Wordless Wednesday- Early Morning Swing

Growing Lettuce and Spinach

This is my first year growing lettuce and spinach. I started some time in February. It has been so easy especially once I controlled the snails. Amelia loves picking lettuce and spinach with me. She actually loves eating the spinach while we are gathering it for our salads.

 I'm growing two different types of spinach and a heirloom leaf lettuce in this raised box. Both grew so fast. I now know that I should have planted one row and then a week or two later plant another row. It all came in at the same time.

A few days of warm weather and the butter crunch lettuce took off! I Should have harvested them when they were much smaller but they are still good. They seem to be more fragile when they are bigger and crispier when they are smaller. I planted 3 types of butter crunch lettuce. The red one is my favorite.

I've made several spinach salads. My favorite is with strawberries, toasted walnuts and goat cheese. We've used the spinach in smoothies and for juicing too.

Our new favorite thing is a salad made with the heirloom leaf lettuce and edible flowers from the garden. Violas, nasturtiums and chive flowers. I made sure Amelia always asks before she eats a flower! She picks a nasturtium flower and runs inside to ask if she can eat it. lol

 

 The heirloom leaf lettuce holds up best with a light dressing. I like to make a lemon and herb vinaigrette.

Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 medium-large lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon dill or combination of dill, parsley and chives

salt and pepper to taste.

Put everything into a jelly jar. Cover and shake well.

 

Weekly Recap

The chenille bedspread I won on eBay arrived this week! It's going on Amelia's new bed. First I lost the original auction at the last second then the person puts it back up for auction and with the help of auctionsniper.com I won! I'm so glad a friend told me about it.


Her daddy gave her a bag of coins for her piggy bank.


I'm in love with the colors used in Disney's Cinderella movie! They are so beautiful. Reminds me of the folk art stenciling I have seen at Disneyland. I plan on using some folk art stenciling in Amelia's room.


Picked some butter crunch lettuce from the garden to roll up tuna salad in.


I used the chicken and dumpling recipe from Joyfulabode.com. It was so good and made it's own gravy!





I found a $12 no clamp curling iron at Ross and it works amazingly. My hair usually doesn't hold heated curls at all. They fall within minutes but this curling iron keeps the curl in all day and the next day I have nice wave and volume.


As a stay at home mom I get dolled up just to go to the grocery store and craft store! Simple pleasures.



Have a wonderful and safe weekend everyone!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Grain Free Crepes

I've been exploring grain free and starch free baking a lot lately. I want to save starchy gluten free baking for special occasions and make grain and starch free baking more common in our home. There are many recipes and options out there plus wonderful health benefits for going grain free and starch free. I personally don't like the extra starches that gluten free baked goods tend to have. Rice, potato, corn and tapioca starches/flours are used a lot in gluten free baking. I struggle with inflammatory issues and starches as well as gluten are big culprits. I have leaky gut which grains and starches can make worse! A lot of grain free recipes call for coconut flour or almond flour and both can be found at health food stores and even some mainstream stores. I buy mine in bulk from Whole Foods.

Whenever we want a little something special for breakfast I have been making grain free waffles or crepes.

Grain Free Crepes

4 eggs
1 teaspoon honey or a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3-3/4 cup milk of your choice

4 tablespoons coconut flour

Mix first 5 ingredients together well then add coconut flour and mix well. You want the batter to be like heavy cream. Spray a heated non-stick 8-9 inch frying pan with non stick spray then add about 1/4 cup of the crepe mixture to the hot pan and twirl the batter around to cover the bottom of the pan. It takes a little practice. YouTube has some good how-to videos. Cook for about 2-3 minutes then carefully flip the crepe over and cook 1 minute more. I find the crepe easier to flip if the it has browned well. Serve with fresh fruit, fruit sauce or homemade jam. A little whip cream or chocolate sauce. I wont tell. This recipe makes 6-8 crepes.

Slow Drip Fudgepops

I love a good fudge pop and so does Amelia! I made lots of these slow drip fudge pops last year for a hot summer treat. The weather has been in the high 70s and low 80s so I want to make some to enjoy even though it's not summer yet! Now that I said that it will probably turn cold.

Homemade Slow Drip Fudgepops

2 cups milk of your choice
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup of sugar (or honey to taste)
1 tsp vanilla
1 package Knoxx gelatin

In a medium sauce pan heat all the ingredients and stir until sugar and gelatin has dissolved and cocoa powder has been incorporated well. Cool to just warm before adding to the popsicle molds. Add popsicle sticks and freeze for a few hours. Makes 6-10 pops depending on your type of molds. I like to take them out of the molds and store in a gallon bag or container in the freezer so they are easy to get to. I want to experiment with the liquid vanilla creme stevia drops that I love so much.

There you go! The gelatin is the secret. It keeps the liquid from dripping too quickly!

{This picture was from last year. She has grown so much since last year!}

Weekly Recap

Finally put together the crochet coat I had started in December! I'm just working on the collar now.


Painted on one of my favorite nail colors. "Read My Palm" by OPI for Sephora.


We've been eating a lot of chia pudding this week. We love it and since we use liquid vanilla stevia to sweeten it we feel a little less quilt when eating it as a dessert.


Amelia and I have tea time a few times a week. I'm so glad she loves tea time as much as I do. We are using my aunt's tea cups.


The weather has been amazingly warm this week considering we recently entered Spring. I wore one of my favorite wrap skirts that I bought while living in Guatemala.


I made raw dehydrated zucchini chips for snack.


Amelia took advantage of the hot weather and played in her swimming pool while wearing the bathing suit I wore as a young girl!


We had pho per Amelia's request. She loves "noodles" and they are gluten free.


I also turned 28 this week! Yikes! Much closer to 30!


I made myself a small batch of gluten free cupcakes to celebrate.


I also put together grain free, honey sweetened zucchini muffins. I just need to make one more batch before blogging the recipe.


Have a wonderful weekend!

Birthday Cupcakes for Six

Today is my 28th birthday!!! 

I still feel 21 and am shocked that I'm getting closer to 30. Not that 30 is bad, it's just that I don't feel like I should be almost 30. Sometimes I still feel like a teenager and sometimes I feel like an old lady. Numbers really don't mean anything after all.

To celebrate I made a small batch of gluten free chocolate cupcakes. All of my cupcake recipes make 12 or more cupcakes and I didn't want that many hanging around the house or I would get in trouble so I came up with a recipe that made 6 cupcakes. If I'm really desperate for a cupcake one day I can divide this recipe even further and make 2 cupcakes for me and Amelia. Yum!

 

Chocolate Cupcakes for Six

9 tablespoons gluten free flour or regular wheat flour

1/8 teaspoon xanthum gum if using gluten free flour

7 tablespoons sugar (I used coconut palm sugar)

4 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/16 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons milk

4 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg white

Whisk together dry ingredients well and set aside. Mix together wet ingredients thoroughly then add to the dry mixture. Stir till just combined. Fill 6 greased and floured muffin tins or paper lined muffin tins evenly with mixture. Bake at 325 for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a cooling rack.

Frosting for 6 Cupcakes

3 tablespoons butter soften

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

9 tablespoons powder sugar

2-3 teaspoons milk

pinch salt

Blend the butter with the cocoa powder well then slowly blend in powder sugar. Add a little milk at a time until the frosting is spreadable.