Gluten Free Donuts

My twin sister and her husband came to visit us recently! I was very happy to have them here! We always have a great time together and their visits normally include lots of yummy food. This time my sister brought her new mini donut maker and we put it to good use :).

To go with the donuts we made scrambled eggs, and the guys each had a biscuit. As you can see we demolished our breakfast and there was not a single donut left! 

Gluten Free Donuts dipped in chocolate sauce and topped with chopped peanuts. 

We adapted THIS recipe from Sia's Cooking Blog.

Gluten Free Donuts

3/4 cup old fashioned oats, processed into flour

2 T sorghum flour

2 T tapioca starch

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

2 T honey

1 T organic sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

pinch of salt

Chocolate Icing

1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 T cocoa powder

2 T coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla 

Preheat mini donut maker. Lightly grease and fill each donut hole with batter (my sister was in charge of making these so I honestly don't know how long it took). Once they are finished, take them out and let them cool for a few moments and then dip the tops in chocolate sauce. Garnish with toppings of choice. 

Homemade Mineral Makeup (plus lotion, lip balm, and toothpaste)

My cousins were in town from North Carolina last weekend. They were able to spend several days hanging out with my sisters in Douglasville. I drove down last Sunday and joined them for the day to make makeup! I told myself I would take lots of pictures so I could blog about the event. Unfortunately, I only took a couple. But I got quite a few pictures that my sister's posted on Facebook! Thank you to all my family members who are better than me at documenting important events :)!

The day happened in several stages. 

Part I: Dinner Prep

I planned an elaborate asian meal for dinner so we all pitched in and got the preliminary chopping, pureeing, sauce making, mixing, and rice making done first. 

Part II: Making Beauty Products

We started by making homemade remineralizing toothpaste. I would go into detail on all of these beauty products but this blog post would get REALLY long. So, I will just include the links to all of these recipes so you can try them yourself if you want to. 

Homemade Remineralizing Toothpaste

Everyone mixing up their toothpaste. I have been using my homemade toothpaste since March and I really love it! My teeth feel so smooth and stay that way all day.

Then we made lotion (not pictured, but that is what my cute pregnant sister is working on on the other side of the counter :)) and colored lip balm!! 

Homemade Lotion (only 3 simple ingredients)

Honey Peppermint Lip Balm (to color we added 1/2 tsp alkanet root powder)

After that we started on makeup!! The best website I have found for information on ingredients and recipes is HERE. Also, I ordered all the micas, pigments, sifter jars, and fillers from Coastal Scents. This is my second time hosting this type of event and it is a great way to save money by ordering everything in bulk. 

Everyone made foundation, blush, and several shades of eyeshadow.

My nephew even helped out!

This is my makeup collection so far. I still haven't found a good way to make homemade mascara. But I will keep looking!

Part III: Dinner

haha I don't know what my sister is doing in this photo. We had summer rolls with peanut sauce, sushi and wasabi, green curry veggies with rice noodles, and beef lettuce wraps with sweet and sour sauce. 

Everything turned out great and the whole day was so much fun. Thank you to everyone that participated and took pictures so I could blog about it!

Garden Update: May 9

Hello! I don't know about you guys but I am so happy that spring is here (finally)! After all the rain last weekend, I finally was able to get outside on Monday and plant the rest of my plants. I also went to a plant sale a few weeks ago and got several things that I still wanted like cucumbers, peppers and some herbs.

Chocolate Mint.

Cilantro from seed. 

Thai basil from seed. These plants got submerged last week when I left them outside overnight and it rained all night. I actually cried when I found them in the morning. But Chris saved them and they perked right back up. 

Lettuce. 

Roma Tomatoes. 

Rosemary that I planted last year that is finally showing some new growth. 

Lettuce.

Tomatillo!

Stevia that overwintered from last year. I was so excited to see it shoot up this year!

Habanero pepper. 

Oregano.

Mexican Sage.

Green onions that overwintered. I dug up three big bulbs and split them up and spread them throughout the garden bed. 

Snap peas!

Under the snap peas I planted 3 cucumber plants that I bought. I think that the peas will die back by the time the cucumbers take off. 

Not enough to make a meal, but delicious nonetheless.  

Here is my newly expanded garden. On the right I dug up those 3 beds, topped it with mulch, and planted my tomatillos and tomatoes. In the beds I have 2 pepper plants, all my herbs, green onions, lettuce, and greens. 

I also finished another semester at school! I was ready to be done and it feels good to have a break from studying all the time :). Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!