Revolutionizing snack time.

For some reason during the last 6 or so months I've begun to enjoy baking. I never made time for it before but enjoy making interesting and healthy foods for Mateo. It started with trying all these fairly healthy muffin recipes from weelicous.com. There were sweet potato muffins and carrot apple coconut muffins and a plethora of others. I liked the idea of adding in healthy veggies and fruits for my picky eater. They freeze well and are easy to pull out for a healthy breakfast or snack for Mateo (or me!).

Lately I've been learning how to do a few more traditional snacks that not only contain ingredients that I can pronounce and already have (most of) in my cupboards but they're also fun, healthier, and easy to freeze. Besides the time factor I like to double batches to freeze extra because....to be honest....I hate doing dishes. My least favorite chore and of course I often feel like I am doing dishes all day long. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, etc. So it's really no more work to double the batch because I only have to take out all of the ingredients and clean up everything once.

The last couple of years I've also really tried to cut back on unhealthy food addivies like artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, etc. All of these have real ingredients in them and are much cheaper than buying a natural snack version.

A few of the snacks I've made recently are:

Oatmeal on-the-go bars (I added chocolate chips to mine :) Picture coming soon. These are the easiest of the recipes and I think they'd be the easiest/most doable for working moms though any of them could be a weekend project with the kiddos. The other three require making a dough and do take a little longer but this one you literally just throw all the ingredients in a big baking dish and cook it. Then cut apart and freeze. Super easy. You can defrost them over night or just in the microwave when you want one. You can choose your own ingredients as far as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate, etc. are concerned too. Mateo doesn't love these, unfortunately, but I do. I haven't given up that he will learn to like oatmeal...

Whole Wheat Cheddar Crackers (like goldfish crackers)

I happened to have a tiny fish cookie cutter but with a double batch of this somewhat crumbly dough I ended up doing mostly bigger crackers.

I used a large teddy bear cutter for the rest and froze quite a few of these cheesy teddy bear crackers. I LOVE that this recipe only has cheese, whole wheat flower, and butter. That's it! NO additives like MSG or even salt. To spice things up at snack time I put some spreadable cheese (like laughing cow or whipped cream cheese) and some flax seeds for the "sprinkles".
These were so good! Though I do admit they are a little bland...probably because there is no salt in the recipe. I suppose you could add it but I like them how they are. I think I will be eating these more often than Mateo.

Graham Crackers (which we call cookies b/c Mateo will eat anything that's called a cookie)These were so tasty that it was a little hard to freeze some of them because I could have eaten them all. Next time I might just cut them into rectangles like traditional graham crackers, but Grandma and I turned this into a project for Mateo... who loves to use cookie cutters and wear his apron and chef hat. My mom made up some simple powdered sugar frosting with cinnamon too but you could eat them plain like crackers.

Animal Crackers (also called cookies at our house haha)

Mateo loved eating cookies in different animals shapes. And of course, he enjoyed biting limbs off the animals. These froze really nicely and make a good snack with some fresh fruit or a smoothie. I love these myself, too!

Next one to learn: Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Massive amounts of instant oatmeal!!

I came across this comic on facebook the other day and it sure does some up my experiences with babies. I know there are easy, mellow babies out there but none of them are related to me ;)
So I've had to become content with small, little accomplishments amidst very long days. Like making dinner every night or keeping everybody's clothes clean. Those soon become big accomplishments.

Anyways- when I do have time for a project on a good day or some evening or weekend I usually double, triple, quadruple the project because I never know when I will have time to do it again.
Last weekend I decided to make some homemade instant oatmeal.

Aaron often leaves the house before 5:30am. He's an early bird. He's either gone to the gym, to play pick up basketball, at bible study, etc. ( Yes, I'm occasionally jealous of all the baby free early morning fun he has;) But I'm also impressed and thankful that he's able and likes to do these things in the mornings. This equals more time at home with us in the evenings!

