Lemon Loaf with Lemon Glaze {Grain Free}

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I've been healing over ISU's heartbreaking loss Sunday to Ohio State. Some commentators said we should've won the game with a foul not called with just a few minutes left in the game that would've turned things around. I was stunned the game ended the way it did (by a last minute second 3-point shot made (get this - it was his first 3 point of the game)) to break the tie and let Ohio State take the win. If you're an ISU fan, I'm sure you're with me. It was a tough loss, but it's still awesome we made it to the "big dance" two years in a row :)   

Overall, I appreciate ISU's coaches and the things they've done for our teams and for our guys. With Coaches Hoiberg and Rhoads (just to name a few), we have a lot to be proud of and a bright future to look forward to. Moving onto a tasty treat that helped mend my wounds;) this week.

Delicious Lemon Loaf with a Lemon Glaze
Recipe from Primally Inspired

The ingredients in this lemon loaf are great and many on her site compare this to Starbuck's lemon loaf - and this is MUCH healthier. I was really impressed by how moist this is. It's almost like jello cake it's so moist. If you like this type of thing, you have to try this recipe. 

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Makes 1 loaf

Loaf Ingredients:

6 eggs

¼ cup coconut oil or butter, melted

Zest from 2 lemons (I just bought 1 lemon and used the juice from the little lemon juice containers)

juice from 2 lemons plus enough milk of choice (coconut milk from can or box, dairy milk, almond milk, etc.) to equal 1 cup*

1/3 cup honey

2/3 cup coconut flour (do NOT substitute another flour – it will not work. I used Bob's Red Mill coconut flower)

1 heaping teaspoon baking soda

¼ tsp salt

This grater was my "zester" as I don't have one:) 

Lemon Glaze:

2 T butter or coconut oil

2 T honey

2 T milk of choice

zest and juice from 1 lemon (since I didn't have any more zest for this step, I used some of the fresh lemon pulp I had)

½ tsp pure vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all the lemon bread ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well. Pour into a greased bread pan and bake for 32-45 minutes (mine was perfect at the 35 minute mark, but it may take up to 45 minutes) or until golden on top and middle is cooked through. If the top starts to get too brown towards the end of the cooking time, put some foil over the top. Let cool.

To make the lemon glaze:

While the lemon loaf is cooking, mix all glaze ingredients together in a small pot over low heat until it starts to simmer (I like easy, so I did this in the microwave and it worked just fine!). Remove from heat and let sit to cool until the lemon loaf is finished cooking and cooling. Pour the glaze all over the top of the loaf. Refrigerate the loaf at least 30 minutes – 1 hour until both the glaze and the loaf firms up a bit. Enjoy! Store leftovers refrigerator.

If you do not feel like making the glaze, you can skip this step (although, I highly recommend taking the few extra minutes and making it – that glaze is so good!). You just need to add the following glaze ingredients directly to the lemon bread mix: honey, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla.

*Juice your 2 lemons and pour the lemon juice in a 1 cup measuring cup. Add enough milk to the lemon juice until you reach 1 cup.

Her lemon loaf is clearly more photogenic than mine ;) but it was delicious and I'll definitely be making this tasty treat again! 


If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that my week didn't start off very well. I woke up with a stiff, very achy neck and a doozy headache on Monday. I couldn't get rid of the neck pain all day and the headache went up and down in intensity throughout the day. Thankfully (and amazingly), I woke up feeling much better Tuesday morning. 

Tuesday, I had physical therapy which is going well. I continue to learn new things and learned a "belly finger stretch" sounds great, eh? Haha, my stomach area is always so tight, so she digs into my mid section to basically stretch it out as she thinks it could basically be pulling everything down. 

That could cause my poor upper posture, headaches, neck-aches, etc. This is her theory, so we're testing it out and getting that area stretched out. She thinks IBS is the cause of that tightness. We'll see, but I'm always in learning mode when I go there, they see things so differently from my previous PTs. 

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Raise your hands if you're ready for spring. I am! This picture inspired me this week. It looks so warm, cozy, and just dreamy. 

Thank the Lord tomorrow is Friday! Whooo! And it's supposed to be close to 50 degrees tomorrow! I hope it's warm where you are too (Dad, I already know it's warm where you are- he loves to remind me:)).

