Some thoughts for the day:

I’m learning it is ok to be vulnerable. Trying to keep it all in all the time is emotionally exhausting. Not to mention, when it does finally come out, it will be ridiculously dramatic at the perfectly wrong time in front of the worst possible person to see it. Who’s been there?

Find a way to communicate your feelings with the people you love. It’s unfair to them not to understand what you’re feeling and yet be held accountable for not being supportive. It’s unfair to you feel like you have to lock your pain inside to protect someone else. That pain comes out anyway, in some form or fashion, so you’re really not doing anyone a favor.

I feel like we create these scenarios in our head that things will be so horrible if we admit our feelings out loud. But, think back to the last time you had a hard conversation. Was it really as bad as you imagined it would be? And even if it was bad, guess what … you’re still here.

Trust in your ability to navigate hard situations and let yourself be vulnerable. Like I tell my kids, use your words.

Now, let’s talk this delicious casserole dish of yumminess…

I ate something similar to this at a party recently. It wasn’t dairy-free, but the person who held the party went out of there way to buy something vegetarian for my husband and me. It was absolutely delicious and I knew I would need to recreate a vegan version pronto. Last night I did just that, and I want to share it with you! You can easily use low-fat cream cheese and real cheese if you are not cutting dairy. I’m not gonna lie – it’s hard to give up cheese. The vegan kind only barely cuts it for us, if I’m being honest. But, wrapped up in this casserole, it was truly delicious and hit the spot!

Veggie Quinoa Lasagna (Vegan)

Ingredients:

One cup quinoa

2 cups Vegetable Broth

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 TBSP Oregano

1/2 TBSP Minced Onion

1 Jar Chunky Vegetable Marinara Sauce

4 Zucchini, coined

2 cups spinach, chopped

1/2 cup Vegan Cream Cheese (I used Go Veggie!)

1 1/2 cups Vegan Shredded Cheese (I used Aldi brand)

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Instructions:

If using Instant Pot, add quinoa, broth, tomato sauce, oregano, minced onion, and salt to liner pot. Stir, and replace lid. Set pot to 2 min manual high pressure. Allow a natural pressure release. Remove lid when timer reads 20 min.

Preheat over to 400.

Stir cream cheese into warm quinoa until it is well combined.

Time to build your lasagna! In a 9X13 casserole dish, spread a layer of marinara sauce. Line sauce with a layer of zucchini coins. Spread layer of quinoa (about 1/2 of it) across zucchini. Spread all of the chopped spinach over quinoa. Spread another layer of marinara sauce. Spread a layer of cheese. Add another layer of zucchini coins. (This should use up all your zucchini.) Add another layer of quinoa (using the rest of the quinoa), followed by a layer of sauce and then cheese. Finally, sprinkle the bread crumbs across the top of your casserole. (If your bread crumbs aren’t seasoned, add some salt, pepper, and oregano to them.)

Bake for 30 min. Then, raise the temp to 425 and bake for another ten minutes.

Serve with some crusty bread and salad. Enjoy!

I feel like I just had a stroke of genius. I have a surplus of garden cherry tomatoes and needed to do something with them fast. It occurred to me to pop them in my air fryer like I do everything else!

Sadly, my chest puffing over my great idea didn’t last too long. After I made these delectable little bites, I googled and found that some other smart cooks had already thought of this.

So, alas, I’m not doing anything totally revolutionary here, but maybe here is the first time you have heard of doing this. That’s enough for me!

Here’s what I did:

Air Fryer Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Line your fryer basket with foil. This is of course optional, but highly recommended. Tomatoes pop and they are messy.

Toss tomatoes in a bowl with all other ingredients.

Pour into lines fryer basket.

Set fryer at 400 for ten minutes. You will hear some popping! That is normal.

When timer goes off, your Roasted Tomatoes should be done! If you desire more roasting, add an extra few minutes.

Enjoy! I served some over spaghetti with portobello mushrooms and topped with pine nuts! Yum!!

Someone commented the other day that I’ve “upped my selfie game… big time!” Ok, I admit this made me beam! Mostly because it came from my 21 year old niece who is way cooler than me. I wanted to give you the story behind why the look of most of the photos I post of myself have changed their look recently!

I stumbled across an IG star named Sorelle Amore and she has a course called Advanced Selfie University. The course goes through how she sets up really cool selfies using her DSLR all over the world in her travels. After buying the course, I just realized that it’s so crazy that I take everyone else’s photos and never my own! Why do I always let someone else tell MY story through photographs? Better yet, why do I post crappy cell phone selfies that make me cringe? That’s not who I am. I’m creative and I want my social media page to really reflect my personality. Setting up my own self portraits is super challenging and fun. I’ve especially loved making the mundane – stuff like laundry and day to day mom life- interesting through photos. I think people like to see behind the curtain.

