Summer lovin'

Summer is in full swing and of course we are just over the moon in love with it. Weather has been great, we've had just enough busy with lazy to make it all work.
It's been a while since I've shared some reviews so here goes:

(Blue items are links to check out products)

Sauve yes Sauve. I have to admit, I have always been a hair product snob. Well I've been reading alot about keratin treatment (which can be pretty expsenive) so when I saw a much cheaper and home version I figured what the heck. Being under 5$ helped as well. Wouldn't you know it, I love it and revisted some of the other hair products they have and again LOVE them. I have become a changed person in this area for sure.

Keratin








Cooking with Coconut Oil

I've been into using it since I read the Skinny Bitch books (I know horrible name but some good info on vegan living/cooking)
There are a ton of benefits to using it,

. I buy it at Wegmans in the organic section and use it in just about everything from sauteing, baking, salad dressings and more.
Melaleuca

In January, a friend of mine introduced me to a wonderful way to save money, clean better, feel better and more. At this point my house is fully switched over, from vitamins, cleaning products, sports health, bath items and makeup. I love that I order these items 1x a month online and in about 4 days they show up at my door. (I have been trying to cut down shopping trips and this helps for sure) Everything in in concentrate form so you use so much less and the product goes so far. Bonus for those that have pets and kids everything is so safe and pure you kids could actually drink them and not get hurt (I wouldn't suggest drinking floor cleaner though :)). Check out the site and if you'd like to hear more let me know.

That's it for now, stay tune to a a few recipes coming over the weekend.

We scream for ice cream

We are an ice cream house for sure. It is my surefire weakness. I can easily mange my weight if I back off the ice cream. And when I can't there are 2 sneakers or 2 wheels waiting for me in the garage to help burn it off.
About 5 years ago we bought an ice cream maker. To be honest we go in spurts of using it all the time and it collecting dust. At this time we are using it !!!

There are many kinds but this is the one we have and I LOVE it. We have an extra freezer bowl which isn't a must but helps if you want to make 2 flavors at a time.
A friend of mine shared a great vegan recipe (which helped to keep it a bit more belly friendly)Give it a whirl Mint Chocolate chip ice cream

It was well recieved as you can see.
Over the week we used the same base to make a berry and chocolate peanut butter version as well.
If you make ice cream what's your favorite recipe?

It's all in the presentation

Yesterday was such a lovely stay at home day. Phi had her last Saturday gymnastic class (we are moving to a weeknight next year) and then we puttered around the house getting lots of work done. Hopefully next weekend I'll have phots of our new pergola :) After some gardening, house work and swimming it was time for dinner. Well low and behold this week got the best of me and I had nothing planned. Thank goodness it's CSA time so I had plenty of freshness floating around. So we through together a big salad. Just perfect on a hot day. We eat alot of salad around here (shocker, I know). In conversation I often get asked what goes in to raising a vegetarian and honestly I am not an expert and when I have a q or wonder if I'm "meeting Phi's dietary needs". I look it up or check with my friends who are also making the same choices for their chidlren. But here's what works for us. PRESENTATION Check this pic~ Phi's "salad" and ours They both have the same things. Hers is just spread out to encourage picking.. I've seen a few different ideas that go along with this such as; place items in a muffin tin (cute shaped 1 from the dollar store) or in ice cube trays. So if you have a picker just go with it. What tricks do you use?

Mushie Magic

So we have been having fun with our berries making plenty of jam.This weekend we'll get out 1 more time and pick for freezing. With all this jam making, I forgot about a bowl of berries in the fridge, but have no fear, I try not to waste anything.... Along came my thought of trying to recreate the fruit explosion muffin at Timmy Ho's Try these an tell me what you think! On a side not sorry recipes have been so hard to read not sure what I did to make all my posts show up as 1 big blob. If you know feel free to share Strawberry, Blueberry rhubarb bomb Muffin batter 2.5 C flour about 3/4 applesauce 3 t baking powder (I like puffy, biscuitish muffins, use less if your taste is different) 1 C Almon milk with a tiny splash of apple cider vinegar 1 t salt 1/2 C sugar (I used this amount because I used my homemade applesauce which has maple sugar and brown sugar, but you can adjust at will) 1 (3.5oz) chobani berry blast yogurt 2 t vanilla extract 2.5 cups diced rhubarb 3 C strawberries/blueberries (or whatever you need to use up) 2 T honey Preheat oven to 425 Combine berries and honey in a small saucepan over a low heat. When berries being to break down, raise heat until they are fully mushy. (this by the way is great on pancakes if you run out of syrup or need a change) prep rhubarb into small diced pieces In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt In another bowl, whisk together applesauce and sugar until well combined add in yogurt, vanilla and almond milk Fold the wet mixture into the flour mixture. Then fold in rhubarb chunks. Don’t overmix. Fill muffin tins only 1/3 full with batter. Spoon about 1 T of strawberry mixture on top of batter in each cup, then add more batter mixture on top, filling the cups to 3/4 full. You may have extra strawberry mixture which is great to serve with or over ice cream or pancakes Bake for 12 minutes abotu. Muffins are done when tops are brown and toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. On another note looking forward to next week. We'll be off of school which means, more adventures, more sleep, more time, more life, more recipes... Can't wait. What are you waiting for these days?

