To the people who want you to change...

The land of blogging has two sides.  One of them is filled with amazing people who are kind and uplifting.  Those people have made blogging so much fun.  The other side is filled with people who are cruel and like to hide behind an e-mail, another website or nasty comments.  As a blogger I see both of these sides on an almost daily basis.

I wanted to address something that recently occurred.  I received a not so uplifting e-mail from another blogger (even more shocking) who wanted to tell me how she really felt, which was "Your blog commentaries are dull, vapid, silly and offend my sensibilities."  The e-mail went on to say (with a lot of blah blah in between) that if I was to improve my writing and "promised" to never use words like "suck" again then maybe she would consider reading my blog.

Hmmm.  This got me thinking and you know what?  Screw em. Not everyone is going to like what I have to say and how I write or even how I look or cut my hair but that's okay.

This blog is meant to be a voice of "me."  It is not meant to be a voice of a highly acclaimed poet trying to sway your political views.  When I put myself and little snippets of my life out there for all the world to see and judge some people will feel entitled to share their un-kind opinions.  I get that and have come to understand that's just what happens when you make yourself slightly vulnerable. My intention with my blog is that it is a happy (most of the time) place, lighthearted, encouraging and hopefully a little refreshing.

So to everyone reading this... Don't ever think you need to change the way you look, change the way you write or change the way you are because someone tells you they think you should.  If you feel like twerkin, do it.  Remember you are YOU and you are awesome.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and don't let sucky people ruin it.

And to quote a really deep poet ;) : " Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." 

Latest Life Snippets

Happy Friday!

Here are a few snippets of life lately according to my Instagram (@Delightedmomma) and my iPhone...

1. A longer than 2 hour date night that obviously needed to be documented.

2. Date night dessert.  I made a rule that diet rules do not apply while on dates right before I ate this.  I think that rule is awesome and so was this crazy chocolate stacked treat.

3. My two crazy boys keeping me on my toes and almost giving me multiple panic attacks while at the park.  Can they just NOT try to jump in the duck pond or pretend they are super heroes while at the top of the park slide.  That would be great.

4. Kilim pillows that I have been slowly collecting from ebay and Etsy for the new place.  I am kind of in love with them.

5. Max has been kickin butt and takin names at swim class and he recently got over his fear of floating on his back.  This was his face right after he finished his latest class.  I would say he was pretty proud of himself. 

6. The cutest (I would say they are cute) little pumpkin trees from Trader Joes!  Perfect for fall decorating.

Have a wonderful weekend!  I am going to my soon to be sister-in-law's bridal shower this weekend and I am so excited she is going to officially be a part of our family in just a few short weeks.  I am in charge of desserts and I think I might give cake pops a whirl!  It will be my first time ever making them but hey how hard can they possibly be?  I will watch a You Tube video ;)

How To Beat a Cold With Oil of Oregano

With the changing of the weather and cold and flu season quickly approaching, I wanted to share a new to me natural remedy called Oil of Oregano.  This magical little herb has recently helped ward off several colds that I had coming on in the past few months.  And when I say ward off I mean I wake up with a cold or a sore throat, I take a few drops and by the next morning any sign of a cold is gone.

I heard about this awesome stuff from the slightly hippie-ish yet knowledgeable herb specialist at my local natural grocery store.  I told her I was feeling a cold coming on and she instantly directed me to a little (expensive) bottle of Oil of Oregano.  She said this is all I need and it should do the trick.  She called it "nature's antibiotic."  I decided to trust her and I paid around $32 for the bottle.  She warned me that it was strong and she suggested I take it with water.  The moment I got in my car I opened the bottle and put 4 drops on my tongue.  I looked around for my water bottle and realized I had left it at home.  Bad idea.  Let's just say this is the grossest stuff ever and it makes apple cider vinegar taste like sweet apple pie in comparison, BUT the outcome is worth it.  The next morning my sore throat was gone.  Since then I swear by this.  Any time I feel achy or sick I take a few drops and about 24 hours later I feel 100% again.  Now I am not a doctor or an herb specialist. I am just simply sharing this with you because it's awesome and it works.

So if you feel a cold or flu coming on and want to try a natural remedy here is what you can do:

• Take 3-4 drops 2-3 times daily until you feel better.  
• Make sure you have water handy to chase it (it's not the best tasting stuff) or you can dilute it with water. I personally like to just get it over with. 

