Autumn Breakfast-- can be quick and easy

This morning I had promised to do breakfast duty in exchange for my husband doing dinner last night. I made one of my go-to crowd pleasers, sure to make everyone happy on the way to church. I have made them totally from scratch in the past, but this morning was not THAT morning.

Chocolate Pumpkin Pancakes
1 box of devil's food or other chocolate cake mix
1 can of pumpkin


Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, spray muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Mix the two ingredients together until there are no dry bits of cake mix left. It will be quite thick and goopy. Portion into muffin tins, makes 6-12 muffins. Cook for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.


I was going to put pictures up, but they dissapeared too quickly.


Why are these the bomb? Pumpkin is excellent for you (look it up, really) and they are easy and you get to be a superhero mom for serving chocolate for breakfast. The family won't even know they contain pumpkin unless you tell them....

Yard sale treasure

I've been dying for a new grill since we moved and some bamboo blinds... stopped by a yard sale today and got both for $10. Pictures to come.

I am mentioning this because yard sales are a great way to go green if you're interested. Also to stock up on good quality heavy-duty cookware. Just a thought.

Laziness, Moving, and Catching Up...

For the past couple of months I have been completely slack about updating my blog. I started a new job, moved, and went through another few ups and downs that contributed to it. But now that we are somewhat settled in our new digs, I have been reinspired to work on my blog by reading on this one: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ which is totally awesome.

I still desire a traditional diet for my family, but for several reasons we have backed off on some of it. So I will just share my cooking I am doing.

Tonight, inspired by the crockpot blog, I created a recipe, I'll have to let you know how it goes. I used:

1 LARGE carrot, diced
2 wilted pieces of celery
1/4 sliced red onion
1 large head of broccoli
4 minced garlic cloves
1/2 package grape tomatoes, washed
4 frozen chicken thighs, bone in
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. dried mustard
2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. sage

I layered the veggies on the bottom, chicken on the top, and set to cook on low and plan to let it cook all day. The chicken started looking rather plain towards afternoon, so I sprinkled some dry mustard and chili powder on it.

It turned out awesome!


While I am mentioning that other blog, I made her crockpot lemon chicken last night and it was great!

Upcycling & Craftiness

I used to make fun of my mom when I was younger for wanting to make everything and being so crafty. Now recently I borrowed her sewing machine to make diapers, and suddenly have 75 projects to do. And when surfing the internet, I have stumbled upon the concept of upcycling.. that is, taking old things and remaking them to a new and possibly better use.

So here are a few projects I've been working on:
A gift bag made from an old pair of jeans.



Coffee cup cozis or sleeves Made from sweater cuffs.A business card holder made from a brownie mix box.

And an old table we are recovering in mosaic to make a patio table....


And that's where we are at.


Today's lunch was sandwiches. Grilled cheese with turkey pastrami and sungoat pesto. Yummy!

Back to Cooking, and How to Occupy a Whiny Six Year Old

So I haven't cooked much in a few days, as a matter of fact, I was stumped for meals and pointed to leftovers for my family. I also had a several day fight with my breadmaker. I think this was due to me deciding to use 50/50 whole wheat/white flour and Wolfgang Puck did not agree with my choice.

Too bad I was too mad about the thing to take pictures..my bread was turning out like a science experiment!

But last night I decided to make manicotti based on the fact that, well, I had the ingredients. I worked at a restaurant in high school/college that made it with spinach, and I have since adopted and tweaked the recipe to make it my very own. This is typically a hit, with, well, pretty much anybody. And it's pretty easy.

What you need:

a container of ricotta cheese
a container of cottage cheese
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
some sliced mushrooms (canned)
frozen spinach
2 boxes of manicotti noodles
1 onion
either a jar of ragu or your favorite marinara sauce or some homemade
basil
rosemary
thyme
oregano
black pepper
salt
olive oil
shredded mozzarella cheese
a large bowl, large pot, skillet, lid for skillet, and large baking dish

First of all, put some spinach in a skillet on low and put a lid on it. You just want to steam it enough to thaw out. Fill a large pot with water, put a dash of salt and olive oil, and bring to a boil. In a large bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, mushrooms, garlic, about half of the onion, chopped, and about 1 tsp each of basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the spinach.

Once your water is boiling, drop in the manicotti noodles one by one. Boil them about 8 minutes, stirring carefully to keep them from sticking together and breaking. Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350. Once they are done, drain and rinse with cold water. Too bad I forgot to take pictures of the next part-- it would make more sense that way. Carefully slit open a noodle with your finger and put two teaspoons of filling into it. Roll the noodle closed. If you want to be all perfectionistic about it, seal it closed by closing it with a little water. If you're like me, you'll simply flip it over and put the slit side face down in the pan. Once you have your baking dish full of manicotti, pour your marinara sauce of choice over it. Bake for about 15 minutes on 350, then remove and smother with shredded mozzarella. Bake until cheese is melted, about 15 additional minutes. Serve up with garlic bread and salad. Yum!



Oh, and here's how to occupy a six year old. Have said 6 year old mix together filling and stuff the noodles. The stuffing takes a lot of time, and with careful placement of compliments, can be accomplished with a minimum of whining.


And the final product minus a couple of slices (they dissapear quick)--



This week I've also been working on upcycling some different things. Will be posting pictures of coffee cup cozies and such later in the week.

Why Being Green is a Christian Value and What I Intend to Do About It

Pre-warning: I am on my soapbox today and will be expressing my personal religious views. You are welcome to comment and agree or disagree. But if you are going to get offended, you may want to skip this one. Just a warning, I know everyone may/may not agree with me, and I know my connections in my head can make my thoughts rather off-the-beaten path.


