Mango Kefir Lassi

I saw that the Law of Attraction for Health posted a recipe for Mango Lassi and I thought I should post mine too!

I used to think lassi was one of those drinks that you needed to pay $5 a cup for at a nice Indian restaurant and that was the only way to get it. Come to find that, like most healthy food, its actually really easy and pretty inexpensive to make at home. And at home I can adjust the recipe to be that much healthier and better.

Recipe: Teething Biscuits

I got this recipe from my grandma, who got it from the Amish cook book. It was great when Critter was teething, then we threw some extra ones in the freezer. Now his teeth are all grown in, but he opened the freezer one day and decided he wanted to eat these "donuts". They are healthy, simple and effective.

I like to make the recipe extra healthy by using rapadura sugar and fresh ground flour. That is also all we have on hand so its easier. These are nice because they are hard enough to be good for teething, and sweet enough to keep their attention.

This recipe makes approximately 12 durable and relatively crumb proof teething biscuits. If you make them too thin, like I did the first time, it makes quite a few more but they still work.

TEETHING COOKIES
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2-2 1/2 cups sifted flour

Break eggs into a bowl and stir in one direction until creamy. Add sugar and continue stirring in the same direction. Gradually add flour into the mixture and continue stirring until mixture is stiff.

Roll out dough with a rolling pin, between 2 lightly floured sheets of wax paper, to a thickness of 3/4 inch.

Use a drinking glass and a salt shaker to cut out doughnut shaped. Place cookies on a lightly buttered cookie sheet. Let formed cookies stand overnight (10 – 12 hours).

Bake in preheated over at 325 degrees until lightly brown and hard.

One Size Fits All

Do you ever have one of those moments when you are in the middle of typing a facebook message, responding to a friend you haven't talk to in a long time and trying to make it meaningful and heartfelt when you accidentally hit enter before you were able to edit it? And then the smell of poop comes wafting up from under the computer desk where a toddler is sitting and you have to make the decision of whether to finish the letter in a thoughtful way or hurriedly finish, take the toddler before he manages to seep the mess onto the floor instead of just sitting in it, wash him off, let your mind wander about other things you want to write about and then when said toddler is clean and down for a nap you end up writing a blog post you have been meaning to write for a long time instead of the facebook message you started?

No? Well maybe it is just me then...I even managed to have make a number of connections from the facebook message to writing in my blog (like how I was writing to the person who introduced me to NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo is fun because I like to write. Because I like to write, blogging is an enjoyable activity. I have lots of things I have been planning to write blog posts about, so I should just do it!)

I Brush My Teeth With Mud

Yesterday, I mixed up a batch of toothpaste in my kitchen. Most people's response is one of three things:

1. Why would you do a thing like that? It is much better to trust the chemists that have come up with a careful formula to make sure our teeth our clean and healthy

2. That is intriguing. It sounds frugal, how and why do you do it?

3. I hate commercial toothpaste for many reasons. I want to make my own too!

Why I Make Toothpaste

 

I Have A Toddler

Once upon a time, when Critter was still little, barely starting solid foods and not getting into stuff as much as he does now, he was on the changing table while I prepared his diaper. I wasn't watching carefully for a split second and then I saw him with an open lotion container squeezing it into his mouth happily.

My Not So Extreme Hippie Prepper Ways

My family lives in a small basement apartment. We don't have room (or a desire) for a TV because the drum set, piano and computer desk take up most of the living room space. So why would I even consider having an extra three month supply of food encroaching into our living space? What possessed me to fill five gallon buckets and stash them in every conceivable place I can?

What Does It Mean To "Eat Healthy"?

When I married my husband, I knew that he tended to eat healthier than me. I accepted the transition and realized this would be a good opportunity to kick some of my unhealthy habits. I was sad at the thought of giving up my fluffy white bread and I was thrilled that he considered frozen burritos to be a standard lunch food. When it wasn't just me depending on the food I made, it was a lot easier to make better meals. But it wasn't until I got pregnant that I really started wondering what was healthy and what wasn't.

It didn't take long to discover that there were lots of different opinions. One source would emphasize the importance of avoiding all fats and say you should stay away from fatty foods like avocados at all cost. Another source listed avocados as one of the top 5 foods to eat while you are pregnant. With so many different, and sometimes contradictory ideas and theorys out there, how could I know what was really true and best for me and my family?

