Chocolate Berry Protein Shake {Vegan}

Death. 

It's a factor in life.

 You know it will happen to everyone and everything eventually, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you are prepared for it. We've been at the ranch for almost nine years now and in that time I have been able to see the miracle of life many times, but also come to know the heartbreak of death. Earlier Saturday afternoon, my mom and I went to the vet to put Hedgie to sleep. A few months after I got Hedgie, he got cataracts which took his sight and I noticed that he seemed to be having what appeared to be seizures. The last 2 weeks though, I knew something was wrong because he stopped eating, was shaking, and seemed really lethargic. The vet looked him over and said by the state his teeth he was much older than we were aware of. Since the vet and most of the other staff had never seen or treated a hedgehog, he became quite popular even in his sickly state.

He's 4lbs heavier than her yet he likes using her as a pillow.

Gus Gus also has a vet appointment since he hasn't seen a vet in his little life and he also has a little wheezing problem that I first noticed a few months ago. It almost sounds like asthma except he doesn't wheeze all of the time and acts like a normal spoiled kitten, but just to be safe him and Charlie will be going to visit to vet tomorrow afternoon. I doubt they will appreciate it, though.

My mom's birthday is tomorrow so she is treating herself to a 2 hour massage. She isn't the biggest dessert fan besides cookies and sometimes apple pie so she just asked for some cream cheese filled strawberries that I'll dip in chocolate. I'll probably post a pic on instagram.

Grain-Free Pumpkin Bars

  Since Thanksgiving is in a few days I thought it would be a good time to share this delicious dessert recipe that also happens to be healthy{which can't be said for many holiday desserts.}This Thanksgiving we are gathering at my aunt's house and I'm in charge of bringing the stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, and a dessert which will be these bars. Even if you don't have anyone in your family that has to follow special dietary needs {I'm the only one in my family} these bars will pass the taste test.  

  The texture of these bars is a mixture between the creamy custard  like these pumpkin pie cups and a soft cake. When you take a bite of the soft bars you will first notice the creamy pumpkin flavor paired with the spices before tasting the nutty almond butter. I have made this twice since I found the recipe online and both times the bars were gone in less than 2 days. You could even try using pureed acorn squash or sweet potato instead of pumpkin and pecan butter would give the bars a nuttier, richer taste.

Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies {Healthy}

   I made spaghetti squash for the first time Friday night and it was a hit! It's so easy because all you have to do is pop it in the oven for 1 hour before shredding it into "pasta" so we will be eating it more often. We participated in Bountiful Baskets this past weekend and ended up getting some squash (acorn and carnival) so I'm thinking about making a soup or even try making squash risotto which might help me use some my overflowing plants of rosemary that I actually have kept alive for a few weeks!{I kill plants & fish. I can hand raise kittens that are 48 hours old, but I've killed every plant and fish I have ever had, well actually my last few goldfish fish turned into cannibals. Oops}.

   Late Saturday night, I made another batch of my Sunday Morning Muffins for my mom's class at church for Sunday. I've made these muffins several times, but this was the only time every muffin came out looking like the the one below without the cream cheese oozing out. Instead of making the streusel topping, I just divided a small packet (the little restaurant size packets) between the 12 muffins for a little crunch. 

  I can across this cookie recipe a while back on foodgawker when I had a few ripe bananas, but I didn't want to make another banana bread recipe {seeing as I have 5 quick bread/muffins recipes using bananas} and I have made this recipe twice since. These cookies have no flour, no sugar, no oil if you use applesauce like I did, and vegan (depending on what type of chocolate you use). And unlike most cookie recipes where you end up with a few dozen cookies in your kitchen this only makes 18 small, 2-bite cookies. 

Healthy Zucchini Brownies (Paleo)

  The "usual" brownie recipe contains butter, cups of sugar, oil, eggs, cocoa powder, and flour. This brownie recipe doesn't contain any of the above except 1 egg.  Some might argue that this dessert isn't a "brownie"  because the batter doesn't contain cocoa powder or melted chocolate, just chocolate chips that melt when baking. Some might categorize this as a healthy blondie, chocolate chip zucchini bread,  or a snack cake which is okay.

