Monthly Archives: March 2015

Homemade Sunflower Butter

Game changer alert! I had never tried Sunflower Butter until a few weeks ago.  I guess I just never had the opportunity and I sure wasn’t going to buy a $12 jar at Whole Foods just to risk not liking it.  Well when I tasted my first spoonful of Sunflower Butter, to my surprise it tasted much more like peanut butter than any other nut butter I’ve had!

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Peanut butter is one of those things that I randomly will realize I haven’t eaten it in a few years and really crave it. Sunflower butter to the rescue!  Since I’m on the 21 Day Sugar Detox and on a ‘homemade’ kick right now, I thought I’d give it a go and make the sunflower butter at home!

Now it definitely takes a little more time and attention than Almond Butter, but it is definitely worth it!

Sunflower Butter – No Sugar Added

Ingredients Continue reading →

The 21 Day Sugar Detox Round 2 – Week 1

Hey guys!  I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start.  We are slowly but surely starting to thaw out here in Connecticut which is beyond exciting.  You know that time of year in New England when it’s about 45 degrees and you see people with windows down and jackets off?  Yup sounds about right!

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Jamaica in April, I decided to give the 21 Day Sugar Detox a go again.  The first time I took a stab at this was in January of 2014.  Back then I did it to kick start my year, detox, and maybe eliminate some things from my diet.  My reasons are pretty similar this time around.  I’m not looking to lose a ton of weight (of course a few pounds would be nice) but to just clear out my body of the toxins I feel I’ve been over indulging in since the New Year.  I’ve had lots of celebrating to do!

The 21 Day Sugar Detox was developed by Diane Sanfilippo.  Diane is a well known nutritionist in the Paleo / Primal community and developed this program to help thousands of people get their blood sugar in check and kick their cravings.

To be honest, following the 21 Day Sugar Detox for me doesn’t require too many significant change since it’s highly based on a Paleo diet.  But it does force me to look more closely at what I’m eating, and eliminate some sugar and ‘addictions’ I have.

Here is what my first week looked like.

Grocery List

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  • Chicken Thighs
  • Nuts and Seeds (almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds)
  • Green Apples
  • Green Tipped Bananas
  • Tomato Paste
  • Coconut Oil
  • Kale
  • Beef
  • Avocados
  • Eggs
  • Bacon
  • Veggies

Continue reading →

What I’ve learned From Two Months of Wedding Planning

Wow it’s already been two months since Andy popped the question!  It’s no doubt been a great year so far.  There has been lots of celebrating with our friends and family and the planning of engagement parties and the wedding has already begun.
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I’ve always said I don’t want a huge big to-do wedding.  The reason being, I don’t want to go in to debt over one day.  I’d rather put more of that towards an amazing honeymoon or house (really though, honeymoon is where it’s at).  With that said, of course I want to have a beautiful and fun day that reflects who me and Andy are and celebrates our relationship.

So I do have an exciting announcement.  We picked a date and a venue!  Venue shopping was super fun, probably due to the fact that we looked at three different vineyards and well… that includes free wine.

Being engaged for two months now, telling friends, family, strangers, and acquaintances, looking  at venues, and wasting hours of my life on Pinterest I’ve already learned a few things about this whole wedding planning stuff.

1.  There’s no such thing as a budget or cheap wedding when you have extremely large families. Unless you do it in your backyard and order pizzas.  I always said ‘I’d get married in a backyard’ to save money.  That’s not where the cost comes in.  It’s the food, alcohol, and catering.  And well if you know Andy and I then you know we are definitely not going to skimp on the food or drinks. Continue reading →

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