Christmas Pancakes!

The snow is falling, Christmas music is playing, Isabelle is dancing, Christmas pancakes are cooking and I am feeling like the happiest person in the world right now. I love Christmas, love to go out all on the Christmas spirit, refuse to let any grinches get in my way and hence my brothers call me the "Christmas Nazi"...this is definitely a recipe that any "Christmas Nazi" would love.


Ingredients:

• 1 c unbleached, all purpose white flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 T ground flax seed
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t nutmeg
• 3 T sugar (optional)
• 1 c unsweetened almond milk
• 2 T oil (I used grapeseed)
• 1 t almond extract

Recipe:

1. Mix all dry ingredients together
2. Mix all wet ingredients together
3. Mix wet/dry ingredients together
4. Let sit for about 5 min to thicken up
5. Pour batter onto hot griddle (about 300 degrees) and cook until one side start to bubble, then flip
6. Top with pure maple syrup...it's amazing and totally worth the splurge

Homemade Granola

I just started making homemade granola and I am loving it! It's so easy and most of the ingredients can be stored right in the pantry for whenever the mood strikes. Feel free to sub the listed seeds with whatever kind you prefer (and add more nuts if you like a "nuttier" granola) and the honey/agave nectar combo can be subbed for any kind of liquid sweetener (maple syrup, ect). I also buy all the dried ingredients in the bulk section at Whole Foods to save money.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of old fashioned oats
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/4 c raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/8 c whole flax seeds
• 1/8 c ground flax seeds
• 1/8 c coconut flakes
• 1/4 c sunflower seeds
• 1/4 c pure agave nectar (or maple syrup)
• 1/4 c honey
• 1/4-1/2 c craisins or other dried fruit 

Method:

• Mix all ingredients (except dried fruit) together in a large bowl, making sure the dry ingredients are coated well with the wet ingredients
• Bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 min stirring every 10 min until golden brown
• Take out of oven, mix in dried fruit, let cool and store in airtight container for 2-3 weeks

Homemade Household Cleaning Supplies

I really hope Distilled White Vinegar isn't an active ingredient in bomb-making...otherwise the FBI will probably be pounding down my door any minute demanding to know why I am stock piling it in my pantry. It is, however, the active ingredient in most homemade cleaning supplies, and in an attempt to save even more money I have started making my own cleaning supplies. I am in love with the natural ingredients found in the Seventh Generation cleaning supplies (read my blog post about it here), and am happy to pay extra for a natural cleaning supply, that is non-toxic....but paying pennies for a natural cleaning supply is always better, especially when it means you can splurge on fabric for living room curtains =)


Homemade Rinse Aid: Simply pour vinegar into a small small bowl and set on the top rack of your dishwasher. Easy peasy!


Homemade Glass Cleaner: 2 parts vinegar to 1 part water!


Homemade Wood Cleaner/Polish: 1 part oil to 1 part water, add fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon per 2T of water), shake in bottle and spray away!


Homemade "Dryer Sheets": Followed the directions that I found on this blog and love them!


Homemade Air Freshener: 10 drops of essential oil into a small sprayer like this one, fill the rest of the way up with water, shake and spray!


I still haven't taken the time to make homemade liquid laundry detergent and stain remover but that is my next goal.

What is your favorite homemade cleaning supply?

How To: Cook Dried Black Beans

Since we moved into our new house I've been trying to stay on a budget and save as much money as possible...let me rephrase that...I've been trying to save as much money on the essentials so that I can buy more non-essentials (like more white dishes for my collection). Charles seemed unimpressed when I explained this intuitive logic to him last night as I was cooking up an entire pound of dried black beans. Although the process is long (about 13 hours), the actual work involved is very minimal and most of that time is just spent waiting.

I researched how to cook dried beans and there are quite a few different ways to cook them, but I chose the method that I thought would be the easiest, even though it was the longest. This method is perfect as long as you don't need the beans until the next day. (If you need to cook them quickly everything I read said pressure cookers are the way to go as far as ease and taste.)

