Lo-Carb Peanut Butter Cup Pie

OK, I received a few request for this recipe and after tasting it, I know they won't be disappointed!  This was awarded 5 out of 5 stars by my fam!

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

1 pkg. (4 servings) sugar - free chocolate pudding mix
2 TBS. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup water
3/4 cup natural peanut butter, creamy
1 simple Almond Crust (recipe to follow)

In a large bowl, combine the pudding mix and cocoa powder.  Pour in the heavy cream and water, and beat with an electric mixer to combine well (I just used my hand and a fork).  Then beat in the peanut butter until everything well combined.  Pour mixture into cooled crust, scraping it all out of the bowl with a rubber scarper.  Spread evenly in crust, and chill.

Serves 8   (This is REALLY thick.  You may want to cut into 16ths. like a cheese cake)




Simple Almond Crust

1 1/2 cups ground almonds or almond meal
1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder (I only had natural, so added 1/3cup splenda)
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350

Combine almonds and whey protein powder, add butter and mix well.  Turn out into a pie plate you've sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, and press firmly and evenly into place, building up around sides.  Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until edges are starting to brown lightly.  Remove from oven and cool.

Let it cool completely before filling with pie mixture.

I find almond meal in the healthy food section of my local Krogers.  If using plain almonds, just process in your food processor with the s blade until it forms a cornmeal consistency.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!  Blessings, Beth Ann

Prayer and listening

I know some of you are going to think this is about a dog, but I hope most of you don't.  I want to share with you another faith moment, and they always seem to happen about the time I say "I didn't see that coming"; LOL.  let me start by saying that for the past eight years or so I have wanted to have my own store, be my own boss, but it has NEVER been blessed by God.  At one point while praying on it I even heard God ask me, "for who's glory would it be?".    Now if you asked me if I liked kids or animals I would shrug and say, eh so-so.  Those of you who know me well will find that hysterical as I always seem to have a house full of both and only half are mine.  No matter how I run or how I make choices to the contrary, I always end up with what I will call rescue kids and animals.  I am starting to see a pattern here : )  I believe this goes with 'God's plans for me'.  I am very good at it, and I have embraced being a Proverbs 31 women, to the max!  Well once again it hit me, I needed to do something, but what?  For some reason I started combing 'Craigslist', not sure what I was looking for.  Then I had narrowed it down to the 'pet' listings, and let me tell you I was appalled at what I found.  I had never even heard of 'dog flipping' before.  It makes me sick that so many people are trying to make a buck on 'rehoming' their 'friend'.  Then I started hanging around a dachshund rescue site, I love doxies!  I thought maybe I could foster, rescue or even volunteer there.  They too wanted money, even to volunteer!  Meanwhile I kept praying, talking to my hubby and looking to see what I could do.  Well as of yesterday it all seemed to fall into place, even our church service seemed to touch on my issue of leading by example and being a blessing to others.  I took a deep breath and posted on 'Craigslist' that I would do local doxin rescue but would not pay anyone to help their animal.  Afew folks emailed but they weren't getting it either, they wanted cute puppies.  I want to help local doxies, doesn't matter age, sex handicapped or not. Well I happened across an add for free doxie in neighboring city.  I had seen the add a couple days before, but was out of town.  I took a deep breath for courage and called.  On the end of the other phone was a very overwhelmed woman who needed my help.  By the end of the call I found out that I knew her daughter who lived here locally by me, and had even helped her with a pet before!  By the end of the evening I had taken in a very sweet new friend, found a home for my son's ferrets and had invited another 'rescue' kid and her sister to church with me.  When I went to bed I lay there stunned.  It hit me, maybe this wasn't so much about the dogs or even me, maybe God had used me and my skill with animals and children to help two families.  Wow. I still believe that God has commanded my family to have a pet ministry, but I also have to see the bigger picture.  There are real people on the other end of those leashes and maybe I can help them too!

Here is our new friend Smokey, even though his papers list him as Sir Scooter.

Smokey looking at my hubby.

Smokey keeping dd company as she does school work.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Boo ~ tifule Harvest

This past Saturday saw the first rain here in some time.  It cooled us off, for the remainder of the day anyway.  Interestingly enough it was also the first chance I had to swim this summer.  Irony huh?  LOL  It was a nice treat though, a Women of Faith get together for our church.  Swimming, fellowship, food and a movie.  The movie was 'Fried Green Tomatoes', which I had not seen before.  Wow, good movie and our hostess cooked those tasty tomatoes for us as well.  Good times.

Well the rain certainly helped our garden, but it was doing well before the rain too, thanks to my hubby and his green thumb.

