6 things

1. I am sick! It is sucky. I think I'm on the mend though.

2. I made a gluten-free peanut butter cookie made with coconut sugar. They are really good.

3. Ben the bachelor is annoying as heck.

4. WHY ARE THERE NO EPISODES OF REVENGE UNTIL APRIL?! Tonight's episode had my heart beating out of my chest at the end! Seriously, if I were Emily...I think I'd die of anxiety. How does she act so calm ALL the time!?!!

5. I only have like...a month and a week left of school. THANK freaking GOODNESS. I'm so sick of it.

6. My kitchen is SO DIRTY. Oh well. I'm too tired to clean it and its 10 pm. Till Saturday...probably.

That's all. Just figured I'd update my life a bit.

GF/SF Chocolate Mint Cookies

 So I went through a phase where I ate these cookies all the time! Well, not all the time. But it was my treat of choice for a while. They are gluten free/sugar free. Made with quinoa flour, and coconut sugar.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter softened

1 1/2 cups coconut sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp mint extract

2 cups quinoa flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. 

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Blend in eggs and mint extract and stir until the mixture has a smooth consistency. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend well.

Place about 1 1/2 tbs balls of dough on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool before eating. 

 Now personally, I LOVE MINT! Mint and chocolate are divine together. I really want to come up with a mint frosting to put ontop. I also want to replace the mint with vanilla and figure out some sugar free marshmallow to put ontop like chocolate clouds? Yum. 

But, for now...these are pretty durn good.

Life...has been all sorts of crazy for me. But that's okay. I am SO looking forward to May. Tax season will be over, my classes will be over, I will be a CPA, and all I'll have to worry about is fun stuff like a garden, cooking, sewing, etc. Can't wait. 

Our appointment went well. Not TOO much to report. Clay is basically the same, I mean...he's continually improving but basically on the same treatment plan. I am going to start weening off of antibiotics! Can I get a YAHOOOO! I can't wait! These next two months I'm going to be doing two weeks antibiotics, two weeks herbs, two weeks antibiotics, two weeks herbs, etc. I told my doctor everything about how I am basically symptom free but still have achey joints sometimes. Its often enough that I don't think its like normal people, but its a different kind of ache than I used to have. She said that the reason it feels different is because I don't have as much inflammation as I used to. She also said that there's no way to know if it's something I'll just deal with and have because the Lyme could have permanently damaged my tissues...or something. But she gave me this new pill that is supposed to repair cells, so hopefully that helps! I am overall pretty happy with how the appointment went. We are probably still looking at about a year away for thinking about having babies. Which is sucky, but that's okay. I am confident that my babies are up there anxiously but patiently waiting and rooting us on.

Well, I am going to go in the bedroom and get some well deserved tv relaxation time :)

Quinoa Granola with Almond Milk

So last weekend I made homemade granola. It was the best! I got the recipe from this site, but tweaked it a titch.

1 cup whole rolled oats

1 cup buckwheat groats

1/3 cup quinoa

2 T chia seeds         

3/4 cup raw almonds, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup raw walnuts, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup shredded coconut

2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup golden raisins (or other dried fruit)

1/3 cup raisins

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Mix well. Add maple syrup and coconut oil. Mix well!

Spread onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 60 minutes at 225 degrees.

Let cool completely.

Eat a lot of it. 

 So then I made homemade almond milk. HOLY SMOKIES this was so easy and delicious! I got the recipe and directions from the Little RedHouse. 

 I used an old peanut butter jar that I cleaned to put it in. 

Then, I ATE THE ALMOND MILK AND GRANOLA TOGETHER. Let me tell you, those bites were little pieces of heaven. LOVED it! 

I think the granola probably only lasts a week or less just because it started not tasting as good about a week later. That’s okay though. I doubt yours will last that long.

So so yummy. Clay calls it bird food. But he admitted it was tasty.

In other news, my life has felt quite crazy lately. So many things to do. But you know, somehow I'm still finding time for Revenge, Bachelor, Grey's Anatomy...and more...sadly enough. 

