Rainy Day Blogging, a Yummy Granola Recipe, and Lots and Lots of Laundry

Spring is 3 days away.  Last weekend, it was 70 degrees in Pittsburgh.  Max and I went to the park for a walk and then even hauled the pack and play out on to the deck to enjoy some fresh air with Homer while my husband went golfing.  Today it is 30 degrees out, it is rainy and icy, and miserable.  So, even though last weekend we were so hopeful that spring was just around the corner that we went ahead and bought a jogging stroller... Today, Max, Homer, and myself are stuck inside, and sadly, I am a slave to the loads and loads of laundry that never seem to end in this house.  Did I mention how much I HATE doing laundry? I can't even blame all of the dirty clothes on the baby, because the truth of the matter is, I was buried in laundry long before he even came along.  I shudder to think of bad it will get when more children come along.
I decided to take a short break from the folding, and nursing, and book reading, and playtime this afternoon to whip up a quick batch of these Pumpkin Granola Bars. I first tested this recipe, that I found on Pinterest of course, last week.  My husband raved about how good they were.  Granola is so easy to make, that it truly pains me to buy bars in the store at this point.  They are over priced, and most of the time I can't even pronounce half of the ingredients. So... Since we liked this recipe so much, I made it again and decided I had to share.  I plan on making it about a million more times and even experimenting with some of the ingredients. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Foodie Penpals... AKA the coolest idea EVER!

Recently while reading a recipe on one of my favorite blogs, The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood, I stumbled upon one of the coolest ideas I have ever heard of! It's called Foodie Penpals, and you can find all of the info about it here.  In a nut shell, what it is, is an awesome way for foodies all over the country, and beyond, to share the foods they love with other foodies.  You sign up, and then you receive an email with your pen pal assignment. It is then your responsibility to get in touch with this person, to get their mailing address and other info, like if they have any food allergies and what some things they like, or don't like, are.  Then comes the fun part.  You get a $15 spending limit to go buy a bunch of fun items for your Foodie Penpal to try!!! You also have to include one handwritten item in your package.  It can be a recipe, or a card explaining the items you chose... whatever you want to add, as long as it's handwritten. After all of that, you stick it in the mail, and wait for your own goodies to arrive!
Now, a part of this whole process is that if you have a blog, you wait until a specified date to go on your blog and post about what you received from your pen pal.  You DO NOT have to have a blog to participate though.  So... For the sake of not revealing too much before I am technically allowed to, I will leave you all waiting with baited breath, until April 1st... Stay tuned, on that day I will post much more about all of this.  I am so excited!!!

Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup... And a Recipe for Baby Too!

I've been on a bit of a soup kick lately.  I'm not sure if it's this time of year, or the fact that I love how satisfying it is to smell a pot of soup simmering on the stovetop, all the while knowing that I will be happily eating the leftovers for days to come.  I decided to take a more exotic route with the soup I made yesterday, and man did it pay off!  This carrot ginger coconut soup is just so delicious and easy to make, that I had to share.  Personally, I think it is enjoyed best with a nice big glass of prosecco... cheers!

Ingredients:

6 carrots, peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
1 tbs curry powder
1 tbs minced fresh ginger
1, 14 ounce can coconut milk
3 cups vegetable stock
2 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper

Over medium heat, in a large pot, saute onions, carrots, and ginger  in olive oil until onions become translucent.  Then add vegetable stock and curry powder, as well as salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to simmer about 20-25 minutes, or until carrots are tender.  Turn off heat, and let cool a bit.  Add can of coconut milk, then puree in food processor, blender, or with immersion blender.  Enjoy!

And... because Max needs to eat too, and I like to use what we have on hand, I whipped him up a batch of strawberry banana basil baby food.  Here is the recipe for that.

Ingredients:

1 pint of strawberries, hulled and sliced

2 bananas sliced

2-3 fresh basil leaves

Now, I have a Beaba baby food maker, but this recipe could just as easily be made on the stove top and with a blender or food processor.  Basically, you just want to steam the ingredients until they are soft, then puree them to the desired consistency for baby!  I got 7 large servings out of this.

