Super Muffins!

So today I'm posting my 'go to' muffin recipe all year around. I only have two go to muffin recipes. My Monster Zucchini Muffins with Oatmeal and Brown Sugar crumble top, and my Iron-Rich Muffins.

I'd love to share my Zucchini Muffin recipe but it's a family secret ;) So instead I'm sharing my super delicious and moist Iron-Rich Muffin recipe! All seven members of our house hold LOVE this recipe and it can be gone literally in an hour.

The recipe calls for

1/2 cups of rolled oats (Instant works fine)
1 cup of milk (You can used skimmed if you want)
1 cup of flour (Half and half works nicely as well as white or unbleached)
1 cup of baby cereal (Rice or Oats)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg (Omega rich if you'd like)
OPTIONAL
1/2 cup raisins
OR
1/2 cup chopped dried dates
OR
1/2 cup chocolate chips
OR
1/2 cup walnuts

*I've never added the OPTIONAL 1/2 cup of something... I like how they taste without the added flavour.

Step 1. Preheat the Oven to 350F (180C)
Step 2. Line a 12 cup muffin pan, or grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Step 3. In a large bowl, mix oats and milk.
Step 4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baby cereal, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt (Add optional ingredient now too if desired)
Step 5. Add oil, brown sugar, and egg to oat and milk mixture. Mix well.
Step 6. Gently mix together wet and dry ingredients, until just combined.
Step 7. Pout batter into muffin cups or loaf pan.
Step 8. Muffins should bake for roughly 20 minutes and a loaf pan should bake for roughly 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick.

This recipe is suppose to make only 12 muffins but I can get 12 mini muffins AND 12 regular muffins out of this recipe!

I got this recipe from a book my dietitian gave me called 'The Joy of Life Recipe Booke for Heathy Women and Babies'. I do not own this recipe and do not suggest anyone use this recipe for mass production or profit.

Had to cover my butt there ;) Hope you all enjoy your baking!

Lunch Ideas

I recently decided that I was going to start making 'Non-Bento' styled lunches for my little ones. I know my eldest doesn't start school for a while but I figured if I start making them now then I'll know what they will and will not eat and how big of portions to try.

Now a few of you have no idea what Bento is but it's a traditional Japaneese lunch. It's actually REALLY cool and if done properly can be super healthy and super cute at the same time ;). Sadly I'm just starting out so mine are only Bento inspired and not actually Bento. When I get some experience with what I'm working with I'll branch into more traditional Bento. I'm hoping to try egg molding this weekend ;) So I'll keep you posted!

Butterfly and Bumble Bee made from left over homemade MacNCheese, with a pepper flower, snap peas, yellow tomato, carrots, humus , and a few crackers.

Left over Hot Dogs, crackers, apple, cheese, cherry tomatoes, carrots. and peppers.

I know I promised a PJ tutorial a while back and it is coming, I've just been INSANELY busy.

Another Valentines Day Post!

I can hardly contain my excitement!
I searched and SEARCHED for something for my darling little ones for Valentines Day. I found TONS of candy, cheap plushies - which they have TONS of, and more candy...
So I went searching through the net to see what I could come up with. Originally I swore to myself to do something with as little chocolate/candy as possible... But that kinda went out the window when I found Non-Bento Totoro Chocolate.
I don't know about any of you readers but myself and my children are HUGE fans of Hayao Miyazaki. If you are unsure who that is... IMDB.com will give you a list of his work. I recommend (Along with Totoro) Ponyo, Arietty, Spirited Away, and Howls Moving Castle. Those ones I find are good for all ages. :)
Anyways enough about Mr. Miyazaki and how awesome he is ;)
I followed the tutorial to the letter and below are just a few pictures of my work. I also decided to make my litte one a chocolate letter ;)

And that's all for today! Enjoy :D

PJs!

I made PJs! I didn't even use a pattern! I'm so excited about this project! It was my first project using stabilizer too without 'adult super vision'. ;) Seriously though... I was kinda nervous about that. My mother-in-law was thankfully just a phone call away and walked me through the gathering part of this idea of mine. My Husqvarna is so alien to me sometimes... Lol it never fails though and I'm also insanely happy with the end results with it!
Anyways!
Onto the project!
Basically I took a pair of existing PJ bottoms for reference.

 Now I'll admit it... I got carried away and didn't photograph anything else of this little project... But here's what it looks like finished! YAY!

 I'm planning on making a few more pairs of PJs so I'll do another post another time with more in-depth details. :) Although I'm not doing the fancy trim on the legs any time soon... That was a fun learning experience but I've learned it's a lot of work for PJ pants ;)

Valentines Day!

I can't express how happy I am that V-day is upon us! I usually don't buy into the commercialism of it all but with my eldest in pre-school and showing a big interest in giving out valentines I found myself googling and Pinteresting and becoming hooked! I didn't want to give anything sugary so I went to creative route ;)

I found these beautiful crafts and of course we did our own versions of them ;)

We did some of these Handprint Valentines - Honestly they look really cute but for kids that are just learning to write it was a bit of a chore... lol
Next we tried these cute crayons out! Heart Crayon We emptied our crayon bucket and took all the odd end ones, we also raided my in-laws crayon bucket and stole their broken ones too. The kids LOVED them. A word of advice, use a razor. Cut one line down the paper jacket, let the kids peel and break the crayons. This whole process takes like a minute or two. If you do it 'the old fashion way', you'll be peeling for five minutes and having children whining about how long it's taking and a lot of 'Are you done yet?'.
Darling Daughter can't sign her name yet so she signed her valentines with two thumb prints to make a heart.

Valentines 'Package'

A small v-day card, some goldfish, a crayon heart and some stickers :)

This is our handprint hearts before writing around the hearts. With the writing you can't tell what they are saying and the words go all over the page... lol

An that's what we've been up to for V-day! ;)