Feed Me Friday - Breakfast Cookies

So....its Friday and like promised today we talk food, more specifically breakfast. My sweet husband has returned back to work this week, which means I now have to fend for myself for food as well as feed two kiddos.

I have quickly learned eating is going to be tough, let alone eating something I might consider healthy. So come nap time on Monday I decided to make up some breakfast cookies. Never heard of them? Let me explain to you what they are. Breakfast cookies are basically an over sized glorified oatmeal cookie, pretty simple I know. But they fill you up and hold you over till the next meal or at least they would if I wasn't a breastfeeding mama chasing a toddler ;) So for me they are a great satisfying snack that can hold me over for a couple hours until there is some peace where I can snack yet again.

In theory you want to make these as healthy as you can with dried fruits and natural sugars and such. BUT as I am a new mommy and some times I just want something sweet I went ahead and made them a little 'bad' but still with a few healthy twists to make me feel better about myself. With that I bring you my Almond Toffee Breakfast Cookies!!!

**Note a few ingredients are probably not hiding in your pantry but no fear I found all the 'weird' items at my local grocery store, if you can't find them at your local store I suggest trying a health food store like Whole Foods.

Almond Toffee Breakfast Cookies

the wet:
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup    packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp     baking soda
1/2 tsp  baking powder
1/2 tsp  salt
1/2 tsp  almond extract
2          eggs

the dry:
3 cups  quick cooking oats
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
2 tbsp   ground flax seed meal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp     pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3 tbsp   cocoa powder

the flavor:
1/2 cup toffee bits (if you can't find toffee bits finely chop up a few toffee candy bars)
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 tbsp whole wheat flour

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Mix together all your dry ingredients and set aside. Now in a separate bowl cream together the bananas, butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Stir in baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined. Mix in almond extract and eggs.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients, I tend to do this in 3 installments. Also you will want to switch from a mixer to a good old fashioned wooden spoon. I find wooden spoons do a much better job at combining the ingredients plus they remind me of making cookies with Grandma. Once all the dry ingredients have been thoroughly mixed in, set aside. Quickly toss the toffee bits and sliced almonds with the tablespoon of flour to make sure nothing settles to the bottom of the cookies. Dump into cookie batter and fold in.
Now the messy part. You will be using a 1/4 cup measuring cup to dollop out the cookie portions. I find using a cereal spoon helps keep things a little bit less messy. Scoop, form into a ball and plop onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You will want to gently smash the cookies down till they are about 1/4" thick. Note* the cookies will not spread nor rise up all that much but this thickness ensures they will be fully cooked when all is done. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the middles look set (really looking for lightly golden brown edges as well but as we added cocoa powder that is nearly impossible to see).
Cool and enjoy!

Or if you are like me and knowing they are not safe on the counter, freeze them until you are ready to eat. Pull one out and let it defrost at room temp for about 10 mins or pop into the microwave for a few seconds to thaw and gently warm.

Be sure to have a big ol' glass of milk with it, makes them healthier of course!

pssst. They also work as lactation cookies, not strong ones but enough to help you out trust me ;)

So now here is a little fun site I found, it calculates your nutritional facts in any recipe. Just add in all the ingredients that you baked with, add in the # of servings and BAM! instant food scariness. Now I do not recommend you do this with your favorite cheesecake recipe or even those twice baked potatoes. Lets stay ignorant, ignorance is bliss. But this was fun for me to see how bad of a morning breakfast I had made and you know what its not all that bad! Here is what I got:

Nutrition Facts
Calories                       241.5
Total Fat                       10.2 g
  Saturated Fat                 4.7 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat       1.3 g
  Monounsaturated Fat     3.4 g
Cholesterol                      33 mg
Sodium                       283.9 mg
Potassium                   183.3 mg
Total Carbohydrates         39 g
  Dietary Fiber                   5 g
  Sugars                       22.9 g
Protein                             5 g

Not too shabby, I am sure I could make healthier ones but for now I am happy with some almond toffee ones.

Thankful Thursday - Undercover Mama

Wooo its World Breastfeeding Week and it just so happened to time itself perfectly for my little thankful moment :)

With becoming a new mom again, knowing what I need this time has been easier. I have been able to streamline my daily activities with taking care of both boys and I can thank a few items for being a BIG help. But lets try and keep me focused on one item, this week's thankful Thursday moment goes to....

UNDERCOVER MAMA

I bought my first few Undercover Mama shirts back when my oldest was still nursing, but of course he weaned himself right before they arrived. Of course, gotta love Murphy's Law. So they all went into hiding until 3 weeks ago. My first time using them was in the hospital, they are perfect for you hospital stay - comfy, convenient, and pretty stylish in my opinion.

