Sushi Bowls
I’m sure every mom or wife can relate when I say the weeknight meals need spicing up once in awhile. I love watching videos of recipes and the ones that really jump out at me are ones with simple ingredients that can be made quickly for busy week nights! This recipe was an inspiration of a few different viral videos I came across and like always, I have to add my own flare. This tastes just like the inside of a sushi roll and honestly is so much easier to eat!
To start, I like to prep my meat for the bowls and get it cooking while I gather all the toppings. We use salmon or shrimp topped with your choice of seasonings. I have been using the Dano’s Original and Dano’s Chipotle seasonings, equal parts (1 1/2 tbsp of each) along with a drizzle of EVOO. I line the cooking sheet with foil topped with nonstick cooking spray and throw on the salmon/shrimp. Lightly drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle the seasoning mixture on generously. Our oven has an air fryer setting, but you can use an actual air fryer OR just set your oven to 400 degrees. This pan specifically only took about 10-13 min. The timing will depend on the thickness of your salmon filets and what size of shrimp you use.
While that cooks it’s time to start the base of the bowls- good ol’ fashioned Minute Rice. I’ve found if you substitute the water with chicken broth it adds just a little pizazz! Next up, toppings. We use diced cucumber, shredded carrots and a homemade Sriracha Mayo. The sauce is truly the star of the show! So quick and easy but the flavor profile is legit…insane!! I start with a 1/2 cup of mayo, 1 tbsp of the sweet soy sauce and about 1 tbsp of the Sriracha. I’m going to be honest, I go off color and taste to get the desired combination. I don’t make the sauce too spicy because our older kiddos do love these bowls but not too much heat. So that’s completely up to your desired spice level on how much you add. It’s truly that simple! Sometime I do add a drizzle of honey if I’m leaning towards a more sweet/spicy combo.
Final step is just assembling the bowl. Rice, then meat, toppings and sauce! Some of our fam also adds a little bit of the Yum Yum sauce you can buy bottled at pretty much any grocery store. The great thing about this recipe is that it can be modified. We’ve added cooked broccoli or brussel sprouts too! I’d love to see your ideas. Tag me on insta @acurvycolorfullife or leave me pics/ideas in the comments!! Hopefully this gives you a little bit of week night inspo. Happy cooking!!
Sushi Bowls
Ingredients
- 3-4 wild caught salmon filets (frozen)
- 20 medium shrimp (frozen, deveined, tail on)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Dano's Original Seasoning
- 1 1/2 tbsp Dano's Chipotle Seasoning
- 4-6 servings Minute rice
- 1/2 cup bagged, shredded carrots
- 1/2 cucumber, diced
- Dirzzle of EVOO
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Sriracha
- Optional- drizzle of honey
- Optional- Bottled Yum Yum sauce to top with separately
Instructions
- Preheat oven/airfryer to 400 degrees. To foil lined pan: spray with a nonstick cooking spray and add frozen salmon and shrimp. Drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with seasoning mixture generously. Cook for 10-13 minutes or until salmon flakes with a fork.
- Prepare Minute rice per directions on the box. For added flavor substitute the water with chicken broth.
- Dice up the cucumber and set aside.
- For the sauce: add all ingredients and stir vigorously. Adjust spice and sweetness to personal preference.
- Assemble bowl with rice, meat and desired toppings! Optional- add in cooked veggies of your liking and/or Yum Yum sauce.
Sourdough Pizza Crust
This sourdough pizza crust is the most perfectly crisp and chewy crust I have ever made at home, hands down. If you’re like my husband and I, we can’t get enough of fresh tasting comfort foods that don’t leave you feeling the weight of the greasiness. This pizza is sure to top your family’s list of favorite meals and is so easy to include the kiddos in on the fun. Let’s get started with how you make the dough!
