Monday, December 13, 2010

Strawberry Cake

2 1/3 c Sifted All Purpose flour (sifting makes it fluffy)
1 1/3 c sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 c shortening
2/3 c Kirkland Organic Strawberry spread (or Smuckers simply fruit)
2/3 c soured milk (2T lemon juice or vinegar, fill to 2/3 line with milk)
3 egg whites
5-6 drops pink food color if desired.


sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl, add shortening, strawberry spread, and soured milk. mix until flour is dampened, then beat for 2 min on high. Add 3 egg whites and food color, beat 2 minutes longer. Bake in greased and floured9 x 13 (or 2 9" round) pan for 35 min at 350.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

No-Milk Pumpkin Pie!!

1.5 Cups Sugar
1tsp salt
1T pumpkin pie spice
4 large eggs, beaten
1 can (29oz) Pumpkin
2 cups Vanilla Soy Milk
6 T Rice Flour (for the cake-like texture)
2 unbaked 9" pie shells

Mix sugar, salt, rice flour, and spices in a large bowl. Add Pumpkin, and beaten eggs. Gradually stir in Vanilla Soy Milk.

pour into pie shells and bake at 425 for 15 minutes, reduce temp to 350 and back 40-50 min more, or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours, serve immediately or refrigerate.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Fruit Bars

I love how my blog has turned into a recipe sharing site more than anything! I LOVE to cook!


1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats (i use regular, add about 10 min to cooking time)
2/3 c packed brown sugar
1/4tsp baking soda
1/2cup butter or margerine
1 recipe Filling (i just use 1 Cup natural applesauce mixed with 1/3 c Simply Fruit and some pumpkin pie spice... but you can add dried fruit or nuts as well to the applesauce)

combine flour, oats, baking soda, and sugar. Cut in butter/margerine until crumbly. reserve 1/2 cup, and press the remainder in thebottom of a 9x9 pan. spread filling and sprinkle remainder of the crumb mix on top. Bake for 30-40 min at 350*(until golden brown on top).



Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Egg Noodles

this sort of has turned into a Recipe blog when i wasn't looking HAHA


1 Cup flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt/dash pepper
1 egg
2 tablespoons water (i just use the egg shell)

combine flour and salt/pepper, make a well in the center and mix egg and water with a fork. Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff, but pliable dough. Knead 10-12 strokes until it is smooth and all the flour is incorperated. let rest 15 minutes. begin rolling out from center, flipping the dough over every few rolls to keep it from sticking to the counter (or it will pop back like elastic) until it is about 12x6 or so (give or take) Let it rest another 15 minutes. cut into strips or shapes, and add to boiling broth stirring constantly so they don't stick. Cook for 5-6 min, until al dente.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Home Made deoderant!!

2-4 tablespoons Coconut Oil
1/4 C Arrowroot or Corn starch
1/4 C baking soda


mix well, may need to adjust dry quantities a bit. store in a small airtight container in a cool place, may need refrigerated on hot days. Use fingers to apply :) don't use right after shaving ....OUCH!

here is another site for the recipe

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Brownie in a Mug!

I came across this LOVELY recipe one night, and am now an addict. I love getting treats i don't have to share...that i can make in 5 min after bed time!!

Brownie in a Mug

4 Tbl Flour
4 Tbl sugar
2 Tbl baking cocoa (the unsweetened)
dash salt
2Tbl oil
2Tbl water
1/4 tsp vanilla

Spray a little nonstick into a microwaveable coffee mug (butter or oil works too if you don't spray), mix flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in your mug. Add oil, water, and vanilla. Mix well scraping the bottom to get all the dry stuff incorporated.

nuke 1-1.5 min. Let cool for just a minute!! It is HOT!! Yummy topped with a little ice cream :)

Monday, July 5, 2010

More on my FLYing adventures....

i began Fly Lady back in January when i was deep in my annual Seasonal Depression...my house trashed, my floors sticky and crunchy...laundry rotating on the couch. I have proudly been babystepping the system for 6 months now!! My family is mostly on-board (we are still working on baby-stepping the kiddoes into keeping their rooms tidy), and we have made LOTS of changes in our habits including 'decluttering' the dish cabinet because i was tired of washing 2 dishwasher loads of dishes per day in my small portable dishwasher. I labeled a bowl, plate, cup and silverware for each member of the family, and moved the rest to the very TOP of the cupboard (company). We now wash each dish after each meal and get it put away to keep the sink clear (because my family now understands now nice it is to have a shiney sink!!)

i have gotten rid of countless bags of un-needed items, donating them to the thrift store if i couldn't think of specific people that could use my stuff. We still have a long way to go, but its amazing how much stuff i have gotten rid of in just 6 months.

