Merry Christmas, Everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

A little back story, we’ve been a foster family for almost 3 years now!  We have 2 bio daughters (17yo & 14yo) and have fostered 9 kiddos - 3yo and under.  The last year with our last 2 foster babies was really hard.  They both had a lot of medical issues.....we had 320+ appointments between the 2 of them in the year we were blessed to have them!  So, we are taking 3-4 months off from fostering to rest and take a trip to Disney World before we are back to taking in foster kiddos!  Self-care is a must if you are a care giver to anyone!!

The last 2 years I’ve been struggling with a few medical issues and am taking several medications for them.....the biggest is T2 diabetes.  I’m working hard to heal my body with THM and get off these meds!

Here’s a recipe that my family LOVES so I had to THMify it!!

Sausage Balls!

• 2 1/2 Cups of RayesPlace baking blend**
• 1 pkg (8oz) softened cream cheese
• 1 Pound Bulk Pork Sausage.
• 4 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese.
• 1/2 Cup Grated Fresh Parmesan Cheese. (I use the green can if I don’t have fresh)
• 1/2 Cup 1/2 & 1/2.
• 1 Teaspoon Dried Crushed Rosemary.
• 1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley Flakes.
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all of your above ingredients together very well in a large mixing bowl by hand.

Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Form your sausage and cheese balls into quarter-sized balls and place on the baking sheet slightly apart and not touching each other.

You will want to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake your sausage cheese balls for 20-25 minutes.  You want them golden brown all over and serve soon after you take them out of the oven or let them cool then put them in a gallon size ziploc bag and freeze!  They taste great warmed up in the microwave!

**I’ve used RayesPlace.blogspot.com ‘s baking blend for a long time but I’ve made some alterations because I don’t always have psyllium husks on hand!!

• 1 cup oat flour (I grind my own!)
• 1 cup coconut flour 
• 1/2 cup oat fiber
• 1/2 cup psyllium husks (if I don’t have any, I just sub more oat fiber)
• 2 Tbs baking powder
• 1 Tbs Xanthan Gum
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix together and store in an airtight container.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!  

Oops! I skipped Thanksgiving!

And Halloween, if you want to get all technical!  Life has been CRAZY busy!!  Forgive me for not making time for this blog......you should be impressed by the fact that I'm currently typing this out at 1am.....in the morning......no one should see that time twice in one day!  LOL!

How am I doing on THM?  I'm glad you asked!  I'm doing well!  I struggled a bit with staying on plan over Thanksgiving and my weight has been a total yo-yo since my last blog post, but I'm staying the course!  I've discovered that I eat way too few E meals AND they are majorly wimpy!!!  So I've upped the carbs in my E meals and the scale is starting to move in a steady, downward direction.....just the way I like it!  NSV's - I'm able to cross my legs!!  (my fellow fluffies will understand that struggle!) and I can wear my size 18/20 sweatpants again!!  They are snug and would earn me a spot on People of Walmart if I wore them in public......but they fit and are comfy!  Coming from a tight 26/28, I'd say that is a big deal!

Now for the recipe of the week.....

It's my own recipe!!  Every Christmas I make German Pfeffernusse Cookies......think, gingerbread meets ginger snap rolled in powdered sugar.  They are little bites of heavenly goodness!!  They are a bit labor intensive, so I only make them once a year.  I was lamenting their loss since my original recipe is full of wheat flour and sugar and then I started to wonder if I might be able to THM-ify my recipe!  Good news!  I DID IT!!!  They are SO good!!!!  I hope you take the time to make them this Christmas!

German Pfeffernusse (Peppernut) Cookies - THM S dessert

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup xylitol
1/4 cup brown sugar substitute (I like this one at Gwen's Nest)
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp molasses
1 3/4 cup baking blend  (I use this one at Raye's Place)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp collagen
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp Water
1/4 cup xylitol/erythritol (I use 1/2&1/2) blended with a coffee grinder into powder

1)    Beat butter, sugar substitutes & egg until light & fluffy
2)    Add molasses and blend well
3)    Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl (not including the powdered sugar) and add slowly to the wet ingredients.  (Don't forget to add the 2 Tbsp of water after all the dry ingredients!)

4)    Place dough in the fridge for 30 min.
5)    Roll small pieces into a pencil shape and cut into 1/2" pieces.
6)    Bake on parchment paper or silpat @ 350 for 5-7 minutes.

7)    Cool slightly, then toss in powdered sugar

8)    Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge!  Hope you enjoy them!

This cookie is such a wonderful, spicy, Christmas-y cookie!  I hope your family loves them as much as mine does!

This recipe makes about 160 bite-size cookies.  It uses a whole Tablespoon of molasses but that breaks down to 0.1g of carbs per cookie.....not bad!  You can enjoy 10 or 20 for only a carb or two!

Merry Christmas!
Dana

I have too many things to talk about!!

I've waited too long and now I have too much stuff to cram into this one blog post!!  Oops!!  Life got busy and I didn't make time to blog.  No real excuses!

Drum roll, please!!!!!
I'm on day 20 with NO sugar!!!  WooHoo!!!!!  I'm so thrilled!!  The first week was rough, but the second and third weeks weren't too bad!  I didn't even miss it!  This fourth week has been difficult......I think I must have some yeast dying off (or an alien or 2), but it will pass!  I've been taking Magnesium since week 1 and I really think that is helping my sugar cravings!

I also started a 30 day THM challenge last week!  I'm loving it!  I only had one off plan snack my first week....some wheat thins, so I'm counting week 1 a great success!!  My goal for week 2 is drinking more water.  I have always had a hard time drinking 8 glasses of water a day let alone more than that!  I've had 4 glasses today......I need to get busy!!

Ok.....recipe of the week goes to.....Mrs. Criddle's Cowboy Cookies!!!  YUMMMM-O!!!  They are WONDERFUL!!  I did alter them a bit so I'll post my altered recipe below, but the orginal is in the link above!

Mrs. Criddle's Cowboy Cookies  (**w/Dana's alterations)

1)   1 cup of room temperature butter (2 sticks)
2)   1/4 cup THM Sweet Blend OR 1/2 cup Gentle Sweet (I used Gentle Sweet)
3)   1 tsp vanilla (or just eyeball it!  ;)
4)   1 tsp baking powder
5)   1/2 tsp salt
6)   1/4 tsp maple flavor (this seemed weird to me but adds good flavor!!)
7)   3 eggs
8)   3/4 cup almond flour
9)   1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
10) 1/4 cup of old fashioned oatmeal ground into flour
11) 1/2 cup oat fiber**
12) 1 cup chopped pecans
13) 1 cup sugar free chocolate chips (I used Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream first 6 ingredients.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Then add almond flour, coconut, oat flour and oat fiber and mix well.
Finally, add the pecans & chocolate chips!
Scoop about 1 Tbs of dough for each cookie.
Bake for 9 min (just until the edges get brown)
Let them cool for about 10 min (if you can wait that long!!)

These turned out like regular, bad-for-you cookies!!  They made my cookie-lovin' heart sing!

Ok, that's all I have time for today!
Blessings!
Dana

P.S. Here's my quote of the week!