Use Frozen Berries to Cool Hot Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a popular breakfast in our house,  I probably make it at least once a week.  Since I am up early, I can start the oatmeal and have it ready by the time everyone else starts rolling out of bed.

Often times the oatmeal is still too hot when everyone is ready to eat so we like to mix in some frozen berries.   It’s an easy way to cool off the oatmeal and add some fruit to our breakfast.

Frozen berries on hot oatmeal works for me!

How do you eat your oatmeal?

Happy Pi Day

I don’t know about you, but I totally get a kick out of the idea of Pi day.  You know March 14th… 3.14…. Pi…. Math, remember that.  Maybe it’s the nerd in me.

Anyway, Happy Pi Day!

Go make a Pie.

Muffin Crumbs

Ugh, muffins.  Every time we have muffins my floor looks like this…

or worse, this…

If there are berries or chocolate chips etc. in the muffins then my kids like to dig around mining them out and making a pile of crumbs on the table, chair and floor.  But even today with no treasures to mine out of the muffins we still ended up with crumbs everywhere.

Maybe someone should teach them to eat with their face over their plate, whose job is that?

The Silver Lining:  At least I know my floor will get swept after we eat muffins…. and they taste good too.

Making Butter

We acquired a gallon of fresh, unpasteurized cows milk recently.  Curt wanted to try making 30 minute Mozzarella cheese with fresh milk to see if it worked any better than store bought milk.  The milk we got had a large amount of cream in it and as I skimmed the cream off the top I got an idea… we should make butter. 

First: I did my research, a Google search and a conversation with each of my Grandmas about methods to find out exactly what I needed to do.

Second: I filled a jar about half-full of cream.  Soon after I filled two more jars when I realized each girl would require their own jar, even Wavy wanted one.  The cream had already been sitting out on the counter for a while to warm it to room temperature, this quickens the process I was told.

Third:  Shake, shake, shake.

In no time (really a lot quicker than I thought) we had butter.  You could see a clean separation between the butter and the buttermilk in each of the jars.

Fourth:  We had to wash the butter to prevent it from going rancid.  We poured off the buttermilk, saving it for baking.  We then put the butter in the blender with cold water and mixed it on low.  After a few minutes we poured off the water and repeated washing the butter with fresh cold water until the water remained clear and all the buttermilk had been washed away.  The fresh butter was quite soft so I put it in the fridge to harden up a bit.

Finally:  We enjoyed some fresh butter on homemade buns.  Yum!

As we shook the cream I read chapter two of Little House Big Woods, which happened to be about Ma making butter, it was not planned, but totally worked out.

Croissants

I've been wanting to try making Croissants from scratch for a while but knowing that I had to start them two days before we planned to eat them I could never get the timing right.  Friday night after we put the girls to sleep Curt suggested I get them started.  I wasn't all that impressed with the idea at the time, since I generally shut down and do nothing after the girls are in bed, but am I ever glad I did it.  I followed the recipe from the book French Women Don't Get Fat, by Mireille Guiliano.  I found the instructions at shesingsatthetable.com and thought her commentary on the recipe was quite humorous as I went along.  After the initial preperations on Friday night they needed some attention twice on Saturday and then the final steps took place on Sunday morning.  I was up early so the Croissants came out of the oven just in time for breakfast.  Curt whipped up a quick batch of chocolate honey to have with them and we sat down to enjoy.  

They were amazing and I will definitely be making these again.

 Would you look at that flaky goodness, mmmmmmmm. 

Needless to say the 12 croissants did not last until lunch time that day.

Keep Your Guacamole Green

Do you ever make guacamole only to have it turn brown in the fridge?  I have the solution for you.  Put the avocado pit in with your guacamole and it will keep its fresh green colour.

This is my most recent batch of guacamole after two days in the fridge, amay-za-za-zing!

I think it works the same for just plain old avocado too, just leave the pit with the unused avocado and it won't turn all brown and disgusting looking.

I can't remember where I heard this tip, so I can't thank anyone. If I heard it from you feel free to take credit.

Photo of the Week - Snow

Muffin Tin Monday

I'm always on the lookout for fun snacks for the girls. In my searches I've come across Muffin Tin Monday at Her Cup Overfloweth. The idea is that an entire meal or snack be served from a muffin tin on Monday. Each week she gives you a different theme for the snack/meal and the people participating will post a photo and description of what they served. I've gotten lots of neat ideas from this. I have tried out Muffin Tin Snacks on the girls but I'm not sure it has ever been on a Monday. They enjoy this snack with a variety of foods looking around and picking their favorite items first. Nollie especially likes the colour themes. It allows me to easily see that I'm giving a variety of food groups and I don't feel bad about throwing in a couple Smarties or M&Ms because I know they're eating their Vegies too. The best part about it is that I have to work my mind and be a little bit creative if I have a theme to work on. I use a 12 muffin tray and give each girl 6 of the spots on either side. They then sit across from eachother at there little table and pick away at it. I do find I get a bit carried away with the amount that I give for a snack, when there are 6 items you don't need very much of each one. The last time I used mini muffin tins and I kept the portions to a more reasonable size.

Here are some of my muffin tin snacks

Orange: fish crackers, cheese, carrots, cantaloupe, orange, Smarties


St Patrick's Day: cucumber, broccoli, ranch dip, kiwi, Smarties, milk in a green cup


Mini Tin: Cucumber, tomatoes, ham, fish crackers, pickles, cheese