Trim Healthy Mama E-Book Giveaway!!!

Trim Healthy Mama has so GRACIOUSLY donated an E-Book for me to use for a giveaway! You may visit their site at: Trim Healthy Mama Website

I've been doing this lifestyle for a little over 3 months and have lost 32lbs!! My husband did the first 3 months with me and he lost 25lbs as well! I get to eat delicious food AND lose weight! What more can you ask for?! They teach us how to eat the right foods so that our body burns the food as fuel and then burns your body fat as fuel as well! It works folks!

Now you have a chance to give this lifestyle a try! There's so much I could say about THM, but really, who is reading all of this post anyway?! lol I hear you scrolling right past me and going straight to the rafflecopter!

Please stick around and check out the recipes! I'm working diligently to add more daily! My desire and hope is to make my blog a one stop for people looking for recipes to make their THM lifestyle easier!

**Pictured above is a paperback book. You will not be winning a paperback book. The prize for this giveaway is an E-Book that you can pull up on your computer, laptop or a tablet/kindle/ipad reader.


a Rafflecopter giveaway



THM Friendly Strawberry Limeade Good Girl Moonshine

During my THM journey I've been nervous to try any sort of Good Girl Moonshine. The idea of vinegar in my drink just didn't sound appetizing.....at all! Well a few days ago I saw someone post how amazing it was, so I figured I would give it a shot!

I made it. I looked at it. I smelled the vinegar. I just couldn't bring myself to drink it. So, I did what any normal loving wife would do. I enrolled my husband to be the taste tester haha! He loved it! He was surprised that he loved it lol! I had to try it since my husband loved it! I haven't been able to stop drinking this stuff!

Yesterday I was out of town a good part of the day and didn't have a chance to make any. I literally craved this drink all day!

This is up there with my top favorites with THM eating! Thank you Frugal Healthy Mama for the recipe!!

Strawberry Limeade Good Girl Moonshine



5 frozen strawberries
2 tablespoons of Apple cider vinegar with the mother
Juice from a whole lime
1 ts. of ground ginger
2 tablespoons of xylitol
4 cup of water

Put all of your ingredients into a blender until smooth and then enjoy!!

Whipped Cream THM Style!

For me, this has to be one of the best parts of the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle. I can eat what I want, when I want and not worry about gaining weight as long as I pair my food correctly! That means I can have homemade whipped cream on my s- pancakes, for snack in the afternoon, or on anything that falls in the "S" meals category!

It's so delicious that my husband even loves it and tries to eat it with everything!

I found the recipe over at Whole Food Mom on a Budget.

Trim Healthy Mama friendly Whipped Cream

1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1/8 cup of xylitol
1/2 ts vanilla

Whip it together in your electric mixer until it becomes thick in consistency. Don't go too long or you'll start making butter haha!

Pancakes- S Style

One of the best parts about eating pancakes for me is smothering it in lots and lots of butter, but with the delicious Trim Healthy pancakes in the THM book you couldn't put lots and lots of butter on the pancakes without making your meal a crossover. Crossovers are great, but when you're wanting to eat to lose weight (crazy thought, huh?! Eating to LOSE weight!), you want to not have crossovers too often (unless you're pregnant or nursing!). Sooooooo, I looked around and found this very yummy recipe for S style pancakes at The Blue House Blog.

This recipe makes 4 pancakes, and the serving size is two people.

THM friendly Pancakes- "S" Style

2 eggs
1/2 cup of 2% cottage cheese
1/4 cup flax meal
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 ts. baking powder

Mix ingredients together well and cook as you would any other pancakes. I like to make sure there's plenty of butter on the skillet when cooking for nice crisp edges....hey....this is an "S" meal after all, isn't it?! These are a little thicker so they take a little longer to cook, but it's worth it!

I like to top mine with butter and a spoonful of homemade whipped cream. YUM!

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake- S Meal

Morning times are one of my hardest times to find a meal I like to eat. I'm not a breakfast person at all. My favorite breakfast is a nice big bowl of honey-nut cheerios and milk, but neither of those are trim healthy mama friendly. This breakfast cake though is SO yum and will fill your house with wonderful scents of cinnamon and apple! It's one of my favorite THM friendly breakfasts!

This will be an S-Meal.

I do not remember where I found this recipe. Probably on one of the facebook groups, so if you wrote this recipe, let me know and I'll be glad to give you credit for it!

