Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Sick day #2. Today consisted of studying my bible, The Pioneer Woman, & cooking. I'm in my second week of my bible class through Liberty Online. It's already been so beneficial because it gives me tools to effectively & accurately read my bible. The hard part is most college classes you can get an A without doing the reading...but in a bible class the whole point is to do the reading. So it takes a lot more time than a typical class would. After saying that, I do suggest that everyone take a bible class because it has improved my understanding of the bible in such a small frame of time.

Recently I have a habit of cleaning the kitchen while watching the pioneer woman & then cooking while watching the pioneer woman. After I finished my bible reading that basically summed up the rest of my day. I made sunny side up eggs with sautéed red onion & mushrooms in red wine vinegar for breakfast this morning.    It was fantastic.

But anyways let's get to the subject of this post. I have no idea why but I was craving Oatmeal Cookies today. Of course even when I am sick, I still try to eat healthy so I came up with my own healthier, low calorie, vegan recipe.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Servings: 12          Calories: 54

Ingredients:

• 1 c. Oats
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
• Pinch of Salt
• Egg Replacement (1 tbsp. flax meal + 3 tbsp. water)
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 1/2 c. PB2
• 1/4 c. Light Brown Sugar
• Raisins (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grab a medium bowl & combine the oats, cinnamon, baking soda, & salt. Grab a smaller bowl for your egg replacement. Let it sit for 4 minutes. Next add brown sugar, vanilla, & your PB2 (already combined with water). Add the smaller mixture to the bigger mixture & roll into balls & place on your cookie sheet.
Place your cookies in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Take out of the oven & get munching.

Enjoy!!

-priscilla

Chocolate Coconut Mousse

You may have read about my wonderful day with my sister residing in Kroger. If not, you can click here. We let our minds go crazy & came up with this wonderful, light dessert.

Chocolate Coconut Mousse

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Bottom Layer

• 1 c. Hazelnuts
• 1/8 c. Coconut Oil
• 1 1/2 tsp. Cacao Powder
• 1/4 tsp. Vanilla
• 4 drops of Vanilla Stevia
• Pinch of Salt

Mousse

• Coconut Milk (Native Forest)
•  2 tsp. Cacao
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 4 drops of Vanilla Stevia
• Raspberries (optional)

Directions:

First thing you need to do is empty your single can of coconut milk into a glass dish & place in the fridge. We want it to get cold so it's easier to whip up later. 

To get started on the first layer, we just want to place the hazelnuts in the food processor until they are almost like powder. Then add in the rest of the ingredients & pulse. Take your mixture & set in the fridge to firm up.

Once your coconut milk has chilled for at least 2 hours you may take it out & started whipping it with your whisk. We want it to have rough peaks so let's hope you've been working out your wrist muscles. If not, I'm sure someone participating in crossfit could help you out. Once it is thick add the rest of your ingredients.

Take a small glass & place a small layer of your first layer on the bottom then layer with the Mousse & raspberries. I personally thought the acidity of the raspberries made it.

Enjoy!!

-priscilla

Snow Days

Jesus sent us a few inches of frozen water which gave a few of us commoners a day of rest. if you haven't been blessed to witness this frozen water, it looks just like this -->

                                             
              <-- G O R G E O U S. Sadly, every human residing in the Kohls house right now currently has a virus. So me & Portia spent the day together. We've been cooking a lot lately in the Kohls house & as I was watching my sister in the kitchen practicing her sunny side up eggs & looking homeless I thought, "Let's center our whole day around this vision." So we did.

She woke up like dis.

1. We spent most of our day inside Kroger, wearing flannels over our sweats. Now if I'm being completely honest- this day was pretty normal. I spend a minimum of 1 hour in kroger each day. I'm being completely honest. Sometimes I just walk around & try to get new ideas while maintaining friendships with the "baristas" at starbucks & the bank people. 

She woke up like dis.

Anyways, we had this phenomenal idea of making our own dessert. With NO HELP!! So we basically walked around the store & picked out ingredients that sounded good together. We also wanted something cold for our poor throats. ):

We ended up leaving the store with an idea for a coconut chocolate mousse. Our shopping cart contained:

She woke up like dis.

1. Coconut Milk

2. Hazelnuts

3. Cacao

4. Raspberries

5. Used Sample Cups

2. Grocery shopping is fun but tiring, so we took a break. I'm taking bible classes through liberty right now so I worked on that while Portia sat outside in a "cave" she made that she swears was warm.
Oh & whenever I'm with kids I have a voice in my head saying, "BUY THEM CANDY." So I did.

She woke up like dis.

3. Our mousse came out fantastic. The recipe is here if that intrigues you. We took it to the dining room & shared it while I let her win in Phase 10. I swear I let her win. Our MOUSSE:

Here's additional photos from our day:

-priscilla

Valentines Day Chocolates

since valentines day just happened yesterday, i thought it'd be the perfect opportunity for a chocolate  post!! of course the idea of eating plain chocolate from wal-mart makes me physically ill. so i decided to put my own "priscilla approved" spin on valentines day chocolate.

cacao butter & coconut oil are both solid at room temperature so it's perfect for making chocolate.

i melted my coconut oil before just to help me measure.

"Galentines Day" Dark Chocolate
Servings: 24                    Calories: 90

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Cacao Butter
• 1/2 c. Coconut Oil
• 1/2 c. Cacao
• Vanilla Stevia to taste (optional)

Directions:
Melt cacao butter & coconut oil in a double boiler on medium heat. Once melted, add cacao. Get a mini muffin pan & fill with your desired toppings. Add 1 tablespoon of the cacao mixture into each spot. Place in freezer for 15 minutes & you're done! It's that easy.

