Savvy with Abbie

I went into this book - "Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Star" knowing how much Kanye praised his Mom, but not really knowing anything about her and her life and how Kanye was raised.  Ms. Donda West and I had way more in common than I ever thought - especially when it comes to parenting. She seemed like an AMAZING mother who never capped Kanye on his abilities.  "I believe that your parents have a tremendous impact on the kind of parent you become." "Kids pay attention to what they don't have monetarily only when there is a real lack of everything else." "A lot of people like to coddle their children. I don't want to hurt their feelings, or make them for not achieving. But if you don't set the benchmarks, and if you don't set that bar high, you can't expect your children to excel."  "I made sure that Kanye always knew he was loved" "In fact, listening is the only way we can be effective

Happy Sunday and NFL football and Broncos day:)  NFL football means cooler weather and that it has been this past week. After an 8-day heatwave of 111+ degree weather, I was so ready for 3 days of rain and finally in the 80's. Yes, I realize it's almost October and it's still in the 80's but I would rather have it be the 80's than 111 right now :)  Earlier this past week, I made this Creamy Chicken Chili which is perfect for cooler weather. The original recipe is from All Recipes and can be found HERE . Kevin has to be on an "organic" diet as much as possible as well as no salt or low sodium so we adjusted it to his diet below. Ingredients: 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breast 1 can cannellini beans (15oz, white kidney beans) 1 can black beans (15oz) 1 can corn (no salt added, 14oz, undrained) 1 can organic diced tomatoes (14oz) 1oz package of ranch dressing mix 1 tbsp chili powder 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp onion powder 1 package cream cheese (8oz) Directi

I forgot I had several packages of boneless ribs in the freezer so I decided to break them out to make this amazing Honey Garlic Slow Cooker Rib recipe from Tasty . Jace had a friend sleep over and let's just say we all basically cleared our plates. Although the original recipe calls for bone-in ribs, I used both bone-in and boneless in one crockpot and they both turned out GREAT!  Ingredients: 1 tbsp Rosemary Thyme Salt from Salt Smith 1 tbsp pepper 1 tbsp paprika powder from Pinch Spice Market 1 tbsp chili powder 2 packs of ribs - one boneless, one bone-in 1 cup Activist Culinary Honey by Norden Goods 1/2 cup soy sauce 2 tbsp garlic powder Directions: In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, paprika powder and chili powder. Season the ribs evenly, all over, with the mixture.  Add the honey, soy sauce, and garlic powder to a large slow cooker. Place the ribs in the slow cooker and turn them into the sauce. Place the boneless ribs at the bottom of the slow cooker and the bone-in

I could hardly wait to make these because they sounded SO good and I literally ate every single one of them (not all in one sitting of course). They were so much better warm with a little bit of butter on top. This is also a DaVita recipe and has been replacing my 400 calorie, carb-loaded muffins that I have been eating in the morning. These were pretty easy to make and even 11 year old Jace enjoyed these!  Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups chopped apples 2 eggs 1 cup monkfruit 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup water 1 tbsp vanilla 1 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a muffin pan with spray. Peel and cut apples into small pieces (I peeled the peeling off as much as I could before cutting into pieces). Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add monkfruit, vegetable oil and water. Mix well and add vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon.  Stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Batter will be lumpy. Add apple piec

Well I thought I took more photos of the Jamaican Jerk Chicken but I guess I only have a few of the final product. This is another recipe from DaVita which is our new favorite for kidney-friendly recipes. We let this marinade overnight. We replaced onion with onion powder, garlic cloves with garlic powder, we did not use a chili pepper or habanero, and didn't use green onions. We also used ground ginger in place of fresh ginger. It turned out really really good as we baked it and then broiled it. The DaVita recipe calls for grilling but we decided to bake instead. We served ours with white rice and macaroni and cheese - although a kidney doctor/dietician recommended jasmyne rice instead of white rice so we tend to eat jasmyne rice when we can. Because I didn't add any chili peppers or anything spicy, it was more on the sweet side but still had a good balance. Would make this again!  Ingredients:  1 tbsp onion powder 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tbsp garlic powder 2 tbsp white vinegar

It has been so long since I have written a blog post. Almost a month which is extremely unusual for me. I have a few in draft but didn't end up finishing them - hopefully I can get them up shortly for you guys. Summer is finally over for my 11 year old and he started school earlier this week. Last week my sisters were in town for the week. We celebrated four cousins birthdays with a piñata, face painting, cupcake decorating, and a bounce house. Football is back (pre-season) so it's been fun watching the Broncos and Kevin and I are both working full-time so it's been a crazy time. Today I'm taking Kevin and Jace to get well-deserved pedicures (Jace's first one) and last night we spent hours playing War.  I workout 3X per week (I'm on my 8th week) and I have lost 4 pounds since last week. I typically do a big grocery shopping haul every two weeks on payday and yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and purchased a lot of healthier options. We focused on kidney-frien

A few days ago we made Bang Bang Chicken for the first time. I must admit, it had a very...different....taste at first, and it took a second to get used to. But once I started eating more and more, I couldn't stop. Jace ate seconds and Kevin ate his entire plate. Jace was already asking for more two days later. This recipe is from Insanely Good Recipes and can be found HERE . I didn't take a lot of photos because I did an Instagram Reel that can be found HERE . Here is what I posted/shared on the Reel: Tonight Jace and I made Bang Bang Chicken and I learned two things. . 1. This chicken is amazing and I will make it again 2. Teach your children to cook ------------------------------------------------------------ I hope you enjoy this recipe like we did! The only thing we didn't have was the Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese red pepper condiment). Also, the sauce looks super weird and it sounds like it may not be good, but trust me, it was delicious. Jace (he is 11 years old) doe