Homemade Yogurt

Yogurt can be expensive to buy plus it has a long list of artificial ingredients.  Many years ago, when I still had little kiddos at home, I used to make it in the crockpot.  Fast forward a decade and my boys still love the stuff with granola and fruit.  

So, I pulled out my trusty crockpot and am sharing this easy recipe with all of you!

Homemade Yogurt

Pour one gallon of milk into your crockpot.  

Store bought milk is good, but if you can source raw milk, the taste and nutritional value 

will be even better!  

Set your crockpot to LOW and let it go for 2 1/2 hours.

At the end of 2 1/2 hours, 

unplug the crockpot and let sit for 3 hours.

At the end of 3 hours, the yogurt should be around 110 degrees. If it's hotter, you could possibly kill the yogurt cultures.  Mix in one regular container of unflavored Greek yogurt. Make sure it says, "active cultures".  Then wrap your crockpot in a couple of towels or a blanket and let it sit 

for12 hours.  

THAT'S IT!

Look at those vanilla specks

Don't forget to save one cup of your yogurt 

to start the next batch! 

You can get fancy and flavor your yogurt if you like.  I added two Tahitian vanilla beans to the milk and the flavor was so good!  You can add honey, flavorings, or just leave it plain.  If you like really thick yogurt, you can strain it through cheesecloth.  

We like to eat this with fresh fruit or jam, with granola, in the blender with frozen fruit for a cold smoothie, and I like to use it in place of sour cream in a lot of recipes.

It stays good in the fridge for two weeks.

BoneBroth

When I had my surgery, my low carb way of eating went out the window.  I ate what I wanted. And because of that, I ended up feeling like crap and gaining weight.  Since returning to work, I finally feel like I want to take control of my life back.  That means drastically cleaning up my diet again.  It's so much more than just cutting carbs and sugar, it's about eating more nutrient dense foods for health.  One of the most nutritious foods you can eat is bone broth.

Here's how I make it.

Place 12-15 organic chicken legs in a crock pot and any combination of onions, peppers, celery, or carrots over them.  Add chopped garlic and seasonings like black pepper, poultry seasoning blend, rosemary, or thyme.  Cover with water and cook on low for 8-12 hours.

Strain the liquid into a large bowl and de-bone the chicken.  Place all the bones, skin, and cartilage back into the crock pot.  Cover bones with water and add 1/4 cup organic apple cider vinegar.  Cook on low 12-24 hours.  The longer you cook, the more the vinegar has time to leach the nutrients from the bones. 

Combine the broth from both batches, salt well with pink or grey salt, and store in quart or gallon sized jars.  This recipe gives us just shy of one gallon of broth. If that's too much for you, the broth can be frozen or used in your favorite recipes. 

 Sip a cup or two daily for a boost of collagen, micro-nutrients, and pure comfort!

Some of the many benefits of bone broth:

Helps to fight inflammation.

Aids the body in wound healing.

Strengthens bones and teeth.

Heals the lining of the gut.

Supports healthy skin, hair, and nails.

It contains over 19 easy to absorb essential amino acids.

It is the BEST source of collagen and benefits every part of your body from your brain to your gut, muscles and ligaments.

Baby It's COLD Outside!

It FINALLY feels like winter here in south Texas!

We woke up this morning to a temp of 36 degrees and 25 mph winds blowing off the hay field behind our house.  

A chilly start to our day, but I love it!

It's a good day to stay inside, snuggle up on the couch, 

binge on Netflix, and drink hot cocoa all day long.

Now that my kids are older, I set up this little hot cocoa/coffee bar so that they can enjoy a cup of comfort any time of day...and now that they're older, I'm not in fear of one of them stealing the butter cookie tin and eating the whole thing behind the couch...

  I'm lookin' at YOU, John Paul Creamer!

Everything you see here came from, you guessed it, 

DOLLAR TREE.

Included in our hot cocoa bar:

Large silver serving tray

Snowman cup with peppermint sticks

Danish butter cookies

Jar of mini marshmallows

Jar of Andes Chocolate   Mints

Pepperidge Farms Pirouette

Nonni's Biscotti

A shaker of cinnamon

Torani Sugar Free Hazelnut syrup 

(NOT from Dollar Tree, but I can't drink my coffee without it!)

