Spring Break

I was super super excited for spring break for two reasons....lazy days at home with all my kiddos and lots of new recipes to try! I didn't get around to as many of them as I had planned, but we did have a couple tasty new dinners!

Monday night, we had a favorite: Taco Salad! We all just love it! When I have the time, I cook several lbs at once (always deer burger) and freeze it so that it's easy for E to just heat up on the nights he has to get dinner ready. I've started adding black beans too and it stretches the meat so much further! I didn't waste any of my precious organic canned black beans (those are for brownies!) on this, these were dry beans.


Tuesday, Layla came over to play!

I had planned soup since it was supposed to rain (and then it didn't). I went ahead and made sausage, white bean and kale soup anyway. I want Janna to be my mom. Seriously. This was some of the best soup I've had. Like Ever! We all really enjoyed it! She used chicken sausage. I used whatever I could find that was free of soy. I also left out the potatoes, but added extra beans. I wanted it to be freezer friendly (and I seriously love beans). This soup used up the last of my white beans in the freezer, so I need to plan a bean cooking day for sure as I'm mostly out of the other ones also.


On Wednesday, Eric grilled burgers and I made baked spinach. W.O.W. Smitten Kitchen, where have you been all my life? By using gf bread crumbs, Namaste perfect flour blend, Daiya cheese, and So Delicious coconut milk creamer, I was able to make this safe for the whole family. Even allergy friendly, it was completely amazing. The kids each ate their mandatory bites and didn't ask for more. Not that I cared....more for me!!



After dinner, we went to the park!

Then somehow, everyone ended up in the tub together.

Thursday morning, we went to Target in Wichita where I discovered we could score some detangler spray pretty cheap and Money Saving Mom posted it on her blog! We had our usual for dinner - waffles. I had planned to make up a bunch for the freezer, but everyone just happened to be quiet/napping at the same time and I dozed off too!

Friday, E took the kids back to his parent's for the day. Moosey and Buggy had fun riding Blackie, but that ended quickly when Bugs took a little tumble off the side. She is fine, thank goodness and eager to get right back on.




I spent most of my day at home enjoying the quiet, but I did venture out for Starbucks, a pedi and crazy cheap Annie's Dressing. I spent $4.90 on 10 bottles and and then got $7.50 in catalinas for my next trip! That's a pretty good money maker!



Saturday, we had wanted to go to the zoo, but it was yucky, cold and rainy, so we went to Exploration Place instead. Our kids always seem to migrate right towards the flight simulators. They must get that from Daddy!




Konny liked riding the horsey!

And Kelton thought the tornado simulator was pretty cool.
I wish we had video of Buggy in it, she was hilarious!

By Sunday, I had caught the cold that had been circulating our home, but I had one more thing I wanted to try - kale chips! They seem to be all the rage on the internets and easy to make, so I figured we'd give it a go.

They were tasty for sure, but the giant canker sore on my tonsil didn't agree. Buggy ate about a dozen and then decided she didn't like them anymore. Kelton wasn't sold and E wasn't quite sure either. I think we'll try them again with a sprinkle of parmesan when everyone can finally have dairy.




It was a great week and it went by WAY too quickly!

St Patrick's Day

Not only the best holiday on earth but also our anniversary! This marks 4 yrs and we joked that we haven't slept for 3 of them! Not to mention this year HAD to be better than last year no matter how the day went since that's the day I was dx with c. diff.
E sent me some beautiful flowers!

We spoiled ourselves with yummy steaks and kabobs from Sig's. Thursday's are waffle nights for the kids, but I'm pretty sure Katie mooched more steak that I ate myself!


Can't forget a bottle of Martini and Rossi. We have a cork from our wedding day and each anniversary (and some others, obviously) :)


The leprechauns always visit overnight and dye our milk green!

Of course, I made sure the kids had proper attire!


I've been having so much fun making hair clippies, so I made some St Patrick's Day ones too. The directions for the shamrock clippie are over at Coupons Are Great.



Layla wore hers on the Dolan Family fire truck
in St Louis for the St Patrick's Day parade.

Today was the first day of spring break and we are going to be so spoiled by the time it's over. I LOVE being at home with all 3 kids and we're having a great time already!

Even though I'm home this week, I went to Green Acres on Sat and did our regular shopping yesterday. I hit the jackpot at Green Acres, getting a bunch of Rudi's organic bread for .99, Udi's GF bread for free and So Delicious coconut milk for only $1.29 a 1/2 gallon! Dillons was a lot of produce, but I did get Ronzoni pasta (most of which will be donated) for .39 and Annie's mac and cheese for free! Walmart was good too, this stuff was $11.49


I promised the kids a trip to the big Target later this week. I hope we don't blow our budget at the Target Dollar Spot. That place is dangerous! LOL. It adds up quickly!

