Pumpkin Spice Creamer

It has been awhile since I have been very active on my blog.  Life has been hectic.  Every week I think I will have time to blog but something comes up.  I started a long term substitute position in a library in August.  It has been so much fun and I get to stay until Christmas Break.  Hopefully it will help me to get a full time position in my own classroom.  At the same time I have been busy at home spending time with my three year old.  Yes, I said THREE.  I can't believe she is growing so fast.  Also, the husband finally got to start working first shift, so he is actually home with us.  We've been soaking up the family time.  I have still been cooking and experimenting but it will take me awhile to catch up here.  I will work on it but it may be during breaks that I have a surge in blog posts.  For now, I have also discovered why people like coffee!  I stopped drinking pop a few months ago.  So I never get any caffeine unless I get a tea or coffee.  At home, our tea is decaf and I never drink more than one coffee at a time.  But, since I get up at 4 AM now in order to get to work (it's quite a commute for me at this point), I have a little trouble getting myself going.  Especially now that the weather has gotten colder.

Anyway, I love the pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, but I hate the ingredients and price.  I found several recipes online to make your own pumpkin spice creamer.  I wasn't completely satisfied with any of them.  I already make my own plain sweet creamer and I have already posted the recipe for that.  I easily turned that into a pumpkin spice creamer.  Here is how:

Ingredients:

1 can evaporated milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or fresh)

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

In a saucepan, heat 1/2 the can of evaporated milk, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to a low simmer.  Whisk together until this comes to a simmer, then take it off of the heat.  Let this cool completely.  When it is cool, whisk in the rest of the evaporated milk and the sweetened condensed milk.  Pour into two mason jars.  This will stay good in the refrigerator for a week.  I put one in the fridge to use and one in the freezer to save.  You could also give one away for gifts OR you could keep one at home and one at work if you drink both places.  It is very good.  I believe I outdid Starbucks with this one.

Honey Garlic Pork Chops

I have been busy with my new temporary job and I have been trying to make meals that can be made quickly and easily.  They also have to be good warmed up for lunches at work.  We prefer to eat homemade foods rather than eating out or buying pre-made boxed foods.  The easiest way for easy, quick, healthy, homemade meals is to use marinades.  I have started making up bags with marinades and putting meat in them and freezing them.  Then I can take it out of the freezer the night before, and it's ready the next night for cooking. This is one of the marinades we have been using for pork chops.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup apple juice
2 Tbsp. oil (I usually use grapeseed or olive)

3 Tbsp. coconut aminos (This is what we use to replace soy sauce.)

6 garlic cloves, minced

4 pork chops (I use boneless.  I hate eating around bones.)

Directions:

In a ziploc bag, add all ingredients and close and mix around.  Let marinade for at least 2 hours.  Once marinated, grill or bake.  We grilled and loved them.  But if you can't grill, bake in a preheated oven for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

I got this recipe from Pinterest and just replaced the soy sauce.  To see the original post, look here. 

Throwing Out That Toxic Shampoo

Yes, I did it.  I was VERY skeptical of the "no poo" fad.  I have always struggled with very oily hair.  And I mean OILY!  I wash my hair every morning and by noon I was usually putting it up because it was already getting oily.  And it made me mad because people always said to wash it less.  The reason it was oily was because I was supposedly washing it too much.  The whole reason I started washing it so much was because it got that oily!!!  And there is no shampoo that works for oily hair.  If you have dry or frizzy or colored or curly hair, you have you pick of shampoos and brands.  But if you have oily?  There are maybe three shampoos you can find.  I've tried everything.  I also struggled with dandruff and sensitive skin.  I have allergies to so many lotions, soaps, shampoos, etc.  I recently had a friend take the plunge and try the "no poo" method.  After about six months, she and her whole household were still using it and were believers.  I visited them and they looked great and were so happy with the decision that I decided to give it a shot.  I'm glad I did.  It took about two weeks for my hair to really even out but after that it is so soft and smooth.  It has body/volume, less dandruff, and I can leave it down all day and when I go to bed at night it still isn't oily.  I have been amazed.  I am going to tell you how I do this but there really is no RIGHT way.  You have to experiment a little to find the right way for you.  I still wash my hair with the mixture every morning.  I find my hair does best that way.  My daughter's hair is only being washed twice a week now but she is only three and that is what works best for her.  My friend uses the mixture on her hair a few times a week now and just scrubs with water in between.  It depends on your hair (texture, thickness, dry/oily, etc.).

So here is what I do.  For the shampoo, I mix about 2 Tbsp. baking soda with about a cup of water. (If you have extra dry hair, you should only use 1 Tbsp. because baking soda can dry.)  I put this in a spray bottle that I got at Walmart or Target.  Shake it up and spray it all over wet hair.  I have a LOT of hair so I pick up my hair and spray it in layers.  Some people only have to spray it on top then scrub it in.  Experiment and find what works for you.  There are also several helpful videos on YouTube that can help you find different methods.  Scrub it in and scrub your scalp.  I let this sit in my hair a few minutes while I do some other stuff.  Then rinse thoroughly.

