Freezer Cooking and other Foodie Moments

Crystal and Jessica (FishMama) host a freezer cooking day each month. Their efforts have really encouraged me to get busy and fill my freezer too! After watching them work so hard, I finally decided to join in. Even with a few bumps in the road, I managed to add a number of items to my freezer which are sure to make the coming month a little easier.

Here is what I made:

1 Stromboli Packet - yes, one! Baby steps...

Earlier in the week we had Stromboli for dinner (It is one of our favorites.) I doubled the turkey sausage recipe and used half to make that evening's meal while putting the other half in a ziplock bag. I then added 2 cups of cheese and marinara sauce to their own bags and added these to the turkey sausage - making one neat little package. Next time we want Stromboli it will be a breeze to make!

Apple Pie Filling

This was supposed to be for Laura’s mini Apple Pies. I cut up and cooked 8 pounds of apples, only to realize I didn’t have any yogurt for the dough! I’m sure I could substitute, but my brain in not functioning at it’s highest level right now. So I’m freezing some for a big apple pie and leaving the rest in the fridge until I get yogurt for the dough. Hopefully tomorrow!


Green Lemonade

I love Green Lemonade and would happily drink it daily. I just hate washing the juicer! So this is an experiment. I made 2 quarts and divided it into canning jars. The plan is to take a jar out of the freezer the night before then drink in the morning. I’ll report the results.

What is in Green Lemonade, you ask?

Mine usually consists of:

• 1 head Romaine lettuce
• 5 or so stalks of kale and/or spinach
• 1 lemon
• 1 or 2 fuji apples

The juice in the above picture contains: 3 lemons, 3 or 4 apples, 2 heads romaine lettuce, half a bag of spinach leaves, 1 bunch kale.

I first read about it on Susan’s wonderful blog. The drink was made famous by Natalia Rose in her book The Raw Food Detox Diet. I find it very refreshing and actually crave it. My husband shudders every time her takes a sip! Each to his own :)

Shredded Chicken

I originally planned to make a big pot of Tinga (recipe to come), which requires 12 chicken breasts or the equivalent. I’m not sure what I bought, but it turned out to be much less than that. So this will probably feature in a future batch of tortilla soup.

Chocolate Chips and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

While cooking all this up I noticed a few bananas were looking a little ripe. I remembered FishMama’s Chocolate chip banana bread and decided to make that. But then there were no chocolate chips. I was really looking forward to the chocolate part of chocolate chip banana bread. Then I remembered Laura made her own chocolate chips. So I looked it up, and what do you know, they were not difficult to make and we had all the ingredients. So I made those (This is starting to sound like one of Laura Numeroff 's stories..If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)

The chocolate chips melt very easily so the remainder are living in the freezer  Although I doubt they will be there long, or end up in any other baked dish!

So that's my freezer cooking wrap up.  Be sure to visit Money Saving Mom to see what others made.

SugarBean teaches Bible Class

On Fridays I go to Ladies’ Class. My children come with me.

The class is in the church building and we set the table up close to the nursery. Another mother comes with her children and our kids play together in the nursery while we have class (Don’t worry, the nursery door has a big window! We can see them) The Ladies are so good about having the kids there, even when things get rowdy on occasion!

My daughter decided she wanted to make this play time into Bible class time. She is the oldest (8 years) and wanted to be the teacher. Without asking for help or ideas, she began preparing lessons each week. Often we will hear the sound of children singing “Jesus Loves Me” wafting through the door. The older ladies seem to really enjoy this.

As I sit there (or rather stand there swaying - trying to get my baby to sleep), I can hear my little girl reading a bible story...and the kids actually listen to her! Two weeks ago she made coloring books for her three students. She stapled paper together like a book and drew the story of Moses (pictured above) She also brings snacks and plans out what songs they will sing. Not just any songs either, songs from the song book ...grown up songs :)

Here is a picture of the lesson plan she scribbled out:

1. Songs
Some of those songs are: I am a Sheep, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the little children, and No not one.
2. Lesson
3. Snack and Break
(As you can see, she had been cutting hearts out of this paper)

This is pretty much how I teach Bible class too!

