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Green Leaves and Jam, a Plant-Based Diet

Supporting you and your plant-based diet

Make Oat Groats in your Crock-pot

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My family and I have a smoothie every morning for breakfast. After our smoothie, my kids eat a bowl or two of oatmeal to finish filling them up. Just recently I discovered oat groats, and we will never go back! Oat groats are essentially the oat kernel that has been removed from the inedible hard shell or husk. Normal old fashion oats are basically oat groats that have been steamed and rolled out. When you eat oat groats, you are getting the least-processed version and therefore the healthiest / fullest edible form of the oats. I found my oat groats in the bulk bin section of my grocery store. If I remember at night, I will cook them overnight so they are hot and ready in the morning and then place the leftovers into tupperware containers for the rest of the week’s breakfasts. However, I usually forget at night, so I end up cooking my oat groats and water in my crock-pot in the morning so they can cook all day and then at night I put the cooked oat groats into little tupperware containters and place it in my refrigerator.  One batch usually lasts us about a week.

This is what the oat groats look like when they are fully cooked:

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We do all sorts of oatmeal concoctions. I always add a little almond milk to it to make it nice and creamy and then I add in the toppings. Some of our favorites mix ins are peanut butter and banana (my husband and I’s favorite), peanut butter and raisins, frozen blueberries and cinnamon, peanut butter and craisins (Notice a trend here? We really like peanut butter around here…)

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Cooking Oat Groats in a Crock-pot
 
Print
Cook time
7 hours
Total time
7 hours
 
Author: GreenLeavesAndJam.com
Ingredients
  • 2 cups oat groat kernels
  • 6½ - 8 cups water*
  • desired toppings
Directions
  1. Place the oat groat kernels and water in a large crock-pot.
  2. Turn the heat to low and allow it to cook for 7 hours.
  3. Once the 7 hours is up, remove the oat groats from your crock-pot and either eat them right away or place them in containers in your fridge.
Re-heating instructions:
  1. Spoon out the amount of oat groats you would like to eat into a microwave safe bowl. Break up the large clumps just a bit with your spoon. Add a few tablespoons of water or almond milk to the bowl and then microwave for about a minute. Break up the rest of the clumps by stirring the oat groats. Add in a little more almond milk until it reaches your favorite oatmeal consistency. Add in toppings and enjoy!
*The oat groats in the pictures were made with 6½ cups of water. The more water you add, the softer and "mushier" the oat groats will be. I have done as much as 8 cups before. The oat groats were pretty mushy and soft when I used the 8 cups. Add the amount of water based on how soft you would like your oat groats to be.
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GreenLeavesAndJam.com

Here’s to being just a little bit healthier this week!

Kristin

 

P.s. Happy Cinco De Mayo! Too bad I planned to make quinoa tacos on Sunday with friends or I’d be making them tonight!

 

Posted in Breakfast, Recipes, toddler meals Tagged breakfast, main dish, oatmeal, plant based, vegan, vegan recipes Leave a comment

Favorite Vegan Buys at Costco

When I first started eating a more plant based diet, I was worried about all the “work” it would take. The thought of even putting a ton of effort into finding a snack that was vegan seemed daunting. But once I started looking at labels, I was surprised to find it wasn’t as hard as I thought! And now I have a lot of go to snack and meal items. We are big Costco people at our house so I thought I’d share a handful of my favorite Costco vegan items.

Chia Squeeze. We love chia seeds in our house! My husband puts them in almost anything (you think I’m kidding). So when they were doing little samples of these chia squeeze pouches I thought I’d try it out. They’re a quick and easy snack and I like to freeze them as well. I think kids would love their own pouch too!

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Premium Nut Crunch Variety Pack. This is another great on the go snack. I usually carry a couple in my diaper bag just in case we are out a little longer than expected (aka, always). I love all three flavors and let’s be real, I’ve used them to lure my dog out from under the couch too. Lola gives them two paws up!

Vegan Costco 1

Maya Kaimal Curry. We love these curries! You can find them in the refrigerator section at Costco. I mix it with some stir fry veggies and pour it over brown rice. After making the coconut curry one night my husband told me it was the best meal I’ve ever made for him…. Umm, yeah okay. I’m going to not be offended by that. If you’re a curry lover, these are great buys!

