M&M cookies

We were just in Roblin, Manitoba to celebrate Jeff's grandma's 97th birthday.  Its not everyday you get to say that.  We were honoured  to be able to be there in person for her actual birthday.  If you can't tell by Liam's eyes; being in a hotel with all of us, sleeping was not his #1 priority. Immediately after this picture was taken we started our drive home a day early.  The struggle is real people.  We are happy to say we made it home in one piece and are still alive to tell about it.  Although I don't think we'll be taking another roadtrip anytime soon.

This past Tuesday our Aubrey graduated form kindergarten; we were so thrilled for her. 

This is a side by side of her first day of school and her graduation day!

 

Now on to the baking!

I have a few clients at work who love to give me things to bake with and I thoroughly love excepting them! Yesterday when I decided to host an impromptu dinner for my cousins who were coming into town I remembered this package of baking bits in my baking drawer. 

I decided to make the cookie recipe on the back of the bag; I even had the chopped walnuts. 

I whipped these up pretty quick.  I baked them on 350F for 9-11 minutes and let them cool on the trays on the stove stop.  The only involvement the kids had in this process was asking me for more baking bits!

These tasted just like brownie/cookies.  They had a crunch on the exterior but were chewy on the inside.  You could taste the salt and they weren't overly sweet, the baking bits and walnuts added great texture. 

Here's Hannah, my uncle John and aunt Dar's oldest daughter.  She's one of the oldest of the younger cousins.  We love having her here for part of the summer.  Her smiling face and laughter is contagious; as you can tell she's a big hit with the kids.

Packed up and ready to share. 

Strawberry lemonade cupcakes

I love my quiet time in the mornings. I sit in my front window, coffee in hand and take in the sunshine while I mentally prepare for my day. The quiet and peace allows me to hear clearly. 

Is there something wrong with this picture; no that's not a cat... It's Liam!

There is never a dull moment with my little guy; I love our time in the mornings but it's evening better if I can get out of bed 30 minutes before him!!!

Cupcake time again; 

I was asked to make some baby girl cupcakes. I can do that! My trusty cream cheese icing with some fresh raspberries whipped in is the perfect summer icing. Even a little lemon zest on top makes them taste like pink lemonade I'm told.

1/2 cup butter (soft)

2 bricks creamcheese (soft)

(Add fresh raspberries at this point; as many as you'd like)

Whip until smooth then add the additional ingredients

Pinch of salt

Vanilla

2 cups of icing sugar

Whip until smooth!

If it doesn't get quite pink enough I'd add in a very small amount of pink gel colouring.

I use one recipe of icing per 12 cupcakes to pipe a wide swirl.

I cheated and used a cake mix for the cupcakes; they bake so evenly. I added thawed mashed raspberries to a French vanilla batter to get a light pink hew.

I'm told they were a hit!

Aubrey had a daddy-daughter date to her favourite spot; she actually took Jeff for Father's Day. 

She picked out her outfit, got dressed, counted her money, gave me specific hairstyle instructions and waited patiently for her dad to wake. It was pretty special to witness.

They sent me this picture!

Liam and I had our own date; superstore, mommy's playground!

When we got home we went for a walk and took in the sunshine.

Yes, this is my summer get-up. No I'm not going on a safari just trying not to be attacked by the beautiful sun!

And that's that!

Gluten free cookies

Baking in the gluten free world is a tedious thing so when you find a recipe that is yummy it's definitly worth the share. 

My neighbour sent me this text asking me if I wanted some GF cookies; "uh yes please!"

My third cookie in I needed to know more. Recipe please!

Omit the butter flavouring; no one knows what that is! 

My next grocery shop I was sure to pick up this flour. In my haste I didn't relook at her text and picked up what I thought she had said. 

Very different; I realize now!

I didn't find out I was wrong until the cookies were half way baked and still looked like dough balls on the baking sheets.

A frantic text to my neighbour; what did I do wrong?!?!? (Yes, I realize I was being overly dramatic!)

He's such a big help!

Once I figured out I had used the wrong flour and they probably weren't going to flatten on their own I pulled out the trusty fork and marked them peanutbutter cookie style.

