Chocolate/PB/Banana oats!

I randomly googled a 'Steel cut oats dessert', trying to find some yummy, hardy, gooey, HEALTHY recipes with this wonderful grain and came across an incomplete recipe similar to the one I ending up piecing together below....

This is what it looks like...

Do I have your attention?

This lovely ramekin delight is great for breakfast, a snack or a warm evening dessert and it's 235 cals, full of natural ingredients and whole grain galore!

Ingredients for 4 ramekins:

1 cup steel cut oats

1 banana
2 cups milk or your choice ( I used vanilla coconut)

2 heaping TBSP of unsweetened cocoa powder (Add to a couple tbsps of warm milk and stir to dissolve the powder for easy combining!)
4 TSP of natural Peanut Butter
Sweetener of your choice (2 TBSP of agave, or splenda, or stevia... your choice!)

Vanilla

How to:

Pre-heat oven to 400
Spray 4 ramekins with oil
Line bottom of ramekins with sliced bananas (1/4 banana per dish)

In a bowl combine oats, vanilla and milk

In a small dish warm a few TBSP of milk and add cocoa and sweetener of choice. Stir until dissolved.
Add to oat and milk mixture

Stir until combined and divide mixture up between the 4 ramekins.
Place on a pan and bake for 34-40 minutes. ( Untill dark, gooey, bubbly and delicious looking!)

Remove from oven and place a dollop of natural peanut butter on top of cook oats.

Voila!

I have found that you have to experiment with the amount of sweetener and cocoa. It all depends on your taste!

So delicious, filling and healthy!!!
Enjoy!

Laundray-hay!

Why in the world have I never made homemade laundry detergent before? I mean HELLO! It's the easiest thing to make, the most cost effective thing I have have ever done myself and it works better than the expensive stuff!
I have been driving my friends and family crazy with my 'DIY detergent thumping', but I can't help myself! It's awesome! Ok... Enough with the rambling... here's how to make it!

I got the recipe from the following Blog: http://kenandjen-rockymountainhigh.blogspot.com/search?q=laundry+detergent 

But for our entertainment, I will put it in my own jibber jabber just for you!

Ingredients:

2 Cups Borax
2 Cups Washing Soda
1/4 cups Dr. Bronners  Liquid Castile (Lavender smells best!)
White vinegar
20 drops Essential Oil ( Not necessary but nice!)
Stock Pot
5 Gallon Bucket with lid

Simply fill the stock pot 2/3-3/4 full of water and heat on medium ( Do NOT boil!)
Add the borax and washing soda and stir until dissolved.
Add the Bronner's soap and 15-20 drops essential oil
Stir until thoroughly mixed, then pour into 5 gallon bucket.
Fill bucket to 5 gallon mark with warm water.
Cover over night
The next.. VOILA! Let the washing begin!!

Hayden
"helping me"

I use an old ladle to add the detergent  to my wash... but it balances out to between 1/2 a cup and a cup per load. After a couple of washes you will figure out the amount that's right for you and your family.

As for the vinegar: Put a couple tablespoons in the softener section of your washer. It not only helps rinse your clothes... but makes them come out soft and snugly from the drier!

It's crazy how cheap this stuff is! It works out about 4 bucks TOPS for five gallons of detergent. And my first batch has lasted two months and im only a little over half through it!   So not only are you being more self sufficient, you are using products good for the environment AND savings tons of money each month in detergent and softener or bounce sheets! HORRAH!


Side note: Borax , Dr. Bronners liquid castile soap and Washing soda are 2 products I have decided that I can't live without! You can make dish detergent, dish washing machine detergent, house hold cleansers and ant killer out of this stuff... and that's only the tip of the ice burg! I LOVE useful items!!!  I havn't bought any other household cleaners since I have bought the above mentioned items... and my house is clean! yay! I've never been skilled in the art of numbers.. but i'm sure these relatively cheap items have saved me.... well a lot of money!

Abbybars! My version of Larabars!

These things cost, like, 2 bucks a pop and Hayden and I both live off of them.  I love them because they are simple, full of nutrients and the list of ingredients is literally no more than 5 items long. I know what i'm eating and I just feel better that way!

We definitively can't support our larabar habit on our family's income, and we shouldn't have to! I decided to google around and see if I could find a relatively easy and inexpensive recipe to create these things.


 I found a bunch. I closed my eyes and picked this one....http://www.damyhealth.com/2011/03/how-to-make-homemade-lara-bars/


It has some great guidelines and whatnot, but my version didn't really work too well following her recipe. I had to make some minor changes.


I chose to make the Chocolate Coconut Chew bar. I had some raw pecans in the freezer, but had to go out and buy some flaked coconut, cocoa powder and dates.


Here's my ingredient list for 7-8 bars:


3/4 cup of raw pecans
9 Tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
7-10 ounces of dates (A bag of em!)




