2.24.2011

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

THANKS FOR PLAYING ALONG! I KNOW THE SUSPENSE IS PART OF THE FUN, BUT I'M GOING TO GET RIGHT TO THE POINT! 


FOR THE FIRST ITEM... Our own little bitty helper picked... TAMI! You've won the lip butter sampler!

AND FOR THE SECOND NAME OUR MISS VANNA WILL DRAW...
WE HAVE A KATY! You've won the Epsom foot scrub sampler! 

Well ladies! I hope you enjoy your goodies! Email me your mailing addresses so I can get these off to you and you can start enjoying them!

And to everyone else, thanks again for playing! Don't forget we've got a few more names to draw... The BIG one will be on my 30th birthday! Next Wednesday! (2nd) here's what we're offering...


A full sized 8 oz Sugar Scrub! These are so delicious and the winner will get to choose their scent. Available scents are: Brown Sugar, Coconut Cream, Lavender Bergamot, Candy Cane, and the Organic Scrub with a light mint scent. If you've never tried a sugar scrub you're in for a real treat! So don't forget to add your comments below with your extra entries for this week, and if you're just joining us, click on the previous giveaway here, for instructions on how to get in your entries for last week too. We'll have 2 extra entries this week because there will be 2 drawings this week. So here's how...
1) "Follow" my blog or let me know you already are and you want to be added to participate.
2) Just for fun, because I like to drool over scented stuff. Tell me what kind of dreamy fragrance, that's not on their list, would you LOVE in a sugar scrub?~ Go ahead and get creative here!

OK there you have it, 2 new easy ways to enter for this weeks 2 drawings! See you back here next Wednesday on the 2nd!

Last minute addition:
~Hey! Look what I found! This couldn't be more fitting, since my "time" is ticking away in the month of March. They're having a sale...

"For the month of March all Time by Design watches will be 25% off."

2.18.2011

Free food!



If I could I would send out fliers everywhere with "FREE FOOD" in big bold letters. But a part of me wonders if the lines of people would dwindle as they realised that the free food mentioned were what most people call "weeds". There are many many free foods available. Our Father in Heaven provided them for us. I believe it is His sincere desire that none of us go hungry. Free foods are everywhere around us and are available in abundance, if we're willing to go out and find them. Sometimes that can mean a family hike. But in the case of this link I'm sharing with you today, it's probably in your own back yard. Many people think these weeds are taunting the fact that we can't get rid of them. I like to think that they are persistent because we need them. Kind of like a grandma pushing you to eat your veggies.

So here's the link to a video called Introduction to Wild Foods: Dandelions.

Another cool link is for a man, named Green Deane, who does video lessons on wild foods. They're called Eat The Weeds. He's got a funny sense of humor but more importantly is very knowledgeable and backs up his info with actually preparing and eating what he teaches you about.

So go click around, watch some videos and learn about getting some Free Food for your family!

4 "In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom bush." Job 30:4

Blessings

2.17.2011

Gracenotes in your life! Time For Another Giveaway!


 I know you love giveaways! I do too! It's fun to give and fun to receive! And I am so blessed to be able to give away a few totally awesome items from a new shop! Some friends of mine, a mother and her daughters have opened a neat online store called gracenotes! What is gracenotes? well I'll let her tell you...

"In music, gracenotes are those wonderful little notes that come in quickly and have no purpose except to embellish and enhance the music.  They are simply there to bring pleasure to the listener.  (We also think they're fun to play!)
That's what we want our products to do in your life.  We hope that our body care products, salves, jewelry, teas, sewn items, and anything else we might add in the future, will be those little embellishments that make your life just a little bit nicer...kind of like a gracenote does for a lovely piece of music.

The blessing is that they're new enough to be fresh and exciting, but their doors have been open long enough to have some satisfied customers who've given great reviews! I have had the pleasure of using some of their products personally and I'd like to tell you they offer affordable luxury! 

One item that has been a particular blessing to me has been the Arnica Muscle Salve. My husband has bad knees and when they act up I rub his knees with this stuff and it brings him relief. It's natural and helpful! Another blessing is that many of their products are available in trial sizes so exploring their products won't cost you a fortune! (It wouldn't even with the regular sized items, but this is even MORE affordable.) 

And if you're joining us from Raising Homemakers, the beauty of their business is that the mother has raised her daughters with a focus on raising Godly joyful homemakers, and this venture is just another joyful way for them to spend time together blessing others with what they do. I really love this lady and her website! So needless to say I'm just a little excited to offer these goodies up to you! So for the giveaway...

I get to offer up to you a lovely assortment of their products! I'll start the first one today, and to make things easy, I'll announce the winners next Thursday! That announcement will also have the info on the next weeks drawing. I'll be drawing 2 winners each week with a big surprise giveaway on my 30th birthday! (in just 2 weeks!) Your entries will count towards the next weeks giveaway too! 

