Scripture Sunday

I don't post Scripture Sunday here often but felt like sharing this one from our weekly lesson

Matthew 10:8

King James Version (KJV) from Biblegateway.com

⁸ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.



Have a blessed week

Mom Fashion , the little black dress

As promised this will be a regular posting. Mom Fashion is something I've been thinking about for a while. If I spend just a little more time on what I am wearing and my outward appearance I feel more prepared for the day. Even something as simple as doing my hair a little different can really make my attitude, who knew???

For my extended family Christmas I decided to wear my new little black dress. Now keep in mind, I'm not little figured woman. This Mom is an average height 5' 6" and a plus size figure, while I'm not proud of it, it is what it is.
This dress was part of our clearance store closing adventure earlier this month.
I really like the length and the details around the neckline.

I added a simple silver and black necklace and used a silver bar clip to pull my hair up after I curled it with hot rollers.

I ended up with a lipstick that was pinker than I wanted but I don't think it looked too bad. I did a simple neutral color (brown shades) on my eyes and didn't bother with any foundation.

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***this is a sponsored post. I received a sample in exchange for posting this on the blog****

Kitchen Science with Salts of the World part 1

A couple of weeks ago I won a collection of Salts of the World during a twitter party. I was pretty excited as I don't win during twitter parties usually.
The package arrived last Friday and has been patiently waiting for us to start using it.
My husband tells me that when I start playing in the kitchen I am like a scientist at work perfecting my next experiment, especially after this summer and all my fermentation fun. When the salts arrived in test tubes we had a good laugh over the forth coming experimenting.

Today I had Pot Roast on the Menu so I took a roast out of the freezer and thawed it for a few hours on the counter and then into the crock pot it went. I seasoned it with The Hawaiian Red , Italian seasoning without salt (good for when you want to play with salt flavors)2 small yellow onions , a a toe of Elephant garlic adding about 2 cups of water and covering it.
As I continued to work on my blogging and social media work for the day, I was continually distracted by this amazing smell coming from the kitchen.

I decided to continue the same salt flavor through the rest of the meal using some to season the potatoes for mashed potatoes and a touch to seasoning the gravy, I will also add a pinch to our veggies.

the orange specs on the potatoes is the salt

There are 6 different salts in the rack, so I figure I will share a different recipe for each one.

While I was given the salt rack as a prize during twitter party, this post and the forth coming posts are in no way sponsored and are something I decided to share with Mom Spot readers.

Menu Monday on Tuesday

Since the blog joined several other blogs in a moment of silence Menu Monday is on Tuesday.

Monday: Curry Cashew Chicken Salad
Tuesday: Pot Roast and Potatoes
Wednesday: Chili Mac
Thursday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Friday: Tillapia and Curry Rice
Saturday: Oven BBQ Chicken Drumsticks and Potato Wedges

Hope you have a yummy week

Mom Fashion, something new

I've posted a couple of fashion things within my blog but I have decided to share more often and call it Mom Fashion.
What inspired this?
My husband took me shopping at Fashion Bug the other day as they are going out of business and he thought it would be a nice trip.
I managed to find a sparkly shirt and 2 dresses. I normally wear long dresses on the conservative side, but both dresses are short (just below my knees) and not as conservative.

We attended a Christmas Caroling dinner party Sunday evening with church friends and I decided to dress it up a bit.
So here I am.

I love the fun color pattern and the beaded neckline. I added a fun necklace and basic black heels to the outfit and wore my hair down. 

I was happy with the fit of the dress as it covers up some areas that need a lot of work, but there it is in all honesty. I'm just being real.

A Moment of Silence

Healthy Clean eating can be affordable with #SimpleTruth

Are you ready to eat clean healthy and affordable? 

Thanks to Simple Truth at Fred Meyer/ Kroger you can do just that. 

Simple Truth products are free from 101 artificial preservatives and ingredients  and cover over 30 product categories including dairy, chicken, meats, snacks, produce, and even eggs. 

My husband and I attended an event this past week introducing us to Simple Truth products at one of the local Fred Meyer stores.

Local foodie and celeb Leigh Anne shared a wonderful Chicken Curry Cashew  Salad featuring Simple Truth products .

Fresh Ideas with Leigh Anne is a feature on the Fred Meyer website and is loaded with more wonderful recipes.
Leigh Anne was a blast to visit with and talk food with. We also met with local Fred Meyer reps to talk more about Simple Truth and easy meals that even the kids will enjoy. We sampled some amazing goodies from the Simple Truth line and learned about several local organic wineries , breweries, and even a local company creating unique hard ciders.

I was grateful that my husband joined me for the evening and tried the goodies along with me. Sometimes it is easier to introduce new things to the family with a little extra support.
We also got to finish up our Christmas shopping together and just enjoy each other's company.

Thank you to Fred Meyer/ Kroger for hosting this evening. We also received a wonderful selection of Simple Truth products to bring home and enjoy.
Stay tuned as we have a wonderful Simple Truth giveaway coming to the blog.

