A little aside before we begin with this yummy recipe.  I miss writing this blog.  But with bringing our new baby girl home from Ethiopia in May 2011 AND stepping up our homeschool program by joining Classical Conversations in Sept 2011, there has been precious little time.  Slowly,  I am perfecting our system of raising, teaching, training, cleaning, etc, etc, knowing full well that as people grow, everything will change and a new system will go into place.  So it goes.  I do always have this blog in the back of my mind, though, and look forward to writing more as that system gets perfected.  Hurry!  Before the next change comes!

Ok.  Enough of that!

We have made a variety of coffee cakes over the last few years, but THIS one is always everybody’s favorite.   The recipe without pics is at the bottom.  (I can’t remember why in the world it’s called a buckle.  I could look it up.  Naaaa.  Priorities :)

First, preheat the oven to 375 and grease 2 pie pans. Pull out your blueberries from the freezer, put them in a freezer baggie and let them thaw out in a big pan of hot water.  They should be thaw by the time you stir them in. And pull out all other ingredients before you start.

Thow into your mixer the next 7 ingredients.  You won’t mix until they are all in.

4 cups flour

Fresh ground prairie wheat flour (Using great ingredients makes me not feel so guilty about eating this, but I certainly don’t want to make YOU feel guilty if you have the regular store bought stuff.  Just do it and enjoy the moment, cause we might all go to heaven soon!)

1 1/2 cups sugar

Sucanat (unrefined sugar)

5 tsp baking powder

The cheap stuff

1 1/2 tsp salt

The good stuff.  Himalayan pink salt.  The full spectrum of minerals that our bodies need.  I drink 1/2 tsp of this salt in a mug of hot water (salt tea) almost every afternoon if  I’m feeling tired and it instantly revives me.

1/2 cup melted butter 1 1/2 cups milk

Raw milk straight from a dairy farm.  DO NOT be afraid to drink raw milk.  The “system” has misinformed us all about the hazards.  Google it.  You will see this is a major way to keep everyone very healthy.  Great for the gut where 85% of our immune system resides.  Dairy intolerance usually disappears when drinking raw milk.

2 eggs

From the local farm and grass fed chickens

NOW you can mix all this together for 30 seconds and it will look similar to this.   Store bought flour and sugar will make it a lighter color.

If you are still waiting for the blueberries to thaw, skip down and make the crumb topping.  You will need it BEFORE this goes into the oven.  And if you are STILL waiting, make the glaze.  You will use that AFTER the coffeecake bakes.

This mixer is a Bosch.  I like it much better than Kitchen Aid.

4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed & drained)

Pull out the beater and stir in the blueberries with a spoon.  If they are still frozen, it will make the batter cold and be harder to stir, but it is doable.  It also might take a bit longer to cook. Spread batter in pans.

The one on the left has the crumb topping on it.  The one on the right does not yet.

Now, if you haven’t already, stir up the crumb topping in a bowl.  It doesn’t matter the order of ingredients.

Crumb Topping

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup melted butter

There you have the flour, sugar and butter.

1 tsp cinnamon

Annnnnnnnd the cinnamon.

Mix until crumbly in a bowl with a spoon. Sprinkle the crumb topping onto the blueberry batter and bake 45-50 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Hmmm.  Dirty oven on the bottom.  Not a priority.  Yea!

Now make the glaze.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

Cheap stuff

1/2 tsp vanilla Homemade stuff.  Yes!  Here is a link from my website on how to make a small 4 oz jar. And here is a link from another website on how to make a gallon, which I did last year and gave away as Christmas presents.  Cheap and so darn easy!  That’s an 8 ounce jar above and here is another one waiting in the wings!

Ok, so add the vanilla And add 4 tsp hot water Mix until smooth in a bowl with a spoon. Now set that aside, clean the kitchen, have a little more coffee, figure out your day and smile because everyone will be thrilled that you made this!

Pull out the cakes and drizzle with Glaze.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Buckle

4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

5 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed & drained)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease 2 pie pans.  Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, milk and egg.  Beat 30 seconds.  Carefully stir in blueberries with a spoon.  Spread batter in pans.  Sprinkle with Crumb topping.  Bake 45-50 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Drizzle with Glaze.  Serve warm.

Crumb Topping

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix until crumbly in a bowl with a spoon.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 tsp hot water

Mix until smooth in a bowl with a spoon.

This recipe comes from The MOMYS cookbook and Deanna Pemberton.

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Fresh hard white winter wheat berries straight from the farm.

Pleasant Hill Grain has offered to let me give away one of their most popular products, the Nutrimill grain mill!  That is very exciting.  I’ve used mine for almost 2 years now and I STILL love it!

If you want a chance to win this, here is what to do:

1.  Go to Pleasant Hill Grain and check out the Nutrimill Grain Mill and its natural companion machine, the Bosch Universal Mixer.

2.  Then come back here and leave a comment telling me which product (of all of PHG’s products) is your favorite and why.  Those will be fun to read!

Deadline is Tuesday, December 14th at noon central time. (Deadline is extended to midnight tonight!)  I will pick a winner at random.

And now, you can read about my take on this awesome machine!

Girls Need Tools Too!

My Mama gave this to me for my birthday 2 years ago, bless her heart.  It is a beautiful thing.  Now before you groan at making your meals even harder to get together, remember who you’re talking to here.  I’m the one with the ultimate goal of making it easy.  OK?  Are you with me?

Nutrimill Grain Grinder

I Want Easy And Healthy

I want easy.  Yet I want healthy.  I like my treats.  Yet I want to feed my family and me as healthy as possible because I don’t want a bunch of sick people on my hands.  That does not fall into the easy category.  I want all of us to have STRONG immune systems #1.  Yet, I want to have a life. And the truth is, I completely believe my immune system is only as strong as my thought system.  So, if my thoughts are positive, loving, believing, faith-filled – then things will be fine, root beer or not!

OK.  Now that that little caveat is out of the way, let’s get on with it.