And because you know how much I LOVE me some Dollar Tree,

I couldn't help but decorate my kitchen window sill that sits right next to the hot cocoa bar:

Y'all, those cinnamon scented pinecones, my fave!

Now you’re ready to enjoy hot cocoa at any minute of the day or night with ease. Your guests will also love your set up 

and you’ll help them to feel right at home.
Plus, I don't think there is anything a little
chocolate can't fix.
Am I right?

Sunday Afternoon

 

A gorgeous Sunday afternoon with a little soap and water.

Even big brothers want to play!

To make super bubble solution:

6 cups of water

2 cups of dish soap

1 cup of corn syrup

A segment of yarn or cotton cord tied in a loop

A Creamer Christmas ~ Homemade Apple Butter

I'm not going to lie about it, I'M CHEAP!

Maybe I should say...frugal, instead.

Truth is, with five kids, the holidays are a huge financial crunch time for us.  I try to lighten the load by making homemade/handmade gifts for our friends and family.  One of the gifts I'm making this year is apple butter.

I ate tons of this stuff as a kid and I always loved it!  

It truly couldn't be easier to make. 

 You start by peeling, coring, and chopping 12 pounds of apples.  

I used a variety of Gala, Fuji, and Granny Smith apples.

This is a great activity for the kids to help out with.  

The older boys have good knife skills 

and little Mary Grace helped with the spices:

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of white sugar

2 tablespoons of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons allspice

Just a splash of apple cider vinegar

Mix ingredients well into a large crock pot and cook on high for 8-10 hours.  Blend until smooth with immersion blender, or by hand if you like a chunky apple butter.  Fill sterile jars and process.

Your house is going to smell AMAZING!

This recipe makes 12 half pints, 

which is the perfect size for gift giving.

From left to right:  Apple Butter, Candied Jalapenos and Orange Jelly from our garden.

Sure, at first thought, homemade gifts are a great way to save money and avoid the stress of the mall.
But I hope our friends and family know that they are truly made with LOVE!
So act like you like it when you open it,
and a little squealing wouldn't hurt either!

Smells like laundry

Living in the country with five kiddos and a dog, 

sometimes the house can smell less than...

fresh.

I have a couple of those wax warmer thingies strategically placed around the home for such occasions,

 but I was out of the scented wax melts.  

A perfect substitute:

Gain Fireworks laundry booster!

About two tablespoons of scent booster 

makes a nice subtle smell throughout the house. 

It smells like laundry day, 

but without all the work!

Baseball mamas around the world, REJOICE!

I have discovered a way to get white baseball pants white again!

The secret is in this cheap (as in less than a dollar) bar of soap 

you can find in the laundry aisle:

ZOTE

Just grate a bit of it into a bowl, put about a tablespoon on the stain with a little hot water and scrub until the soap dissolves.  I also sprayed a bit of Oxy Clean on the stain before throwing these pants in the wash with the leftover bits of Zote.

It not only works on that lovely ground in orange clay, 

but grass stains too!  

In less than a minute of scrubbing, 

the stains were GONE!

Now my boys can show up to the ball field looking clean and neat. 

And I can show up to the ball field not looking like a bad mother!

Kyle was disappointed that his pants were a little too clean. 

 He told me, "Mom, you don't want to be the guy 

with the cleanest pants on the team!"

Preparing our Advent home...

 I am really excited for Advent to start this year, but I have to admit that I was a little less than prepared 

(as evidenced by our white Advent candles!). 

 I love our Nativity set.  I purchased this the year Doug and I were married.  We take out the Infant Jesus and place in His spot, a candle.  He'll return to the set on Christmas Eve after Mass...it's ironic that there is always a battle among the kids who will place Him there!

 Lots of wonderful books to read by the glow 

of the Christmas tree.

Our Advent calendar 

(painted by Kyle a couple of years ago) 

is filled with a candy treat for each day.

 And a wall full of stockings!  

