Interrupted by Insomnia

I'm not very good at this blogging thing.  I don't know how some people are able to balance children, housework, craftiness, blogging, etc.  They either have more than 24 hours in their days or they are less affected by sleep deprivation than I am.  I haven't posted anything in a few weeks simply because I've been too tired.  Since having children, I have been plagued with insomnia that I haven't quite been able to figure out a solution to.  So, I am typically running off of about 4 hours of sleep, which over time begins to feel a lot like dying a slow death and developing premature Alzheimer's. 

But on a sunnier note, the past few days have been so nice for March!  So nice that I couldn't possibly spend my day inside crafting.  So, we planted some seeds and played in the mud instead!

Hopefully, I will get some posts up soon of a few projects I've finished up.  (no, I haven't finished the curtains.  I broke all my paint sponge brushes.  So I had to buy new ones. )

Helium is Overrated!

Who needs helium when you have this much static electricity around your house? 

The first was an accident.  Then it was a party.  A static party!  We had fun rubbing them on the carpet and sticking them on the ceiling.

Miss K had fun catching them as they fell from the ceiling!

Graham Crackers

Well, I've been scouring the internet for a whole wheat graham cracker recipe that is very simple and not containing any milk, egg, or soy and preferably very little or no sugar.  I didn't have much luck, so I tried to go with the basic idea that I saw from others recipes.

Here is what I came up with.  It needs some improving.  Mostly, I needed to roll the dough much thinner.  I was using a glass to roll them out.  I should probably just buy a small rolling pin!  I also need a silpat mat that actually fits on a cookie sheet.

Whole Wheat Graham Cracker Recipe
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cups honey
A splash of water to make the dough a little stickier.

Melt the coconut oil and then mix everything together.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.  Cut them right when they come out of the oven and the will harden up as the cool off.

These have a pretty nice flavor. Not super graham crackery though.  And WAY too thick.  Will have to try these again.  Anyone, have any ideas?

I ate several these while still warm with a cup of tea.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins - with NO sugar!

I've been trying to switch over all my bread recipes to whole wheat and cut way back on the amount of sugar we eat.  Most recipes call for SO much sugar.  What is the point of "homemade" if it isn't any healthier than store bought?  Today I experimented by making whole wheat banana muffins...  without sugar!  Say whaa?

Yep, that's right.  The best part is that they actually tasted good AND my kids loved them too!  Win-win!

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed in 4 Tbs water.  (or just use 2 eggs if you can)
• 3 bananas
• 1/4 cup honey (this is still healthy right? :D)
• 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I mixed all the wet ingredients together then added the dry ingredients one at a time.  I didn't mixed it up super well.  Then pour batter into your muffin pan.  I used my mini muffin pan because these muffins are mostly for the kiddos.  I baked them for about 12 min.  My oven tends to bake things pretty quickly.  Keep an eye on them and they will come out perfect!

This recipe made 39 mini muffins.  Probably would have made 40 if I could have stopped myself from eating the batter...

Mr. T approves!

Eating Eden

One of my new favorite blogs about eating food the way God intended it is by my friend, Mindy, over at Eating Eden. 

 Today, she asked me to guest post my recipe for granola.  Check it out!  Thanks, Mindy, I'm honored!

I've been making several of her recipes and one that I actually took pictures of is of her simple yet delicious idea for Banana Cookies.  My kids love them! (and so do I)

Here is how ours turned out.  Hers look a lot prettier than mine.  :D

Now, I just need to try making whole wheat graham crackers...

Last night I made magic!

Magic shell ice cream topping that is.  I sometimes (always) crave sweets.  Last night I really wanted magic shell topping.  Of course, Miss K can't eat it because it contains milk (or at least I am assuming so).  Anyway, I got what I thought was a wild idea to make it myself using chocolate chips and coconut oil.  I googled it to see if anyone else was crazy enough to try something like that, and sure enough I found an endless number of methods for making homemade magic shell.

I didn't follow any one specific recipe as they were all slightly different in there chocolate chip to coconut oil ratio and method.

Here is what I did:
1/2 cup
1 Tbs coconut oil
Melt in microwave.  Pour over ice cream.  (Almond ice cream in our case.)  Easy!

