Let's get real here...

So in my efforts to 1. work on this post-baby body and 2. focus on the health and well being of myself and my family I have recently become very conscious of ingredients. I'm not talking about ingredients in the recipes I make...but ingredients in the things I buy. I've dabbled in the blogosphere of people writing about food additives and pushing toward a very natural, unprocessed diet and have come across a few blogs that I read regularly. One in particular is 100 Days of Real Food. I haven't read through probably half of what is posted and I'm not sure when I started following this blog but I can't get enough of it. Now, I haven't jumped full force into the idea of eating ONLY real food...but I am gradually starting to switch things over in small doses. I knew if I went cold turkey I might lose my mind, or send my husband running for the closest McDonald's. 

Honestly, when it comes to dinner we usually aren't too far off the mark of eating "real food". I like to make dinner from scratch when I have the time and by planning my meals a month ahead of time we can usually stick to real food. We do enjoy a good take out meal once in a while though. Take last night...roast in the crock pot, homemade mashed potatoes, and baby carrots. A "real" meal. 

A few places where I have switched to real food are:

1. We do not buy sandwich bread from the store anymore. 
      I asked for a bread-maker for Christmas and my father-in-law made that happen. I probably make 2 loaves a week when we are both in school. It took quite a few tries to get the bread how we like it but now I think I've got it down pat and it might take me ten minutes to throw the ingredients in and walk away (flour, brown sugar, salt, yeast, yogurt, and water--easy peasy). 

2. We do not buy pre-made packets of oatmeal, nor "quick oats".  
      Ethan's typical breakfast is oatmeal. It fills that big tummy up! I also like it because it tends to stick to my ribs a little longer than a bowl of cold cereal does. I found a recipe in my new favorite cook book The Homemade Pantry--101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making that with an oven and food processor you can make your own "instant" oatmeal. Now it takes longer than a minute to make this one (a whole whopping 5 minutes) but it is worth it to plan a little ahead and have real oatmeal. Just as a comparison check this out (photo courtesy of Midwest Texan)...

These are the ingredients in Quaker Oats Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal. A few of those are difficult to pronounce. I know that guar gum is used to thicken the oatmeal...but to me the fact that it is listed BEFORE oat flour just seems wrong. Wouldn't oat flour suffice as a thickening agent. 

The oatmeal I made has: old fashioned oats, brown sugar, a little bit of salt, and some cinnamon. That's it! 


3. No more margarine! (Blegh!)
     We ONLY use real butter now. Doesn't seem like such a big deal...but it is to me. If we had serious heart issues then I would probably try to curb my butter use and go for a margarine that is seriously low in trans fats. But for now, bring on the saturated fat (just in small doses). To me milk and cream seem far more healthy than plant oils that have been hydrogenated. 

4. Homemade, Homemade, Homemade.
     Many of the things I buy I am slowly finding ways to make them instead. The Homemade Pantry book has helped a great deal with that and some of the things I am going to try my hand at I found in this book. For example, now that I am on summer vacation I am going to try to make pop-tarts. I found the idea in the book, but I did like the texture of the pastries so I have since found one where the pastry is a little more 'dense' and freeze-able. I have also made chicken nuggets, purely out of ground up chicken (I ground it myself :-O) and breadcrumbs...and Aaron can attest to their flavor--they were pretty darn good. Thank you Weelicious. On the docket is ketchup, graham crackers, granola, cereal bars, hamburger buns, tomato sauce, and cheese crackers. 

5. Mama's getting a chest freezer...and some canning supplies
     Aaron has promised me a freezer by the end of the summer and I am going to attempt to can a few things this fall as well. We moved to a house where I can have such things in the basement and be able to eat local all winter long hopefully!


First on my list are the Pop-tarts. I made the dough this a.m. and it is chilling in the fridge right now. I'll be back with an update as to how this: 

Hopefully turns into this: 

Photo courtesy of SmittenKitchen

Blegh...new homemade ironing board cover/replacement.

 Tonight was one of those nights...I got home from work, Aaron was not going to be home for dinner, I didn't REALLY want to do any normal housework type of things...but I wanted to do something. I moseyed on down to my "woman cave" (slash sewing room) and started putsing around in there. I believe this ironing board was Aaron's from his first few years of college--and it shows. I can't iron anything on it with out getting these weird crease marks in my fabric. I thought about getting rid of it a few times but for some reason I've kept it. Now I know why! I took one long look at the mini-ironing board you see here and thought...you're done-for Ironing Board Cover. I am slightly embarrassed to even put the before pictures up. But here they are:

Look at that one -------------------->

 No wonder I was getting weird creases in my fabric. The padding is completely gone on this one.

