Day 100

97 - Eric has learned how to make some flat bread and it is always gone within 30 min. of taking it out of the oven.  It only has 3 ingredients:  1 cup whole wheat flour, 2 Tbs. applesauce, and 4 Tbs water.  Roll it out thin and bake it for about 20min at 400 degrees.

98 - Still making crackers and letting them eat then all up.  I can't keep them around for one day!  Even though I always make two batches.

99- Made some homemade tuna and noodle bake.  The girls loved it!

100 - We did it and have learned a lot.  Something will stick with us and how we will try to keep eating.  Some things will go on the way side.  I will try to let you know soon what some of the things are that we learned, but that will be for another night when it is not so late.

Day 96

Day 95 - The children loved the muffins!  When we got home from church we had a roast with potatoes and carrots in the oven waiting for us!  Was it ever good!  I think that is one of my favorite meals!

Day 96 - Our fist day of getting any snow.  Of course the children had to go out and play with it for a little while!  They are also use to getting some hot cocoa when they come inside, and so they asked for some today.  So after a little research and a little more here is what I came up with:
Homemade Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups milk (whole milk for creamier)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (or milk)
• 8 ounces chocolate, preferably dark
• 3 teaspoons maple syrup or natural sweetener of choice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:
1) Chop the chocolate very finely.
2) In a medium saucepan, bring the milk and cream to a low simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally.
3) Add the chocolate, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt. Whisk vigorously until all of the chocolate has melted. Cook for an additional 4 minutes, whisking constantly.
4) Serve with maple whipped cream (recipe follows) if desired.
Serves 4 generously
Maple Whipped Cream
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup (more if you like your whipped cream very sweet)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and beat until stiff.

I did not make the cream!  But I would have loved to try it with it!  And I also used 60% cocoa chips!  So my children ended up getting their hot chocolate and asking for more!

Day 94

Day 91 -

Day 92 - We tried a little something differant for our meal!  I made homemade mac-n-cheese and then put some cooked broccli in it.  I was going to put carrets in it too, but ran out of time to get them cut up and cooked.  At first the children would not eat any for it was differant, but after they tried it, they eat it up and asked for more!

Day 93 - Homemade beef stew!  Yummy!

Day 94 - So today was the Christmas parade here in town!  Oh no!  Here comes the candy!  Ya!  Three of my children are in the parade on the churches float!  One young one watching the float  and We didn't come home with any candy!  I liked that!  Have had the oven on for supper tonight, so I went a head and started some muffins for church tomorrow!  We are having Whole wheat pumpkin-applesauce muffins!  They sound good, but I will have to wait for about another 15 min. for them to come out of the oven.  I also just cooked a squash in the oven, so I used that instead of pumpkin.  Anyways here is the recipe if anyone else would like to try it!

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup raw brown sugar
• 1/3 cup fructose
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 1/3 cup buttermilk (1/3 c. milk plus 1 tsp. lemon juice - let it stand for 5 minutes!)
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/4 cup golden raisins (optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line the cups with paper muffin liners.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice; set aside. Combine the brown sugar, fructose, oil, applesauce, pumpkin, buttermilk, and beaten eggs and mix until well blended. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the raisins and pecans, if desired.
3. Divide the batter evenly in the prepared muffin pan. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan.

30 Day Shred!

As I am writing this, I just got done with the 30 Day Shred!  It was a challenge that I took on along with some other ladies for the month of November!It was a great workout and it helped get me moving!  One thing that I have noticed from doing it is that I have more energy.  When it is getting towards the evening when I just want to sit down and relax, I still have power to fool around with the children.  It has also helped get the children motivated into doing some workouts!  Even though I am done with the 30 Days, I think I need to keep doing something so I just don't go back to where I was.  I will take a couple days off during the week though.  Any little movement helps out, even if it is tapping your foot when you are sitting down, to dancing around the living room with your children.  How my children love that!  Thank you to the ladies that kept me moving and kept me going.  Good Luck at finishing up.

Dump Truck birthday party!

For my son's third birthday we had a construction party!  The cake was a dump truck holding dirt in the back.  I had made signs and put them up around the house.  I used black and yellow table settings.  And we played two games that my son just loved and kept wanting to play over and over again.  The first one was a construction site obstacle course:  I cut cardboard into stripes so they were kinda like boards, and we had some cones set about.  They had to walk the cardboard and go around the cones.  The second game was tossing little cones, that I picked up at the Dollar Tree, into the back of a dump truck.  We also had hats that we let people write on!

Day 90

Day 85 - Thanksgiving day!  We went down to the community Thanksgiving meal!  Thank you to all that helped out with it.  So I don't know how well we would have stayed in our real foods!  I think it would have been pretty close!