This turned out YUMMY!  It has been quite a while since I've had the real stuff, but this satisfied the craving.  Perhaps it was even a bit healthier!  It was certainly a healthier portion than I would have eaten a few years ago, prior to spending $6 on a tiny container of almond ice cream!

Honest Advice Appreciated

So, I have been slowly working on the stenciled curtains.  Verrry slooowly!  At my current rate they should be finished in about six weeks...   I need your advice...  from all three of my readers!  haha

Not only are they taking a LONG time, but they aren't turning out as nice as I would like.  The problems:  1. The fabric is a loose weave so the paint spreads a little as it soaks into the fabric.  It isn't really that bad, but I'm not getting a crisp line.  I can probably let that slide.  2. They shrank in the wash, so I am redoing the hem on each one to make it a little longer and the previous hem line isn't disappearing when I iron them.  3.  This is my main problem, and Mr. B's too, the tops are SUPER hard to stencil because of all the fabric folds I am trying to stencil over.  Stenciling over lumps.  So, the paint is bleeding all over the place.

 

So, really, the mistakes aren't too noticeable at first glance, but if you actually look at them there are pretty obvious mistakes which I'm not too excited about.  I really don't want just plain curtains, but I don't want to put up sloppy curtains either.  So, what do you think?  Continue on, accepting a few mistakes?  Or, throw in the towel (curtain?) and then either live with bland curtains, or buy new ones?

Crunchy Granola and Goat Cheese Day

Today, I made granola and a goat cheese pizza.   I never really liked granola until I started making it myself.  Now I LOVE it.  I eat it nearly every morning for breakfast. 

Here is the lose recipe that I use (this changes a little every time I make it)
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbs of brown sugar
handful of almond slices
handful of sprouted pumpkin seeds (not sure why sprouted, but that is what Wegmans had)

Line a pan with parchment paper so you don't have to chisel out the baked on granola later.  Bake granola at 350 degrees for um...  well.... no idea, as I rarely remember to set a timer.  I'm thinking it takes about 20 minutes.  Just until it is kind of golden.  As it cools, I like to stir it around in the pan a few times to break it up.  Otherwise it will turn into a big granola brick, which can be a little tricky to eat.

Assuming Mr. B doesn't eat it all, I like to put it in a jar and eat it with soy milk, cinnamon, and raisins or maybe some cocoa nibs. 

Tonight I also tried out goat cheese on Miss K.  I'll admit it was a little risky and I was pretty nervous about letting her eat it.  I rubbed it on her back a few hours before she ate it.  She didn't react at all, so I let her eat some on her pizza.  So far so good!   She was SO excited to be eating "cheese".  I think she liked it!

Miss K also can't let go of Valentine's day. She wanted her pizza in the shape of a heart.  Must be her favorite holiday. 

For the crust I used the whole-wheat crust recipe from one of my new favorite food blogs 100 Days of Real Food.  She has been very inspirational in motivating me to feed my family only real food.  It is a long journey from growing up on hot dogs and soda to eating only "real" and unprocessed foods.  We have been forced to give up a lot of processed foods in the past few years due to my kids allergies, and I really don't miss a lot of it. 

Do you taste that?

Tonight I made brownies... with a can of black beans.  Cue evil laughter.  Yes, I fed my family black bean brownies.  Seems cruel, but we can't use eggs around here due to food allergies.  I am also trying to move our family slowly toward eating only real foods.  And, yes, I know the brownie mix I used does not count as "real" food.  But I'm not going to throw away everything in our pantry just to start anew. 

I used an organic brownie mix and 1 can of black beans.  I rinsed and blended the black beans with a little water, then added them to the brownie mix.  I baked them for 35 min at 350 degrees.

And, no, I can't taste the beans at all.  The only thing I noticed was a slight beany texture, but I wonder if I would really think that if I hadn't known what was in them.  The only draw back to these brownies is that they will likely make me gassier than regular brownies...   :D

40 bags in 40 days

Heard of it? I meant to post this yesterday but I forgot.  Oops.

