Homemade Disinfectant Wipes

I was running Gavin's bath water last night.  Before he got into the tub he used the bathroom....well, sort of.  He was at least a foot away from the toilet arching his back trying to stream his urine into the bowl. 

"Scoot up Gavin!"  I ordered.

"I don't want to step on pee,"  he argued.

"There's not pee on the floor."  I assured him.

"Yeah there is.  I always accidently pee on the floor." 

 Boys are just gross....awfully cute, especially this particular one, but still gross. 

That's where these awesome homemade disinfectant wipes come in handy.  The disinfectant wipes you buy at the store are very pricey...not to mention what's in them?  Do you feel comfortable handing a container of them to your four year old and tell him to clean the bathroom?  Not me. 

I use the same concept as homemade baby wipes to make these disinfectant wipes.  Check out my tutorial here. on "Or So She Says."

Here's what you need:

Roll of paper towels (I like Viva) cut in half

cup of vinager

1/2 cup of water

about 10 drops of your favorite essential oil....I like lemon oil for these wipes

Tall tupaware or other container....a large coffee can would work great.

Cut your roll of paper towels in half, like this. 

Pull the cardboard center out.  You will pull the wipes from the middle like this.

Place paper towel half in container.  Mix ingredients and poor over towels.  Put an airtight lid on and let set for about 30 minutes.  It's that easy. 

These are a non toxic alternative to those pricey commercial anti-bacterial wipes.  I wouldn't go as far to call them "green" because you are using paper towels but I really love the convenience of them. 

Gavin can now clean up his own pee off the floor and the toilet seat.  (Just be sure to tell your children to throw them in the trash not flush them!)

love hate relationship

Oh play dough. 

How I love you....and hate you. 

You're a lifesaver on these hot summer days.  

The kids love you and play with you for hours.

But I find you all over the house....

in the rug,

on the bottom of shoes,

in pockets,

under fingernails,

and

in the dog's bowl.

Play dough is pretty cheap, but if your kids like it as much as mine, you may want to try making it yourself.  It's fun and super easy.  The kids will LOVE this recipes and there hands will smell good for hours!

What you need:

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

3 tbsp of veggie oil

2 cups of boiling water

2 packages of unsweetened kool-aid

Mix dry ingredients.  Add oil and water.  Wearing gloves knead for 10 minutes.  Store in ziplock or tuperware in refrigerator.

Have fun!

Espresso Banana Muffins

I had several friends ask me for my espresso banana muffin recipe so I thought I'd go ahead and post it on here so they can all take a looksy.  If you're interested in the zucchini-raisin muffins served at the girls birthday party you can get it HERE. 

Espresso Banana Muffins

• 2 cups of white whole-wheat flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of fine grain sea salt
• 1 1/4 cups of toasted walnuts
• 1 tbsp of fine espresso powder (I use 2 tbsp of fine ground coffee)
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter...room temp
• 3/4 cup natural cane sugar
• 2 lg eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups of mashed overripe bananas (about 3 lg bananas)

Preheat oven to 375.  Line muffin tins.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, 3/4 cup of walnuts, and espresso in bowl.

In separate large bowl or mixer, cream the butter until fluffy.  Beat in sugar and then the eggs, one at a time.  Stir in vanilla, yogurt and mashed bananas.  Then briefly and gently stir in dry ingredients.  Over stirring causes muffins to be tough. 

Divide into muffin tin.  Top with remaining walnuts.  Bake 25 minutes or until golden.  Let cool for 5 minutes then remove.  

 Makes 12 muffins.

I got this recipe from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson...love, love, love this cookbook.

These muffins are amazing warm with a little butter.....mmmm....but you know what the best thing about them is???  Your kids can't eat them because they have coffee in them!  Yeah, I'm one of those moms that will buy the jalaneno kettle cooked chips so I don't have to share.  I'm stingy like that. 

Grain-ola

I love cereal.
That sentence doesn't even begin to describe my passion for a cold crunchy bowl of wholesome goodness first thing in the morning.

I am NOT a morning person. I love the convenience of cereal. Virtually no thinking involved. If I had it my way I would serve my children cereal every morning. Or, better yet, have my 5 yr old serve himself AND his siblings. I'm not talking about the giant sugary bags of corn puffs ladies. Lord knows the last thing my kids need in the morning is a sugar high.

That's where I run into a dilemma. When the boys were younger I bought the healthy- organic- whole grain- kid- attractive cereals with an animal or character on the cover. They loved it. And so did my hubby and I. A $5-6 box would last maybe two days. So there I was, spending $25 a week on boxed cereal. Ridiculous.

After taking a Dave Ramsey class and really buckling down on our finances this was an area that we could improve on. I was forced to wake up and actually turn on the stove in the morning. Instead of high priced cereal we would eat oatmeal, eggs and toast, homemade muffins, fruit and yogurt. oh poor me. ;)

I have tried my hand at granola several times in the past 2 years. It always turned out just OK. But never lived up to my high expectations.

