Foodie Friday | Electrolyte Drink

How many times have you seen your kiddo get light headed or even grouchy and realized that he or she was simply dehydrated? Push those electrolytes with this yummy oil-infused drink.

Simply mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

16 oz Coconut water
2 oz Ningxia Red
⅛ tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
2 tbsp Maple Syrup or Honey
Splash of Apple Cider Vinegar
1-2 drops each of Lemon, Lime & Orange Vitality essential oils

 

Healthy Snack | Dill Dip

Fill their bellies and calm their nerves during the welcome home hour with this yummy + nutritious snack! Add a couple drops of Dill Vitality to some yogurt and sour cream for a veggie or pita dip.

 

Foodie Friday | Fruity Greek Yogurt

 

At the start of every new school year, we’re always looking for ways to simplify our lives.  Many of us want to streamline our morning time as much as possible, but we also want to make sure our kids are being fueled with a healthy breakfast before we send them off.

One healthy breakfast option is full fat Greek yogurt with your kid’s choice of Vitality citrus oil and fresh fruit. Stay stocked up on berries because it’s easy for the kids to grab and add to the yogurt, AND because they are all high in antioxidants and vitamins.  Because Greek Yogurt isn’t sweet, try letting kids add a little honey or sprinkle some coconut sugar over the top. You can also add the new Einkorn granola, yum!

Quick and Easy Fruity Greek Yogurt
-1 cup full fat Greek Yogurt
-Handful of fresh berries or fruit
-1 drop of your favorite Vitality citrus oil
-Sprinkle of coconut sugar or drizzle of honey
-Einkorn Granola

Here are some combos we love:
-Raspberry Lemonade (raspberries + Lemon or Lime Vitality)
-Orange Creamsicle (bananas + Orange or Tangerine Vitality)
-Berry Blast (blackberries, blueberries, + Lemon or Lime Vitality)
-Strawberry Banana (strawberries, bananas + Lemon Vitality) 

Foodie Friday | Einkorn Bread

How about a nutritious after school snack that will fill those bellies too? Try the Einkorn Spiced Applesauce Bread from the Einkorn Cookbook! This recipe uses Young Living’s Einkorn flour, that is even safe for people with gluten sensitivities. Nutrients are more abundant in einkorn grain than in modern wheat. It’s highly nutritious, unhybridized and low in gluten - a must have for your pantry!

Einkorn Spiced Applesauce Bread

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup applesauce
1 cup organic evaporated cane juice crystals (can substitute sugar)
½ cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 drop Cinnamon Vitality oil
1 drop Nutmeg Vitality oil
3 tablespoons milk of your choice
2 cups Einkorn flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 - lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, cane juice crystals, coconut oil, eggs, essential oils and milk - stir well. Sift in Einkorn flour, baking soda, baking powder, allspice and sea salt - stir until smooth.

3. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes.

Enjoy!

Ningxia Red Creamsicles

Ningxia Red is Young Living's powerful antioxident drink - the ingredient list includes Young Living's wolfberry puree containing a blend of blueberry, aronia, cherry, pomegranate, and plum juices, as well as natural stevia extract, grape seed extract, pure vanilla extract, and orange, yuzu, lemon and tangerine essential oils.  Whew!  You can read all about it here.

Here's a fantastic way to get your kids to devour all that goodness!

1 cup Ningixa Red

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup fresh/frozen fruit

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

Freeze in popsicle molds and ENJOY!

Check back again tomorrow and every day for the month of June for more practical tips and information on Young Living Essential Oils!

#ylessentialfamilies #EFlearnandsharechallenge

 

Read about our family and essential oils & sign up to get started here.

Sign up for my monthly newsletter here.

My Go-To Salad Dressing

I'm finding that one really good use of this blog is for storing recipes. I have recipes in cookbooks, on recipe cards, on Pinterest and in my head....it's time to start keeping them in one spot. So from time to time, you may see me posting one here, as a way to share them (of course) but also as a way for me to organize them in one place.

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Here's my new go-to salad dressing. You can whip it up quickly, and it's so light and tasty on a salad.

