I tried it (a daily series)

Dinner from home!!!  I eat out often which isn't a good thing for more than one reason.  I won't even bring up the health reasons or the financial factor.  How about it just makes me lazy to have to cook my own meals.  I have all the daily deals and kids eat free figured out with a plan everyday.  So going to $1 tacos at the local restaurant is soo much easier than making anything at home.  Not to mention I may drag my feet in hopes of going out and now it's late and what can I cook?  Something fast and to the the point.  Out of my pantry and I don't see anything (even though there's food in there).

After some slight pondering I decided chili. Ahh, meatless because I don't have meat. Let me find a recipe so this pot of stuff will have a chili taste not just look like it because I added the beans.  I will make one I have made before with corn in it. I do like that one. Wait no canned corn. Wait I have a handful of frozen corn that will do.  I measure everything else give or take into the pot. STOP no need to make it meatless.  I have hamburg patties. I cook up two of those and crumble them into the chili. (Kudos to me I'm feeling pretty slick. Like I just beat the system of no food)  BUT wait it gets better.

Add some rice so that I hear less grumbling on the lack of food people have consumed.  Wait I'm feeling better about cooking so I am going to throw in some cornbread muffins.  Enter the lovely Internet on making muffins without milk. (Shhh, don't judge- I call it a survival challenge for my older kids to get creative on making their meals.)

So today's meal was:
Chili with corn and meat (hamburg patties)
Rice
Dairy-free Cornbread muffins

Recipe recognition:

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/151588/black-bean-corn-and-turkey-chili/

http://dairy-free.food.com/recipe/cornbread-dairy-free-104814?nl=email_share

I tried it! (a daily series)

In order to keep me on track with new recipes, eating from my pantry and trying new things I will post "the" new food!   It may be breakfast, lunch, dinner a snack or even a drink! Anything goes and the result will make me better in the kitchen!
  Today's meal as early as it is was oatmeal.  We eat a lot of oatmeal here!! We buy it in bulk from Sam's Club and eat it quite often.

 I think it last longer than cereal helps you stay full longer.  You can make it into anything.  The concoctions to oatmeal are numerous!  I also think it is a great frugal tool.  Some recipes are flexible with use of water or milk.  You use less milk in a recipe for multiple servings than a bowl of cereal as it is measured out instead of causally poured into a bowl.
  You can make it as healthy as you want or as sweet and fun as you desire.  Either way it is still good for you as you are in charge of the ingredients you add.  No artificial preservatives, flavors or colors!

Today's feature.....

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle oatmeal from: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/01/27/chocolate-raspberry-truffle-oatmeal/
Although not all our oatmeal is enjoyed here a majority is!  I appreciate the household tasting them and we save the recipes for easy repeats in the future.  My daughter's have a notebook for keeping their recipes in both for now and when they are on their own.

So many recipes so little time!

Goals are not overrated

I made some goals the other day.  Minimum to me and without a time frame. What really makes a goal?  The object you want to accomplish or getting something completed within a time frame.  I want to read 5 books is any less important if I don't complete that task in a set amount of time?  I personally think not.    I say yeah and pat myself on the back for having finished those 5 books!

Baby steps to accomplish your goals. They don't even have to be named goals if labels make it more intimidating.  We won't even call them tasks, jobs or plans.  Just say I want to do something to do.  Something you don't usually do because it does have to stand apart from your normal day.

My objectives (without a time frame) are: crafts,cooking,reading, working out, eat from my pantry and a bonus challenge to lower my grocery bill.  My strategy in making more than one was if I at least hit one area I still did a good job.

Crafting would be a nice activity for just myself or with my family.  We may make alot of junk but we may make so good items to.  We will learn as we go.
Tonight I tried my hand at DIY shrink dinks!!! I love them and how they came out. Now that I know it can be done there is a lot of room for improvement and design.

Books are read at my house primarily to the young people.  I want to read a grown up book. There was a stop at out local library today and I made the first step and got myself a few books!!  

I have had it for a few hours and not opened it yet but, that's ok!

Cooking is doing great I have consumed instead of wasting the zucchini and yellow squash! Lost 3 cans of items to homemade spaghetti sauce! We even had a new oatmeal for breakfast. (Cranberry apple oatmeal) Cooking from your pantry and recipes is like opening a surprise box! The best part is your winning by not throwing money away. 

 Lastly, I am so thrilled with my workouts. 

 I seemed to have hit an energy high.  Two days straight I have hit the highest distance in my cardio time in a long time. It must be persistence.  Excited as this week I signed up for a Dirty Girl 5k Mud Run on Sunday!! 

What are you objectives near or far? Make some with no limitations they look more appealing.

Wordless Wednesday

April 2015 NC Outerbanks visit.  I enjoy the calm of a beach, nature at its best! 

