I just finished watching Food, Inc.  Great Movie! The take home message is to buy local, and in season food! If you haven’t seen the movie yet, did you know you can download and “rent” the movie to watch from Amazon for $2.99!  I just realized this!  Right under “Buy”, you click WATCH IT NOW, $2.99 to rent.  

Although I’ve mentioned them before, after watching the movie, I was so glad we buy our meat local (beef and pork at least).  If you live in Utah and are looking for a local meat supplier, you must check out The Christiansens farm for well fed, well treated, organic, and super awesome meat!  Hollie Christiansen is my neighbors- sister.. which is how I found out about their farm. 

Last night, I pulled out our bag of frozen Edamame to snack on while I prepared dinner.  The kids devoured it! I forgot how much they liked this great snack the first time I bought it.  It’s definitely coming out more often this week.

As always, head over to the side bar, or Menu Archives to print the menu!

Don’t forget…. Monday is the last day to enter for Crest Pro-Health supplies,

and FRIDAY is the last day for the V8-V Fusion Visa $100 Gift card!

Have you heard about the miracle fruit? My kids and I were watching the Science channel last night and they did a segment about this berry that literally changes the taste receptors on your tongue.  For an entire hour after eating a berry, everything tastes sweet… Including Tabasco sauce and broccoli!  This could literally make any child eat vegetables! Crazy huh.

Decided to mail my camera into Olympus for them to fix the lens.  I don’t need to ruin by taking it apart.

Come back on Monday for another giveaway. Do you like my rhyming hints to what the giveaway is?  Dreaming Fireflies!  You won’t want to miss it.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Orange Creamsicle smoothie	Sweet potato Risotto	Cottage Cheese and peaches	Black eyed peas with brown rice
Tuesday	Bran Muffins and Bananas	Pita with sprouts, lettuce, tomato.	Mixed nuts with raisins	Sweet potato soup
Wednesday	Breakfast Burritos	Caesar salad and whole grain roll	Pumpkin hummus on sourdough	Pizza
Thursday	Oatmeal with craisins, vanilla and cinnamon	Noodles, broccoli and parmesan.	English muffin with peanut butter and banana slices	Chicken with wild rice and parmesan
Friday	Whole Grain cereal with soy milk and berries	Whole wheat sandwich, honey and almond butter	Veggie Tray	Chicken salad with creamy orange dressing, pecans and cranberries

I need your help.  It appears there are still some bugs to my new site, but I need to know about them. Everything looked perfect to me, then I found out my blog was displaying an entire post, one word at a time!  It also has some alignment issues in certain browsers, and I still can’t get rid of an entire paragraph becoming a link.  Plus, my husband complained of  longer than normal page loading.  So, if you would pop over and see how it looks in your browser, or if any of my links are broken, I would love to know about it!   Leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll check it out.  Thanks for being patient.

Here is a family favorite.  Apple pancakes!   I started with the Homemade pancake mix.

This time however, I added

• 2 TBL of applesauce and
• 1/2 cup of shredded apple.

Then on my cast-iron skillet, I used my pancake shaper that Quaker sent me.  And cooked until it was cooked all the way through.

These were sweet enough to not need syrup.  But some chopped apple on top or some walnuts would have been delicious too.

I haven’t made muffins from my Master Muffin Mix in a while.   Of all the muffins the master mix makes, this was a family favorite!  Everyone, including my husband thought they were great!
Once you have a Homemade muffin mix, there is no reason to buy purchased muffin mixes. Its just as fast to make it from this mix.   I added the recipe to the bottom of this page (A quick peak at my super awesome, amazing, new website. I’m so embarrassed by the old recipe pages!   I screwed them up one to many times.   My sister has almost fixed everything I messed up, and I promised her I would only write with the <div> and NEVER change my fonts willy nilly again.

Anyway, back to the muffins!

Simple ingredients.

Added wet things first (oil, eggs, vanilla, and soy milk)

Then the dry Master Muffin Mix

Then I crushed some STILL frozen raspberries.  (I just pushed a mug onto them)This made it easier to crush into their beautiful little individuals cells….rather than squishy and mashed.

Added the berries to the mix

Then for the “Mystery” part of the muffin, I added a dab of raspberry jelly to the center.

Then added the rest of the muffin batter to the top till it was about 3/4 full.

Then in a tiny bowl, made a small amount of streusel. Literally only about 1 TBL of brown sugar, 1 tsp of butter, and 1/8 tsp cinnamon.

Then mashed it between my fingers, and sprinkled it on the muffins.

And BAKED!  Again, the recipe is here

Of course, being Halloween, we had to add Halloween muffin papers, and the token cupcake flag to the top.

