Home and Kitchen Organization

When I posted about our school notebooks a couple weeks ago. I mentioned that I had also made one for the kitchen/home. I'm FINALLY getting around to posting the details about that. Several years ago I set up a "household notebook" with recipes, home information etc. BUT it was a 3 ring binder, and I just do not like 3 ring binders. I like the convenience, but not the bulk. And I was never good about keeping it up to date. Now that I have my handy dandy pro-click binding system, AND the awesome 2010 Schoolhouse Planner I decided it was a good time to make a new kitchen notebook. I started out to just have it be a recipe book, but then, it occurred to me that w/o the bulk of the 3 ring binder, this would be a great place to keep other forms that people might need to find if I wasn't around, and such. So, I turned it back into a household binder of sorts.

I decided since this will be in the kitchen when we're cooking, to just put everything in page protectors. That way I don't have to worry about spills.

At  some point I might decide to make a pretty cover of somesort, but for now, the cover is the Kitchen Conversion Cheat Sheet from the 2010 Schoolhouse Planner  This is so handy to have easily accessible, when you're cooking. Especially if you're like me and often want to double or halve a recipe.

The next pages are also out of the 2010 Schoolhouse Planner. The first is a page (not shown) is a page of important phone numbers. Next are 2 pages of family health information (the pink is just because our printer was acting up). I hadn't filled it out yet when I took the pictures, but it includes insurance information, doctor & dentist information, etc. *I* may not use this information often, the phone #s are already in my phone and such, but I figure these pages (the phone numbers and the health information) could be helpful to a babysitter or the girls if I was hurt, or whatever. Just good to have it all in one place, easy to find.

Next in the book is a garden planning checklist. This one I plan to use IN the page protector and mark things off with a wet erase (overhead projector) marker. That way I can re-use it from year to year. I also included a page for "Our Pet's Health Log" to keep track of the cats' health information (something I was never good about doing for our dog, figure this way I have a fighting chance LOL). And a general To-Do List. Not sure how often I'll use this, but getting ready for a specific event or something, I can use this with a wet erase marker and have it handy.

Family Chore Chart is a cool form I found in the 2010 Schoolhouse Planner. I was able to personalize it across the top with all of our names, and then the days of the week are down the left side. I wrote our normal chores on the paper itself (I could have typed them in like I did the names, but was in a hurry to get everything printed and didn't think of that. Besides, I'm weird, and kind of like handwriting things sometimes LOL) and then use a wet erase marker for chores specific to any given week. The girls still have their small portable chore charts, but this is something to refer to when they forget them, and keeps everything in one place. The other page in this picture is a Food Inventory Log. I haven't filled this out yet, but it gives space to keep track of what is in the pantry & freezer. My thought with this is to write the basics straight on the paper and then write amounts, and unusual items on the page protector with a wet erase marker. But my pantry & freezer are such a mess it will be quite the job, someday I'll get around to it, until then, the page is there reminding me, hee hee.

The last planner pages I used were Weekly Menu Planners.  I included 5 of these. We've been traveling so much that I haven't done anything with them yet. But my plan is to use them for regular menu planning. If I'm including a recipe that I know we all like, I'll write that on the paper, if I'm trying new recipes, I'll write it on with a wet erase marker. Over time, I hope to have 5 weeks of pre-planned menus, then I can just take a week, and go over it with a wet erase marker and change anything specific to that week (meals we won't be home, or whatever). Easy-Peasy. Since I'll also have all the recipes in this same book it means that if I were sick and someone else was staying with the girls, they could take over the menu planning with almost no effort & have meals the girls & dh will eat.

The last section of the book is the actual recipes. I'm just typing these in Word. I have them by category (Breakfast, bread, etc) and am including the recipes that we use frequently.

This book was so handy to have for our Williamsburg trip. We stayed in a friend's timeshare so had a kitchen and were able to make most of our meals. So nice to just grab this book and bring it along and I had all the recipes I needed for the meals we had planned.

On a related note, I wanted to mention that TOS has just launched a whole line of STUDENT Planners. Since we already had the girls' school notebooks made for this year, and they don't do much independent work at this point, I opted not to get one this year, but these look like great products, I suspect we'll be getting it as the girls get older. You can see them here.