Saved by Strawberries

Strawberries are just one of those things that signal summer has arrived! I have memories of picking with my mom and love that Phi enjoy's doing it with me. This year they came at just the right time. We had quite the night on Monday (Buttons were being pushed left and right) and for both Phi's sake and my own I needed to get us out of the house on Tuesday (which was also my Dad's birthday). Strawberry picking was just the thing we needed. It was rainny and a bit mucky but we donned our boots and headed to the farm to meet a friend and pick our cares away. An hour and 8 quarts later, we were pretty distracted and ready for a quite night. I'll use these for scones and cooking, homemade ice cream, jam and pies. This year we had a pretty good frost sweep in after an early warm spell so hopfully I'll be able to pick another 2 flats for freezing and jamming but we'll see how that goes. You had to know a recipe would be coming up :) If you've never made scones, I highly suggest them. They are pretty easy to toss together, are great for breakfast or after dinner with tea. Strawberry Scones Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tbsp. baking powder 1/3 cup maple sugar 1 t Penzey's cake spice pinch of salt 1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes 1/4 almong milk 3/4 cup Greek yogurt 1. Preheat oven to 400. In a mixer, combine all dry ingredients on low speed. With mixer running, gradually add cubes of butter until the mixture is crumbly. 2. Add strawberries, almond milk, and yogurt. Mix until all ingredients mixxed anf dough is stiff. 3. Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface. Pat dough into a 1-inch-thick rectangle Cut in half down the long side and then into thirds down the short side. Cut each square into triangles for 12 scones. 4. I put a little egg wash on them and sprinkled with coarse sugar baked for about 15-20 minutes till nice and golden. I made a simple glaze with akmond milk, powder sugar and almond flavor to strip on the top. Enjoy. How do you enjoy your berries?

Looking forward

Found this old post sitting on the shelf It was neat to see where I was last year and to try to figure out why I never actually hit send to put this on the blog :) It's been awhile, I know and Frankly its been because I could not have asked for a nicer summer. It was just lovely to have so many Serendipous moments with Sophia and a few planned ones in thrown in. It's odd I can't say we "did" a lot but we sure were busy. July was almost 2 weeks in Florida and then we came home only to head up to the beach for a week of no phones, laptops or TV (can't wait till next year).

The sun has been generous so much that we have over flowing bowls of CSA share veggies and fruits through out the kitchen and even as I write this and the sun has yet to make an appearence today and that's ok, it's time for crisp mornings and over night apple sauce and casserole's and soup, sweater's and leggings, crunchy walks and feeding squirels, Apple picking, pumpkin picking, oh I could go on and on. One of the many things I love about where we live. Every season brings new adventures and happenings. The key even in long snowy winters and rainy springs, get out and do something.. Run, ski, bike, walk, festival or whatever just keep moving.
Since I am so in love with fall, I thought I would share some other loves that are in my life as of now.

Fresh Tomato Sauce, squeezed in my own hands

Fresh picked Blueberries, yeilding morning muffins

Oven Roasted Potatoes with malt vinegare

Cleansing oil

MAC studio fix powder
There really are so many things right now I'm kind of fixxed on. So for now we'll leave it there. That was September! It was nice to look back and see how wonderful summer was, it gives me more joy to know that in just a few short days it will be here again. What does your summer have in store? Do you change your day to day to reflect a slower pace? Any thing on the summer bucket list?

Over due and ready

It's been almost over a year since I've last posted. I have wrestled with continuing to blog or not. Part of me feels that it is a self indulgient thing and in the grand scheme of life who really wants to know what I ate, cooked, read, wore, did, went and so on... Another part of me likes the idea of a somewhat "safe place" to put thoughts down get feedback and share with others. So as of this week I am going to try to post 1-2x a week and go from there. Hoping for a feeling one way of the other. A lot has happened in that time so there are many posts on the drawing board, STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a glimpse: Strawberry scones A new training schedule for the NF half marathon Summer Testing toddler CSA recipes Product review Sewing fun It's a long list.... Looking forward to being back, see you very soon