Healthy cookies, tis the season #CHLight

Tis the season for holiday baking, we all know that, but did you know holiday baking can be healthy and still taste good.

After trying a variety of reworked cookie recipes and failing several times I found one everyone in my house enjoyed!
This is nearly Paleo and it crazy healthy.

Almond Sandies
2 cups Almond Flour
1/4 cup wild grain flour (my blend is kamut berries, quinoa, and wild rice that I milled in my blender)
1 cup butter
1/4 cup C&H Light Blend
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

blend butter and sugar together on high for 30 seconds, add vanilla and mix on medium slowly adding flour until all incorporated. Let stand for 10 minutes to allow flour to soak up the butter.
spoon 1 inch balls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake in 325' oven for approx 20 minutes until bottom of cookies is golden brown.

I picked up Almond flour at our local health food store to try out. I'm use to working with whole grain flour but this was a first for me. I will definitely be looking for more ways to work Almond flour into my baking , it has a wonderful flavor and a unique hardy texture.

the C& H Light Blend is a good blend of sugar and stevia, not too sweet and bakes up well. I found it at my local Safeway store for around $6.00 for 2 pounds. 

Love making cookies in my Kitchen Aid mixer , though this recipe was pretty small for the bowl the butter and light sugar blend creamed pretty well together.

My old air bake pan fit 9-12 cookies so I ended up making 2 sheets at 20 minutes each sheet it worked out pretty good.

I did find they are fragile cookies but they taste really good

I also topped the cookies with a little "powdered" C &H Blend to powder the sugar I put a 1/4 cup in a small blended jar and blend on high until powdered.

C&H has a $1.00 off coupon available currently on their Facebook page you also don't want to miss following them on twitter or pinterest for more wonderful recipe ideas this holiday and the whole year. 

I'm not a Paleo die hard, but am starting to try more recipes paleo style and was happy to add C&H blend as a transition for my family. 

While I was compensated for this post, the recipe although inspired by a cookbook recipe is my own and my opinions and thoughts are my own. Thank you to DEI worldwide for the opportunity to share this recipe and my thoughts on C & H blend.

A sweet treat and scent too #mompact

I wasn't sure what to think when I read the label, perfume candy? I'll give it a try though.
I gave out samples at Cameron's birthday party and the tween girls loved it, even the boys didn't mind the taste. The adults thought it was a neat idea and were happy to see a sugar free variety.

I decided to set a candy dish out on the table for the holiday season and since my boys aren't crazy about it (they like 1 piece a day maybe), it now has a home on my dinning room table where I can enjoy them and have reached for them on more than one occasion as a replacement for chemical cough drops.
I love the hint of perfume by the end of the day, but have to say I'm not sure if I would eat enough in a day to maintain the perfume scent.

 Like I said earlier my family that has sugar issues was happy to see the sugar free variety. I also noticed the sugar free variety hold up to temperature changes better that the sugared ones.

I started following Deo candy on Twitter and Facebook and look forward to more interaction with this company online.

I received samples to share with friends as a Member of the MOMPact Ladies Night Out group and am promoting a variety of fun products with friends and readers through the program.

Welcome Home Daddy with Ice Age 3 and Dinner #time4family #cbias

Ice Age Continental Drift is releasing to DVD and Blue Ray on December 11th, to get the excitement going and celebrate the long awaited return home of Daddy from a business trip we decided to plan movie night with dinner.

I picked up Stoffer's Family Size Lasagna and Texas Toast (with a coupon!!) as well as the DVD at our local Walmart. If you are interested, many of the Walmart stores have a special coupon where you buy   Stoffer's Family Size Lasagna along with Texas Toast and you get a Wonka candy for free which according to my boys means you will rock your kids' world.
Anyway, we picked up all our goodies at Walmart and headed home to unload and fix dinner. We had spent the morning cleaning house including steam cleaning the dinning room and living room carpets so arriving home to a nice clean family area was a nice treat.
The boys were crazy excited about dinner and decided to set the table nice and make it special for Daddy.
The lasagna took 100 minutes to cook , let me tell you the boys were impatient to say the least.

Thankfully though it was bubbly golden brown and not burned and the Texas toast was a nice addition as I don't normally do garlic bread with so much butter, I try to keep it a little healthier.

Nathan helped Daddy pick out a scripture verse to read for prayer and added a candle to the table. Note to self for future use of packaged lasagna, get a bag of salad to go with it, it sits heavy after dinner.

After dinner we watched 1 episode of Raising Hope on Fox and then started the movie, the boys were crazy excited to see the film again since it had been a Redbox rental when it first came out.

They are even more excited to get the DVD of the next movie next week  (I'm thinking it will be a Christmas present though).