The idea is during the 40 days of lent, you clean out 40 bags of trash, stuff you don't use, haven't seen in a few years, etc.  This sounds like a GREAT idea.  We were just talking last night about all the stuff we need to get rid of.  We still have several boxes of stuff that we haven't done anything with since we moved.  I think my 40 days will be more of an organizing mission than just getting rid of stuff.


I haven't yet made out my list of 40 areas to organize/clean out, but here is what I have so far:
1.Yesterday, we got a new washing machine and got rid of our two dead ones.  So I am counting that towards day 1!
2. Today I cleaned out all of Miss K's outgrown clothes
3. Organize K's closet
4. Clean out Mr. T's outgrown clothes
5. Organize Mr. T's closet (this may take two days as it is our biggest closet and therefore the junk closet!)
6. Organize mudroom
7. Mudroom closet
8. Clean out all those crazy boxes in the garage!
9. Living room book self
10. Craft area (will likely take more than one day also!)
11. Living room closet
12. File cabinet


It would seem that I don't have enough to fill 40 days, but really I am just feeling too lazy to finish the list right now.  I'm off to bed. zzzzz

No I haven't given up on the blog already

I'm just trying to get those darn curtains done, while taking care of two wee ones whose naps rarely seem to collide.  I feel guilty spending too much time on crafty things while they're awake if they can't help me out.  I had a few set backs.  Sick kids and then the curtains weren't tuning out very nice at all. So, I ended up buying a couple new curtains and am using a new technique that is working much nicer.  I am also having to rehem the curtains longer since they shrank in the wash...  Someday, I will be able to move on to another project!

A Birthday Cake

Tonight we are having a small first birthday party for Mr. T and a buddy of his who was born just a week before him.  I decided to make the cake for it.  And of course, it is milk and egg free so big sis miss K can enjoy some cake too!

I'll admit I've watched my fair share of Cake Boss episodes, but this is the first time I have worked with fondant, so I decided to go simple because I wasn't sure what to expect.

I made two 9 in rounds of white cake and one 9 in of chocolate cake.  I used premade white fondant from Wilton which appears to be milk and egg free.  (I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't over look something. I might just pull the fondant off of her piece just to be sure!)

Unfortunately, I didn't take pics of all the steps I did.   But, I piled up the layers with icing in between and did a"crumb coat" all over it (learned from watching Buddy!  haha).  Then I worked up a sweat rolling out that brick of fondant into a nice thin layer.  It is super hard to get a nice solid piece without any folds or cracks.  But I rubbed away most of the cracks away with a little water. 

I dyed a few chunks of fondant red, blue, yellow, and green to make some flags.  Then cut them into triangles. 

I also wanted to try making a monkey, since Mr. T's buddy likes monkeys!  So, I found a tutorial here.

I'd say he turned out pretty good for my first attempt.  It took forever to get a decent shade of brown too!  My hands are a lovely rainbow now!

Miss K wanted to play with the fondant too.  Here is her creation.  No idea what it is!

Miss K told me he needed a party hat so we ended up putting one on him. 
 

 Here is the finished cake!

Now if only I could learn to write with those darn Wilton canisters of icing!  They are so hard to push and don't come out evenly.  So, please don't judge the writing!

Borax Carpet Cleaner

I sometimes let Miss K eat in the living room.  First mistake.  Sometimes I let her eat a tomato based soup in the living room.  Second mistake.  One time I left the bowl on the end table while taking her to the bathroom and leaving little brother alone in the living room.  Last mistake.  Mr. T climbed up on the end table and helped himself to the leftovers, and made a huge mess.  There was tomato soup all over the him, the end table, the couch, and the carpet...  We also had people coming over.  Souper!  I remembered seeing carpet cleaner on a list of the many uses for Borax and thought maybe I could try it.  I use Borax to make laundry soap so I always have plenty around.

 

The back of the box says for carpet cleaning to mix 1/2 cup of Borax in 1 pint of water.  Spray on carpet and leave half an hour then rinse.  Well, I never really follow directions.  So, I dumped a little borax in a spray bottle and added water.  

One of the small stains before:

I sprayed the stain, but didn't wait.  I just scrubbed it and voila!  I really worked!  

Stain after:

It worked on the couch too, but I forgot to take pictures of it. 

