PB Cookies

I found this recipe for 5-ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies by Claire Robinson, but changed a few things in the cookies I made.

The original recipe:

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

sea salt

My version:

1 cup of natural peanut butter,

1/2 cup sugar (I will probably use only 1/4 cup next time)

1/4 cup of apple sauce + a sprinkle of baking powder

1 splash of vanilla

1/2 cup of oats

and of COURSE a hefty sprinkling of chocolate chips.

Teaspoon sized cookies 1" apart on tray, sprinkle with sea salt on tops of cookies.

The original recipe said they only needed 10 minutes, but I ended up baking mine (turning the cookie tray every 5 minutes) for about 20 minutes, then turning off the oven and keeping them in there for another 10.

I was REALLY happy with the results, and am curious to see how they will come out with even less sugar next time. Maybe NO sugar would be okay since I have the chips in there? Hmm...

The shirt that became a pillow

Having major stay-at-home-mom-I-have-no-identity-of-my-own syndrome, I have been trying to get back into doing creative things to have somewhat of an outlet.

After discovering husband's shirts have teeny holes in the bottoms from his belt pulling on it when he sits, I made the decision to retire them and turn them into pillows for our soon to be office in the new house.

I'm somewhat happy with the turn-out but have a few things I'm going to change for the next 2 shirt pillows...

I stuffed it with polyester batting that my mom had for when I was going to recover her chairs. Next time I would get actual pillow stuffing so it's not so lumpy looking, and I'd stuff it wayy more for a fluffy lil pillow.

Hanna loves it, though! She's been carrying it around all morning and pushing it in her stroller. At least I have one fan!

Discovery

Coconut water is disgusting on it's own. I'll spare you from the details of what it reminds me of.

BUT, turns out, it's a great and healthy addition to a smoothie! This morning I added mango coconut water to a smoothie with pineapple, mango, banana, and some milk and it added a great light coconut flavor without the grossness of drinking it on its own.

Enjoy!

Cookies!

While searching for the hidden easter egg of the day on RealSimple.com today I stumbled across this Jam Thumbprints Recipe using this sugar cookie recipe.

I altered it a bit and came up with this:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Combine the following ingredients in a bowl and squish with your hands - a spoon will simply not do!

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (in place of all purpose white flour)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup virgin coconut oil (in place of butter)

3/4 cup sugar

1 T ground flaxseed + 3 T water (in place of 1 egg)

Cocoa powder to your liking (the necessary Cassie addition)

Splash of vanilla

Splash of vegetable oil

3. Form/squish into balls. Make a hole in the center with your finger.

4. In some of the cookie centers, put a bit o' natural peanut butter. In others, put a natural fruit jelly/preserve.

5. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned.

They came out pretty tasty!

Toothpaste: For more than just your chompers!

My mom was cleaning out her kitchen gadget drawers today and pulled out these little butter or cheese knife things, I really don't know what they are.... Anyhoo, they were in desperate need of some shine.

I remembered reading that Tabasco sauce can polish silver. No Tabasco in house, so tried Frank's Red Hot -- FAIL. Then my mom mentioned that tooth paste works.. turns out she was right - it does!

Look at the difference using just a paper towel and toothpaste!

Who knew?!

Free free free!

Get a free sample of Valspar paint!

I picked "Sumac Berry" to try in the new guest room.

http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/index.html

curtains

Going to attempt to make my own dining room curtains! Intimidating to me... but if it works, I will be one proud momma!

Thinking of this fabric...

http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=c24abde0-8aea-4ca9-a8fa-9ec0d15212b7&CategoryID=958bc077-c25d-4525-bbd0-6715352113d5&cm_vc=756b1813-cbc1-43b3-84bd-29889bf8fb7b

A Breakfast Vacation

A smoothie that tastes like it's straight from the tropics... light, delicious, and filling. Yum.

The ingredient head shots...
1 Pineapple Chobani Yogurt

Frozen mango

A bit of coconut milk.. I hear Silk Coconut Milk is much better, but I haven't been able to track it down yet.

1/2 of a banana. When I took this picture, it reminded me of a lonely high school boy leaning up against a building with a foot against the brick wall, a black leather jacket on, and a cigarette in his hand.... so I did a retake..

There we go! A smiley face banana! Much better.

Group shot!

All ready to go..

Hold on tight! Wheeeeeeee!

Yum......

Ahh.....

Cheers to Spring!

Le sigh

I have not posted in a while because I have done nothing creative. NOTHING! It's killing me.

:(

I need inspiration, pronto.

Look Ma, I'm Organized!

