Whole 30, what?

Believe it or not I'm picking up my blogging habit once again after such a long break! 2015 brought a ton of changes in my life and I'm hoping 2016 will bring even more!
Like most everyone else in the world I'm aiming to start off the new year on a healthier foot and so I've enlisted the help of some of my friends to embark on the journey of Whole30 (dun dun DUUUUUUNNNNNN!!!!)
So for those of you who don't know here's what Whole30 is:

Established by Dallas Hartwig and Melissa Hartwig (of Whole9) in April 2009, the Whole30® is our original nutritional program designed to change your life in 30 days. Think of it as a short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you put an end to unhealthy cravings and habits, restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and balance your immune system.

So that means you have to cut certain food groups (sugar, grains, dairy, alcohol, and legumes) out of your diet. This allows your body to rid itself of any of the negative effects those foods might be having on you and "reset." Following the 30 days, you systematically re-introduce those forbidden food groups into your diet in a way that allows you to see exactly what effect each type of food has on your body. What if you've had a good sensitivity to dairy or gluten or soy that you've never known about? This could be the answer to your chronic fatigue or digestive issues or problem skin. It also gives a completely new and personal meaning to eating healthy. Maybe it's dairy that's keeping you from losing weight, and not all the carbs. This program gives you the opportunity to find out.

So that's a little bit about why I (and my crazy friend and my work biffel) decided to embark on the Whole30 journey starting January 4. Why January 4 and not the 1st? Are we just slackers? Maybe, but it also gave me a whole weekend to grocery shop, plan, and enjoy a few final glasses/bottles of wine haha

Everything I've read about being successful with Whole30 involved planning and preparation. Well cue the music because, these are a few of my favorite things! So I began by creating a Pinterest board, of course, and compiling some recipes that looked doable. A big wrench in this whole thing is that roomie and I are going to be in a production of Fiddler on the Roof which opens the second week of our plan. This means that we will have late night rehearsals every night of week 2 and several nights of week one as well as three weekends of performances throughout the month. So my challenge was that I would need to have either really quick dinners I could prepare for rehearsal nights or extra money to pay someone to figure that out for me. (Obviously my solution wasn't the one with extra money) I found, instead, several recipes that involved a crock pot, PERFECT! I could start it in the morning before I left for work and have it ready before rehearsal. Now the true test will be, can I survive on snacks to get me through rehearsal before I eat dinner (probably not) or can I make it home from work in time to eat/transport dinner to the theatre for roomie to eat as well, because she can't make it home before rehearsal and we usually just meet up at the theatre. The first week will be a test of this plan, so I'll let you know how that works out... So I went ahead and planned meals for the entire month, plugging in different recipes from my board being sure to put in crock pot ones on the nights we have rehearsal scheduled. Why did I do it for the whole month and not just week by week? Because honestly, having some experience with meal planning, I know that if I slip up and don't meal plan for the next week (which happens a lot, I'm a busy gal haha) then the first few days of the next week are pretty thrown together and that is prime time for a Whole30 slip up! If I don't have Whole30 approved options when I'm suddenly hungry, then I'm in a world of hurt... So meal plan I did: every breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack! Now, I'm sure that the plan will alter, especially when I see how many leftovers we have from each dinner, we might be skipping dinners and pushing them to the next week, I'll keep you updated ;) I also went ahead and wrote out my shopping lists for each week based on the ingredients I needed for each of the meals I had planned. I'm sure these will alter from week to week depending on what we run out of and what we don't, or if we push meals around, but at least that work is already done. Editing is always easier than creating the first draft (at least it is for me).

Now here's another wrench in our plan: boyfriend and biffel's husband refuse to embark on this journey with us. (Surprise surprise) so I'm sure the foods they choose to eat (or drink) in front of us our going to be pretty tempting. I had a long talk with boyfriend about how I thought he could support me while we're doing this tho, and he seems agreeable to help me succeed as much as he can, as long as I let him eat pizza once in a while haha (hopefully not in front of me though!)

 So how did I prepare?

Step 1: Meal Plan
Here's my plan for Week 1:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	egg muffins	egg muffins	egg muffins	egg muffins	egg muffins	egg potato bacon casserole	casserole
Snack	banana	banana	banana	banana	banana	banana	banana
Lunch	taco salad	taco salad	taco salad	taco salad	taco salad	leftovers	leftovers
Snack	nuts/almond butter/celery	nuts/almond butter/celery	nuts/almond butter/celery	nuts/almond butter/celery	nuts/almond butter/celery	nuts/almond butter/celery	nuts/almond butter/celery
Dinner	lettuce wraps	zucchini pasta	turkey burgers/zucchini	pork tenderloin	meatballs with pasta and zucchini noodles	buffalo chicken with potatoes	chili

 

Step 2: Shop!

