to my valentine ...

I love you today and every day. Cheers to our first Valentine's Day as Mr. & Mrs. and the many, many more to come. Xo

 pc: pamela ruby photography

a story about poo

Yesterday I shared with everyone how excited I am to jump back into blogging and keep anyone who cares up to date on my little family and our adventures, experiences, ups and downs, etc. Today I am sharing a story about poop with all of you. I'm so sorry, but these are the stories of my life. 

Ready? I'll keep this short and sweet.

This morning while making my way to Starbucks for my every.single.day iced latte, Monk was kickin' it in the back seat, I was on the phone with my little sister, and everything was a-okay. That was until I smelled something foul yet all too familiar coming from the back seat ... I glanced back and realized that my darling (and supposedly potty trained) pup had pooped ALL OVER THE BACKSEAT. Now, before any of you suggest that I burn my car and refuse to ever sit in the backseat again, I had laid down a blanket and no poo actually got on my seat. So relax about it! 

Luckily, this story has a happy ending. We made it home safely and my car is once again, poop free. Monk, however, is grounded and lost his car privileges for two weeks. 

The end. You're welcome. 

This was taken last weekend, when he didn't poop in the car. 

Look at that face!

back at it

Hi friends!

Boy has it been a while. Since writing last life has been a little bit crazy and really wonderful!

Joel and I are enjoying married life and have been on lots of adventures since tying the knot, Monk is doing better than ever (and by better than ever, I mean he literally just chewed up all of the toilet paper in the bathroom), and I am in my last semester at UNLV and will be graduating in May. Yaass!

I stopped posting on here shortly after my grandma passed away last year, because if I'm being honest with myself, she was the only person reading this blog ... hah. :) She would call me every day that I posted to talk about what I wrote, rave about how much she loved seeing my pictures and thank me for keeping her posted on what was going on in my life. She was seriously the best ever. Miss you, grams.

Anyway, I've been really itching to write again and share recipes, stories, things I've learned about life and myself since getting married and whatever else pops in my head and decided it was time to jump back into it. Hopefully my mom or sisters will feel the need to fill in for my grandma! ;) Hint, hint family.

So yeah man, I'm back!

Xo

Taken while we were in New York last month for my birthday. We finally made it over to the 9/11 fountains.
They were breathtakingly beautiful.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Summer is right around the corner! Unless you live here in Las Vegas, then Summer started about two weeks ago. Ugh. 

This is, of course, the time of year when everyone starts worrying more about their diet and working out so they can fit into that itty bitty bikini (which I know nothing about, you'll find me in a full length poncho at the pool). However, I do like to feel really good this time of year and kick up my health routine since it's not as easy to cover up a bad weekend with a cozy sweatshirt when it's 100 degrees outside, although I've tried. 

I found this recipe on one of the many blogs I follow (simplyrealhealth.com) and my first time making it was a total disaster. I thought I could substitute wax paper for parchment paper (you can't, so don't), the smoke alarm was going off because the wax paper was literally burning in the oven, I couldn't get the pizza off of the wax paper so we were forced to eat a little with almost every bite, and I didn't cook it long enough at all.. To make a long story short, it fell apart, I was pissed off, threw a temper tantrum, possibly cried a little ... all while my amazing husband choked down every waxy bite and kept saying "it's not that bad babe!". What a guy. :) 
Side note: I totally realize that I may have overreacted a little. Leave me alone about it. #roughday

My second time making it was much more successful. I made sure to use parchment paper and kept it in the oven for about 5 minutes longer. We were thrilled with the results! My point? If you fail the first time, get back on the cow and try again ... or something like that. 

This is definitely a new staple in the Hiatt household. 

Bonus points: it's gluten free! But that only matters if you have celiac disease. Seriously. 

Cauliflower Crust Pizza 

Makes approx 2 servings

Notes: You will need a clean dish towel to make this crust, as well as a powerful blender or food processor. If you don’t have one, no problem—just boil the cauliflower florets before you blend them.

