Cherry cobbler protein bars

My brother blessed me with a bag of already pitted cherries and I had to figure out what to do with them expediently. I came up with this recipe up after getting comfortable with Jamie Eason's pumpkin protein bar recipe from bodybuilding.com.  I changed a lot of things to suit my liking and it turned out yummy!  I'm starting to get a hang of this gluten free baking thing!

Ingredients

1/4 cup truvia brand stevia (any sweetener you prefer)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 stick of melted butter 4 oz (or applesauce)

2 tsp cinnamon 

1 1/2 tsp crushed ginger

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

15 oz pitted cherries

2 cups oatmeal or oatmeal flour

2 scoops vanilla whey protein (I like nutrilite)

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or regular milk plus 2 tsp vanilla extract)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Grease a 9 X 13 Pyrex with lubricant of your choice (I use butter cause I'm not a fan of the unnatural cooking sprays.)

Combine first 10 ingredients and mix thoroughly. 

Add final 3 ingredients and mix well. 

Spread batter into baking dish. 

Bake for 30 minutes. 

#glutenfree #proteinbars

Homemade Italian espresso drink bibicafe

The first time I ever tried bibicafe I thought it was going to taste weird. Strange. Bat-dung crazy. Yet this carbonated italian espresso drink proved to be a heavenly concoction.  Carbonated. Coffee. Sounds weird but I promise it is delish.  I liken it to a root beer float for adults. The warm coffee flavor mixed with carbonation and cream has similar qualities to the root beer float but is simultaneously unlike anything you have ever tried. 

Rumor has it the import license was lost or some such nonsense so we American bibicafe addicts can't get it anymore. There is another brand (or maybe the same brand with a new name?) called Frizz that they sell at my local Thomas Hammer coffee shop that is also quite yummy.  They doctor it up for you if you like with vanilla syrup and a dash of cream, but it is $3.25 or so for a tiny bottle. Here is what I came up with at home. It was quite a treat. 

Ingredients: 

1/2 can of plain soda water

1 cup of strong brewed coffee frozen into ice cube trays (I have started freezing my leftover coffee or just making a pot and freezing it as a treat to myself)

*1 tbsp sweetener or to taste (I used maple syrup cause its all I had)

*1/2 cup milk of your preference (I used 2% cause its what we had. I'm sure cream would be better)

*optional (some like it unsweetened and/or without cream)

Directions: 

1. Place frozen coffee ice cubes in glass. 2. Sprinkle or pour sweetener of your choice over frozen coffee cubes.  I feel the sweetener adding step is important to place here as it gives sweetener optimal time to dissolve before serving.  

3. Pour 1/2 can of club soda over the frozen coffee cubes. Should froth a bit to make a nice foam. Be careful not to pour too fast as it could foam over. Angle the glass and aim the soda water at the glass rather than the coffee to keep the foam more manageable. 

4. Pour milk or cream over the entire concoction. 

This is only about 1 serving since my hubby isn't much of a coffee drinker.  

I drink iced beverages all year long and this is one of my favorites.  It has a woodsy comforting flavor and yet the  bubbles make you feel like you are at a party.  

Enjoy this recipe!  Let me know if you tried it and found any helpful modifications. 

Dear Sophia.

Dear Sophia, Never lose your smile. 

People skills of a 3 month old. Smile. Eye contact. Infatuated with people who talk to her. 

4.5 months. Excited when someone walks into the room. Quick to hug. People are still the only thing she cares about. She shuts her mouth and listens when someone sings to her or plays a song from pandora.  Smiled even through her first sickness and throwing up seven times.  When I hold her in front of a mirror, she is mostly looking at me,

not herself. 

I was talking with my doctor, Nicole Harvey yesterday and she commented on how great Sophia's eye contact is.  She looks you in the eye and doesn't let go. Chris, another friend of mine the other day said, "Look at those eyes. She's looking into my soul."  

Back to the conversation with Dr. Harvey. I responded with mentioning something I've oft wondered lately while observing my daughter. In public speaking courses and musical stage presence training professors teach you to have great eye contact with your audience.  It's a powerful people skill and yet many babies do this instinctively. Dr. Harvey responded with a phrase that struck a chord with me. "I wonder when people lose that!"  

Eye contact, smiling at people and being genuinely interested in others is something many babies are experts at and yet not very many adults reach adulthood with these skills intact.  

I know I didn't. I had to relearn them from a great book called How to Win Friends and Influence People.  When I read the principles in that book, I kid you not I started getting raises in the workplace, found getting along with coworkers to be extremely easy and went quickly from making minimum wage (with my two degrees) to making $18.00 an hour and then even higher  in the worst economy since the Great Depression.  

My challenge to myself is to practice being more like a baby.  It turns out that simple things like eye contact, a smile, a hug and genuinely being excited to see someone and more interested in others than self are more important in life than my two degrees. 

Homemade baby wipes and other celebrations of a new mom.

Easiest thing ever!  So cheap! I ran out of baby wipes for the first time since my baby gifts ran out. A quick google search gave a plethora of recipes to make my own. It took about 30 seconds of hard labor and I used stuff I had around the house. Here is the recipe I came up with.  

