Minty Hot Chocolate

I was at Costco the other day, and the Vitamix demo guy was giving out samples of a perfectly creamy, peppermint hot chocolate. I was intrigued, and took a sip. It was so very decadent, without any heavy cream or half and half...it was delicious. He told me what was in it, one of the ingredients being vanilla coffee creamer. Blech. Not something that I would want to drink every day.
I've been trying a few recipes for a dairyfree/nut free hot chocolate that Maddie can drink...and that she likes. As much as she loves canned coconut milk, it just doesn't work very well in hot chocolate for us. This recipe is so simple, and you make it in the blender!

The Cast of Characters

I took the Vitamix Guy's idea and ran with it. We've had chocolate mousse with avocado, so I really didn't think it would be too difficult...and it wasn't!

I used liquid stevia drops, and then tried it with pure maple syrup. It tasted much better with the maple syrup, but feel free to use honey or sugar too.

Minty Hot Chocolate

Makes 1 cup

! Tbsp Cocoa powder

4-5 drops stevia, or 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

2-3 drops mint extract

2-3 drops vanilla extract

1/4 of an avocado, sliced

1/2 cup boiling water

Put all of the ingredients into a blender, and pulse it a few times. Blend it until it's completely smooth, and there are no chunks of avocado.

Paleo Lunches

We're still in the paleo-type-of-food phase with Maddie right now, and I finally feel like I've hit my groove with making meals, and making them quick!
Most of our meals are totally paleo, but here and there I make something separate for Maddie, so that Charlie isn't totally missing out on the foods that he loves.
I have to say though, nearly everyday I'm amazed at what my kids will eat. Avocado? They'll pile that into their mouths faster than I can scoop it out for them. Broccoli? Served with a little lemon juice or apple cider vinegar on top, they inhale it. I've been so thankful that we started feeding the kids real, healthy, nutrient dense foods, since they first started eating...I truly believe that's what has made them into the good eaters that they are.
I wanted to share two of my favorite lunch ideas that I've found come together really quickly, and are so good for growing bodies (and nursing mamas!).

Salmon Salad
1 can of Salmon (wild caught, BPA free cans if possible!)
1/2 of a cucumber, chopped
1 avocado, diced
1-2 shredded carrots
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
juice from 1/2 of a lemon
Drain the salmon, and mix everything together, to taste! I served this in bowls, with a side of fruit. It's loaded with protein, vegetables, and healthy fat!
**I don't have a picture of this one because...it doesn't look super delicious in pictures!)

Roast Beef Hash

Leftover Roast Beef Hash
1-2 C leftover roast beed
1 Large sweet potato, cubed and cooked (I prefer mine roasted with lots of coconut oil and garlic, but you can steam them too)
1/2 bag of frozen broccoli, steamed until fork tender
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt
pepper
eggs
Chop up the roast beef so it's in small bites. Add a good heaping Tbsp of coconut oil to a cast iron skillet (or a frying pan!),put in the garlic and let it cook for a minute to soften it. Add in the beef, sweet potatoes, broccoli, salt and pepper. Try to mash up the sweet potatoes into the meat, but not completely...you still want a little bit of texture from them. While it's heating, fry up one egg per serving, in your preferred type of fat (PLEASE no vegetable/canola oil for my sanity's sake! :D ). Once the hash is complete, serve it up into bowls, and top with your fried egg.

**This is another one of those recipes that you can sub in whatever you have...ground beef/pork/turkey, carrots, onion, or any other type of vegetable that you have!**

Paleo Italian Wedding Soup

We've been in a different food territory for about the past two weeks. For about the past year, we've had some different digestion issues going on, and I finally felt ready to tackle them. I'll try to get into it more at a later time, but right now I'm still processing, and slightly overwhelmed. For now, we're pretty much eating paleo, minus sweeteners and fruits...which leaves.....meat, vegetables, and healthy fats. It hasn't bothered me too much, except that we can't even do eggs, which makes breakfast really really hard. No scrambled eggs, no egg and veggie muffins, no butternut squash pancakes (which are seriously delicious and totally fall-ish.). We're mostly eating leftovers and soup right now, which is really ok...I just miss pancakes and baked oatmeal :)

I've been experimenting a lot with soup lately, because it's so easy, and super quick. I can pretty much just throw whatever into a pot with some chicken stock, salt and pepper, and call it good. Thankfully, it's soup season, and everyone in my house loves soup...even Hannah was sipping on some chicken stock the other day!

