December 10, 2012

Ten on Ten: December 2012







6-ish: Rainy morning.
7-ish: Study tools.
8-ish: Sleepy June.
9-ish: Craft time.
10-ish: Quick tutorial for lauren.
11-ish: Hug.
12-ish: Merry Mail.
1-ish: O Christmas trees.
 2-ish: No Christmas cards today.
3-ish: Blue sky.








ten on ten button

November 15, 2012

September Ten.

Better late than never...

I fully intended on keeping with my short stint of monthly Ten on Ten.

BUT....September 10th was a little crazy. I was still exhausted from the girls' birthday bash. My phone (how I take most photos) screen wasn't working. And the girls had their one year doctor's check-up, shots included.

Whew.

So, this is kinda my Ten on Ten: September edition.


breakfast



party remnants


waiting room


weighing Holland


weighing June


She did not appreciate her head being measured.


But she did love the sucker!


Holland did too!

Embrace the Camera 11.15.12

Holland Taylor loves a hat.  
She also loves an Easter egg.
I'm pretty sure we don't look alike at all.




November 12, 2012

Things I Have Learned Recently.

1. If I don't immediately tend to a certain task, question, text message, email, etc. it will leave my mind forever. Or at least a few hours.



2. Sixteen ounces of pumpkin white hot chocolate may seem like a good idea, but it is
better in smaller amounts. So delicious though!



3. An anniversary dinner in the park with my husband far out shines any restaurant date we have been on.


4. I feel an immense amount of pride when I hear about accomplishments of my former students. Serious, teary-eyed pride.

5. The days I stay in my pajamas for an undisclosed amount of time are the days I seem to accomplish the least.

November 10, 2012

Ten on Ten: November 2012





7-Making pumpkin spice creamer

8-Beignets & Pandora Christmas station

9-Girls day has begun

10-Decorating the Christmas tree with Noele

11-Holiday Market

12-Cute little yellow flower in my hair :: Twinkle Designs

1-lunch

2-resting my allergy eyes

3-N.A.P.

4-Daddy is home! 



ten on ten button

October 21, 2012

Pinterest Eats: Fruit bars & CCC cake

Lately I've been thinking about ways to "eat cleaner."  I am not crazy about the idea of pumping a ton of processed foods into the girls, so I have been looking for fairly reasonable homemade options of things we regularly enjoy.
One easy snack I have found that the girls love is Nutri-Grain bars.  I won't lie; I'm a fan too.  But after reading a blog post about all of the unable to name ingredients, I jumped on the author's bandwagon and decided there were too many things in the little bars that I had NO CLUE what were.  Since I was eliminating one of the main fruit and grain vehicles in the girls' diets, I had to find something to replace it.

That's when I came across this recipe from Peas and Thank You. (I just love that blog name!)

Better Berry Nutrigrain Bars
Makes 12-16 bars
  • 1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
  • 2 1/2 c. oats
  • 2 t. baking powder
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1/4 c. organic sugar
  • 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/4 c. vegan margarine (i.e. Earth Balance), melted
  • One 10 0z. jar 100% fruit blueberry preserves, or your choice of flavor



 I used regular whole wheat flour, regular sugar (with a pinch of brown sugar), and Country Crock margarine.  For the preserves, I chose Polaner All-Fruit Raspberry. 

I think it was really good.  I might have baked it a little too long making it a little crunch on top for the girls, but I just pinched that part off.


I'm not sure how to store these properly, but I will keep working on that.  I've stashed some Polaner All-Fruit blueberry and strawberry in the pantry for next time.


And on a completely opposite end of the spectrum...

(Clean eating only applies in some areas, folks, let's be honest.)


My Pinterest board "Eats."  has the most pins of all my boards, and most of these are something sweet.  I have tried several of the recipes and have been pleased with them.  It's hard for me to dislike any recipe filled with butter, brown sugar, and some sort of chocolate or sprinkle.



This recipe I put in to action when I needed a sweet snack for our college game night and didn't have enough time to make two dozen cookies.
It is seriously SO. EASY.  (and SO delicious!)

It's called Lazy Cake Cookies, but I'd call it Easy Cookie Bars if I were the author--that sounds so much nicer.

  • 1 box yellow or white cake mix
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 5 T melted butter
  • 2 C M&M's or mini chocolate chips
Mix together, put in a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 20 min

Source: imalazymom.com via Erin on Pinterest

I used regular chocolate chips and a golden butter (or something like that) cake mix.  It's seriously delicious.  I'd make it right now if I had a bag of chocolate chips.
And don't think that I did not enjoy one er, or some of these for breakfast.  Yumm....coffee and cookie bar.  
So this post is a complete contradiction regarding clean eating.  I feel like the clean eating is important, so I will definitely need to take a look into how I can clean up the things I love to eat.  
Which, now that I think about it, all of those things are relatively unhealthy...oh, no.  
I can't think about it anymore.
I'm never giving up chocolate chip cookies.  Never.