Shopping With Two Children

Occasionally I venture out without my hubby, both kids in tow. Bobble has reached that age where he doesn't want to hold still, nor does he want to listen too much. Sometimes, I just don't feel like chasing him through a store. My solution? Wear him!

Actually, wear them both!

I probably did this backwards since the rise over the back is shorter on the Ergo than it is on the Action Baby Carrier, but it worked. I didn't have to chase anyone, I got a good work out in, and I got my shopping done.

If you're curious, yes... these two combined were a bit more than half my body weight.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not reimbursed for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Crock Pot Lamb Roast & Sauce (original recipe)

The other day I saw a whole lamb roast marked down for quick sale (due to date) at the local grocery. We had them cut it and wrap it into 3 separate roasts for us, each weighing a bit over 2.5 lbs. The mark down price brought it out to be roughly $3.25/lb, and that's not bad at all! Of course, we can't eat that much considering we are a family of 4, and only two of us eat any decent-sized serving, so we froze two and made one that night.

We paired the lamb with this delicious veggie pilaf, and it was a great combo! The kids both ate well, and Bobble even begged for more lamb and dressing.

Sadly, I didn't think to take a picture when it was in the crock pot, or even on a full plate of food. I grabbed a dish after the meal was over, set it up for a picture, and then put it away. We were stuffed!

CROCK POT LAMB ROAST

• 1 lamb roast
• 1 onion (chopped)

Sauce (all ingredients are to taste, not measured):

• Juice from lamb*
• Red wine vinegar
• Heavy Cream
• Lemon
• Parsley
• Sage
• rosemary
• thyme
• Salt
• onions from roast

*Leave enough juice to use with pilaf if desired

Instructions:

Spread onions across bottom of crock pot.
Brown lamb roast on stove and then place on top of onions.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

When roast is done, remove from crock pot and set aside.
Take onions from crock pot, some juice, and other ingredients listed for the sauce, and put together in a bowl. None of it was measured, but there was roughly 2T of cream and approximately 2t of lemon. Just add to taste.
Blend with immersion blender.

Slice lamb and serve with sauce.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not reimbursed for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Thursday Tips: Boon Grass Drying Rack

Did you have a Boon Grass Drying Rack for baby items and accessories? We got one when we were expecting Bobble, and it was one of the most used items we were gifted. It was great for all sorts of baby stuff like bottles, nipples, teethers, baby silverware, etc.

...but what about when you don't use those things anymore? Then what?

Luckily, it's a drying rack. It's good for a lot of items that otherwise would clog up your strainer or dishwasher.

We frequently use ours for glass straws, measuring spoons, measuring cups, etc. Just because you don't have 'baby' things anymore doesn't mean you can't keep using this awesome strainer!

 

You can see we even have a spice jar in the back!

On the other hand, if you're looking for something to buy for a baby shower, this is the item to get! Like I said, it was one of our most heavily used items. We use it every day and have since Bobble was born over 3 1/2 years ago.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Baked Veggie and Grains Pilaf

This is a nutritious side dish that will go with any meat. We paired it with a yummy lamb roast, but it would be delicious accompanying anything. You can also add different veggies into the mixture like eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and more.

 

Rice and Veggie Pilaf
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon Butter (or oil)
1 Onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped (or 4 smaller ribs)
1 chopped bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
1 ear of corn (cut kernels off)
4 small to medium sized carrots (chopped)
1 medium zucchini (chopped)
3/4 cup millet
3/4 cup quinoa
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups stock of choice (use veggie stock to make vegetarian)

** Use oil instead of butter and veggie stock to make the dish vegan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Heat butter or oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir vegetables in the hot oil until softened, about 10 minutes.
3. Mix veggie mixture, millet, quinoa, stock, and salt together and put into an 8x8-inch casserole dish; pour in stock. Cover dish with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until grains are tender and have absorbed all the liquid, about 30 minutes.

We made this to accompany a lamb roast, so we did the stock part a bit differently. We had 2c of chicken stock that needed to be used, so we used those 2 cups, 1/2c of the juice from the lamb roast, and then pulled a 1/2c of frozen chicken stock from our freezer.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not reimbursed for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Recipe was an adaptation of this recipe. Post contains affiliate links.