As I was saying...he leaves the house without eating breakfast, so he eats oatmeal and a banana at work. [He could eat the same thing every day if I let him.] I used to be on the lookout for coupons for instant oatmeal and occasionally did find a really good deal. But one day he told me he didn't want to eat those anymore because there were about 5,000 unnecessary ingredients. So then we started just sending a big thing of quick oats and a little brown sugar. But that requires scooping, adding, etc. and all he uses is the hot water spiggot connected to the sink at work.

So I set about to ask Mr. Google how to make our own instant oatmeal for dirt cheap. It'd also be healthier and we'd know exactly what was in it.

So...making our own dairy-free variation, I pulled out a food processor (how did I go 28 years without using a food processor?), a bunch of quick oats, some sugar, salt, cinnamon, and some dried blueberries. I mixed everything together and pulsed it in the food processor just enough to grind up the oats a bit. That way they will cook faster.
EDIT: This basic recipe/ratio that I've settled with when I make oatmeal (keep in mind I usually triple this when I made a big batch):

4 cups quick-cooking oats, pulsed slightly in food processor
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4-1/3 cup sweetener (dry --I use brown sugar)
1/2 dried fruit (optional...sometimes I use raisins)
Other additions could include powdered unsweetened coconut, powdered milk, non dairy creamer, cinnamon,or whatever flavor you desire!!

I tend to use a little less sugar if I can get away with it and leave out the powdered milk since dairy is not my husband's best friend. With this particular batch I added some cinnamon and dried blueberries that my mom made. Pulse it all together and voila!! So easy. Of course the first time it took us a bit longer because we were experimenting and made up a bowl to be sure that we liked it- but this could literally take me 10 minutes to make up (plus cleaning the food processor).
I measured out 3/4 a cup of oatmeal into 5 ziplock bags (that we can reuse). I got this idea from http://www.thesimpledollar.com/ Aaron now just has to pour the bag into a bowl, add some hot water and that's it! He doesn't even measure the water- just adds enough for the desired thickness.
I put the extra mix to an air tight canister ready to be measured out for future breakfasts.
EDIT: I started using more ziplocs to avoid using the canister.  So last time I made it I had 13 zip loc bags with oatmeal that will last 2 1/2 weeks or so for my husband.  He (is supposed to) bring the empty bags home a few days before he's out so I can have a heads up and get on making some more!

Now I'm sure that people have been making their own instant oatmeal for a loooong time, but it wasn't until just recently that I thought to do it. And it was really, really easy. My type of project. Maybe next time I'll make cinnamon raisin flavor. I'd like to do a cost break down too! The only big expense really is the extras you add. I buy quick oats at Winco for inexpensive.  You could add whatever you wanted!

Behind the chaos of my season of life and behind any complaints or sleep deprivation is a mama who loves to take care of her family. I'm always happy when I find a new way to do this that also saves us money.

Menu planning

I am a huge fan of menu planning and have been for about a year. It is a huge saver on the sanity, helps with grocery shopping, and also keeps your grocery budget down! My goal is $300/ a month for groceries, toiletries, and supplies. A mama friend of mine shared this site recently: http://organizedhome.com/ which I have yet to fully explore. There are tons of ideas on how to get organized, printables, articles, etc. etc. I'd like to read it more if I get time someday.

Most days lately I literally have zero minutes of time to myself and if I don't have some sort of plan ahead of time- then we would never eat dinner. Seriously. With 7 dinners at home a week- that's a lot of food. We don't eat out very often because of a)Money and b) We have two babies...it's sometimes more work than fun! That said- we do build this in sometimes or if we are spontaneous then I'll just do the dinner that was planned a different night- no prob!

So....I print off a monthly calendar and try to plan 1-2 weeks at a time of meals (or if I'm really ambitious longer). I plan this based off what I have in my stockpile, what's in my freezer, what's left in my pantry, and of course what sounds good haha. Looking at past month's calendars definitely helps as I remember which meals we liked most.
You will also want to build in dinners of Left Overs if applicable, see if you can use the main dish from one meal to create a new dish the next day, etc. Do what it takes to get dinner on the table.
I have a plethora of cook books and magazines, too, that I occasionally look through to glean new recipes. Those 90% of you with smart phones can access a plethora of recipe apps. And...by far my favorite recipe website right now is www.weelicious.com. It has lots of ideas for tots and kids- but stuff for the whole family. I like how you can search by type of food- gluten free, dairy free, etc. Our dinners have to be gluten free and mostly dairy free for the hubby- so this helps if I'm stuck on new ideas! And best of all- the site is about healthy, wholesome foods w/o all the additives,etc. I'm beginning to like to make things from scratch and I'm beginning to like to bake even. It's weird, really. In the last couple of years we removed High Fructose Corn syrup and artificial sweeteners from our diet. This year I'd like to use more whole wheat (though not for Aaron...how about brown rice?) and eat more vegetables!

