Halloween

As a family, while we don't really "celebrate" Halloween, we do love to have the kiddos dressed up for the occasion! In years past, we've done themes like Shrek and Fiona and The Incredibles...but this year, each one wanted their own thing, so we went with it. Granted, up until a week ago, Sophia was still changing her mind, but after going from fairy to building to builder to finally bumble bee I told her she needed to make up her mind and keep one thing as we were getting down to the wire. She stuck with bumble bee and what a cutie she was!

This afternoon,  a local NYC church, MSNY, was having a Fall Festival. We've gone the past 3 years and each year is lots of fun. This is usually the extent of our Halloween celebrating. This year was just as fun!

Our Bumble Bee, Dinosaur and Duck all had a good time, although the Duck didn't do much more than observe.

Here are a few shots of their costumes. Unfortunately, I have none of the Festival...silly me forgot my camera :)

and....just because he's THAT silly...Nico tried on Lucas' costume! :)

snow in october?!?!

The kids were super excited about the snow that fell all day today! Hubby and I on the other hand felt a bit blue about it...think we're still trying to recover from last year's 70+ inches of snow...or maybe it was 60+...regardless, it was too much snow! And falling 3 times in the snow, when 9 months pregnant kind of made me not as excited to see it today...but...watching the kids play in it this afternoon sure was fun!

hightlight

This week's highlight has to have been last night. I've recently realized how important quality time is to my 5 1/2 yr old daughter. It's definitely on the top of her love language list. If you're not familiar with the 5 Love Languages, I highly recommend the following books: The 5 Love Languages and The 5 Love Languages of Children. I've always tried to have quality time with her, but it's so obvious how much more she needs it now that school is in session.

So I'm trying to carve out time after homework for us to do something special together. It can get challenging with a jealous almost 3 yr old who has had mami all day and thinks he still should get undivided attention, plus there's dinner and that crazy time between 5-7 anyway...but we've managed to make it happen this week and it's been so great!

I mentioned in last week's highlight that I made a Fall Wreath with a dear friend. When Sophia saw it, she told me (as I suspected she would) that she really wanted to make one too!

So last night, even though I had another craft in mind, we made a makeshift one for her to put by her bed. It actually turned out pretty cute and was completely designed by her.

I loved our time together doing that hands-on project cause it allowed for her to talk to me freely...something I treasure! It was definitely the highlight of my week and probably the best part of my day. Looking forward to more and more crafts and baking opportunities with her!

Here she is with her wreath!

How was your week?

sourdough bread victory!!

When this journey started in the summer, my goal was to make all my family's sandwich bread and reduce our sugar intake. Obviously we've done much more than that, but I've been so disappointed with the options for sourdough bread and using it for sandwich bread. No one wanted to eat it and after it had cooled off, melted butter and honey just didn't make it that appealing to me...so I would freeze 1/2 eaten loaf after loaf. I was discouraged but I kept trying different recipes hoping that one wouldn't be so dense and as days passed, crumbly. I thought maybe it was just me and my lack of bread-making skills, but as I did research and talked to others, that was just how traditional style sourdough bread was, when only natural yeast was used. I finally decided that I would just continue to use the English Muffin recipe that I'd found and everyone loved. That would work. Hubby enjoyed his sandwiches on them and they are so easy to make.

I also had been tweaking an artisan bread recipe that I started making soon after beginning our sourdough journey. It was nice to have with dinner a couple of times a week and that too made English muffins.

But while Id' found solutions, I wasn't happy yet. I really wanted a more fluffy, soft and yummy bread recipe that wasn't full of processing and had nutrition and wholesome goodness in it...

I began to play around with my artisan bread. The recipe I follow from GNOWFGLINS e-course calls for a wetter, dough but I decided to make it a bit stiffer to see what happened and everyone loved the results more! Last week, I decided that since we really enjoyed this new version of the artisan bread so much, maybe I could pop it in a loaf pan and see what happened...so that's what I did last night and I am SO pleased with my VICTORY!! I got exactly what I wanted..fluffy, soft bread full of nutrition and wholesome goodness! I'm so flipping excited about it too!!!