Crust:

1 medium head cauliflower, with the base stem and leaves removed (just the florets and some smaller stems needed)

½ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

2 TB almond flour (or brown rice flour - I used brown rice flour because almond flour is much more expensive)

1 egg

1 tsp sea salt + 1 tsp pepper

*A pinch of dried oregano, red pepper flakes, or basil if desired! I use all three.

To top:

Clean ingredient tomato sauce (I love the Delallo brand but there are a lot of good options), homemade tomato sauce or clean pesto.

Other toppings of your choice: roasted red peppers or sun-dried tomatoes, pre-cooked organic sausage, organic mozzarella, parmesan, feta or goat cheese, olives, etc. Using all pre-cooked toppings will keep the cooking time shorter. 

*For the pizza in the photo, I used roasted red peppers, all natural/organic turkey sausage, fresh parmesan cheese and a little fresh goat cheese.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (NOT WAX PAPER!). In a powerful blender or food processor, add cauliflower florets and blend until smooth. Don’t over process it, but blend enough so that you no longer have any big pieces visible.

Place the pulsed cauliflower in the middle of a clean dish towel. Wrap it up, and squeeze as much moisture out of it as you can. There will be a lot! *The more moisture you can squeeze out the better, it may take a few minutes so just be patient. It also helps to do little bits of the cauliflower at a time. 

Then, open the towel and place the cauliflower in a mixing bowl. Add parmesan, almond flour, egg and spices and mix together. Combine it into a ball. With your hands, flatten into an even crust on the baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 min (depending on your oven), until it starts to brown. 

Remove from heat, add your sauce and toppings, and place back in the oven until done (approx 5 minutes if you pick topping that are already pre-cooked). Broil at the end to brown the cheese for a great presentation.

*While this is definitely a pizza, I find that this is better eaten with a fork. The crust is absolutely delicious but it does fall apart easier than regular pizza crust.

Serve with a delicious side salad and you're ready to go!

Xo

*Recipe by simplyrealhealth.com - I won't lie, I was to lazy to retype this recipe so these are her words, I just added in a few of my own tips and favorite ingredients!

our wedding video

This video is everything. We are so excited about it and feel so blessed to be able to share it with all of you. It's something we will always truly treasure. Enjoy!

Xo



Hiatt Wedding from DunnRite Productions on Vimeo.

life lately.

Hi all,

This blog post is coming to you from a place of peace. After what has easily been the most chaotic, awful, and heartbreaking couple of months of my life so far, I can finally say that things are looking up and the dust is finally settling. 

As most of you know, I lost my Grandma last month. This is the first time in my life that I've dealt with the loss of someone I was so close to. It shook me in a way that I wasn't prepared for (I can't imagine anyone is ever prepared for something like that) and I've had a hard time readjusting. I feel that there are moments in life that redefine who we are and losing my Grandma has been one of those moments for me.

Now that I've found some peace with everything that has happened, I've really enjoyed diving back into wedding plans and projects. It definitely keeps me busy. :) I thought I would be really stressed out at this point in the planning process but I'm not stressed out at all. Honestly, I'm just ready to say "I do" to the most amazing guy I know and be surrounded by all of our friends and family that will be there to celebrate with us. It's just going to be such a special weekend! I know that my Grandma will be right there cheering us on with the biggest smile on her face.

The hardest wedding decision for us to make so far has been choosing a song for our first dance. Just when we think we've got it figured out, we find five more songs that we like. Oy vey. I guess we are just trying to find a song that is both original and meaningful without being super cheesy. Maybe we will just rock out to Kesha for our first dance. I mean, Timber is my theme song ...

We also need to figure out where we are going on our honeymoon. We are seriously considering a California coast road trip, but since we aren't going on our honeymoon until May, we don't know for sure. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to share them with me!
 

trial run for wedding hair + makeup - both done by the amazing Colie Hall.

Anyway, thank you for sitting through this little update. :)
I hope Monday is treating you well.

Xo