Here's what you can do:
1: Share this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter, or email. (1 for each thing you do!)
2: Visit the gracenotes site, explore around and tell me what item you would most like to have!
3: See her Input page and comment here about what new products you'd like to see!

So that's it for now. You have 6 chances to enter this week! Comment below to get your entries! And Check back next week for the first weeks winners and info on how to add more entries!

Let me also say this. The most important gift that can be given is the gift that is given to us by our Heavenly Father, the free gift of salvation, available to anyone who will receive it. 
 
12"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." 1 Corinthians 2:12 KJV
  
I welcome you to contact me if you have questions or need prayer. 

Extra special blessings on your day!

UPDATE: This weeks giveaway is for a yummy lip butter sampler and a wonderful bergamot scented Epsom foot scrub sampler!  A wonderful and free way to get your lips kissable and your feet ready for sandal weather!

2.10.2011

MYO- "white", brown and powdered sugar!

Yes, you can MYO "white", brown, and powdered sugar!
 I am really excited about the recipes I'm going to share with you today! Why because we need them! In todays world it is very hard to come by truly healthful food. I own and love the book called Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. If you've never heard of it you can have a look here

In her book Sally talks about sugar and sweeteners. She talks about their effect on our bodies and reccomends we stick to natural sweeteners in their natural form, used in small amounts. While I haven't exactly mastered the "small amounts" part. I do use natural sweeteners and not processed. For example we use raw honey, raw agave nectar, fruit pulp (home made), and dried fruits. Now for cane sugar, she recommends ONLY using Sucanat or Demerara. Well they both taste fine, but taste isn't always enough. Sucanat is atrociously expensive, and Demerara is too coarse for use in a lot of baking. (I mix it in with the liquid ingredients to dissolve it, for bread and cakes) IE the chocolate chip cookies I was dying for the other night. So like they say, necessity is the mother of invention right. Well, I NEEDED those cookies, but didn't want to resort to white sugar and well demerara doesn't go over well in cookies, they're overly crunchy because of the large crystals which don't dissolve. So I made my own "white" sugar, and then used that sugar and molasses to make some brown sugar too! The cookies turned out great and satisfied the need without loading my body up on white sugar. (Brown sugar is simply white sugar mixed with molasses. Even when you buy it from the store.) So, I know you're all drooling to know how to Make Your Own "white" and brown sugar.

Here you go...

For the "white" sugar:
you need a blender and some demerara sugar. That's it! Take your blender and put about 2 cups of the demerara sugar in. It will hold more than that, but won't grind it well so don't try. (I did try this in my flour mill once, and it hurt the finish on the burrs, not a good idea, stick to the blender)

Now you're going to put the lid on and hit the "grind" setting, which was on the high side, above the middle button for my blender. Only grind for a few seconds. Stop and stir well.

Then grind again. Do this a few times until the granules look smaller and similar to white sugar. The sugar will turn to powder if you're not careful, so take it slow.

Stop and stir, stop and stir until it's relatively uniform. Now Pour it in your sugar canister and make some more until your sugar canister is full of "healthy white sugar". Make sure you tap your pitcher well to get all the fine sugar off the blade and out of the bottom or it will stop up the blender. It only took me about 5 minutes to fill mine.

For "white" powdered sugar:
Use the same process as above, only grinding it longer to a fine powder. Now some recipes for "confectioners" sugar say to add corn starch to it. If you want to that's fine, it won't hurt anyting, but I usually don't bother with it. So that's it, fill your powdered sugar jar with this and next time you want to make frosting you can do it with healthy (er) sugar.

Now for the brown sugar:
All brown sugar, even from the store, is made of white sugar with molasses mixed into it. So take your new "white" sugar and place it in a mixer, I used my kitchenaid, and add a little molasses to it. Let it mix well with the paddle until it's all uniformly brown and there are no more little balls of molasses. The biggest thing I need to point out is that this is a time for patience! I start out with the mixer on 2 then turn it up to 4 ONLY AFTER the sugar and the molasses are blended. Otherwise you will have a mess. Then just let it work the molasses into the sugar and stand back and marvel at yourself! You just saved a ton of money and a trip to the health food store! My approximate measurements were about 5 cups of MY "white" sugar to about 1/4 cup molasses, for a medium brown sugar.
If you'd like to see the actual process of brown sugar, here is a great tutorial my dear friend Jamie made. *But note that her ratios are different,* because she is using true white sugar. We are not. Our sugar already has some molasses in it naturally so we'll have to add less molasses and more sugar to make it light. Notice that she offers ratios for golden, light and dark brown sugar. You can do the same with yours. Just adjust the amount of molasses. More molasses makes a darker brown sugar and less makes a lighter brown sugar.

