Oct. 3 of 31 Days

Did you miss Oct. 2? No, you did not. I didn't write it. Just being real.

So since I missed a day, today's reality check is going to be somewhat bullet-pointed, with all sorts of "random" (MG's new favorite word) reality. Here goes.

- Yesterday, I was peeling yucky carrots. Although I did cut off any brown parts, the outsides were still kinda slimy. But I peeled them anyway, cut them up, and bagged them for snacks. You can do that with carrots, right?

- All 3 of my children share the same bedroom. My daughter has her own room, but prefers to sleep in the boys' room. (I heart that they get along so well.) However, she does not have her own bed. She sleeps on the floor, and has no problem with it. But since I had to go upstairs to MG's crying twice during the night last night, and he fell over her both times, I think it's time to move some stuff around.

- I have a policy about dinner. I make it. You eat it. Or don't. Your choice. But I don't short-order cook. Tonight, I made something I know my kids don't like. But I made it anyway. On other days, I've toughed through it and said they can eat it anyway. Or not. Tonight, I threw chicken nuggets in the oven, too. Weak?

Now...here's a twist. In the middle of writing this blog (which isn't hard, since I'm leaving it open on my computer to write it as today happens), I read this blog entry that was recommended by Threadbare Mommas.

I'm writing about reality here. And in truth, all these mom-fails are, truly, reality. We all do them. We all screw up. BUT. We do good things, too. We're just so good at thinking we're failing that we forget them.

So. As my Mom Of The Year trophy, I will be writing half of each post about the true mom-fails, things we all do but hate to admit, and half about the GOOD things I've done that day. Because they're just as real as any screw-up I've done during the day. Yeah. That's a good idea.

So here are a couple of good things from today.

- I did not yell at my kids before school. (This is an accomplishment. I was stern - my older two are getting used to a new schedule and both want to stay home when we hit Wednesday, but they can't, so I have to be serious in order to get them to keep moving. But I didn't yell.)

- I f.i.n.a.l.l.y started working on the kids' room. It's needed it for a while, but today MG and I went up to do it. I managed to get all the little clothes bagged by size and brought down to the 2nd floor to give away. And I moved EB's dresser into the closet to make room for an actual bed for Sister (no more floor). (And I promise, if it'd been too heavy for this 21-weeker, I wouldn't have moved it. It was fine.)

- By making chicken nuggets tonight, we had a peaceful dinner with no arguing. They love chicken nuggets. So I ask you: giving in on not making them eat dinner - mom pass or fail?

See you tomorrow.

Oct. 1 (31 Days)

I feel like I should be starting with a classic Joan Rivers' "can we talk?"

But really, it's more like "okay, here's the truth . . ."

In a very odd way, I think God is blessing me in this venture of 31 Days, because OH-MY-DO-I have some material - just from today - to start sharing real-ity.

First off, any and all personal real-ity right now is at least in part because I am 5 months pregnant. That's some reality for ya.

For instance, I practically woke up this morning crying. My brain had gone psycho, and was changing any normal thing into something horrible. Some dream I had must've included skydiving (why? because I'm pregnant, clearly) . . . and then suddenly I'm thinking, "what if EB and MG [my 6 and 3 year old sons] fell from an airplane without a parachute?!?!"

What?!?!?! Where did that come from? Pregnant, I tell you.

One of my very next thoughts was something along the lines of ". . . surely my husband would prefer any one of his old girlfriends to me."

Oh, dear. Clearly it's time to open my eyes and pull the emergency brake cord on this train of thought.

But here's my actual crazy real moment for the day:

We all know what it's like when one of our kids forgets something at home, and we have to take it to them at school.

Problem: I've had to do that several times already, and it's only October 1st. I feel like the secretary is starting to catch on that, more often than not, it's MY fault that I'm having to bring things into the office for them.

This morning, however, it was a conscious choice. I did not pack their lunches. I sent them with one snack each, and told them I'd bring their lunches later.

