3 Ingredient Cookies

Anybody seen those 3 ingredient magic cookies on Pinterest?

Me, too!

I made a batch last week when I had pretty much a whole bunch of over-ripe bananas that were at the point of use-'em-or-lose-'em. The good thing is, it is so rare that I actually eat a dessert anymore that I think these are fantastic. If I were still in my days of regular chocolate chip cookie (dough) frequenting, these would probably be gross.

But if you eat a healthy diet and aren't severely addicted to sugar - good for you! You are unlike 90% of Americans. And, you'll probably love these cookies.

I adapted my recipe from Skinny Taste's recipe.

3 Ingredient Cookies*
makes about 30 cookies

5 over-ripe bananas
2.5 cups oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

*More like four ingredients because I also added:
1/4 cup natural almond butter (no sugar - just almonds!) - or other nut butter. Same rules apply.

**Actually now that I think about it I added a little vanilla extract and a smidge of salt. I'm gonna say those don't count as "ingredients" for the sake of the name of these cookies.

Mash bananas well, add oats. I have used a food processor to blend the bananas before. (Don't put oats in the food processor, though. Whole ones are necessary to keep the recipe from getting too soupy.)

Add chocolate chips (and almond butter and other "non-ingredients" if using). Mix well.

Use a cookie scoop, drop rounded spoonfuls onto a parchment/silicone/sprayed cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 7-8 minutes. Keep an eye on them  - they bake fast! Enjoy hot and keep extras in an airtight container. These stay soft and, at my house, they are gone in no time!

Chocolate Raspberry Avocado Mousse

There are tons of recipes out there for Avocado Mousse - a delicious little concoction that tastes like chocolate pudding, but is really avocado based!

I try to eat a diet high in healthy fats. Lots of coconut oil and olive oil and nuts. And avocados! So I love this little treat because it's a dessert plus a source of additional fat in the avocado and coconut milk. Plus it's delicious, so that helps a lot.

I made the basic recipe awhile back, and liked it. But for some reason when I made a 2nd batch, something got into me and I decided to experiment with flavors - raspberry and mint. Together.

Here's the basic recipe:

3 ripe avocados
1/4 cup cocoa powder (the higher quality, the better...and feel free to use more or less as you wish)
1/4 cup honey or agave nectar. Or more.
1/4 cup full fat coconut milk (from the can)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend. Tweak with extra honey/cocoa/coconut milk until the mixture is pudding-like consistency.

If you want to add the mint flavor, sub that in instead of vanilla. I used 2 capfuls so probably a little over 1tsp. I like it strong.

Spoon or pipe into small bowls. Top with frozen raspberries and place in the freezer overnight.

When you're ready to eat, just let it thaw for about 15 minutes and then enjoy! If you absolutely hate the  idea of a raspberry/mint combo, you can leave out one or the other - or both!

Time in the Word - How I Finally Made Time for God Every Day

For years growing up I would go back and forth being really consistent with my daily quiet times, and then drop off and have a hard time making time every day. Shortly after I got married, I realized that a) I was an adult now, and b) I needed to be much more disciplined in many areas of my life. Discipline had never really been my "thing", if you know what I mean, so the task seemed daunting. But I really wanted to get to a place where I depended on my time with the Lord. I didn't want it to be something I could go without.

One day about a year ago, the Lord allowed me to cross paths with a blog called Good Morning Girls. I was looking for a free Bible study to start online, and when I found their site, I was so excited to have finally found a resource that would help me with the discipline of a daily quiet time. Their whole goal is to facilitate women being engaged in Bible study and equipping them with the tools they need to start having a daily quiet time.

The bloggers at Good Morning Girls give out free reading plans for each of their bible studies, which usually run between 6-12 weeks. You are encouraged to create or join a group that can keep you accountable and all be studying the same stuff. The gist is to have a group to check in with every day by text, email, Facebook, etc so that you have some accountability for having your daily quiet time. Hence the name - Good Morning, girls! Every morning after you finish your quiet time, you contact your group to let them know and share any insights or prayer requests you have. The awesome part is that you become fast friends with the people you study with and it gives your daily personal time with the Lord a community aspect that is absolutely beautiful.

