Tree of Life Mothering

Our family is expanding! No, not in the way that increases my waistline!!! I am getting a son-in-law in December! Yep, my daughter’s boyfriend finally popped the question on a Sunday morning in October right before we attended church. He asked her in a super creative way which reflected how they met and something they both love. They are both software engineering majors. She already graduated and he has a year left. That’s how they met, in a class for their major. So his proposal involved writing out the question in programming code on our patio with sidewalk chalk. He used an infinite loop, something that is used in code, to allude to marrying for time and eternity in the temple. Get it, infinite loop = eternity? So clever!

I am feeling bittersweet about the whole thing. I’ve soooo enjoyed having my daughter home since she graduated from college in the summer. But just as the season shifted from summer to fall, a new season arrived for our family. Though some things were like they used to be when she lived with us before leaving for college, some things were different. I’ve loved having her back again for girl talk about hair, Dressing Your Truth and Carol Tuttle Energy Types, jewelry, clothes, friends and food. I’ve loved hearing her play the piano every day like the old times.

It’s been great having her to run errands and chauffeur kids. Then there have been times when I turn around and she’s leaving to be reunited with her fiance. Like every weekend. Then I’m reminded that things are different now. Oh yeah. Her heart has been captured by someone else, and we now are second fiddle to him.  I did the same thing to my family 26 years ago. Things will never be the same.

To quote the immortal Anne of Green Gables:

“Oh why do people have to grow up and get married?”

I know it’s normal and natural and even desirable for this to happen. Such is the way of seasons, growth, and happy family life. It’s still hard. I feel the same way that Gill and Kelly Bates feel about their daughter getting married in this video. I am going to have to get a case of tissues! This is just the beginning of my kids’ all growing up and leaving home for good. At least this makes the reality of having grandbabies closer! I’ve missed having babies in the home.

Happy All Hallow’s Eve everybody! It was 500 years ago today that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. So happy Martin Luther Day! We learned about Martin Luther as a Quest LEMI Scholar Project class a few months ago. What a great, bold man! As a Latter-day Saint Christian, I honor his integrity and courage as a Reformer. He helped pave the way for the Bible to be widely read and interpreted by the common man. This in turn led to the latter-day restoration of Christ’s church through the prophet Joseph Smith. Joseph read the Bible in English as a simple farm boy with little formal education. His reading of the Bible, specifically James 1:5,  prompted him to ask in prayer which church to join, and this allowed him to see God the Father and His Son. I know and testify this to be true! We had the sister missionaries over for dinner a few months ago. They quoted from Joseph Smith History 1:5-20, retelling that event. I felt the Holy Spirit once again witness to me that this sacred event really did happen. You can read Joseph Smith’s testimony here.

Here are some great articles about Luther and other reformers from lds.org:

• Martin Luther: Defender of Justice and Seeker of Truth from October 1984 
• Lutheranism from the October 1971 Ensign
• Preparing for the Restoration in the June 1999 Ensign
• Images of an Era Preparing for the Restoration in the June 1999 Ensign

BYUTV has a great series about Martin Luther and other reformers, along with the coming forth of the King James Version of the Bible here. We will watch some of this tonight!

I also plan on watching with my kids this Torchlighters version of Martin Luther’s story, animated and aimed at children. It’s free to stream with Amazon Prime!

Lastly, here’s a great speech by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about the power of religion, including Martin Luther’s role in helping religious freedom flourish.  This is great to listen to while you do chores.

Happy All Hallow’s Eve and may we remember all saints tomorrow on All Saints’ Day!

Recently I experienced the joyful luxury of a retreat for moms. I’ve had the privilege of attending a bunch of these, so I consider myself a connoisseur of them. This recent one was the cheapest one where I got the most bang for my buck. It was super low cost, like just the cost of some food! Here is how to have your own retreat for moms. As we, my homeschool  moms’ liber school group, were doing it to improve our homeschooling capacity I am referring to a moms’ retreat for homeschool moms. You could tailor it for more general purposes if you like. Here’s how to do one for homeschooling moms:

1. Find a cheap place. Use airbnb.com. We did this at first and that was only going to cost us $25 a mom if 16 of us went. But then the rental vacation place owners changed the price on us. So we said no and started looking around for a different place. We ended up with the best low cost option of all! We used a home of one of the moms, who happens to have the most children! She evacuated her whole family of 8 kids and one husband for the weekend to visit her mother-in-law, so that meant we had four bedrooms to use plus other floor space. So we didn’t have to pay anything for lodging! Sweet! If you want to save the mom the hassle of washing sheets and pillowcases when you sleep on her kids’ beds then have everyone bring their own sleeping bags and pillows.

