Happy Halloween y'all!! Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I love creepy, scary, zombie-esque stuff so it is a perfect fit. We made all the kids costumes this year. Logan is Herobrine from Mine Craft. Liam is a ghost. He insisted on just a sheet with eyes. That costume cost me all of about 0.67. Nora will be Audry Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's. I will post pictures of them on Monday. I hope you have a spooky Halloween.

 xoxo

Danielle

Golden Milk and How It has Helped Me.

Hey y'all. 

 First and foremost I want to point out that I am NOT a doctor. I have no medical degree. With that out of the way I can talk about the good stuff. I have told you that I had a recent diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis. But I have been dealing with the symptoms for close to 15 years. My mom has been dealing with it most of her life and my grandma also. I will spare you the gory details but it is not fun having the lining of your large intestine swell and spasm. Lets just leave it at that. After my diagnosis my mom told me about the "healing" effects of turmeric and how is has helped her lessen her stomach problems. To be honest, at first I rolled my eyes. But she kept on; so I headed over to Pinterest (of course) to see if anyone else has had success with it. And that ladies (and gents) is where I found a recipe for "Golden Milk" I thought, what could it hurt? So I headed over to my local Oriental food store. I picked up some turmeric and some powdered coconut milk. I grabbed the powdered because I didn't want to waste a whole can of coconut milk if I didn't like it.
  Now before I begin with the recipe I want to tell you a little about turmeric and some of it's benefits that I have discovered. Turmeric is a root, part of the ginger family. When ground into powder, it is primarily used in cooking (Indian and mustard recipes). After all my research (I'm talking hours and hours) I found out all about the benefits and it blew me away. I sat there and said out loud "Why haven't I found this sooner?" Some of the many benefits are:

• Natural anti-inflammatory 
• Natural analgesic
• Natural antiseptic
• Speeds wound healing
• Improved digestion
• Improves skin conditions (psoriasis, eczema, etc.)
• Blood purification 
• Helps with depression
• Liver detoxifier  
• Plus, lots more!

 If only you could see how excited I was! I found a recipe that I really like so I thought I would share since there are sooooo many out there. I kind of went off the recipe from Faulk Farmstead Blog and made it to my own liking. I still make the paste from her recipe.

First I grab all my ingredients.
Sometimes I will put pumpkin pie spice if I am feeling a little like a rebel.
 Yes, I am well aware that I forgot to put the actual turmeric in this picture...

I add my honey, cinnamon, ginger, coconut oil and powder into my blender cup.
I use the small one that came with my NutriBullet.

Add boiling water to the cup and shake a couple times.
You want the water to be BOILING because mixing it with the bullet with cool it down some.
Then mix it with the bullet for about 3 seconds. Seriously.

I then use a spoon to take off some of the foam (I just don't like it)
and pour it into my cup.

Enjoy!

Golden Milk

• 1 cup boiling water (I just fill it to the line in my cup)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric paste
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup coconut powder
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• pinch of ginger
• honey to taste

Blend and enjoy.

Have you heard of the benefits of turmeric milk? It sure has helped with the pain and spasms that I was experiencing. Do you use turmeric in any other recipes? I would love to hear them!

xoxo
Danielle

Green Chili Chicken Burgers

Hey y'all. Today I am going to show you Mr. Geeks' all time favorite Burger recipe. My green chili chicken burgers are a huge staple in this house. I came up with this recipe when I was pregnant with Nora and my mom had introduced me to the hot rod burger. Which is grilled chicken with a whole green chili on top. When I got back home I wanted to recreate it but I didn't have any chicken breasts or whole chilies so this recipe was born. We haven't looked back since. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

I didn't realize in the picture that you cannot see what is behind the pepper. It is minced dried onions. I get them from Costco.

Yes, I am well aware that this looks gross. But I promise, it is delicious.

The patties will be very "wet" you can add breadcrumbs if you would like them to stick together better.

Fresh off the grill.

