Posts Tagged ‘homemade’
Ghosts and ghouls, it’s October. Which means it’s time to get a costume together for your child (and yourself!). First things first, in looking to make an eco-friendly costume, give yourself time. Don’t leave the costume to the last minute. In fact, if you haven’t started creating a costume yet, you should probably do so.
Eco-friendly costumes have a good deal of sweat equity – be it in construction or searching for items, or even knitting, crocheting and sewing. They take work! But they’re all quite worth it, I can guarantee that.
You’re a mom, you buy bananas, they turn brown or become breeding grounds for fruit flies. They don’t always get eaten. Don’t toss them, slice them up and freeze them for smoothies! Throw them in the blender with some plain yogurt and homemade chocolate syrup and I swear the kids will love it. Or make banana bread!
I got a hold on a good recipe in 1997 that I fiddled with and made even better. My kids ask for it often and so do their friends.I try and use organic ingredients where I can. This is a good recipe for class treats if you leave out the chocolate chips, cupcakes aren’t allowed anymore at my children’s schools. Just make sure no one has any issues with gluten.
A few key things when it comes to baking -
- Get an oven thermometer - they are about $5 at Bed Bath & Beyond. Makes all the difference! Took me many years to figure out why my baked goods just weren’t turning out. That was the #1 reason.
- Get a food scale – I inherited one from a family member cleaning out her kitchen. You think you are scooping out a cup of flour? Nope, you could be getting anywhere from 5-6 ounces of flour that way. A cup of flour is 4 ounces. Not 8 ounces. Set your cup measure on the scale, zero it out, then start scooping. They aren’t expensive.
- Buy a roll of parchment paper – makes a HUGE difference in baking. (Especially cookies. Trust me on this). It helps distribute heat more evenly, keeps baked goods from sticking to pans and prevents burnt, hard undersides. They sell more eco-friendly, less chemically treated brands at Whole Foods. A roll lasts a long time.
Some days I have a cup of hot green tea in the morning, some days a cup of coffee. One thing I insist on is that it is hot. I mean hot! I like it hot from the get go, and I don’t like to reheat it over & over in the microwave. Have you ever noticed that the quality of the
Reusable ceramic cup for my hot drinks
beverage seems to decline with every reheat in the microwave?
I have a ceramic reusable cup with a silicone lid but my one complaint is that it does not keep any beverages warm enough for me. I have a stainless steel mug with a lid but I can’t microwave it!
Do you like hummus? I LOVE hummus! I eat it almost daily.
I remember the very first time I not only had tried the hummus for the first time but had ever even HEARD of hummus – summer of 1994, on Martha’s Vineyard. It was on the menu at a deli and they gave me a taste. Delish!
I spent years eating different brands of hummus one can find at the grocery store, but they never wowed me like that homemade
stuff from the deli. The hummus from the store was either too runny, too foamy (what’s that all about?) or too hard and pasty.
Hummus is so yummy and nutritious, most kids (but not mine! they eat nothing, remember?) love it with crackers or carrots. Don’t look at the overall content and the recipe and think “oh it’s loaded with fat” because it’s good fats, it is satisfying, and you aren’t going to binge on hummus.
It makes me whack-o when I buy a gorgeous organic roasting chicken. And those aren’t the least expensive birds, either! Prep it up nicely, roast it up juicy and flavorful. Remove the meat, save some for one dinner, set aside some for homemade chicken noodle soup. Roast the bones so that my homemade broth is richer, clearer. Let that broth simmer slowly for hours. That aroma filling the house with comfort. Dice up organic carrots, celery. Egg noodles. Head over to the bakery down the street for the freshest loaf of crusty, yeasty bread, slathered with a salty organic butter, to go with it. Organic greens for a fresh, crispy salad. My kids don’t like salad, 
so I make them a carrot/raisin/apple “salad” for their side. Sit down for what, to me, is the perfect meal. Warm and inviting, on a cold, snowy Saturday evening when we are all snug in the house, nothing says *I LOVE YOU* like a meal with this kind of effort. I would have killed as a child for a meal like this, a family all sitting around the table, content. My husband looks nothing but happy. He loves it when I cook up the good stuff.
And then my kids sit down, take one look at the meal. My 5 year old boy Max is trying to hold back his tears. Sophie is eyeballing the whole thing. And then Max can’t take it anymore. The tears are coming. His wailing starts.
“I wanted C-c-campbells chicken noodle soup not your soup!”
Sophie is trying to look neutral but failing, you can see she wanted Campbells, too.
It sends me over the edge. What is a mom trying to LIVE GREEN supposed to do? My anger at their lack of appreciation is boiling but I try to keep it in check.
I told them that one day they would come home from college on break and beg me for this meal. They clearly do not believe me.
They’ll see.
