THRIVE Helps Our FHE

With my husband working swing shift for a couple of weeks, we decided to hold our family home evening (FHE) in the day-time before he goes to work.  Sometimes, like today, that makes things a little rushed.  Today, our FHE got squeezed in between my dentist appointment, followed by lunch and a Primary Presidency meeting. 

And so, once again, THRIVE saved the day!  We are focusing our FHE lessons on THE FAMILY: A PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD.  Today, we talked about how we look like Heavenly Father and how we came to earth to receive a physical body.  Our lessons are generally quite short (my kids are 2 and 3 months), and I try to do something to help make what we talk about meaningful.  Unfortunately, I'm not the greatest idea person, so I turn to Pinterest!  And a lady shared how her kids used play-doh to make bodies for this lesson.  Well, at first I thought play-doh would be fun...  But then I thought about sugar cookie dough!  Because then we could eat our body-cookies ;)!

So these were the finished product!  Okay, so we look like giant Michelin men...  But that's our family in cookie form ;).  THRIVE made this so easy on a hectic day, because all I had to do was cream the butter, add the cookie mix, and some water -- and then I opted for powdered egg, because we were going to be handling the dough (and possibly eating it...).  It was so awesome!  And my 2 year old really loved making the dough people with her daddy while I fed the baby.

I feel like this was a successful and fun lesson!  I'm grateful for idea people (since I'm not one!) and grateful for THRIVE products that help me execute quickly!

Happy THRIVEing!

Q-Pon Cooking: August 2015: THRIVE Peanut Flour: Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles

It's time to celebrate!  My sweet baby boy has slept for 5 solid hours the last 2 nights (and here's to hoping this isn't a fluke, but a trend!).  All you moms out there know this is a reason to celebrate!

I can't celebrate by eating these (due to the chocolate coating).  But I can celebrate by sharing them with all of you :)!  Just one more reason to love the THRIVE Peanut Powder!

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 2/3 cup THRIVE Vanilla Sugar Cookie Mix
2/3 cup THRIVE Peanut Flour
2 tablespoons water
10 ounces chocolate for dipping

Cream butter.  Add next 3 ingredients and mix until a dough forms.  Form into 1/2-inch balls and freeze 15 minutes (for easier handling).

Melt chocolate.  Dip balls and allow to dry completely.  SAVOR!  And have one for me ;).

Happy THRIVEing!!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Last night we had our first jar meal party!  We were blown away by the success of this event -- and we already have had multiple requests for another one!  So we have one in the works ;).

But as part of the "party" (which was really meant to be more of a 'come and make a jar meal' thing), I made some delicious peanut butter cookies featuring THRIVE Life's all new -- and all amazing -- Peanut Flour!

I have used this in 3 different recipes so far, and I love it.  I am getting more of it this month with my Q!


I made about 40 of these cookies for the event.  I came home with none!  And the best part?  They were so simple.

I halved the original recipe, which is a Chef Todd creation and can be found here.

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon THRIVE Whole Egg Powder plus 2 tablespoons water
1 2/3 cup THRIVE Vanilla Sugar Cookie Mix
2/3 cup THRIVE Peanut Flour
2 tablespoons water

Add softened butter to a mixer and whip until light. Add whole egg powder and water and mix until blended.

Add cookie mix and peanut flour and mix together. Add water and mix until dough forms

Scoop onto greased cookie sheet and press with a fork dipped in sugar.

Bake at 350F for 8 minutes.

I made smaller cookies and still came out with about 40.  They were delicious!  And my husband's comment was that he noticed they weren't super sweet, and he really liked that!  I told him it's because the THRIVE Peanut Flour doesn't have the added sugar!

The Peanut Flour is now available to add to your Q!  And if you aren't on the Q, but still want to get some of the peanut flour, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com.

Want to see the other great specials this month?  It's all about the baked goods!  And THRIVE Life has re-vamped their Coconut Macaroons (now gluten free!), Fudge Brownies, and 10 Grain Pancake Mix making them all non-GMO!  Check out the specials for April here!

