Cherry Almond Granola

Cherry Almond Granola

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup unsweetened apple juice concentrate

2 T of canola oil

3 tsp almond extract

6 cups Old-Fashioned Oats

1 1/2 cups of dried cherries or cranberries

1 cup slivered almonds or pecans

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, milk powder, honey, apple juice concentrate and oil. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in extract. In a large bowl, combine the oats, cherries and almonds. Drizzle with the sugar mixture and mix well.

Spread in a thin layer in two 15x10 baking pans coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Uses or serving suggestions: Serve with skim milk for breakfast, top with vanilla yogurt or frozen yogurt for dessert.

Pre-planning helps with Chaos and Routines.

If I can find a way to save time or nonsense in my day I am willing to try it. The evenings and bedtime for our little toddlers can get quite hectic in our household. Our mornings can be crazy too, if we have appointments or errands to run with the kids. So I try to find ways to save time, be better organized with routines, and eliminate chaos in our lives.

Here are a few things that keep me sane.

1) Set out Pajamas in the morning for the night time.

2) Before bath time, put PJ's and fresh diapers on the bed.

3) Before bedtime, select clothes for the next morning.

4) Fill sippy cups after bedtime, put in fridge for the morning.

5) Have a basket of snacks in Ziploc snack bags to grab and go.

6) Keep a few snack bags of crackers or cereal in van or diaper bag for hunger or meltdowns.

7) Have a few books, learning or activity toys in the van for quiet time or crankiness.

8) Have the kids help pick up their rooms and/or family room before nap time and bedtime.

9) Have my teenager do the dinner dishes to give me a break in the evenings.

10) Keep a family calendar in site to help keep us all on schedule with events or appointments.

11)I have a dry erase board on my fridge for items that I have run out of and need to replace.

12) Meal plan- On my fridge I have a weekly meal plan to help me stay organized and stay with in a budget.

13) I am the only one that administers medicine or vitamins. So we don't double medicate.

14) I hire a helper/teenager (once or twice a month) to help with the deep cleaning or yard work.

15) Make ahead meals and freeze for quick and easy dinners, for those hectic days.

Some of these things saves us time, eliminates chaos, saves us money or keeps us organized. Pre-planning creates good habits and routines and we have more time to spend as a family.

If you have any other ideas or advice please do share.

Homemade Pizza Crust

I have given this pizza crust recipe to a few friends and it was a big hit with there families. It is delicious, easy and super cheap to make. So I thought that I'd share it with all of you too.

Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 package of dry yeast
1 T plus 2 tsp olive oil
1 cup of lukewarm water

*Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 12x 9 inch baking sheet. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast. Make a well in the center and add olive oil and 1 cup of lukewarm water. Mix until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for five minutes.

Roll out dough and press into a prepared baking sheet. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature, then bake for 5-7 minutes.

Remove crust from the oven (spread your pizza sauce on top and top with mozzarella cheese and your favorite toppings). Bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Helpful tips: I rub my hands with olive oil to help crust from sticking to my hands, when pressing out. I like to sprinkle my baking sheet with a touch of cornmeal before pressing out dough, for a chewy/crunchy crust.

Healing

Sorry no new posts lately. I am healing from Pneumonia and am taking it easy for a while. I will try to post some new recipes and info soon. Hope you all have had a wonderful Spring Break!

Back to Basics

Back to the Basics is all I've seen this week in grocery ads, commercials, online... Whether it is my local grocery store's new sales gimmick to get you in their store for their sale items or the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten's cookbook "Back to Basics" using simple ingredients with fabulous flavor, quick and easy recipes and cooking techniques or on Headline News or CNN only buying the necessities to live on and quit spending our money frivolously.

We need to get back to the basics with our ingredients that we use or shall I say should use. Back in the day Pioneer women didn't run to their mercantile or Trading Post to purchase prepared packages of cake mixes, pancake mix, corn bread mix, biscuit mix and boxed things like Hamburger Helper or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or canned things like Condensed Soups or bottled Salad Dressings. They used simple ingredients they had on hand and made them themselves also known as "From Scratch."

I have been trying to save money by making my own homemade prepared items and either canning them, freezing them or storing dry goods in airtight containers. This is economical for my family and I enjoy doing it. Being in the kitchen and knowing that I am nourishing my family with good food is so rewarding as a wife and mother.

Here are a few of the "From Scratch" foods that I have made from Back to Basic, Simple Ingredients. I'll post a few recipes soon.

Pancake Mix
Pizza Crust
Yeast Rolls
Pie Crust
Cheese Biscuits
Spaghetti Sauce
Meatballs
Pizza Sauce
Granola
Corn Bread Mix
Graham Cracker Crust
Seasoned Bread Crumbs
Garlic and Herb Croutons
Loaded Vegetable Beef Soup
Scallop Potatoes
Homemade Noodles
Caesar Salad Dressing
Asian Salad Dressing
Thousand Island Salad Dressing
Tartar Sauce
Mayonnaise
Barbecue Sauce
Hoisin Sauce
Hot Chocolate
Beef and Chicken Broth/Stock
Homemade Hamburger Buns


Be Inspired to get Back to Basics and live the simple life.

