Almond Peanut butter bites

Well, this recipe is a variation of the recipe I have linked to my meal planning post this week. I really love these little snacks, they are super tasty and healthy!! Right now, almond butter is out of our price range but all natural peanut butter is not, and thank you Trader Joes for making it affordable!

Almond Peanut Butter Bites

I use the same quantity of ingredients as the almond butter bites in the other recipe, I just sub the almond butter for peanut butter. I realize that peanut butter isn't paleo, but hey, we all can't be perfect.

1 cup almond meal or flour (i used almond meal)
1/2 cup peanut butter, warmed
1/3 cup honey
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup flax seed meal
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips, cranberries, or raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

In a saucepan, or microwave, combine all of the coconut oil, honey and peanut butter. Warm those ingredients until melted and smooth. Add in vanilla. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, coconut flakes, flax, and chocolate chips, and mix. Add in wet ingredients into dry and mix until all incorporated.
Refrigerate for 1 hour or until well chilled. Roll into balls and serve. I put mine in wax paper and into a container and put back into the fridge for the night and we had them the next afternoon for a snack. This recipe made about 20 balls and all were gone in a few hours. Enjoy!

Orange and vinegar all purpose cleaner

I love my all purpose cleaner.....BUT, sometimes the smell of tea tree gets a but redundant and I just need something new and fresh! I have done some research and found a new recipe for an all purpose cleaner! Well we all know just how great vinegar is for cleaning, but yuck.. I hate the smell of vinegar!!! So, to get the same cleaning effect without the smell of vinegar, add orange peels! In a large mason jar, add your orange peels, I usually use the peels from between 5-8 oranges. Depends on the size of the oranges, just use what you think works for you. Completely cover the orange peels with good ol' white vinegar and close the jar. Every couple days, you should shake the jar just to make sure that you incorporate all the oils that come out of the peels. In about two weeks time you will have a very citrusy-yummy-sweet all purpose cleaner! Just strain the peels out of the jar and the vinegar into a spray bottle, then enjoy!

Meal Planning

    Hey everyone! It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything, and if I have any followers at all, sorry about that! It has been a very hectic house lately! And on top of double duty of chores and potty training x2, one of our chickens isnt doing so well the last few days and I have been closely monitoring her condition and trying to figure out what is going on. Today she was doing much better but still not 100%.
    Well, with all that said, last week was my first week of meal planning and meal budgeting. So far it has gone really well. We are day 5 into week 1 and only have gotten off track one day. I just finished working on week two and I thought I should share with you what our meal plan was. Now, we have been on the Paleo diet, the first two months was pretty strict, then we slowly started to introduce some carbs back in due to finances. I hate saying that we had to because of money, but seriously coconut flour , coconut flakes, and almond meal adds up!! You can tell that most of our meals are Paleo and we only are diverting from the diet only a few meals in the week. I will attach the recipes I have found from other blogs to my post so that you can get some of the awesome healthy goodness as well! 

Sunday

Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal with raisins Baked Oatmeal (but replace sugar with honey or maple syrup)
Snack: Hard Boiled eggs and carrot sticks
Lunch: Garden salad with avocado and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing
Snack: Almond Snack Bites  Almond Snack Bites
Dinner: Grilled chicken with sautéed peppers, mushrooms and onions

Monday

Breakfast: Fried eggs with a fruit salad
Snack: almond snack bites
Lunch: Sliced apple and cheddar cheese with a hard boiled egg
Snack: greek yogurt with maple syrup and paleo granola Paleo Granola
Dinner: Paleo Orange Chicken over quinoa Paleo Orange Chicken

Tuesday


Breakfast: overnight oatmeal in a jar with fruit and chia seeds Overnight Oats Mason Jars
Lunch: Quiche and fresh fruit Paleo Quiche
Snack: hummus and veggies
Dinner: Omelette burger with homemade fries Omelette Burger

Wednesday

Breakfast: Quiche (again I will post the link) Paleo Quiche
Snack: dried fruit (apples, bananas, and pineapple) and almonds
Lunch: Quinoa mac and cheese’ Quinoa Mac and Cheese
Snack: avocado with almonds and goat cheese
Dinner: Chicken Kabobs with garden salad

Thursday 

Breakfast: greek yogurt with granola
Snack: fruit smoothie
Lunch: Spicy buffalo meatballs made with ground chicken and celery Buffalo Meatballs
snack: left over kabobs
Dinner: Pulled pork bbq on sourdough rolls with baked beans Overnight Crockpot Pulled Pork