Today's Spring-Inspired Pinspiration:

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Iowa State's 100th Homecoming

Earlier in October, Nick and I saw a tree with beautiful fall leaves (among many - ha!) that had recently dropped big colorful leaves. We decided to stop and pick out the prettiest ones to take home for a fall project. We each gathered leaves of all colors, I pressed them in a book with books on top of it for about a week, and I used them around here for some free fall decor! 

I framed this little cute colorful one (this is a 4x6 frame), and I think this little leaf is my favorite.  

 This photo is from Instagram and is a bit blurry.

Our fallified "welcome" sign. 

We had fun with it and I enjoy having some fall decor around here! Without these leaves, we don't really have any fall decor, so this worked out very nicely! 

 I also posted a few weeks back about my new Stella & Dot earrings - they arrived the following week and sure are pretty! I loved the packaging they came in:)

Last weekend, we were able to make it back to ISU for the homecoming game vs. Baylor. We hadn't been back to an ISU game since we graduated and we'd been trying to find a time to go. This wasn't just a homecoming game, it was Iowa State's 100th homecoming! It was a chilly night game (mid-thirties I believe), but we got to jump out of our seats quite often as we enjoyed a win! 

Touchdown! 

We had fun taking photos at the game too

We love our ISU!

Me and the Jack Trice sky

It was a great game and fun to see ISU's defense looking strong. 

Good game, guys!

 Here's a beautiful sunset I enjoyed this week too. I'm such a sucker for amazing skyscapes. 

 I was also excited to see Pier 1's holiday catalogue arrive this week:

It's that time of year again: Cheer 1 Imports!

I might do this fragrance as my "holiday" fragrance for my reed diffusers. I used "oceans" from Pier 1 for the summer in all of my diffusers and I want to switch to a holiday one, but this one would nicely last past the holidays too. We'll see! 

 

I think these peacock/turquoise colors are so much fun!

These just give me the warm and fuzzies...

 

 So much fun! I love Pier 1's holiday stuff. 

I have some catching up to do with photos of this weekend's fun with Maggie and Hudson's trip here for the weekend too! I love the many fun-packed weekends we've been having, but I get tired too so I've been delayed in my posts lately. We'll get there! I take lots of photos (oh, you know that?;)), so have lots more to share in the coming posts. 

Today's Iowa State Pinspiration:

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Have you heard Jack Trice's amazing story? If not, you really should check it out. 

Fibro, Fall, Football & Fun

I'll start with a fibro update:

All in all, I can say I'm at a better place right now than I was a few months ago. Every day is still a challenge, but I have more "tools" to help me cope and make this load easier to carry. 

My mornings aren't quite as stiff, my headaches aren't as intense or as often, my pain can be managed better, and I can think and focus more clearly. I've seen definite progress! I hadn't seen much progress almost in the past year and a half and was really starting to believe it's just the way I would have to accept it. It was a very painful reality I dealt with every day, trying not to accept the place I was at. I'm not 100%, and am not sure if I'll ever be (I don't know what 100% feels like anyway), but I have seen real, measurable progress and have to note what I'm doing, if for nothing else, for future reference to stay on this positive path to wellness. Here are things I'm currently doing that seem to be helping in each of my main problem areas:

Fatigue: I've been using CoQ10 (over the counter). I think this is helping as I haven't needed to nap as much nights or weekends since starting this back in August. We'll see how it helps over time, but the fibro specialists said this supplement can help with fatigue at the cellular level (unlike coffee/caffeine from what I understand).

Pain: I still take a prescription for nerve pain 3 times a day and a muscle relaxer every night. I use prescription pain patches as needed (I use the patches for 12 hour increments a few days a week). I also am fortunate to get a back/neck massage from Nick every morning before he goes to work, and he also helps me get my heat pads on my back/neck muscles and wrap one around my jaw and temples so I can use them for a little while before I go to work. I also reheat my rice heat pad before work and have it on my shoulders as I drive to and from work. I have lots of exercises to help my neck, shoulders, and knee, but really haven't been using them much - I really should though. 

