SNEAKY GREEN

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Unknown On 7:41 AM | No comments

My brand spankin' new Scentsy warmer. I'm warming Pumpkin Roll and reveling in that fall feeling, despite the nearly 90 degree temperatures expected today. It's all pumkiny, and cinnamony, and almondy. Isn't she lovely?

GREENer Baking - Recipe Included!

Posted by Unknown On 10:21 AM | 9 comments

I love cooking and love trying new recipes, but baking is a skill that for YEARS has eluded me. I live in the south, so knowing how to bake biscuits are essentially required of a woman if she wants to wear the Southern Belle ribbon. After struggling since my teens to find a recipe that I love, my family loves, and can have it's excellence repeated I found my biscuit mecca. Paula Deen's recipe. Why didn't I start there? There is no one more southun (pronounced like a true Belle) that Miss Pauwla. Say it. Out loud. Southun Pauwla. Southern Belle certificate awarded.

There is no way to make a traditional biscuit recipe healthy. You can go green by swapping out whole wheat flower, but the truth is that my family doesn't go for that. I've tried switching out even a portion of regular flour for whole wheat and they all knew something was up. I have much better success with muffins, and this recipe is one that I just tried this morning. It's really easy to take a recipe like this, tweak a few of the ingredients, and have something much better for you. Enjoy!

Green Blueberry Muffins

2.5 cups unbleached, organic all-purpose flour

0.5 cup organic whole wheat flour

1.2 cups pure cane sugar

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup melted pasture butter (you can use oil if you want, but butter is more nourising and will keep you satisfied longer)

2 organic free range eggs (preferably local)

2/3 cup condensed milk (make your own with dry milk and water, skipping all the yucky additives in canned. Plus, you've already ditched your cans anyway, right? 1/3 cup dry milk, 1/2 cup water)

1/3 cup water

1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat your oven to 400. Start by adding the dry ingredients to a bowl and stirring with a wire whisk to combine. In a large glass measuring cup measure out your milk and water together, then add your eggs, butter, and whisk to combine. Add your wet ingredients into your dry, stirring just until moistened. This gets pretty thick, so don't overmix because we still have to add the blueberries! Now FOLD in the blueberries. Using frozen berries helps not to demolish them, but still be gentle with your batter and berries.

At this point you need to put your mix in your muffin pan, but I want to say that a really easy way to go green in your baking is to get rid of the muffin liners. No waste. And they are completely unneccessary! So grease your tin with a little more butter, fill the cups to the top, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. These will be big, hearty, satisfying muffins. Make sure you smear a nice pat of butter over each one while they're still hot. Everyone here loved them. Checkout my Facebook page for the proof.

I've Been There Too, I'm Probably There Now

Posted by Unknown On 7:20 AM | 2 comments

Do you need a little validation today? Or maybe I'm the one looking for validation. Either way, it's Tuesday, the most mundane day of the week (except for the fact that Sons of Anarchy comes on! Yessssss!) and my morning has been anything but. I was hoping that the follies of my short morning might encourage, validate, and bring comfort to some of you. Because you're not the only one struggling. You're not the only one who feels up to their eyeballs before their first cup of coffee is done. You're not the only who can't even finish that cup of coffee before it cools down to iced temperature. I've been there too, and I'm probably still entrenched in it right now.

Here is what has happened at my house this morning.