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

1 egg
1 ts coconut oil
1/2 ts vanilla
2 tablespoons ground flax
2 tablespoons almond flour
1/2 ts baking powder
1 ts. cinnamon
a dash of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of xylitol
1 tablespoon of finely diced apple

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a small oven safe dish. Mix your wet ingredients together and then mix in the dry ingredients.

Bake for 15-18 minutes.

I topped my cake with a spoonful of homemade whipped cream (recipe to come).

THM Cheeseburger Pie- S Meal

Cheeseburger Pie is one of my families favorite meals! Every time my husband looks me in the eyes and expressed his extremely appreciation for me making this meal! It's very easy and I make it all in one dish from start to finish with my handy cast iron skillet!

You will need:

2.5lbs of ground beef (drain the grease)

1/2 cup of heavy cream

1/2 cup of mayo

2 eggs

12 ounces of cheddar (or colby or whatever you prefer) cheese

Toppings- whatever you would like on your hamburger. I added red onions and pickles but you could also add jalapenos, tomatoes, etc.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Brown your ground beef and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, whatever sounds good to you! While your beef is browning, mix in a separate bowl the heavy cream, mayo and 2 eggs. Drain off the grease. Once your grease is drained, place your meat in an oven safe dish (I just used my cast iron skillet) and mix in half of your cheese. Add your toppings, I used red onions and pickles, then pour the cream/mayo/egg mixture over the toppings and meat and then top with your remaining cheese. Bake for 35 minutes.

I like to serve my cheeseburger pie over a bed of lettuce and fresh tomatoes. For my children I add a side of tater tots (NOT THM friendly!)

I do not take credit for the creation of this meal. This recipe can be found in the Trim Healthy Mama book!

I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you decide to try the recipe!

A new direction!

Hello friends!

Before, my blog was just my random blurbs about life, but I would now like to take a more specific direction with this. I would like to head in the direction of sharing my favorite trim healthy mama friendly recipes with you! I will not lie, I'm not very creative so most will be tried and true recipes that I have found elsewhere on the web, but they've been tried and true, approved by my taste buds and all in one spot nice and tidy so my friends and family who are interested may find them all in one spot!

If you haven't heard of Trim Healthy Mama, it's a lifestyle that teaches you how to eat the right foods to lose weight, maintain weight, or even gain weight. I am not a person who needs to gain weight, so I can assure you that you will not be finding those recipes here!

Thanks for reading!!

Applesauce Muffins

Every once in a while I get a random desire to clean out my fridge, sort of like my random desires to post on this blog! I found in the back of my fridge a container of applesauce that was halfway gone. I'm kind of the funny type when it comes to leftovers, I just can't stomach it. However, I CAN bake with it! So I went on a mission to find a yummy applesauce-something recipe. I stumbled on Heavenly Homemakers recipe for applesauce bread and decided to make muffins instead (another thing I'm funny about, I'd rather muffins instead of bread).

 The first time I used regular applesauce. The second time I had strawberry applesauce in the fridge and the muffins turned out just as yummy so feel free to experiment! If you use cinnamon applesauce, you may want to decrease the amount of cinnamon that you put in your recipe as to not be overpowered.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that these are sweet with only natural sweeteners (unless you applesauce has added sugar in it). My whole family loves them! The children gobble them up and my husband goes back for seconds....and thirds...and...well, we'll just leave it at that ;).

I hope you enjoy!

Applesauce Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted

Mix your dry ingredients and then add your wet ingredients. Mix well until all the dry and wet ingredients are combined. Pour into muffin liners and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean. This recipe will yield a dozen muffins.

If you have a large family like me, I suggest you double the recipe because these will fly out of your kitchen!

Apple Pie with Pie Crust Recipe

Sooooo it's that time of the year again!!

I very VERY much love to bake, and I very, very much love pumpkins (no pumpkins in this blog post, but coming SOON!), so it just makes sense that fall is my favorite time of year!

It was my husbands birthday this weekend and I asked him what he would want me to make him if he had his choice of anything. Without hesitating he asked me to make my apple pie! This is one of my favorite recipes as well! I hope you enjoy!

For any good pie, you need a good crust. To me most crusts are just too bland. If you're in agreement, then you'll love this pie crust recipe! We start with the pie crust because while you're peeling and coring your apples, you'll want your crust chilling in the refrigerator.

