Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Whole Wheat Banana Flaxseed Mini Muffins

I love spending time in the kitchen. Getting in there and experimenting with different flavors and textures relaxes me for some reason. So yesterday on a whim I hopped into the kitchen and decided to whip something up. This is what I came up with…..





Whole Wheat Banana Flaxseed Mini Muffins

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons milled flaxseed
3 bananas, mashed
¾ cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash of fresh grated nutmeg
¾ teaspoon cinnamon

Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Makes 32 mini muffins.

I want to call these “healthy” but I have a hard time saying that with so much sugar in the recipe. Next time I make these I’m going to try substituting 1/3 cup agave nectar for the all the sugar in the recipe and maybe a scoop or two of wheat germ.

Either way, they are super yummy and Snuggle Bug gobbled these up as soon as she tasted one. Enjoy!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Another Monday Morning

All is quiet in the house. The hubby is off to work, Snuggle Bug is still resting quietly and I’ve been milling about the house since 6am. It’s a pretty calm morning, so far. I did, however, wake up with one teeny tiny question……



WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?
Snow at the end of April? Seriously?

My home town is going to have a high of 83 today. Do you know why? Because it’s Spring. Apparently Colorado missed the memo.



I know I’ve been talking a lot about the weather, springtime and such but you have to keep in mind I’m from the south and even though I’ve been living in colder climates for about 3.5 years now, that still apparently isn’t quite enough time for me to enjoy the fact that it stays colder much longer around here than I’d like. I’m just ready to pull out the spring clothes, plant some flowers and sit on my back porch with a glass of iced tea. Doesn’t that sound so much better than schlepping about in that lovely dirt and snow mixture while bundled up to look like the kid from a Christmas Story, “I can’t put my arms down!”? For me that will only work when the holidays are coming up and you’ve got enough warm Christmas cheer to combat the cold winter sludge.

Nonetheless, Snuggle Bug and I will make the most of it. I’ve got a few projects in mind and once she wakes up and has breakfast we’ll venture out to pick up some groceries and a few other items. Now a positive to all this cold, I can get to a few more stores before my cold items thaw out too much. See? You always have to look for a silver lining.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Look! It's a Lawn!!

LOOK!!



Can you see the difference? You see that green stuff? Its grass!

After about a month of living with a dirt backyard after the straw and netting blew away they finally came and put in the grass yesterday. It is so nice to finally have a lawn. The dogs, of course, ran out to break it in immediately. That was nice of them, eh? After I got that cleaned up I let Snuggle Bug go outside to check things out. I’m ashamed to say this is her first lawn. At our old house we never could seem to get the grass to grow and it was so gross out back that we never let her play out there. But not anymore!

So now comes the fun part when we turn it into our own backyard oasis. I’ve been scanning craigslist daily for patio furniture I can rehab and I’m hoping to find a little swing set for snuggle bug. Then again there is a park literally across the street so we may look for something else. I don’t know yet. I just want to be able to finally enjoy our outdoor space for once. I keep reading blogs where people have taken the crappiest looking stuff and turned it into something really amazing. I want to try that myself! Any tips from the rehabbers on what to look for in furniture or rehab projects? I’d love to make some fun one of a kind stuff outside of the small craft projects I already do.


Side note:
The Girl Creative
Friday Follow

If you're over from Friday Follow or New Friend Friday let me know!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Its Curtains for You!




Yay for playdates. Snuggle Bug just loves them and I love that she gets a chance to play with some kids her age. With her being an only child it’s so important to make sure she is getting proper socialization so she isn’t just playing with grownups all the time. But having other kids over shows me how much we need to teach her how to share a bit better. She has no issue at first but then when she really wants a toy that someone else has she screams bloody murder. Yes, I’ve got a screamer on my hands. I’m actually surprised that the neighbors having called the cops on us yet with all the screaming Snuggle Bug does. But now the kiddos have gone on their merry way and Snuggle Bug is enjoying some quiet snack time in the playroom. Ah, quiet. It’s nice while it lasts, which isn’t very long at all.







Is this not the cutest fabric? I got it on sale a few weeks ago to make into curtains for Snuggle Bug’s playroom. I absolutely puffy heart this fabric. But now I don’t know what kind of curtains to make with it. Valances? Balloon shades? Roman shades? I don’t know and there are so many different styles out there.


Here is the playroom. Excuse the mess, our little playdate friends just left so the place isn’t completely picked up. Thoughts?


I also bought these two fabrics for summer dresses for Snuggle Bug.










I don’t actually know what I want to use this fleece for. But I saw it on sale and loved it so here it is. Ideas?




So i've got a lot of ideas in the works if I could just get my sewing room up and running again. Maybe that will be my next project this weekend.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Spring? Where are you Spring??



Has anyone seen spring? Because I sure haven’t. I love spring. I love being able to get outside in the nice weather and plant things. Despite my black thumb I do enjoy basking in my attempts at not killing the most basic of plants.

It was such a lovely day yesterday. The sun was shining, I had the windows open; it was the kind of day that makes you wake up feeling positive. This morning is one of those mornings that you wake up; hear the rain the groan loudly while you pull the covers over your head begging for just 15 more minutes. We had originally planned a fun filled trip to the zoo but that obviously isn’t going to happen today because the equation of wet + cold + toddler does not equal a calm mommy. But the season has just started and that season pass will come in handy soon enough with many zoo pictures to follow. So what do you do on days like this? Cold, wet days when you and your kiddos are stuck inside. I always love new ideas.



Ooooh and I almost forgot to post a wonderful new recipe I tried out.




Unfortunately, I have no picture of the actual meal, because I was so excited to try it that I ate it all up before I realized I hadn’t taken a picture. Oops!

Cioppino

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup clam juice
1 tomato, diced
1 cup chicken or fish stock
1 cup water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
½ pound mussels, cleaned and debearded
½ pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ pound scallops
½ pound skinless halibut

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in large soup pot. Add onion and celery and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, herbs de provence, bay leaf and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste. Add clam juice, bring to a boil and cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, chicken or fish stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in vinegar, salt and pepper.
Bring back soup base back to a boil. Add shrimp, scallops, mussels and halibut. Reduce heat and simmer, until everything is cooked, about 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with crusty Italian bread.

Enjoy!!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Post It Note Tuesday




It's a Beautiful Crafty Day!

Good morning blog world! It is such a lovely day today. The sun is shining; it’s cool outside and beautiful. Snuggle Bug just finished a yummy bowl of oatmeal and I’m enjoying a cup of coffee. It’s a good start to a good day. Peaches is doing well since her surgery last week and seems to be recovering well. She was very drugged up when the hubby brought her home on Wednesday but after about 6 days of rest and relaxation – which is hard for a very energetic dog like her- she is doing well. She doesn’t love the cone she has to wear to keep her from messing with the stitches but she seems to be getting used to it.

Nice days like these bring out my creative side. I haven’t had any craft projects to post in at least a month and I’m itching to get something going soon. My sewing room isn’t even close to being unpacked unfortunately. I’ve been waiting on the hubby to put my desk together but I’m about to give up and just do it myself because I really want it done. I also need to go buy another shelf since the one I had in my old sewing room broke during the move. I’m just ready to make something special.
Actually I do have a mini craft that Snuggle Bug and I did earlier this week.

Letter Decorating!


Snuggle Bug just LOVES the alphabet. So what could be more fun to a 2 year old then to decorate the alphabet? She was so proud when I put them on the wall for all to see. When the hubby got home from work that evening she was thrilled to show him the special project she had done. We also made stick puppets but she has hidden those away so I can’t take a picture. I love doing little crafts with her. I think this week it’ll be something with macaroni noodles or paper cups. Oh the possibilities!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Grocery Savings and Doggy Surgery

Recently I joined a site called the Grocery Game. If you’re an avid coupon clipping deal hunter like I am then you’ve probably heard of it in the past. How it works is there are lists to grocery stores in your area. On each list are sale items that are coupled with coupons from the Sunday paper so that you can get the rock bottom lowest price and the more that you shop the list the more you save. You pay $5 per list every 8 weeks which for us equals out to $7.50 a month for the three lists that we receive which are Safeway, King Soopers and Walgreens. I’ve been at this for about 3 weeks now and I will say I’ve seen a significant savings already even though I’m still working on my stockpile. Stockpiling is another principal in the grocery game. Sales run every couple of weeks and you stockpile those sale items that you need so you won’t have to buy more until they come on sale again. That way you’re always buying your items for the lowest possible price. They even have items marked in green on the list that are things you can get for free when you combine a sale and a coupon. Today I managed to get Nivea body wash and Lunchables for free thanks to a sale and coupon. Over the past couple of weeks I see an average savings of 25% which may not sound like much but it is great to see “You saved $71 today” or “You saved $35 today” on my receipts. I will say you could probably do what the Grocery Game on your own without paying for the list but I’m honestly paying for the convenience of it all. I originally went into it thinking I’d just do the free trial and opt out but I’m hooked.

In other news, my little fur-baby is going in for surgery on Wednesday. When we made it here to Colorado we noticed that she had began limping and decided to get her checked out. Low and behold the poor thing has a torn ACL and a bone deformity that we didn’t know about. So after a trip to the canine orthopedic clinic it was determined that she’d need surgery. Even though it’s horrible expensive we’re going to go ahead with it because we don’t want her to be in pain anymore and for it to get worse and worse. Please send out lots of prayers and good thoughts to my little Peaches on Wednesday!