Mama's Gotta Eat

Millie's birth mother and I have recently been commiserating over how much Kanye West's song "Only One" makes us both cry. I suspect she cries because it's written from the perspective of Kanye's mother, who won't be there for every  moment with his daughter, so he's picturing her telling him to tell his daughter about her. We tell Millie about her every day, and the part about God sending him two angels instead of one? That's how I feel about her birth mother and Millie. For me, I cry because this little baby is my whole world, she's my only child, and I waited and prayed for her for so long. And I cry because, open adoption or not, there is a big "what if" in our lives. What if she's our only one? What if God has given us just this one opportunity to be parents? I've mentioned before that I am an only child. I remember being asked if I had siblings as a child, and when I said no, the response was always, always, ALWAYS a...

For two years before our daughter Amelia was born and we adopted her, I scoured Pinterest and the internet for articles about parenthood. I wanted the cold hard truth, the whole story, as told by other women who were just as excited and terrified of becoming mothers as I was. I gravitated towards the buzzfeed generation's style of writing; seeing things written out as a concise list gives me an inexplicable sense of organized excitement. "20 Things No One Tells You About Motherhood" "35 Dads Who Have Totally Nailed This Parenting Thing" "42 People Who Might Be Parents or Might Be Stock Photos" "19 Reasons to Have a Kid for the Tax Deduction" "How Infertility Changed Me- a Story By a Slice of Pizza". Most of those article names are things I made up but in my two year stretch of trying to conceive obsession, I honestly would've clicked on every single link. But out of all those articles and lists that I actually read, I don...

The title of this blog post is, not accidentally, the same title as the drinks board of my personal Pinterest page. It's not intended to be cutesy or to get more Pinterest followers...no, this word is special to me because I think it is the sound I make when I am absolutely enamored with a drink and cannot get enough of it into my body. We're all suffering through this summer heat together, so you may as well text your friends to come over and make some of these awesome, customize-able drink recipes and have a party! Blackberry Arnold Palmer Ingredients: - 8 Bags Black Tea (My favorite kind ever is  this one , but guess what? Lipton stopped making it and now they've replaced it with a red-dye-ridden vanilla version. Blech!) - 8 Whole Lemons - 1/2 Cup Blackberries - 4 Tbsp Maple Syrup (to taste) - 8 Cups Purified Water Directions: Take a moment to bitterly stare at the expired Amazon listing for the Lipton Blackberry Tea. Cry for your unhappiness over this. Th...

It is no secret that I think replacing flour with gluten free flour is really not a fair swap. It doesn't have the same texture, nor does it have the same flavor...so why bother? This is a recipe for some amazing muffins that stay moist and don't taste gluten free.  If you came out to the Kids in the Kitchen event last week Saturday, these are the muffins we made on-stage during the demo and that you likely sampled at our table! Ingredients: 1 cup almond butter/cashew butter/peanut butter 2 whole eggs 2 whole bananas 1/4 cup of honey 1 tsp vanilla 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tbsp baking soda Directions: Mix it all together. It's that simple. Use a fork, use a spoon, use a garden trowel, whatever you feel is right. Get your kids to do it! Outsource this job! Then put the muffin batter into paper liners in a muffin tin and bake it for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. It might be a little gooey in the middle, but that will firm up after you cool them off. Enjo...

One day each year hardly seems enough to celebrate all that the mamas in our lives do for us. I've always loved Mother's Day and all that it represents, and this holiday has become particularly important to me in the years since founding Mama's Gotta Eat. This company thrives off the energy and stories that come to us from each and every mother we meet. These are gracious, strong, intelligent, and beautiful women who give me the absolute privilege of being a part of their everyday lives. I am the invisible friend at the table, and to see that twinkle in a mother's eye as she watches her family enjoy a healthy meal together is to see a little piece of heaven. Thank you to all my mamas who have given me the opportunity to watch your families grow. These baskets are for all that you do.  This little bubba is Jackson, a very special dumpling of a boy to me. He and his precious sister, Addison, were my nanny charges for almost 2 years. Jackson was more than happy to c...

You may not know this from my absolutely wonderful attitude, but our house caught on fire a few weeks ago. Actually, you probably know all about it because every time someone innocuously asks “how are you?” Eric or I will respond with “okay I guess…” which totally leads into the whole “aww, what’s wrong?” question and then we get to tell a gesture-filled story of what happened a few weeks ago. Eric’s side of the story really does not matter because he didn’t answer the phone the first two times I called to tell him I might die. He will receive floggings for this for the next 10 years. So here is what happened. After a very busy day of doing nothing but lying in bed eating Chicago Mix popcorn and watching Bravo TV, I decided it might be time to take a shower. I had just put the ingredients for my favorite carnitas in the crock pot that I got for Christmas. It might be a good time to admit that I have never owned a crock pot before this year. I saw this rainbow crock pot at Tar...