Why? Because I didn't have anything to give them for lunch. It wasn't just forgetting to pack their lunches. It wasn't just forgetting to get their lunches into their backpacks. [Fyi, before you start wondering, sometimes it's my responsibility to get their stuff in their bags, but mostly it's theirs. I'm no maid.]

It was - in fact - that there was no food in the house to PUT in their lunchboxes. Sigh.

Who's with me - three cheers for Lunchables?

See you tomorrow.

31 Days Challenge

So starting Monday, October 31st, I'll be linking up every day with the Nester for her annual 31 Days Challenge.

The idea is that you pick one topic that you can make very short points about, one each day.

My topic is "31 Days of Being Crazy Real."

I feel like God has given me a gift of being real with people. It all started with a small realization that a lot of us are thinking something, and the person we're talking to would probably love to hear it, but we're afraid of how they'd take it, so we shut up.

WHY???

So I've started practicing not shutting up. And it's going well. And people have noticed.

And appreciated it.

Some people don't care for it as much as others....but God has also gifted me with grace for those people and I don't let it bother me. (Not after a second or two, anyway.)

So every day I'll be posting something real. More than likely, it'll be something real that my kids did that day, or a very real thought or attitude I had.

I do not want this to become complaining. God forbid it. But I think all of us moms and wives are a lot more real in our homes than we'd care to admit. As my pastor said (quoting someone else), "We're comparing our Jacobs to everyone else's Israel."

Well. I'm admitting it. I'm terribly, terribly real. I find it too stressful not to be, and it's tiring having your Israel on display all the time. I'm just a Jacob that God is working on, and I think a lot of other people are, too, and would like to hear more from others like us.

See you Monday.

Friday

It is soooo Friday.

That is all.


(Because, even if it's just one line, I WILL get back into writing. Also because, NO, you don't have to have "scores of plots rattling in my head" to be a writer. Good thing.)

egg-free muffins

We're not an egg-free family. We're not vegan or vegetarian. We're not gluten- or wheat-free.

What we are...is out of eggs.

And cereal...and bananas...just about any breakfast food.

I forgot we were out of eggs, though. I knew we had no cereal, and I thought, "well, maybe I can make some muffins really fast..." I started thumbing through what muffin recipes I had, when I realized that they all take eggs. Did I mention we're out?

So I turned to the one place that has become a good friend of mine in this relatively new quest to cut fake food and unhealthy ingredients from our diet: Google search.

Search: "muffin recipe no eggs."

And my so-far-faithful friend showed me the Our Busy Homeschool blog, which had - lo and behold - a Basic No-Egg Muffin Recipe. It sounded normal and doable (and it didn't have a crazy amount of flour like some do) so I gave it a go.

Here's the recipe:

2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 c sugar (I used raw)
1 handful oatmeal (I used a solid handful)3/4 c water
1/4 c oil (I used canola)
1 c fruit plus appropriate spices
The recipe says to mix dry, then mix wet separately and then add to dry. I mixed the dry in my stand mixer, but then there were only the two wet ingredients and fruit left, so I just put the water in my big measuring cup, and added enough oil to make one cup, and poured them both in together.

I had one apple lying around that was probably in its last days so I cut that up into little bitty pieces, and filled the rest of the one cup with applesauce. Since I was using apples/applesauce, I added some clove, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon. I was a little wary of how much to use, so I probably added less than I could have. Maybe an 8th of a teaspoon each. Maybe.

I even sprinkled some ground flax seed over the top of the mixture in the bowl, because a little ground flax never hurts. (Unless you're allergic to it, I guess. In which case, please don't use it.)

Mixed all together, poured into muffin pan. I'm out of cooking spray, but due to our tight budget this week, I have stick margarine (you can't beat 92 cents for four sticks, even though it's margarine), so I used my finger and spread a little bit of margarine around each muffin cup.

