Healthy Snacks

If you love ice cream....
and

if you love bananas....

Boy, are you gonna love this!

This is my secret weapon when it comes to tasty treats and healthy snacks.  You can make this ice cream with only one ingredient. 

Yes! Only ONE ingredient!

Here's what you will need:

1. bananas (usually the older spotted ones taste better) 6 bananas= about 1 pint
2. food processor or blender
3. flavors.. (I'll get to that later)

Spotted bananas taste sweeter for this recipe

And here's what you do"

• Chop up your nanners in to chunks. I've found that cutting them in to thirds is sufficient enough for my processor but you may have to chop them smaller for appliances with less power.

small chunks of banana

• Put your chopped bananas in to freezer bags and allow to thoroughly freeze.

• Once frozen, put your banana chunks into the processor and turn that sucker on! You may have to use the "pulse" function (or similar) to keep the bananas from getting stuck. Your nanners should go through a couple stages...

The first being chunky bits of banana that I've heard  described as "banana gravel."

   After that, it goes through a pasty stage with chunks and bits here and there.

  And finally to the last stage, your mixture should start to become creamy and look like soft serve ice cream.

I portion my ice cream into reusable cupcake  cups and freeze them for single serving use!







 This is probably a good point to talk about flavors!

So I've been making banana ice cream for a while and I've collected a few flavors along the way..

**(All the ingredients are "per 6 bananas")

Banana Peanut Butter and Honey
Add 1 tbs peanut butter and either mix in a big squeeze of honey or drizzle a little over top.

Reese's Banana Ice Cream
Add 1/2 c of chopped reese's peanut butter cups. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.. :)

Chocolate Hazelnut
1+ 1/2 tbs Nutella.

Banana Rum Raisin
1/2c raisins (chocolate covered work too)
1/2 tsp rum flavoring

Banana Cream
1/2 whipped topping (honey adds more flavor too!)

Strawberry Banana
1/2c chopped strawberries (frozen strawberries blend well in processor/blender or hand mix for fresh)

At any rate, get creative! You can have ice cream for breakfast now! Remember its only bananas!
Okay you wonderful interwebbers, Thanks for being patient with me while I "get well soon." See ya next time!

Coconut Spiral Sugar Cookies

I'm sure you've seen these.

I wanted to try my hand at spiral cookies but I wasn't so pleased with many of the recipes..  So much work! And using a food processor to make them.. ugh.

So here is my solution! Green Spiral Coconut Cookies with a crispy brown sugar rim.
note: The brown sugar will cause the cookies to spread a bit.. use candy confetti or sprinkles as a substitute if you want a decorative rim like most of the pictures found lurking on Google. :)


Green Spiral Coconut Sugar Cookies

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/8 tsp baking soda... (1/4+1/8)
• 1/4 cup white sugar (or sucanat, coconut sugar, or evaporated cane juice)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 tbs milk (goat milk is amazing here! add coconut milk for extra flavor)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• green food coloring

 This makes a very small batch. I recommend either doubling the recipe or making 2 separate batches and coloring one of them green(or blue or yellow etc..)

Instructions:
Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. In a separate bowl,soften the coconut oil , then stir in vanilla and milk. Pour dry into wet and mix again.
If you have doubled the recipe; split it in half add food coloring to one batch.

Roll out each batch separately onto wax paper. You should have two sheets of cookie dough, one green and one.. cookie colored..

Refrigerate dough until firm.

remove wax paper and stack your dough sheets on top of one another.
(I sprinkled some colored sugar on the innermost layer {the top}to give it an extra splash of color.)

Once your dough is pliable, roll it into a log. Continue rolling your dough gently on a hard smooth surface to squeeze out any air pockets and make sure the cookies come out in neat little circles. This is also the time to roll your log into any decorative stuff you wish. I used colored brown sugar because I like the caramelized taste of brown sugar... nom nom!

Slice and bake in a 325F preheated oven for 9 minutes. They will look very underdone when you take them out, but that’s ok!! Just let them cool for 5 minutes before touching.


Now go get creative! Mothers' Day is coming up... :)

Have a wonderful day! and I will see you soon with more March Green Madness!

