Chocolate Shortbread Cookies OLD RECIPE (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

This recipe has MOVED.  Please see the updated, new and improved recipe HERE.

The Munchkin's 18 Month Update

The Munchkin was officially 18 months on the ninth, but better late then never right? At what point are they officially a toddler? I am sure that was something that happened long ago, but I am still having a hard time accepting that my baby is no longer a "baby"!

Oh how I love this little girl. She makes me so happy. She is talking like crazy all the time and I am not even sure where she picks some of this stuff up from. I love it when she drops something and says "Awe Man!". When I go to take her picture, she says "Cheese!" really loud and gives me the cheesiest grin she can muster.



She can point to all of her body parts when we ask her to and says most of them back. She is starting to recognize numbers and lots of letters too. When I hold a letter up, she sometimes gets it right! She will make the animals sounds when she sees them instead of saying what the animal is. Like when she sees a lion, she says "RHOAR"! Its just so stinkin cute. When she sees a duck, she yells "Quack"! Well, you catch the drift...

She loves to dance. LOVES it! When any kind of music comes on, she starts moving around or going in circles, shaking her hips or flailing her arms around. Sometimes she is actually even moving with the beat. She loves watching the Fresh Beat Band on TV and dancing with them. If she hears them coming on, she yells "Kiki!" (her favorite girl on the show).

She doesn't sign much anymore now that she can say the words, but sometimes when she really wants something bad, she'll give us the sign for "more" while saying "PLEEEEASE"!! She makes it really tough to say no when she does that!



Lately she likes to reach her hand down the front of our shirts and pull "food" out and feed it to us. Obviously, there's not really any food there, but she sure acts like there is. Its especially funny when she is pulling "food" out from between my boobies and then sticking it in my mouth. She founds this to be absolutely hilarious and cracks up every time we pretend to chew whatever it is that she is sticking in our mouths.

She is still a great eater and we haven't come across much that she won't eat. I am still hoping this continues to last. Lately though, she wants me to feed her more, where before she would want to always feed herself and would get really upset if she couldn't . Now, she will feed herself with her spoon and then halfway through will just stop eating unless I feed it to her. I am not sure what to think about it, but it doesn't seem like its much to worry about, so I just go with it.

She still only has 4 full teeth in, her top front two and the bottom front two. The ones to the side of her front ones have come in about halfway and some others are pushing through now... that girl needs some more teeth! I still feel like I need to cut up most of her food pretty small and don't think I will stop till more teeth come in.



She will do pretty good entertaining herself with her toys or just wandering around while I am making dinner or something else where I can't give her all of my attention. This is pretty big to me, because for the longest time, she would get so frustrated with me if I was making dinner or doing dishes. With Joe being at school 3 nights a week, there was no one else there to help me out. That just plain sucks cooking up food with stuff all over your hands right in the middle of it, while a little one is crying like she's in pain and pulling on your clothes because they want you to pick them up. Obviously you can't, so you just have to deal. Alot of times I would wear her in a carrier on my back, but she was getting kinda heavy for that. Walking around or hiking with a carrier is one thing, leaning over and mixing, stirring and pulling things out of cabinets is a whole different story. Luckily, she seems to have grown out of that phase. I do NOT miss it!


It's hard to believe how much she has grown up already. People were serious when they sad they grow up quick! I try to take things slowly and soak up every minute. I am loving this age she is at and I want to hold on to it as long as I can!!

Healthy Peanut Butter Cup Pie (sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

Thank you sooooo much to Lauren over at Healthy Indulgences for scheming up this recipe. I made it over the weekend for a family gathering and it was delicious. I will definitely have to make the filling sweeter next time, it seemed to be lacking in this department (pretty much everyone agreed). I might literally double it, but other then that, it was fantastic!

Sometimes You CAN Get Something Really Cool For Cheap!

I ordered a super cheap wide angle lens that attaches to the end of any lens with a 52mm size filter thread. Basically you just screw it on to your current lens and go. They were mostly advertising it as a wide angle lens, but after reading closer at the description, I was mostly interested in it because it separated into two pieces and could also be used as a macro lens. I was skeptical of the $9.49 price tag thinking it must suck (it says it was originally 129.99, but you know how they like to exaggerate that), but I thought with over 50 reviews and an average rating of 4 out of 5, it might be something fun for a beginner like me. I can't afford to get a really nice macro lens right now, especially since I am still waiting on the other lens I want to get out of back order. The most I would lose is the $9.49 total with my free amazon shipping. I figured it was worth a shot.

The wide angle aspect isn't that impressive, but I was kinda happy with my close up shots after I separated the macro lens and attached it to my camera. I don't have much to compare to, but I thought it was pretty cool. I could only shoot stuff around my house since it was the evening. I can't wait for a nice day to play out in the yard!

So, here we have a close up of my crackberry...

The munchkin's sippy cup...