Here's what I did.

In a gallon bucket with lid I mixed the following:
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter (in active, bubbly state)
3 cups water
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
5-6 cups of whole wheat white flour

When everything is mixed, I make sure that I have enough flour in it to go beyond wet dough state into a more stiff dough that I can barely stir. I cover this loosely with the lid and let it sit out at room temp for 4-6 hours. From there I will either bake bread or pop the bucket in the fridge for later use. I've found that my artisan dough lasts about 5-6 days in the fridge. Another thing I love about artisan bread!

When I want to make a loaf of bread, I heavily grease my loaf pan with butter or palm shortening. The more grease, the crispier the outside of the loaf will be! I heat my oven to 450 degrees for about 30 minutes to make sure it's nice and hot. While the oven is heating up, I put my dough in the loaf pan and let it sit on top of the oven to give it extra rise. Don't expect to notice any rise though. Bake in oven at 450 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until done. I know it's done by the smell in my kitchen and by tapping on the top of the loaf.  Because the artisan bread has no where to  go but up, it rises in the oven! I seriously cannot convey to you how pleased and excited discovering this makes me!! I'm almost tempted to make this my "highlight" post of the week, but I'll refrain! :)

Just look at how yummy that looks! 

This bucket  batch will make 2 loaf pans of bread and 1 free-form loaf.

This post has been shared with Fight Back Fridays

Enjoy! :)

meatloaf

If you're anything like me, the title of this post doesn't appeal to you at all! I completely understand as most of the time, I completely shudder at the idea of meatloaf. Honestly when we got married, I think I vowed to never make it - that's how fond of it I am...but here we are 9 1/2 years later and I confess, I made it.

Since we made the switch this summer to only buying grass-fed beef and pastured, cage-free chicken, I've been buying a lot more ground beef...because let's face it, organic, grass-fed beef at Whole Foods is not cheap. I can get my ground beef for a very reasonable price with our farmer, so we do buy a lot more than I ever have in the past. So, one must get creative with how to eat it, right? And in my desire to eat something other than meatballs, I caved and made the meatloaf last night.

And...I must say, it was really tasty! I just kinda made it up as I went. I definitely didn't want to put ketchup in my meatloaf (one of the reasons I vowed never to make it) but I did allow tomato paste...I apologize for no picture...I actually wasn't planning on sharing the recipe but since it was so good, now I feel compelled :)

Meatloaf
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
2 eggs
2 tbsp organic tomato paste
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper and cumin
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp butter 
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 cup bread crumbs



Preparation:
I blended the onion and the garlic in my food processor. It's the only way I can sneak the onions by Sophia these days and so far so good! Over medium heat, melt butter and saute onion and garlic mixture. While that's sauteing, mix 2 eggs in to your beef. I used my hands...think it's a must with meatloaf, no? Add sauteed onion/garlic mixture and rest of ingredients. For my bread crumbs I just used sourdough bread I'd frozen. Mix together until all very well combined. Put in greased loaf pan.
Before putting in oven: Top with 1 tbsp organic tomato paste that's been mixed with 1 tsp water. Cover entire loaf and cook for 1 hour or until done at 350 degrees. I actually cooked at 350 degrees for an hour and then turned the oven to warm (which is 150 degrees on my oven) and left it there until dinner, which was another hour later.

Everyone enjoyed it and between last night and today's lunch, it's all gone! I even enjoyed it cold this morning as a snack with Nico!

What's your favorite way to eat ground beef?

praying for our kids

I remember right after I found out I was pregnant with Sophia, I had this moment on the way to work where I realized what a huge and wonderful journey on which we were about to embark. Obviously I already knew it, but that day it hit me and overwhelmed me. It was also when I realized we were way over our heads already and I was barely pregnant. I realized that it was our job to make this baby a successful contributor to society. That was an amazing amount of pressure and I felt the weight of that. Thankfully, I knew that we have a God that is greater than my fear of ruining my children and I started praying for our baby-to-be.

