by Alexis -

Oatmeal Chocolate Bars

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*My apologies for the quality of this picture. Phone picture. 🙂 *

I made up this recipe last night because I was already half way through making a dessert only to realize I didn’t have a couple items. Yikes. Time to get creative! And throwing out what I had made wasn’t an option. I hate- HATE- throwing out ingredients.

This ended up surprisingly more dense (but not too much). The oatmeal really adds a more chewy texture. And even though butter is used in this, it didn’t turn out greasy. We enjoyed it with some strong coffee and Star Trek. Enjoy!

 ***You could easily make this vegan by switching out the butter/chocolate chips for vegan  friendly ones. And as always, a great substitute for eggs are 2T ground flax seed and 5T water. Give it time to ‘goop’ and you have 2 egg substitutes**

1C Butter

3/4C Sugar

3/4C brown Sugar

1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla

*beat all above*

Then add: 2 eggs

Then add: 2 3/4C Flour

1/2C Quick Oats

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Salt

1/2C Coconut flakes

Chocolate Chips (however chocolaty you like it)

Bake at 350’F for 20ish min in 9’13 pan.

by Alexis -

Walt Disney World-Magic Kingdom

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We went. We saw. We conquered. 🙂

by Alexis -

Krakow, Poland

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 Really looking forward to stepping foot back in Krakow. Seeing old friends, meeting new ones and sipping some great European coffee.

by Alexis -

test

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by Alexis -

Standard Pancakes (American Style)

 

I’ve been looking for a great pancake recipe that I can make in Poland which doesn’t require buttermilk. Not because I can’t find it there or even make it there…I’m just lazy. lol Honestly. I also want something that’s a bit healthier. However if you find those recipes, most are complicated or doesn’t taste how you hope. 

Well, to this date, this is the best one I’ve found. And it’s already made my paper recipe book so you know it’s good. Super good and straightforward. The hardest part is finding a syrup now that doesn’t contain crazy sugar. Did I mention this was a sugar free pancake recipe? 🙂 I’m interested in making coconut whipped cream with fresh berries. I know. Yum right?!

Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Pancake Recipe:

1 3/4C Flour

1T Baking Powder

1/2t Salt

1 1/2C Milk

2 lrg Eggs

3T Veg. Oil

Mix all the dry ingredients first then add wet. Remember to not over mix. 

This is for plain simple pancakes. Some fun flavor ideas: Ginger and Cinnamon Spices, Berries, 1/4C Pumpkin Puree, 1/4C Sweet Potato Puree, Chocolate Chips, swirl in a mix of melted butter/brown sugar/cinnamon, 1/2C oatmeal, etc. The sky’s the limit. 🙂 

by Alexis -

Starbucks Oatmeal

Oatmeal

I was going through our local Starbucks recently, and my hubby gushed about how awesome their oatmeal was. (love my healthy babe) I saw it on their menu and my jaw dropped when I saw the price. Um, no. Then I had a little hissy fit- why does healthy food have to be so expensive?! I ordered the pumpkin scone. Principles over health. 😉

So I decided to make my own a little afterwards. Learn from my mistakes friends: add the berries AFTER the water/brown sugar thing. I was overly excited and mixed it with the dry stuff. Even though it tasted great, the water turned purple. Kinda different. (might be fun for kids?) And this recipe all depends on you. Some like their oatmeal nuttier, sweeter or thicker than this recipe. Experiment and enjoy!

 

Blueberry/Nut Oatmeal

1/2 C Quick Oats

3/4 C Hot Water

2T Brown Sugar

2T Your Favorite Crushed Nuts  

1/4C Blueberries (again, any favorite berry you like)

Mix the oats, sugar and nuts. Then add hot water. Mix and wait a couple minutes. Afterwards add the toppings.  Make this with a hot cup of tea and feel smug that you saved yourself about $5. (BTW, I’ve have had Starbucks oatmeal and yes, it’s amazing. hehe)

by Alexis -

Vegan Chocolate Cake

 cake

We were invited to a friends house for Easter and I had grand plans of the desserts I would be bringing.  Unfortunately they fell apart. No, like it actually did fall apart. I was trying to make many thin layers and unfortunately it crumbled everywhere. Still tasted great with what parts I could salvage. One of  Travis’ favorite cakes is German Chocolate. So I added a little store bought sweetness.. Tasted amazing and was incredibly moist. 

