14
Apr

DANIELLE’S DIGEST: WEEK OF APRIL 9

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As I write this, many of you are putting the final touches on your Easter/Passover holiday menu!  I hope you all have a relaxing and blessed holiday with family and friends! Don't forget to share your photos of what you made from Celebrations for a chance to win some awesome prizes.

We had an exciting week with a power outage that lasted 48 hours!  Even though it was inconvenient, we kind of enjoyed a weekend of no TV and computers but lots of candlelight and fires in the fireplace!  Also, I am pleased to announce the winner of the $100 Whole Foods gift certificate – congratulations Melissa Payne Erker!! In addition, scroll down to see how to enter the Easter/Passover Giveaway plus watch a video of me making yummy egg-shaped Sunbutter Chocolate Cups!

snuggles

Lots of snuggles!

more snuggles

As if the week wasn't exciting, the baby who thinks he's as big as his brother fell and needed stitches on his chin! 7 years of parenting and this is is our first need for stitches so we feel pretty accomplished!  All smiles here though, he's a champ!

Easter recipes

Just a few final Easter recipe ideas for you from Celebrations! Deviled Eggs (4 ways!), Panettone, Egg-free Cinnamon Rolls, Mimosa Bar, Lavender Lemon Bundt Cakes, and a Berry Tart with Vanilla Bean Cream filling!

sushi

I've eaten so many of these during this pregnancy! I've craved sushi so much but can't do rice, and still try to limit raw ?? for when I'm REALLY craving it, so these crab hand rolls sans rice have saved me. {edited} No recipe, I ordered this from a local sushi place that uses real crab ?? 

popular recipe

I know I'm “known” for my treats, breads, and muffins, but did you know that my stuffed sweet potato recipes are more popular on my blog than the treats?! Well besides the real deal chocolate chip cookies which remain the most trafficked post of all time!

Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Loaded Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Dairy-Free Ranch

cookbook easter giveaway

Head to the blog to see how to win all of this! I will pick THREE lucky winners on April 20th to receive a limited edition Celebrations Shun Cutlery Knife (over a $150 value!), all 3 of my cookbooks – signed!, plus a little sampler of my favorite coconut oil and ghee

Chocolate sunbutter easter eggs

I made these Chocolate Sunbutter Easter Eggs on my Facebook Live on Tuesday! I used the recipe for the Sunbutter Cups on page 210 of Celebrations and used these egg molds instead. Keep scrolling to the bottom of this post to watch the full video!

facebook memory

The new Facebook memories thing is fun. Except when it's not…. ? it's been filled with a lot of painful reminders the last few weeks, as we get closer to our first baby girl's birthday in June. I know I can turn it off, but I love to see the happy memories of my boys as they've grown, so I haven't yet.

I was the girl who was lovingly packing away her dolls and barbies when I was 10 years old for my future daughter. I knew I was always meant to be a mom to a girl. Finding out Aila was a girl was one of the best days of my life, and so much of my grieving over the past 3 years has been not only about losing her, but also the loss of getting to raise a daughter.

I've been working on writing something for months for the blog to explain the myriad of mixed emotions I'm feeling now that we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of another baby girl (also in June), but it's pretty difficult to articulate. I'll get the right words eventually and look forward to sharing them with you when I do.

For now, let's just say reminders like this make me deeply miss the baby girl we should have had and throw me for quite a loop when they catch me off guard. But it also makes me hopeful and excited to meet her little sister and lavish her with the extra love we have left over from her big sister's absence. ???

Deviled eggs

I know some of you don’t have a copy of my Celebrations cookbook yet and hope to win it in the big giveaway I'm doing, so I’m sharing a sneak peek recipe for the creamy dairy-free Deviled Eggs on the blog so you can still enter into the giveaway!

Tired of pasta

After 7 years of eating pasta alternatives (spaghetti squash, zucchini, sweet potato, kelp, you name it), I'm kind of burned out! Most times these days I either eat the sauce on it's own or over a bed of sautéed spinach or roasted broccoli. The boys had brown rice noodles. The Shortcut Spaghetti Sauce from Meals Made Simple is my fall-back meal when I forgot to make dinner or am just tired and we eat it frequently!

ryan at work

Asher and I finally made the long drive down to visit daddy at work for lunch since he started in August! We miss having him around the house during the day, but it was super fun to see what his day looks like now and to see him doing something he's passionate about and loves. Bless him for commuting 3 hours a day though!

If you don't have Facebook or couldn't join live on Tuesday, you can watch the full video here!