Day 86 -

Day 87 -  We had a birthday party for our turning 3 year old.  He had a pound cake made into a dump truck!  It was good, but the toppings were not all real foods!  The frosting was homemade, but I have not figured out how to make frosting without powdered sugar and it to turn out good.

Day 88 - Another day without a doughnut!  This can be hard on one of my youngsters.

Day 89 - Eric is starting a new adventure as we are finishing up ours!  He is starting the Danial Fast for 21 days.  Good luck to him.  I am not going to be trying it any time soon!  So with that being said, we tried split peas for supper!  The children all had a spoonful.  We also had chicken and baked potatoes with yogurt on top.

Day 90 - 90% of our days are done!  So tonight for supper I used mayo!  I was making open-faced tuna salad sandwiches and took out my homemade mayo to use and it didn't look all that good.  I didn't have time to make any more, so I just used the mayo that was in the fridge from before we started.

Day 83

Day 75

We have made it to day 83 and I have not had much time to let people know how things are going.  I can't do my day to day telling right now, because I don't remember them.  But here I go to try to get some of it down.

Day 78 - We went out to Pizza Hut for lunch.  The older children are doing the booklet program, so we thought that we should let them get their little pizzas.  We felt that they worked to get them and that they should be able to have them.

Day 80 - Eric was gone and I decided to take the children out to subway for lunch.  They had 2 school buses outside and were packed inside.  We then went to our local ice cream place called Smilies.  We had their subs on their homemade bread, but it was white.  I went to a Ladies Night Out event that evening and I do have to confess that I did have a very small piece of pumpkin bread that I am sure was not all real.  But they had a lot of samples and I didn't give in very often.

Day 81 -  My youngest boy really would have liked to have a doughnut this morning at church.  But he did good to not keep asking for one.

Day 82 - Eric made us a wonderful lunch.  He made homemade spaghetti sauce with chicken pieces, spaghetti, and spaghetti squash.  He even made some cookies for us.  We had a homemade vegetable soup for supper.

Day 83 - Had some waffles for breakfast and leftovers for lunch.  Then we had scrambled eggs and potatoes with homemade smoothies for supper!  I didn't make enough eggs!

It is getting easier to know by looking at things if we can have them or not! It is hard to believe that we are just over 80% of the way done!  We can finish strong, even with Thanksgiving in a couple of days!

New Craft!

My son kept wearing his sisters which is pick, green, yellow plaid.  So I decided to try to make him one of his own.  This is what it turned out to look like!  He loves it and his little sister even likes to put it on.  It goes down past her feet!

Day 74

Day 72 -  We went ahead and had a little bit of a down day for lunch today!  My husband went and got us a pizza at the pizza place here in town.  So the crust would not have been all real food I am sure, but it is always nice to be able to pick out good toppings to have on top!  My daughter went and stayed over at a friends house for the night.  They went out to eat at McDonald's for supper (which would be a big no-no for us) and she choose not to have anything but a glass of water.  So she didn't have anything for supper or for breakfast the next morning.  The place was just next door and I told her that she could have came home and grabbed something to eat!  She told me that that was alright!  She may have some downfall, which is alright, but she also is learning a lot!

Day 73 -Today my husband make some all real food cookies for the family!  I am thankful for him and everything he does around the house to make things a little easier for me.

Day 74 -  So today at church someone came up to Eric and I and told us that they feel sorry for our children.  We asked why, and they said because of what they have to eat!  I think some people need to look into what we are doing or ask us questions before judging.  I think people would come to realize that it is not bad at all.  It is not like we are just eating tasteless food with no sweets.  Sometimes things are just best to keep to yourself and that does not just go for how people eat.  Everyone makes choices on their diets and in other areas in their lives and I am thankful that I do not go around telling people that I am sorry for them.

Day 71

Day 67 - Pot Luck Sunday!  It was our Thanksgiving Potluck, so there was turkey, ham, and the whole nine works.  Everything looked so good.  We all had a dessert, that most likely would not have been all natural, but it was for Thanksgiving and we wont be going anywhere for Thanksgiving!

Day 68 -

Day 69 - We had some mashed potatoes, green beans and tenderized steak for supper!  I don't know how many times the boys asked for more meat.

Day 70 -

Day 71 - Made some homemade vegetable soup for supper tonight.  It had ground turkey for the meat with carrots, green beans, peas, corn, and celery!  It was good and helped us warm up our bodies on this cool night.

Day 66

Day 63 - For supper tonight we had chicken, potatoes and carrots.  I just breaded the chicken with egg and whole wheat flour.  The potatoes and carrots I cut up and put some spices on them and into the oven they went.

Day 64 - This morning for breakfast I made myself a peanut butter, banana, and plain natural yogurt smoothie.  The children had already had their breakfast and they still helped me eat mine.  I guess I should have made more than one serving.  I made some chicken noodle soup for supper.  The children and adults eat it right up.  Fresh homemade foods are always so good.