  He goes out every morning before the heat of the day and tends the garden and shares time and knowledge with our twin son.  It is funny how twin son is interested in the garden and twin daughter enjoys spending time and learning with her dad in the garage, fixing cars.

More cucumbers, peppers, spaghetti squash and our first pie pumpkins came in!  I am so excited about the pumpkins and squash.  We also planted what they call 'goosebump' pumpkins, with knobs and bumps all over, but none of those have shown up yet.

With the arrival of the rain my sinus/allergies seem a little better, thank goodness, I am tired of being sick.  I did start my new Allergy meds on Sat. but like I said, the weather has made a difference so I don't know about the meds yet.  Hubby is concerned about some side effects, so am I, but we just don't want to move.  I miss my family much, I guess if we move we should move back north so I can see them.  Sigh.  Life is full of choices and compromises.  The only thing I know for sure is to keep praying and listening to God.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Back from Cincy

Actually I returned home late Sunday evening from Cincinnati, and the weather was wonderful!  We were running late because we stopped in Lexington, KY for lunch and some antiquing : )  Over all I would rate the trip a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity to attend the Great Home School Conference of the Midwest, and with such an awesome group of ladies who share my faith and are filled with grace.  We had two suites in a hotel about 5 blocks from the Dukes Convention Center.    Many times it was faster to walk than to wait for the hotel shuttle, except when it was raining or the morning we had to be at a lecture at 8:30 a.m. : )  My poor legs and back were tired from wandering among the 300+ vendors in the exhibit hall.  Many ladies had those plastic egg crate thing's with wheels and a telescoping handle.  A couple of vendors sold them for around $25 - yikes!  I had all my worldly possessions in a back-pack/purse and then I carried a tote bag, and just sucked it up.  The only bad thing to mention were food prices  on the premises (of course).  Bottled water was going for $3!    I had my own bottle and just repeatedly filled it from one of the many water fountains, as they have filtered water.  Again, it was an amazing time, shared with amazing people.

Here is our group on the day we left.  We are standing in front of the fountain at the public library, which was across the street from our hotel, The Garfield Arms.

The grand finale for the conference was The Duggar family (they have 19 children and home school).  I don't want to talk about how long the line was or the wait to be seated, but it was a nice evening.  I had read their book, so not much new information.  However I did not know they had a show on TLC (we don't watch tv).  Since then I have rented one of their disc's from Netflix and really enjoyed it.  I mostly enjoyed it because my 14 year old dd did, and it had some great info on courtship vs. dating.  They make it look 'cool' and because of the size of their family, dd appreciates ours a bit more : )

Of course I brought my knitting!  I took it with me everywhere I went and was delighted to find one of the vendors was selling a fiber art curriculum.  It contained knitting, weaving, carding and dying your own wool.  So cool to see these things make a come back.  I managed to knit a hat on the way up there, and on the way home.  It is a 5 hour trip after all (gain an hour going east).

We also took a day to visit the Creation Museum and meet Ken Ham.  He is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, a christian home school curriculum (to put it mildly).  He is a celebrity in the world of home school and maybe even a modern hero.  I encourage you to check him out at http://www.answersingenesis.com/  These are the same folks you might of heard of, who are building a life size ARK.  I so can not wait for that!  This was my second time to the museum and my first with no kids.  There is also a planetarium, but I did that the first time, not the second.  I was able to really talk more of it in and it was so much more . . . vivid, 3D for me.  It made may faith stronger and affirmed that we were on the path that God had placed our family.  I would love to go aging with a group from our church or even take the hubby and twins.  Sigh, guess I just want to go again - LOL

Well, I enjoyed the weather, the fellowship, the faith and the affirmation on home schooling, right before graduating my first from home.  I can't believe the big day is only 4 weeks away!  There have been many ups and downs in the 6 years I have been home schooling, but it is so well worth it!  Not only is it biblical correct, but it turns out kids to be proud of.  We are living our life for God and we are not afraid to live it out loud.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Menu's, Monday and More

Hey all, trying to get in the grove here after a major blow=out party yesterday celebrating hubby and son's b-day's.  We were blessed with a sunny  semi-warm day and were able to sit out on the deck sipping wine while hubby grilled and even deep fried some onion blossoms' for us.  The party lasted into the night and I was left feeling amazed at our blessings of friends.  Moving on - LOL

Speaking of the party, most of the food came from a separate budget and not my reg. grocery budget.  K did a couple car jobs and we used that money.  So my total for week three spending in Jan. 2011 on grocery type items was$121.  So right on track.  Hubby and I had decided on enveloping $125 a week for food/paper/pet and house hold items.  I did spend an additional $60 in pet items but was reimbursed by son when he was paid.  That money was put into the gas tank and tithing plate.  I think I mentioned before that our Dollar General Market does a 1cent item each week, with a $10 purchase.  This past week was their brand t.p.  Not the best quality but for 1cent . . . So I made a couple different trips during the week (yes I added them to my total) and scored 3-six packs of cheap quality t.p.  This should get us through to Friday, which is a pay day this week.