It wasn't until she was close to turning one that I realized how important specific prayers for and over her life were. I call her my "best girl" and that she is! She is such a wonderful blessing and gift to our family. She has spunk, a heart of gold and loves to love people. But she's also probably been my greatest challenge as a mother. I used to jokingly refer to her as my "high maintenance baby" because she did enjoy crying (she still does) and has quite the knack for drama. Suffice to say, she definitely keeps us on our toes!

A mother's love runs so deep. I don't think I ever would have imagined how much I could love my kiddos, but even then, I'm only human and sometimes, in my frustration or despair, I fail to see through the behavior to what the root of the problem is and just see the horrible situation in front of me. How I long to see my children through the eyes of God. I want to see them the way he sees them and I know that praying specific prayers for them will definitely help me do that.

So starting today and each Wednesday, I will be sharing a specific prayer I will be praying for all 3 of my kiddos that you too can pray for your children as well. I'm starting with some prayer sheets that my mom gave me oh-so-long ago from "Mom's in Touch International" The prayers on these sheets are specific scripture prayers which I love.

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12


This guide from Moms In Touch suggests adding your child's name to the scripture verse. I encourage you to do this for your child. I know that when I've done it, it's made such a difference for me as a mother. I'm so excited to do this again with all three!


Week 1

Prayer for them to heed instruction:

I will instruct ______  (says the Lord) and guide him/her along the best pathway for his/her life; I will advise and watch his/her progress. Psalm 32:8 (TLB)

"why?"

Since he was a little guy, Nicholas has been very curious about his surroundings and very observant as he takes it all in. He saw things at such a young age that his older sister never took the time to stop and notice. It's been fun seeing life through his eyes because he notices so much!

So, it really shouldn't come as any surprise that he is now asking "why?" for absolutely everything! Since Sophia really never did this, I'm learning that coming up with answers to the "why?" questions can require a lot of creativity!  Most of the time, he's not happy with my first, second, third or fourth answer. Each answer gets the same response, "why?" and each time I rack my brain trying to figure out another way to explain to him why Lucas needs a nap because he's sleepy, because he woke up early, because he didn't sleep well last night, because babies need more sleep than bigger kids, because because because....And...if he thinks he's not getting a straight answer from you, he'll call you on it! "Mami," he exclaims in frustration, "you have to tell me!" :)

He is so much fun and such a joy to hang out with each day. And what a challenge too...he's definitely making me think outside the box and come up with the BEST answer so that his curiosity is appeased.

So thankful for my Nico!

the easiest granola you'll ever make!

I love this granola recipe! It's so easy that I don't need more than 15 minutes from start of recipe to putting it in a bowl to eat with milk or kefir! This is also the only cereal I allow in the house these days, so we try to make it fairly often as Nicholas is a cereal-lover!

This was adapted from a recipe I found earlier in the spring. I do have to admit that with my love for all things peanut butter, this is so delicious! But if you prefer not to have peanut butter in yours, it's easy to substitute with all butter instead.

Here you go:

Homemade Peanut Butter Granola
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup milled flax seed
3 cups organic rolled oats

Melt butter and peanut butter on stove. When just melted, add salt and honey. Stir well and take off heat. Add the flax seed and rolled oats. Stir until well combined and all coated.

Place on cookie sheet and stick in 275 degree oven for 10 minutes. Stir when time is up and allow to cool or put it in a bowl and enjoy!

milestones

With three kids, I've seen how much things can differ with each one. Each pregnancy had its differences, both big and small, each labor and delivery and each child as well. So it's safe to assume that each kid will reach milestones at a different time. I know that. I've witnessed it. But, I have to confess that when the milestone is reached, there is a sense of triumph and relief. I find myself fighting back my competitive side when I talk to moms of other kids the same age as mine. I don't want to compare or boast and I surely don't want to feel like my kid is lagging behind...I'm just being honest.

Each of my kids has been so different but each has successfully achieved everything on the list so far...so I know I need to just sit back and relax, but it's hard...it's hard not to worry that something might be wrong when your almost 8 month old isn't fully sitting up by himself yet, hates tummy time and while he can roll over perfectly fine, prefers to just lay on his back unless it's necessary to roll.