With the crazy amount of produce we would need for this plan, I did my shopping for veggies and fruits at an Asian Market. I find the produce there to be pretty good quality and a lot cheaper.





The beautiful produce section, which is pretty much where I live now :)


Goodbye sweet sweet wine section... never fear we will meet again soon!

Step 3: PREP!
Roomie and I measured out our snack allowances for the week, fruits and nuts so we can just grab and go each night when packing for the next day.
I also made these egg muffins for my breakfasts each day


I used some sausage that I made from ground pork and spices because I just couldn't find any premade sausage that didn't have any added sugars or other preservatives that were on the "no-no" list. I also through in some bell peppers and salt and pepper. Whisked it all together and baked them in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes in a muffin tin. The lifesaver of it all though, were these beauties...

Silicone muffin liners. They pop right out of these without sticking and your pan is instantly clean! No added oil needed. Seriously, invest in them if you're going to try these!

So tomorrow is day 1. I can't say that I'm not both excited and nervous. Honestly the hardest part is going to be giving up the caffeine. Coffee is technically allowed on Whole30, but only if you drink it without cream and sugar obviously. So I was going to dive right in with just drinking black coffee. When I had the realization that this entire program is about giving up our addictions to foods, and since caffeine is clearly my biggest food addiction, shouldn't I give that up as well? The answer I came up with was a very sad and reluctant "yes". So unfortunately I know that this first week is going to be pretty rough for me, but it's going to be great in the long run right? Yeah just keep telling me that I'm right ;)


Okay so, don't worry I'll keep the updates coming, because I'm definitely going to need to vent and complain and cheer for every bit of these 30 days to make it through.

Feel free to jump on the bandwagon with us! Crazy loves company right ;)

<3 ME



40

Oh y'all...
I stand (well sit) before you humbled and ashamed. I cannot believe it has been so long since my last blog post and there are no excuses for it. Simply poor time management, but I have arisen from the grave. Of course now is not the time to speak of resurrections, that will be in 40 days ;)
So I'll catch you up on my life a bit first:
Christmas! was simply fantastic, as it always is. Time with family and friends, beautiful lights and decorations, fun parties, thoughtful gifts, and tons and tons of food!

I missed my Ninny terribly during this season of joy and love. She thrived during the holidays. Always the hostess, she would fill her house to the brim with people and food and love. Here's hoping I can end up even a tenth of the woman that she was.

Then I welcomed in a brand new year, 2014! We celebrated here in the south with the only way we knew how, the biggest traffic jam EVER (otherwise known as snowpocalypse 2014)

 

 

Dooleydog wasn't exactly the biggest fan of the snow, thank goodness she lives in the south, but she did enjoy it more once she discovered she could eat it!

 

Now we enter the period of time in the south, where the weather vacillates between Christmas and Almost Summer. Don't get me wrong, it's weather like this that makes me love living in the south more than anything, but I'm starting to wish it would make up it's mind. 70 degrees on the weekend and 40 degrees during the week is wrecking havoc to my wardrobe haha

 

But I'll enjoy every day we have that doesn't bring any more snow and ice!

Even my chalkboard is hopeful for the spring-time weather this month! Maybe if we are thankful enough for it, then it will stick around for a while!

 

 

With spring (or almost summer here in the south), comes so many wonderful things: warmer weather, sunshine, flowers, birds, baseball. And a pretty important season: Lent.

 

Celebrating Lent is definitely a hit or miss practice with a lot of Christians today, and is quickly being shoved only on "those catholics".

 

Let's start with the basics first and work our way from there. What is Lent?

 

The Lenten season is the 40 day period leading up to Christ's crucifixion on the cross and resurrection celebration of Easter. It is the time that coincides with Christ's fasting in the desert for 40 days and being tempted by the devil. He went to the desert to fast to prepare to be sacrificed on the cross for our sins. In remembrance of that, we are called to fast from something ourselves. To truly sacrifice so that we may grow closer to God and remove any worldly barriers that keep us from developing a more intimate relationship with Him or from living our daily lives according to His guidance.

 

So, why do I observe Lent if I'm not catholic?

