Maybe we'll have leftover Manna for slupper?

A day of rest.  Did you hear that?  God made a day of rest for us.  Now, the question is....who takes one?  Do you?

I've been trying really hard to read through the bible Chronologically within 4 months.  Yikes!  That's a lot of reading.  But I have to tell you, what a FANTASTIC way to ingest God's Word!  I'm getting major chunks of reading daily and although I'm not taking the time to study it, I'm getting the broad picture of what happened back in the days of our Biblical hero's! 

One section I was reading was about how God provided for his people when they were freed from slavery in Egypt.  Of course along the way, they got hungry and pleaded for God to feed them.  So he did.  He sent Manna from the heavens.  A food that they had never seen/eaten before and one that never has been since. 

He gave them specific instructions about how to go about the manna.  Get up each day, for six days, and go out, gather enough manna for your household, prepare and eat!  Don't save any for the next day or it will be moldy and yucky, BUT on the sixth day - you can! Gather enough for that day and the next for it is your Sabbath, Holy day, and you are to focus on the Lord.

I have been thinking of this from a mom's point of view lately.  What mom can take a day of rest when there's kids to feed?  I mean, yes, I could tell my 2 year old to go get her own food, but let's be honest, it'd be a sleeve of oreos and maybe unpeeled carrot.  Yuck! 

What if on "the sixth day" we prepared ahead of time a mid afternoon meal for our day of rest, so all you had to do was pop it into the oven and eat?! Talk about easy! 

Quiche made the day before and reheated. Bake a chicken or turkey and reheat it for slupper. Lasagna, turkey dinner casserole (just layer whatever you have leftover!), pulled pork & coleslaw. There's tons of options! Maybe we'll have a little leftover Manna for Slupper?

Here's what I propose:  Feed the kids breakfast.  I'm not talking pancakes and bacon either! Something simple, yet filling.  Fruit and cereal?  A yogurt smoothie with homemade yogurt? How about a loaded muffin that you've already made?

After church, we usually take a little drive, listen to our church's "second service" and sip iced tea for the kids and coffee for mom while dad is rockin' the guitar at church for the second service.  We might even take a snack with us and really, we aren't all that hungry right at noon, so waiting for 2:00-ish isn't that big of a deal. 

Heat up our slupper and Bada-Bing! Everyone's fed and it took no time at all.

Have a little yogurt and fruit for an evening snack and all is well.   

Just offering one way to "rest" on your day of rest! 

Blessings to you all.

Homemade Yogurt

Buying yogurt can get expensive!  It makes me think twice when I would like to make a smoothie because they chew up quite a bit of yogurt to feed our sized family.  So I decided to research the yogurt making process myself and settled on an easy, no fuss way to make it. 

There are several recipes out there and several processes, so if you are wanting to make yogurt for digestive reasons, there may be a better method out there to have better "good bacteria" qualities.  For me, it was for the protein and smoothie, so simple and easy was my goal.

I love this website for many reasons, but The Frugal Girl is who I learned from and I've been very happy with the results.  I hope you will be too!  Enjoy!

Too good not to share!

I wanted to bake something and in my pursuit of the perfect recipe, I came across this pumpkin spice cinnamon roll recipe that looked incredibly yummy so I gave it a shot.   WINNER!  Oh. My.  I will have to limit myself to making these little fat bombs to just once in a while cause I could have eaten the whole pan!  WOOO!

These little honey's are too good not to share so I'm going to!  I wish I had noted which website I got it from so I could give the original pumpkin spice cinnamon roll chef all the credit, but I didn't, so just know, somewhere out there is a cinnamon roll master chef!

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls

 

Dough:
4 to 4-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice,
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Filling:
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter

Cream Cheese Frosting to top for absolute delciousness!

1. Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking powder (if using) in a large bowl; set aside. In a stand mixer

2. Combine all the filling ingredients in a small bowl and set aside until ready to use. Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside.

