Sugar Free Peanut Butter Almond Flour Cookies

These are Roddy's favorite lately. I truly think they kept him sane while on our pre-wedding diet, with no carbs and no sugar! He is a sweets-aholic! I came up with this recipe to make sure that he could still enjoy cookies for his sweet tooth.

So easy recipe!

Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies

1 Cup Natural Peanut Butter (no sugar)
1 Cup almond Flour
1 Egg
4 1/2 TBS Stevia (granulated)

Bake at 350 for 9-11 mins.

* I also added some sugar free chocolate on top for added yummy goodness! (Those Sugar Free Chocolate Bars from Trader Joes became a staple in the house!)

Enjoy!

So yummy!

Missing you again on this Birthday!

Well, it's that time of year again. My birthday! How can  I possibly be 29!? That's 29 years of being on this earth, laughing, crying, growing, learning and trying to figure out this world.

While my birthday used to always be something I looked forward to as a kid, now it just seems so, blah. As a kid I was always so excited for my special day! Having a birthday present list, having birthday parties, cake, and celebrating!

There are things I do still do till this day that make it very special to me. I wait until the time I was born, 5:21 pm on May 20th to open my gifts and cards.  And there was one special thing I loved even more. It was waiting for a very special phone call from my Grandpa! We shared the same birthday! I was expected to be born on May 13th...already as a little one inside my mom's tummy, I decided, "no, that won't work for me!" I need to stick it out a week and make this special! So then it was. I was born at 5:21pm on May 20th, 1982.

Now, my Grandpa's phone call was so very special to me because it was something we shared, something that truly connected us with a special bond from the very start. I never knew where in the world Grandpa would be..he traveled all of the time. I got phone calls from California, New York, London, Hawaii and Japan. It was always an adventure! 

My Grandpa passed away 10 years ago this September. But, it's this time of year when I miss my Grandpa the most! I get sad knowing her won't call and something feels so empty about receiving birthday phone calls from my family and friends Because, it is his call and his voice that I long for. I so deeply wish he was here, to see how far I've come, to send me postcards from his adventures and travels to amazing places, and to HUG! He would be so proud of the strong, loving person that I am. He'd appreciate my love for deals and baking! Every year I make spaghetti with marinara sauce and chocolate cake in his honor. And I make it a point to spill on myself, because Grandpa always wore a red shirt when he ate spaghetti ever since he spilled all over his white shirt!

Throughout the year I carry on his memory, his humor, his love for deals and I would love to travel the world as he so loved to do! Grandpa, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish you were here with me, especially on this very special day that we share. I hope you are traveling somewhere magical, beautiful and spilling a little something on yourself! I know you are watching over me and sending me postcards from the clouds! I love you and I miss you! Happy Birthday!

My Grandpa and I on my 17th and his 71st Birthday. He surprised me by coming to Chicago for our birthday! It was the best gift ever!

Pupcakes for Mac's 1st Birthday!

Mac officially turned a year old on March 7th! 

I can't believe this sweet puppy we brought home at 9 lbs is now close to 50 lbs and grown up so fast! He did get pretty spoiled for his birthday. We must have gone to Petco 3 times that week so he could pic out a little treat. He even stood right up and helped himself to a few treats at the all-you-can-eat treat bar. I was a little embarrassed. But he's so cute, everyone just giggled and said how beautiful he was. We are very proud of our sweet boy.

Mac was overwhelmed by all of his treats I gave him on his special birthday morning. He couldn't choose what to chew, lick, eat or play with first!

A GIANT bone from his daddy who was out of town, an extreme kong bone (a huge hit!), a peanut butter filled knuckle bone, a squeaky toy, and lot of treats! Even homemade Banana Pupcakes!

I wanted to do something extra special for Mac, so I decided I'd make him some birthday pupcakes! I was so excited. Mac watched intently the whole time.

Here is the recipe for these very easy and delicious pupcakes for your own little, or big pup!

Banana Pupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups Water
2 bananas
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
3 tbsp honey

Directions:

Heat oven 350 degrees
Mash bananas
In Bowl Mix all ingrediants WELL Pour into cupcake pans
Bake 20 mns. 

I made the pupcakes in mini muffin tins so they were bite size for Mr. Mac. He LOVED them. He followed me and stared at em the whole night waiting for more. Another great thing was that the squished and fit perfectly in his Extreme Kong Bone! ( We LOVE this thing!) The treats were a great success!

Mac's Extreme Kong Bone! (Get one! It is a lifesaver for some extra occupied time!)

We also went to the dog park and ran like a speeding bullet, licked a few other dogs, in places not to be named, drank lots of water from 10 different bowls (One of Mac's favorite things...WATER!) It was a great day! Mac was pooped and so was mommy! We love you MAC! Happy 1st Birthday!