 

I believe Lent is an important holiday for those of us that follow Christ. Daily we give thanks to Him for His great sacrifice in dying for our sins. We might not curse, or drink, or we might abstain from sexual relationships until we are married. But what do we truly do in our daily lives that enable us to have a close and committed relationship with the being that not only saved our lives, but ensured us eternal lives? I know most all of my "Christian" friends struggle to carve out time in our busy, jam-packed, 21st century lives to spend even 5 minutes in prayer or Bible study. We barely make it to church on Sunday, and look down as we quickly pass the offering plate without contributing. Committing to an additional night for a small group? Forget it.

But then what are we really doing with all of our time? Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter? YouTube? TV?

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that my God is going to stop everyone at the gates of heaven and ask them for their attendance record from Sunday School, but I do know that if we don't come to a place of truly knowing God then we are not truly saved. If our commitment to Christ is true, then we won't change our actions because we are "supposed to", but because we are compelled to because we are driven by the Holy Spirit that has arisen within us. I don't think being a true follower of Christ is about how often you show up in church, but by how deep and personal your relationship with the Father is. This isn't a holiday designed to get you in to a church, but designed to foster a personal relationship that YOU build with God.

That being said, please let me also admit that I am fully addicted to Pinterest and spend my fair share of time on the internet or watching television just like everyone else. But, I also know that most of the things that I encounter on the internet are not things that inspire me back to Christ. My surroundings are so inundated with worldly values that it's hard to separate out the justification of normalcy from the truth of God's calling.

What better time to shuffle through all the excess and start fresh and new in our faith and not just in our diet or work out plans. Pick one thing, just one small little thing and give it to God for 40 days. Share in the smallest amount of His suffering and see what He can teach you. See what He can do with even 5 minutes a day. Commit to parking in the furthest parking space away from your office and every day while you walk the extra 100 feet in to the building, pray. Prepare your heart for the day. Turn your music off in your car and while you drive listen to God.

Our God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and He can do amazing things with the smallest materials. Just for 40 days, what have you got to lose? Think of everything that you could gain.

 

 

 

I'll be with you every step of the way, I promise!!!!

 

 

And if you're still not sure, pray about it! Observe it any way you feel led, but just think about it. I'm praying for y'all, as always. And I'm so thankful to have each and every one of you in my life!

 

 

<3 ME



 





Tis the Season

Hello my loves,
So I'm not going to lie, I'm not entirely ready to enter this crazy holiday season. Thanksgiving completely snuck up on me and quite frankly overwhelmed me. Now, Christmas is my favorite holiday, hands down. I love everything about it: the music, the decorations, and the over-all feeling of kindness and giving. I love getting to teach new generations not only about Santa Claus and Christmas lights but about the birth of Jesus and all the possibilities He brought.
With all that said, though, this year I'm just not in a place that's ready to celebrate. Hard to admit, but I'm still struggling with grief over the sudden passing of my grandmother. We had so many plans that always included her and it's really difficult to find the joy amongst the sadness as I continue these plans, minus one.
I've been toying around with the idea of doing a "random acts of kindness" plan for Christmas after seeing the Pinterest world blow up with tons of fun ideas about it, and this year I thought it would be a great way to change some of my grief into joy not just for others, but for myself.
So I set out on a search through Pintrest-dom to find the best idea that would work for my life, but also force me out of my comfort zone a little bit. I found the blog of a mom who was seeking to put a little bit of Jesus back in to Christmas for her family and came up with a beautiful movement idea not only for her own family, but for families everywhere. Light Em Up You can read all about her back story here. Her plan basically involved not judging each other on what moments and memories we capture as families during the holidays, but finding the true meaning of Christmas together and spreading that. We sadly live in a world that is all about the material, I mean our black Friday starts Thursday afternoon now-a-days, and it can't be a bad idea to start spreading a new idea.
I'm seeking to choose 12 items from the Light Em Up 2012 list of 100 suggested activities to perform in the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Here's the list

I'm so beyond excited for this and I want to keep you all updated every week (so this is also a new challenge for me haha). I also really want you guys to consider joining me in this! Choose anything from the list and help me spread a little joy and hope of the true meaning of this beautiful holiday season.
No really, I'm serious, I want to encourage you guys to try this too! I know the season is busy and stressful, but really isn't that the problem? Christmas isn't supposed to be filled with guilt over parties we didn't attend or shame about traditions we don't perform. It's about the birth of hope that would grow into the only thing that would save the world not just from "the devil" but from ourselves.
I have a feeling that if we let go of some of these obligations that are weighing us down and opening ourselves up to give to others, we will not only experience a holiday season like we could only imagine, but also bleed into vast opportunities for God to continue to change us and those around us.
If you really don't feel like you're capable of participating in this, I would love for you guys to encourage and pray for me instead. I know that this will be a great challenge for me to drop some obligations and carve some time out and I don't want to fall off the wagon half way through haha, so if you think about it, send me some love and supportive thoughts ;)

I really appreciate all of you who read my crazy ramblings, and I can't wait to celebrate this season with you!

