Watch “HAPPY Thanksgiving” on YouTube

Thankful

I love this time of year when people start posting what they are thankful for. I believe that one of the keys to being a truly happy person is being thankful for you have in life.  So often we get caught up in what we want or what we don’t have that we forget to stop and give thanks for what we do have. I love thanksgiving because it forces people to stop and reflect on what they are thankful for. Sometimes life gets so busy that it is easy to forget what we are thankful for. In my family we live very fast paced lives and it can be really easy to do this. Since I know this about our family, I have a few techniques in place to help us reflect on what we are thankful for. The first one is; we try our best to eat dinner together every night at the dinner table. This means no t.v and we all have to be at the table, even the baby. While we eat dinner I ask each person to tell me one good thing that happened in their day. This gives each of us the opportunity to reflect on something that is going good. I find this really helps to keep focused on being thankful. The second one is; I have a message to myself written on the bathroom mirror and it says “I am thankful for my family, Eric, Noah, Lucia, and Emma”. I never want to forget for one second how lucky I am to have these amazing people in my life.

In my family the past two years have been extremely challenging. There have been days it seems like we are taking more steps backwards then we have forwards. It would be really easy to get pessimistic and only think about the negative but I refuse to do that. I stay thankful and I always remind myself that somewhere in this world someone else has it harder than I do. When I look at my life I know I have so many things to be thankful for. At the age of 32 I have had the honor of being married to my best friend for almost 15 years. How often in life do people find their soul mate and best friend at 17?  I have 3 beautiful, happy, healthy children, who make my life better each and every day. I have a mom, dad, and siblings who support me and accept me for how I am. When I wake up each morning I am healthy and I have the ability to exercise and move my body. My career is my passion and what more could you ask for in life. Last but not least, I have amazing friends who support me and my family.

My list of things I am thankful for may seem small but at the end of the day if I have these few things everything else falls into place and I am a happy girl.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are few of the people that I am thankful for!

 

 

My Babies

 

My Momma 🙂

 

My Bestie Lindsey

My Bestie and Sissy

 

My Bestie and Hubby

 

The Family 🙂

 

Southern Paleo Chocolate Sweet Potatoe Pie

After reading all of the Paleo blogs that I follow and Instagram, this past week, I got a serious craving for pie. I decided to do a trial run of a Paleo sweet potato pie. My husband isn’t a big fan of sweet potato pie so I decided to try and make a chocolate crust to see if that might win him over. Chocolate normal does . I had so much filling left over that I ended up making two pies, one chocolate and one regular. They both turned out so good that my husband said he couldn’t decide which one he liked more. I guess I did something right . Here is both of my pie crust recipes along with the filling and coconut whip cream recipe. As you can see in the pictures this is a rustic pie and I personally love that. I hope you enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Chocolate Crust
1 cup of raw almonds
½ cup dairy free dark chocolate chips
4 tablespoons melted butter
4 tablespoons of coconut sugar
Pinch of salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven 375 degrees
2. In a food processor pulse almonds, chocolate chips, sugar, and salt until the mixture is fine and crumbly
3. Melt butter
4. In a small bowl mix butter and crust mixture until combined
5. Pour into a pie pan and using a spoon, press against the sides of the pan until you have formed the crust all the way around the pan evenly.
6. Bake for 10 minutes
7. Allow to cool

Almond Apple Crust
1 cup of raw almonds
½ cup of dried crandberries
¼ cup of dried apple chips
4 tablespoons of melted butter
4 tablespoons coconut sugar
Pinch of salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven 375 degrees
2. In a food processor pulse almonds, cranberries, apples, sugar, and salt until the mixture is fine and crumbly
3. Melt butter
4. In a small bowl mix butter and crust mixture until combined
5. Pour into a pie pan and using a spoon, press against the sides of the pan until you have formed the crust all the way around the pan evenly.
6. Bake for 10 minutes
7. Allow to cool

