Fall low carb part #1

I have been trying to eat low carb for a couple months now and some days are easier than others. I will have days where my normal routine is perfect, and I have no cravings for all the wonderful food that I have ate in the past. Then there are days where I feel like I could fucking kill someone for a piece of bread, or spaghetti with real noodles.

As we get closer and closer to the cool season where all you eat is those home cooked comfort foods. I wanted to talk to everyone about things that you can eat instead of all those carb filled foods. Again, this is easier for me to write then it is for me to actually do but in the end, I will know that it is worth it.

Fall and winter is when you see all of your long-distance family and friends. What a better way then losing weight to get that ultimate WOW factor when you walk in the room! I talked about low carb a couple months ago and you can find that post here. This time I want to talk about alternatives going into the holiday seasons so that you feel like you are still in control of your low carb diet yet not drooling over the food that is going to make you hangry and will later regret!

Let's start with the largest carb problem for me NOODLES. Egg noodles this time of year are my biggest weakness! They are the only thing that you can eat with homemade chicken and noodles or homemade beef and noodles! So, my alternative this year is going to be making them with almond flour instead of regular flour! Let's look at how flour alternatives will compare:

White all-purpose flour - 1 cup = 95g of carbs
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup = 74g of carbs
Almond flour - 1 cup = 10g of carbs
Coconut flour - 1/4 cup = 6g of carbs

Now if you are like me wondering why coconut flour is only 1/4 cup instead of a full cup like the others. This is because 1/4 cup of coconut flower is equivalent to 1 cup of almond flour! You will just have to add another egg or two depending on the recipe because of how absorbent it is!

If you are not making egg noodles and looking for another alternative you can substitute regular spaghetti noodles you can use Shirataki noodles! These only have 2g of carbs per serving!

Now some other alternatives that will save you this holiday season are:

White Sugar 1tsp = about 5g of carbs vs Stevia Sugar which has 1g of carbs per tsp.

1 cup of 2% milk has 12g of carbs in it while 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk has 2g of carbs.

Small changes like this will help you stay on track this holiday season! Here are some other ideas I have found on Pinterest! 

Homecoming Spirit Week!

Well it is homecoming week for the kids! That means its dress up week! Here is what challenge I was given to help them get ready for each day!

 

Monday

High School & Middle School - Marvel vs DC Superheroes ( Dress as your fav. Superhero) Our oldest wanted to go as Robin from Teen Titans You can find his shirt here and his gloves here! Our youngest went as the green lantern! Green lantern shirt and slicked back hair! Quick and easy costume!

 

 

Tuesday 

High School - Disney Day (Dress as your fav. Disney Character) Our oldest went as Darth Vader! Our youngest was unable to participate due to having a cast put on!

 

Wednesday 

High School - Meme or Vine Day (Dress as your favorite meme or vine) This was fun. Our oldest went as Barry Bee from the Bee Movie! He knows all the funny lines! I ordered a yellow and black shirt for him, slicked his hair down and painted his face yellow! That's all!

Middle School - Pajama Day! So he just wore his favorite flannel pajama pants and his favorite shirt. We can't forget about this skull robe! Granted it didn't match but do we really match when we are going to bed?

 

Thursday

High School & Middle School - "ER" Day (Words ending in the ER sound) This on had me stumped...then I realized I was thinking too much into it. Our oldest went as a sorcerer and our youngest went as Darth Vader. 

 

Friday

High School & Middle School - Spirit Day

Looking for ideas for homecoming or Halloween??? Look at the costumes I have saved here!

Halloween Party Ideas

Well it is time to start planning those Halloween Parties!

Every year we invite all of our friends over and have a fun adult dress up party! We all start the party 
at our house and then go around to local bars for their parties & contests!

I love Halloween. It is my favorite time of year! All the decorating, face painting, scary creatures, 
sugar skulls and fun witches! Our house is decorated inside and out starting October 1st!
You can read more about my decorations HERE!  

THEME:

Every party has to have a theme! Here are some fun ideas for your next Halloween Party!!

• Zombie Party
• Haunted house
• Witches & Warlocks
• Gothic Halloween
• New Orleans Halloween (Sugar Skull)
• Freak Show

Not every Halloween party has to be scary. You can have fun themed parties also like:

• Clue (Who did it) party
• Hocus Pocus
• Beetlejuice
• Casper’s Dinner Party

FOOD & DRINKS:

Let's get started with food options! You can make things really creepy or you can just go traditional
 w/ spooky background! One year I made the creepy gross looking food and to be honest it looked
 really cool but the problem was no one wanted to eat it because it looked weird!