I recently started saving/printing/finding coupons for items that I usually buy or could use. The trick is not to just buy things because you have a coupon that you would never buy to begin with. Tricky, tricky.

Anyhoo, I found that I'd stick them in my wallet and then forget about them or have to ruffle through them at the store trying to see which ones I had. Then as I was cleaning out my daughter's closet I found a little album that I had gotten when I was pregnant with her.

Now it is my coupon book! I love it! It stays in my car in all its bright pink glory just waiting to save me 50 cents each shopping trip. Score.

I'm sure that this is not a new concept by any means to the majority of people in the world, but it's new to me and it's a lovely little discovery. :)

Hanna's New Rooom

Hanna's room now is a green that I LOVE - Benjamin Moore's "Rosemary Sprig." I was going to make the jump to pink for her in the new house, but I don't think I can do it. So I came up with a happy medium...

The yellow-ish stripes on the bottom are supposed to be the wood floor, not part of the wall... I am trying to decide if the diamonds are too preppy, especially with the green/pink combo. Maybe I can find a more nature-y stencil that I like better instead of diamonds. Where do you even look for stencils?!

Ladder Lanterns

I saw this in the most recent Pottery Barn catalog and LOVE the laddern/lanterns setup. Thinking of doing this in the new dining room, but.. that can't give you much light! Thinking maybe I can just put a regular plain light flush against the ceiling under the ladder for better lighting?

Here's a close up of it... You can buy the rope, lanterns, and ladder at PB, but only if you want to spend a million dollars.

I have been on the lookout for an antique wooden ladder for a few years now with no luck. I did find this one on Amazon though for a great price, and I love that it narrows towards the top. I also found these fun Moroccan lanterns on Amazon for a little bit of a different look.

If I end up doing this, and ever get tired of it (I clearly will, I have to change things every 5 minutes it seems)... I can take the lanterns off of the ladder, use them somewhere else in the house, and hang practically anything from the ladder! If I get sick of the ladder, I take it down and lean it against the wall and drape magazines, cloth napkins, or dish towels on it...

Now I am even more excited than before!

Getting ready!

I have been working on decluttering/packing/cleaning up our (old) house in preparation for the open houses and the big move. Here's the the progress so far on our kitchen and bathroom.

I love this color in this kitchen - Benjamin Moore's "Sedona Clay," but I'm thinking going for a cheery yellow for the new kitchen.

Don't you love my fern? She's so pretty.

Who wouldn't want to buy our little house?! C'mon buyers!!!

Welcome, flowers!

Sign of Spring #3!

See you soon, little flowers!! :)

This picture was one I took last minute with the camera on my phone as I was driving onto the Oceanic Bridge, so it's not the best picture, and you can't so much tell what it is.. but for the past week or two there have been literally thousands of ducks in the river - it looks like a big blanket of black over the water. This is only a small section of them that you can see this less-than-stellar photo...

I am hoping that I can catch them all flying at the same time again - it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen... looked like something out of a movie because there are so many of them.

Happy Hump Day!

Crocus!

Sign of Spring #2!!!

Every March-ish, the same house in my parent's neighborhood has the first crocuses that I spot, and every year I climb onto their front lawn and snap away at them with my camera.

Early Spring is one of my favorite times of year, watching the buds on trees get bigger and bigger, the willow branches starting to change colors, and surprise flowers starting to pop up. I feel like I get little fun surprises every day, and love to walk around with my camera finding signs of the new season.

Willow

Do you see that beautiful yellowish greenish color of the willow?!

Sign of Spring #1 !!!!

Yay!!

xoxo

Souper dee Duper

I made soup adapted from Emeril's Cream of Broccoli recipe tonight, and I LOVED it. I don't think Jay liked it as much as I did though... he didn't eat as much as he usually does. He swears he liked it, but I don't believe him. :)

I am always intimidated at the thought of making soup, but this was really easy and turned out yummy and filling. I am definitely going to be making it again

My sister-in-law typed out the recipe and sent it to me, so I don't have a link and can't find the exact recipe she had. But here are his original ingredients/what I used, and the process I did...it's a bit different from the original, anyhoo :)

3T olive oil--I never measure oil, do you?

1c. sliced leeks, the white part -- I used 1 small organic onion

1lb. broccoli--I used a 1lb. frozen bag of organic broccoli - easy breezy

2 bay leaves

1/2t salt

1/4t pepper --I never measure S/P either...or any spice, for that matter :)

1/8t allspice--We don't have allspice, so I used a mix of cinnamon, ginger,

and a teeny bit of Chinese Five Spice powder

1/2t garlic

1/2t thyme

4c. vegetable stock

1c. milk

Heat oil in a pan. Add onion, broccoli, bay leaves, S/P, spices. Add stock, bring to boil, reduce to a simmer and leave 15 minutes. *Take out bay leaves.* Add milk.

