In the Kitchen...

Some people have been asking what "weird" ahem, i mean "interesting" creations I have been up to in my kitchen these days. Well, we had been doing some renovating on our house (okay, let's be honest...I watched the kids and the work being done...I didn't do any renovating..lol.) so I hadn't been able to do too much lately. But that is done for the time being, so I have been working away these past few days in the kitchen.

So, tonight, Alyssa and I had ice cream for dinner! Now before you panic, I didn't give my toddler real ice cream for dinner...raw vegan ice cream. It's basically frozen bananas pureed to a soft serve consistency. We covered it with date syrup, coconut, flax, and blueberries. I got the idea from a website I frequently visit... www.greenandcrunchy.org. I get a lot of ideas from that site...the section plates, the Tiffin, the recipes. I also got a very tasty dehydrating recipe for bananas from that site. it's bananas covered with honey and flax and cocoa. Yeah, they are already gone!

In the food processor is the ice cream, and in the blender is "Mexican Mylk" a recipe from my book written by Ani Phyo. In the top picture I have my dehydrator and my yogurt maker going full force.

Breakfast of champs...

People often ask what my morning smoothie is made up of, so here's a photo.

It is made up of frozen peaches, strawberries, blueberries, a banana, Kale, Chia seeds, and flax seeds. Then I add water and blend!!

By the way, you know you eat weird food when it seems that every time you bring Kale to the cashier they always ask you what it is so they can ring it in properly...

Raw Vegan Creations

This was part of my lunch today, and it was yummy! A fruity parfait....made with raw vegan whipped cream, pears, raisins, raw oats, and coconut! Personally I bet it would be tastier with bananas and strawberries, but all I had on hand were pears...

Alyssa loved it...she kept asking for "more ice cream!" :)

Frugality at it's Finest

So, my most recent reading material I have borrowed from the Library is "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn. I have read many frugal living books in my time, "Frugal Living for Dummies" (purchased at 30% off :) ) , "Living on One Income", "Ditch the Debt and the Diet", to name a few. But the "Tightwad Gazette" is by FAR my favorite one.

In today's world we are constantly thinking "How can I make more money?" When we are in highschool exploring future careers, we are informed as to which ones will make us the most money. When we go into the workforce we are encouraged to climb the "corporate ladder" to have more power, to make more money. But I've been thinking about something lately. What if, instead of striving so hard to make more money to get more things, we strived to find ways to save more money on things so we had enough to live off right now? Because, truth be told, we will always be longing for more money. It doesn't seem to matter how much you make, you can always use more.

In this book, some of the ideas to me are extreme. Some of them I probably would never do (like dumpster diving, for example!!!!) but some of the ideas, as ridiculous as they seem, really help!

Here are some things I have been doing in my life to learn to be frugal. Laugh if you will... ;)

-Rinsing out milk bags to use as sandwich bags
-Using cloth diapers
-Hanging up clothes half the time instead of using the dryer
-Bringing snacks whereever we go
-When eating out, bringing our own drinks instead of paying 5 dollars for two drinks.
-Shopping at thrift stores, Liquidation World, kijiji.ca, and Dollarama
-Making a meal plan, and try to grocery shop carefully
-Walking when I can rather than driving everywhere

Some of the things I am wanting to do to improve my frugality is....

-Make my own laundry soap
-Use cloth diapers exclusively
-Cut back on eating out to once a month
-Stick closer to the grocery budget
-Walking even more
-Learning to sew
-Purchasing a reasonably priced yogurt maker

I have also learned, being frugal isn't just about saving money. It's good for the environment, usually good for your health (cooking from scratch, walking more...etc.) and it's using the resources God gave us wisely.

Although some of the things like, for example, saving milk bags, seems minor, the book I am reading points out that if you pay attention to the little things, you are more likely to pay attention to the big things. And there must be some truth to it, as the writer of the book dreamed of owning a large farm house, as well as having a large family, with only her husband working while she stayed at home. Their income was not very much at that time. And they managed to get everything they desired, as well as living debt free.

I pray I can learn how to get to that point!

Tomorrow is a new week...there's hope...

Well, it's been one of those days. No, scratch that. It's been one of those weekends. You know...when everything goes wrong?? Yesterday, I was so excited to be going to a friend's house for an all girls night....so with Micah in one hand (okay, so it wasn't ALL girls) and my beautiful fruit skewers nicely arranged in half a melon in the other, I began the trek outdoors to my car. Here's a word of advice...never hold a melon full of fruit skewers in one hand. My fruit had a nice visit with the concrete.

After a moment of sadness, I packed up the van, and accidentally hit the alarm so that the van was beeping wildly. Once I shut it off my husband told me that I should "just go before I hurt myself." He couldn't of been more right.

I made a quick stop at the library to pick up a book I had on reserve. As I got out of the van I noticed my feet felt....funny. I looked down and to my horror I was wearing two different flip flops!!! And not two that were closely similar, but two that were very noticeably different...a hot pink one and a black one.

I figured I'd wake up this morning and things would be back to normal. However, not so. My kids have had one of those days. You know, when they are in tears for what seems like the whole day. Micah has not slept very much today, and spent most of the day crying and screaming. I felt like I was back in the throes of colic!! Alyssa had a nice temper tantrum and got into some mischief during nap time by unloading almost every piece of clothing from her dresser onto her floor. On top of that, I'm sure I stubbed my toe on every bouncer seat, high chair, and baby contraption in this house today. It is not my weekend.

So, I'll be honest, it's the end of the day, I got one out of the two kids sleeping, and I just had a little cry. and boy, did it feel good...lol. People that really know me know that I used to cry at the drop of a hat. Seriously, if you looked at me the wrong way I would cry. But I guess after having a couple kids you learn to hold it in better. But now I actually have the opposite problem. I rarely cry. And sometimes I want to, just to let it out instead of have it festering in me, but I can't. So needless to say, I just cried and I am happy about it!

well...tomorrow is Monday. Most people dread Monday. but i am looking forward to it. It's a new week!!

Under Construction...

I just wanted to say please bear with me as I am trying new things on my blog. I have been working on making it nicer to look at, but it is a learning experience!!