2. Assign one of the moms to plan the menu. Our menu planner then used signupgenius.com and asked us all to go there to sign up for food items. We had to bring food for Friday lunch and dinner, and then Saturday’s all three meals.

3. Plan the activities. Alternate between down time to just chat, swim, walk, or exercise, and structured, focused time where you have presenters.

4. Use your own moms as presenters/speakers and musicians! This is where moms get to bring their own genius. I got to present twice, once on my  health journey, and once on the power of mother mentoring. We had another mom talk about health, and then one about music and another about her journey of homeschooling. I also volunteered to sing a song! I am getting brave in my old age!

5. Discuss a book that you have read together. We discussed the book pictured below by podcaster Sarah Mackenzie.

6. Watch a guest speaker via YouTube. Our fearless leader Olivia picked Dr. Christopher Perrin who wrote the foreword to the above book and is featured below. Watch it and  you will love it! It’s basically the message of TJED in different language.

7. Discuss the guest speaker’s lecture. We now have the theme of “school as schole” for our school year, and our parent meetings are now being called “Schole Ole”, with a nod to Olivia’s Mexican heritage.

8. Bring plenty of chocolate and fun food like cheesecake and berries. We also had non-alcoholic  mojitos courtesy of Heidi who has a backyard lime tree.  I brought some cinnamon swirl bread, sugar-free, gluten and grain free, from the new THM cookbook, and my THM-inspired skinny chocolate.

9. Have one of the moms play piano music so you feel like you are in a Jane Austen movie, enjoy your time bonding, and plan for another one next semester! I’m a big believer in moms getting together frequently to recharge our batteries. It’s what makes the mom life easier.

10. Send out an email asking for feedback to make the next one even better!

Didn’t you just looooove the 2017 Moms’ Conference? I  sure did! I squeezed in watching as many sessions as I could, while I did meal prep on those days. I think I only got through one entire session, between homeschooling, meal prep, tech problems, and driving kids places.  Then, I went on a road trip on Thursday, the last day of the conference, to get to a wedding in the new temple in Provo, UT on Friday. So I didn’t watch on that day to conserve my cell phone data.

The road trip was so amazing because I got a second chance to catch a photo of a blue bird in Utah. It was such a wonderful surprise! Remember my trip back here? On that trip, we saw a blue bird at a rest stop in southern Utah but I was a split second slow in whipping out my phone to catch a photo so all I got was the ugly sidewalk. But…on this last trip last week at the same rest stop, we saw the same blue bird and I got not one, but lots of pictures this time! I’m not sure what kind of a bird it is. It looks close to a blue jay, but not quite, because it doesn’t have black and white stripes. Growing up in Utah, I always heard that blue jays don’t live there, only in the eastern U.S. Anyway, it was some kind of blue bird, as it was blue, and a bird, if not a true “bluebird” or “blue jay.”

Whatever blue bird it was, it was a precious sight to me, and there were not one, but three of four of them! It was a sweet reminder to me that God gives me second chances to experience beauty and joy!

Just like I got a second chance to see that rare blue bird, you can have a second chance to see the presenters of the 2017 Moms Conference! Just go here to order the recordings.  You can view the encore day of presentations here. Here are the details:

• $67 Basic & $97 Premium ends midnight Tuesday 24th end of ENCORE DAY.

This basic price goes up after Tuesday the 24th, to the following:

Last chance pricing will be:

• $97 Basic & $127 Premium ends midnight Thursday 26th.