Step one:
Chop the pecans in the food processor until chunky.
*You don't want them to become a powder, just small little bits*
Dump these into a mixing bowl

Step two:
Mince up the dates in food processor.
You will know these are done when they mush up into a ball while processing and thump around inside your processor!
Add this to your nuts!

Step three:
Add a pinch of salt!


Step four:
Add 9 Tbsp of cocoa powder. I know, I know, Sounds like a lot! But no! I really mean 9 Tbsps!

Step five:
Add coconut!

Step six:
Time to get dirty! Take your rings off and start kneading this chocolaty good till its thoroughly mixed and  forms into balls easily.
*You may need to add a few sprinkles of water to get the desired consistency!*

Step seven:
Form into bars or balls, your choice and place on plastic wrap! Cover and refrigerate!
*I wrapped mine in plastic wrap with labels-easy for transport and whatnot. Baggies work well too!

TADA! You are done!!!




Another version I have made are Chocolate/Peanut butter bars!

Ingredients:
1 bag of dates
5 Tbsps Cocoa
1/2 cup of nuts ( I used half almonds, half hazelnuts)
2Tbsps natural PB

And mix as shown above!

With any recipe, I just tasted it as I went and added more of whatever my pallet desired!


They are about 230 calories per bar. I know it sounds like a lot if you are trying to lose weight but there are nothing but wholesome ingredients that will nourish and sustain your body!! Great for breakfast or afternoon snacks!!


Enjoy!!

My unhealthy obsession with mason jars and finding the usefullness in them!

 

A vision of beauty.

I love these things! Kev brought a few boxes of them homes to me from an old house they were refinishing. Believe me, this is a better gift to me than a pair of nice earrings or a bouquet of flowers! Not only are Mason jars nice accents to my house as is, they have so many uses! You can re-purpose this heck out of em!
Here's a link with a bunch of ideas : What can I do with all these mason jars?

Lovely, right?! Ok, so maybe adoring the versatility of a jar maybe not be everybody's 'thing'. But I love em, and i'm sure that I inherited this from my mother.

Besides simply setting them on random shelves and tabletops around my house,

 

I've done of few re-purposing projects that are super easy and darn cute!

Dying Jars!

My friend Kandess and I dyed the inside of jars to add a splash of colour to our homes with only a few simple ingredients!
1)food colouring
2)mod podge
3)an oven

We just took a clean, dry jar and squirted a tablespoon or two of mod podge into the jar along with a few drops of your food colouring of choice. We swirled it around in the jar until with some covered and disposed of the rest. We simply 'baked' them in the oven until they were dry ( were clear and colourful!)

 And TADA! Pretty jars for all!!

We put the colouring mixture INSIDE of the jars, however, if you want to put candles and whatnot inside of them, you can paint the mixture on the outside of them. This colouring is NOT permanent, and I don't know what the heat of a candle will do to the inside if burned too long!

That being said, here is a list of slight mishaps and lessons we learned...

Mishap #1

There is absolutely NO NEED to put half a bottle of food colouring in a bottle, no matter how rich of a colour you want you bottle to be!

It's hard to tell exactly what colour your final product will be without some trail and error. Just keep in mind that the mod podge is WHITE before it dries, so the dye you mix it with will appear very light and pastel until it dries. A couple of drops is PLENTY! If you put too much your bottle will be super dark and not clear anymore! I made what i thought would be a beautiful purple bottle.. but once it dried, the finished product with BLACK!

Luckily, if you make a mistake...this colouring is not completely permanent! You can wash the colour out with warm, soapy water and start again!

Mishap #2

Baking them in your oven takes A LONG TIME! Which is not big deal... until the stench hits you! We had, about a billion bottles drying at one time, so the smell of all of that mod podge got to be a little much. They dry just as easily outside on a hot sunny day... it just may take a bit longer than in the oven!



Picture frames!                      

EASY! pick our bottles you like and display them upside down or right side up with photos inside of them!

I could have used a lot nicer bottles.. these are run of the mill walmart ones... but you get the idea!

Candle Holders!

Throw a tea light in a few of them and set  them around either inside or outside your house! Easy Peasy, lemon squeezy!

Storage!

We use them around the house to store tea bags, spices, herbs, grains, left overs, bouquets of flowers, anything in.

Kevin used them in his workshop to store nails, screws and all that stuff in. He has nailed a bunch of lids under a shelf and just screws that jars on and off as he needs each item. They are see through, not cluttering his work bench and keep things neat and organized.

ANYWAY... the link above shows a whole bunch of uses... I don't suggest you necessarily need to go overboard like my family... but hey... they are easy to come buy at a good price and add a little 'rustic' chic look  to the house!

Let me know what fun ideas you come up with!

Homemade Fertilizers and the Escapades of Starting a Veggie Garden!

