Just Discovered: New Favorite Craft Blog

Sometimes people ask me where I get all my creative ideas. I kind of feel like the more creative ideas you surround yourself with, the more creative you become. It's seeing something and saying, "Hey, I can tweak this and make it better/prettier/easier."

Since I am very much a proponent for re-purposing, I was really excited to find this blog. Although I can't use all of her ideas (for example, I don't use dryer sheets since I mostly air-dry my clothes), most of them are cool, and many can be used for kids crafts too.

Also, in the spirit of a more eco-concious Christmas, I LOVED her packaging ideas for this year and last year. Check out Claire at blah to TADA! I hope you enjoy!

Baking Back to Back: Almost Vegan Banana Bread

I made some yummy banana bread yesterday, and the only animal product was eggs... ok, so that's not that hard. I pretty much just substituted the butter for a combo of almond butter and applesauce, soy milk for cow milk, then added some baking powder. But, still! It came out super good, and I figure it's that much healthier. Considering I'm not the best at baking (I can count on one hand the number of things I can actually bake), this was huge.

Here's what I did:

3/4 C sugar (I like brown)
3 med bananas*
1/2 C almond butter
1/4 C applesauce
5-7 drops liquid stevia
2 large eggs
1/2 C soy milk (or regular milk, almond milk... whatever!)
1 t vanilla
2 1/2 C wheat pastry flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
optional: chopped nuts, abt. 1 C

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mash bananas and sugar really well. Add almond butter and mix well. Add up to & incl. the vanilla; mix. Add dry ingredients and mix until all is just wet. Spray or lightly oil 2 8 or 9 in. loaf pans. Pour in 1/2 of batter into each pan. Bake approx. 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean.

*I freeze bananas if they get brown spots and I won't be able to use them in time. Just keep the skins on and throw them in the freezer. Then, take them out about an hour or more before you start baking. Because they've been frozen, they actually mash up really easy and smooth.

Baking Back to Back: Chocolate Breakfast Cookies

While perusing a kids cookbook in Michael's one day, I saw a rawther interesting breakfast item: cookies. I thought: "Holy cow! I could give my kids cookies for breakfast!" It was an amazing revelation.

So, being a good little researcher (we all have to learn something in college, right?), I searched on the internet. I came up with two HEALTHY cookie recipes. The first one was peanut butter and banana (I substitute the dried fruit with chocolate chips). The second I will put below with my variations, but here is the original link.


Chocolate PB Craisin Cookies - for Breakfast!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa (such as Hershey's Extra Dark Cocoa)
1-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (I use wheat pastry flour)
1-1/4 cups precooked steel-cut oatmeal
1/2 cup granulated white sugar or brown sugar, plus 4-5 drops liquid stevia
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 - 3/4 cup craisins, chopped nuts, or other dried fruit in small pieces
2 large eggs (I like mine cakey)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (or almond butter)

(Please note: my cookies look worse than they taste; they're almost the consistency of brownie)

Instructions: Preheat oven 350 degrees. Mix sugar and peanut butter. Add applesauce, vanilla, stevia, oatmeal and eggs. Mix well. Add the rest of ingredients and mix. You may or may not need to add a few Tablespoons of liquid (milk, water, soy milk). If you want to shape the dough, refrigerate it 1/2 hour, then roll into small balls with lightly oiled hands, pressing the ball down with your thumb. Otherwise, drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 min, or until slightly firm to the touch. Keep what you don't eat in the fridge. I warm mine in the toaster on cool mornings. Great for a morning on the run.

Greener Christmas Wrapping

Hi, all. Amazing how busy you get when kids are in school.

A few holidays ago I was absolutely disgusted with the amount of waste our Christmases created (bags and bags of garbage, most of which I don't think was recyclable). So, here are a few of my favorite green Christmas ideas. I'm not including any of my own pictures, but lots of links to pictures and tutorials.

1. Newspaper wrapping paper - All growing up, we knew which presents were from my grandparents because they were wrapped in the comics from the newspaper and tied with brown twine. I loved it, and was a little sad when they swtiched to regular wrapping paper. If you get the Sunday paper anyway (or neighbors do), save the comics (or car ads for Dads, maybe?) and use those. Then take off the tape when they're unwrapped and throw into recycling.

2. Fabric bags and/or furoshiki - Last year I went a little crazy with clearance fabrics. I got a smattering of different colors and weights so I could make gift bags. I've made several of all different sizes (several that fit DVDs, small boxes, large boxes; skinny and square, etc.). I haven't even made them all, but a did make about 10 or so. I LOVE it! LOVE it! "Wrapping" presents takes like 5 minutes, is super easy, and looks elegant. I use heavier weights for bags, and lightweights, like cotton and silky-types, for furoshiki (Japanese fabric wrapping). For furoshiki, just make sure the edges are surged or sewn like a hem to prevent fraying. I've included several tutorials below for different bag types, as well as a furoshiki diagram. Oh, and as a tip, drawstring bags don't work well for bags with large openings; a ribbon tied a few inches down works lots better! Oh, and either of these are fabulous projects for teaching young children or teenagers or friends to sew. The only thing is that if you use these bags for giving gifts, don't expect them back... people really like them.

http://www.makingthishome.com/2008/12/03/easy-fabric-gift-bag-tutorial/

http://www.craftideas.info/html/christmas_bag_tutorial_b.html

http://www.queenoframbles.com/quilting/?p=76

http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2008/06/furoshiki-cooln.html

3. Make gift bows from old magazines or catalogues - Here's a tutorial on making bows from magazines, old maps, catalogues, etc. Great way to reuse something; easy to make, especially if you have a paper cutter.