You can find Oil of Oregano at your local natural health food store or online here.

Have you ever used Oil of Oregano before?  I wold love to hear about your experience if so! 

Pumpkin Pie Sugar Cookies (Paleo)

Well happy official fall!  In my opinion there is no such thing as too much pumpkin anything once fall starts.  I have been wanting to make a low carb Paleo pumpkin cookie for quite some time now but its seems like every recipe I have attempted is more like a breakfast bread cookie with just a hint of pumpkin.  I wanted to make a pumpkin cookie that was moist, soft and sweet and tasted just like a pumpkin pie.  Well these are exactly that and they will make your taste buds do a happy dance. My boys basically fought over the last of these cookies and that is always a good sign since they are my official taste testers.

What you will need:

• 1 cup of almond butter
• 1 cup of almond flour
• 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 5 tbs of coconut sugar + a little extra to sprinkle on top
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tbs of pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine all of the above ingredients together in a bowl.  Mix well until you have a sticky dough.
3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and drop rounded tbs size cookies onto the sheet. 
4. Use a the bottom of a glass or the back of a spoon to gently flatten out each cookie.
5. Sprinkle a tiny bit of coconut sugar on top of the cookies. 
6. Bake for 13 minutes or until edges are golden.  
7. Enjoy! 

These are extremely moist and beyond delicious.  I promise you will not be disappointed.  If you make these please come back and let me know what you think!

Things That Make Me Say Yeay + Garage Sales Suck

The weather has actually been cool enough for flannels (with shorts ha) the past couple of evenings and I could not be more excited about this.

Max holding on tight to his little treasure he found on our nature walk.

Our Sunday night tradition...a shared chocolate mug cake (I know I am so nice to share) while we watch Breaking Bad.  We are completely obsessed with the show and I can not believe how intense it is getting.  Right?!  So good.

Re-staining this bed frame for Max's room.  I love diy projects but I think I am officially over re-finishing stuff for the time being.  Just saying.

Beautiful upholstery swatches from Thrive Furniture for a new couch.  So many choices but I think I am leaning towards the blue in the front.   Ian said N to the O on the blue but we will see ;)

Moving and packing and house stuff has basically been taking over our lives the past few weeks and until we actually move in I do not really see that changing.  Oh and last weekend we had a garage sale and I have officially decided they suck.  Never again.  NO I will not sell everything I have for a dollar.  Geesh.  I remember moving when we had no kids and it was a total breeze (duh).  Now that we have a full house it just seems to bring things to a whole new crazy stressful level.  We also thought it would be a good idea to sell all our furniture in our bedroom before we move and now we have no dresser and no bed (just the mattress) and all of our clothes are piling up like an episode from Hoarders.  Awesome.  I may be a little less present here on the blog until we get all settled but I will try to update and post as often as I possibly can. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Crust

Football season has officially started, which means I have basically zero say when Sunday rolls around and I want to do "family activities."  The idea of watching football ALL day long is not super appealing to me but I do love making yummy snacks and meals for the football watching crew that gathers here.  Ever since I made this cauliflower pizza crust (which I am obsessed with) I have been wanting to test out other veggies that could possibly do the same thing.  I decided to try that simple recipe with the base as spaghetti squash.  I made a few tweaks to make things stick together and holy freaking cow this was good!   

This recipe does have cheese and yes I am a Paleo traitor but some recipes just need cheese and this is one of them.  I have recently started adding a little bit of cheese back into my diet and so far so good.  I miss cheese and I don't necessarily like being in a Paleo only box for the rest of my life.  So if you are completely dairy free I have no idea what you could sub but you are more than welcome to experiment and let me know how that goes :)  

What you will need:

• 2 1/2 cups of spaghetti squash (about 1 small spaghetti squash) 
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp of garlic salt
• 1 cup of mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup of flax meal 

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cook you spaghetti squash however you prefer.
3. Once your spaghetti squash is cooked use a fork to pull out all the spaghetti strings.  Place the spaghetti strings in between paper towels and squeeze out AS MUCH excess liquid as you can.  This is very important if you do not want a mushy pizza crust.
4. Combine the spaghetti squash and all the other ingredients listed above.  Use your hands to really blend everything together.
5. Line a baking sheet or pizza pan with parchment paper and evenly spread your mixture on it. Make sure you keep the dough pressed together firmly as you spread.
6. Bake your pizza crust for 25- 30 minutes or until you notice the edges starting to brown.  At the end of the 30 minutes carefully flip your crust and continue to bake for additional 25-30 minutes until pizza is no longer mushy and fully baked through.  *
7. Take your crust out and spread on pizza sauce and whatever toppings you love.  Place it back it the oven for a few more minutes to let everything melt and get all bubbly.
8. Enjoy!