A Healthy "kozy" Dessert on a Snowy Day

A winter storm passed through Pittsburgh yesterday. It was lovely to watch the big flakes fall from the sky, and it covered the ground in a beautiful, glistening white blanket of snow.  What was not so beautiful, was being shaken from a peaceful slumber at 6:00 AM by the sound  of a tree gently falling across our yard, landing on our deck, and taking out our power and cable lines. Our power was instantly knocked out, and when you live in a house that gets its water from a well, and runs off old fashioned radiator heating, no power also means no pump to bring the water from the well into the house, and without water... No heat! 
Now that I have taken on the role of a stay-at-home mama, I have come to enjoy and appreciate a good snow storm.  There is something sweet and cozy about being trapped inside a warm house with a snugly baby and a hot cup of coffee  while knowing you don't have to trudge out in horrendous weather to be anywhere... So this occurrence was not exactly ideal. Thankfully, there was no damage to our house, and we were all perfectly okay.
Luckily, the electric company was able to restore the power within a few hours, and all was well again... As soon as I made myself a nice, hot vanilla latte.

When it is cold outside and warm inside, I crave comfort food.  However, having given up sweets for Lent, and because we are trying to eat healthy right now, this posed quite the challenge.  I was trying to think of something dessert-like, that wouldn't exactly be considered a sweet, and was somewhat healthy.  I did a quick scan of the items we had in the house, and came up with this delicious, healthful treat... That I swear tastes like apple pie!

Ingredients:

(Serves 2)

3 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored, and diced)

The juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp cinnamon

A pinch of nutmeg

1/8 of a cup of brown sugar

Frozen vanilla Greek fat free yogurt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss all ingredients, but frozen yogurt, in a large bowl. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.  ***I had 2 small oven safe ramekins so I used these for personal servings. Bake for 30 minutes and top with a scoop, or two, of frozen Greek yogurt. Enjoy!

Now, just because I'm sure you're all just dying to see a photo of our fallen tree, here it is! On the bright side, our garden will be amazing this year, as this tree always partially blocked some of our sun light.

Painted Wooden Spoons

I told you I had some catching up to do... This is a project I actually did a few weeks back and just had to post about! Of course, it is yet another Pinterest find, that I just knew I had to do the second I saw it.

Most of us already have a collection of wooden spoons at home... A couple of mine are actually pretty beat up, but I love them and still use them all the time! When I saw this pin, I thought it was a great way to spruce up something I already had!
So I started by wrapping some painters tape (you know, the blue stuff you use to tape off trim when you're painting your house) around the handle of each spoon. I did this at varying positions on each spoon, but you can do yours however you'd like. I used Martha Stewart Multi-Surface High Gloss acrylic paint, and I really like the way it gave the handles a shiny, enamel-like finish.

These are the only colors I actually purchased, and I mixed them until I came up with more colors that I was happy with. The paints were purchased at Joann Fabrics, and I never buy anything from there without a coupon... So I'm pretty sure I got a few of them for 40% off.  Either way, they are less than $2.00 each, so this does not have to be an expensive craft.

I did one coat of paint and then set each spoon in its own glass to dry so they wouldn't rub off on each other.  Once they were dry, I went back and added a second coat. After letting the second coat dry, I took all of the spoons outside and gave the handles a good spray with a clear finishing shellac.  I used Zinnser Bulls Eye shellac, which I found at Lowes, and is totally safe to use on items that will be handling food.
Once the shellac was dry, they were ready to use... And I can't express enough how much I love the 
way they came out! I have them proudly displayed right next to my stove, where they are handy for cooking and I can admire them!

A Fun (and free) Easter Craft

Oh thank goodness for Pinterest. Without it, where would I spend all of that free time I have at night when the boys in my house are fast asleep, and I am wide awake?  While pinning recently, I stumbled upon the most adorable, and FREE, Easter craft. I am newly obsessed with paint chip crafts. They're fun, cheap, and they give me something to look forward to when my husband drags me along to Lowes to get more materials for our ongoing home renovation project. I am also obsessed with decorating our mantle with garlands... I have been trying to make one for every holiday.  Festive colored yarn pompoms for Christmas, hearts for Valentine's Day... You get the hint.  So of course I needed one for Easter!

To do a so-called tutorial for this project would be a little ridiculous, because it was just so easy,  but I will list the materials that I used, and also give you the link to the original pin that I found on Pinterest!

Materials:

Paint chips (in whatever colors you'd like)

Scissors

Needle

Dental floss or string

Pencil

***you can freehand the shape of an egg for your template, I just happened to have this egg timer handy and it was the perfect shape and size to trace.

Click below for tutorial:

Pinterest link for Easter egg garland