: – ZeroCarb LYFE Pizza Crust (1 per person but please note all orders are 6 packs of 8 inch crusts) – Rao’s Pizza Sauce (this is a super important Keto staple to have in any pantry) – Pepperoni (use your favorite- I like whatever Trader Joes sells) – Cooked Breakfast Sausage (I get mine from Butcher Box but you can use any favorite) – Bell Peppers (I prefer green!) – Sliced Baby Bella Mushrooms (LOVE the taste of these, but once again, use any mushroom you like) – Mozzarella (I love Trader Joes mozzarella or Cabot) – Parmesan (I like shredding a fancy block of parm but in a pinch I really like the shredded parmesan at Trader Joe’s)
Does anyone think I may have a Trader Joe’s problem?
Instructions: – Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F (and no, that’s not a typo- high heat is called for!) – The ZeroCarb LYFE crusts are supposed to be kept in the freezer- give yourself a little time to defrost them a bit so that you can securely pull them apart. If you attempt to do this while they are still rock solid, you will just rip them to pieces. – Once you have your crusts, put your desired amount of sauce on the crust (it’s cool that the crust may still be a little frozen) – Follow that up by covering your sauce with a mozzarella and parmesan medley – Add the pepperoni and sausage – Next, layer on the bell peppers and shrooms – VOILA! Pop your pizza on a stone or pan and put in your toasty oven for 6-8 minutes. Keep an eye on it. Then, presto! Your pizza is ready to eat.
I let mine cool for about 4-5 minutes before slicing. I am making this for dinner tonight AND I CANNOT WAIT!
The summer is really sneaking up on us and if you haven’t already booked your camping spots, then you should soon! As an avid camper, I have learned a thing or two from my many times camping but it’s no joke to start camping with kids. First off, car camping and backpacking are EXTREMELY different. Secondly, I am sure I still have a lot to learn about camping with kids as they get older but last year I felt like we won the camping experience lottery with our trip to Winthrop, WA and I am going to unpack a few tips and tricks I learned from that particular journey.
1. Snacks! All the typical kid-favorite snacks, plus some healthy options like pre-cut fruit & veggies, and never forget the power of ice cold water & La Croix! The kids each have their favorite snacks and meals. I planned out two snacks for each kid (they could obviously share), then I prepped as much as I possibly could with the meals and healthy snacks to make them grab-and-go friendly. In my meal prep I also planned on us getting pizza at a nearby restaurant on the last night of our stay. This is a smart tip because I didn’t have to worry about our last meal of the trip staying in the cooler for multiple days. I will definitely be doing that in the future if we can!
Shari + Pizza = Happy Camper!
2. Toys & Games… in this case since we were at a KOA campground next to a river (the KOA was still following strict COVID restrictions at that time). We brought our own bikes for riding around the campground and tubes to float the lazy Methow River! Additional fun toys that the kids loved were glow sticks, camping buddies (a small character toy tradition their dad started with them), and a few classic games like Uno and Connect4. I got the glow sticks on a whim but it made the pre-bedtime tent games soooo much more fun and funny!
Snacks, games, and lounging at its finest!
3. Planned activities but not too many! The not too many part is key! Alex and I love allowing for some spontaneity on trips which means we are a healthy mix of a few planned activities and a lot of unscheduled adventures and relaxing time! The only planned activities were an early morning mini-golf session that we all LOVED and ice cream mid-day at Sheri’s Ice Cream Shop! We enjoyed slow mornings the other days and went tubing down the river at least 4 times a day. The fact that we didn’t fill our days with a ton of activity made it a stress-free and still adventurous trip. The kids loved being able to bike, play games, and tube the river with us whenever they wanted.
Disclaimer: I am a planner by nature so I understand the temptation to plan it all out… trust me it is worth it to give yourself an outline and fill in the rest as you go!
Bikes, mini-golf, and those beloved glow sticks.
4. Create a playlist! We created a family playlist and it made the road trip so fun. Bonus: we brought our portable speaker and played our favorite songs at the campsite too. Some favorites are “Africa” by Todo, “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas, and “Kings & Queens” by Ava Max. Granted our kiddos were 7, 11, and 13 at the time, so I totally understand some parents are still in the “Frozen” Soundtrack phase of life (your kids will eventually move on to other music, I promise)!
My last nuggets of advice when camping with kids are to always remember a first aid kit (kids are prone to accidents) and sun-sickness is real, make sure the kiddos hydrate because they wont think about it when they are having so much fun (we learned that the hard way).
