Blackberry Almond Quinoa {Gluten Free}

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ImageA few days ago, I purchased some delicious looking blackberries at the grocery store. Honestly, any type of berries makes my mouth water – but blackberries especially.

In addition to raw turnips, I used to pick them out in the garden of my grandparents’ Texas home. And, boy – did they taste sweet after being out in the sun. Yum.

This no fuss breakfast {or snack} will leave your tummy full and happy. Not to mention, the cinnamon will give your metabolism a kick start to the day.

You will need: 1 cup of uncooked quinoa, 2 tbsp. cinnamon, 1 little grocery store container of blackberries, ½ cup almonds and 1/4 cup agave nectar.

First, cook the quinoa. Bring 2 cups of water to boil on the stove and add in 1 cup of quinoa.

Let this cook for about 10-15 minutes. You want all the water to be mostly gone and absorbed into the yummy, healthy seeds. The quinoa should look almost clear to the naked eye.

Let the quinoa cool in a bowl off the stove {for about 5 minutes.} Dump the cinnamon into the quinoa mixture – stir. I diced my almonds on my own {because I only had whole almonds.} Place about ½ cup of almonds into a food processor and pulse. But, not too long – because it will turn into butter.

Pour the almond crunch into the bowl and stir. Then drizzle about ¼ cup of agave nectar to create a beautiful sweet taste.

Lastly, add in the berries and gently mix them into the bowl. Now enjoy and serve. This makes enough for a few days. So, breakfast is taken care of for half the work week. Good deal!

Pepperoni Pizza Salad {Gluten Free}

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saladThis little salad will make your mouth water. If you are trying to stay off breads and pastas – or live the gluten free lifestyle this is the perfect salad for you.

It is like an Italian pizza explosion in your mouth. And, it’s so simple to make.

You will get that pepperoni, cheese and spicy combo with this little green delight– and can also indulge on those black yummy olives. {I could literally eat a whole can as a snack!}

You will need: 1 head of romaine lettuce, 10 pepperoncini peppers, handful of black canned olives, 7 sliced radishes, 5 mini marinated mozzarella balls, low-fat turkey pepperoni slices – and your favorite salad dressing.

First chop up your lettuce. I like finely chopped salad. So spend some time making sure my pieces are little. Fill your big bowl up with this hearty goodness.

Throw the pepperoncinis on top of the lettuce. It’s ok if some of the juice drips into the salad – this creates such great flavor. Lay the rest of the ingredients on top of the lettuce.You don’t have to use radishes. I just found that they provided a real good crunch to this meal.

I used a low-fat ranch dressing for the salad and mixed it in. However, light olive oil and vinegar would probably taste nice. You will want something that pairs well with the Italian flavorings.

Hopefully, this is a fun new salad idea for you, if you are trying to spice up those mundane healthy meals. You get the taste of pizza without all the calories and gluten. Yum.

Honey Cinnamon French Toast {Gluten Free}

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ImageOne of the many things that I loved when I was a kid was the gooey sugary taste of French Toast.

My mom would buy the little sticks and pour hot syrup over them in the morning. There honestly was nothing better than that.

In fact, my mouth still waters thinking of sinking my teeth into this savory breakfast.

However, now that I am gluten free, French Toast is harder to come by. You can smell it in a little café – yet cannot indulge and this is quite sad. But not to worry – it is so simple to make gluten free French Toast.

Just make your kitchen into your little bistro. So, if you are missing that delicious taste of the golden toast pieces, follow this recipe.

You will need: 1 cage free egg, 2 pieces of gluten free toast {I use Udi’s bread}, 2 tbsp. of cinnamon, honey, sugar free syrup.

Crack your egg open and dump the inside into a bowl. Whisk up the egg and dip one piece on toast in the bowl. Make sure both sides are covered with the egg mixture.

Sprinkle cinnamon all over the piece of toast and drizzle just a little bit of honey over both sides. This adds a little bit more sweetness. Yum.