Day 65 - My husband had a meeting at Subway, so he brought us home something to eat!  How sweet of him!

Day 66 - Baked a couple of pumpkins today!  Then I started baking with them.  I have been baking with them all afternoon and not getting anything else done!  First, I made a crust less pumpkin pie for potluck tomorrow.  Then I went on to make the mini pumpkin raisin muffins (made them before and the recipe is in another post.) so we would have them for doughnut time tomorrow at church.  Next, I went on to pumpkin bread and I am eating a piece right now!  Mmmm Good!  What I have in the oven right now is Pumpkin-Brownies!  I will have to let you know how they turned out, for I did some substituting!

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup fructose
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup  pumpkin purée*
• 1/2 cup  olive oil (I used applesauce)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't have any)

* To make pumpkin purée, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a foil or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use. Or, if you are working with pumpkin pieces, roast or boil them until tender, then remove and discard the skin.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, fructose, and baking soda.
2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.
3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
Can easily double the recipe.
Yield: Makes one loaf.

Pumpkin Brownies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 3/4 cup raw brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't have any)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan. Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, stir together the applesauce, sugar, and vanilla extract; beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoon. Gradually add the flour mixture, and stir the batter until it's evenly moistened. Divide the batter in half in two separate bowls.
3. Into one bowl of batter, blend the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. In the second bowl of batter, stir in the pumpkin puree, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
4. Spread 1/2 of the chocolate batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, and follow with 1/2 of the pumpkin batter. Repeat the layers, ending with a pumpkin layer, and drag a kitchen knife or small spatula gently through the layers in a swirling motion, to create a marbled appearance.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan, cut into squares, and serve.



Pumpkin Bread, Muffins, Pie



My son cleaning the bowl!



Pumpkin Brownies



Day 62

Day 57 - You end up not having as much to say as we get into this over the half way point.  Everyone is getting else to what we need to do and it is becoming away that we are living!  It can still be hard when others around you are eating things that we should not!  Our 7 year old went to girl scouts tonight and turned the snack down because she knew it was something she shouldn't have!  She is learning better than I am at times, I think!  Bless her heart!

Day 61 - We did pretty good up until we were at the church and the children were by themselves with candy!  My 5 year old was eating it as he was getting it, I think!  Our 7 year old did wonderful.  Anyways, we have decided that today did not count and will be going to 101 days! With the mishap of all the candy!  Three pieces would have been okay!  So let us see what the next holiday will bring for us!

Day 62 - We will be going out for a soccer party around supper time!  The little bit of candy that was left went into the freezer, it all fit into one container.  They ended up not getting as much as the do most of the time!

Day 56

Day 52 - We went to a pumpkin patch today!  Sometimes we try to get the children a fall treat at them.  Not this year and the children didn't even ask for one.  I did pack juice and applesauce for them, but they didn't find that out until we got in the van to return home!

Day 53 - Oops!  We got Subway for lunch, but only the sandwich!

Day 54 - So tonight was the last night of soccer for my little guy!  They have been having healthy all real food snacks until tonight.  Tonight they had G and Granola bars.  My boy did such a good job and needed something to drink, for I didn't take anything because they have been having water, so I let him have one and a granola bar, too!  He looked at the two types of bars and picked the one with raisins and not the one with chocolate chips.  Then he brought it back to me and said, "this one looked healthier!"  I am so proud of him.  I know that he is learning good eating habits and making better food choices because of this.

Day 55 -  We made a trip to the store today to pick up a couple of things.  We can across some all natural popcorn.  Boy, is it good!  I need to be careful or I could eat the whole bag!  It is made by Popcorn Indiana.  The bag has 4 ingredients and the other has 5!  He had steaks for supper with a carrot/potato mixture for supper!  I thought that I would be having some left overs!  It turned out that we ate it all!

Day 56 - My son asked to have a salad for lunch today!  The two older children even came back to have a second salad.  But soon we will not have tomatoes from our garden to put on them! 

Halloween without candy!?

Doing the 100 days and with Halloween falling into this time period, we need to be making some decisions.  Our children will be getting candy for Halloween I am sure.  What to do with it all, is the question.  If anyone has any input, please share.  I wont be handing anything out since we will be at our fall party at the church, but if you are maybe you can think of something else to hand out besides candy.  Here are some ideas: 

1. Packs of mini play dough containers
2. A mix of inexpensive Halloween-themed toys.  Something that wont just be thrown away!
3. Miniature bottles of water or all natural juice boxes.
4. Light-up glow sticks.
5. Halloween pencils and mini activity books or pads of paper
6. Toothbrushes (big kids might turn their noses up to this, but my children happen to think new toothbrushes are fun)
7. Packs of raisins
8. “Birthday landfill”, which is basically a collection of all the little gizmos and gadgets from party favor bags throughout the year
9. Temporary tattoos and/or stickers
10. Small bags of microwavable popcorn
11. Fruit leathers (made with 100% fruit)
12. Homemade crayons made in muffin tins in the oven (google it)
13. Pennies (let them grab a handful)

