Dark Chocolate Syrup (for coffee or chocolate milk!)

If you love a mocha coffee but don't love the price tag at a coffee shop....

If you love the idea of coffee but are more of a chocolate milk girl....

If you are just tired of junk ingredients and want an easy homemade chocolate syrup....

This one is for you!

I've tried quite a few chocolate syrup recipes and came up with this one that is by far my favorite. I think the dark chocolate cocoa powder is what really makes it, so it's worth grabbing a box if you've never tried it (although you can definitely make this syrup with regular cocoa powder). You only need five simple ingredients and a few minutes to make the syrup. You'll never go back to store-bought!

Cream Cheese Pinwheels (only 3 ingredients!)

Cream cheese pinwheels are one of our classic go-to treats. Whether it's the Superbowl, a birthday, Christmas, or anything in between - if there is something special going on, this sweet, creamy goodness is on the menu. Pinwheels hold a lot of nostalgia for me because I remember my mom making them, and now my kids love them just as much as I do! You won't believe how simple they are with just three ingredients.

Easy Christmas Crafts for the Advent Season

Happy Advent season, friends! 

I’m always looking for ways to savor this season with my kids, strengthen family bonds, and ultimately point our children toward Christ. But for all the well-intentioned family advent plans out there, I can't for the life of me make it through one of them. Because here's the thing: I can't deal with anything complicated right now. Like, at all. I can't follow an extra advent schedule with projects and crafts and recipes every day. I can't spend time hunting down special ingredients or searching for unique craft pieces.  

But guess what? We don't need a fancy, fully scheduled plan to make the most of this season. We can fly by the seat of our pants and make the season magical and memorable for our kids in ways that work with our unique schedules and lifestyles, using simple items and ingredients we probably already have at home. And that's my goal with this little series. It's not a fully guided advent plan by any stretch, but it is a collection of projects and recipes that are simple, low commitment, and fun, that can be enjoyed with your family. Feel free to use them as you see fit - whenever you find a pocket of time and want to fit in a little Christmas magic. 

As you complete these projects with your family, please don't overlook the most important part of any advent celebration: Christ. There is no project on this list that is more important than teaching your children (or grandchildren) the true meaning of the season, the gospel, and all Christ has done for us. If you have time for only one advent "project," make it reading the Bible with your children. There are all kinds of advent reading plans out there, but, again, it doesn't have to be complicated. A great option is just reading the book of Luke. It has 24 chapters so it works out perfectly to read a chapter per day throughout December leading up to Christmas. Or, if you have younger kids, you can grab a reliable Children's bible and start reading through the New Testament passages with them (but don't ever discount the importance of reading from the actual Bible or be afraid to do it with younger kids - they understand far more than we give them credit for). 

With that said, many of these projects can work really well hand-in-hand with your scripture reading to make a pretty complete (but very chill and super flexible) advent "plan." I recommend starting with the playdough because you'll be able to use it all season! It's great for keeping little hands busy while you read, and older kids might enjoy sculpting what you are reading about. The recipes can be used in a similar way - enjoy making them with the kids, then sit down and read to them while they enjoy the treat. (It's so much easier for them to sit and listen when they have cookies to nibble or cocoa to sip! A warm cup of tea works in a pinch, too!). If you have bigger kids, they can work on the crafts or recipes while you read to them. And the yarn doll ornaments can be especially fun - they can double as, well, yarn dolls that the kids can actually play with while you read. Have fun with it, and remember that nothing will go perfectly and it's ok!

Gingerbread Playdough

3 Ingredient Shortbread Cookie

Vintage Style Yarn Doll Ornaments

Best Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Easy No-Sew Felt Garland

Giant Paper Sack Stars

3 Ingredient Cream Cheese Pinwheels

Easy Foraged Stick Stars

Check back soon - I'll add more projects as I get them posted!

For more Christmas tips, check out the post below with all the info about how our family of 8 does Christmas gifts: how we plan, sibling gifts, a fun wrapping hack, what we actually bought for the boys last year, and more!

I'd love to hear your favorite advent crafts, recipes, or traditions!

3 Ingredient Shortbread Cookies

Do cookies count as crafts? I'll let you decide. But either way, these shortbread cookies are so good and so easy to make! They only take three ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. They are perfect to make in a hurry for last minute guests, a cookie swap, or a movie night with the kids! Don't let the Christmas season go by without giving them a try!

Hot Chocolate Mix

Guys, it is cold out there. I can't think of anything better than snuggling up with a warm drink, so today I'm bringing back our favorite homemade hot chocolate mix recipe!