And that's not all!  April is going to be a BIG DEAL!  There is a huge sale -- everything on sale -- starting April 9!  I'll have pricing information starting tomorrow, and you won't want to miss out!

Happy THRIVEing!

Lots of THRIVE!

The other day I used a lot of THRIVE to make dinner and dessert!  It was a lot of fun trying new things :).

Pictured above was dinner, drink, and dessert from that day -- and, being that I don't get super motivated these days until after 2 p.m., that's when I started working on all of this!  Definitely couldn't have done that much without my THRIVE!

First up:  drinks!  The truth is, we are mainly water drinkers in my household.  But every once in a while, a yummy fruity drink sounds really appealing.  So I can understand why experts recommend having some juice mixes as part of your home store.  I have used this THRIVE Simply Peach drink mix for a variety of juices as well as putting it into my smoothies.  I needed the juice for the dessert I'd decided to make, so I went ahead and made up a full batch and enjoyed some of the juice with dinner :).  Simply follow the guidelines on the #10 can (2 tablespoons THRIVE Simply Peach to 1 cup water) and oila!   You have a simple, but yummy juice.  It's a real treat for my toddler when she can have juice with dinner.  And she gulps it down fast.

What I love?  IT HAS NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS!  That's such a win, when so many powdered drinks are full of artificial colors!

Next up:  dinner!  It was one of those "what am I going to make for dinner?" days...  I mean, I had my menu list all planned out -- like I do most pay periods.  But I flat out forgot to pull meat out to thaw.  And this is one of the reasons I love my THRIVE meats.  They are ready to use, even at the last minute.  So I found a recipe on the THRIVE Life website for Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.  You can follow that link and get the original recipe.  You can even make this as a jar meal.  Here's how I did it (with what I had on hand):

CHICKEN BROCCOLI ALFREDO
1 heaping cup shell macaroni
1/2 cup THRIVE Bechamel Sauce
2 tablespoons THRIVE Sour Cream Powder
1 1/2 teaspoon THRIVE Chopped Onions
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning*
1 teaspoon THRIVE Chef's Choice Seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons THRIVE Chicken Bouillon
1 cup THRIVE Seasoned Chicken Slices
1 cup THRIVE Broccoli
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese*

Place all ingredients except Parmesan Cheese in a saucepan with 4 1/2 cups water.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes or until pasta is done, stirring occasionally.  Stir in Parmesan Cheese until melted and incorporated.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

So the things I loved about this dish: 
1.  It was all in one pot.
2.  It was easy to throw together.
3.  I didn't have to worry about thawing meat, etc.

But I have to be honest...  I personally didn't especially like this meal.  I think it was the Italian Seasoning.  Granted, I don't have THRIVE Italian Seasoning, so maybe that makes a difference.  But I just didn't enjoy that flavor.  My toddler really didn't like it.  My husband, however, said he didn't think it was bad.  So I guess it's all in personal preference.  But I have to share my true feelings, and those are that I don't plan to make this again.

For some reason, anytime I make pasta, I feel like I need bread to go with it.  Clearly, I did not start my meal-making in time to do a yeast bread.  And even throwing together scratch biscuits seemed like a lot of effort (lazy, huh?).  But then it occurred to me I could do the next best thing!  Sort of scratch biscuits!  I grabbed my Honey Whole Wheat Mix and decided to try making biscuits with it!  A quick glance at the ingredients told me it already had shortening in the mix, along with flour and salt...  Basically I just had to add a leavening agent.  And that was simple enough with baking powder!  So here's my recipe:

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT DROP BICUITS
2 cups THRIVE Honey Whole Wheat Dough Mix
3 teaspoons baking powder*
1 1/4 cups milk*

Place the dough mix into a medium bowl and add baking powder.  Stir well to combine.  Add milk and mix.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 450 for 9 minutes.  (I got 9 biscuits.)

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

You can add less milk if you want to make "cut out" biscuits.  But I like the drop biscuits, because they are fast.

