the blue jean skirt vs the puppy skirt vs the ballerina skirt

So one of my favorite things to do is watch old home videos.  I mean, who doesn't love it??  We have a ton!  My mom has an unhealthy obsession with wanting video or picture documentation of everything, and based on my opening confession I'm obviously thankful for this.  We do give her a hard time about how she forgets the camera is recording and casually walks around with it hanging at her side or will record a 2 hour long tap dance rehearsal. Anywayz, I'm thankful.  So with this abundance of footage, my brother in law, Matt, recently started the painstaking process of converting all of our home videos to digital files and uploading them to a private family youtube channel lovingly named, "Cuppettfamilytree."  I get so excited every time I log on and see a new video has been uploaded!  Watching these has stirred old memories and makes me cry every time I hit the play button, especially when I see one of my sweet grandpas.  Well, there's this one video of Callie at age 5, me at 3, and Maddie at 9 months or so just playing and it is HI.LAR.IOUS.  Maybe this is ultra boring and not funny to anyone but family but I have literally watched it a dozen times.  Regardless, I thought I'd post some of the fun/funny that I've been up to lately... so, here's a clip of it, better turn your volume up. Enjoy!



I think it is so funny how adamant Callie is that I wear her blue jean skirt and kind of sad that I don't think it looks good on me! Plus the music makes it more like a soap opera...

Happy Tuesday!
Hannah K.C. Burton

on current food satisfaction

So I'm finding foods that I'm really enjoying that are in line with my food allergies!  And in the interest of being positive about the 9 million things I can't eat, and in the off-chance someone stumbles on this blog that also has food allergies or chooses not to eat dairy, chicken, lamb, pork, turkey, peanuts, almonds, potatoes, or onions, here are a few things I'm loving these days...

This recipe that made AWESOME blueberry muffins that didn't taste the slightest bit vegan!  I've found that searching for Vegan recipes is the most useful... I'm certainly not vegan, but those recipes tend to follow most of my allergy guidelines.  Paleo recipes, on the other hand, have way too much meat and eggs for me to try and modify to suit me. So these muffins... seriously delicious.  I chose to use unsweetened applesauce instead of a banana and coconut oil instead of vegetable oil as well as soy milk instead of almond. They turned out great!  I mean, they did have an average amount of sugar in them.  I didn't say they were healthy.

I'm totally addicted to these microwavable bowls from Sprouts.  They have a decent amount of protein and hardly any sugar.  Literally the best microwavable food I've ever had and I am so picky about that stuff!  

Protein is what I struggle to get.  I have been eating the most unusual amount of beans and lentils lately.  Like, daily.  In my pantry at all times are: black beans, pinto beans, black eyed peas, lentils, baked beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, & refried beans.  And I eat at least one of those everyday.  And yes, I hear a sufficient amount of bean jokes from Karl. I eat fish and red meat probably 2-3 times a week and no meat at all anywhere from 1 day a week to 4... depending on how much I hate fish and beef that week.

Breakfast has been a big adjustment because I have to have, wait for it, PROTEIN in the mornings.  Nixing eggs, bacon, & sausage has been rough. So last week I bought meatless bacon.  Gross, right??  It's actually not that disgusting.  It certainly doesn't taste like bacon but I'm not exactly sure what it tastes like?  Regardless, it's fuel and the protein I need to keep me from feeling like I'm going to pass out in between meals.  Also helping? Sunflower butter.  Since peanut butter and the good protein it packs is off the table, I bought some sunflower butter and it's pretty tasty!  I actually think I like the more mild taste than peanut butter.  

I've found a few great quinoa recipes that I have been able to eat-on all week once I've made them during the weekend (like this one) and I bought basically everything at Sprouts that was Hannah allergy approved so I didn't feel empty-pantry-defeated.  Hopefully I don't die of heart disease because of red meat overdose and also I don't gain a million pounds because of all the carboloading that's happening at this house.  I literally have every type of rice and pasta known to man in the pantry right now.

On the menu for this week: lime marinated mahi mahi, my favorite salmon ever, tikka masala, vegan lasagna, and avocado chickpea salad

I'm hoping by posting recipes and sharing more online, I'm slightly more accountable for making good food choices?  I don't know... maybe not.  We'll see.  

Happy cooking and congrats on making it thru the most dry post in the history of DL!

Hannah K.C. Burton

our pictureless lately

We have had such a fun past couple of months!  I went from the most bored housewife in the history of housewifery {that's a word, y'all} to actually having things to do and people to do them with.  Karl and I met the most wonderful couple here thru Karl's work/squadron softball team and we have been seeing a lot of them lately!  I'm praising God for friendship and fellowship!  In other news, we also just got back from an awesome long weekend in Colorado with my parents and Gammy which deserves a whole big long post full of pictures as does my girls weekend in Kansas City and 48 hours at home... all of which happened right before Colorado!

In food allergy news... I have totally given up trying to eliminate all my trigger foods from my diet... until I had a come to Jesus doctors appointment yesterday.  My gastroenterologist told me that my esophagus is as fragile as crepe paper.  Awesome.  This is a problem because if I continue to eat what I want, my esophagus will only get worse and will only get smaller and more tight which will lead to a need to have it dilated which is a major problem for fragile tissue.  So I came home and made an appointment with a registered dietician.  And spent lots of money at Sprouts on things like meatless bacon and sunflower butter.  Woof.  Karl is helping me research food allergies, testing, and EE and figure out how we can really change our diets and lifestyles to accommodate this, which is so helpful and makes me feel a lot less overwhelmed than I have been.  However, I can't continue to cheat and blow this off.  So, here goes my second attempt, and if this is anything like trying to stop cracking my knuckles or stop smoking {which I hear is hard} than this will likely not be my last attempt.

In future news... Karl is on the job hunt in Arlington and we look at real estate literally everyday.  We.are.so.excited.  We spend a lot of time dreaming about weekend trips to Oklahoma, Karl hunting, time in Little Rock and Fayetteville with best friends, babysitting nephews & niece & cousins, helping my parents with DIY projects, road trips that are more than 6 hours away {Air Force restriction}, Karl finishing school... the list goes on.  We know it won't all be rainbows and butterflies and there are a few really awesome perks that we'll miss about the Air Force but we cannot wait for a new adventure {have I said this before??}  We will both be going home in 4 short weeks for Baby Finn's birth and for Karl to have some interviews- it is so crazy to me that we are already planning the logistics of our move and the next year!!  I'm going to attempt to post more frequently, I really want to document this time in our lives well so I don't forget the little details!  

Sincerely,

Meatless Hannah K.C. Burton