Finally, just have fun! Camping is all about the preparation leading up to the trip and then making memories during the trip. Keep in mind that car camping is so much easier when you are near a town and can drive and get something you might have forgotten. We were 3 minutes away from a grocery store and thank goodness because we forgot dish soap and a sponge!
Now that I have inspired you to get into the great outdoors with your kids… go book your summer camping trip, prepare the best you can, and have the best time with your family!
It’s mid-May here in Vermont: which means spring is done and summer has sprung! It’s beautiful this time of year! My family and I are trading in our snowshoes for our pool. Without further ado, here are my sunshine must-haves for the spring and summer seasons.
Full disclosure: I am a one-piece girl. I am always active and a one-piece keeps me in (if you know what I mean). I love anything that is both comfortable and stylish. Every year, Target has the best buys and a great selection. But they tend to sell out fast! So hurry on over to Target.com and get a-shopping!
After having my baby, my skin decided to shrivel up and die. Ah, hormones. This duo moisturizer/SPF is pricey but has become 100% worth it to me. It lasts a lot longer than you think (my last tube was about 5ish months- BONUS) and is so wonderful at protecting my face when I am out playing soccer or running with my little girl.
I wish I was better at doing my hair. But I am not. So in the summer, when I want my laziness and ineptitude to look intentional- I turn to Bumble and Bumble for some sea surf help. You don’t need much and you will look FABULOUS.
Walking, chasing, shopping, and lounging tend to require multiple shoes. OR DOES IT? Nope. Who knew my favorite (and all purpose) shoe would come from CROCS? Not me. But trust me, just go get yourself a pair now. GO. NOW!
Personally, I think the price of beach and pool things is a bit much. Especially beach towels. Luckily, Target has some fantastic prices on their beach towels. Good bye, dingy towel. HELLO, you gorgeous, vibrant, and stylish new towel. Target has other great accessories for your days at the beach and/or lounging poolside for fair prices- check ‘em out!
If you know me, you know I am not a gardener. BUT I inherited a pretty big yard to maintain when we purchased our home. Last year, I learned some basics. This year, I am kicking a&& and this whole deadheading, watering, pruning, planting thing. But you should still check back in with me in, like, a month on that. My local ACE Hardware store has proven to be most helpful for all of my needs. I also love Lowes and got myself a new pair of gardening gloves in their sale bin there. Because apparently I now needed gardening gloves. When I graduate to fancier ones, I will let you know.
This Saturday, May 15th, marks our two year anniversary of returning to the United States. Leaving the place where we started our marriage, birthed our baby, and had our first home was, in a word, heartbreaking. I miss that part of our life. Spain became my home in a way that I never expected. The people, places, food, and, in some cases, smells became ingrained in my life and heart very quickly. My spanish was not great but it wasn’t terrible either. I adapted. I knew I had “made” it when I had to take myself to the ER while my fluent spanish-speaking husband was TDY in Norway. “I got through that? I got this whole living abroad thing down.” (My exact thoughts hailing a cab down to go home from the ER). Anyways, it was and is home. Moving there centered me. I feel like I really started to live who I had always wanted to be while I was there.
Kendall’s side yard in Spain at sunset- the most beautiful time of the day.
During our time in Valencia, I very much settled into myself. I realized a lot- both good and bad. That’s what happens when you don’t have work, family, or a ton of friends around; reflection. I spent the first six months processing the past few years of my then life. What became apparent to me was that I was broken. My heart had been broken quite a few times (sometimes intentionally and sometimes not). I had broken people’s hearts. I had hurt friends. Friends had hurt me. My mom had died and I had barely processed it because I was so busy caring for my father and people I worked for more than I was caring for myself. Some of that was indeed intentional as a deflection and some of it was just life. Regardless, I had not properly grieved. So I spent the first few quiet months grieving my mom. Hard? Oh yeah. Needed? Hell yes. Not just for me but for the sake of my marriage and the eventual path to motherhood I would choose to take. Had I not gone to Spain and left my world behind, I probably would have made very different life choices. Instead, with the support and love of my husband, I began to mend myself.
