spinach salad with steak onion and date kebabs with orange and blue cheese

by Katie | May 6, 2014 | Soups and Salads | 20 comments

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A special Mother’s Day wisdom post and a healthy recipe for another yummy entree salad. This one is topped with grass fed steak, onion and date kebabs with orange dressing and crumbled blue cheese over spinach and arugula. {Gluten free and low carb.}

When I was pregnant with my first daughter, my husband and I went in for an ultrasound. Though we had no idea what we were looking at on the screen, the doctor explained what all the blobs and vague shapes meant. “We have a heartbeat.” He declared. Jase and I looked at each-other with raised eyebrows and both audibly sighed with relief.

I will never forget the next thing that came out of Jason’s mouth. He said, “Now it just needs to keep beating.” I’ll always remember it because that was the moment I became a mother. That was the moment when I realized that more than anything else in the world I had one mission. One mission, to protect that little heart in a completely instinctual and primal way.

Even at my most distracted, exhausted or frustrated that moment has remained the single turning point in my life.

Fast forward eight years. I am now always always in the back of my mind worried about not one but two heartbeats. But more often than not I am too busy to really spend too much time dwelling on the heartbeats. Instead, I am more concerned about finding a missing mud boot, or picking up wet towels off the bathroom floor (for the 1,000 time.) Occasionally I will stop and think about it, and when I do my own heart wants to burst out of my chest it hurts so badly.

My Totally Dysfunctional Schedule

Recently Jase, frustrated with the fact that it was 11 am on a beautiful Saturday morning, and I was sitting at my desk working at the computer, said, “You need to post your office hours, Kate.” When did he get to be so profound?

In the weeks that followed that comment, I have grown increasingly annoyed. I have thought about how ridiculous that would be to try to do. A typical day would look something like this:

5:30-6:30 am drink coffee and return emails check social media, while answering questions and writing notes to teachers, and making sure home work makes it into school bags.

6:30–7:30 make/eat breakfast, pack lunches, get dressed, intermittently stop in at computer to schedule social shares.

7:30-8:15 Take little one to preschool all the while listening to and memorizing BodyPump choreography (check smart-phone in parking lot and respond to any social media needs, post new recipe photo on instagram)

8:15-10:30 Drive to the gym, teach BodyPump, shower, stand naked in locker room checking smartphone and respond to social media, get dressed, leave hair crazy and wet, drive home. Listen to BodyPump music and memorize more choreography while driving.

10:30 am -3:00 pm Recipe development, photography, computer work. Diclosure, the first hour of this time includes trying to not get sucked into Facebook. I am working on that one.

3:00-6:00 Pick up kids, take them to swimming or ballet, listen to choreography in car and put on a little lip gloss so I don’t feel like a total slob, work for 45 minutes on laptop while waiting for ballet, try to avoid conversations with lovely people who I would love to take the time to talk to but I have to submit these recipes by tomorrow, so I need to be staring at my computer, sorry. Stop off and pick up CSA, help daughter with homework, make dinner.

6:00- 7:30 Welcome hubby home at 6, eat dinner and get kids to bed.

7:30 – 8:00 a final half hour of work on the computer at my desk, usually responding to emails. Husband looks at me meaningfully, I ignore him.

8:00-9:15 sit on the couch with laptop simultaneously pinning on Pinterest while watching Game of Thrones and eating Mary’s Gone Crackers with tapenade.

9:15 Bed

I don’t blame Jase for being mad at me for what he sees as my working all the time. I am mad at me.

That’s why I have a special Mother’s Day post for you all. I was getting pretty grouchy about all this actually, because I feel like I do need to find a better solution. A better way of dealing with this all. I keep thinking of all of my lovely friends who also are work at home bloggers and mothers, and I am wondering do they have an Ap for this?

So I asked a few food blogging moms if they wanted to help each-other out on this very topic by sharing a little idea or tip that can help us all maybe find a little balance in this craziness. How to balance life, family, being a mother and being a work at home blogger. I am pretty much just barely holding it together and am not feeling remotely worthy of being in a position to offer advice on balance… even so, we are all sharing a way, however small, that helps us find the balance.

So my one little tip is this:

Make time to have dinner together. This is something I learned from my mom. She always made it a priority. Even when my dad worked an hour away in central Philly, and didn’t get home until eight at night, we all sat down and had dinner together. That is what I do with my family table. Almost every night. Of course there are exceptions. All the time. Sometimes Jase comes home late, and the girls and I eat at 5:30, or sometimes on a Friday we’ll have what I call “a noshers dinner” where we listen to the Rolling Stones, loudly, and hang out at the counter in the kitchen and eat crudites, popcorn and cheese for dinner. The girls will put down their carrots to take a dance break. It is the opposite of formal. But no matter, there are no cell phones, I don’t even answer the house phone if it rings. We actually talk to each-other. This is when I can find out all sorts of good things and find out what is going on in my girls (and husband’s) lives. It is also a great time to teach my kids about food and healthy eating and to model healthy eating. It is a non-negotiable for me.

Here are the other bloggers who are sharing their mothers day wisdom tips:

Olena | ifoodreal30 Minute Broccolini, Turkey and Baby Potatoes Recipe

Carolyn | All Day I Dream About Food, Crispy Duck Legs with Braised Vegetables

Brenda | Sugar Free Mom, Taco Egg Stuffed Tomatoes

The other thing I want to share with you is this spinach salad with steak kebobs. It has orange dressing and crumbled blue cheese on top. And the reason I am sharing it with you today is that while my own mother was pregnant with me and my little tiny beating heart, she ate a giant salad with blue cheese on it almost every day. That was what she craved. It is as if from the womb I was already a total salad nut and trying to get my daily salad fix.

So what did you learn from your mom about finding balance? Are you a work at home mom? How do you balance family and work?

Link Love and News

How a man needs his chair and a woman needs a place for her chocolate via Kylie of Yeah Imma Eat That.

On turning down a cookbook deal by Alanna.

I am stalking the produce guy at Healthy Living so I can make this Ramp Pesto from Willow.

I made a new page on my nav bar! Fitness!

Check out my recipe feature in the May issue of Parents Magazine! On newsstands now!