For the conditioner, (you won't want to skip this, even if you are like me and have oily hair), mix 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar in about a cup of water.  I put this in another spray bottle.  This one I just spray over the top of my hair.  If you have really dry hair, you may want to spray more.  I've also seen people who have really dry hair mix half cup cider vinegar with half cup water.  More vinegar means more moisture.  Let this sit for a few minutes too.  Then rinse thoroughly.  Don't worry, if you rinse thoroughly, your hair won't smell like the apple cider vinegar.  I've asked.  Nobody has been able to smell it.

Really, you should try this.  Read the ingredients in your shampoo and tell me you think those ingredients are okay.  Especially if you have crazy skin reactions like I do.  Or major issues with your hair or dandruff like I did.

Sesame Coconut Chicken

This is a new favorite.  It is easy to make and tastes like Chinese takeout except it's better for you.  I got the original recipe from the Paleoaholic website.  There are some great recipes there and the paleo diet lends itself well to allergen friendly diets like ours.  I modified the recipe a little but you can find the original recipe HERE.  J and I loved it.  This also helped us discover a replacement to soy sauce.  J loves soy sauce and recipes that use it but I've never liked soy sauce much and I stay away from soy due to hormone imbalances.  I also prefer to keep L away from soy since hormone problems run in the family and most soy is now GMO.  She also seems to have more stomach issues when soy oils are used on anything she eats.  Such a sensitive digestive system our toddler has.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 Tbsp. onion, minced
1 tsp. ginger (fresh grated or powdered/dried works)
3 Tbsp. coconut aminos (soy sauce replacement, you should be able to find this at any health food store)
1 Tbsp. sesame oil (I was actually out of sesame oil and used olive here.  It worked just fine so don't worry if you don't have sesame on hand)
1/2 cup apple juice (make sure it is a pure apple juice)

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together garlic, onion, ginger, aminos, oil and apple juice.  Add the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat.  Let marinate.  Mine marinated for a couple of hours but it should marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425*F.  Cover a baking sheet with foil and place chicken on the pan.  Spoon a little bit of the marinade over the chicken and set aside.  Bake the chicken for about 20 minutes.  Turn chicken and spoon a little more marinade over the other side.  Bake for another 20-25 minutes.

I served this over rice and cooked the rice with a little bit of the apple juice, ginger and coconut aminos mixed in as well.  It was VERY good.  It will be added to our regular list of meals because it was easy and tasted so good.

Quinoa Crusted Chicken

I completely stole this recipe.  You can find the original recipe HERE on a blog called The Simple Dish.  I must give credit here.  It's a very good recipe.  I was impressed.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 egg
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. parsley

Directions:
Boil quinoa in 2 cups of water.  While the quinoa is cooking, I took the chicken breasts and used a mallet to make them thinner.  When the quinoa was finished, I put it in a separate bowl and mixed in the salt, pepper, garlic, onion and parsley.  In a separate bowl, scramble the egg for dipping the chicken.  Prepare a baking sheet with olive oil.  I have a Misto sprayer to spray the olive oil and keep the chicken from sticking.  Preheat the oven to 375*F.  Dip each chicken breast in the egg, then coat in the quinoa mixture.  Lay out on the baking sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes.

Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

I've seen several recipes of stuffed sweet potatoes, especially since the paleo diet has become so popular.  This is actually my own recipe.  I read several recipes and kind of mixed them as I though my family would like.  This is a recipe for two servings.  If you have more people in you family, just add a sweet potato, chicken breast and two slices of bacon per person.

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
2 chicken breasts (diced)
4 slices bacon
parmesan (or preferred) cheese (optional) (I think this would be really good with something like goat cheese as well)
coconut or olive oil (unless cooking chicken in bacon grease)

Directions:
Now I already had bacon cooked so I chopped up and reheated it.  We keep our nitrate free bacon cooked and ready to warm up for the toddler.  She loves and can actually eat this one type of bacon so we keep it around.  If you are cooking the bacon, just use the bacon grease to cook the diced chicken in.  If not, use the olive or coconut oil.  First, you will need to bake the sweet potatoes.  This takes at least an hour in my oven so those will cook for 30 minutes before you even have to start on the rest.  Then cook the bacon.  Then saute the diced chicken in the bacon grease or oil.  When the potatoes are done, split them in half, unless you baked them that way.  Hollow out the middle a little, pushing the inside of the potato to the edges.  Split the chicken and bacon evenly into the hollowed out centers of the sweet potatoes.  Top with parmesan cheese.  I topped with parmesan from a jar.  I'm sure it would be better with fresh but I get so few shortcuts anymore that I take advantage of the few I can.

Watermelon Juice

This is how I used watermelon that needed to be eaten.  It is hard to get rid of watermelon when you are the only one in the house who will eat it.

Ingredients:
Watermelon chunks
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
Water

Directions:
Blend watermelon chunks and strain to remove seeds.  Add lime juice and sugar.  Stir in water to fill the pitcher.  Stir or shake up before pouring anytime because the watermelon will settle to the bottom.  It's pretty good.  Try it.