Tasty Tuesday: GF Oreos

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but I love oreos.  They are my favorite type of cookie.  And the very best Oreo of all?  Fudgees.  I think I miss my Fudgees more than any other gluten food!  I was so, so excited when my MIL e-mailed me a link to a GF blog with a recipe for oreos.  Seriously, words cannot express my joy :)  These are no Fudgee, but they're pretty darn good!  HERE is the link to the blog with the recipe.  Enjoy.

Happy Weekend, July 9th edition

Here's a pic of my sweet Little L wearing one of my favorite outfits ever.  Isn't he adorable?  Make sure to notice how amazing his eyes look too :)

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28)

Friday's Looking Good: Even better than last week!

After writing last week's Friday blog, I decided to weigh myself on our Wii Fit.  It's the only scale we have in our house, ha!  According to the Wii, I am... DOWN TO MY PRE-T WEIGHT!!!  Oh my goodness!  Oh my goodness!  Oh my goodness!!!  I am thrilled!!!  Seriously so excited!

On a not-so-good note, I have not been exercising or eating as well lately.  My wonderful sister and I have been traveling some and it's really thrown me off track.  We went to the OBX in the beginning of June, and then a couple weeks after coming home, we went to TN.  Both times, I had plans to run.  I even packed my running clothes and shoes!  I went twice while at the beach and not at all while in TN.  I ran a mile and thought I was going to die earlier this week!  Yesterday I was able to go a mile and a half, but that's it.  I run veeeerry slow too.  I hate it!  I was doing SO well but now I feel like I have to start all over.  And it's HOT.  So hot!  To make matters worse, I have been snacking on candy.  I can't eat cookies or cakes or things like that (unless I pay a lot of money for GF ones or spend the time to make them...), so I've moved on to candy.  It's been bad lately.  I need to start eating less sugary stuff and make sure to drink more water!!!  My plan for running and exercising is to start running with a friend.  She has run the Army 10 miler in the past and is much more athletic than I am!  I will be embarrassed for her to see how out of shape I am, but I know it will be encouraging to have someone to go with.  Hopefully that will motivate me to keep going and push myself!  She even volunteered to push the boys in the jogging stroller :)  I'm really excited!  At this point, I'm not trying to lose weight.  I am really happy at this size.  I just need to maintain this and change my focus on getting healthy.  I still want to work on the rest of my looks, but I'm so very excited to have reached this goal!  Yay!

Thoroughly Clean Thursday: Fighting through loss of motivation.

I have been working hard in this past week to keep the house clean.  Today, I have no motivation.  Seriously, all I want to do is veg.  My mom has Sweet T and L is down for a nap.  I really need to get off the computer but I just don't want to.  I want a break.  I want to relax.  I'm tired and want time to myself.  But in the back of my mind, I am telling myself that it will benefit my family for me to get off my keister and get things done.  What a blessing it would be for my hubby to come home to a clean home.  Laundry wont get done on it's own!  I want to sign up for a class or two next semester so that I can get my degree and be sure that nothing will stand in my way of homeschooling in a couple years.  So, off I go to fight my selfish desires.  Off I go to work at becoming a Proverbs 31 momma :)

Wednesday's Walk With God: Enjoying my devotional :)

So I mentioned a couple posts ago that I started reading a random book that I pulled out of my closet early one morning.  It's called The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace.  It's very old fashioned and definitely not politically correct, but I have enjoyed it!  It is all about a woman's role in the home.  I know many women can't stay home for one reason or another, or maybe some women choose to go back to work because they don't think they're "cut out" for being a SAHM, but I strongly believe that God's desire is for mothers to be home raising their children.  I know this is a VERY unpopular opinion and I have probably offended many of my few readers, but I'm ok with that.  I mean, I hate to offend people, but it's my blog and I am expressing what I believe.    Back to the book... I haven't been reading it very long, but I feel like everything I've read has been something that I am currently dealing with, something I have dealt with in the past, or something that pops up from time to time in my life.  If you are looking for a new book to read, I highly recommend it :)