So check it out, you just slide them over your head like any other shirt then attach to any old nursing bra or regular bra. They have two attachment hooks depending on what your bra is capable of receiving. I tend to have to use the little elasticy circle part on mine. Now you can be completely covered, minus the breast that you are using to feed your little one with, in any shirt! Or if you are like me you lounge around the house in just this.

Here is why I think these are better than your average nursing tank.
1. No matter your bra size they fit just like a shirt, meaning as your chest changes sizes throughout the day or month it still fits!
2. They are more fitted. This is important if you are a mama like me with a bigger chest size and a still slightly womanly figure you want to attempt to show off. You know the few parts worthy of showing off still ;)
3. You can still wear this AFTER you are done nursing! Lets face it you won't want to be in a nursing tank after you are done nursing they are a bit bulkier than the average bra but an undershirt is an undershirt.
4. Did I mention they are a mommy owned compnay, that is right these wonderful shirts come from a WAHM company!!!!! Now there is something to get up and dance about.

Seriously one of the best little splurges I have made on me, be sure to go check them out. I'd hurry over too as they have this amazing blue limited edition color: blueberry, its simply superb! I got mine just last week and its adorable!

So you really want to see why I am making such a fuss? I'll show you, but be nice I may not be the most glamorous mommy out there ;)

    

I am in a white Undercover Mama and you can see just how well it keeps me covered as I go from feeding to burping and back to feeding!

Workin' for it Wednesday

So who is ready for some sneak peaks?! I thought you were, so here we go!

Okay forgive the odd photo, remember paranoid mama here, but look you get a little sneak peak of my baby boy!

I am excited to be adding these to the shop, they might not be available 100% of the time depending on how I am doing time wise but I will try my best to always have a few slots available. Really trying to craft only when both kids are sleeping or hanging with dad, turning over a new leaf to be a better mama.

And how cute are these hair clips?

  

I simply love making little girl accessories for some reason, hopefully one day I'll have a little girl until then I can help you spoil yours. Good things these clips are super cute and grown up enough that even Mommies can rock them! And, yes I rocked that cute little polka dot one while picking blueberries (AGAIN!) on Sunday.

There ya go, a few cute little sneak peaks to hold you over for a little bit, let me know if there is anything you would hope to see in the shop and I'll see what I can do!

Thoughtful Tuesday - Random

So as I sit here going hmmmm what is my brain thinking of, what thoughts does it contain? I am, yup, coming up blank. Apparently having a toddler, an infant and a mini schnauzer who all want your attention leaves you a little thoughtless at the end of the day.

So really thinking about what is going on in my head its trying to figure out how to manage my time. Really really need to get back into the groove of crafting again, I know it will help me keep my sanity on those days when the toddler is trying my last nerve and baby boy just wants to be held. I mean I love cuddles but sometimes its like goodness! let me put you down for just a moment. It seems I will be left with nap time, the few hours hubs is home before I hit the hay and whatever I can steal during weekends. But I know everyone can be amazed at what they can do when they are determined. And I am determined.

In other news, or next random thought really, excited to see how things go with hubs and his transition back into an office (not in the field) and if he will be able to have a touch more family time. I mean his 6-6:30 hours are great and all BUT it'd be nice on him to get some extra sleep and we'd sure love to have him home earlier. ..... In case you didn't know my hubbie works in construction, no he does not build things, he studied to become a civil engineer and frankly I have no idea what he does so bare with me. Only thing I know is that by moving back into an office office it means no more working Saturdays, not that it happened often but it's lame when it does.

I am thinking I will leave it at that for now, my brain is fried and I am back with a vengeance to do this blog thing right. Look for more posts from me later this week, hopefully some fun stuff will pop up ;)

Blueberries

Wednesday we tackled a new adventure: Blueberry Pickin'!!!

Yup, that is right the whole family went out and picked blueberries as our morning activity. Its quite the perfect activity for us, only 1.5 miles away from our house, we all LOVE blueberries and its CHEAP! Yeah at $2/lb there was no concern on picking too many and the beautiful thing is we know we would eat them all! Only challenge we knew going in to this was to make sure the toddler didn't eat them all as opposed to gather.

(Okay you may be wondering why I did the weird photo edit, lets just say I am a paranoid mama and don't want anyone stealing legit pics of my babies, enough said)

But isn't he cute holding the old tin coffee can, by its handle of course, walking down the field hand in hand with daddy about to go pick some blueberries!

