A Little Less Toxic

I made this for 16+ people so it’s a double batch situation here. Halve for a smaller crowd.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish
*NO STIRRING*
Pour in 32 oz frozen berries or fave frozen fruit
Pour over 2 containers of cake mix (I’m using Simple Mills gf white cake)
Drizzle 2 sticks of melted butter over the top
Sprinkle with the a little Ceylon cinnamon to be extra
Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes, until the top is golden and a little crisped

Allow to cool so fruit firms back up a bit. Serve as is or with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. Yum!

K, what do you call this? I’m usually pretty good with word play and names but I’m stuck with the dumb “Dump Cake” name and I hate it. 😆

Part 2!

On the day of hosting, 5 things I I typically have:

🍽️All serving dishes and platters cleaned and set out with a little sticky note inside saying what each is for.
🍽️The serving utensils inside or beside their dish
🍽️ Lots that was already made or prepped in the days leading up to today
🍽️A game plan for timing of what needs to happen when
🍽️ A goal to be done with prep at least a half hour before guests are scheduled to arrive so I’m not stressed or scrambling

2 years later and most of the things I make are still things from my own cookbook. Even for gatherings with kids and adults of all ages. Why? Because this cookbook was created from recipes we already love and make all. the. time. I know it’s become that for many of you now too and I can’t tell you how that feels. It’s overwhelming, really. Just got teary typing that so gonna hit post now and move on 😂🥹

Oh! But next up I’ll try and share the easyyyyy and I bc real food dessert I made for this dinner that was a hit too. So check back soon 🙏🏼

Did you see me being absolutely harassed by an uninvited guest?? So rude.

Damien and I enjoy hosting. I’m not the most flawless or polished of hostesses. At all. But I enjoy getting together with loved ones and feeding us all with nourishing things that delight us.

🏡 🍽️ 🫶🏼 Some critical tips for hosting with more joy and less stress:

1- ANYTHING that can be done ahead of time, try and DO. I mean it. ANYTHING. Chopping ingredients, restocking TP, setting out serving dishes and utensils and labeling them, any and everything. Day of always has unexpected things you haven’t budgeted time for and rushing isn’t conducive to more joy and less stress.

2- collect large serving dishes and platters over time. I like who best and things like wood and materials found in nature. These go with everything and can easily by modified with what you have to make them coordinate with any theme or season! Plus they help make your food POP.

3- A little garnish goes a long way for presentation. We eat with our eyes first! Don’t underestimate the value of fresh chopped parsley, fresh shaved parm, colorful microgreens, a few little edible flowers, lemon wedges, and the like.

It may be Fall on paper, but it is still HAWT. Some fam from Germany is visiting and we gathered to spend some time together with lots of the rest of the local family. I wanted something Americana vibes and suitable for this weather. A salad party we had. And it was good!

Check back for part two where I bring it all together and for a super simple desert that fed us all and was, of course, ALLT annndddd crowd pleasing.

Highly recommend finding my highlight bubble called “Dishwasher” and reliving one of the first times we had a collective internet moment of unity in horror and hilarity over this topic. The first time I showed y’all how to do this was probably 2018/2019 and I learned most people didn’t know then they could and SHOULD be doing this. Then I saved many of your reactions and videos in that highlight because we were having a TIME, y’all. I haven’t showed you in a while and since I’m cleaning this new-to-me machine, I figured it might help some of you!

Had a little family gathering to celebrate 3 kids in the family making the decision to get baptized, including our precious girl 🥹🙌🏼. It was also our BIL’s birthday so we had lots to celebrate. Made a simple meal but prepared well and it was a crowd pleaser. I’m including my honey mustard marinade here because it’s been a while since I’ve shared that and I just realized it’s not in my cookbook?! Tragic. I’ll put it in the comments so it’s easier to see 👇🏼

Also, I love this song. They played it at church yesterday and we played it on our drive home. Thought I’d share it with you here too. Been LOVING the music Jamie MacDonald is making and her testimony too 🤍

Packing up to move homes for the first time in a decade and a half and I found a lot of things I really don’t need anymore. This little trio buried in the back of the medicine cabinet was not only SUPER expired, it was a bit emotional.

I used to carry around a pretty little pill case my best friend got me everywhere I went because I relied so heavily on this triad to get me through many days. I suffered tremendously from chronic and miserable either migraines or recurrent persistent sinus infections or something else. I never did get a clear answer. It lasted and progressively got worse over the course of 5 years until my body was so weak from using bandaids instead of finding the source and from the guesswork medical interventions and prescriptions over the years, I hit a true breaking point. I had a medical crisis that nearly cost me my life. When the medical professionals still had no answers for me and wanted to continue down the same road to my destruction, I took an alternate route. It saved my life, forever changed me, and by the grace of God, has allowed me to share some of that information with others and hopefully help countless others find relief and avoid unnecessary harm.

The road to becoming A Little Less Toxic was painful. Truly. And I thank God every single time I get a reaction to something like a scented candle, sheets washed in conventional laundry detergent, or not so great restaurant food. Those symptoms are signals. And they’re for my good. And my body got a chance to heal enough that I could actually start to notice them and do something different. So, no more bandaids. I don’t want to shut off my warning system. I respond to it now, instead.