Wow - Chipotle Nails It!

This video is amazing.  Makes me cry every time I see it.  I feel like this is exactly what I want to scream from the top of my lungs every day!

Watch it.

Watch it again.

Share it.

Talk about it.

DO SOMETHING!

Chipotle's The Scarecrow

Blueberry Breakfast Tarts

Let's start the return to blogging off right with some super delicious, surprisingly easy, and crowd pleasing Blueberry Breakfast Tarts.

Before I get to the recipe, it's confession time.  Do any of you remember the friends episode where Monica says, "And the fat girl inside me of really wants to go.  I-I owe her this.  I never let her eat."  This is the only line from that show that I remember.  I guess it really hit a nerve with me. :)  I'll tell you a secret - not many people know this....but I think I had a poptart addiction as a child.  I would sneak extra of those crazy space-ready-tinfoil packets out of the cabinet and I would hide them in our downstairs couch and eat them when I was down there by myself.  Maybe I was a squirrel in a past life and I just have this need to store food - that could explain my insane canning situation. haha.

 I was a rather overweight child and have struggled a bit as an adult as well.  Since going plant based, I find myself eating until I'm full and being very content with that.  Sometimes that means 3 bowls of chili other times, it's just a salad.  I think that listening to when my body is really hungry and not being ashamed or afraid to feed that hunger until it is gone (even if I get some weird looks - yes, this is all for me!) is such a liberating feeling.  I'm not afraid to down two entire plates of food because I know the food I'm eating is almost always fruits and vegetables or whole grains.  I haven't been exercising the way I should (read that as not-at-all) for probably 2 months, but I haven't gained a pound and believe me...I have been EATING! :)

So, now that I've gone on and on about eating whole unprocessed foods, let's slip in a treat.  I made these about a month ago and they barely survived the first 30 minutes. :)  Delicious!!

You should 100% take a few minutes to make these - but don't hide any under your couch. :)

Blueberry Breakfast Tarts

Original Recipe Here

What's In It:*

1 1/2 c blueberries

1/4 c sugar

1 T lemon juice

1 T cornstarch

2 pie crusts**

What To Do With It:

Stir together berries, sugar, and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in cornstarch and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes or so until the mixture gets nice and thick.  If it's too thick, add a little water.  Once you reached a spreadable consistency, set it aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.

Roll out half of your dough into a thin rectangle.  Cut into smaller rectangles about 2.5 in x 4 in - the size here isn't really important, just however big you want your tarts.

Place half of your rectangles on the baking sheet (or as many as will fit - I had to do 2 batches)

Take a heaping tablespoon of blueberry filling and spread onto each rectangle on the baking sheet.

Top each rectangle on the baking sheet with another rectangle of dough. Slightly crimp the edges with a fork. 

Sprinkle with a bit of sugar if desired.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges just start to turn a light brown. 

Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes before serving.

**If you are really crunched for time or just don't have any blueberries, you can always use jam as the filling instead.  I ran out of blueberry filling and I still had 6 rectangles left, so I used some homemade peachsauce (like applesauce but made with peaches) as the filling...it was fantastic! 

*Use your favorite recipe.

First Day of Fall

Happy Fall everyone!  It is officially my favorite time of the year!  I could sit here and list all of the reasons for you, but that would take FOREVER so I'll just highlight a few.

My Anniversary with Wolverine - it'll be 5 years this year. :)
Annual camping trip with the Super Parents to Tellico Plains, TN
Hiking/Camping
APPLES
Halloween
Ze-Ra's Birthday
Thanksgiving
General Fall Awesomeness! :)

I'm going to try to be on here a bit more...definitely been neglecting the blog these days.  I guess all the summer activities got in the way. :)  I'll do my best. :)

Have a wonderful fall!!!

It was good while it lasted!

The end of the Reclaimed Produce has arrived.  :(

Produce Guy informed me a few weeks ago that his company had recently released new guidance on changes to store policies and included in that memo was that the produce and bakery departments are no longer allowed to give away food to anyone other than a registered food bank.

He was so apologetic and really felt terribly.  I assured him that I understood completely and that I appreciated being able to pick up the produce that I was able to over the past almost year.

So....now that grocery budget that I was so proud of reducing......well that's about to go through the roof! UGH.

We eat a TON of plants around here.  I mean - a ton!  When I go to the grocery store and get asked if I am a caterer or if I own a restaurant - I think that tells you how many vegetables and greens I buy - and that's with having a garden!

So...out comes the Menu Planner.   It was so hard to use it when I didn't know what food I would be getting each week in the boxes, so it was always a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda thing when it came to planning dinners.  We've only been using it again for 2 weeks and this thing saves me so much money!!!