Vegan Costco 2

Super Seedz. These pumpkin seeds are good for a snack, or for a salad topping, or for baking, or for… the options are endless! They have a little spice to them though, so if you’re into your food being a little caliente (Yes, my spanish is amazing. How could you tell?), I’m sure you’ll love these!

Vegan Costco 3

Late July Multigrain Tortilla Chips. Who doesn’t love a bag of chips? Especially these because they’re vegan and they’re yummy! We live in the southwest and my husband is from Arizona so I feel this pressure that if I don’t show up with a giant bag of chips and a bowl of fresh guacamole I’m the biggest loser on the planet. (There’s no evidence of this, I’m just paranoid, okay?)

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Do you have any other vegan products you love from Costco? We’d love to hear!

Danielle

Posted in Misc, Snacks, Uncategorized Tagged main dish, plant based, vegan Leave a comment

Vegan Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Blueberry Zucchini 5

Cooking with a baby is a talent. Stir together… wait, what did I just add? Ooop. Baby is ripping off dog’s ears. And now I’ll add the flour. No, I just added flour. Time to feed baby! Yes, it takes a little longer and there are more distractions but it just makes me feel super cool and proud of myself when something actually comes together.

Anyways, this stuff is insane. My husband develops a serious case of sticky fingers when it comes to this bread. I love that it can be used as something just a little sweet after dinner or for an afternoon snack, or in today’s case, made for breakfast! My husband has already left for school, so when he comes home, he’ll have no clue that I made two loaves to start with. Instead, he’ll think I just made one loaf for him! Muahahaha/nom nom nom nom.

Just FYI! I peel as much of the zucchini as I can into long, thin strands (it gets harder once I reach the center). I don’t cut the strands into smaller pieces when folding it into the batter. It works just fine when you keep the strands long!

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At the end, the batter is really thick. It’s supposed to be this way! No worries, mate.

Blueberry Zucchini 3

If you like a little butter with your bread, I found this stuff works great! I just bought this at our local grocery store.

Blueberry Zucchini 4

 

Vegan Blueberry Zucchini Bread
 
Print
Prep time
20 mins
Cook time
45 mins
Total time
1 hour 5 mins
 
Author: GreenLeavesAndJam.com
Ingredients
  • 1 cup oil
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¼ cup agave nectar
  • 1 cup chia seeds
  • 3 large zucchinis, shredded
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 2½ cups flour
  • 2½ cups frozen blueberries
  • vegan butter for spread (optional)
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together oil, vanilla, sugar, agave nectar and chia seeds and set aside.
  3. Shred 3, large sized zucchini and fold the zucchini into the oil mixture.
  4. In a separate bowl, stir together the baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and flour. Then combine dry mixture with wet mixture, stirring well.
  5. Finally, fold blueberries into mixture.
  6. Spray 2 mini loaf pans with olive oil and pour batter evenly into pans filling them about half way.
  7. Bake for 45 minutes or until a metal knife once inserted, comes out clean.
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Ahhhhhhh, our whole house smells like one giant bite of blueberry goodness.

And now, we will eat the whole loaf in 2 minutes! Curse you zucchini blueberry bread!

Enjoy!

Danielle

Posted in Bread, Breakfast, Healthy Desserts Tagged bread, breakfast, Healthy Desserts, plant based, vegan, vegan recipes Leave a comment

True confessions… at the doctor’s

I have people ask me all the time how things are with 3 little ones. To be honest, it’s great. The kids really do pretty well over all. Occasionally I have moments of feeling like I’m drowning, but really it’s been totally manageable and fun. That being said… want to hear about my Monday adventures so far?

I swear that doctor’s office is slang for the once formal phrase of “the apes house at the zoo.”

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Check out Rome’s face. That was within seconds of getting into the room. I should have known then that there was a storm a brewin’.

I don’t know if this is true for your children, but for mine, as soon as we get seated in our little room my children decide to treat the room like something out of Jumanji. What?! They’re totally civilized in the waiting room (most of the time), but as soon as the nurse walks us back and sits us in our room they go mad! Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids no matter what state they’re in, but the ape-state ain’t my favorite. What is it about that tiny little box of a room? Within minutes we had rearranged the seating in the room, torn up the patient’s table paper into little pieces and dumped the entire contents of my diaper bag onto the ground. By the time we left we had even “bejeweled” the room because one of my kids had found a tiny jar of glitter I had apparently left in the abyss of the bottom of my diaper bag – my diaper bag that seems to eat everything until the most inopportune moment to spit that thing back up – like a bottle of glitter at a doctor’s office.

