Reviews

Help and Improve Your Good Gut Bacteria with Kyo-Dophilus Pro+ Synbiotic Chewables

March 7, 2021 by Sandra Leave a Comment

Thanks to Moms Meet for sponsoring this blog post on how to improve good bacteria in your gut.

Find out how to improve good bacteria in your gut.

Did you know that most of your immune system lives in your gut?

It’s true. It sounds crazy but it’s not. Your gut is where most of the good bacteria that are part of your immune system live. They live in what’s known as your gut microbiome, and they fight for you there to keep you healthy and prevent you from getting sick.

So it’s important that we keep our gut microbiome healthy, and one way I’m doing that is by taking Kyo-Dophilus Pro+ Synbiotic chewable tablets.

Whew! I know the name (Kyo-Dophilus Pro+ Synbiotic) is a mouthful, but these tablets are actually not complicated to take or keep up with. I take them daily with or without a meal at any time of the day when I remember. Of course, it’s preferable to take them at the same time every day so that you can keep to a routine. In my case, I’ve found that if I have them out on the kitchen counter, I’ll remember to take them at some point in the day.

Going back to the Kyo-Dophilus Pro+ Synbiotic name, it basically means that these tablets contain both prebiotics and probiotics. Synbiotic is a word used for probiotics and prebiotics that are combined to provide a synergistic beneficial effect in the gut microbiome.

Find out how to improve good bacteria in your gut.

Each single-serving packet contains two berry smoothie chewable tablets that are surprisingly good and easy to eat. I look forward to taking them every day now.

I wanted to mention that the tablets don’t require refrigeration and that makes them even more convenient so you can take them with you on-the-go if you know you’re going to be away from home and like to take your prebiotics and probiotics at the same time every day.

Find out how to improve good bacteria in your gut.

The added fiber in the tablets may cause gas or bloating for the first few days as your microbiome adjusts but I didn’t experience this at all. I felt that these chewables were extremely gentle on my system and I didn’t experience any negative effects whatsoever.

It could be because we recently switched our diet back to a more whole foods plant-based diet and I had already started eating more fruits and vegetables so my body was prepared for these new tablets. I don’t know if that was the case. I just know that I was waiting for some possible interesting effects on my digestive system and that never happened, thankfully!

Finally, I wanted to let you know that these Kyo-Dophilus tablets are non-GMO and free of soy, gluten, dairy, and artificial colors and flavors and you can find them at your local natural health food stores and online at places like Amazon, iherb, and Vitacost. Let me know if you end up giving them a try. 🙂

Have you taken prebiotics or probiotics? Do you have any tips on how to improve good bacteria in your gut?

DIY Gift Idea: Peppermint Sugar Scrub (and review of the Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit)

December 24, 2020 by Sandra 6 Comments

I partnered with Epson for a review of the LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit.

Sugar scrubs are kind of…amazing.

Truly, I had never used a sugar scrub for the first twenty-nine-years or so of my life, and I was missing out. 😉

Now, I whip them up on a regular basis for my family and show others how to make them as well. Besides that, sugar scrubs are fabulous during the winter months, because they moisturize your skin and keep it from feeling all dry and itchy. We’ve been using our homemade peppermint sugar scrub all winter, and it’s made such a difference in my naturally dry skin.

I love it!

This particular peppermint body scrub only takes a few minutes to make, and it only requires three simple ingredients: sugar, coconut oil, and peppermint essential oil. Easy enough, right?

Sugar Scrubs Make Great Gifts

Now besides pampering yourself with a homemade scrub, you might consider giving one away as a gift. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner… 🙂

And to make your homemade gift extra-special, you can put the scrub in a brand new mason jar and adorn it with ribbon.

Like so.

I used the Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit to create a ribbon that not only lets the gift-receiver know what type of sugar scrub is in the jar, but also gives this homemade gift a little charm and elegance.

The red ribbon with gold lettering was perfect for this project. Best of all, the ribbon was easy to set up in the label machine. I’ll confess that I read the directions on how to get started with everything, but being the non-crafty person that I am, I still didn’t know what I was doing afterwards.

One quick YouTube video later, and I was all set. 😉

I thought the Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit was straightforward and a snap to use. Even my kids enjoyed it.

The large, green button on the side of the label printer is what you push to cut the ribbon after it comes out of the machine. My kids LOVED pushing the button and asked if I could make all sorts of ribbons for them.

I did, of course. 🙂

I put the final touches on this homemade gift by using a couple of items I already had on hand: a wintery snowman gift bag and plastic ribbon to tie everything together. I love how it turned out!

Here’s the printable recipe for the Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub:

Peppermint Sugar Scrub

Ingredients

½ cup coconut oil
1½ cups granulated sugar
10 drops of peppermint essential oil

Instructions

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix together the coconut oil and sugar.
Add the peppermint essential oil and mix just until it's infused throughout the sugar scrub.
Store in a covered container, and use as desired.

https://thesensiblemom.com/2020/12/diy-gift-idea-peppermint-sugar-scrub-review-epson-labelworks-printable-ribbon-kit/

I’m looking forward to using my Epson LabelWorks Ribbon Kit to pretty up many more of my DIY beauty projects and even to personalize wrapping paper, foodie gifts, and more of my kids’ creations. 🙂

Do you make your own body scrubs? Have you ever used an Epson label printer?

