Roasted Rainbow Vegetables

Anybody else love meal prep? Meal prep makes me feel so prepared for the week and saves our family a lot of time during the week. One thing we make sure is on our meal prep to-do list weekly is roasted vegetables. Ever since completing the Whole30, roasted vegetables have been a staple in our home. Roasted vegetables are easy to add to scrambled eggs, quick to toss the lunch boxes for daycare and work, and great for tossing in last-minute dinners.

Many nights during the week we will toss a pan of broccoli or cauliflower in the oven to roast as a side; however, we like to meal prep this colorful pan for a variety of options to use. You can use any type or color of vegetables you prefer, these are our family's favorite five.

Roasted Rainbow Vegetables

Ingredients

Enough vegetables to cover a sheet pan

Directions

1 | Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2 | Chop all vegetables to roughly the same size.

3 | Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and top with any seasonings you like, we typically do salt and pepper

4 | Place pan with prepared vegetables in oven and allow to cook for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender enough for your liking.

What is one thing you meal prep weekly? Share your recipe below!

Kayty

Noobie One! Review

Our sweet baby is ONE! A few months ago we shared about Noobie Box and their awesome subscription box service that celebrates every little life. We reviewed the Noobie Play which is designed for babies 7+ months. Now, it’s time for the next box in the series, Noobie One! In case you have not heard of Noobie Boxes, Noobie makes boxes celebrating the life of your new baby, in 4 different milestones! Each box is dedicated to point in a baby's life when they are learning and exploring new things. Noobie's Nest, Eat, Play, and One, all coincide with the milestones that occur around those ages. Each box contains at least 5 full size products & tips relating to baby's current stage. Spread out to celebrate over the course of a baby's first 12 months these would make a great baby gift for mama's! You can either order the boxes individually or order all 4 boxes as a subscription.

What's Inside Noobie One?

The Noobie One box was so fun to open! Each Noobie Box has a small card with tips for whatever stage your baby is in. When your baby turns one, everyone is thinking all things birthday party. The box had a several great ideas regarding baby's first birthday. As a first time mama, I was so thankful to read these tips! There were also a some party accessories as well as a crown for the birthday girl. Anyone else love Where the Wild Things Are? The crown reminded me exactly of Max's crown!

The products we received were:

1 | Kid Cookbook by Beaba // Lots of simple and adorable recipes for toddlers. I have found this very useful as most baby cookbooks only go up to one year old. The recipes can grow with your child and can easily be used for ideas for the next 5 or so years.

2 | Duukies Beachsocks // Super unique water socks, instead of shoes. Cora is not walking, so we have not had the opportunity to try these yet, but there is a great information on their website. They are easy to slip on, and come in a variety of sizes and fabrics.

3 | PlanToys Dino Car // We love rolling this all over our wood floors and our couches.

4 | Viga Puzzle // A simple puzzle that I can see Cora growing to enjoy. Right now we just like to dump all the pieces on the floor!

5 | Party accessories // A candle, some balloons, and an adorable crown.

Cora's favorite so far is the dinosaur car. We are definitely into wheels these days. The balloons were terrifying to her. Is that a baby thing? I'm not sure. But, we skipped these at her party since she was not a fan of them.

Compared to the Noobie Play we reviewed a few months ago, I feel like this box had a wide variety of goodies. There were different categories of toys that each help develop different skills, something for mom/dad, etc. Also, the toys are things your child can enjoy and grow into. Even though she cannot put the pieces back in the puzzle, she still likes to play with it, and someday she will be able to do the puzzle. I think this box was very gender neutral which can be hard sometimes! Even the beachsocks are definitely a neutral enough fabric for your little dude or little gal. I love that there were some brands we already know and love, and some we had never heard of but got to look into!

We said the same thing last time, and it still holds true! Noobie is a super fun year-long subscription or one time purchase. Buying Noobie boxes for a friend (or yourself!) is a great gift idea!

-Kayty

Thank you Noobie for sending us your Noobie Play box to review. All opinions are 100% our own.

What's in our Diaper Bag?

I've been toting a diaper bag around for about a year now and I think I finally have got it down! The first time we went out and about with the babe, there were no extra clothes in our diaper bag. Unfortunately, the nurse doing her 48 hour check-up put her clothes at her feet when she took her diaper off to weigh her and well accidents happen. Giggles happened all around! Since then we've always keep an extra pair (or two!) of clothes in our diaper bag.

Today we are going to be out all day, enjoying the State Fair.

We do not actually use a standard diaper bag. It is still on my 'wish list,' but that's something I'm saving up for. When Cora was born, we had an extra backpack lying around, and spare money got used up quick on extra little things we didn't expect to need. So, we stuck with what we had, and my Eddie Bauer adventure bag turned into a diaper bag. Since our bag only extremely minimal pockets, pouches make this setup work for us. Let's take a look and see what exactly is in our diaper bag!