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He was just getting started in this picture.

One of the craziest things to me is that this is just with 2 children running around. Check out this sweet little angel baby that just sat on my lap during the tornado chaos.

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How do people do doctor’s appointments when they have more than 2 walkers? Seriously though, how? 🙂

Kristin

Posted in Plant-based Life and Parenting Tagged plant-based life and parenting Leave a comment

Creamy Sweet Potato and Broccoli Soup

GreenLeavesAndJam.com

On Saturday we had a lot of yard work to do. While the younger kids napped I set Sydney up with a movie to watch while I went outside to help. When I came back in to  get the little guys up from naps and make lunch I asked Sydney to sit in a chair and eat her peas. She complained that she couldn’t hear and this was her solution. She grabbed her mini chair and sat a whole foot closer and claimed that she could hear better. She get’s points for cleverness though!

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I loved watching Rome eat his peas. As you can see in this picture, he ate one pea at a time. I wish I had that much self control when it comes to food! A lesson I clearly need to learn from my 1 year old…

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Tonight for dinner I had one of my favorite meals ever. Sweet potato soup. My friend brought over a similar soup for us one day when we were all sick and it got me thinking. I had never had sweet potatoes in my soup before and to be honest I was skeptical that I would like it, but it was fabulous. So naturally I had to make my own little plant-based version!

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We just got hit with a random blizzard that has made me in the mood for warm soup. Although, call me weird, but we eat soup even in the summer. I am a year-round soup eater. Especially when the soup is really tasty like this one is. It’s creamy with a sweet and savory taste. I’m a fan.:)

GreenLeavesAndJam.com

Creamy Sweet Potato and Broccoli Soup
 
Print
Cook time
40 mins
Total time
40 mins
 
Author: GreenLeavesAndJam.com
Ingredients
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 2 cups chopped carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 8 cups water
  • 6 cups chopped sweet potato (2 large sweet potatoes)
  • 1 lb frozen broccoli
  • 1½ cups frozen sweet corn
  • 1 cup cashews + 1 cup water
  • sea salt to taste
Directions
  1. In a large pot, saute your red onion in the olive oil on medium heat while you chop your carrots.
  2. Add the carrots into the pot and continue to cook while you add in your minced garlic. Saute the veggies for another 2 minutes.
  3. Add in the 8 cups of water and turn up the heat to high.
  4. While you wait for it to boil, chop your sweet potatoes and add them to the pot. Add in the broccoli and corn as well.
  5. In a blender, blend your cashews and 1 cup of water until smooth. Add to the soup and wait until it boils.
  6. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and let it simmer for 30 minutes or until the veggies are soft.
  7. Blend just a bit with a hand blender to eliminate any large pieces of veggies and blend the flavors in just a bit.
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GreenLeavesAndJam.com

Give this soup a try and come back and let me know what you think!

Kristin

Posted in Dinner, Plant-based Life and Parenting, Recipes, Soup Tagged main dish, plant based, plant-based life and parenting, soups, vegan recipes, vegetables Leave a comment

I’m pretty chunky..

Sydney has a friend over this morning to play and so that means I get/got (since they’re in bed now) some extra time with my two boys! Athens reminds me so much of Rome when he was little. He is so happy and easy going. Maybe he came that way because he knew that he would need to be in order to survive in this crazy household.:)

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Love his smiles and chunky cheeks. I think that since I use “chunky” as a term of endearment for the two boys, Sydney has started saying “I’m pretty chunky” randomly. That girl makes me laugh!

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The only picture I could snap before Rome decided he was done sitting still.

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I just overheard Sydney and her friend playing hide and seek. Sydney was hiding and when her friend walked by her friend said “where could she be?” and kept walking when Sydney peeked out and yelled ” I’m right here!” Obviously frustrated, Sydney came running out and jumped up and down in front of her yelling “But I’m right here!!” Her friend just kept saying “Where could she be?” and looked past her. I love when kids try to implement what they see us doing.. no matter how ridiculous it probably seems to them.

Also! Guys! I officially have a thumb sucker! It was bound to happen since I sucked my thumb until I was 5 or so, but it took 3 kids before I had one. I know that someday we will probably have repercussions for this and needing to help him stop, but until then, I will continue to take pictures of my cute thumb sucker!:)

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Don’t ya just want to kiss those sweet cheeks?!