Here’s a bit about some of the bonuses you get on top of the already great content, if you buy the Premium Package, from the 2017 Moms’ Conference:

• Amy McCready’s No-Rescue Policy for Consequences – Teaching Personal Responsibility: a 1-hour webinar by Amy McCready

• Dr. Kristen Jenson’s guide to tell if your child is ready for a smart phone-by Dr. Kristen Jenson

• Ramona Zabriskie’s Talk About Intimacy Course This is an entire course on helping you deepen your connection to your husband emotionally, physically, and mentally.  It includes a 42-page ebook: 10 Secrets to Feeling Closer to Your Husband, along with 3 audio lessons, application exercises, and affordable weekly date nights (some are even free).
• Jenny Layton’s 5D Mind Dump is perfect for you if you are feeling overwhelmed.   The 5D Mind Dump will take you step by step through how to take action on what is most important to you.
• Intentional Mom: Keep Your House Clean In Under 30 Minutes A Daywith the  help of this guide you will get organized so that you can have a clean home in 30 minutes or less a day.
• Erin Odom’s What’s For Dinner Challenge? If you struggle to get dinner on the table, this printable pack will save your bacon!  Everything you need to get organize dand meal plan.

Whether you want to watch the classes again for a pick-me-up, show some favorites to your husband, or catch the ones you missed, having lifetime access to these classes is totally worth the price of the recording package. Then when you add in all the awesome extra materials included with the Premium price, you’ve got yourself a really amazing deal! So go here to order before midnight Tuesday the 24th, to save $30, or Thursday the 26th, for the last time!

Last Sunday night for Family Home Evening, we played General Conference Jeopardy! I told everyone to study for it during the week to get ready! The winner would get a candy bar of their choice!

You can play it too! Just go here to get the PowerPoint version. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the PDF file if you want to do it the low-tech way. Make sure everyone has a set of scriptures handy as some of the answers, er questions, involve a scripture chase.

Be sure to play the intro to get everyone in the mood!

It was nice to use questions/answers (answers/questions) already written out! That meant I could play along too and have one of my kids (the one least interested in playing) be the host. Of course I did have to exercise self-control and not peek ahead of time at the questions/answers. In the past I have written the questions and answers, but then I don’t get to play! Which is sad since I am the biggest fan of the game in the house!

(Sorry this photo is so washed out but it shows how much fun my daughter had playing the game! she is competitive just like her mother)

A good time was had by all! We even had my son from BYU-I join us through Google Hangouts. I said it was open book for using your notes, but I didn’t allow looking at the original talks published in Gospel Library. If anybody got the question right without looking at his or her notes, that meant double points! My little 9 year old guy asked to study about 30 min. before the game. He ended up getting the question about Bobbie the Wonder Dog right because of this last-minute study.

This is the beginning of a great family tradition! And we don’t have to wait until April to play again, we can use the older versions Montserrat has on cranialhiccups.com or make up our own question/answers. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Join us for The Mom Conference —
A Free Online Conference Designed To Help You Create More Peace In Your Home
Don’t just survive motherhood – thrive!

What is the Mom Conference?
The Mom Conference is three full days of personal online interviews with TWENTY of your favorite speakers, authors, and bloggers.
Register here to attend for FREE October 17, 18, and 19th.
Once you’re registered, each day of the conference, we’ll send you an email with the link to that day’s presentations. There will be 6-7 presentations for each day. Interviews are free to watch for 24 hours.
Remember the interviews are only free for 24 hours. You can purchase a premium or basic package with downloadable interviews and watch and re-watch on your own schedule plus other bonuses.
The Mom Conference will give you inspiration alongside powerful, concrete ideas to help you create a more peaceful home.

Register by going here!

Don’t just survive motherhood – thrive!

The Mom Conference Speakers

DR. LAURA MARKHAM
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, BEST SELLING AUTHOR
HOW TO MINIMIZE SIBLING RIVALRY

JENNA RAMMELL
ENTREPRENEUR, INSTAGRAMMER, MAMA OF 3
FIND YOUR PASSION

TARA CARSON
FOUNDER OF THE DATING DIVAS, INFERTILITY WARRIOR, DATING EXPERT
HOW TO KEEP THE SPARK ALIVE IN MARRIAGE

KELLY E. JENSEN
MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, ENTREPRENEUR, MOM OF 5
FINDING JOY IN MOTHERHOOD

JESSICA GEE
WORLD TRAVELER (34 COUNTRIES IN 21 MONTHS AND STILL COUNTING!), FOUNDER OF THE BUCKET LIST FAMILY
TRAVELING HACKS WITH A FAMILY

HEATHER AVIS
AUTHOR, SPEAKER, FEATURED ON THE TODAY SHOW
WHEN LIFE THROWS YOU A CURVEBALL, DEALING WITH THINGS THAT DON’T TURN OUT AS EXPECTED