Delicious Monkey Bread Recipe PLUS Baking Tips and Tricks from a Chef

December 23, 2020 by Sandra 8 Comments

Thanks to Jewel-Osco for sponsoring this post and sharing great baking tips as we head into the new year.

One of my family’s favorite ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve is with monkey bread.

It’s gooey, sweet, and delicious! Plus, it’s the perfect indulgence as we wrap up the busy holiday season and look forward to the new year. We all love it, and I know my kids will have memories of making monkey bread with Mommy for a long time to come. 🙂

Here’s what the monkey bread looks like before it’s flipped out of the bundt pan and onto a serving platter. Mmmm…so much buttery, sugary goodness!

Jewel-Osco Lucerne® Dairy Farms Products

Now, when I make monkey bread, I love using Lucerne® Dairy Farms butter and milk exclusively available at my local Jewel-Osco grocery store. If you’ve seen my grocery haul videos, you already know that I’m a big fan of Jewel-Osco. After all, the variety of dairy products they have available is great quality and affordable.

While Jewel-Osco offers all of the above products (and more) for your NYE party needs, I only need to use their milk and butter along with the rest of the ingredients listed in the recipe at the end of this blog post for the monkey bread.

Side Note: Pair crackers with strawberry cream cheese spread (pictured above) to create a quick and easy New Year’s Day snack for your family and guests!

Baking Tips and Tricks

If you need more baking tips, Jewel-Osco Executive Chef Jeff Anderson has these for you:

1. Take inventory: Before diving into cooking and baking, check your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to make sure you have all the essentials.
  - PRO TIP: Keep extra flour and sugar in the pantry, stock up on an 18-count of Lucerne® Eggs, and store Lucerne® Butter in the freezer so you have it on hand to make last-minute dishes for the parties you’ll be attending or hosting!
2. Gather, Measure, Ready: (Or in fancier terms, “Mise en Place”) Before you begin baking your scrumptious treats, organize all of your ingredients, utensils, and baking materials. Use these simple steps to help you prepare and not waste any time in the kitchen:
  - Gather: Pull together all of your ingredients.
  - Measure: Before you get your hands dirty, pre-measure your dry ingredients such as flour, salt, dairy, spices, etc.
  - Ready: Get your oven pre-heated before you start, so there is no waiting around.
3. Get ahead of the game: Have an early morning start? Prepare dishes that can be made ahead of time and freeze them until it’s go-time! As an example, freeze your Pumpkin Chocolate Rolls made with Lucerne® Pumpkin Flavored Cream Cheese and then pop into the oven just before guests arrive so they will smell the delicious aroma when they walk through the door!
  - PRO TIP: Take the extra step, and prepare whipped cream to top off your desserts! Try out this recipe using just four ingredients including Lucerne® Heavy Whipping Cream. This is great for coffee drinks, kids’ treats, and more!
4. Dry run: Read over your recipe a few days in advance. When menu planning, make notes, check your inventory, and think through everything you’ll need to prepare the recipe.

Monkey Bread Recipe

I hope those tips from Chef Jeff are helpful to you. Now, here’s the recipe for the delicious monkey bread I’ve been talking about. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine. 🙂

Monkey Bread

Ingredients

For the Dough:

3-1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for the counter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 envelope of instant or RapidRise yeast (or measure out 2-1/4 teaspoons if you're measuring the yeast out of a jar)
1-1/2 teaspoons salt (I use fine grain Himalayan pink salt)
1 cup Lucerne whole milk, warm (around 115 degrees)
1/3 cup water, warm (around 115 degrees)
3 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons Lucerne unsalted sweet cream butter, melted and cooled

For the Coating:

8 tablespoons Lucerne unsalted sweet cream butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (I use fine grain Himalayan pink salt)

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour, cinnamon, yeast, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, water, honey, and butter.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix together using a fork or spatula until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then shape the dough into a ball and place it in a large lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise in a warm place for about 1-1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, lightly grease a bundt pan and set aside.
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface, then take the dough and divide it into round balls that are about 1 tablespoon each in size.
In a small bowl, mix together the butter and vanilla extract. Set aside.
On a large rimmed baking sheet, stir together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt, and then spread that mixture out over the baking sheet to roll the dough balls in.
Roll each ball in the butter mixture and then in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. Toss each of the dough balls into the bundt pan as you go. Try to arrange them evenly in the pan.
Pour any remaining butter and cinnamon-sugar mixture over the dough balls. Then cover the bundt pan with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise in a warm place for another 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
Once the monkey bread has risen, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the monkey bread for 35 to 40 minutes or until it's golden brown. Then remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.
Once the monkey bread has cooled, place your desired serving plate on top of the bundt pan so that it covers it completely. Then carefully flip the monkey bread out onto the serving plate. Serve and enjoy!

https://thesensiblemom.com/2020/12/delicious-monkey-bread-recipe-plus-baking-tips-and-tricks-from-a-chef/

What are some of your favorite recipes to make around this time of the year? What are some of your favorite New Year’s Eve foods?