I'll admit, I was starting to fret. Maybe something was wrong. Maybe I wasn't spending enough time with him encouraging these motor skills. Maybe his brother and sister were overwhelming him too much for him to feel the freedom and independence to explore his world. What if he didn't achieve these milestones? Can you tell it's hard for me to sit back and just let it go?

Of course deep down, I knew he'd get there, but this morning when he pushed himself off the pillow he was leaning on to sit up by himself, I was relieved and oh-so-very excited!! I might be talking about how I was fretting, but honestly, more than that, I was just so happy that he'd finally decided to do it by himself! There's nothing better than seeing your kids spread their wings a little!

He's pretty proud of himself too and sat contentedly this evening just playing quietly, back straight, legs separated just enough to keep his balance and catching himself when he started to lean to either the left or the right.

Little Lucas... this is just the beginning! You bring such joy to our hearts. Your huge, heart-engulfing smile always makes my day brighter and today, Mami is so proud of your accomplishment! Way to go, little guy! We love you!

 

My challenge - No more microwave!

So, for the past year or so, each and every time I use the microwave, I feel guilty. EACH AND EVERY TIME. But has that stopped me? No. It's just so convenient and way too easy to pop whatever into the microwave to heat it up or defrost it quickly. I use the microwave more than 10 times per day, I'm sure of it. So as you can see, that's a lot of guilt! I know that using this appliance to heat my food is not only killing nutrients, but also changing the chemical structure of my food by the way it heats. It's bad. So very very bad for my family!

I need to take the plunge. I need to commit to not using my microwave any more. Goodness knows I could do with less guilt in my life!

So here's my challenge: (and I would love you to join me cause I think I might need some support on this one!)

I will use baby steps because there's no way I will survive just going cold turkey. No way. But for the next week, I promise to not put anything plastic in the microwave, ok? That seems easy enough. Once I get used to that, I promise to take a bigger step! Promise! But you might have to hold my hand a little bit...I'm going to have a hard time letting go.

Ok...baby steps. I can do this. Will you please, pretty please, join me? Think how much healthier you'll be! :)

More info on the dangers of microwave ovens here. I'd love to hear if you've taken the plunge with me!

This post has been shared on Fight Back Friday.

Highlights

I think the tradition started when I was 7 years old. We were getting ready to move overseas and life all around us was changing drastically. My parents started a routine with us at bedtime that lasted through our childhood and I loved. Each night when they tucked us in, they asked us two questions: "What was the best part of your day?" and "What was the worst part of your day?"

It was such a great way to share special moments and rough times with my parents and often I would think early in the day what I wanted to share that night when it was just us...this is something I really want to do with our kids and have started a bit with Sophia.

I'd kinda like to do that here on the blog, each Friday. It's so easy to not appreciate the "best" parts of the week or the highlights and so I want to pause each Friday and do just that. There are several this week...I apologize...and promise I will try to keep it to one or two things each Friday so that the post isn't a book in length :)

But for this week, there was so much going on, so I have several to share. Thanks in advance for reading...

First off, we all took a trip out to Pennsylvania last Saturday and went pumpkin picking. It's becoming a yearly tradition and gets more and more fun as the kids get older and remember years past. It was so windy and chilly, but so much fun to choose which pumpkins would be the ones we'd carve and enjoy the fun with the kids.

Here are some of the pictures of our fun:

Of course, that evening, after Lucas went to sleep, we just had to carve the pumpkins :) The kids had a blast watching Mami and Papi carve out eyes, noses and mouths for them!

Tuesday, Hubby was off from work, so we took a trip to IKEA to buy Lucas a new high chair. The best part about the IKEA by us is that it's right across the interstate from Newark International Airport and like any little boy, Nicholas loves all planes, trains and automobiles. His fascination is adorable. We took a moment to watch them fly in and out of the airport.

