{Dairy and Gluten Free} Walnut & Chocolate Chip Brownie Cups

The brownies are coming right up. I wanted to share this tasty beverage with you too.

We made this frozen mocha coffee recently while exploring our Ninja options and it was delicious! The recipe was in the Ninja booklet (I used almond milk and excluded the sweetener). Easy and so tasty! 

I woke up to this sweet note on Valentines Day. Nick is up and out the door before I get up, so he left this for me. I loved it. Words of affirmation is one of my love languages:)

 

My heart melted. My Valentine is so sweet.

Here's the card I gave him. I saw it when I was at Paper Source and it spoke my thoughts exactly. He's the best. I tell him that quite often:)

Valentine Brownie Cups with Walnuts & Mini Chocolate Chips 
This is a Taste of Home recipe that I've adapted 

I made these previously (seen here), but now I've swapped out the ingredients so everything is dairy and gluten free. They're still just as delicious! I brought them to my work and Nick took them to his and they were all gone. We heard great feedback, which I was excited to hear! I usually feel self conscious that they'll be able to tell there's a swap of ingredients, but in this recipe, you really cannot tell anything different! 

I must admit that I made these because I wanted to use the cute cupcake liners I found at Michaels recently. Polkadot white and red, I just had to make something in these for Valentines day! The brownie cups were much easier than making cupcakes AND frosting. I made a wise decision:)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Earth Balance Soy Free butter - I hadn't tried this kind until my mom had it for me over Christmas and I think it tastes better than the original! It's dairy free too.
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate (to melt) - I used Ghirardelli 72% dark chocolate (dairy free!), found at Target. I actually used the individually packaged pieces rather than the bar since that's what I had - either would work!
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 4 eggs 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar 
• 1/4 cup honey [or you can add an extra 1/4 cup sugar instead - I like honey!]
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten free flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips  (I use the Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips - dairy, soy, and gluten free!)

Here's the pretty mixing process of adding the melted chocolate to the batter

Directions:

In a microwave, melt semisweet chocolate and butter; stir until smooth. Cool for 10 minutes. 

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until blended. Beat in vanilla, cocoa powder, and chocolate mixture; gradually stir in flour, nuts, and chocolate chips. 

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350° for 18-20 [mine took about 22] minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 5 minutes then move to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

I definitely recommend these tasty bites! Pin this image (and recipe) easily to Pinterest by clicking "pin it"! 

We enjoyed our Valentines day dinner last Saturday and went to Pizza Luce for the first time after checking out their dairy and gluten free options on their menu online. This pizza is entirely free of dairy and gluten! The crust was delicious and everything was great. Their cheese substitute is spread on the crust and is tofu and cashews blended. I didn't notice it at all (Nick tasted it a bit, but was fine with the overall taste). I'd definitely go there again, it was great! I loved not having to get a salad like I usually do these days when we eat out.


I met up with a lovely friend for coffee and boutique shopping yesterday. It was so nice to enjoy the quality time and checking out all of the beautiful things we saw at cute local boutiques. 


I ordered this necklace last week on a deal where you just had to pay for shipping, the necklace itself was free! It's from Fancy Frills - I used some of the last of my birthday money to treat myself:) It looks like the deal is still going on (through March 2nd) by the way if you're in the market for a new bubble necklace! My shipping was $9.

**Just a note: Instagram has a website now, so even if you don't have the app on your phone, you can see my Instagram photos (which I tend to post many of, and share some here on the blog) at this site! http://instagram.com/eatingexploringandenjoying I also have the 5 most recent photos posted to the feed on the left side of the blog (although you won't see them on the "mobile" version of the site).

Today's Pinspiration:

(found on Instagram, I'm unsure of who created it and deserves credit, but I like it and wanted to share!)

Fibro Updates & More Physical Therapy

We've had some sunny days lately I've been SO thankful to see! 

Let's jump right into some fibro updates, including my new physical therapy regimen.

Headaches:

The headaches have been the most problematic lately I'd say. I still have pain when I wake up in the morning, and I can feel it throughout the day, but I think a combo of me being used to it, the meds, and distracting myself by keeping busy at work, helps me work through the pain. But the headaches. They're harder to operate through. They can really take me down, and they do. Some seem more migraine like (which for me is light sensitive, and all together sensitive to sounds, movement, etc), and I just can't do much until they let up. I take excedrin migraine for them at this point, and may have to add a medication at some point if we can't figure them out. I'm really not interested in making my med list longer - it's long enough! I'm trying to find other natural remedies, dietary adjustments, etc. to help them. Do any of you have this problem and any natural solutions? 