Next Step

So I called a farm and got this grain.  Yes sir,  I’m feeling real country right now even though I’m a pretty citified girl.

Bucket of grain.  Sold like this from the farm.

The Cost?

The grinder was about $240.  Yes, maybe that’s alot.  But some things are worth it.  This is one of them.  I think I drooled over it for at least 3 years.

The wheat I buy comes from a local farm, johnsfarm.com, that grows organic wheat and grass fed, healthy cows for healthy beef.  This huge container of white winter wheat cost $17.  I figured it up and the price of these wheat berries once it’s ground into flour is equal to the cheapest white flour I could buy at the grocery store.  And this is organic whole wheat!  I’m part of a local food coop (buying club) and as a group we order from this farm (and many other places too.)  (Find a similar group – best thing I’ve done in a long time!)

Why Should You Grind Your Grain?

Because it is SO MUCH MORE healthy.  And we use flour in everything.  And if we can do a good job in this area, then maybe we can slack off in other areas.  Regular flour has all the good stripped out and then they enrich it; i.e. add back stuff to make it “supposedly” healthy again.  Good grief.  Just leave the darn flour alone!  God made the grain the way we are supposed to eat it.  Stop messing with it!  And we wonder why people are getting heart disease and cancer and……….Sorry.  Can’t help it sometimes.

So once a grain kernel is milled, nutrient loss immediately starts to occur.  This is due to oxidation, heat, light, and even moisture from the air.  Freezing the flour can prevent rancidity, but does little to slow nutrient loss.  After 2-3 days, even in the freezer, the flour has lost a large portion of its nutrients.

This shows the grinder with the bin pulled out.  That is where your ground flour ends up.

Here Is My System

I have the grinder out on the countertop so I will use it as often as possible.  I used to keep regular wheat flour as back up, if I was in a hurry, but now I don’t even do that.  It doesn’t take much longer to grind than it does to get a bag of flour out.  But just to ease into this, I would advise starting with your backup flour around the house.  Then as you feel more secure :) you can get rid of it.

The top of the grinder with the lid removed.

So you scoop out your berries from your pail.  I have found about 2 cups of berries will yield about 3 cups of flour.

Don’t you just want to hold that grain in your hand and let it run through your fingers!

Are you thinking Little House on the Prairie yet?  No?  We gotta get back to the way they did a few things ladies.  I’m just saying…..

Then, put the lid back on.  Turn the knob to about the middle.  Not too course, not to fine.  By the way, it is quite loud.  It actually sounds like a vacuum cleaner.  But fairly quickly you will have a bin full of flour.

Voila’!

Other Alternatives

There are many other ways to grind grain too.  There is a hand grinder (yeah, right.)  I think I’ve heard of people grinding in their blender if it is powerful.  There are attachments to a kitchen aid mixer.  But honestly, all the alternatives looked like more of a hassle than I could deal with.  I did the research.  This is the best one.  Trust me.

Check out Youtube for “How to” videos

If you need more of a visual on how to grind your grain – though it could not be simpler – there are lots of videos on YouTube.  Just do a quick search.

Ok ladies.  That’s it for now.  Believe me when I say I thought it was possible that this might be one of those purchases that I believed was really neat initially and then it ended up in the back of some cabinet, but it is not.  I use it all the time.  My children use it.  It’s definitely an asset.  Oh and my husband can tell when we have used fresh ground flour and when we have not.  That’s cool.

Looking forward to your comments and I can’t wait to give a new Nutrimill Grain Grinder away!

Love, Allison &  God Bless ya!

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To Give Money Or Not To Give Money

It took me a number of years to decide whether we should give our children a regular allowance or not. Should we just expect their daily help and then maybe give them money for extra jobs? Would a regular allowance, whether they were obedient or not in doing chores, make them think they would get money, i.e. a reward, regardless of how they performed?

The Types of Jobs

Finally, after getting rid of our housekeeper and training our older ones in sweeping, vaccuuming, picking up, cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, childcare, changing diapers, cooking meals, etc., (you can read about that in Our 5 Step Process For Chores,) we decided they definitely deserve a regular allowance. And we are thrilled that they are becoming so capable at such young ages. This bodes well for adulthood. Of course, there is always some new area of training needed, but we feel we are on the right track.

Not sure what I said to get her to pose like this, but it sure is cute!

The Time To Train

One good thing about homeschooling is that it allows us time for these things. If they were in school all day, I am not sure how this would work, though I do know “where there is a will, there is a way!” We see this “work” as absolutely essential training for adulthood. In fact, at this age, it is more important than math facts, history and Four Square. (Though they are learning those too:)

The Age To Train

If laziness is allowed early on (5, 8, 10 years old) it will infect a child making him or her think, even more, that the world revolves around their desires. Imagine that child at 16 or 25 or older. Not a pleasant thought. We have certainly slacked off many times in the “laziness” arena. With ourselves AND our children. But one of our biggest desires is to succeed in that area.

You KNOW I love to call deboning a chicken “Science Class.”

The more children we have, the more I realize how important it is to sow the mentality into them of “helping the family.” Even a 2-year-old can line up the shoes, or take things to the trash, or pull out the clothes from the dryer.

Luke LOVES to vacuum.  These are the paint chips from Dad scraping the outside of the house.

My husband continually has Henry, 7, repeating the question “Hey Dad, how can I help the family?”

Now I’m no professional photog, but I think that sunlit glint on the top of his hair with a blurred background is what we are going for.  Works for me.

Training To Save And Training To Spend

In addition to “work” training, there is a huge need to train our children in “how to manage money.” Oh my. I am astounded at how long it took my husband and me to really grasp what we needed to do in the financial part of our lives. See this post on How We Handle Our Finances As a Couple.

Here Is The Key (I do love to kill 2 birds with 1 stone)

We decided that not only would this regular allowance be the children’s portion for all of the work they do at home, it would also be their training ground in how to save, invest, tithe, give generously and spend their hard-earned money.