T-shirt Rug

Recycled T-shirt Rug

or

Cat bed

0_o

So you've had a few jobs, ran a couple marathons, got involved in the community, gave blood, got lots of ugly clothes for X-mas, or etc, AND got the t-shirt. Didn't you? :)

Yeah, me too! I looovee t-shirts! Its sort of my unofficial uniform.. So anyhow, I've got tons of t-shirts. And even more that I don't wear anymore for one reason or another.. Who wants to wear old work shirts around?..  (unless you're going for that dirty trucker look or calling it vintage or you just like free shirts)

Old work shirts

Its a good thing I had so many because it takes a lot of shirts for this project. I had to keep adding more shirts so eventually I lost count as to how many there were...  oops.

So here's what we are doing.. Get yourself a big shirt (at least half the size of the rug you want) and cut it open so it will lay flat. I used the back of an old band shirt that was way to big.

Next, cut small slits in to your "master shirt." Make rows and columns of these slits either all at once or cut them as you go, as I did. The slits should be half an inch at most. Remember its t-shirt/cotton so it stretches and tears easily. Space each slit about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch apart. Don't forget to leave allowances on the edges.. especially if you are going to finish it with a border or something fancy like that.

Now is a good time to start cutting up your t-shirts too. Make strips about 1inch x 6 inches long. It saves time to cut them all up at the beginning. After you have your strips cut, they can be dyed. Its much easier to dye them now rather then later when the rug is complete.

The cool design on the back

Insert one end of your strip into a slit on the bottom of the "master shirt" and the other end into the next slit. You should have made a "U" shape with your strip. Insert the next strip into the same slit as the 2nd end of the 1st strip. The end of the new strip should be inserted into the next available slit down the row. Now you should have made a "W" shape with your 2 strips. You should have strips coming out of 3 slits at this point. Continue on down the row.

If you wish to tie your strips together; after completing poking t-shirt through the slits, tie that row and then continue poking in the next row. If you wait to tie your strips together until all your strips are woven, it will be "puttineer" impossible to find each set.
I chose to tie each strip to the next instead of tying each strip around the master shirt...

Eventually, You will come up with something that looks like a big pile of t-shirt strips.. But in an "I made that" and "It feels so good" kind of way! I think, since this rug is so multi-colored and doesn't match anything in the house.. oops, I will give this one to the cat. I think she has already commandeered it as I have caught her several times stretched out over it.

So good luck! This is such a fun project for almost any age! 

Expectant mothers could make for baby

kids could make with outgrown clothes

anyone could make for cool gift

stress relieving to make

time consuming for sick or immobile people

yada yada...

Anyhow, I'm not finished yet. I have to wait until M.J. -the cat- decides to move so I can work on it again!

Have a lovely day filled with all things delicious and fragrant! :)

Painting

So I suppose I need to start this post off with an apology... :)
I was sick. Now I'm not. I have a bunch of March posts that need to go up.. March is almost over.  -_-
So I'm extending March Green Madness into April! Sorry. :)

This post isn't really about being green though. I just thought I would show you what I have been doing while.. not doing anything...

This is my newest project. I am hoping it will inspire me and help me remember my dreams. I have a dream book that hasn't gotten enough attention lately and I wanted to bring that to my waking attention. So here is what I have so far: And no.. its not finished. :)

It says "Where do you go when you dream?"

I also just wanted to see how the progress was coming along in a side by side kinda way..:

 "When you"

Crater face..













So there you have it. I have to put this one away for a while because I just got commissioned to do a bunch of nautical themed paintings for a sea-side condo.  fun. fun..

So anyhow, get ready for a bunch of posts all at once.. I had them all planned and I'll be bushwhacked if I don't get em posted!

Have a wonderful day! And do something creative and inspiring today! You'll love it!

Newspaper Seed Cups

Newspaper Seed Pots

 

So last year, just before planting time, I purchased a bulk amount of seed pots to start our veggies in. I think  I used about 15 of them. That may sound like alot, but out of 250 it was just a waste of money. I purchased 2 different sizes. I could not tell you what sizes they were now, however.  Each cost about 10-15 cents each. (depending on size)  But since I live out in the "Boonies," as its lovingly called, I had to have them shipped to me. (add $25.00 to the total..) All in all, I won't purchase plastic pots again. They turned out to be pretty inconvenient. I had to keep moving my plants to bigger pots or just to the ground, and I found that that procedure tended to be a bit stressful on the plants. It can't be too much fun having your roots broken up and thrust into new earth. 

Apologies, I seem to be rambling... or ranting. So I should get to the point and show you how to make these nifty little pots. The coolest thing about them, you can pop them straight into the ground.. No bustin' up roots! (I like to pull off the bottom part of the newspaper when planting but its up to you)

Materials:

Newspaper (plain boring newspaper. Not high color glossy adverts.)

a can ( about 16 oz or any other desired "size")
scissors

First, you'll need one big sheet of newspaper. Use the scissors to cut your  sheet in half down the center crease.