<3 ME

Potter-Ween

Okay, so a month later I'm finally getting around to telling you all about Potter-ween! It's been a crazy month, which I feel like is my excuse every time it takes me forever to put up a new post and I apologize but this one was worth the wait!

This year I decided to try to start a new Halloween tradition by celebrating my favorite wizard book series, Harry Potter. I coined it Potter-ween and set out to put together most of my favorite Harry Potter moments and objects in this themed party.

It took SO much time combing through pins and blogs and so many links to find printables, labels, fonts, tutorials and ideas so hopefully if you love Harry Potter and would like to throw your own Potter-ween then this will be helpful for you! I'm trying my best to compile everything in this one post, or you are also welcome to visit my Harry Potter Pinterest board for more ideas and links. here

First things first were the decorations. I decided on 5 main areas: Potions class, Honeydukes, Ollivanders, The Three Broomsticks and The Great Hall.

Potions Class:

 

 

So I coupled the classroom with a little bit of Chamber of Secrets. I created TONS of potions (here are a few up close pics) I basically just took names that I knew from the books and made stuff that I thought they might look like.

I used pumpkin guts for Boomslang Skin, and pumpkin guts with green food coloring for Gillyweed. I used some coffee beans for Bezoars.

For the liquid potions I just used water with different food colorings: Felix Felicis (yellow), Herbicide (green), Veritaserum (clear). For the containers I used a lot of Mason Jars that I already had around the house for decoration (I know all of you are really surprised that I decorate with Mason Jars) and some old candle jars, glass mixing dishes and some small glass vases that I picked up at the dollar store. Hobby Lobby also has great sales on glassware every now and again if you want some with lids or with more interesting shapes (also, don't forget they always have a coupon online that you can use on one full-priced item!)

I used just basic folder labels for the jars and used a cool Harry Potter font that I found here. I used Parseltongue for these jars.

 

To give it further ambiance as a potions classroom I got a huge black pumpkin/cauldron from Target that I filled with glow sticks (dry ice would also be a good touch, but I honestly just didn't have time for that haha). I also scooped the tops out of several baby pumpkins that they sell in the grocery stores and put tealights in them. They gave a really great glow to the area. I also draped some purple Halloween light strands around the potion containers. All in all I thought it was a pretty effective area :)

 

Honeydukes:

 

This area was unfortunately right next to the Potions class so it wasn't as bright as I would have liked it to be, but for the layout of things it just worked best for me to put it here. I used a pink plastic table cloth I picked up at the dollar store, some candle sticks I already owned and just glass pinch bowls. I didn't really feel like making any of my own candy so I just used store bought: Blow Pops (acid pops), Twizzlers (licorice wands), Jelly Beans (Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans) and Chocolate covered peanuts (cockroach clusters). Jelly Belly does make non-traditionally flavored jelly beans in two collections: Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans or Bean Boozled, but I honestly wasn't sure if anyone would eat them if they knew there were gross flavors ;).

For the labels I found these super cute ones. I just used the blank one and wrote in my own, but you can absolutely use a fun Harry Potter font if you want. 

 

 

 

The Three Broomsticks:

 

I used this location as my drink station. I made Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer for the night, of course. Honestly I thought they both turned out really well! There was a topping for the Butterbeer but I chose not to do it just for time management and I wasn't super sure what would happen to it if it sat out for a few hours at the party.

 

Pumpkin Juice Recipe:

1 bottle apple juice

1 large can pineapple juice

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Blend together in a blender and serve chilled

 

Butterbeer Recipe:

1 liter cream soda

2 Tablespoons Butterscotch syrup

Blend together in a blender and serve chilled

(you can also add ice before you blend and make it more of a slush)

 

The Great Hall:

I used some tulle I had laying around and tied some emergency candles that I found at the dollar store to simulate the floating candles that are famous in the Great Hall. It would also be really cool to use LED candles but they were a little pricey for me :(

I used this as a place to serve some appetizers. I made Cornish Pasties and they were really easy and really yummy! Here's the recipe I used. (The measurements are in metric, but I just searched for conversions).

