Memories in the Making

Memories can be made any and every where, but it's nice to make a variety of them,  right? The man of the house and I have always been big on providing our Prince with a variety of experiences, but just like everyone sometimes we can get lazy. So, we fight against it.

You know on the weekends when you just stay in the house all day and don't go anywhere? Those are great! However, it seems like the more we have those days the more they become the norm. Fortunately, for us we tend to get "cabin fever" so we get our minds to workin' and say let's go on an adventure. We typically have ideas in our brains, so we pick one and head out.

The weather her in NM has just started to cool off. This makes for a much more enjoyable hike. So, yesterday off we went. The entire family, including the Thunder Love and Stormee Oso. We only traveled about 15 minutes from our house to the Jemez Dam. Simple, free, filled with bad jokes to and from, but most importantly.... memories in the making.


 No matter if you are home or on and adventure, enjoy yourself and those you love!

 

Silly/crazy face is a must. This lil man is 4 ft 1 in tall and weighs 52 lbs...and yep, I'll still pick him up if given the chance :)

 

 

My Prince is wearing a hat that was my dad's. It make me smile both inside and out that he wears and likes it.

 

Ready for Date Night!!!

I love feeling pretty and going out with my man! I'm looking forward to my glass of red wine!!

When I walked out from my bedroom and asked my Prince what he thought of my outfit, he responded "fabulous!!" I love that boy!!


Lighting was a bit to dim... Wish you could see the colors brighter

Happy Friday!

Easy Peasy Strawberry-Banana Icecream/Sorbet

Slightly adapted from one of my new favs: Gluten Free Fix


Hold on to your spoons boys and girls! This ice cream is low calorie, dairy free, gluten free and worth almost setting your blender on fire for!

Okay, many of you are more fortunate than I and have a blender with much more power than my little old thing, so this will be easier for you.

Ingredients

4 overripe bananas peeled, sliced and frozen
1/2 pound (about 1 cup after diced) of strawberries, diced, sprinkled with 1 TBS Stevia (or sweetener of choice)
1/2 cup sweetened almond or soy milk (or milk of choice)



Place frozen strawberries and 1/2 frozen bananas into blender top with half the milk. Start blending. Be patient and kind to your blender. Add a few more bananas and a bit more milk, continually blend until all ingredients are smooth. Serve immediately or freeze to stiffen. Once it freezes solid, you may need to let it sit out for a few minutes prior to scooping.

 

Give My Monster a Hand

I don't really understand why creating something cute or writing math problems on a set of pre-cut hands makes lessons more enjoyable for both the Prince and I, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I will keep on doin' it til' it stops workin'. When the Prince is happy with lessons, and not rebelling, then you know what that means for this mommy/teacher: more time on Pinterest, more for time drinking coffee, more time day-dreamin about a Disney Cruise more time to plan additional fun and educational lessons.



He made this cute and free printable monster, Thanks, Johanna. I assume Ms. Monster is frowning, cause her hair is on fire. I could be wrong. The Prince then wrote the following two sentences about his monster: "My monster is very cute. She has twenty babies each week." Personally, I don't know how cute having twenty babies a week is, but that could just be me.

Today, he also reviewed division. Again, not sure why it works, but it does. Eighteen division problems receives zero complaints on cut-out paper hands. However, I guarantee if I wrote the same number of problems on a piece of paper I would here "Seriously, I have to do ALL of them???!!" Ha, mommy/teacher trickery in full force.

Happy Hump Day y'all. Friday is approaching fast and guess what?!! That's date night! I plan to have a glass of wine. Watch out, the party animal is coming out. One. Whole. Glass. Of .  Delicious. Red. Wine.

 

 

The baking continues....

I know that I say yummy a lot, but this time I have to find a more powerful statement... Seriously, these are two  recipes are the best GF recipes I have EVER made.. HOLY.HAPPIEST.TUMMY.EVER!

I did work out really hard this morning to off set a few calories..Just in case you were calling me a fat a$$...hahaha!



Last night, I made GF cookies. This recipe is originally GF, vegan,soy fee, egg free and dairy free..BUT.. I made two changes. I used organic white chocolate chips, I like white chocolate better than milk chocolate, the second change I had to make was with the applesauce. My applesauce was no longer good :(.. But thankfully my mom sends me the best home made apple butter. So, I used the apple butter instead of applesauce and decreased the sugar by 1/4 cup :).

Oh! Did you know that evaporated can juice is not a juice/liquid??? I say this because this recipe calls for cane juice and I don't want you in the store looking for a liquid like I was, just pick of a bag of cane sugar and ignore the juice word.

 

OKAY! On to the mother of all breakfast! This morning I made this GF Pumpkin Coffee Cake. I had a small piece so I can have another piece later.. Teehee!

The only change I made to this recipe was that I used coconut oil instead of butter.

 

 

Whatcha' been up to???

