Category Archives: Food

Homemade Vanilla Creamer

I’m not gonna lie as this video about sums it up! lol

I know it’s been a while since I’ve done a food post, but this one is worth it. About a year ago I went on a search for recipes for homemade creamer for a very specific reason. The hubby and I were making lifestyle changes, i.e., cutting out excess sugars and replacing what we could with natural sugars instead of overly processed sugars. And the number one big thing that I was giving up were my coffee Frappes…*gasp* I don’t know if you realize how big a deal this was for me, it was HUGE. 

You see, I love to blame this frappe addiction on my lovely sister-in-law, Kelli, with her “try it, you’ll like it” words I was almost instantly addicted! I was never a coffee drinker before her suggestion–notta even once. In general, I’m not a hot drink lover–at all. I’ve always had a tendency to burn my tongue with hot drinks and had to be pretty desperate to drink hot tea…very desperate like I was so sick and couldn’t stop coughing or out camping and I was freezing my butt off. I mean, even in the dead of winter with negative temperature numbers, I’d still have a cold drink. Crazy, I know. 

So I got hooked on Frappuccinos in my thirties and every day before I’d head off to work I’d stop and get one. That habit cost me $25 per week. You add that up for a year, and that’s $1,300! And you take that times seven years–a whopping $9,100!

Now granted I owned my own accounting business and was making a decent income, but I should have been wiser with my money–a lot wiser.

Then came the lovely decline in 2008 and I lost a lot of business which meant I had to cut back in a lot of areas, dining out for starters. I began making my own frappes at home with a mix I’d buy from Cash & Carry and even purchased the fancy cups and domed lids so I’d feel special. I saved a bundle considering a bag of the vanilla frappe mix would only cost me about $18 per month and the cups would last a good 2-3 months.

So I went from $1,300 a month in coffee drinks down to around $50. Makes me wish I’d done it sooner, lesson learned.

But then came the lesson about lifestyle changes and reading the package labeling to see how much added sugar I was putting in my body and there was a lot of extra sugar in my beloved Frappe.

So long story short, I didn’t like the creamer recipes on Pinterest because they used condensed sweetened mix which I will attest to that they don’t stay mixed with your milk product and the fact that it wasn’t a natural organic sugar kind of put me off.

So I’m going to share with you my go-to vanilla creamer recipe and let you taste the difference for yourself along with the cost savings instead of buying the prepackaged store creamers. 

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Fall is here!

It’s that lovely time of year when I begin to think about golden and crimson leaves falling, cooler nights, hot apple cider and fires while snuggled under warm blankets. I begin to crave chili and chicken tortilla soup, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread, and pumpkin spice lattes heated to perfection. I begin freezing tomatoes for those future soups and canning applesauce and peaches for those cold winter months. I make my famous jams of strawberries, huckleberries, blueberries and peaches, and I watch my boys polish off jar after jar.

I think about golden and crimson leaves falling, cooler nights, hot apple cider and fires while snuggled under warm blankets.

I get excited about eating yummy warm homemade bread, and homemade bread bowls for that Broccoli Cheese Soup and Clam Chowder. I plan out my fall porch decor and wonder what I’ll do different this year…

Yes, fall is here and I couldn’t be happier. What about you?

 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Keeping with the soup theme lately, a craze on which I’ve gotten on and can’t seem to get off. It seems like it happens every fall. The weather starts to cool down and the first thing that comes to mind is soup! Not to mention that winter seems to have arrived like super early this year with the freezing temps! So, keep warm and soup on! Continue reading