So try it! It’s AMAZING and crazy simple. Here is the blog I found it from. I know when my vegan sister comes to visit I’ll be making her a cake to bring back to Seattle.. 🙂

Recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups flour
3 Tbsp. cocoa (unsweetened)
1 Cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp.  salt

1 tsp. white vinegar
1 tsp.  pure vanilla extract
5 Tbsp. vegetable oil 
1 Cup water 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix first 5 dry ingredients in a greased 8″ square baking pan.  Make 3 depressions in dry ingredients. Pour vinegar in one depression, vanilla in the other and the vegetable oil in third larger depression.  Pour water over all.  Mix well until smooth.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes.  Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean.  Cool.  Top with your favorite frosting.  Enjoy!

by Alexis -

My Friend

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I think we all have those people in our lives- you the ones. The ones that inspire us. Which means we will, inevitably, compare ourselves to them and it never works out in our little brains. (which is why we should never compare, but so is humanity)

So I have this friend who  fits in that category of just awesomeness. She is open and real with herself and not shy in sharing her life with others. Which is courageous if you think about it. She and I have been friends for some time and a common passion of ours is writing. We just love it and on occasion- need it. Last year she lost a friend suddenly and is still writing/processing through it. Tough times. 

As we talked last night, she shared about her experience at a “writing conference weekend thing”. I was immediately jealous and hungry to hear every little detail. A long lost desire of mine had been to become a writer as an adult. Instead, I was given the bigger and sweeter responsibility of  being a mom. But the desire still pops it’s head in now and then…

She and I had been in the same place of having a blog but not writing on it because of life happening. Which isn’t much of an excuse but oh well. So as we were talking, it was clear the spark of writing was in her eyes and it excited me. Inspired me. Enough so that I’m trying to get back into the groove of blogging. 

Yaaayy! I know a couple of you die hard fans have come up to me and asked about the hyades on here. Well, I’m back. There’s a couple things weird with this theme so it’ll be changing a bit here and there but I hope to be posting more regular on here. 

Peace out friends.

 

by Alexis -

Wishing for something better

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I took a rainy walk with the girls today. Partly to loosen up my attitude and rediscover that jumping in puddles with kids is healing. The second reason was I needed to walk off a couple pieces of pumpkin pie I gave into last weekend. As we walked and twirled umbrellas (because that’s what girls do with umbrellas) I naturally looked at the houses we walked past. 

Some were cute and you could tell the owners were putting effort in the yard. Other owners were allowing spring to do it’s thing and make a muddy mess of flower beds. Now a little secret about myself is that I always, and I mean ALWAYS, ask myself  ‘what could I do to make it prettier?’ Don’t know where that compulsion came from and sometimes it’s down right annoying, but today I was unconsciously playing this game, when I suddenly felt sad. 

Say what? I was thrown off guard. Here I was supposed to be having a nice bonding time with my girls in the rain and I’m overcome with my own issues? Awesome. Thankfully Emma was in her own little world so I felt free to dive deeper into mine. 

As I recognized my sadness, I realized it was caused by a familiar reason. The American dream I had dreamt about growing up as a girl. Looking at houses always does this to me and you think I would’ve learnt by now. Oh well. No, growing up I didn’t dream about a white picked fence with 2.5 children. But I still got excited about having a house. Decorating my front door with carved pumpkins by my kiddos. Family. Waiting for them to get off their yellow school buses. Taking them to school and helping out in their classrooms and embarrassing them by being the loudest one rooting them on at their games/performances. Decorating the outside of our house with Christmas lights. Beautiful sparkly ones with our tree in the window making people drive a little slower to look at it all. Having a backyard with a garden. Oh a garden. Where I could plant things, kill things, make things grow and just get my hands dirty. And possibly a tree house.

Oh then there’s high school. Ah the memories I looked forward to making then. Putting the stickers in our front windows showing our pride for their school. The day we taught our kids how to drive with our car. Tears, fear and shock that they actually fit behind the steering wheel and being forced to come to grips that they’re not 5 anymore. Embarrassing them by taking homecoming  pictures in front of our fireplace and more pictures as they got their flowers by their shy date. And graduation. Everything graduation entails. Savoring it like the last drink to the sweetest best tasting wine. Gone forever. 

So there I was realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to experience all those things as I had hoped. Yes, I could still do some by morphing them a bit. And you better believe I will. *chuckle* But it’s just not what I had in mind. Moving to Poland will be the start of everything new. But that also means the end to everything else. Morning the loss of some dreams that aren’t as important as what He dreams for me. And I think that as the time moves closer to us saying goodbye to this beautiful place/friends, feeling sad is just part of the whole package. 

I mainly wrote this for many of you have asked how we are doing with the whole idea of us moving. It’s just a glimps into different things I’m having to process through. Day by day.