So the toddler did end up picking quite a few before he realized Wait! These are nummies!!!! Then it was more damage control as we both didn't mind him eating a few but he was going to town on these bushes. Needless to say for the majority of our stay in the fields he rode on daddy's shoulders high above the blueberries where it was safe. Now I can't really blame the kid, everyone else there was eating away so of course he thought he should be too, but I don't want him to learn that bad habit. Sure eat a few to make sure they really are sweet but not by the handfuls like he was doing.

Okay this pic didn't turn out as well, but it was one of the few sweet moments I could capture on my phone of him ACTUALLY picking blueberries and helping out daddy.

We ended up with 4.25lbs that day, not too shabby. The flat of blueberries sits in our fridge and every time one of us opens the fridge you can bet we pop about 10 in our mouth and then move on. They are super sweet and husbands favorite part, no squished mushy ones!!!! Yeah I think this might end up being a weekend thing for our family unless I feel inclined to tackle the fields with both kids by myself, no worries not that crazy yet ;)

So of course you can bet next week's foodie post will probably include a blueberry recipe as well I have maybe 3.5lbs of blueberries left to do something with hmmm..... If you have any ideas on what I should make comment below and maybe I'll be inspired enough to make it!

Changes

So as you all know, last I spoke we were expecting a new little addition to be joining our family. Well he arrived! July 9th to be exact. He didn't come into the world as I had hoped but it was perfect still the same. He is doing wonderfully, sleeping at night perfectly between feedings, eats like a champ and tolerates his older brother better than I expected. Now his older brother is still adjusting and we are working with him on how to better express his feelings but its tough being 22 months old and suddenly your world goes changes in a BIG way. Thankfully my wonderful husband has been home for the last 2 weeks and he will be home with us one more week before he returns to work. His company is quite awesome I do have to say, all this PAID paternity leave and then they still send us cookie basket welcoming our new addition in, pretty awesome if I do say so.

Pretty awesome huh? And they don't taste half bad though I am going to be a good girl and pace myself, maybe throw a few in the freezer so I can't get into too much trouble.

So anyways the family is adjusting I think pretty well, getting back into our daily routine and guess what I have even started crafting again! *gasp* Yup that is right, starting to work on stocking Lollipop's Boutique for the Grand Opening. Looks like that will be around early August at the rate I am going, I really wasn't expecting to have a baby at 41 weeks so that has put me a touch behind.

So with the grand opening approaching and the family getting settled into a routine there are some changes I want to make to this blog, changes I hope for the better. As it stands now I post whenever I get a moment, write about whatever is on my mind and so on. I want to get myself into a routine, a schedule of sorts, a more regular posting about specific topics. It might take me a bit to fully get the routine down but here is what I am tentatively thinking:

* Monday : Make it Mondays -- Here is where I share any DIY projects I have been up to
* Tuesday : Thoughtful Tuesday -- Thoughts on the week, anything, even completely random off the wall inside my brain scariness :)
* Wednesday : Workin' for it Wednesday -- Get the 411 on everything Lollipop's Boutique, anything from sales to new items to giveaways
* Thursday : Thankful Thursday -- A day to write a review of sorts of products, companies, groups, etc I am thankful to have in my life
* Friday : Feed me Fridays -- That is right a post about one of my favorite subjects FOOD, whether its a recipe or just a commentary on its greatness
* Weekends : OFF -- everyone needs a break right? exactly

So with that idea, what should I DIY this weekend? hmmmm..........

Push Presents

So not sure how many of you are familiar with push presents, but the general concept is you get a gift for simply having a baby be removed from your body (ideally pushing them through the birth canal). I have thought this idea pretty much stupid, as at least I know in my case its me saying to my husband 'lets have a baby' so why should I be rewarded for something I asked for? I do like some of the presents I have heard about over the years, for example one of hubs co-workers got his wife a maid service for 2 months so she could focus on bonding with baby as opposed to keeping up with the house AWESOME. 

Well so I guess here is where my post maybe starts to make sense. I have had a TON of friends lately get pregnant and have babies, like 2 born in May, 1 due any day now, then there is me in 2 weeks (eek!) and another due late July. Oh! and lets not forget those due this Fall! But anyways, I wanted to do something for everyone, something simple as well lots of preggo moms while I'm pregnant means lower will to craft on a specific timeline. So I went with something simple yet practical: HEADBANDS. That's right, perfect for before baby for those days lets face it you'd rather live in your jammies, great for the delivery room hospital stay to keep your hair out of your face, and lets not forget about those sleepless nights with a newborn when its Thursday and you remember you haven't showered since Monday.