Recipe: Easy Christmas Cookies

December 10, 2020 by Sandra 2 Comments

This is a sponsored post that I shared years ago. The recipe is still fabulous so I’m sharing it again this year.

Easy Christmas cookies — I’m all about them.

In fact, today, I’m sharing a super simple recipe for Christmas cookies and some ideas for decorating them, either on your own or with your kids. I think you’ll be able to tell from the pictures I share below just which ones I decorated and which ones my kids had fun with. 🙂

This Christmas…

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on where my family was at in life this time last year. I could write a whole blog post about that, but the short version is that this time last year, my 5-year-old son, David, had just received his life-saving bone marrow transplant, and we were living between his hospital room and the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital.

We spent Christmas in the hospital. In fact, when I woke up that morning, along with all the wonderful presents David’s nurses had snuck in for him as he slept, I noticed that my son was getting yet another blood transfusion. Thankfully, it would be his last.

But this year? Oh, this year is SO different! It’s different in the most wonderful and marvelous way, because we’re HOME! David has continued to get better, and his immune system is stronger and able to fight for him in ways it couldn’t before. However, knowing this doesn’t make me want to rush out and do a bunch of things we may have “missed” last year.

No, instead, we’re remembering to celebrate Christmas in simple ways, because believe it or not, while we expected Christmas to be simple last year… friends, family, and people we didn’t even know blessed our socks off with so many gifts! And let me tell you, those gifts helped to encourage David to take yet another dose of one of his many medications or go through yet another painful this or that. 🙁

To everyone who blessed us and prayed for us last Christmas, thank you! I wish I could thank each one of you personally.

Searching for Holiday Inspiration

One of the ways we’re celebrating a simple Christmas is by making holiday treats at home. Because when we do this, we also get the benefit of creating sweet memories together in the kitchen.

I own a couple of cookbooks that I ~~can’t live without~~ like using on a regular basis, but I also enjoy using my Asus Intel Tablet to look for recipe inspiration on Pinterest. In a previous post, I talked about how easy it is to use my tablet to stay organized, but it’s also handy and small enough to keep in the kitchen, either to search for new recipes or to follow a recipe you might be trying for the first time.

I said it in my last post, but I’ll say it again… I love the screen quality of the Asus Intel tablet. It’s amazing. It makes looking for new ideas on Pinterest even more enjoyable. 🙂

Easy Christmas Cookies

As for the treats, besides recently making chocolate pretzel bites for the first time, over the weekend, we also whipped up my favorite Christmas cookies ever.

Trust me. They’re delicious without any additions. But when you “frost” these cookies with melted white chocolate and sprinkle on a little red and green colored sugar, well, that’s when they become my favorite. 🙂

There’s no right or wrong way to decorate a Christmas cookie… at least not in my house. The possibilities are endless, especially when children are involved. 😉

However, here are just a few ideas for toppings when it comes to Christmas cookies:

And here’s the printable version of my favorite Christmas cookie recipe:

Easy Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened (use softened coconut oil for dairy-free cookies)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (white whole wheat flour works great as well)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
sprinkles, colored sugar, frosting, melted chocolate chips, red and green M&M's (optional for decorating)

Instructions

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl and using a mixer on low speed, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Then beat in the vanilla extract. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly beat the floured mixture into creamed mixture until the ingredients are all incorporated.
Using a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon (so that the cookies are the same size) and an additional spoon (to help scoop the dough out of the measuring spoon), measure out the cookies and drop them onto an ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Roll each cookie into a ball, and then using the back of a spoon or your palm, gently press down on each cookie to slightly flatten it.
Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely.
Optional: Decorate cookies using frosting, melted chocolate, sprinkles, M&M's, and colored sugar. This recipe makes approximately 38 cookies.

https://thesensiblemom.com/2020/12/recipe-easy-christmas-cookies/

This Christmas season is one I’m holding near to my heart. It’s a reminder of God’s grace and how far David has come over the past year. I think keeping this entire month simple has been a meaningful reminder of how absolutely blessed we are. 🙂

Do you make Christmas cookies with your kids? What are some of your favorite holiday treats?

Reviews

Sugar Scrubs Make Great Gifts

Here’s the printable recipe for the Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub:

Jewel-Osco Lucerne® Dairy Farms Products

Baking Tips and Tricks

Monkey Bread Recipe

What are some of your favorite recipes to make around this time of the year? What are some of your favorite New Year’s Eve foods?

This Christmas…

Searching for Holiday Inspiration

Easy Christmas Cookies

And here’s the printable version of my favorite Christmas cookie recipe:

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