Category: Family

Family, Food, Hair, pregnancy, prenatal, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized

Avocados

Hannah Lucio

I absolutely love avocados. I prefer avocados on my sandwiches over putting mayo or other spreads. I add them in Smoothies, the obvious mexican foods, and I even put them on pizza. It is such a super fruit that we all should be trying to eat. Some people might not want to eat them because they are fat but it’s a good kind of fat.

 

I found this online and thought it was funny-Hahaha

Since we do not live in California anymore the cost of avocados are a little higher over here on the east coast. I went to Costco and it was $7.99 for a bag! Since I did not want to waste money I made an effort to finish the bag before they went bad. And, to my surprise I succeeded! If you ever are looking for a way to add more nutrients and trash the butter and mayo I’d try switching to avocados. Of course everything is moderation is the best because too much fat isn’t great either. But, this is a great way to switch out the bad. I absolutely LOVE avocado!!!

 

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Christmas, Family, Food, pregnancy, St Pattys Day, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Milk Chocolate Fudge

Hannah Lucio

This is an amazing and easy fudge recipe that I just made yesterday. I made a different recipe last week and it was disgusting! That recipe called for baking chocolate and it was gross. This is going to be my go-to recipe when I want fudge. It is really creamy, smooth and melt in your mouth fudge. I always looked forward to the holidays when my mom would make fudge and now I can have a little taste of “home” on the East Coast. Here is the easy recipe, I hope you get to enjoy it as much as we do.

 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups White Granulated Sugar

3/4 Cup Butter (softened, it makes it easier and faster to cook)

2/3 Cup Evaporated Milk

2 Cups Milk Chocolate Chips (I use Nestle Toll House=Yum!)

7 Ounce Jar Marshmallow Cream (I always use Kraft)

1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

  1. Line a pan with parchment paper. Typically you would use a 9 inch square pan or in my moms case a cookie sheet for thinner fudge. I used my Cast Iron pan and it was perfect for me. It is a non-traditional shape for fudge.
  2. Use a heavy saucepan (I used my Pioneer Woman dutch oven, I’m trying to not cook with metal). Over high heat, combine; Sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Use a wooden spoon (the best for fudge) to stir slowly until butter melts. Make sure to scrape the sides of pan so you do not leave sugar crystals.
  3. Bring to a full rolling boil, stir constantly with your wooden spoon. Once it is at a full rolling boil turn the heat down to medium and cook it for 5 minutes. Make sure you stir constantly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom and to cook it evenly.
  4. Once mixture is done with the 5 minutes,  test to see if it is done. Fill a little glass cup with ice old water and drop a tsp of the very hot sugar mixture in it. If the sugar mixture can roll into a ball then it is done.
  5. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Add the marshmallow cream an vanilla and mix really well until smooth. Pour into prepared pan right away.
  6. Let fudge cool down and try not to eat to much of it before then. Ha ha I really love warm fresh fudge so this is VERY hard for me!
  7. Once it is cooled take out of pan with the parchment paper, cute and serve. Make sure to really cover the fudge to prevent it from getting hard.

 

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Christmas, Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Mavericks favorite “Santa Cookies”-Recipe included

Hannah Lucio

Yesterday we made cookies for Santa, they are Mavericks favorite by far. They really are the best! Soft and chewy! And So incredibly delicious! We normally just put chocolate chips on them but maverick wanted to add his favorite candy. Maverick is a chocoholic! Chocolate and m&m’s are two of his favorites. Santa ate the cookies we left him but left a little bit on the plate so Maverick knew he ate his cookies and drank his milk. 

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ever

Ingredients: 

1 Cup Unsalted Butter (softened) 

1 Cup White Sugar

1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

2 Eggs 

 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Plain Hot Coffee

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Cups Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips (we put in 1 Cup m&m’s and 1 Cup chocolate chips this time) 
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Dissolve (in a little bowl) baking soda in the hot coffee. Set aside. 

Cream together; Butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.

Beat in eggs, one at a time. 

Stir in vanilla

 Add baking soda and coffee mixture to the above ingredients and mix. 

Add; flour and salt and mix together. 

Add chocolate chips and mix together, do not over mix. 

Drop cookie batter on parchment paper with cookie scoop.

Bake for 12 minutes and remove. Leave on pan for 2 minutes and then put on cookie sheet to finish cooling. 

Try not to eat them all at once! I hope you get to enjoy these “Santa cookies” as much as we all did! 
Merry Christmas!!! 
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Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Yummy Taco Seasoned Potatoes 

Hannah Lucio

This is one of our family favorite. It is a meatless meal but super easy to mix it up and put meat on it. This is actually a pretty healthy meal and everyone loves it. And it is really inexpensive.