SADIE JANE SABIN
MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, MOM OF 3, AUTHOR OF POPULAR BLOG “SIMPLY SADIE JANE”
AN UNTRADITIONAL APPROACH TO WEIGHT LOSS, STRENGTHENING FROM THE INSIDE

RUTH SOUKUP
NYT BEST-SELLING AUTHOR AND FOUNDER OF LIVINGWELLSPENDINGLESS.COM
HOW TO SAVE MONEY AND FILL YOUR LIFE WITH WHAT MATTERS

ERIN ODOM
AUTHOR OF “MORE THAN JUST MAKING IT” AND FOUNDER OF THE HUMBLED HOMEMAKER
THE MAGIC OF MEAL PLANNING

HEATHER TAYLOR
CHIEF ENCOURAGEMENT OFFICER OF MIGHTY MOMS, CERTIFIED SLEEP COACH
HOW TO AVOID THE BABY SLEEP TRAINING MISTAKES MOST PARENTS MAKE

VANESSA QUIGLEY
CHATBOOKS CO-FOUNDER, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, SPEAKER, MOM OF 7
SIMPLE MOM HACKS

RAMONA ZABRISKIE
MULTI AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGE EDUCATOR AND SPEAKER, FOUNDER – WIFE FOR LIFE UNIVERSITY
WHICH ONE WINS – MOTHERHOOD OR MARRIAGE?

CHAD HYENGA + LYNNE JACKSON
LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPIST, PEDIATRIC OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST, AND DIRECTORS AT CONNECTED FAMILIES
GAINING COOPERATION IN THE HOME, PROBLEM SOLVING WITH A STRUGGLING CHILD

JENNY LAYTON
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER, AUTHOR, SPEAKER, COACH
OVERWHELMED? CAN’T FIT IT ALL IN? NEW STRATEGIES TO GET STUFF DONE!

AMANDA MORGAN
FOUNDER OF NOT JUST CUTE – WHOLE CHILD DEVELOPMENT, SPEAKER
THE POWER OF PLAY

KRISTEN A. JENSON
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR “GOOD PICTURES BAD PICTURES”, FOUNDER OF PROTECT YOUNG MINDS
HOW TO KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE ONLINE

ABIGAIL WALD
FOUNDER OF REAL-TIME PARENTING, CERTIFIED HAND IN HAND PARENTING INSTRUCTOR
5 ACTIONABLE TOOLS THAT WILL DRAMATICALLY BETTER YOUR EXPERIENCE OF PARENTING

DAMARA SIMMONS
AMAZON BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, “SELF-MOTIVATED KIDS”, CERTIFIED FAMILY LIFE EDUCATOR, FOUNDER OF PARENTING BRILLIANTLY
HOW TO GET KIDS TO LISTEN

KIRSTEN TYRELL
ENTREPRENEUR, FOUNDER OF THE POPULAR PODCAST “MARVELOUS MOMS CLUB”
GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE TO CREATE A LIFE YOU LOVE

DAVID D. BURNS, MD
AUTHOR OF “FEELING GOOD”
(OVER 5 MILLION COPIES SOLD)
SUCCESSFUL TOOLS FOR COMBATING DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY

AMY MCCREADY
TODAY SHOW CONTRIBUTOR AND FOUNDER OF POSITIVE PARENTING SOLUTIONS
ENCORE PRESENTATION: RAISING MOTIVATED AND GRATEFUL CHILDREN DURING THE ME, ME, ME EPIDEMIC

Did you all get your copy of the new Trim Healthy Mama cookbook last month? I was so excited all through last spring and summer, waiting for Sept. 12 when it would be shipped. It’s called Trim Healthy Mama Trim Healthy Table. This was one of the main things that made me look forward to summer ending! That plus our new family liber school starting (a homeschool co-op group on steroids). Our school started August 4, but I had to wait until almost the middle of September for this book. Sept. 12 is a wonderful day! It was my first due date ever as a mom, 24 years ago! My firstborn was overdue by four days, but this book/baby was released right on time! It was the best-selling nonfiction trade paperback book for at least one week last month! It’s also been the #1 Amazon weight loss book! Congrats to Serene and Pearl!