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3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 tsp honey

1 clove garlic

black pepper

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Give it all a good stir and add it to your salad.

It has such great flavor, that you don't need to add much at all. 

 Enjoy!

 

Baked Oatmeal

I'm not sure about your family, but I would say ours falls into the category of we eat "good" but we could eat "better". We eat good in the sense that if you open our pantry doors, you wont find any cookies, chips, box dinners, or things of that nature. But we could eat "better" in that we could stand to eat more fresh foods including fruits and vegetables during the winter months, and foods made from scratch.

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I recently committed that I was going to find 10 new, healthy recipes that could be our "standard" recipes that everyone in the family likes (that includes the picky 4 year old, oy!)
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I found this recipe for Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries and Bananas last week on Skinnytaste and it was an immediate hit with my family. It helps that Eric's love language happens to include blueberries, and Claire could live off of oatmeal alone. And me? I love any fruit-based dessert, and you could seriously convince someone that this is a dessert!pre-oven
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Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 medium ripe bananas, (the riper the better) sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup honey (or agave)
1 cup uncooked quick oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 cup fat free milk (or any milk you desire)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375° F. Lightly spray a 8 x 8" or 9 x 9" ceramic baking dish with cooking spray; set aside. Arrange the banana slices in a single layer on the bottom of the ceramic dish. Sprinkle half of the blueberries over the bananas, 1/4 tsp of the cinnamon, 1 tbsp of the honey and cover with foil. Bake 15 minutes, until the bananas get soft.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the oats, half of nuts, baking powder, remaining cinnamon, and salt; stir together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining honey, milk, egg, and vanilla extract.

Remove the bananas from the oven, then pour the oat mixture over the bananas and blueberries.

Pour the milk mixture over the oats, making sure to distribute the mixture as evenly as possible over the oats. Sprinkle the remaining blueberries and walnuts over the the top.

Bake the oatmeal for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the oatmeal has set. Serve warm from the oven.

Pumpkin Bread

Inspired by this "Thankful for You" post by Mel of the Larson Lingo, Claire and I did some baking this week. We used Mel's recipe for pumpkin bread and made mini-loaves to deliver to Claire's teachers as well as some of our neighbors. What a great lesson for Claire of showing others that we appreciate them,
at Thanksgiving and any time.

This long weekend, why don't you consider showing someone just how much you appreciate them with this small gesture? (and be sure to keep one loaf for yourself, the bread is sooo good!) Head on over to Mel's blog for the recipe as well as the printable.
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Happy baking!

Easter Brunch : Overnight French Toast

On our girl's scrap booking weekend a few months back, one of my girlfriends made us the most gluttonous yummy french toast dish for breakfast. I've been itching to make it, but figured it was a bit much for just the three of us.

Enter : Easter brunch with family!

(health-minded individuals, now is the time to look away,
there is nothing nutritionally redeeming about this dish)

Ingredients :
1 cup brown sugar
2 T. white corn syrup
1/2 cup margarine
2 or 3 apples, peeled & sliced
6 thick slices of bread
6 well beaten eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp brown sugar
margarine slices for topping
cinnamon & sugar to taste

Directions :
- Cook first three ingredients over low heat until syrup forms
- Grease 9x13 glass pan, pour syrup to fill the bottom of pan
- Layer apple slices on syrup
- Layer bread slices over apples
- Beat next four ingredients and pour over bread
- Place a thin slice of margarine on each slice of bread
- Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar to taste
- Cover and refrigerate overnight

In the morning :
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Uncover and bake for 40-50 minutes
- As you dish out, flip each serving so the apples are on top

ENJOY!

Girlfriends + Chocolate Martinis

Aren't girlfriends the best??How about girlfriends + the world's.best.chocolate.martinis.

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We traveled to Northern Michigan a few weeks back and had some amazing chocolate martinis at the resort we stayed at. The bartender claimed he was an expert, but seriously, he's got nothing on us. We made our own this weekend, and I promise you, they were just as good.
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Here's the recipe
(just in time for Valentine's!)

