Homemade Granola

Last Christmas, my sweet mama bought me a new cookbook. This isn't just any cookbook. It's a "Daily Harvest Bakery and Deli" cookbook. Daily Harvest is a local bakery and deli that prides itself on using fresh ground wheat, all natural sweeteners, and lots of other "good for you" things. But since they are all the way in town, and I live in the country, I am not able to just run up there for a nice, hot, fresh loaf of jalapeno cheese bread whenever I want it. I can't just swing in for a refreshing glass of wheat grass juice. I'm not able to stop by for a freshly made chocolate haystack cookie. But, I have the next best thing! I can make my own whenever I want. Now, I will admit that I don't have a grain mill, so I don't grind my own flour. But I do try to use all the same healthy ingredients that Teresa (the owner of Daily Harvest) uses, and all the recipes I have tried so far are WONDERFUL!

Today, I needed to make another batch of homemade granola, because that is what we eat many mornings for breakfast. I love the fact that the kids pick my healthy, homemade granola over the packaged sugary cereals! Several people have asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share. It's the only recipe I'm posting on my blog, though. You'll just have to go out and get your own copy of Teresa's book if you want to try the other recipes! And I assure you, you WILL want to try more!!

Just know, I did make some changes to the original recipe found in the book. I don't always keep things, like walnuts, and my kids like different fruits. Also, I like to change what I put in my granola, so we don't get tired of the same kind. Sometimes I make it like this, and sometimes I add cocoa powder to make dark chocolate granola. Play around with this recipe, and see how many different types of granola you can make!

Homemade Granola:

2 sticks butter
1 Tbsp. cinnamon (or more if you want a stronger spice taste!)
1 C. honey or agave nectar
8 C. rolled oats
2 C. pecan halves
1 C. coconut
1 C. dried cranberries
1/2 C. ground flax seed

Boil butter, cinnamon, and honey/agave nectar for 3 min. Pour over oats and stir well to coat. Add all other ingredients, and stir well. Pour into a large pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Bake for 5 minute intervals, stirring after each interval. When your oats are golden brown and not soft and wet looking when you stir it, it's ready!

If you choose to make chocolate granola, add 3/4 C. cocoa powder to the butter, cinnamon, and honey/agave nectar mix and let it boil with the mix. It makes a delicious chocolate sauce to go on your granola.

Here is a picture of our finished granola. All I need to do now is let it cool, and then I can put it in my Rubbermaid reusable cereal box. 

After you try this recipe, go and get your own Daily Harvest Cookbook! You'll be glad you did!

Make it Yourself Monday - Baby Wipes

Yay hooray! Today is "Make it Yourself Monday"!! I have been waiting all week to share this one with you! Several of my friends are having babies or have recently had babies. So this is a perfect thing to tell you about today!

When I was pregnant with my first little one, a friend gave us a gift at one of our showers that was quite unusual to us. We were presented with homemade baby wipes, a container to keep them in, and all the supplies and the recipe to make more. We sort of wondered about them for a little while. But let me tell you, those baby wipes work better than any store bought wipes you can find, and they are far cheaper! So we have made these baby wipes ever since for each of our 4 babies. They are so good, in fact, that Brient has made them for himself to keep in his work truck to wash his hands before he eats when he's out in the middle of nowhere with no running water. They are great! Here's how to make them.

First, you start with a 10 cup round Rubbermaid container. I wrote the recipe on the side of my container, because I kept forgetting the amounts of each of the ingredients. You need:

2 3/4 cups of hot water

1 Tbsp. baby oil

2 Tbsp. baby bath

Generally, I use baby oil, but since I am out right now, I substituted olive oil. It is a very good oil for your skin. 

I also added a few drops of tea tree essential oil. Tea tree oil is antibacterial. Germs and infection can't survive when washed with tea tree oil. So this makes a perfect addition to help ward off diaper rash. It's not necessary to add this, though. You could also add any other essential oil for a nice scent. 

You need a roll of Bounty Select-A-Size paper towels and a good, sharp knife.

Cut the roll in half.

Pull the core out of the center.

Add the ingredients to your round container, and put the paper towel half in on top. 

Make sure the lid is on good and tight, and flip it upside down. This helps all the liquid to soak into all of the paper towel roll more quickly.