DH was able to rip out the 35 year old living room carpet to reveal beautiful hard wood floors because all the excess junk in the livingroom is GONE!! My bedroom has become a haven, where before it was a dumping ground for the stash n dash (Its like Marla has been to my house HAHA I thought i was the only one besides my mom that did stash n dash)! And now i have a new bedspread on the way to make my bed even more special, and a place to put the Jammy Bag my mama made me when i was little :

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Apron

2 weeks ago i decided i needed some new aprons, and the frugal Taycia wanted inexpensive but durable. I first checked the ones on the Flylady.net website. Cute, big pocket vests--$19.99 plus shipping. OUCH! I know that purchases from her shop fund the program and keep it free...but I have already spent my $$ on the Rubba tools and Duster LOL!! I looked elsewhere online and found some CUTE cobbler style ones from plentyofaprons.com. Now, i love cobbler aprons, especially if they are long enough in back to cover my butt as i tend to wipe my hands on my butt more often than on a towel. $8.95 each for v-neck aprons plus shipping was too good to pass up! So i ordered a couple, and waited....and waited....and am still waiting. By last Thursday the waiting had been driving me CRAZY, and the link won't give me tracking info and i am grumpy. So i was working on decluttering in the bigger Attic room and came across the bag'o'shirts to be 'recycled'. Most of these shirts are Zach's old dress shirts that he has worn a hole in the elbow and i was planning on taking them down to the Cleaners and just having the sleeves hemmed but never got around to it. I had the genious idea of recycling the fabric into an apron, but wasn't quite sure on how i was going to accomplish this. So as soon as we got home from Story Time, and i got my kiddoes fed their lunch I began creating. I started just cutting and pressing and sewing and Bonzai'd zach's Blattner shirt into:


I loved the design so much that i made 2 more out of other shirts the same day. The pockets are the salvagable material from the sleeves, the side buttons are from the sleeve cuff as well. Needless to say i will be sending the Aprons i ordered back and getting my $25 back, especially since i made three aprons from old shirts in about 2 hours.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Five minutes.

Know what i can do in five minutes? I can pick up the stray toys that migrated to the living room and toss them as far as my kids rooms (they get a timer later to pick all that up BWAHAHAHA), straighten the couch cushions, get blankets stuffed back into the 'blanket basket', and still have time to deal with the papers Miss Jo left on the dining table.

In 10 minutes i can vacuum, or spot clean windows, or dust the main floor, or quick clean the man room (Dust AND vacuum).

In 15 minutes i can get my kitchen from a sinkful of dishes to spotless, save for some of the ground in grunge on the cabinets...but that is another 15 minute project. I can also fold and put away one load of laundry in 15 mn or less.

What can you do in just a handful of minutes? Get out an egg timer and do it now!!

Monday, March 8, 2010

FLYin by the seat of my pants!


I joined Fly Lady 8 weeks ago. I had finally hit rock bottom on my housekeeping, tired of the STUFF being shuffled around because nobody knew what to do with it. i have been meaning to post about it, but have been PRO-crastinating big time.

I caved and actually checked out the Fly Lady website, signed up for her Big Tent site and daily digest email, and clicked the 'Getting Started' link in one of the big purple boxes. I read through the page and curiosly clicked the "Beginner Babysteps" link

GO SHINE YOUR SINK appeared on an image of a sticky note. Intrigued by this, i went into the kitchen and reluctantly took all the dirty dishes out of the sink and scrubbed it with some Soft Scrub (anyone with white enamel knows how stained they get). It was SOOOO pretty! I didn't want to put the dirty dishes back in, but in order to deal with those i actually had to UNLOAD my dishwasher.

By day 4 i had been shining my sink for FOUR days and getting ALL the way dressed to the shoes i hated so much (yeah, i am a barefoot girl--but the shoes do have an affect on the attitude), and i began my Control Journal just like Fly Lady suggests. Amazingly the journal seemed to help keep me on task better than any other 'tool' i had tried to use. By Day 15 i had a whole routine for morning and night, my Mt. Washmore was more under control, I was dressing to shoes every morning, and my sink was almost always empty. On top of that i had been following the 15 minutes of decluttering every day and had literally gotten rid of an entire room full of stuff just chipping away for 15 minutes each day. By day 31 i was FLYing high after realizing that Zach and I had moved over 250# of un-used stuff from our home to the thrift stores in town. I still have another load to drop off that is un-accounted for, which i need to do soon as my pickup bed looks like a travelling yard sale!

I still have a long way to go, but i now have the tools to keep FLYing high!