Trip to San Francisco - Breakfast in the Big City

We only spent two full days in San Francisco, but we managed to cram so much in those two days that I think I will spend this week writing about it in sections. I took about a bazillion pictures, and had plans to post while we were there but we had very little down time.
After a late night family dinner down the street from our hotel at a cute little downtown diner, and half night of sleep we were off! We started our morning with some breakfast at Sears Fine Food. It was just a couple blocks away so we walked from our hotel. We came at just the right time and were able to be sat promptly.

I would highly recommend the food and the experience. Everything was fresh and delicious, & the kids got coins to use in the old fashioned slot machines at the end of our meal. They are world famous for their pancakes and all of their juice is fresh squeezed. It even stated in the menu the fresh fruit used for my fruit and yogurt bowl was, "immediately rushed to the restaurant", at its prime ripeness. Service was great and the food was even better.

The place took you back in time, all the decor looked as if it had been kept the same for the past 80 years it had been open. The walls were covered in old photographs of both sights and people. There is a very interesting description of the history of the restaurant here, on their website. Apparently, the whole thing started with a retired circus clown, oddly enough. 

We didn't win any loot at the end of our meal, but the experience and delicious food was enough of a win for us. Do you know of any awesome breakfast places in the San Francisco area? I am sure in such a metropolis there are plenty.  I would love to hear about them for the next time we venture down there. Thanks for reading, be on the lookout for my next posts that will include our other adventures in San-Fran.

-Kaci

My Favorite Coffee Drink

Happy Tuesday, friends! This post is all about one of my favorite things; coffee. "First I drink the coffee, then I do the things", pretty much sums up my everyday life. This morning I woke up, after a rather sleepless night, in a panic. My daily alarm had not gone off and we were already behind schedule for our before school, morning routine. Why the sleepless night, you ask? Well, funny enough, the cause was indeed, coffee. I had worked a night shift last night and was especially dragging when I arrived at 3pm to clock in. I thought it would be a great idea to order a quad shot of espresso. Let me tell you, this made my shift much more enjoyable, but sleeping; not so much. I drug myself out of bed and quickly woke the kids up and we all started getting ready for the day. Between teeth brushing, lunch packing & pancake making, I tried to pull myself together and look at least semi presentable. All I really had time for was to brush my teeth, wipe the mascara from under my eyes from the day before, & throw on some black yoga pants and a big comfy sweater. All that was missing from the typical "tired mom in a hurry" ensemble, was a messy bun, which I usually try to avoid. Have you ever seen that meme about messy buns? Here it is.  Enough said. The kids looked and smelled clean, which is what really mattered, so we rushed out the door and got to Leighton's school just in time. After dropping Leighton off, I headed to Kade's preschool. My immediate next stop was Starbucks. Not just any Starbucks though, MY Starbucks; where they know exactly how I like my drink. Every time I visit, weather they greet me with complaints about an awful morning, or thank yous for an awesome close the night before, I always leave with a smile, ready to chug my magic bean potion and start my day. This morning, not only did they make my drink just how I like it, they wrote me a sweet note. Such an awesome way to re-start my day and forget about the hectic rush of the early morning.
Here is my current favorite coffee drink at Starbucks: a grande iced quad espresso with one stevia and salted cold foam. Can you say that 10 times fast? If you haven't tried the salted foam, just go ahead and do yourself a favor and order it on top of any iced drink you prefer. It will even come with a special lid. I usually avoid drinks high in sugar and go for the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. I love the taste of coffee though, so it is easy for me to say no to those PSL's and white mocha's. When I am being especially "good", I order the same drink but instead of the salted cold foam, I get it topped with a splash of almond milk.
Before I got in the habit of drinking the quad espresso's, I was in love with our cold brew iced coffee. I used to order a grande iced cold brew, with an added shot of espresso, no water and light almond milk. When I ordered this from other stores I was often met with a look of shock, or a barista asking me if I wanted to have a heart attack. If you are really needing a pick me up, with little to no carbs, sugar, fat or dairy; order a cold brew this way.
My original favorite coffee drink from Starbucks, was a grande iced coffee with an added shot of espresso and super light non fat milk. This is what got me through those exhausting college years at W.S.U. It was usually accompanied by a chonga bagel toasted with cream cheese, which is probably why those freshman 15 turned in to 20. Did you know that Chonga is actually an acronym? It stands for cheese, onion and garlic, and boy is it delicious. It has also provided some humor throughout the years of different customers ordering it by various names. I think my favorite was the, "Chimichonga bagel".
Starbucks can be a touchy subject for those in the Pacific Northwest. People here either love it or hate it. Some blame the old C.E.O. for loss of the Seattle Super sonics pro basketball team. Some say the coffee tastes burnt all the time or that the prices are too high. I am a Starbucks-lifer and proud to have worked there for the past several years. Sure, it's not my dream job, but it has provided me with many blessings. Full time benefits with part time hours, a schedule that allows my family to avoid the cost of daycare and allow for weekends spent off together. They will even pay for me to go to college. Plus, I get a free pound of coffee each week along with as many drinks as I get breaks while on shift. Another added bonus most people don't know, is if I work there for at least ten years, I will receive FREE COFFEE FOR LIFE! This alone, is enough motivation for me to stay. I get to work just 3 days a week and be able to enjoy my beautiful family on all the other days. Yes, I get sick of the rude customers; but the conversation with the pleasant ones usually makes up for it. I try not to take my job too seriously; it is just a cup of coffee, but sometimes it can really make a person's day, just like how it made mine, today.  I hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday!

