Coupon Time!!

Here are some coupons!!
This is a great match up here:
Earthfare has zevia for $3.99 for a 6-pack and there is another $1 off coupon printable here! Making them $2.99!!

Zevia  are soda's with 0 calories sweetened with stevia instead of the chemical stuff like aspartame...I love the dr pepper version, chad loves the mt dew version, and the boys love the grape soda one.  Earthfare has the most selection and are one sale, but you  can also use this coupon anywhere Zevia are sold.. Kroger's in Kingsport has them.

Coupons.com has truvia and kashi cereal and cereal bars coupons available.


Earthfare has free apples:

 Earthfare also has these plus more prinatable manufacter's coupons! These are the ones I am using! 

Happy New Year.....New Year..New You!

It was last year at this time that I decided that was it!  I was going to be healthy.  Not just another diet, but this time was going to be different.  I changed my lifestyle.  I did the hcg diet and kept eating clean.  It has changed my life.  I feel so much better.  I didn't know I felt bad, until I felt good, funny, huh?!? There are so many diets out there, so many fads, so many commercials, so much junk.  The real enemy is sugar, preservatives, and chemicals.  It is that simple.  Eat clean, limit sugar, feel better.  I feel like working out now, I feel like doing more, I feel better now in my 30's than I did in my 20's.  The steps are simple and I will list them below. 

The Eat Clean Books by Tosca Reno are wonderful!!

Here are the eat clean principles: Chad calls them my food rules :D

1. Eat 6 Small Meals per Day

2. Eat every 2-3 hours

3. Eat a combination of Lean Protein Foods Plus a Complex Carbohydrate at each meal.

4. Drink 2-3 Liters of Water each Day.

5. Depend on lots of Fresh Fruits And Veggies for complex carbs and fiber.

6. Eat whole grains, not refined, over processed, chemical full foods.

7. Eat Fats to Get Lean...From healthy fat sources

8. Never skip a meal...ESPECIALLY BREAKFAST!

9. Stick to reasonable portion size.

10. Get Adequate Sleep.

I challenge you to follow these rules and see what happens to you.  If you don't know where to start.  This is it! Go back to some of my older posts to read about each specific step in this list. They are more detailed and very helpful!

Whole Wheat Sausage Bread...one of our cooking day traditions!!

The girls in my family always do cooking day right before Christmas.  We all get together and cook things all day long.  One of today's items was sausage bread.  My mom made up a recipe when we were younger for sausage bread.  This year, since we are eating clean, we cleaned up the recipe.  I made the bread dough from my Basic Whole Wheat Bread Recipe.  We used sausage bought from my favorite farmer, Wendi.  The Recipe is as follows..

Whole Wheat Sausage Bread
2 loaves of bread dough
1 lb of sausage
1 pepper
1 onion
organic butter
Olive oil
Optional:mozzarella cheese

Brown sausage in skillet until no longer pink with onion and peppers.  Let cool.  Roll out bread dough one loaf at a time. Pour sausage mix on to rolled out dough.  If the sausage mixture is too warm, it will make holes in the dough and difficult to roll up.  Roll up edges in to a loaf.  Rub with olive oil. Bake in 350 oven for about 28-30 min.  While hot rub with butter.
The optional cheese: we sprinkled over the sausage mixture before rolling it up.
We dipped it in marinara sauce...MMMM so good!!

our sausage and cut up onions and peppers

fry sausage with onion and pepper until done

we drain the sausage and let it cool in here or place it outside if it's cold

Roll out the dough and fill with mixture

We made some with and without cheese..roll it up and place on baking sheet and
rub in with some olive oil

Baked at 350 for 30 min and then rubbed over with a little butter

This is the inside of a cheese one

We dipped it in marinara sauce

Chad likes it :D

A glimpse at cooking day..wait..they are playing cards..and yes..my sister has two in there:D

We got a new camera and Chad likes taking pics :D

The crew

My mom wouldn't let me post any photos of her cooking...I got a good one too :D ...really good one..but since I want my Christmas presents..I won't do it :D

It's another holiday nail idea!

I just love my new set that I got from Amazon. I like to save money and time by doing mine own and changing it up.  I had lots of people ask me about this, so I am posting another idea that I did today with my holiday nails :D

what colors I used

I used these two plates to make the dots and snowflake

I polished them like this

I stamped them like this

Finished holiday nail idea..I dabbed some random spots of the glitter polish





These plates are so fun and easy. Use your own polish, scrape it off, stamp the stamp over it, stamp it in a rolling motion over your nail!!

Cracker Candy..all cleaned up...YES!!!

Welcome healthy version of cracker candy for Christmas. Or, as we call it in my family "crack". We love it and it's addicting and I so wanted to make a healthy version that taste as good as the original. Yah! It's so good!! Thanks to coconut sugar.

I am going to do a post on coconut sugar.  It's the latest health buzz as far as sweeteners go. Coconut sugar, derived from the flowers of the coconut tree, is an organic, sustainable natural sweetener.  This sugar has a low glycemic index and is also a nutrient powerhouse, filled with lots of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Coconut sugar is minimally processed, unbleached and contains no preservatives.
I was so excited on how this turned out..I decided to post this recipe before I go in to great detail about coconut sugar.  I found it at Earthfare and have requested it at Ingles with the managers.  They just love me there for all my suggestions of products, I know :D

Here is the recipe:

Cracker Candy

Whole Wheat Saltine Crackers

1 cup organic coconut sugar

1 cup organic butter

1 bag semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Bring to boil butter and sugar..boiling for about 2 min. or until forms a soft ball in water. Line a baking pan with foil and spray with eat clean cooking spray. Line the pan with saltine crackers.  Pour the butter and sugar over the crackers.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 min being careful not to burn.  Pour bag of chocolate chips over the hot crackers.  Spread out evenly as they melt.  Wait to harden or put in the freezer to harden.  Break in to pieces.

They have a good variety of brands of organic whole wheat saltines at Ingles.

boil sugar and butter until soft ball forms about 2 min

Pour over crackers on foil sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 10-15 min in oven

Pour bag of chips on top and let melt and spread out

I'm impatient so I put my in the freezer or outside to cool

Break apart in little pieces and enjoy