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Posted in Plant-based Life and Parenting Tagged plant-based life and parenting Leave a comment

Home Remodel – Kitchen and Living Room Redo

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If I was to say that I have had fun remodeling my house, that would be a MASSIVE understatement! It took a fair amount of time to get it to where it is now, but I LOVE it! There were so many late nights, set backs and budget surprises, but it was well worth it all. It all came together exactly like I imagined it in my head.

When we were searching for a house to buy when we moved out here to Utah I had a pretty specific location we wanted, so it all came down to finding a good house. After searching around on Zillow.com for a number of weeks we settled on 3 different houses that had pretty much the same layout. These houses were ideal for the open layout I had envisioned for our next house. When our realtor took us to the houses however, the last house (the one we bought) was the clear winner. When we went through the other two houses I couldn’t help but notice that EVERY SINGLE ROOM needed some updating and got pretty overwhelmed. When we went through this house, all I could think was WHEW! This one is at least safe and livable the way it is.

Shortly after moving in (I believe it was less than a week later) I started calling our contractor and had him come out to look at taking down the wall between the kitchen and the living room. I also had him quote us on moving cabinets, ripping out tile and installing new baseboards, etc. He had awesome prices so I was able to do more than I thought we could.

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Joel and I had the privilege of tearing down the drywall on the wall between the kitchen and livingroom -> which was a blast! we also installed our back-splash, installed the floating shelves, the new glass door over the microwave, did LOTS of painting, installed the mantle on the fireplace, and many more projects. It kept us busy to say the least, but I’ll say it again, it was worth it!! Here are some of the before and afters

Before:

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After:

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Before:

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After:

GreenLeavesAndJam.comI love my blue door!:)

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Before:

HH8

After:

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Before:

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After:

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Before (when we were moving in):

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After:

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And just a few more for fun:

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Before and After Living

 

 

 

Before and After Kitchen

Anyway! All the stars finally aligned and we were able to keep the kitchen/living room clean long enough to get a few shots. It’s been fun thinking up ideas and watching them come to pass. Hope this can inspire your own home-reno thoughts!

Kristin

Posted in Plant-based Life and Parenting Tagged plant-based life and parenting 1 Comment

To TV or Not to TV, that is the Question..

TV. It’s one of those nagging topics that just sits at the back of your mind and is discussed by all moms everywhere. I too have struggled with this question.When I first started having kids I had decided that I would never (NEVER EVER SAY NEVER…) let my kids watch TV or movies before she was 2 years old and then limit it while she was older. As she got older I slowly started letting her watch more and more. When my second child was born was when TV watching was at it’s high. My daughter watched probably 1 movie almost every day-ish for a few months.  I hit a breaking point when my daughter started acting up worse than normal and when discussing it with my husband we realized that it quite possibly was linked to her elevated amount of screen time. That’s when I introduced the idea to my daughter of Movie Fridays.

My 3 year old daughter knows her days of the week because she knows that Friday is her movie day. She wakes up every morning and asks “Mommy, was that a nap or a sleep (bed-time)?” After I tell her it was a “sleep” she says “Good! What day is it?” The closer it is to Friday, the more excited she is when you tell her the day. For instance, if you mention it is Thursday, you can bet her tone and eyebrows will be raised and there will be a special sparkle in her eyes when she repeats “Thursday!!” Having Fridays as our designated movie days has been great for my daughter as well as for me. She knows that she gets to watch a movie on Friday and therefore doesn’t ask to watch movies every 2 seconds on the other days of the week. It’s great! I was so tired of her asking if she could watch “one episode” every single time she was bored. Because she doesn’t ask, I don’t break down as often either and let her watch them. She watches movies on Friday. Period. (minus the occasional mommy break-down moments.. we’ve all been there).

She gets to watch a movie and eat popcorn during her little brothers nap time in the morning and it’s a special treat. Sydney’s mood has improved tremendously and I really do believe that it is due to the decrease in screen time. I can totally tell a difference in her attitude  on days that she watches TV vs days that she doesn’t. I’m not saying that watching TV is a bad thing all together, it just needs to be in doses.