What's in our Diaper Bag?

1 | Diaper pouch // This pouch holds 3 or so diapers, a pack of travel wipes, a changing mat, and some travel Super Duper Diaper Doo. What makes this pouch extremely handy is if I'm just running one errand or making a super quick trip, I can just grab this pouch, my keys, wallet, the babe, and we are out the door. No lugging around a bag for a 10 minute trip that most likely will not result in any diaper changes, but you never know!

*Note: I've only ever used this 'pouch only' trick since Cora has been old enough to predict diaper changes. When she was little and you never knew what a poop was going to happen, everything came with us always!*

2 | Toy pouch // We have a few toys that are designated 'busy bag' toys. They are mostly quiet things that keep a little one busy for a while. We keep a teether, tape measure, car, ribbon, foam stacking shapes, links, pipe cleaners, straws, tupperware with holes for putting things into, etc. This comes in handy when we end up in the family room at church or when she is antsy in the car, or we are waiting in traffic.

3 | Clothing pouch // Spare change of clothes (or two!). We rotate these out with each season and size. They generally end up being mismatched outfits, but they're for emergency so who cares!

4 | Snack // No matter where we go we always keep a few snacks handy because sometimes our trips run longer than expected and no one enjoys being around a hangry baby. Easy finger foods make the best diaper bag snacks like cheerios.

5 | Mama's needs // I always keep a coupon tampons, pads, hand sanitizer, and a tube of chapstick handy.

6 | Muslin swaddle // At 13 months old we are way past the swaddling stage, but these work great for wiping up spills, as a changing area, blanket for car naps, and so much more. They are extremely versatile, lightweight, and compact when you roll them up so they're easy to add in to your bag.

7 | Outdoor pouch // This is much more of a summer need and this pouch holds sunscreen, sunglasses, and extra hat, and a lightweight sweatshirt. I like to toss everything in this pouch for our daycare provider to have all in one place, but also for ourselves in case something gets left at home for adventures.

Is there something you think is crucial that I missed? Tell me below! Or share what you think is a great idea!

Kayty

A Month of 30 Minute Whole30 Meals

It is no secret now, the Sheard family loves the Whole30 program. We have completed the Whole30 twice, and in between them we went off the program. It was graduation party season, and we had several birthday parties also. We still made Whole30 choices as much as possible, but we definitely enjoyed cake and non-Whole30 things at parties. After eating unhealthy choices we quickly realized how much of a difference our Whole30 eating had made. We started to feel sluggish, felt extremely lazy in the evenings, had no motivation, and our old cravings started to creep back out.

Once we were able to break away from the parties we did another Whole30 to get back on track again. After this second Whole30 our goal was to stick with the Whole30 eating habits until something truly worthwhile came along. In order to continue our clean eating, we needed to have an collection of choices available. Especially once school starts and Josh starts teaching again, we will not have as much time for daily meal prep.

We've come up with a list of 30 30-minute meal ideas for you (and for us to look back at!). Any of these could be used for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

A Month of 30 Minute Whole30 Meals

1 | Chicken stir fry

2 | Hamburgers & sweet potatoes 'fries'

3 | Chicken & any roasted vegetable

4 | Tuna wraps (compliant mayo available from Primal Kitchen)

5 | Spinach Fritata (available in Whole30 book)

6 | Pork chops & any roasted vegetable

7 | Scrambled eggs, sautéed bell peppers, & compliant sausage

8 | Stuffed peppers

9 | Grilled salmon & roasted asparagus or brussels sprouts

10 | Taco meat, mixed roasted veggies, sliced avocado

11 | Hebrew National hotdogs & roasted potatoes (compliant ketchup & mustard available from Primal Kitchen)

12 | Southwest Scrambled Eggs (available in Whole30 book)

13 | Blackened tilapia & guacamole

14 | Egg bake (eggs, homemade sausage, sweet potato, spinach, bell pepper onion)

15 | Shrimp & steamed vegetable medley

16 | Salad & protein of choice topped with favorite vegetables and Primal Kitchen dressing

17 | Roast beef (30-ish minutes of prep, longer to cook)

18 | Grilled meat & vegetable kabobs

19 | Melissa's Chicken Hash (available in Whole30 book)

20 | Pulled pork (30-ish minutes of prep, longer to cook)

21 | Salmon burgers

22 | Baked sweet potatoes topped with favorite toppings

23 | Grilled steak

24 | Dinner Breakfast (available in Whole30 book)

25 | Cauliflower fried rice

26 | Slow cooker gumbo (30-ish minutes of prep, longer to cook)

27 | Sheet pan roasted onion, bell peppers, and compliant kielbasa-type sausage

28 | Eggs with leftover pork chop

29 | Harvest Grilled Chicken Salad (available in Whole30 book)

30 | Blackened chicken & avocado salsa

What are you favorite Whole30 meals? Share below!

Kayty