How I Survive Mondays

Monday mornings normally dawn with my house in disarray, my eyelids heavy, and my kids grouchy.  I love Sundays, but they can take a little bit of a toll on my house.  My husband and I try to get up early enough to have breakfast together as a family, get ourselves and three little ones dressed for church, and leave early enough to make sure our responsibilities as Sunday School director and pianist respectively are taken care of.  In our wake is normally a trail of pajamas, outfits that didn't work out, dirty breakfast dishes, and miscellaneous articles the kids got out behind our backs.  We come home to a quick lunch, determined to straighten up before naptime, but end up crashing and leaving even more dishes to be done.  After a short nap, we all get ready again for choir practice and evening service.  After the service we usually spend time fellowshipping and/or practicing music.  On our way home we often swing by the store to pick up bread or milk for the week.  By the time we get home it's getting late and there are hungry mouths to feed, little clothes to change, and a mess that is still staring at me as I add yet more dishes to the pile.  Any notions I may have had about cleaning up before bed are quickly fleeing as my eyelids struggle to remain open.

Monday arrives with my engine struggling to start, but I know I've got to get things under control as soon as possible.

So here's what I do.

I start in the easiest room, which is usually the bedroom.  I set a timer for 5 minutes and start straightening up as fast as I can.  I get the kids involved and send them on errands.  "Go put this in the trash can.  Hurry!  Put this in the hamper.  We have to get done before the timer dings!"  They enjoy racing the timer, and it definitely helps me go faster too.  By starting in the easiest room I get to see immediate progress which encourages me to keep at it.  When the timer dings I move on to the next room.  I spend five minutes in each room, and I am usually surprised to find that every room gets clean in that amount of time.  The kitchen usually takes longer, but it doesn't bother me too much because the rest of the house is already clean by then!

In less than an hour my house goes from looking well nigh hopeless to completely clean!  It's definitely an encouraging way to start off my week. When I try things any other way I end up discouraged and walking around in circles.   

So that's how Mondays usually start at my house.

How do you survive Mondays?  Do you have any tips we should know about?  Please, leave a comment!




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Blender Pancakes

I mentioned in my post about grinding wheat in the blender that I would be trying out a recipe for blender pancakes and letting you know how it went.

Well, here it is!



 Ingredients: 
1 cup milk
3/4 cup whole wheat berries
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:  In a glass blender, blend milk and wheat berries for 4 minutes on high.  Add baking powder, brown sugar, eggs, and salt and blend for 1 minute on low.  Pour batter onto hot griddle and cook until bubbles form on the surface.  Flip pancakes and cook for an additional 2 minutes or until golden brown.

Can I just say that this is great?!  I loved the fact that I used only 3/4 cup of my wheat berries rather than a whole bag like I used when I made bread!   (By the way, I ordered my wheat berries from Vitacost since you get a free $10 coupon when you create an account.)  The wheat berries ground up so much better when they were combined with a liquid, and the pancakes were delicious!  I also loved the fact that I could just dump everything into the blender and pour the batter directly onto the griddle.

I'll definitely be making these again!

  

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Disclosure: The link in this post is my referral link.

30 Uses for Coconut Oil

I recently received a quart jar of Virgin Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions to try.  I've been making homemade granola bars that call for coconut oil, and I love the sweet, nutty flavor!

That's been about the extent of my coconut oil usage, however, and I was ready to find some more uses for it.  I did some web and pinterest surfing and came up with this list of 30 uses for coconut oil.

It seems you can use coconut oil for pretty much anything!   

Ready?  Read on!


Beauty Aids:

1. Skin Moisturizer
2. Lip moisturizer
3. Make-up remover
4. Under-eye treatment for bags and wrinkles
5. Prevent or treat stretch marks
6. Treat nails and cuticles
7. Smooth rough and cracked heels
8. Natural sunscreen
9. Treat dandruff
10. Reduce age spots
11. Tame hair flyaways
12. Dry hair treatment - leave in hair for a couple hours, then wash out
13. Make homemade body scrub - mix with sugar and essential oils
14. Natural deodorant
15. Shaving cream
16. Homemade toothpaste - mix with baking soda


Baby care:

17. Treat minor diaper rash
18. Treat cradle cap
19. Treat or prevent nipple irritation for nursing mothers
20. Increase milk flow in nursing mothers


Health and medicine:



21. Soothe bee stings or bug bites
22. Soothe sunburn
23. Energy boost
24. Prevent nose bleeds


Cooking:

25. Use while cooking in place of vegetable oil
26. Butter substitute
27. Use in place of shortening or pan spray
(For tons more ideas for using coconut oil in cooking, go here)


Around the house: 

28. Mix with lemon juice for natural furniture polish
29. Homemade Goo Gone
30. Leather moisturizer


I'm sure this is by no means an exhaustive list.  If you use for coconut oil for something that's not on this list, would you mind leaving a comment and letting us know?