Place a pan on the oven – and make sure it’s warm before you set your egg covered piece of toast on it. Cook both sides of the piece of toast. Make sure it’s pretty toasty before you take it off. You want the egg to be soaked into the bread and the toast to look slightly brown.

Do this same process for your other pieces of bread. Place the toast on a plate and drizzle sugar-free syrup on top and enjoy!

You can too have French Toast with a gluten free twist!

Buy A Chosen Child Adoption Band & Support The Choice of Life

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Jonathan & Megan – prime example of a sweet couple who want to open their hearts and home to a little one in need.

This week marked the 41st year in America since Roe v. Wade (1973) was set in place. I read a news article that stated that 55 million unborn lives have been lost since that date.  Abortion rates in the United States are simply outrageous. Thousands of little lives are snuffed out each and every day.

I won’t spend this entire post talking about the statistics. But, if you are curious and concerned, which you should be – check out this link {here.}

Choosing life for your unborn child is not only beneficial, it’s right. And, there are beautiful, amazing couples out there – looking for a special child to love on. Adoption is key. Don’t snuff out a life because you are scared. Look for alternatives for that baby inside of you.

Thank goodness that many people have chosen life for their little ones – so that precious families can adopt them and accept them into warm, caring homes!

Jonathan and Megan are the prime examples of loving people that your child could be blessed with. After 6 years of marriage, they are choosing to give a child a life, love and a family. According to their blog {which you should check out} they are adopting an infant through the ABC (African-American/Biracial Children) program of The Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth.

They need your help and support in adopting this little one.

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This is the cool band you will get – only $10!

Will you give of yourself – to help a little precious child go to a good, happy family? You can simply purchase an adoption band {pictured} and all the proceeds during January and February will go directly to their agency. How awesome is that!?

It is based on Ephesians 1:3-6, which says, ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves’

By the way, don’t you just LOVE the name of the band – chosen child!? Chills. Seriously. Please read more about the bands, here. Again, all the proceeds go to Jonathan’s and Megan’s agency during the months of January and February!

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. {Psalm 127:3}

Oven Egg Muffin {Gluten Free}

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ImageGood Morning – Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory! Time to wake up, smell the coffee and have a hearty breakfast!

Now tell me, who doesn’t love the incredible, edible egg!? {Organic and cage-free of course!}

This little toasty egg cake will make your morning just a little better. And for those of you on a protein enthused diet {low-carb}, this is perfect for you! It’s is also gluten-free {let the angels sing!}

This recipe is super easy and takes no time at all to make!

Kids and adults will like this yummy meal. So, let’s get cooking.

You will need: 6 eggs {one egg per muffin tin, roughly}, turkey low-fat sandwich meat, grape tomatoes, spinach, yellow onions and salt and pepper to taste.

First of all, spray your muffin tins with some cooking spray and set the oven to 350.

In a separate bowl, crack your eggs {use cage-free} and whisk together into a nice little yellow mixture. On a cutting board, chop up about ¼ of a yellow onion and dump these into the egg mixture – whisk again.

In muffin tins, line the bottom with about 3 spinach leaves. I lined 6 little cups in the tin. Add some sliced turkey meat and sliced tomatoes.

Pour the egg mixture on top of your bed of spinach and veggies. And place these in the oven.

Allow them to cook for about 20 minutes and – there you go – a nice little egg cake. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add salsa on the side or ketchup. It’s your choice.

Wedding Bells & Tremendous Bliss

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kimi smileHello sweet blogger friends, I wanted to share some exciting news with you – I’m engaged. Taylor popped the question over the frosty weekend, and I said yes.

It was a wonderful night – dinner at the first place we had a date, ice-skating and a romantic {freezing} walk on the mall, where he got down on one knee – with the United States Capitol illuminated in the distance.

I cried. He teared up {men don’t cry, right? Haha}. It was perfect. I love this man with all my heart.

He is my best friend. My partner –the person that I cannot wait to call at the end of the day! His jokes make me cry with laughter and his heart melts mine. He is not afraid to stop and pray {in public or in private.} His fervent love for God and dedication spurs me to dig deeper into the Lord’s unfailing grace and mercy.

