Low Carb Monkey Bread Anyone?

In my opinion the people who invented Pinterest cannot be thanked enough. Seriously, I have discovered *so* many recipes, DIY projects and patterns! (Oh my! ;)) All thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest! :D Recently through one of my adventures in perusing Pinterest I stumbled upon a recipe... that took me to a blog... that I have been reading pretty much everyday... ever since! I introduce you to Maria & Craig Emmerich, the authors of Maria Mind Body Health. 

I've gotten a couple of her books and binge read at least one and a half of them for good measure! 

They read easy and are full of good for you information! For example - did you know that Splenda, the artificial sweetener that has been touted as having no impact on a persons blood sugar and is a zero calorie sweetener has been lying. Here are the numbers folks: 

Glycemic Index of: 

Sugar: 68

Splenda: 80

High Fructose Corn Syrup: 87

Is your mind blown? Mine was. I felt like my eyes had been opened to my own naiveness of marketing. I could go on ( and I'd like too! ) But I'll save you a mini rant ;). 

Let's suffice to say the truth will set you free - can you imagine how many low carb diets have been sabotaged by splenda? Or how many with diabetes have been negatively affected by using Splenda? Grr.... its sad :(. Which is why I felt compelled to write about it. I'll get off my soap box here and let you do some digging for yourselves ^-^.

If you want to read more about it I suggest googling "Does Splenda have a high Glycemic Index?" And read a couple of the posts. Here's an informative excerpt from a Dr. Deanna Walker that distills the ingredients in splenda about as good as any post you'll find if you do a google search.

So yes my minds been blown, my eyes have been opened, I have been restocking our shelves with Healthified options :) thanks to the Emmerich's blogging and writing down all their awesome health information! Maria shares in her book Secret's To a Healthy Metabolism the science behind fats, proteins, carbs, etc and how each affects our bodies. She goes over different types of fats, sharing the chemistry of fat strands and how some differ  from others and the benefits of each. Maria also talks about brown fat and white fat. Did you know our bodies need the brown fat and that it helps our bodies burn the white fat? 

Ahhhhh!!! There's SO much to learn! :D I've really enjoyed reading her books and her blog. There are testimonies on almost every blog post too! Always a fun read :) 

So far I've tried a few of Maria and Craig's "Healthified" Recipes :) (see list below).

The top two were husband approved and the others my sister and I will be eating by ourselves :) 

If I haven't already told you, my husband is a picky eater ;) 

'nough said :) 

Monkey Bread fresh out of the oven with cinnamon swerve glaze

Monkey Bread

Amazing Pizza

Cookie Dough Balls

Cinnamon Bread

There are a bunch of other recipes to try of course, I'm just getting started :). 

A good place to follow along with Maria's newest recipes is on her facebook page here

Which one do you think you'll try first? 

Here's to your health friends! ~Dawn

What's better than a Jayne Hat?

Why TWO Jayne Hats of course! :) 

They are done! After much measuring and gauging and lamenting over how many rows should be done, etc. here they are! :) 

The one to the left is for a co-workers husband and the one on the right is for my husband :). 

You're never too old to play dress up - that's what I say ;). 

Initially I used the pattern from fibre and spice but because I didn't use the same thickness of yarn I was left to my own devices later discovering Keiyla's Blog which dissects all the attributes of the Jayne hat, which was super helpful when it came time to make the ear flaps. 

For all you nerdy knitters I recommend both sites and patterns... 

A thank you to my late grandmother and my mom for the neonish orange yarn that makes up the main part of the hat. These hats would not have been complete without it!

Decoden Cupcake Fascinator with a Cherry on Top!

I recently discovered clay... the air dry clay... the kind you don't have to knead the bajeesus out of before trying to throw on a wheel and then keep your hands hella steady to work up a vase.. I've done that.. in high school It's been some years now :). I miss getting my hand dirty then making something pretty out of mud. I do. But then my yarn get jealous, and there's a lot of yarn in my house.. so its best to not make it jealous... right? ;)

Not sure how long I will play with clay.. this play date was inspired by my ever creative and spontaneous coworker... :) yes, the one with a love for flamingos:). She's a bridesmaid in her brothers wedding coming up and not to be outdone by the black bridesmaids dresses she wanted to add some flair of her own. It's Laura, she's one of a kind and well, she likes to dress the part :). God love her for it! lol :D She shared with me a picture of a cupcake fascinator complete with a strawberry on top that she really wanted and thought I might be able to make. With all the craziness of work lately and the projects I have lining up (did I mention I have a queue? :s) I didn't see how it would be possible, and made a sheepish... "I don't know much about that craft genre" comment... it was true, I don't. I didn't. Did I have time for it? Maybe... evidently yes.. because here I am, making time to share the post and the creation/items with you. Honestly I think this is just what my creative juices needed. Was a break from yarn. There I said it! ^-^ And no, no I don't feel guilty. DO I think I'll wake up with a yarn noose around my neck from the jealous strings? No.. no I don't! Muha. MuahahahahhahaaaHA! :D

Youtube helped me out a lot on this project. I found many varieties of this "recipe" for making clay into decoden. Some mix the clay with water, others mix with glue and still others mixed the clay with lotion. I started with water and then got creative and grabbed a lotion I had called sweet pea. My coworker is in a play where she was cast as a My Little Pony. do you remember those lil toys? I remember they all had a picture on their butts of a rainbow, or cupcake, or shamrock, heart, etc. and the ponies themselves smelled like whatever symbol they had branded into their butts. I figured it would stand to reason that sweet pea lotion smell would add to the cupcake fun, no? The first time around I added much too much lotion and the clay was too wet to mold. The second time around I grabbed from the wet clay and incorporated it with the dryer clay to pace myself. Luckily that did the trick!  I think they turned out pretty okay! I like that they look a lil cartoony :). .. and I'm thankful I was able to come up with a cherry alternative that wasn't super heavy either! :D

What do you think? What fruit would you have done? Do you decoden?

And... yes... they were dry in time for her birthday! :D

...and for showtime! :D