Red, White, and Blue Pops! Happy Fourth!

Greek Yogurt White and Blue Pops :)

These popsicles were so easy........ 2 cups of plain greek yogurt, 1/2 cup or orange juice, and 1 cup of blueberries..... oh and 1/4 cup of sweetener.  I used Maple Syrup!  Stir and pour into your mold of choice.  I only made a few to test but they were delicious and festive.  My son loved them.

These Firecracker pops took a little longer to layer but they were delicious and simple.   First layer of red was 1 cup of strawberries and a quarter cup of maple syrup blended.    White layer was 1 cup of greek yogurt and 1/4 cup maple syrup with 1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut.  I used Bob's Red Mill coconut.  The last layer was 1 cup of blueberries with 1/4 maple syrup blended.

The consistency of your berries may vary, if you need to, add a little water for your puree if it needs more liquid or if you are using frozen berries.  Enjoy the process of using seasonal produce to fulfill your sweet-tooth and your nutritional needs :)

When removing the pops, I had to persuade them a little by running the outside of the mold under a little hot water to loosen it.  

Morning Oats

Refrigerator Oats:

1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt

1/4 cup Rolled Oats

1 Tbsp Flax Seeds

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds 

(I used seeds from Bob's Red Mill)

Raisins

Coconut Milk (I used Vanilla So Delicious brand)

In 1/2 mason jar or any container that holds roughly 1 cup of contents, put in 1/2 cup Greek Yogurt.  Pour in your 1/4 cup of rolled oats on top, then a layer of flax seeds and Chia seeds.  Next layer your raisins on top, enough for roughly two row layers (helps sweeten the mixture a bit).  Then pour in your coconut milk till the jar line and screw on an airtight lid.  I use the regular mouth plastic lids by Ball.  Leave them to soak in the refrigerator overnight until the seeds plump and the oats "cook".  

It looks like the picture below in the morning.  Make sure you stir it well to have an even consistency.  You can sprinkle in some coconut, preserves, or additional dried fruit. 

Enjoy your healthy breakfast!

Turkey Nuggets

Here is what you need for Turkey Nuggets:

Organic Ground Turkey Meat

1 cup Rice Flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)

2tsp Italian Spices

Salt and Pepper

1 cup Olive Oil or egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsn water)

Preheat oven to broil on 375 degrees.  I put the rice flour in a shallow dish mixed with the Italian Spices.  Also put the Olive Oil in a shallow dish to prep for the breading on the nuggets. Take a small ball of turkey meat, then roll it first in the Olive Oil (I have had a little more crispiness with an egg wash), and then in the Rice Flour mixture.  Place the balls of turkey on the pan, and press down on them with a flat surface like a spatula.  Place nuggets in the oven for 15 minutes.  Test them at 15, and if not quite browned on the outside (they should be slightly crisp) then check every few minutes until they are done.  Make sure they have sauce!  I used some ranch dressing and a honey mustard.  Let your creativity kick in on this one.  

The Ninja Warrior

I call this smoothie "The Ninja Warrior"

The boys in my household love that show.  My son says "Climb!"  On days like today when he just can't stop eating......... I decided to feed him this:

Makes two smoothies

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup orange juice

2 Tbs whey powder or liquid whey

2 Tbs unsweetened shredded coconut flakes

1 Tbs Flax Seed Meal

Homemade Peppermint Extract

Homemade Peppermint Extract:

For all of those peppermint baking creations, toothpaste remedies, and I read bug repellent this morning.  :)  We are growing a ton of mint in our Garden ad this is one of the uses I have found.

Take 1/3 cup of chopped mint and put it in a half pint mason jar.
Pour 2/3 cup vodka (can be bottom shelf)  I went local Hood River Distillery ..........

You leave it sitting like this, shaking it a little once a week for about eight weeks.  The longer you leave it, the stronger the flavor.  The alcohol has to be at least 35% because it extracts the oils from the leaves.  

You can also use rum!  Enjoy your creations.  Could be a Holiday gift for loved ones if you put it in a pretty jar, or just find a great label for this jar.

Custard French Toast

I whisk the ingredients below, sprinkle them with cinnamon and nutmeg, and pour it over my bread in a pyrex dish.  I leave them to soak overnight, and then when I wake up they are ready to brown in a pan.  They are very dense, so they may same like they will take a while to cook even though they are already done.  Check the consistency all the way through, that is how you will know to eat it!