4. If you are still really attached to normal wrapping paper, some ideas for reusing them, or using the little scraps that get left over, are: make a Christmas garland, decorate homemade Christmas cards, make Christmas ornaments or wreaths, or use them for paper mache. Even if you don't use wrapping paper, if other people send you something wrapped, use the leftover paper. I'll have more on this kind of stuff another time, with pictures. Here's a description of some different projects.

I hope these ideas are helpful. My favorite are the fabric bags, 'cause they make wrapping a breeze (even Santa loves borrowing ours, since he wants to save the planet too... the North Pole is getting too warm, right?) and, ultimately, they're an investment that pays off in the long run. I also made some we use for birthdays.

Halloween Part 2 - Carrot Leaf Cookies

This recipe can be adapted for any season, but this one here is for Halloween. We made something similar last Easter, and shaped the cookies like carrots and radishes. The ones we made today were shaped like leaves and "pumpkins" (aka circles).

Ingredients:

1 C butter, softened
1/2 C brown sugar
2 eggs
3 cups flour, white or wheat (plus some for rolling out dough)
1 t baking powder
3 med carrots or 4 small carrots, chopped into 1" sections
1/2 C applesauce
1/4 C water (approx.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add flour and baking soda and mix.

In a blender, blend carrots, applesauce and water (add only enough water to get the carrots completely chopped up). Blended mix should be between 2-3 cups.


Add carrot mixture to flour mixture.

Roll out dough to about 1/2" thick, using LOTS of flour so the dough doesn't stick. Cut into shapes.

Bake cookies about 20 min on ungreased cookie sheet, until just barely browning on the edges. Makes about 3 - 5 dozen, depending on the size you cut them. Healthier alternative to other cookies, and yummy to boot.

For different colors, use blended peas for green and strawberries for pink... play with it; it's fun. Just keep in mind that the color is severely diminished by baking.

Halloween Part 1 - Decorations

Here are two very inexpensive and fun looking Halloween decorations:

1. Silhouette paper bags

Materials: silhouette patterns*, brown lunch paper bags, pencil, permanent black marker, electric tea lights

Directions: Open paper bag; position silhouette pattern in the paper bag. Trace with a pencil. If you can't see the silhouette, hold the paper bad up against a window. Take out the pattern and fill in the pencil marks with black permanent marker. (If you're really confident, use the black marker from the get go.) Insert electric tea light (or two) and place along a walkway or on a porch or wherever.



2. Pumpkin Jars

Materials: Empty glass jars, tape and permanent markers, red and yellow (or orange) food coloring, water, flashlight

Directions: Using the black marker, Design a pumpkin type face on the outside of your glass jar (if you want the face to come off easily, put clear tape where the face is). Drop 3 drops yellow and 1 drop red food coloring in jar; fill with water and put lid on. Place a flashlight behind the jar. Or, if you have a set of them, white Christmas lights strung behind them would look cool, too.

Easy, fun to do with kids, inexpensive, and still festive.

Healthy, Frugal, Yummy Popsicles and Smoothies

In our house, popsicles are a major relief in the summer. But, I can't stand otterpops or other super sugary popsicles. My kids can, but I just can't even stand having them in the house. We've found a few healthy, yummy, non-sugar laden options at local stores. They're pretty expensive, though.

I also hate wasting those little bits of fruit that just barely don't get consumed or have a slight bruise, etc.

This is why I love, love, love home popsicle molds. (Though you don't actually need them, as shown in this blog - look at the "For a Popsicle" post). And ice cube trays. And my freezer. Here's how I make my favorite summer treat -

Pre-popsicle time:

Whenever cutting/preparing/throwing away fruit, keep a freezer safe container ready. Put in slightly bruised portions, all you can get from fruits that have begun to dehydrate, strawberry tops (leaves haven't poisoned us yet), etc. I even put in leftover bits of fruit that my kids don't finish, since it will be in the freezer and bacteria won't be able to grow. Just don't put anything super slimy or covered in mold... that stuff is good for compost.


Keep the freezer safe bowl with fruit in the freezer until you have enough for or are ready to make popsicles. And make sure you remember where it is, 'cause you don't want freezer burned fruit.


Day of Directions: (basically, making a fruit smoothie)

Frozen fruit bits
Juice/milk/soymilk
popsicle mold or cups/popsicle sticks
Blender
empty Ice Cube Tray (if you have extra)

Put frozen fruit in blender. Add sufficient liquid so the fruit blends. Pour into molds, and stick molds in freezer. If there is leftover, pour into ice cube tray to use for smoothies (sorry for the ugly pic... I had just used ours up, and this at least illustrates the point).


Just wait a few hours and there's yummy, fantastically healthy popsicles. I have yet to feel the need to add sugar to any of these; the variety of fruit seems to keep it from being too tart.


For smoothies - Well, either just use the popsicle mix as a smoothie (that's basically what it is). Or, for a creamy version, put the smoothie cubes from the ice tray in the blender and add juice and cream (I use soy cream, since I don't do much dairy), blend and enjoy. Super easy. And our popsicles and smoothies cost us almost nothing!