Healthier desserts, drinks and salads!

I sent a friend these healthier recipes and thought I would go ahead and post them on here as well if anyone is interested in trying them. Let me know if you try them and what you think! :)

Healthier Chocolate Syrup

1 ½ cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup olive oil
1T vanilla
½ cup carob powder
Blend and refrigerate.

Freeze some bananas after
the peelings are removed.
After frozen, put ½ banana
in a bowl and add some
chopped almonds, coconut
flakes, strawberries, whipped
cream (sweetened with agave)
Then pour the sauce over it.

Healthier no bake cookies

Almond Butter
Pure maple syrup
Coconut
Coconut oil
Oatmeal
Carob powder
A little all natural peanut butter

Mix it all together until
It looks and tastes like no
Bake cookies. If its too dry
Add more gooey things and if its
To gooey add more dry things.

Healthier Caramel Dip

Almond Butter
Pure maple syrup
Coconut (optional)
Whip the almond butter with
The maple until it looks like caramel.

Dip apples or bananas in it.

Healthy Banana Shake

½ C almonds or almond butter
1 C water
4 ice cubes
1 banana (frozen)
3 dates (pitted)
Blend together in blender and enjoy!

Lemonade

For glass full:
2 Tbs. lemon or lime juice (1/2 lemon)
2 tbs. pure grade A or B maple syrup
12 oz purified water

For pitcher full:
½ C lemon juice
½ C syrup
48 oz. water

Green Smoothie

2 handfulls fresh spinach leaves
2 apples cut and cored (don’t need to be peeled)
1 banana
1 ½ cups water
Combine all ingredients into a high power blender and blend until smooth!
Add a little agave to make sweeter if you desire!

*You can do different variations of the fruit you put in this. We also like adding a few frozen strawberries and one less apple, or adding a splash of orange juice, grape juice or pineapple juice for more sweetness/flavor.

Yummy strawberry/orange smoothie

Handful of frozen strawberries
½ can orange juice concentrate
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
1 tray of ice
1 C water
1 C milk
Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth!

Healthier French Salad Dressing
Blend the following in a blender until smooth:

1 ½ C. olive oil
3-4 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. mustard powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
5 Tbs. honey
Mix together and serve over salad!
(Good on salad with all kinds of veggies, olives, avocado, feta, etc.)

Red Onion Dressing
Blend the following in a blender until smooth:

¼ red onion
1 C agave or honey
2 tsp dry mustard
½ tsp salt
½ C red wine vinegar (make sure vinegar doesn’t
have sugar or high fructose corn syrup in it)
1 C Olive oil (I usually use grapeseed oil because
I don’t like the flavor a lot of olive oil. Grapeseed oil
Is very mild in flavor and is a good oil like olive oil.)

(Good on salad with bacon, craisins, feta cheese, and slivered almonds or pecans.)

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
Blend the following in a blender until the consistency you desire (this one is good even if it’s a little less blended . . . it depends on what you prefer):

¼ C lime juice (about 2-3 juicy limes)
¼ C rice vinegar (make sure it doesn’t have sugar or high fructose corn syrup in it)
4-5 cloves garlic
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp agave or honey
1 C oil (olive or grape seed)
½ C roughly chopped cilantro (stems removed)

(Good on Mexican type salad with black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado, etc. Also good on fish tacos as a marinade).

Asian Salad Dressing

¾ C oil (olive or grapeseed)
¼ C honey
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/3 C rice vinegar (no sugar or high fructose corn syrup)

(Mix together and put on salad with shredded cabage, chicken, chopped almonds or cashews, and chopped green onions)

another reminder

I get to enter the drawing everyday I do this until Mon, so here it is again if you want to enter the drawing for Disney on Ice tickets. www.utahcoupongals.com

Give Away!

If you are a Utah resident, enter a drawing to win 4 tickets to Disney on Ice. Go to www.utahcoupongals.com
Good Luck!

Soccer Fun?

Back in September we decided to finally put Cade in a sport! We chose soccer and put him on the same team as a little boy in our neighborhood/ward named Sam. He was very excited and loved getting his uniform and cleats! His team was called the Tigers and his Coach was named Federico.