Forty Pounds of Chicken? No Problem!

After hearing about Zaycon Foods from a few different places, I decided it would be a great thing to try out. Getting all natural chicken breasts for less than $2/lb sounded like a great deal! The catch? It comes in 40 lb cases. So after I decided to jump on the bandwagon, I needed a plan of what to do with all this chicken!

Using the internet as a resource as well as talking to a good friend who cans meat, I came up with a plan. It took me a few days to get everything done, but now that I know what I'm doing, I could have done it all in one day.

Considering Cloth Diapers? Points to Ponder

Before Critter was born, we decided to look into cloth diapers. My husband wanted to save money, and I was pretty sure I wasn't interested in the idea, but I would look into it to make him happy.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

A Good Recipe Vs. Good Science

Back in the day before restaurants and ready made meals, most children would learn to make bread by watching their parents. I did learn from making bread with my mom, but I didn't pay as close attention as I should have. When I finally got around to making my own bread, my mom was in Guam and I got to learn a lot of things through trial and error!

Bread is really quite simple: flour, water, and yeast. You can add in other things, and probably should, but I found that understanding how and why things work was far more helpful than all the great recipes that I could never quite recreate. I actually don't use a recipe so much now, I just know what to look for. Here are some things I have learned that I hope can help you in your bread baking!

Who Are We? Part 3 - Our Potential

This the third part of a three part series. If you haven't already read the first two, make sure you check them out!

Who Are We? Part 1 - Little Children Are Alive In Christ
Who Are We? Part 2 - The Duality of Man

Suppose for a moment that I am a visitor from another planet. I have a tour guide that wants to show me some of the great things of this world. One of our first stops is to see an eagle.

"This bird is the great symbol of the United States of America," the guide explains. "Early in our nation's history, some of the leaders wanted the turkey to represent our great nation. Thankfully the eagle was chosen so we can have this majestic, powerful bird instead of a lowly turkey."

I stare at the birds in confusion. The choice seems far from clear to me, for this is what I've been presented with:



I share my confusion with my tour guide, "What manner of predators are around here? Are birds on the top of the food chain? Surely that tiny ball of fuzz with a beak is not as resilient as the turkey that proudly shows off its plumage! I see the turkey has wings to fly with, but the tiny eagle would only plummet to the ground if it was put in the air. What a messed up world this is!"

Who Are We? Part 1 - Little Children Are Alive In Christ

I would love to spend my time posting about how to make a perfect loaf of bread, delicious recipes, cloth diaper adventures, and how I keep my house completely spotless. But that isn't what I'm posting about today for a few main reasons:

1. I'm still busy reading other peoples' posts about a lot of those things before I know enough to write my own post. ;)
2. As awesome and important as a good loaf of bread is, there are other things of more eternal significance that have been weighing on my mind that I want to share.
3. My blog is written for anyone in the world to read, and as nice as warm bread and tasty meals are, they can't compare to the comfort and peace that comes from truth.

So now I'm going to proceed to share some things that are very dear to me in hopes that someone out there in the world can benefit from reading them. I'm planning to make this the first post in a series.

I've been seeing a lot of posts about "Are Babies Born Good?" and some fascinating studies supporting one side or the other. Since my baby isn't quite a year old yet, I know I am not the best person to write about these things from experience. I also realize that having a degree in education still doesn't amount to much next to the experience of many parents. However, I don't have to have years of experience as a mother or be versed in science to understand the scriptures and how God sees little children. If you want to see the wonderful post that inspired me to write this, click here. :)

Avoiding Worldly Trends

Getting married and starting a family has been a terrific experience and has definitely resulted in some paradigm shifts. I could learn and prepare a lot before hand (and I'm very grateful for all I did learn and prepare), but it is still something that wasn't real until I could understand it experiencially. This quote shows what I feel my purpose is, it applies specifically to me as a wife and mother, but it certainly encompasses a lot more than that.

"No one can calculate the tremendous force for good that you can become. You are the keepers of the hearth. You are the managers of the home. . . . I charge you to stand tall and be strong in defense of those great virtues which have been the backbone of our social progress. When you are united, your power is limitless. You can accomplish anything you wish to accomplish. And oh, how very, very great is the need for you in a world of crumbling values where the adversary seems so very much to be in control." -Gordon B. Hinckley