These are high in calorie for a tbsp of chocolate but they are better for you than the store-bought stuff & we in the Kohls house like to consider it our "daily coconut oil intake." Enjoy!!

-priscilla

witches of the west, UNITE!!

i've always tried to be set apart & not be swayed by others or pulled into immodesty. (if that's a word) but i recently reevaluated what i wear & how modest my wardrobe really is & i realized that i have been completely failing. i was easily swayed because i kept reminding myself that "i am covering up more than most girls do," & "the godly girl i respect wear's this so i can too." but these are all just excuses i made to allow certain items into my wardrobe.

before we go further i do want to make one thing clear: I DO NOT DRESS TO IMPRESS MEN. i know a lot of people, including my father, think that women's one goal is to attract men with their physical appearance so that they can enchant the men into coming back to their lair to perform the sacred dance ritual of the witches from the west. but what i need to make clear is that women dress to impress women. i guarantee you that 99% of women, if being honest, would agree with that statement.

i've been extremely convicted lately on this topic because i'm honestly scared of men. i hear all of these college rape stories & i try to think how any guy could ever do that to a girl. but if i'm honest, i do think we women should take part of the blame. before we jump to conclusions, i do want to say that i would never give any man an excuse for rape. thats insane. & i don't believe that women are intentionally asking for it by the way they act & dress. i'm just saying, being a guy is hard. i passed 8 billboards today with women in lingerie (yes, i counted). the Lord only knows how many ads with 1/2 dressed women popped up on my twitter or Facebook today. i have personally come to a point where i don't even notice it. my mind immediately skips over the 1/2 dressed women because it doesn't affect me. but for men, it's a constant battle they have to face every day. God made men with these desires & i want to do everything i can to make this battle less difficult for them.

i went through my closet & just purged a lot of my clothing. a few select items would be:

-low cut tops

-bikinis

-short dresses/skirts

-backless dresses/shirts (because we know how men like the spine)

-anything super tight

i still wear leggings as long as i'm wearing a long shirt or dress & it covers by bottom. i still wear some dresses that are somewhat short but i've learned that adding a cute slip underneath to make them a few inches longer does wonders.

it's definitely easier just to wear whatever is trending or comfortable but while i'm doing this, i'm thinking of my future husband & how i pray that other women are taking the same initiative around him right now.

i would also like to just randomly say that i am cracking up on the inside because everything i am learning now are things that my father has tried to teach me for years & as i get older & wiser, i agree with everything he has said. so shoutout to THEMAN!!

-priscilla

just some thoughts

i feel like i question every decision i make. it's just so hard to differentiate between God's will for my life & my own.
there are few things i'm sure about.
1. i'm sure that i'm called to serve in cross-cultural missions.
2. i'm sure that i need some type of degree.
3. i'm sure that GOD IS MY MAIN SQUEEZE (sorry if that's disrespectful, God)

but here are some things i'm not sure about.
1. to what capacity do you want me serving, Lord? months, years, for the rest of my life?
2. what do i major in? how could i afford college & living overseas?

i'm positive that my life will turn out fine, the way you intended it to be, Lord. but it's hard to let go & realize that your ways are not my ways, & your thoughts are not my thoughts. i'm just asking for direction & contentment knowing that i may not get the answers i want right at this very moment.

thanks to my readers in Germany! you are the acai to my smoothie.

-priscilla

just ignore me

do you ever wonder if we can control more than we realize? with the weather being all north pole & such it's been terrible. but one day i was just thinking, i wonder if i can convince myself that i enjoy being cold? or if i can convince myself that it's actually warm? so every morning when i got in my car & it was freezing i would do things i usually associate with happiness. like singing my favorite songs or excessively laughing. (yes, i do realize i probably looked crazy.) maybe i truly am insane like everyone says but i swear its working.
do you ever wonder if some of the "dreams" we've had actually happened? for example, in one dream i always had when i was little i would wake up & look out my window & this man would be standing in our yard. then another time i had the same dream except when i looked out the window he was standing a lot closer than before. maybe this dream sparked my strange fear of men.--we'll talk more about that another time--but now i wonder if when i woke up in my dream, i actually woke up from my sleep & there really was a creepy man watching me.....creeeepppyy
do you ever wonder if you're on a reality show but you don't know it & everyone around you are actors? yeah, me neither. goodnight.


shoutout to my viewers in france. i don't know where i'd be right now without you. (probs the same place i am now) peace.

-priscilla

13:31 is the same thing backwards.

i'm doing the whole "read your bible in a year" thing & i love it. before, i would just pick whatever book sounded good at the moment. or if i was in a bible study i would try to study it before we studied it. but since i'm reading it all in order i comprehend it so much better & i can actually carry on conversations giving my opinion on certain chapters.
well, i was reading in genesis & there are so many parts where i am thinking, "what the flip, why would God be okay with this, like dude this is obviously not cool." like when Abraham threw Hagar & Ishmael out because Sarah wanted it, i was so upset. & even though some of us haven't been tossed out, i think we can all relate to just not knowing. not knowing where to go from here, not knowing if someone will be here two days from now, or just not knowing why. but the cool thing about the bible is- you get the answer to all of these questions in the next chapter. i was so upset Abe threw her out & God was cool with it but then i read the next chapter & i was like oh. that's why. sorry i questioned you, God.
this is why i suggest everyone read through genesis because i swear, this happens 1,000,000 times & each time God is all Matthew 13:31 on me. ("O you of little faith, why did you doubt?") i pinky promise i hear him saying this verse in my head ERRY DAY. but being able to see in the bible how things worked out for these people who are feeling the same way i occasionally feel is so encouraging. it really just brings to light the whole, "trust in Him because he sees the bigger picture." & let's just be real, it's S00000 much easier to have faith in God. I hate worrying.

thanks to my friends in poland for listening. :*

-priscilla