So I thought I'd take a moment and show off some of the cute little headbands that have gone on to live their lives with some wonderful mamas.

Now yes everyone so far has gotten the Frayed Fabric Headbands :)

A little green for V. Its classy and chic just like her


A little cool blue for L. I thought this one would be best for her relaxed look and work wonderfully in coordination with her nursery (as yes I thought about that)


A little lavender and yellow for J. Some of her favorite colors with just a bit of country charm, help her remember her time down south.


R got this gorgeous purple one, as its something she had been asking for. But sadly I didn't get that one out in time before she had her precious girl (epic fail on my part) AND to make matters worse I never snapped a picture :(


BUT here is a little one I made for me to wear when I get to the hospital to keep me pretty while I go for my VBAC. I think it will look great with the charcoal grey Pretty Pushers that hubby bought me. Yes I plan to try and look as beautiful as I can while pushing a baby out. You know I won't look pretty but at least I will have tried ;)

Apple Dump Cake Pancakes

So I woke up yesterday morning with another one of my slightly unusual pregnancy cravings. I wanted pancakes and apple pie, don't ask me I generally dislike apple pie even. But I decided it had to be done and quickly as my little man does not like to wait for his 'num nums'.

Last week while searching on Pinterest and Google I came across a recipe of how to convert a plain box of cake mix into pancakes and let me tell you I am addicted to it. So yesterday morning I modified it to suit my needs, here is what I came up with.

Apple Dump Cake Pancakes
1/2 box of cake mix (white, yellow, funfetti whatever plain flavor you have on hand)
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp brown sugar (NOT packed)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup quick stove top pie filling, recipe to follow (can substitute can pie filling but I never have that on hand)

So lets start with the quick stove top pie filling as it needs to cook down while you gather the rest of the ingredients.

Quick Stove Top Pie Filling
1 granny smith apple cut into 1/4" chunks
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
mini pinch of nutmeg

Dump all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring up to a gentle boil over med/med-high heat. Cook for roughly 8-10 minutes until the water and sugar create a caramel sauce around the apples and the apples are fork tender.
Pull off the heat and cool.

Now back to the pancakes....dump all ingredients into one bowl, stir. Simple as that no need to do wet and dry bowls just mix all together. Gently fold in the pie filling, if you went with a canned pie filling you might want to chop up your apples a bit as big slices won't work as well here. Now here is the real trick to pancake making stop what you are doing and let the batter rest at least 5 minutes. You heard me don't go making pancakes right away.

Now turn on your electric griddle if you have on to 300 degrees and allow it to preheat, if you are doing this stove top I'd say over med/med-high heat but you hopefully know your stove best to know what temp works. Spray with cooking spray and get to making pancakes. Now I do find these take a bit longer to cook on each side than the traditional buttermilk pancakes so be patient and don't try flipping them too soon. They will be slightly gummy still in spots due to the apple pie filling 'sauce'.

Enjoy! We sure did. They are truly sweet enough to eat on their own but a little syrup and butter never hurt.....or if you are pregnant like me wait till your child is taking a nap and smear it with a little frosting YUM!

My husband had these cold later when he got home and exclaimed BEST apple pancake he had ever eaten! Now that makes me smile as we are big time apple eaters here :)

Are you ready?

Are you ready?

Such a hard question to answer am I ready to open the new shop, YES and NO. Starting to get into the swing of things and having a ball making new stuff up but I also know its a short lived high as soon my attentions will be to full on baby prep.
Am I ready for this new baby? I like to say I am as ready as I can be, but sometimes I wonder if that is true or not. Sure all his clothes have been washed, folded and put away for weeks. Sure his bed that he won't sleep in for a month or so is set up. But no I still don't have a rocking chair/glider and no we still don't have enough cloth diapers for both boys (YAY for 2 in diapers).

But at the same time this is going to be an amazingly fun new adventure and that I AM ready for.

soooooooooooo back to shop business. Later today/tonight you will see some items actually make it onto Etsy, so EXCITED! I do have to warn though I apparently couldn't spell when I ordered my packaging so there is a spelling error but because I failed to catch it in time you will gain. Any orders bought between now and the Grand Opening will be eligible for a 10% discount with coupon code WHOOPS. Sure the product is just the same but I'm a tad embarrassed that I didn't catch the mistake before they arrived.

You will see a few everyday items going into the shop but I am also putting a BIG focus on the 4th of July as I will be on maternity leave during those festivities. If though for some reason you do not see a color combo you had hoped for feel free to email me or contact me thru Etsy and I will see what I can do. The closer it gets to July though the harder it will be for me, so keep that in mind.