Puree in batches in blender. The first batch I pureed TOO much, and the second 2 I did a bit less. Next time, I will probably puree it even less.

We had it with shredded cheese on top and home made croutons a la Jay.

Views from our meal:

Peek-a-boo A)

Peek-a-boo B)

Breakfast of Champions

Sometimes, when you have a 1.5 year old, you need to get creative with breakfast ideas to keep her interested. When this happens, you raid your cabinets and refrigerator to see what you can put together that has a bit of nutrition and a bit of interest and a bit of something new.

Last Friday when this happened, a little something I like to call "Flower(ish)-breakfast Friday" was born.

It looks kind of like a flower.... right? I wanted a stem, too, or a leaf, but couldn't figure out what to use.

Ritz crackers (not your typical breakfast base, but at least they are organic?), topped with flax seed almond butter, a slice of banana, and a cinnamon cheerio. In the middle: organic blueberries.

She gobbled this up!! Wonder what I will come up with for tomorrow morning... probably nothing fun, because I will be dashing out the door to get my pearly whites cleaned.

xoxo

Sweet Summer

I was Green Girl today! (x3)

1) I have been saving my #5 plastic containers (mostly chobani yogurt - P.S. you HAVE to try the pineapple one!!! Its vacation in a breakfast) to drop off in the #5 recycling bin at Whole Foods.BUT I never quite made it to Whole Foods. They're in my car ready to go tomorrow, though!

2) Hanna was in cute pink cloth diapers all day! I love using them, and I really would like to have her in them as much as possible from now on.

3) I broke down all of our cardboard and packaged it up to go to the recycling center.

I got all the way there, and they are CLOSED on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! Ugh! Guess I will be making the trip back there on Thursday. (It's not that far, I'm dramatic.)

Here's the face Hanna gave me when I told her to smile for the camera on the way to the recycling center... Let's hope her "smile for the camera" smile improves by the time she gets to Kindergarten for picture day :) Awww my cutie.

For dinner tonight, I grilled vegetables (on Mr. Forman) and we made paninis with the veggies and mozzerella cheese, with baked beans on the side. Can you tell I am pining for warm weather? I marinated the veggies in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper. The peppers were broiled and then peeled, and the eggplant and onion went on the grill. YUM!

Valentine's Day Blankey!

For Hanna's second Valentine's Day, she got a homemade cozy blankey! She is in loooove, and it's such a simple thing to do, I don't know why I haven't made these before.

I got the fabric at Joanne Fabric... 1 yard of owl print fleece, and 1 yard of plain pink fleece. Match them up together, cut a square shape off of each corner. Then cut strips about 4" long and 1" wide all along each side. Tie strips together around the blanket, and wah-lah!

A cozy blanket! When I gave it to her, she didn't want to put her coat on to go out, she wanted to be wrapped up in it and carried out to the car. Awww.

In other news, my Valentine got me a KINDLE! Totally unexpected. I downloaded about 15 free books (one full of chocolate chip cookie recipes!), and am trying to figure out a book to buy - suggestions for a good, light read??

Scones!

Made these chocolate chip scones yesterday with leftover buttermilk that I wanted to use up. They were soo easy and soo yummy.

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Adapted from: joyofbaking.com

1 cup whole wheat flour + 1 cup bread flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter, cold, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3-3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together flour + sugar + baking powder + baking soda + salt.

Cut in tiny pieces of cold butter and mix in so it looks a bit crumbly.

Add chocolate chips.

Stir just so dough comes together. Hands come in... handy, here. I had a little trouble trying to do it with a spoon. Add a little more buttermilk (or flour) if you need it to help with the dough, but try not to over mix.

On lightly floured surface, knead dough 4-5 times, then pat into a big circle (about 7" across, and 1 1/5" high)

Cut the circle in half, and then cut each half into four triangle-shaped parts.

Place on baking sheet, and brush a little buttermilk on top.

Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean.

Delish!! And what a lovely Valentine's breakfast for your tummy.

Peter Piper Picked A Pepper

1. Pick a pepper

2. Slice a pepper

3. Broil a pepper (with olive oil)

4. After enjoying the sweet smell of summer from your kitchen mid-February.... Peel a pepper

YUM! Roasted red peppers are 10x better than raw red peppers. I might make these every. single. day. Can't wait til next time to put it on a samich with fresh mozzerella and basil.