Step 1: Soak 1lb of dried black beans in 10 cups of water for 8 hours or overnight (I just soaked them in the crock pot so there would be less dishes to wash)

Step 2: Drain and Rinse beans, discarding any split open beans

Step 3: Cover beans with fresh, clean water in crock pot (so that the water covers the beans by about 2 inches)

Step 4: Bake on high 5 hours, then check to see if tender, if not, keep baking and check every hour until they are tender

Step 5: Drain, rinse and divide up beans into freezer-safe containers and freeze for later use. They can be


I estimate that by using dried beans instead of canned beans I saved about $10. Not too shabby! I bought the dried black beans in the bulk section at Whole Foods so that helped a little too with the price. Now I'm off to Home Goods to find something for $10 =)

How To: Make Homemade Soup

In second grade I learned my first poem (or the first one I can actually still remember) called "September"

"The goldenrod is yellow,
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down."

As I look out my window, and see the golden corn stalks, I get excited...excited that my favorite season Fall is finally here.

Excited to wear chunky sweaters, legging and knee high boots.

Excited to curl up on the couch every morning with a hot cup of coffee.

Excited to curl up in bed each night with a hot cup of tea.

Excited to get off work, take out my dutch oven, saute up some onions, and start making a batch of delicious hot soup for dinner.

When I started making soup from scratch I would follow recipes, such as this one, but as I made more and more recipes I started to realize they all had common denominators they followed. Now I use these "rules" to throw together soups without any recipes and soup has become the vehicle I use to use up any product that didn't get used during the week.

Here are the "rules" that I follow when I'm making most of my soups~

Rule #1: Always start by sauteing onions
Part of this is because they do add a nice flavor to soup...the other reason is because I absolutely love the way the cooking onions smell while I'm chopping everything else up. It sets the mood for my cooking "experience" and just makes me happy...and hungry!

Rule #2: Pair your ingredients based on "cuisine"
Think about the components of a regular meal you've had and liked (Mexican, Asian, Italian, Moroccan, ect) and try to implement those ingredients into your soup. For example, one of my favorite places to eat is Chipolte. I get a burrito bowl which is comprised of rice, black beans, peppers, onions, cilantro, tomatoes and corn, so I use those same ingredients in my soup. It's an easy way to know what ingredients will taste good together.

Rule #3: Saute veggies after onions are translucent
This allows the veggies to cook slightly, become "browned" and soak in a little of the onion flavor.

Rule #4: Add your liquid base
Use broth for a nice clear base
Use water plus tomato paste for a nice tomatoey base
Use water plus milk to make a chowder-like base

Rule #5: Add your seasoning and spices and know which ones compliment each other and which ones go along with which cuisine
Here are some of my favorite combinations
Mexican- coriander and cumin
Italian- oregano, thyme, dried basil
American- rosemary
Red pepper flakes are my favorite way to add a little heat to soup

Rule #6: Simmer 20-30 minutes
Simmer until the hardest vegetables (like potatoes) are tender

Rule #7: Add your protein/whole grains
Add your cooked beans, rice, noodles the last 10-15 minutes to make sure they don't start breaking apart from cooking too long. If I'm going to have leftovers a lot of times I will cook noodles or rice separately and then serve the soup over the whole grains right before serving.

Rule #8: Garnish with fresh herbs
Fresh herbs add a nice crisp, clean taste with each bite and the smell of the herbs takes the meal to the next level. Cilantro and Basil are my favorite!

What are some "rules" you follow when making soup from scratch and what are your favorite herbs/spices?

New Home: First Meal Plan!

We finally closed on our house, moved almost everything over here, and officially moved in a week ago this past Saturday. This past month has been so hectic with the long nights working at the house, that we have been eating horribly and slacking on our plant based diet so I whipped up a delicious meal plan for our first week in our new house to get us off to the right start in this new home. We are trying to save money for some new living room furniture and area rugs so I'm also trying to stick to a strict budget of $100/week on groceries for us...which means I need to make as much as I can from scratch to save money. (I am lucky to be getting free apples from a friend's orchard next week so that helped save some money!)

