My son recently had a birthday. For his birthday party, he wanted to share brownies with his friends. That sounds simple enough.
Enter food allergies. My family has a number of food allergies. The main one impacted by the desire for brownies is the fact that we eat a grain-free diet. That, however, isn’t the whole of the issue. We’ve made delicious brownies before. … Continue reading
My 9-year-old son has started making us dinner once a week. Last week, he decided that he wanted to make donuts for dessert to go along with his meal. Since my boys have never had a donut, this was a very exciting prospect for both of them.
Together, my 9-year-old and I came up with this recipe. (We modified it from another recipe I jotted down years ago – unfortunately, I don’t know its original origins).… Continue reading
Earlier this week a dear friend gave me three rutabagas from her garden. I hadn’t cooked rutabaga before, but I was excited to give it a try. I treated the rutabagas like I treat many root vegetables: I simply cut them up, along with some carrots and parsnips, and roasted them in my oven. They turned out delicious, and the dish was so easy to put together.… Continue reading
I make my own Healing Skin Salve (recipe HERE), Amazing Face Serum (recipe HERE), and Diaper Cream (recipe HERE), so it probably comes as no surprise that I’ve also made my own lip balm. I first made a version of this recipe at a workshop hosted by some local bee keepers. The recipe worked so well, that with a couple slight variations I kept it as part of my natural body care routine.… Continue reading
As promised, once my boys picked all of the apples off of our tree [see HERE], we processed them to make a big batch of applesauce. Applesauce is so simple to make, and delicious to eat. For us, it was a great way to make use of our harvest of super-tart apples.
Applesauce is one of those things that is made almost entirely to taste (well, when you make it yourself instead buying it pre-made), so I’ll describe how we made ours below.… Continue reading
It’s no secret that I use a lot of essential oils in my house. (You can read more about that HERE.) I use them for making my own homemade cleaners (see my recipes for Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner and Homemade Scouring Powder) and my own beauty products. (See my recipes for Healing Skin Salve, Amazing Face Serum, All-Natural Homemade Deodorant, Homemade Bath Salts, and Fizzy Bath Bombs.)… Continue reading
We had a bowl of leftover cauliflower “mashed potatoes” in the refrigerator. Remembering back to what my family did with leftover mashed potatoes when I was growing up, I was struck by the thought of making nightshade-free “potato” pancakes. So I started experimenting.
After a few iterations, I came up with the following recipe. While my boys were disappointed that they didn’t taste like the grain-free banana pancakes they’ve had in the past (they focused on the word pancake, and forgot about the word cauliflower), they acknowledged that they were pretty good for a way to eat vegetables.… Continue reading
We seem to be in a vegetable rut lately; always eating the same vegetables prepared in the same ways. So the other day I decided to try something new: breaded zucchini spears.
While the outside breading didn’t crisp up quite as much as I’d hoped, the final spears tasted great and were different from what we’d been consuming.
Everyone liked them, and, importantly, they were very easy and quick to prepare. … Continue reading
In the wintertime, when I’m washing my hands every-other-minute in order to avoid the nasty flu that seems to be hitting everyone we know, my hands can get dry. Even my boys, with their gorgeous young skin, can get rough, itchy patches. These months of cold dry air, forced air heating, and lots of washing are tough on our body’s largest organ. … Continue reading
When we told our boys that we were staying home over the holidays (see HERE), of course they were disappointed. Like my husband and I, they were looking forward to seeing their extended family as well as the celebrations that accompany the holidays. Since we changed plans at the last minute, we had no celebratory plans of our own, so we decided to do some new things to make the time special.… Continue reading