 The kids on the other hand thought it was the coolest thing ever! Here are some creepy food ideas!

• Red velvet cinnamon rolls made into a pan of guts
• Red chocolate fondue or you can use the same fondue set for a red “blood” punch
• Add dry ice to your punch bowls to make them look creepy
• You can make any punch bowl fun by also adding glow sticks
• Skull bowls are always fun to have salsa in if you add some meat it will look like bloody brains!

After putting all the work into making that Halloween themed food and no one eating it
 I decided to make traditional finger food and just decorate around it.... make everything around it 
spooky and fun! This was a lot better outcome! Here are some fun ideas for snack food!

• Chips and dip - If you want to get creative with this you can get multi colored chips and then
   for the dip you can make 3 different kinds of cheese dip in these awesome slow cooker buffet!
   Add some fun decor around the crockpot and chip bowl and you are all set!
• Save your wine bottles throughout the year and you can purchase fun Halloween stickers go
   labels! Then add your own mix in them for your guests!
• Meatballs/Little smokies! These are always a hit at any party. The best barbecue sauce that
   I have found is Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce and when you mix a little grape jelly in it then you 
  will have an amazing flavor everyone will love!
• You can also find a lot of fun ideas on my Pinterest board! 
  
  

Here are some treat ideas for the younger kids or if you were signed up to do one of those
 fun Halloween parties for school!

DECORATIONS:

Now for decorations. I am just going to briefly touch on decorations because most of them you can 
find in my Halloween decor blog! There you will find allot more detail on how I decorate for Halloween.

Now allot of people just decorate for their party. Our house on the other hand starts October 1st and
doesn't end until November 1st! Here are some extra props that we do add for the party!

• Mad scientist drink lab
• Use your Amazon Alexa, or Google home devices to play haunted house sounds all around your 
  house
• Lighting is a must! Switch out those white bulbs for some fun black lights!
• Don’t forget to decorate your bathroom, blood on the mirror, Michael Myers in the bathtub things
   like that!
• Kitchen is the best place to have falling spiders and props that will pop out or make noise
   when people come in!

COSTUMES:

I am not sure if my favorite thing is to decorate the house….or costume design! So as the hostess/host 
you will want to dress for your theme. Make sure that you put your theme on the invitations and if you are
going to have a costume competition make sure you let your guests know!

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!!!

Our family vacation

The week leading up to our mini vacation to Minnesota started out a little rough. Your youngest fractured his right wrist trying to be superman in the band room, and our oldest hurt his ankle after marching band!! After that chaos of trying to get kids to the doctor and bandaged with splints we were finally ready to leave. Packed what looks like everything except the kitchen sink and started to head north!

****ALWAYS EXCITEMENT ON FAMILY TRIPS****

After about 2 hours on the road my husband thought he was being pulled over by the police. Then he saw there were 3 cars behind him. He hurried and pulled over to see a white car blow by us followed by three more police cars! We started to move again and here come 2 more police cars... We pulled over until 9 police cars total passed us at a very high rate of speed!

We started to go again and drove for about a half mile when we saw someone flashing a flashlight in the middle of the interstate. My husband quickly realized it was because there were spike strips set for the speeding white car going across the road!!

Thank goodness the was able to avoid it...but there were cars behind us that were not so lucky! Another mile passes, and we see a sea of flashing lights ahead of us! As we get closer we notice that the spike strips have worked but looks like the person fled the vehicle and the chase was still on!

Our oldest thought it was so awesome! Our youngest was so scared. Just goes to show how things change as you get older and understand more! Think this is all crazy??? Here is the article they reported about the incident!

It's always an adventure when we come to Minnesota! This one is starting out to be pretty exciting!!!! 

As we finally reached our destination it was a long trip but always worth it when we are able to see family! Our lives are always so busy, and I wish that there was a pause button because seeing how much our nieces have grown and remembering how much I miss talking and hanging out with my sister in law.... It makes mean realize how hard it is going to be to leave again! 

Day two.... Minnesota Renascence festival! Holy hot! Yes, hot in Minnesota in September!!! We were still able to see so many amazing things despite the heat! One of the things we did not watch this year was the jousting. It was too hot and no shade anywhere around the arena, so the kids were not having it! They were able to see and ride the elephants though!

We had to take allot of water breaks but were still able to see and enjoy all the beautiful craftsman ship, costumes, and the amazing setup they have!

There was some good beer and always great food but due to the heat we
really didn't eat or drink anything except water!

The kids got almost everything they wanted (within reason)! New steam punk costume accessories, new medieval weapons and we can't forget about the rocks! Our nieces were even able to get beautiful butterflies painted on their faces, princess crowns & folding fans with lots of glitter!