Green Chili Chicken Burgers

1 lb ground chicken

1 can (4 0z) diced green chili

1 egg

2 slices pepper jack cheese

1 ½ tsp cumin

1 TBSP dried onions

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 TBSP honey

1 tsp garlic powder

Add all ingredients except chicken and pepper jack to large bowl.

Whisk until everything is incorporated.

Tear pepper jack into small pieces and add to bowl.

Add chicken into bowl and mix with hands.

Make sure not to over mix. It will make the burgers tough.

Mixture will be a little wet and sticky but that is what we want.

Pull out ¼ of chicken and make into patty.

Grill on med-high heat until they read 165.

We put pepper jack on top in the last minute or so.

Add favorite toppings.

ENJOY!

xoxo

Danielle

Huge Bust.

Hey y'all. This week has been a huge bust for me. It started with me in the ER on Monday. I thought I had appendicitis but we found out that I have Ulcerative Colitis. Which is a good and bad thing. I have been dealing with this for close to 15 yrs and never had a clear diagnosis. I am just hoping that my new meds work and I can start to feel like a normal person.

This is NOT how to start out a good week. 

 Also, Logan started coughing last Saturday. It wasn't that bad but by Tuesday I could tell it was getting worse. So off to the doc we went. Turns out he has pink eye, an upper respiratory tract infection, ear infection AND bad allergies. My poor baby was in so much pain today, he was just crying and crying from the built up fluid in his ear.  Luckily, they caught the upper respiratory infection early and gave him an inhaler. When he was a baby he contracted RSV and since then he tends to get pneumonia easily. I am so happy that they upgraded him from the neb machine. 

This basically describes this whole week.

 Not much else happened this week. Hopefully we will all be better come Monday. How was your week? I would love to hear about it!

xoxo

Danielle

Logans Fall Pictures

Hey y'all. Every year I take pictures of all the kids. I got Logans done this weekend so I thought I would share. I will be doing Liams and Noras this weekend. Logan is SO funny while we were doing this shoot. He would just rapid fire faces because he didn't want it to last long. He had legos to build. I got some amazing pictures, they really show his personality. He is so loving, he has such a soft heart and he never ceases to make us laugh. I just cannot believe he is already 8. So, without further ado I give you my oldest...

Do you take seasonal or yearly pictures? I love seeing everyone elses!

Xoxo

Danielle

Outside Halloween Decorations

Hey y'all. One thing you need to know about me is I LOVE decorating for any and all occasions. But especially Halloween. This year we decided to go all out so I wanted to share some of our decorations with y'all. Most of the stuff I got from the dollar store or I already had. We had the cinder blocks and pallets for the zombie pit so I had to buy was the chain, hands (that I painted) and spray paint. It cost us less than $10! I used Pintrest for a lot of my ideas. We still need to decorate inside but that will be a post for another day.
Xoxo
Danielle

Top 5 books I Can't Wait to Read

Hey y'all. Today I have decided to do something a little different. I read fast and A LOT. It's both a blessing and a curse. Blessing because I can finish a trilogy in a couple days and a curse because well, I can finish a trilogy in a couple days. It is always a struggle to find books that last me more than a day or two. So, I am going to list some books that are on my Kindle that I can't wait to dig into. 

The Cinderella Murder

1. Mary Higgins Clark is basically my favorite author of all time. This is the only book of hers I have not read.  I am pretty stoked. Click the link above to read more about her and a list of her books. You will not be disappointed.

Trail of Broken Wings

2. Trail of Broken Wings is described as a "heartbreaking and moving story." I love reading about other cultures and this book has my name written all over it.

Cold Kiss Goodbye

4. Genevieve Powell is actually a friend of mine. Her books are gripping and just flat out amazing. Once I start I can't tear myself away. Do yourself a favor and read Possessed by Vengeance. You will not regret it!

What She Left Behind

4. What She Left Behind has been in my Kindle Library since August. I have no idea why I have not read it but that will be remedied soon. 

Apocalypse Z

5. I love zombies. I also love "End of the World" books. I cannot wait to read this. It will happen before Halloween. 

Do you have any books you cannot wait to read? Or maybe some oldies you want to reread? Let me know in the comments. 

xoxo,

Danielle