Ingredients: 

3-4 large Potatoes

3 Tbps Taco Seasoning

1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 can Black Beans

1 Avocado 
Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Cut potatoes into little chunks. It doesn’t really matter which shape. I mix it up regularly . 

Put the Potatoes into a bowl and add the olive oil. Mix until all coated. 

Add the Taco seasoning and mix until all coated. 

Put into a greased baking pan, this time I used our cast iron skillet. Put in the oven for 20 minutes and test to see if the Potatoes are soft/cooked. They normally take 40 minutes total but I do not like to over cook them. After the 20 minute mark I will check on them about every 10 minutes. 

Once they are done, put them into a bowl or plate. Add black beans and top with avocado. 


I make many variations of this. You can add cooked ground turkey, shredded cheese and salsa. Making the Potatoes is just the base to so many different meals. 
I hope you get to enjoy them as much as we do!

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Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Pulled Pork and Coleslaw Amazingness

Hannah Lucio

I am trying to make different dishes, dips, snacks for football this year. This last Sunday was one of my favorite foods yet! I found one of the easiest recipes for pulled pork and a Chick Fil A coleslaw recipe. They were both so yummy and I really hope you try these recipes out. You will not be disappointed 🙂

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

pulled-pork

Ingredients:

2 lb Pork Loin Roast

12 oz Root Beer (I used A&W)

18 oz Barbecue sauce (I used Weber brand)

Hawaiian Rolls or Hamburger buns

Instructions:

Place Pork in slow cooker.

Pour Root beer and barbecue sauce over pork

Cover and Cook on low heat for 6 hours or until it shreds easily with two forks.

Remove pork and shred it with two forks

Return shredded pork to slow cooker

Continue heating on low for an additional 30 minutes

Put pork in a strainer to remove excess liquid

Serve on Hawaiian rolls or hamburger buns with coleslaw

pulled-pork-on-hawaiian-rolls

Ah-Mazing!

 

Chick Fil A Coleslaw

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Mayonnaise

2 tsp White Vinegar

2 Tbsp Sugar

1/8 tsp Dry Mustard

1/8 tsp Salt

1 bag (14 oz) shredded cole slaw mix

 

  1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together; mayo, vinegar, sugar, dry mustard and salt until smooth
  2.  Add in shredded Cole slaw mix and fold over with spatula until completely coated. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or over night. I let mine sit over night and it was amazing.

 

Enjoy!!!

 

 

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breastfeeding, Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Family favorite Healthy smoothie

Hannah Lucio

I have been trying to figure out how to add more veggies and fruits into our family diet. We don’t really have the drive to just eat our veggies. Ha ha.I have tried cooking different ways but it wasn’t enough. And you can only eat so many salads. So I started making smoothies for our family. I wanted to share what I “sneak” into them to make them really healthy for the whole family.

First I put frozen strawberries and blueberries (these bags last us one week) in the blender, add apple juice (we drink almost 2 bottles of Costco Apple juice in one week. In and out of the smoothie) and let it sit for a few minutes to thaw them out a little. I add 3 heaping Tbsp’s of ground flaxseed ( they recommend you add it slow, start out with a TBSP and work your way up), 1 avocado and at least 3 cups of greens (this bag from Costco lasts us one week). Blend it all up and voila, yummy healthy full of greens smoothie. The best part about this is that you can get your greens, flaxseed and avocado goodness all in one and it tastes amazing! I know that it sounds like a whole lot of sugar but natural sugars are ok for us. It is the soda, junk food and white sugars that are the worst for our bodies. Try it out 😀

 

Update:I am down 7 lbs YAY!! Enjoy!!

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Christmas, Family, Food, pregnancy, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized

Most delicious Zucchini Pumpkin Bread Ever

Hannah Lucio

I have been trying to make this new recipe I found for a week now. Ha ha kids…. I was finally able to make it and I am so incredibly happy with this recipe. I have made a few pumpkin bread recipes in the past and this is the most moist and delicious one yet! If you have been searching for a pumpkin bread recipe, make this one! I promise you will not be disappointed. And no, you cannot taste the zucchini in it.  That is one of the best parts. It does have a lot of sugar and I will be practicing to reduce the sugar content and if I am successful at it I will post it 🙂 I love to experiment with recipes and try to make them healthier when possible. Hope you get to make it and enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients:

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin (15 oz)

1 cup butter, melted

1 TBSP vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 cup shredded zucchini (I used the smallest side of the grater)

1 cup chopped walnuts (I did not add nuts)

 

Directions:

In a bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Add pumpkin, butter and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in x 5-in loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until bread test done. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.

Enjoy! Try not to eat it all at once 🙂

 

This recipe had great reviews and you can check out the recipe here.