My final highlight of this week was some sweet moments with a friend this morning. We got in the car after dropping Sophia off at school and heading over for a playdate. While the kiddos played, the mommies made Fall Wreaths. Mine is already hanging happily and Nicholas keeps praising my efforts :) I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and look forward to another crafty adventure soon! :)

Happy Friday! I hope you've had a great week!

circle time

Circle Time officially started today at our house! I've wanted to do circle time for a few weeks now in our home after reading and hearing about how many homeschooling moms do it with their younger kids, but something always distracted me in the mornings or we had some place to be and it just hasn't happened. I'm relieved that it finally started today. (Sophia didn't have school either, so it was fun to have her join us as well!)

We started simple. I didn't want to overwhelm, especially my almost 3 yr old. Last week, I found free ABC Scripture Memory Cards I downloaded. You can find them here. They are great! Super colorful and easy enough for little ones to learn and memorize as well.

We started reading our favorite Bible - The Jesus Storybook Book This is the best Bible for Kids!! Jesus is interwoven into every story from Creation through the New Testament and it is so creative in the way that it speaks to the kids. I'll be honest. I've learned things from this Children's Bible before! :)

After reading the Bible, we started our memorization. Today and for the rest of this week, we focused on A - "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15

Sophia loved it!  She was thrilled to learn it and she learned it so quickly! Nicholas was a bit more resistant, but I got him to repeat the verse a few times and he definitely got the first part down ("As for me an my house").

After our Scripture memorization, we moved on to going over creation (that we'd started talking about in the Bible story) with our Children's Bible Ultimate Sticker Collection Book. We put stickers by the days of creation and talked about what God had made and how all that he made "was good"

We finished with prayer. It lasted probably 15-20 minutes tops and it was plenty for our first day. Nicholas was not too sure he wanted to participate but Sophia ate it up and begged me for more activities once we were done with our circle so we moved on to an ABC matching game and she has been in the kitchen making crafts the rest of the day. I definitely loved that we did it and loved how it drastically changed the day's dynamics! Can't wait to keep doing it!

How do you take moments to teach your kids?

kefir...why I prefer it over yogurt

As you've seen from previous posts, I do enjoy making homemade yogurt. It's easy, tasty and hubby and the kids really enjoy it. The benefits of yogurt are great! Yogurt is full of protein, vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin BG12, potassium, riboflavin, iodine, zinc, and phosphorous...great stuff!! I'm all for eating yogurt!

Then I discovered kefir. Kefir is available in dairy and water forms. We used to love to buy kefir from Trader Joe's and when I discovered I could make it at home for so much cheaper and without the added sugar, I was so excited to get my hands on some! The biggest difference between yogurt and kefir is that kefir has both bacteria and yeast, which makes the kefir grains a blob. But get this...yogurt contains about 3-5 strains of healthy bacteria. Kefir on the other hand contains over 50 strands!! 50 strands of healthy probiotic bacteria to give me a healthy gut? Um....yes please!! 


But, I think my favorite thing about kefir is that I can keep it raw. Granted, I could make raw yogurt, but I just honestly don't feel like it when I know that my kefir is raw and so easy to do! The kids aren't super fond of the fizzy, effervescent and tangy flavor of kefir, but I can easily sneak it into smoothies, chocolate milk and other raw treats and they have no idea! And I know I'm silly, but as we drink it down, I imagine all those beautiful probiotics coating our bellies and bringing us better health! :) 


Things to note about kefir:
*it's best to use raw milk (in my opinion its always best to use it, for everything) See my post on raw milk. Part 2 coming soon...
*Ultra pasteurized milk does not work with kefir so if you prefer to not use raw milk, please choose a milk that hasn't been ultra pasteurized. Obviously organic is best 
*I would also recommend whole milk. The less fat, the runnier and less tasty it will be. Plus...full fat milk is so much better for you!



My kefir grains were given to me by a wonderful friend and while I've shared mine as well, because they multiply as they ferment, I currently have more grains than I need. I'd be more than happy to share my grains with anyone, anywhere...if you life in the NYC area, I'd be happy to arrange something and if you live elsewhere, I'm happy to ship them to you. I'd just ask that you cover shipping costs.