What do you do with all of the candy that your children get?  I don't care for it to be in my household when we can't have it.  I think I will let them pick out of couple of pieces to have and do away with the rest.  Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Allow them to keep a few pieces and then trade in the rest to you for a quarter each…then off to the toy store or dollar store!
2. Keep it simple – just offer your kids the choice to trade in all their candy for a trip to the toy store or for something else they’ve been really wanting
3. Leave the bulk of the candy out on the front porch for the mysterious “Halloween Fairy” who will miraculously leave a non-candy surprise (like a game or a toy) in its place…tell them the “better” the candy the “better” the surprise!
4. Ship your candy off to the troops
5. Or combine the best of both worlds – find a local dentist who participates in a Halloween Candy Buy Back Program because they will give you something in exchange for the candy and also ship it off to the troops for you!

If anyone has any other ideas, I would be glad to hear them.

Day 51

Here I am past the half way point and I didn't even write anything on day 50.  We have done a wonderful job of getting to this point.  We have had family here for the past week, the reason for not being able to get on.  So I will try to recap some of the happenings this past week!

Day 45 - Had another birthday in the household.  We will have one more during this 100 days.  I made a carrot cake, but it was only a 9x9 pan size.  The birthday boy eat over half of it.  It was just a cake with no frosting, that is how he likes it and always has it.  We were busy getting ready for family to come in.

Day 46 - Sunday, we ate at home with most of our visitors.  Some of them had doughnuts at church and with was hard on our youngest boy who didn't know why his cousin (that is the same age as him) was getting one.  We had a nice homemade meal for lunch after church that was waiting for us in the crock pot.  Most of our visitors left to go visit some of their other family a little bit farther away.

Day 47 - Had the pleasure of us all making homemade pizza for grandma for supper!

Day 48 -  Today, I had my mom helping me make applesauce.  I was able to get a lot in the freezer for later.  We were able to enjoy it with our supper.

Day 49 - We were in charge of taking care of the meal for Dinner and Devotion tonight at church.  We decided to have breakfast.  We made whole wheat pancakes and white (for those that didn't want to have whole wheat).  Most people went for the whole wheat ones and we ended up not having any left.  But we had a whole bunch of white ones.  We sent them home with someone.  We also had some meat and eggs and homemade applesauce, and fruit salad.  I also made some homemade raspberry topping.

Day 50 -  Preparing for family to come back to stay with us for one last night.  Knowing that they were coming, I made some gram crackers and cheese crackers so they would be able to try them and so I could send some on the road with them for snacks.  I made supper that was fish, homemade mac-n-cheese, and veggies.  Knowing that they are not use to eating like us, I went ahead and pan fried some of the fish and baking some for us.  They enjoyed it done both ways.

Day 51 - Today our company left right before 10, I have been changing bedding and cleaning up.  We were able to enjoy leftovers for lunch and sandwiches for supper.  Our sandwiches were natural peanut butter with bananas and yogurt.  I asked my family what was the first thing that they may want to have when our days are over: gum and candy was the answer with one that said, "I don't know, but something that I haven't been able to eat."

Day 43

Day 42 - I made some stress reliever cookies today.  At least that is what I told my daughter that I was making.  It was the same recipe as I put down earlier, but added some oatmeal and flaxseed.

Day 43 - Today I tried my hand on making the crackers that are like Wheat Thins.  They turned out pretty good.  I had to make a second batch while everything was out.  Eric just got ahold of them.  I hope we have some left for tomorrow for a snack!  I would encourage anyone to make them just once and taste them themselves.

Day 40

Looking for a cracker recipe just now to try and make and I came across this one http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/02/05/finer-things-friday-homemade-cracker-recipe-at-long-last/  I will have to try it out and let you know how it turns out!  We are having some fanily in this coming weekend and into next week.  Hope they don't mind eating like us!

Day 40 - Had Parents as Teachers in today.  This is the first time for this school year.  The children remembered the suckers that they get at the end!  They received a sticker instead!  Keep the healthy food coming after soccer!  Tonight it was water and applesauce!

Day 39

Have been one busy person.  Had a yard sale and had to get everything ready, plus everything else.  Just thought I would put a little update as I am watching the Packer game!  Well fill more in later!

Day 34

Day 35 - I turned a new recipe for supper tonight.  It was called Key West Chicken with pineapple.  It was suppose to be grilled but I just made it on the stove.  The older two children and I thought that it was a little too sour, but Eric and Enoch loved it.  I may try to make it again on the grill and see how it looks out.  I will try to post the recipe so you can see if you like it!  I used a can of pineapple.