Well ladies, I have found a fill for the cereal void in my life.

It's from the book Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Grain-ola

4 cups of old fashioned or quick cooking rolled oats

3/4 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds

1 cup walnuts or macadamia nuts, chopped in quarters

1 1/2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut

1 1/2 cups of assorted "unsulfured" dried fruit (not sure exactly what that means, but I used dried cranberries from the bulk section of Whole foods...hopefully unsulfured? Next time I think I'm going to try dried papaya)

Grated zest of 2 oranges (I didn't have this on hand and left it out. Still tasted great! But I will add this in my next batch.)

3/4 cup of raw mild- flavored honey

1/4 cup of coconut oil

Preheat oven to 300. Set aside 2 rimmed baking sheets.

Combine oats, seeds, nuts, coconut, dried fruit, and zest in large bowl. Heat the honey and coconut oil in small saucepan over low heat. Whisk to thoroughly combine, then pour over oat mixture and stir until everything is well coated.

Divide the mixture between the 2 baking sheets and spread into a thin layer. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, for about 40 minutes, until toasty brown. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temp.

You have GOT to try this recipe. Amazing. I'm not a big coconut fan and passed over this recipe several times thinking I would not like it. But I have LOVED everything I've tried in the book so far and decided to give it a go....a new fav indeed. Just wanted to spread the love. Hope you enjoy! And if you don't get to making it....well, you can be sure this will be my Christmas gifts this year....you may get lucky!

P.S. Yes, I know the pics have nothing to do with granola...but they were the most recent food related pics I could find.  Camille and Maya eating another obsession of mine.  Uncle Vinny's Pizza.  Mmmmmm...

Zucchini-Raisin Muffins

We don't eat a lot of meat in our home for several reasons. Don't worry...I'm not going to get on my soap box and lecture you why....but if you want to learn more check out Food Inc. It seriously changed the way I feed my family.


I'm sure my kids would love it if I served PB&J everyday for lunch. But I have to get creative to keep me and the old man from getting bored.

Here is a great instead-of-sandwich muffin to throw in a lunch box with some yogurt and some fresh fruit. It sweet yet hardy. My boys beg me to make them. My husband prefers them for a quick breakfast.

Without further ado....Zucchini-Raisin Muffins

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup of wheat germ
• 1/2 cup natural sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder **did you know that most baking powder has aluminum in it?! Go check the ingredients! Next time you go grocery shopping look for aluminum free baking powder!**
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 3/4 cup of organic vanilla yogurt (I've used plain & vanilla...both turned out great...vanilla was obviously sweeter)
• 2 tbsp of light veggie oil
• 1 cup of firmly packed grated zucchini (I peel mine)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup of walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Combine first 6 ingredients in mixing bowl. Make a hole in the center of your dry ingredients and add yogurt & oil. Stir together until smooth. Stir in zucchini, raisins, and optional nuts.

Put in 12 muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes...or until tops are brown.

I got this recipe from http://www.vegkitchen.com/ if you want to browse some more yummy veggie recipes.

Let me know if you try them!!

Zucchini Quesadillas

I wanted to share a super easy, super healthy, super cheap favorite meal around my house...not to mention super YUMMY!! My boys love to help cook and this recipe is very kid friendly.


Seriously, this is all the ingredients...black beans, zucchini, cheese and tortillas.





Drain and rinse the black beans, then put into a large bowl. Have your best helpers wash up...then start mashing! If you're kiddo's don't like to get messy then they can use a fork, but my little guys LOVE to squeeze beans through their little pudgy fingers.




While the kids are busy with that, peel and grate the zucchini. Squeeze all the water out of the grated zucchini...another jobs the kids love.

Mix the mashed black beans, zucchini, and grated cheese. Sorry, I never measure my ingredients...just use how much you like...

Put on half a tortilla, fold, cook in pan....I usually butter my pan, but you can use a cooking spray.

Serve with your favorite salsa, guacamole, or sour cream. My kids know that there is zucchini in them, but if you want to be sneaky you can. Zucchini has such a mild flavor your kids won't notice!

ENJOY!

Popsicles for breakfast!

Its official...I am the coolest mom EVER. I served my kids popsicles for breakfast. The look on the boys faces when they sat up at the breakfast bar asking me to fix them some oatmeal and I said "No, how about popsicles?" Priceless.

No one freak out on me...anyone who knows me knows that my kids rarely eat sugary snacks...that's all I need, a kid hyped up on sugar. The night before I made some yummy healthy frozen snacks. Here's what I did:

Banana Butter Pops

In a food processor 3 bananas, a heaping spoon full of organic peanut butter, and about 3/4 cup of vanilla soy milk....blend and pour into popsicle trays, then freeze! Easy-schmeezy.

I adopted the recipe from a really cool website http://weelicious.com/ .....it's full of fast, fresh, kid-friendly recipes. I just used what I had in my kitchen...dee-lish!