Friday


Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal
Snack: Peanut butter and Chocolate smoothie (1 avocado, 1 banana, 1/2 cup PB, 2 cups chocolate      almond milk, 1 cup ice cubes, 2 tbls honey, 1 handful of fresh kale or spinach)
Lunch: Apple with cheddar cheese slices and hard boiled eggs
Snack: almond bites
Dinner: Meatloaf and veggies

Saturday

Breakfast: Fresh fruit salad and hard boiled eggs
Snack: Carrot, celery and pepper sticks with hummus
Lunch: Left over meatloaf
Snack: Apple and cheese
Dinner: Chicken and quinoa soup Chicken Soup

Salt dough/play dough

Tomorrow is playgroup, and I was asked to bring a project for the younger kids to do while the older kids did something different. Immediately, salt dough came to mind. Salt dough is cheap, it's easy, it's non toxic, and it doesn't limit their imagination! So here is my recipe for making salt dough!

1 cup salt
1 cup water
2 cups all purpose flour
Food coloring (optional)

Place salt, water, and flour in a bowl and stir until well incorporated. Should be a thick dough like consistency, but who hasn't played with play dough at some point in their life and knows what it looks and feels like, am I right?!

 I separated the dough into several small balls and places in ziploc bags, then added food coloring to bags. I was really trying to keep my hands as clean as possible, and quickly found out that the kneading color into the dough inside the bags won't work. So, with your hands, work in all the coloring to your hearts desire!

 I then added it back into the ziplocs for storage. Hope the kids have fun with it tomorrow, or I might if they don't!

New Additions

Well, after a long discussion as a family, we decided to add a puppy to our family! We knew we wanted a smaller size dog and something that wasn't such high energy like our last dog, so we began our search on Craigslist. We actually already knew we were going to be getting a puppy, and we told the kids such a long time ago, they have been bugging me about when they were going to get one. The dog we were planning on getting has not yet been conceived, so we got one in the mean time to keep the kids busy and eventually serve as a playmate for the puppy we will be adding in a year or so. We are still very much looking forward to getting that puppy too!! But, we started our search on Craigslist and found a lady who had a litter of a bichon/ Boston terrier mix. We drove about an hour and a half away and picked her up the next morning! She is the sweetest little puppy and such a good listener! We named her Denali, after the park in Alaska! She is white and brindle coloring and very very tiny! She is super gentle and somewhat playful! She has also been doing really well potty training! The kids absolutely adore her and will not leave her alone! They want to hug and kiss her all day! We will be taking her in for shots in a few weeks, and will start her obedience training shortly too!

Winter Colds

Well, at some point during the winter, everyone gets sick. We woke up today at 3 am to a little boy hurling his guts out in the toilet, and on the floor. So after I nursed him back to health, got him situated in his room with his blankets, water, stuffed animals, and a movie, I felt that it was a good opportunity to clean the entire house. I went downstairs, got ready to clean only to find out that I am out of my all purpose cleaner that I make. So I am taking this opportunity to post my first serious blog post. So here is how I make my all purpose cleaner.

What you need:
One large spray bottle
Water
3 Tablespoon of dish soap
3 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol
20-30 drops of essential oil (I use tea tree or lemon eucalyptus)

First I fill my bottle about 3/4 of the way full.

Then I add the three tablespoons of dish soap. I find that dawn is really concentrated and makes lots of bubbles so if I use dawn, I use 2 1/2 tablespoons.

Next, I add 3 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol.

 After the soap and the alcohol have been added to my water, then I add the essential oil. Honestly, you could use whatever scent you want. Typically, I use tea tree oil because it also has a antibacterial property to it. Sometimes I use the lemon eucalyptus because I just love the smell, but you could use whatever you want, Pine also smells really nice.

So there, that should be just about it! Sometimes I split the water and replace that half with vinegar, which is what I will be doing since Caleb got sick, but normally I omit the vinegar because I just hate the smell of vinegar all over my house!

I hope that you all enjoy this cleaning concoction and it works for you like its worked for me! Now off I go to scrub down the whole entire house... wish me luck and pray for my sanity!

Hello blog world.. again

Hi everyone, well this attempt number two at starting a blog! I am very lazy when it comes to actually committing to something that I have to keep up.. thats a long story. Well, lets see how long it takes for me to forget about this blog!