Baked Oatmeal Cereal

I love cereal for breakfast but haven't been eating it as much lately. There are a few reasons for this. One is the ridiculous price it has skyrocketed to.  The ones that have a nice mix of grains and fruits are of course the most expensive, and they're the ones I like.   Another is the preservatives in most of it.  I know most of the additives  are to prolong shelf life  but cereal doesn't last long here so why do we need them.  And they  make me kind of nervous.
However;  
I do like oatmeal.  It's a staple here.   I make it most of the winter,   but its just too hot right now to eat a hot cereal for breakfast. 

I have been making this baked oatmeal recipe for snacks and love  the taste of it but it crumbles to easily.  It just falls apart and you end up eating the bits  from a bowl.   Originally I was looking for a replacement for a store bought cereal bar ( I was still looking for the convenience) and this wasn't it. In spite of that everyone still loves it.  Every once in a while I will even put some milk on it  and have it for a bedtime snack, but it's a little soft and mushy that way. 

That got me thinking, why couldn't I deliberately make it as a morning cereal with a bit more crunch. HMMMM.   It wasn't too hard   to make some changes  that would  make this our go to breakfast.  The first time my husband tried it his  comment was "I can't see why we ever have to buy cereal from  the store again". :)

Here's the recipe for the original baked oatmeal and the alterations to make it  Baked Oatmeal Cereal.



Original Recipe
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
l cup sugar
mix into a large bowl and add
1 c. milk
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups of oatmeal

 

mix all ingredients well and pour into a buttered 8x10 cake pan and bake at 350 deg. for 45 minutes

My changes.
-since the  purpose of the original recipe was to use the instant oatmeal packets her family didn't use, and I was using just whole oats,  I assumed there was some flavour needed.
So I added

1 tsp. nutmeg
1-2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup of brown sugar,  we always put brown sugar on our oatmeal
and 2 apples, peeled and diced

 - this made the recipe much tastier and all my kidlets in daycare just loved it,  even if it was a bit messy.



The next step was to make it crunchier for  cereal.  All I do is bake the oatmeal recipe in a cake pan and take it out of the oven at the  45 minute  mark.  Don't turn the oven off yet.

Empty  the cake pan onto a large bar pan or cookie sheet,   it will fall apart and crumble  on its own as you spread it out. 

Put it back in the oven and continue baking for another 15 to 20 minutes, then turn off the heat, but leave it in the oven while it cools down.  This lets the mixture dry out a bit.

When I remove the final mixture from the oven I have a little fun with it.   I add all or some of the following items.  About 1/2 to 1 cup of each adds some interesting texture and flavour to the cereal.

raisins
dried cranberries ...or any dried fruit
chopped nuts.. any your family likes is fine
all bran buds ... good if you need more fibre

Store in a reusable cereal container with lid.

Top with  your favorite fresh fruit and I'm sure your family will love it as much as mine. 



Have a good day everyone and bye for now.

Lavender, Lemon, and Peppermint

It's late.  It's almost midnight and I have to write this post before I can go to bed.

I should have taken some pics for this but to tell the truth there really wouldn't have been much to see.  I had a headache and couldn't sleep.  Like everything else in life I read a million home remedies for headache and now that I have one do you  think  I can remember what they were. Heck no. 

So I headed to a few of my favorite blog sites to find something to help, and well one thing led to another and this is what happened.

I went to One good thing by Jillee and found this post on using Lavender lemon and Peppermint essential oils to help allergies.  I really suggest you go read it because I'm tired and may have misunderstood something.  I have a ton of allergies and to tell the truth I think that is what causes a lot of my headaches at this time of the year.  Jillee's post linked to one by her sister that has awesome information about using these essentiaal oils and I knew I was going to try it..

I went to my stash drawer where I keep my oils and got the three I needed.
Measured out 1/4 tsp of each and  put them into a little shot glass. 
Added 1/2 tsp of olive oil. It's what I had on hand and I use it for almost everything I make.
Added about 1/4 teaspoon of grated beeswax to this , I didn't really measure,   just took a pinch that looked like it was about 1/4 teaspoon and dumped it in. I mixed it all together with a chopstick and put it in the microwave.  I gave it little bursts of 10 seconds and stirred between each go.   It only took a few rounds to melt everything.  I poured it into a 1 ounce lip balm container and cooled it . 

Wow.  I am amazed. This stuff is awesome.  I could have used the oils but I wanted to put it on and have it stay.  I put it on my temples, Just a tiny bit and rubbed it in.  I put some on the back of my neck and gave it a rub and rubbed a tiny bit into my wrists.