-Kaci

Family Pizza and Game Night

"Fri-yay" is officially the new "Friday" in the Howard home. I am not sure when it all started, but when the kids told Ty and I about their new name for the "best day of the week", it stuck; and for good reason. Fridays are the end of the long, busy, work & school filled week for all of us. It's the last day of early wake ups. The last afternoon of kid and car switches in the Starbucks parking lot. The last day of the "opposite work schedule" parent life shenanigans. The last day of meetings, workouts & alarm clocks (unless the next day is Cougar Football Saturday). Fri-yay is the beginning of a weekend spent together as a family, making those precious memories. We are very fortunate that our schedules work out this way, with both Ty and I having weekends off. It hasn't always been as such, but I sure am grateful it is now. 

It was Friday afternoon and I decided to ask Kade, if it were up to him, what he would like to do tonight. I wasn't expecting much, his usual answers consist of "I don't know" or something crazy like, "go fly an airplane". His answer was perfect. He said he wanted to have a family game, pizza and movie night. He was especially excited and clapped his hands together joyfully after telling me his epic idea. I was excited about the idea, too and got to planning & making a grocery list. The only thing I had to do was sell Ty on the idea. I was sure he would love everything except the pizza. Ty has recently been following a new diet, the Keto diet. He has been very successful in following it and has lost over 50 pounds. Here I was thinking what a pain it was going to be to cook him a separate "keto friendly" dinner. Not to mention the whole eating one of his favorite foods in front of him part. Then it clicked! One time a while back, when he was really craving some doughy carbs, he made a keto friendly pizza. It only had 4 ingredients (plus the toppings) and was surprisingly tasty. After some recipe research and a trip to the grocery store we were all set to make our own individual pizzas and bring Kade's epic idea to fruition. 

The ingredients for the dough are simple; cream cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, eggs and almond flour. We prefer the texture of the super fine almond flour for pizza crusts. Here is a step by step description of how we made our pizzas. (I will add a link to the full recipe at the end of the post)

After preheating your oven to 425 degrees, combine the mozzarella cheese and the cream cheese in a medium to large microwavable dish. We used our largest Pyrex for this and it worked great. 

Then you will microwave it for 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds. We had the most success after 1:30 of microwave time. Once it is done, use a spatula or spoon to mix well until combined. After a couple of minutes a sticky, thick ball of dough will form. It should look like this:

 Next you will add the 2 eggs. It is very important to make sure the eggs are incorporated well. If you don't get them all the way mixed in it totally changes the look and texture of your pizza, for the worst. Then you will add in the almond flour. It is easiest to add in half at a time. Mix until well combined. If your dough gets a bit crumbly, place it back in the microwave to soften, for about 1 minute. All this mixing took some muscles, good thing Ty has been hitting those weights. We made 3 batches and he did the first two. 

For this next part you want to make sure to get your hands super wet, otherwise the dough will stick to your hands. Place the ball of dough on parchment paper and get to squashing and stretching that stuff til it's just how you like it. We split the dough in half and let the kids make their own mini pizzas. They love helping out in the kitchen and anything resembling play dough is extra fun. We had a tough time getting them to keep their hands wet enough at first. Then Ty came up with the idea to use the water filled pie dish, so they were able to get their hands wet as needed. Brains and muscles, how did I get so lucky?! Well..I know how, but that's a story for another day. 

After getting the dough to the shape and thickness you prefer, place your parchment paper on a pizza pan or a cookie sheet. We used a cookie sheet for the kids' so we could cook them together. Use a fork to poke a few holes in your dough, then let it cook in the oven for about 8 minutes. After 8 minutes is up, take the dough out and it's time to start adding those toppings. For toppings, we decided to use a classic pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, spicy sausage, mushrooms, artichokes and spinach. 

The kids picked their favorite, pepperoni for their topping. Big surprise there. I tried to convince them to be a little more adventurous but it was a hard pass on the veggies, this time around. You have to pick your battles, right? Ty opted for mushrooms, pepperoni and spicy sausage while I went with spinach and artichokes. 

After the toppings are all added place your pizza back in the oven for about 6 minutes. Super quick! We were wondering if the cook time would be different for the mini pizzas versus the regular sized ones, but all came out perfect. I think these faces say it all. 

Family pizza, game and movie night was off to a great start. Now with our tummies full and the kitchen a mess, we moved onto the games. These are the ones we went with; Uno, twister and an assortment of kid friendly card games I found at the very bottom of our ottoman. 

Uno is always a hit with our kids and works great for all ages. Kade, 3 years and Leighton, 6 years old can both play with little to no help from us. It is a great way for kids to familiarize with numbers and colors, too. Yay for an educational bonus! Next, Leighton chose Old Maid. I had never played this but it was another perfect one for both of the kiddos. Kade needed a little bit of help but not much. This game is a good one for matching, reading and colors as well. My favorite was Twister, Ty opted to be the spinner. I did better than I had expected going up against my two super flexible energetic kiddos. I felt super silly, but hearing their little giggles and seeing their eyes light up made it all worth the effort. Overall, I think Uno was the overall family favorite, as usual. But it was fun to try some new games and I was glad to switch it up. 

As the night started winding down, we moved onto the movie portion of our evening. Pj's were on, popcorn was popped, and both our tummies and our hearts were full. Leighton chose Loony Toons, a classic that our whole family enjoyed. Although, I can't lie, I was secretly hoping for Hocus Pocus; my all time fall and halloween favorite. Luckily there is still plenty of time to sneak that one in here before the season is over. Family time with the four of us is truly what makes me happy. It's not always easy to find things to do that the whole family can enjoy, but it sure is worth the effort when it all works out. I would say Kade's idea of a fun night turned out pretty amazing. I hope this post gave some of you new ideas on how to have a fun Fri-yay the entire family can enjoy, or at least a new fun recipe to try.  Here is the full Keto Fathead Pizza Recipe . Thanks for reading! -Kaci