Smoothie Heaven

My baby will be a year old in a month, where does the time go? Dad's smoothie turned into his smoothie and he was all smiles and excitement. I think I saw his facial expressions change about five times before the camera took the picture.

Smoothie Recipe
1 organic banana
6 cubes of organic pineapple
1 small organic orange
small handful of organic blueberries
1/3 cup of Nancy's Organic Whole Milk Plain Yogurt

Blend and Enjoy

A Very Productive Weekend...

We:

finished staining the bunk bed

painted half of a very large bedroom

several loads of laundry

started the curtains for said half painted bedroom

baked cookies, made granola, roasted a chicken, made beans and rice and better butter

washed a weekends worth of baking dishes in a single session

finished two pairs of jammy pants and a pair of short-alls (now that it is autumn)

untangled a mass of yarn (started dress for Grace, decided I didn't have the right yarn after working on the bottom hem all week, ripped it all out, didn't get to winding it back up before the kids got to it. A very patient and loving hubby helped me untangle it at 10:30 at night when he would have rather been doing something else.)

toilet paper holder and towel bar affixed to a stud, so hopefully that is the last time it had to be put up

tried to participated in a recipe swap, but so far not very many people seem interested in doing

Researched more about hypothyroidism since I can't find a doctor to prescribe Amour(a natural hormone versus the synthetic I was taking), I stopped taking the synthetic because I couldn't stand the side effects anymore. I decided that taking a pill everyday for the rest of my life is not the answer, I needed to figure out how to heal my body. I am going back to biblical basic, Genesis 1:29, a primarily raw foods diet, the one that God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. My husband says that I am so far into the deep end that I am out of the pool!!

I hope all of you had a great weekend!!

Correction on the Muffin Recipe

Harvest Crunch Muffins

*I forgot to put in the amount of milk that is need, 3/4 cup *

Harvest Crunch Muffins

This is a recipe from my sister,who got it from her friend Krisanne, they are chalked full of good stuff and taste great, I have listed the ingredients by the amount of ingredient needed so read the whole recipe before you start to make sure you have everything. Bon Appite

*oven at 350 degrees*

1 cup white flour (I use golden wheat n' white flour, cooks just like white with the goodness of wheat)

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots

2 apples, peeled and shredded (I'm lazy and usually don't peel apples, you get more nutrients anyway)

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup honey

3/4 cup flax seed meal

3/4 oat bran

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder (aluminum free preferably)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

mix dry ingredients, stir in carrots, apples, raisins, and nuts. combine milk, eggs, honey, and vanilla. pour liquids into dry ingredients and stir only till moistened. fill muffin cups 3/4 full and make for 15 to 20 minutes. makes about 18 to 24 muffins

Raw Granola Bars

I wanted to post this recipe and them realized that I gave the magazine that the recipe was in to my mom I will get it back from her and post it late tonight, we have a birthday party to go to.

Honey Peanut Butter Balls

6 Tbsp cocoa powder
6 Tbsp powdered milk
6 Tbsp wheat germ
6 Tbsp real peanut butter (peanuts and salt, that's it)
6 Tbsp honey (raw is the most nutritious)

mix the dough with your hands until well mixed. Form small balls, and roll each ball in some coconut flakes or raw sunflower seeds if desired, they are great all by them self. Put in the fridge to let harden a bit.

You can use dark cocoa and after they have hardened, dip them in some melted dark chocolate, they make a great truffle (that is good for you), proceed to hide in the fridge in a brown paper bag labeled tofu because if your kids find these they will be gone!!

Will post a picture when they are done hardening in the fridge.

Marshmallows From Hell

If you know me, you know that I don't cuss, so for me to describe something as hell, let me tell you people it wasn't pretty. My kids are allergic to corn, that includes corn syrup, which is in everything including marshmallows. We are going camping this weekend and what is a cookout with s'mores.

Step 1: find a recipe without corn syrup. Found one, looks good, all systems go
Step 2: make marshmallows ha!!

I used agar-agar flakes instead of gelatin, recipes says "place flakes in cold water in cold mixing bowl, the hot sugar mix will dissolve the gelatin. NOT!! But I didn't know that till about an hour of mix the stuff and finally concluding that it wasn't going to thicken. I used really good organic ingredients ($$$) so I wasn't going to throw it away, oh no. I strained my sugar mixture and got about a half of cup of undissolved agar-agar flakes(next time I will try the powder). Put the sugar mixture back in the pan and reheated it to soft ball stage. Got the mixing bowl out of the freezer and used regular gelatin, add reheated sugar mix and mix on high for about 15 minutes and got nice fluffy marshmallow, I wish I would have taken a picture of the marshmallow cream, it was so yummy looking I could have taken a swim in it. Here is the finished product, we will cut them in squares and roast them to perfection(those of us who have the patients for that kind of
thing) I will post the recipe later for out Smarshmallows.

Instead of Graham crackers (which I haven't been able to find without corn syrup or hydrogenated oils) I made monster oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I have tweaked my recipe so that it is relatively low in sugar compared to other recipes. I do have a recipe for the crackers but they are really hard to get really thin and I thought the change of pace would be fun. I will put both recipes in another post, lcause lunch time is here and the natives are restless.

Yum, Pancakes

This is my favorite recipe for pancakes and my kids love them too! The recipe is from a package of Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal. I ran out of Scottish oatmeal and used organic quick cook oats, which also worked great.

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup oats
2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
about 1 1/2 cup butter milk, if you don't have buttermilk, regular milk will work fine or add a tbsp of lemon juice to your milk, let sit for a moment to slightly sour it, that's what I do
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup of oil

for waffles simply add one more egg and a tbsp oil

mix flour, oatmeal, baking powder, salt, and soda. stir in buttermilk, eggs, and oil till smooth. if mix is to thick, stir in a little more buttermilk.

I have made some changes to the original recipe so that it works the best for me, to find the original recipe go to http://www.bobsredmill.com/

Update: These are waffles that we made using this recipe, only I uses sweetpotatoes instead of oil and added a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Better Butter

This is one of my favorite recipes, your own, homemade margarine. It comes from Laurel's Kitchen, A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition. Better -Butter has the same reduced amount of saturated fat as margarine without the processing or additives and great butter flavor.

This is a great way to make that great organic better last longer, and it is spreadable right out of the fridge. This is not the exact recipe, but the one that I use on a regular basis.

1 cup canola oil or Smart Balance Oil
1 cup butter
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons dried skim milk
1/4 teaspoon lecithin (found at most wholefood stores and co-ops)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Dissolve salt in water and blend the rest of the ingredients together, pour into containers and store in the fridge.