3. Roll dough out on a floured surface into a 16x12 rectangle. Spread dough with melted butter and sprinkle filling evenly across to the edges. Starting from the longer side, begin making a tight roll, gently pressing the "seam" together as you go. Cut the roll into 12 equal pieces using a sharp.  Carefully place each slice flat side down in the prepared 9x13 pan side by side. Allow the rolls to rise another hour in a warm area or until rolls have just about reached the top of your pan and almost doubled in size.                                                                    

4. While the rolls rise you can prepare the frosting.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once rolls have risen: Bake the pumpkin rolls for 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow the rolls to cool (I let mine cool just till warm, not hot - unless you want your frosting to melt entirely); frost; EAT! :D

 

Just passing it on

I never thought too much of how pickles, beets, relish and other canned goods get from the garden to the jar.  I would eat them, enjoy them, but not think too much of the process of development.  My grandmother was a big canner.  Once my Nana stopped making them, my mom took on the task of making some of the pickled treats that we love.  She specializes in pickled beets though and Nan's mustard pickles were missing, so I decided it was time Icalled in the big guns (mom) and learned how to make them myself.

That was 2 years ago that my mom and I peeled and diced cukes till I thought I would cry.
It's taken that long for me to try it again!  HA!

The other day, my good friend, we'll call him Gardener D, stopped by with a whole basket of cucumbers and asked if I wanted to make something with them.  My mouth opened before my brain engaged and said "why, yes, of course, I'd love to!"  (Maybe canning is like childbirth....you tend to forget the pain until it is upon you once again and then it all comes back to you.)

 -

 



The kids were restless this past Saturday morning, so I set about charging each of them with a task.  Laundry for one, sweeping for another and peeling cucumbers for the other.  Quickly it became apparent that peeling was the sought after chore.  (light bulb goes off - "hey, maybe I don't have to peel one cucumber myself...I can get the kids to help!")

With 2 peelers, a seed gutter and me dicing things were going along at a decent pace.   Can't say there weren't some cucumbers that were looking mighty scalped on one side or still green in places after being attacked by the peeler, but hey, some help is better than none. 

In steps my knight in shining armor....

 

My fantastic hubby quickly was firing off orders for the job to be done correctly and some serious seed-gutting and peeling mentorship was happening here.

 



Music was blaring, seeds and peels flying everywhere yet each child was having a blast trying new steps to getting these cukes ready for transformation from plain ol' cucumbers to the illustrious "Lady Ashburnham's". 



 

These took a lot of effort, but the end result was worth it.  The kids got to see the process of making  mustard pickles.  They don't just happen.  Someone had to fuss with ingredients and show love through work for these to be created.  Well worth our time and definitely some great memories made by just passing it on. 

The Lunch Delimma

Packing a lunch for school is a really painful task in our house.  One doesn't mind sandwiches but hates soup while the other likes soup and only likes Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches. 

The other day we sat down to discuss the lunch subject.  I asked each child what they wish I would pack for them.  I gave them a couple of stipulations:  it can't be the same everyday and it has to be somewhat healthy.  I got a list out and took notes.   We covered sandwich types, soups, etc then went on to snacks.  I was encouraged that my soup hater is now back in soup liking mode.  (so they say!)

The kids I babysit said they get a Lunchable every Tuesday - great idea.  Friday at our school is Pizza Day.  So, really, I just need lunches Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

I got some great tips from thelunchtaker.com. 
you can freeze sandwiches for up to two months

• If you like mayo on your sandwich, we found that Miracle Whip freezes better. It doesn’t get grainy when it thaws like mayonnaise can.
• Never freeze lettuce, pickles, tomatoes or other veggie toppings. Pack them separately just like you would for a freshly-made sandwich.
• Freezing works best for basic lunch meat and cheese sandwiches, or things like tuna salad or ham salad.
• Yes you can freeze peanut butter and jelly!
•  The tip: spread BOTH sides of the bread with peanut butter, and put the jelly in the middle.

I also checked on Pinterst for some ideas and came across all kinds of lunch ideas just by typing in "Lunchbox"

This also led to a small bit of guilt when I realized how lame in the lunchbox department I have been!  Once I started reading what other "Super-mom's" do for their kids lunch pails I was SHOCKED!  It's like there is a lunch pail war going on out there.  I do not wish to compete, however, there were some cute ideas out there I just may try. 

Here are some of my favorite lunch ideas I will try: (we'll see how the kids like them, ha!)

• Fruit, meat and cheese Kabobs
• Apple sandwiches.  (core an apple, and slice into rounds.  dip in a little lemon juice.  smear nutella or PB and oats over it and top with another apple slice!)
• Pinwheel sandwiches.
• Veggies and Humus
• Yogurt & Berries, Big Pretzel Sticks

It never hurts to do a little research on even the simplest of subjects.  We all can use a change now and then.  I'm ready to kick off the new School year with a new arsenal of lunch ideas! 