After 5 hours of walking we were all drenched in sweat and ready to call it a day! We had walked around the whole place by then and were too tired to do anything else. All the adults could think about at this point was getting into the shower and going to have a good burger and a good beer (or Titos) in the air conditioning!

Minnesota is always the best mini vacation for us. If we take the kids with us there is always so much to do and always fun things to see!


If it's just an adult trip, then we usually try as many breweries as we can! No matter what the occasion it is always a refreshing break of reality!

For our last day we decided we couldn't leave without taking a trip to IKEA on our way home! IKEA is my weakness! Everything you need (and don't need) for your home in one huge building! When I say everything I truly mean everything from light fixtures to soap dispensers. Did I mention they have a ton of organizing options too! This place is so amazing!

 After all of our fun at IKEA and grabbing a bite to eat we had to say good bye. We always dread this moment because we miss them so so much.  The drive home was allot quieter and I know we all wished we could have stayed just a little bit longer! Until next time ........

Favorite Season??

What is your favorite season?

With their only being 2 weeks left of summer and everyone is breaking out their pumpkin spice EVERYTHING. It brings up the question: What is your favorite season??


Here is how I feel about the seasons we have in Iowa! Enjoy!



Spring is amazing. You are finally over the shit cold weather and can start planting flowers, the grass is growing, and you can send your damn kids outside without them looking like the kid off of a Christmas Story!


Now if you are in Iowa mother nature is bipolar and can't make up her damn mind about spring.... but, no matter what you will still put on those flip flops and brave the snow one day and warm weather the next! Yes, in the spring in Iowa flip flops are worn even if there is snow! Once your body has been in -20++++ degrees weather for 3-4 months anything above freezing is a heat wave!!!




Summer in Iowa is great! One day you will have the windows open with that nice cool breeze moving through your house. Then the next 2 months you will have all windows and curtains shut with the air on. See in Iowa we have humidity. Allot of humidity! Sit outside for 30 min and be sweating like you just ran a marathon! On the other hand, you can get into the pool, get a tan, and enjoy those long summer days that the sun doesn't set until 8-9pm! We do allot of camping and just try and be outside (yes even with the heat & humidity) because we all know that in a few short months we will all be hermits again trying to stay warm!


We can't forget about all of town festivals & county/state fair!! Here is one of the events we had a couple years ago! Mud Mania! The kids were just caked in mud.... but they had a blast!

Now let's talk about fall! I think this is the most beautiful time in Iowa. The nights are nice and cool, the days are still warm. Friday night lights has started, and you can sit out back with your friends and have bonfires while wearing sweatshirts and shorts because you are not ready to give up the shorts yet! You can start decorating for Halloween, Thanksgiving. The house smells like cinnamon or pumpkin and it's a cozy time!

Kids playing in the leaves

Thanksgiving Goodies

Winter....I have nothing nice to say about it except: Christmas lights, baking cookies, family. That is all! Other than those amazing things.... this is how everyone looks! We are now looking like the kid on a Christmas Story again.... for the next 4 months!

It's Time For Fall Decor!

The trees are starting to turn, and that means it's time to take down all of those summer decorations and start making things warm and cozy inside and out! The biggest question I always have to ask myself is "When do you start decorating for fall?"

I will admit that I start the middle of September. I will start changing all the fun bright colors in the house for warm fall colors. This also drives my husband and kids crazy, because come October 1st our house is transformed into a scary Halloween filled house inside and out!

Don't get me wrong I love warm weather, playing outside in the pool, and being in the beautiful sun! I also love baking, the house being all warm and cozy, and getting ready for family and friends to be over allot! I will be the first to complain when the weather is beyond cold and the snow won't stop falling but until then I will enjoy sweatshirts, fires in the back yard, and that amazing fall scent that fills our house!

I may have to confess I do go a little over board when it comes to decorating the house. Here are some of the fun things that I have already done, and things that I will be doing for this fall!

Smell - I love nothing more than walking into our house and smelling pumpkin, spices, and all those warm scents!

Flowers - I must have flowers all over. Fall is hard to have flowers because all of the ones I spent hours trying to keep alive all spring and summer are almost dead. So, silk flowers it is! Warm fall colors and a little pop of fun colors! Find personalized wreaths here!!

Fun decor - This is the best part about decorating!! Here are some pictures of the fun decor we have for the fall season!!

October Menu Is Here!!

I can't believe that September is already half over! As we start to say goodbye to pools, hot summer days, and long summer nights we will be able to look forward to warm meals and the fun holiday seasons!!

