Kitchen Concoctions

For the past two weeks I have been working on making my protein snacks at home to monitor the sugar content. Last week I followed a recipe off of Pinterest that was very yummy!! But oh how sweet it was from the dates. I love dates & sugar! So they where like crack to me- which means not good to keep in the house. Here is the picture from the first batch.

1 Cup almond mill

1/4 cup dates pitted & chopped

1/2 cup almond butter

2tbl honey

scoop into an ice cream scooper roll in coconut & chill

These where so good but sweet- so you have been warned!~

This is a picture of today's protein balls made with less dates & walnuts to help cut the sweetness.

 

1 cup almond mill

4 dates pitted & chopped

1/3 cup walnuts crushed

1/2 cup organic low sugar peanut butter

2tbl honey

mix & roll into balls then roll in coconut- place in air tight container in refrigerator 

These taste just as good but not near as sweet which is GREAT for me! Each little ball contain 10 grams of protein & 140 calories. Perfect little snack at night if you get the munchies before bed. I love that you can just create your own recipe toss it together & it usually tastes good.

Wishing for Spring with Crafts

I have to say when I woke up this morning to SNOW, YUCK was the first thing that I said out loud to myself! I am so over winter & ready to move on to Spring . I am ready for the WA Cherry Blossom trees to bloom & tulips! I am hosting a brunch this Thursday for some lovely Army wives so I decided to help get myself in a better mood by decorating. I spent hours folks & yes I said hours of my life on Pinterest. Looking & pinning all the wonderful Spring ideas I ran across. Then yesterday I picked out two  that I was determined I was going to make. Not just let is spend it's life on my computer on my boards-lol.


I have never really decorated for Spring but there is always a first! In the past twenty four hours I have visited Michaels to get all the supplies I needed for my two Spring ideas for my home. I then started working on the hanging Easter eggs for my front door with my boys. They turned out pretty cute for a first time crafter like myself & we hung them on the door early this morning.

It took glitter mod poge glue, colored tissue paper & some carve-able or foam eggs will work. I also bought the ribbon & extra little baby eggs to add to the top. The yellow egg has only the glitter glue on it for a smoother finish. But the boys & I decided we like the tissue papered eggs better- gives them more dimension. It hangs beautifully on the front door now & I am super pleased with how it turned out.

Next was a flower centerpiece for my table. I always like to have some sort of centerpiece on my table for whatever season we are in when I host. I found some great ideas on Pinterest & modified them to my liking. I came up with this beautiful creation today.

While at Michaels I found two different size glass candle holders. The larger holds the jelly beans which I chose pastel jolly rancher flavor. It was the color I liked best. But you could do the bold bright colored jelly beans if you want a brighter flower in the middle. You have a smaller cylinder glass candle holder in the center & pour the jelly beans around. Some Pins I saw also used the peeps, but I decided I liked the jelly bean look better for my table. I went in search of Tulips but our store had none in & weren't expecting any by Thursday- brunch day. I settled on these lovely mixed bunch that accented the jelly beans perfectly. After I trimmed down the stems to the right height I placed them in water in the middle cylinder. Then I took pink tool and stuffed it in around the top to cover up the other cylinder better- plus I think it looks cute. I suppose you could add more jelly beans- but I had already used three bag fulls! Now it sits beautifully in the center of my table just waiting for Thursday and all the delicious food to be placed around.

Now that I have taken to actually doing the pins that I have found on my boards I LOVE Pinterest even more! This is probably not a good thing  :0/  But it has some great ideas that are fun to do when you want something simple that looks fantastic! Happy Pinning everyone!

Halloween Snacks

Jacob has his turn to provide snack tomorrow after his Soccer game. So while I was busy on Pinterest -LOL- busy wasting time I came across a yummy looking treat! I modified it a bit & we now have Candy Corn Trail Mix to hand out for snack after Soccer. Jacob & I had fun making it after school today. It tastes as good as it looks. The pictures aren't the best because my good camera finally died :0(  I don't have the money to replace it right now so I am stuck using a really old one we had in a drawer. Stinks since the Pumpkin Patch is coming up & I always take a ton of pictures. Anyway here it is a fun Halloween Snack you can make in about 2 hours to hand out to friends.

Jacob sprinkling the chocolate drizzled pretzels

We placed the pretzels in baggies with two types of Candy Corn & the little pumpkins

My cutie dressed in a Christmas t-shirt ready to hand out Halloween Snack bags