This dough comes together quick and is a same day baking recipe, which is what I love. I like to feed my starter first thing in the morning between 7-8am because I know Puff Daddy takes about 4 hours to double in size. (Yes, you HAVE to name your starter- it’s part of the fun!) This puts me getting to start my dough around lunch and being able to use it for dinner time. For the dough, simply mix your water and starter until it’s milky and then add your flour, salt and seasonings. Stir dough with wooden spoon until “shaggy”. If you’re an amateur sourdough enthusiast like me, shaggy simply means until all the flour is mixed in. The dough will look combined, but rough and will be a little sticky. Note: I like to leave out a cup of the flour called for in any recipe and add as I go. I’ve learned from experimenting that no one’s starter or recipes will be exactly the same. We all have different climates, humidity, temperatures, and etc in our homes. This means you will need to get to know your starter and how to adjust recipes to make them work in your home environment. Once you have a shaggy dough, dump onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. You can also put this in your stand mixer, whichever you prefer. Place dough back into an oiled bowel and cover until doubled in size. Depending on the time of year the timing will vary. In the winter this takes about 4 hours in my house and summertime will be shorter. I like to use a glass bowl covered with cling wrap so it’s easy to keep an eye on.
Once dough has risen all you have you have to do is shape it into your desired crust shape and thickness. I like to take the outer edges of the crust and roll them inwards a couple of times to create a nice edge to the pizza. Next up is toppings! My family likes a variety of pizza topping so on this particular day we opted for Chicken Alfredo and Ham. Pictured below are the ingredients I used to make the Chicken Alfredo- I sautéed diced chicken breast in a skillet with garlic, basil, oregano and EVOO. This combo was mouthwatering delicious! Another tip I highly recommend is using fresh sliced mozzarella AND shredded mozzarella on the pizzas. The combo is literal perfection. Don’t forget to throw a little parsley on top to make it look reallll fancy.
After you have topped your pizza you can brush the crust with melted butter or if you’re feeling spicy add some pizazz like garlic or spices! Bake at 450 degrees for 15-17 minutes until crust is baked through. You could also pre bake the crust for a few minutes if you like to put a ton of toppings on. Mine baked well topped like this and not pre baking the crust. I hope you all enjoy this pizza as much as my family does and are less intimated by making pizza from scratch after seeing how easy it can be. Make sure to let me know what you think in the comments- I’d love to hear how you make this recipe your own!
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Bread Flour
- 3/4 cup Warm Water
- 1 cup Sourdough Starter
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Basil
- 1/2 tsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- Drizzle of EVOO
- 2 tbsp Melted Butter
- Optional: Desired seasonings to add to the melted butter for the crust
Instructions
- Add warm water and starter to a mixing bowl and mix until milky.
- Add flour, salt and spices and mix until dough is shaggy.
- Pour onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Place dough in a bowl coated with EVOO and cover until doubled in size.
- Place dough on a lightly floured surface and shape into desired crust shape and thickness.
- Add desired toppings to crust and brush crust with melted butter. bake at 450 degrees for 15-17 minutes until crust is baked all the way through. You can also pre crust for a few minutes if adding a heavy amount of toppings.
The Man Who Built His House on the Rock
The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against the house, yet it did not fail because it had it’s foundation on the rock. Matthew 7:25. Everyone knows to have a stable house you must first have a solid foundation. It is the single most important aspect to building a house. The amount of time, detail and hard work that goes into building one is truly incredible. I have to say, it was so exciting to see this process come to life!
The day Randall and I hopped in the UTV and explored the land, we knew exactly where we wanted the house to be. There is actually quite a bit of timber on our acreage and it had been very overgrown. As we were slowly making our way through some old trails we came upon a perfect little clearing. It had actually been cleared and planted as a food plot to attract deer. But oh my, the way the sunlight came through and the calmness we felt in that spot, we both knew that this is where home would sit. The funny part of the story is, it just so happened to be almost directly in the middle of our land LOL. So, we now have an extremely long driveway but it makes it so sweet to drive down and enjoy the view.