I attended a wedding two Saturdays ago and was the lucky winner of the centerpiece on our dinner table. Here's a close up of one of the peacock feathers sticking out of it...


So all in all, it was definitely worth it's price tag. If by chance this deal might work for someone else, then you can check it out here.

Coconut Flour Pancakes (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

I have attempted coconut flour pancakes several times without being very successful. They were always good, but they didn't fill the void for good ole' fashioned pancakes. Last night for dinner, I tried them again, using a new recipe that I found here. The pictures on the site looked so appetizing... like yummy super fluffy pancakes! And the ingredients sounded just right. They were delicious! They are also good for you and very very filling. The hubs enjoyed them and then munchkin tore them up!

I pulled out the griddle my grandpa recently gave me, but haven't had a chance to use yet. It worked great. I loaded it up with butter, whipped up my pancake batter and poured them on, about 3" wide and pretty thick.


They cooked up really nicely and looked just like the pancakes I used to know (and missed).

I loaded them up with some yummy pastured butter and they were fantastic! You can top them with honey, coconut oil, maple syrup or some fruit.


I gave them to the munchkin slathered with some butter. She was a happy camper.

I copied the following recipe verbatim from the Nourishing Days website. I didn't change a single thing about them (aside from using kalona whole milk instead of raw and stevia extract powder instead of honey), so I wanted to make sure I didn't get any credit for them. I just wanted to share them with everyone because they are so yummy!

Also, for a tip for bringing eggs to room temperature without having to wait around forever, I put mine in a bowl of luke warm water for 5-10 minutes. Works perfectly!

Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup milk (raw cow’s or coconut both work)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon honey or a pinch of stevia
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• coconut oil or butter for frying

Directions

1. Preheat griddle over medium-low heat. In a small bowl beat eggs until frothy, about two minutes. Mix in milk, vanilla, and honey or stevia.
2. In a medium-sized bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk together. Stir wet mixture into dry until coconut flour is incorporated.
3. Grease pan with butter or coconut oil. Ladle a few tablespoons of batter into pan for each pancake. Spread out slightly with the back of a spoon. The pancakes should be 2-3 inches in diameter and fairly thick. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until the tops dry out slightly and the bottoms start to brown. Flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
4. Serve hot with butter, coconut oil, honey, syrup, or fruit.

Coming Soon to a location near... me!!

I follow several blogs that have talked / are talking about their birthing center and midwives and how they loved (or are loving) the care they have recieved from these types of facilities. While I was pregnant with the munchkin, oh how I wished this was an option for me. I couldn't even locate a midwife in my area, let alone a birthing center to naturally deliver. At the time, the idea of it all was intriguing, but not even having the option, I moved along and tried not to dwell on it. My research on our options took place over 3 years ago after I found out I was pregnant the first time, and although it went okay, there were so many things that I regret and look back upon and wish they had been done so very differently. I don't know what we are going to do the next time around, but following so many blogs lately that have talked about their "birthing center" and "midwives", I couldn't help but feel a little slighted (to say the least) that I didn't have these options for myself.

But then today, I found out that The Birth and Wellness Center is on their way!! They plan to open the first birthing center in my area in 2011! I got so excited as I read their plans and ideas on their website and can't wait to find out more. If they really do open their doors in 2011 I would have the option of having my prenatal care given to me by these midwives at a birthing center.

I just had to share, as this is really exciting to me!

This will be a facility that will offer not only prenatal, birth and postpartum care, but also breastfeeding support and even prenatal yoga. And it will be right near my home!

Roasted Butternut Squash with Smoked Paprika (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

I love me some butternut squash. The munchkin does too. I have made it in many different ways but this one is by far my favorite! It took me a while to track down the smoked paprika. They don't carry it at any of the regular grocery stores around here. I'm sure you can order it online somewhere else too, but I ran across it at World Market while we were killing time waiting for our movie to start. As an extra bonus, they also had packages with 2 whole vanilla beans for $2.99!! If you have bought these before, you know what a great deal that is. I had just seen them at Whole Foods a couple of days earlier for about $13!

Smoked paprika has quickly become one of my favorite seasonings. It is delicious and adds a deep smokey flavor with out any heat. You can buy a butternut squash and cut it up yourself, or you can buy it already cubed, which I often do. I found the original recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen, but I made some changes. I found that the original cooking time was way too long and made my squash really mushy. The original recipe calls for sweet smoked paprika. I just used smoked.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Smoked Paprika

• 2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tb extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Whisk together everything but the squash in a large bowl.
3. Add squash to bowl, stir around and mix well with seasonings.
4. Spread some olive oil onto a cookie sheet and spoon on squash spreading it out onto one layer.
5. Place in oven and cook for 25 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, stir around and cook for another 10-15 minutes until soft.
7. Serve immediately.

I really hope you try this. It is fantastic!