Sometimes you feel like a NUT

Coconut! And I LOVE coconut!  Coconut water not so much but anything else coconut is top in my book.

My new love is Coconut oil.  Coconut oil can be used for so much.

Coconut oil is a solid and a liquid.  At temps below 70 degrees it varies between hard and semi soft, depending on the temps.  At temps above 70 degrees it turns to liquid.  The first time I went into my pantry in the summer time and saw that my jar of coconut oil had melted  I didn't know what to think.  I didn't realize at the time that temperature affected it.  Live and Learn.

First, outside of the kitchen coconut oil can be used in making homemade cosmetics and scrubs.  I keep telling myself that I am going to do just that but I haven't found the time.  I am out of sugar scrub though so I need to get on it quick.

Inside the kitchen there are a ton of ways to use coconut oil.  A ton of TASTY ways!
Here are a few of my favorites:

Popcorn!  I pop my own popcorn in the microwave with a microwave popcorn bowl.  I add a small amount of oil at the bottom and grind salt and pepper over the oil.  Then I add the popcorn and pop.  The flavor is great!  There is a hint of coconut and its so light and flavorful that the corn flavor just pops.  I'll never make popcorn any other way again.  It just doesn't measure up.

Corn on the Cob!  I have a few ways that I make corn on the cob.  But when I make it on the stove top I usually add either butter or olive oil to the water so save from having to add it later and to enhance the flavor.  One day I decided to add coconut oil to the water instead.  WOW!  It melts with the sweet corn flavor so well.  I think this may be my favorite way to cook corn now.

Baking!  If your recipe calls for butter or shortening use coconut oil instead.  The measurements are one for one. Its not as healthy as using apple sauce or pumpkin puree but it is oh so good.  I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for the kids ;-) and used coconut oil instead of butter.  I also added shredded coconut to the batter.  THE. BEST. CHOCOLATE. CHIP. COOKIES. EVER!  You don't have to soften it like you do butter and it is far better for you than shortening/crisco!

Mashed Taters!  I prefer mashed sweet taters.  If you get the sweet and salty flavors just right they are awesome and pair well with a good meatloaf.  I usually add a bit of butter and milk or broth to the potatoes before I mix them.  One day I added a small amount of coconut oil instead.  YUMMO!  I also added cinnamon, raw sugar, salt and light sour cream (instead of milk/broth)  I'm sure this would be just as yummy with white potatoes.  It'll give them a slight island flavor!

Stir Fry!  Sauté or stir fry your onions, green peppers and mushrooms in coconut oil.

Rice!  I like to sauté my rice before I cook it.  I start off with hot oil in a pan, sauté  the rice until translucent and then add broth or water.   I'll then cover it and cook on low until done.  Coconut oil is so much more flavorful then olive oil.

I have yet to pan fry anything in coconut oil.  Only because I rarely pan fry.  But knowing what I know about coconut oil I'm sure it would make chicken breasts, seasoned with a bit of jerk seasoning, taste amazing.   I might just have to add that to my weeks menu now :-)

So go run out and get you a jar of coconut oil and have at it!  And don't forget to share your ideas.

Busy little bee

I haven't been around in a while, things have been beyond crazy here.  But I have been busy!  

Marc took a trip to Guadalajara for business a few weeks ago and I was totally overwhelmed with everything. 

Driving the two oldest boys to middle school before 8 and then the youngest to elementary school at 8:45 and still manage to shower, dress myself and baby, keep a somewhat clean kitchen and house AND still keep our scheduled activities and routines going was almost impossible.  And everyone still had to eat.  Three meals a day!  Can you believe the nerve?  

This momma needs some major destressing, to say the least!

I am in AWE of single mommies.  You guys rock!

But in the time before and after that week long business trip I did manage to make a few things.  

  Nutella French toast!  

Such a simple and absolutely delicious idea.  I don't know why I hadn't thought of it myself!  Another Pinterest gem.

I used bakery french bread from the grocery store.  I prepared the french toast mixture as I usually do, with eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

I spread nutella between 2 slices of bread and dipped each "sandwich" in the mixture and cooked in a skillet on medium heat.