Spain also taught me to appreciate GOOD food. Affordable and good food. It also gave me an even greater appreciation for wine. And gin. And apertifs. And olives. The list goes on. The way people live in Spain is much different than the US. People seem happier there. And to be fair, the people I knew were! They also laughed at our introductions… “Hi! I am Kendall. I am from Seattle. I work in advertising. What do you do?” Yeah, that’s not a thing. No one really cares about your profession. It’s not your biggest identity marker. Rather, an introduction would look something like this, “Hi there! How are you? Oh good. Would you like some coffee or wine? Tell me about your shoes. How has your day been? Would you like a tapa? Oh and what’s your name?” I liked that. It was simple. Plus, European architecture just kicks our American architecture’s butt. OK? I miss street dining, iron rails, bell towers and chimes, cafe con leche, and, even though it took me about 8 months to adapt to, a 10pm dinner.
Dinner in Salamanca around… yup, 10 pm.
Fast forward to today. Vermont is sort of an amazing place to land. And super underrated. It reminds me of Spain in terms of life being simple since we don’t have any true center of hustle and bustle to speak of. Vermonters like their winter sports, cheese, brews, and farmers markets. These are all things I can get behind. I love the beauty of this state. I appreciate their desire for smaller and local chain stores as opposed to big ones. It’s a wonderful place to have started our family together (stateside) and to have ridden out the horrors of the pandemic. And still, Issy and I have never been more sure about returning to Spain. To live.
And we will. I am not entirely sure when (retirement and potentially sooner). It’s the place I want to belong to. I love my country and am very proud to be an American. But a little part of me became a Valenciana… and I have every intention of returning home whenever I can. COVID has made that a bit tricky, but, dearest Spain, I will see you soon. Until then- hasta luego.
May 15th, 2019- Madrid. Coming home with our many pieces of luggage, baby, dog, stroller, and basically everything to live out of for 5 months.
May 16th, 2020, our wedding day; a day that looked nothing like we planned but was more than we could have ever imagined. It may sound cliche but our hearts overflowed as our friends, family, and vendors rallied to make our day so extremely special. Our wedding was considered a micro-wedding due to the pandemic and gathering restrictions. The 150 person guest list quickly went down to just 10 of our immediate family (not counting a few vendors).
Our newly revamped, small wedding only took a few hours and was simple and stress-free. It included the first look, a sweet intimate ceremony, our first dance, cake cutting (and eating), and a lot of pictures.
In an effort to still celebrate with our extended family and loved ones we had a drive-thru receiving line following the intimate ceremony. For an hour we stood outside our venue and received love and congratulations from 50 cars. All together it was about 150 friends, coworkers, and family that were still able to be a part of our special day! Our hearts exploded seeing that so many of our loved ones were holding up signs, had decorated their cars, and cruised through to wish us a “Happy Wedding Day!”
Despite the change of plans, our wedding day was efficient, unique, and perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing.
If you want to see a glimpse into our special day, grab a tissue and enjoy our wedding video…
Mother’s Day is always a little hard for me. I miss my mom and somehow the day always feels a little… lacking without her here. Oddly enough, I remember her last Mother’s Day. It was sort of thrown together last minute since everyone was out of town or had plans. In the end, it ended up being me, my grandparents, and my Uncle. It was one of the most relaxing Mother’s Days we have ever had since our usually big and boisterous family wasn’t all together. There was not a ton of running around to prep anything or waking up early to get going to whatever shindig was happening; it was simple and my mom loved it. Divinely enough, we took a picture together (a selfie, if you will) and it has become my most cherished picture of me and my mom. We had no idea that just 7 months later she would be gone. As I said in the beginning, Mother’s Day is a little hard for me.
It has been 7 years since that last Mother’s Day with my mom and now, I am a mom myself. AND for the sake of authenticity, I am going to be honest. I struggle with being a mom. OK, if you have read previous posts you already know this. To preface (before some of you judgey readers start sending me hate e-mail), I do not struggle with loving or caring for my daughter. I love her so much it hurts. I love her so much that I still wake up throughout the night to check in on her. I love her so much that I have no words to adequately describe it. What I struggle with is purpose. You’re damned if you go back to work and you are damned if you stay home. You are damned if you admit to struggling and you’re damned if you find mothering to be a breeze. What I struggle with in terms of motherhood and my purpose is that I often feel lonely, like a failure, and lost. For all the books out there- they really only skim the surface of what it means to parent. The rest is up to us to figure out and not totally f%*# up. And this has become my purpose.