If you want to try some coconut oil, you can order the quart jar here for $27.50 or buy 2 quarts for $40 here. (If you order through either of these links, you'll receive a free copy of Tropical Tradition's Virgin Coconut Oil book.)

This giveaway is now over.
Now for the fun part!  One of you gets to win a quart of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions!

To enter, just follow the directions on the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Legal stuff: 

• Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product. 

• This post contains affiliate links.

• I am not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site. All information is provided on an as-is basis. Please use your discretion before taking any decisions based on the information in this blog. Author will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss, inconvenience, or damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.

How to Grind Wheat in a Blender

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As requested, here are the results of my experiment with grinding wheat in the blender.  I love cooking with whole foods, but I've never baked with freshly ground wheat before.  I don't have a wheat grinder, and I certainly didn't intend on spending the money for one if it were possible to grind it in a blender.

Step one: Get some wheat berries.  I ordered mine from Vitacost since you get a free $10 coupon when you create an account.  I didn't feel like spending good money on an experiment when I knew it might not work.

I used hard white wheat berries, but I wouldn't think it would make much difference what kind you use.

Step Two:  Get your blender ready to go.  Do not let the brand name of my blender fool you.  KitchenAid mixers are definitely 10 steps ahead of any other mixer, but their blenders?  Eh...not my favorite by any means.  All that to say - even if you have a cheap blender, it will probably work just fine.

Step 3:   Add the wheat berries and start grinding.  I only ground about a cup at a time.  The wheat berries jumped so high when I turned it on that I was afraid if I added any more the flour would start flying out the top of the blender.

Step four: I found that I needed to let it run on high for about 2 minutes. If I ground for less time it still had chunks. And if I ground for more time, it didn't seem to get any more fine, but the motor started heating up the flour.

Step five: Bake some bread or rolls using your favorite whole wheat bread recipe.  I actually made some of both.  My bread didn't turn out too pretty, but you get the idea.

My conclusion:  The blender definitely does not get the flour very fine.  The dough feels very gritty when you're working with it.  But as you can see from the pictures, it is still very useable.  (How pretty your bread turns out just depends on how good of a cook you are - which I'm obviously not the greatest!)


I'm very curious now to try out a recipe I saw for Blender Pancakes!  You grind the wheat in the blender along with the other pancake ingredients and then pour them onto the griddle!

Maybe soon you'll see a post on how that turned out! 

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The Great Chicken Debate: Which is Cheaper?

Have you ever felt like it will be so much cheaper to buy the bone-in chicken because it costs so much less per pound?  I know I have, but as I sit there de-boning it I always wonder if it's really worth it or whether I should be buying boneless, skinless breasts.

The other night, I decided to figure this out once and for all. [Side note: I normally try to wait until boneless, skinless chicken breasts are $1.99 or less per pound.  For bone-in chicken I try to buy it at $.99 per pound or less.] 

I had purchased 6 pounds of bone-in chicken breasts at $.99 per pound for a total of $5.94.  After I de-boned it I weighed the meat and had only 3 pounds of meat.  I could have purchased 3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.99 a pound for $5.97.  I saved a whopping 3 cents by doing all that work de-boning the chicken!

So, is bone-in chicken cheaper?  No!  I will be saving myself the trouble from here on out. 

Note: sometimes I get whole chickens or chicken thighs at $.59 or even $.49 per pound.  In that case, I would still buy the bone-in chicken.  It comes out better price-wise, plus I enjoy the taste of dark-meat and  homemade chicken broth for making soup. 

The Easiest Way to Perfectly Cooked Rice

I have been married nearly 6 years.  I have cooked rice for our family many times in those 6 years, but I can only remember a handful of times that it has come out just right.  If I get it too sticky one time, I over-correct the next time and it's crunchy and underdone. 

I cannot for the life of me remember where I read this tip, but I have been doing this the last few times I've cooked rice, and it comes out just right every time! 