I used place cards to label everything and I used another great Harry Potter font from Mugglenet (link is above in the Potions Class section).

 

I also used this as a place to have all the guests sorted. I had a sorting hat of course

 

It was just a witch's hat I picked up on clearance at Target and spray painted with some black/bronze/silver and stuffed some plastic bags in the point so I could fold it and make it look like it had a face. I also made name badge stickers with each house's emblem on it so that after you were sorted you could proudly display your house! Here's the link to the pictures I used. I also posted this picture so that my guests who weren't as familiar with the intricacies of Harry Potter as I am could understand a little bit about their new house.

To perform the sorting, I made mini cupcakes that I then filled with different colored icing (red, green, blue and yellow). I thought it was a fun way to incorporate a dessert and self-pacing so that sorting everyone didn't have to be a huge ordeal.

I also hung some portraits, Educational Decrees and the Marauder's Map on the wall for some added character. I'll post links to all the things I hung up down below.

 

 

Ollivanders:

 

The famous wand shop! I thought this would be a super fun way to incorporate a craft for the kiddos, and adults ;). I combined several wand tutorials I found online into something that I thought was super fun and pretty successful.

I used these giant cinnamon sticks I found at Hobby Lobby. I was really hoping for some bamboo sticks but it just wasn't in my luck to find any when I went shopping.

The key was to find something that was hollow with a big enough hole to stick the magical core in to.

I plugged one end of the sticks with nail hole filler.

After that dried, I then had some fun putting crazy designs all over the sticks with hot glue. I basically just put a bunch of squiggles, lines, dots everything to make it textured and "magical" looking.

 

Then I painted them with some metallic acrylic paint.

 

I had to do a couple of coats especially with the gold wands because the paint had a difficult time sticking to the hot glue in some areas.

 

Once dry they were ready for a tag and time to wait for the witch or wizard to choose them!

I used some gift tags that I found at Hobby Lobby, of course. I wrote Ollivanders on one side and then wrote a wood, length, and descriptive word on the other side. (example: 11 1/2 inches, Holly, surprisingly swishy) I just made up the descriptors and lengths and I got all of the wood names from Pottermore.

 

Now for the craft part: I had three different wand cores to choose from

 

Dragon Heartstring: I pulled some strands out of a pom pom that I had

 

Unicorn Hair: I found these awesome pipe cleaners and just cut them in half to ensure they would fit inside the wands

 

Phoenix Feather: just a bag of craft feathers from the store in fun phoenix-y colors

 

After choosing a wand and a wand core, everyone just put the core inside the open end of the sticks then I filled the other end with more nail hole filler and put a dab of matching paint on the end and they were off to perform magic!

 

I also included some spells for the new witches and wizards to try:

Information was found in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling

 

I also included some information about the different wand cores and wand woods found at Pottermore (link above).

 

 

I even incorporated some Harry Potter in the jack-o-lanterns on the porch, which of course Dooleydog helped me carve!



 

 

I also had PLENTY of pictures hung randomly around the house. Here's a link to all of them.

Marauder's Map

Educational Decree

Ariana Dumbledore

The Fat Lady

I Solemnly Swear

Ministry of Magic

Wanted: Sirius Black

 

All in all it was super fun to decorate the house with my favorite book and unfortunately to fully expose the extent of my nerdiness, and it most definitely is going to become an annual event!

 

 

Can't wait to hear all about your own Potter-ween!

 

<3 ME

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Win Some Lose Some

It's been a tough few weeks for my Georgia Bulldogs, and not such a happy environment around the Dailey household. But even with the doom and gloom associated with learning how to love despite losing, my favorite season is taking residence here in the south! It's been down right chilly and I've even gotten to wear a coat to work in the mornings.

And with this I bring you the last pumpkin recipe of the season.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Here's where I found the recipe originally.

As always, first things first we assemble the ingredients.

 

 

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl first (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg).

Then combine the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. We've talked about the importance of this process previously when we made the pumpkin pound cake, but basically this puts a lot of air in the dough which will help the cookies rise, which is an essential part of a snickerdoodle!

 

 After you've creamed the butter and sugars together, add in the pumpkin.

 

Then slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar/pumpkin mixture until it comes together in a dough. If you've never made snickerdoodles before, the dough will be extremely sticky and that's completely normal. To help the cookie making process easier, chill the dough for at least an hour until it's nice and firm.