And just in case you missed the sneak peak on Facebook, you should be following me on there by the way (Lollipops on FB) here is a quick sneak peak of a few items to be posted.

Also if you would like to keep up with any and all news as I know Facebook has been crappy lately please shoot me an email at lollipops.cp@gmail.com, subject: newsletter to be signed up for any and all news. I promise not to SPAM you

Red, White and Blue Sale!

Make sure you stop by Mommy's Little Treasures, my other Etsy shop, to find some awesome sales on everything Red, White and Blue!!! You will find some adorable earrings, a rosary or two and even some super special seasonal bracelets!

Crafty Randomness - Cake Stand and Pearl Ribbon Necklace

Looks like I am in full crafting mode. So this weekend I completed a few projects, did a little work on items in the shop but then also had some fun with other things, like what you ask?

Well how about a posh pearl and ribbon necklace!

Isn't it just precious, but I couldn't stop at one so I made another!!

Here you can see me modeling it, okay you get my neck mostly but hey it was the one day I said no to makeup so my face was not included for your own safety ;)

So by now I was pretty pleased with myself figured out how to make those gorgeous necklaces I love so much, I had to do something else crafty and only had a little time left before my son woke up, so what is a girl to do? Spray paint!! Actually I didn't do the spray painting, my sweet husband did, afraid of all those nasty fumes affecting the baby baking in my belly.

Why were we spray painting? Well I saw this adorable Cake Stand  on The Brown House's blog and just had to try it out for myself. I did tweak her design a little as she modge podged on some craft paper and we spray painted. I also was unable to find the tin burner covers like she used but I did find a pizza pan, which I think should hold up better as its sturdier on its own. The rest of her directions I followed.
*Note if you do use gorilla glue like she did and as did I it will leak while being weighted down, I even put on less than it looks like in her picture and no it does not dry clear :/ BUT it holds up very well so that makes me happy!

So now that I woke up to a perfectly glued cake stand I had to make come cupcakes to put on it! These are some boxed funfetti cupcakes I dressed up with lime zest and juice in the mix and festive cupcake wrappers brought from Pick Your Plum (addicted to this crafty deal of the day site). O and don't forget my yummy coconut frosting, I again cheated and just added some coconut extract to vanilla frosting, yes it was a lazy morning. Isn't it just perfect! And kudos to hubs and doing an amazing job on that pink paint.

So now I am not sure what else I will be doing this week, mostly as we leave in a few short days for a mini family vacation before the new baby arrives. I will post more as I go and if ever you need/want a tutorial about any of the craft projects I have done. Leave me a note and I will try my hardest to get them all done.

Dream, Play, Create!

Crafty Randomness - Teething Necklace

Okay so I have been doing some serious slacking with posting updates but I am going to try and get better.

So here is a sneak peak of an item headed to the shop soon, well if I can get past this 3rd trimester laziness. Made it on a whim this afternoon and have to say I am in love!

So now that I have made one that I love, made another earlier this week that's pretty blah in comparison. I am wondering what other colors I should make. Help me with my color inspiration block!

I am also working on a few other DIY projects that won't end up on the shop, so if and when I get them completed I will try and write up and photograph a simple tutorial so you all can become your crafty nerdiness on too ;)

until then.....Dream, Play, Create!!!!

Welcome

Welcome! Welcome!

I plan to share any and all crafting awesomeness I come across or come up with, with the occasional life moment tossed in to keep it real. Posts might be random at first until I get into the full swing of things.


So how about a little information on me?

I have been crafting from a very early age. My mom bless her heart is a freak of a crafter in my opinion, she has changed her course of what she does so many times and every time gets completely whole heartedly involved in it, which I do admire, its just crazy. Growing up with her as a mom, meant always being around crafts in their many forms from toll painting, to jewelry to sewing. You name it my mom has probably done it and could give you more opinions on the craft than you could ever want. My childhood home is a cross between a Michael's/Hobby Lobby and Joann's. This place is filled to the brim with craft items its insane, but my mom wouldn't be who she is without all that stuff.

I have been very careful over the years because of all of this to not get too crazy with my crafting, but I have found the need to craft coming into my life more and more with each day that I am a mother. Its an amazing way for me to stay sane with all the crazy that comes with raising a little man and having another on the way (due early July). I do still try and keep things to a minimum since we move every couple of years thanks to husbands job, gotta love construction. We actually just moved up to the very wet state of Washington a couple months ago, so much better than the humid Louisiana we just left.

Well that is about it I think, check back soon for more of what I have coming to the new Etsy shop and for awesome crafting posts and any deals I might find.