I "liked" BackYard Produce on facebook a few months back and I love their recipes/ideas they post all the time.  They also deliver customizable boxes of fruit/veggies/meat/cheeses/etc to your house once a week.  They post what is in the next week's box on Thursday and you have until Saturday to customize your box.  Then it just shows up at your house! :)

We are getting our first box today and I am so excited! Even with getting the super-jumbo-you-eat-an-insane-amount-of-produce sized box - it still isn't enough.  But I am so happy that we can provide our family with almost exclusively local grown, organic produce and then I simply have to supplement throughout the week.  This week, I plan on having to buy limes, cilantro, and of course more bananas - we eat them like they are going out of style! I will be continuing to use tomatoes, peppers, beans, okra, kale, etc from our garden as well as all of the tasty canned goods I've been so busily putting up for the past month or so.  I also have some left over apples, potatoes, and oranges that I bought last week, so we'll be set for a bit.

We also, may or may not have purchased 80 pounds of organic Vidalia onions that are now adorning my canning shelves....we go through at least 1- 1 1/2 five pound bags of onions a week, so I hope those will last us a bit! :)

Not too bad of a start for getting back to the real world of having to purchase your produce - if you ask me!

HH Plant Based Blueberry Muffins

Did I mention that I LOVE Lindsay over at Happy Herbivore?  I am not kidding when I say that every recipe I've tried of hers is FANTASTIC! Seriously people, Julia Child and Martha Stewart should step aside, because this lady has GOT IT!

These muffins are phenomenal.  I mean, pay $5 at Starbucks without thinking twice good.  I think they are, in fact, the best blueberry muffin I have ever had.  They are a little sweet, a little chewy, more dense than a cupcake - but in a good way!

Excuse me, I'm going to have to go wipe up the drool from my keyboard, be right back. ;)

Maybe I'll whip up a batch of these while I'm in the kitchen and then give myself a high-five for being totally awesome! :)

HH Plant Based Blueberry Muffins

Original Recipe

What's In It:
1 1/2 c wheat flour
1/2 c oats
3 t baking soda
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/4 t salt
1 c unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c maple syrup
1 T lemon juice
3/4 c frozen blueberries

What To Do With It:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 12 muffin, muffin tray.
Whisk dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients, stirring until completely combined.
Fold in frozen blueberries.
Divide between 12 lined muffin cups.  Sprinkle with extra oats and brown sugar if desired.
Bake 15-23** minutes.

*I don't buy baking powder and I've been out of cream of tartar for a month, so I improvise a bit and use 3 teaspoons of baking soda and a tablespoon of lemon juice.  I don't know how this recipe works using the originally called for 2 t baking powder and 1 t baking soda, but I'm sure it's awesome! :)
**The original recipe says to bake them for 15-18, but mine always take at least 22, so I'd say use your best judgement on the temperament of your oven.  It's always easy to add more time! :)

Ladies and Gentlemen....are your paintbrushes ready?

Because we are about to get our PAINT ON! :)

I had tons of random pieces of wood in the garage that were driving me crazy...but the hoarder in me couldn't throw them away - so I had to find a use for them.  In comes pinterest. :)

The projects were all super simple and I did all three of them in about a day and half and that's only because I had to wait for paint to dry. :)

I'm sure you've all seen this one online - I LOVE it! :)

This one I painted based off of something I found in a magazine years ago and I kept the page this whole time....I decided I just needed to DO IT! :)  It hangs in our kitchen right next to our back door. :)

These I made this past fall for Halloween.  I am too much of a cheap-skate to buy Halloween decorations, so I made a few of my own...I think they looked pretty cute out there with the pumpkins and gourds. :)
I just free handed everything - but it was so fun!  I put tea-lights inside of the mason jars and they looked great!

Then this last one I think is my favorite.  We each have a name board - I screwed little eye hooks into the top edge and then it just sits on 2 nails in the board.  I did try to make my own chalkboard paint, which was a HUGE mess - not sure what I did wrong, but my paint was the consistency of play-dough.  I made sure I added the exact amounts and then....who knows what happened, but I totally went with store bought.  :)
Anyway, it is so fun to see what Ze-Ra and Wolverine write on here! And I see everyone check it in the morning when they come downstairs. :)

I would love to see your craftiness!!!  Feel free to post away on the Facebook Page or even send me an email and I can post it if you'd like! :)

Kid's Table Cover

My Grandpa was a wood working magician.  He was the most good-hearted man I have ever met.  He was a salt of the earth farmer and could make everything from china cabinets to benches to wall-hanging crescent moons to my personal favorite...Bunny Furniture!

 

I'm not sure if he saw this pattern somewhere or if he created it, but either way, this stuff is hand made, stained, and painted.  Each of my Aunt's have one and each of us grandkids does as well. I remember being a kid and seeing rows and rows of bunnies hanging to dry from the basement ceiling. :)

So you can imagine this piece of furniture is near and dear to my heart - but I still want my kids to use it....what to do...what to do....

Ah ha! I made some fitted sheets for Te-Man's bed (using this tutorial over at DanaMadeIt) when he was younger (because I refused to pay $40 per sheet for a baby!) and I thought I could use that same idea, but use laminated fabric to make it waterproof.

 Voila!

I am totally thinking about making one using the measurements for a standard picnic table so that when we got to a park or camping we don't have to worry about the table cloth blowing away or remembering clamps/etc. :)