Let me know what's been going on in your neck of the woods! I would love to know. Here's a few things going on in ours:


I painted ANOTHER chair..I had a bit of green spray paint left and some of my new favorite blue left, so I painted my mommy/teacher chair. I only had enough green for on section and I'm on the hunt for a new cute cushion...but for now I am happy that it matches and it's much cuter (sorry, again I was to impulsive to remember to take a before picture.)



I saw the cutest idea on the Miss Kindergarten blog and I had the supplies...so VIOLA I made these "silent" dice. They are also very light so that mean less chance of them flying across the room when the Prince takes his turn :/...We used them this morning to play the math game Even Steven/Odd Todd and they worked liked a charm. We will be using them for family board game night too!



Also Miss Kindergarten loves to add ribbon, so she inspired me to "pretty-fy" the trash cans for our classroom and the hubby's office. Not sure how much the hubby appreciated it! HA!




The picture is the Prince frosting his carrot cake with his homemade creamchesse coconut frosting! This week, we made three desserts...YES!! 3...HOLY YUMMINESS...but also HOLY SELF-CONTROL so I don't gain 20lbs in one week! Good thing I had a couple of helpers in eating them. Here is the link to the  FRESH STRAWBERRY PIE I made!! First, let me give you permission for making this and eating it by telling you that it is only sweetened with honey and the crust is made with almond flour which is SUPER low in carbs...now run off and bake..and invite me over. **I used apgar powder instead of gelatin**

We love "craftivities" that are lesson related.  Yesterday, for our writing block the Prince made these gorgeous "I'm special because.." sunflower. His pedals read:
I have a turtle.
I have 2 dogs.
I am fast.
I am tan.
I am 4ft. 1 in.
This FREE cratifivity was provided by Mrs. Lemons!




Today, for our math block we had a game scheduled (mentioned above) but I saw this OH.SO.CUTE mathematician on Step into Second Grade and thought it was too cute to pass up and what a great reminder to our Prince that he is already a mathematician!! What kid doesn't like to use a big word when referring to himself?! Since we already had something planned that the Prince was looking forward to I just added this too our math block and for the sake of time I wrote all the answers that he brainstormed and then he created his lil' mathematician...HOW CUTE IS HE??!! Step Into Second Grade has an entire packet that you can purchase, it is adorable and looks like so much fun, go check it out.



Happy Friday Everyone!! Oh..this weekend I'm making vegan chocolate chip cookies and a pumpkin crumb cake...this sweet tooth needs to leave or I'll have start doing double daily workouts.

I love to eat.

Do you?

**Comments make me smile***

 

 

 

Vegan (OR NOT) Chicken Salad on a Homemade GF Pita

First.. If I caught the attention of any meat eaters, DON'T stop reading. I made two batches of this salad. The second, for the hubby, had actual chicken. I pan boiled about 7 chicken tenders and then diced them up. The only other modification was the chicken salad required a bit more vegannaise/mayo.


On to the YUMMY vegan version.

Ingredients

• 1 14-ounce package organic extra-firm tofu
• 1/4 cup “no-chicken” broth (I use the cubes and dissolved part of one)
• 1 tablespoon GF soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
• 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tablespoons vegannaise (or regular for non-vegan)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sweet relish
• 1/4 teaspoon honey mustard
• 1/4 cup of quartered red grapes 
• 2 tablespoons chopped raw almonds
• 2 teaspoons chopped chives
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Open and drain tofu. Wrapped in kitchen towel or multiple layers of paper towels and place something heavy on top to encourage the absorption of water, for at least 20 minutes or longer. Preheat oven to 400 F and grease a baking sheet. Stand tofu on it's side and cut in 1/2. Cut each half into fours and then cut each fourth again. You will have 16 "flat looking french fry shapes."  Place the tofu on the prepared baking sheet.
2. Mix the broth, soy sauce, thyme, sage, and pepper. Pour half of it over each slice of tofu. Flip tofu over and pour the remaining liquid over it. Bake tofu for about 20-25 minutes,flipping half-way through, until tofu is beginning to brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
3. Once the tofu is cool, Fat Free Vegan made a GREAT suggestion, tear each piece into small, irregular pieces. This way it looks more "chicken-y" and less "tofu-y"...HA, yep, I made up words.

The GF Pita is the pure genius of Michelle at Gluten Free Fix. Go visit for that super duper fast, easy and yummy slice of genius.

Black Eyed Pea Quinoa Salad

Adapted from Basil Tomato Quinoa. Thanks Diva Dish.

Salad
2 cups cooked quinoa
1/4 to 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup sliced grape tomatoes
1 can drained and rinsed black eye peas
Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs olive oil
Zest of one lime
2-3 finely diced or grated garlic cloves


Mix salad ingredients in one bowl. Mix salad dressing in a separate bowl. Then toss together. This is one of those salads that taste even better if it has time to rest.