SO HERE IS OUR PLAN

If you like this plan, but it isn’t in your budget, maybe lessen the amounts and also lessen the categories to just a few essentials like tithe, spend, and save.

Our children are 12, 9, 7, and 3. You get to join the plan when you turn 6. But even the 3 year old is doing jobs. (The 9 and 7 year olds were 8 and 6 when these photos were taken.)

Each child gets a binder.

The binder has 6 6×9 manilla envelopes in it that are 3-hole punched.

The 6 envelopes are for 6 categories.

Each month, each child receives their age x $4 (4 represents $1 per week) that is then divided into the envelopes.

So, since Emma is 12, she receives 12 x 4 = $48/month.  Meg receives 8 x 4 = $32/month.  Henry receives 6 x 4 = $24/month.

Yes, for these 3 children that totals $104 a month and there have been times when I wanted to cut that expense out of our budget, BUT it truly IS a big priority. So….it stays in the budget.

And before you think that is a lot of money to give these children, here is how it is divided into their envelopes.

#1 Tithe 10%

#2 Free Spending 10%

#3 Generous Giving 10%

#4 Living Expenses 10%

#5 Short Term Savings 20%

#6 Long Term Savings 40%

I have adjusted these percentages over the years and as my husband and I got into the Dave Ramsey plan, increased their savings percentages. You can adjust these to whatever works for you. And you can change them over time. I found this plan from a mom on the internet years ago. I have no idea who it was, but thank you! I remember she said that her 12 year old son asked to increase his long term savings to 50% at one point. Sure, that’s fine. But increasing free spending is not going to happen :)

Category Descriptions:

Tithe

The Bible clearly says give 10% of your income back to God if you want to be blessed. When we started tithing about 9 years ago, there was a marked change in our income level. Yes, believe it. The moment income comes into our house or bank account, the very first thing that happens is 10% is taken off the top and put into a tithe account. Then we don’t accidentally spend it. We tithe on the gross, instead of the net, so that our taxes are blessed too :)

Generous Giving

This is for gifts whether birthday gifts for friends or family, christmas gifts, etc.

Living Expenses

I see this possibly changing over the years depending on the child. Right now, of course, we provide all of their clothes and their day-to-day living expenses. I let them take this money to the Homeschool Conference in May to spend on educational items that they would like. The conference is a feast for the eyes and it is very easy to overspend, (trust me, I’ve done it.)   I have my budget for our homeschool needs. If they want extra, they use money from this category. As they get older, this will probably change.

Short Term Saving

I not really sure what this will be for yet. Possibly a car. (Ugh, I don’t want to think about that.)

Long Term Savings

This is for the real long term. When they save up enough we will help them invest it. It may turn out to be their retirement nest egg or maybe they will use it to buy a house when they get married. It will be exciting to see how this money grows for them starting at such a young age.

Free Spending

My husband is really good at taking them to a store like Walgreens or Ross or Dollar Tree and examining with them the item they want and then discussing whether or not it is a good value. I was with Henry, 7, the other day and he was going to buy something and said “Do you think this is a good value Mom?” So cute.

Emma, 12, is extremely frugal.  Meg, 9, is still working on that skill.  She can sometimes have that money burning a hole in her pocket so this is what I finally figured out with her.  When we are standing in a store looking at a toy she wants to buy we might discuss it for a few minutes, then I suggest she or we pray about it and see what she thinks God is telling her. 9 times out of 10 she says God is telling her to save her money. Wow! Pretty awesome that these babies can crucify the flesh in a Godly moment like that.

So, in actuality, these children only get a few dollars a month to spend.

Extra

They CAN make extra money by doing extra jobs and their grandmothers tend to give them gift cards at various holidays so they always have a few dollars available and if not, they are motivated to earn some.

For instance, the other day Meg earned $10 by scrubbing the black gunk off the stovetop. It was a huge job. Caked and burned on all over the backsplash, the griddle, etc. I had been staring at it for a year (I’m embarrassed to say) and finally had the bright idea to pay someone!

Think Big

We are also just starting to encourage them to think in entrepreneurial ways probably leading toward starting a small business.

Other Rewards

In addition to their regular allowance, we try to regularly reward them with treats when we are all working hard as a team on a project that is not for extra cash. Maybe after a long afternoon of yard work we will head over to Sonic for a slush. They LOVE that! Or maybe an M&M for going to the potty or for practicing the “Come here” game (the most basic and important thing a parent can teach a child.) You know, “Luke, come here.” If he doesn’t obey that command, life is a whole lot harder for mom and dad. Or maybe baking and decorating cookies.

Rewards are very important!

This is our plan. It is really working well for us so far. Do you have a plan? I’m always up for new and better ideas.

God Bless You and Your Sweet Babies!

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The honest truth is, I’m not sure WHAT the secret is for a good chore plan.  I suppose it is very similar to homeschooling curriculum.  If mama don’t like it, it ain’t gonna work.

Life in this area definitely gets easier as your children get older.  So hang in there Mamas with young ones.  You WILL emerge from the dark years soon.  And then you will look back and wonder where the time went.  Just keep plugging and training and I promise it WILL pay off.

You don’t want to end up with 14-18 year olds that won’t lift a finger to help run your household.  And their future spouses will not be  happy either :)

This is what works for us right now.  BUT it could change at any time as we see that certain children become capable of new jobs.

1 – PUBLISH YOUR CHORES

They Gotta Know The Rules

This is huge.  We cannot expect our children to be successful in doing chores if the chore expectations are not published. Just like the government puts speed limit signs on the road so we know the rules, we MUST also post a chore chart for our children in a central place so THEY know the rules.

They Are Still Small

They are small and learning and they WILL NOT remember what is expected of them if we do not publish our chores. It will be hard enough even when we do publish, so that should be our #1 foundation.  For children who cannot read, draw or post a picture for each chore.  A picture of a bed means “Make your bed.”

Conserve Your Energy, Mom

The beauty of posting the chores is, instead of you trying to remember what their jobs are and then asking if they have done each one, you simply say in your sweetest voice (or at least try :) “Is your list done?” or  ”Check your list.”  Saving Mom’s voice is very important.