Being that we only had one car for the first 3 years of marriage it meant that I had to come up with a million other ways to entertain my daughter since my husband took that one car to work during the day. I came up with a list of random things that you can do to help the time pass in a better, more positive way. This will hopefully help you avoid those TV watching days just a little better.

Please excuse the extremely cute chubby baby “nudity.”

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Bath time. My kids LOVE bath time. Especially in the winter, this is a great way to change things up and also keep the kids happy and entertained.

Read books. After breakfast almost every morning we sit down and go through our library pile of books. All 10-20 of them! Seriously. We spend about an hour and a half just snuggling and reading books. It’s fabulous.

Walks. We do this a lot! We did this more before we got our second car, but this is a great way to spend your time! Everyone gets out of the house and is able to get fresh air therefore yielding better family vibes.:) It’s also really important for kids to have time to get out and run around and also just be out in nature.

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Go to the park (invite friends). Often times we end up over at the park twice a week. I love it because I am able to have a few minutes of me-time when I can watch the kids play and I can have time to think. We also invite friends to the park sometimes too. Then the kids have friends and I have friends to have adult conversations with.

Go to the Library. We go to the library at least once a week. This is a great source of entertainment for my kids and gives me a mini break. When we can make it, I try to get to story time as well. Story time gives me a few minutes of not being needed. I love my kids, but when a mom can have a mini break, take it!:)

Bake together. I love to bake. This love of baking I have has apparently transferred over into my daughter as well. Any time I pull out my measuring cups or a bowl, my daughter runs in and starts pulling up a  chair and asking if she can help. It’s messy and slow a lot of times, but it’s worth it.

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Go for a run with the kids in the stroller. This creates some really great me time. My kids know that when they are in the stroller and I am running that they can chat with each other. This is mommy’s quiet time and I don’t chat with them unless someone is bleeding or we dropped (and usually ran over) a toy along the way. I put one head phone in (that way I can hear them if I do need to help them) and crank the music.

Exercise videos. Even if my kids aren’t participating, they are usually playing nicely just because I am in the room with them. My daughter usually starts out doing the exercises with me but by the end has gotten distracted by a toy and is off in the corner playing quietly with it. My son on the other hand, that’s a different story. Usually he plays as well with teh occasional crawling on my back while I am sweating over doing planks. It’s entertaining.

Clean the house. My daughter LOVES to clean. I have a hard time letting her sometimes because it ends up taking me double the time to get a job i HATE done than it would if she wasn’t helping. But aren’t we trying to use up time anyway? PLUS then your child is learning some very needed hard work skills. Just make sure you don’t do any cleaning with kids that requires bleach.. or I guess any other harsh chemicals.

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Grocery shopping. I know some of you might be laughing on the inside at this one, or maybe even laughing out loud. I LOVE to take my kids grocery shopping. I grocery shop once every 2 weeks and the kids and I look forward to it. I split it up into two days. The first day I hit up the normal grocery store, and usually Walmart as well for the diapers, and then the next day we head over to Costco. My kids know that they get a special treat at both Costco and the grocery store. They get to choose one special treat from the bulk bins (usually 3 gummy bears or a small handful of m&m’s), and then on our Costco day they get the samples and most the time we buy a treat (usually the berry smoothie) from the food court after shopping. This has helped to make my grocery shopping trips a fun thing for the kids and I.

Play time. You can either get down on the floor with your kids and play with them with their toys, or sit on the couch in that room and read a book while your kids play. If I am in the room, my kids will play for a good hour or 2 sometimes.

Books on youtube. My daughter is a big fan of the videos on youtube where people read books to you. We get books from the library a lot that have the CD with it, but this is nice because it turns the pages for you. I don’t have to help her get back on the right page every few minutes when she forgets to turn to the chime.

Check out local museums. We recently bought passes for some local museums here and we LOVE taking advantage of those. I love it because I can go any day that we are just bored and have nothing going on. I also love it because if a child starts having a meltdown and we have to leave I can without feeling guilty that we spent x amount of dollars!

Good luck trying to decide how your family wants to tackle the TV watching dilemma. Hopefully these ideas can give you some ideas for things you an your kids can do instead of watch TV. Also, since Easter is quickly approaching and I still haven’t even thought about Easter baskets… Check out my post from last year Three Steps to Having a Healthy, Happy and Inexpensive Easter (Filling Easter Baskets for kids)

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Happy Easter Y’all!

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