Next, you'll need to fold your sheet lengthwise in a tri-fold. Much like folding a letter. 

Now, it's time to roll up your can using the newspaper. Remember that you have to pull the can out of your new pot so don't roll it too tightly.

Leave enough extra newspaper at the bottom so that you can fold it up to cover a little more than half way up the can. Let me try that again.. You'll want enough newspaper to measure 1/4 inch more than the radius of the can. I hope that makes sense.. Trial and error will help if my wording is too.. fuddled. :)

Continue rolling your can until you have exhausted your supply of newsprint. 

Now it's time to fold up the bottom. 

See how the newspaper covers the radius plus about 1/4 inch?  Continue folding in this manner until you can stand your can upright on your folds. Then remove your can and you should have a newspaper cup!

Fill with seed starting mix or whatever your grow medium of choice is, add seeds, water.. and 

Tada!
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 I hope you found this helpful. Its funny how the simplest things can be right in front of your face, but being tv programmed tells me I should try buying expensive plastic pots before anything homemade could ever work... funny. 

So get out and garden today. Put away your tv box and get some sun!  :)  Ramble ramble.. I know.. sorry. Have a great day filled with all things delicious and fragrant!

A Curious State of Affairs

I dare say curious, indeed. Check out Henry (ahn-rhee) balancing delicately on the tip of one of the plants in the aquarium. I've been feeling a bit like Henry lately. Swaying in the current, and all the while, performing my own delicate balancing act consisting of day to day duties and being sick. My apologies for being so blunt. It seems as though, with the coming of gorgeous spring-like weather, I have fallen a bit ill.

Strangely, my spirits have not followed suit. My garden has gotten on just fine without me. In fact, the heavens themselves have opened up and enriched and softened the soils while I could not. It rained for 3 days but never flooded any of the newly planted beds. The chickens have had a marvelous time pecking and scratching for worms and other creatures that have ventured forth from their flooded dwellings. Everyone is happy and healthy and the Earth keeps spinning and hurtling through space at unimaginable speeds. I was not completely useless though.. 

I have made newspaper cups for sprouting the season's seeds. I should have the tutorial up tomorrow. I also finished the green spiral coconut sugar cookies that I intend to have posted by the end of the week as well. I'm super excited to share those with you, they made me happy when I (probably shouldn't have had them) was feeling particularly ill and not my usual Radio Birdtastic self.

Sneak peek at unbaked coconut sugar spiral cookies

In the mean time, I hope you are well and have found time for a good book. Truly a blessing it is to have the time to read for pleasure's sake. Now go have a wonderful Wednesday!

Turkey Croquette Recipe

Turkey Croquette Recipe

I made a turkey dinner for friends this past week and PHEW! I am all turkey-ed out. But I still had some left overs.. What to do.. What to do..  Most of what was left was turkey and mashed potatoes.. 

I thought about the crab cakes I used to make when I worked for a pub and wondered if I could do something similar with turkey.. Turns out.. yes! I introduce you to Turkey Croquettes. These are like a whole Turkey day dinner rolled into a cute little ball. 

Here's what you'll need:

For the Croquettes 

• 2 cups finely minced turkey 
• 1 cup mashed potatoes
• 1 tbs chopped parsley
• 1/4 tsp pepper  

For the sauce:

• 2 tbs butter
• 6 green onions (thinly sliced)
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 4 tbs flour
• 1/4 cup chicken or turkey broth
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the coating:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs (large lightly beaten w/ 1 tbs water)
• 2 cup finely ground bread crumbs or panko

 optional:
cranberry sauce or turkey gravy



Now, what to do.. what to do...:

Combine turkey, mashed potatoes, parsley and pepper

Melt the butter in pan over medium heat.
Add green onions and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
Add flour and blend until smooth

Stir in broth and milk and stir for 2 minutes.
Add salt and combine with turkey mixture.
Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Shape mixture into ! 1/2 inch balls. 

Roll balls in 1/2 cup of flour then dip into the eggs and coat with bread crumbs.

Let stand for 45 minutes.

Now there are 2 different methods of cooking:
 Bake:
@ 350 for 20-30 minutes or until slightly browned

Fry:
Heat oil to 360 degrees. Fry balls for 1-2 minutes until golden brown.