Eating actual meals (rather than from the bag, or standing at the refrigerator) not only is better for you, but also keeps your house cleaner.

My kids will stand at the pantry, take a handful of Cheerios, and walk away, leaving a trail of Cheerios on the floor, and at the pantry door.  In literally makes me insane.  As soon as I step on Cereal on the kitchen floor, I know they’ve been eating from the bag.

In a span of 30 years, you will most likely eat 30,000 meals!  According to The Pleasure Trap, “anything you are likely to do 30,000 times cries out for efficiency and organization”

The following is our menu plan for next week.  Head over to my sidebar to find the printable version along with the shopping list.  Happy Cooking.

Next week I will post some pictures and recipes to a few items on this menu.

Do you love to plan your menu’s?  Traditionally on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I like to take cookbooks in my room and write our meals for the week.   So, for now on I’m going to start posting my menu plans for you all!

On Friday’s I’ll post a menu plan and shopping list, with a printable version on my sidebar, labeled with the date.  In the shopping list, if I know the best price for something, I will certainly list that too.

To kick off menu planning, I want to share a cookbook with you that I love!!

The Vegetarian Family Cookbook is having their 5th Anniversary Blog Tour!  I love this book!  I highly recommend this book!  Not only does it have great recipes, but tons of great ideas.

Right away I wanted to try the Homemade Nut Butter! I love peanut butter and almond butter, but the healthy versions can be super expensive!

This homemade version was sweet, salty, and so delicious, I had to stop myself from eating the entire bowl with a spoon.

And with permission, I get to share this  recipe. (with my photo’s embedded to show you how easy it was)

Honey/Vegan option

Homemade Nut Butter

Makes about 1 cup

Making fresh nut butter isn’t hard to do, and is a great kitchen project to do with young children, who actually enjoy the process of shelling peanuts. Ideally, use organic nuts. Conventional brands of peanut butter (far and away the most commonly consumed nut butter) almost always contain partially hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup, two unhealthy ingredients. Some brands also contain cottonseed oil, which comes from one of the most heavily sprayed crops on earth. Natural-style nut butters contain the nuts only, and are obviously a better choice, but their flavor and texture are often too intense for younger children.

This homemade version is a perfect compromise, both for flavor and health. For another great peanut butter alternative, see Silken Peanut Spread, page 000).

1 cup shelled roasted peanuts, almonds, or cashews

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey, maple syrup, or brown rice syrup

1. Place the nuts in a food processor. Process until the nuts begin to hold together.

2. Add the oil, salt, and honey, and continue to process. Scrape the sides of the container from time to time, and continue to process until the nut butter is at the desired consistency.

3. Transfer the nut butter to a lidded container and keep refrigerated. For easier spreading, microwave for a few seconds before using.

Per tablespoon:

Calories: 64 Total fat: 5  g Protein: 2 g Fiber: .8 g

Carbohydrates: 3  g Cholesterol: 0 g Sodium: 35 mg

TIPS:

• For peanut butter, dry-roasted peanuts from a jar work just fine, but using freshly shelled roasted peanuts results in a more vivid flavor.

• If children other than your own will be partaking of this snack, make sure that none are allergic to peanuts—it’s a more common allergy than you’d think, and can be quite serious.

• This won’t work in a blender—a food processor is a must.

Isn’t that a great recipe!  All her recipes are easy and family friendly.  So, now the giveaway!

One reader will get their own copy of The Vegetarian Family Cookbook!  Leave a comment and I’ll choose a winner this weekend!

With over 60 nutrients including a special fiber (beta-glucan) that helps to lower cholesterol, oats are a high quality source of whole grains.

I love oatmeal because it is so versatile. You can literally make a bowl of oatmeal, hundreds of different ways.  Here is one way my kids like it.

I prefer instant oats or quick oats (I think its less gummy and obviously quicker.  So, I use 1/2 cup quick oats, and approximately 3/4 cup water.

I cook the oatmeal with water in the microwave for one minute

Then I add a shake of cinnamon, and chopped apples.  Return to the microwave for 30 seconds to soften up the apples.

After mixed, I add applesauce and a tsp or two of brown sugar.

Then we eat!! This is so delicious and so filling.

Oats are

• inexpensive.
• You can always have some on hand since their shelf life is long.
• They are so satisfying on a cold fall morning.
• Kids love oatmeal if you start them young.  If they don’t like oatmeal because of the texture, try oat groats, rolled oats, or quick oats to see if it makes a difference with them.

Here is what cereal boy thought of it.

