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!