This might be my absolute favorite thing about the house. A long country driveway!
Excavation started with clearing out timber to be able to build the driveway. Randall wanted to add a pond if we could and it just so happened to work perfectly. We had to build up the driveway quite a bit. As you can see in the “before” pic there was a line of timber, but it also had a ravine that had to be filled in so the driveway was more level with where the house would be sitting. This was the perfect foundation for the pond dam. We had the BEST excavation operator, Brad. He is actually my SIL’s father! He listened to Randall describe what he pictured and he made it look even better than we dreamed. He was also great about creating ways for water to drain towards the pond and keeping it away from the house as much as possible. Good drainage is huge! Definitely something you want to make sure is a priority if you are building. Below is a picture of pond filing progression. I know it might sound redneck, but we couldn’t wait to go out after every rain to see how much farther it had filled haha! Hey- we had to look on the bright side. We had a crazy amount of rain this summer, it delayed progress so much. At least there was something really cool that came from it. It apparently takes most ponds a couple of years to fill but ours is nearly filled and it only took three months.
Pond progress.
Now for the reaaallllyyy fun stuff. The foundation! Call me crazy, but I think each new step is even more fun than the last…it’s probably just the excitement and the affects of tiny house living but I’m pumped. First step, setting the forms. Whoa, did I grossly underestimate how much work that is for those men AND how much time that truly takes. The crew we hired was amazing. They were efficient and precise. It started by building the footings. These are short concrete walls that lay the base of the foundation walls. Then, the foundation wall forms are built piece by piece on top of the footings into the shape of the foundation. Guys, I don’t know about you, but I’m for some reason so terrible at visualizing how things go together. They made it look so easy. It’s so cool to see people’s God given gifts and to watch them use them. After the forms were set for the foundation walls, they poured concrete in them and had to let them cure for a few days. After they were cured, they popped the forms off and then it was time to prep all the floors. Randall and a friend had to run all the plumbing and sewer lines for the house before the floor could be rocked then poured. Who knew there were so many steps!? Next up was rocking over that and then the floor pour! This was really fun because you could finally see what the foundation looked like complete.
Footings!
Plumbing going in.
Next up on the foundation was the sealing. Oh the memories are so fresh. Remember me mentioning the crazy amount of rain we’ve had this summer? Yeah, so that doesn’t pair well with foundation work LOL. The day we had the big pour on our foundation walls was also the day we had a crazy storm that caused lots of flash flooding in our neck of the woods. If you follow me on Instagram you probably remember the stories of us trying to get to our house! So many roads were flooded that day and it was quite an adventure to find our way there. Due to so much rain, parts of the dirt work actually caved in and trapped some of their forms and covered all our footings in mud. Yikes! We were pumping water out and hand shoveling mud for what seemed like an eternity. Sealing a foundation is a process of essentially waterproofing the outside. Therefore, keeping water from getting in the basement and extending the life of the foundation. This process is SO important and you can not skip a step. We actually did this process ourselves. Do I recommend doing that, NO LOL. My husband has the skills and we had the connection (my dad) of getting the sealant and it saved us a lot of money in labor. Sooooo back to the mud. Oh so much mud. We had to clear the mud off the footings in order to be able to apply the sealant. I am pretty sure I’m scarred for life from that project. We lost some mud boots, some sanity and tons of sweat! We’ve done A LOT of remodeling and have had some really not fun parts of projects, but this by far takes the cake. As you will see in the pics below, the sealant is like a thick tar texture. You have to use a putty knife to apply the thicker product on any holes and where the walls meet the footings, then you use rollers to roll on the thinner mixture. This “thinner” mixture is not what I’d describe as thin. I’m pretty sure I used muscles that I didn’t know existed haha! Randall and I, along with our two oldest daughters and his crew worked our tails off to get this done before we left for our summer vacation.
Drain tile.
