Blogger Meetup Invite

Hey guys! Here is your formal invitation to the Utah Blogger Meetup! Please make sure to RSVP to me so that I know how many people to expect!

We are also going to try to do a raffle, so we are asking any of our bloggers that are sellers/vendors/shop owners, to bring a product to donate. If we have product, we'll raffle it off, it should be fun and a great way to gain new customers!

Let me know if you have any questions! Hope to see you there!

Scalloped Potatoes Recipe

This is one of the recipes my husband always asks for when we are making a big Sunday dinner, so naturally I had to make it! This recipe has been posted before, but I was a doofus before and photos weren't a part of the post, so I had to make sure I posted it again, this time WITH photos! Enjoy!

What You'll Need:

2 Potatoes
4 Tablespoons Butter
4 Tablespoons Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt & 1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Cheese

1. In a saucepan, add butter, flour, salt and pepper. Stir. Add milk and stir again. Boil until thickened (with as little as this mix is, it takes no time at all to boil). Stir in cheese until blended. (I did 1/4th cup at a time of cheese).

2. Spray dish with cooking spray and add the thinly sliced potatoes (the thinner the better, just don't chop off any fingers!). After adding half the potatoes, add some sauce, then add more potatoes. Cover with the rest of the sauce

3. Bake at 350 for 30-50 minutes.

Buffalo Cauliflower

This is a really strange recipe for us, we usually do meat and bread and manly man meals. Originally seen here, I saw the photo and knew we had to try it out!

This serves 3-4 people, or 2 of us with leftovers (after all, they say when the spice sits it gets hotter- yum!)

What you'll need:

Cauliflower (one head, or one frozen bag)

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup flour

1 cup Buffalo Sauce

1 tablespoon butter - melted

How to do it:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a big bowl, mix the buttermilk with the flower until it is combined well. The original recipe says it is okay if there is lumps. Basically, I dumped the cauliflower in the mix and then used a spoon to cover it well. It says "toss" it on the recipe...that wasn't happening for us.

Place in a baking dish and bake for 15-18 minutes. Watch to make sure the cauliflower isn't browning too early for you, when it is, take it out and proceed to next step.

Combine Buffalo sauce and butter in a small bowl. Once cooked, remove the cauliflower from the oven and cover it with sauce. Stir well using a spoon. Return to oven to bake for another 5-8 minutes. Let cool and serve with garnishes (that you'll need), like ranch and celery, pictured below. 

Getting Healthy - The Details

Hey guys! I haven't been posting for awhile because of how busy we are! I hate being too busy to blog, but I love what I've been up to, getting healthy!

Since there is so much I've been up to, I'm going to break it down, sadly, it will be a long blog post. Get ready, because this routine WORKS! I've lost 7lbs in less than three weeks!

Part One: Food for Thought

Believe it or not, even with perfect portions in my lunchbox and eating as healthy as I thought I was, I wasn't eating like I should have. After a lesson on acid/bases and feeding my body (a reminder I needed) I was able to work out what my diet needed exactly. I was even able to meal plan a good diet with my work schedule. 

Here is what my weekday meal plan looks like:

530am - Meal Replacement Shake / 1 Cup Coffee

930am - Apple and a handful of nuts
1230pm - Meal Replacement Shake

200 pm - Cucumbers/Celery/Tomatoes

500pm - Dinner - anything "healthy" and well portioned. 

Come to find out, drinking one can of Coke a day (my use for migraine prevention) was what was really getting me. So during the week, I eat per the schedule, and luckily, during the weekends I can eat whatever I reasonably want to, so that I don't feel deprived, or tempted to go off the deep end. 

Part Two: Pop Some Pills

I've never been one to take medications of any kinds, and I try to avoid taking anything at all times.

Until now. I've added Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and a daily  multivitamin to my daily routine, and have been loving how I'm feeling!

Most doctors advise you take extra Vitamin D, especially during the winter months when there isn't as much sunshine or you aren't outside as often to enjoy it. Believe it or not, most people are very deficient (I was VERY low at my last blood tests).

The Vitamin E is for skin healing, and for hair and nail growth. My skin doesn't heal well whenever I have lots of scars from my surgeries that have keloids or other nasty looking scars. Besides that, my hair feels better and is growing faster too. 

Part Three: Sweat it Out

I joined a gym, and not just any gym, but a fantastic little local gym. Its 24 hours, staffed 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Part of your super low monthly fee ($10 a month!), I get personal training and body fitness assessments. I've been in to do them and met with the owner a few times even, who is fantastic and is wonderful. I love going in there and working out.

Part of working out is switching up my routine. I've been going in 5 days a week, for at least 40-90 minutes a day. I change up each workout each day, and allow myself to find fantastic workouts online (Pinterest is a fantastic resource!). Also, a fun part of using Pinterest for finding workouts? I only use each workout once, so my body doesn't get used to the workouts and they become ineffective! 

There you have it folks, my new lifestyle routine. Hopefully it will help some of you or at least give you some insights to what I've been up to! I'm hoping to get back to blogging consistently soon enough! 

Hope you're having a great week!

Handsome Boys

I am truly blessed to be surrounded by my handsome boys all the time.

And I love that they don't complain when they need to dress up.
And I really love when they let me take photos of them all dolled up.

Don't tell anyone this...but I really love them too. 

Hope you're having a wonderful week!

"Best Ever" Granola

 This is a recipe my mom found "somehow". She loved it enough the first few times she made it to give it to her neighbors this Christmas as neighbor gifts, and I was lucky enough to snag the recipe!

What You'll Need:
4 cups oatmeal, uncooked
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tea cinnamon
1/2 tea salt

Stir mixture well in a large bowl

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup veggie oil

Heat in the microwave for 45 seconds
Remove, whisk and add 1/2 tea vanilla.

Pour wet mixture over dry mixture, stir well.

Bake at 300 for 40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes to prevent it from sticking to the pan.

On Resolutions

With all the excitement of the New Year, my husband and I sat down to talk about if we were going to make resolutions or not. In the past we haven't, simply because we knew we wouldn't keep them. This year, we decided to, and here is our list. 

1. Do more as just Bubba, Dani and Brayden. We love our family, but we want to do more with our little man and just us, and with me only taking one class this semester, I'm excited to tackle this one! (We actually have already taken an outing to Cold Stone for Strawberry Blonde Ice Cream - pictured above!)

2. Work out. Losing weight may or may not happen like I want it to, but working out needs to happen.
Actually, I joined a gym a month ago and have been working out pretty consistently, 3-5 times a week. I'll post more on that soon too!

3. Keep trying Pinterest recipes and finding new recipes from Oma's cookbooks. Bubba told me he REALLY likes how many different recipes we've had since I've joined Pinterest, and how we've only had the same recipe twice in a year was fun for him! 

Did you do resolutions? What are/were they?