Category: Christmas

breastfeeding, Christmas, Family, Food, post partum, St Pattys Day, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Red Velvet Baked Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hannah Lucio

Ok, so I have to get this out of the way. My donuts are not red because the recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of red dye and we had 1/2 Tbsp…..so we used all the dye colors HA! They are green and might do this for St Patrick’s Day coming up.

I found this recipe about 1 minute after my son and I decided to make donuts. They are amazing!!! So good I wanted to eat way more than one at a time. I highly recommend recipe for baked donuts.

 

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Baking soda

1 1/4 cup Unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup Buttermilk (I used almond milk and vinegar to make mine)

1/2 cup and 2 tsp of vegetable oil

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp vinegar

1 Tbsp red food coloring

 

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1 oz Cream Cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp of almond milk or regular milk

 

Directions For The Donuts:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Spray donut pan with non-stick spray
  3. In a large bowl add flour, baking soda, salt cocoa powder and sugar. Mix and set aside.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together; egg, buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, food coloring and vinegar.
  5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together. Do not over mix but mix enough so you do not have clumps in the batter.
  6. Fill the donut ring, I filled it to the top of the donut mold but not high enough to cover the middle.
  7. Bake for 12 minutes. Take out of the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes.

Directions for the Cream Cheese Frosting:

  1. Combine the Cream Cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Mix (whisk) until all together.
  2. Add 1 tsp of almond milk or regular milk and mix until creamy. If you need to add more to get the perfect consistency, add a very small amount at a time.

I dipped the cooled off donuts in the frosting until coated on one half of the donut. You can add sprinkles if you like. And oh my goodness….they taste amazing!! Enjoy!!

 

Live Sweet

Live Simple

 

 

Recipe From Homemadehooplah.com

 

 

Christmas, debt, Family, Food, Hair, money, pregnancy, Sewing, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Get out of debt

Hannah Lucio

When we first decided to kick our debt to the curb it wasn’t that easy. When you grow up not being taught how to manage your money. Not taught how bad credit cards are, isn’t a high credit score good after all? I was taught to get a credit card and get a credit score. I was not taught how to invest. Budget. What’s that?I just knew I needed a job to pay my bills and hope to one day….Idk I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I did not have a dream of being anything. I didn’t want to be a stay at home wife. I actually never wanted to get married and have kids, that is a whole different topic. No Cinderella dreams over here. Ha! It is kind of sad when you think about it.  And here I am, married for over 4 years, two kids and stay at home mom. Interesting how thing work out for the good 😍

I read this Article from Dave Ramsey’s website today and agree with it all. We have literally done it all. Or gone through it.

1. The doubt was enormous but once we made our budget and starting plowing through or debt i was optimistic. 

2. We really got gazelle intense! I was looking in every direction on how to save and pay off. 

3. I listened to Dave Ramsey Podcast, all three of them. Everyday. While I worked out. Cooked. Cleaned. I loved it. It is SO motivating! I was able to learn so much. It also helped me give money advice to others. Pretty darn cool. 

4. Oh my goodness did we sell. We sold so much our dogs thought we were moving. Haha! No joke. We had about 1/4 of the stuff we moved with and it felt AMAZING! We live a pretty simple life now and I never want to go back to the “old us”. 

5. Bargains. Yes, varage sale is huge in California so I bought used everything. I tried to get as much free stuff also. A lot of people just want to get rid of things and I loved it! Of course I sanitized everything but I never minded second hand stuff. 

6. Budgeting. Not the most desired thing for me but I started to love it. This is such an important step when getting debt free. Tell your money where to go, every penny of it. 

7. Cash. It gives me a bit of anxiety to use cash….at Costco. But once I started using cash it got easier. I treat it like a game, a challenging one. I also save the change for a rainy day. It’s amazing how fast change adds up. 

8. Family. Yes. My husband and I were on board from day one. It would have been impossible to do this without him. 

9. Work hard was an understatement. My husband, he is amazing! He worked SO much overtime. He would work hard around the house on weekend to save money also. I also worked my hardest to make homemade everything and fix stuff myself. Sometimes a second job is needed. Thankfully we are doing it without. 

10. When you are able to see how the progress is going it can be very motivating. I have it written on our dry erase board. 

11. The word no. Oh gosh, that’s a hard one for me. My husband, not so much. He is good at saying no. Learning how to say no was probably one of the hardest things ever!

12. Packing lunches and making our own coffee was easy for us. We were already doing that and not to save money but to be healthy. I love black coffee! Love! I would spend $10 a day at Starbucks (if I only drank black coffee). That’s $70 a week and $3,640 bucks a year! On just coffee!! How bout food. You eat out for each meal. 3x $10 (the average meal these days). That’s $30 a day, $210 a week and $10,920 a year! That’s not including alcohol, going out, fancy foods. Just plain old fast foods. Coffee and fast a year (on average) would be $14,560. Its way cheaper to make food at home and brew your own coffe with no added stuff. And healthier! By far. I am 20 lbs lighter than my wedding day because of this 😃 a win win situation. 