Here is a picture of Cade and Sam right before their first game . . .
Here is Cade's team during his first game. . .

After Cade's first game he said he had a lot of fun and loved getting a snack after the game . . .
He chose jersey #6 because that is how old he is . . .
Well as the season went on and the weather got colder, Cade decided that he was not so fond of this sport. He started to complain about going to practice and even going to the games. Luckily it was a short season and we made it to the end. Below are some pictures from his last name and he wasn't very happy to be there . . .
After his last game, I said, "Maybe we could try another sport next time that you might like better" and his response was, "I want to play a sport that where you don't have to run!" Lol! Well, I guess there is Gold, Bowling, Swimming, hmmmm I guess that's about it! Hopefully we will find something he likes. Maybe he will even like soccer someday! :)

School Days!

I used to write in my journal and in my kids journals regularly and then I started this blog and stopped writting in our journals while saying, "it's ok, I have a blog." Well, lately I haven't been doing either! I am going to try to catch up a little and document stuff for our "Journal". So, here are the kids on their first day fo school! Ambree is in Pre School and she loves it! Her teacher's name is Ms. Angie and she is so sweet. She told me yesterday that Ambree is always so happy and reminds her of Sunshine! That was good to hear because sometimes I worry that Ambree will struggle in school because she tries to make everything fun, even if it's not supposed to be. So, I worried that she would always be trying to play and talk instead of listening and following directions. Well, according to her teacher she is doing great. Hopefully this will continue in the future! :)

Ambree wearing her clothing of choice ont he first day of school . . .
Excited to have a big girl Princess backpack . . .
back view . . .
Cade started kindergarten this year and loves it too! He goes to Columbia Elementary School and is in morning half day kindergarten. His teacher's name is Ms. Weenig. He didn't seem nervous at all on his first day of school . . . just very excited! He has made lots of friends and is very social. A little too social at times. :/ He is at the top of his class in academics and loves to learn and create! :) Here he is on his first day of Kindergarten, wearing his clothing of choice . . . buzz lightyear shirt of course!

Sporting his Buzz Backpack . . .
Back view ..
Playing on the kindergarten playground . . .
Waiting in line for his teacher . . .
Cade with his teacher Ms. Weenig . . .
Proud little sister Ambree excited to pick Cade up after his first day of school. . . Looks like the sun was in their eyes. Lol.
After almost 3 months of school both kids still love it! And it's a nice little break for me. :)

I think this is a sign . . .

That I either need to clean my fridge out more often, or teach my children how to eat a whole apple! I found all of these in the fridge the other day as I was cleaning it out. I guess it's better than finding them all over the house!

Ambree's first dance pictures and recital . . .

I decided to put Ambree in a ballet class this year and she loved it! The studio is called C&C Ballet Company and her teacher was Ms. Tanjee. Here is her professional photo. . .


Group Photo . . .
I decided to take a few pictures at the studio after the professional photos were done . . .

She was so excited to be dressed up and to have a little makeup on that she just kept posing! All these poses are all her. I had nothing to do with any of them! Lol! I just kept following her around and snapping pictures. :)

A week after her photos was her recital. She was so excited and not nervous at all! It's a rare occasion to see Ambree act shy or nervous. I think I have seen that maybe two times in her whole life! Here she is waiting with all her little dance friends . . .

Drink break . . . and why not climb into these cubbies while we are at it. Ambree is all the way to the left . . .

Getting ready to start . . . Ambree is all the way to the right . . . They did a little dance to "Just a Spoon Full of Sugar" from the Mary Poppins Movie.

Ambree is a little off from the group. :) She was focused on watching the teacher right next to her! I have a video, but it is on our video camera and I am not sure how to put it on here. I will try to do that later.

We gave her some flowers after the recital that she loved. Here she is with her daddy walking out to the car . . .

Ambree with her supportive brother Cade . . .

The cute little dancer striking another pose! I can't wait for the next recital! :)

A question . . .