I have been having so much fun just poring over these recipes and photos! Talk about eye candy! My 11 year old daughter likes to look at them too. I will do a full review and giveaway sometime this fall, but for now, I am just doing a preview of the book. I already made the Cinnamon Bun Shake, the Gingerbread Shake (it’s an FP even), the Lemon Lime Burst, and the Cheeseburger Soup. I adapted the Cinnamon Bun shake to be FP here. It’s originally S in the book.  I am planning on making the Pizza Casserole, the Cornbread, and the Chicken Fajita Soup over the coming week. I went and bought some parchment paper so I can make the Hangry Pockets from the book, shown in the video below.

Below is a video featuring the sisters talking about the new book for a St. Louis TV news station. As you watch it, write down the ingredients for the Save Your Waistline Crockpot Lasagna and you will have another one of the recipes from the new book.

Here is a peek at what you will see in this new cookbook:

• even more family friendly casseroles and one skillet meals
• even more soup recipes to stretch meat and make beans and lentils taste so yummy
• family dinner theme night recipes for grain-free nachos, salad bar, pizza, scones and jam, sushi rolls, and burritos
• more breakfast recipes to jazz up the old standbys of oatmeal, eggs, and pancakes
• more single serve baked goods
• a chapter of “Hangry Meals for One”
• a variation of the wonder wrap recipe from the first book
• even more salad recipes, both for sides and for main dishes
• more tasty side dish recipes to take veggies from plain to pizzazz
• a grain-free white “bread” recipe called “Wonderful White Blender Bread” (WWBB), with several variations. This is a FP bread that is better than the Swiss bread recipe from the first book because it really looks like white bread.
• six variations on the Trimtastic cake from the previous cookbook, including a holiday pumpkin roll
• more shakes and smoothies with the special slimming ingredient in them
• more cookies, brownies, cupcakes and muffins, including a knock-off Hostess Chocolate Cupcake
• more candies, like the Good Girl Moonshine Gummies

In the previous book Serene was on an okra kick, in this book, she seems to be on a Trimmy Bisque kick and a baobab powder kick. Just like in the first cookbook we get to read comments from Serene and Pearl about the recipes. If it says “Serene chats” before a recipe then you know it’s a recipe she created. If it says “Pearl chats” then you know it’s from Pearl. They have the usual banter going between the two, since Pearl is a Drive-Thru Sue and Serene is a Purist. It’s fun to read! I have to say, the THM Cookbooks are the best cookbooks for laughs ever!

A feature that’s new in this book is a testimonial to the THM plan from a real everyday person at the beginning of every chapter. I love seeing the before and after pictures of all these people who have lost weight and had tons of non scale victories (NSV). Men, sisters, married couples, a mom with teen triplets, moms who have had 8 or 10 kids, and formerly morbidly obese people are featured. A few have lost over 100 lbs on this plan! They are off their medications for thyroid help and high blood pressure. One woman says one of her biggest NSVs is that she can now play the flute, which she couldn’t do when she was fat! These stories are so inspirational!

So what are you waiting for? Go get the book on Amazon today! For less than $22 you will have new inspiration and motivation to plan meals for your family, shop, and be in the kitchen cooking food from scratch. We all need help for that neverending duty right?! With all of this you will be able to lower your blood sugar level, nourish all your bodies, and make your tastebuds happy! On top of all that you can lose weight too or just maintain with hormones balanced like I have been after losing 70 lbs on a different plan.

This is what homeschooling looked like for a day last week! Yes, homeschooling can be relaxing! I snuggled into my big son’s hammock and read aloud to the littles while they played outside.

It’s another school year! I feel like we’ve found a great rhythm for our family with our homeschooling, chores, seminary, carpooling, football practices and games for two teen boys, on top of our weekly trip to our family liberal arts school in Tucson. The kids are doing most of the laundry, meal prep, and dishes too. We’ve had big sister move back in for a time after graduating from college. It’s been interesting fitting her back into the mix. I wish I could assign her all the driving but she does have her own adult life. She has helped quite a bit with driving and fixing dinner with one of her younger buddies so that has been super wonderful.

If you want some encouragement and some new ideas for how to make this year more fun, more meaningful, and less tied to a curriculum, I encourage you to read aloud more and provide space and time for your kids to read silently to themselves. Doing this allows for more relaxed days and a more relaxed mom! I’ve never been one to be a slave to a curriculum. It’s always seemed too stressful to me. In my 19+ years of homeschooling, the only curriculum I’ve stuck with is Mathusee, day in, day out, and year in, year out. My language arts/science/history curriculum, until my kids do LEMI Scholar Projects, is reading aloud to them and getting them to read on their own.