27"She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27 KJV

I pray this recipe and tutorial has been a blessing to you! Now go Make Your Own "white", brown and powdered sugar for all your healthy, natural baking needs!

Blessings! 

2.02.2011

MYO Mixes- taco seasoning and chilli powder



At the last MOPS meeting I attended we made taco seasoning from scratch and bagged it up in a decorative bag. I used mine last night and it was great! The whole family loved it! But of coarse being the crunchy mama I am I thought... "there has to be a way to make your own chilli powder too, I hate the nasty additives in the store bought stuff". With a little research I found out that yes you can make it yourself!  Admit it, I know you are all excited to know how to MYO taco seasoning and chilli powder! Aren't you!?

Without further delay here are the recipes! Enjoy!


* T. = tablespoon and t. = teaspoon ;-)

Chilli powder

Ingredients

    • 6 dried red chilies, mild to medium heat (like ancho)
    • 3 dried red chilies, high heat (like cayenne)
    • 1 T. good quality ground paprika
    • 2 T. cumin seeds, toasted and ground
    • 2 T. garlic powder
    • 1 T. ground Mexican Oregano
    • Sea salt as desired

Directions

Heat your oven to 250ºF. Remove stems seeds from chilies. Arrange chilies in single layer on baking sheet and toast for about 5 min. Remover smaller ones before they burn and toast larger ones a little longer, maybe 5 minutes. They all need to be very dry. You can also do this on a BBQ for a nice smoky flavor. Let cool and break into pieces. Pulverize in blender, or grinder, to a powder. Add remaining ingredients and blend until combined. Store in an airtight container.
  • Adjust the hot/mild pepper ratio for your taste by substituting equal amounts. 
  • Salt to taste or leave out, most store bought chilli powder does have salt.

 Taco Seasoning
   Ingredients
            4 T. chilli powder
            1 t. garlic powder
            1 t. onion powder
            1 t. red pepper flakes
            1 t. mexican oregano
            2 t. paprika
            2 T. ground cumin
            4 t. sea salt
            4 teaspoons pepper



Mix all ingredients and add 3-4 T. to about a pound of meat. This makes a batch good for several uses. 



10 "Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned." Ezekiel 24:10 KJV

I hope these recipes are a blessing to you, and to anyone you want to share them with. Feel free to link back to my blog if you'd like to share this post!


Blessings!

New Blog Series - Make Your Own! recipes and tutorials for MYO everything!


I love knowing how to make EVERYTHING, even if I don't do it every single time, or even if I just know how but haven’t done it. I love knowledge. As a homeschool mom and a practical person I tell you this... If you spend any time in any endeavor, let it be knowledge that is useful. Know the Lord first and foremost, let your knowledge begin there. Then gain knowledge of how to take care of your family well, how to feed them and heal them and clothe them. I believe this knowledge is more important that stock-piling dry goods or medicine, or shopping for a good bargain. Why? Because no matter how much you store, someone can always take it away. Most everything has an expiration date and will go bad, clothes get worn out and outgrown. But when you know how to make the things that are usually purchased, when you know how to help others, that knowledge will last your lifetime. Things you think you don’t need to know may end up being a blessing to someone who needs to learn. Be a blessing to your family and your friends, or even to strangers, learn to do for your family and teach others to do the same. 
3The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
 4That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
 5To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.  Titus 2:3-5 KJV

 MYO- mixes
One of the skills I enjoy is making home made mixes. I have many reasons for making them, but here are a few ...
  • When manufacturers purchase ingredients for products the main focus is their bottom line. That’s not good news for us. When you make your own mixes you control what goes into your mixes. Be it natural, organic or home grown, with MYO you can have the time saving benefit of mixes without sacrificing the health of your family.
  • You know exactly what ingredients are in them, so you can use homemade mixes for ANY special diet needs...
  • They're easy to use and much lower in cost than store bought mixes, which means you can have the convenience of mixes without the cost!...
  • They're made with your own fresh and natural ingredients, so your mix is far superior to store bought both in quality and taste...
  • You can save time, money and energy making your mixes ahead at least a few batches at a time. (make it once use it thrice!)

I think mixes are so beneficial that I decided to start a blog series labeled MYO (make your own) sharing recipes and tips for MYO everything! I’m starting with make your own mixes, featuring everything from spices to soups to baking mixes. The series will continue on, as I learn more to share, so if you're looking for just those, click on the MYO blog tag to the right! Other recipes will be under the recipes label. But please feel free to poke around and enjoy the whole blog! We love visitors too so feel free to share and link back to my blog. And thanks for stopping by!
Be Blessed!