 * Oven temperatures do vary so please keep an eye on your crust and if you need to flip it sooner (starts to brown faster than time above says) then go ahead and do it.  Or if you feel like its still a little soft keep it in a little longer.  You get the idea.

This was fully approved by the football watching men both big and small.  It's crispy, delicious and a perfect way to sneak in a healthier version of a hearty classic.

* This entire pizza crust has only 20.6  grams of effective carbohydrate! That is some pretty awesome news considering one slice of regular pizza has about 27 grams of carbs.

See also:
Cauliflower Biscuits
Baked Parsnip Fries 
Butternut Squash Hummus 

Latest Life Snippets

Can I get a woooooo hoo for Friday?!

At the moment we are getting all ready to move (the countdown is officially on).  Our house is bare and is getting all packed up.  It feels weird but a good weird.  And tomorrow we are having our first ever garage sale to hopefully make way for new things.  I am so excited about it for some reason and I think I might get donuts because that just seems like the proper garage sale breakfast.

So here is life lately according to my Instagram (@delightedmomma)...

1. Harvesting wine grapes at Grandpa and Aubi's house.  It's a tradition every year for all the boys to get together late at night to pick the last of the extra ripe grapes and this year Max got to join in.  He was beyond excited and fully equipped with a head light and heavy duty grape picking gloves.

2. A serious cousin clan that I would not want to mess with.  Love them all.

3. Working on a furniture makeover and giving an old dresser a brand new fresh look with a pop of color.

4. A beautiful mermaid themed cake from a recent children's party I was at. 

5. I guess you know you live in the country when you are on an evening walk and you pass by the hundreds of sheep that are being herded (or is it herd) literally minutes from our house.  My boys were thoroughly entertained and Ronin has been non stop "baaaaaaaaaaing" (with quite a bit of energy I might add) at basically everything ever since.  Great. 

6.  I plan on starting a little reading nook at our next house for the boys so when I stumbled upon a classic kid's book jackpot during a recent thrifting excursion I was beyond pumped.

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Special Delivery For Max (A Kiwi Crate)

Max received his very first Kiwi Crate in the mail a few days ago and oh man was it awesome!  Kiwi Crate has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, In Style and more.  They are also partners with Pottery Barn Kids (one of my favorite sources of inspiration for the boy's rooms).  It's a monthly subscription targeted for kids ages 3-7. Each month the crate contains 2-3 projects and all the supplies your child could possibly need.

When the crate arrived I told Max all the goodies inside were for him.  He could hardly contain his excitement as he was opening it when more and more fun items began to appear. His crate contained two main projects, which were a  rocket and flying kite.  This could not have been more perfect for him! I set up a little craft section for him and for two full hours Max sat there designing and building with me.  He was thoroughly entertained, which is saying a lot for an overly antsy toddler.

We immediately took his kite and launching rocket out for a test run after he was done and he was beyond excited to see his creations actually work!  This is such a fun concept. I love the idea of having a special craft box delivered to your child each month that not only allows them use their imagination and be creative but at the same time also teaches them the basics of following directions.

Have you heard of the Kiwi Crate yet?  If you have a young child I have no doubt they would love this too!  

Kiwi Crates provided the box to us for reviewing purposes but all opinions expressed are my own and I never mention anything on my blog that I do not love. 

Flourless Pumpkin Brownies

Fall is here!...Well no it's not really here yet since it is still 105 freaking degrees here in Southern California.  But when canned pumpkin finally arrives in mass amounts on the shelves at  my favorite grocery store it is somewhat of a fall initiation that I just can not ignore.   Same goes for Starbucks and the first day they start up on the pumpkin spice lattes.  People just feel the need to post pictures on Instagram because this surely must mean fall is near (or here).  Right? Right.

I made these brownies a total of 3 times until I got them right.  Yep the first two batches were just okay and okay does not cut it when people actually make the things you post about.  So yes, the third time was the charm and my husband, boys and a friend all agreed the third time was the winner.  These are not overly sweet and the pumpkin is not completely overwhelming.  I would say these are just right. 