And finally...  What I did for dessert ;).  Which was just a random idea I had, so I ran with it.  And it's also a pretty decent snack for a toddler!  I'm calling them Strawberry Peach Jiggly Squares :).

STRAWBERRY-PEACH JIGGLY SQUARES
4 cups THRIVE Simply Peach, prepared (this is 4 cups water plus 8 tablespoons THRIVE Simply Peach drink mix)
4 packets unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup coarsely chopped THRIVE Strawberry Slices

Bring 3 cups of prepared juice to a boil.  Place one cup of prepared juice in a large bowl.  Sprinkle all 4 packets of gelatin over juice. Allow to sit for a minute.  Pour hot juice into the bowl and stir until all gelatin is dissolved.  Stir in THRIVE Strawberry Slices.  Pour into a 9x13 pan (I usually spray with cooking spray for even easier release later!).  Refrigerate until firm.  Cut into squares.

Again, one thing I really love about this is that there are no artificial colors!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not great at staying away from all the artificial colors.  And who doesn't love Jell-o Jigglers?  But if I can come up with something just as fun and kid-friendly without the fake stuff?  I'm totally in!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun experimenting and playing around and trying new things.  And I just really love how THRIVE Life has often come to the rescue on those days when I am not as prepared as I could be to make dinner ;)!

Happy THRIVEing!  And, as always, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com with any questions or to place an order to help your meal-times not be a conundrum when you forget to thaw the meat ;)!!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie in a Mug

It's officially announced:  THRIVE Life has a brand new product!!!  PEANUT FLOUR!!!  This new product was "unveiled" at the Leadership Training meeting in Seattle, and my friend and up-line was invited to attend that meeting.  She had the privilege of getting to try it out early -- and she's super awesome, so she got a can for me too!  And let me just say...  I'm adding this to my Q in April!  I love this Peanut Flour!

So here was one of my first experiments with the THRIVE Peanut Flour! 

PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIE IN A MUG
1/4 cup THRIVE Fudge Brownie Mix
1 tablespoon THRIVE Peanut Flour
2 1/2 tablespoons water

Place all ingredients in a mug and stir until blended.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds.  (Then I added some vanilla ice cream on top ;)).

Super simple.  Super yummy!  I simply love how easy it was to add peanut butter flavor without adding a lot of extra fat or sugar.  I am already imagining so many ways to use this great new product! 

If you are a Q Club Member, you can pre-order this great new product through your Q!  If you aren't a Q Club member, but still want to get some of this amazing new product, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com and I'll get it on order for you! 

And here's a little more information about this brand new product:

*One extra change to note:  THRIVE Fudge Brownies will now be found as part of the THRIVE Bakery line, rather than the THRIVE Desserts!  And they are now completely Non-GMO!!!

THRIVE Sugar Cookies

As my little girl gets older and able to do more (she is almost 22 months now...), I find that she wants to do more.  Which makes sense ;).  So I've recently tried to find new activities she and I can do together.  One of the activities we recently tried was making sugar cookies.  And, conveniently, I had my THRIVE Vanilla Sugar Cookie Mix, which meant I only had to mix together 3 ingredients!  It made the mixing fast and easy -- and my little girl was able to help add the major part of the ingredients (the cookie mix).  She loves to be involved in all aspects ;).

I followed the recipe on the #10 can of the mix, which called for butter, and egg, and water in addition to the cookie mix.  I opted to use THRIVE Butter Powder, because I love that stuff!  And because I didn't have any softened butter and I didn't want to wait! 

We also opted to do roll-out cookies, so she could try her hand at cutting out shapes (which was an interesting experience for me, but she loved it!).  So we actually added a little extra flour as well.  Again, the recipe is on the can :).

Anyway, we frosted some of the cookies with canned chocolate frosting (because I had some in the fridge) and did some sprinkles (another learning experience for mommy!).  And then we delivered most of them to friends.  Because they were delicious!  And I didn't need them hanging around the house with my extreme sweet-tooth!

