Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies

  

Not sure about you guys, but sometime Payton gets a sweet tooth and finding #KETO approved treats can be difficult. I have been on the search of a good chocolate chip cookies recipe that fits his diet and I actually enjoy! Let's face it, not all sugar free, low carb food is actually GOOD!

I found these KETO chocolate chip cookies super simple to make and EASY (after I combined a zillion recipes tries lol)! I want to point on that I am making the transition to all NATURAL, grass fed products so next time, I would use different brands of products in my ingredients, but still the same measurements of products.

It is super important to remember to mix your dry ingredients first and THEN mix in the wet ingredients. I did soften my butter in the microwave because it was frozen. I would recommend leaving it on the counter as opposed to microwaving. Tho it gave the same effect, I have read terrible things about microwaving food and loss of nutrients (yes, I am one of THOSE people).

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup butter - softened
• 3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (I was out so used baking soda instead)
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 1/2 Cups almond flour
• 1 1/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

Directions 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line baking sheet with parchment paper - I prefer using parchment paper on my baking sheet over greasing. 
• Measure almond flour into mixing bowl. Add baking soda and salt
• In a separate bowl (preferably a mixer) - Cream together brown sugar and butter then slowly add eggs and vanilla extract. Mix 
• Slowly mix dry ingredients into the creamed mixture into completely combined. Hand stir your chocolate chips in. 
• Using a spoon - drop spoon drop sized cookies onto your baking sheet - I use the spoon to flatten them out a bit. 
• Bake 11-13 min or until the cookies are golden brown. 
• Cookies save about 3 days on the counter, but are best eaten the same day

Hope you love them as much as we do!

-Laura 

Drumsticks Cereal a Breakfast Staple

This post is sponsored by General Mills. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

With 5 kids home during most of the summer, easy breakfasts are a must! Even though I am in Northern Arizona, it still gets hot so I prefer NOT to use the oven or stove! I love having cereal on hand for the entire family! And isn't it great that you don't really ever have to worry about cereal going bad before it is gone? Or is that just my kids?? Doubtful. 

We recently found NEW Drumstick Cereals at our local Walmart and couldn't be more excited about adding it to our cereal collection! We love having the wonderful flavor available right there in an easy to pour box for our morning or even afternoon cereal bowls because lets face it, sometimes we even have cereal for dinner!

I am sure my kids aren't the only cereal fans around. Mine love to drink the milk out of the bowl when they are done! Even Rhett is a cereal kid (we feed it to him pretty soggy for now)! Drumstick Cereal is a wonderful addition to our current cereal line up, giving the kids even more options and choices at breakfast time!

Drumstick Cereal was super easy to be found in my local Walmart or online! They have two flavors! Vanilla and Mint Chocolate! The Vanilla is my favorite, but Connor and Keegan love the Mint Chocolate! Head on over to your local Walmart and find them for yourself! Trust me, you will thank me once you and your family find out how amazing the flavor is!

So join me and have fun summer breakfasts with this ice cream inspired cereal! Thank me later y'all!

-Laura

Bathroom Sink Upgrade

**This is a sponsored post on behalf of Dorel Living. All thoughts and opinions are my own**

When we bought our house, I knew right away that we were going to have a huge issue in the master bathroom. Why someone opted for a pedestal sink in a master bathroom mystifies me. So going into purchasing the home, we started looking at different sink and vanity options for a TINY bathroom.

That is the sink we were dealing with, for 3 LONG months. We finally found the perfect colored, sized and style of sink through Dorel Living. We opted on the Dorel Living Otum 36” Vanity! It took forever for us to settle on a size and style since we were working with such a limited space and wanted to upgrade the mirror to one that we already owned and matches our bedroom set. I was pretty dead set on a gray and Payton was pretty deadset on a dark brown (guess who won LOL)!

Removing the old sink was pretty effortless. Since it was just a pedestal sink, it eaily came up off of the flooring and detached from the wall. Our biggest issue was that the piping didn't match up to the new sink so that required to buy a few extra supplies to hook it up. Still, it was very easy.

When our package arrived from Dorel Living, I was relieved to find that our vanity arrived assembled! Woo Hoo!!! I was super worried about having to put it together, I seriously lack patience in that area! 

It did not include the fixtures which was how we wanted it. This gave us the opportunity to get the vanity we wanted and match our fixtures to the shower. It would have been so difficult otherwise. We found the perfect sink fixtures and it ended up so beautiful. 

We were really happy to find that the color of the sink was EXACTLY what the photo showed on the Dorel Living website pictures! For us, that meant that is matched our mirror and bedroom perfectly. To have drawers, cabinets and counter space has been so life changing for our bathroom. Not only do we love our bathroom transformation, we know that it will help the resale value of the home! 

One downfall was that we did have to remove our towel rack and toilet paper roller. We did know that going into deciding to put in a vanity. We have a towel hook on the back of the bathroom door (for not, we plan to remove that and install barn doors) and still need to purchase a free standing toilet paper roll holder. For now we just set it on the back of the toilet!