Starfish Cove Baby Boutique

Are you looking for a natural parenting store to shop at? Though brick and mortar stores are sometimes hard to find locally, there are lots to choose from online. Still, it's not always easy to find the best online natural parenting store for you. I've recently discovered a lovely new store, and wanted to introduce you to it as well.

Starfish Cove Baby Boutique!

Starfish Cove Baby Boutique just opened this past summer. The store is a natural parenting store that focuses on babywearing. They have an online store and hope to open a brick and mortar store in Wilmington, NC soon.

They have all sorts of stuff for baby like squooshi reusable food pouches, baltic amber necklaces, Piggy Paint, Jellystone Teethers, a variety of brands of lotions, balms, shampoos, and more! Check out these awesome toys!

They have a modest collection of cloth diapers and accessories, and a bit of stuff for mom, too. (Such as teething necklaces, menstrual cups, lip balm, etc.)

Last, but not least, baby carriers! They have a very nice selection of wraps, a few soft structured carriers, ring slings, Mei Tai carriers (pronounced "may-tie"), and a nice collection of gorgeous woven wraps (though they have stretchy wraps, too)! You can also purchase accessories like sling rings.

All orders of $45 or more ship free in the USA, and they will ship internationally, too! (click here for store policies, including more information on international shipping.)

Starfish Cove has also been generous enough to offer a Sweet Pea Pocket Cloth Diaper to giveaway to one of my readers. Winner gets to pick the colour or print from in stock selection!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Thoughts of Fluff is not responsible for prize fulfillment.

MOMables Ingredient Substitution List

MOMables has numerous recipes for all sorts of dietary preferences and restrictions. My family has been trying out a lot of the gluten free recipes, but we don't have any sort of restrictions in our diet. If we did, it is nice to know MOMables has resources like their Ingredient Substitution List available.

Even if you don't have any food allergies to worry about, this list is super helpful. Surely you've encountered the problem of not having enough (or any) of an ingredient for something you wanted to (or already started to) make.

Did you know that it's not always a cup for cup substitution when using wheat-alternative flours? We didn't... until we tried making something and used a full cup of coconut flour in place of all-purpose flour. WOW was that dry!

MOMables has 12 options for an egg substitute. TWELVE!

I highly recommend checking out this list, and bookmarking or pinning it while you're at it! It's a great thing to have on hand!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was provided with a trial to MOMables in exchange for a review. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables Chicken, Bacon, Slaw salad (GF)

After making a delicious whole roasted chicken to accompany my MOMables Zucchini Au Gratin, I had a good deal of chicken left over. Probably about half of the chicken, actually. I found another recipe that called for leftover chicken and it sounded great, so I went for it.

Chicken, Bacon, Slaw Salad! It looked great, but I knew the kids wouldn't eat a salad. Not that they wouldn't like the ingredients, more like it would turn into confetti. I decided to make it into wraps (gluten-free wraps, at that!) and see how it worked.

We threw the stuff together for the chicken salad, left the bacon in strips, and assembled the wraps. I sliced sections of one of them (already held together with toothpicks) for the kiddos. I removed Squiggle's toothpick before serving it to her, though.

Another MOMables win!

This was not a free recipe, but you can find many good recipes on the MOMables pinterest page.

Bobble and Squiggle ate all the chicken, bacon, and some of the wrap. The slaw, as predicted, was tossed around more than consumed.

Hubby and I both enjoyed our wraps, and we definitely plan to make it again! We added a bit of shredded cheddar to the wraps. Avocado would have been great, too.

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Thursday Tips: Salvaging (Fresh) Fruit

Sometimes we end up with too much of a fruit in our house. This usually happens around the time of really good sales, for us. We all have seen that stage in fruit, such as strawberries, where you're looking at the container and you know it needs to be eaten now or they just are going to get mushy and gross.

Solution?

PUREE IT.