There is a lot of shame among women for all the decisions we make in regards to how we mother. Lord knows we can’t get a break or give others a break. And it’s time to stop. I concede that I have already lost the battle, nay, the war. I am not a person who wants to balance mothering and work. I don’t- for many personal reasons. The truth is that especially during this pandemic, my presence as a stay at home mom has helped to keep our family steady, happy, and thriving. And no that’s not me talking myself up. That’s the damn truth. That’s the truth of OUR family. I also know and acknowledge the women who have kept working during the past year, managed to homeschool the kids, and adapted to the ever changing guidelines of HOW to live and operate during a global crisis have also kept their families afloat, thriving, and happy. You are f>%^&*@ warriors. As Beyonce would say, “Bow down bitches.” And I do. I bow down to you all.
And that right there is where I struggle. No one is bowing down to me. No one is really saying, “Good job.” I don’t need them to either. But I do know that my role as a stay at home mom will always be seen as lesser. I don’t think of myself as lesser- in fact, I see myself as an equal. It’s just hard to say that without the world giving me “that” look. Sadly, if I had another kid,I know the world might respect my mothering, my personal sacrifices, and my journey more. With one kid though- people get all self righteous on you.
Pair all of the above with missing my mom, and I am just not feeling Mother’s Day this year. It’s not a pity party. It’s a reflection of understanding my own motherhood. And what I know for sure is that I am good enough. I am not a perfect mom, but I am good enough (even when I feel like a failure). I have gotten through the past 14 months pretty much by myself with little relief in play dates, swim classes, and general activities. Rosemary can count to 15, identify colors, things in nature, and is beginning to express her feelings. I’ve done good. I have managed to also spend the last year connecting with my husband more- which was needed after the trials of being pregnant. We are very much a team and I am so incredibly proud of how hard he works at work and in getting his Master’s. I read and edit his essays, I listen to him process work problems, I make sure he stays connected to things outside of all that, and, yet, I still manage to tell him that he needs to fix the porch and clean up the gym. Hey, I am not a do everything kind of SAHM.
For Mother’s Day, I want to sleep in, not deal with Rosemary’s two hour breakfasts, and drink mimosas. I am a girl of simple pleasures. I want to watch what I want on TV and not really make Mother’s Day a big deal. But I do feel that all of you mothers out there should go big… you deserve it. You deserve everything.
This year is my first official Mother’s Day, as a stepmom. Somehow it doesn’t feel as real as it does for mothers who birthed their own kids. Before you think I am fishing for you to assure me that Mother’s Day counts for me too, thank you, I really do already know. However, I can’t help but feel a bit like an imposter on Mother’s Day. I love my stepkids fiercely and I am no-doubt a mother figure to them. Over the past year I have gone from the fun aunt (see my previous post here) to the most all-star stepmom I can be. I try to anticipate their needs, comfort them, provide for them, and ultimately LOVE on them. I’ve had a hard time admitting that I deserve to be celebrated on Mother’s Day though. Before all my friends @ me “Happy Mother’s Day” messages… I am aware ALL moms deserve to be celebrated on Mother’s Day. Paternal or not.
However, the meaning of motherhood is something that isn’t lost on me. I would never downplay the physical process of birth that a woman has to go through to have a child. That is something I haven’t experienced yet. Thanks to all my mommy friends and sister-in-laws I know a significant amount of what it means to give birth. But I have to remind myself that the fact that I haven’t given birth, doesn’t make me any less of a mother. The word “Stepmom” has a negative connotation which makes me sad. In movies, the stepmoms are usually cruel, angry, and treat the children horribly. This couldn’t be further from the truth for me and my stepchildren. I do whatever I can to encourage, support, laugh, and have fun with them. They mean the world to me. On our wedding day, I gave special vows to the kids and I meant every single word I promised them (see image below).
I’m not looking for people to tell me Happy Mother’s Day. I already know I am a mom, a freaking amazing and loving stepmom. If you want to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day please do it by reaching out to all the mother figures in your life and tell them what a difference their presence in your life has made. That would be the greatest gift anyone could give me – spreading the love!
Years ago I wrote this caption on my Mother’s Day facebook post and it still rings true…
Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, stepmothers, foster mothers, aunts or sisters that are like mothers, godmothers, to all the ones that have lost mothers, who still want to be mothers, and those that have chosen not to be mothers. We think of you on Mother’s Day. We celebrate the love that you pour into those around you each and every day. Thank you and Happy Mother’s Day!
Here is a glimpse into our wedding ceremony as I made special vows to the kids.
The Salty Exchange 