Once all the liquid is absorbed into the paper towels, you are ready to begin using them. You pull the wipes from the center of the roll. 

These wipes last for a very long time - much longer than a package of commercial wipes - and they are a fraction of the cost! These are so gentle on baby's bottom, mine have rarely ever had a diaper rash. I have always kept packaged wipes on hand for travel, as this container is rather big and bulky. But when I use the packaged wipes, my little ones nearly always end up with a rash. 

These are fantastic. I hope you'll give them a try. And if you don't have a baby, think about giving them as a gift to someone! This was one of the best baby gifts I ever received!

Make it Yourself Monday

My friend, Susan, has inspired me. She keeps passing on tidbits of information on her "Thrifty Thursdays" and "Frugal Fridays." So I decided to get in on the fun. And I encourage each one of you to get in on the fun as well! Here's how it will work. Every Monday (Lord willin' and the creek don't rise), I'll post something that I chose to make myself, instead of heading to the store to purchase. If you want to participate, too, leave me a comment below the post and include a link to your blog. Share on your blog something that you have made instead of purchased, and be sure to link back to my blog. It's that easy! I can't wait to see some of the great things everyone makes, and get some good ideas myself!

For today's "Make it Yourself Monday," I wanted to share a natural remedy with you. Saturday night, I got into some dust and other things floating in the air, and by the end of the night, I could feel my head starting to get congested. By Sunday morning, I was trying to decide whether or not to go to church, but I went anyway. I should have stayed home in the bed! I felt terrible! And by last night, my chest felt as though an elephant was standing on it!

Something you should know about me is that I really do not trust doctors - at all. (It takes everything in me just to take Little Man to see his endocrinologist, and I KNOW he HAS to do that!!) I never go to the doctor for illness. And rarely do I even take medicine. I prefer the "let it run its course" approach. God made my body to kill off whatever infection found its way in, so I prefer to just take it easy and let it do its job.

But just because I don't take over the counter meds to clear up a head and chest cold doesn't mean I don't do anything! This morning, I got up and poured myself a nice cup of hot herbal tea to help ease the pain in my chest. Besides herbal teas, there are numerous other natural options that God has provided to assist our bodies in the healing process.

Two of my favorite natural remedies are honey and ginger. Both of these are antibacterial, antiviral, and antimicrobial, which means, it doesn't really matter which type of germ or virus got in, it won't be able to survive! One of my favorite ways to use honey and ginger is to make a syrup out of the two. First, I gathered my ingredients.

I pulled a piece of ginger out of the freezer. I usually use freshly dug ginger from my herb garden. But, I had to buy some recently from our local Asian market, because I overharvested my ginger last year. I am letting it grow for awhile now without digging any of it, so it will multiply and I'll have plenty once again. When I bought this ginger, I washed it, peeled it, and put it in the freezer. Ginger will last longer in the freezer, and it's also easier to grate when frozen.

I also pulled out the jar of local honey that I bought last week from my good friend, Amy. She raises her own bees, and I sometimes buy from her. I love to have local honey on hand at my house just for occasions such as this.

I grated my ginger using the small side of my grater. I have used the large side before, but it makes it a little harder to chew. And if I'm adding this syrup to an herbal tea, I don't really like the chunks of ginger. So I grated it very fine. You can grate as much or as little as you want to use. It all depends on how big of a batch you intend to make.

The last thing I did was pour some of the honey over the ginger. You only want to add enough honey to completely cover the ginger. It ends up being about half of each ingredient. I stirred it up well, and now I am letting it sit for an hour or so while the liquid from the ginger is released into the honey.

That's it! That's all there is to making your own honey ginger syrup. You can use this to sweeten your favorite herbal tea, take it by the spoonful, or, my favorite way, pour it over some hot toast! This is a great NATURAL way to fight off the sickies! I made a batch that should get me through this terrible upper respiratory infection that I ended up with, and if I need more, I can just make up another batch. And I don't have to drop everything and run to the store for meds! It's all in my kitchen cabinet.

I read something on my box of tea this morning that said, "We don't have laboratories. We have kitchens." That is a great saying. God made the best medicines, and most of them are things that we use every day as food. Nothing created in a lab can come close to the natural remedies that God has provided.

