Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Sugar Free, Oil Free Pumpkin Bread!

Ingredients: 

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup apple sauce 
• .42 cup water (little less than 1/2 cup)*
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1.67 cups of agave syrup (five 1/3 cups, however you want to look at it!)*
• 3 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (I used Namaste Foods For Everyone Flour-Costco!)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large loaf pan and fill about 3/4th of the way since it will rise. I prefer to use muffin tins, it cuts the time in half and they cook better!
2. Combine pumpkin, eggs, apple sauce, water, vanilla and agave until well blended.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes (loaf pan), 30 minutes (muffin pan), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

**The reason the water and agave measurements are weird, is because the original recipe called for sugar and more water, but since Agave measures 2/3 cups for every 1 cup of sugar and you have to lessen the water because of the consistency... these are the measurements that come out of it! 

Dem Beats Dough

"a way to communicate what WE are experiencing"

Starting New!

Dahlia Hills: I get to have fun with my mom and make someone's tummy happy: www.dahliahills.com

My ECO Farmer: I get to share what makes the dirt I was raised on, so special: www.myecofarmer.com

I am really enjoying being a part of new businesses and sharing the talents and hard-work of the Madden Family. It's a pretty joyful time of my life!

Summer is Visiting

Summer has been visiting over the last few days and it has been absofruitly wonderful! I have a drawer at work that I have made my "sunny day drawer" it has a blanket, shorts, and a tank. When it is sunny, I don't play games! You can bet your bottom dollar that I will put in overtime to take my full lunch- in the sun, at the park.

On another note, Rudy was groomed for the first time and he came out looking like a prissy, girl poodle! It was really funny at first, until I got in the car and realized how bad it was, and then I think I discovered depression for a couple of days. I am not even kidding, I cried. We actually decided to clip him ourselves to even out his coat, so he didn't look so silly. It was really bad... Just know, he looks much better now (this is before we fixed his head!), but I will be missing that long hair for the next few months!

If you want a good LOL

i just want to kiss you in the morning sun

The Art of Friend-Making

Making friends is oddly tough. Environments, life phases, and morals all play huge roles in how we make friends. Annnnd top of all those things - "friend chemistry". I am really grateful for the schooling and community I had in all of my life phases thus far. I have fantastic friends and strong bonds all over the world. I am still hoping to make some strong bonds around Portland, and waiting for all those elements of friend-making to line up perfectly.

A new girl started at our sister company about a week ago. Today we got to hang out a bit and she was really funny! I love people who make me laugh, especially at work. At the end of our conversation we talked about having lunch and this was her closing sentence, "Ya we should go to my house for lunch! We can jump on the trampoline and my mom doesn't work, so she can make us sandwiches."

I am pretty sure we just became best friends!

a bigger yes

Being a devoted, committed, selfless wife and a devoted, committed, selfless follower of Christ are those highest priorities. It has taken  A Lot  of courage  to  grow to  this  point (and there is so much growth ahead) , but I've never been so happy to have a bigger "yes" burning inside for the good stuff. 

This picture was taken last night for Dan's 29th bday! Dan, is our brother in-law, and just an awesome dude. His wife, my sister in-law is literally a God-send. I haven't made very many friends yet, and Drew and I are still searching for "our place" here, but Mandy and Dan have made it so easy to forget that we are still the newbies in town, and that we don't really have many friends around. I'm incredibly grateful for them and their ability to always make us feel loved. We are so lucky they are just down the road from us! 

Our Favorite Time of the Day

LOL

More than Enough

For so long, I felt like I needed more. Then I realized, I have more than enough. These two, are more than enough.

Practice

I am Yours and You are Mine

In Oceans Deep My Faith Will STAND

Night Time Nap

When I was in high school, I would get really tired early evening. So, I would fall asleep around 7 and I would tell my roommate (Andrea) to wake me up at 8 or 9pm, so that I could study for whatever test/quiz that I had the next day. Almost always, she would wake me up, and I would refuse to get out of bed- night time naps are really hard to recover from! Rudy and I took a two hour night nap today, and we are both struggling to bounce back to life at 8:44pm. Sleep is one of my most favorite things, and my bed time gets earlier and earlier... Night naps are beginning to fade into early bed times and I am pretty OK with it. 

By Faith

In Hebrews 11, there is a giant list of one person after another and all the incredible actions they took, by faith. True faith, is the closest thing to a superpower that I have ever seen.

Hebrews 12 really pumped me up:

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Rude Boy

This is Rudy. Pretty much my best, good friend.

Since I like to call him Rude Boy, it is fun to play this and dance around him. Of course he just stares and doesn't understand what is going on...