Zucchini Breakfast Cookies (Chocolate ones too!)

At Missy's request (thankfully, I've been meaning to do this forever), I'm gonna write down my zucchini breakfast cookie recipe variation.

Zucchini Breakfast Cookies

1 heaping cup wheat flour*

1 heaping cup old fashioned oats

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt (maybe 1/4 tsp)

1 heaping tsp cinnamon*

2 tbsp oil (I use extra virgin coconut oil but a vegetable oil will work)

2 eggs

1/2 cup sweetener (honey, sugar, etc)

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together all the dry ingredients, add in all the wet and mix (don't go crazy but mix it together). Now, you may need to add more flour (or wheat germ if you want) if its too liquidy, you want it to keep its shape when put on the baking sheets and not run out like a pancake (I'll try to take a pic the next time I make these). For this much batter I make 12 cookies on 2 greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes (rotate your pans around while cooking).

*If you want to make these into chocolate zucchini breakfast cookies, use 1 level cup wheat flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, just 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and add in some chocolate chips if you want something truly decadent. You still may need to add more flour depending on your zucchini that day and what sweetener you use.

**Other varieties: Banana

For apple or pumpkin, just replace the zucchini with applesauce or pumpkin puree, easy and yummy! Get creative! I keep thinking of making a carrot cake version sometime, if you do it first, tell me!

New Bread Recipe

So, I had a bread recipe I had been using for about a year that for some reason was becoming unremarkable to me. I decided to go back searching, and remembered a King Arthur recipe I liked. I made it a couple times, but it was too orange-y to me. So I modified it a bit and came up with something nice and light and it really does keep well. There is nothing "weird" in the recipe that you have to search for except the vital wheat gluten (I buy it in bulk from amazon).

10 ounces warm water

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup dried milk (you can just use warm milk instead of the water)

1/2 cup instant potato flakes

2 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp some kind of oil/butter (I use extra light olive oil but canola or a low flavor vegetable oil would work best)

1-2 tbsp vital wheat gluten (you generally need less in the summer, if your bread is gummy, use less)

1.5 tsp salt

3.5 cups white whole wheat flour*

2.5 tsp instant yeast

I combine all the ingredients in an order recommended by my bread machine but you could use standard bread making procedures. After its kneaded (and whole wheat needs a good long knead) and risen, shape it into a loaf pan (metal works best, and actually I use three mini loaf pans because it keeps better if the loaf hasn't been cut into), cover and let rise again. Place bread into a cold oven, turn the oven on to 350 and set the timer for 20 minutes. If you use a regular metal loaf pan it will take longer (about 30 minutes), but my mini loaves are done at 20. Take it out of the oven and immediately out of the pans and let cool, then store in a ziploc bag.

*I use freshly ground white wheat flour. If you use wheat from the store you may need to use less. Sometimes I need less/more depending on the humidity anyways, so just make sure it has formed a nice ball and isn't too sticky while kneading.

**Metal is better by far than glass (I found some good pans at Kroger recently, and bonus, they were cheap, but still bake really well!). If you use a glass loaf pan you may also need to cover it with tin foil to prevent too much browning on top.

Paul is Two!

Happy Birthday silly boy!  I don’t dare want to jinx myself, but he has seemed a little mellower lately.  I really doubt the terrible twos are going to be all peaches and cream though!  You all need to wish me luck too though, John will be moving into Paul’s room soon!  Yikes!

A couple photos of the birthday boy.

We get to have Boy oh Boy! tonight.  Maybe I should share the recipe on the blog huh?  Its an old Wilson favorite, Luke’s favorite actually which is good because its for his birthday too!  I decided we didn’t need two treats this week!

I just bought Ruthanne's Baptism dress!

Aaack, that means she's really going to turn 8 (in June) and get baptized and be all grown up and responsible! Ok, not totally. I really kind of wanted to make her dress (like my mom made mine, we donated it to the local church and it is now to raggedy to be used for Ruthanne says mom, although the church still uses it!) but between a lack of good fabric stores, my lack of experience with sewing clothes, and fear of frustration and irritation while sewing the dress, I decided it was probably worth it just to buy a dress. Plus between the fabric and pattern it would probably cost me about as much to make it myself as to buy it already made! Etsy to the rescue!

Fun Printables

I came across this blog with lots of printables.

http://blogginwithbobbi.blogspot.com/search/label/Printables

I foresee a wall of inspiration fun things in my future (maybe, this assumes I actually do it!).

Happy Easter!

It was a great day, we went to church and had a fabulous Easter program, ate a bunch of chocolate (a splurge on Easter candy, its my favorite candy), enjoyed the Easter baskets, and even read the Easter story together as a family.

Feeling happy

for the moment at least. Why?

- The RSP is back!

- Luke doesn't have any trips planned (no constant packing/unpacking/washing/ironing like I've been doing back to back to back this past month)!

- My garden is growing!

- The weather is nice (for what a few weeks?)!

- The kids are having fun playing outside!

- Luke and I assembled a portable basketball goal by ourselves and still want to be married!

- We are taking the kids to the Atlanta temple open house next week!

Whew, you don't realize how easy life is normally until you go through an

extra crazy month! Maybe I'll share some pictures soon. I'll leave you with this one since this is what I should be getting ready to do.

On the way back from Mimi & Poppa's (a couple months ago?)

A new favorite blog

Perhaps most interesting for the LDS folks out there, but really this guy isn't preachy, its just a good nutrition blog. Maybe it will inspire you to eat a little better!

http://www.wordofwisdomliving.com/

Kettle Corn

Nothing like a little kettle corn to make life better, right? We're enjoying a movie (a little LDS flic called Turn Around) and I thought I'd throw some of our new favorite popcorn recipe together. Its super good. As Luke says, he doesn't even like popcorn, but he likes this.

.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup oil (I use coconut oil - the good extra virgin $$ kind, but any kind of veggie oil will work)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Throw the oil in a big stock pot over medium high heat. Put in three corn kernels and wait till they all pop. Then sprinkle in the sugar and popcorn kernels and put on the lid. Alternate shaking and keeping the pot still every 3 seconds until most of the kernels have popped (you will notice it all of sudden stop popping as frequently). Take it off the heat and transfer it to a big bowl and sprinkle with a little salt. Next come tell me how much you love me for sharing this recipe with you!

Thanks for all the thoughts yesterday. We had a somewhat better day today until after nap time. Any thoughts on how to snap him out of a post nap funk?

Screaming

It seems to go in stages, but Paul (almost 2 now right?), still screams all the time. Gotta get in the carseat - scream, out of the carseat - scream, change diaper - scream, get dressed - scream, eat - scream, been screaming for over an hour now after his nap, despite holding him, etc. I still don't feel human. He does sleep through the night and the past week has been taking naps (count my blessings, right?). I'm just at my wits end. I'm tired of reading blogs where everything is hunky dorey. I want my life to feel that way, I want to be that way. I'm tired of listening to my child scream endlessly and cling to my legs screaming when I do ANYTHING. I don't like putting him in the playpen when I just can't handle the screaming any more, but I just don't know whats wrong. Anyone have any ideas, because I don't.

I'll probably take this post down shortly, but I think it will make me feel better to put it out there at least temporarily. Who knows, maybe it will make me feel worse.