 

After your dough has chilled, it's time to add the sugar mixture to the top. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, ginger and allspice on a plate.

Now you're going to dip a glass in some water to wet the bottom and then dip in the sugar mixture. I set up an assembly line to make it a bit easier and contain any mess!

 

 

With the sugar-coated glass you'll press down each cookie until coated with sugar and flattened slightly.

 

 

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Then enjoy the taste of fall!

 





You can find a printable version of this recipe here.

THE REVIEW:
So, if you don't know, snickerdoodles happen to be my favorite cookie. I am somewhat of the snickerdoodle expert in my family and I make them every year for Christmas. That being said, I'm probably a little more harsh on this recipe than the average pumpkin recipe because of my absolute love of these cookies. The pumpkin version did taste good, however, the texture was off a bit for me. The pumpkin, as it does in most recipes, made the cookie kind of spongy. Instead of a crisp coating and an airy and chewy center, these were more cakey in consistency. So, although they tasted good the texture will probably turn me off enough to not make them again without some serious tweaking of the recipe. I would definitely try draining the pumpkin and hopefully the decrease in moisture will also decrease the cake-y-ness of the overall cookie.

Here's my recipe review card.

So unfortunately we close out the pumpkin recipe reviews with a bit of a let down for me, but hopefully it'll be a good recipe for you guys to try out and I'll keep hope that good things are on the horizon for us!

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll show you how we celebrated Potter-ween!!

<3 ME

Give Up the Funk

Every once in a while I find myself in an absolute funk. My week is busy, I'm tired, my house is a mess and I'm utterly unmotivated to do anything but lay on my couch, watch trash tv and eat chocolate.
This was my week last week. Not sure what the root cause of all this funk was, but the biggest tragedy was that I had no chocolate in my house. Luckily for me, however, I found this delicious new pumpkin recipe!
Who doesn't love puppy chow (aka about five million different names) that sweet chocolately-peanut buttery chex mix full of enough sugar to send a five year old to Mars? How in the world can you improve upon this recipe?! I tell you, I might have found just the recipe to sway you!

Pumpkin Pie Chex Mix

Now, while this recipe does not contain any actual pumpkin it contains all the yummy flavors of pumpkin pie and it's super easy to make. After making it initially to take to a little get together with the office girls, I've made it twice since!

I found the original recipe here.

As always, first things first: ASSEMBLE THE TROOPS!

For my initial making of this recipe, I used plain rice chex as it calls for in the recipe, however in re-making it I used Cinnamon chex and I have to say it added so much more flavor!

Measure out your powdered sugar into a gallon-sized baggie and set aside. I also mixed some additional pumpkin pie spice into the sugar. I didn't measure it just a few good shakes until the powdered sugar is tinted slightly tan.


Put the white chocolate chips and the Biscoff in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 1 minute, stir, then heat an additional 30 seconds.

DON'T SKIP THIS STEP!!! Now add in the teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the chocolate/Biscoff mixture and stir to combine.

The recipe calls for you to then pour the cereal into the chocolate/Biscoff mixture, but I prefer to have my cereal in a large bowl and pour the liquid on top of the cereal and gently stir to combine. I find that this allows me to more thoroughly mix the ingredients and lessens my chances of crushing the cereal into tiny pieces.

Now you dump the cereal mixture into your gallon baggie with the powdered sugar. Leave some air inside the bag and seal it up, TIGHTLY! Shake it around gently breaking apart large cereal clumps with your fingers (through the closed bag) to allow it to be fully coated in the powdered sugar.

And voila! Pour into a bowl and stand back because this stuff is dangerously hard not to eat in an entire sitting!

Other variations to try include adding roasted pumpkin seeds or nuts to the cereal to make it more trail mix-y.

Review: This recipe was SOOOO easy. It took less than no time and was so delicious. I don't tend to keep white chocolate chips or chex cereal on hand, so I had to pick those up as well as the Biscoff. It took less than 10 minutes to make the whole batch from start to finish. Now, the calorie count wouldn't be so bad if it was possible to only have a serving at a time, but it's nearly impossible not to stand over the bowl and eat until you are ashamed... That being said, I'm definitely adding this to my fall arsenal and will probably make it several more times this season! Overall I give it a 42/50.

Here's my recipe review card for this recipe.

And you can print it out here!

So, although I did not have my tried and true chocolate to soothe me during my funk I had this new found delicacy and a whole heck of a lot of prayer. I survived the funk and found a new fall favorite, what more could I ask for?

<3 ME