Baking may dry out the croquettes but thats easily countered with the help of cranberry sauce or turkey gravy!


At any rate, These are super yummy and really easy to make. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do!


Now go have a wonderful day filled with all things delicious and fragrant!

Homemade Gel Air Fresheners

DIY Gel Air Fresheners

I would start this post with some cheesy anecdote about smelly bathrooms or something... But I think you came here to learn a little something.. So let's get to it shall we!?

Ok, Here's what you will need:

Heat-proof  jars. Such as canning jars or candle jars.. 

Food colouring

Essential oils 

4 envelopes of Knox powdered gelatin (1 oz)

2 cups cold water

A Tbs of salt or vodka  (to keep from molding)

OK, Here's what you do:

Add a few drops of essential oil to each of your jars. (More oil = more scent) I use about 30 drops of oil per 1/2 pint) And add a couple drops of colour. You don't need much food colouring. 2 drops or so should do it. Set these aside.

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and add the gelatin. Whisk until smooth. Add the salt (or vodka) and the 2nd cup of cold water and whisk until smooth.

Quickly pour the hot mixture into your prepared jars and stir. Now, just allow these to cool and set into their new gelatinous form and you've got yourself some Homemade Air Fresheners!

For my first batch I used plain lavender oil which smelled wonderful! These are so great because they are really cheap and you can put them in virtually any container you want. Makes stashing a little smell good in corners and tight spaces so much easier! And even better than stashing these is displaying them proudly as conversation pieces. You can really dress up this project by decorating your jars to match your decor. I've got a sparkly black and white bathroom that could use a little "mirror ball" type jar filled with smelly goodness!

Oh! Let me send you over to this wonderful site:

 Tasty Kitchen

The recipe is the same but she gives you oil recipes for making specific smells such as

Rosemary Orange

Pine scented

Essense of Province

And if you need help finding oils...

Hobby Lobby and Micheals I hear have them.. 

I found a great set of aromatherapy oils that I, myself, am going to pick up. I'll show you how to use them in candles later on. For now, Click the picture for more info.

Top 6 100% Pure Therapeutic Grade Basic Sampler Essential Oil Gift Set- 6/10 ml (Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemongrass, Orange, Peppermint, Tea Tree)

And, in sticking to my green theme... Here's a tip. 

You can use 2oz of Orange oil to 2 gallons of water as an ant repellant. (heh.. repel-ant.. English is so fun sometimes) Just pour over the mound for 2-3 days and watch the ants line up to leave..

The ants go marching one by one...

Check that out! I bet you could see that line of ants from space! But, I just hope you can see it from the interwebs. ;)

There were so many that they dug trenches trying to escape the smell of orange.

OK, That's all I've got for you today. I've been super busy lately. The garden is HUGE this year.. So that's taking forever.. I'm painting again.. That's taking forever too. :) And a myriad of other things going on. Oh! I still need to brag about purple potatoes..

Row upon row of them. fun!

Well, time to get back to it! Have a wonderful day!

Answers with the Astral Bag Lady

Answers

with

The Astral Bag Lady

Questions?

Duh.. Everyone has questions.. Questions about love and life. Questions about employment or heh.. unemployment. Questions about career changes or career choices.  Questions about the people in our lives or the ones we've lost. Questions about just about everything...

I know of someone with answers.

There is an amazing woman out there in interweb land and I hope you will familiarize yourself with her today. Her name is Rev. Linda Newman. And she is a drummer. :)

I first heard about Rev. Newman through my work. Well, sort of.. I found her radio show 

Answers with The Astral Bag Lady

while I was supposed to be working... And I was hooked! Such wonderful advice! ALL THE TIME! The Rev has some wisdom in her. Trust me.

Here's the short info about the show from CBS New Sky Radio.

Join Tom and Linda for Answers on Thursday’s from 6-8 PM, ET

This is a LIVE CALL IN Show!

Join Linda and Tom for fun, uplifting and empowering conversation. “Answers  is a forum to bring love, awareness and fun to people who desire it is a wonderful calling!” Reverend Linda Newman and I take that very seriously.  Well, not all that seriously.  Laughter is an important component of  Answers.  We like it like that and hope you do too. Call us for fun dose of reality!

Rev. Linda Newman

But this isn't the coolest thing about this lady..

Check out 

Mother Peace Drumming

How cool is that!?! Since learning about drumming from "The Rev" I have since hooked up with a local Shaman Drum Circle and absolutely love it!

LOVE IT!!!