I completely, wholeheartedly consider myself a Christian. I believe in God, I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God who died on the Cross for our sins, I believe in the Holy Spirit.

I believe in the basic (and the not-so basic) teachings of the Bible. Am I perfect? NO. Noone is. But I try. Do I believe 100% of the Bible is applicable to today? Yes. But does the Bible address everything we encounter today? That's a definite maybe.

During the time God's word was written, there were no ziploc baggies. No cars, paper towels, juice boxes, designer jeans, and no water bottles. Period. Now God may have thought of those things, but they didn't exist in the day-to-day of human experience.

Are you with me so far?
"In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1
"Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." Genesis 1:26

So God created the Earth, and put us in charge of it? Wow. That's a pretty heavy responsibility. I mean, if God puts you in charge of something, shouldn't you take it more seriously than anything else? If you are a parent and God has gifted you with children, you take that responsibility seriously... (well some of us do, but that's a topic for another day.) So it stands to reason that we should take care of the earth.

Wow. Pardon my language, but we have totally failed on that one. It was a little easier to do when there were 10,000 or so humans in the world. But with a current estimated population of 6, 706, 993, 152, things are a little more complicated. Our impact on the planet is obviously on a much larger scale.

Hence the reason when I was a rebellious teenager, I would scream, "Litterers, litterers, SINNERS, SINNERS" out the window when I saw someone littering out of their car. Now that I'm all grown up, I realize that screaming at people doesn't really help, and you obviously can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. And I also realize that I should start with myself and my family, as Jesus said, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." John 8:7
I am certainly not without sin, let alone environmental sins.

So I am doing my best to "green up" my act and that of my family. I thought I was pretty green until I really looked at it. Jeez. Just cleaning out my car on any given day could give you a peek inside our world-- I have two kids. They love disposable things!

So here are some things we have started:

1. No paper napkins. We use cloth. Always.
2. Converting to cloth diapers. (We make these out of old clothes, thus recycling them!)
3. Turning off lights when we leave the room. (Very difficult for some of us for no apparent reason.)
4. Reducing use of ziplocs.Bought a reusable sandwich container to pack sandwiches for my husbands' lunch
5. Buying rice in bulk. It is cheaper, offers less packaging, comes in a cloth bag, is organic. Less has to be packaged and less trips shipped to us is great.
6. Growing our own vegetables. They don't have to be shipped, packaged, waxed, sorted, none of it. We just walk out and pick.
7. Composting. We are throwing out at least 1/3 less since we started composting. And it's rather easy!
8. Repurposing (upcycling) things. T-shirts into diapers, pants legs into little girl purses, baby food jars into containers, etc.
9. Recycling. It's so easy. I mean, really. Where I live our trash service picks it up, but if yours does not, just throw it in the back of your car and drop it off when you see a spot. (Or email me to help you find one.)
10. Take cloth bags to the store instead of getting disposable. Agh! This is hard for me because generally getting two kids safely in the store is a trial, and remembering my list and coupons is hard enough. And when I do take them, I always feel like people in the store are going to think I'm trying to steal something. But I am really working on it. The reader that gives me the best idea how to remember will get a special green gift from me.
11. Carrying reusable water bottles. I love them, they're stylish. I just have to remember to clean them properly. Tip: if you have the aluminum kind, a little baking soda and vinegar can totally help with cleaning of all germs and smells. Just rinse well unless you want to be drinking vinegar water.
    

These are all in progress, but we will be starting more that I may blog about from time to time. I figure if I make an example to my kids, it will help them. And maybe friends will see how easy it is, it may help them, and like a little seed, it will spread on the wind...

Sloppy Joe Omelets & Baby Food

Once again we owe a special thanks to Mr. Sid for the sauce, for I used the leftover sauce to make sloppy joes the other night. They were incredible, even to M who doesn't love sloppy joes. And the morning after, I made sloppy joe omelets:

Ingrediants:
1/4 lb. sloppy joe meat leftovers
1 cup saurkraut
4 slices american cheese
6 eggs
Yield: 2 scrumptilicious omelets

Heat sloppy joe meat and saurkraut together in a skillet.

Break open 3 eggs and beat well or put in a blender for extra fluffiness. Heat oil in bottom of another skillet and pour eggs in. Shake the pan gently while eggs cook until just runny on top. Add meat mixture and two slices of cheese. Fold carefully with a spatula. Serve piping hot. Repeat for the second omelet.

It was a big hit with the adults, and M tried a bite and declared it delicious until she found out it was sloppy joe...

I've been trying to control what R eats as he enters the solids world. Baby food has so much junk added to it in the form of preservatives and what not, and many of the containers contain BisPhenol A, rumored to cause all sorts of issues. So I am, for the most part, making his food.

It might make me sound paranoid, but let me tell you, it is also more economical than buying the food at the store, and cuts down on packaging waste since I don't have all those little containers. Environmentally sound, healthy, cheap-- I'll take it.

So far, he's had bananas, apples, zucchini, carrots, and beets. My process is very simple, really.

I steam the food (except the bananas) and then puree in the food processor. With the exception of the carrots, that's it. The carrots I had to add some water to. I then freeze the food in ice cube trays, pop them out and place in large bags, and we can thaw out a block or two at a time. The only thing he has refused is the beets, but he will eat them mixed with carrots.

And he already doesn't want to be fed. He wants to feed himself. See how much he loves carrots?