We have our doc appt in a couple days. I am at a point where I barely ever have symptoms, but I do sometimes and so I don't know if they are just human feelings that everyone gets, or if it's Lyme. I hate it. I just keep praying that I'll know the truth, if I'm done with treatment, or should keep going. I haven't quite figured it out yet honestly. A couple weeks ago I honestly thought I would tell my doctor I'm done, and have no symptoms. Then I started having achey joints. It's frustrating because lots of people have achey joints. My number one symptom was fatigue and that is gone. I am doing like...a billion things right now that could cause me to be soooo exhausted, and yeah I'm tired, but so much more energized than a year ago, when I was just working and coming and laying on the couch. So anyway, I am hoping that I can figure this out because the main way we decide to be done with treatments is based off of our symptoms. It's hard to know how honest I'm being with myself when I'm so sick of being treated and I want a baby so bad. Clay reminds me though that I am eating so close to perfect, I'm being active, and if I go off my pills and symptoms come back, I can just go back again. He reminds me that neither of us will ever be as bad as he once was. Never again. That is comforting. But it's still worrisome...to let it come back in any form. So, I will continue praying for wisdom and knowledge, staying in tune with my body, and discussing it with the smart doc :)

Surfboard Rugs

Hey guys! I just wanted to do a quick post to show you guys my sister and bro-in-laws awesome business. They sell SURFBOARD RUGS! How cool is that?! They have a website

http://www.rugboards.com/

These are just a few of the kinds they sell. They are hand made and super quality. And a really good price too! I think it'd be way cool to have one in my kitchen, bathroom, kids rooms. They just are really cool and you can even do custom ordering. They are a family owned business which to me is really appealing because I love investing in America and small businesses.

Check em out!

TRENDY PATTERNS SALE!

Big Sale! From now until February 20th, I am selling ALL my digital files for BUY ONE GET ONE FREE! I recently added a St. Patrick's Day one, for March. 

There's lots of holiday ones...

 And some fun ones for all year long!

And my sewing patterns are included too! Although, your free item must be of equal or lesser value. 

These work great for gifts! Grab a frame and put all the holidays in one behind another so that they can just switch them out each month! Also, colors are flexible, so if you have another color in mind, just convo/email me!

All of the digital prints are $4, which basically means you'd be getting a print file for TWO BUCKS with this deal! Get it printed at costco/sams for 5 bucks, and you have yourself a $7 decoration. Not bad at all.

Go shop!

Gluten Free, Sugar Free Peanut butter brownies

Brownie Ingredients

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup cocoa

3 eggs

2 cup coconut sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup gluten free flour blend

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Directions

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Stir in eggs. Add sugar. Stir in vanilla. Last stir in flour and xanthan gum. 

Peanut butter ingredients:

4 tbs butter, melted

1/2 cup coconut sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter*

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together.

Pour half the brownie batter in 8x8 pan. Scoop spoonfuls of peanut butter mix ontop of batter, about half the peanut butter. Pour other half of brownie batter ontop, and scoop the rest of the peanut butter mix on top. Run a knife throughout the pan until you feel like the peanut butter is well dispersed. You don't want to BLEND or mix completely, just incorporate peanut butter a little bit everywhere. It wont be perfect. 

Bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes, depending on oven. Toothpick should come out with some crumbs. 

Let it cool for at least a half hour. My opinion is they taste best the next day! But I still can't resist eating some soon after they are cooled. 

*I made my own peanut butter in a food processor. I had roasted peanuts I got from Winco, and I just put a few handfuls in and let it go and go and go and go, and pretty soon it was peanut butter!

*Note- If you aren't gluten free or sugar free, the flour can be replaced with regular or wheat flour, and don't add the xanthan gum. You can replace the coconut sugar with regular sugar. If you do this, add some salt, as coconut sugar has a salty taste, which is why I never add salt to my recipes with coconut sugar. 

Seriously guys, this is DELICIOUS! I about died when I ate it and loved it. I'm so inlove with this brownie. I don't THINK my taste buds are fooling me...but you know, I suppose its possible. Anyway- for anyone gluten free or sugar free, these are A MUST. And if you aren't, look at my second note up there and use regular ingredients. I uesd to make a similar recipe filled with junk like this and its to die for. YUMMO!