Sewing: What I've Been Up To

This last week and a half has been crazy; we got some very good news that will hopefully change the course of our lives (more on that later once we know for sure how things are going to work out), we've been trying to get the house put back together after the silly season (and have been sick for weeks!) and I've even had a few custom orders so I got back behind my sewing machine and have really been enjoying myself

The first pair of longies I worked on are made out of a gorgeous blue cashmere sweater that a mama sent to me to turn into something squishy for the little boy they are expecting. She was nice enough to let me have the scraps for myself, seriously gorgeous!

I finished up another pair of  longies yesterday made from a navy blue cashmere sweater. This mama's little one is a little older so she needed an extra layer through the wet zone so I got to experiment with adding sewn in soakers; I love learning new things!

There's nothing like a pair of cashmere pants! If only I could find a sweater big enough to make some for myself!

I am also working on a couple custom dyed wool interlock shorties for a friend and a few projects for us too, stay tuned!

Meal Plan Monday

We're still eating out of our pantry and freezers this week and have managed to be roughly 50% under budget so far this month! We're out of a few staples now, like my favorite raw cheddar cheese (!!) so I can't wait to pick up our Azure Standard order on Wednesday!

Monday: leftover pinto and grass fed beef chili over brown rice and lettuce, small salad
Tuesday: whole wheat pancakes and fruit smoothies
Wednesday: Grilled chicken, steamed rice and steamed veggies
Thursday: Broccoli cheese and potato soup and homemade rolls
Friday: pizza night!
Saturday: grilled chicken salads using leftover chicken from Wednesday
Sunday: leftovers

Linking up with Organizing Junkie

Farm vs. Store Bought Eggs

The two yolks on the right are from local organic, pasture raised chickens that roam meadows freely foraging for bugs and scraps. They receive supplementation with all natural vitamins and minerals such as seaweed as needed.

The yolk on the left is a 'cage free organic vegetarian fed' egg from the grocery store. Cage free doesn't mean farm raised it just means they are not confined to a cage and are fed organic grains like soy and corn.

Do you notice a difference?

My favorite farm raised eggs have yolks with a deep yellow/gold orange color and a rich flavor. The whites are solid and the yolks strong, they don't break or bleed easily like the pale yellow store yolk did. It also takes a fair bit of effort to crack the pasture egg open in the first place while the store bought eggs shatters easily and at least one will always 'explode' during boiling no matter how careful I am with them.

I have also noticed that the farm eggs, when scrambled will still have little pockets of orange floating on the top of the liquid, you know there has got to be all sorts of yummy good for you fatty acids in there that were not added by means of excessive supplementation!

Carotenoids (preliminary forms of vitamin A) such as lutein and canthaxanthin give golden yolks their color and also prevent the oxidation and destruction of vitamins and minerals in the egg. These caretenoids come from plants, bugs and sunshine. Industrial chickens are fed grains that are enriched with such substances to give them a darker apparence though obviously nothing will ever compare to a farm egg! 

Some (read: big corporations that farm chickens and their 'scientists') insist that a golden yolk is no healthier than a pale yellow yolk. I don't know, might be true, probably isn't though, I don't believe them. How can that be? We know that a deep green leafy vegetable is much better for you than a pale white vegetable or even a pale green one.

I do believe though that a chicken laying sturdy eggs with golden orange yolks IS healthier than one laying eggs with pale yolks and flimsy shells. And that alone I will pay more for! They taste better too!

Salted Triple Chocolate Cookies

Disclaimer: don't make these if you have no self control or will power. The hubby and I literally fought for these, every time he would walk past the container he'd slow down, growl and carry on. When they were all gone he told me they were the best cookie ever and to never make them again HA!

I found the original recipe over on The Small Things Blog and I don't know whether to thank her or not

The original recipe below makes approximately 4 dozen cookies, we halved it and got almost 2 dozen good sized oh so yummy cookies

Triple Chocolate Salted Cookies

2C flour
1/2C Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
16oz chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips 

4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder - I didn't use this
10T unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2C packed light brown sugar
1/2C granulated sugar
2C semisweet chocolate chips - we did 1/2 semisweet, 1/2 white chocolate/pecans
sea salt

~ Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside
~ Melt 16oz semisweet chocolate on the stove or in the microwave
~ If using the coffee granules combine coffee, eggs and vanilla in a cup and stir to dissolve. If you're not using the coffee add the other ingredients in the next step.
~ Cream sugars and butter until fluffy. Gradually add egg/vanilla/coffee mixture mixing on low until just incorporated
~ Pour in the melted chocolate and mix until combined
~ Add dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated then fold in chocolate chips and nuts or whatever you choose to use
~ Let sit for a few minutes to allow the batter to set, the hot chocolate will make it really runny
~ Place tablespoonfuls on a prepared baking sheet or pizza/cookie stone. Sprinkle each cookie with a little sea salt
~ Bake for 10-12 minutes (10 if the batter is cooler, longer if it is still pretty warm going in) at 350F
~ Allow to cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack, they will be really squishy and breakable so be sure to let them sit for a bit before moving them

Linking up with The Way Grandma Does It and Somewhat Simple

Today's Free Swag

Do you swag? if you don't you really need to! This is what showed up at my house today and I paid NOTHING for any of it. $0 for $60+ worth of organic products, nothing can beat that!