I led a group that chatted over Facebook last summer as we studied Proverbs 31. It was an amazing summer for me personally as, for the first time in my life, I was studying and meditating on God's word daily, and I had other people doing it with me at the exact same time! After the summer was over, I joined up with a GMG group that posted their daily check-ins on Instagram.

I've been continually studying and Instagramming with that same group for almost 9 months, and have formed such sweet friendships with the ladies in my group. I know for sure that if we all ever met in person we would instantly love each other! We have prayed for each other through extremely difficult times in each other's lives, and watched the Lord do miracles and asked Him to change us. And He has!


I haven't exactly lived a lot of hard life stuff yet. I'm thankful that the Lord has kept me out of the way of much personal tragedy, and I know He has rewarded decisions that were made through seeking His will and obeying His Word with tremendous blessing. So please understand that when I say that I have finally found victory in the battle of daily spending time with the Lord, I have not yet experienced the struggles that young moms with young children face when it comes to this issue.

All that said, I really do think no matter what is going on your life - whether you're in high school, college, not in school at all, a SAHM, or a full time employee, or a part time employee, or a working mom, or anyone- it will be a struggle to find daily time to spend with the Lord in prayer and Scripture. It just will.

Why is it so hard? My response to this is always that this is one of the things in your life that has an enemy who is working diligently against you being daily involved with God. He wants to see you crowd your relationship with God completely out of your life, overwhelmed with "all the stuff" you have to do. Our answer is that we have to work diligently AGAINST the enemy's desire for us, by making an effort to connect with God every day.

Not a checklist that makes us pat ourselves on the back for being so spiritual, either. That's not really working against the enemy either, because that means he's subtly convinced us that we have to do X, Y,  and Z to please God and make us a good Christian (=legalism). We are "good" and able to be "Christians" only because of Christ. Not because we read our Bibles this morning.

The community aspect of Good Morning Girls is such a great combatant to that "checklist" mentality. When you've got your girlfriends waiting for your check in and you know they are praying for you and always there to encourage you, it doesn't seem like just another thing to get over with. It seems like a joy to be sharing life and studying God's Word with other believers. Some days, the insights I read from my group members are exactly what I needed to renew my mind or refocus on the character of the Lord in my situation.

Of course these groups are never to replace your involvement in your local church, so if you have a Bible study available to attend at your church - plug in with those women first! God uses each individual person in each local church in a special way to minister to each other's needs. Your church needs you to be involved in their ministries!

But, If you are struggling with the discipline of having a daily quiet time, I encourage you highly to check out Good Morning Girls. There are also other resources that do similar things like SheReadsTruth - they even have YouVersion reading plans that you can follow along with each day!

If you have any questions at all about this or other resources, please leave a comment below!

Healthy Peppermint Patties

When I was a little girl, my family frequently went to this hole-in-the-wall barbecue restaurant. This place had the best french fries I've ever had in my life and this red strawberry soda that came in a HUGE cup. Also, as an after-dinner treat, they sold York peppermint patties that had been in their back freezer.

It's probably because I have such fond childhood memories of this place that I have always had a love for peppermint patties. Actually, I love everything chocolate+peppermint. So much so that I always choose the chocolate peppermint flavored toothpaste at the dentist. See?

Anyway, I recently had a friend who threw a little party at her house and she made these homemade, healthy chocolate peppermint patties. I was doing another Whole30 at the time, and they have honey in them, so I regretfully abstained, but as soon as we were done, I whipped up a batch of these fantastic little treats. You will NOT be sorry if you make these!!

Healthy Peppermint Patties
makes 10-12

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
*1 tsp peppermint extract (I actually probably used more like 1.5 tsp)
1 bag chocolate chips (can use the Enjoy Life brand for dairy free, etc)

Combine coconut oil and honey until well mixed. I made these on a very warm day so my coconut oil was very soft and the perfect consistency. If it's too cold in your house, you might need to heat the coconut oil before you can mix together.