Can't wait to show you guys more projects that we are doing to the new house!

-Laura

Don't forget to check out all of the products that Dorel Living has to offer!

Keto Taco Stuffed Peppers

If you guys have been following me much, you know that Payton has been #keto since August of 2018. We are consistently trying to incorporate new meals into his diet that is family friendly as well.

We have made stuffed peppers a few times, but I recently decided I wanted to try a taco style stuffed pepper since I LOVE Mexican food and am totally missing taco Tuesday!

I opted to use ground turkey over ground beef and obviously, because of family size, I used 2 pounds of ground turkey. He is pretty keto strict so I didn't add corn which I normally would have done (corn contains too much sugar).

It was really very simple from there and SOOOO good! Everyone in the family loved it. I added some cauliflower rice to our meal to finish it off!

Ingredients

• 2 Pound Ground Turkey
• 1 Large Yellow onion diced (I buy it pre diced and frozen)
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 packet Taco Seasoning
• 7 Bell Peppers (Make sure at
  
  
  least 1 is green)
• 3 Cups (Aprx) shredded mexican cheese
• Sour cream to garnish
• Salsa 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut tops off of all red bell peppers (6) and clean the contents out. Place peppers on a greased baking pan, hallow side up, for 10 minutes.
3. In a frying pan, add ground turkey, onions, diced green bell pepper and garlic for 10-15 min
4. Add taco seasoning and 1 1/3 cup of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer for 7 minutes. 
5. In the bottom of each bell pepper, add a small amount of shredded cheese.
6. On top of the cheese, add the ground turkey. 
7. Top each bell pepper with shredded cheese
8. Bake until cheese is melted
9. Garnish your taco stuffed bell pepper as you please and enjoy!!

If you decide to make these, let me know how you like them!!!

-Laura

State Park Bucket List - First 5

Traveling is something we haven't done enough of and can't wait to do more of! With 5 kids, it is pricey and less of a vacation on us, but they memories are unforgettable. We have a list of places we want to take the kids, but are hoping to start with State Park destinations since we all love nature and the outdoors so much!

Grand Canyon 2016 

Read on for our First 5 Bucket List State Park Vacations -


1. Channel Islands National Park
California
Who wouldn't love to visit a national park AND see the ocean? Maybe not as exciting for those that are near the beach or ocean and see it frequently! For us, it would be such an amazing and breathtaking experience!!

They offer boat trips, an animal sanctuary and are even known for blue whale sightings!

2. Redwood National Park
California
Trees, trees, trees! I have always wanted to see the grand trees that are present in the Redwood National Park! I know that the kids would absolutely love to see the GIANT trees! The Redwood National Park is known for having the tallest trees in the WORLD!

The end of Redwood National Park, Fern Canyon, even has a creek the kids can play in!

3. Everglades National Park
Florida
Swamps, wetlands and alligators! The kids would totally FREAK out to see a REAL life alligator! I have always wanted to take them on an airboat to explore! Not sure if I would be more excited or them!

The Everglades offers guided tours, birdwatches, air boat tours, canoes and even bike rentals and trails!

4. Zion National Park
Utah
With 15 miles of canyons, there is tons of room for the entire family to explore the red and tan colored natural wonder that Zion National Park has to offer. With as much space as Zion offers to explore, the entire family will be able to find something to love about Zion National Park!

Zion offers many many paved hikes and swimming/splashing areas for the family. To top it all off, there is a free shuttle!

5. Yosemite National Park
California/Nevada Boarder
747,000 acres of clear streams, waterfalls and cliff is just some of what Yosemite National Park has to offer visitors! This is a park that has been on my personal bucket list for years! I can't wait to explore it with the family!

Once we make it to these State Parks, we will be adding more (lets not overwhelm ourselves hahah)! Can't wait to share our experiences with you as we get to visit!!!

- Laura

Banana Bread

Do you have any amazing family recipes that have been handed down? My family have a few! Banana bread is one of my favorite. I make that along with several other breads and treats every Christmas for family and friends! The kids love it so much, I try to make the banana bread as often as possible!

My favorite part of making it? How easy it is! It really takes no time and is so moist. My trick to super moist banana bread it throwing old bananas in the freezer and thawing them out right before use.

I always prefer to make mini loaves over large sized, especially when I give it out for holidays since I mix the banana bread with other baked goods! I have even made a large batch for home and frozen a few loaves to dethaw when we want to use it! 

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 Cups mashed (dethawed) bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 Cup butter or shortening
• 1 1/4 Cup Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Cream together sugar and shortening
3. Beat in eggs and bananas
4. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl 
5. Slowly add flour mixture to the banana mixture
6. Pour into greased and floured (or spray with Pam) pans - 2 Large or 4 Small
7. Cook for 1 Hour 

I hope you enjoy the recipe! Please tag me on Instagram if you make it and let me know how you like the banana bread!!!

-Laura