Key West Grilled Chicken and Pineapple
Ingredients:
1 cup lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
6 Tbs. brown cane sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 small pineapple
Preparation:
In a small bowl, combine lime juice, oil, cane sugar, salt, cumin, ginger, and fresh cilantro.  Remove ends and skin from pineapple.  Cut lengthwise into 8 wedges and remove the core portion from each wedge.  Place chicken breasts in a large plastic sipper bag and half the marinade.  In a different bag place pineapple wedges and remaining marinade.  Seal both bags, turn to coat and refrigerate for 60 minutes.  Preheat grill and grill chicken breasts, turning once until chicken is cooked through.  Grill pineapple wedges until heated throughout.  Serve each chicken breast with 2 pineapple wedges.

Day 36

Day 37 - It was kinda tough today!  Having a yard sale and having something that could have just be thrown into the oven would have been so easy to have done, but I didn't cheat!

Day 38 - My daughter got a fun size candy bar today after volleyball.  I am so pound of her.  She could have easily have eaten it and we would have never knew, but instead she brought it to me and told me that she was going to put it in the freezer until she was allowed to eat it!  Yeah! 

Day 39 - Today we had some chocolate muffins.  They turned out pretty good.  The children ate them right up.  For supper tonight we had baked potatoes with plain yogurt on top, sweet potatoes, meatloaf with oatmeal in it, and green beans.  What a filling meal to have right before evening church!

Day 33

Day 30 - Was a birthday with a homemade big birthday cookie.  It was good and made from all natural ingredients. 

Day 31 - Oz Fest was going on down town with many baked goods to buy plus hot dogs and things.  A year ago we bought some of the things and had a meal down there!  This year we stayed away from all the food booths and bake sales.  We just had a fun time walking up and down the road.  That morning the two older children ran in a mile race and so did Eric.  They did a wonderful job.  Anyways they got Bananas and water when they got done.  We saw some drinking other things.

Day 32 - Had a wonderful woman make some muffins that we could eat for our doughnut time at church.  We thank her very much!  With it being the first Sunday of the month, it was also potluck Sunday!  Everything looked so good, but we needed to find the things that looked like the best things that we could eat.  I think we did a pretty good job.  We did let the children have one desert.  Our daughter didn't even eat all of hers, which is something that she would not have done before!

Day 33 - Are we 1/3 of the way done!

Day 29

Day 29 -  I haven't had a chance to be on here for a couple of days.  Just thought I would take this time while I am waiting for one of my youngest to fall asleep to give a brief update.  I am not sure what has been going on the past couple of days but that we tried out another new recipe for pumpkin pancakes.  They turned out pretty good.  I will post the recipe later.  Today my family took me out to eat for my birthday.  We went to a place that we had heard that they had some all real food on their buffet.  If they had much it was mixed in with everything else and was hard to tell.  So at lunch we didn't, I am sure of it, have all real food, but it was for a birthday (a special occasion).  They are allowed.  So tonight I made a birthday cookie pizza for our little celebration here at the house.  We will see how it turns out, I will try to put the recipe up tomorrow, if it is any good.  That about does it for now.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup fructose
1/2 cup raw brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
10 oz. All Natural chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375F.  Mix the ingredients together.  Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 9 to 11 minutes.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies. 

I had made it into bars.  Just add a few more cooking minutes!
Ghirardelli has All Natural baking chips.

Day 26

Day 26 - It must be fall!  I love to get out in this weather and have some fun.  Another way that I know that it is fall is the pumpkins!  Yes, the pumpkins!  The mini-muffins were eaten up for a snack this morning and we had breakfast for super, pumpkin waffles and applesauce with real maple syrup.  Isobel didn't want them for they were made out of pumpkin, but it didn't stop her from eating them.  I think she would start to realize that she likes pumpkin.  She even had some pumpkin seeds this evening for a snack.  Maybe I need to find a way to make pumpkin crackers! :)

Pumpkin Waffles

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/8 cup fructose
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup pumpkin

Instructions

1. Set up the waffle iron on a counter top or table within easy reach of the cook. Plug in the iron to preheat it.
2. In a medium-size mixing bowl, stir together the flour, fructose, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, and pumpkin. Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mixture and stir just until combined.
3. Coat the preheated waffle iron with cooking spray. Pour the waffle batter onto the center of each section of the iron. (You will need 1/4 to 3/4 cup of batter for each waffle.)
4. Cook the waffles for about 4 to 5 minutes or until they are crispy and light brown. (Read the manufacturer's directions for details about how long you should cook the waffles in your particular waffle iron.) Serve immediately with maple syrup. Serves 4.

I should have made a double banch so we could have had some left!