Swagbucks started primarily as a search and win site; you use it as you would google and you are awarded 'swagbucks' randomly for searches through out the day.

It has since expanded significantly and now you can earn bucks for doing special offers like Blockbuster and Netflix free trials, surveys on things you use and buy, watching videos, completing polls and tasks, playing games and you can even earn points for shopping online through their shop & earn program. 450 Swagbucks = a $5 amazon gift card, the most popular reward and the one that offers the best value though they also have all sorts of other prizes you can redeem your points for.

My husband and I both have accounts with swagbucks and between the two of us we get $50 worth of Amazon gift cards a MONTH! I have been swagging for over 2 years now and it is totally legit! Generally we use our Amazon credit on grocery items to help free up cash for saving but we also save them for birthday and Christmas gifts, last year we got almost all our gifts from Amazon for free!

Do you swag already? What are your favorite ways to earn? What do you use your points for? I love chatting with other 'swaggernauts'

Honey Wheat Sandwich Rolls

We made these rolls yesterday and loved them; soft and squishy with a touch of sweetness. They even kept great overnight in a pyrex container!

I plan on making them every couple weeks for quick and easy lunch and/or dinner rolls, they are also supposed to freeze well. Next time I will cut the honey a little though, I found them a bit too sweet but I am not really a fan of sweetened bread to begin with

These can be made in a bread maker using the dough cycle or in your stand mixer with a dough hook

Honey Wheat Sandwich Rolls

1 1/4C warm milk
1 egg, beaten
2T butter, softened
1/4C honey
3/4tsp salt
2 3/4C bread flour
1C whole wheat flour
1 1/4tsp yeast

Place all your ingredients in your bread maker or stand mixer bowl as directed by your bread maker or, if using a mixer put your wet ingredients + yeast in first and then your dry

Set your bread maker to the dough cycle and leave it. If using a mixer, using your dough hook mix/knead for 10-15 minutes (though admittedly, I only did it for maybe 5), stop to make sure all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and then allow to rise until doubled

When the dough cycle is done or your dough has doubled in the mixing bowl turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to 3/4 inch thick. Cut rolls to your preferred size using a knife or round biscuit cutter and then allow to rise until doubled again on your baking sheet or stone (be sure to preheat the stone slightly as it will be pretty cold otherwise, preheating helps with the rising). We ended up with 12 good sized sandwich rolls

Bake at 350F degrees for 10-15 minutes. We prefer our bread a little squishier so we went with 10 minutes and it was perfect for our tastes

Allow to cool or dig into them with your favorite butter! We used ours for our ham sandwiches but we also plan to use them for hamburgers and will shape them into hotdog buns too. We will also be experimenting with the flour ratios to make them a little healthier with more whole wheat

Linking up with Somewhat Simple

Birthday Party: Dino-melon

This dino-melon was a really fun way to serve the fruit salad at P's 4th birthday last month and it was actually fairly easy to make!

You start with a good sized watermelon and cut 1/4 inch or so off the bottom so it sits flat on a plate

Using a non-toxic washable marker I drew out the mouth... over and over again until I had it just right. When cutting out the mouth leave most of the melon inside intact for support; use a melon baller to hollow out the top of the mouth and around the sides on the bottom but leave a good sized 'tongue' in the middle and don't hollow any further back than where the corners of the mouth are or your melon head might collapse!

Mark where you want your eyes, eyebrows and nostrils to go. Using the chunks removed for the mouth cut out two nostrils and two eyebrows. The eyebrows took me a long time, I just couldn't get them angry looking enough! For the details on the nostrils use a toothpick or knife to scrape off the green flesh revealing the white underneath. Secure each nostril and eyebrow with 1/2 a toothpick

To make the eyes I cut a small hole with a knife and then dug it out with the melon baller. I was meant to put an eye in there made with more of the leftover green skin but forgot.

Finish with a handful of toothpicks; poke them into the jaws to give your dinosaur some super fierce teeth. Don't forget to put out some tongs to grab the fruit with or the dinosaur will bite your guests!

Linking up with Somewhat Simple, Sew Much Ado and Tatertots & Jello

Also made for his party:
Part 1 in the Dino Dig Party Series
Dinosaur Sugar Cookies
Homemade Sausage Rolls

50% Off Retail on Organic Products

I have a Frontier co-op open over on the forum I belong to, it closes on the 14th and payments are due by the 16th of this month

Frontier carries the 'Simply Organic' and 'Aura Cacia' products you see in health food stores at 50% off retail as well as various food and health and beauty brands like:
Beauty Without Cruelty
Dr. Bronner's
Burt's Bees
Earth Mama Angel Baby
Earth Friendly Products/Ecos (their laundry detergent is even on sale this month!)
Jason's
K-cups (10% off this month).. as well as a Keurig machine that is 20% off this month also
Bulk organic (and conventional) baking ingredients - their dutch process organic FT cocoa powder is my fave! their vanilla beans and extracts are awesome too
Essential Oils

I could go on and on; their catalog has got to be over a hundred pages long!

