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. :)

Plush Alphabet

This is the very first thing I ever pinned on Pinterest.  I made these for Te-Man over a year ago and he plays with them quite a bit.  It is fun to choose a letter and go find things that start with that letter or we hold and trace them while we read his Star Wars Alphabet Book.  I also made him a simple little drawstring sack to keep them in.

If I had it to do over again, I think I'd make them a little thicker with either thicker batting or two layers.  Other than that, we love them!

Here's the whole Alphabet and numbers 1-10

Here's a close-up so you can see how imperfect my sewing was...this one is probably the worst - as far as my stitches not even staying on the fabric. Sheesh - I must have been in a rush (or since it's a U, maybe I was getting tired of going all the way through the alphabet! haha). Also, if you have a serger you could serge the edges so they don't fray - but I wasn't going for perfect (clearly!) so I didn't mind the frayed threads.

Also, you can see that the batting is exposed, so like always, watch your kids with these. :)

Here's my Te-Man and Wiley Kat's son enjoying some snacks :)

Cave Fort

Have you seen the pictures on pinterest of the sheet/fan fort?  It looks pretty awesome and I was thinking that of course, the Z-Squad needed to have one. :)

I went to thrifting and found some sheets - in fact, I got a california king set and 2 flat full sheets for less than $4. :)

Then I went to sewing.

First, I sewed the two full sheets together along their "long" side.

Then, I laid the king sheet out flat on the floor and laid the sewn together full sheets on top of it.  They didn't quite match up, the full sheets were a little longer, but I figured that's ok because the fort will just have more space, so I kind of "pleated" the top fabric...I just folded it over every once in a while to pick up the extra slack so that when I got to the corner they matched up. If you are wanting your fort to be beautiful or your sheets have patterns, you might want to make sure that you have the "inside"sides facing.

Now....just sew 'er up.  You'll want to leave a space of about 3-4' un-sewn at one end to allow access (by people) and to allow room to fit in your fan.  

Spread the fort out, put in the fan, and BAM Instant FUN!!

We had a little picnic, did some reading, even had a small pillow "fight".  Lots of giggles and all kinds of fun memories!

**Of course, any time kids are involved with something like a fan - parental guidance is necessary to protect their little curious fingers! But who wouldn't want to hang out in a fort all day? :)
:)

SuperHero Capes

Have you ever stumbled upon a website and thought to yourself - this person is a GENIUS!!  That is the exact thought I had when I found Vanilla Joy.  I am almost speechless about it because it is just so awesome!   She's on Facebook too!

She has some Superhero Cape Patterns available for FREE and they are AMAZING! Super easy to use, work perfectly, look FANTASTIC, and kids LOVE them!

I have had more than one person tell me (and Wiley Kat) that I should sell them.  I don't think that would be right because I didn't create the pattern, but I can sure share it with everyone!

Every kid needs a cape and who better to make them one, but you?!