(Check out my CUTE smiley face measuring cups and spoons from my sweet friend Sarah!)

Pie Crust: (x2, you'll want to make two of these, one for the bottom of the pie, one for the top)

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 ts. salt
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temp. cut into small pieces
2 to 4 tbsp ice water

Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and mash into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time. Place in a zip lock bag and refrigerate until you're done peeling and coring your apple.

Apple Pie:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 ts. cinnamon
1/8 ts. nutmeg
1/8 ts. ground cloves
2 tbls. all purpose flour (to thicken the juices when baking)
6 to 7 medium apples- peeled, cored, sliced
2 tbls. butter, cut into small pieces
1 to 2 tbls. milk
1 tbls. sugar

Preheat your oven to 400 and grease your pie dish. Combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, flour and apples in a bowl. Next, pull out your pie crusts. Roll your first pie crust out on a floured surface. Once rolled out, fold in half, and then fold that half circle in half again to transfer it to your greased pie dish. Once you have transferred your pie crust to the pie dish, open up the pie crust and line the pie dish with it. You may wish to trim off the access pie crust now, or wait until later. Now, pour your apple mixture into the pie crust that is now in your pie dish. Add your 2 tbls of cut butter all over your pie.

Now, roll out your last pie dough and lay it on top of your apples and butter. To trim off the excess you can take your rolling pin and gently roll along the edges to make the extra fall off. Pinch the edges all pretty, and maybe even carve in a pretty design! If you decide not to carve in a design, cut little slits so that the steam can escape.

 Now grab your 1-2 tbls of milk and a cooking brush and brush the milk all over the top of your pie. Once you're done with the milk, sprinkle sugar on top and bake for 40-50 minutes.

If you try this recipe, please let me know how you like it!!

....but I do EVERYTHING!

It's so easy to get overwhelmed with everything there is to do as a mother, isn't it?! 

We do the dishes.
We do the laundry.
We do the meal planning.
We do the grocery shopping.
We cook all the meals.
We clean all the floors.
We wash all the toilets.
We wipe all the butts.
We do all the dusting.
We.do.everything. EVERYTHING!

As my chiropractor always says, we deserve a reward that says "Supermom", right?! But ever get in that "woe is me" mood? Ever throw yourself a pity party? I sure have! More often than I'm willing to type out! 

I saw this scripture tonight, and it came alive in my soul.

"For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves." Luke 22:27 (KKJV)

Ladies, when we serve our family, we're acting in the likeness of Christ. He was the greatest of all people, without sin. If ANYONE deserved to be served, it would be Him! 

When you're feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, and unappreciated, remember that you are serving, just as the Savior of the world did. You're showing your children Christ through your selflessness and your service to them and your family.

Delicious Moist Banana Muffins (gluten free alternative included!)

For the month of September I'm going to be kicking into high gear as far as weight loss. There are two big reasons why I'm stepping it up. #1 I'm tired of feeling big, fat and bloated. It's not fun and I'm ready to loose this baby weight! #2 I have money on my weight loss! I'm not a gambling woman. I don't go to casino's. I don't gamble online. However, I am willing to take a gamble on my weight loss if it will help me stay accountable and actually stick to it!

I heard of this program through two of my favorite Biggest Loser contestants Hannah and Olivia. It's called DietBet.You bet $25 that you can lose 4% of your weight in 4 weeks. If you DO lose that weight you split the "pot" with the other people who participated in the bet. If you lose, you get nothing and the other winners split the pot.

However, the bet starts on Sept. 9th so I have a little bit of time to still eat some stuff that I won't be able to eat while trying to lose weight, plus, I had some overripe banana's on the counter, so I present to you my fabulous, delicious moist banana muffins!

Ok, so I know that I need to work on my photo skills, but these really are delicious! Take my word on it!

Moist Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour **

2/3 cup of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 or 3 mashed ripe banana's

1 egg

1/2 cup of oil (I used canola oil this last time, but it would also be tasty with coconut oil, vegetable oil, etc.)

1/4 cup of buttermilk (you can also use regular milk)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350. 

Mix together your dry ingredients first then add your wet ingredients in with the dry. With your mixer, mix it until smooth. Fill your muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. I usually double this recipe since our family size is so big, but this recipe will make 1 dozen muffins.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. Start checking it at 20 minutes as all ovens are different. They are finished cooking when a toothpick comes out clean. 