 

To garnish I sprinkled with confectioners sugar and used real maple syrup.

  Pepperoni Dough Balls   

They are quick and easy and the kids love them.  Perfect for nights that Jacob has bassoon lessons.  I had made an entire pan of dough balls, there are recipes all over the internet for these.  

I use can biscuits.  I cut them in half and roll out each half.  Then place a few pieces of pepperoni or even half a meatball on each piece of dough, top with cheese and fold the dough ends over until it forms a ball.  I place them all in a greased glass backing pan, fold side down.  Spray or baste the tops with olive oil  and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and herbs.  I bake at 350 until nice a brown.

I honestly don't pay attention to the time, I just watch the food.  Maybe 15 min?  Don't hold me to it.

Baked Sugar Biscuits

I had some biscuits left over after making dinner so I made dessert too.  

Now my parents always made biscuit donuts.  These sugar covered fried biscuits can even be found on Chinese buffets.  This is in no way a new invention.  But I wanted to bake these, not fry them.

So I filled a bowl with Sugar in the Raw and Trader Joes cinamon sugar grinder.  I rolled each grand biscuit in the sugar mixture until all sides were evenly covered.  I placed them on a greased cookie sheet.  I figured I had to use something to create the crispiness that I wanted so I softened a bit of coconut oil and poured a small amount on top of each biscuit.  It looked like drizzle frosting. The coconut oil melted down and around the biscuit to crisp all sides. I baked them at 350 until brown as well.     

 

This is what I got.  DELISH 

 Breakfast Hash Brown Casserole  

I found this recipe on Pinterest.  I didn't get any pictures of it. The morning was just too busy to worry about it.

It made the house smell wonderful in the morning!  Its was very simple.    All you need is:

One dozen eggs or egg beaters                                                                                                                

6 slices of bacon (sausage would work good too)                                                                                   

1/2 onion, chopped                                                                                                                                  

1 clove of garlic (the original recipe called for it but I left it out)                                                             

1 cup chopped peppers, any color.  Sweet or bell peppers work.                                                            

1 cup chopped mushrooms                                                                                                                      

1 bag frozen hash browns                                                                                                                        

2 cups shredded cheese                                                                                                                            

Dill, Salt & Pepper                                                                                                                                   

• Cook bacon and cut into one inch pieces.  I baked my bacon while moving on to the next step.
• Sauté onions, mushrooms and green peppers. (and garlic if used)                                               
• In a bowl  beat 12 eggs and seasoned dill and salt and pepper.                                                   
• Spray a crock pot with cooking spray and begin layering frozen hash browns, bacon, pepper   mixture and shredded cheese.                                                                                                      
• I repeated these layers, using all the ingredients                                                                           
• Pour the eggs on top and set to cook for 8 hours.                                                                        

Everyone loved this also.   Even the baby!  It made the morning so much easier.

Time? What time?

I couldn't wait for summer break to be over and the boys to return to school.  Not only were they bored out of their minds by August, I was ready for a break!  I naively thought I'd have all this time on my hands with them all in school.  Am I new here?  You'd think this was my first time at the rodeo?
I had such grand plans of taking my daughter out places, just the two of us, take a nap, or read a book.  It turns out we haven't had much time to do anything.

Where has all that free time gone?  Of course it is only the first month of school.  Our schedules and routines are still being ironed out, and moving along quite smoothly if I do say so.    My husband drives  the two older boys to school in the morning while I get the youngest boy ready to walk to school.   I've managed to have breakfasts already made and in the freezer ready to nuke.  Lunches made and ready to be packed. But I haven't read the first book nor taken the first nap!

But I did find the time to make THESE!!! 

 Found on Pinterest, OF COURSE!

The Oatmeal Lemon Creme Bars were excellent.  I LOVE lemony desserts.    But even something good can be improved upon.   And improve it I did.  

With LIME!  COCONUT AND LIME!!!  I added coconut to the oatmeal mixture (toasted would have been really good but sweetened worked just fine), used organic coconut oil instead of butter and egg white instead of an egg. I also used fat free sweetened condensed milk.   HEAVEN!  