4 farm fresh eggs
1 cup milk
4 Tbspns Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
Pinch of salt
Juice of 2 Lemons
Cinnamon and Nutmeg
Ends of Homemade bread or any french bread (4 large pieces or 8 small)

Today I harvested my first greens from the garden....... While my son played with his new digger toys in the yard from his #2 birthday, and my daughter rolled over for the first time ever. I was working in the Garden to get us some Kale, Swiss Chard, Collard Greens, Romaine, Chives, and Mint.  I made Orange and Chocolate Mint Kefir Water and I bagged up our goodies for the week.  I feel so blessed that our yard produced such healthy veggies for our nourishment.  Can't wait to enjoy our handwork!

Dinner in a hurry......

In my house there are no real food labels.  We are not gluten, or dairy free, we are not on the paleo plan, and we are not really vegetarians.  We eat healthy, wholesome food, and are learning and progressing with the rest of the population.  We get new information that is available all of the time.  We have researched Genotype eating, paleo, practice wholesome whole food eating, and ferment.  Cross-Cultured (no pun intended) I say.

Tonight I was in a hurry, I had a baby in one arm and a toddler at my feet and it was dinner time!
I had to think fast.  I googled traditional Mac and Cheese to please the toddler and ran with it.  I put about a 1/4 cup of coconut oil in the pan to melt on medium heat and start my sauce, and went to the pantry to find a thickening agent.  Because we are not perfect and transitioning our grains we still had all-purpose flour.  "Use it up!" I thought.  It is not very frugal minded to waste because you are moving on.  I whisked in 1/3 cup of flour into my coconut oil to thicken for the base of my cheese sauce.  I haven't experimented with coconut milk sauces yet, so I stuck with the whole(pasteurized not ultra-pasteurized) organic milk that we use for yogurt and my husband's occasional glass with dessert.  Three cups of milk whisked in slowly. I then grated one clove of garlic in the warm milk. OK here's where I added two cups of cubed very sharp cheddar Tillamook cheese.  When it melted, salt and pepper, chili powder, done.  I poured it over a pot of cooked organic penne with some frozen organic peas.  Didn't have breadcrumbs so I crushed some stale garlic croutons.  Being frugal here.  Voila!  Then slice some garden beets, Farmer's Market strawberries and plate it all.  Everyone happy!  :)

There is no such thing as teaching!

I received an email from my mom the other day.  She always sends me tidbits that she finds interesting and inspiring to read.  I love reading them because they spark lots of good conversation between the two of us.  She sent me this email, and what a risk to send to someone in the teaching profession without knowing their own philosophies on teaching.  :)  My mom knows me well, and was willing to take the risk.  Education is such a controversial topic these days and to think that there is no such thing as teaching could go right to the top of every one's "don't spend any more money on education list".  Here is the catch.......


My University where I received my Teaching Education was right in line with these thoughts and beliefs of "There is no such thing as teaching".  There are teachers, and there are students but no perfect method or one size all approach to being a conduit of information.  The Student learns the information through personal inquiry and through books and experimentation.  I was taught to create a learning environment.  There are many different methods of instruction to help construct that learning environment for every student.  The Teacher must have all of their goals and objectives for learning and methods for teaching in place.  They scout different learning styles of leaners so that they may gear instruction to those learners.  If the teacher is doing all of those things, here is the bald-face truth in life.  The old adage, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink"; applies here.   No matter how much work you put in, we are all creating learning and interest for children, and they are in charge of the results.  If we create these environments well and get them excited about learning, hopefully we have created lifelong learners.  Once they leave the classroom, they have to be excited about learning in the outside world.  There is no environmental control outside of the classroom.  So poke and prod and demean education, but also think: They have home and school to create these opportunities to love learning.  Extend and enrich their environment as much as you can, but they are in charge of their own learning.  


Here is what the subscribed for newsletter she received said:




"'There Is No Such Thing As Teaching'… I ran across the title quotation in a story told by Monty Roberts, the famous "horse whisperer," in which he recounts something he learned from his best teacher that he later applied to his work with horses. It's a rather shocking assertion to say that there is 'no such thing as teaching'… especially to those of us who have given our lives to the profession. Here is the full quotation in context…

Sister Agnes Patricia was the most influential teacher I ever knew. What I will always remember about her is her statement that there is no such thing as teaching — only learning. She believed that no teacher could ever teach anyone anything. Her task as a teacher was to create an environment in which the student can learn. Knowledge, she told us, standing very straight in her long black habit, her face framed by her white wimple, pointed at the top like the spire of a cathedral, needs to be pulled into the brain by the student, not pushed into it by the teacher. Knowledge is not to be forced on anyone. The brain has to be receptive, malleable, and most important, hungry for that knowledge.

