Two Birthdays In One Week

Olive turned 4 on April 1st, and Silas turned 1 today! We never "planned" having their birthdays so close together, and it's turned out to be just a little bit awkward. 

We had so much fun making a big deal out of Olive's first birthday when she was little, and I feel like Silas was a little bit cheated with his since Olive was sooo excited about her birthday this year and thought all the celebrating was just for her (even though we kept reminding her Silas had a birthday too!) Poor little guy didn't know what was going on, and can't blow out his own candles or open his own presents very well. I guess he's just "lucky" he has a big sister who knows how to do those jobs really well and doesn't mind doing them for him. *Wink.*

All in all I think they had a good time, though. They got to open presents with both sets of grandparents via Skype, and I made this cake (which is a lot of work, but very worth it!)

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We made a spice cake tonight. This is a big deal, because I never bake just for us anymore.

But sometimes you just need SOME CAKE, dang it!

It doesn't help that Olive is constantly begging to bake or cook. She loves helping in the kitchen.

Hope your weekend is warm and cheery (and maybe even included a little cake!) 

Senior Moments and Milkshakes

This has been quite a week. And our brains are obviously fried, because we keep having "senior moments." Like...

We had a conversation just a couple of days ago where we discussed some things we needed at Lowes. And tonight on our way to Lowes we could not for the life of us remember what we needed. And we were utterly ridiculous as we tried and tried and tried to remember.

Matt finally figured it out (it was new smoke detectors) after "mentally walking through all the Lowes aisles." That man loves Lowes and knows it like the back of his hand. I worked there for several months as a teen and I don't know it half as well as him haha.

And now, we need to talk about something important...

They're baaack, and it feels like the holiday season has officially begun. I have been very serious about limiting sugar and dairy in my diet over the last few months, but I have been looking forward to this silly milkshake since last Christmas. It's my favorite.

Matt, "mentally walking the aisles of Lowes." 

Me and my girl, excited for ice cream!

My darling boy looking like hot stuff in his new sweater.

Lowes is all ready for Christmas and Olive was giddy over all the obnoxious blow up yard ornaments and singing, blinking trees. But she was kind of nervous about the life size Santa. (Whaaaat?)

Taking the kids through Lowes is so much fun. Olive gets so excited over the funniest things. Like carpet samples.

I want some of this stuff in our next house. FUN!

Sometimes the simplest outings are the most fun. I really love my little family. I'm a blessed girl.

The Most Ridiculous Cookies (Seriously.)

Why are these cookies so ridiculous? I mean, they look like your typical , run of the mill chocolate chip cookies, right?

Well for one thing, these cookies happen to be ridiculously good. Like, most addictive-chocolate-chip-cookie ever good. I know, I know - there are loads of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there claiming to be "the best." But THESE cookies deserve their own category or something. Because what makes these guys so special is there is not one speck of flour in them. You heard right. There's not even a speck of weird gluten free flour in them. When you see the ingredient list for these cookies, you'll think "how can that even work?" And friends, I'm still kind of scratching my head over that one myself. But trust me - somehow, some way, it DOES work, and you'll be shocked and amazed at how amazing these cookies taste.

Most Ridiculous Cookies:

1 cup almond butter (or you can use peanut butter, just make sure it's the all natural kind, not peanut butter spread. But seriously, if you can, use almond butter. So much better.)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

1 tsp of vanilla extract or maple extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix the almond butter with the sugars in a stand up mixer until well blended.
Add the egg, baking soda, salt, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and mix well.
Mix in the chocolate chips.

On a foil lined baking sheet, place walnut sized balls of the cookie dough 1" apart. (I use a cookie dough scoop - it looks like an ice cream scoop but is tablespoon sized.)

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let sit for 2 minutes, before moving to a plate or cooling rack.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

I get so excited about recipes like this that are easy AND inherently gluten free!

Easy Gluten Free Living & Fruit Crumble

I'm slowly easing back into blogging since we welcomed Mr. S into the family, and as I've browsed older posts on here, I realized I haven't said much about being gluten free, which surprises me since living gluten free is so important to my family!

2 years ago I made a decision to forever change my diet by saying goodbye to gluten. It was a decision that should have been made years before, (I had had the bloodwork and endoscopy reports proving I was allergic to gluten in my possession since I was a teen,) but I had been too afraid and too lazy to make the change. But 2 years ago, I hit a breaking point. I was in my early 20s, only 3 years into my marriage, with a one year old daughter and I felt like an old woman. I was overweight, had no energy, struggled with chronic joint pain and muscle fatigue, and had weekly migraines.

About 10 weeks after strictly following a gluten free diet, I started seeing miraculous results. Weight started coming off that hadn't budged in years, my migraines disappeared, I had a surge of new energy and started working out again (and actually enjoyed it for the first time in years, as my joint pain started to disappear,) and my appetite and cravings for junk were greatly diminished as I believe the healing that took place in my gut enabled me to start absorbing my food for the first time in a long time.

Living gluten free has changed my life for the better in so many ways, and I'm always so excited to share my successes with my friends. One thing that drives me crazy, though, is that I run across so many people who would like to benefit from this way of life, but are afraid of giving up good food and having to learn a whole new way of cooking. Maybe I can use this little old blog to be an encouragement to those of you out there who feel this way. It's been 2 years of being gluten free for me, and I am continually surprised how so many of my old favorite foods can very easily be made gluten free (and healthier!) and how learning to cook good gluten free food isn't half as scary or difficult as I once worried it would be.

Which brings me to this wonderfully simple, delicious fruit crumble recipe.

My pastor's wife, who is also gluten free, brought this crumble over for us while I was recovering after just having Silas, and it is SO good. When she shared the recipe with me I was shocked at the simplicity of the ingredients. I love recipes that are simple and versatile. This recipe can adapt to whatever you have in your kitchen (or garden) and turn out fabulously each and every time.

Preheat oven to 375*F.

4 apples or peaches (or a mix of both) peeled, cubed and placed in a lightly greased casserole dish.

1 - 2 cups of blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries (whatever tickles your fancy. We have a freezer full of freshly picked blueberries so that's what we used.)

For the crumble topping, just mix 1 cup of gluten free oats (we use Bob's Red Mill brand) with 1 cup dark brown sugar, a half teaspoon of cinnamon and one stick of softened butter. Blend with a fork until very well mixed.

Then you simple pack the oat mix on top of the fruit and bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

It can stand up on its own, but is really decadent with whipped cream, yogurt or ice cream on top. A perfect summer dish!