The recipe says bake for 18 minutes, but I was nervous about burning them (I'm still perfecting my muffin technique) so I checked them twice during that time. I ended up pulling them out at about 15 minutes, when they were still very light but looked more muffin-like than batter-like. I let them sit on the cooling rack, in the pan, while I drove Miss Eight to school, total about 10 minutes probably.

And I gotta tell ya...

They looked BEAUTIFUL! I loosened them from the edges of each tin with a knife, and they slid out all gorgeous and honey brown! I've never made such pretty muffins. I'm pretty proud.

One thing I would change, however, is simply how much batter I'd put in each tin. I'm used to filling them about 2/3 full because they'll rise, but these didn't really rise, so I could've used that little extra batter that was left in my mixing bowl and probably filled them close to the top.

The real test, however:
I let Mr. Five and Mr. Two pick out their muffins. Mr. Five said, "mmmm!!" Mr. Two gave me a thumbs up. I'd say they were a hit. And they ate theirs plain.. I split mine in half and added margarine and they were right - they were very, very good.

I'm very grateful to Ms. Our Busy Homeschool, who helped me make breakfast without eggs.

finding recipes with on-hand ingredients

Okay, I normally like to post in order of how I've tried things, but this one is just too cool not to let you know right away.

I'm low on groceries. Like super low. And this being a tight money week, I'm having to get creative (again). However, since we make so much more of what we eat now, I don't have things on hand like Minute Rice or ready-made stuff. That means I'm buying to what we make, which takes more intentional shopping. So if we're low on foods, that means I have things like celery, potatoes, honey, bread flour, and several random cans of black, pink, and garbanzo beans. (Which we never eat, by the way.)

So I did a search - no joke - for "put in ingredients on hand get recipe suggestions." My goal in doing this was two-fold:
One, I could find recipes that I didn't know of before, that might really have all the things I have on hand that I would never think of putting together.
Two, I might find a recipe that I don't have everything to make, but it might contain other ingredients that are cheaper to buy than hamburger or chicken. Hear me: we are not going vegetarian. But that stuff is EXPENSIVE!!! So I'm trying to find more recipes that don't include meat, but still have sufficient protein. (If you have a link to recipes like this, please feel free to send them to me!) Even if they include beans: something my California-based hubby enjoys, but I'm not entirely keen on. Hey, I'm taking one for the team...and taking my kids along with me.

So the very first return was a blog entry by the Fun Times Guide called "Find Recipes Using Ingredients You Already Have On Hand." Perfect!! (And you know it's a good article when it's bringing up a result from 2007!)

If you scroll partway down the page, you find her suggestions of sites that do this for you.

The first one is supercook.com. At the top left, you add in all the ingredients you have. ALL of them. Underneath they will suggest things that might work in a recipe, and there were several that they suggested that I was like, "ooh, yeah, I do have that." Things like condiments and stuff, but it still helps the site round out the recipe suggestions. Then, as you keep listing, on the right it starts listing recipes with a very encouraging "You have everything needed for this recipe!" That's very encouraging when you're so low on items.

Granted, although it said I had 196 recipes that I could "right now!", most of them are things like potato salad and potato and celery soup. But! That's two dishes that I can absolutely make, that I probably wouldn't have thought of without the site. (And mashed potatoes. It's simple, but when you're in "my cupboards are bare and I'm getting desperate" mode, you don't always think of the simple things.)

The rest of the sites she listed returned few hits on the ingredients she entered, so I skipped them. But honestly, simply having found supercook.com was worth that whole blog.

I went back to my Google search, and tried another site. This one was recipematch.com. In the same way, you start typing your ingredients (for the record, with both these sites I entered 27 ingredients). This site made it a little less obvious: when you're done entering, scroll down and it will say "choose your cuisine." Fortunately it lets you choose more than one. I chose things like "Italian," "American," "BBQ/Grill," "30 Minutes," and "Crockpot," among others.