The kids loved them!  More than the lemon bars, not that they didn't like the lemon bars.  
Now just to let my culinary imagination go and come up with other variations.  

Raspberry and Almond?
Nutella?
Cranberry and Orange?

I'm salivating over here!  Good thing these are quick and super easy to make. Or maybe that is a not so good thing...

Recipe

Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix (or make your own)

1 egg

1 stick of butter or equivalent substitute

1 can sweetened condensed milk

juice of 2 lemons or limes

zest

Follow directions on oatmeal cookie mix, omitting water.  Press 1/2 of the cookie mix into the bottom of a greased square baking pan. (using a plastic bag like a glove or a piece of saran wrap is good for doing this)

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until it begins to brown (but not over bake).

Mix condensed milk with juice and zest.  It will thicken up and get really creamy the more you mix it.  

Spread mixture on top of the baked cookie crust and top with the remaining cookie mixture.  I found it easier to take small amounts of the mixture and flatten in my hand and place on the filling. I did this until the whole thing was covered and then just sprinkled the cookie mixture to fill in the gaps.

Place back in the oven for 20-25 minutes.  The top crust will get nice and brown.  

Let cool before cutting!  I was over anxious and tried to cut it too early.  It got very messy.

My craftiness runneth over

In the kitchen anyways.  On this nice three day weekend.  With my husband floating down a river.  With 4 kids at home.  Yeah, lucky nothing else "runneth over".

When it's just me we tend to hide away indoors, afraid of venturing out as if the sun would melt us.  Or the 4 kids would drive me  straight to the mental ward of the nearest hospital.

So inside I stayed, with PBS on the TV, the boys on the 3rd floor (I think the third floor isn't distant enough) and the baby in her swing.  On comes a show about stocking up with fresh produce. b organic with michele beschen  They made jams and butters.  But what really got me was making homemade stock.  Vegetable stock.

That's all it took.  I had Kale that needed to be used that I got from my Wednesday The Produce Box, a weekly home delivery service of you guessed it- produce!  I also had spinach, carrots, fennel, onions, celery, tomatoes, garlic and peppers.  And I use stock ALL the time when I cook.  So why not.

I got out my trusty Omega juicer (I LOVE that thing) and juiced up all those veggies.  Added some water, tomato paste and bay leaves from my bay leaf plant and simmered on the stove for a few hours. 

DONE!  I stored half of it in a pitcher in the fridge and the other half frozen in ice cubes for use  in cooking later.   I cannot wait to make my first beef stew (come on cold weather!).  It is going to taste SOOOO awesome with homemade stock.  

When I was done with that I whipped up some mini fritattas for the kids' breakfast.  Enough to last the week.

Then because I was feeling so accomplished and was delusional in all my glory, I loaded up the kids and went to Walmart.

Its not easy being green

No, not like a frog. More like good for the environment.
We recycle and I practice reusing/repurposing as much as I can.  The hard part is in the reducing.

Our recycle bin is filled every week.  And our town uses the full size bins, not the little green boxes.  I always wondered why, if "they" want us to recycle more, they don't make the recycle bins bigger and the trash bins smaller.  Would make sense right? But they are not.  Even the full size recycle bin is merely a miniature, about 70%, of the garbage bin.

Anyways...
There are several areas that I am currently trying to be more "green" and several more that I would like to.


Instead of  plastic sandwich bags I try to use lunch boxes that eliminate them.  I have done this for years and continue to search for the best bentostyle lunch box.

I used Lunchbots last year and really liked them.  They were easy for Christopher to open too and fit nicely in a traditional soft side lunch box.  I would fill one for his snack and one for his lunch.

This year I thought I'd try Goodbyns.  They were cute, didn't require using another lunchbox  (it has a handle at the top) and had many more compartments.