Cookie Dough Truffles

I hosted a play date the other day and decided to make lunch for the lovely ladies (and toddler) who came to spend some time with us.  And, because I love cooking for people and providing dessert as well, I decided to try something I'd been wanting to try for a while with my THRIVE Classic Cookie Dough mix:  Cookie Dough Truffles!

I love cookie dough.  Even more than I like the cookies.  Being that I'm pregnant, I avoid eating raw egg.  But that's another way THRIVE Life keeps me happy ;)!  Because their Classic Cookie Dough mix has powdered egg in it, and that isn't raw egg!  So my toddler and I made these (she handled the sprinkles -- though I would say two truffles were generously sprinkled and the others were bare ;)), and they are so very yummy!

COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES
3 1/3 cups THRIVE Classic Cookie Dough Mix
1 cup THRIVE Powdered Butter
3/4 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips (depending on your preferences -- and you can sub for anything you prefer!)
12 ounces melting chocolate (I used chocolate almond bark)
Sprinkles, optional


Put first 3 ingredients in mixer (I used my stand mixer) and mix until it forms a dough.  Add chocolate chips and fold in.

Form into 1/2-inch to 1-inch balls and place on waxed paper (or silicone mats).  Refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes so they are easier to handle. 

Melt chocolate.  Dip cookie dough balls.  Sprinkle immediately, if desired.  Allow to harden.


Now, a couple notes...  One thing I noticed is that if there were any weak spots in the chocolate shell, the cookie dough would start squeezing through.  Although not a tragedy, they did kind of look funny ;).  And it may just be inevitable if you don't double-dip the truffles (which I didn't), because the dough isn't cooked, and the baking soda in the mix starts to expand -- as it's supposed to!  So it oozes out any weak spots. 

The other note:  These were a hit!  One of my friends who came, when I told them what I made for dessert, said, "Did you know that cookie dough is my all-time favorite?  Well, I didn't.  But I love it too, so it just worked out well!  These are so delicious, seriously.  And they are definitely going on my Christmas goodie list! They are super-fast and super-simple, especially because I only need 4 ingredients!

So if you are craving some sweet yumminess...  This will hit the spot!

Honey Whole Wheat Rolls

During December, the THRIVE specials were all about making baking a cinch!  I don't know about you, but I tend to do a lot of baking during the holidays.  I also need as many things as possible to make my life easier.  As you can probably guess, due to my infrequent updating of this blog, I was a busy bee for the last several weeks.  Baking, shopping, cooking, visiting, prepping for 9 people in our 1000 square foot apartment for a week (yikes!)...  It's a busy time of year for me (and probably for everyone else as well!).  Thus, when I saw all the bakery yumminess on sale in December, I stocked up!  And last night, we enjoyed some Honey Whole Wheat Rolls with our pasta dinner :).

The preparation instructions for the bread (whether in loaf form or rolls) is on the can.  Basically, you put warm water and yeast in a bowl and add the required amount of Honey Whole Wheat Dough Mix, and you're well on your way to some yummy, moist, and soft rolls! 

I love that these rolls have whole wheat...  I know it's a healthier option for my family :).  I'm looking forward to trying this mix out for some whole wheat cinnamon rolls in the not-too-distant future, so stay tuned!

THRIVE Golden Cornbread Mix

On Sundays, my family tries to keep dinner prep to a minimum.  This often means we eat leftovers for dinner on Sunday evenings.  This past week, however, we had my nieces joining us for dinner; and I knew we wouldn't have enough food!

THRIVE came to the rescue once again!  I had some of the delicious THRIVE Golden Cornbread Mix, so I whipped up a batch of cornbread to accompany all the other things we had leftover.  It was so easy and so fast!  Just add water, mix, pour, and bake!

This is a very moist and delicious cornbread!  My nieces gobbled it up -- and so did we!

And the cornbread freezes well!  My mom bakes up a batch and freezes all but what she needs, since it is just she and my grandma at home.  Then she is able to take out a couple pieces at a time and enjoy them with dinner for several days!

If you want a quick, no-fuss side-dish that is delicious as well, this THRIVE Golden Cornbread is definitely something you want to try!  Contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com to order some!