I haven't posted a menu in a while, but if your my FB friend you still get to hear about what we're eating! LOL  Here is a look at this week:
Monday ~ Ground turkey Shepard's pie w/ fauxtato topping
Tuesday ~ Beef & Broccoli stir-fry w/pecan rice
Wednesday ~ Cheesy Chipotle Soup (taken to church pot-luck)
Thursday ~Chicken risotto w/broccoli
Friday ~ Turkey loaf w/baked pot and mixed veg.
Saturday~ Crock pot Jambalaya
Sunday ~ Cream of Cauliflower soup and salad

Breakfast usually are eggs cooked in a variety of ways, our favorite is eggs in a hole, oatmeal, and some home made spelt muffins.

Lunch this week looks like this; left overs from party, sandwiches, hot and sour soup, chicken salad and a meatza.

Most of these meals are lo-carb and high protein as we try to get back on track from all our holiday and post holiday/b-day celebrating.  Remember, no white bread, white sugar and mostly dark green veggies.  Oh, we are day 9 with no soda and half/calf coffee.   Well everyone except Z.  He asked everyone he knew for Mt. Dew for his b-day.  Kids.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Holiday happenings

I know it's been a few days since I blogged, but blessedly there really hasn't been much going on here.  I have been cooking, cleaning and knitting on a commission piece.  Hubby has been doing the Zone thing and some car jobs, praise the LORD!  Those extra jobs ALWAYS come just when we need them most, the way God planned I imagine : )  The kids have been, well kids - LOL  The twins are pretty wound up about the holidays and even the older kids have been spotted shaking a few packages.  The weather has been the big scene stealer.  We had an Indian summer, right through Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful to enjoy our holiday on the deck in bright sunny weather.  Then bang!  Next thing you know the furnace is on!  We even had three snow days for our public school system here.  There is only one plow in our county and that doesn't help with the ice in the hallows.  Don't fear though, we still had school here!  LOL   Other big news is that as of yesterday, two weeks until the end of the year, we met the deductible on our pharmacy insurance and I got my pills for free!  Yea baby, that's what I'm talking about - LOL  Better late than never I guess : )

This one of our most cherished ornaments.  We picked it up on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

We went Christmas caroling with our church last night.  Good times were had by all.  It was very icy and I almost fell, but son and hubby saved me.  I have great guys and am very blessed.  A friend took this family pic of us after at the coffee & cocoa portion of the evening.  I wonder if I can get these into cards in time for Christmas?

This is another favorite ornament.  I made it the center of a wreath I made for our front door.  Sh .......

Blessings, Beth Ann

Excursion

Last night was soooo much fun that I thought I would blog about it this morning, while enjoying my raspberry-chocolate friendship coffee : )
We did something we don't usually do very often . . . went out as a family and had dinner!  All six of us, plus B's friend and Z's girl friend = zoo!  We picked Z up from work and let him drive (always fun) into the 'boro.  Just want to say right here, praise the Lord for our Durango and it's 8 seat belts : )   Our first stop was Animal City (guess which one of us wanted to go there . . . ).  Love that place, they always have fun and exotic animals as well as the mundane, at good prices.  They are not a chain, but good christian family owned business that puts the welfare of the animals first.  Believe me, take a look and you will notice that not one animal looks like it has missed a meal in quite a while - LOL  Yesterday they had a pen of 'Beannies' or what we call 'Deagles', a Beagle/dachshund mix, puppies.  They were a brown dapple, and sooooooooooooo cute!  I am such a sucker for a doxin, sigh.
Next stop was dinner at Ci-Ci's pizza.  It is a buffet place w/video games.  In other words, a kids haven and total chaos reigns.  Yes, the kids loved it, especially the twins.  The last time we were there the twins were two.  With the Christmas carols playing on the radio and all the decorations lite up in town, and all the kids chattering away; it was such a festive atmosphere, sigh- happiness. After dinner we strolled down to the Goodwill which was in the same mall and poked around.  Clark, I mean, Z (we call him Clark, for Clark Griswold in the Christmas vacation movie) scored several boxes of un-opened Christmas lights.  He was litterly floating in estcasy on the way home.  We let him drive back home and after we dropped off his girlfriend, well it was 10:30 before we got the twins in bed.  Z decided he had to put all the lights up last night, so there he was at 11 p.m. and some how he coerced his sister into helping him!  We went to bed!
Now it is the next day and the twins still got up early : (  They have been battling colds for a week and now they are weepy.  It is also raining outside and I find myself wondering if I should take them to the Christmas Parade at noon or not . . .    Anyway, it's worth it.  Last night was soooo wonderful.  As the children get older it seems to get more complicated time wise and money wise too, to travel as a family and do things outside our home.  I feel last night was a special gift from God.