I'm frantically sewing up Mary Grace's stocking whenever I get a free minute here and there.  She's two and I'm finally getting around to sewing her stocking, see what I mean about that whole "prepared" thing!

 And a bit of whimsy this Advent season!  

While the "Elf on a Shelf" is very popular these days, 
I took an idea from Catholic Inspired and made

"Wisemen Adventures" this Advent. 

Balthazar, Gaspar, and Melchior are having quite the time as they search for the Infant King.  I may have to devote a whole blog post to their adventures!

Wishing you a most Blessed and Holy Advent season!

I'm not green, I'm just cheap!

Pinterest did it again and gave me an idea for a project that I just couldn't live without, 

 Reusable baby wipes

 Yeah, at first mention this sounds pretty gross, but the idea is not only cost effective but much healthier for our little Mary Grace. 

I had no idea, but some of the chemicals used in baby wipes have been linked to cancer, immuno-toxicity, allergies, developmental problems, reproductive toxicity, organ dysfunction, endocrine disruption and cellular changes.

No thank you. 

We already have two children with skin sensitivities and I'm not risking it (or anything else!) with the Divine Miss M!

 To make your own baby wipes, you start by cutting up old tshirts, flannel receiving blankets, old towels, practically anything will work. I have tons of those small flannel newborn blankets so that's what I used. I cut them in 7X7 inch pieces and that gave me 16 wipes per blanket, not too bad!

I used pinking shears so the edges wouldn't fray (but really, who cares about fraying when you're wiping baby poo?).  Then folded them in half to fit inside an old wipes container.

There are hundreds of wipes solution recipes online but I went for just plain and simple:

2 1/2 cups water

1 TBS. baby oil

2 tsp. of castille soap

(I also added 2 drops of lavender essential oil and it smells oh so very goooood!)

Mix the solution and pour over wipes.  

How simple and CHEAP is that?

Mornings with Danny

Every morning my faithful garden helper and I go out to harvest.

It's our time to talk, laugh, and make plans for the day.

You never know what you're going to find...

Silly stories, jokes, really BIG onions, 

or the concerns of a little heart... 

it all comes out in the garden.  

(Danny taking veggies to Nana & PoPo's house)

It nourishes the soul!

Bento

I used to make bento lunches all the time. It was such a nice little treat to open a pretty little boxed lunch during a long shift! I'm going back to bentos in an effort to control what I eat as well as how much. Here's what I packed for Monday's lunch:

On the right: Oatmeal with black berries and raspberries for breakfast.
Top: Ham sandwich with bell pepper strips and olives for lunch.
Front: Hummus with pita chips and cucumber slices for afternoon snack.

Preparing lunch the night before makes me really think about my choices and the bentos make the portion control easy. I'm really going to try losing some weight and getting off of my diabetes medication this year!
(And yeah, I said all of this last year! I lost 25 lbs....then got pregnant! I will NOT be doing that again this year!)

This "Lock and Lock" bento system comes with leak proof lids and a pretty little carrying case. Check it out on Amazon.com HERE.

Couponing Creamer Style

I've never really paid much attention to couponing. In my opinion they didn't really add up to much savings. Store brands of the same product usually are much cheaper than buying name brand with a coupon. Plus, most coupons are for processed foods which we try to avoid.

Then came along a little show on TLC called 'Extreme Couponing'.
I have to admit that I was quite intrigued at their savings! And while I will never purchase 250 cases of soda, I DO need other household items and would like to establish a small stockpile of commonly used items. So I thought I'd dive into the world of coupon clipping!

So this week I checked the CVS circular here in town and clippped coupons that coincided with their sales. I also tried to get items we needed that offered 'extra care bucks' (i.e. FREE MONEY or cash back to use at another visit). I had my plan of attack ready to go and made my purchases:

I was $1.28 from getting a ten dollar extra cash card because they were out of Ivory Soap and I didn't realize it until I got in the car to check my receipt!

Over all I was happy with the transaction:

I think next week I'm going to hone my couponing skills a little more when CVS puts their makeup on sale. If you'd like to save some $$$ at CVS, check out these videos by the Coupon Divas and visit their site at CouponDivas.com