"Regular" doctor checkup:

I had an "annual" checkup with a new doc (I chose a new one since my old one didn't seem like she could help with fibro) and I really liked her! I hadn't been to the regular doctor since last spring as I've been seeing the fibro specialists regularly to help address all of my symptoms. I was so relieved my blood pressure was good! 108/80 to be specific. Some meds make my blood pressure high and I had the scare about a year ago seeing a new doc at that point and my blood pressure was 146/119. This was the appointment she was very concerned to see my BP that high and even brought in an ECG technician, hooked me up to be sure my heart was working properly under that much pressure. I was sure it was the med we added 6 months prior to that, she took me off, and it was fine again, thank the Lord. Different meds can do this, and I was hoping the newest med we added in December wasn't messing with my blood pressure again. Thankfully, it was great! Whew! 

She recommended I add fish oil to my supplements, she recommends this for everyone over age 18. She asked if I exercise. No lying here, my answer is no. She wants me to try for 3x a week to get in that cardio that my body and organs need to keep up their good work. We also did the "annual exam" portion which I found out only needs to be done every other year at my age. Nice! I always thought these women exams were yearly! Good to know. They did blood work too, and I'll get the results within the next week or so. I always get slightly nervous to be honest that at some point, they'll see something in my blood. Fibro is such an "invisible illness" as far as the blood looks great, xrays, etc. all checks up fine. So in the back of my mind, I'm usually curious to see if anything ever shows up. I trust the Lord with that part so can't get worked up about it. 

I've also interestingly gained and then lost about 20 pounds in the last year and a half or so. I gained weight taking Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Savella (I took those one at a time for about a year) - they're all in the same classification of meds where weight gain is a common side effect. I just thought at my age, it was just me growing into my woman body (as I posted here getting rid of ALL of my "small" clothes, that ironically would fit me just fine now - ugh!). You can see it in pics, not that I was big by any means, I had just always been used to the size I was. I'm not sure if it's like water weight or what, but I feel like myself again after a brief time away while taking those meds.

Since I keep photos of everything, I thought it's interesting to SEE the difference in my face taking the meds. Here's March 2011 (after starting Lyrica), I can see a definite increase in the roundness of my face- it doesn't help that I couldn't wear eye makeup without getting red spots at my lash line (until I started using paraben free makeup).

October 2011 (taking Savella)

 December 2011 (taking Savella)

Here are ones after I stopped taking those meds (in Feb 2012). I did also stop eating dairy and eventually gluten over the last year and I'd say I have a healthier diet, but generally, I eat the same lunches each day as I have since we've been married (lol). I'm sure the narrowed down diet helped me get back to normal, but stopping those meds made a huge difference in allowing my body to get there. 

 September 2012: Here's when my chin/cheeks are getting back to my "normal"

 January 2013 I think looking at my chin, you can see the difference from the photos above:

January 2013

I'm definitely glad to be off those meds and back to the body I had before I started taking any of those. In my doctor's file, it shows I lost 10 pounds since I was there my first time a year ago, but I was up 10 pounds from that while living in TX and taking those meds. Anyway, just to say those meds really do cause weight gain (which doesn't help fibro either...). Side effects of some of these meds make things worse than they might have been before (Lyrica was absolutely terrible for me, even just for the few weeks I took it). Now, my current meds have fun side effects like dry mouth (great when I talk on the phone all day at work!), constipation, dizziness at times (although very infrequent), fatigue (something I'm already dealing with for fibro), and more. But we're thinking the good from these is outweighing the bad for now anyway. That's why I keep checking in with the specialists, to tweak anything as needed. Their role is to get me as functional and comfortable as possible. 

Here's a photo (to break up the text for you:)) of one of the snow storms from last week. We've had lots of little snow storms lately - an inch or two here and there. 

Physical therapy:

I started a new physical therapy regimen this week. When the fibro specialist I see mentioned PT again, I was apprehensive. I've done three different physical therapy regimens with three different physical therapists and we typically reach a point where I stop improving, and fibro is as fibro does - keeps on keepin' on and keeps me from eliminating the pain. 

Physical Therapy Session 1:
I did one in Texas two years ago that was the trial to see if my pain issues would improve while I did PT for about three months. When they didn't keep improving and hit a plateau is when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. 

Physical Therapy Session 2:
A few months later, my primary doctor at that point (while we were living in TX) had me go through a chronic pain class, written about here which also involved physical therapy and similar stretches. I did the stretches and my muscles were still tight - she was dumbfounded that my body wasn't responding as well as it should to the therapy. She also got me a TENS/E-Stim machine, which I honestly don't use often. I've heard it helps some fibro patients and not others. It basically sends electric pulses into your muscles (through electrodes you attach to the skin), and while I used it, it started giving me a pinching/burning feeling that was not pleasant, so I haven't used it in probably close to a year and a half now. 