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...

I've been itching to get in the kitchen a create a recipe with the coconut flour I purchased recently. Trying to decide on measurements, ingredients, etc is always fun with a 1yr old and 3 yr old helping, right? Uh huh.

I'm totally loving all the different coconut products. We've been using Turtle Mountain Coconut products since Katie was a baby, I've had great success with coconut oil and now coconut flour. If someone in our family develops a coconut allergy, I will throw in the the towel. Seriously. Everyone has their breaking point. But, God willing, that will not happen! So for now, I made some coconutty cookies!

I actually started out trying to make muffins. Only I didn't read enough about cooking with coconut flour before I started and it didn't quite work out.

By the second batch of these, they were perfect. And really, healthy enough to eat for breakfast or mid morning snack. At least for me, I'm not so sure about the kids. If I decide to share them with the kids, that is. ;)

1 1/4 cup Namaste Perfect Flour Blend
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup sucanat
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil**, melted
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup dried fruit, nuts, or choc chips

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Mix coconut oil and sucanat. Add eggs. Add coconut milk and dry ingredients alternately. Fold in shredded coconut and fruit/nut of choice.

Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet and smash down slightly with the back of the spoon as they don't really spread when baking. Bake at 375 for 12-15 min. Makes 18-24 cookies, depending on how big you make them. I like mine a little larger.

For this last batch I divided it in 1/2 after adding the coconut and made 1/2 with craisins and 1/2 with Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips. Both are really good and I can't wait to try with other fruit. Pineapple would be great...like a pina colada cookie!


**I used virgin coconut oil for these because I wanted the distinct coconut flavor that regular coconut oil doesn't give.

Excitement at the Papon House

Kelton has been insisting his front teeth are loose for at least a year. When I visited his class for Dental Health Month, by the looks of things, he was really the only one who hadn't lost a tooth.

Not long ago, he had his first molars sealed and I took an xray and could see he'd be losing some soon!



Pretty soon after that, his two lower central incisors started coming in behind the primary teeth.


And not too long after that.....


The other exciting news?!
This truck....

OURS!
She's paid off. 13 months ahead of schedule, even! Also paid off is my private student loan that I took out when I started hygiene school. That only leaves us with our mortgage and sallie mae.

To celebrate, we finally upgraded to smart phones.


And I must throw in my latest awesome shopping trip! I made sure to make it to Walgreen's on Sunday for the pedicare deal!
My total was .54 cents! SCORE!

The much anticipated Princess Party!!

We are just simply amazed at how much Katie has grown this past year! She is such a little girl now, not so much a toddler anymore.


On her actual bday 2/22, I had planned to get her pictures taken, go to Build a Bear and then get her nails done after naps. Thanks to a lovely stomach virus, I only felt up to hitting the nail salon that day. She was a little nervous at first, but warmed up quickly. She told me, "I wanna go again" as we were walking out the door.




We rescheduled the pictures and Build a Bear for Saturday, stopping by Starbucks while we were out since Buggy kept telling me, "I just can't live without it."





I tried really hard to convince her to make the St Patrick's Day bear, but she insisted on the peace sign bear, with a St Patrick's shirt and Hello Kitty panties. Being the frugal lady that I am, I just have to mention that our Build a Bear excursion only cost us $7.
I love coupons!





Sunday was the big party and while I had visions a hippie chick themed party, Miss Katie knew immediately she wanted nothing but princess decor! It was fun, but just let me say, I am super glad that this was our last party for the year!







Every treat we served was gluten free. It was so cute when Buggy looked at all the treats and went to grab a pretzel but first asked..."This safe for me?"





Speaking of gluten free, I hit the jackpot at Dillon's over the weekend. I spent $44.96, but saved $47.49 and included in that was 10 boxes of honey nut Chex for only $1.29/box!! AND for buying those I have a $3/any purchase for my next visit. I love that Chex has made the majority of their varieties GF and I hear buzz in the GF world that Kellogg's Rice Krispies will soon be GF too! It's about time!


On Monday, we took leftover party supplies and cupcakes to daycare for Katie to share with her friends. I was really happy to have these cupcake papers and toppers that I'd gotten for free so that I didn't have to make any.


Now maybe I'll have some free time to do some projects for myself and try some new recipes!