Usually you have to use a new product for a while to know whether or not you are getting some benefit from it.  This stuff made me feel better so fast I could feel my head clearing before I was done rubbing it in.  Absolutely amazing relief.

I highly recommend you go and read these posts for yourself to get  the real low down.  I'm feeling far to tired and lazy right now to do that here.  My headache is going so I'm off the bed for a good sleep.  Thank you Jillee  and Rebecca for the wonderful information. 

Have a good night everyone . Bye for now.

A Recipe for Bubble Fun

My sister sent me a message on Facebook asking how to make homemade bubble liquid because the stuff she bought wasn't working very well.  I told her my method and then got to thinking, it's been a long time since last summers bubble fun.

This is how I  make my bubble stuff.

You need a good container that you can sit the wands into, I like the take-out bowls with lids from Chinese food.

1c. water

1 tbsp. of glycerin

4 tbsp. of Dawn dish soap.

Mix it all into the bowl and put the lid on until you are going to use it.

Using another bowl for the wands makes a great grab and go activity.



Of course we didn't wait, it was straight out to the yard.

L tried to grab his first bubble but it was too fast.

It just floated up into the wonderful day.

 

 

J trying to get her first one on the go.  I think L popped that one.

 

 

All three kidlets hard at work .. This is very serious business.

 

This was from a wand with multiple holes, very cool.

 

 

Tiny bubbles everywhere. They're really hard to see unless the sun shines on them.

 

This one made them all squeal, very exciting.

 

 

Down to just the two kidlets,

 

M  decided it was time to make mud pies something.

These two stayed at it a little longer.

 

at least another half hour of fun happening here.

 

 

J's  staying right until the end.  Very determined.

 

 

They decided that M shouldn't make all those pies herself.  But what should we  do with the bowl of bubble liquid.

 

Dumping  it out to use the bowl is the only thing that makes sense.  Maybe she should have tipped it the other way though.  Oh well .  She'll know the next time and it's a good day to get a little wet. :)

 

This recipe seems to work as well as any that I've used.  I know its better with the glycerin than without, I've made it both ways. I think bubble day can be classed as successful,  and fun was had by all.

 

 

Click on pics to get a larger view. 

 

Have a wonderful day everyone.  Bye for now.

A Re-Introduction

Some of you may have noticed that the header at the top of my blog has changed recently.  Now that I have been writing this for a few months I've realized that My Everyday Life is exactly that.  Just an everyday life. Mine happens to include my kidlets, so I can't leave them out, but I have a lot of other things that interest me and have changed the course I've been on. The main theme of this blog is how I 'm  making those changes and the effects they have on me as well as my family and friends.

I've decided to make changes to my home environment so this is actually my journey to achieve that goal.  In my first post I mentioned I wanted to have a more natural, healthy and relaxed life here in the new place and that is what I'm striving for.  My first goal is to be completely chemical free in my home by the end of this year.  A big goal but luckily I am finding it not as hard as I thought it would be. 

I have had asthma all my life, and lately I've noticed more and more that when I was cleaning my home I would have to use my inhalers more often and the effects of the cleaning products was having a lingering effect on my breathing.  This made me wonder what all this stuff was doing to the tiny little lungs of my kidlets.

To change all my household cleaning products to home made DIY products was one of the areas I was worried about. Could I keep my home clean and healthy?  I'm actually  finding this is not going to be a problem.  I have been incorporating some new methods lately and my house is clean, it smells fresh, and I love, love, love that I am not leaving behind a layer of possibly cancer causing agents that are being ingested and inhaled by my family or my lovely little kidlets.  And because some of the essential oils used in my new products have anti-bacterial properties I don't have to worry about germs either. I just wish I had decided to do this about thirty years ago. My next area to make changes will be in the laundry room.

Another area where  I would like to get rid of chemicals is in the bathroom.   Every morning we get up and go through a ritual where we brush our teeth, shower, do our hair and whatever else, and we do it all with chemicals.  Preservatives are a nasty little item in everything we use, and what the heck are all those ingredients we don't recognize and  can't  pronounce.  I know they are there to prolong the shelf life of our products and make things taste better or whatever; but are they good for us.  My personal opinion is NO. 
There are a ton of ways to exchange what we use for  healthier versions that do the same thing.   

So follow along while I share my recipes for a healthier personal environment and lifestyle and please share any ideas  for alternate products you have or would like to see me cover.