Physical Therapy Session 3:
This fall, I saw the physical therapist specializing in TMJ and teeth grinding issues (wrote about in this post). It seemed to work for a while, but hasn't lasted. I still grind my teeth while I sleep and it still gives me a lot of pain through my temples and I think creates or contributes to my headaches. Two of the meds I take are supposed to be helping relax those muscles at night, trying to stop my grinding. It's so bad, really. Even when I nap to ease fatigue, I wake up with a worse headache due to grinding my teeth so badly. I'm not done with this yet, I have work to do to figure the teeth grinding/temple pain out.

So, as you might imagine, I wasn't too convinced about seeing yet another Physical Therapist (this makes 4 in two years and isn't cheap when it all adds up). My fibro specialist said she's had patients with chronic headaches/migraines really improve seeing these particular ladies. I thought about and decided if there's potential of it helping, I want to try what I can. 

I had my first appointment this week and was pretty impressed with her approach! I kind of thought they'd put me on an elliptical, or give me the same stretches every previous one has assigned as homework and that I'd see the same results again. The nurse took lots of notes of my symptoms, when they started, medications I take, etc. so the PT could get an idea what we're starting with. When the PT came in, she said the thing on the page that jumped out at her is the IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) which surprised me. She explained that if I've been dealing with these digestive issues for a while (which I have), it could be really warping my body from the inside out basically from my tight digestive organs. She observed my posture, pushed and prodded around, had me do things while she observed and she believes my kidneys/intestines may be causing my poor posture, since I'm more comfortable squishing my mid section, even standing, she pointed out that I was kind of shrinking down my mid section, which she said is vey common for long time IBS patients. 

She worked on my nerves which sounds weird, and was so different than I've had before. She had observed that my body is just overall very tight. She tried pushing on my ribs from the side and there was no give (which apparently there should be), and many other areas were structurally very tight as she tested them. The body is all wired by the nerves and she thinks some of them are pinched/strained from digestive issues, which could be contributing to this, so it was very fascinating to hear her perspective. 

She would also have me get in a certain position, apply pressure and asked if there was pain. In many cases, there was pain. She would then reposition my body so the nerves were in better places, apply pressure again, and... no pain. Literally. It was weird and interesting and I hope she's onto something! She'll keep doing different things going forward to be sure this is the issue - she also would like me to take a blood test looking at all food sensitivities to be sure I'm omitting those foods too, which I've heard about and am interested in taking this test as well. 

It was a very fascinating appointment and I'm looking forward to going through her treatments and see if we can make some progress here. They also added another pillow for me to sleep with - my side of the bed (and probably a bit of Nick's side!) is quite maxed out by pillows at this point:) Pretty funny looking. I have pillows in 5 different spots now to keep my body aligned and whatnot. 

If you're still reading after all of that, thank you:) It helps me process through things, but I know is a lot of detail to read. 

My next blog post will have these cute Valentines Brownie Cups and some other random updates. 

Today's Pinspiration:

Found shared on this inspirational Facebook page

Smoothie Recipes & Catching Up

I've been eating delicious smoothies each day so will share the recipes below! Just a few things to share first. 

On my way home yesterday, I enjoyed sunshine and blue skies. In the Midwest (especially the farther north you go I'd imagine), these sights are more rare, so I lived in the moment, appreciating the beauty.

January 29th was Nick and I's 7 year dating anniversary. I woke up to this sweet note on the bathroom mirror:) 

I thought I'd share one of the delicious salads we've been loving. 
This is fresh romaine, chopped with sliced ham, crasins, walnuts, and eggs (microwaved for quick preparation) and Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette. This dressing is delicious, but I will say it bothers me that too much dressing comes out at a time, and I feel like we end up wasting some every time. At some point, I'll get a container to keep it in that controls how much comes out at one time. 

(source)

Now that they're out, I wanted to share a glimpse of the invites I helped put together for my sister in law, Amber's card baby shower. The invite theme was "little man" and had a mustache on it, so I went with the mustache theme. These mustaches were just too cute! I got the stamp at Paper Source (thankfully - I went to many other crafty stores around town and this was the only place I could find one!).

 More mustaches for you:

We're excited to see her belly grow and meet this little guy in April! 

 I took this photo a few days ago after we had some more fresh snow fall. At least it looks pretty! 

Smoothies:

Ever since getting my Ninja for my birthday, I've enjoyed smoothies for breakfast each morning, and yesterday, even whipped up another when I got home from work. They're so good and you can make them so many ways with whatever ingredients you like. I thought I'd share what I've been making so you can try them too! You can easily make these in any sort of blender I'd imagine.

These are dairy and gluten free, though you don't have to make yours that way.

I had this smoothie after work yesterday when I really wanted to come home and eat chocolate. I decided to make a smoothie and add some cocoa powder (a friend gave me this idea) to make my treat healthier. I don't measure these, I just toss things in and it always works out! 