Here is what I came up with~ (For those who want to avoid soy products or include meat in their meals substitute it anywhere you see "tofu" or "tempeh". I would suggest going to a farmer's market and buying an organic whole chicken, roasting it and then using it throughout the week in the recipes below and a pound of lean grass fed beef.)

Breakfast:

Homemade Cereal w/ almond milk

Homemade Oatmeal w/ berries
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Muffins

Lunches:

Froze Meals (5)~ Charles

Asian (noodle dish, salad)~Saturday
Salads (3) ~Christen
Soup (2)~ Christen

Leftovers~Sunday

Dinners:

Chili with Fresh Bread

Soup/Grilled "Cheese" (use a non-dairy cheese, or hummus) Sandwhiches

Homemade Pizza

Burrito bowls (lettuce, tempeh, black beans, lime rice, chips, salsa)

Homemade Black Bean Burgers with Homemade Baked Fries and Homemade Buns

Italian with Salad and fresh bread (noodles, sauce, tempeh)

Leftovers

Snacks:

Muffins

Pumpkin Bars

Homemade Granola w/ soy (or coconut milk) yogurt

While Charles is all on-board with the health benefits of a plant-based diet he still wants to be able to eat junk food sometimes, but we also don't want to bring any food into the house that we wouldn't allow Isabelle to eat, so he brings his chex mix, oreos and frozen Healthy Choice meals and keeps them at work and has them for lunches when he feels like it. It works out really well for us and is a great compromise that keeps us both happy. My next goal though is to start making homemade frozen single serve entrees that Charles can bring with to work and throw in the microwave, like he does with his Healthy Choice meals, but I have a feeling that is going to take a lot of research and taste testing to get to that point...so for now I'll focus on all the food eaten at home being the best it can be.   =)

Another way we are saving money is by having Charles go grocery shopping on his way home from work, which saves me an extra trip, plus his work is only 15 minutes from the Whole Foods, and it takes me an hour to get there from our house. I've been using the "Our Groceries" app on my iPad to create the lists and then I can send the list right to his iPhone when he gets to the store. I'm loving the new arrangement!

I would like to know if anyone has ever made frozen homemade pizzas. I would love to make some of those and keep them in the freezer! Healthy plant based ones are like $10 at Whole Foods! I do like "Amy's Kitchen frozen vegan meals, they seem to be pretty healthy, and are tasty but are pricey.

New Home: Hectic Schedule

So here is our hectic schedule for this month. Add to that my meetings with various contractors about twice a week at the house either before work or on my lunch breaks (like my meeter with the carpenter from 10-11 today) and let's just say my sorely neglected laundry is unfortunately taking a backseat to the house projects (thanks Mom for throwing my clothes in the dryer the other day!)

I also sent this schedule to our builder so he knows what our deadlines are for our "sweat equity" so he can plan around that and to give us the head's up if he needs us to move a deadline up or make a project a priority to work with his schedule.

So what does tonight look like for me? I have to run to Lowes to pick up more bead board and chair rail and then back to the house to paint trim til the sun goes down. Charles will be installing cabinets all night and my dad will be finishing up staining the stair rails....We seriously would not have been able to get even half of this stuff done without my dad helping us with the work and my mom being our babysitter every night...once this is over we owe our "orphan" daughter a month of family nights putting together puzzles (her fave activity). The end is near!

New Home: Big Things Happening...and Big Stress

These past few weeks have been crazy busy with the house. I didn't think that we really were doing that much for sweat equity....but it just so happens that everything we are doing has to be done within a 2-3 week period of time....so that makes for just a little bit of stress, plus Isabelle and I have been sick all weekend so that cut back on what I was able to accomplish this weekend as well. The tiling was WAY more work than we thought it would be. My dad and Charles ended up getting the upstairs bathrooms done but we had to hire someone to finish the laundry room and main floor bath. That was probably the most stressful part of the process so far. The timeline was short to get it done and it was a miracle that we were actually able to find someone on short notice for a decent price. Here are some of the things happening at the house the past few weeks:

Saturday we got our cabinets delivered from Ikea. Everything comes individually wrapped so there were 158 packages for me to inventory. They forgot to give us 1 cabinet frame and gave us 1 drawer the wrong size but we had to go out there that night anyways for our anniversary dinner so we just picked up the correct items while we were out there.

