Paleo-ish Gluten Free Outdoor Firepit Snacks: S'mores Healthy Style

There is nothing that says summer as much as a good ole' campfire. Our family LOVES sitting down and chatting round the snapping, crackling fire with the warm glow lighting up our faces. There is something primitively rugged and romantic about it at the same time.

The family favorite of this time together for our kiddos is probably the roasting of marshmallows and the gobbling of the s'mores. In the last couple years with our family trying to eat a more healthy, paleo, gluten free diet I decided to try to make up some healthier fire roasting & gobbling ingredients. 

After some searching on the web-o-sphere, I found the two following recipes. I tried 'em out and they were delish. My kiddos didn't even question them. 

Paleo Graham Crackers

{Source: Thepaleomom.com}

Paleo Homemade Marshmallow Recipe: GAPS, GF

{Source: UrbanPoser via Mommypotomus}

With this recipe the marshmallows are very moist. I would suggest letting them dry out for a couple days prior to roasting. They got a little drippy on our sticks - but they were DELICIOUS!!!

Totally worth trying. As for the chocolate - we just went with good old Hershey's. So, no we weren't completely paleo - but I think the options were WAY better. Somethings just aren't worth changing...and some are. Let me know if you have a great chocolate alternative.

-Simply Sublime

Yema Balls : a Filipino Treat Recipe for Kids

These are so yummy. I ran across them a few months ago over on Acupcakeortwo.com. They looked delish, simple and kid friendly for fixing 'em up. 

Since today was our Christmas baking day we decided to add a lil' Filipino flair for our taste buds to eventually devour. Little did we know that our Filipino boy would love them so much they would be half gobbled down by the end of the day.  

I love encouraging Nate to become more familiar with the culture of his homeland- and this was such an easy way for him to feel he himself had mastered a Filipino dish. So easy and so very yummy! 

Yema Balls

Ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup of white sugar

 Mini cupcake liners

Instructions:

1. In a saucepan on medium heat, melt butter. Add condensed milk and stir until combined.

2. Add egg yolks and continue stirring, being careful to avoiding burning. 

3. Keep stirring constantly until the yema is thick.

4. Take this off the heat and let this cool.

5. Once the mixture is cooled shape into balls and roll in sugar.

5. Serve the yema balls in mini cupcake liners. 

-Simply Sublime

Family Christmas Countdown Party Series {2}: The Santa Claus Movie Theme Night

This week's theme was picked by my dear Husband. There are a couple actors out there that make him laugh pretty much non-stop - those being Tim Allen and Will Farrell. He laughs so much at their goofy humor, which in turn leaves me cracking up at his cracking up. Good times!

Seeing as how we had already watched Elf the week before he felt the next best watch would be Disney's The Santa Claus starring Tim Allen. I wasn't super-duper inspired with creativity for this one plus we had a packed-out week leaving little preparation time. So here came Friday, our movie night was ON and I needed a plan, STAT! 

I stopped at Target and picked up a few goodies to encourage some creative fun with the kiddos. This night was going to consist of simple fun. All I needed was...

• strawberries
• bananas
• can of real whipping cream
• Wilton Candy Eyeballs
• Christmas colored Hershey Kisses
• marshmallows
• (and brownies - I made from scratch but could use a store bought)

Once I got home I whipped up a big pan of brownies  - if you can call them that. This new recipe I was trying (and doubling I might add) turned out more like brownie slop. Flat and VERY gooey - but it had amazing flavor. I think because the recipe claimed to be light on flour it had the perfect combination of ingredients to create such divine slop...haha. So what do you do with a big 'ole pan of brownie fail? Plop it on plates and make it the perfect base for the kids creative juices to start building with. 

I wish I would have taken a couple quick pics of the set up for this - I simply took a bunch of clear glass bowls and filled them with the items I purchased.  So Simple. So FUN!

The kids had a smashing good time. Aren't their creations Oh.So.CUTE?? 

I also had made up a bunch of the cutsie Strawberry Santa's that have been all over pinterest. 

{foodista.com}

Here are some added ideas if you want to pump it up a notch:

Smashed Peas and Carrots has an adorable kids Santa Disguise photo prop project. Hop on over and check it out. How adorable would it be to snap some fun family photos? Too cute!

{smashed peas and carrots blog}

It would also be a great opportunity to write a letter to Santa. Here is a link to a cute free printable.

{my frugal adventures}

As you can see it really doesn't take a lot to pull of a family fun movie night. This one was so very simple and just as much fun as our Elf Theme Night. The kids have been filled with anticipation wondering what the next movie theme night is going to feature. Only time will tell...cuz I sure am not going to. 

-Simply Sublime