Christopher doesn't like this one all that much.  It is hard for him to close and get it to snap securely shut.  He also says his fruits leak.  He gets a wide range of cute of fruit pieces and the softer fruits like raspberries or melons do have a good amount of juice.  It doesn't help that he eats lunch at 1:00, giving them all more time to sit in his cubby at school, and not in the refrigerator.

I think we will go back to the Lunchbots for now and I'll keep searching.  Those Goodbyns aren't cheap though so I will have to find something to do with them.  I still intend to use Anna Beth's pink one for her snacks and food when we travel.


I would also love to make all of my own cleaning supplies, soaps and deodorants.  Everything from all purpose sprays and laundry detergents to shampoo and baby wash.  I really want to eliminate all toxic chemicals from the house. And cleaning supplies are full of them!
I haven't ventured out of the kitchen and laundry room yet.  Baby steps.  I've tried a few recipes.  Some I love, others I don't.

I Love my citrus vinegar.  Simple.  Soak citrus peels,  from any citrus, in vinegar for 2 weeks.  Strain the vinegar and you are ready to use it.  In your dishwasher as a rinse aid or in your cleaning supply recipes.  I clean my counters with it every day.

Baking soda and Washing soda are now a main staple in my cleaning supplies.  I have used baking soda to clean up wet messes on carpets before.  It works great for pet accidents.  Just generously sprinkle baking soda over wet spot, let it soak up all the liquids and vacuum up (or use dust pan if its very pasty)  But now I use baking soda to clean extra dirty pans.  My stainless sink shines after scouring it with Washing soda and my toilet bowls are much cleaner (and less toxic)
         
But I am not crazy with my homemade dish soap or the dishwasher detergent.  Its time to find more recipes for those two.  I was trying to avoid using lye to make my soaps but I think that is what I have to do.  The dish soap doesn't clean very well, leaving a greasy film on everything.  My husband doesn't like it but has used it for me.   The dishwashing detergent requires a lot of pre cleaning and leaves a blueish haze on my glasses.  I used a recipe that didn't call for borax and wonder if that is the miracle ingredient that gets your dishes clean?  Even after having the boys wipe down their plates with a sponge before putting in the dishwasher they came out dirty.  And if you have to wash your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher you might as well just wash them by hand and be done with it.

I use white vinegar with a few drops of lavender oil as a fabric softener.  I love how clean smelling and crisp our laundry, especially towels, come out.  When I run out of laundry soap I will try my hand at that.


One thing I noticed is that a lot of homemade recipes aren't really any better for you then the store bought.  They use the same cleaning products but just stretch them out so they cost less but aren't really any better for you.
For instance, many homemade fabric softener recipes call for using conditioner and vinegar.  Unless you are buying a really natural, and expensive, organic conditioner you are not really being green and its not much more cost effective then buying downy.  Considering the time, materials etc.

Being green takes a lot of work!  But I'm working on it and I'm not done yet!

Weekends are for Pinterest!

Every weekend I try to make at least one of my pinterest pins.  This weekend I made three!

I just had to try out the salted chocolate caramel pretzel bark!  Who doesn't LOVE salted caramel chocolate?

In an attempt to cut out all processed snacks and foods out of our diets, I wanted to give a whirl at making snacks for the kids lunches.  After all, I have to put something in their lunch boxes.   I found these homemade granola snack bars and just had to give them a try.

And I made my own dishwashing soap!   I looked around the web for recipes.  I was very nervous about using a recipe that used lye.  At least until I get comfortable with the whole soap making process. So I settled on this recipe.  It was quick and easy.  It takes a little bit to gather all the ingredients.  But once you have them on had you can make just about any homemade cleaner.  I not only made the homemade liquid dish soap from this site but I also made dishwasher detergent and citrus vinegar!

http://frugallysustainable.com is a very good resource for homemade cleaning supplies.  I found this one for baby recipes and am anxious to give those a try! 

Check out out my I Made This page for review on everything I made.