If you're interested in participating come on over to our thread, join the forum and let me know that you're a blog following or from Diaperswappers or wherever, I waive membership requirements for those that I 'know'

Orders under $250 will be shipped to me free of charge once we hit the free shipping minimum and then I ship to you, orders over $250 can be shipped directly to you to save even more!

Our 2012 Goals

This year's goals are almost exactly the same as last year's. I don't think that's a good thing?

1. Have a weekly 'date night' with my wonderful husband. This could be a Redbox movie on the couch, a quiet dinner after P goes to bed  or a game of Yahtzee; either way it has to be cheap and just us

2. Pay off 30% of our debt. I think this is fairly attainable while accomplishing our other financial goals but of course we'd love to pay off even more than that! One of the big ways we will be working towards this is by eating out less and being more mindful of our spending

3. Pay for our next vacation 100% with cash. I don't know where we're going yet, it'll be either Europe or back home to New Zealand but we need to have it paid for completely with cash, no credit cards allowed! I am roughly 50% of the way there already!

4. Focus on what we need not what we want. We really don't *need* anything except for maybe less clutter. Decluttering and organizing will be something I am working on again this year, it's definitely an ongoing process!

5. More family time less lazy time. It's too easy to sit around and watch TV and let the day pass us by, I am almost tempted to get rid of our cable service... almost... but we like Netflix streaming just as much lol

6. Baby #2. And there it is again on the list. Again. Still. 2011 didn't bring us anymore baby dust than 2010 did sadly. We are looking into fertility treatment now which will also have to be paid for in cash *sigh*

Are your goals for 2012 the same as last year's or are you aiming to achieve something different this year?

Whole Wheat Waffles

We've tried a couple different waffle recipes since we got our cast iron waffle iron and DH has decided that this is our favorite. I pulled it from Alton Brown's Good Eats book that he got me for Christmas but it is also available online. I did separate the eggs and whip the whites before adding them which is something Alton (my second husband) didn't call for but will improve the texture of your waffles

While these are not 100% whole wheat they are still more filling than our usual all white waffle and I think they would be even better made with white whole wheat flour in place of the all purpose, let me know if you give it a shot!

Whole Wheat Waffles

4 3/4oz all-purpose flour, approximately 1C
4 3/4oz whole-wheat flour, approximately 1C
1/2tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
3T sugar
3 whole eggs - separated
2oz unsalted butter, melted

16oz buttermilk, room temperature - I ended up using yogurt and 2% though

~ Mix together flours, baking soda, powder, salt and sugar in a medium bowl

~ In another bowl beat together egg yolks and melted butter then add buttermilk

~ Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix until combined. Allow to rest for 5 minutes (hydrates the flour)

~ Whip egg whites and then fold into the waffle batter

~ Cook as directed by your waffle iron. For us it is 70 seconds on each side in our cast iron waffle iron over medium heat on our gas stove

~ Keep waffles in an oven heated to 200-225 degrees (I found 225 to work better at keeping them crispy) until you're ready to serve if not serving immediately. Or get a second waffle iron (that's our plan)

Makes 6-8 waffles. We got 7 out of ours which were 7 points a piece for those on Weight Watchers when made with 2%

Serve with your favorite all natural maple syrup and some fruit. We love Coombs Family Farms 100% Organic Grade B Maple Syrup. We have tried both grade A and grade B and far prefer the stronger flavor of the grade B. This stuff is worth the price and a little goes a LONG way. One 16oz bottle lasts us months

Linking up with The Way Grandma Does It

Meal Plan Monday ~ Organic & Thrifty

We're eating out of the pantry this month, trying to buy as little as possible from the store and I'm going to have to get back to meal planning if we're going to succeed at using what we have. I will be placing an order with Azure Standard though to get a few more staples since it is only delivered once a month

Dinners
~ Rib fajitas, steamed broccoli and carrots
~ Red beans and rice and cabbage
~ Meatballs, mashed potato/turnip and cabbage
~ Leftovers: black eyed peas and whatever else we can find
~ Homemade pizza
~ Crispy coconut chicken tenders, salad, roasted sweet potato
~ Bean chilli, cornbread and collard greens

Breakfast on weekend
~ Breakfast burritos w/ scrambled eggs, skillet potatoes and salsa
~ Waffles, Pancakes or Pikelets w/ jam, maple syrup, whipped cream and/or fruit

Lunch on weekend
~ Broccoli cheese and potato soup w/ homemade french bread
~ Spinach fettuccine w/ marinara sauce

Linking up with Organizing Junkie