What you will need:

• 1 cup almond butter
• 1 cup of canned pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of honey *
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tbs of ghee  

* If you prefer your treats to be a little sweeter use 1/2 cup of honey. 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. 
3. Pour the batter evenly into an 8 x 8 baking dish.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Wait until brownies cool and enjoy!

These are super moist, cake like and the perfect treat to get you in the pumpkin mood. If you make these please come back and let me know what you think!

Things That Make Me Say Yeay + A Brand New (short) Hair Do

Cauliflower pizza crust.  Ohhhhhh my!  Best thing ever, I kid you not.  I have been wanting to try this out for the longest time and have no clue what took me so long.  We all devoured it like nobody's business.  I have decided that next time I make it I will have to for sure double it since my two boys were basically fighting over the last piece. I used this recipe, which is fool proof.  And yes that is cheese you see, we are not perfect Paleo eaters 100% of the time.

Baking these cookies for a second time for no reason at all other than they are easy to make and awesome.

A solid oak table for our new kitchen, which just so happens to be a Pottery Barn look alike I was eying.  I found it at a garage sale for a serious deal!  Probably helped my cause a little when I showed up with Ronin in the Ergo and he started throwing a crazy fit.  I think they might have just wanted me to leave and in return basically gave me the table ;) I plan on refinishing and re-staining it to give it a farmhouse style makeover and pairing it with modern looking chairs.

The juiciest Asian pears from my Dad and Step Mom's house.  We had so many I made a large batch of baked Asian Pear chips with them. I used this method and it made my whole house smell like a candy factory.

A new much shorter do!  I have had the same hairstyle for what seems like forever and this was a totally spontaneous decision made at 3am due to insomnia because I am an idiot and decided to drink an Americano at 5pm.  BUT it seriously feels great and I can not thank my hair gal enough!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Is Preschool Necessary?

I was recently at Max's swim lesson and this adorable mom sat next to me and we started chit chatting.  She was a kindergarten teacher.  She was sweet and soft spoken yet seemed to ooze fun-ness.  She was exactly the kind of woman that I would want Max to have as his Kindergarten teacher.  She asked me how old Max was. I told her he just turned three.  She immediately followed up with "Ohh are you going to put him in preschool?"  She went on to tell me that she could really tell a difference between the kids who did go and the kids that did not.  This got me thinking. Should I have Max in preschool already?  Was he missing out on crucial learning and developmental activities? Each day Max and I work on reading, writing, counting, colors etc and I also make sure we have regular play dates with other kids his age as much as possible. 

But with that said, do you think preschool is necessary?  Or do you feel like it is just another "thing" we fill our kids lives with?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this either way.

The Two Minute Cinnamon Banana Mug Cake (Paleo)

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend celebrating all those mothers that you know who have gone into labor at some point...HA!  Someone I know, I won't say names as to protect the innocent recently told me that is what they thought Labor Day meant.  So funny :) Last year I got an e-mail from a reader (more like hater) saying I must be a complete moron because I said in a post I had no idea what the meaning of Labor Day was. Well since then I have googled and am fully aware AND it turns out there must be a lot more morons who don't know all about the holiday where you celebrate working people by not working :)

So anyways, we partied really hard this weekend (not really) and went garage sale-ing (found a killer table that I can not wait to refinish) and started packing up our house.  All these non crazy activities made us hungry. I had not yet been to the grocery store and our fridge was looking pretty sad but I came up with a concoction that made it into the "UM YES" category.  We have since made it every morning for breakfast. 

What you will need:

• One banana
• 3 rounded tbs of almond meal 
• 1 tbs of coconut sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tbs of coconut oil
• dash of sea salt

Directions:

1. Smash the banana up.  The fastest way to do this is to put it in a ziplock bag and smush it between your hands. 
2. Add the smushed banana and all the other ingredietns into a microwave safe mug or dish.  Stir everything together. 
3. Microwave for 2 minutes and enjoy!

I highly suggest you take two minutes to whip this up and try it out for yourself! You will be happy you did.

See also:
3 Minute Chocolate Paleo Mug Cake 
The Two Minute Paleo Blueberry Muffin 
The Two Minute Pumpkin Pie (Paleo)