May City Life 2020 Eat Pray Love: Gluten Free Home Cooked Meals + Hauls & Fitness

This month has been another crazy one since we moved! Once we have settled in more and have at least most of the things we need delivered I will be updating you all with my moving story. So, I moved at the end of last month so this month of May I was in a new area of the city all month long! I am not far from my old home and very familiar with this area so basically nothing changed. But hubs and I have been scouting out some new areas to take photos (there are very few to be honest). So, this month was completely encompassed by the big move as well as staying safe. One huge thing for me was to continue to create content through out this ordeal. Not only does it make me feel better and helps me have the creative outlet I need, but I have noticed a lot more new viewers following my blog now that we all have gone through almost a two month quarantine together.

C/O Ettika

Anklet
C/O Ettika

Delicates C/O Eby

I know there has been a crazy shortage on hand sanitizer  for months. I wanted to share a small business that has hand sanitizer that is 100% plant based and 65% alcohol. I found this website because I follow Martha Stewart on social media (and have always been a fan) and she had a list of small businesses to buy hand sanitizer from. I prefer things that are all natural plant based so out of the list of ten this company stood out to me because they also incorporate natural oils to moisturize your skin.

THE GREAT AMERICAN TAKEOUT

SOME PRE-QUARANTINE DATE NIGHTS

Malios Prime

FITNESS:

GLUTEN FREE MEALS COOKED BY MYSELF- RECIPES AVAILABLE BY REQUEST IF NOT POSTED.

Chimmichurri recipe here

Crab boil

ROAST CHICKEN

COUNTRY SPAGHETTI 

Country spaghetti

In my house (in the country) my parents (mostly my dad) would make spaghetti maybe once a month. I call it country spaghetti because my mom and dad never made meat sauce spaghetti. Sometimes my mom would make spaghetti with ground turkey, the majority of the time it was made with Uncle Johns smoked sausage. This is a local family owned company thats been around for years. Their products new conscientiously the same and have always had the same great flavor, price, and texture. I have even had a chance to meet and chat with one of the owners and learn about the process they take to ensure their product is great. I grew up eating this brand of sausage and the only other time you will see me eat a different type of sausage is if I make a crab boil sometimes I use Andouille and when I make gumbo. For mornings, every once in a while I might have turkey sausage that I make myself to get a healthier lighter meat in my diet. Anyway, if your from around here in the country side of Tampa then you know about Uncle John's and if its not Uncle Johns's you can get out! And that is why I call this my "Country Spaghetti" because its not like a traditional Italian spaghetti.

And the secret is adding a little Louisianna hot sauce in with the sauce. #ohyes

Mediterranean Salad

This reviewer purely came out of being in quarantine. I try to plan out my groceries 3 weeks at a time and have them delivered or if there are items out of stock or only at Publix my husband will go. So since I have been buying groceries in bulk orders I realized having salad in the fridge was a waste of money, but I love salad so much! Well, to be honest anything can be a salad and not contain lettuce at all. I have learned this from dining out so much in I guess some higher end restaurants. I feel like as long as you have the salt, acid, fat right and their is water content via the veggies it is a salad.

So, one late night I came up with this recipe and honestly, I am not missing the lettuce at all. Bell pepper and onion will keep its freshness for weeks in or out of the refrigerator. Feta cheese will not go bad for weeks also and canned olives obviously will be a staple whether they are canned or not, they last for a really long time!

Ingredients 

Black olives

Green Bell pepper

white onion

feta cheese

Tomatoes on the vine (cherry tomatoes work fine if you don't have beefeater tomatoes).

EVOO

salt

Black pepper

Red wine vinegar 

Thyme

Instructions:

Roughly chop all the ingredients

Slice the onion (to taste, I don't eat a lot of onion, but my husband loves a lot)

Add however much feta you want

I prefer the black olives whole (it doesn't taste the same with sliced olives)

Add all ingredients to the bowl and mix

Add Red wine vinegar 

Add 2 caps of EVOO to the bowl

salt (to taste, but I do prefer it to be saltier and higher on the vinegar and olive oil)

pepper (just a dash)

Thyme 2 teaspoons

stir it up and its ready to eat. 

My favorite thing about this recipe is if you don't have great knife skills it is ok because most of it is roughly chopped.

SHRIMP & GRITS

I actually could not find my cornmeal this night so I decided to just make some from scratch by using my mortor and pestle to grind up Late July tortilla chips. I added seasonings which would be considered a Cajun seasoning mix and that is what you see in this bowl.Below is the mixture of the ground tortillas. In retrospect, if you are going to go this route just use a blender so they are more finely ground.

After grinding the tortillas I then did an egg wash and then dredged the shrimp one by one and added them to a preheated pan.

I cooked the shrimp on medium for 6 minutes turning them occasionally.

I used the pan drippings to make a gravy by adding whisked cornstarch and a little bit of chicken broth to the pan at the very end. I continued to whisk it until it got thick. My grits I cooked according to the directions on the bag. Once the shrimp were plated I added my gravy and then sprinkled with parsley.

BREAKFAST FRITTATA