Flashback: Pinterest success!

Today I wanted to do a 'flashback' post to this idea I found on Pinterest that came out so cute! Last summer I made this circle map thing I found on a 1st grade teacher's blog (via Pinterest). It came out so well and my Pumpkin loved it. She still plays with it 8 months later! Here's the original post. This is what we made:

Pancakes!

Tonight we had pancakes for dinner! I made them from scratch with this recipe from allrecipes.com

Original recipe makes 8 pancakes
(I doubled it and got more than 16, but I did make the kids' pancakes smaller)

•  3/4 cup milk
•  2 tablespoons white vinegar
•  1 cup all-purpose flour
•  2 tablespoons white sugar
•  1 teaspoon baking powder
•  1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1 egg
•  2 tablespoons butter, melted
•  cooking spray

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

I added a sprinkle of cinnamon and a dash of vanilla. SO YUMMY! And fluffy!

Valentine's

Last night my little Pumpkin got to stay up late to write her Valentines. She worked very hard to write each of her 14 classmates' names (some of which she knew how to spell without help!!) and both of her teachers' names, as well as writing her own name 16 times on the "from" line.

Mama cut out each butterfly, but she filled them with the suckers! Thanks to Skip to my Lou for the free download!

Food Pantry Field Trip

Remember the food pantry donation from our Week 4 RAK? Well, today my Junebug and her pre-K class took a field trip (on the BUS! wow were they excited!!) to deliver those donations. They learned about how the donations were going to help the community and they were each given a bag to carry into the facility. The local newspaper was even there- can't wait to see the story! I'm so proud of our little girl and the things she is learning.

Two New Juice Recipes!

We tried two different juice mixes today. I thought they were both SUPER yummy, and I liked them better than the last one we did with cucumber!

This first one was:

• 4 apples
• 4 stalks of celery
• 8 carrots

yield: 30oz

I poured two large glasses, rinsed the pitcher and started again!

This one was:

• 2 mangoes (we used fresh sliced mango, so this is a rough guess)
• 1/2 pineapple (again we used fresh sliced pineapple, so this is a guess, could've been more than 1/2)
• 1 mini cucumber (last time I used two and it was really strong, so I decided to try smaller this time)

yield: 30oz

p52 | Week 6

For this week's random act of kindness we made a small donation to Pumpkin's pre-K classroom. When Pumpkin started doing puzzles a couple years ago she'd blow through them so quickly! Luckily the dollar store carries puzzles, because we were getting new ones all the time. I was picking them up every time I was at the store & saw them for $1.

I have had this bag sitting around for a while now and decided these could be put to good use somewhere! This morning we took them to school with us and presented them to Pumpkin's teacher. When I picked her up, we had a thank you note in her cubby - aw!!

Veggie Juice

Today after a big trip to Costco to get more produce we were ready to make some more juice! We invested in a lot more veggies this time and I found a recipe on the Omega website. This veggie juice didn't seem to call for all that much, so I didn't think it would make a lot. I doubled the recipe for us:

Veggie Juice

• 1 cup of spinach
• 1/2 cucumber
• 2 stalks of celery
• 3 carrots
• 1/2 apple

yield: 20oz (WHEN THE RECIPE IS DOUBLED)

Juice cucumbers with their skins on. The dark green skin is a great source of chlorophyll, a phytochemical that can help build red blood cells. Make sure to wash them before juicing.

While it was still a good juice, it wasn't my favorite. The cucumber smell and taste were very noticable. I think if we make it ahead I would double the apple or maybe even add another fruit. Also, drink it right away because if you let it sit you'll notice the juice brown the way a cut apple would.

Juice #3

3rd day of juicing!! Another winner. We keep upping the amount of produce we use and today we sort of made the pitcher overflow. Oops. Maybe we'll scale it back just a wheeee bit next time.

CarPearWi Juice
Carrot, Pear, Kiwi Juice

• 8 carrots
• 6 pears
• 6 kiwis

yield: 40oz

p52 | Week 5

For this week, I was just returning to work after a lot of sick days. I'd had some health troubles and the office ladies at the school I teach at seriously came through helping out getting me subs and helping me out. Junebug helped me bake some cookies for them =)

Update: The ladies said the cookies were VERY good and they appreciated them!

Juice #2

Since our first attempt at juice went so well, we increased the amount of fruits & veggies we used, in order to get a higher yield of juice. It was another yummy one!

CarStrawEarWi Juice

Carrot, Strawberry, Pear, Kiwi Juice

• 6 carrots
• 6 large strawberries
• 6 kiwis
• 1 pear 

yield: 25oz

Adventures in Juicing!!

Due to some recent health issues of mine we've revisited the topic of juicing. It'll be good for weightloss, but also just an easy way to incorporate more fresh fruits & veggies. And avoiding added sugars and carbs. It's not going to be easy, since I love food...and junk food. But I'm really committed to getting better things in my system!

Yesterday we went to Bed Bath & Beyond, and using one of their awesome 20% off coupons we purchased a Breville juicer! We used it for the first time tonight... ah-maz-ing! First, that thing has power! Second, we have NEVER juiced before so we weren't really sure on fruit/veggie combos to make a yummy juice. It was SO simple!

Here's our first step into juicing:

CarAppEar Juice

• 4 carrots
• 1 large apple
• 1 pear

yield: 15oz of juice

It turned out so fantastic, my husband chugged most of it and I whipped up another batch right away! Our Pumpkin & Junebug even enjoyed a few sips =)