Review: Homestead Blessings - The Art of Cooking

In a world where homemaking skills are, at best, ignored, and too often ridiculed and looked down upon, I love that the West Ladies of Homestead Blessings, are spreading their love and knowledge of so many wonderful homemaking topics!

My daughters, especially A2, LOVE learning about cooking and working in the kitchen, so when Franklin Springs Family Media gave me the choice of which of the Homestead Blessings videos to review, choosing The Art of Cooking seemed like the logical choice.

We received our video a few days before we were scheduled to leave for our week in Williamsburg, but despite all the preparations we were in the middle of, I couldn't wait to sit down and watch the video with the girls.  The West Ladies are so personable! Watching their video is like sitting in the kitchen chatting with them while they cook. I also have to admit, I was fascinated by all the things they have hanging on the wall behind them, I could watch it over and over just to see all the interesting things on that wall, hee hee.

As I was watching the video, I thought . . . this is great, but I wish they gave me the complete recipe(s) on one screen so I could pause it and write it down. But then, when we were ready to try a recipe and I went looking, I found something even better, you can put the DVD in your computer and there is a .pdf of the recipes!! Woo-hoo, no copying required, just print it out and you're good to go (though some of the simpler recipes aren't included, but that's ok. What a great idea!!!

We didn't have alot of time that week for extra cooking, and now that we're home, we're trying to catch up on laundry and stuff, so STILL haven't had alot of time for anything beyond the bare minimum of cooking, but we did get to try a few recipes before we left for Williamsburg.  What I was the most excited about was their tomato soup recipe. I already have a tomato soup recipe that I'm happy with, so initially figured  I wouldn't get much out of that particular part of things, but then, as I watched it, I got a GREAT idea!! I also have a tomato sauce recipe that I like but my girls don't like it because it doesn't have "chunks" in it. This summer we tried making some chunky tomato sauce but weren't very happy with it. BUT, the tomato soup recipe on this video was for a tomato soup that had chunks of tomato in it, and I realized that I could combine that aspect of the soup recipe with the sauce recipe I already use, and it would be PERFECT!! I had tomatoes that needed to be used before we left, so on Friday, as we were trying to pack and such, I also had a big pot of tomato sauce simmering on the stove (Little Bit desperately wants to see whenever there's anything cooking, so she tries to climb the oven door), and it turned out BEAUTIFULLY!! I'm so excited with my new sauce recipe, and it's all thanks to the West Ladies' tomato soup recipe! Woo-hoo!!!  Their video also got us in the mood for homemade pizza, so we had fun one evening using a couple frozen crusts from the freezer, and making our own version of their yummy pizza!

But then . . . one of the recipes the girls REALLY wanted to try was their recipe for apples and onions. Now I have to admit, I was skeptical (at best)! I like apples, and I like onions, but TOGETHER? Ick! Especially because I'm very picky about mixing sweet & savory (I can't stand any form of sweet & sour, for example).It also seemed odd that the girls wanted to try this since they don't even LIKE onions! But they kept coming back to wanting to try that recipe, and it was something quick and easy, so we made it for lunch one day (it's on the West Ladies' breakfast menu, but that's ok).

We re-watched the part of the video that tells how to make it, and then I set the girls to work. They don't like cutting onions, so I did that part, but they did the rest. It did smell delicious!! But I served up small servings just the same . . . but we all LOVED it!!!  The "savory" aspect of the onions seems to completely disappear and it's just a yummy, sweet . . . almost dessert! But it's healthy! The girls thought we should have it again the very next day but since I'd only  bought a few apples to use for this recipe, and we were leaving that morning for Williamsburg, we put it off. Now that we're home, I have a feeling we'll be getting some more apples soon and this will become a regular breakfast &/or lunch around here, it's SOO yummy! And easy, and healthy! What more can a busy homeschool mom ask for?

So, all-in-all, this was a GREAT video!! Full of yummy recipes (you can see a list of the included recipes here).  An added bonus for our (vegetarian) family, there was only one meat recipe, I'll admit we fast-forwarded through that part. But the rest of the recipes were vegetarian or easily adaptable, the pizza included pepperoni but it's easy to leave that off.