A new idea I’m learning from Sarah Mackenzie, one of my favorite podcasters, is to show your kids how to track what they are reading with the insights they get by creating Reading Journals. These are similar to commonplace books. Here’s a great way to do that below, from Sarah, who also blogs and homeschools. I am copying and pasting her email message to share with you so you can get access to her master class where she shows you how to do Reading Journals. The book darts she mentions sound like great stocking stuffers for Christmas! I don’t know if I can wait until then to get them!

I often get asked how my kids log their reading, and whether I encourage them to keep any kind of reading journal.

The answer is yes. In fact, I have a super simple method of reading journals for kids— reading journals your kids will love to use and will treasure for years to come.

Usually our master classes are available for Premium Members only, but this time, I’m sending access to you too.

I just know reading journals will make a big difference in your home– I didn’t want you to miss it.

Click here to grab access to the master class → Simple Reading Journals for Kids

In this free class, you’ll discover:

• how to help your kids track their reading & save their favorite passages
• the basic tools you need to get started
• what reading journals can look like at any age

I also give you a peek into my own kids’ reading journals!

Click here to get instant access to this video master class →

xo, Sarah

I snapped this photo from inside our car as we whizzed along at 70 mph in southern Utah. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t the one driving at the time!) Isn’t the scene lovely? I just love driving through Flagstaff, then Page, and then through the “Color Country” of southern Utah. It is just so pretty! We went to Utah to stay for Labor Day weekend so my baby, who just turned 8, could attend the Mastering Knighthood Summit. While we were there for the weekend staying at my parents’ home, my mom told me about these amazing tapes she bought used at D.I. (a thrift store). They featured Elder Gene R. Cook. She told me some of the stories he told on the tapes, on how he helped his son find a lost hat and wallet, using faith in God and prayer. The stories so intrigued me that I Googled them and found the following:

First an image of a book he wrote:

Next, I found some text of the exact same stories she told me from the tapes. So I read through some of them and felt my soul being filled with light. I am excited to use these principles in my prayers. I invite you to read these principles and use them for yourself.

Here is the text of the book I found online. I think it is the same book that goes with the cover image above, but if I am wrong, someone please correct me. I hope you enjoy Elder Cook’s wise counsel. He is one of my favorite LDS Church leaders.

How many of you got the new Trim Healthy Mama cookbook that was released last week? It’s called Trim Healthy Mama Table. I got my copy and have been having so much fun with it! Just like with the first full color cookbook, we get to drool over mouth=watering photos of these low-glycemic index yet luscious foods, taken by the THM photographer, Rohnda Monroy. She really has a knack for creating beautiful pictures! Thank you Rohnda!

I’ve had the Cinnamon Bun Shake, featured on p. 469, about 5 times already in just one week! I like to adapt it be FP instead of S. That way I can eat it whenever, instead of waiting 3 hours after an E meal to eat it since the original recipe is an S, with cream cheese.  To make it an FP recipe I took out the cream cheese and added more fat-free cottage cheese. It really does taste like a cinnamon bun! This is the perfect drink right now as we transition into fall. It’s still pretty hot here in southern AZ, in the 80s. So the iciness of the shake is appropriate for how hot it is but the warming tones of cinnamon and ginger help me feel fallish. I’m thinking when it gets colder I will make it with warm water instead of ice and use pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon. Yum!

OK, so here’s the recipe:

1 c water

1-2 cashews

Whiz those two ingredients in the blender to make your nut milk. Then add the next batch of ingredients:

1 c fat-free cottage cheese

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 T Pristine Whey Powder (if you don’t have that just add a little more cottage cheese)

whole sweetener of your choice to taste (1 T THM Super Sweet blend, or 4-6 doonks of stevia or 1-2 T honey, etc. Taste and then adjust to your liking.)

(Of course if you use honey then it’s not a THM FP recipe)

Blend until smooth. Then add as the blender is blending:

1/4 tsp glucomannan powder, or more if you like it thicker

Pour into a large mug and share some with your husband or child or drink it all yourself as a full meal!