 

Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable Gardening isn't something I'm pro at but 3 springs ago I had my handy hubby build me (2) 4x8 garden boxes to plant veggies in.  Our yard isn't all that big, so we wanted to put the boxes in an area that isn't used all that much right along our property line.  On the pavement.  (sounds interesting doesn't it?)  I didn't want to go digging up our already small lawn for a garden and the sun hit that area all day long, so I decided the pavement was just the place for it. 

We put gravel on the bottom for drainage then top soil, lots of manure, peat moss and fertilizer which eventually got us this: 

I learned a few things after this first year.   Like Tomatoes and Sweet peppers are very sensitive to cold and over watering.  Yes, they did produce, but I ran into some near death experiences with them. (they were nearly dead before I figured out what I was doing!)

You should have seen me...I had hand drawn maps of my gardens with little x's where each carrot would grow and everything!

Last year I didn't bother with 1/2 of what I planted the first year.  At the time when we built these boxes, we thought it was plenty of room.  Most of the suggested garden boxes online that we saw were 4x4's so we thought we were really doing ourselves a favor by making (2) 4x8's.  To feed our sized family...they should have been 12x30!  (OK, maybe not...but these feel small to me now)

Broccoli brought us little white worms that had to be picked off.  Not my cup of tea.  I didn't figure this out till some of my plants were nothing but nubs.  This link will give you some great info on how to grow a successful crop.

Carrots need very fine soil to grow in so they don't grow into mutant carrots.  Guess what we got.

Cukes did grow in these boxes which really surprised me because they need lots of space to roam, but they did well here.  (for the amount we wanted anyway!) This year I will plant more than normal so I can make Lady Ashburnhams.  The cukes and onions get expensive when making these.

Tomatoes....well, they tend to gross me out.  Ha ha, call me a wimpy gardener or a tomato snob, but if my tomatoes grew mutant looking I didn't want to eat them.  I gave them all to my mother in law. She said they were some of the sweetest tomatoes she had ever eaten.  My friend Jill taught me how to prune these properly.  You have to cut the sucker shoots off.  This made all the difference for my tomatoes! Thanks Jill!  Check out this great resource for growing tomatoes.

Green beans grew great!  I'm still figuring out a system for them.  They need poles or something to grow around.  I've been using a homemade bamboo and string system.  It's a mess.  I don't like doing it that way.  I'll have to concoct something different for this year. 

My all time favorite thing I grew over the years (which I didn't plant NEAR enough the first year) were Sugar Snap peas.

I think the first year I planted maybe 12 seeds in a row.  Last year I did 2 rows of 24 and this year I have sowed 4 rows of seeds hoping for a bounty from those little babies!  (great snacking food for the kids.  They love them and they love picking them!  Bonus!!)

I am no expert gardener, but each new year I get to try my hand at growing our own food.  I love this concept.  What a financial savings too!  I wish we had more land, I would have a great big garden.  I am loving learning how to can foods and make my own jams and pickles.  Something my mom did when I was a kid and now I know why.  It is just down right yummy and satisfying. 

How To Make Your Own Miracle Whip

I'm usually one to run to the store for any little thing that I need right that minute.  There.  I said it.  I don't plan very well.   I'm trying to change that though.

Anyway....

 It seems to be a good cardio workout when I've got my team of champs with me, but it proves to be much more expensive than that one item I needed.  In fact, it's funny, when I walk into StuffMart, I instantly think of all kinds of "saved trips" I could make if I took the time to get this now.  I tell you, I think StuffMart has a $100 cover charge you must meet before you can checkout.  :/

Well, today was a step in the right direction.  I tried a recipe that saved me a trip AND money! 

I was making chicken salad sandwiches for my Man at lunchtime.  He likes Miracle Whip on his chicken sandwiches.  I didn't have any.  I did have Mayo though.  So, I looked up a recipe online for "How to Make Your Own Miracle Whip", tried it, and we loved it.  I wouldn't say it was exact, but it was yum, non the less.  (in my own opinion, I liked it better than plain ol' MW.  It had a garlic hue to it that I thought was MM MM good!)

Here's the Recipe:

5 Tbsp Vinegar
2 tsp Cornstarch
3 Tbsp White Sugar
1 tsp Paprika
1tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Dry Mustard
1 1/2 Cups Mayonnaise

In a saucepan, on medium heat, whisk together the vinegar and cornstarch until it thickens.  Remove from heat and add all other ingredients.  Cool and use!  It's that easy!