WE USE PAPER INSIDE A PAGE PROTECTOR

It’s not as pretty as a beautifully organized white board (which I have used) but it won’t get accidentally erased by a child.  And I can quickly write up a new plan if I want to change things around.  I buy these steno pads from Staples and use them for everything from journals to taking notes to things like chore charts.

2 – LET THEM CHECK OFF JOBS WHEN COMPLETED

Do we love checklists? And then making that checkmark when the job is done? Yes we do! So let them do that too!

3 – SET A REGULAR TIME DAILY

Our children do their regular/daily chores between 8-9am (usually.) Actually my two older girls have been getting up at 6 or 7am and doing their chores so they can get them out of the way.

Also, at random times, my husband or I will decide an area in the house or outside cannot go a moment longer without being cleaned and we will gather all the children and get busy right then.  Even our 3 year old was stacking logs the other day.

An Aside On How We Got Rid Of Our Housekeeper

I can start hyperventilating on this subject if I don’t keep myself in check!

A huge house

We have a huge, old house built in 1939. It’s about 6300 square feet. And we don’t have a housekeeper. Gasp! We bought it from my mother after my father died back in 2005.  (Bless his heart.) We thought it would be great to keep it in the family, but one of my biggest worries was how to keep it up and still have a life.

I was adamant, but…

When we moved here I said to my husband “There is no way we can keep up with this house without a housekeeper.” It was over twice the size of our last house. At the same time I knew deep down, the children needed to get involved in maintaining it.  It’s a great way to start developing a good work ethic.  ”I cannot raise lazy children,” I thought.

Brain Fry

But back then, they were only 8, 5 and 2. The thought of me trying to homeschool, clean AND train the children to clean at that age was busting out the RAM in my brain, so for awhile we had 2 ladies cleaning our house 1 time a week for several hours. That STILL left a lot for us to do.

Out they went

Finally, as the children got a couple of years older and in an attempt to save money AND instill that all-important work ethic, we got rid of our housekeepers and started doing it ourselves. Yes, I was scared!  We do have a young lady that helps with the children at various times throughout the week and she helps too.  (Thank the Lord!)

So far, so good

We are now going on several years of this plan and it is a wonderful thing. My perfectionist need for a scrupulously clean house has changed. (With the help and support of my mom friends :) My relationship with my children is more important than a perfectly dusted mantle, though that need-for-clean is still deep inside me.

Someday the children will be gone

It is a balancing act. Allowing dust bunnies under the buffet to go unswept for days is a huge part of my “parent training” and I continually have to fight not being bugged by that. Though at the same time, we must have order in the home. Decluttered, tidy, order.

Whew! Just remembering that these babies will be grown and gone in the blink of an eye, and that I WILL have a clean house, but it will be quite empty of the life and laughter we have now, is helpful in getting me on the straight and narrow path of this subject. Now. Back to our 5 steps.

4 – INSPIRE THEM

I’m frequently and very animatedly (is that a word?) saying things like,

“Hey guys.

Do you think I want to be here washing these dishes or would I prefer playing with you, reading books, watching movies, or  going to the park?

Your dad and I are preparing you for life! You will always have chores and work in life, and as part of this family, you have chores now. How would our house look if we didn’t ever sweep this floor or clean the kitchen? (They squeal – Yuckyyyyyyyyy.)

Do you really think I can or should do all of this and you guys should just sit around and do nothing? (They answer with downcast eyes – Noooooooo.)

So here is the plan.

We do the chores as fast and as well-done as possible and as soon as we are done, we get to do the really fun stuff.

Like go to the cool children’s museum in Seminole, Oklahoma.

Or knit and listen to Mom read really good books.

We are a team. We/you have a purpose in the world. You must learn to obey us, your parents, so you will understand as you grow up how to obey other authorities – like a boss…. and the law…..and most importantly, God. We are teaching you how to follow His lead for your life, because He has an awesome plan for you. He gave you each amazing gifts and abilities that are unfolding as you grow.

Isn’t that exciting?

Yes it is! So come on, let’s do this stuff, so we can get on with the really big stuff!”

For some reason it’s very easy for me to start talking to them about chores (or any other mundane subject) and wind up talking about God’s awesome plan for their life!

Oh and, by the way, cranking the music up can help.

5 – REWARD THEM

Life is full of actions with either consequences or benefits. It will always be that way. We do expect our children to be part of our team, part of maintaining our house,

part of helping and teaching each other things,

part of preparing meals for the family,

part of making sure we all have clean clothes and the list goes on.  And at the same time we want to reward them for a job well done. So….stay tuned for the next post on how we reward them.

God Bless Ladies!  Train Those Children Up To Be World Changers!

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I Am Not A Crafty Person

In fact, doing messy crafts with my children is honestly one of my least favorite things to do.  This is why I love taking them to our local Art and Science Museum so they can craft until their hearts are content.  BUT, if the end result is something useful as opposed to some kind of macaroni picture that is supposed to hang on the fridge, then sometimes I can be persuaded.

Here Was My Motivation

Meg and I found this recipe for Rose Almond Soap and unbelievably, I had almost everything necessary to make it.  I thought “This is something we can actually use,” and I loved the name. So. I was motivated. Life is so much better when Mom is motivated :)

I was on my way to the health food store anyway, so I could easily add Geranium Essential Oil to the list.  I know you are thinking “You had rosewater on hand?”  Well, I bought it probably over 2 years ago when I had some bright idea to make something, then never did.  Seems it sat there forever waiting for this moment.

Ingredients

Rose petals – 2 T

Almonds – 2 T

Soap - 2   4 oz bars (something plain like Ivory or Castille) or 8 oz of soap flakes (which I don’t think exist anymore – I looked and asked and couldn’t find any)

Rose water – 1/2 cup

You can make rosewater by taking 1 firmly  packed cup of rose petals.  Pour 2 cups of boiling water over it.  Cover and let steep until cool.  Drain.

