Have your Cake and Eat it Too!!!

I stand corrected... I wrote a post sometime last year about having a healthy, balanced life and diet. I was tired of seeing South Beach, Paleo, Gluten Free recipes and tips all over the internet, pinterest and FB. In my opinion, I thought a balance of whole grains, protein, veggies and fruits was enough. And it was... until I realized that eliminating gluten from our diet really made us feel good! 

I stopped having to sip on sprite after dinner due to an upset stomach or grab for tums from the medicine drawer... It took us a while to get used to eliminating dairy and gluten from our diet.. but now nearly 5 months later, we feel great, have a lot of energy and have even lost a few inches! Now, I'll be honest, we don't stick to paleo 100% of the time as we have a swarma every once a while or a latte to treat ourselves.. but we really have stuck pretty closely to this new lifestyle of eating.

Now on to the reason for this post... Paleo Cakeballs!!! What???

Yep, I think I finally came up with a "Paleo approved" dessert that is also "Randall approved". You see, my husband has really thrived eating Paleo and I have too, except for one thing... I have a sweet tooth!!! And when you eliminate white flour, sugar, and most dairy from your diet, its kindof hard to be Betty Crocker in the kitchen! 

So yesterday, I decided to try out this new Coconut Flour Brownie recipe. I liked the result, but Randall... not so much. Then today, I decided instead of me eating an entire pan of brownies to myself (even though they are paleo), I would turn them into a family favorite... Cake Balls!

I took the coconut flour brownies and crumbled them up in a bowl. Meanwhile, I mixed up 4 tablespoons of Coconut Milk and 2-3 Tablespoons of honey together. (this would normally be where you add icing to the crumbled cake mix). I then mixed the "icing" with the brownie crumbles and rolled them into balls.

I put the pan into the fridge to firm up the "soon to be" cake balls. 

Next, I took my Lindt 85% Cocoa and chopped it into pieces with about a 1.5 teaspoon of coconut oil in the microwave for about 45 seconds.

I then took my pan out of the fridge and poured the melted chocolate/coconut oil mix over the cake balls. After that, I put the pan in the freezer and within 5 minutes, the chocolate had hardened. The nice thing about adding coconut oil to chocolate is that it will harden and not melt again or soften if set out in room temperature.

 And there you have it... Paleo Cake Balls... 

I can have my Cake and Eat it too... and not feel guilty about it! :)

Even Kid Approved... and that's a Big Deal with these Two!!

Just as a side note... we do eat lots of other colored things in our house besides chocolate! :)

Please leave me a note and tell me what you think... and esp if you try it... let me know how they turned out!! :) 

Just Because... kindof post...

This is a "JUST BECAUSE".... kind of blog post...

A few weeks ago, I decided that I needed some updated pics of my babies... Although they aren't really babies anymore, seeing as we now have a 6 y/o and a 7 y/o. So we "dragged" them out to a park in our city and here are some of my favorites below...

(as a side note... I love the the pics where they are looking and all "posed" nicely... but I LOVE the candid shots even more!!!) Enjoy! (and grandparents and aunts or uncles, let me know if you want a copy of the original size pic of any of these...) 

I sure do love these two! We are so blessed to call them ours!

CrossFit...Randall's Competition..

Some of you may know that Randall joined Cross-fit about 5 months ago and has really found his notch for exercise. Cross-fit has become extremely popular in The States and has slowly made its way to the Middle East too! 

This past weekend Randall competed in his first CF competition. He had 2 WODs (Workout of the Day) on Friday and 1 WOD on Saturday. He partnered with a friend and they competed as a team. 5 other pairs.. or teams from his gym (a.k.a. Box) competed as well.

The kids and I were there all weekend, cheering, videoing and taking pictures of all the amazing, talented athletes who competed. 

Morgan and Micah with their friends, cheering on their daddies!

Between Randall and his partner, they did 1000 meter row (x2)...

 And Lots of lifts...

Like I said.. LOTS of lifts and LOTS of testosterone in the GYM this weekend!! :) There were women teams too and we cheered on our friends! I was super encouraged and pumped to see so many women competing. Who knows... maybe I'll be posting CF pics of myself someday... :)

Throughout the competition I had my camera around my neck and took pictures and videos of our teams... and my friend compiled them and created this AMAZING video below. Check it out!

Be sure to leave a comment, telling Randall how proud you are of him! :)

Micah Turned 6!!!

January 14, 2015, our sweet boy turned 6 y/o!

It seems like he was just a baby that we held all the time and fit on my lap perfectly... and now he is such a Big Boy, so very independent and loving. He adores his big sister (whether she's kind to him or not) and loves Avenger's, Superheros of all kinds, Mario & Luigi, video games, being read to, playing with friends and even School! He still cuddles every once and a while.. for about 10 seconds! But I'll take it! :)

Because the kids' school have a month break off during 3 weeks in January and 1 week in February, school would be out on the 14th. So, Micah celebrated with his class a week early. He requested a Spider Man Cookie Cake... Oh Boy! I did my best to find a picture on pinterest that I could copy and he loved it! (thankfully). Randall and I went up to the school during their "snack break" and brought the cake and juice boxes. The kids love Micah and immediately when we walked in, his teacher started playing "The Happy" Song and Micah led the boys in a human "train" as they danced to the song! 

They sang Happy Birthday to Micah in English and Arabic and enjoyed cake and juice together!

It was a great 20 minutes! :) (sorry for some of the blurriness... it was hard keeping 22 5-6 y/os still!)

Micah's teacher insisted that Big Sister should be apart of the celebration too! She went to get her out of class and I quickly snapped a pic! The Smiles on our 2 kids when they saw each other was precious! 

On Micah's actual birthday, I made waffles and we had a "waffle buffet" to start the day!

We were then invited by some friends to meet them at the Children's Museum and play! And so we did! It was so much fun!

We then picked up Daddy from home, who was still recovering from his ameba and ended the day at Chili's! Micah's favorite! (Randall's too!)

Happy 6th Birthday Micah! God blessed us when He gave you to us 6 years ago! We love watching you grow and learn and embrace the different cultural that we live in. We love that you love your big sister so much and play with her so well and fight with her so well too! We are so proud of the sweet boy you have become and know that God has Big Plans for you and is going to use you to bring so much Joy to others!

We love you!

Love, 

Daddy and Mommy