The second batch of cookies I flattened with the palm of my hand before I baked them; this worked better. The original recipe with the correct flour should flatten during baking creating the most delicious chewy cookie. My chef husband had no idea my neighbours cookies were gluten free!!!

Dreaming of cookies!

Truth be told these were yummy frozen and still good enough to share! But I will be picking up the correct flour next shop; stay tuned!

Gluten free dairy free pancakes!!!!

Thursday night before bed I decided to whip up some pancake batter to have ready for Friday morning. In keeping with gluten-free/dairy-free I decided to rework my go-to oatmeal pancake recipe.

This is what I used:

2 cups oats

2 cups almond milk

2 tsp xantham gum 

2tbsp coconut sugar

2 eggs

Vanilla

Cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

2tbsp oil

I refrigerated this covered overnight.

7am arrived and everyone was still sleeping; praise the lord! I slipped out of bed and was able to have my quiet time minus Liam! The kids woke up happy, I served them breakfast #1, we all got dressed and decided to head to the store. Once we arrived home and unpacked the groceries we assigned Jeff to pancake duty! The batter had thickened quite a bit so we added a bit more almond milk.  The key to cooking these pancakes was making sure the pan was preheated, using enough oil or spray and using 1/4 cup batter per pancake.

We cut up strawberries, put out Greek yogurt and syrup to top the pancakes.

These were a hit. 

This picture was taken at 9am. The kids and I had already been to the store for our weekly grocery shop, all of us were dressed and ready for our day! It was nice to come home to freshly brewed coffee(courtesy of the timer) and pancake batter ready to go! A little intentional planning can help remove the "hectic" from the morning routine(atleast for one day!); by 9:45am I was off to work. Sometimes it feels like I go to work to sit down! 

Chocolate almond pudding

 

 

I was having one of those days.  You know, the one where you feel incapable, underqualified and like life has dealt you too much all at once.  When thankfulness and exhaustion have had a head-on collision.
Then a knock at the door comes with an oh-so-familiar smile.  "Come in, please come in...".  My aunt, an always bubbly, positive encouragement for me. 

 She usually brings something, this visit was two boxes of unsweetened almond milk and 2 cases of baby cucumbers.  Our church hosts a food bank once a week and there are usually some "loss leaders" that don't get scooped up.

At that moment in time I was more interested with my aunt coming in for dinner and saving my children from the person I was about to become.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, I'm probably my most tough critic but it's always nice having another person for your 5 year to quiz with 5 million questions. 

I wondered what I would make with all this Almond milk.  My aunt suggested a custard or pudding.  I thought that was the perfect idea.  I looked on Pinterest and found this recipe.

With a few tweaks of omitting the sugar and adding in regular peanut butter this became the most luxurious dessert I could of ever asked for.

 

I mixed the dry ingredients together and then added in the wet ingredients and stirred....stirred and stirred.  As tired as I was there is something therapeutic about standing at the stove and stirring a pot.  Something peaceful.

Peace is something I crave on a regular basis.  There is only one place I find it in abundance, never to grow tired and that's in Jesus.  He's not called the Prince of Peace for nothing!  The "come as you are" part of the equation is the cherry on top especially when you're so tired of living up to peoples unrealistic expectations (including the ones I place on myself).

 

Since I am not by any scretch of the imagination following and exclusively dairy free diet I finished the pudding with good old fashion butter.

 

After I got my kids in bed, I enjoyed two pre-portioned ramekins topped with cool-whip.  Yes, I know cool-whip is edible oil and no I don't care and also I'm so glad I took the time to portion the pudding into cups when I ate two ramekins at once! The struggles real people!

 

I got into bed and started reflecting on my day.  Trying to bring myself back to reality and place thankfulness back in front of me.  I flipped through my journal and realized I had been writing scriptures based on peace down for weeks.  I started doodling on a page and as I did strength grew from inside me. No wonder the song we sang in Sunday  School was "Read your bible pray everyday and you'll grow grow grow". Why am I so caught off guard when life isn't perfect?  Jesus did make it pretty clear,  "In this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world". I'll choose to take heart.

 

 

There's something about being quiet enough to feel your own heart beat, hear your own breathing and taking in the stillness.  To hear Him whisper; "you're not in this alone, I will not let the waves of life take you under".  Peace.