Have a great day everyone.

Herbal infused Oils.

In keeping with the theme lately I thought I'd share a few of the things I decided to make into infused oil.  I have been using the warm water infusion method on my stove top because the weather has been a bit cooler and not too much sun lately. 


I am really lucky because my dad has a huge patch of comfrey at the back of his yard and when I went there to harvest some I found a whole treasure trove of plants I will  be getting a little later in the season.  I also picked a bit of his peppermint while I was there and found a few really nice mullein plants as well.  I love his yard.



So in my little pan I have some comfrey, mullein, peppermint, and plantain that I wildcrafted. I have some cayenne pepper from my pantry and I purchased a small bag of dried calendula flowers and dried  thyme from the local health store to get me started.  I have them all in a good quality extra virgin olive oil.  

I have had them going for a few days now and they will be ready this week.  This method calls for heating the oils slightly for at least eight hours a day for four days. I can't wait to strain off all the plants and bottle my special oils in preparation for a variety of salves and balms for healing, moisturizing and even one for pain. 

I started the dandelions and violet flowers in oil before any of  the others and they are already done.  I  am using the violet oil with a few drops of lavender essential oil for a nice massage oil.  It is very soothing on my tired legs and feet at the end of the day and helps me to relax and get a better night sleep. And the dandelion salve I made last week is doing a wonderful job of healing my cracked knuckles and dry elbows.  I've never had them look this good.
 
Here is a good instructible for infusing herbs for medicinal oils.

Have a great day everyone.

Dandelion Salve

Dandelion season is almost over and it's making me kind of sad this year.  I always thought of these annoying plants like most people as a weed that needed to go so we could see our nice green grass.  Well now I am looking at green in a whole new way and I'm seeing the pretty yellow blooms as a wonderful additive to my bathroom medicine cabinet.  An amazing cure for my always dry chapped hands. 

A little over a  month ago I found this site Annie's Aromatherapy   and it has become my herbal go to place for just about everything I would like to make on my own.  There is so much information here about herbs and plants that I am really hooked.

After studying Annie's instructions I decided to make my own infused oils so they could be later made into salves and ointments for a number of different uses.  With all those dandelions staring at me that seemed like the logical place to start. So I went out and picked as many as I could get from my yard.  I knew they hadn't been sprayed with any chemicals so they were safe.

After letting them dry on a screen for a couple of days to remove some of the moisture I chopped them into small pieces and put them in a mason jar and them covered them with extra virgin olive oil.  Any good oil from the grocery store is fine.

Then I put the jar in a sunny window to be warmed every day and allow the wonderful properties of the dandelions to be drawn into the oil.  Only the sun didn't shine. It's been overcast and drizzly here for ages and I  thought I might have to wait forever if my oil was to have any redeeming qualities at all. 

I decided to hurry things along so I put my lovely oils into a warm bath. I put a rack in the bottom of the pan so the jars wouldn't sit directly on the heat.  I kept the water warm, but not to hot (I didn't want to cook anything. I let everything steep for about 3 days.

 

 

I put a mason jar in a pot of warm water as a makeshift double boiler. Place a dish cloth in the pot to keep the jar from getting too hot.

 

To make my salve I added  the dandelion infused oil and grated beeswax to the jar. Once the wax was melted I removed it from the heat and dried off the outside of the jar. I didn't want water dripping  into my salve. 

Then I added a few drops of lavender essential oil to my mixture and poured it into a smaller jar, and stirred it with a wooden skewer to make sure it was well mixed. 

The finished product goes on really well.  It's smooth and silky and absorbs way better than I could have imagined.  And... It gives me a sense of accomplishment knowing I made something from scratch that is beneficial to my well being. 

My recipe:

100 ml Dandelion infused oil.
25 ml of grated beeswax
5 drops of lavender essential oil.

I'd love to hear your comments on this or any other home recipe for salves or oils and what you use them for . 

Liquid Hand soap

My poor little kidlets seem to have had runny noses forever.  Winter was so long and now we have had another damp cold spell.  We wash our hands about a million times every day and I ran out of hand soap in my foam dispenser this week.  I usually have a huge refill bottle on hand, but in keeping with the chemical free theme, I knew I was going to make my own from now on. 

Just  a few ingredients. Some distilled water, castile soap and a few drops of essential oils.  I removed the label and cleaned the bottle well.  Then I added everything to the bottle and gave it a little stir.  I used 1 part  castile soap to 4 parts water and added some tea tree oil and lavender essential oil because if their antibacterial properties.  I think I'll add a few glass pebbles to the bottom of the bottle for some pretty colour and to add some weight. This bottle tips too easy. 

