I've had this post waiting in the wings, but haven't been inspired to click "publish" until today when I read a friend's blog post. What she had to say was so good I knew I had to figure out a way to mention it over here at my place, and it became the push I needed to get this list out there. In fact, I love her post so much, it's made it to the top of my "Stuff I'm Loving" List...
Stuff I'm Loving...
(a list for this month of March, even though the stuff doesn't really have to do with March)
... in the Wide World of Blogging
This post by Mary at BetterThanEden.com. She writes a little about tub scrubbing and soul scrubbing and let me just say, she nailed it! Objectively, it's a great post, but it's also one of those ones that hits home for me personally. There is no need for me to even summarize or paraphrase it here because Mary wrote it perfectly. Go read it!
... in my Kitchen
My Henckels Serrated Utility Knife (forged razor series) is my go-to knife for everything. It's probably my absolute favorite thing in my whole kitchen. It cuts everything, from tomatoes to cheese to french bread to raw meat, like a dream. This is actually my second Henckels utility knife, not because I had to replace my old one, but because I used it all the time, it was always dirty, and I would casually say things like, "it sure would be great to have another one of these around here" and...... this new one showed up in my Christmas stocking! (Thanks, Babe!)
... in my Recipe Box
Blueberry muffins. We still have lots of frozen berries from last summer in our freezer, so I hunted down a new "healthier" blueberry muffin recipe. These muffins were a hit! One of the kids tried one and said, "ooh, it tastes like our granola," and that was it - everyone else was sold because our homemade granola is THE preferred food around here. I started with this recipe but changed it... so here's what we ended up with:
1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. oat bran (I used wheat bran)
1/4 c. quick cooking oats
1/4 c. wheat germ
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 c. blueberries (ours were frozen)
1/2 c. chopped pecans
a heaping 1/2 c. natural apple sauce
1 c. buttermilk (I used skim + 1 T lemon juice)
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350. Stir together first eight ingredients (the dry stuff). Add the nuts and blueberries. In a separate bowl mix apple sauce, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. Add to the dry mix and stir until just blended. Spoon into a greased muffin pan - fill the cups practically to the top - this will give you a nice round muffin top without overflow. Bake for 18 minutes or until done.
I got 12 big muffins from this recipe. Next time I will probably stretch it to 14 muffins. I also had to bake them for more like 22 minutes. They were delicious -not too sweet (except for the sweet juicy berries) and lots of nutty, grainy flavor. My only regret is that I didn't make a few without nuts for baby Clare. Guess we'll just make them again soon!
... in my Purse
Eyes.Lips.Face lip gloss. Chatting with some moms at a homeschool gym day earlier this week, we started talking about budget fashion. I don't really do "fashion" per se, but I do wear lip gloss (to sooth my addicted-to-artificial-moisture lips) so I could at least contribute this to the conversation: I love this lip gloss...
It's a dollar. I like that kind of make up. I can actually afford to buy five or six at a time and stash them in all kinds of places - purse, diaper bag, car console, underwear drawer. So any time I want to have Iced Latte looking lips (that's my favorite color in this gloss) I don't have very far to look! And did I mention it's only a dollar???
... in our School Room
These Kid Made Modern colored pencils from Target! They're pretty and they draw very nicely - smooth and bright! We use them for everything. And they're featured in the photos at the top of by blog (they're famous! haha)
That's it for now. Maybe I'll have a new list of stuff to love next month. Happy Thursday!
Oh my goodness...thank you! I did end up cleaning the tub yesterday and kept thinking "oh, I should've said it THIS way instead..." I'm going to have to pick up some of those pencils. John Paul is really into drawing lately and I think he'd like to use something other than broken and chewed bits of crayon to color them in. Easter basket idea!
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