Quick Tip Friday: Chocolate, Caramel, Vanilla Chai

As much as I love my morning coffee - and I DO Love my morning coffee, come evening I want a nice cup of Vanilla Chai from Starbucks. Unfortunately, living a low carb lifestyle means I need to find a substitute for that high carb treat. Here is what I make

Chocolate, Caramel,Vanilla Chai Tea

1 tea bag Celestial Seasonings Chocolate Caramel Enchantment tea bag (Honey Vanilla works well also add Sugar Free Caramel syrup to it)

1 teaspoon sugar free vanilla syrup

Heavy cream

Whipped cream

Boil your water and pour it over the tea bag in you cup. Once it's as strong as you like take out the tea bag and add the sugar free vanilla syrup and heavy cream. Top with whipped cream and enjoy! The whipped cream will melt into your tea and man-oh-man is this good! Build a fire, watch a movie and I promise you will not miss the high carb, high calorie, high sugar, high priced drink from that other place!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday!

BTW here is Becke and I dancing. I can't figure out to shorten it, we got 2 dancers so just stop the tape after we are done - we are first. Becke is 10 1/2 year old yellow Lab and YES the camera adds 10 pounds to each of us!

Thankful Thursday: A month of being Thankful

While looking at another blog it was mentioned that November was thankful month and she had this great logo that she got at Photobucket. I liked it and it was free for the taking, so I did. Thank you Nanato4

So in the spirit of thanksgiving I am launching Thanksgiving Thursday for the month of November. Feel free to add what you are thankful for. I love comments! I get so excited when I see that someone took the time to not only stop by but also to add a comment as well. So make my day and leave a comment.

So the first Thankful Thursday I have chosen GOD.

See I believe that God made me, you and everyone else (and everything) in this world. He created all things and it was good. Satan introduced sin into the world and ever since then mankind had been running away from God. But, that didn't matter because God paid for us with the blood of his own son! I have a son who I love and I would not allow him to die for "sinners". Yet God did just that-He redeemed us: Galatians 3:13 to redeem is to buy back. I have accepted that gift and so that is what I am thankful for. See with that gift of redemption I also have some other pretty wonderful gifts. Here are just a few.

1. Eternal life in Heaven with Him when this one is over. We are ALL going someplace when this life is over, we get to pick where that is. I choose Heaven.

2. The Holy Spirit now lives inside me and talks to God for me when I cannot find the words. That includes both when I'm happy and when I'm sad.

3. I get to talk to Him anytime I want to. He never sleeps, never goes on vacation, never "steps away" for a coffee break. He is always ready to listen and reply.

4. When I mess up, I have instant forgiveness as soon as I truly repent and ask for it. There have been times when I have asked people to forgive me and they say they do but then in the future, the wrong I did comes back again and I wonder "Did they truly forgive me?" I know with God he forgives and then forgets what I did.

So for the first entry in Thankful Thursday I pick God. What about you? What are you thankful for today.

My Problem with WiFi Part Three

The home office is slowly coming along. With the few days of nice weather we have been having, we have been outside. With the new grand child on his or her way, when it's dark I've been working on the new baby quilt. So in the few free moments I have free, I've been doing the office little by little.

Remember this dresser in the office. Well it had to stay but a fresh coat of paint and now it looks like this.

I really like how it came, don't you? Next up is the book cases! Stay tune I'll show you when they are done.

Recipe of the Week: Low Carb Pumpkin Bread Pudding

There has been a lot of pumpkin recipes all over the web and I love pumpkin pudding but I am living a low carb life style so I made up my own recipe.

2 Large Eggs

1 cup Heavy Cream

2 Teaspoons Splenda Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon butter

1/4 cup canned Pumpkin

Handful of chopped Walnuts

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Nutmeg to taste

3-4 slices zero carb bread (or low carb bread of your choice)

On the stove, heat the butter, brown sugar, pumpkin, and cream just till hot. Turn off the stove and add the eggs walnuts and seasonings. Mix all very well then add in your bread cut into small pieces.

Butter a loaf pan and pour the mixture into the pan. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

I used Zero carb Bread that I get here and so when I figured out the carb count it is 3 net carbs per serving (minus the whipped cream) If you use a higher carb bread, then add that in when figuring out your carb count.

It's not as creamy as bread pudding made with regular bread but the low carb fits my life style and the pumpkin in there is really good. In short, when I want bread pudding, I'll make this again.

Weekend Review: November Already?

Can you believe it's November! The nice weather that we had has been replaced by the fall temps that are normal for New England. Wake up to temps in the low 30's, leave work in the afternoon and it's in the high 50's and by dinnertime it's down to the low 40's. The pellet stove is going on in the evening so that the house stays comfortable. Yes it's fall - what did you do this weekend? Here, it was spent working on the office make-over and working on the baby quilt. Both are coming along nicely but it is slow.

We did have a wonderful sermon Sunday morning about the physical proof of God's existence. Look out the window, see the leaves, see all the colors, see how they fall and blow around. It is a gentle and colorful reminder that God exists. How does that just happen without a designer?God is that designer. We can not see the wind but we can feel it,we can see the result of it and we know it's there. We cannot see God, but we can feel his love, see the result of his care and know he is there. Thank you Park for such a great and timely sermon.

A peek at the new quilt

We did see our beautiful granddaughter all dressed for Halloween as a bumblebee complete with a stinger on her butt! Precious. She melts my heart when she hugs my leg and looks at me and say "Hi".

How was your weekend?