Being our first summer at our new house, planting a garden was a lot more 'involved' than throwing a bunch of seeds in the dirt and doing a rain dance. We had to pull up the sod ( which we gave to Kev's boss ) and create a place to till up for our garden. We rented the sod cutter from Home Depot.  I'm not going to lie that Kevin did the majority of this. (I'm waaaaay too free spirited to make straight lines when shaping up our rectangular garden! HA!)

 

 Hayden and I did, however, help roll up the sod and pile it on the trailer. TALK ABOUT A WORK OUT! I was a visual representaion of a hot mess after that was over! Each roll of sod was about 50-60 pounds, and beleive me.. I made it my goal to search for the smallest piles to carry each time! Here are some picture of that process.

And that was just the beginning. Once it warmed up... the tilling began. The tiller only dragged me off the garden patch a couple times in an out of control frenzy. One more year and I think I will have control of that thing!  WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!  I till in my bare feet. Sometimes I feel like a less devoted Cody Lundin from 'Dual Survivor', I prefer bare feet to foot wear.

 

Arkansas dirt does not look fertile in the least. It's dry and balls up in chunks. It looks like clay. I never in a million years would have expected a seedling to break through the crackly hard surface.. but our broccoli proves otherwise!

 Being that this is the first year gardening in this soil....we don't know how things will turn out. There are a bunch of fertilizers that you probably have at home already. We did till some store bought fertilizer and lime into our garden. As well as some home made things! Not to mention about a ton of cow manure...
Benefits of Cow Poop!

Kevin knows one way  to garden... mostly revolving around chemicals and man made stuff... I am slowly
  introducing him to other, more natural ways to fertilize.

Some great fertilizers you have at home include:

I got these from a frugal living website... they explain things a lot simpler than me!

Instead of lime... use egg shells! Way cheaper!

 What You Do:
1. Save your eggs shells, and allow them to air dry.
2. Then, place the dried shells in the blender, and pulse until they are powdery-fine.
3. Sprinkle in your garden.
Why This Works:
Eggs shells are made up almost entirely of calcium carbonate – the main ingredient in agricultural lime.

Instead of regualr fertilizer, use epsom salt!

What You Need:

• 1 Tablespoon Epsom Salt
• 1 gallon water
• A watering can

What You Do:
1. Combine the Epsom salt and water.
2. Use the solution to water your plants.
3. Repeat once a month.
Why This Works:
Epsom salt is made up of magnesium and sulfate – both vital plant nutrients
. Some magnesium-loving plants to try it on: houseplants, roses,
peppers, tomatoes and potatoes.


And lastly, a good compost pile!  We have started one this year and hope to use that, along with the salts next year in our big garden.

Here's a good link and starting a compost : Make a compost pile!

For now, I'm going to try the salts on my seedlings I just planted and I will keep you posted on how that goes. I'm trying to keep away from miracle grow... It works so well though! But with my little one running around... I just worry he will take a swig... or two. I'm still trying to keep him from guzzling his bath water! And what kid can resist bright blue 'juice' sitting outside in a bucket.. calling his name!

Although we have taken less ' natural' means to growing our garden, I'm proud of it so far!

If anyone has any tips on great, natural fertilizers, please let me know! I can read until the cows come home, but I will some proof from people who actually had some success!

In the beginning...

     I have been thinking about starting a blog again for a while now. This time, however, I was thinking I would try to make it somewhat relevant to reality.. not just about half witted quotes I find hilarious, weird private jokes I can barely make sense of anymore, or stories about the shenanigans a bunch of single girls get into after a couple bottles of wine.
     I thought that this time, I would focus on something I am striving hard to make part of my life, something that I think someone else might find interesting besides myself and a few select friends, and most importantly, something I am passionate about.
     It's taken me a few years to get back in the swing of things. Life 'got in the way' for a while... until I finally realized that that is no excuse for not trying to live as naturally as I can, within my means. Not only would I have been saving money all this time, but my family and I would have already built healthier lives for ourselves.
     The lucky thing is, every little change for the better makes a difference. I have a long way to go, but i'm striving to better myself,... and the environment, one compost heap at a time! 

Some day I may make it to the mountains (or create my own commune ;) ) and I want myself and my family to be prepared, capable, happy and healthy!

This blog depicts my journey thus far and beyond,

 naturally delicious and healthy recipes,

a bunch of DIY stuff I have had a blast creating from a bunch of rubble my Fiance has dragged home from work,

and my attempt at proving I CAN live off the land! Even in an urban landscape. ( with the help of my darling Fiance's AWESOME green thumb!)

     I will no doubt gush about my love of Dr. Bronners products, tea tree oil and aloe.... NO ONE should live without these items! No one CAN live without these items! I will probably drive you crazy rambling on about my unhealthy obsession with mason jars and re-purposed wood! But hopefully, amidst all of that, I hope this will be a place to post and share easy, achievable ideas to help us all live a little more 'off the land'.. not just for survival, but for the beauty and fun in it all :)