I am grateful for her desire to teach, for the initiative she has taken, and for her courage.

It feels like a reward. A little glimpse of the woman she may become. A wonderful benefit received for all the times we have gone to Bible class...even when we didn’t feel like it.   It certainly made her Grandmother proud!

I’m also very grateful for the graciousness of the other women who allow us to attend and make us feel welcome.

Visit Heavenly Homemakers for more Gratituesday.

Here is the rest of the coloring book:

List Plan It giveaway!

Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking is hosting a giveaway for a List Plan It membership. The winner will have access to hundreds of downloadable lists to help with everyday organization and productivity.

I keep hearing about List Plan It and have seen some sample pages...they look great. I'm a list fanatic and would LOVE these!

Hop on over to Passionate Homemaking before March 1st to enter.

Homemade Instant Oatmeal

We don't usually eat instant oatmeal, however, I wanted some for our recent trip. I couldn't bring myself to buy the regular stuff at the store...it has way too much sugar, as well as other weird ingredients!

After a google search for homemade instant oatmeal. I settled on a recipe from stretcher.com.

I didn't do a price break down, but I did buy mostly organic ingredients from the bulk bins at the health food store. I felt good about feeding it to my kids and know it would be cheaper than buying organic instant oatmeal.

Here are the basic steps to make Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

You will need:
Makes 8 servings

• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup chopped dried apples
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 8 Tbsp. brown sugar
• salt
  
• 8 ziplock bags.

Blend 1 cup oats in a food processor until powdery (can blend 1/2 cup at a time in the blender).

This helps make the oatmeal thick.

To assemble:
In each ziplock bag put the following:

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

2 Tbsp. powdered oats

1/8 tsp salt

2 Tbsp. chopped dried apples

1 Tbsp. brown sugar (I thought this was a little sweet. Next time I'll reduce to 1/2 Tbsp.)

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

To serve: Pour contents of packet into a bowl. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup boiling water (depending on how thick you like your oatmeal - more water for thinner oats, less water for thick). Stir and let stand for 2 minutes.

Find more variations here

If you are interested in how much is saved making your own oatmeal packets, the simple dollar has a good visual guide and cost breakdown here

Delicious and Nourishing Brownies

I am really excited to take part in The Nourishing Sweets and Treats Carnival at The Nourishing Gourmet. I was inspired by Kimi's post about Natural sweeteners and decided try and revamp one of our favorite Brownie recipes ( I say one because we have another super good one...I'll share that later).

I remember Laura of Heavenly Homemakers saying that you have not really tasted a brownie if you have not eaten one made with rapadura. So rapadura was my sweetener of choice for this recipe. And she was not wrong...it was DELICIOUS!

Delicious Brownies

3 eggs
1/2 cup butter (organic, unsalted)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used Grape seed oil - but believe Palm oil would work well too)
2 cups rapadura
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (we used freshly ground wheat - superb!)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt

Combine eggs, butter, oil, rapadura, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Add flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir until well blended.
Evenly spread batter in a greased 8 x 8 pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 to 30 minutes. Watch carefully after 20 minutes as you don't want these to overbake.
Allow to cool for a few minutes...then taste the chocolatey goodness.
Yum!

I got a little over excited by all this and tried out a number of things I want to share with you here: Apple crumble, cranberry chocolate cookies, and raw fruit and nut cream! Time is running short for me tonight, hopefully I will get those posted in the morning.

Visit The Nourishing Gourmet for more nourishing sweets and treats recipes. Be sure to share yours too.

Originally posted on Dec. 15, 2008 at my old blog

Nourishing Sweets and Treats

Here are some of the other recipes I mentioned wanting to share for the Nourishing Sweets and Treats Carnival. I've had a lot of fun with this and want to say Thank you to Kimi for all the work she puts into sharing good, healthy information with us!

In this post I will share recipes for Cranberry Chocolate Cookies, Apple Crumble and Vanilla Crème Sauce.