There are a lot of hot chocolate recipes out there, but here's the thing: my husband says this one is the best. And he knows hot chocolate. You know how people like to start the morning with a hot cup of coffee? He starts every morning with hot chocolate. And this isn't a new thing; he's a life-long hot chocolate man. My in-laws like to tell about the Alaskan cruise they took when my husband was 10, and guys, he drank all the hot chocolate on the boat. So when he says this one is his favorite, you can go ahead and stop looking. You have arrived.

Natural Remedy Roundup (plus video tour of our DIY herbal "medicine" cabinet)

It's official. We've reached the time of year when we will have at least one runny nose in the house until spring. So I've been busy this week stocking up a few of our favorite remedies to help keep this bunch in tip-top shape. So today I just wanted to share all those favorites in one place, along with a video tour of my herbal "medicine" cabinet. I'll show you what remedies I make vs. which ones I buy, what herbs I keep on hand, and what I use them all for!

You can check out all my natural living posts here. 

Favorite Easy Fall Dishes

Hey friends! I put together a little bonus post this week with a few of our fall-favorite meals that are super easy to make! Spoiler: they're all in the soup family. Apparently I love a hot soup on a cool day!

I'm just going to list all the recipes for you in this post because they're so short and simple:

Breakfast Fried Rice

Okay guys. Get ready for one of my favorite breakfasts ever. It's time for breakfast fried rice. I'll start with the super simple recipe, then give you a few tips I use to make it extra-easy to put together in the morning. Be warned, I have no amounts listed because I just add whatever looks like enough for all of us.

Breakfast Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• bacon
• cooked rice (leftover is perfect)
• spinach
• frozen peas 
• salt + pepper
• eggs (and oil if you want to fry them)

1. Cook the bacon. Then crumble it and set it aside. Reserve some of the bacon grease in the pan for cooking (I pour the extra in a bowl in case I need to add more later. You know, since I don't measure and don't know exactly how much I need.)

2. In the pan with the reserved bacon grease (you can use oil instead), dump in cooked rice. Stir fry it for several minutes until it's warm and toasty.

3. Add spinach, frozen peas, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until peas are thawed. Add crumbled bacon.

4. In a separate pan, cook the eggs. (I go ahead and start them while the rice is cooking so it all gets done around the same time) Most of my family loves fried eggs, but I always make a couple scrambled for the ones who prefer that.

5. Serve a scoop of fried rice with an egg on top! Season with salt + pepper to taste.

There are a few things you can do to make it all come together easy peasy in the morning:

• Make a meal with rice earlier in the week. Cook extra while you're at it to save in the fridge for fried rice day!
• Same with bacon - cook it earlier in the week for BLT's or something. Save several pieces of bacon and the bacon grease in the fridge. 

Then on the best day (fried rice day) the hard work is already done and it all comes together quickly.

Check out the rest of my recipes here!

The lesser-seen side of our dining room. I love how it's coming together!

DIY Farmhouse Table - Painted Second Hand Chairs - Treasure Shelf

What's your favorite breakfast recipe?

Blueberry Cream Pie

I don't post recipes very often, but I just made this summer favorite last week and it was too good not to share! It's a perfect summer dessert - creamy, fruity, fresh, and subtly lemony.

You can also check out our favorite cold-weather dessert - chocolate volcano cakes!

The Easiest Intro to a Whole Food Diet

I've spent a couple years (literally. years.) slowly transitioning to a more whole food diet. Change is hard, but easing in one step at a time is so. much. easier. than going all-in right out of the gate. So today I want to share one of my very favorite whole food routines. It's a great way to get lots of nutritious, whole-food goodness going on in you kitchen without investing a lot of time or a lot of money, plus it stretches to cover several meals. And it all starts with a chicken.

I know this is way off our usual path, but let's be honest - I spend a significant amount of time feeding the little boys running all around this place, so the food they eat is something that's on my mind a lot. And I was thinking it might be on yours, too. So here's what we're going to do: cook a chicken, and make some broth. Easy, real food staples to get us going in the right direction.

So let's get started. Step 1: buy a whole chicken. We look for organic chickens and when they go on sale we buy a bunch and stash them in the deep freeze (thaw them before cooking). Open it up and check to see if there is a package of gizzards inside the chicken (you don't want to roast it with the wrapper inside). Don't panic about the gizzards. Move on to step two.