13. Spending time with people who respect your process is ideal. It makes it easier.

14. Creative should be our last name by now. It is an important piece to our puzzle. 

15. We stopped my husband 401k since mine didn’t exist due to me not working anymore. 

16. Prayer. Ah yes. This is one thing I do a lot. Sometimes scream, cry and just talk to God about it all. Faith is what has kept us chugging along in our journey. 

Once again, Dave Ramsey has put together such a great list. If you are thinking about getting your finances together. The time is now! It’s never to late to start. We started when I was 31 and my husband was 33. It’s not usually fun in the beginning but once the train starts to go it gets better.  Believe me. We will also teach our boys how to Manage money, that I do know. I do not want them to be clueless about their future. I highly recommend you check out Dave Ramsey, listen to his podcast and start today. 
Live debt free

Live simple

Christmas, Family, Food, pregnancy, St Pattys Day, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Milk Chocolate Fudge

Hannah Lucio

This is an amazing and easy fudge recipe that I just made yesterday. I made a different recipe last week and it was disgusting! That recipe called for baking chocolate and it was gross. This is going to be my go-to recipe when I want fudge. It is really creamy, smooth and melt in your mouth fudge. I always looked forward to the holidays when my mom would make fudge and now I can have a little taste of “home” on the East Coast. Here is the easy recipe, I hope you get to enjoy it as much as we do.

 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups White Granulated Sugar

3/4 Cup Butter (softened, it makes it easier and faster to cook)

2/3 Cup Evaporated Milk

2 Cups Milk Chocolate Chips (I use Nestle Toll House=Yum!)

7 Ounce Jar Marshmallow Cream (I always use Kraft)

1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

  1. Line a pan with parchment paper. Typically you would use a 9 inch square pan or in my moms case a cookie sheet for thinner fudge. I used my Cast Iron pan and it was perfect for me. It is a non-traditional shape for fudge.
  2. Use a heavy saucepan (I used my Pioneer Woman dutch oven, I’m trying to not cook with metal). Over high heat, combine; Sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Use a wooden spoon (the best for fudge) to stir slowly until butter melts. Make sure to scrape the sides of pan so you do not leave sugar crystals.
  3. Bring to a full rolling boil, stir constantly with your wooden spoon. Once it is at a full rolling boil turn the heat down to medium and cook it for 5 minutes. Make sure you stir constantly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom and to cook it evenly.
  4. Once mixture is done with the 5 minutes,  test to see if it is done. Fill a little glass cup with ice old water and drop a tsp of the very hot sugar mixture in it. If the sugar mixture can roll into a ball then it is done.
  5. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Add the marshmallow cream an vanilla and mix really well until smooth. Pour into prepared pan right away.
  6. Let fudge cool down and try not to eat to much of it before then. Ha ha I really love warm fresh fudge so this is VERY hard for me!
  7. Once it is cooled take out of pan with the parchment paper, cute and serve. Make sure to really cover the fudge to prevent it from getting hard.

 

Live Happy

Live Simple

 

 

 

Christmas, Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Mavericks favorite “Santa Cookies”-Recipe included

Hannah Lucio

Yesterday we made cookies for Santa, they are Mavericks favorite by far. They really are the best! Soft and chewy! And So incredibly delicious! We normally just put chocolate chips on them but maverick wanted to add his favorite candy. Maverick is a chocoholic! Chocolate and m&m’s are two of his favorites. Santa ate the cookies we left him but left a little bit on the plate so Maverick knew he ate his cookies and drank his milk. 

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ever

Ingredients: 

1 Cup Unsalted Butter (softened) 

1 Cup White Sugar

1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

2 Eggs 

 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Plain Hot Coffee

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Cups Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips (we put in 1 Cup m&m’s and 1 Cup chocolate chips this time) 
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Dissolve (in a little bowl) baking soda in the hot coffee. Set aside. 

Cream together; Butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.

Beat in eggs, one at a time. 

Stir in vanilla

 Add baking soda and coffee mixture to the above ingredients and mix. 

Add; flour and salt and mix together. 

Add chocolate chips and mix together, do not over mix. 

Drop cookie batter on parchment paper with cookie scoop.

Bake for 12 minutes and remove. Leave on pan for 2 minutes and then put on cookie sheet to finish cooling. 

Try not to eat them all at once! I hope you get to enjoy these “Santa cookies” as much as we all did! 
Merry Christmas!!! 
Live happy

Live simple. 

Christmas, Family, Food, pregnancy, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized

Most delicious Zucchini Pumpkin Bread Ever

Hannah Lucio

I have been trying to make this new recipe I found for a week now. Ha ha kids…. I was finally able to make it and I am so incredibly happy with this recipe. I have made a few pumpkin bread recipes in the past and this is the most moist and delicious one yet! If you have been searching for a pumpkin bread recipe, make this one! I promise you will not be disappointed. And no, you cannot taste the zucchini in it.  That is one of the best parts. It does have a lot of sugar and I will be practicing to reduce the sugar content and if I am successful at it I will post it 🙂 I love to experiment with recipes and try to make them healthier when possible. Hope you get to make it and enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients:

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin (15 oz)

1 cup butter, melted

1 TBSP vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 cup shredded zucchini (I used the smallest side of the grater)

1 cup chopped walnuts (I did not add nuts)

 

Directions:

In a bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Add pumpkin, butter and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in x 5-in loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until bread test done. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.