The final step to completing the foundation was adding the drainage around the base. These are laid on top of the rock just below the footings so it keeps any water running away from the floors, therefore keeping your basement dry! After that was complete, Brad our excavation operator, backfilled with rock and dirt partially and will finish this after the floor system is installed this weekend. You can not backfill around the walls until that is on as it ties everything together. Adding pressure around the concrete without the floor can cause cracking or actually even move walls. So it’s a big no no. I will be so excited to see how it looks without giant dirt piles everywhere! Things are moving along friends. I’m so excited to show you the framing that has been completed in the basement and what the install process of the floor joists looks like. Stay tuned! Exciting things happening at Shahan Land in the next few weeks. Ta-ta for now!
Shahan Land
Since the day Randall and I got married we’ve dreamed of owning our own slice of country perfection. We dreamed of acreage that he could hunt, views for days, gardening plots, a perfect sized pond, hearing nothing but frogs and crickets at dusk and a view of the stars like no other. In July of 2020 our dream came true!! Being from a rural area, land just doesn’t come on the market. We had literally been looking for years. You either have to know a guy who knows a guy, inherit it, orrrrr be so lucky to spot it right when it comes up for sale. While driving home from our annual Memorial Day camping trip we were talking and dreaming as we usually do on long drives. We were in the midst of remodeling the apartment side of our building and joked “What if we sold our house, lived in the apartment and finally built our dream home”…..laughing and thinking oh ya, we are crazy. It’s just the pandemic crazy finally setting in LOL. That would just be NUTS! So naturally, I got onto realty websites just to seeeee if there happened to be any land for sale. What do you know, a perfect piece of acreage had just been re-listed in our school district AND in the perfect location. It just so happened to be right off the highway on our way home so we went to check it out. Of course after seeing it, we called our realtor and were able to actually tour it the next day! We purchased it in July and in August decided to list our house while the market was on fire. By October 1st we were settling in to our quaint little apartment. Whew! Talk about the craziest, most exciting and intense two months of my life!
We had originally planned to break ground in November of 20. After juggling the land purchase, apartment remodel, house updates for market, and moving we decided to just wait until spring. There was no need to rush, we felt like taking a little break would give us time to get rested and enjoy our family. This also gave us lots of time to explore the new land and make memories on it! Randall and Ryggs got to hunt OUR land for the very first time and loved every minute of it. There were sledding days, weenie roasts, trail riding and fort making. I’m thankful for my husband who is so intentional about making memories with the kids that they will remember for a life time. True confession, I can get too caught up in my timelines and take for granted the time I have in front of me. I am certain God knew I’d need someone like him. So thankful for my boo!
I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “we make plans and God laughs” oh my, am I hear to tell you this is so true! In Amie’s perfect little timeline we would be getting close to painting by now LOL. Boy, did we not see the huge price increases, stock shortages, and immense amounts of rain in our plans. I am being taught to go with the flow and things will happen exactly as they are supposed to. I need to just get out of the way. By stressing and trying to control every aspect of this house build, it was taking all joy out of it. That is something I will not let the devil have. So here’s to my type A personality taking a chill pill and enjoying the ride!
WHAT DOES A HAIRSTYLIST, SAHM AND BOUTIQUE OWNER HAVE IN COMMON? ME!
I know, I know. It sounds like a lot...especially in one sentence. This is the journey of me.
After high school, I gave the four year university the good ol’ college try, but by Christmas break of my Freshman year, I knew it wasn’t for me. In high school I worked summers as a receptionist in my mom’s salon. This is where I fell in love with hair! So after moving out of the dorms, I enrolled in cosmetology school! Directly after graduation, I opened my first business- Color Me Red….at the age of 20….with a supportive husband of 3 weeks (LOL). I dove right in and this is where my love of entrepreneurship began.
Throwback to the Color Me Red days.
