Last week of August...The Fam and more THM

What the fam has been up to 
  So it seems a lot has changed around here in the last few weeks. Nicholas is weaning so I have to realize that he's not a baby anymore. That's okay because I can't wait to see all he has in store for us Also I had to switch out all of his 12 month clothes for 18 months, my kids are skinny but
long:)          
 

   Next, we have finally broken Tony Jr of his paci/blanket addiction. I know he is 3 and probably should of done it sooner. We took it away from him before we had Nicholas but once baby boy was born he would steal it. I had that same problem with #1 & 2 so I just figured that when I broke Nick of his paci they would both lose it. Nick is down to using it mostly at night so the toothfairy apparently now has a job of taking pacifiers and leaving toy cars under pillows. ;)  We've never been ones to tell the fairy tales but I was just making fun saying the binki fairy took it and he believed me so now he will say the tooth fairy took his pacifiers :)
   Another first is Brianna has her first wiggily tooth!!! I can't believe we are starting this again :) That is one thing about having a few kids ;) When you have 2 you go through phases and then move onto new phases and then continue. With having more kids than that you move on to a new phase with your older kids and then you go through the old phases again with the younger kids. For instance we have gone through the 2's phase with 3 dc, have 1 that is still a little wild and praying Nicholas will skip that phase ;) Wishful thinking...

   Finally, this is our last week of summer vacation. Brie has been in school for the last 3 weeks and doing wonderfully, but now it is time for mommy to be almost full time in schooling and kick in the older ones. We are gradually starting and doing math, LA, and reading. Probably in the next week or 2 we will start all of it, but I will need to make a library run and I'm not sure when I want to do that. I love the library, but my 3 year old doesn't so I prefer to go on my own or take along a big kid on an evening that dh can be with the others.
 


   So that is what we have been up to. Now for my THM progress and great finds :)

     Insert happy dance :) I have been using Stevia for a while and I am fine with it. Recently I have started using the organic Stevia you can get from the THM store. Many people complain Stevia is a little bitter and not quite like sugar so I read about people trying Xylitol and Erythritol so I took the plundge and bought some Erythritol. This stuff is pretty good. It is suppose to be about 70% as sweet as sugar so I added in a little Stevia to help it out but it tastes so much more like sugar. I think my husband might actually like it, so I might have to add a little into his tea for him and surprise him ;)
   My other little find is using Oat Fiber. This stuff is pretty good and for now I'm trying to figure out how to sub it in recipes ;) Right now I'm experimenting on Mug recipes. There are a lot of cake or muffin in a mug recipes out there, many THM, but many that are not. So last night I was really craving something with peanut butter and found a recipe for a peanut butter chocolate chip MIM recipe. It was far from THM so I tweaked a few things and came up with this.  I know it doesn't look all that pretty, I'm not a photographer or a blogger by trade, but this thing was AMAZING!!! You know when you get a nice gooey cookie and bite into it and it's warm and soft and just melts in your mouth...yeah, that is what happened in this wonderful mug, so since I'm not selfish I will share my little recipe ;)

• 1Tbs Almond flour
• 1 Tbs Oat Fiber
• 2 Tbs Natural Peanut Butter
• 2 Tbs Unsweetened Almond Milk
• 1 Tbs Erythritol or about it's equivalent on your sweetener 
• 1/4 tsp aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp cocoa powder 

Combine all the ingredients together except the cocoa powder. Once they are combined plop the cocoa on top and swirl lightly into the cookie batter. This gives you chocolate spots. I did try it with mixing the cocoa totally into the batter and this will give you a chocolate peanut butter cookie, but I like the first version more. Finally nuke it in the microwave for about a minute. The middle was still nice and soft and this was probably the first THM dessert that my entire family really liked so 2 thumbs up here :)
    Make sure you watch your peanut butter too with this recipe. The PB I used has 4 net carbs for 2 Tbs so this is not a dish you would want to use after pushing the carb limit on an S meal, but it is really really good none the less!!


    One thing I love about S meals is that they are so filling. One thing I have noticed this week is that I have not been as hungry and actually eating smaller portions because of that . I think part of that also is that my baby is weaning therefore I don't need all those extra calories to make milk ;) I have actually been eating a lot of S meals lately, but my body was wanting a changed so I did a last minute flip and made an E meal for dinner. Anyway, THM recommends you switch up your fuel source periodically, so instead of eating and burning fat (S meals), switch over to carbs and low fat (2 tsp max) to burn glucose(E meals). This is an E meals so that means under 45 carbs with little fat, they recommend 1 tsp with a max of 2 tsp for these meals :)
     Tonight I was planning on making a creamy chicken over cauliflower dinner with green beans on the side covered in butter with garlic salt...mmmm. Instead I made an Chicken dish and it was yummy too. I had planned on making a chicken Parmesan type dish and use crushed tomatoes and bake the chicken but I was impatient :) and needed something easier and quicker. Here's what I did...
   So...I decided to stick my chicken breasts in a pot and put a little water in the bottom, then in my chicken Parmesan style dumped the tomatoes over top. So since that turned into more of a soupy mixture I thought of a crock pot E dish I had made before from THM. I dashed some Italian seasoning over the top and plopped my green beans, which I was planning on using anyways, on top with some black beans. MMMm...
 To finish it off I sprinkled it with a little Parmesan cheese and plated it on top of some rice. THM recommends brown rice or quinoa, but since my kids aren't on plan I made real rice and honestly I used about 1/2 a cup for my portion. For brown rice they recommend 3/4 a cup for E meals. I would of preferred it over quinoa, but it was a long day and I was tired so I adjusted. Also, since there are beans in the pot and those add to the carb count I tried to use less beans in my portion and a smaller portion of rice so I wouldn't go over on the carb load. This dish was really filling and truthfully I think it would make a great soup if you added in some more stock and shredded the chicken...might have to try that another time.;)

And then when we were done Kayla decided to make us a big blue cake for the rest of the family to enjoy.