Monday, December 30, 2013
Florida Highlights
We've been having a great time in Florida with Grandma! Best of all I've employed quite a few frugal ways to make this a pretty inexpensive trip, especially with paying for our adoption! Olivia and Liam's "big" gift from me this year was a day at Magic Kingdom. With my Disney credit card which I pay some of my monthly bills on and then pay off monthly, I earn "reward dollars". Those dollars helped me to save HUGE on our one day at Disney. For all three of us, all day, including parking, entrance, and food, it was just under $100! When you consider food by itself would normally cost a portion of that even if we just sat at home, we did well! :) Today we went to one of the Disney resorts and ate a character brunch free with Grandma using HER reward dollars! :) Our return visit day at Give Kids the World cost NOTHING. And most of the rest of the time we've been having at the house! It's been a great relaxing trip!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Merry Christmas!
This past weekend we traveled to FL to spend the holidays with my mom. It's been a wonderful time, even if Braeden has been somewhat thrown off and not himself. It was harder last year though so I do see progress. A very blessed Christmas for all of us in oh so many ways!
Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to dress up and go out to eat at Red Lobster. May seem like a silly choice, but when I was small it was the only place open. We would go to our family church service, eat there, go to look at lights, and then sometimes go to the late service. I've gone almost every year since.
This year we came back and made cookies for Santa! We had one tub of dough purchased through our school fundraiser, and made a gluten and sugar free sugar cookie as well!
Christmas morning was filled with excitement as the kids opened presents. Even Macy who isn't with us yet wasn't forgotten by Santa and the kids each had one gift for her that they opened.
The only thing Liam would tell Santa he wanted was a gumball machine! Not sure where that came from, but Santa didn't disappoint!
Braeden asked for a Power Rangers ?Zord? that Santa had to order all the way from Japan!
Olivia was THRILLED that Grandma gave her all of the Harry Potter books in hard back!
This summer the kids discovered and loved the old tv show Full House. They watched some at Grandma's but we don't have cable so haven't seen it since. They couldn't believe Santa gave them ALL EIGHT SEASONS of Full House on DVD! (I have it on good authority that while the seasons each were quite pricey on Amazon, Santa found the whole set, most brand new, from a seller on a Facebook garage sale page VERY CHEAPLY!) Santa ROCKS! (And I LOVED all of Olivia's expressions!!!)
It's been a blessed holiday! I have definitely felt the missing piece today though and pray that next Christmas Macy will be home with us to celebrate!
Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to dress up and go out to eat at Red Lobster. May seem like a silly choice, but when I was small it was the only place open. We would go to our family church service, eat there, go to look at lights, and then sometimes go to the late service. I've gone almost every year since.
This year we came back and made cookies for Santa! We had one tub of dough purchased through our school fundraiser, and made a gluten and sugar free sugar cookie as well!
Christmas morning was filled with excitement as the kids opened presents. Even Macy who isn't with us yet wasn't forgotten by Santa and the kids each had one gift for her that they opened.
The only thing Liam would tell Santa he wanted was a gumball machine! Not sure where that came from, but Santa didn't disappoint!
Braeden asked for a Power Rangers ?Zord? that Santa had to order all the way from Japan!
Olivia was THRILLED that Grandma gave her all of the Harry Potter books in hard back!
This summer the kids discovered and loved the old tv show Full House. They watched some at Grandma's but we don't have cable so haven't seen it since. They couldn't believe Santa gave them ALL EIGHT SEASONS of Full House on DVD! (I have it on good authority that while the seasons each were quite pricey on Amazon, Santa found the whole set, most brand new, from a seller on a Facebook garage sale page VERY CHEAPLY!) Santa ROCKS! (And I LOVED all of Olivia's expressions!!!)
It's been a blessed holiday! I have definitely felt the missing piece today though and pray that next Christmas Macy will be home with us to celebrate!
Monday, December 02, 2013
Thanksgiving Blessings
This was my very first Thanksgiving where I've been planner, cook, and cleaner upper. And I LOVED it! The past few months I've been back at getting healthy again (another post worthy discussion in itself!) and so my Thanksgiving menu was geared toward being as gluten free, processed food free, and sugar free as possible. I had LOADS of fun looking for recipes and how I could work them and everything turned out fantastic!
We picked up this little beauty for our first ever turkey at Whol*e Foods...
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And used THIS RECIPE to make it into the glorious bird it was!
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In addition to the turkey, we had SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE, Stuffing from a box mix from W.F., Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Amazing CREAMED CORN, MASHED POTATOES, Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Pie, and Chocolate Pumpkin Trifle! (YES! We had leftovers!!!!)
With the Sweet Potato Casserole I made the recipe as stated with the exception of the almond flour. There I subbed in oat flour instead and left out the nuts. Next time I will add the nuts, I just had forgotten to pick them up.