Add peppermint extract.

*The recipe I got actually calls for 10ish drops of Young Living Peppermint Essential Oil. If you do not have a peppermint EO that says on the bottle it is okay to ingest, please do NOT just eat any old essential oil. Make sure you check your labels!! I haven't ordered my Essential Oils kit yet, so I just used extract for these.

Place mixture in fridge or freezer until it hardens up a little bit. On a foil or parchment lined plate/cookie sheet, scoop out little balls (I used a small cookie scoop) of the mixture and flatten a little bit on the top to form "patties". Freeze patties again until they are quite hard.

Microwave chocolate chips in a glass bowl in 1 min increments and stir to melt. Allow to come closer to room temperature so it doesn't melt your frozen patties. Dip patties into chocolate to coat completely, and then return to parchment/foil. Return back to freezer to harden chocolate and then enjoy your frozen treat!!

Long Time, No Blog

Well, hello friends. Did you miss me on my unexpected, unannounced 2-month blog hiatus? I was on such a roll, and then you know how it goes...life got in the way and we were busy and I didn't really make time to sit down every day and write something.

Not that my life is any less busy right now, and I'm not exactly feeling particularly inspired to blog about anything in particular, but I just don't want to give up completely. Part of persevering is looking at that big, gaping dead space since the last time I posted straight in the face and deciding to keep going. Or something like that. You can quote me.

If you ever feel like you struggle with control issues, move to Missouri. In the so far 3 days of May, we've had sunshine and 85 degrees, and then 2 inches of snow, and now highs in the 30s and cold rain. We are clearly not in control. Where is spring? Did we miss it? Is it ever coming?

Who knows? Keep a coat in the car.

In the meantime, I recently (as in last night while perusing Pinterest) discovered Kelly over at Foodie Fiasco. You should check it out, because she has really fun yummy recipes, including these 6 calorie cookies that I plan on making this weekend. Also Kelly is 14. I know. And she already has an awesome full-fledged, very professional looking, chock-full of amazing recipes blog and she's funny and adorable and she has a cool story. So we should all support her in her youth and health and dream. And make her cookies.

Well, not really cookies FOR her, more like cookies for ME but using her recipe. Do it!

#Instavotion - Daniel 3

I'm part of a Bible study community that uses Instagram to check in daily with each other once we've spent time in the Word that day. We always tag our posts with the hashtag #Instavotion so we can keep track of all the pictures and thoughts we've shared and always find each other's posts. It has been one of the most encouraging and exciting times of Spiritual connectedness and growth for me the last several months as I have connected with the Scriptures and with these ladies who have truly become sisters in Christ.

Today's reading (we use a YouVersion reading plan called ReThink Life) was Daniel 3:16-18. I couldn't help myself and read the first 4 chapters of Daniel, because that book of the Bible is so compelling. Specifically, Daniel 3:16-18 talks about how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar or any other god, and made it clear that they trusted God to rescue them from the furnace. My favorite part is that after they express their faith in God - they go one step further and declare that even if God doesn't do what they want, they will still worship Him and no other gods.

I'd encourage you to ask God to speak to you and then read Daniel 3 below. I've also posted a video of one of my favorite Shane and Shane songs - Burn Us Up - because it really helps get the message of this story into my mind and heart.

Daniel 3

King Nebuchadnezzar ordered a gold statue to be built ninety feet high and nine feet wide. He had it set up in Dura Valley near the city of Babylon, ² and he commanded his governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, and his other officials to come from everywhere in his kingdom to the dedication of the statue. ³ So all of them came and stood in front of it.

⁴ Then an official stood up and announced:

People of every nation and race, now listen to the king’s command! ⁵ Trumpets, flutes, harps, and all other kinds of musical instruments will soon start playing. When you hear the music, you must bow down and worship the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ Anyone who refuses will at once be thrown into a flaming furnace.