W is for worms

We are exploring worms not so much the letter  "w" but why not use that to my advantage.  We started yesterday with making a worm compound.

 She is excited at the concept but not sure what to expect to in a few days we will go back out and see if there is anything exciting going on and by that I mean (please,please) visible trails.

We practiced writing letter w and discussed all things "w" and we found several other worksheets to emphasize worms. 

Thanks to http://halfwayhomeschooling.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html?m=1 for this great idea.  She had fun making this.

We also got a little dirty and spelled it together when we created this piece of art with tea granules!

 

We found a great website.  http://m.extension.illinois.edu/worms/

 She listened intently and was able to answer questions asked at the end of the different sections. I think we will visit it's site a few more times this week and of course at the end of the week we will have to end this lesson by eating worms!

Future science observations: frogs and their life cycle and snails.  We have observed butterflies for several years and will continue that but it will be nice to learn about other critters. Any suggestions are always appreciated!

My childs bucket list

Many of us have a bucket list maybe not a actual list written down awaiting us to cross off our completed goals but, we have things we are fully aware of wanting to complete. Children have these desires too. Yes, they are constantly telling us what they want versus what they need. But they are so limited in their world of what they can really want.

The television helps to convince them of all the toys they want or a subscription comes in the mail with the latest must haves for your American Girl doll. I am amazed on a daily basis of all the only sold on TV items my child needs. She would be zipped up in bed surrounded by a dog sleeping on her unicorn pillow and eating her snacks from the same cup as her drink if I didn't let her play with the unbreakable bubble!

 We got out of the house on Friday to explore a near by park.

The park to us means playground and nothing more. I helped expand that image.  A park contains nature you may never see at home or at least slows down time for you to see it.

This moth looked like a shirt high above our heads on the wall.  We definitely do not get to see these by our house. Moths are so rare and to be able to see one displayed was nice.  A spider web in all its glory at childs eye level undisturbed was fascinating work of art.

 We weren't even to the good stuff of the trip but the trip was proving to be entertaining and enjoyed by little folks.  There are a lot of activities available at this park and I had two main goals. Did you know with a little research you can find local parks that rent bikes, boats and some sporting equipment? 

 We made a few stops on the way to this park to pick up items for our outdoor adventure. Stopped at Steak and Shake and got our energy with a half price milkshake (Ahh, hello 3 milkshakes for less than $5 can't beat that!!)

Our first adventure was riding on a boat!  She wanted to actively participate and peddle.  (I thought hey that is a great ab workout!!)

Safety first of course! Fashion. Accessories optional! ;)

Next item of business cue the pole (bought on the way up) and gloves. (also bought on the way)

Fishing!

I was proud she assisted in looking and even held a worm.

Brief intermission of nature at its finest yet again. I ♡spring!

Resume adventure......

Mission accomplished!

It was nice to have given my daughter to new experiences.  On the way home she said that was her first boat ride, her first time fishing of course her first fish.  All things she never knew to ask for. Numbers crossed off her imaginary bucket list.  I can't wait to give her more first times. To see her eyes open at new opportunities.  I can't wait to help her cross off her bucket list!

This week with many days of rain we will focus our educational time reflecting on what we learned, saw and did at the park.

What is on your childs bucket list?

Goodbye white and winter hello yellow and spring

It was a long winter here. I don't make a fuss about the winter as much as I am frustrated with the lack of organization of the state and city in which I live in. Don't get me wrong I hate cold and snow and would rather live in an all year round 80° climate but right now is not the time.
Lucky for me I stick around each winter to watch it get worse or snow more than the previous.  Ahh, I remember when it barely snowed the whole season of winter. But, fast forward where this year we had almost 2 weeks off in February for snow and ice.

We are even getting better with our snowman skills. We missed out the first week making one as the next day after snow fall was covered in ice. There was no packing and playing with that but everything was so pretty covered in a shiny glaze.

But lucky for us more snow the following week and we jumped into action.

Such a happy fellow. Built as a tribute to the snow fairies for giving us another dose of snow.  Fast forward to spring.....

 VA does have the best blooming trees I have ever seen. Maybe even the most (they are everywhere) I have ever seen. But enter pollen.  If you didn't have any allergy before moving to this place you quickly get one. It's literally everywhere. Open a window it makes its way inside. That is not dust on my dash that is yellow pollen.  Blown in from the vents and windows.

 We even went to the playground and cleaned off the slide for future children that day.   Your welcome.

 We have had rain the last couple days I hope that it washes away any remaining pollen pods waiting to explode in our atmosphere.  I have 2 children blessed with allergies due to our move here and oddly the two born here apparently had immunity.  

Any natural remedies for this issue greatly appreciated.  I will let you know when the coast is clear to enter until then we should just put a bubble over us to contain the damage.