I'm going sugar Free

Sugar Free Sweet Spiced Nuts

 This is a new year and I'm going sugar free. Since diabetes runs in my family I decided to make a change in some of my deserts. I was speaking to my Aunt Rosemarie over the holidays and she told me how she makes her sugar coated nuts. I also have a recipe for sugar coated Spiced Nuts. Her nuts are coated with egg whites mixed with Splenda and mine are coated with butter mixed with brown sugar. Now, I do not see a down side to my Aunt’s nut recipe. It is loaded with protein and no sugar. There is a small difference. Mine has a crispy candy coating and hers has a nice nutty sweet flavor. This recipe is perfect for someone who wants to watch their sugar intake. My husband loves my spiced nuts. When the Chief came home he spotted the jar of nuts and dug right in. I asked him if he noticed anything different. He shook his head no, and said not really. I then told him they were sugar free. He was shocked and grabbed another hand full. Based on my husband’s response I could say they are a hit.  This was so good next week I'm going to substitute the nuts with a Granola mix.  

Ingredients:

1 bag 16 oz. pecan halves
8 oz of roasted salted cashews
6 oz of Macadamia nuts
3/4 cup of Brown Sugar Splenda
1/4 cup of Splenda
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla
4 egg whites

Directions:
Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Add the Splenda brown sugar, Splenda, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and vanilla to the egg whites. Beat with a fork until it is mixed well. Put all the nuts in a bowl and pour the egg white mixture in with the nuts and mix well. Cover a baking sheet with quick release aluminum foil. Spread nuts evenly on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes. Toss nuts and bake again for an additional ten minutes. Let cool and they become slightly crispy.

Now for painting my new craft room!!

The color is sage green. After everything was all prepped we got the painting done in about two hours.

This was one of those rare occasions where the Cisco Kid could paint pictures on the walls. He was so happy!!!

As you can see my little helper backed up into one of the freshly painted walls.

Now we are waiting for the floors to come in. 

Once the floors are down we will be able to put back the floor molding.  I'm ready to start putting up some shelving and cabinets.  

The demolition starts!!!

Over the weekend we started the demolition of the guest bedroom. My plan is to take down the wallpaper trim, paint the room a sage green to match the rest of the house, remove all the floor molding so we could put down wooden floors, convert the closet into a counter workspace for all my electronics and create a work space for the Cisco Kid. We have ordered a Murphy bed so it can convert into a guest bedroom.

This is the room before we started the demolition.   

My men are removing all the molding and the tack stripping around the walls so the wooden floors can be installed.

The closet will be turned into an open work space.

I thought removing wallpaper was going to be a long messy job. I was surprised it was so easy. I started by tearing the paper off the wall. It left the under lying paper that is glued to the wall. I then took a big sponge and wet the paper. By wetting the paper it wet the glue and I was able to peal and whip it very easily off the wall. It cleaned up really easy.    

This is the paper dry.

This is the paper wet and ready to peal.

Next we have to paint.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's 2010!!!!  In another life (with no children) I would bring in the new year with watching fireworks or watching some kind of midnight countdown celebration with hundreds of other people.  In this life things are a little different. These years we find that bringing in the New Year is so much more now that we are three. We have our own countdown celebration. We started our evening by going to see the Christmas Carol in the IMAX Theater. We then went out to a non crowded restaurant and had dinner. Then back home where we started our chocolate fountain party.

I knew that our little one would not last until midnight so I got out the noise maker and we celebrated the coming of the New Year at 9:30.

My New Years baby couldn't last.  He was done by 10:00 p.m. and unlike our youth years we weren't far behind. 

This morning we watched the ball drop.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy New Years Eve!!!

 2009 is coming to a close. It’s hard to believe I started my blog 7 months ago. This has been such a great way for me to document our family. I know one day we will look back at some of my posts and get a good laugh. I love the fact that through this venture I have met some new friends and kept in touch with some old. I hope that the New Year will bring much happiness and keep you all well.
 Have a Happy New Year.