healthy-ish {paleo} living

i know, i haven't posted in months... 

we decided to turn our internet off for the summer

because we were both out of town more than we were in town this summer. 

i shouldn't complain that i was able to go to the beach 6 times this summer, several times with work and a few days with my husband as well. but i definitely disliked living out of a suitcase and am very convinced that although i LOVE traveling, i am a bit of a home body and i really missed being at home with my husband and our puppies. and i missed my kitchen more than i should admit.

my favorite trip this summer was definitely our trip to iowa to visit family.
{we decided to take the dogs, which was quite an adventure}
we had a family camping trip with about 25 family members. it was such a fun week with so many fun memories.

here are a couple of my favorite pictures



after 17 hours in the car together they were the best of friends.
this is just the sweetest picture of my puppies

uncle dave's girlfriend, krista got this awesome picture of amos at the campsite

paisley loved the easy access to nature.

 there were so many things that she could chew on .

this is most of the collogan clan at the campsite

and this is my favorite! 3 generations of collogans- topher, lyle, and jim

this summer has been anything but relaxing, but despite the craziness, i have been busy with projects and cooking and baking here in our own kitchen.

my husband and i had both gained a little weight in the last several months. 

and a few months ago my husband decided that he wanted to join crossfit and he assured me that he was more than serious about living a healthy lifestyle, so i bought him a membership at one of the local crossfit gyms. he has been incredibly dedicated to it for several weeks now and i am so proud of him. i know that i don't need to lose much weight, but i also know that i need to 

work on eating a healthier diet and i am training for my first race... and i decided to start with a big one. i am hoping to do a half-marathon at the end of october, so i would appreciate any support and insight that any of you runners might have for me.

i am doing my best to encourage my husband to continue in his workouts and to make healthy dinners for us.

we have been trying to stick to the paleo diet as much as possible.

and honestly, the meals that we have had since we started eating more healthfully have been delicious!

the only thing that i have really missed has been cheese. i am pretty sure now that i could live without sugar, bread, and pasta, but cheese is definitely my guilty pleasure.

several of our favorite paleo recipes so far (which i will attempt to blog in the next few days) have been zucchini hummus (which i must say, i could not even begin to imagine that it would taste so much like hummus), eggplant stacks = amazing!!!!, and tilapia with peach-mango salsa, which i think was our favorite.

tonight i made the HUGEST batch of paleo marinara sauce, which i plan to use in 3 of our dinners this week.  i know that i am probably a little prejudice, but it was incredible!

****note: this makes an EnORmOUS batch of marinara,

but it is SO worth it.

i sauteed 

1 large red onion

5 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 T. olive oil

for about 5 minutes,

then add

2 carrots, grated

1 large zucchini, grated 

and sautee for 3-5 minutes

add

3 T. fresh basil, chopped

2 t. fresh oregano

1 t. red pepper flakes

4 packets splenda

salt and pepper, to taste 

( i added about 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper)

then add 

1 - 35 oz. can roma tomatoes (i used Nina, roma tomatoes from costco), chopped, with juices

let simmer at medium heat for 30 minutes to 1/2 hour.

tonight we had grilled chicken marinara 

(a grilled chicken breast, seasoned with balsamic vinegrette, salt and pepper), 

and it was everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

omorrow we are going to try paleo 'spaghetti' with julienned zucchini 'noodles' and marinara...

i will let you know the results. 

glimpses of fall

i am finally embracing fall as it has been slowly making itself more permanent in greenville. i really don't love the cold weather, but i do SO love everything that goes along with it.

2 weekends ago my husband and went on a camping trip in the pisgah forest off the blue ridge parkway. it was the perfect camping weekend. it was nice and warm during the day and almost freezing at night. we got to do some hiking during the day and then sat by our campfire at night with our hot chocolate and smores. i think that i finally managed to get the campfire smell out of all of our clothes. i really was beginning to think that my hair was permanently campfire scented. 

the views from our hike were gorgeous 

we found this little trail through the forest and the sunlight through the trees was beautiful

these are my 2 favs in the whole world

paisley and i hiking through the fun twisty trees

me and the happiest puppy in the whole world. 

she was so excited to be surrounded by the outdoors all weekend.

the red leaves are my favorites

i love all the bright fall leaves though

the beautiful colors of october in north carolina

we finally wore paisley out, but not for long

last weekend was fall for greenville in downtown greenville. 

they block off most of the main street in greenville and bring in over 40 local food vendors. they set up 5 stages and had live music playing all day long all 3 days. people seemed to come out of the woodwork to come downtown. since we live right off main street we walked down all 3 days to enjoy some of the best people watching in the area. we had a great time and would recommend you attend next year.

me and topher enjoying the beautiful weather at fall for greenville

the thousands of people on main street

what a fun fall festival our little town has

sunday was a slightly more manageable crowd. 

i finally got all of the fall decorations up in our house. it makes me extremely excited for halloween to arrive! 

i love all holidays, but halloween, thanksgiving, and christmas are a fun tri-fecta of holidays and just far enough apart to have recovered from the previous one to prepare for the next.

here's a glimpse into our home (pardon the clutter in the background) at some of our fall decor

i love this pumpkin tureen

i thought that our livingroom looked fun in the sunlight this morning.

my candlabra is compliments of the dollar tree

and paisley must have felt that she was being left out, so she came to pose in a picture

i was particularly excited about my skeleton garland

and this is a picture of paisley after our walk downtown this morning.

this was the next to last downtown market, and since i will most likely be working next saturday morning with the arrival of baby #5 in my nanny family, we decided to go enjoy one last greenville saturday market.

if you haven't been yet, you might want to go next week, october 29th, for the autumn harvest celebration. trick or treating, costume contests, cake walk, fall recipe swap, etc.

http://www.saturdaymarketlive.com/autumnharvest.aspx

happy fall!!!