Geranium Essential Oil – 9 drops       Anything would work.  I just like the sound of  ”Geranium.”

Boiling Water – 2/3 cup

Recipe

Put your rose petals on a cookie sheet and dry them. Ours were somewhat dry to begin with, drooping off their stems several weeks after Valentine’s Day.

I dried the yellow ones too, but only used the red for this recipe.

We have a warming rack above our stove so I put them under the heat lamps until they were crisp. You could put them in a dehydrator or in the oven on the lowest setting.

After they crisp up, crush them. The mortar and pestle worked well. But crushing with your fingers is definitely just as good.

Next, the almonds.

I used the coffee bean grinder to grind them up.

And then grate the soap. You can also use a food processor with the grate blade.

Now mix together the soap flakes, crushed rose petals and boiling water in a bowl til smooth.  If the soap starts to solidify, place the bowl over near-boiling water.  Mine did not even come close to solidifying while we were stirring.

Be thrilled that you are finally doing a craft with your precious child that you will get to enjoy!

Add the ground almonds.

And now the rosewater, (I’m thinking you could add plain water if you didn’t want to go to the trouble of getting or making rosewater.)

and the geranium essential oil (or whichever oil your heart desires.)

Mix it up good.

Next is the part you will be very happy your children get to do and not you. Separate the goop into 6 sections and mold each section into a ball.

Lay each ball on wax paper.

Take another sheet of wax paper and flatten them out a bit.

About this much.  Blurry, but I wanted you to see this.

You can also take a cookie cutter and make a shape like Meg did.

Then let them dry out a day or two or three on the counter.  Turn them over and let the underneath side dry too.  They really look different after they dry.

In fact, they kind of match the counter now.

I’ve enjoyed using this soap and it is a great gift.

This recipe came from this book that I found at our last homeschool convention.  It has become one of my favorite books to have in the kitchen.

Have fun with this!  God Bless You!

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You might like one of these posts too.

• Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake – Delicious
• Nutrimill Giveaway from Pleasant Hill Grain!
• Powder Laundry Detergent – Yes, Homemade :)
• Curried Chicken & Rice (leftovers)
• Chicken Pie – Meal #3 of 3 from 1 Chicken

Powder – Definitely Easier

I gave you a recipe for Liquid Laundry Detergent, about a year ago, but over the last 6 months or so, I have been making this powdered version thanks to various friends (Ladonna & Catherine!)who convinced me it was easier. They were right!  So much easier!

Easy Vs Chemicals In Our Bodies

And please, give me anything to get drudgery work done quickly, but not at the expense of one more chemical IN or ON my body. You know? It is a balancing act, that I think much about.

Heavy Lifting

Honestly though, I do not like lugging those huge heavy jugs of detergent home from the store. I would prefer to buy bars of soap and boxes of borax at various times when I run out. This really is a more pleasant experience all the way around.

The Directions – Just Do It – It Will Make You Happy :)

Here is the soap I use. Kirk’s Castile. I’ve heard that people also use Fels Naptha, Ivory and Zote.  I think I may try Zote next.  It’s quite a bit less expensive.

2 bars soap

4 cups borax

4 cups washing soda

And here are the only other two ingredients. Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) and Borax.

See, here they are on the store shelf. Usually together and easy to pick up.

For the recipe I use, you will grate 2 bars of soap. I always get one of my children to do it.

Sometimes we take turns grating while other things are going on in the kitchen. Hey, I will grate if one of the girls wants to load the dishwasher instead!

And here I have 4 cups of borax and 4 cups of washing soda together.

I like this plastic container on the left to keep the detergent in. It sits on top of the dryer.

So here is the soap, grated in the container it will live in.

Pour in the borax and washing soda.

Stir it up and you are done.

I keep this 1/8 cup measuring spoon in the container. You can literally use 1 Tablespoon on a light load.  I usually use the full 2 T scoop and sometimes 2.

Why All These Pictures?

Why in the world do I use all of these pictures for these posts. I will tell you. I learn visually. I mean, I probably learn 500% better if I see the pictures or a chart, than if someone just tells me something. I think that is why I am terrible at remembering names. Thank goodness my husband is not.

When My Eyes Glaze Over

Sometimes my husband will start telling me about somebody’s aunt’s sister’s husband related to the 2nd cousin’s daughter. Argh! Stop! I can’t take it! The only way I can even begin to comprehend what you are saying is if you will make me a chart, a family tree or something. But, alas, that usually takes too long, so “just give me the gist of the story, hon.” Anyway, that’s why.  And I’m guessing there are a lot of you out there like me.

Again, thanks for your time.   I know it is precious.

God Bless You all!

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You might like one of these posts too.

• Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent – Yes, I’m Serious.
• Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake – Delicious
• Nutrimill Giveaway from Pleasant Hill Grain!
• Rose Almond Soap – Make Your Own
• Curried Chicken & Rice (leftovers)

I am now attempting to see how fast I can put a post together with this new software I found called Blogo. So we are off and running!

This dish is another great leftover dish to use that remaining chicken you have from the wonderful Roast Chicken you made the other night :)

Start With The Rice

While it is cooking, oh about 20 minutes for white rice (I like basmati,) and maybe 45-50 minutes for brown rice, which is what we have here, you will make the Curried Chicken.

Brown rice is my definite favorite. It makes me feel like I’m doing something good and healthy.  And I need as much of that as absolutely possible, because you can bet I love my Dark Chocolate with Mint 3 Musketeers bar!  Yes, I do. I admit it.

Cooked Brown Rice

If you don’t own a rice cooker, I semi-implore you to go get one. You can live without one. That is for sure. And if you are doing serious budget work, then don’t get it, but if you can fit it in, this is another of my favorite kitchen tools.

Why I Like Rice Cookers

I can put all the ingredients in several hours ahead of time. Rice, water, olive oil, salt. Then just let it sit there, all afternoon if necessary, and when I’m ready, all I have to do is flip that little switch and perfect rice is on the way.  All by itself. Amazing. I think I got this at StuffMart.