My dad and Charles put together all the cabinet frames. The counter top measuring takes place on the 7th so all the base cabinet frames need to be installed by then.

The trim went in upstairs this past week and now I have 2 weeks to get all the trim and doors painted. We went with the higher (4.5 in) baseboards in the house, and I'm so glad we did. They look amazing!

The main floor bathroom tile:

The master bathroom tile (I need to get over there and wipe off the grout haze). It's white tile with light gray grout. Ignore the paint color...it's way to blue for me so I brought the paint back and had them "fix" it so it will be a different color when it is all done.

The mudroom/laundry room tile:

Charles' Bathroom Tile:

Hardwood floors got started Thursday and should be finished up today! They are kinda dusty looking now so I'll have to take a better picture once they are cleaned up. I won't be able to do that until the very end though because the builder is covering them up for the next couple weeks so that people aren't walking on them.

Saturday Charles and I celebrated our Fifth Wedding Anniversary. We spent the morning running to Lowes and Target with Isabelle, then went to the house while our cabinets were being delivered, back to my parents for lunch and then spent 4 hours putting all the cabinets together, by the time we got home it was 7:15 so we quickly cleaned up and ran out the door at 7:30 so we could make it to Ikea before they closed. After Ikea we went out for dinner at Big Bowl and each got Pad Thai (our fave Asian meal). We talked about how we never dreamed this is what our 5 year anniversary would look like when we first got married (I of course had unrealistic dreams of touring Italy) but we both agreed that it was the perfect anniversary, filled with family and each other and we couldn't really think of anything else we would have wanted to do (except maybe be in our own place already). In exactly 1 month from today we close on our house!!! I'm so excited! I know the time is going to fly by, and I can't wait to finally be in our own place again.

New Home: Sheetrock Up!

Yay! The sheetrock is finally up, and it's really starting to feel like a house now. Next Thursday we have to get in there and start tiling all the bathrooms and the master shower....and I still don't have all the tile yet. Yikes! So I guess I will be forced to go shopping all weekend to look for some...I'm crushed, can you tell? =) They will be finished early next week with all the taping and mudding of the sheet rock and then the siding is going on, interior painting is being done and hopefully we can get all the tile in by the end of that weekend. The next 4 weeks are going to fly by with all the stuff we are doing, but I'm excited to see some of these finishes I've been shopping so hard to find are finally in!

Our Front porch....still waiting to add the columns, railing and stone work

Front Door/Entry way

Front half of the greatroom/livingroom

 

Back half of the greatroom/livingroom, deck will eventually be off of here whenever we get around to building one

Kitchen- My goal next week is to map out what cabinets I want and where I want them and get them ordered

Charles measure out the kitchen for me so I know how much space I have to fit cabinets into

Kitchen Pantry- I'm doing base cabinets in here too

Dining Room- I love the huge windows and the great view

Downstairs Hallway off kitchen- first door on the right is a half bath, and then there will be a door that will shut off the mudroom/laundry room from the rest of this hallway. It was too dark to take pictures of the half bath and mudroom/laundry room

Stairs going from main floor up to second floor- still waiting on the railing for the left side

Upstairs hallway- room straight ahead is the master, door on the left is the guest room, and Isabelle's room/guest bath/bonus room are behind/right where I'm taking the picture from

Master Bedroom

Sitting area in master bedroom

Master Bathroom

Base for the glass shower- I have to go buy the tile and cement board for it this week

Where the double vanity will go

Where the clawfoot tub will sit- I'm going to have to find something to frost that window with though so the neighbors don't get to "see" more of us than they would like

Isabelle's Room

The space on the right will be her closet and the space on the left will be a built in desk

Guest Room

Charles' bathroom (until Isabelle gets older)/Guest Bath, Right wall is where two single vanities will be separated with a foot between them

Shower and huge linen closet...not sure what all I'm going to put in there yet

Future Bonus Room above garage

Stairs from main floor going down to basement

That back wall will be where the future 4th bedroom will be and the black pipes sticking up are where the future bathroom will be

