Pulp Cookies

I can't believe we made cookies out of left over juice pulp. We  made them out of peanut butter, honey, eggs, a little flour, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and LOTS of left over vegetable pulp(spinach, parsley, carrots, and apples.) I basically just eyeballed it until I thought it might work. The kids loved it. Now I don't feel so bad juicing. This also makes a great snack for the kids. I have been looking for something new because of Kaitlyn's braces. Yay!

Swissmar Borner Mandoline Review

This just came in the mail yesterday. My previous mandoline had to put retired so I ordered this one hoping that it would serve me well. I really like it so it far.
Pros:

• Cuts like butter, really it does
• Fairly easy clean up
• Safety storage. There is a little safety lever that you have to push in order to get it out of the compartment. This is a huge benefit for me.

Cons:

• I would have liked to have it elevated a bit more. It doesn't have a stand that it sits on so it is a little awkward.

Overall, it is far better than my last one! I would recommend this to anyone wanting to make chips, fries(the fries are a little smaller than McDonald's fries), and julienned/sliced veggies.

Cost of a Large Family

We are expensive! I think back several years ago at how much our food bill was and I am astonished. Granted, we usually didn't eat the most healthy things but we couldn't afford the best anyway. People often tell me that they can't imagine how much it cost to have a large family. They come to the conclusion that Dh must have a great job. Well, he does, but that's not how we afford them. We are able to afford our family because God enables us to do it. I struggle SO much with food cost. I want so badly to eat "cheap", to be able to walk into Aldis and only spend $100 for the week. But, my health starts to decline rapidly in one week. Depression starts creeping in. The kids go crazy! The best I can do is to find cheap(er) healthy food.
In bulk:

• oats
• wheat
• buckwheat
• salt
• beans
• rice

At Sams:

• Lettuce(organic)-very cheap compare to all stores. I will update with price.
• Spinach(organice)-Same as above
• Nuts-raw almonds, pecans, walnuts. Almonds are not really raw but close enough
• All Fruit
• Most other veggies(Carrots, Celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc..)
• Avocados(much cheaper than most places and if you get them unripe, they ripen very nicely on your counter
• Frozen veggies(broccoli, corn, mix)
• Frozen fruit
• Milk
• Sour Cream(we use this for most dressings. We don't buy salad dressing anymore. We mix spices with this to make ours)
• raisins(we go through 2 large boxes that contains 2 large bags of raisins-every WEEK!)
• Organic decaf coffee that is cheaper than the regular decaf coffee at publix
• Diapers
• Wipes
• Trash Bags
• Shampoo
• Toothbrushes
  

Some things we have to get at Publix

• Collards
• Kale
• Corn
• Cabbage
• coconut oil
• pickles without yellow number 5
• Almond Milk
• Zucchini
• Wheat Noodles( I don't have time to make this right now ;))
  

We never buy boxed cereal. We flake our own oats from oat groats and combine it with buckwheaties(dehydrated sprouted buckwheat) and raisins with milk. I grind our grain and make our bread. I don't buy raw bars/breads. I make my own dehydrated buckwheat bread.

I think this post is more for me than anyone else. I do the best I can with trying to save money but sometimes(most times) I still feel like I am doing a lousy job. Do you ever feel that way? Just writing it down helps me to realize that I AM doing all that I can to keep my family healthy without breaking the bank. So on those days when I think "we could live on rice and beans for a little while" I can look back and remember that it's not ALL about the money.

House Projects

This week my house has undergone some changes! My neighbor cama over and has helped(done most of the work) finish our upstairs bathroom's floor, walls, and trim. It looks awesome! I painted the kitchen, something that has needed to be done for many months now! I still need to go over a couple of places but I really like it. I need to sew some curtains(where to begin with fabric choices??) and get some pics up but that will come in time. I am so grateful that we are getting these things done. Today I am spending time catching up from yesterday. I didn't do laundry yesterday because we had some things we had to get taken care of outside of the home. I have about 3 loads now waiting for me!! I usually do about 2 loads a day. Good thing I don't mind it so much:) I just turn on some music and enjoy it.

Chemicals in our clothes

Interesting article..

http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2009/01/permanent-press-facts-behind-the-fabrics.html

I'm back

I had a great time at the retreat. It was refreshing but mostly just challenging :) I am glad to be back home. I missed everyone! We had a huge shock last night at church but I am not at liberty to speak about it(nothing bad within the church, just very...interesting) Anyway, when we got back we had a vomit marathon. I don't know what happened but I think the kids just wanted to let me know that I was REALLY back home! LOL So, we evidently are sick AGAIN!! I don't think this will last more than a day though. I think it is a little virus. I am praising God that I am home and am able to glorify him through the taking care of my little ones. I found out that I left for the retreat and forgot to put a load of laundry in the dryer. My Mil started putting them in the dryer and found out I had left a poopy diaper in the clothes. And get this, nothing dissolved! It was everywhere they said. I felt so bad!! She told them not to tell me until I got home and I am grateful because that would have really bothered me. I love her so dearly. She puts up with my lack of homemaking skills. I am looking forward to the week, we might make it a light school week :)

I made some ponchos for the kids so that we could turn down the heat and save some money. Right now we are at 65(last year we were at 77 because Andrew was a newborn) so we have a long way to go but we are getting there! I also made Jason and I one. It takes less than 5 minutes to make one. If you get the cheaper fleece it is so cheap! The kids got these character ones but they had a 40% off sale so it wasn't as bad as it could have been but next time..no characters! It was more expensive than I had expected but I had already told them they could pick it out. Lesson learned. I could have bought all of ours for half the price if I had used solid prints. Oh well. We used the selvage as a belt. :)
Andrew's Poncho












Alex with his poncho and cloth sword(dagger) I made him












Toby and Summer's poncho












The girl's poncho

New website

I have my new site up. I still have tons to upload to it but that will take time. Shoot on over to newbiehomemaking.com