I had strawberries ripened to their tipping point, so to speak, and saved them another whole week. I'm not guaranteeing you that your fruit will last forever if you puree it, but if you wash up what isn't going to get consumed that day (assuming it is the last day it seems like it would be good), blend it up, and place it in the refrigerator in a sealed container, you'll get a few more days out of it.

Pureed fruit is not only awesome for adding into baked goods (like donuts, breads, cakes, muffins, etc.), but you can add it into smoothies, stir into yogurt, or use as a topping. My favourite is spreading the pureed strawberries on top of pancakes. Tastier than jam/jelly/preserves!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

MOMables Pot Roast (GF)

I love my crock pot. A lot. It's no secret that it is one of my favourite kitchen things EVER. I've made roasts in it and they've been good, but this MOMables roast was something else. My goodness, was it delicious.

I don't do gravy often, and most "beef" gravy I tend to dislike. The ingredients for this roast were simple enough, but also had a few things that made me feel like this might be better than roasts with gravy I've had in the past.

I was right.

Pot Roast without gravy and some of the non-pureed veggies on the side

 

Pot Roast with Gravy (and some of the non-pureed veggies on the side)

Hubby and I worked together on this one. Basically I chopped a few things and read out what we were supposed to do since we were juggling the children between us while prepping the meal. Squiggle wanted to be held a lot and my carrier was in the car. Since I had help, though, I didn't mind.

The meal turned out FABULOUS. Both children enjoyed the food, and so did hubby! (Obviously, I liked it too!) I planned on using the leftovers for another MOMables meal, but we enjoyed this so much we just wanted to eat it this way.

We didn't puree all the veggies (as you can see from the pictures), and we served it with couscous. If you're curious, the gravy didn't taste super tomato-y, though it does look it. This is actually really awesome, because I hate tomatoes. (Yes, I know.. picky picky!)

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Turkey Breast

The following is a guest post and does not reflect any opinions of Thoughts of Fluff. The reviewer (Tarah) was not compensated for their post. The following was not a free recipe and will not be shared in the post.

I might just be the poster child for poultry, but one thing I haven’t really experimented much with in the kitchen is turkey. Sure I have made turkey meatballs, but otherwise turkey has always seemed limited to being roasted for a nice big holiday meal. While I’m not opposed to that, because yum, it is nice to break the stigma and introduce turkey as a non holiday meal every once in a while.

One of the biggest problems in cooking turkey is that it is easily cooked to a way too dry state, but the MOMables Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Turkey Breast recipe has got that issue covered nicely.

Probably the best part about this recipe is how simple the ingredients are, so it is highly likely that you’ll have most of the ingredients already on hand. My turkey was moderately frozen still when I went to make dinner, not bad but not conducive to pounding it out flat, so instead I opened it from the top and stuffed it. That, and the fact that I used skinless turkey are the only changes I made to the recipe.

Now I am not really the biggest fan of cooked spinach, but this I can eat happily. I paired the turkey with some linguine, which can still be gluten free if you opt for it, and used the juices as a ‘sauce’. The end result was the best I can hope for: I enjoyed eating it, and it inspired me to be flexible with it for future meals.

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Don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables!

MOMables GF Zucchini Au Gratin

I had been eying this MOMables recipe for a while, and finally had the opportunity to make it. I followed the suggestion of serving with a whole roasted crockpot chicken, and made a whole chicken in my crockpot to go with it. One of the quickest and easiest meals imaginable!

I made my mixture:

Chopped my zucchini:

Baked while I made my topping mixture:

.... and this is where it stopped being super quick and easy. It WOULD have been had I had almond meal like I thought I did. I apparently did not have any, so I grabbed my mortar and pestle, then ground up almonds until it was really fine. Otherwise, it would have been super quick and easy!

Sprinkled that on top and baked again.

VOILA!

Seriously easy, and very yummy! The kids both loved it. The only complaint hubby had was I missed a few pieces of almond and so he got some tiny pieces of almond he had to chew. ( wah. )

Want the recipe for yourself? Mastermind Laura Fuentes (the mom behind MOMables) also had this recipe for free on her other page: Super Glue Mom. I have provided both recipes for here so you don't have to dig for the non-gf recipe if you would prefer to have that.