**I have used Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour to make these muffins gluten free with success in the past!

Let me know how you like them!! :)

Gluten Free Dinner- Roasted Lemon/Garlic Chicken, Garlic Mashed Pototoes and Carrots with a brown sugar glaze

Who says eating gluten-free has to be boring?! It can be quite delicious actually!

While searching for dinner ideas a while ago, I stumbled upon a GREAT blog- Full Bellies, Happy Kids! Every recipe I have tried from that blog has been absolutely delicious- even the gluten filled ones (duh! lol). I got this chicken recipe from her blog, and adjusted it to our liking.

Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken-

- 1 whole chicken (cut up)

- 3 or 4 garlic cloves (depending how garlic-y you would like it), thinly sliced

- 1 lemon

- salt & pepper to taste

- 2 tablespoons of butter

- 2 bay leaves

Place cut up whole chicken in a baking dish. Place sliced garlic and slices of butter over chicken. Cut your lemon and squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken pieces. Add salt & pepper to taste, and 2 bay leaves. Cover and let sit (refrigerated) for at least an hour.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 and bake for 2 hours.

I assure you, your house is going to smell AMAZING and you will be deemed the best cook in town...just not MY town because I'm the best cook here (ok, maybe not, but one can wish, right?!).

Garlic Mashed Potatoes-

- 5 or 6 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled until soft (keep in mind, I'm cooking for a family of 7)

-3 tablespoons of butter plus 1 tablespoon for garlic

- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk (I never really measure..)

- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced

- salt and pepper to taste

While your potatoes are cooking, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a small frying pan and add your minced garlic. Only cook for a minute or so...do not over cook your garlic or it will turn bitter to the taste. Set to the side once done. Once your potatoes have boiled and are soft, drain them and place them back into your pot. Add the 3 tablespoons of butter, the cooked garlic, 1/2 cup of milk, and salt/pepper to taste. Blend together with a hand mixer until smooth. You may need to add a little bit more milk if you find that the potatoes are too stiff.

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots-

-7 or 8 carrots, peeled, cut into thin sticks

-1 tablespoon of butter

-1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar

Melt the tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, add your carrots and cook over medium-high heat until they are softened but still a little firm (10 minutes give or take). Once the carrots are the desired softness add your brown sugar and mix until the sugar is melted onto the carrots and remove from heat.

-

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever tried making delicious, mouth watering gluten filled Chocolate Chip Cookies while living a gluten free diet?? It's not easy! Not easy at all! So, I decided to look around for some gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipes that I could make for myself while making the "normal" chocolate chip cookies for everyone else.
Every recipe I saw had ingredients that I didn't have, so I just got creative. To be honest, I was scared to death to try my creation lol The dough didn't look appetizing at all. However, once the baked, they rose so beautifully and tasted AMAZING (especially for being gluten free! lol)

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of nut butter (I used peanut butter, it was not a "knock you down" flavor)  
-2 eggs
-3 tablespoons of butter (softened) 
-3 tablespoons of sugar
-2 tablespoons of soy flour (you can buy this at walmart!)
-1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
-As many chocolate chips as you like!

Blend together the nut butter, eggs and butter. Add the sugar, soy flour and baking soda. Once combined add as many or little chocolate chips as you would like.

Bake in the preheated oven of 350 for 10-12 minutes (less time if you make smaller cookies).

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!    

Gardening is good for your health

Yep!
Gardening is good for your health! Not just the vegetables and fruit you get out of it, but the actual process of gardening- getting your hands dirty, pulling weeds, picking your vegetables, it's healthy for you! Ever since we started the process of gardening we have just enjoyed it so much. I thought maybe it was just a nice new hobby, getting back to the way God created things to be, but it's obviously been so much more! Anyways, I'm not good at explaining all the technical stuff, so here's an article that does a better job!


Why Gardening is healthy for you


Every morning I walk through my garden and then every evening right before dark. I find that it calms me, and puts me in awe of how God created everything to work and to grow. I just love it so much. I want to invite everyone over to come see my garden but I doubt they'll have the excitement I do about it lol


Lately I've been training my cucumbers to climb up tomato cages instead of spreading out on the ground and taking up so much space. They were stubborn at first, but now they're catching on, climbing up on their own, wrapping the vines around the poles and back to the stem. It's like they have a mind of their own!