Day 25

Day 24 - The girls and I went to a Mother/Daughter Brunch this morning.  All the food looked good, but most of it was a no!  We had an egg dish and fruit.  The tables were decorating so pretty and some of them had cupcakes and candy on them.  We made sure that we sat at a table that didn't have any of that tempting stuff on them.  When it was all over and we were talking to people, someone at one of the tables with fun size candy bars offered them to us and we had to turn them down.  Then she asked if we wanted to take them home for the boys, so we explained why we could not have them.  She was a big encouragement to us then with the words that she said to us.  Our daughter was at the play tonight that she is in and she had a falling out!  All of the children in it were given a sucker and she gave in.  I guess that it is pretty good to go until the 24th day for something like that to happen and with all of the other ones having them.  How many tempting things can a 7 year old handle in a day!


Day 25 - We are 1/4 of the way there!  Should we have a party with an ice cream cake!  I don't think so!  We can just be happy that we have made it this far.  For our Sunday morning fellowship time I made Pumpkin-Raisin Mini Muffins.  My daughter was not sure about them because they were made with pumpkin, but ended up eating 3 of them because they were good!  The the boys finished them off this afternoon and asked for more.  I just took the pan out of the oven and the boys are on there 2nd ones.  We feel that more people are excepting our challenge or getting use to it and know they can't do anything.  Which is nice for us.  Here is my latest muffin recipe:

Pumpkin-Raisin Mini Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup fructose
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (could use applesauce)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, fructose, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a second bowl, mix the egg and egg white, milk, oil, pumpkin puree and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir only until moistened. Do not over mix. Stir in the raisins.
2. Spray mini-muffin tins with cooking spray. Spoon batter into prepared tins, filling each section 2/3 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
   Makes 24 mini muffins.

Day 23

Day 21 - We had our church's Wed. night Dinner at a local park.  The main food was hot dogs and hamburgers, with sides.  I knew before we got there that it may be a hard night of eating.  It turned out not to be so bad.  Of course the two things that I took we could have.  There was about a handful of things there that we were able to eat and that was just fine, because our tummies were full!  One of the things that we took was our homemade gram crackers and they were a big hit!

Day 22 - We kinda ran out of fruit!  The children have been snacking more on fruit.  We have gone through 4 bags of apple within a week!  And the peaches went by fast, too!

Day 23 - So we took a trip to the store this afternoon to pick up some fruits and other things.  One thing we picked up was a baking pumpkin.  For supper we made some pumpkin fries!  The children just ate them right up.  And even wanted more!  We made to different kinds.  Who said that eating like this would be no fun!  We even froze some sliced pumpkins to use later.

Ingredients
2 sugar pie pumpkins = approximately 8 cups when cut
Savory Spice Mix
2 tsp. curry powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp. olive oil
Sweet Spice Mix
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice or allspice (no sugar added)
2 tbsp. honey
Directions
Prep: preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Step 1 – Cut the pumpkins in half and remove the seeds.
Step 2 – Remove the skins with a potato peeler. (Careful not to get your fingers!)
Step 3 – Cut into strips, similar to french fries.  About 1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness.
Step 4 – Coat your pumpkin in desired spices (see instructions below).
Step 5 – Arrange the fries on a parchment lined cookie sheet so that they are in a single layer
Step 6 – Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until it is soft and easily pierced with a fork.
SAVORY PUMPKIN FRIES
Step 1 – Place your cut pumpkin and olive oil in a mixing bowl.
Step 2 – Add 1 tbsp. of the spices.
Step 3 – Toss by hand until the pumpkin is well coated in oil and spices. 
SWEET PUMPKIN FRIES
Step 1 – Place your cut pumpkin into a mixing bowl and sprinkle on your spices.
Step 2 – Add honey and toss by hand until your pumpkin is well coated with honey and spices.

Skirt to Dress

Earlier this summer I picked up a skirt at a thrift store.  I have turned it into a dress for Isobel.  You may ask me how!  I'll tell you.  I measured it around Isobel and cut off the sides to fit it to her.  Then with the part that I cut off, I made into strapes.  She loves it.  I am working on a smaller one for a friend, too!  Here is the skirt and the after pictures!

Day 20

Day 19 - Isaiah had soccer last night.  They always have a snack afterwards!  When snack time came he looked at daddy to see if he could have it!  And he was happy to find out that he could because the snack had turned out to be bananas and water!  After soccer we came home and ate supper and the boys decided to make more almond butter with choc.  and for some reason it did not turn out and got hard. 

Day 20 - Isobel is at the play and they have been doing so well that they are getting a treat.  Unlike Isaiah who got the snack last night, she is having to say no because it is candy!  She has her supper with her and an apple.  Just some things in a corse of doing all of things.  The children sure are learning a lot, well at least the older two!

They wanted to turn it on, but knew that it would be loud.  They can be so funny!  Enjoy!