I tried to incorporate Halloween in October's menu so some of the dinners have a fun/scary theme to them!! Enjoy!! 

Monster Mondays - For monster Mondays I will be making fun large hamburgers!! Some of the burgers are inspired by one of our favorite burger places. Zombie Burger!

Tricky Tuesdays - On tricky Tuesdays I will be cooking meals in different tricky ways. Some examples are Chili Dog Bake, Big Mac Salads, and Pizza Bake! 

Wicked Witch Wednesdays - What do witches use to cook?? A cauldron!!! My cauldron will be my Crock Pot Instant Pot. This will be day's full of those yummy meals that slow cook all day. When you get home that is the first thing you smell!!

Throwback Thursdays - With it being a busy season for school and sports we always need that fallback day! We will be having those classic meals like grill cheese and tomato soup, tater tot casserole, and mac and cheese with hamburger (one of the kids favorite). 

Fall Favorite Fridays - Fall is in the air and it is time to break out all of those fall favorite meals. Some of the fall favorites everyone picked out for the month are Goulash, Mom's KFC bowls, and spaghetti with meatballs!

Scary Movie Saturdays - I thought it would be fun this year to have a Halloween movie night! So, I have incorporated some fun foods to match the movies we will be watching!! Can you guess the movies that match the foods??? Slime popcorn balls, Jiffy pop popcorn, shrimp cocktail, and lemonade! 

Well that is all for October! Next month is turkey month!!! Have a safe and fun Halloween month everyone!!! 

**Reminder if you want to see these fun meals you can follow me on Instagram and for recipes follow me on Pinterest!!!**

Grandparents Day

 

 

 How much do you know about Grandparents Day?

 

Date: Always the 1st Sunday after Labor day (This year its 09-09-18)

 

Started: President Carter sign the proclamation in 1978

 

What is Grandparents Day? It is a day to honor grandparents. In the proclamation signed by President Carter it states: Grandparents are our continuing tie to the near-past, to the events and beliefs and experiences that so strongly affect our lives and the world around us. Whether they are our own or surrogate grandparents who fill some of the gaps in our mobile society, our senior generation also provides our society a link to our national heritage and traditions. 

 

You can read the full proclamation here.  

 

So please remember all those amazing grandparents out there and do something fun to show them how much they mean to us! 

 

Here are some ideas I have found on Pinterest! You can also follow me on Pinterest to see more fun ideas! 

Happy Grandparents Day!!! 

 

Picture provided by:https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwif-fvOqafdAhUFQKwKHY9EBK8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhomenewspa.com%2F2014%2F09%2F05%2Fhappy-grandparents-day%2F&psig=AOvVaw0VC7XvwVeepU6GwAYDMWnU&ust=1536355825811133 I do not own this picture

What are this years HOT HOLIDAY ITEMS???

I know its not even Thanksgiving but we have to think ahead because if we wait then the "hot toys" for this years holiday season will be double or triple in price! Which sucks because you want to get your kid something they really want for Christmas.....but not spend $300 on a damn toy that is only priced at $40 NOW! 

 

Or like last year the fingerlings were $14 before the holiday season. When they were all sold off the shelves. People were paying $1000 online for one! Or what about the $300 Barbie Dream House?? People were paying $500+++ on Amazon and ebay! That is crazy people!! 

 

My Predictions for this year!

 

Fur Real Rex 

 - As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $47

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here

 

 

 

Fingerlings Untamed Raptors 

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $14

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

Fingerlings HUGS by WowWee ***These were $1000 online last Christmas after stores sold out!!***

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $14

 - You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Num Noms Snackables Cereal 

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $8 the collectable was $30

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

  

 

Don't Step In It

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $14

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Grumblies

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $20

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Examine & Treat Pet Vet Play Set

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $27

- Amazon they were not available as of September 2018

 

 

Scruff-a-Luvs ****Warning these are already hard to find***

- As of September 2018 they were Sold Out at Wal-mart but were at Target for $20

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Pomsies

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $15

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Baby Alive Potty Dance Baby Doll

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $49

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Hatchimal Mystery

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $60

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

 

Polly Pocket

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $15

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

 

Teddy Ruxpin

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $60

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

L.O.L Big Surprise

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-Mart for $70-$152

- You can also purchase them from Amazon the price range was $100-$150 here!

Rescue Runts

- As of September 2018 these were being sold at Wal-mart for $15

- You can also purchase them from Amazon here!

 

So there are a few toys I have found that will be BIG items this holiday season....Some other toys that could be hot are:

 Pikmi Pops

 Hogwarts Great Wall Lego Set

Star Wars Furreal Chewie