For the past couple days I was in a funk, thinking and praying on some farm land, still : (  We have been praying on this for about 3 years now.  The answer is always, not now.  Sometimes I just get sooooo impatient.  Especially when we are having issues with the managiery we already have.  I know we need more room and I don't ever want to be a problem to our neighbors.  So I spent two days on the computer looking at property everywhere from Maine to Montana.  Yesterday I was so frustrated that I layed down and did some heavy duty praying.  I told God I would go anywhere He wanted me to, just let me know what His will was.  Nothing.  When I hear from God it is usually pretty quick.  I think I haven't been still or quiet enough lately.  After a while, when I was very quiet and still, I got it.  The answer was that I could go anywhere I wanted, as long as I stayed in Cannon Co.   LOL  I always knew God had a sense of humor.  But I was also reminded of all that He moved to get us here.  We were not headed here when we started out.  The answer floored me and gave me reason to sit and think and remember some more.  I went upstairs feeling sad and sorry for myself.  I came down feeling restored and remembered by my father, savior and God!  I am sooo grateful that He is never to busy to let me know that He knows my wants, but  not to always give it to me if it's not whats best.  Just like any good father would!  Amen.  I hope this makes sense.  I have had to stop typing several times, as I have to keep putting out fires with weepy children and answering questions for a husband who apparently knows where nothing is in this house we have lived in for almost ten years now - LOL  Man I love this house, this family, life and God!  AMEN

Blessings, Beth Ann

Random chit-chat

As my mom would say, 'not much happening here'.  That's a good thing right?  LOL  Just thought I would pop in and let ya all know I am still thinking about you all : )   I guess my mom has been on my mind recently.  I talked to her last week , she called to let me know she was a great - grandma again (nine now).  She let it slip that she had a concussion.  Yeah, she's that kind of mom.  She did that once after her strokes as well.  Maybe she doesn't want to tell me because she knows she will get 'a talk'in to'.  Maybe she doesn't know how much I care or worry.  When did our rolls get reversed?  I wish we lived closer to her and my sis and daughter, even though I know I am right where God wants me and I have to be faithful to God.  He has been on my mind as well.  I knew last week that we had a tough or 'tight' week ahead of us, and spent extra time in prayer over this and as always, the farm property issue.  I must confess that I am blessed enough to have 'heard' God answer on a few occasions.  I relish His small still voice.  Some folks aren't so lucky or they aren't quiet enough to hear Him.  I will say I was amazed at how fast he answered me this time.  I hadn't even really finished praying yet! LOL  One of the items I was praying on was working outside the home.  I have prayed on this a number of times, not really getting an answer and not really been blessed by any venture either.  This time however, He explained to me that it would not be to His glory or a testament to Him if I worked.  We best show our faith by letting him take care of us and sharing this with others.  Every time we have a 'tight' week and make it to the end with out missing a meal, or hubby getting a car job, we are showing that our faith is strong and that we believe in Him.  Every time we have the money from 'somewhere' to pay for school books, tuition or even a pair of shoes, we are testifying that God has provided for us as we follow His will for me to be a SAHM and to home school.  If I turn to outside the home for a counted on weekly check, I am saying I need a safety net or a 'back-up' plan, just in case this whole God thing isn't real.  I was awed by this information that was bestowed upon me and couldn't wait to share it with my husband.  God doesn't have to share his plan with us, and rarely does, talk about an answer to a prayer!  I have walked around the rest of the week with my head held higher and my smile bigger.  And are we ever blessed!  Hubby came home the other night with news of yet another person he knows, who is losing their home.  We  wonder quiet often why others seem to have 'more' than us, but then we hear news like this and know that they might have 'stuff', but they weren't blessed.  Everyday I am thankful for my humble home, my amazing husband, my extraordinary children, my church support system, friends that just don't stop helping me and others, and the chance to pay those blessings forward to others.  I am even thankful for the 'tight' times and the animal ministry that seems so overwhelming at times.  For without these challenges, we will never grow and get the chance to let God be our rock, light and savior.

Blessings, Beth Ann
p.s. still no answer on the property thing- poo : (