Step 2: Now rub the chicken with a mix of salt and spices (we actually like to do a little allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg inspired by this recipe - don't knock it 'til you try it). Put it in a pot (if you're really feeling brave you can open the gizzards and throw them in the bottom of the pot to roast. They're full of good-for-you nutrients that we can use later. Don't panic about the gizzards. You're a real-food chef now.) and roast it in the oven. This is my go-to method:

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees
• Bake 15 minutes
• Reduce the temp to 450 and bake 15 more minutes
• Reduce the tempt to 425 and bake 30 minutes
• Larger birds might take a little longer too cook, use a thermometer and keep that guy roasting until it's a balmy 180 degrees all the way through. 

Congrats! You just cooked a whole, real chicken! Add some veggies and you'll have your first whole-food meal on the table.

I like to throw carrots and potatoes right in with the chicky while it's roasting, or you can do any veggies you like in a separate roasting dish with some oil and seasonings (wait until the last half hour or so to put them in). And that completes your first whole-food meal. Yum yum!

But wait, We're not done with that chicken!

Quinoa, Chicken, Avocado & Cranberry Bowl

We all love quick, easy, healthy dinners and this has quickly become a family favorite! It only takes four ingredients and you can have it on the table in just about 20 minutes. I especially love it in the summer because I'm not cooped up in the kitchen on a beautiful day, and the only cooking is simmering a pot of quinoa.

Ingredients:

• quinoa (cook as much as your family will eat, plus some extra for leftovers!)
• shredded cooked chicken (we use leftover from roasting a chicken but you can also use a rotisserie chicken)
• avocado, diced
• dried cranberries

I don't have amounts because this is one of those throw-it-together meals! Just use as much as your family will eat. :)

Start by cooking your quinoa according to the package instructions. I like to cook it in chicken broth instead of water for a little more flavor (we make our own broth after we roast a chicken). I also like to soak the quinoa in water for a few hours ahead of time if I remember, then drain and rinse before cooking. But I don't sweat it if I forget. While this cooks you can chop the avocados and shred the chicken.

When the quinoa is ready just scoop some in a bowl and top it with your yummy add-ins. Easy, right?

Just be warned, the kids like it so much they might try to swipe it before dinner even starts!

What's your favorite, healthy summer meal?

Water Kefir Tips and Our Favorite Recipes {lemonade and pomegranate soda}

Fermented foods. I remember when I first heard about them two years ago. My thoughts were something like "Oh. Fermented? That sounds super gross." But now here they are on our list of just seven healthy goals for this year. Because the more I read, the more I found that fermentation is just the growth of beneficial bacteria and probiotics that is actually really good for your gut health, and that gut health is one of the foundations of good overall health! Hmmm. So we decided a year ago to give this fermentation thing a try, starting with the easiest/least scary thing I could find. Water Kefir.

Turns out it's not hard. Or scary. And we've kept these little kefir guys (called kefir grains, technically) going for over a year now with just a little sugar and water. Water kefir grains are little whitish clear lumps that are made up largely of yeast and bacteria, and when placed in sugar water they ferment it into a probiotic beverage. Easy to use, and affordable since all you need to sustain them is water, a little sugar, and minerals. Plus the grains will grow and reproduce over time so if you can share with friends!

Here's what you need:

• Water kefir grains (milk kefir grains are not the same). If you have a friend whose grains have grown you may be able to get some for free, or you can order them from cultures for health. If you order them they will include instructions for getting them started the first time. If they came from a friend you can hop right in!
• sugar (we use organic)
• mineral drops, molasses, or a clean egg shell
• a mason jar with a lid (we use a coffee filter over the top)

My Favorite Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe

Over the last couple months I've started making my own bread from scratch. It was one of my goals for 2014 to both save money and make healthier choices for my family. I don't like serving a lot of mystery ingredients and since homemade bread only takes four or five ingredients it seemed like an easy way to cut out a processed food. I started with whole wheat bread but after reading the book Cure Tooth Decay I decided to give real sourdough bread a try.

Here's the trouble with bread (and grains in general) - the tend to have properties like phytic acid that prevent them from being digested and more importantly block your body ability to absorb nutrients from the foods you eat. Yikes. Based on what I've read I actually think grains are a big cause of cavities and other dental problems. If you haven't read this book and have any kind of problems with your teeth you need to check it out! The kindle edition is only $10 on amazon! The way around this is to do one of the three S's - soaking, sprouting, or souring. Basically you're breaking down the bad stuff before you even eat it! I tried a couple soaked bread recipes that didn't thrill me and sprouted flour is expensive! So that left souring.