After seven successful years of business, I decided to trade in my salon owner title for one of the GREATEST titles I’ve ever had, stay at home mom. Let me add, ladies- if you EVER get the opportunity to do this, I 1000% recommend it. I wasn’t the little girl who daydreamed of staying home, in fact I always said I wouldn’t, but when your eyes meet those babies....everything changes. Those are years you don’t get back mommas, they go so very quickly. I have zero regrets of taking those years of my life and spending every minute with my kiddos. It truly is a blessing!
Hanging with this crew was my every day, loved every minute of it. Circa 2016.
Soooo, to keep my creative juices flowing, I was always doing some little side hustle at home. I liked to give myself some spending money- you know, for things like Starbucks 😂. I took my love for baking and sold goods at our local Farmer’s Market. This quickly turned into a full blown gig and Amie Cakes was born! I spent the next few years making custom cakes and cupcakes while continuing selling at Farmer’s Market. After our son Ryggs came along, I decided to hang my hat and focus on spending every moment soaking up all the “lasts” of completing our family.
This brings me to the birth of Momma’s Got Swag! I think every mom has either owned, or asked for a Cricut at some point in their creative seasons of life. After seeing all the cool things I could make, my husband decided he wanted me to make some business tees for him and his crew. These started getting lots of attention and custom orders started rolling in. In 2018 I decided to officially open Momma’s Got Swag for online sales (out of my basement) and the next few years were a whirlwind. It grew from Facebook orders, to craft shows, pop ups and finally to an official website…it was incredible. In March of 2019, I took the leap to become a direct to garment printer and BOY was this the best decision ever! The shirt biz exploded with all the new possibilities I could create with this equipment. I’m proud to say, I’m a self taught graphic designer. God bless YouTube (side note- this is how I also learned to make cakes LOL, no lie) and the internet! I researched and experimented until I figured out how to use photoshop well and started pumping out my own custom tee designs. My five year plan of a brick and mortar storefront shortly turned into a one year plan AND by December of 2019 we were the proud owners of a 100 year old house that needed looooots of TLC. Renovations started January of 2020 and I opened for business- in the midst of a pandemic- June 26. 2020.
All glory goes to God! I’m sure so many people thought we were some crazy people moving forward with this idea, especially in the year of 2020. But, do not underestimate God’s plan for you. Every step of the way, we were continually shown how amazing God is and how if you follow His lead, it will be the best decision you could make. He can use a tee shirt guys! Something so simple and mundane. So many times I’ve seen people buy my Christian inspired tees without even realizing they are spreading truth and light. God is good y’all and He can use all things for His glory!
Hey Girl, I’m Amie!
First off, let me say that I'm SO excited that you are here! I hope this is a spot that will bring you joy and spark some inspo.
What a crazy whirlwind. Having a blog has been something I've wanted to do for a very long time. Why now you ask? Well, I'm a firm believer in following where the Lord leads. A dear friend of mine said something to me recently that really resonated and lit my fire, if you will. It was a typical day of me overthinking what my post on Insta looked like when bam! I see a "like' and comment from a blogger I've been following for years....talk about a fan girl moment, LOL. I screamed and scared my husband half to death THEN instantly screen shot and sent it to my besties.....because isn't that what every girl would do?! They were all equally as excited for me and knew that my journey to blogging/influencing is in the early stages and THIS, this was a big deal to me. (Side note- get yourself some friends that will build you up, every girl needs friends like that!) This convo is where my friend told me she was excited to see what God could do through this avenue. From that moment on I knew it was time and here we are!
So, Amie...what do you plan to show me?
- Faith
- FOOD, enough said.
- We just began the process of building our forever home and I'd love to take you along!
- Home decor inspo
- Lots and LOTS of fashion...ya girl loves variety but definitely on a budget!
- Behind the scenes of owning your own business. My husband and I each have our own business!
- Family life
I am truly so excited you took the time to stop by and visit! Looking forward to building a community with y’all!