Enjoy! Try not to eat it all at once 🙂

 

This recipe had great reviews and you can check out the recipe here.

 

 

Live happy

Live Simple

 

 

Christmas, Family, Food, pregnancy, Uncategorized, Women

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles

Hannah Lucio

I made this recipe for breakfast today and it was so yummy. Everyone enjoyed them and ate a lot. That is a really good thing since I experimented with changing the original recipe and made it a little healthier.

 

Ingredients:

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp organic raw sugar (next time I’ll use 1 Tbsp to cut down on sugar)

2 Cups low-fat buttermilk

3 large eggs

3 Tbsp melted Organic Butter

 

Directions:

Plug in the waffle iron to preheat it.

Combine the flour, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir to blend, set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs. Stir in the melted butter. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until combined.

I do not use oil in the waffle iron. I use cooking spray and it worked great for me. Spray the waffle iron each time before you add the batter.

Pour about 1 cup of batter into the preheated and sprayed waffle iron. Cook until golden brown.

 

 

Enjoy and Live simple!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas, Food, Uncategorized, Women

Mulled Wine Sangria

Hannah Lucio

Another request this holiday season form the hubby was a holiday drink. When I found this recipe I thought this would be perfect to try.

Ingredients:

1 bottle of red wine, we used Cabernet Sauvignon

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1 small orange, thinly sliced and cut in half

1 small bag of frozen strawberries

12 ounces of club soda

Combine the following ingredients in a double layer of cheesecloth. Gather edges of cheesecloth together, tie securely and set aside:

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Cloves

pinch of ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick broken in half

 

Direction:

Combine 1 cup wine, sugar and cheesecloth,with ingredients in it, bring to a simmer. Cook 6 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Remove the cheesecloth and discard. Pour mixture into a pitcher, add remaining 3 cups wine. Chill thoroughly. Add juice, strawberries, orange slices. I placed it all in the fridge for about an hour and then added the club soda right before serving.

 

 

IMG_6735[1]

IMG_6737[1]

 

 

IMG_6746[1]IMG_6747[1]

 

Enjoy and Live simple!

 

Christmas, Family, Food, Uncategorized, Women

Holiday Stove top Potpourri

Hannah Lucio

I was looking for some easy ways to make our house smell great this holiday season and I found one that I love. I make a different variety of it and today I made a similar version of what I will be doing tomorrow. This is what I added today-IMG_6719[1]

Ingredients:

1 sliced orange

1 Cup Cranberries

4 Cinnamon sticks

2 Sprigs of Rosemary

1 Tsp of whole cloves

1 Tsp ground Nutmeg

8 Cups Water

I combine all the ingredients in a pot and the heat to high until it boils. That activates the ingredients. Once it starts to boil I lower the heat to a simmer and let it fill the house with amazingness. Keep an eye out on the water and fill it up when you see that water level dropping.

IMG_6720[1]

 

 

Tomorrow I will have the same ingredients that are listed above but I will add 1 sliced lemon and 2 tsp vanilla.

 

This is a great and natural way to have your house smell amazing.

 

Merry Christmas and live simple

 

 

Christmas, Family, Uncategorized, Women

Eggnog Smootie

Hannah Lucio

I had a few things that my husband wanted me to make this holiday season and an eggnog smoothie was one of them. I found a recipe that sounded good and gave it a try. Since we live in a state that sells hard alcohol at a separate store than the traditional grocery store, I didn’t put any in this. You can add some if you like. He loved it so I had to share! A few simple ingredients, all shown in the picture below  IMG_6716[1]

 

Eggnog smoothie:

2 cups Eggnog

1 Banana

1 cup Nonfat vanilla yogurt

1/3 cup 2% milk

2 cups of ice

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of cinnamon

Put it all in a blender and blend away. It came out great, smells great and according to my husband it tastes great. Since I am pregnant I cannot tell you how it tastes, maybe next year.  This is super easy, super simple and takes a few minutes to put together. Sounds great to me!

 

Enjoy and live simple!

Christmas, Uncategorized

Christmas lights to avoid

Hannah Lucio

I purchased four boxes of the Philips Remains Lit Christmas lights yesterday. This is what they look like IMG_6653

I was thinking that this would be the best option for lights since we won’t have to worry about the lights going out. That’s at least what the box says. It says they remain lit even when; one light is out, loose, broken and/or missing.  Not so much…..We put the lights up and within 1 hour one of strands went out. We managed to find the light that caused the strand to go out. We changed the bulb out and it is ok now. Today we had the lights turned on for maybe an hour and saw that a different strand was out. IMG_6652 It is safe to say that the lights do not remain lit HAHA So much for what they claim. I highly recommend you choose different lights that actually stay lit, they are not worth the $8.99.

 

Merry Christmas and live simple!