Ingredients:

Napkins (a couple inches tall)

Water 1 cup

Baby shampoo 1 tbsp (any mild liquid soap would work as long as you know it is gentle enough for baby skin)

Olive oil 1 tblsp (I imagine any natural oil would work such as coconut)

Directions: Mix wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Soak napkins in mixture for ten minutes. Turn napkins over and soak the other side for an additional ten minutes.  Most of my mixture was already absorbed by the time I turned the napkins over but it gave the solution a chance to evenly distribute. Store baby wipes by recycling a store bought baby wipes container or use a zip lock storage bag or tupperware container. 

I found these wipes to be the best I've ever used!  They are much gentler and smell amazing!  I found that they clean better. 

I am the type of person who would rather use a wash cloth then to waste money on paper products (it's not really about the environment for me I just would rather spend my money on other things) and washing a cloth that has been used to clean a baby bottom is really not that bad since the invention of washing machines.  I just happened to have a vast amount of napkins lying around forever being unused because someone left them here.  I think the only time someone thought to use them was when my dear husband was working on the car. 

We are in the habit of using cloth napkins around the house and just throwing them in the wash. It makes me feel special to use cloth napkins and it is cheaper. If you like me hate to buy most paper products (ahem ... I can't see this household going so far as to use reusable toilet paper though I have some hippy friends who are all about it...no judgement) the solution can be put in a spray bottle and used to aid when you are cleaning baby's bottom with a cloth.  Truthfully cloth is usually gentler if your baby has extra sensitive skin like my sweet little nieces. 

I hope you find this recipe helpful. Let me know if you try it and if you find any helpful modifications. 

If you want to know how I learned to organize my life (to where I actually feel like a semi responsible adult) check out flylady.net and the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Also the chapter on priorities in A Woman After God's Own Heart. 

I've been loving the Youversion Bible app because of its plans that seem to help this busy mama hold onto the rope.  For personal growth lately I've been reading and loving John Maxwell's 15 Laws of Invaluable Growth. 

For a daily dose of marriage strengthening check out The Generous Wife. 

All natural, sugar free, blueberry soda pop

My husband chuckles at me on a daily basis because I am addicted to yummy beverages and often double fist it. Why only tonight with our evening meal I enjoyed this homemade concoction of sugar free blueberry soda and yet downed my vitamins with a glass of chocolate almond milk. 

This sugar free natural beverage was not only easy to make it also helped me get rid of blueberries that had started to wilt.

You cannot mess this recipe up!  Assume everything is "add to taste"

Ingredients (eyeballed)

2 handfuls blueberries per serving

that have seen better days

Your favorite sweetener to taste (I used stevia and honey. Agave, maple syrup or table sugar will work (no judgement)

A tiny amount of water

Club soda

Directions:  Mix blueberries and sweetener in a sauce pan.  Add enough sweetener so that it is a little sweeter than you prefer since the soda water you are going to add later will diminish the sweetness by a considerable amount. Add a tiny amount of water and cook over medium heat to reduce the blueberries into a simple syrup. Voila!  Let cool and add to club soda or sparkling water. Add a couple of the berries to your glass for flourish. If you like, serve over ice!  A healthy alternative to store bought soda and way more delicious!

file:///Users/Schumacher/Sites/Site/Podcast/4FFF6598-DE24-4CC5-B07E-15FE6268270E.html

Romans 1-3

Basically I was reminded today that it is so hard to not be judgmental. I hate judgment and legalism in general, and then I find myself judging the judgmental which is still judging! Argh! For example, One thing that I judge is that most people I find who harp on people for cussing have no problem calling someone stupid which I find to be true cussing more than any other vulgar words people may use. So while I am annoyed with people who hate cussing and yet openly call people stupid, I am usually thinking those people are stupid! It is really hard to not catch yourself being judgmental. In fact, if you can't relate to this passage at all, I'm probably going to go ahead and be judgmental again because you are probably lying and I can't stand lying. You see? There I go again. I hope you can understand my humor and good natured sarcasm. Nevertheless, replacing judgment with love is a challenge we all must continue to grow in and the following passage is very convicting. I think it is a lot more helpful if you imagine that the chapter break didn't exist here because otherwise the end of Romans 1 is just a list of sins and you are thinking, "Yeah! Right on! Judge those jerks!" when Paul actually went on to say NOT to judge them because all of our sins are surely listed in that paragraph somewhere.

Romans 1:29-2:4 " ²⁹They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

¹ You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

I would like to take this time to openly confess my sin and struggles. Not all of them because that is not always appropriate, but a few that this passage deals with in regards to judging. My biggest judging problem is that I can't stand judgmental people. I've heard this from many of my Christian siblings and find it completely humorous and ironic. For instance I can't stand fat people who can't stand smokers. Don't they know that a fairly equal amount of people die of heart disease and lung cancer? How stupid! And there I go judging again which is a lot more dangerous than overeating or smoking. From this passage it looks like judging leads to a nice visit with God's wrath (so thankful for God's grace!). Another thing I can't stand is laziness. Why can't everyone be as productive as me? Did I just spend 2 hours of my day on Facebook? Wow! There I go judging again and then God reminds me that the only reason I have a good work habit is because of His grace and not at all because of me. I am pretty sure there have been days lately that God has taken away my normal desire to work hard to show me,"See, I gave you this gift and I can take it away to teach you not to judge others who maybe have a different gift."