Tonight for supper, I made my own version of Paleo Italian Wedding Soup. It was so yummy! I don't know why I haven't thought of putting meatballs in soup earlier. It makes a LOT of meatballs, so save some for lunch tomorrow! Or freeze them!

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves 6

Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. ground pork

1 Tbsp Parsley

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 onion, chopped finely

Soup:

6 Cups chicken stock (divided)

1/2 bag of frozen broccoli

1/2 bag of frozen cauliflower

1 1/2 Tbsp pesto (I used homemade, dairy free pesto, but you can use whatever you have on hand.)

Mix ingredients together, and form into balls. Heat a large stock pot over medium high heat, and drizzle in some olive oil. Once the pan is heated, put half of the meatballs in the pan to brown. After about a minute, flip onto the other side. You're not looking to cook the meatballs, just to get a good amount of caramelization on them...and to get some brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pan. Remove, and do the same for the other half. Take 1 cup of chicken stock and pout it into the pan (it will be loud and steamy! That's what you want!). Use a whisk to scrape the brown bits off of the bottom of the pan...that's where the flavor is! Add in the rest of the stock, the meatballs, and the veggies. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the broccoli and cauliflower are cooked through, and the meatballs are floating on top. Finish the soup off with the pesto, and salt and pepper to taste... And maybe some parmesan cheese if you can ;)

Note: feel free to add whatever veggies you'd like! Carrots, and potatoes would be good, or even some white beans to stretch it a little further. Next time I'll be adding some chopped kale for some more greens!

Enjoy!

Practical Ways to Teach Your Kids About Jesus

This was originally my idea for a post on Monday, but after praying about it, I felt like God was leading my into a different direction(obviously.) But, this has been on my mind SO much lately, and I've been working on compiling a mental list of small ways that I can teach my kids about Jesus. Here it is!

*Every night at bedtime, Charlie and I lay in bed and thank God for the things He's given us. We also pray specifically for those who are sick, or hurting.

*Let them see me reading my Bible, or doing my Bible study

*Read to them from a Children's Bible. We have this one.

*A friend gave me the idea to pray over them as their acting up. For example, if Charlie pushes Maddie, I will hold his hands, and ask God to help him to remember to have kind hands.

*Memorizing verses. Charlie is part of Cubbies, so this is pretty easy for me. We just read through his book each week, and memorize the verse that goes with it.

Charlie at Cubbies

*Make a prayer book. This is an idea that I have yet to work on. It's really pretty simple, I just have to put it together! I just plan to take a small photo album, and put pictures of family and friends in it. The kids will each have their own, and it will be a great reminder that we need to be praying for our family!

*Listen to christian music on the radio. I try to be very careful about what we listen to in the car...we pretty much stay away from most secular music, especially now that Charlie is really listening and repeating everything that we say!

*Reminding him that Jesus wants us to be loving and kind, and that it makes God sad when Charlie sins.

*Answering questions that they have. Talking to them about where Jesus lives, and about heaven. It's fun to imagine what heaven will be like!

I hope this is a helpful list, I know that we have a long way to go, but this is a pretty good start!

Thrifty Tuesday

Whoops. I missed this yesterday, sorry about that! You know how it is...life with two kids and all.
Instead of sitting down and writing out this post, I actually made myself some lunch and cleaned up the kitchen...and then of course, as I sat down to eat, Charlie got up early from his nap :)

So anyway, this was a tough week for me. I can feel that we're in the middle of the month, because this is when I usually go downhill and get antsy. Instead of doing my grocery shopping at Aldi, like I've been doing the past couple of weeks, I went to Target. And oh, it was like a breath of fresh air. They have the organic whole chickens that I usually buy, and their produce is fresh. BUT...I spent more. I could feel it as I went through the checkout lane, and saw the total...even with my cartwheel coupons, and target card...it was still more than what I would have spent at Aldi.

Here's the good news though...I still managed to save some money last week! Here's what we did:
*The kids and I stayed home most days. Other than to BSF and Cubbies, we didn't really go anywhere. This saved me from spending more money at a store, AND saved gas money!
*Charlie and I DID go out on a date...but I got water, and no appetizer, even though we were starving! (does that count, at all??)
*We made crafts with things that we already had on hand
*I made all of our meals, except for the night that Charlie and I went out
* Baked with ingredients that we already had on hand
*Skipped going out for lunch on Sunday, even though it was already after naptime, I didn't know what we were going to eat, and we were all, once again, starving!