I hope you enjoyed today's "Make it Yourself Monday," and I hope you'll head to your kitchen to give this recipe a try. Don't forget to leave me a comment, post a link to your blog that shows your "Make it Yourself Monday" idea, and post a link on your blog leading back to my blog.

And now, I'm going to make me some toast with honey ginger syrup, and then I'm going to take a NAP!

Homemade Rice Milk

So, it has been about a month since I last blogged, and those of you who actually follow my blog are probably wondering what's up. Well, our summer has just been cram packed with fun stuff, so I have had NO time to even think about writing. We have been to church camp, three Vacation Bible Schools, a self defense lesson every week, swimming with lots of different friends, and so much more that I can't even remember it all! It has been a summer unlike any other. Normally, we do school during the summer months, because there just isn't much else for us to do, and it is entirely too hot in the Deep South to do anything outside. But this summer, we have not stopped or even slowed down! School has been the last thing on anyone's mind around here. I say that just to say, that's where I've been! RUNNING!

But I wanted to stop for a minute and share a recipe I tried today. A few years ago, I had terrible tummy troubles - pain all the time. I FINALLY narrowed it down to two things - meat and the protein found in milk. So I have given up most meat, and I now buy milk alternatives, such as rice milk and almond milk. Well, a few nights ago, if finally hit me (as my poor Little Man was almost in tears because of tummy pains) that Little Man is probably having the same milk protein allergy that I have. What that meant to me was $$$$$$. Buying commercial rice or almond milk for me isn't too bad. I only have it occasionally on cereal, but I don't really drink a lot of it. But Little Man, on the other hand, has milk on his cereal and every night as a bedtime snack. So he like a LOT of milk! So my first thought was of an idea I had awhile back but never really put into action - make my own rice milk!! The Internet is loaded with recipes (mostly the same recipe over and over) to make your own rice milk. So I looked up the recipe on Vegan Reader, and Little Man and I went to work this morning. Here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients and Supplies:
1 cup uncooked organic long grain brown rice
8 cups water for cooking
More water for diluting
1 teaspoon salt
Glass mason jars for storage
A Blender
Mesh strainer

Directions
Thoroughly wash the rice.
Put 8 cups of water in a big pot and bring it to a boil over high heat.
Pour in the rice.
Cover the pot and lower the heat to let the water simmer.
Cook for 3 hours.

You will end up with something that looks a bit like a soupy rice pudding. Add the salt.
In batches, fill your blender halfway with the rice mixture and halfway with water. Blend until very smooth. Strain twice through a fine mesh strainer into a mason jar. Continue on with the rest of the milk until you’re finished, filling jars and screwing the lids on good and tight.

Even with the extra water, the homemade rice milk ends up thicker than the product you might be used to if you’ve always purchased Rice Dream Rice Milk. It’s more like rice cream! You may want to dilute it further at the time of serving it. Just add a bit more water until it’s the desired consistency.

Little Man and I decided this would taste really good with some vanilla, cinnamon, and sweetener. We added Stevia (because it has no glycemic index and won't raise his blood sugar) and some Agave Nectar. We added some of each and did a taste test. It needed a little more sweetener, and when we tasted it again, it was just right. (Commercial rice milk has added sweetener, too.)

This recipe would have made 4 quarts, except for the fact that Little Man wanted to eat some of the rice "pudding" that was left in the pot. So some of it went to him, instead of being turned into milk. The 3 quarts that we do have are a little thicker consistency than regular milk or even commercial rice milk, so as we use it, I will probably add a little water to get it to the consistency I want. Which means, I will probably still end up with an entire gallon of homemade rice milk.

It's important here to note that the only cost of homemade rice milk is the cost for a cup of rice, which will run between twenty cents and fifty cents. And then there is the very small cost of your flavorings and sweetener. The cost of commercial rice milk is roughly $3.00 for a half gallon. So I saved a grand total of about $5.50. Now, that doesn't seem like much at first glance. But, think about this. I buy about a gallon of milk every week, because Little Man and his sisters drink a LOT of milk. There are 52 weeks in a year. A gallon of regular milk costs roughly $3.50, depending on where you buy. So if I make my own rice milk, I will be saving about $170 a year!! Now THAT looks like a lot! And that's just comparing swapping regular milk for homemade rice milk. What if we're figuring swapping store bought rice milk for homemade rice milk? Well, my savings then would be closer to $300! WOW! But what if my girls don't like rice milk? Then I just buy half a gallon of regular milk for them and make rice milk for Little Man and myself. My savings will still be BIG! And since he is going to be drinking it with me now, I just can't afford the commercially prepared rice milk for the both of us. BINGO! Making my own saves me a trip to the store anyways!