Hubby, Henry, Luke, and Noah all had to come attempt waking me up before I actually got out of bed. I'm feeling under the weather, stayed up late last night doing dishes and laundry *coughgotcaughtupinascienceshowcough*, and Henry has been out of school since Wednesday of last week because he had strep, and yesterday was a teacher's work day so there was no school. So I'm out of the routine, to say the least.
I was putting all of Henry's makeup work in his folder, along with his Dr's excuse, and realized that the wrong dates were on it. There are 2 things wrong here... the dates are obvious, the fact that I waited until 15 minutes before he had to be out the door to ready his backpack, not so much.
Got Henry out the door with Hubby and I realize that my 2 year old is walking around the house (in only a diaper mind you...a disposable diaper... because we've been fighting a nasty rash. And because I'm not perfect.) yelling a terrible expletive. That he picked up since his Daddy has been working from home. Any normal person coming into my home wouldn't be able to decipher it. But I'm not a normal person. I understand his bomb perfectly.
I've had to tell my kids umpteen times already that brownies are not for breakfast. Not for kids anyway. Hehehe Just kidding, I didn't tell them that last part.
In spite up staying up too late doing dishes and laundry I still have multiple loads of laundry to do. I have also loaded the dishwasher and it's running... and there are still more dishes to be washed. Sigh. I have a real love hate relationship with my kitchen. I love cooking, I'm learning to love baking, it's the hub of my open-floor-planned home. It's usually a disaster. Which makes all of the aforementioned activities a pain in the butt.
While clearing the dinner dishes (I know, I know) from the table to load the dishwasher I dropped a bowl of brunswick stew and promtly got on my hands and knees to clean it up with a rag. The spill location is now the cleanest spot on my floor.
It's 9am and my kids and I haven't had breakfast. Although, to be fair, they're not asking for food and I am fairly certain that they did, in fact, raid the brownie pan.
I was supposed to be getting online to look for a blueberry muffin recipe. Instead I am commiserating with you.

Happy Tuesday everybody!

Green Giveaway Round-up

Posted by Unknown On 2:21 PM | No comments

What do I love more than green? FREE GREEN! Here is a collection of Green giveaways that are surfing the net, just waiting for you to enter!

Holy Cow Homesteading Sweepstakes - homesteading package... includes COW!
Classy Coop - chicken coop
Homesteading Know-How Giveaway - package of homesteading books
Walk & Bike to School Day Giveaway - From CLIF kids
Berkey Water Filter
12 month supply Pur Absorb iron (ENDS TODAY!0
Honest Company's Family Essentials Bundle (ENDS TODAY!)
Synergy yoga Mat, & Access. (ENDS TODAY)
Honey Hill Farm Soap Giveaway (Monthly!)
EcoColors Hair Color (Monthly!)
EcoLips Lip Balm
Green Your Routine Giveaway - 3rd installment of health and beauty grab bag giveaway.
Itii Bitti Tutto Cloth Diaper

SW Virginia Saving Money: Guest post: Being Environmentally Friendly & Fruga...

Posted by Unknown On 1:24 PM | No comments

Hop over to SW Virginia Saving Money to see my guest blog post that gives you the lowdown on homemade cleaners. There are plenty of recipes to replace all your store bought products. Enjoy!

SW Virginia Saving Money: Guest post: Being Environmentally Friendly & Fruga...: I posted a short while ago about being environmentally friendly AND frugal when it comes to cleaners, eir fresheners, etc in the home. A wo...

Sneaky Green Tip #3

Posted by Unknown On 6:24 PM | No comments

Sneaky Green Tip #3

Ditch the plastic to go green. When I first moved out on my own I would save the plastic containers from take out, yogurt, cheese... anything so I wouldn't have to spend big bucks on tupperware. After the BPA craze when companies started removing BPA from their plastics, I thought it would be fine to start saving those new BPA free containers. Then I read that often times, in place of BPA, companies are using substances more harmful than even BPA... we just don't know about it yet. I don't know who true this may be, but I'm not willing to gamble on it either.

So now I have a glass fetish. I collect glass everywhere and anywhere I can. I save my spaghetti sauce jars. I save the apple juice jar. I buy glass containers from every yard sale, thrift shop, and rummage sale I see. The tops of my cabinets are decorated with my glass finds, and my cupboards, and fridge are full of the work horse variety. I love glass!

www.mygreenlivingideas.com

Kids and glass aren't exactly simpatico, so when it comes to school lunches go for metal, a la Planetbox. The initial investment is more, but they're reusable, have a warranty, and I've heard of their exquisite customer service from friends. When your little ones are snacking out and about you can bring along their snacks in reusable cloth baggies instead of sticking them in ziploc bags. You can make your own DIY snack bags with this super simple tutorial! The kids will love how cute they are, you will love how functional they are, and your husband will love how they save you money in the long run! Sneaky, sneaky!