I pray this only gets stronger with time and am excited to walk through this life with him. We all know marriage is not a smooth sailing cruise ship, so I pray God will bless our commitment and make us into understanding, loving vessels that shine his glory to the world and each other daily.

kimi ring collage

So now, I guess, I will be adding a new dimension to the blog – wedding planning. However, I will not over bombard you with posts about flowers, vows, dresses and bridesmaids gifts.

I realize that is annoying – don’t worry. I am not typical in that sense – sometimes it’s too much white lace, frosting and cake. I get it. I am going to stick to my typical blog style {and maybe just pepper throughout some wedding posts.}

kimi taylor ring

Anyway, I wanted to share my joy with each of you. Thank you for following this blog. I truly appreciate your support and encouragement.

Coffee Cake {Gluten Free}

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IMG_5979Had a sweet craving this morning and, while sipping my coffee, really wanted to have some crumbly moist coffee cake.

However, as you gluten free foodies know – making delicious dishes like this are a little bit harder to make sans gluten.

Fortunately I found a wonderfully delightful recipe on Good Life Eats. I will be making this sweet coffee cake again and again.

Slightly modified the recipe to my taste – here is what I used below. Yum – you will for sure eat more than one piece this morning.

You will need: 1 ¼ cup almond flour (I used blanched almond meal), ¼ cup oat flour (if you don’t have this handy, grind up oats in the food processor), 2 tbsp. coconut flour, a dash of salt, 2 tbsp. cinnamon, 1/3 cup brown sugar, ¼ cup vegetable oil, ½ tsp. baking soda, ½ tsp. baking powder, 2 cage free eggs, 1 cap full vanilla extract and ½ cup skim milk.

I also made a sweet frosting to drizzle over the top of the hot cake.

For the frosting you will need: 1/3 cup cream cheese, 1/3 cup powder sugar and ½ cup milk.

Basically, all I did was first combine all the flours together and mix these up with a large fork. I also did not have any oat flour on hand. So, just poured ½ cup of oats into a food processor and made my own. Problem solved!

Add in the salt to your multiple gluten free flour mixture – then the cinnamon and brown sugar. Also put in the baking soda and powder. Stir these together good with the large fork.

Now add in the wet ingredients. Dump in the oil and eggs and stir. Lastly add in the vanilla and milk. Then, you will need to mix all this together into a nice little mixture.

Spray a 8X8 pan with non-stick cooking spray and pour in your yummy mixture. To add to the sugary taste, I created a topping of a little brown sugar and cinnamon that I sprinkled over the top of the cake.

Place this in the oven {heated to 375} for around 25 minutes.

To make the powder sugar frosting, I combined all the ingredients in the food processor and pulsed until the mixture looked creamy. Add more powder sugar, if you think it’s not sweet enough.

Pour your powder sugar frosting on top of the warm cake {I drizzled it with a spoon} – and enjoy!

4 Benefits of Eating Oatmeal For Breakfast

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My lovely breakfast at work. 1/2 cup oats & craisins.

Like Goldie Locks and the three bears – eating porridge is pretty good for you!

Well, alright – oatmeal in this case. Nothing says ‘healthy’ like a big bowl of piping hot oats in the morning.

You might think it is bland – but you really can jazz it up with fruits and toppings.

Try dumping craisins into the mix (my fav) before you microwave it. Or how about adding fresh blueberries or brown sugar? The choices are really limitless. What about peanut butter for a creamy taste?

If you are gluten free, you can dig in to oatmeal! But, stick to the natural oatmeal {not the prepackaged kind}.

A recent study of adults with wheat allergies has shown that oats, despite the small amount of gluten they contain, are well-tolerated.

Oats have some great health benefits and will help keep weight gain at bay…

Oatmeal contains loads of fiber. That means that your tummy will feel fuller longer. So, you are not reaching for that snack at 10am. You can keep those hunger pangs away! These thick oats wills stick to your stomach – and you have its insoluble fiber to thank for that!