Cranberry Chocolate Oatmeal cookies



This recipe started as one from Sue Gregg’s Dessert book , so it was nourishing to begin with. Her recipe uses Kamut instead of wheat flour. I really wanted to try Kamut but could not find it anywhere. I made a few small changes to suit us. Here is my version:

½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup (1 stick) organic butter
1 egg
1 cup Sucanat (evaporated whole sugar cane juice) Read more about Sucanat here
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup wheat flour (freshly ground if possible) This is where you could use kamut.
11/2 cups rolled oats, ground to make 1 cup.
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats (old-fashioned, not quick cooking)
½ cup chocolate chips or bar broken into pieces
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Step 1:
Put cranberries in a bowl and cover with water. This will soften them.
Grind oats into a fine powder. I use a coffee grinder, a blender also works.
Set aside.

Step 2:



Place butter, egg, sucanat, and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk to blend.
(As you stir these you will be amazed at how good it smells! It is the sucanat).

Step 3:



Mix together flour, ground oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Pour into wet ingredients and stir.

Step 4:



Drain cranberries and add to batter. Also add oats, chocolate chips, and nuts. Stir to combine.


Step 5:
Drop tablespoons full onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Allow room for spreading.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet immediately and allow to cool.


My kids gobbled these up. They are tasty, but not too sweet. And..shock of all shocks, my husband, who generally does not care for cookies, and is not thrilled with whole wheat, said they were good!


You could try all kinds of additions to this recipe: raisins, other nuts, other dried fruit, more chocolate....



Apple Crumble

A simple, slightly sweet, apple dish. Serves 4.

I am very happy with how this one turned out. I started out with a recipe from the The Liver Cleansing Diet, but I changed the crumble topping so much that I feel I can now call it my own. I don't think butter is on the Liver cleansing diet! (The book does have some yummy recipes).

Here is the recipe:

6 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced
(Since I used organic apples, I left the skins on. I would peel apples that are not organic).
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons water
1/4 cup oats
2 Tablespoons shredded coconut
2 Tablespoons ground nuts (I used a mixture of sunflower seeds, almonds, and flaxseeds. Grind them in a coffee grinder)
2 tablespoons wholewheat flour
1 ½ Tablespoons maple sugar
2 Tablespoons melted butter



Place sliced apples, allspice, honey and water in a pot, cover and simmer until apples are soft (just soft - not mushy). When cooked, pour mixture into an oven proof dish.

To make crumble: Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle this crumble mixture evenly over apples.





Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes (until crumble is golden brown).

Lovely served warm. Delicious served with Vanilla Creme sauce (recipe below)





Vanilla Crème Sauce

This recipe takes a little pre-planning. It keeps for 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge. So make ahead if possible.

1 cup Cashews
1/4 cup and 2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Soak Cashews in water for 2 hours. Drain.
Place soaked cashews in blender and add the rest of the ingredients.
Blend until creamy.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
Delicious on pies, crumbles and fruit.

This recipe comes from Jennifer Cornbleet’s book Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People . I love her book and DVD (Raw Food Made Easy). They really help simplify raw food preparation. Preview the book, including this recipe (and other dessert recipes) on google books (Click here).

The Nourishing Sweets and Treats Carnival is hosted at The Nourishing Gourmet. Hop over there and check out all the delicious recipes.

Morning Routine

In our quest to return to some sense of normality we decided to work on a morning routine. There are still boxes that need to be unpacked and rooms that need to be organized, but things were really starting to feel out of control, so we sat down and made little morning routine charts. Both kids decorated their own chart with drawings of each step of the routine. My 5 year old stuck his on the wall right by his bed, so it is visable when he first wakes up.

Having a morning routine has really helped. We still need to work on the rest of the day though. But we are doing pretty well up to lunch time :) Even getting some school work done.

We have kept things simple. I want a few chores done, but not a huge list. I've found that when I try to have the kids do a grand list of chores before school I lose a lot of their best concentrating time. We are working on having another time for chores later in the day. Basically they are just getting ready for the day, making their beds and cleaning up after breakfast. I get the laundry going and work in the kitchen too. Then we get straight into schoolwork. So far it is working very well. I'd love to add a few things to my routine, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Moving and having a baby have certainly put me on a learning curve!