"How closely related that is to some of the 'eternal verities' that guide Golden Apple's Inquiry Science Institute: 'Teaching and learning are not synonymous.' 'We can teach, and teach well, without having students learn.' 'Knowledge is seldom transferred intact from the mind of the teacher to the mind of the student.' 'Knowledge is CONSTRUCTED in the mind of the learner.'

"If these assertions are true, what's a teacher to do, particularly in the current high stakes test environment? One of the most difficult lessons for us to learn as teachers is to step back from being the asker of all questions and the font of all answers, and to let students explore, question, design, ponder, and grow in their own way and in their own time. To an extent, some of this is beyond our control, given the rigid testing schedules and prescribed curricula most teachers must follow. But there is always a significant portion of the classroom experience that is within our control, and that's where our professional responsibility kicks in. Because the struggle is more often with our own need to control and direct the learning process than with external directives. But when we can challenge that need in ourselves for the benefit of our students, something wonderful happens…

"A counter point is that everyone is a 'teacher' by how they live and what they communicate but it doesn't stop there for it must be converted to learning by hard thinking." – Paid-up subscriber JA

Strawberry Butter

Recipe:

1 pint strawberries
3 tbspns honey
2 tspns Orange Juice
3/4 cup Coconut Oil (melted)

Makes 2 half pint or 1 pint jar of Strawberry Butter.

I placed all ingredients into a container and used the handstick blender to incorporate them.  They blended nicely.  The coconut oil does set up in the fridge where you should store this but if you leave it out for a short amount of time it spreads nicely on warm homemade toast.  Enjoy!

How to make your own Yogurt

I make my own yogurt and save a ton of money.  Not only can I make batches of vanilla and add fruit or preserves, but I make refrigerator oats, yogurt cheese to spread on crackers, and I save the whey in ice cube trays for my son's smoothies.  In the future I hope to use this whey for the lacto-fermentation of garden vegetables.

I will reveal my own method that has been successful in making yogurt and accompany with some pictures.  I culture my yogurt in my crockpot that has a warm setting.  Withe the lid off and a couple inches of water the temperature stays pretty consistent at 110 degrees.

In a stainless steel pan I cook 3 cups of whole organic milk on medium.  Make sure your milk is non ultra-pasteurized.  You want to keep the beneficial properties of the milk in tact.  You are going to heat tis milk to 160 degrees to get it ready for your culture.

The milk will bubble at 160 degrees.

I use three half pint size mason jars.  Here I poured boiling water in them to sterilize them.

Add captionI use ball plastic lids for my mason jars when I make yogurt.  You can find them on Amazon and at www.culturesforhealth.com  I stick them in the water in my ceramic crockpot dish to sterilize and keep them clean before putting them on my jars.

You need a starter culture for your yogurt.  Lately I have been using a store bought one and getting a whole lot for my money when I make so many batches out of it.  I have been making greek yogurt.  If you want to know how to culture other varieties of yogurt, please visit the education section of cultures for health's website and watch their videos.  You can order starter cultures through cultures for health as well.

Your milk needs to cool from 160 to 110 before it is ready for your culture.  Once it gets to 115, I usually add 1/2 cup of powdered milk to keep the yogurt creamier.   Then I pour the milk halfway into each half-pint jar.  I add two tspns of yogurt from the starter container.  Then I pour the rest of the milk in each jar to fill it.  I usually leave an inch headspace.  If I want vanilla flavored yogurt I add two tsp's maple syrup and one tspn vanilla to each jar and stir very lightly to incorporate.  Then I dry the lids off and screw them onto the jars tightly to incubate.  I place the jars in the water in the crockpot like the picture below. 

I use a dymo brand label maker to place the date on my lids, so I know when the yogurt was made.

I hope you enjoy making your own yogurt.  It gets used so quickly in my household because we make refrigerator oats for breakfast.  I will post some really yummy refrigerator oats soon! :)