Day 18

Day 18 - So today was our third Sunday.  It is always nice to have people be supportive of what we are doing.  Today we had some people asking us why we were doing 100 days and why the children are doing it too.  They don't think that we should be having the children do it.  It is a good thing that we are the parents and we want what is best for our children.  Eating foods that are not process and do not have unnatural sweeteners in them are better on your body.  People in the Bible would not have been filling theirselves with all of that kind of food, so why should we?  So if you are thinking that we are doing wrong to our children, I am not making you read this!  Our children are not complaining about our adventure and they are enjoying it and learning new things from doing this.  They are supportive and even tell others that they can't have some things.  I love my children!
     On the other side of things, my husband wanted more homemade gram crackers today!  So I helped him make them.  We also had some little hands helping.  We again made two batches and ate them with some of our homemade almond butter!  So good, we had to make ourselves stop eating it!  And the muffins I made last night for us to eat at doughnut time this morning at church, were a hit with our children! 
     If anyone has a recipe for some whole wheat plain crackers, I would love to know about it!

Day 17

Day 17 - It has been one busy day.  I am just now able to set down and take a break.  Our real food days are going good.  Last night I made some homemade pizza with veggies as the toppings.  The children were picking the peppers off, but overall was eating it really good.  Today we made some almond butter.  Then made a second batch with cocca in it.  We should have put more in.  The children were eating it with the homemade bread that I made yesturday.  This evening I made some flaxseed muffins for us to have at church during doughnut time.  They have carrets and apples in them.  We will see how the children like them.  If they do, I will post the recipe.

Day 13

Day 13 -- Making some homemade salsa for my husband.  It is just helping us save some money.  Something I do about this time every year.  We have been moving right along.  Day 10 has come and gone.  Some days it is harder then other, wanting to just throw something into the over like fish sticks.  But we are learning a lot, like how to make things that people just go out and buy.  One thing that I made just the other day was salad dressing or mayo.  I could not believe how easy it was to make it and only 3 things went into it.  If you look at a jar of mayo, how many ingredients is on it?  Do we really need all of that in it?  I still would like a piece of chocolate and can't believe I have gone without for 13 days, about half a month!  Right now my boys are snacking on carrots!  How good to see that.  I have a meeting tonight, lets see if I can stay away from all the good food that they have there.

Day 9!

Day 9 - We are almost 10% done with our real food!  It has been going pretty well.  The children have really been into it.  I was not sure how they would take to the changes.  Today I made some gramcrackers.  I had to stop the children from eating them.  They are really easy to make and it is fun making foods, I know what is in them and know that it is real.  If you would like to try your hand at these, here you go:
        

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cups butter, melted
• ½ cups honey

Mix together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and soda. Separately, mix the butter and honey and then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix well and drop onto a greased baking sheet (jelly roll size). Roll out to the corners with a rolling pin. I usually end up using my hands to press out the mixture as it tends to be pretty sticky! Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Cut quickly when they come out of the oven. Your kids will love it when you use different shaped cookie cutters! These are delicious warm out of the oven, but they also keep well.

I also made a batch of chocolate.  Added 1/3 cup cocoa to the recipe (left our the cinnamon) to make chocolate graham crackers.

Cut and ready to serve!



Chocolate graham crackers still in the pan.

 We will also be having homemade pizza for supper.  I need to be getting the toppings on and getting it in!  Any children want to help me?

Day 7 and 8

Day 7 - Made some homemade fruit lather.  The children ate it all up.  Will post picture and recipe later.
      Apple Spice Fruit Leather
Yields one 11”x17” pan of fruit leather
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 5-8 hours at 170°F

INGREDIENTS
1 25-ounce jar of applesauce
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 170°F.
2. Line an 11”x17” jelly-roll pan or lipped cookie sheet with greased parchment paper (wax paper will smoke in the oven) or a silicone baking mat.
3. Spread the puree until it’s about 1/4” thick. Pick up the pan and tilt back and forth until it’s evenly distributed.
4. Bake in the oven for 5-8 hours. Rotate the pan halfway during the baking time to ensure even drying. Timing will vary depending on the fruit used. It’s ready when it’s smooth and non-tacky.

5. Let it cool, then cut in strips with scissors or a pizza cutter. Stack or roll them and store in an airtight container or a zipper storage bag.

• Spice up a can of pumpkin with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves for another twist on fall-inspired fruit leather.
• Puree a can of peaches or other canned fruit in the blender for a quick option that requires no washing and slicing.
• To sweeten fruit leather, add a couple teaspoons, or to taste, of vanilla, brown sugar, honey or maple syrup.
• Try adding herbs like lavender, basil, rosemary, mint, sage or thyme for subtle hints of extra decadent flavor – a perfect adult treat.

Day 8 - Made some crackers this evening.  The batch went like it was going out of style, so I made another.  The children sure are liking new things.  I will try to post this recipe tomorrow.  I think I will be trying to make homemade gramcrackers tomorrow!