There were holes.

I tried to remove what was left of the padding and honestly...it fell apart in my hands.

Since Aaron and I are venturing to see his sister and husband soon and I am taking my sewing stuff with me (including machine) to help her make some curtains for their new house...I thought it might be nice to have this little ironing board as well. But, it was not making the trip looking like that!

To re-do the cover here are the steps I took: 

 First off, I took off the old funky cover and all of the lining. There she is...all naked...

 Then I proceeded to take out all of the stitching around the edge of the funky cover. It took quite a while...
I did this not only to get the string out that held the cover to the metal board, but also to use the funky cover as a pattern for the new one. You can see it pinned to the new fancy fabric.

Then I cut out the fabric, using the old cover as a pattern.

See how nice it looks...all cut out. Don't mind the folding wrinkles... :O) I then used a very hot iron on the steam setting to fold down my edges ...big enough to at least get a string or ribbon through the edges of the new ironing board cover so that the cover could be put around the board.Then I sewed the top little portion of fabric to the larger piece. This piece sort of makes the ironing board cover look like one of those hooded baby towels :op.  After that I continued to sew all the way around the project. 

As soon as that was done I threaded a piece of ribbon all around the edge that I just sewed. Then I put new batting down, placed the cover on, tightened it down...and VOILA :O)

Homemade Pesto!

In my wee little garden I planted some basil. I planted this basil for the sole purpose of making pesto! :O) In the past I have purchased pre-made pesto from the grocery store and while it is very good...it is also kind of expensive. Making this was so easy...here's how.

Ingredients:

4 cups of fresh basil

3-4 garlic cloves

1/4 cup walnuts

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

salt and pepper (to taste)

lemon juice

Step 1:

Combine walnuts and garlic in food processor. Pulse until ground together...but not too much, you don't want walnut dust. 

Step 2: 

Add basil a little at a time and pulse. Do this until all of your basil is incorporated and it is a thick paste. It should look like this:

Step 3:
Slowly pour the 3 tablespoons of olive oil into the food processor while hitting the pulse button until the thick paste becomes smooth. I actually added a little more after 3 tablespoons because I thought it was still "chunky" and not as smooth as I'd like. 

Step 4: 

Add in the parmesan cheese...and pulse away again.

Tada

Step 5:
Put pesto into an ice cube tray, cover each cube with a thin layer of olive oil, and put it in the freezer.   

I can't wait to try some on some pasta. Being that I froze it, all I have to do is pop one or two out and throw it on some hot pasta. YUM :O)

**The quality of the pictures is not up to par...but the camera decided to go on the fritz tonight, and so these pictures were taken from the iPad...which surprisingly takes awful, grainy pictures.

JUNE!!

Happy June everyone...doesn't seem possible, but at the same time I'm welcoming it with open arms. It's been a very long, busy, stressful school year...and I'm ready for a break. I think I end up with more anxiety over final exams than my students do...


This past weekend was probably one of the best weekends I have had in a while. It was so nice to be with "The Seven" again...all in one room, no one with us via Skype...everyone in one room at the same time, sitting around the same table. Who knows when that might happen again?! :)


Here's the proof that we were all together: 

For this Memorial Day we were graced with an extra day off from school...so we had Friday through Tuesday off. Because of that extra day off I was able to complete June's Dinner Plan on time. Go me! To see it go here.

Look who is ahead of the game...

So today I planned to get a few more things done but was less than successful with that plan...I was going to finish up my IEPs for next weeks Annual Meetings...I was going to mop the kitchen floor...do some laundry...maybe sew. None of those things got DONE...some are started.

However, what I did get done was May's meal plan.

Here you go. The underlined meals have links to recipes that should work...

May's Meals

My bargain of the day...

When I was younger shoes were it for me. I looooooooooved shoes. We're talking many, many, many pairs, and I never wanted to get rid of any.

I have since curbed this obsession some and limit myself when it comes to shoes. However, tonight I found one very cute pair...and at a steal.

They were originally $22.99, but I got them for $8!! Eeeeeeiiii!! :o) And I THINK they will go quite well with the skirt I made last night. I know it seems like a little thing, but to me its a big thing.