spaininiowa

It’s Simple Lives Thursday! My favorite day of the week where you share your tips and recipes for living a simple life. Whichever blog that you choose to link up your post, it will show up on all 4 sites! As a reminder, this blog hop is a way to share with many people your posts on what you are doing to live a simple life. Whether that’s gardening, raising urban chickens, homeschooling, sewing, making your own deodorant, or cleaning supplies… we want to know about it! If you’re into homeopathy, ways to save $ by conserving energy or other ways to live frugally… we want to know about it! If you bike, cook real food, homestead or farm… we want to know about it!

Your Hosts (for the time being, due to hosts taking breaks)

  1. Wardeh from GNOWFGLINS
  2. Alicia from Culinary Bliss
  3. Me!

Please read and follow the Simple Lives Thursday bloghop rules

1. If linking real, traditional and simple recipes, please make sure all ingredients used are whole. Such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, meats, even sugar. In order to keep the integrity of “nourishing” food, we will delete any recipes that utilize processed, boxed foods. We are definitely not going to be ingredient policeman, however, please note that this is a hop hosted by advocates of the real, local and sustainable food movements.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Simple Lives Thursday community by sending your readers to all of the other participants posts. We all end up sharing and learning from each other.

3. No giveaway away or otherwise primarily advertising oriented posts. Keep your topics to fit our simple living theme of “consume less, produce more.” We will delete posts that don’t fit.

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My kids are eagerly awaiting Christmas day.  Right now, all they can think about are the toys they’ll be receiving.

In order to build on that anticipation and celebrate our Christmas season intentionally, we’ll be observing advent this year.

Growing up, advent wasn’t a tradition in my home so I never knew what it was or the meaning behind it.  Over the years I’ve seen many different people speak about advent and most recently, pinterest has been brimming with advent calendars.

I figured it was a cute way to count down to Christmas with the kids.  When I started to reasearch it, I found out it was something much more beautiful than that.

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One thing I’ve learned about hosting Holiday meals is that people either love or hate sweet potatoes.

I fall into the love camp; however, I’m not fond of the traditional sweet potatoes layered with sugar and marshmallows.

Instead, I prefer to actually taste the sweet potato.  Soft and silky with a hint of Earthiness.

This recipe lets the sweet potato shine and is brightened up with fresh cranberries that adds a bit of tartness.

If you’ve never cooked with fresh cranberries before, don’t eat them raw.  Wowza!  They’ll make you jump back with bitterness.

Once the cranberries are cooked down, however; and allowed to simmer in pure maple syrup, they brighten up and compliment the sweet potatoes well.

These maple cranberry sweet potatoes make a beautifully sweet and Earthy side dish perfect for any Holiday meal.

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Written by Halle of Whole Lifestyle Nutrition

I just love Thanksgiving.  It is such a magical day from the minute we wake up until the minute we lay our heads on the pillow at night.  What’s not to love?  A warm cozy house that smells amazing, family and friends filling the house with love and laughter, and a long list of things to be grateful for.

This year my family enjoyed an amazing feast.  As usual, I always cook way more than I need so that we can enjoy the leftovers for a few days after Thanksgiving.  I mean really, the day just passes by so quickly so why not make it linger a bit longer, right?

I have come to love not only Thanksgiving day but the entire Thanksgiving weekend.  Why?  Because I eat like a queen all weekend long. I have always challenged myself to come up with new recipes that feature the leftover ingredients from Thanksgiving.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

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I feel like this year has flashed before my eyes. Here we are, only two days before Thanksgiving. Goodness, how did that happen so quickly?

Maybe these little’s had something to do with it ;)

I’m sure by now many of you have noticed the start of contributor posts here at Spain in Iowa.  Some people have loved them while others have shared with me that I’ve been missed.

To those that have shared with me that you’ve missed me, thank you.

Being able to hear that my writing touches many of you is an incredible blessing.  In order to continue on a special project, I’ve had to make a few changes which I know you’ll enjoy.

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Written by Katie of Mexican Wildflower

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s always a special time to come together with family and friends to remember all the blessings in life.

I’ve had all the dishes I am making planned out for over a week now and a Thanksgiving stuffing recipe made with fresh bread crumbs is always on the top of my list.

Stuffing made with fresh bread crumbs tastes so much better than those dry cubes found in box mixes and it only takes a few extra minutes to prepare.

Savory fig and walnut stuffing is a twist on a traditional stuffing that will make you never want to go back to the boring box mix. The herbs and dried figs are the perfect amount of spice and sweetness. It has become my new favorite stuffing recipe that makes random appearances at my table through out the year.

If you’re still planning the dishes that will be gracing your table this year, you might want to give this stuffing a try.

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