Groan.  Fuzzy photo.

Now on with the Curry. Saute some onions and celery. I think this was 1 onion and maybe 4-5 stalks of celery sauteed in butter or coconut oil.

Get your milk out.

And just splash some in there. Maybe a cup or so.

And now for the curry. I like a lot, so make sure you have more than just a teaspoon on hand.

Gosh, I think I probably put at least 3 tablespoons in. After a bit you can taste and add more curry or more milk depending on your tolerance for spice.

Now stir it up and add some salt and pepper to taste.  Mmmm.  That is starting to look good!

And now, I know you saved that good chicken broth from the bottom of your pan when you made that Roast Chicken. And put it in a jar. Right? Ok, next time. Just use some bouillon or canned broth if you don’t have this. I sure don’t mean to make you feel bad. Just joking around :)

So after you have skimmed that fat off the top and thrown it away, take a few tablespoons of this gelled up broth and stir it in.

Add your leftover chicken.

Add some chopped vegies of any sort. I have broccoli and cauliflower because it was going to go bad if I didn’t use it, but usually I use frozen vegetables.

This dish definitely needs more color and I just happened to have the cooked carrots from the Roast Chicken, so we will add those too.

They were stored in the fridge with the chicken.  Ok.  They are not gross or anything :)

And there you have it. You really want it a little soupy so you can pour the curry sauce over the rice.

Enjoy ladies. Another very easy dish. I have reheated this in my cast iron pan twice this week for lunch.

Let’s see.  That took 1 hour and 7 minutes.  Probably a record.  But that doesn’t mean much.  This was one of the easier topics.

And by the way, I have been on a recipe rampage lately.  Promise I will get to some other topics soon, but you know how it is.  Gotta just go with the flow.

Love you guys for reading these ramblings!

Godspeed!

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You might like one of these posts too.

• Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake – Delicious
• Nutrimill Giveaway from Pleasant Hill Grain!
• Rose Almond Soap – Make Your Own
• Powder Laundry Detergent – Yes, Homemade :)
• Chicken Pie – Meal #3 of 3 from 1 Chicken

And finally, the 3rd installment, in “3 Meals with 1 Chicken.”  Here is my recipe for Chicken Pie.  Of all 3 dishes, this may be my favorite  because it is such comfort food.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

• Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup
• Butter
• Flour
• Milk
• Oil (I like to use coconut oil)
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Any frozen vegies you happen to have.

I had quite a bit of leftover soup and I was making this recipe for 11 children on a Saturday evening and for 5 adults and 4 children for the next day’s Sunday lunch.

I made 2 large pyrex pans. I am going to give you the approximate amounts for what I made.  If I were to cut this in half, I would simply cut the dough recipe in half, but leave the rest about the same.  You really cannot mess this up.

Chicken Pie Filling

Start by melting a stick of butter in a stock pot.

After it is completely melted, stir in about 3/4-1 cup of flour.

It may get pasty pretty fast, so be ready to add the milk.  1-1 1/2 cups.  Or just add a little at a time.

Now just add a little flour or a little milk as needed.  Your goal is to have it end up looking like this. Not too liquidy.  More on the pasty side.  This is going to thicken your chicken soup.

Stir in your chicken soup mixture.

It helps to have a Professional Stirrer.  This is my best friend Jennifer.  7 of her 8 children (Abigail is too young) and my 4 children will be eating this Chicken Pie tonight.  Check out her website. My hubby is cooking up some kind of surprise for the adults.  Mmmm.

Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Now just pull out whatever frozen vegies you happen to have and throw them in.  I’m glad I had peas and corn because I really like those in Chicken Pie.  A little ice on the peas.  Hey, no big deal.

Stir some more.

And taste.  Jen is also the Professional Taster for the evening.

If you feel your mixture is not thick enough, like in this photo below,

pour it back in your pot (like we did) and add some cornstarch (we added about a cup) and let it cook on about medium.  As it cooks, it will thicken.  If you don’t have cornstarch, mix up some flour and water or milk into a paste and stir that in.  If you don’t mix the flour and milk into a paste, you will have clumps.  And, heaven forbid,  we cannot have clumps.

Let that just sit and simmer on low for a bit while you make your dough for the top.

Dough

This dough recipe comes from one of my two absolute favorite cookbooks.  The MOMYS cookbook.  That stands for Mothers Of Many Young Siblings.  I’m using the recipe on page 479 for Quick Biscuits by Jackie King.

• 6-8 cups flour
• 3 T baking powder
• 1 T salt
• 3/4 cup oil (we use coconut)
• 3 cups milk

Get out your mixer and your dough hook.

Start with 6 cups flour and 3 T of baking powder.  I say 6-8 cups in the ingredient list because it depends on how course your flour is.  I’m grinding our flour before I use it and fresh ground flour tends to be finer, so I tend to need more flour.   But read on.  You will just adjust to how it looks.

Add 1 T salt.

This is melted coconut oil.

Below you can see it hardened.  Looks a bit like crisco from a distance, but it is the opposite in terms of health benefits.

Hopefully I remember to set the jar of coconut oil on this cup warmer ($1 at the thrift store) before I start cooking and it is all nice and melted when I’m ready to use it.  I can’t remember where I got this idea, but thank you whoever you are!

I love it because I keep this jar of hardened oil handy for other things, like frying an egg, but then I can just pop it on the warmer if I need a larger amount for a recipe.

Mix 3 cups of milk and 3/4 cup of liquified oil into a measuring cup or bowl.

Pour it into your flour mixture and start mixing.  My Kitchen Aid mixer says never mix dough on a higher speed than 2.  It will damage your mixer.  I stuck a note on it to remind me of that.

This still needs a little more flour.  As you mix your dough, you may need to add more flour.  A little at a time.  You do not want this like bread dough that totally cleans the sides of the pan when it is correctly mixed up.  This is biscuit dough.  Biscuit dough remains a little wetter.  A little stickier.  Just a bit.