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Black Bean Salad Recipe

I have a bunch of canned beans, and I am forever looking for new recipes to use them up. In an attempt at a meatless dish, I decided to try to make a variation of a black bean salad I found online.

I had to change it up due to some ingredients I had on hand not being good (like corn being black at the cob when I cut it... something I had never seen and it looked fine from the outside), but it turned out great for our family. We ate this over rice (warm) and we ate this with tortilla chips (cold). Everyone loved it, it was easy to make, and healthy. Enjoy!

Black Bean Salad
Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 ear fresh cooked corn, kernels cut off the cob
• 1 red bell peppers, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots, from one medium shallot
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 9 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon lime zest (be sure to zest limes before juicing them)
• 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
• 2 Hass avocados, chopped

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients except for avocados in a large bowl and mix well.
Cover and chill for a few hours or overnight.
Right before serving, add avocados and mix gently, being careful not to mash avocados.
Garnish with a more chopped cilantro if desired.
Serve at room temperature.

adapted from: My Balanced Plate

Mixed (sans avocado) and ready to chill!

Chopping Avocado to add into our bowls

Squiggle's bowl

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

MOMables GF Avocado Stuffed Burgers

I'm a sucker for a good burger, and the MOMables recipe for avocado stuffed burgers looked awesome. I love salsa burgers, but I do hate tomatoes, so I wasn't sure how these would be since they had sundried tomato in them.

First things first: if you made these, odds are they will be a brighter green. We only had our black sea salt (out of pink and gray), so I took a picture of the sea salt to show you why the avocado mixture was going to look less-fresh. It was nice and green before the salt was mixed in.

black sea salt

Hubby didn't start the grill first like the recipe suggested, but rather after he made the mixture for inside the burgers. In retrospect, he wished he waited until he had EVERYTHING ready to assemble (meaning patties formed and ready to be made), as the grill died out and we had to finish the burgers in the oven. I'm thinking the recipe was written with a gas grill in mind (though it didn't mention it).

avocado mixture with the black sea salt mixed in

Hubby used rolled the meat out into a "log" and cut even slices, then made uniform sized patties by squishing them under a cereal bowl in a larger bowl.

 

The burgers looked and smelled amazing, but we really didn't care for the avocado mixture. The idea is great, and our family would have loved it without the sundried tomatoes. Sundried tomatoes just have that unique taste, and they aren't for everyone. Sadly, they are not for our family.

We fully intend on making these again (sans sundried tomatoes).

Surprisingly, one person devoured the sundried tomato mixture... Bobble. That kid loves interesting flavours, and I guess it shouldn't really shock me he loves sundried tomato!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables Homemade Chicken Nuggets

My children are huge fans of meat in finger food form. Fish sticks, sausage links, chicken strips, chicken nuggets... yeah. All of the above. We dislike the processed foods aspect, and we buy the organic nuggets when we do buy them. Still those are expensive. We make chicken strips from scratch, but we had never made nuggets from scratch.

MOMables changed that with their chicken nugget recipe. The recipe can be gluten free if you use GF breadcrumbs, too. We didn't have ground chicken, but we did have chicken breast that needed to be used so we used our blender and ground it ourselves.

My husband was the chef for nuggets, so I had the opportunity to take more pictures of the process since I didn't have to worry about potentially burning food (though he did fry some of the nuggets a bit long).

You can bake the nuggets or fry them. We opted to fry them, then made popcorn with oil later that night.

Sadly, hubby only made enough for the kids (...I may have stolen a couple nibbles), and froze the rest of them. He said that it was super easy to do and much cheaper than buying them in the store, so we will do this from now on.

The thing that took the longest was cleaning our immersion blender after using it on the chicken breasts. We don't have a grinder, a food processor or even a standard blender. That aside it was easy-peasy.