Pie Filling (Yields 2 Pies)
Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 tablespoon allspice
½ tablespoon nutmeg
½ cup full fat coconut milk
¼ cup pure maple syrup
1 egg
Directions
Preheat Oven 375 degrees
1. Bake two large sweet potatoes in the oven at 425 degrees for 45minutes or until they are soft
2. Allow to cool
3. Once potatoes are cool, peel off the skin
4. In a large bowl add sweet potatoes, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, coconut milk, maple syrup, and egg
5. With a hand mixer, mix all of the ingredients on medium speed, until all of the ingredients are incorporated well
6. Pour mixture into pie pan
7. Bake for 45min or a tooth pick interested comes out clean
8. If you crust starts to burn, wrap the edges of the crust with tin foil, this will stop the crust from browning

Coconut Whip Cream
Ingredients
1 can of full fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Directions
1. Place the can of coconut milk in the fridge for several hours. This will allow the coconut fat to solidify
2. Once the milk is chilled do not shake or mix.
3. Open the can of milk and gently scrape coconut fat out of the can
4. You should have a milky white substance left. I save this for creamer or other baking projects
5. Put coconut fat, syrup, and vanilla in a large bowl
6. With a hand mixer, mix on medium speed for several minutes until you have the consistency of whip cream
7. Serve immediately or freeze.

 

 

 

Don’t Sweat Negative Opinions!

Daily Motivation

Love this!

Fitness Pro Advantage

I found this picture rather motivating. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says “It’s YOU vs. YOU” Remember… TRAIN INSANE OR REMAIN THE SAME!

It’s YOU vs. YOU

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Pie for Breakfast

I love the holidays it’s the only time you can eat pie for breakfast :). I havr a great southern girl paleo chocolate sweet potatoe pie recipe, that will be up on the blog today. 

Farmers Market

We had a great family day on Sunday.  We went to the farmers market and got our last minute items for Thanksgiving.  I love being able to shop with my kids at the farmers market. My son Noah really gets into it and it makes me feel like im doing something right with him :).

Lucia and Dad getting our grass fed beef.

Noah picking out his kiwi

I know that the glare is terrible but this is the Fam 🙂

Dry and Itchy Scalp Treatment

Nothing drives me crazier then a dry and itchy scalp! My first winter in California was the worst. Moving from North Carolina with 100% humidity to California with 0 % humidity did a real number on my scalp and skin.  Here is a remedy that I use and have great results with for my dry scalp. Are you ready for it? You won’t believe how simple it is. I use a solution of water and vinegar.  What is great about this recipe is that it works on dry or oily scalps. The reason it works on both is because it balanced the PH levels of your scalp and this is what causes a dry or oily scalp. I know most people won’t want to use this remedy because they are afraid it will make their hair smell like vinegar, but trust me the smell washes out. There are a few other benefits to using this remedy ;

• Antibacterial and it will heal any open sores you may have from scratching
• Removes any product buildup you have on your scalp
• Makes your hair soft and shiny 

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Apple Cider or Regular Vinegar

2 oz Bottle

 Water

1. In a 2 oz bottle mix ½ oz of vinegar and 1 ½ oz of water.
2. Shake mixture up well
3. Wash hair
4. Before applying conditioner apply vinegar solution to your whole scalp. Be careful not to get any of the solution in your eyes because it will burn.
5. Apply conditioner and let sit for 10 minutes.
6. Rinse out with cool water

 

That’s it! It is so simple. I use this mixture every time I wash my hair but play around with it and see what works for you. Let me know how you like it.

Drink More Water

Just a little friendly reminder to drink more water 🙂 Water does so many great things for you body. Get get a big class of it!!!!

 

Parenting Book

Happy Friday!!!!

I have a question for my followers.

I am working on my book and it is a holistic parenting guide. It is going to offer holistic solutions for common childhood aliments and conditions, paleo/primal nutritional advice for kids, and ways to have a chemical free environment with recipes to accompany. What kind of childhood aliments or conditions would you like to see solutions for? Is there any particular problem you had with your kids that you just couldn’t find a solution for? I would love to hear your feedback!