A salad for fall

What? Salad and fall? That's practically an oxymoron. Salads go with summer, girl. Get with the picture.

Cold-season Salad
1 1/2 c. chopped cabbage
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 small apple, chopped
1/2 c. chopped yellow squash*
1/2 c. roasted beets* 

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/3-1/2 c. olive oil
2 t. balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. salt
Pinch of black pepper
1/2 t. each thyme and basil

Oil, grease, or butter a frying pan. Saute cabbage and onion on medium to medium-high heat until cabbage cooks through (some of the leaves may turn golden and crispy). Add the apple, beets, and squash. Continue to saute until everything is warmed through to your liking.

For the vinaigrette, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl or pitcher. Drizzle as much as you like over the salad. Enjoy!  

*I threw this salad together yesterday. I looked in the fridge and there was yellow squash and beets. Into the frying pan they flew! Feel free to sub butternut squash or whatever other goodies you may have.

Fall is...

"brrrrrr" worthy mornings.

watching the trees on The Hill out front turn color (there's already a lonely little red waiting for the rest to catch up).

darkness at 7:30.

pumpkin everything...duh.

sunshine on cool days.

trying to stay on top of school.

dreaming of Thanksgiving dinner.

comfort food: soup, stews, roasted anything, warm baked goods.

pulling out scarves, sweaters, and fuzzy socks. Sometimes a little prematurely. :)

raking leaf piles.

wind rustling through the trees.

damp days.

What can I add?

'fessing up

For the past month, I've been eating like a cave-girl.

That's right, I've been eating Paleo. And not just Paleo, Autoimmune Protocol Paleo (AIP). It's not that I have an autoimmune disease (that I know of), but the hows and whys behind it made sense to me. So after my last bowl of homemade yogurt, I was off!

I'm calling this "'fessing up", because I was a little afraid to write it after this post. I had just said I didn't have any serious health problems and was happy to eat rice casserole. Well, I guess that wasn't strictly true. I did have some health problems (though maybe not as terrible as the ones I'd mentioned) that I sorta brushed aside or didn't want to admit to. I had some digestive issues and felt tired a lot. 

I'm not denying that God sent me peace. He did and I still agree with what I said in my post. There is not a perfect diet out there that is going to make me feel like Supergirl all the time. I will always have bad days and good days. But eating AIP has helped me. I don't feel tired anymore and my digestive stuff is much better. 

This post isn't to make you all eat like I do. It was just to spill the beans, so to speak (or berries, since I can't have beans, haha). It will obviously cause changes on the blog, since my recipes will now be AIP or Paleo. Also, I felt like I should write it just to clear up any confusion about the other post.

So anyways, that was my little "confession". :) I hope you didn't start wagging your finger at me. I must admit, I felt rather silly after switching over to AIP. I thought I had decided against grain-free, let alone dairy-, nut-, egg-, legume-, and nightshade-free! But things happen....

Note: I am not eating Paleo because I believe our Paleolithic ancestors ate this way and therefore I should. I am basing my decision off information from this book, blogs like these, and personal experience. 

Oh, and thanks, Wondermark. Why eat Paleo if you can't make fun of it too?

Links: Waiting for fall

"Get Your Latte Off My Late Summer" from The Art in Life. Guilty as charged. The beginning of the week was cooler, so I was quite happily sporting a light cardigan and then I whipped up a loaf of pumpkin bread Tuesday evening. :)

Another pumpkin recipe: fudge. Must try!

Why I don't use almond flour when baking (+ it is crazy expensive). Though I would probably not say no to, say, a small piece of almond flour gingerbread cake or a cookie. :)

Wow. This girl's story is amazing!

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Soooo, about that "coming soon" post. Apparently high school is a lot more time consuming then one would think! Don't worry, it's nothing too terribly exciting, just something I think is worth writing about. :)

Links: In which I am a thrice proven health geek

Woot woot! This article makes me happy.  

I work out, as I said before, and The Paleo Mom has a really good post on why exercise is important. It's really motivated me!

The cartoon at the beginning of this article made me laugh. Out loud. I'm not quite sure why it was so funny.

Time for deliciousness! This looks really good, as do these scones. You gotta love scones. And ice cream. And cobbler. Okay, enough of that. 

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So, this link stuff may or may not be a regular occurrence around here. Warning if it is, because you should be prepared to read a lot of things like those above. They are my obsessions at the moment (and have been for the past year or so...). 

Also, some of the observant of you may have noticed a bit of a theme (besides the Rachel-being-a-geek one). There should be a post in the near future that explains that.

Update #8: The Egg

Now, ladies and gentleman, what we've all been waiting for. I present to you...the first egg!

I opened up the nesting boxes, not knowing what exactly to expect. After all, they'd only just started squatting yesterday. Yet there, lo and behold, was a little brown egg.

And when I say little, I mean little. It's not quite two inches long and about one and a half wide. 

Here it is on the camera cap.

And then compared to a paperclip.

Sizzling with some kale.

Finished product! Sorry for the poor picture quality.

Now I shall carry a basket down when I let them out and shut them in. It's pretty exciting, folks.

Update #7

The chickens are almost nineteen weeks. Most of them have bright red combs and wattles, but a few still have dull, smaller ones. I've named a few, actually. Angela (she's noisy), Florence (she has a smaller comb and wattle), and Amy (she has a longer tail than the others). I have several names in my head, but I can't tell the rest apart...yet.

No eggs yet, but I have very good reason to expect one in the next few days, since at least two of them are starting to squat. This means that they will start laying very, very soon. I'm hoping maybe Sunday, or tomorrow. :)

Several of them have also started to escape. They fly up onto the fence and then jump down. We've shooed them off the fence a couple times, but now I'll look out the window and there will be a hen, innocently pecking at the grass. Just today I had to put four back in the run! It's all right with me, though, as long as they stay near the coop (which they have).

And now...pictures! These are from a week or two ago when they were free ranging.

And these are from my sister's birthday party.