Letting Go!

I recently had a garage sale that was one of the hardest and emotional ones I've ever had.  I tend to buy a lot of things at great deals and keep a lot of stuff I don't need. However, these things that I was getting rid of at this garage sale really seemed to affect me very much. I cried many times through out the process of putting stuff into piles, emptying out my storage unit and even during the actual garage sale itself.

While going through and emptying my storage unit I was reminded of my move  to CA that I so bravely chose to do after 20 years of living in the same place. I went on my own, not knowing what to expect but expecting something new and better than the life I had been living in the town I loved and now miss very much. I left with three suitcases and got on a train from Chicago to Los Angles. Over those two and a half days I did a lot of thinking, met a lot of interesting people and decided this was a new beginning. In the storage unit I had boxes full of memories, and that is just what they were, MEMORIES. Why did I need this stuff, what was I going to do with it? I needed this stuff to remind me of growing up, of good times and good friends. I needed it to hang on to what I lost, what I had left behind and somehow I felt safe knowing I still had it. But, it was finally time to let a lot of it go. I say a lot, and not ALL. Some of it I just couldn't let go, not this time at least!

Then it was time to empty out not just one but two closets and dressers full of clothes at my parents house. My parents house, whom I no longer live with! Oy vay! Why, do I have so many clothes? And so many with tags still on them! Now this stage of getting rid of stuff was very, very emotional. These clothes were not just material or some expensive name brand I had to have. No, these were clothes I used to fit into, clothes that a 20 something female shouldn't fit into. Girl's size 10, and they were often loose on me. So this stage was possibly finally letting go of my over 10 years of being anorexic. This was invigorating, extremely difficult, and eye opening all at the same time. I couldn't believe how much of my time and life I wasted wasting away myself in this horrible disease. I lost loves, friends and betrayed family as well as myself. Anorexia stole so much of my teenage years as well as my young adulthood. Why wouldn't I want to get rid of everything that still somehow tied me to it? That is why it was so hard, I didn't know. I missed it in a little way. I felt in control, when I was really so very out of control. I felt that letting go of these clothes would truly push me and keep me going in the right steps that I have worked so hard to reach and overcome this horrible disease. So the piles started getting bigger and the closet was getting emptier and emptier.

One Closet and over 100 pieces of clothing!

More clothes and misc. junk!

AND...

More clothes and SHOES!

All together I gathered and GOT RID OF over 350 pieces of clothing and 27 pairs of shoes!

I cried once as I got ready for the morning and people were pulling up by the car loads at 5:45 am! And once more when a lady wanted five different items WITH TAGS still on them for 50 cents a piece! I don't think so lady! As tears streamed down my face and I excused myself inside for a moment to calm down. As I came back out, and older gentleman patted me on the back and was like, "I know, garage sales are hard. I've had to sell everything I owned before." I liked that gentleman very much and I thanked him for understanding with tears in my eyes.

After a few hours of wheeling and dealing and saying goodbye to so many things that at one time filled some void and made me happy, I made over $700 and felt a huge burden lifted off of my shoulders!

Before:

Here is the empty garage with only a few left over items sent away the next day to Goodwill.

I was very proud of myself that day!

Here we go...

So, I've been wanting to start a blog for over a year now and I am finally getting to it now. It took me a few days to come up with a name I felt was right for me and for what the blog will be about. "Jessica's babbling, deals, & love" is going to be all about my love for talking, finding deals, and of course sharing my heart and love with the world.

It's been an amazing year since I have wanted to start this blog. I got engaged to a wonderful man on January 13th, 2010. Roddy proposed to me in Jamaica at a private dinner on the beach for just the two of us. While this engagement had been planned for a few months by Roddy, mother nature had a few plans of her own. It rained everyday, which was a major bummer and much different than the first time we had been to Jamaica 4 months before! but, that night Roddy proposed, made the whole trip the most wonderful and meaningful night. I cried, I laughed and we kissed...a lot!

A few months later we decided to start our new family and get... a puppy! We did a lot of research on the type of dog that we wanted and decided on a Vizlsa. When we made our decision we wanted to make sure that we found a reputable breeder and we found  Vistercil's Vizslas. We were so excited to find out that a liter was going to be born in march and we could bring our new little puppy home the first week of May! Then a rush of "are we ready for a puppy?" came and then some nerves and then "yay! we are going to have a puppy!" 

with Roddy's love for Macs and in honor of my Grandpa (his last name was McLaren) we decided that Mac would be a very suitable name for our new little guy.

Mac just celebrated his first birthday and I can't believe he is already a year old. He has brought a lot of joy and love to our house. 

Well, this is just a start to the many posts I will make. I hope that you enjoy the things I have to share, the   babbling, the awesome deals I find, and a whole lot of things I love in this world!