You gotta love the characters in the whole Ice Age series. Not sure how long the series will continue but we will most likely buy them as they come out, family fun, humor for everyone, and voices everyone will recognize. While you are online check out a couple fun Facebook pages: Stouffer's  and Ice Age 4. You can check out our full photo journey on Google Plus

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and NESTLE #CBias #SocialFabric

A little piece of home for the road

I was so busy trying to get my husband ready for his road trip, I didn't take a picture of his snack bag, but I thought I would share anyway.

I used a reusable grocery bag from Safeway as it is a heavier fabric and coated for easy clean up. I filled it with a loaf of multi grain bread (a good idea daily, but even more important while you are driving long distances) , 2 jars of homemade jelly (so he would have a choice), a roll of paper towels for clean up), a plastic Ziploc bag to hold utensils (a spoon and a spreader), and a jar of Jif Natural Peanut Butter that we scored at our local Grocery Outlet store for under $5.00

2012 Gratitude Sale - iBloom

2012 Gratitude Sale - iBloom

If you don't want to wait until Cyber Monday to save, you should check out iBloom's Gratitude Sale that began today (the 20th).

You really don't want to miss the deals on some amazing iBloom products and memberships to help inspire and empower the women in your life and even you.

Mommy is Working tonight, Whats for dinner? #KFHealthyKids #cbias

This weekend Mommy made a decision to put some extra time in on her writing and blogging which meant the boys had to cook dinner. Thankfully, there was a healthy option for them. Kidfresh Healthy Kids frozen meals from Safeway 
The boys each picked out a meal and cooked it themselves under a watchful eye from Daddy.

Nathan selected Wagon Wheels Mac+ Cheese which seemed almost too easy as he loves anything pasta and cheese. 

Cameron went for the Rainbow Rice + Chicken. He loves veggies and chicken so it made sense. He was excited that it would be like fried rice without the eggs. 

 When we picked up the frozen meals, we were happy to see a reasonable price and a fairly easy selection, not too many choices. Although we had trouble finding them initially, we were happy to see them labeled in the freezer section of our local Safeway store and with a special club price. I also had a $1.00 off coupon so the price of $1.99 each was a value, especially for a treat. 

Cameron was happy with his meal and loved that it only took a couple of minutes in the microwave. He says 4 stars for the Rainbow Rice + Chicken. Nathan on the other hand said the Mac + Cheese was a little too simple and needed some more flavor. He had Daddy taste it and they added a touch of sea salt and pepper. I know sometimes healthy can be bland, but I think he was just having a day where he needed a little extra salt. 
If you would like to see our whole journey with Kidfresh , check out this photo journey
I love that I can find healthy options that I don't always have to cook for the kids, and I love that I can read and share thoughts on healthy kids with others on Facebook.

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Kidfresh #CBias #SocialFabric #KFHealthyKids, all opinions and thoughts on the product are my own personal thoughts. 

 
 

Batman Power Attacks attack a 10year old's Birthday

Earlier this month our oldest turned 10 and we wanted to throw him a party. Thankfully we received a wonderful opportunity to host a Mattel Batman Power Attacks party. The party box arrived just a couple of days before the party so I let him open and check out the goodies. 
Of course the Batmobile was a hit even before it was out of the package. We sorted the goodies and were overwhelmed by the contents. 10 Batman Power Attacks action figures (including a Robin and 1 villian), 10 goody boxes filled with Batman themed toys, 10 mylar ballons, the Batmobile, and 3 larger action figures.

We decided we had to have a helium tank to go with the balloons,  but other than that and a cake, it really was a party ready box.  Now to wait for the party.

Since the party was a couple of days away, Mommy and the birthday boy celebrated on his birthday with an ice cream treat at The Blockhouse Cafe a local restaurant.
 

Sunday finally arrived and the boys (including Daddy were very excited). We set out of pick up a couple of last minute things including a birthday cake and helium tank and heading to the Pizza Caboose for the party. It was a drive but the pizzeria had been our favorite hang out in years past and hosted 3 previous birthdays (1,2,and 3) for Cameron.

 Daddy set to blowing up the balloons for the party.  1 balloon and 1 goody box for each of the kids and once they arrived they would each pick out a Batman action figure.

 A personalized Batman cake thanks to the bakery at Safeway and a creative Auntie who made a fondant Batman symbol.

 Any one know how hard it is to get 4 little boys all smile together? Well they weren't excited about getting their picture taken, they wanted to get back to the games.

We did a relay with the Bat-mobile from one end of the room to the other, for bragging rights.
 

 Two of the world's cutest nephews loved their Batman toys and the games we played.  (Their maybe more action figures in their future, if auntie and uncle have their way.)

 We loved sharing the party with our nephews and Cameron's friends. What a way to celebrate a birthday by playing Batman and rescuing Gotham City and it's residents over pizza.

 One very happy birthday boy, enjoying cake on Batman themed plates, wearing his Batman t-shirt celebrating and sharing a wonderful Batman party thanks to Momselect. 


disclaimer: We received the above mentioned box of goodies to share with our friends and celebrate in exchange for sharing our experiences. 
 


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