Other oatmeal posts:

Strawberry oatmeal

Oatmealpalooza

A proud moment:  Yesterday a friend from church gave us a package of microwave popcorn.  I didn’t realize how long its been since we bought microwave popcorn until one of my kids said, “You’ve got to be kidding! They put the butter IN the bag of popcorn!  Amazing!” Then the other child said, “Did they put salt in the bag too?”

I have not started juicing, although I’ve wanted to for a long time.  I simply feel like I have to buy the most expensive juicer before I can start doing it.

I stand corrected! My sister has a cheapo juicer that I wanted to test out.  I bought 2 lbs of carrots (for $1.29) and it yielded 2 cups of carrot juice.  I was going to use it for a vegetable soup, but never got around to it.

Instead, I used it as the base for our smoothies. Normally I would use fruit juice, soy milk, or plain old water.  But we loved our smoothies with carrot juice!  I felt good about giving it to my kids and myself.

In fact, my daughter loves her smoothies so much, she added my name to their chore chart, and put my chore was to make smoothie’s every morning.

Current smoothie ingredients:

• Baby Spinach leaves (one generous handful)
• Frozen strawberries
• Frozen blueberries
• Carrot Juice
• DHA (more about that on Wednesday)
• Ground flax, or squirt of flax oil

Related posts:

Carrot Juice Anyone?

I started school last week.  I’m excited about school, but stressed about the cost of it.  In an effort to take classes without going into debt, I am really going to trim up our grocery bill! Its the only portion of our spending that can be cut into (in my opinion).   I will be writing up more posts about inexpensive, yet healthy ideas for at least the next 3 years!  Stay tuned!!

I love new beginnings.  I often get teased for my constant resolve to “turn over a new leaf” as I like to call it.  I love to set goals. I love to do new things. I love the hope, the excitement, and the visions of grandeur it fosters in my little head. 

This week is the perfect opportunity for exactly that!  I have a few health goals I want to incorporate to make this school year the best ever.   I want to keep my kids at their optimum learning capacity.  To avoid mid-winter illnesses.  And to promote excellent behavior in the classroom.

So, here we go!  Let the goals begin!  Our first goal (and one I highly encourage all to take part in) is to:

EAT A SMART BREAKFAST

We do not have trouble with EATING breakfast.  But we can eat a SMARTER breakfst for sure!  Here are the rules:

1. Never Skip breakfast!  Studies show breakfast eaters perform better at school, have less weight problems, and eat healthier food overall.
2. Replace refined grains with whole grains!  This is a must in order for kids to have the energy necessary to make it to lunch.  Our kids go from 7:30 am till 12:00 without eating, and they can not suffer a crash because of refined, sugary foods.
3. Include some low-fat protein (nuts, legumes, eggs, or dairy).  This helps give the carbs some staying power and feeds the brain.
4. Include FRUITS OR VEGGIES (For all the essential vitamins and minerals they provide)

 Here are some breakfasts that would work well, and include all my requirements:  (plus some random breakfast pictures to inspire me).

• Oatmeal with milk and fruit (fresh or dried)
• Whole grain toast with nut butter spread and sliced apples.
• Almond Crusted French Toast  (with a side of berries or on top)
• Walnut and Banana pancakes (this recipe from our Tropicana weekend that I haven’t posted yet)
• Cheerios with fruit and yogurt on top.
• Eggs and potatoes (we would have to include veggies in the mix, or a side of fruit)
• Orange Yogurt parfait (also from Tropicana weekend)

Juice Week!!

This syrup is so delicious I couldn’t wait to share it!  I used an bottle of a strawberry/ banana fruit juice blend that was in my pantry. 

I made my kids pancakes this morning, using my Master Pancake homemade mix.

Then I made the syrup using

• 2 cups juice (I used the strawberry banana blend)
• 2 TBL corn starch (mixed with a little cold water so it would dissolve.

On the stove top, I stirred the juice and corn starch together on medium heat for about 8 minutes, turned the heat off and let it sit for a few extra minutes.  When used the morning of making it, its PERFECT.  If let to sit, it tends to get a little gelatany, but can be warmed up and shaken to get it a little more syrupy.

I LOVE syrup made from juice.  Unless you want to fork out tons of money at the grocery store for a sugar free, HFCS free variety, its an economical way to get your kids to love some whole grain pancakes, french toast, or waffles.  Its like topping your pancakes with berries, only not because some kids rather have syrup!

Tip of the day:  Keep some juice pouches or juice boxes (100% juice) on hand for some impromptu syrup.  Then you don’t have to open an entire bottle of juice.

Other juices you could try to make syrup with: Coconut juice! Apparently its all the rage right now.

Don’t forget to enter the Tropicana giveaway!