The Creamed Corn and Turkey I made as stated and they were amazing!
The Mashed Potatoes I subbed greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. So good!
For the cranberries I had really wanted to make a relish like the one I grew up eating. My mom used to hand grind cranberries and it was amazing! This RECIPE that I found was what I had planned on using, subbing Xylitol for the sugar. However, I didn't have anything to grind the cranberries. :( I DID pick up a mini food processor on Zulily recently that I think is going to be getting a LOT of use, but it came about five days too late! So... I set out to find another option and came across THIS RECIPE which we used instead. SO GLAD I DID!!! Although the texture was different, it was easy to make and tasted JUST THE SAME! Delish! I subbed Xylitol for the sugar and did not use the nuts or Grand Marnier.
Pumpkin Pie! Couldn't forget the pie! But I wanted gluten free. There are quite a few recipes out there but since I am new to all this and had never even made a regular pie crust let alone a gluten free crust, I chose an easier route and bought a package of two frozen GF pie crusts at W.F. For the filling, I used THIS RECIPE. When I was making out my shopping list however, I misread the ingredients and instead of maple sugar, I read maple syrup! :( So... upon researching online a bit, I ended up subbing in a portion of maple syrup with a portion of Xylitol. It turned out SO TASTY!!! We absolutely LOVED it!
The trifle was a total creation of my own. I used THIS RECIPE for a coconut flour chocolate cake for the cake sections. To make the cream, I took heavy whipping cream, whipped in two packets of stevia, a few drops of liquid vanilla Sweetleaf Stevia, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin puree. It was perfect and Olivia and Braeden couldn't get enough!
They were all so excited to eat at home and have such great food, the pictures speak for themselves! And while I was exhausted, it was SO WORTH IT!
We are so blessed this Thanksgiving! Not only to have one another, but also for all of the love and support we felt this week as we were the featured family on Give One, Save One! In total we raised just over $400! I'm in awe and so thankful! Here is what Liam shared at school for his Thanksgiving list...
We picked up this little beauty for our first ever turkey at Whol*e Foods...
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And used THIS RECIPE to make it into the glorious bird it was!
+copy.jpg)
In addition to the turkey, we had SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE, Stuffing from a box mix from W.F., Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Amazing CREAMED CORN, MASHED POTATOES, Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Pie, and Chocolate Pumpkin Trifle! (YES! We had leftovers!!!!)
With the Sweet Potato Casserole I made the recipe as stated with the exception of the almond flour. There I subbed in oat flour instead and left out the nuts. Next time I will add the nuts, I just had forgotten to pick them up.
The Creamed Corn and Turkey I made as stated and they were amazing!
The Mashed Potatoes I subbed greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. So good!
For the cranberries I had really wanted to make a relish like the one I grew up eating. My mom used to hand grind cranberries and it was amazing! This RECIPE that I found was what I had planned on using, subbing Xylitol for the sugar. However, I didn't have anything to grind the cranberries. :( I DID pick up a mini food processor on Zulily recently that I think is going to be getting a LOT of use, but it came about five days too late! So... I set out to find another option and came across THIS RECIPE which we used instead. SO GLAD I DID!!! Although the texture was different, it was easy to make and tasted JUST THE SAME! Delish! I subbed Xylitol for the sugar and did not use the nuts or Grand Marnier.
Pumpkin Pie! Couldn't forget the pie! But I wanted gluten free. There are quite a few recipes out there but since I am new to all this and had never even made a regular pie crust let alone a gluten free crust, I chose an easier route and bought a package of two frozen GF pie crusts at W.F. For the filling, I used THIS RECIPE. When I was making out my shopping list however, I misread the ingredients and instead of maple sugar, I read maple syrup! :( So... upon researching online a bit, I ended up subbing in a portion of maple syrup with a portion of Xylitol. It turned out SO TASTY!!! We absolutely LOVED it!
The trifle was a total creation of my own. I used THIS RECIPE for a coconut flour chocolate cake for the cake sections. To make the cream, I took heavy whipping cream, whipped in two packets of stevia, a few drops of liquid vanilla Sweetleaf Stevia, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin puree. It was perfect and Olivia and Braeden couldn't get enough!
They were all so excited to eat at home and have such great food, the pictures speak for themselves! And while I was exhausted, it was SO WORTH IT!
We are so blessed this Thanksgiving! Not only to have one another, but also for all of the love and support we felt this week as we were the featured family on Give One, Save One! In total we raised just over $400! I'm in awe and so thankful! Here is what Liam shared at school for his Thanksgiving list...
Macy
Liam
Percy and Peeta (our dog and cat)
Mom
Olivia
Braeden
And I concur!
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Olivia - 14
Braeden - 11
Liam - 9
Macy - 5
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