Pretty Pink Vegan Doughnuts

We're finally getting some snow.  And a snowy morning calls for doughnuts!  At least this snowy morning did.  So, I put my doughnut pan I got for my birthday to use.

Here is my recipe:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Energ-G egg replacer for 1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 tsp salt
couple dashes of nutmeg
couple dashed of cinnamon

Mix all together and bake at 350 degrees for 10 min.
They will be really soft so make sure to let them cool completely before taking them out of the pan.
Then glaze! 

This recipe actually made 8 doughnuts but they were going pretty fast.  It was hard to catch a picture.

Stenciled curtains

Well, there is no going back now.  I finally started stenciling my living room curtains.  Which is going to take quite a while considering I have 8 panels to paint.  I really hope I don't mess this up!!!  I saw this idea here.  I'm even using the same stencil she did on her curtains, because it's my favorite!  The mister isn't so sure about this, but he is a good sport about my wild crafting ideas!  hehe

Hopefully, I will get these finished this week!

Pattern Companies FAIL!

Over the weekend I refashioned some old t-shirts into new shirts for the kids.  The sad sad news is that the only basic shirt patterns I can find for sale (for children or women) are sold only in Scandinavia and do not currently ship to the US.  I don't understand why there isn't at least one American (or least sold in the US) company that sells basic patterns.  Isn't that what most people would want?  We don't need trendy patterns that are go out of style (if they were ever in style) in a year.  All we really need are the basics!  I'm under the assumption that companies do this on purpose.  Because if we were able to buy the basic patterns, we wouldn't need to buy any other patterns, and they would make as much money selling us patterns that we don't really like but have to settle for anyway.  Well not me!  I won't settle!

I typically make my own patterns from already existing shirts.  Take that McCalls, Butterick, Simplicity, Vogue, ect..  (I'm sure no pattern company will ever see this blog post, but it feels good to rant any way!)

First up was a shirt for Mr. T refashioned from an XL womens shirt I thrifted a few months ago.

I think this is one of my favorite shirts so far.

Next up is a shirt for Miss K made from some of Daddio's T's that were too small.

I've seen several heart doily printed T's around on Pinterest so I wanted to try it too.  Miss K didn't seem to like red and grey top, so I printed the heart on the white.

Painting the doily with pink fabric paint.

Made a pretty cute worn looking print.

I hadn't planned on putting anything on the back of the shirt, but I forgot to stick something inside the shirt to keep it from bleeding through so I had to hide few pink spots.  Oops!

Heart Garland

This one has been done by many and is all over Pinterest.  And I did pretty much the same thing everyone has done.

 

Valentine's Day Graham Cracker House

This is a bit non-traditional, but Miss K has been begging me to make a gingerbread house.  I hate gingerbread, and I didn't want to spend time making it so I kept trying to distract her with other things.  Today, I finally gave in.  Only I didn't make gingerbread.  I used (and this is a little embarrasing) old stale graham crackers, left over icing from Christmas, jelly beans from last from last Easter, and conversation hearts....  from last Valentine's day!  heh heh.  Now you all probably think I never clean out my cabinets.  And I guess you would be right.

Turned out kind of cute!

Miss K got her gingerbread house fix with minimal work on my end, which is much needed with the lack of sleep around this place.  Maybe she won't bug me about it again until next Christmas!  And after today's project, there won't be any year old candy laying around!

Sprouting Broccoli

Remember my "extra" purchases from Mountain Rose Herbs from this post?  I bought broccoli sprouting seeds and a sprouting screen to use with a mason jar.  Well, they are sprouted! They were super easy to grow.  And apparently they're good for you!  ;)

Here's what I did:

Day1 - Soak sprouts over night
Day 2 - Drain and rinse sprouts, then place in a sunny window.  Sadly, I don't have a sunny window, but it still worked.

Day 3 - Rinse, Drain, put back in window

Day 4 - Repeat

Day 5 - Repeat

Day 6 - Rinse, and apparently these are supposed to be done in 6 days.  

Unfortunately, my lid got rusty, so I don't feel very good about trying this batch.

 I plan on starting another batch tonight using a cheesecloth and a rubber band.  Hopefully, that will work out.