 

 

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Family, Food, Uncategorized, Women

Updated: My favorite dish soap

Hannah Lucio

I have been using this Palmolive dish soap for a few months now and haven’t been completely happy with it. It has done the job good but not what I wanted or needed. Since I wash all the dishes by hand and not in the dishwasher I really need a good product.  I think I have used the dishwasher 3 times since we got married almost 4 years ago now. Ha! I saw something about the Seventh Generation dish soap and decided to try it. I am not fully convinced on a lot of “natural” products out there. Well, I am hooked now! This soap is amazing! It cleans amazingly and I don’t need to use a ton of soap. If you are looking for a great product that does the job it’s supposed to do I really recommend this dish soap. 

It also smells really good. Which is a bonus 🙂

 

 

Update: I have stopped using the new dish soap due to it wrecking my hands! I returned to using Palmolive and my hands have improved 99%.

 
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Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Football, food and family

Hannah Lucio

This past Sunday we had the best Sunday that we have had in a really long time. 

First I made breakfast sliders/sandwich. 

Two eggs, lots of bacon and Hawaiian rolls=heaven in our mouth. I definitely will be making these more. They are one of the easiest and simple yet delicious breakfast foods. 

Lunch we had an easy one again. 


Bbq wings. We bought a 10lb bag of wings at Costco. We took out 1/3 and let them thaw out for a few hours. Light up the bar-b-que and cook till done. We bought bbq sauce and buffalo sauce for dipping. Simple, easy and not that expensive.

Snacking:

Avocado mashed a little bit with tortilla chips. 

Besides and orange and apple that I had today…the avocado is the healthiest thing I had today. It’s defenitely a cheat day and not a day to worry about calories. 

Last weekend I made homemade pizza, it is always a go to food for us. 

It may not be the prettiest pizza you’ve ever seen but it works. Ha ha I am more about how food tastes versus the looks 😀 I posted my pizza dough recipe on my blog

I also made chocolate chip cookies. Oh my goodness were they addicting! I have also posted my recipe on my blog.  

As you can probably tell….we are foodies! We love food and we love to eat. We love football. And we also love to workout and be out doors. Football Sunday’s are fun for us and am so glad it is something we all enjoy for now. This football season I am going to try to experiment with different foods. This past week was not really planned so we just winged it. Ha! Maybe this coming up Sunday I will make a new recipe. If I do I will be sure to post it. 
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#gosaints

#gochargers 

Family, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

The last ride

Hannah Lucio

My kids and I were finally able to get on my cruiser bike all together and ride around. We only went maybe 1-2 miles in total but it was Still fun. I held our 3 month old son in the ergo and my 2 year old son in the wee ride. Side note: if you are looking for a kid bike seat for your bike I HIGHLY recommend the Wee Ride. It’s freakin awesome! All of last year I rode my bike a ton with maverick. We barely used gas because we biked everywhere. We love biking. 

When we got home I thought more about getting a kid trailer for our bike. I researched and found what we should get and told my husband. He agreed and we also agreed on upgrading my bike to a 7 or 12 speed bike so I can take the hills easier. When he got home he said to post our bikes for sale since it’ll probably take a while. Well, I posted and not even an hour later we had a buyer for both….and then it increased to 8 people wanting my bike. I wasn’t ready to sell it that fast! I started to get sellers remorse haha sounds Stupid I know, but I have had this bike since I was 20…I’m 34 now! That’s 14 years!! It is still in great condition and the memories I’ve had on this bike….ugh. I know it’s just a bike and I really need to get a new one. I just didn’t know that when we rode on Tuesday that it was going to be our last ride. 

 When I lived on the beach in California I rode that bike everywhere. It doesnt have gears so it was an amazing workout. I remember riding 14 miles up and down the coast just soaking and soaking up the sun. I remember watching the waves crash, the smell of the ocean and the gorgeous amounts of beauty it offered. I used to live in Carlsbad,CA, 1/4 block from the beach. We had a view of the ocean and we were so close that I would fall asleep to the sound of crashing waves. That was the life! 

Now that we live in Virginia it’s a little different. There isn’t a beach super close to us and it’s a lot of ups and downs as far as riding goes. More trails and less city type stuff. Also, now that we take the kids on the actual bike it’s a little harder to peddle without gears. I still do it but I really want to do more outdoor activities with the family and it would help. 

Last night was it. The lady came and said she really liked my bike because it was cute. Ugh, I know. It’s my favorite. She bought it and off it went. So many memories and now it’s time to make new ones on a new bike. Saturday we are heading to the bike shop to get a geared bike and possibly the kid trailer. Now that our old bikes are gone I am getting more and more exciting about getting a new bike. And, finally closing a chapter on my old life. 

This is a picture of us on our last ride that I will cherish forever.

R.I.P ol Betty

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