Sock Monkey Trails. . . Shinko's Visit.

Last week I noticed a posting to host a sock monkey named Shinko. I brought D in to show him and see what he thought of the idea, being my little monkey lover and all. He was SO excited and told me we had to do it right away, so I put an email out to Lynda and asked if we could have Shinko come to our home for a week, asap!

We received him on Friday, and boy was D excited! We will be updating you all about our week with Shinko. If you are interested in hosting him next, please get a hold of Lynda at Sock Monkey Trails. Shinko is trying to visit each of the 50 states and we would love to have a good family to send him to at the end of our week!

Warm Gooey Brownies

When you go gluten/dairy/soy/sugar free, you give up a lot of foods that you love. Trying to find food that tastes like you remember it tasting, or even tastes GOOD for that matter can be a chore if not impossible.

I ran across Brittany Angell's blog the other day called Real Sustenance, Gluten and Allergin Free Living. There are so many good recipes on that site I didn't know where to begin, until I saw the recipe for Cookie Dough topped Brownies and I just KNEW I had to try it.

After raiding the cupboards we had all we needed for the brownies. I can't have coconut right now as my little guy is still nursing, and allergic. So, we had brownies. I followed the recipe exact, with the exception of substituting the sugar with stevia. They turned out a little thin, but I stretched them over a 9x9 pan thinking it would work. . .

So, after a little alteration, here is the recipe I found that works great, is crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside, and aside from almonds, allergy free!!!


3 cups almond flour (meal)
2/3 cup carob powder or cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP baking powder
10 drops Nuvia liquid stevia
2 TBSP cinnamon
2 TBSP vanilla
8 TBSP milk
1 c. carob or chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together, adding milk and chips last. Dough will be very sticky and gooey, not runny at all. This is good.

Place a sheet of wax paper in a 9x9 glass pan, lump batter onto wax paper and using a small amount of oil on your hands press the batter into the corners of the pan and make smooth on top.

Bake 350 for about 40 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Remove wax paper with brownies on it and allow entire thing to cool on a wire rack. If you cut them too soon they will fall apart. :)

Enjoy!!

Mad props goes out to Real Sustenance, Gluten and Allergin Free Living, it is my new favorite website and I am so thankful to Brittany for these great recipes!!

Oh, and I will try to post pictures of the brownies the next time I make them, they seem to fly out of the kitchen so I haven't gotten one yet!

The New Room

 It has been a long week in some aspects, and not long enough in others. T left for her grandparents last Friday, and hubby and I set to work to transform her room. We painted, patched, sanded, primed and after spending quite a bit of time online looking for a comforter to give the room that perfect feel, I decided to make my very first quilt. Let me tell you, it was totally worth it, I had more fun making that quilt than I have had in a long time, but. . . it was SO much more difficult than I imagined, not to mention, who would have thought a blanket could make me cry and curse.

After many hours we went from this

 (Please excuse the mess, I decided to take the pictures after we started tearing the room apart. But you get the idea)

To this

I know there are pictures of the quilt there on the bed, but I'm just so proud of it. Here are a couple more, of it. :)

Here is the front. 

And here is the back

 I have to give a shout out to my wonderful mommy for all of her help, as well as the use of her sewing machine. Also to my hubby, Savannah and Nycole for helping to paint. :)

Hope you all have a great night, I'm finally off to bed.

The Way I View. . . Love and Sweetness

It's Clickin' Mom's photo challenge time again. This month the theme is Love and Sweetness.

The best way I can think of to define this months' theme, is with my stepdaughter, T. She has been such a light coming into our lives, and such a joy to have around. So I wanted to use this month's theme to put the spotlight on her, because she really is "Love and Sweetness"...

Doesn't she have the sweetest, most beautiful smile!!

Please head over and see my very talented friend Valerie and how she view's Love and Sweetness!!