No action shots of the kids eating them, as they were devoured way too quickly. I actually had to keep trying to get a shot of the inside of the nugget because Bobble kept swiping them as I was focusing the camera! They also tasted soooooo much better than the organic nuggets we had been buying.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial free of charge in exchange for a review. This did not alter my opinion of the product. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables (GF) Ham & Bean Soup

My husband told me he was craving ham and bean soup earlier this week, and I just so happened to get a Ham & Bean soup in my MOMables email recently. I had a slice of ham (ham steak) from a local farmer in the freezer so I picked a nice, chilly day and busted out the crock pot!

The prep work for the soup was very minimal, resulting in chopping a couple veggies, the meat, and getting some beans ready. We also had a package of lima beans from the farmer's market that we added in to use up. The big challenge with this recipe was waiting while it cooked. It smelled very good!

The recipe suggested an immersion blender if you didn't want the soup chunky. I am totally okay with chunky. In fact, I think I would prefer that. My children, however, would not. The soup would be splattered everywhere and the chunks tossed about, most likely. Okay, maybe not... but it would still be easier for them to have it a bit thicker.

Ready to start cooking! (with giant lima beans)

We mixed it up with the immersion blender, but it didn't look as pretty anymore.

There were lots of left overs, too! Hubby and I both ate 2 bowls. Squiggle just had a tiny bit (maybe a tablespoon) because she had other food, and Bobble ate about 1/4c of soup (he also had other food). I never trust the kids to eat soup too well. Too much splashing temptation!

We still filled our 2 quart glass storage dish with the leftovers. Yay for leftovers... I know what's for lunch tomorrow!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables (GF) Chicken with Grape Sauce

In the interest of trying something new, I decided to test out the Chicken with Grape Sauce recipe I got as a meal option in my grain-free MOMables menu. Before I go any further, I must tell you that I tried this out for my family, not for me. I have some really weird food quirks, and one of them is that it cannot be a sweet food unless it's a dessert (or fresh fruit by itself). I went into this one assuming I wouldn't like it.

About midday, I decided I didn't feel like cooking anymore. I asked my husband if he would mind cooking instead, and he said he would. I helped him with some prep work (washing/slicing grapes) and reading the recipe to him while he cooked. That totally counts as helping, right?

This is not a free menu option, so the full recipe will not be shared.

Prep work was really simple, though. Very, VERY simple.

We paired it with some mei fun (rice noodles) and green beans. Good choices. This would also have been good over rice.

Bobble's plate with the chicken cut up

Hubby was surprised at how easy it was to make. He also commented that he really liked the dish a lot, and would love to have it again. Knowing my quirk, he asked what I thought. I told him that it was not something I would ever request, but I would have no problem eating it again if he was craving it. That says a lot, actually... I normally won't even eat something that has a hint of sweetness.

Personally, I'd like to try it with cranberries in lieu of grapes. Hubby says that might be too tart, but I thought this was too sweet for my taste (of course, I don't like sweet meals).

The kids loved it and ate very well. Bobble was too all over the place to get any good pictures, but I got a couple of Squiggle that weren't blurry. (Seriously, these kids are always moving!)

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Thursday Tips: Making Buttermilk

Sometimes I really want to make a recipe and simply don't have an essential ingredient. Often times you can find a substitution for an ingredient, or even make it yourself.

Buttermilk is one of those items.

Buttermilk is very easy to make if you have milk and lemons on hand. To make buttermilk this way, simply take and mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes and voila! Buttermilk!

Don't have lemons? Mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar instead. Let sit. Buttermilk!

If you don't usually have lemons on-hand (we do), and you don't happen to be a fan of keeping white vinegar in the house, you might want to consider a shelf stable buttermilk powder. We purchased this one:

and have used it a lot, too. You simply mix 4 tablespoons of powder with 1 cup of water to get a cup of buttermilk using the powder.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Three Avocados: Coffee for you, water for them

I've never been a huge coffee drinker. Not just because caffeine doesn't affect me, but mostly due to embarrassment that I enjoyed it with sugar and cream and not black. I love the taste of coffee, but I like it sweetened. Why does this matter? Honestly, I have no clue... but this isn't about me. It's about them.

Three Avocados is a non-profit company that started from a mission trip to Uganda in 2010. While there, an act of an old widow inspired them to choose their name. Their goal is to provide clean water in Uganda, and education in Nicaragua.