There really isn't too much from last week, and I'm probably not remembering some things, but there you go!

Thrifty Tuesday

Here we are again!
I'm actually really excited about this past week, I feel like I really remembered that we wanted to save money, and we did!
Here's how we saved last week:
*We only went to the store once. I kept thinking of more things that I wanted to eat, but had to keep reminding myself that we have plenty to eat, in the apartment!
*We didn't go anywhere special. We went to cubbies and to BSF and that was it.
*We kept Charlie in underwear all day, instead of using pull-ups more often
*I bought snow pants and boots for both kids at once upon a child, and only paid about $20 total!
*We didn't eat out, but had leftovers for lunches

That's about all that I can think of...but I feel like by staying home, we really saved this week! Hurray!

How did you save money last week?

Around the House

Summer flew by, and the mix of staying up late and not having a set schedule has come to and end. It was a great summer, filled with ice cream, bare little legs, zoo trips, grilling, flip flops, parades, fair food, and extra baths!

 Sweet baby

On the scrambler with my dad, and nephew

Charlie riding the motorcycles with his cousin

This year, Charlie was able to participate in the parades!

We had a WONDERFUL summer, but boy am I loving this beautiful fall that we're having!

Convictions

Do you ever have any of those moments that feel like you have been sucker-punched? That make you think "How could I even THINK that?" I had one the other day.

Since moving, I have felt like my apartment is cluttered. All of our stuff has been piled into places just to get it out of the main areas. Last week, I had finally had enough. I decided that it was time to tackle the mess, and get it in order! I made a list and got to it. The kids were pretty good, but it seemed that they were getting in my way...I couldn't organize one thing without them destroying something else. I was frustrated.

Over the weekend though, it hit me. I was not seeing them as blessings as the Bible says we should. I was viewing them as burdens. My head spun. My heart ached. All I wanted to do was cry, and hug my babies. 

Instead of talking over them, and looking in their direction, I took a step back and watched them. Watched their faces light up as they played together, watched Maddie pull herself up and walk around the couch all by herself. Watched Charlie meticulously build a tower out of his blocks. My heart was bursting, yet filled with regret. I love these kids. They had no idea how I was feeling, but came to me when I asked for a hug. 

This week, I'm focusing on them. Giving them what they need, and the attention and love that they need. I still have things to get done around here, but that comes second!

Love them.

I'm thankful for those moments that make me stand back and see the mistakes that I'm making. I know there will be many more!

Homemade Bug Spray

I've been working my way towards a chemical-free lifestyle. What does this mean? It means that I don't use any more conventional cleaning products...things like, comet (this used to be my favorite bathroom cleaner), Clorox wipes (hello, easy toilet cleaning!), or even seventh generation products which seem to be relatively safe. Instead, I use a vinegar/water solution, about a 1:1 ratio. This kills germs, leaves things looking nice and shiny, and this way Charlie is allowed to help too!

I'm also very careful with products that I put on our skin. For the kiddos, I use soap from the farmers market at bath time, and coconut oil for a moisturizer when they need it. 

This summer, the bugs have been horrific. I don't want to send my kids out without bug spray, and definitely don't want to use "regular" bug spray on them. Have you read the ingredients? Interesting enough, they only put 5% of the ingredients on the website...the rest are just labeled as "other ingredients". SO, instead of using something like that on the kids, I decided to make my own. I found this recipe on pinterest, and had Mike make it up (I had to change a few things, because we didn't have epsom salts, and I added another oil.)! I had to reapply it a few times, but haven't had ANY bug bites since using it! If you're needing something great, and safe to use on yourself and kids, try this!

All Natural Bug Spray

8 oz. water

8 drops purification essential oil

8 drops peppermint essential oil

8 drops lavender essential oil (mosquitoes stay away from lavender!)

pinch of baking soda

1. Mix the oils and baking soda together. This will keep the oils from separating from the water.

2. Mix the baking soda mixture with the water.

3. Pour into a spray bottle.

4. Spray!

I hope this works for you as well as it has for us!

Weekly Goals

It's time for weekly goals again! I feel like I've gotten a lot done in the past few weeks, and that setting goals has been incredibly helpful. My main goal for this week though, is to just spend time with my kids. Of course,  I have one big-ish goal for the week though...just to get things hung up! I'm hoping to get pictures hung up, which will help our new place feel more homey. I still have a few things that need to get done though:

*Bake bread

*Clean bathrooms

*Dust

*Vacuum

*Laundry

*Thrift Store run

*Start thinking about the kids' birthday parties

It should be a pretty easy, and relaxing week!