Pacific N.W. Gumbo

I was creative the other day and started putting items from my fridge into a stock pot and this is the recipe I came up with. I call it Pacific N.W. Gumbo, because it is served like Southern Gumbo, but has North West ingredients. We don't grow okra in our neck of the woods, we grow mushrooms. Ground Beef is what I had on hand, shrimp and andouille sausage is a bit expensive for my budget. It is delicious and feels like comfort food. I hope you enjoy it like my family did. By the way it is loaded with fresh vegetables and is healthy too.

Pacific N.W. Gumbo

1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
2 shallots, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tsp ranch seasoning
4 tsp of taco seasoning
1 tsp Lawry's seasoning
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup cabbage, diced
4 cups of beef broth
3 cups of chicken broth
1 can of diced tomatoes with juice
3 T of tomato paste
1 cup zucchini, quartered and diced
1 cup mushrooms, diced
1/4 cup of red or yellow bell pepper

Hot buttered rice (the real thing, not instant)

Directions:

Make rice as directed on package ahead of time.

Brown ground beef, add shallots and garlic, add seasonings, carrots and cabbage. Saute a few minutes. Add beef stock, chicken stock, tomatoes with juice and tomato paste. Stir together and bring to a boil. Add remaining veggies and simmer another 10 minutes. Taste and season to your liking.

In a bowl add a half a cup of hot buttered rice, and ladle the gumbo over rice (about a cup and a half or two).

Balance of Life

We all have those reminders that we need to slow down and put things in perspective and live a balanced life. Well I need to slow down on my Inspired Living homemaking blog for while. I will not be posting as much during the Spring. You'll see posts, but not as frequent.

God is telling me to slow down and focus on a healthy balance in every area of my life. I need to give my time to God and spend more quiet time with him. Having quiet time is a daily discipline that will bring the rich rewards of balance, which is something I need, and I'm sure we all need.

Thank you for following my blog and please continue as there will be updates and posts to come.

Be Inspired to find balance in your life and inspire one another.

Little Black Book

A little black address book. You have one don't you? I do. Well mine is actually navy blue, but oh well. I'm not talking about the dirty secret little black book, I'm talking about the very important address book that we all need to have and keep in a safe place.

Let me explain... My husband and I have tons of websites and blogs that we visit and have made them our favorites on our computer. Not all of them have the same Access Id codes, passwords etc.. So the big question is "If my computer crashed or was stolen do I have any backup documentation to all the sites, blogs, passwords, access Id's, e-mail addresses to those places or contacts?" If you do, good for you! You think ahead. If you don't well it is not too late to get one started.

We have a vinyl spiral bound address book that is about 5 inches by 8 inches. Not little, but big enough to actually read and write information in. In alphabetical order we write down the name of the website, the URL, the password, and some have a registration number. About twice a year we print out our contact e-mail addresses since we are with Yahoo, and keep it folded inside the little black book. That way we can refer to the little black book, if we crash or forget our passwords etc.. It comes in real handy. Remember to keep it in a safe place. We keep ours in a fire proof safe.

50% Off Winter Clearance Sale

Hey girlfriends... If you have a Value Village thrift store in your area you may want to check out their Winter Clearance Sale on Monday, February 16th (President's Day). 50% Off everything in the store.

We have found great deals on gently used and/or brand new items. Such as home decor items, furniture, name brand clothing, sports gear, books etc... I have a fetish for cookbooks and usually find a few that I have to add to my collection.

Happy Bargain Shopping!

My First Blog Award

Wow! I've received my first blog award! Thanks to Angela at The Creative Homemaker for passing along this award to me. You should totally go visit her blog. Be sure to visit!

What is the lemonade award you might ask. It's an award that celebrates good attitude and gratitude. So I am passing it along to five other bloggers. I enjoy visiting all of them and seeing what they are doing, saying or creating. I think they show great attitude and gratitude. So be sure to check these out too!

When you receive your lemonade award, pass it on to others who show great attitude and gratitude. Share the love! Here's what you do:

1. Put the lemonade logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate 10 other bloggers who you think demonstrate good attitude and/or gratitude.
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Comment on their blog to let them know they have received this award.
5. Link back to this post and the person whom you received this award from.

I only have five I'd like to share. My nominees for the Lemonade award are, and in no particular order:

Joy at Joys of Home
Shannon at Bless Our Nest
Rhoda at Southern Hospitality
Karol at Home Sweet Home
Nikki at Sneaky Recipes