•      1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into tablespoon size chunks
• 4 oz. or 1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese…the sharper the cheese the cheesier the crackers

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all three ingredients in a food processor and blend. The mixture will eventually turn into one big ball chasing itself around the bowl. Be patient because it can take a few minutes.
3. Roll the ball into a log about 1 ½” in diameter. At this point you could refrigerate the dough until later.
4. With a sharp knife slice ¼” thick pieces off the log (pictured) and place each one flat on an ungreased baking sheet. Try to rotate which side you are cutting down on because the top of the log does start to flatten a little. It is like your very own homemade slice and bake!
5. If you want your crackers to look a little fancy (as pictured above) take a fork and gently mash down the top of each one before baking.
6. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes or until golden brown.

These crackers can be stored in the freezer so double the recipe and save some for later!

Yield: Two dozen



Fruit Leather



Day 3, 4, and 5!

What can I say about Day 3!  It was our baby girl's 1st birthday, so we had to have a cake.  We took all that was left of the cake over to our neighbors.  So, one piece for everyone and no more and we didn't even have any ice cream with it!

Day 4:  I thought I would have some sad children for there are always doughnuts at church to eat before Sunday School.  I made some muffins and we took those and the children didn't mind at all.  One of the older ladies even ask our 5 year old if he wanted a piece gum (which my children can never say no to), but he told her that he couldn't have one.  After she found out why from him, she came over to me and told me that she should try what we are doing for some of the problems that she has.  It was also potluck day (1st Sunday of the month).  Our eldest (7) did a pretty good job picking out her food and the others had some help.  One of the ladies in our church knows about what we are trying to do and she was so sweet and brought a platter with all fresh fruits and veg.  Over all we did pretty good at potluck, but I am sure there was something on all of our plates that should not have been there.  Then we took off on the road for an over night trip.  So supper was in the cooler.

Day 5:  Hotel breakfast - they have a wide variety of food, but not to much for us.  We did our best, with cold cereal and eggs and fruit, and yogurt.  We tried!  Lunch was a little tricky, but stopped at a grocery store to pick somethings up.  Supper was back at home.  Why the overnight trip.  Eric ran in a marathon this morning and came in 20th place with a 3rd place win in his age group.  We didn't stay around for they were having pizza and cookies!  So 5 days down, 95 to go.

Day One

Today was our fisrt day or "real food."  It went pretty well.  We had eggs, toast, and milk for breackfast.  Fruit and Vegs. for lunch.  There is one thing that we are not doing and that is changing our milk.  You are to have raw milk or whole and we just are not into doing that.  Overall day one has been okay, besides Eric wanting gum.

The Battle

So the past week we have been dealing with pink eye!  First one child came down with it.  A week later another, and later that same day another.  We woke up this morning and the second child had it in her other eye!  She is the worst with it and she is the oldest.  We hope that the baby does not come down with it!  They want to do the same thing as everyone else and don't understand how they can pass it to others.  You would think that seeing each other get it, that they would start to understand how easy it can be spread.  I am praying that this battle will soon come to an end!

May Day!

Tomorrow is May 1st.  My children have been making flowers for the past couple of years to hand out on May Day!  This year we made them out of felt.  My daughter was sewing the middle part on but after about 8 she grew tired of it.  Then she was just matching up centers to the flowers that she wanted them on, then we glued them.  the ones that are sewed, I think turned out better!  I just thought I would sure this idea with everyone.  We made about 50 since we have church tomorrow and the children will just hand them out there instead of going to doors.  Everyone have a nice May Day!

We haven't cut off the strings yet!  She did a good job!

These have glue, but I think I will have to hot glue them.

Just a thought

I haven't been on here for a while.  Things are staying busy here.  Homeschooling is going good with us wrapping the last of our lessons up next week!  We are noe involved in soccer and T-ball for the spring.  My hubby is getting ready to take part in another play.  We have a couple of events coming up in the church that I should be getting ready for.  And soon, in two days, I will have a 5 year old running around the house again and no longer a 4 year old.  I hope everyone has a blessed Easter and know that our Savior is risen indeed and will come back for us some day!

Household hints

Remove static from your clothes.  I read this idea somewhere and I tried it today and it works!  When you are drying your clothes in the Drier, throw in a couple of aluminium foil balls.  They help take the static out of your clothes.  I have a new drier sheet!

Homeschooling

I found some great books to use about our presidents!  They are "Time for Kids Biographies"  We just read "Theodore Roosevelt the Adventurous President"  I will have to find more!  Our library only has 4 of them.  Something for you homeschoolers to check out or if someone is writing a report on one of them.

I am new to this and just thought I would try my hand out on it.  Like I don't have enough to do.  I am a mother of 4 young children, trying to raise them how God would like me to.  I am a stay at home mom and my children's teacher.