Proverbs Bible Study (Week 2)

I have been learning SO much from reading Proverbs these past two weeks. Who knew that wisdom and discernment were so important?! I'm so thankful that God has provided us with His words, and tells us how to live a life that will glorify Him. Here's what I picked up this week:

Proverbs 5

5:1-6 He gives a description of an adultress. She is smooth, good at persuading, and doesn't even realize what she is doing, or that she is sinning.
He also says to keep away from her, or you will regret it later in life.
5:15 Keep to yourself. Do your own work.
You will be blessed.
Always be satisfied with your spouse. Never lust after others.
5:21 God always sees what you are doing. I think that this is a good way to hold yourself accountable.

Proverbs 6
6:1-6 Do not rest until you get out of your sins.
Always acknowledge your sins and ask for forgiveness.
6:6 Hold yourself accountable for your actions.
Be responsible and plan for your future.
6:17-19 A list of things that God hates. The one that sticks out the most to me, is the hands that shed innocent blood. I don't think he necessarily means actual killing, but even picking and choosing who we think is "worthy" to hear about Jesus. The people who haven't heard are the innocent ones, and if we ignore them, we are shedding their innocent blood.
This passage also makes me think that I need to regularly "check" myself. See what is causing me to sin, and to stop immediately, and ask for forgiveness.
6:20-22 I'm noticing that this passage is constantly repeated, which must mean that it's incredible important!
6:27-29 You can't have both. If you choose to commit adultery, you will be punished.
6:33 Once you commit adultery, it will become your identity. You will always be known for it.

Proverbs 7
7:1-5 Another repeat of these words. Memorize them, and live them!
7:7 "The youth who lack judgement", there is no moral code. Without knowledge or discernment, he was easily swayed toward the prostitute, he did not realize that it would cost him his life.
7:27 She leads to death.

Proverbs 8
8:10 "Choose instructions over silver, knowledge over gold." I love this. We are working on becoming minimalists, so that we can truly live this.
8:12 Always have discretion with knowledge, they go hand in hand.
Be humble, hate pride.
8:17 He loves me, because I love Him.

Image from pinterest

8:23 I love this. It speaks of Jesus' great power.
8:30 Be filled with delight always. This is SO difficult for me. I'm one whose attitude is swayed by circumstances.
8:32 Do not ignore His instruction.
8:34 Listen, watch and wait for Him.

I took so much from this week's study. The main point was to love Him, and His instruction more than "things", and to use discretion when in a tough situation.

What did you learn this week?

**Please share in the comments, any questions or insight that you have!**

Introduction

Today, I thought I would introduce you to my kids! 

Of course, I think they are the smartest, most adorable kids out there...and I'm sure that I'm not biased at all. Right?!

 My two cute kiddos

Charlie

Charlie and momma

 Maddie

Cuties in the tub

I'm so blessed to be able to spend everyday with these babies. Somedays they drive me absolutely insane, but I wouldn't have it any other way! They do and say the funniest things, and are constantly making me smile. I hope they make you smile too!

Goals

Every Sunday or Monday, I try to get my week organized. I like to make a plan of meals, and then list a few goals that I hope to accomplish during the week. I keep a few of the same things on my weekly goal list, such as:

• Clean the bathrooms
• Vacuum
• Dust

These things are easy to cross off, and keep my house relatively clean. 

Each week, I will try to write down my goals on here, and update the blog as I complete them.

This week's goals include:

• Go through each room and find things to take to the thrift store
• Organize kitchen cupboards
• Make the bed every day
• Read my Bible every morning
• Make coffee granita
• Play at the park with the kids
• Go to the library
• Cover diaper boxes with fabric (tutorial coming!)

Lots of things this week...hopefully I can get most of them done!

A Little About Me

Hi!
My name is Breanne. I'm a stay-at-home-mom to my two precious babies. I have been married to my wonderful husband for ALMOST 5 years! Time sure flies-I can't believe it's already been that long! I'm totally into real foods and try my best to cook most of our meals from scratch. I'm learning to be more thrifty, and hope to share some tips along the way.
I hope that this blog will inspire someone along the way...even if it's only me! I also want to use this space as a place to share funny things that my kids do, or you know, funny things that I do! I hope you enjoy my daily ramlbings!