**if you are interested in some dairy kefir grains, please contact me and we'll arrange it!

kids are saying no to junk food?

Tuesday, Hubby got home from a week-long trip to California. He brought back t-shirts and skittles...I was a little hesitant about the candy as I've worked really hard to get rid of those things in their diets, but agreed with hubby that it was a special treat and the first time in a long time. I took both bags and wrote their names on them and then told them that they could each have 5 skittles at a time. We'd eat them slowly, enjoy them, and not scarf them down. They were totally fine with it. I gave them 5 each and that was that. It's been 3 days and only once has Nicholas remembered he has candy and asked for it. What a change from a couple of months ago!!

The next day, on the way home from our church's community group, we stopped at Trader Joe's to get something for dinner and I grabbed a total impulse buy (something I rarely do these days). I shared with the kids and hubby when I got back to the car.  Each had a couple of bites from their chocolate covered potato chips (honestly I have no idea why I grabbed them as I have completely eliminated things like that from all our diets) and then handed them back, telling me it was too sweet and they didn't want any more.

Knowing that their taste buds have changed make me so incredibly happy! And accomplished. Not only that, but both hubby and I also felt like gagging on the super sweet treat too.

And, instead of feeling sick on something we know probably isn't the best for us, all four of us just put it back and were done with it. I think that has to be one of the highlights of my week...with me, it's the little things :)


This post has been shared on Fight Back Fridays

Fight Back Fridays: Applesauce

Today I'm linking up to a great blog Food Renegade in a series called "Fight Back Fridays" 
I have found so many helpful tips, recipes, articles and blogs through this series and decided today was the day to link up...Check out the blog! And happy reading!

Homemade Applesauce


So I have a bushel of apples. The cooking began today. I love making applesauce. I love it for several reasons and here are a few: I know exactly where my apples came from, I control what goes in them and honestly it just tastes so much better than store bought ever will.

Normally for hubby, I'll add a bit of sugar and lime to the applesauce. That's how his mama makes it and I must agree, it's super tasty that way. But this year, I decided to try something new.

I peeled and cored around 20 apples and put them in a pan with a stick of cinnamon and maybe 1/2 cup of water. We got maybe 5-6 different varieties on Saturday but by far my favorites were the ginger gold. I'd never tasted this type of apple before but man oh man, I can't wait to make a pie with them. The perfect combination of sweet and tart! So yummy! So I threw in maybe 5-7 of those and then added an assortment of the other varieties as well. I think this added just a nice flavor to the end result.

I turned the pot to low heat and just let them simmer.

 

I think I got them on the stove around 9 and didn't turn off the heat until 2:30.  The act of just letting them bubble and lightly boil broke them down so that I didn't have to mash them hardly at all. As I stirred, they would continue to break down and very quickly I got a nice consistency. It took a few of those hours for all the apples to be completely soft and I ended up mashing a few of them at the end, but I left it a bit chunky. The texture was perfect! I probably added a total of 2-3 cups of water as the morning progressed but never more than 1/2 cup at a time (sometimes less) and just continued to stir it every 10 minutes or so. The flavors of the apples and the cinnamon just marinated over the hours and brought out that sweet but tart flavor we all enjoy when we add sugar and lime. I was so pleased with the end result! The kids (all 3 of them) loved it! Lucas even had 2 bowls of it for lunch! 

After all the snacking on it this afternoon, I only ended up with a little less than 2 quarts but for a first batch, that's ok. Can't wait to share some with hubby tomorrow when he gets home!

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10 things to do with all those apples

If I have to choose between cooking and baking, I will always choose baking! There's just something so warm and comforting about filling the house with the sweet or savory aroma of baked goods! Fall is especially fun for me because I love pumpkins and I love apples! The smells are wonderful! :)

So...here's what I'm going to do with my apples in the next few days/weeks.

1. Applesauce. Everyone in our family loves applesauce and while I've recently discovered that my two little guys will eat it raw, I do plan on making a big batch of cooked applesauce. And probably half of that will get eaten right away and the other half will be canned for later.