Anyways....I'm one of those people that organizes her grocery list based off store section:
Produce
Bulk
Deli
Dairy
Frozen
Boxed/Canned

Going shopping with a baby and a two year old.....I don't have time to waste and I don't have time to think about what's for dinner while at the store. So planning ahead is a must. I have tried the last two WinCo trips to get two weeks of groceries which was nice because it meant less grocery shopping and it forced me to be creative and use foods up..... but I found this to be a ludicrous endeavor and one not to be attempted a third time. It's just too long of a trip with both boys- while packing the 15 lb baby around, pushing the toddler in the cart, not to mention all the loading, unloading, bagging, and unloading of groceries into the car with same baby in the front pack. Anyways...you just have to figure out a system that works for you in your season of life.

Every night I peak at the calendar to see what I'm making the next night. I'll take out what I need from the freezer. Last night I even prepped the veggies for today's crock pot meal just b/c I didn't think I would have time this morning. And I was right...b/c both boys got up at the same time. I'll work on a little bit of food prep during the day as I have time so that come 5:00 I'm not starting from ground zero.

One meal we had this week:
Crock pot rotisserie style chicken with yellow sweet potato fries, spinach walnut salad, and grapefruit (not pictured).
Favorite veggie of the week was brought to my mind because I helped a friend make baby food a few weeks ago and we used the yellow sweet potato/yams. So yummy!

Make your own Christmas gift bags...

I worked at a fabric/craft store while I was in high school and on college breaks. If you work at a fabric store- you should be a good sewer- right? Well I was 16 and didn't know much but my mom taught me the basics. I am no seamstress but can handle simple projects and hemming.

Anyways, something I started doing over the last couple of years was sewing gift bags with old remnants of Chrismtas fabric that I'd collected years before. I wanted to use it up and thought it would be fun to have some reusable gift bags that I'd made. Last year after Christmas I purposed to use up ALL of the fabric I had laying around and come this year I had a nice little stash of bags to use for gifts. Here is one:


Besides the thoughtfulness of a homemade bag, I obviously like these because they are reusable and create much less Christmas waste than wrapping paper....(though I do enjoy some wrapping paper too) They can be passed back and forth between family members for years or given away to friends. Plus....you can get remnants of Christmas fabric for pretty inexpensive that they don't end up being any more than a gift bag you buy....you just have spend the time to sew. For example, I spent $10 at Joanns recently on Christmas scraps. I'm sure I'll be able to make 15-20 bags from all of this depending on the size.

Goal for January: Find a baby free hour to sew!!

Design on a Dime...repurposing a calendar

So those of you that know me well and have been to my house know that decorating is not my biggest strenth. You'll know this by the remaining mostly-empty walls that still exist in our home after almost 3 years. Can I blame it on having two babies since we moved in here? Maybe. I love organized, clean, efficient....but I'm not always motivated to decorate. Seems expensive...and I sometimes wonder what the purpose is or if it's functional.

Well this weekend my mom and dad were here to visit (can you say DATE NIGHT!!?? We got to leave the house. By ourselves. For like 2 hours.). My mom helped me with a couple mini projects for Alex' room that I have been wanting to do but just haven't.