2.5 shots half and half
.5 shot vodka
1.5 shots chocolate liqueur
1.5 shots creme de cacao

shake shake shake
and then do your best to not gulp it all down,
it's that good.
(I know you're going to be thanking me once you try them!)

Jalapeno Dip

Looking for something to bring to a New Year's party?

I've got you covered.
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Someone brought this jalapeno dip to our first Christmas party of the year and it was a huge hit. We've now made this for two other parties that we attended, and plan to bring it to our friend's house on New Year's too.
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It's easy peasy, here are the only ingredients you need :2 - 8 oz packages of cream cheese
1 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
1 - 4 oz can chopped green chilies (drained)
1 - 2 oz can diced jalapeno peppers (drained)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheeseStir together cream cheese and mayonnaise in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in green chilies and jalapeno peppers. Pour mixture into a microwave safe serving dish, and top with Parmesan cheese. Microwave on high until hot, about 3 minutes. Serve with chips, crackers, or toasted French baguette slices.
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Enjoy!

Baking with Pumpkin

This past week we celebrated a friend's birthday one day, and I hosted a MOPS play date at my house the next. Both events required some baking on my part, so I turned to one of my favorite Fall flavors, pumpkin!Here's what I made for my friend's birthday:

Harvest Pumpkin Spice Cake

Cake Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Frosting Ingredients:
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup walnuts (if desired)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease bottom of 9x11 pan.
Beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until smooth.
Stir in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger & cloves.
Spread in pan, bake for 30 minutes.
Cool before frosting.

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And here's the pumpkin bread recipe I made for my MOPS play date. Both received rave reviews (which is saying a lot since I'm not necessarily known for my superb baking skills!)

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Happy baking!

Good Day Randomness

So one person has officially told me they like my random posts, that's enough to keep them coming, right??

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1. One of Claire's favorite books right now is A Good Day, she can just about "read" it to us word for word, pretty cute.2. It was a MOPS morning. I love my MOPS girls!

3. We did Claire's three year pictures this weekend. I had big plans for 5 over sized helium balloons, but the reality was we had gail force winds and a train wreck of a three year old to work with. My brother-in-law photographer still managed to get us some great pictures though!okay, so maybe us kissing only made her attitude worse...I never thought my biceps could actually be sore from holding balloons...but 5 helium balloons on the windy beach felt like 50 pounds!

4. I've got White Chicken Chili in the crock pot for dinner. My recipe (and I use that word very loosely) is easy peasy. Serious chili-recipe people need not read on.

4 pieces baked chicken, chopped
1 can great northern beans
1 jar salsa
1 bag shredded cheese

Put it all in a crock pot and forget about it until dinnertime.
That's my kind of cooking!

5. I've been eating a.lot. of Halloween candy.
What?? That's not a good thing??

6. I'm going to the Design Design warehouse sale tonight!
7. After the sale, I get to walk a few blocks over for my haircut appointment...I LOVE getting haircuts! I've been going to the same guy since high school, crazy!

8. After my haircut, I'm meeting up with girlfriends at Wealthy Street Bakery for coffee, yum.
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It's a good day!

Potato Soup

Fall is suddenly in the air,
and it has me craving warm, savory foods.
Tonight's dinner : Potato Soup
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Ingredients:
10 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 carrots, chopped
10 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic
salt & pepper to taste
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
chicken broth
8 ounces cream cheese
6 slices Velveeta cheese
1/4 cup margarine
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Directions:
Put potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley flakes in kettle or crock pot. Add chicken broth and water to cover vegetables. Cook until vegetables are tender. Add cream cheese, Velveeta, and margarine. Combine/melt all ingredients. At this point, you can either serve as a chunky veggie and potato soup, or you can cream all ingredients in a food processor. Either way is yummy!
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Enjoy!