Ingredients:
-Frozen strawberries
-Frozen blueberries
-Peanut butter (1 heaping tsp or so)
-Almond milk
-Vanilla (coconut milk) yogurt
-Cinnamon (1/4 - 1/2 tsp)
-Gluten free oats
-Cocoa powder (the unsweetened kind for baking) (1 tsp or so)

Blend it until you like the consistency and try it, see if you need to make any adjustments. Then you're good to go! 

 I had this one for breakfast this morning. 

Ingredients:
-Frozen blueberries
-Frozen strawberries
-Frozen Mangoes
-A banana, torn into smaller pieces

-Almond milk
-V8 Fusion juice I wanted to use up
-Cinnamon (1/4 - 1/2 tsp)
-A pinch of pumpkin pie mix spice (why not? I like to experiment)
-Gluten free oats
-Chopped walnuts
-1 tsp Chia seeds (yep, the same kind the were the plant sensation. Check out their health benefits! They're a great superfood and are super easy to add and eat in the smoothies - they get a gel around them when you add them to the liquid, so you really hardly notice them, especially with the fruit pieces, etc.). Here's a visual of what they do:

 I just use a little bit of each of the frozen fruits (they're organic ($) and I just need a little of everything in these). I add the liquids at the end, and most of the time, I add about as much liquid to come about to the top of the rest of the ingredients. If you want it to be thicker (like eat with a spoon), add less liquid. I've been taking them in a cup and drinking them through a straw on my way to work so I like mine to be easily drinkable.

Nick has been more adventurous adding some carrots and greens to his, although I've added celery to a few of mine! We'll keep experimenting, but I haven't tried a bad combination yet. It helps to start my day with such a fruit and vitamin rich drink rather than the breakfast bar I was used to. I've also pinned lots of recipes I've yet to try, see my Pinterest page for drinks here for many more ideas.

Today's Pinspiration:

(source)

My Birthday, Etc.

My birthday (January 19th) was just the way I wanted it: simple and on a flexible schedule. Nick was gracious enough to pick up our groceries (one of my least favorite weekly errands) on his way home from work that Friday night so we wouldn't have to worry about that on my b-day, which was on Saturday. I wanted to sleep in to give my body the rest it needs after a work week, and had a few things in mind for the day, but I had to be sure to pace myself or I'd pay for it for a few days with a fibroflare. We paced it and the day was great! 

Our first stop was to Target to pick up clearance earrings I eyed the week before. I ended up finding a couple of cute pairs! 

The photo doesn't show them off the best...

After that, we headed to Caribou (my favorite) for a coffee date. My co-workers also went in on a Caribou gift card for my b-day (so sweet of them!), so it was perfect. Plus, quality time is my love language, and it's harder to come by these days with our schedules.

Nick let me own the day and went with the flow with whatever I wanted to do :) 

It was wonderous. 

We left Caribou as happy campers, ready to enjoy the rest of the day.

Leaving Caribou, I decided I wanted to stop by a few thrift shops we hadn't visited yet before dinner. I got some great bargains there too! I got a few necklaces and some beads I can make jewelry with. 

Here's one of the necklaces I got! 

After thrifting, I was pretty wiped out, so we went back home so I could grab a quick nap before dinner. 

I didn't get any photos at dinner, but we tried a quaint place called Birchwood Cafe. It was nice (Nick completely loved his meal!), but didn't end up having as many dairy AND gluten free options, mostly one or the other. It was still nice to try someplace new. 

My choice for Netflix for the week? A Roman Holiday. So good. 

I wore one of my new clearance shirts from this post.

I didn't really have birthday cake (I thought that restaurant might have had some options by the looks of the menu, but they didn't that day), so I made brownies a few days later. I needed a birthday dessert! :)

Nick got me one of the things I'd been wanting - a Ninja! I want to make breakfasts that give my body a better start to the day and I need something easy to clean and maintain. We've been having fun with different combinations! 

I also enjoyed feeling the love and birthday wishes from everyone on my birthday - thank you to the many of you that made my day extra special! 

I got to explore Paper Source for the first time Last Friday. It was so fun to see what they had! 

Two weeks ago, I had a rough fibro flare weekend. I had a few prayer warrior friends praying for me that Sunday night and was able to make it for a half day at work Monday. I snapped a proud photo (PTL!) leaving work that day. I made it. We made it:)

We've had our share of small snow storms lately - a few inches at a time. This was one of them one day last week.

It has definitely been cold though. We've had a few days where we didn't get above zero. This is what I look like on those days:

This was the temp I woke up to last Friday: 

Too cold for me:)

Today's Inspiration from Instagram (not sure who made it!):