Future Pool Table area or maybe mini gym area

Future "movie theater" area for screen and projector

New Home: Custom Look on a Budget

I'm not a big fan of the whole "builder grade" look, but I have a "builder grade" budget, and we are trying to put the bulk of our money towards the framework of the house (like the overall square footage) and things that will be hard to change later (like upgraded insulation in the exterior walls, roughed in bonus room above the garage), so I've had to get a little creative to be able to afford my dream finishes. Here are a couple ways you can save on finishes if you are building or remodeling

Buy your own finishes:
My builder is awesome. Yes, I know I say that almost every post, but he really is. Any finish I decide I want to "upgrade" (which has been almost all of them), he gives me the amount of credit or allowance that's in the total house quote for purchasing it myself. While I usually end up spending more than the builder grade option would be, I'm definitely saving money on the upgraded price I would have to pay if I just told the builder to go get it. The advantage to this is that I can shop for deals, watch for sales (like my hardwood floors purchased from Lumber Liquidators by my builder when I alerted him the ones I wanted were on sale) and get exactly what I want. Below are some of the finishes I have actually purchased online (I heart Amazon and Overstock and their free/low shipping costs!) My builder is still installing the finishes, but I had so much fun doing the actual shopping for them! I'm not sure how my parents are feeling about their "already-full-of-our-moving-stuff-garage" being piled even higher with this stuff (and I'm not quite sure if the shower will fit in there when it's delivered tomorrow...), but I love the deliveries! It feels like Christmas when the FedEx truck shows up...I don't even mind them ringing the doorbell during Isabelle's nap time...

Not only do I shop online sales but I also look at stores for sales and the best way to remember the price and look of all the different items you like? Take pics with your phone! I always take a picture of the item so I remember what it looks like, followed by a picture of the price tag with dimensions listed. This way I can show Charles and get his opinion, and compare prices/styles wherever I am.

Invest some "Sweat Equity":

If you have the time (and skills) you can do some of the smaller things yourself to save money...painting all our own trim saved us 2K...I could have saved another 2K by painting all the walls myself but that is a huge job and by the time I figured in the price of paint, materials and time I wasn't really saving that much. We are also tiling all the bathrooms and master shower ourselves, assembling and installing kitchen cabinets and painting the half bath walls (b/c it's so tiny and will take me 30 min to do since there will be nothing in there I need to tape and I'm only painting the top half of the wall) and installing the bead-board in the half bath. Next month is definitely going to be busy for us, but I think we are doing just enough sweat equity to save money but not overwhelm us (I will let you know if I regret that statement or not in August...)

Only about 2 more weeks, and I have to have paint colors finalized. Yikes! I'm still undecided on the guest room/bath and Isabelle's room so I'd better decide soon...I really hate painting so I want to make sure the colors I pick are ones I will want for a long time. This week the roof is being shingled and by the end of next week the sheetrockers should be ready to start. Not much longer till we can actually see the inside start to come together!

New Home: Framing Almost Complete!

I had a meeting with the builder this morning to go over a couple details so I was able to take some more pics. I love our builder and am definitely writing a great blog post at the end of this about how awesome he was to work with throughout the process, and more about the whole process in general. It's getting so exciting to go out there and walk around the house as they finish more and more!

Front of house: Bonus Room above Garage

The guys were working away this morning finishing the framing of the roof

Left Side of the House: Our master bathroom window on 2nd floor and my cute little pantry window on the first floor

Back of house

These pictures were taken on Friday before the roof  trusses were in: Isabelle's Room

Master Closet

Upstairs Kids/Guest Bathroom: It's huge...bigger than our master bath, but there was extra room and Isabelle's bedroom was already big enough so...

Sitting area in our master bedroom

Master Bathroom

Window in our Master Bedroom

They will be shingling the roof and running plumbing and electrical next week, and should be grading the driveway/front lawn so it's not so steep in about 2 weeks. In another 3-4 weeks we will be able to go in and start laying tile (we are doing that ourselves in the bathrooms to save money) I can't wait til the sheetrock is up! That is going to really make it seem more "finished"!