How to make your own Almond Flour!

So I was going to try a new low carb, protein bread recipe and noticed one of the ingredients was almond flour. So I headed to the store and saw that it was $9.92 for a TINY bag! I thought NO WAY am I spending that. I looked at the ingredients and it was just "blanched almonds." So, I knew I could make it myself. I buy the HUGE bags of raw almonds at Costco for about $10.00, and already had some. I used about 3/4 cup almonds to make a 1/2 cup of almond flour.

What you will Need:

• A food processor OR clean electric coffee bean grinder grinder
• flour sifter (clean/new) if using coffee grinder

• raw almonds (no salt or anything on them).

All you need to do is put your almonds in your processor and go! Mine took about 90 seconds to turn into flour. Do not go too long or the almonds will turn into almond butter (yum!). If you are using a coffee grinder pulse for about 20-30 seconds and check then pulse again. Once it is ground pretty well sift the product and grind any almond parts that don't make it through the sifter. And Voila! Easy almond flour. This is how it should look:

Almond flour is great if you are on a gluten free or low carb diet! It has less calories than whole wheat flour, and has healthy fats that help lower cholesterol among other things! You can sub this for flour in many different recipes. I will be posting a recipe soon (once I get a chance to make it), that uses almond flour!

*Make sure to store your almond flour in the fridge if making it in advance*

Home Made Cinnamon Swirl Protein Bread! mmm

So I have been eating healthy and came across the fabulous recipes on bodybuilding.com. Here is a link to the actual recipe. Anyway, this bread is soooo good and filling! It is great after a workout or to dunk in your morning coffee, or pretty much anytime of day. I have made a few of Jamie Eason's recipes and this one is by far the best (they all are pretty yummy though!)

Here is the Info (my comments are in parenthesis):

Nutrition Facts:

Makes 16 squares
1 square = 55 calories, 1 g fat, 8 g carbs, 5 g protein

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Ideal (Xylitol) (ordered mine on Amazon, but I think you can use Truvia)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups oat flour (instead of buying Oat Flour you can just blend old fashioned style quaker oats in your blender or food processor do about 1/2 cup more Oats than what the recipe calls for) + 2 scoops vanilla whey protein
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup Ideal (Xylitol) or ¼ cup Stevia in the Raw
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze)
• 1/3 cup or 1 4oz jar of baby food applesauce and ¼ cup low sugar vanilla yogurt (optional) (I did not use the vanilla yogurt)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 X 8 inch Pyrex dish with non-stick spray.


2. In small bowl combine: (set aside)

• 1/3 cup Ideal (Xylitol)
• 2 tsp cinnamon

3. In a large bowl combine: (whisk together)

• 1 1/2 cups oat flour + 2 scoops vanilla whey protein
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup Ideal (Xylitol) or ¼ cup Stevia in the Raw

4. In a medium bowl combine: (whisk together & add to lrg bowl)

• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze)
• 1/3 cup or 1 4oz jar of baby food applesauce and ¼ cup low sugar vanilla yogurt (optional)

5. Pour a shallow layer of batter into the loaf pan (about 1/4 of the batter).


6. Sprinkle heavily with half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining batter & cinnamon/sugar on top.


7. Draw a knife through the batter to marble. Bake for 24 to 28 min. Let cool for 10 min. Bread will be dense.

Pom Pom Flowers!

So I am obsessed with cute hair clips! I wear one almost every day. I really like the vintage flower look, but some of those can be way overpriced to buy! Anyway, I have been making quite a few different types of different flower hair accessories I thought I would share the first out of many that I have made. I feel like this is one of the simplest. And, don't worry I will post the rest of them too! This one is from Scrunch Flower Pom Pom Tutorial on the Little Miss Momma blog! (Which I love by the way!) I pretty much did it the same way she did, but I will post my steps on here too. You will need felt, fabric, scissors and a hot glue gun. Plus whatever you want to put the flower on!

1.) First cut out two circles of felt. Cut them about the size you want the flower to be.

2.) Then cut out 10-15 circles of the fabric you want to use for the flower. These circles are about 2-3 inches. They do NOT have to be perfect as you can see!

3.) Then fold the circle in half and pinch the bottom. I hot glue around the bottom (to hold it together).

4.) Then quickly place the folded, glued fabric in the middle. Repeat these last two steps over and over again until your circle is filled,  then you will get....

I really love these cute, simple flowers! You can put them on a head band, clip, pin or a purse or diaper bag. You could do different colors of fabric too!