AND . . . Franklin Springs Family Media has these videos on sale right now for only $14.95, or check out their boxed sets for savings when you buy more than one of the Homestead Blessings series.

And now the really cool part, Franklin Springs Family Media has generously offered up to 3 copies of Homestead Blessings The Art of Cooking to give away to my readers!  So, if we get up to 25 entries, I'll give away one copy, 26-50 entries, I'll draw 2 names, and over 50 entries, I'll give away 3 copies.

Mandatory first entry:  Visit Franklin Springs Family Media and leave a comment on this post telling me which of the Homestead Blessings videos you think sounds most interesting.

Additional entries: Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

• Follow my blog (link in the right sidebar), or let me know that you are already a follower.
• Blog about this giveaway, and leave a comment here with a link to your blog post.
• "Like" Franklin Springs Family Media on facebook.
• Post about this giveaway on facebook.

This giveaway will close on September 28. Winners will be notified on September 29. Please make sure that I have a way to contact you (via your blog or e-mail address). If I cannot contact you, I will have to pick another name. You will have 2 days to respond to me, or I will draw an alternate name.

This giveaway is now closed, winners have been notified. If they do not respond, alternate names will be chosen and notified.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Homestead Blessings The Art of Cooking from Franklin Springs Family Media in exchange for writing this review, Franklin Springs Family Media is also providing the videos offered in this giveaway. No other compensation was received and my opinions are my own.

Healthy, Portable Food on a Budget!

One of the challenges we had for campmeeting was food. We were leaving the house by 8:30 every morning and I was getting home around 8pm, the big girls didn't get home until close to 10pm most nights. We opted to eat out for suppers with Daddy, but I didn't want ALL our meals to be eating out that week, both from a health standpoint and a budget standpoint. So, the week before campmeeting, I planned accordingly. I knew we would need to eat breakfasts in the car. Mornings were hurried enough without adding in time to eat at home PLUS the girls tend to not eat much when they first wake up, so waiting a little longer meant they'd eat more as well. So, the week before I made sure that one morning we had breakfast cookies for breakfast and I made a double (or triple, I forget, LOL) batch and froze all that we didn't eat. Another day we had banana muffins and again I (actually my mom, who was here visiting that day) made extra to freeze. So, we had banana muffins and breakfast cookies to eat for breakfast in the car on the way to campmeeting all last week.

For lunch, my kids aren't huge sandwich fans and again, I wanted as little prep as possible. So, the week before one day for lunch we had corndog muffins a new favorite at our house. Again, I made a double recipe and froze what we didn't eat that day. Another day we made picnic pockets for supper. I made 2 rolls and sliced and froze what we didn't eat.

Sunday morning (we didn't have morning meetings at campmeeting on Sunday), I went to a local farm stand and got black raspberries and cherries. I also had carrots and bell pepper in the fridge. Each evening I asked the girls which breakfast, lunch, and fruit options they wanted & pulled the breakfast & lunch items out of the freezer to thaw overnight (though one night I forgot and we at the cookies straight from the freezer for breakfast and they were good that way too, and the lunch items thawed by lunchtime, I just pulled everything out at the same time to save time overall, and to save trips to the basement freezer since I had a broken toe and going down the steep basement stairs was less than comfortable). In the morning I put the lunch "entree" (cornbread muffins or picnic pockets) in each of our wrap-n-mats. I washed the fruit of choice and placed it in a small stainless steel container (similar to these). I placed each of these items, plus a frozen juice box in each of our insulated lunch bags (I have a Built NY Gourmet Getaway, not that fun of a print though, wish it had been available when I got mine LOL, the girls each have a Lands End insulated lunch bag, that's no longer on their site). Then in my bag I added a ziplock of cut up bell pepper and carrots and a small stainless steel container full of ranch dip, that we all shared. It literally took a few minutes to throw this together each morning. Then I tossed the breakfast items into my "car basket" to hand out once we were in the car. A1 sits in the seat beside Little Bit, so she shared her breakfast with Little Bit each day as we drove.