Tasty Tuesday: GF Hamburger buns

This is yet another recipe from my amazing mother-in-law. Have I said how thankful I am that she has been doing this whole gluten free thing for years? She has the best recipes and helps me out more than she will ever know! I made this early last week and planned to save some for our cook outs (we had two... one with neighbors on Saturday and one with my parents on the 4th of July). They were so good, though! L and I ended up eating them all before then ;) So, here are her buns:

3 large eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1 TBSP xanthan gum
1/3 cup potato starch (NOT flour)
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1/3 c. GF buckwheat flour
1 TBSP active dry yeast
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions
Preheat Oven to 380 degrees.

Beat eggs in heavy duty mixer and then add oil, vinegar, and sugar, combining.


Add dry ingredients.


Warm milk in the microwave (or on the stove) and add to the bowl, gently folding it into the flour. Turn on motor, let ingredients combine thoroughly then turn power to medium and leave for 4 minutes while it stirs.

Spray baking pan (cookie sheet type) with nonstick cooking spray and/or line with parchment paper.
Oil your hands and grab a ball of dough from the mixing bowl. Gently shape it into a roll. Place it on the prepared cookie sheet. Make another roll (or hamburger bun in my case), continuing until all dough has been used for rolls. (This part is fun!)
Brush with whisked egg. Sprinkle with garnish (fresh herbs, salt, onion), poppy seeds or sesame seeds if desired.
Let it rise in a warm place for five minutes. Open oven, put in your rack of rolls and let bake for 20-25 minutes. (Halfway through baking time, you may wish to turn over your rolls for even browning.)

Friday's Looking Good: OH YEAH! (July1)

I am not sure when I blogged last, so this may actually be old news to everyone. If that's the case, I'm still excited about it so I'm blogging again. If I haven't written about this yet, then YAY! Great news! I have reached my first goal!!! My first goal is to be down to my Pre-L weight (L is baby #2). I did it! I did it! Finally! Breastfeeding helped me lose the weight a lot. I also started running (remember I was training for a 5K?) and am continuing to exercise. In fact, I'm not training to run a 10 miler. I am trying to run three days a week, cross train twice a week, stretch (yoga maybe?) once a week, and then rest once a week. This is all new to me and already I'm having a hard time with it. Who has time to do all this training with two small boys? I have to do it, though. J said he would get me a dog if I can run 10 miles in an hour and 45 minutes! Do you know how long I've been begging him for a dog??? Years. I'm talking YEARS! I asked him long before we even got engaged :) He said yes back then. Funny how things change when you get married! Anyway, back to my improving looks. Ha! I feel vain just writing that! Anyway, I am also eating better now. There's only so many snacks you can eat while on a gluten free diet! Gone are the days where I'd by a pack of cookies or snack cakes every time I went grocery shopping. I don't even go down those isles anymore. Sure, the stores sell gf cookies too, but they're expensive and honestly, not very good. I like the taste of the homemade ones, but like I said earlier, who has the time with two small boys to chase around? I haven't been on a scale in a while, so I'm hoping that I'm getting closer to my Pre-T weight now too. I'm guessing it will still be a few more months, but it's nice to fit into some of my old clothes again.
The newest down side to my looks? Wrinkles. I have noticed more and more wrinkles around my eyes lately. I'm only 26. I should not have wrinkles like this! But growing up in CA, we were in the sun a lot! My mom always made us wear sun screen, but we are very fair skinned, have red hair, blue eyes and lots of freckles. We are the type of people who lather up in SPF 100, then get burned within two seconds of even *thinking* about going outside. Ha! Maybe it's not quite THAT bad, but I'm pretty sure it's close... I am destined to be a very wrinkly old lady, I was just hoping to wait until I'm old before getting so wrinkly, lol.