I'm going to take this in a slightly different direction for a moment. Yesterday in church we sang "He Loves Us". The verse goes:
"He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of
His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me."

To be honest, I've heard that song so much that it was on my "overplayed" list, but this sunday is really spoke to my heart. This past week the Lord has really been showing me how He'll meet me where I am. I'm pregnant, and when I'm pregnant I'm grumpy, tired and irritable. All I want to do is rest. I don't want to get up and read the Bible. I don't want to get up and do anything. When we sang this song the Lord brought to my mind my garden blowing with the breeze. I often times will let the kids play outside and I'll just sit back and admire the garden. How the leaves sway in the breeze, how the bee's jump blossom to blossom, and I just take delight in it. Well with the image of the garden in my mind, that was me...I was swaying to the wind of his mercy and just like I take such delight in my garden, even more so He delights in me, His child.


This big big powerful mighty God delights in me. He sets His affections on ME, this grumpy mean pregnant woman. I don't even like myself half the time.....but He still does. He loves me so much that He'll meet me where I am, He'll speak to me through the garden, He speaks "my language" because He delights in me. 

He'll meet you where you are too, just take a step out. 

Garden Update

I don't really have much to talk about today. Life seems to the be same most days, and I'm good with that! We get a little variety of change from time to time like this week we're dealing with a yucky stomach virus.

The biggest news around here, well, at least for me, is to see the garden growing! Being that it's my first "real" garden I'm anxious to see it start producing fruit and veggies! We have a few things growing!

We had our first strawberry not long ago, infact, we had a second one shortly after that the kids were excited to share with their Mimi.

We have a few tomato's growing as well. Not sure how they're going to do though since the plant doesn't seem to be doing very well. These are from two of my potted tomato plants and I just don't think they were getting what they needed from the pot. I transplanted them to the ground. I'm hoping it's not too late to save them.

We also have a cute little roma tomato growing. The squash look like they're going to blossom with flower any day now! Just waiting!

Just because I love to see progression pictures, here's what the garden looked like when we planted everything at first:

and now 3 weeks later:

It's not the BEST picture in the world, but you can see how much bigger the plants are. I should go through row by row and take pictures. Yeah, I'm pretty nerdy and into my garden like that lol.

Well, that's all I have for now! Happy gardening!

Hello blog world that I've completely neglected!

I decided that our progress of gardening may be a good place to start up again!

For the longest time I've felt a need to be more self sufficient. We're not anywhere near "tin foil hat" people, or doomsday, but we think it's wise and even healthy to be able to grow our own food.


We recently had gotten our yard fenced in and I (had my husband) immediately went right to work tilling the ground. That evening after tilling a good friend told us about this place called Back to Eden. They have a video about how he gardens and how he brings it back to the natural way of doing things. Google it, it's really an amazing watch! It totally changed our perspective on how we were going to garden. It was a God-send!

Anyways, here are some picture of our progress:

Right after the land was tilled:

We raked out the grass (this used to be completely filled with grass) and then tilled a second time and raked out the grass again. It was really a lot of work getting all the grass out, and to be honest, there's still some there that we're removing as we plant.

We then went on our quest of fresh mulch around our town. No one mulchs their stuff! They just send it to the dump! I was able to call a place about 45 minutes from us and they had a compost/mulch/fertilizer/top soil mixture that was only $15 a truck load. So we recruited our neighbor to drive up there with my husband to pick some up.

Here's my smokin-hot husband shoveling the smelly stuff off the truck:

Next we spread it out over the garden and raked it in just a little (this is a crappy cell picture, sorry, but you get the idea):

We then put up a fence to keep the kids and puppies out and started planting our garden. We are SO far from being finished, however, this is where we are at this current moment:

These 3 mini rows are watermelon. We would have made longer rows but found out that particular part is clay and clay is like solid rock to dig through, so we have called that part our "dead zone" and have figured that putting our potted plants there is a good alternative since the kids and puppies have loved messing with them.

Our tomato's, and there's a dirt row right next to it where hopefully green beans will start growing (seeds):

On the other side of the tomato's and green beans is our row of strawberries:

I'm out of mulch (the redish stuff around the plants), so I'll plant more stuff tonight once we get more mulch. 

I'll update more as we go. Let me know what you think. Be easy on us, it's our first garden.