It came back with 1,283 recipes, but this one was much more tailored to my Reason #2 for the search. On the results page, it shows you the recipes that match, but gives you a basic ingredients list and shows you what ingredients you'd have to buy. Bingo! The first one, for instance, was a Carrot Salad. I have the mayo, raisins, and celery, but it showed me that I'd have to buy carrots. How helpful! For their "Awesome Potato Salad" recipe, it tells me that I'd have to buy salt and pepper, which of course I have, but didn't bother to list. That tells me that I might be able to find recipes with only a few simple (cheap!) ingredients!

I seriously hope these two suggestions give you hope - it can be downright dark and dreary when you're facing what would usually be a very large shopping trip for your normal recipes, with very little money. There IS hope, there ARE recipes, there IS creativity to be shared! The very reason we bloggers write what we've found. (grin)

homemade chocolate sauce

Chocolate! It's a must. And I put it in my coffee every day. But the store-bought stuff, even Hershey's - gasp! - has junk in it. So I decided to make my own. I've made three now, actually.

Here's the first one. I found it on Pinterest. I knew it would involve some cooking; most chocolate sauce recipes do. Here's this one:

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (still true to Hershey's here)
1 cup water
dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the sugar, cocoa, and salt in a saucepan. Add the water. Bring mixture to a boil while stirring. *Be careful - it might boil over, even in just a second.* Turn down the heat and cook 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add vanilla. Keep it in the fridge.

It was good. It tasted a lot like cocoa cooked on a stove. :) Very heavy - but good - cocoa flavor. It's the kind of flavor that's wonderful over vanilla ice cream and makes it taste all fancy.

Not exactly what I was looking for in my coffee, though.

Here's the second one. This one is from DIYNatural; I'm finding more and more stuff there that I love!

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa (packed)
1 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

At first he said to put the water in a saucepan and then stir in the cocoa until dissolved, then add the sugar and keep stirring. Later in the comments section, someone suggested just mixing the cocoa and sugar in the pan first, then add the water and bring to a boil. That second option is what I do. After it boils - and, again, it can boil over in a SECOND so stay right at the stove stirring constantly - turn the heat down to medium-low and keep stirring for 8-10 minutes. Long, yes. But not impossible. When the timer goes off (and a timer really is a good idea), take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla (he uses his own; I don't...yet). Put it in a bottle or container (I use mason jars, usually reused Classico spaghetti sauce jars with the labels boiled off) and keep it in the fridge.

This is obviously very similar to the first recipe. Not sure why I thought it'd be different. It isn't really.

Here's the third recipe. This one is from Paths of Wrighteousness.

1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
dash salt
1/4 cup water - the warmer the water, the easier to mix; I used relatively hot water
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

This one is different in two ways: 1, she tweaked it to use honey instead of sugar to make it a little healthier, and 2, it's not cooked on the stove!

It still has that heavy cocoa taste, but the honey does give it a very neat 'n sweet flavor. I tried it in my coffee, and - although it's not Hershey's - it might be a smidge closer.

Note: A week or so has passed since making this version of chocolate syrup. One thing I have noticed is that it gets much thicker as it sits in the fridge than the others do. Also, I stuck my finger in it today for just a taste...and it just seemed cold and heavy and not such a mixture of flavors anymore, if you know what I mean. Like it was several different ingredients put together, not one cohesive taste. It was yummy...but it just didn't seem to be what it should be. So, my determination is that I will go back to one of the first two recipes. Hubby liked them. That's important. :)

I may try one sometime with agave nectar. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Do you have a chocolate syrup recipe you LOVE? I'd love to try it, and I'll add my experience with it here!

AUTHOR'S FINAL NOTE:  After spending weeks and weeks making these, my family has finally decided on option #1. It tastes the best in coffee, in chocolate milk, and on ice cream. It stays liquid in the fridge, and is one of the easier to make.
Problem: SOLVED.