100% of the profits go to these causes. That can range from between $0.50 a bag and $3.00 a bag depending on where the coffee is purchased, but purchasing directly through their website will give the most per bag since it cuts out the middle-man.

I actually contacted Three Avocados asking if I could help them promote their company in any way. When I found out about them, I fell in love with the idea and wanted to help. Though not requested, Three Avocados offered me the chance to sample their coffee, as well. I received their Uganda Bugisu coffee, described as having a "clean, bold taste with hints of bittersweet chocolate". Their other coffee, the Nicaraguan, is described as "sweet, with low acidity and fruity tones" and "milder"  than the Uganda Bugisu.

I'm not going to pretend to be a coffee guru. I'm not. I know very little in the differences between coffee tastes. I do know that I tried a kona blend once and hated it because it was a fruity flavoured sweet. My favourite (general) coffees are Italian roast, French Roast and a local roasting company's Reserve Blend (which claims to be dark with a chocolate hint, though unflavoured). If that helps you get an idea of my taste at all, I enjoyed the Uganda Bugisu, though it wasn't as dark rich bold as I expected it to be, but the flavour was delicious. (See? Totally not a coffee connoisseur. Maybe, someday?)

By the way, it is seemingly impossible it is to photograph ordinary coffee (nothing fancy), and there is no way to share with you the delightful aroma in the air when I brew a cup. You'll just have to take my word for it....

...or, if you love coffee, why not give them a try? Not only will your purchase provide the coffee you desire, but it will help better the life of another. The purchase of 4 bags can give someone clean water for life.

Have a family member that loves coffee? Three Avocados coffee is a great gift, and it gives twice!

Want to see what Three Avocados has accomplished? Check out all the good they've done HERE.

Want to learn more? Check out their shop and purchase coffee, mugs, shirts, and more!

They also have coffee subscriptions where you can save $1 per bag when you sign up for a monthly autoship (and shipping is included).

Not a coffee drinker? No problem! You can donate to their cause, or help get the word out about them. Together, we can all make a difference!

While Three Avocados does offer an affiliate program, I am choosing not to participate because that would take away from the money going to help others. Instead, any links for Three Avocados that you see in this post and on the blog are straight links to the page and will give the most to their cause.

You can follow Three Avocados on FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. Three Avocados did provide a sample of coffee, though this did not change my opinion in any way.

MOMables Mac & Cheese

I reviewed a MOMables recipe for mac&cheese back in April, but didn't share the recipe since it wasn't a free recipe. I decided to review the free recipe, too, since it is the perfect side to delicious homemade beer battered fish. That, and everyone loved the last time I made it.

It was really easy to make the sauce, and making the pasta is pretty self explanatory. The only challenging part was attempting to make the sauce while Squiggle was clinging to my legs and trying to pull up to touch the hot pan and Bobble kept grabbing for the stool she was trying to climb on (risking making her fall) so HE could climb up and "help".

...due to the above distractions, I was going to eyeball a few measurements. I'm really good at eyeballing measurements. I've done it for (literally) decades, now. Sadly, I have not attempted to do it while holding back two wiggling, squirmy, screeching, wrestling kids. Long story short, I think I accidentally tripled the amount of mustard because I got pulled on right as I was adding that (too much of a squeeze!)... oops!

Bright side: the kids and I love mustard.

In fact, everyone devoured the mac & cheese still... except hubby. Hubby took a bite and got confused, then said it tasted like mustard. I explained and he got all confused stating you should never put mustard in mac & cheese.

...I just pointed out that I did when I made it last time and he loved it. He just looked at me skeptically (because he did love it last time!), and then kept eating.

Moral of the story? Eyeballing ingredients is dangerous with two little ones literally at your feet. Do so at your own risk.

Oh! We also added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of blue cheese crumbles, and a gouda stick. (yes, stick... like a string cheese stick only it is just gouda). Had the mustard not been added in the amount it was (thanks, kids) this would have been FABULOUS! As it was, it was just really good.

The recipe!

Easy Mac and Cheese

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial free of charge in exchange for a review. This did not alter my opinion of the product. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.