Summer's Favorite : Day 10

Day 10 : Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream and Sorbet MakerConfession time : our family eats W.A.Y. too much ice cream during the summer. In fact, I was pregnant with Claire over the summer months, and I'm pretty sure the 5 bonus pounds I gained over my doctor's recommendation were due to my summer ice cream consumption.
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This is our first summer with our very own ice cream maker, and we are having so much fun with it! I don't know much about other ice cream makers, but we have the Cuisinart model and it's been very easy to use and clean.The only thing I can't guarantee is that if you eat some of our homemade ice cream, this cute little girl's finger hasn't already dipped in it for a sample!

Summer's Favorite : Day 7

Day 7 : SangriaEarlier this summer, Eric stopped by our local market, Kingma's, to pick us up something for dinner. While perusing the wine section, a sales associate pointed out New Age wine to him. He suggested that we try mixing one bottle of red wine with one bottle of white wine to make sangria. So we tried it, complete with lots of cut up fruit and some gummy worms on the bottom and it was so good! No more messing around with sangria recipes that include a whole list of ingredients...just two $7 bottles of wine will do it for us!
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We've tried to keep a supply of these on hand as you just never know when friends might stop by and you need to mix some up!

Summer's Favorite : Day 4

Day 4 : Fruit Salsa

This is a highly labor intensive recipe (think lots of chopping), but so worth it in the end!
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Ingredients:
1 onion
1 pepper (green, yellow or red)
2 jalapenos
4 cloves garlic
3 kiwi
1 mango
1 cup pineapple
1 tomato

Directions:
Chop all ingredients and add oregano, salt & pepper to taste
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Any of the ingredient quantities can be changed a bit depending on your preferences. Not only is it delicious, but it's such a colorful dish, it's always a fun one to bring along to picnics! (and I haven't met anyone that didn't like it!)
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I promise I'll take and post a picture next time I make it!

Cream of Coconut Cake

I tried out a new cake recipe when I hosted family on Mother's Day. I happen to love coconut, so when I saw this recipe, I knew it was calling out my name. (Not to mention, any cake recipe that begins with a box of cake mix is a sure winner in my book!)

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Cake Ingredients:

1 package white cake mix

3 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup cream of coconut (in the liquor aisle, I didn't know that!)

1 (8 ounce) container of sour cream

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Frosting Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

4 cups confectioner's sugar

toasted coconut flakes

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Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease pan. (I used two round pans for a layered, taller cake)

3. Combine the cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, cream of coconut and sour cream and mix well for four minutes.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes

6. Let cool.

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Frosting Directions:

1. Combine the softened cream cheese, vanilla, milk and confectioner's sugar.

2. Mix until smooth and spread over cooled cake.

3. Top with toasted flaked coconut.

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Yum!

Jello Dessert

Let's say,

hypothetically speaking here...

that you attend MOPS.

actually, you're a discussion leader at MOPS.

and it's your group's turn to bring bunch.

and you do remember to email your group about bringing brunch.

yet you somehow forget.

that you're supposed to bring a fruit or a dessert.

until the night before.

after you get home late from Wednesday night activities at church.

and you need to come up with something quickly.

with ingredients that you have in the house.

i've got you covered.

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Yummy Jell0 Dessert

(yes, some people call this a salad,

but I've yet to understand what qualifies it as a salad)

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Ingredients:

1 can mandarin oranges

1 can pineapple chunks

1 banana

1 box vanilla instant pudding

1 container cool whip

Drain the cans of fruit keeping just a little of the juice. Slice banana. Mix all ingredients together, stir until smooth, top with cool whip.

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See? Easy peasy.

MOPS brunch crisis averted, whew!

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AND, if you're really good, you'll even blog about it the night before.

Oh yeah!

It's a keeper!

I made this Crescent Chicken recipe last week (a la Meg Duerksen) and it was a major hit in this house.

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Finding a recipe that both my husband and two year old will eat is a major fete. (Emphasis on the two year old. My husband will eat just about any of my normal bad cooking that I put in front of him!) Add to that one that I've already got all the ingredients for in the house, and it's certainly a keeper! This is for sure a good middle-of-winter-looking-for-comfort-food kind of a recipe.

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(I took pictures of the pan I made, but they didn't come out as yummy looking as Meg's, so I used her picture instead!)