Just a few examples – check out my Instagram @moderndayfox to see some more!

Beans

1 small diced onion

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 cup dried beans (pinto, navy, northern – can be a combo)

4 cups water or broth (or a combo)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

DIRECTIONS

Remove lid from pot. Press Saute button.

When pot is hot, add one diced onion and minced garlic. Saute until translucent.

Add one tsp smoked paprika and saute for another minute.

Turn pot off.

Add two cup dried beans and 4 cups water or broth and salt. Stir and replace lid.

Set pot to manual high pressure for 55 minutes. Allow natural pressure release after timer goes off.

BBQ Sauce (make while beans are cooking)

1/2 cup water

1 can tomato paste

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp worchestshire

1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 Tbsp coconut aminos

1 Tbsp yellow mustard

1 Tbsp molasses

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika 

DIRECTIONS

Stir well in small mixing bowl. Then, pour into small sauce pan on stove. Heat over low heat. Once it is warmed through, add 1/4 cup coconut sugar. Continue to cook over low heat until completely dissolved. Taste and add more sugar, if desired. Brown sugar works well too!

After the pressure is completely released from the Instant Pot, remove lid and stir. Your beans should be fully cooked, but sometimes they can be finicky depending on the age of the beans (or the lunar phase of the moon 🙂 ). If your beans are still too firm, cook another ten minutes in the Instant Pot. I found 55 minutes with a natural release to be the correct amount of cooking time fairly consistently during my experiments with this recipe.

If beans are cooked to your liking, add more salt, if desired. I added another teaspoon of salt for my salt preference. Stir in barbecue sauce. I also added one Tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Sauce for a little heat! Beans will continue thicken as they sit. Serve, and enjoy!

Here’s a video tutorial to show you how it’s done!

xo Jaime

Hello, friends! First, some deep thoughts from the weekend I want to share:

I was at a conference for my full time job in technology sales over the weekend, and we had a speaker for our Women in Technology group. She said the best advice she ever got was, “Don’t let your comfort zone become a dangerous anchor.”

Isn’t that so true? When you find still waters, it’s easy to just safely float there for the duration. The problem is you never go anywhere – not back, not forward, you just stay in the same spot forever. And while that may sound appealing to some, it is not sustainable. Aside from inevitable boredom alone, there are bound to be storms that come through. Sometimes it is dangerous not to move from the storm’s path.

If you are incapable of moving because you’re anchored to the status quo, that potentially leads to drowning. Be brave. Make yourself uncomfortable. Don’t give up on your passions even if they aren’t what’s paying your bills right now. Have hard conversations. Be the change. Pull up your anchor and sail somewhere new! THAT is how you grow.

Ok, now let’s get to this soup. Maybe it was just because I spent the weekend in blazing hot Florida, but it got all kinds of chilly in Tennessee yesterday. I know that due to our crazy weather pattern here I will be back to wearing tank tops and shorts by the weekend, but it was actually kind of nice to have a day that almost resembled Fall. We don’t get many of those! The crisp air immediately made me crave soup. Well, that, and I still haven’t gone to the grocery store since my return, so I had to get creative with dinner. I decided to experiment with making Minestrone in my Instant Pot, and it was a SUCCESS. My kids even liked it, although they would never openly admit that. They took more than two bites, so I’m calling it a win!

When you review this recipe, I’m anticipating one question on repeat. Why did you not cook the pasta on high pressure? Yes, I know that I can cook pasta in the Instant Pot, but I wanted to be very careful about making sure I kept a nice texture on all the various ingredients in this soup. I did not add the zucchini in the high pressure cycle either because I wanted to maintain the firmness. One thing about the Instant Pot – your vegetables and pasta can turn to mush in a heart beat. It’s better to spend a few extra minutes boiling the pasta and zucchini than have a bowl of mush, right?? If you decide to try cooking your pasta during the high pressure cycle, I recommend adding all six cups of water or broth at the beginning, and doing 4 minutes high pressure instead of five. I’d love to know how it turns out! Or, just follow the recipe as written and you can be sure you will have nice, firm ingredients and that all-day simmered taste.

Note: There is something going on with my recipe plug-in for WordPress, so my apologies for the different format on this recipe!