While your dough is mixing, pour your chicken filling into the pans.  Yum.  It’s looking good already.

Spread out some flour on your counter.  You are about to roll out the dough.

This is about the consistency of dough that you want.  Still has a little stickiness in it.  Think about how commercial biscuit dough is a little sticky.

Roll it out, oh maybe to about 1/3 inch thick.

For 15 years I carried around a beautiful stone rolling pin that I NEVER used.  Just wasn’t into cooking at that time.  In a decluttering fit, I got rid of it.  That is one of the few things I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of.

I use a pint size mason jar with the small opening to cut out the dough circles.  But anything will work.

Now gather this leftover dough into a ball again, roll it out, and make more circles.

Use leftover dough pieces to fill in around the circles.  Each serving will get a circle, plus some of the extra small dough pieces.  Now put it in the oven and bake at 425 degrees for 10-20 minutes.

All done!  Let’s eat!

Ahhh.  Food, friends and family.  Life doesn’t get much better.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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You might like one of these posts too.

• Chicken Noodle Soup – Meal #2 of 3 from 1 Chicken
• Roast Chicken – Meal #1 of 3 from 1 Chicken
• Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake – Delicious
• Nutrimill Giveaway from Pleasant Hill Grain!
• Rose Almond Soap – Make Your Own

Ok.  We are ready to make the second meal in the Trilogy Of The Chicken.

Here is all you need:

• Chicken
• Chicken Stock
• Butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped or minced
• 4-5 carrots, chopped
• 4-5 stalks of celery, chopped
• Frozen Egg Noodles
• Salt and Pepper (Lots!)  Just buy that healthy Himalayan Salt and you won’t feel bad about salting your food.

If you look closely you can see that my chicken stock is labeled “Whey.”  Nice.

After you get this going on the stove, please make this Soda Bread to go with it.  It is sooooo easy and good with this dish.

This first step (butter and onion) is a secret my friend Jen gave me.  Ever since she let me in on it, I have done it.  It’s simple, but really adds to the flavor.

Melt one stick of butter in your large stock pot.

We are about to saute our onion, but I want to show you how to peel it easily.  I just saw this on the Food Network last time we were watching TV in a hotel.  Cut both ends off.

Then slice into one side just about as far as I did in the picture below. About an inch.

Oh darn.  Look at that fingernail polish on my thumb.  Meg, 8, gave me a manicure and I keep forgetting to take that off.

Then just peel that outer layer off.  So simple.

Ok, so saute your onion.  Chopped, minced.  Whatever works.

Then get your jar of broth that was leftover in the bottom of the pan after you took your roast chicken out.  Go back to the Roast Chicken post to see how we got all of our broth for this dish.

I had about a pint.  It has gelled up by now and has a layer of fat on top.

I like to scoop off the fat with a spoon and not use it.  It makes it a bit too greasy for me.  Especially with the butter at the beginning of the dish.

Now you just have the good stuff.

Dump this into your pan and watch it melt in.

After it is liquified, add the chicken.

Add the carrots and celery.

Add  Salt and Pepper to taste.  I like a lot for this dish.

Remember the other broth that you made from the chicken bones. (Again, check out that post on the Roast Chicken to see how to do that.)  I added both of these quart jars to my pot plus about another 4 cups of water.  It seemed thick so I wanted to stretch it a little farther.

Of course you can also use just regular chicken bouillon in water according to the directions or canned chicken broth instead of this.

Now just let that cook/simmer for a while.  Maybe on medium low.  Maybe 30 minutes or an hour.

And lastly, add 2 bags of frozen egg noodles that you will find in the frozen food section usually near the frozen vegies at the store.  (Mine were 16 ounces – just add whatever amount you think looks good.)

Let that cook maybe another 15 minutes or so and you are ready to serve.

Yum!!!  Add that bread and you have a great meal!

PS.  If you don’t want to do the Roast Chicken before this meal.  Just take your frozen chicken.  Dump it in a stock pot for a couple of hours covered with water.  Maybe on medium.  And let it cook.  Then take it out and debone it.  You might need to add water here and there if it cooks off (evaporates) too much.   SAVE all that broth and pour it into a bowl through a sieve.  Then start with the onion and butter and continue as in this post.

Let me know what you think and/or if you have other ideas on your own version.  I will have the Chicken Pie recipe out as soon as I can.

Godspeed Ladies!

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You might like one of these posts too.

• Chicken Pie – Meal #3 of 3 from 1 Chicken
• Roast Chicken – Meal #1 of 3 from 1 Chicken
• Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake – Delicious
• Nutrimill Giveaway from Pleasant Hill Grain!
• Rose Almond Soap – Make Your Own

Hello Friends!   I am so excited to tell you about 3 really good meals IN A ROW that we have fairly often at our house.  ”IN A ROW” is key because when I start this process, I know I have dinner planned out for at least 3-5 days depending on leftovers.   I love these meals because:

• they all come from 1 chicken (lately I have purchased some really big chickens),
• they all taste great,
• the soup is just plain healing to the bones,
• AND you really can’t screw them up.

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Pie.   And yes, it is easy too.

A little of this.  A little of that.

Now don’t start hyperventilating on me.  I know.  I am normally one that likes to have it all written down with the exact measurements.  When my husband starts saying “Oh just add some _____.”  My next questions is ALWAYS “How much?  Just tell me how much?”  But believe me when I say you will be just fine on these recipes.

So Easy

I did not figure out how to make these recipes until an embarrassing number of years of marriage went by (much less my 16 years of single adulthood.  I’m wondering what kinds of food I survived on back then.)  And because of that, I’m guessing there are others of you in the same boat.  I mean I can read any recipe and make it, but I’m talking about having that deep knowing about HOW to do these things.  The way Grandma knew.

Don’t be embarrassed

As I think of my expert cooking friends, I imagine they are thinking “What?  You are kidding me?  You are just now figuring this out?”  Well, a few years ago, but yes, it’s true.  Hey – I had other things on my radar screen.   Yeah, yeah, yeah.