Physical Day

Today we killed 2 birds with one stone :-).  Anna Beth had her 9 month appointment and Jacob got his yearly physical.  2 kids, one room, back to back appointments.    Both are growing fast but I do say Jacob wins the award for this one.
He grew 8 inches in 1 1/2 years!  He is only 12!  At this rate he will be 7 ft.  Too bad he is too gangly and uncoordinated to play basketball or we may have a future NBAer on our hands.
Jacob's stats:  Height- 67.8 inches or 5'7  3/4"  The average height for a 15 year old. Did I say he is only 12!  Wearing mens smalls and size 18 (or 29x32) pants.
Marc is 5'8' and I'm a mere 5'1.5"  He obviously towers over me and is eye to eye with his dad.
As tall as Jacob is he is just as skinny.  9% body fat.  One can only dream of such numbers!  He barely broke 100 lbs!  Weighing in at 102.  You would think I never feed this kid!
I doubt there will be many kids as tall as Jacob in the 7th grade.  At least he will be easy to see at assemblies.

Anna Beth is growing too.  2 inches in 3 months and one pound.  She is now 28 inches long and 17.9lbs  Long and lean.  She is sprouting her top teeth and burning up as many calories as she consumes, cruising along furniture and crawling all around the house.  She never sits still, making diaper changes a real challenge these days.
And it just makes me so proud that no matter where we go, people just ooo and awe over Anna Beth. I can't tell you how many times I've been walking through Walmart or Target and a stranger stops to tell me she is beautiful.  Its not like the obligatory "your baby is so cute" that comes when people have nothing to say in a situation that clearly calls for a compliment.  People don't have to stop and talk to me in the store but they do.  I'm just so proud and amazed that I made something sooooooo beautiful! Marc played a small part in it too I guess ;-)
Thats my baby girl!  A real beauty!  If you don't believe me head over to My Crew page and take a look for yourself!

Museum day

Marc took Monday off work today to spend with me and the kids.  Nana was in town for the weekend so I planned a day of fun.  It was between the zoo, the NC aquarium or the Raleigh Museums.  I concluded that in the heat of day, walking through the zoo would be unbearable and the animals would probably all be hiding.  The aquarium would be a nice little drive and we would spend more time on the road.  So sticking close to home it was.
My plan was to visit  The NC Museum of Natural Sciences and finally see the new Research wing.  Since the NC Museum of History and the Raleigh Kids Museum are so close I figured we could hit them all.
Four floors and 5 hours later we finished up at the Natural Sciences Museum and headed out on foot for The Pitt.
We never made it to the History Museum or the Kids Museum.  That will have to be a trip for another day.

The kids loved it.  We saw Madagascan Hissing cockroaches, got to observe a rattle snake in surgery, look at bugs and snakes and electric cars.  The butterfly exhibit was closed.  (closed on Mondays) And never did make it back down to the 3D theatre.  But it was a great day nonetheless.  The new wing of the museum is awesome and I think we all had a good time.

These are the days that build memories.  We all need more days like this.

Me and my crazy house

Welcome to my Crazy House.  Its just me,  my four kids, husband, one dog and two cats.  It is one crazy house, no doubt about it.  With 2 t(w)eens, a second grader and  an eight month old I barely have more than 5 minutes, when I'm not sleeping, to do anything that requires the use of both hands.  

Our house wasn't always crazy.  Then we decided to start a family. 

Corey and Jacob arrived together in 2001.  Adopted from Kazakstan at two and one years of age.  I skipped right past the honeymoon period that most parents get to experience.  Instead I was thrust right into the toddler stage with 2 needy (understandable so) little boys.  Corey had special needs which in itself had its own challenges.  But we did the best we could and both boys have grown, and I mean GROWN, into very handsome and well manner young men.

Christopher shocked us with his existence in 2004, after almost 10 years of trying to conceive.  He was born in spring 2005.  He is one sharp witted, smart and creative little boy.  He also keeps me running, just trying to keep up with his energy.

Anna Beth arrived 7 years later, after I had sworn I was DONE.  Three was enough for me, or so I thought.  I guess when God has a plan for you there is no ignoring it.  Today, I say three is for quitters ;-).  She is such a joy.  Such a happy, calm natured child.   She adds just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the boys.

So now I have the four kids I always said I wanted.