It's What's for Breakfast!

Our family recently discovered how simple granola is to make!  I make a batch just about every week.

For years, I have wanted to make granola, but never had success with any recipe I tried.  Then I met Emmilie Gaston.  This is her wonderful recipe. 

Ingredients:

4 Cups rolled oats

1 Cup slivered almonds

1/2 Cup butter

1/2 Cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Melt butter over low heat and dissolve brown sugar in the butter.  After it's completely dissolved, remove mixture from heat.  Allow to cool for a few minutes and then add vanilla extract.

Pour mixture over granola and almonds.  Spread over two lightly greased cookie sheets.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

I found that with my dark cookie sheets, I need to lower my oven's temperature to 325°F and not exceed 15 minutes.  

If you would like, feel free to make fun additions like craisins, raisins, different nuts.  My family enjoys when I sprinkle a cup of coconut on top of one of the cookie sheets the last minute or so of baking.  The hint of toasted coconut is wonderful.  

I tend to mix it in with yogurt and fresh fruit for a breakfast parfait or to simply pour milk over some granola for a great cereal.  Who can resist this recipe?  Look at the fiber count!  Have a child that doesn't like to eat meat?  One half cup of this granola provides for 10% of the daily recommended iron based on a 2,000 calorie diet.  That is an incredible amount of iron from a great snack food.

This nutrition information is based on 1/2 cup serving.  

~ Mrs. Wimberly

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All Natural, Inexpensive, Homemade Fabric Softener

So today's post is a trick that I learned about a year ago.  My husband and I decided it made sense for me to stay at home.  I figured that part of my job as a stay at home wife and mother meant that I needed to make some cut backs in household costs where possible.  By far, one of the biggest expenses we have is household chemicals.  Laundry detergent and fabric softener are two of the most consumed products in our house.  We have two adults, one teenager and an infant.  We run about 10 loads of laundry a week.

To replace the $10 bottle of Downy®, I simply throw citrus peel of any type along with some herbs into a quart jar and fill with white distilled vinegar.  Generally, I tend to have little clementine oranges and lemons on hand.  I mix the peel with mint or basil.  I give the leftover citrus fruit to KidR.

To use the concoction, I just pour 1/2 cup of the mix in our top loader (either in the dispenser or a fabric softener ball).  If you're lucky enough to have an HE washer, you'll only need 1/4 cup.  

An added bonus, especially if your water tends to scale everything?  It cleans your washer, too.  

Savings over the course of a year?

Downy = $ 90 ($10 every 6 weeks)
Vinegar = $ 26 ($2 every 4 weeks)

Total savings = $64

I need to immediately inform my husband how much I've saved us!  

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Banana Jam!

I checked out an amazing book from the library this week.  Artisan Preserving by Emma MacDonald is a work of art.  She has creative recipes for preserving.  There are thoughtful tips scattered throughout the book, as well.  

I came across a recipe for banana jam and decided to satisfy my curiosity.  I had never heard of jam made from bananas before.

It's a pretty simple recipe and so delicious!

Ingredients:

~ 2 1/4# bananas - preferably very ripe

~ 3 1/2 C sugar

~ Juice of one lemon (I used 3 Tbsp)

~ 2 tsp Vanilla

Steps:

~ Puree the bananas (I used a stick blender).
~ Add the sugar and lemon juice.
~ Slowly bring to a boil and allow to boil gently for 10 to 15 minutes until thick.  The jam is ready when a wooden spoon drawn across the bottom of the pan reveals the bottom cleanly.  (There is no test for a set of this jam.)
~ After the jam is cooled off a bit, add the vanilla and stir to incorporate.

While the jam is cooking, sterilize the jars in the oven.  I had never sterilized jars in an oven, but it turned out to be fairly easy!

I ran them through the dishwasher and then let them "bake" at 350° F for 20 minutes.  Voilà!  Sterilized!  The bonus of using this method is that when you add the hot jam to the hot or warm jars there is less chance of cracking the glass.

I also placed the hot jars on a wooden cutting board to further reduce the chance of cracking a jar.

KidA loves this jam with peanut butter or with a chocolate hazelnut spread on toast.  KidR loves it on a grilled peanut butter banana jam sandwich!

Please note that these have not been run through a pressure canner and so should be kept in the refrigerator.


This nutritional information is based on a 2 tablespoon serving size.

Enjoy!

~Mrs. Wimberly

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A Dress for KidR!

Thanks to my lovely internetting skills, I found a wonderful tutorial showing how to make a dress out of a man's dress shirt. Here is KidR in hubby's old shirt. 

The dress tutorial is here.    This is a lovely tutorial which explains every step in detail.  Especially for those paying attention.  I accidentally sewed on the straps inside out.  Thank goodness, people can't tell.  

The pants tutorial is here.   It is a nice tutorial, but one should have a decent amount of experience constructing pants with a crotch.  I struggled a bit and ended up using a pattern piece to cut out the crotch.  I also used the instructions from that pattern to remind myself how to construct pants.

~Mrs. Wimberly

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