Happy Father's Day on a Diet

 I married an amazing man.  He provides such a wonderful life for his family, not just by going to work and earning money, either.  One of my favorite things Steve does as a father is read to us each night.  Currently we are reading a classic book called Treasure Island, but some of my favorite books he has read to us are the Pippi Longstocking series, the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series, Little Britches, and The Witches, just to name a few.  He also likes to take the family on nature walks/ hikes and take in the beauty of nature.  He is a photographer by self-motivated and diligent study.  Here are a few of his recent casual photos from the past week-

Here's a strange bug that landed on Steve.  Look carefully and you'll see he's eating dinner.

An angry pet mudswallow who adopted our home as a nesting ground.

Butterfly on wildflowers taken on our hike in the Uintas.

Funky-cool tree we drove by in the mountains.

More pretty wiildflowers

The beaver pond on our hike.

Our backyard at sunset

Up the street from our home

The horses across the street

Cute foal

The girls making friends.

As a school teacher, Steve gets the summers off, and the time passes SO FAST!  We are always doing something fun to spend time together. :)

 It's a blessing to be able to just pick up and go exploring when we want to.

Bullock Reservoir

We are so blessed to have Steve in our lives.  He's a wonderful father and husband.  For Father's Day, Lily made several cards and was selling them to passerbys.  I bought a few of them to give to the fathers in our lives.  The one I got for Steve was had a pirate theme and a creative dialogue.

Steve is currently on a diet that he created. He's not eating meat, dairy , refined sugar/flours, processed foods, canola/vegetable oil, and. he will occasionally have an egg or some fish, and he's trying to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and legumes and whole grains. so the typical meat and potatoes Father's Day dinner wasn't going to cut it for Steve this year. I asked him what he like me to make and he said salmon and mashed potatoes (without dairy, mind you).

I did my best and we had a yummy meal. I made a packet out of aluminum foil in which I baked the salmon with sliced carrots, chopped baby bok choy, and onions all drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice (freshly squeezed, of course) and seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme. It turned out delicious, except to Lily who said the salmon tasted like fish smells (hmmm... fancy that) and she doesn't like fish. For the mashed potatoes, I had to get a little creative to make it taste pretty decent without the use of milk, cream, or butter. I thinned the mash with some water, & I used a drizzle of olive oil and lots of salt, pepper, and a few herbs including garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, and I may have sprinkled in some others that I can't remember. They turned out to be tasty herby-garlic mashed potatoes. I also cut fresh pineapple cubes with some lime squeezed over the top, as well as an avocado and tomato salad.

I was pleasantly surprised that the cake I made actually tasted good, at least to him, and that's who I was trying to please. The cake was made with whole oat flour and coconut flour, with honey as the sweetener, and coconut oil as the fat. I used orange juice (freshly squeezed) instead of milk, and when it finished baking, I dusted it with a little more dry unsweetened coconut, and Amara decorated it with fresh raspberries. I also made a lovely raspberry-chia-honey sauce to go over it. I thought the cake tasted too much like coconut oil, but Steve said that it was perfect with the raspberries and sauce. Glad he liked it. 

It was a good Father's Day. We love you Steve!