One More Caveat

I have to say that these pictures are just not very pretty.  Actually the whole chicken thing can be kind of gross at times and so I feel I must warn you of impending images that you may not want to see.

Trilogy Of A Chicken

1.  Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots.

From these leftovers you will make:

2.  Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup.

From these leftovers you will make:

3.  Homemade Chicken Pie (Yummmm!)

Do those sound good or what!

Here we go:

Roast Chicken With Potatoes and Carrots

We will talk in a moment about why this looks a little strange.

Life doesn’t get much easier than this.  Grab your roasting pan.  I got this cheap thing at Walmart for about $25 probably 8 years ago.  It works just fine.

Unwrap your whole chicken and toss it in the pan.

Frozen.  Yep.  Don’t even have to think about thawing it out.  You don’t need to put anything into the bottom of the pan.  The liquid from the frozen chicken will make broth on it’s own.  See, there it is.

Organic Chickens?

You have probably heard me say we are in serious budget mode these days.  Dave Ramsey style.   I anticipate that will continue after we have paid off our house because it just feels like the right thing to do in terms of being a good steward of the money we have been blessed with, BUT there are a few things that I do like to buy organic and whole chickens are one of them.

If I’m going to the trouble of cooking something that has healing attributes to it, then I want to make it worth my while.  Here is a link called Chicken Soup – Nature’s Best Cold and Flu Remedy? And I’m sure you have heard about the nasty places regular chickens are raised these days, soooooo,  let’s just not talk about that right now.  Ok? Moving on.

Add The Potatoes and Carrots

Rub butter on top of the chicken and salt and pepper it.   Then cut some potatoes in half and throw them in.  I used Yukon Gold here, but any will do.  Peel and cut some carrots in thirds and throw them in.  Put in as many as will fit in your pan.   I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture before it went into the oven, but don’t worry.  It will be ok.  That’s it guys!  Put the lid on.

Cooking Time

This time I put it in the oven at 325 degrees and it cooked about 4-5 hours.  But you could cook it longer at a lower temp or quicker at a higher temp.

I cut into this before I got a picture, but read below to see why it looks kind of weird.

Ok, This Really IS Embarrassing

I pulled the roasting pan out of the oven and as I’m starting to cut it, I’m thinking “Where the heck is the meat on this thing.  Good grief, this is an 8 lb chicken.”  And then as I dug around for a while I realized I put the chicken in upside down!  Now doesn’t that makes for a delightful picture of a beautifully cooked roast chicken for my blog.  Oh well, I’m shooting it anyway.

Matt said, “Yeah I think you did that last time too.”  I mutter “Yeah, I think you’re right.  I did.” as I try to figure out how I could’ve done that.  Twice.  It looked right when it was frozen.  Hmmm.  Very strange.  Oh well.   So I turned it over and it is not pretty.  In fact, not pretty at all.

Oh Well.  Onward and upward.  Start cuttin’ and servin’.

This might be my husband’s favorite meal.

The chicken is always very moist.  Everytime I use chicken breasts, they are always dry.  I’m sure there is some great recipe out there, but it hasn’t arrived into my “please make this dinner easy and good” repertoire.

And Now For Your After Dinner Duties To Prep For Meal #2

Chicken Noodle Soup

What you do during the cleanup of this dinner is important for your next meals.  You can throw everything in the fridge and do this tomorrow or you can do it now.

First debone the chicken.

This really grosses me out and I hate to do it.  So I have a great answer to this problem.  If you have children, find the one that loves to get dirty, play in the mud, fingerpaint, just basically make a mess with everything he or she does.

Yes all children are like that to a certain extent, but I know deep down you are thinking of one particular child, just like I am.  That would be my 2nd daughter Meg.  She is now our master deboner.

Ok, sweetie, let’s take your coat off so you can really get into it.

Put all the good pieces in one bowl and all the gross stuff in another bowl.

Really piece through that whole chicken and get all the meat.  Not the skin or fat.  Just the good stuff.  Don’t throw away the gross stuff though, because you are going to use it.  I know.  Just do what I say and you will be happy.  (Hmmm, I think I say that to my children a lot.)

Next, put a sieve over a bowl and pour the liquid gold, I mean the juice from the bottom of the roasting pan into it.

Dump that chicken stuff in the sieve into your “gross chicken parts” bowl.  Then pour the broth that is in the bowl into a glass jar with a lid and put it in the fridge.  You will use it for the next recipe – the soup.

That is a quart jar, so I got about a pint of broth.  The fat rises to the top very quickly.  When we make the soup we will spoon that off the top.

You might want to label this jar, because I just hate it when I look at unlabeled jars and wonder what the heck they are.  Permanent marker on the lid works for me.

Then, take the gross stuff in that bowl and dump it into a big pot.

Cover it with water.

Put the lid on and just let it sit on your stove overnight.  Tomorrow you will let it simmer for a few hours to use in the soup.  If you want to do that now though, go ahead.

After the simmering, before bed, just put your sieve over a bowl again, dump the mixture in your pot into the sieve.

Throw out that nasty stuff and bottle your new, homemade, healthy-as-all-get-out, FREE chicken broth.

Oh and as long as we are talking about gross chicken parts,

I went to great pains to take a picture of something really disgusting.  Want to see it?  Sorry.  I’m just kind of like that.  Check this out.  It’s almost enough to make me want to be a vegetarian, but not quite.  I guess it would be great for science class.  I mean what the heck is all that stuff.  Ok, I don’t want to know.

You are now ready to make tomorrow’s delicious Chicken Noodle Soup.  I highly recommend you also make this recipe for Homemade Soda Bread to go with it.  Very easy recipe.  Mix a very few ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon, dump it into the bread pan and bake for an hour.

God bless you all and let me know what you think!

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You might like one of these posts too.

• Chicken Pie – Meal #3 of 3 from 1 Chicken
• Chicken Noodle Soup – Meal #2 of 3 from 1 Chicken