Here is our finished product. It tastes really good! We will be using this on our cereal or just as a glass of milk. It doesn't taste like cow milk, so if you try it, don't expect it to taste the same. It is fantastic as chocolate milk, too! It can be used in any recipe that calls for milk. If you want a nice, rich, creamy consistency, just don't add any extra water. If it's a little too thick for you (like in my cereal!!), just dilute it until you get the consistency you want. I hope you'll give this recipe a try! We really had fun making it, and we are REALLY going to enjoy drinking it!!

Seasons of Life

Later today, Britches, Little Man, Little Sister, and I will be leaving out to make our way to 4th and 5th grade church camp. My children are thrilled to be going this year, because this will be a first for them. I'm really excited about all the things I know they will learn while they're there, and I'm also excited about the new kids I'll get to meet and have a chance to pour the love of Jesus into their lives! Departure time can't get here soon enough! But that hasn't always been the case.

Ever since my kids were very small, there are only a handful of people who have ever kept them - mostly grandparents. Brient and I have never been ones to drop our kids just anywhere and leave them. There are just too many crazy people in the world, and I just don't trust anybody. I have always said, "My kids will NEVER go to church camp! I don't know the people who will be working it, so I don't know what they will be taught, if they will be looked after well, or even if they will end up being mistreated." That was it. Done deal. They were never going.

At this point, you may be thinking, "Wow, she's really overprotective of her kids." My answer to you is this - YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!! God put Brient and me in charge of them, and it is our greatest responsibility to do the best job possible. And it's not like I'm just making up crazy things that could never happen. I have heard too many times of people, in the church, who have been put in prison for child molestation. Just a few short years back, the Catholic church was put under hard scrutiny, because of priests that were taking advantage of young boys. There are crazy people out there, and they can and will make their way into churches. People think everything is fine, until, one day, you hear from a friend that their child has been abducted or abused by this "good Christian man/woman" that everyone in the church really liked. Enough said.

As my children have grown a bit older, we have taught them that there are people in the world who are not good. We have taught them, on our own terms, what to do if "whatever" happens. We have TAUGHT them! We have not just thrown them out there to the wolves to be eaten alive. They have aged, they have grown in maturity, and the seasons have changed. No longer are my kids small children who are completely helpless. But now they have a voice, and they know the "rules" to keep themselves as safe as possible.

One other thing that makes a difference is the fact that I am going with them. I am not "sending" my kids to camp, but I am "taking" them. We will be there together, and I will have an eye on them at all times while they are having fun and playing with new friends. Also, I know most of the people who will be at the camp with us. We have been going to our church for a little over a year now, and we have formed some very good friendships with the people there. And I don't mean just a "Hi, how are you" kind of friendship. I mean the kind where you hang out together often, you call on the phone, you eat together, and visit at each others' house. Most of the people going with us are people that I completely trust! Which means, even if my eyes aren't on all of my kids, someone that I know and trust WILL have their eye on them!

There are different seasons in your life and in your kids lives. In the beginning, it is your job to protect them at all costs. As they get older, and as the seasons of life change, they gain more freedom and more responsibility. It's still your job to watch out for them, but in a different way. It becomes your job to "teach" them the things they need to know to look out for themselves. And when the seasons of life change, and you begin to let your kids do things you didn't once let them do, it doesn't mean you are a bad parent or going back on your word or whatever. Times change. It's OK to change your mind!

So just because I once said "My kids will never go to camp," that doesn't mean I'm bad now for letting them. Things change, circumstances change, and I changed my mind! And that's OK!

So in a few hours, we will be leaving to go to camp. And I can't wait!! This is going to be a fantastic four days! I'm glad the seasons have changed.