⁷ As soon as the people heard the music, they bowed down and worshiped the gold statue that the king had set up.

⁸ Some Babylonians used this as a chance to accuse the Jews to King Nebuchadnezzar. ⁹ They said, “Your Majesty, we hope you live forever! ¹⁰ You commanded everyone to bow down and worship the gold statue when the music played. ¹¹ And you said that anyone who did not bow down and worship it would be thrown into a flaming furnace. ¹² Sir, you appointed three men to high positions in Babylon Province, but they have disobeyed you. Those Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refuse to worship your gods and the statue you have set up.”

¹³ King Nebuchadnezzar was furious. So he sent for the three young men and said, ¹⁴ “I hear that you refuse to worship my gods and the gold statue I have set up. ¹⁵ Now I am going to give you one more chance. If you bow down and worship the statue when you hear the music, everything will be all right. But if you don’t, you will at once be thrown into a flaming furnace. No god can save you from me.”

¹⁶ The three men replied, “Your Majesty, we don’t need to defend ourselves.¹⁷ The God we worship can save us from you and your flaming furnace. ¹⁸ But even if he doesn’t, we still won’t worship your gods and the gold statue you have set up.”

¹⁹ Nebuchadnezzar’s face twisted with anger at the three men. And he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. ²⁰ Next, he commanded some of his strongest soldiers to tie up the men and throw them into the flaming furnace. ^21-23 The king wanted it done at that very moment. So the soldiers tied up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and threw them into the flaming furnace with all of their clothes still on, including their turbans. The fire was so hot that flames leaped out and killed the soldiers.

²⁴ Suddenly the king jumped up and shouted, “Weren’t only three men tied up and thrown into the fire?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the people answered.

²⁵ “But I see four men walking around in the fire,” the king replied. “None of them is tied up or harmed, and the fourth one looks like a god.”^[a]

²⁶ Nebuchadnezzar went closer to the flaming furnace and said to the three young men, “You servants of the Most High God, come out at once!”

They came out, ²⁷ and the king’s high officials, governors, and advisors all crowded around them. The men were not burned, their hair wasn’t scorched, and their clothes didn’t even smell like smoke. ²⁸ King Nebuchadnezzar said:

Praise their God for sending an angel to rescue his servants! They trusted their God and refused to obey my commands. Yes, they chose to die rather than to worship or serve any god except their own. ²⁹ And I won’t allow people of any nation or race to say anything against their God. Anyone who does will be chopped up and their houses will be torn down, because no other god has such great power to save.

³⁰ After this happened, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to even higher positions in Babylon Province.

Vegetable Beef Stew Recipe - Paleo Friendly!

Due to popular demand*, I'm posting my recipe for vegetable beef stew today! Aren't you excited?

*by "popular demand" I really mean that my bff Lauren asked me for it, and I felt like sharing. 

This stew really does hit the spot on cold winter days. Plus it's a great way to get in a bunch of vegetables without feeling like you're crunching for an eternity on raw veggies.

Vegetable Beef Stew

• 2 lbs beef stew meat
• 2 med-large sweet potatoes, diced
• 1 med-large onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 can cut green beans, drained
• 2 cups kale
• 1 large (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• 6 cups beef broth (I used 1 4-cup container, and then added 3 beef boullion cubes with 2 cups of water
• 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
• about 1 Tbsp coconut oil

1. Add some coconut oil to a large skillet, and brown some minced garlic once it's hot. Brown the stew meat on both sides. It doesn't need to be cooked all the way through necessarily, just lightly browned. 
2. Line bottom of your slow cooker with diced onion. Add the browned stew meat on top. 
3. Now my favorite part - throw in all the rest of the ingredients! 
4. Stir together - not vigorously or anything, just give it a good mix. 
5. Turn crock pot on low for 6-8 hours and let it all simmer and meld and get yummy. Enjoy!

I would advise waiting to add salt and pepper until close to serving time. The beef broth I used added more than enough sodium, so if I had added salt, it would have made it too salty. 

Hope you enjoy it! Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions!