o_O Free Time Please???

The last three months have been INSANE! (Caps lock and bold doesn't even begin to cover it!) I have not been sick so many times in such a short span of time for ... I can't even remember a time that I got sick a lot! *Sigh* Every time I turn around, the dishes haunt me and the piles of laundry (dirty and clean) taunt me.

However! I am really enjoying life up here! The snow is a nice change of pace and everyone is far more relaxed! My favorite part of living in Cheney: I have windows in my house! Huge windows! On all sides of the house! In every room except for one! It's wonderful. :^)

As for my diet, I'm finally getting back to vegetarian. It's nice! I've had a lot of fun cooking veggies and looking up or making up new recipes. I'm also having to force myself to cut out dairy because my daughter is showing signs of having an intolerance to milk.

One of my newest projects is to type up my favorite recipes so I can access them easier. It's really nice! But free time is ... nonexistent. Like right now, I could and should be doing dishes or laundry or vacuuming or cleaning or gosh, who knows! But I needed a break! ;^D

I'm figuring out the best way for me to organize meals and grocery lists, and have made up a couple excel documents based off of forms I found on the internet!

Grocery List

Meal Planner

So That's what I've been up to lately! I'll update with recipes and other fun stuff!

Here's to tomorrow!

How to Make Green Lemonade:

My good friend, Becca Sue, was asking me some specifics about juicing today and I realized that I should finally post more about the process we go through for juicing! So, here it is!

Step 1: Prep the produce!Washing the greens is fairly easy, I fill the sink with 2-3 inches of water toss each leaf in and essentially stir them in the water. This knocks most of the dirt and such off and conserves water because the faucet isn't running the whole time!



The apples and lemons we clean with a neat washing agent called Environne. (Washing instructions are on the bottles) Then each is cut into chunks that will fit into the juicer.


Step 2: Juice the produce!
We like to prep the juicer with a few leaves of Romain fist because, of all the ingredients, it is the cheapest. Then push two pieces of apple, one or two leaves of kale, one lemon wedge, and a few leaves of Romain. Repeat until you run out of produce but always try to end with Romain to push all the good stuff through!


Step 3: Strain out the pulp!
The reason a person juices is to get all the fantastic goodness that plants hold for us but there's so much fiber that it's hard to eat all of it. The juicer does a good job of removing most of the fiber, but there's still a lot left over. We use two different sizes of strainers. The first has a mesh with larger holes and the second has smaller holes. The first we only use once but the second we will use three or four times.



Step 4: Enjoy your Green Lemonade! Let me know if you have any questions!

Here's to your tomorrow!

As for the Diet

I have a new recipe! Woot! I got it from Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton.

EASY PLEASIN' OAT BARS
Makes 10-14 bars (depending on how they're cut)
Brackets [] are mine

2 cups ground oats (can be made in a blender with whole oats)
1 cup quick oats
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup fruit sweetener or other thick honey alternative [I used Agave Nectar]
1/4 cup vanilla or plain non-dairy milk
1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp canola oil [I used coconut oil! SOOOOO GOOD!]
[1- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract]
1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
3) Add the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, stirring until well combined. [I think it would work better to mix all the wet ingredients separately and then mix them into the dry mixture--the dry tends to suck up the liquid really fast!]
4) Transfer the mixture to a lightly oiled 8"x8" or 8"x12" baking dish and press it down until evenly distributed.
5) Using a sharp knife, cut to mark out the bars before you bake them to make it easier to fully cut and remove the bars once baked. (I usually mark out 12 rectangular bars, but you can make whatever size you like.) [I cut them into tiny little bite size squares for Juriah!]
6) Bake for 19-21 minutes, then remove and let cool in the pan.7) Once cool, use a sharp knife to fully cut the bars, then remove with a spatula.

My first batch came out really dense! But that was because I kept having to add soy milk. Juriah and I absolutely love them and Jairus really enjoyed the taste but not the dense texture. I'm sure that would be fixed by mixing the liquid ingredients on their own and then to the dry ones! Burton (I love her last name--it always makes me think of snowboarding! Which is another reason I need to get in shape! We've got a trip planned for Dec!) mentions in a side note that 1/4 cup of dried fruits or toasted nuts can be added! I told Jairus about that and (being the Coast Guard chief that he is) he mentioned that I would want to soak the fruit in water for an hour or so to keep the bars from drying out! He said that it works wonders for oatmeal cookies! I'll have to let you know what I find out when I try it! I love this recipe because I can have maple syrup and agave! So it's a nice sweet treat without adding so much to my weight issue!

As for the diet, all is well! Okay, except for the break down I had at Home Depot today. It was the third errand today that took longer than I expected it to and Juriah was cranky because we skipped his nap--I know, I know, bad idea! Anyway, I've had my green lemonade--OH! and so did Juriah! I have a picture!

He even asked me for more! Well, that's it for today! Here's to tomorrow!

Stats:
Weight - Probably the same!
Green Lemonades - 16! Woot!