It will lower your cholesterol. MayoClinic.com recommends oatmeal as one of the top five foods to eat to improve your cholesterol numbers. So, if you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol – dive in to hot bowl oatmeal.

Reduce the risk of breast cancer. A study conducted in the UK found that pre-menopausal women reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by 41 percent just by eating fiber from whole grains. The insoluble fiber is said to attack carcinogens as well as lower levels of estrogen in the body – which protects the body from the development of cancer cells.

Curb Inflammation in the body. Lab tests show that antioxidants in oats have anti-inflammatory properties. So, if you feel a little bloated, eat a ½ cup of oatmeal. Maybe it’s the lack of sugar in these little oats of power – but swapping this for your favorite sugary cereal will make you feel less puffy and more fit.

Fresh Flowers Have Health Benefits

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What a cute idea – use a pitcher as a vase!

There is something about flowers that brightens my world. Looking at them really gives me a serene charge. It’s like my heart smiles at every glance of a pastel petal in a crystal vase.

To me, it’s worth it to chunk out $4.99 or more {don’t go crazy!} every few weeks for this bit of peacefulness. You’re worth it.

But, what is it about flowers that make people happy? This might surprise you, but there was actually a study done on the emotional impact of flowers.

The study finds that – happiness, friendless and memory are gained.

Maybe the people who coined the phrase ‘Flower Power’ were on to something?

Women who are given flowers are reported to carry happiness around with them for up to 3 days after receiving flowers. If flowers are displayed or set out in a room, it incites friendliness. Flowers given to elderly people actually improve memory retention.

You can read the FULL study here.

Also – as a little bonus for you work desk dwellers – flowers and plants promote innovation and productivity in the workplace.

And guess what – men garnered 15% more ideas than women having some type of green plant present in the office. However, women benefited more in the creative department.

Go out and buy some flowers. Let your heart smile a little more today!

Praise You With a Grateful Heart – for Today!

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ImageI had an epiphany today, if you will. I’ve never had an issue with gratefulness. I love my life and typically look at situations and circumstances through rose colored glasses. I feel blessed and really thank God for who he has made me to be – and how he works through me.

However, as you get older, things change a little bit. Your life does not move at the speed of light anymore. You are not graduating from high school to college and then on from college to the working world. Challenges and goals don’t come up so quickly and you can find yourself feeling dull – even useless.

I hate to admit this, but I have felt this way at times. Heck, we are all human. You get into a routine – and that spice for life somehow dissipates.

You think, ‘When is the next best thing going to happen to me!?’ When is that next phase is life going to happen!?’ Yet, you continue on every day like a faithful servant, but lacking that zeal.

I think on Matthew 5:13, ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.‘

Think of saltiness as zeal or a joyful heart. You are basically useless without an inward joy and peace. And, boy, I don’t want to be useless! Joy attracts others to you. Thankfulness sets your face aglow!

Time to adopt a thankful heart again! I have to tell myself not to long for the future – but to live in the moment. Days go by wasted, if your heart is not right. Think of how far you’ve come in life and praise God for this!

This exercise is a surefire way to get your mind back to that grateful state.

When I first moved to the Washington, DC area, I lived in a tiny studio apartment. And, we are talking tiny, like a little box. I washed my dishes in the bathtub y’all. No dishwasher for this girl. But, you know what, I may not own a house now – but I don’t need to gravel in that fact and let it destroy my day. I need to praise God for where I am now. I live in a nicer apartment with a beautiful new dishwasher. So, I praise God for the sudsy bubbles in that machine that make my life happier and easier.

I praise you, God—for the little paws that pitter patter on my hardwood floors, and that sweet little puppy face that has been living with me for 3 years. This is a blessing and is something that blesses my life. This is something I did not have before – and now, I do.

Try this exercise. It works wonders – and the list will grow like those grow magic capsules! Of course the future holds wonders for you (this is a promise!) – but don’t long for it. This will only make you unhappy. Praise God for where you are now – and ask him to use you in your current state. Life is too short to live unhappy.