The girls each have a stainless steel water bottle and were responsible to fill it each morning (or the night before, their choice) and I filled mine. So we had water on our drive up and at lunch, plus they had the juice boxes (I used a small re-freezable ice pack in mine instead of a juice box).

Sure, I meant to do that!

I made the tortillas & they seem to have come out ok, YAY! I used this recipe. I was going to do 50/50 ww and white flour, but ran out of ww, so it was probably more like 30/60. And I used coconut oil instead of shortening (healthier, and I had it on hand. I did some looking online to see if I needed shortening and found stuff that said that butter/margarine could be used instead of shortening in recipes & then the Spectrum site indicated that coconut oil could be used instead of butter (but conveniently never said specifically that it could be used instead of shortening, probably because they also sell a "healthy" shortening that I'm too cheap to buy) so I figured it was worth a try & it seemed to work ok.). Didn't get them especially round, which isn't too surprising, I could have played with it more when I was rolling them out if I'd really cared, but I didn't LOL. And as it turns out, they worked REALLY well they way I did them. For some reason, making a ball & then rolling them out tended to leave one side with a kind of "tail" where a middle section stuck out farther than the sides, you can kind of see it on the left side of the one in the frying pan in the picture above. Well, as it turns out, since I was using them to make burritos & folding in the one end (like restaurants generally do, so you can pick it up w/o everything falling out the bottom) that "tail" worked really well to fold up as the bottom. So yeah, I meant to make them that way. I made them all into bean burritos that are now in my freezer being frozen so I can toss them in a big ziplock and take them alone for supper one of the nights we're gone (yes we confirmed that we'd have a fridge in the room, I assume there will be a freezer in the fridge, worst case, we'll turn the whole thing into a freezer by turning the temp down and then use the ice chest w/ ice in it for the refrigerated stuff).

Health notes . . .

A link to this article was in my in box this morning. Now, on the one hand, I am a vegetarian! For a variety of reasons, including health & religion, and the fact that the thought of eating a dead animal grosses me out (& yes, logically I realize that eating an egg is just as gross or more so, but I grew up eating eggs, not meat LOL), and that's not going to change! For both environmental and health reasons (due to the contaminates in our world) I'd love to go vegan, but I'm also realistic enough to know that I'd never convince dh to eat vegan and (a) I'm too lazy to fix him a separate meal from the girls & I and (b) the girls and I both enjoy dairy products enough that if they're in the house we're going to eat them.

But on the other hand, the article, as long as not taken to the opposite extreme (why is it so hard for society to accept "all things in moderation" as a possible option?), supports what I've been trying to move toward for our family. Less processed foods, more whole foods, moderation in all things, avoid the chemical fillers that are so rampant in low fat, sugar free, etc. foods (low fat foods generally are higher in refined sugar, and yet so many people in an effort to be healthy/lose weight will eat a diet made up primarily of "low fat" processed foods and "sugar free" (but full of chemical sugar substitutes) foods, which seems rather counterproductive. Now, yes, we eat out, and when we eat out we are obviously eating preservatives, refined flour, refined sugar, etc. But at least at home if I can limit or eliminate these things, I feel that we're making a step in the right direction and approaching a more overall healthy lifestyle than if we're replacing fat with refined sugar &/or replacing sugar with potentially cancer-causing chemicals.

Grandma's birthday weekend, part 1

My grandma turns 90 today (Sunday). Mom and her siblings decided since Grandma's not a fan of having a fuss made, the thing she'd like the most was to have her family around her, so mom's brother and sister came, 2 of my cousins were able to come, and in the end they were able to figure out for Grandma's sister and her husband to come (one of their grandsons is friends with our pastor so he volunteered to drive them up here to visit Uncle Bruce's brother (who lives in MD) and our family, while he visits Q), and one of my mom's cousins is coming up today (she lives in MD too, so can come up for the day). So, it's kind of a weekend of togetherness more than a specific party, which is totally Grandma's kind of thing anyway.