Headaches: Excedrin Migraine (over the counter) helps me with bad headaches/migraines as needed, physical therapy for TMJ (facial massages on TMJ muscles and temples, eating softer foods, awareness of keeping the muscles loose etc), and adding a bottom mouthguard to wear along with my top mouthguard have all helped me. Wearing the bottom mouthguard with the top one is supposed to make the plastic slide as I grind my teeth around rather than letting my teeth dig into the plastic and grind all night. I just got the bottom one two weeks ago and it seems to be helping, although I still notice the symptoms, they are reduced in severity. The tight temple muscles also contribute to the "fibro fog" feeling I get where it's more difficult to focus and think critically. This is very common for fibro, but I have noticed giving myself temple massages and using my heat pad there daily has helped reduce the "fibro fog" symptom.

Dry Mouth: This is a new symptom, one I believe to be a side affect from the muscle relaxer I take each night. According to the fibro specialist I see monthly, dry mouth is common for that medication and I've had this symptom since I increased my dose from 1/2 pill to 1 pill. To help with it, I've been using Biotene mouthwash (over the counter), and the Biotene gel (over the counter) which has a bigger impact, but I really only can use at night. At times, my tongue has a burnt feeling and it so dry. I also talk on the phone all day at work and have had the cotton mouth feeling a lot since increasing the dose of that medication. I honestly think my ER trip (explained in this post) was due to this side effect making my mouth and throat dry, making it painful to swallow. 

Digestion: There are foods I have to avoid eating (raw broccoli, hot dogs, greasy foods, etc), but excluding dairy and gluten from my diet has impacted me in a positive way. When I stopped eating all dairy products (even shelved goods containing dairy anywhere in the ingredient list), my frequent bloating got much better. Stopping gluten just makes my whole system seem to work better, and I think it has helped my pain, digestion, and possibly other symptoms. 

I still have good hours and bad hours, good days and bad days. I have to keep my posture in check at work, sleep with lots of pillows to keep my body aligned at night, and not push myself physically. I try to be more proactive than reactive, using my heat pads regularly to prevent any flareups. I have to keep snacks on hand, especially while running errands, I can get overwhelmed/anxious with certain activities and I think it exhausts me and I need to eat food more often in those cases. I'm thankful to see some progress and am thankful for all of the prayers that have been lifted up for me. 

I snapped this photo on one of our recent evening walks 

I've been a fall paparazzi for a few weeks now, trying to capture the beauty of the season everywhere we go. I just love the fall colors. They've been fading as the days go by, so I have to enjoy these days while we have them.

I had this ready to post early this week and am obviously late since it was the game before last now! Better late than never (and jumping over our loss but good game yesterday)...

In other news, ISU had a great win over TCU (a week ago now)! TCU was #15 and this led to us to yet another great upset! 

There were many times we were jumping and shouting with joy to see our team fight for the win.

Coach Rhoads has led us through some great upset in his 4 years as head coach! 

So proud of ISU!

In other news, I went to a friend's Stella & Dot Trunk Show party yesterday.

It was so much fun to play with the jewelry and enjoy time with some friends I care about! I'm such a frugal girl that it was a long decision making process:) but I got these simple cuties I'm excited about:

Stella & Dot Demi Earrings

Here's today's Pinspiration:

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Our VIP VEISHEA Experience

I'm a winner!! But you already knew that:) The premise of this post all began with an e-mail. This e-mail to be exact:

Subject: ISUAA Fan Drive Winner!

"Marissa!

On behalf of the ISUAA Young Alumni Council it my pleasure to inform you that you are a grand prize winner of our Facebook Fan Drive!  The package includes a "VEISHEA VIP" package for you and a friend with lodging, event tickets, souvenirs and VIP parade access during VEISHEA weekend, all sponsored by the ISUAA Young Alumni Council."

I literally read the e-mail and was like "Hmm, I didn't sign up for any contest"... so I forwarded it to Nick letting him know I'm thinking this is a spam message. He replied back pretty quickly confirming this was indeed a contest they advertised in their newsletter (which I never seemed to make time to read, oops!). So it sank in, I'm a winner and we can go back to ISU for VEISHEA and have a fun weekend getaway with most expenses covered!

First off, I have to clarify for those who may not know, VEISHEA is an acronym for ISU's colleges at the time the festival started in 1922: Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture.

After clearing our weekend, we were set and on the road to Ames!