It looks like Blogger changed some things and now I can't figure out how to change the font colors on my blog. Can anyone tell me how to do that? I would greatly appreciate it! :)

June Birthdays . . .

June is a busy month for us, with Craig's birthday, Father's Day, Our Wedding Anniversary, and Ambree's birthday. . . But it's a fun busy! :)

For Craig's 30th Birthday I surprised him by having one of his good friends from optometry school fly out for the weekend. The look on Craig's face, when his friend, Jeff walked around the corner to the backyard (which is where Craig was at the time that he arrived to our house) was priceless! He was so confused and surprised! We had a fun weekend visiting with Jeff, and to celebrate Craig's actual birthday, we just got together with Family and had a little party in the great out doors! Here is some of the company . . . Cade, Ambree, Jacob (nephew), and Leila (niece).


Cade and Dallin (Craig's youngest brother)
Adam (craig's brother), Andrew (craig's brother), Jeff (Friend), and Dallin (brother)
Cade and Andrew
The lunch . . . Tin foil dinners . . .
The Cake! This is the first cake I ever made from scratch and it was delicious! I have never been too much of a cake fan. Now I realize it's because I always used a box mix! :/ If you want an amazing choc. cake recipe, use the Hershey's choc. cake recipe. The frosting was homemade too. It was just a basic butter cream recipe and I added about a cup of peanut butter. Sooo good!

The little family! Happy Birthday Craig!! :)

For Ambree's birthday we did a Princess themed party. Here she is with some of the guests/princesses . . . Macy and Beth. . .

A yummy pizza dinner (Ambree's request) with red punch (not sure what I was thinking there)! Luckily we only had one spill all night.

The Castle Cake that I slaved over! Lol! I was worried for a while about it turning out, but it actually turned out pretty well in the end.

More of the guests and the cake . . . Apparently hardly anyone wanted to look at the camera! :/

The Castle Pinata . . .

Blanket from Grandma Carol . . .

Ambree seemed to have a great time at her party and felt like a real princess! Happy fourth birthday Ambree! :)

Cade's a graduate!

At the end of May Cade graduated from Pre School! He has had a great year in the Little Discoveries Pre School with Ms. Heather as his teacher. I tried to up load a video of him saying what he wants to be when he grows up (An Astronaut), but it didn't work. :( Any tips on how to up load vidios on a blog. It's been so long, I think I might be doing it wrong.



Funny side note: Cade has been saying he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up for a couple months now (I'm sure it's because of Buzz Lightyear). The other day I said that we needed to clean up the living room before dad gets home. Cade asked why and I said, "would you like to come home to a messy house after working hard at work all day?" He then said, "Do you think my kids will clean the house for me after I have been out flying in my spaceship all day and walking on the moon?" Lol!



Here is the handsome graduate in his cap and gown. . .And the diploma . . .

Here he is with his teacher, Ms. Heather. She was so nice and good with the kids. We absolutely loved her! I am sad that she isn't teaching next year. I would have loved for her to be Ambree's teacher as well. :(

The graduation cap cookies that I made for the celebration! They were super easy and everyone thought they were so cute! It's just mini reeses peanut butter cups stuck to choc. covered grahm cracker cookies. Just stick them together with frosting and then use frosting to make the tassels. I have also seen people make the tassels using licorice rope, which was cute too!

Here is Ambree being the supportive sister by getting ready to eat a cookie . . . I think she is happy about it!

Cade has loved Pre School this year and made some great friends. His best friend in Pre School was Diego. Cade thought it was cool that Diego knew Spanish, just like the Diego in the cartoon! :) He also had his first kiss with a little girl named Emma! He said she chased him and kissed him. I asked if it was on the cheek and he said no, it was on the lips! He acted as if he didn't like it, but then a few days later he said he chased her and kissed her! So, I gave him the talk on not kissing girls until after his mission. Do you think he will listen? Let the fun begin! :/

After Cade's last day of pre school, which was a swimming/pizza party I asked him if he was going to miss his teacher and kids in his class. He said, no, I will get new ones when I start kindergarten! Well, I guess that's a good way to look at it. He must me a boy! Lol!