I won't repost the poem that heads up motherpeace.net But I highly recommend that you visit this site and read it for yourself. And then take some time to look around. There are so many great tips and even an article on etiquette!  YAY!!! 

You may also want to check out This bag lady's Astrology reports. They are color coded and super easy to read and follow. Seriously a must-have. For more info

Asrology reports on MotherPeaceDrumming.net 

So what prompted me to write about this amazing woman? Well, I contacted her (and Tom Force :) ) while listening to Answers not too long ago.. And the show was hot! I mean everyone and their mother was listening and they didn't quite get to my question. Meh. There is always next week. But I was particularly curious about my question and at the end of the show, Rev. L.N. said she would be happy to answer any questions that weren't addressed during the show via email. Wow right!? Talk about taking your work home with you!

So I asked my question and thanked her for her time and yada yada.. She got back to me and asked for my birth info so she could.. shucks.. i dont know.. make a chart I guess..  :)

So i replied with my info and a day later... I had my answer.. plus some! I was truly not expecting her to go out of her way and make a chart (or whatever) just for me.. Just because I asked.  

Her email was done by hand.. I mean, it wasn't generated by a computer program of anything like that. I was impressed. and not only that, I was feeling empowered and just generally stoked at the level of insight and just how accurate she was. So I thought...

A deed such as this should not go un-noticed..

So I wanted to do something to give back. And this is how I am kicking off that notion. I don't think I am going to stop there. Blogging once about someone isn't a huge thank you.. But its a start. I've got something else wonderful up my sleeve. I will show all of you when I have completed the task.

In the meantime:

check out "The Rev's" Facebook page.. I promise it will be worth it. This woman has one heck of a good sense of humor!

MotherPeaceDrum 

And don't forget!

Join Tom and Linda for Answers on Thursday’s from 6-8 PM, ET on CBS New Sky Radio and on the Para-X radio Networks.

And I'm sorry about the formatting... Blogger and I don't see eye to eye....

Getting the Garden Ready

Today... We garden.

Well, sort of.. Today.. we tilled... and weeded.. and just generally got pretty dirty. The chickens came out to help with grub duty about half way through today's operation. That's Honey absolutely loving the fresh new dirt and all the bugs that come with it!

 

This is how the garden looked before we got to it today... This is a view of last years potato garden. 

And a couple potatoes that made it through the winter that I had missed popped out the sides of the tiller unscathed. I think these are Yukon Gold potatoes. Super yummy and almost buttery. Waaaaaaayyy better than store bought!

And Voila! Sorry that there are not too many pictures of the progress. But did you really want 5x7s of me in garden pants and muck boots? RadioBirdDad had on his famous "dog pants" and those I can show you. They are epic.

Gorgeous aren't they? :)

So we didn't really get as far as I had hoped.. But that was mainly because the chickens were out and about and I had to keep herding them out of the neighbor's flower beds.  I don't think they minded too terribly much. Besides, the bug population in the freshly tilled dirt was far easier to get to.

Chicken tracks.. How cute!

So here's where we are now:

Tomorrow we get the rest of it. Allll the way back to that fence. I think the width of the whole mess is only 50 ft or so. And maybe double that in length. Should keep me busy year round!

Anyhow, I just wanted to get the garden update up. You can view last years garden progress on my

 youtube channel here

Now, I really must say something about that tiller.. OMG! Its amazing! I got this little sucker on amazon for about $99.00. Yeah. $99.00.

Troy-Bilt TB154E 9-Inch 6.5-Amp Electric Garden Cultivator/Tiller

It has gone up a bit in price since last year but still totally worth every penny. I poured over catalogs and websites looking for just the right tiller on a college kid's budget. And I finally found this little tiller.. that could. :) Its so small. Its lightweight. Its red. :) And it tills like the devil. Occasionally getting tripped up on thick weeds and old garden wire (oops!) wasn't even that huge of a problem. It didn't happen all that often and when it did, it was so easy to pull the grass (or wire..) out and just keep going. Rocks and other debris just come out the sides or the back. The tiller didn't even stop to blink when I ran over a cinder block..

The cinder blocks were there to hold down the bug netting from last year.. and by the looks of the "before" picture, you can tell why I didn't see it until I hit it.. :)

Anyhow, I hope you are happy and healthy. I got a good dosing of vitamin D today so I'm totally pumped and excited about tomorrow. Hopefully I can show you what I mean by purple potatoes!

Have a wonderful day! And Happy Green March!