It never felt better to see our old stomping grounds (which reminds me we didn't get to go to Stomping Grounds while we were there! Shoot. Next time.)

Then we got to see our goodie bag in our hotel room! SWEET! I love free stuff. Can you tell what is in those goodie bags by the way? Look closely. Back to that in a minute. 

I have to say, the team that arranged this VIP package and coordinated with me was great. I sent them photos of our weekend and they were all so great and excited for us. If you are an ISU alum, you should totally join the alumni association :) They didn't ask me to say that by the way, they were just great. 

Back to those goodie bags above. Yep, they had Iowa State cherry pies in them! A serious ISU tradition since 1919. Amazing. I pretended they didn't have dairy and scarfed it. It was amazing. Like Iowa State in food form.

That Friday night, after scarfing our cherry pies, we headed to campus to grab dinner and check out the concerts!


Don't mind these poor quality phone photos.

The food vendors! Not many great dairy free options - let's say dairy was indeed consumed a few times that weekend (even in the form of CHEESE pizza! Ugh. Difficult food options + time crunch = goodbye dairy free). It didn't even taste as good as I'd been dreaming of for months now. 

The campanile all lit up that night.  

 Rocking out with Eric Hutchinson! 

We got our VIP badges at the dignitaries breakfast Saturday morning and a nice laminated reminder of our schedule for the day! We were pumped.

Here's ISU's new president, Steven Leath, as the keynote speaker at the breakfast.

Everyone settling in before the annual VEISHEA parade

It was a rainy morning, but fun was had by all.

Steven Leath was also the Grand Marshall of this year's VEISHEA parade. 

AND one of my very favorite ISU people, Coach Paul Rhoads encouraging the fans with a thumbs up. 

CY and I had a moment at the parade. He's clearly showing some love to this VIP winner.

Here's the basketball team. I was hoping to find Royce White there, but he must've been busy in the big leagues. 

Here's another one of my favorite ISU people, Jeff Johnson. He was a TOTAL highlight of our day. He sat at our table at the dignitary breakfast and talked with us for at least thirty minutes. It was SO COOL! He's basically the top guy in charge of the Alumni Association - he told us about his doctoral studies, his huge passion for keeping alumni connected to their roots, and let us into his life for a short time. If you've been to ISU games, he's also one to get the crowd chanting and riled up - he's got a zest for life and for ISU that I completely admire. 

Back to the parade, here's our pep band! Chanting along to our fight song brought back so many memories.

After the parade, we had to visit the campanile. I love the campanile. 

For old times sake, here's one of our engagement photos ('09) laying in front of the campanile:

After grabbing some quick lunch, we had to take a quick break from the schedule (things we had already done) to visit Nick's fraternity. They've done lots of remodeling the past few years so it was great to see. Although it made us feel so OLD since so many guys we (mostly Nick) know have graduated by now.

We enjoyed some more tours after that (some are totally free and you can schedule for yourself any time by the way!) and got to meet up with Rachel, Jared, Judah and baby Haven for dinner. 

We also snapped some photos on campus since we don't get to make it back that often.

Judah and the guys! He loved Nick and wasn't too far from him that night - it was too cute!

I also got to meet and squeeze Haven for the first time! She is SO darn adorable and has such soft skin.

Ohmygoodness, she was so sweet. How cute is that face??!

Good ol' Lake Lavern - seen from a different angle in our engagement picture here:

At the end of a packed day (it looks like it, HA!) with my VIP badge. I kind of want to wear it every day as I enjoyed being VIP status. It was SUCH a great day and a well needed break from the norm. By the way, have you seen VEISHEA's wikipedia page? It's pretty impressive to learn about the history of this event! I love being part of something big like that. Check it out here. 

It was a quick trip and Sunday morning we were on our way back to the Twin Cities as I had to work that afternoon! 

Is that the Bahamas?!? 

No.. it's Minnesota..

It was a gorgeous day. Hope there's many more where those come from this month!

I also skipped over Nick's birthday mid-April, but I got him this awesome beer glass set! It's a set of 6 and each shape is for a different kind of beer. He can have fun trying different beers in the mugs. I was glad he liked it, I think it's so cool!

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Cheers!

I'll close with some Pinspiration as this spring continues to blossom with new growth.

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