Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Granola Bars, GF

I love pumpkin! I seriously do not want summer to end, but I do love making Fallish foods. I was making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies the other day, which I cannot enjoy since they are not gluten free, so I decided to make something using pumpkin that I would eat. They turned out delicious. I did use sugar so I would consider these more of a dessert than a snack.

You will need:
3 1/4 C. Gluten Free Oats
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1/2 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Applesauce
1/4 C. Raw Honey
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 C. Mini Chocolate Chips

Method:

Mix All ingredients together and spread into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so. Cool and cut into bars or squares. Store in fridge.

Thanks for visiting, Kayla

Essential Oils

I took a class earlier this summer about essential oils, and ever since I have been obsessed. There are different companies out there that sell essential oils, but with a price tag. I have slowly been buying oils from amazon, so I have a pretty good little collection now. I have been mixing the oils and making different blends using fractionated coconut oil as my carrier oil.

Since fall is right around the corner, and germs tend to come out of no where, I wanted to mix some oils that will help fight off some unwanted cold germs. If you have the extra money to spend on Doterra or Young Living Oils, this blend is basically the same as their On Guard, and Thieves oils.
I think! I ordered these little glass roller top bottles from amazon, and fill them 3/4 full with fractionated coconut oil. I then add the essential oils. Most of mine come from Plant Therapy, which are 100%pure. I mixed 4 drops of cinnamon oil, 4 drops of wild orange oil, 4 drops of rosemary oil, 4 drops of eucalyptus oil, and 4 drops of clove bud oil. Just roll this blend onto the bottoms of your feet. I actually felt a cold coming on the other day, sneezing, headache, all the regular cold symptoms, I used this blend before bed, and woke up feeling fine. I can't wait to beat the colds this winter. Have you experimented with essential oils at all? I am having so much fun with this, I'm sure I will have something else for you soon.

Thanks for visiting, Kayla

Summer Comes To An End

I can honestly say that we spent the majority of our summer at the beach. I snapped this photo the other day during our last daily beach trip. I'm sure we will have evening trips to the beach to enjoy and picnic dinner, or search for shells, but as far as a day long swimming beach rip, those are done for this year. :(

As summer officially comes to an end it is time to start thinking about school schedules, and sports activities. B will be in 1st grade this year, and R starts preschool. Sigh* I can't believe how big my babies are getting. Below are a few pictures from our last beach day of the summer.

Thanks for visiting, Kayla

Room Spray

Since I have boys I always need a good room spray, particularly in the bathroom. I can't tell you how often I clean my bathroom. Yes, you read that right. Bathroom! Singular, meaning just one. :( We make do, but it isn't always easy. B and R tend to take the fire hose approach to their bathroom duties.  Needless to say, their seems to be a need for room spray quite often. I only had this small bottle to work with so I just filled it almost to the top with distilled water, added a splash of pure vanilla extract, and my essential oils. I used a few drops of wild orange, and a few drops of lavender. You can alters the amounts depending on the size of your bottle.

This combo smells fresh and clean for my bathroom. It is fun to mix different oils to cater to your individual taste.

Thanks for visiting, Kayla

Flourless and Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies

Oh my goodness...these are SO good. I have been wanting peanut butter cookies lately, but I have always used egg in my recipes. Since I need a gluten free and an egg free cookie I started playing around with a few basic ingredients. At first I used regular white sugar, and added baking powder, and one tablespoon of flax. They just seemed too crumbly. I made a few improvements so, here it is. Super simple with only a few ingredients, and they are so yummy.

You will need:
1 C. Organic Peanut Butter
1/2 C. Organic Brown Sugar
2 Tbs. Ground Flax Mixed with 3 Tbs. Warm Water, to form a clump
Chocolate Chips, press into the top of your formed cookie before baking

Method:
Mix ingredients together and bake at 350 for 8ish minutes. Enjoy!

Thanks For visiting, Kayla

Zucchini Carrot Gluten Free Mini Muffins

What do you do with the abundance of zucchini taking over your garden? I actually do not like zucchini enough to plant it, but we always have some given to us that I like to use up. I used most of them in stir fry's and other main dish recipes, but I still had one left over. I love carrots in my muffins anyway, so I decided to add zucchini to give myself some extra nutrients. I like to use applesauce in my recipes instead of vegetable oil, the muffin remains moist even without the oil, and using gf flours. Give these a try. Let me know what you think.

You will need:
1 1/2 C. Gluten Free Oat Flour
1/2 C. Gluten Free Honey Buckwheat Flour
1/3 C. Pure Maple Syrup
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 C. Applesauce
3/4 C. Milk
1 Tbs. Ground Flax mixed with 3 Tbs. Warm water to form a clump

Method:
Combine all ingredients and bake at 400 in mini muffin cups for about 15 minutes or so. Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting, Kayla

Muscle Salve

Every night my husband and I fight over the tube of arnica gel. We both have chronic pain, mine in my shoulders and his in his knee. The tube of arnica is almost gone again, we seem to empty them as fast as I can buy them, and they are not cheap. I decided to work on a new recipe for a pan salve to use in place of the arnica. It seems that this will go a little further, and is a lot less expensive. It works so well, I use it daily.

You will need:
1 Tbs. beeswax pellets
4 Tbs. fractionated coconut oil, or other carrier oil
15 drops lemongrass essential oil
15 drops wintergreen essential oil

Method:
Melt the beeswax into the carrier oil in a glass jar. Add essential oils and store in a small mason jar, or other container or your choosing.

Thanks for visiting, Kayla

Non Post

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been whining a lot lately since I developed a nasty rash as a result from having brown tail moth hairs fall onto my neck. If you have never heard of the brown tail moth you're not alone. They happen to be over populated in my town and surrounding towns, but no where else. The little hairs on them are poisonous, and extremely itchy. So, that is my excuse.:) I even missed out on lunch with one of my closest girlfriends that cam to Maine for a visit. :( I have some blog catching up to do, but I will be back to posting on Friday. Have a great week.