I decorated his room with some of the animals from the Suzy's Zoo theme- the giraffe, the bunny, the bear, and the duck. I love those creatures and though not everyone agrees that they're unisex...I think they're adorable. He's just a baby. I'm the one that sees the stuff anyways haha. Here are a couple of pics:
Last year I found a Suzy's Zoo calendar in the Dollar Bins at Target.... so of course I snatched it up. I wasn't even pregnant yet but I love Suzy Zoo. This calendar had been hanging in Alex' room all year and since the pics are so cute I thought I could just string them along the wall to decorate. I picked my six favorite, found some string, and taped them up. Didn't cost me anything. It sure is fun to look at and fills up that huge empty wall in Alex' room. I'm sure you could do this with any calendar or magazine picture you came across. And most people have string or yarn laying around somewhere!

The other thing we added (in place of the calendar) was an old small bulletin board that was collecting dust in our basement. I found a scrap of yellow fabric in my stash of remnants. I also found some Suzy's Zoo border strips that I had in with my teaching stuff. Easy way to display some cute pics of my boys (I just need to print some now!)
'Til next time,
Thrifty Chica

12 Dates of Christmas and our Christmas Blessing project

Things have mellowed out a tiny bit around here! Aaron still is limited on what he's supposed to lift (not more than 15 lbs) for a bit longer but he's feeling a lot better and can help with Alex (who's a whopping 14 lbs!!). Mateo can't wait for his daddy to be able to pick him up. Soon. I think Aaron was impressed (or intimidated) with how strong I've become these last two weeks. I'll gladly give him the muscle jobs back when he is ready....

Alex, who though pretty cranky in the afternoons and evenings...has been doing so well at night (besides it taking me too long to get him down) and I'm thankful for that! Last night he slept like 10 hours straight, nursed for 10 minutes, and then slept for 3 more hours. I was beyond confused. Mateo didn't sleep that long at a stretch until like 9 or 10 months or so. Same mom, same milk, same crib even. I guess every kid really is different. I cannot say we did anything different at ALL really. We just got lucky. I'm hoping it will last...! Next hurdle.... convincing Alex that taking a nap during the day really isn't such a bad thing...and that it would sure help Mom from being utterly exhausted by the time Dad gets home, haha. Right now I kind of have him kind of asleep in the moby wrap... which hurts my back mucho...but hopefully he will chill long enough to finish this blog post!!

Speaking of Aaron, we decided to do a unique present for Christmas this year. I got the idea from the Advent Conspiracy http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

It's called the 12 Dates of Christmas. We did $20 stocking stuffer stuff each...and then decided to do these 12 dates...some of which involve the kids...and some that we still need to finish (getting an appendix out wasn't on the plans for December...thus we need a little more time ;) Many of these may seem overly simple and things you may not even consider "dates" but we've had quite a 3 months and just doing anything together is quite enjoyable....and much more fun than a tangible present.

1 Get a Christmas Tree and decorate it with Mateo.
2. Watch Elf
3. Watch an episode of Psych (our fav. tv show that we rarely make time for)
4. Coffee shop (which means we set up a coffee shop downstairs and make hot drinks and hang out)
5.Take the boys to see Christmas lights (
6. Shop for our Christmas blessing project and assemble bags (care packages for homeless people)
7. Distribute blessing bags Christmas week
8. Play Mario on wii
9. Sing Christmas songs with Aaron playing guitar
10. Do weekly devotionals (Aaron's been choosing one verse and having us each answer a few questions separately before chatting together on the weekend).
11. Go to bed by 9:30pm
12. Make cookie dough together.

There are still a few that we need to finish...and I look forward to cashing in this Christmas present in the next week or so. Below are a couple pics of our care packages. Mateo had fun helping us put them together. One fun thing is that I collected all the oral hygieme items for free this year with coupons. I hope as Mateo (and Alex) get older, Christmas is not all about presents but more about Jesus' presence in our homes and world. What would Jesus want for Christmas?

Appendicitis and finding small blessings...10 reasons I'm thankful for my Mama friends

I'm experiencing a new level of tired. It's so foreign to me to have Aaron out. Poor guy had his appendix out on Monday. He's not supposed to lift anything over 10 lbs for THREE WEEKS! And that also means no basketball (which he loves...) Hate seeing him like this. As Mateo prayed today..."I pray Daddy's band aids all better. Daddy pick up Mateo more more times.". I feel bad that it's sometimes chaotic at home during the day, though I try my best to lock him in the bed room to rest/watch Netflix/play PS3. He's just not very good at resting (says the mom who probably won't take a nap til 2017 when both boys are in school...). And of course I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this whole thing has been hard on me, too. I'm somewhat used to really long days with cranky baby and toddler- but I could at least count on an extra set of hands in the evening. I'm trying to power through though running out of steam.

