Mom Life in the PNW

Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe

This is one of my husbands childhood favorite breakfast meals, so of course I have to make it for him every so often. But he probably likes the way his mom makes it better, I mean, doesn’t everything mom makes taste better? I do try though.

I love love love when it’s fall cause that means I can get away with pumpkin flavored everything. I’ve only met one crazy person who doesn’t like pumpkin, so if you’re not a pumpkin fan like that one crazy person I know, then you may want to stop reading now.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:1]

 

 

pumpkin pancakes recipe

TruMoo Orange Scream Truffles for Halloween

TruMoo Orange Scream Truffles for Halloween

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TruMoo. All opinions are 100% mine.

photo TruMooHALLOWEENOrangeLogo-1_zps3ce13877.jpg

The other day I went grocery shopping looking for my usual flavored soy milk and stumbled upon the new TruMoo Orange Scream milk. I figured my nieces would enjoy it as well as myself, so I decided to grab a thing of it since it’s fresh, pure milk that contains 8 essential nutrients with no high fructose corn syrup or artificial growth hormones.

AND Halloween is almost upon us, so why not put this delicious milk to use, which gave me the idea to make some Halloween themed Oreo truffles.

Description: http://s28.postimg.org/pp60gjky5/trumoo_orange_scream_milk.jpg

Ingredients:

  • 1 (16 ounce) package OREO Cookies, any flavor
  • 1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages white chocolate orange chips (or any type of chocolate you prefer)
  • 2 TBSP (more if necessary) of TruMoo Orange Scream Milk

Directions

l  Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add room temperature cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Store in refrigerator and move onto the next step.

l  Melt your preferred chocolate in a double boiler pan. I used yellow and hot pink chocolate chips which gave off this bright orangy color when mixed together. Add 2 tsp of Orange Cream TruMoo milk and mix thoroughly. You don’t want it to be too runny but you want it to be at least creamy. Add more if necessary.

  • Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.)
  • Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

How to How to Easily Dip Truffles

  • Place truffle ball in melted chocolate to coat; roll if necessary. Lift truffle from chocolate using 2 forks (this will allow excess chocolate to run off) before placing on wax paper, otherwise you end up with this end result here. It does end up being a little rich, so you should probably avoid the excess.

Untitled

 

Now we’re off to enjoy our orange scream truffles.

If you liked this recipe, go visit their website for more delicious TruMoo Halloween recipes and check them out on Facebook and Pinterest.

Visit Sponsor's Site

Low Carb Style Italian Soda

If you’re following the low carb high fat way of life, then you’re in for a tasty treat! I thought for sure once I started this way of eating healthier that I would be giving up all desserts which is hard when you have a sweet tooth.

So I was at Costco the other day and I spotted a 24 pack of Kirkland Signature brand sparkling flavored water with zero calories, sugar and carbs (comparable to the ICE brand). It contains some vitamins, and is sweetened with Splenda, so if you’re not into that, stop reading now. The 24 pack was around $9.50 at my Costco which makes each bottle around .39. Not too bad if I do say so myself, but, I did find the ICE brand sparkling water on sale at Grocery Outlet for .50 per bottle. To me, the savings was worth getting the Kirkland Signature brand as it tastes pretty much the same anyways. BUT, any sparkling zero calorie water will do. It doesn’t have to be the ones mentioned above; it’s just what I used.

low carb

Directions:

  • Top a 16oz cup with ice
  • Take 2 TBSP of heavy whipping cream and pour into cup
  • Fill the rest with your choice of flavored sparkling water

 

Wa-la, it’s like heaven in your mouth! Okay, not really, but close, especially if you’ve been nothing but good with eating your veggies and meat on this low carb high fat way of eating. You could also substitute this for Diet A&W Rootbeer and have yourself a float. I prefer Diet A&W if I am going to get anything diet, because it doesn’t quite have that nasty aftertaste that I loathe.

Go ahead, give it a try!

Redneck Beer Cake for Father’s Day

Normally I don’t do father’s day or mother’s day crap since I don’t need no stinkin’ holiday to love my parents, but I felt inclined this year since my step-dad chipped in towards my birthday patio set. So I set out to the store to buy his favorite beer in an 18pack. Yes, it’s this shitty Rolling Rock Piss beer I have decorated here. Then I took some ribbon string; tied it around the cans. Then I took the cardboard box the beer came in and cut it up to help with the stacking.

Then I ordered that super awesome Rednek Solo cup attached to a glass stem on Amazon. It was supposed to arrive Friday, so I’d have it in time for Sunday, but nope. FedEx decided to be slow assholes and so it arrived on Monday. A day late, but what can I do? I guess I could have went to the dollar store and got a glass candle stick and used one of my spare plastic solo cups and glued them together, but that would have been really really ghetto.

redneck beer cake

I was also going to put mini chocolate milky way bars on the top surrounding the cup but I forgot them before I went over to my sisters to set this up before he got home. Oh well, hubby will have to eat them or I’ll have to run over there again.

Want to surprise your redneck family member with a redneck beer cake, then simply follow the picture. It’s easy peasy!

Low Carb Coconut Pancakes

I decided since I had gained about 15lbs back of what I originally lost 2 years ago doing Nutrisystem that I needed to start doing something about it before it gets more out of control than it already has this last year. My sister told me about this low carb high fat way of eating which intrigued me, and wasn’t too different than the paleo that I wanted to start. So I decided to get my butt in gear, bought all of the food I would need and gave it a go on May 31st. I have lost about 4.5lbs since then and all I did was cut my carbs down to 30g or less a day and get rid of sugar. This way of eating sends your body into Ketosis, which gets rid of the fat, rather than stores it.

Anyways, since I can’t have any bread, potatoes, or anything else with high carbs; I decided I better purchase some coconut flour since I love love love pancakes and anything with breading to satisfy my cravings without hindering my weight loss progress.

Low Carb Coconut Pancakes Recipe

 

coconut pancakes

Ingredients

 

  • 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 Cup Coconut Milk
  • A pinch of Stevia or more for desired sweetness
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • Coconut oil or butter for cooking.

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat griddle/pan on medium heat.
  2. Crack eggs into bowl and mix completely until whites are not seen or until frothy. Mix in milk and stevia.
  3. Add Coconut flour, baking soda and salt and whisk together until all clumps are gone.
  4. Grease pan with coconut oil or butter and ladle a few scoops of batter into pan for each pancake. The pancakes will be thick so you may want to flatten them down with a spatula if you prefer to have them cooked all the way through.
  5. Once you start to see little bubbles appear on the top of the pancake, its time to flip it and cook the other side for a couple minutes.
  6. Top it off with some sugar free syrup, butter and what have you.

So yum and very coconut-y!

I added 3 strips of bacon to get in some fat for my breakfast.

low carb coconut pancakes