   I found this recipe about a week ago when searching from a healthy chocolate recipe. The more I searched for chocolate recipes that contained zucchini, the more I discovered that a lot of people have made this recipe and blogged about it. I noticed that in some pictures, the brownies were more of a golden brown color instead of the rich, chocolate brown in the original picture. For a second I thought about adding some cocoa into the batter thinking it may not be chocolaty enough, but decided against it to try how I liked the original recipe as is first and I'm glad I did. I did add 2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chip on the top of the brownies since it was all that was leftover from another recipe. 

Almond Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (Paleo)

   I have another paleo recipe to share with ya'll. I actually made these Tuesday night since we had a big bunch of bananas that were ripe and it would be the last time I wouldn't be able to eat the rest for about 1 week. Wednesday I has another dentist appointment to fill some cavities that were caused by the amount of medications I take and I ended up being there for 3 hour since my dentist is also the only "main" dentist in the office so she goes between patients. Last time I got work done, I couldn't eat solid food for about a week and now that I have a temporary crown I may go longer since I don't want to mess anything up.

Double Chocolate Cakies & Finishing Senior Year.

   I have been wanting to make this and this recipe for a while now, but it always got put off until today. The recipe is for double chocolate cakies by multiply delicious which is a blog that I have bookmarked several recipes since finding out about the paleo diet. This recipe is...gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, paleo, and it satisfies your chocolate craving (without the guilt). A cakie is like a cookie-sized cake without the icing.

   I had to make a little adjustment to the recipe, but they came out great. The recipe made 10 cakies, but the last one was bigger since it had enough batter for 1 1/4 cakies which I added a few more chocolate chips and some shredded coconut.

Mango-Avocado Salsa

 On Mother's day, my mom and I ventured into Half Price Books to spend our time until the other stores opened. We came out with about 7 cookbooks and a canning how-to book. One of the books that I got was The Gloriously Gluten-Free Cookbook by Vanessa Maltin. While there aren't any pictures (I'm a visual person) there are a lot of recipes that use fresh, seasonal items and just reading some of the titles made my mouth water.

  I was going through the books to bookmark certain recipes ,when I found a recipe for mango salsa. I've never had mango salsa, but it sounds delicious and refreshing to me and even better, I had all of the ingredients in the kitchen. This dip is a mix between salsa and guacamole which you can eat with chips or serve on fish or chicken.

Pecan Almond Date Bars

   I finally got my packages of almond flour and coconut flour in the mail a few days ago so I decided to look up some of the recipe that I've bookmarked in that past to make. As soon as I saw Allie's post for Pecan Date Bars, I knew what I was baking first. I love dates and I add pecans to almost every baked good that I can so I thought this would be a good recipe to try my first recipe labeled Gluten-free & Paleo among many other labels!
  The Paleo diet is basically the diet of our ancestors with meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, but doesn't include dairy, grains (gluten), or processed foods. I'm not saying that I'm going to switch to an all Paleo diet (at least not now), but I do like the idea of it and how many people that say that they feel so much better after being on it for a while. Here are a few good sites for learn more about Paleo: Multiply Delicious (I've bookmarked  & pinned so many of her recipes), here, and here.

Cameras & A Healthy Chocolate Shake

    For a while now I have been thinking about getting a DSLR. Well, recently amazon has reduced some of the prices on their cameras so I started to do some research on what camera would be good for me since this would be my first dslr camera and to see what was in my range (my price range and my skill range).The  Canon eos Rebel T2i is the main camera I have been looking at and I already have 1/2 of the money!Flickr has it ranked #2 out of 206 of its Canon camera. I love my Nikon coolpix l120 and it takes great pictures, but with a dslr I can go further with my photography. I talked to my dad to ask him if he thought if it would be a good idea, or if I should just save my money (which I kept debating between the 2) and to my surprise he said that it would be a good idea. I was shocked to say the least. I've been looking all over the internet to find out more about this camera and where I should purchase it. I also have looked at the Canon Rebel T3 & Canon Rebel T1i.