2.  I found a recipe for Applesauce Bread here that I'll definitely be making this week. This sounds great plain, with butter and even with peanut butter! Think my kiddos will enjoy this for breakfast, too!

3. A friend shared this recipe for Apple Cheesecake with me last year but I never got around to making it...might just have to try it this year but first I'll need to make some cream cheese. :)

4.  If I don't make this now, it's definitely getting made at Thanksgiving! Cranberry, Apple & Walnut Cake

5. I plan on peeling and slicing some of my apples to freeze for later, winter baking.

6. Apple Chips. These were actually requested by Sophia. I love when the kids ask for healthy snacks! I actually finished my first batch this evening.. I took the peels from the apples I used for applesauce and made them into chips. (I just made them a little thicker than I normally would when peeling so that there would be some meat with the peel as well) Always looking to use as much or all of the food item that I possibly can and this worked out well. Sophia was munching on them all afternoon! :)

7. Hubby's favorite: Apple Pie. I make everything from scratch so I'm super excited to have found a new whole wheat dough recipe that will be perfect for my crust.

8. Grain-free Apple Flax Muffins

9. Eat them fresh! This probably goes without saying, but we'll definitely be enjoying these as snacks with peanut butter or yogurt and for lunches. My kids LOVE apples! I do think it's the one fruit they are always asking for!

10. Apple Squares - found these today and think they would be easy enough to definitely make a double batch and freeze!  

If you have lots of apples..what are you cooking up?

in the kitchen: applesauce

So I have a bushel of apples. The cooking began today. I love making applesauce. I love it for several reasons and here are a few: I know exactly where my apples came from, I control what goes in them and honestly it just takes so much better than store bought ever will.

Normally for hubby, I'll add a bit of sugar and lime to the applesauce. That's how his mama makes it and I must agree, it's super tasty that way. But this year, I decided to try something new.

I peeled and cored around 20 apples and put them in a pan with a stick of cinnamon and maybe 1/2 cup of water. We got maybe 5-6 different varieties on Saturday but by far my favorites were the ginger gold. I'd never tasted this type of apple before but man oh man, I can't wait to make a pie with them. The perfect combination of sweet and tart! So yummy! So I threw in maybe 5-7 of those and then added an assortment of the other varieties as well. I think this added just a nice flavor to the end result.

I turned the pot to low heat and just let them simmer.

 

I think I got them on the stove around 9 and didn't turn off the heat until 2:30.  The act of just letting them bubble and lightly boil broke them down so that I didn't have to mash them hardly at all. As I stirred, they would continue to break down and very quickly I got a nice consistency. It took a few of those hours for all the apples to be completely soft and I ended up mashing a few of them at the end, but I left it a bit chunky. The texture was perfect! I probably added a total of 2-3 cups of water as the morning progressed but never more than 1/2 cup at a time (sometimes less) and just continued to stir it every 10 minutes or so. The flavors of the apples and the cinnamon just marinated over the hours and brought out that sweet but tart flavor we all enjoy when we add sugar and lime. I was so pleased with the end result! The kids (all 3 of them) loved it! Lucas even had 2 bowls of it for lunch! 

After all the snacking on it this afternoon, I only ended up with a little less than 2 quarts but for a first batch, that's ok. Can't wait to share some with hubby tomorrow when he gets home!

apple picking!

Apple Picking!! Nothing says Fall to me more than apple and pumpkin picking! This has become more and more fun as the kids get older and get excited about doing it as well! Yesterday our church went apple picking (a yearly tradition) and we happily joined in the fun for the 2nd year in a row! Such fun. The only person missing was hubby. We were so bummed he wasn't able to be there, but he's in California for work through Tuesday. Alas...we'll go pumpkin picking with him! The only other downer was that it was 80 degrees! To me, it's just not Fall or apple picking season if we're all sweating :) But again...not much we could do about it.

We had lots of fun and brought home 2 bushels of apples between my parents and me. The best part about it was picking apples with people we love like family! Love our community! And thank you all for your help with our kiddos! They love you!
Here are a few pictures from our day. Let the apple baking begin!