 

 

I love that the tea tree oil will do its job on those nasty germs. It would be nice if runny nose season would come to an end though. 

As an added bonus the tea tree oil will help with all the itchy bug bites my poor kidlets got before we started using my home made bug repellent as well. I'm happy to say it works pretty good to keep the black flies and mosquitoes away.  And the lavender has a nice soothing quality.

Natural Insect Repellent Wipes

Today I thought I'd share my recipe for a natural insect repellent.  For some reason the mosquitoes and blackflies this season seem to be even more horrible than usual. It may be due to all the standing waters as the recent floods subside, but whatever the reason I am finding them really bad. 

I've always used  whatever commercial bug spray that was recommended safe for children, but as I have been educating myself to the harmful effects of chemicals I have been horrified at some of the things I have found. As well, my 3 year old grandson is  allergic to DEET. We found this out his first bug season.  All I did was spray a tiny bit of the child strength popular brand on his clothing to deter some bites and within minutes he was being rushed to  the emergency where he spent the next few hours being treated for a very severe reaction. The child strength version I had used contains very minimal amounts of deet.  This means family members can't use it either for fear of touching him and transferring some of this toxic stuff inadvertently.

This isn't really a bad thing.  We shouldn't be putting poisons on our skin anyway.  So this is what I came up with this season.  There are a ton of places you can find homemade insect repellent recipes. I especially liked this one from Wellness Mama .  She gives you options and you can choose what you want to use. I looked for the ingredients that were common plants locally and this is what I came up with. 

First I picked some Mullein leaves in my yard because of its soothing effects on your skin, and using the heat infused method I infused  a combination of grape seed oil and sunflower oil with the mullein leaves. 

Once it was ready, I strained it really well through several layers of cheese cloth and made my repellent.  For this I added essential oils of   citronella , cedar wood, and lavender.  All for their natural abilities to repel those nasty little critters.

The next step was finding a way to apply.  I don't like spray because its too easy to get into the eyes and on your clothes if you don't want it there.  So my daughter in law gave me the idea of using it like the homemade baby wipes. 

I took a good quality strong paper towel , I used Sponge Towels, and remove the core of  the roll.  A hint here, don't start the roll but keep that first sheet glued, it makes it easier later on.  I cut one third of the roll off, this was my measurement so it would fit easily into a used wipes container.

 



 

Next I put the paper towel into the container and poured 4 ounces of the insect repellent mixture over it and let it soak in.

 

 

 

Then just feed the center of the roll up through the opening and you have a perfect way to apply.  I used the paper towels that have the choose a size option so I could use just a small sheet. It's all you need. 

You could even put a few of these sheets into a sealable sandwich bag to take with you, to share with friends or just to reapply when you need it. 


My Bug Repellent Recipe.

4 oz of infused oil (I infused mine with mullein but you could use any plain carrier oil. Grape seed oil on its own would be nice.)
Blend In:
20 drops of citronella essential oil
20 drops of  cedar wood essential oil
20 drops of lavender essential oil.

I choose these ones in particular because of their specific deterent qualities. The bonus is it doesn't smell too bad either.

Getting things done.

I have been so busy lately that I haven't even thought of  writing this blog.   The thing about having so many ideas is that eventually you have to take some time and get some of them done.

My lovely hubby brought home a few straw bales about 10 days ago so I got them into the yard and started conditioning them.  Luckily we have had quite a bit of rain, because you have to keep the bales really moist and they dry out quickly in the wind.

So now I'm ready to plant the tiny little tomatoes and cucumbers that were started really late.  For anyone wondering how its going I will take some pics and post all the details of what I have done so far. It's really an experiment for me because the soil here isn't good and I don't have time to build raised beds if I want to grow any vegetables this year at all. 

I've also been collecting wild flowers and herbs and  drying some of them, and making some infused oils in prep for some home made salve. I've made a bit of natural insect repellent because the blackflies and mosquitoes are really vicious this year. If it works I will share that as well.   

I'll try to take time in the next few weeks to write  about all these wonderful things that are getting me closer to my goal of being  as self sufficient as possible and completely chemical free in my home by the end of the year... One step at a time. 

Future projects include home made laundry soap and  chemical free diy cleaners.  Some new   healthier recipes I want to try and an all natural home made medicine chest.

If you have any ideas you think I might like please share. I'd love to hear from you.