All you need to do is cook your rice in a larger amount of water than the measurements call for (generally a 2:1 ratio of water to rice).  Since rice produces a sticky starch when cooked, it can start sticking together very easily.  The extra water keeps the grains separated from each other so they won't stick together.  When the rice is done, simply drain the extra water.  Voila!  Perfectly cooked rice with no stickage!

So, for those of you who like detailed instructions:

1. Fill a pot with double the amount of water normally needed for the amount of rice you'll be cooking.
2. Bring the water to a boil.
3. Add the rice and reduce the temperature to medium.
4. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Drain the remaining water from the rice.

It's so profoundly simple that I wonder why I've never thought of this before.  Oh, wait.  That would be too easy.  I never do things the easy way.  Except cook rice.  Now, anyways. 

How to Grind Venison in the Food Processor

My husband got two deer this year, his first since we've been married.  That means I got my first experience at helping butcher.  Not exactly what I would call fun, but I'm thankful for the meat.  There are, of course, certain portions of the meat which are only suitable for grinding.  When I was growing up, my dad always had a big meat grinder that he would use.  Since I did not have one, I thought I would just try it in the food processor.  It works!  Quite well, I might add.

After a little trial and error, here is how it worked best:

• Use the S-shaped steel blade.
• Only grind a small amount at a time.  Turn the food processor on the highest setting, but be ready to turn it off quickly if the meat is too tough.  If it seems like the machine is struggling, turn it off right away, otherwise you will burn up your motor.  If you are having trouble getting your machine to cut through the meat, you will have to work at cutting away some of the sinew.  See all the white streaks in that piece of meat?  That's what you have to get rid of.  I found that it was actually easier to grind the meat first, and then pick out the white strands, but every once in a while there is some that is too tough and it has to be cut off before you can grind it.
• It took about 10 seconds to fully grind each small piece.  Bigger pieces took more like 30 seconds. 

 This is a piece that has already been ground.  Now you need to pick out as much of those white streaks as you reasonably can without spending forever or wasting too much meat.  I wore disposable gloves for this part.

  It will look like it has been crushed to smitherines, but once you cook it, it is the perfect consistency.  See?

 

Now you can use it for spaghetti, chili, or anything else for which you would use regular burger!

I apologize if that was a little gross for you, but I hope it will help someone like me who had no earthly idea how to go about grinding venison. 

How to Remove Crayon from Clothing

Preschool Boy + Pockets + Crayons + Washer + Dryer =

 

Yes, that is one of my daughter's good dresses that is absolutely covered in yellow crayon.  I washed and dried an entire load of kids clothes with a yellow crayon.  Every article of clothing had lovely yellow splotches on it.  Rather than cry, I did a little searching until I came up with what I thought should be the least pain-free way of removing said yellow crayon splotches.  

In case you ever find yourself in the same predicament, here are step-by-step instructions for removing crayon from clothing.

1.  Spray each crayon splotch with WD-40.

2. After you have sprayed the spots, place the clothing into the bathtub with the hottest water you can get.  (It is very important to have your water very hot or you will end up with grease spots on the clothes.)

3.  Let the clothing sit for a few minutes and scrape each spot with your fingernail.  The crayon should come right off, along with some oil from the WD-40.

4. If you have tough spots, re-spray them and scrub them some more with your fingernail.  When you have removed all or most of the spots, put the clothes into the washing machine on the hottest water setting.  Use good laundry detergent like Tide if you can.

5.  You may have to send the load through a couple times and use some good-smelling fabric softener to get rid of the oily smell from the WD-40.

6.  Do not dry any of the clothes until you are sure the crayon marks are gone.  If you have any clothing that still has crayon marks, start over at step 1 and repeat until the crayon marks are gone.

7. NEVER wash a little boy's clothes in the future without checking the pockets! 

How to Clean a Burnt Pan

I have been horrible about burning supper lately!  Between trying to nurse the baby, welcome home hubby, take care of a potty-training 2 year old, and who knows what else, my scatter-brain forgets sometimes that dinner is burning away on the stove!  But I've become a professional at cleaning seemingly hopeless pots and pans!  Take for instance the pot in the picture below.  I seriously thought it was done for.  But as you can see in the "after" picture, it's as good as new.

Want to see my secret weapon? 

It's called Bar Keeper's Friend, and it be found in the cleaning supplies aisle at Walmart or the grocery store. In my experience it has cleaned anything and everything no matter how hopeless it looks.  Some things require a little more elbow grease than others, but it will still clean things I would otherwise have to throw away.  It costs around $3.99, and it is well worth the money for the headache it saves me. 

What's your secret weapon?