Herbal Cold & Cough Syrup Recipe

If there's one thing we know about winter it's that the weather change always brings a generous supply of runny noses, coughs, and general yuckiness. This year when our first round of sickness knocked out all the boys I gave this new herbal cough syrup recipe a try. It tasted great so the boys were always excited to take it, plus the herbs are all natural and great for fighting off cold & cough symptoms!

You need just a few simple ingredients to make your own herbal cold & cough syrup.I like to order from Bulk Herb Store or Mountain Rose Herbs. Both are very reputable so I usually choose based on who has what I need in stock! And I throw some elderberries in with my order for making immune-boosting elderberry syrup.

Echinacea Root - a natural antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and an excellent infection fighter. It stimulates the immune system to help your body heal itself!

Licorice Root - stimulates the adrenals while adding great taste & natural sweetness. Great for cold, cough, and sore throat, and works as an expectorant.

Ginger - has a long history as remedy for cough, plus it's great for nausea and diarrhea if they join the party!

Raw Honey -antimicrobial & antibiotic properties are great for treating cold and cough. It's also anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and a powerful antioxidant that strengthens your immune system. Which is why it's a staple in so many home remedies!

Once you're supplies arrive you can get started making your syrup. Here's what you need:

1/4 c. Echinacea Root
1/4 c. Licorice Root
1/8-1/4 c. Ginger Root, to taste (I didn't have any ginger on hand and made it without)
4 c. water
1/2 - 1 c. honey.

GOOT - natural remedy for colds and more!

We've fallen behind the last couple weeks because our fellas have been under the weather. But thankfully they are finally on the mend. It's never fun when kids are sick, and it's especially not fun trying to decide when it's time to get out the medicine or go to the doctor. Fortunately this time we were able to avoid both, and today I'm sharing one of our favorite home remedies that has helped us through many such sicknesses (you can see our list of remedies and make some immune-boosting elderberry syrup here).

GOOT is the name of the game. A simple mix of garlic, coconut oil, and olive oil, it boasts some great healing properties! Garlic is a natural antibiotic that doesn't carry the bad flora associated with conventional antibiotics and applying this salve to your skin allows the garlic to tranfer to your bloodstream. This makes it great for treating all kinds of sickness and infections! You can read more about the benefits here. But of course, always consult your doctor!

GOOT is so easy to make! In fact usually whip it up in the middle of the night when someone is suddenly sick. It takes just a few minutes in a blender. Here's what you need:

• 1/4 c. peeled garlic
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted

Combine the ingredients in a small blender (I use the mini blender attachment that came with my immersion blender) for a couple minutes until it's well combined. Then strain the mixture through a fine sieve or some cheesecloth to remove any chunks of garlic. Straining is important especially for kids because the chunks can burn their sensitive skin. Then just pour the mixture into an airtight container and put it in the fridge to harden into a firm salve. That's it!

We like to keep a batch of goot in the fridge anytime someone starts acting under the weather. Whenever someone is sick we apply the salve to their feet and put on warm socks. We've also put it on chests to treat congestion and croup and around ears to ward off ear infections. GOOT should be stored in the fridge and will last 2-3 weeks.

And of course be sure to get plenty of rest when you're sick! And you'll be back on your feet, wearing a cape in no time.

Why is he so much funnier with a cape on?!

To make it even better, he kept running around throwing a bouncy ball, then striking this post to see if it went under the table:

And let's not forget the Big Brother, who seems to have grown 6" and an entire vocabulary.

What are your favorite home remedies? Have you every used GOOT?

Hot Chocolate Mix {and free printable labels}

We haven't bought hot chocolate mix in over year since we started making it ourselves. It's great because you can adjust the amounts and add different things to find what you like and you know exactly what is going into it. Last year we shared our favorite recipe and included a printable recipe card but with Christmas right around the corner I wanted to share a printable label that's a little more giftable.

Just print out the tags on paper or cardstock, cut them out, and attach them to jars of hot chocolate mix some twine or string. You can punch a hole in the tags and tie them on like the pic above, or tape them right onto the jar like the pic below.

Download and Print the tags here.

This hot chocolate mix is so easy to make! Just combine the ingredients in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed, then divvy it up into smaller jars.

• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 3 cups dry milk powder
• 1 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

You'll probably want to make a jar for yourself while you're at it. There's nothing like a toasty mug of hot chocolate on a snowy day!

Individual jars like this make a great, easy gift for friends, co-workers, neighbors, even your Sunday school class!

For more homemade gift ideas check out my 31 Handmade Gifts series. Do you like to give food gifts? Share your favorite recipes in the comments!