Though...I do believe that age old saying that God won't give you more than you can handle. [Check out this song by Matthew West...one of my favs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8JsRxVczm] We will never be strong enough for life on our own...but God will be strong for us. I do sure weird things would stop happening to us. Early baby, c section, hospital, colicky baby, stomach flu, cold, Aaron's ear infection, Mateo's croup, almost Mastitis,
Aaron's appendix. Seems like when one thing gets easier then something else begins. Alex has fallen into a bedtime routine the last week or two. Life just got easier, right? Well yes but then your husband spends the night in the ER and has his appendix out. And the doctor comes out...not just any doctor but the chief of surgery...to talk to you and you think something went terribly wrong...but turns out he just wanted me to know that the surgery went fine. Sheesh!

But Aaron and I don't like to camp out in self pity for long. Sometimes it's necessary while you process things. But there is no productivity in self pity or feeling sorry for yourself. Taking the focus away from you sure does help keep things in perspective. Trying to help other people does help you to remember what life is all about. We are incredibly blessed beyond explanation.

And at least....thank God for those mercies we never notice.... that Aaron's didn't get appendicitis while I was having a baby! Or during Alex' hospital stay. It could have been much worse. And at least .... I'm healthy as an ox right now to take care of everything...though I admit that if I don't get a little more sleep I don't know how much longer I can keep it up! Alex is still up 2-3 times a night so my consecutive hours of sleep are pretty low. BUT...he has a bed time!! Baby free evenings are back!! woot!

Small blessings. A new theme. A mantra maybe. We aren't given more than we can handle. A rather large blessing for me has been my Mama friends, without whom I might have failed miserably at this Mama/Homemaker gig. I have many reasons to be thankful for those Mamas (and you know who you are....). Here are a few:

1. You have that someone to text when you need a pep talk about breastfeeding. It's that friend who will be just tough enough on you to help you push through and not give up.

2. It's the friend who gets up to go mall walking- regardless if either of you slept the night before. Just because it feels good to get some exercise while the kids are strapped in...and just because it feels better to chat/vent/share stories/encourage.

3. It's the mom who knows everything about cloth diapers and everything green or healthy. You facebook them with a few too many questions each month hoping they won't get completely annoyed and de friend you. But they don't and they graciously answer all of your questions. I love to learn.

4. It's the mom who you text when there is a breakthrough (or a meltdown). So and so is asleep!! Miracle!! So and so has been wearing real underwear all day!! Amazing! Those texts to share those little moments that only a mom would understand.

5. It's the moms who are home all day with their kids and are really the only ones who can possibly understand what that's like. They understand why you might be going a little crazy that day, why you might need to get out of the house, vent, eat chocolate, ________ etc.

6. It's the moms who drop off a coffee or cookies for you when you're stuck at home taking care of a recovering husband and two little ones.

7. It's your own mom who is just like Martha Stuart (minus the felon part) who you call with cooking questions a little too often...

8. The moms who share yummy recipes with you!!

9. And the moms who are fellow couponers!!

10. It is the moms who don't judge. Breast vs. bottle, cloth vs. disposables, homemade vs. jarred babyfood, organic vs. regular. It does matter but it doesn't matter.
http://630andaglassofwine.bangordailynews.com/2011/12/07/married-life/im-a-good-mother-youre-a-good-mother/ <---a friend just shared this link...quite entertaining!

We all have convictions and resolve to do things a certain way. I think that's good...though I'm always open for learning new things regarding homemaking and mommy-hood. And sometimes (just admit it!) we have no idea what we're doing at all. But that's what friends are for. To support us when we need it, encourage us or convict us when we need it, teach us stuff and share ideas, to bring us cookies when we need it, and to just be there.

I don't have family in town. I don't even have a lot of friends comparably, but a few good mama friends make all the difference.