MODERN DAY FOX INSTANT POT MINESTRONE (VEGAN)

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 diced onion

2 carrots, coined

3 diced celery stalks

1 tsp salt, plus more later if desired

1 tsp rosemary

1/2 tablespoon oregano

1 tsp Basil

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

Pinch crushed red pepper (optional)

1 28 oz can crushed tomato

6 cups water or broth

2 cups dry pasta (bowtie, rigatoni, penne)

1 diced zucchini, medium

1 can kidney beans, drained

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

I/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

3 cups chopped kale, stems removed

Instructions:

1. Set pot to saute and heat olive oil.
2. Add garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Saute for 2-3 minutes until onions start to turn translucent.
3. Add salt, rosemary, oregano, basil, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper. Saute for one more minute. Keep stirring so your seasonings do not burn.
4. Turn pot off.
5. Add crushed tomatoes, 4 cups water or broth, and stir.
6. Replace lid on instant pot and set pot to 5 minutes high pressure. Be sure to turn the knob to Sealing so your pot comes to pressure.
7. When the timer goes off, use a quick release for the steam.
8. When the knob drops, remove lid and turn pot off.
9. Add the other two cups of water. Stir in dry pasta, zucchini, and kidney beans.
10. Set the pot to Saute and allow contents to boil and cook pasta thoroughly.
11. When pasta is finished cooking, turn pot off.
12. Add lemon juice, vinegar and kale. Kale will soften into the soup in a few minutes.
13. Do a taste-test and add additional salt, if desired. I like my soups to have a saltier flavor so I added two additional teaspoons. I also used water instead of broth so I needed to make up for the salt that would have been in the broth.
14. Serve, and enjoy!!

Results time! The patriotic Walmart bikini strikes again 🙂

I just finished coaching and participating in the brand new LIIFT/HIIT program released by my fitness company. With only four workouts a week ranging between 30-40 minutes, this program fit perfectly into my busy summer. The flexibility of being able to move workouts around each week made it so much easier not to miss. There are times in my life when I need a stricter routine, but not in the middle of summer and then back to school. I also absolutely loved lifting weights and was using 20lb dumbbells for the majority of the exercises by the final weeks of the program.

My personal goal with this program was to maintain my weight and build muscle. As you can see in the pics, there is not a huge difference and I’m totally ok with that! Everyone has different goals when they start a fitness program and mine was to get through the rest of the summer without gaining weight. I did it! I did lose a good inch in my mid-section so my side pose result is the one I am most pumped about!

I have successfully maintained a 13 lb weight loss since the beginning of this year by committing to my at-home workout programs, drinking my superfood shake, and following simple principles laid out in the nutrition programs. I have had a tough year and these programs have saved me. That’s not being dramatic – that’s being honest! My challengers and my trainers have shown up for me every time I’ve pressed play. I love always having something to work towards and a community with whom to share it .

If you are intrigued by a program that combines weight training and bursts of high intensity exercises and gives you results in only four workouts a week, we need to talk! I will be kicking off my round of challenge groups on Sept 17th!! I want to help you change your life for the healthier!!!

Fill out this form and I’ll contact you!

Check out this progress photo from when I committed to my first program until now!

I am slowly piecing together what will be my next studio album, doing some songwriting but also reviewing songs by other writers that I love. Tonight a dear friend sent me a sampling of her songs and there was one on particular that hit me right between the eyes. It is called “Concrete Shoes.” This song struck me because it so clearly defines how I feel right now. It talks about trying to get over loss, but feeling weighed down by a broken heart and concrete shoes.

When you lose people you love, I think it’s an accurate comparison to say it feels like you are walking around in “concrete shoes.” Even the simplest tasks just feel so heavy and hard. For me, every workout is a struggle right now. I have to talk myself into it because I know it is so important for my continued health. Every meal prep feels like I’m wading through my kitchen in slow motion, but I do it because I’ll have even more stress if I don’t. Getting motivated to work feels like climbing a mountain with no rope and harness, but I do it because people are counting on me. I desperately want to kick off these heavy shoes. They feel so unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but they seem to be the only pair that fit right now. It’s unrealistic to think that I could just slide right back into my proverbial flip flops so soon after losing two people that I love.

One of my favorite artists, Peter Gabriel, said he was intrigued by how people could use music as an “emotional toolkit.” There is comfort in hearing someone else put the feelings you can’t voice into words. In fact, I’ve been trying to listen to the saddest music I can find these days. Sounds crazy, right? It’s not. It’s a release. Just like my friend’s song put into words my current emotional state, other songs are helping me let the tears flow a bit. It’s hard keeping it together all the time!

If you are struggling with loss- and I know so many of you who have messaged me are indeed struggling too- I encourage you to turn to music to help you make some sense of what you are feeling. Just keep listening and listening until you have that ah-ha moment where it seems the artist is writing lyrics straight out of your heart. Feeling understood is difficult, especially after loss. Let the music slowly chip away at your own “concrete shoes.”

“I have nothing left to lose

Except this broken heart and these concrete shoes.” (Steff Mahan)

XO Jaime