So, we went up for church yesterday and spent the day there. The girls did great, considering there were quite a few people they didn't know, although mom's brother & his wife were here a couple months ago so I think they at least sort of remembered them. Mom's sister & her husband and son (cousin Dennis) come up a few times a year, so the girls were excited to see them again. A especially is buddy buddy with Cousin Dennis (and while of course single, 20-something Cousin Dennis pretends to find it annoying, I think he enjoys it. As I told his sister, Jani (who's here this weekend but I don't think had met the girls prior to this, if so it was when they were still babies) he keeps coming back so he must not dislike it TOO much LOL. But generally if A wasn't running around I could find her snuggled up on Cousin Dennis's lap.

Mom said at lunchtime L was saying something about there being SO MANY people and mom told her there were more coming (Grandma's sister & Jani's husband didn't get there till yesterday afternoon, plus mom's cousin that's coming today) and L said "Oh, NO! Tell me you're joking!!!"

A told me on our way home last night, and again this morning that "at MY birthday, no grown-up talking is allowed!!" I asked if the mommies could talk while the kids played, but she's not even sure she's going to allow that LOL.

The original plan was that I'd take the girls up for most of the day today as well (dh is working), but since they were stressed by all the people I decided we'll wait and just go up this afternoon.

In other news, the girls have decreed the sourdough bread to be too sour (and I had to laugh, for dinner yesterday they had rhubarb pie for dessert (mom humored those of us who are very much NOT fans of rhubarb (or in my case, pie in general) and made brownies too) the girls had brownies and ice cream but then I guess A was asking mom what she was eating or something, so mom gave her a bite of the pie, A wasn't impressed, she said it tasted like sourdough LOL) so I don't know . . . I couldn't even get dh to try it, sigh . . . so if I'm the only one who will eat it, there's not much point in making it, we'll see . . .

Weekly Wrap-up

Quiet week, as already mentioned.

We baked the sourdough bread this afternoon (it had to raise 24 hours), apparently the directions forgot to mention greasing the bread pans, I wondered about it when I was putting it in the pans, but thought maybe you weren't supposed to because of letting it sit in the pans for 24 hours to raise, shrug. Anyway . . . bread smells good, just didn't come out of the pans real well. I'm letting it cool some and then I'll taste it, if it tastes good, we'll try it again but grease the pans LOL.

Kindermusik went well, the class keeps growing. The girls had fun. Class was early today because the electric company was going to be turning the electricity off in the church during our normal class time, which meant the girls were "starving" when class was over so we went to Taco Bell for lunch. Miss L (their Kindermusik teacher) and her 2 girls got there as we were finishing eating, so we stayed and chatted with them while they ate.

Last night at bedtime I pulled out the stargazing cards and showed the girls the various constellations on the ceiling of their room. They had great fun with it, and asked if we could do it again another night. If we ever have a nice uncloudy night, we'll go outside and try to find the stars out there too, but lately it's been cloudy anytime I remember to check.

Oh and I meant to post earlier in the week and forgot. When we go to the farm to get milk each week the girls go over and visit the calves while I unload the empty jars and load the milk. We ended up with an extra SS lesson quarterly this time around so it never made it in the house, I just slid it in the seat pocket with other books and such for the girls to read while we're driving. So, last week L happened to be "reading" the quarterly when we got to the farm. She told me she was going to "tell the cows about Jesus" and took the quarterly with her. I have no idea what she said, but the whole time I was getting milk she was holding the quarterly up so the calves could "see it" and talking away. So, we get there this week and she told me she was going to tell them more about Jesus. Last year for either Christmas or birthday the girls got small church hymnals. They love to hold the hymnal and "sing along" in church but they want to hold it themselves and it's heavy, so the smaller ones work better. ANYWAY they call them their "Bibles", and L's was still in the car from last week, so she took that with her and again was talking away to the calves the whole time. When she got back in the car she told me that she taught the cows that "God does not show favoritism" (this week's memory verse).

She's also, at various times when we've been driving around, been "reading" the stories from the quarterly and despite the fact that it often seems like they're not listening when I read them the lesson story, she's been able to quote the stories pretty much word for word LOL.

ETA: I just tried the bread, YUM! Finally a whole wheat sourdough that TASTES like sour dough! We'll see what dh and the girls think, but in my mind it's a keeper, now just keep fingers crossed that greasing the pan is all that's needed to get the bread to come OUT of the pans LOL.