Quinoa & Vegetables

As part of my 30 Day Challenge, I am trying a lot of new recipes. A while back I tried to cook quinoa and failed miserably. It tasted like cardboard, lumpy cardboard. But, I know that quinoa is a very good source of protein and I really wanted to try it again. This time I used vegetable broth instead of water and it turned out great!  To go along with the quinoa I diced up a bunch of my favorite veggies, sauteed them and mixed it all together.

Ingredients:
1 c quinoa, rinsed
2 c vegetable broth
2 tbsp olive oil
1 zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeds remove & diced
1/2 eggplant, peeled & diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 c fresh parsley leaves, chopped

Directions:
Add vegetable stock and quinoa to a pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed.
While the quinoa is cooking, heat oil in a frying pan. Add vegetable, except tomatoes. Cook for 3-5 minutes until fork tender, but not soft. Add tomatoes and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and add parsley.
Serve the vegetables over quinoa.

This will be sure to make it into our regular dinner rotation. My kids have already asked for it again!

15 Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

I know that I am not the only one who keeps the cardboard toilet paper rolls for crafts!

Here are some cute ideas on how to use them.

1. Cute Animals  from Living Locurto

2. Flower art from Loving Life

3. Butterflies from Bo Bunny

4. Cord organizer from Real Simple

5. Rocket ships from Karen Cheng

6. Pillow box from Skip to My Lou

7. Indoor campfire from Family Corner

8. Paper chandelier from Brooke Gratitude

9. Wrapping paper holder from Joy Astle

10. Race track from What do you do all day?

11. Craft caddy from Instructables

12. Paper flowers from BHG

13. Heart stamp from Rust Sunshine

14. Race cars from Rubbish Crafts for Toddlers

15. Monsters from Alisa Burke

What do you use them for?

30 Day Challenge: Fruits & Veggies

Last week was a little tough. I didn't post anything on the blog mainly because I was tired...so tired. For some reason my kids made a unanimous decision that none of them were going to sleep through the night. (sigh)

I looked for a few good ideas to keep me up during the day instead of endless pots of coffee. Then a good friend of mine asked if I would want to start a fruits and veggie diet with her and at first I thought she was crazy. There was no way I could ever limit my diet that much. But it did get me thinking about changing my eating habits for the long term. So I took a few parts from her diet plan, added a few parts from what I already knew and came up with a plan to jump start my family and I into a healthier way of eating.

For my family, adding more fruits & veggies into our everyday meals won't be difficult because we all love them anyway. It's really taking out everything else that's the tough part. Our house is already dairy-free because all three kids have allergies, so that's an easy one. But I will have to find a good substitution for meat. After a long discussion with my husband we agreed on gradually changing the meal plans until we are down to 2 or 3 dinners a week that have meat and the rest will be all veggies & whole grains. Also, with the money we will be saving by not purchasing meat we are going to buy hormone free chicken & turkey.

I want to try to make at least 1 fruit smoothies and 1 green veggie shakes each day, either as meals or as in between meal snacks. Here are 2 great sites I found with lots of recipes:
http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/ and http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes

During these 30 days I will post the recipes that I liked and the ones that didn't work. I will also share any other health tips & tricks that I discover. I started a Healthy Living tab to add the website I find so be sure to check those out periodically as well as my For a Healthy Life! board on Pinterest.

Wish me luck!

Tissue Paper Flower Bouquet

These tissue paper flowers are very easy to make. I really like the way my last tissue paper flowers  turned out, but they tried my patience because it took so long to slowly separate each piece of paper. These took me about 5 minutes to make and the whole time I was thinking about what they could be used for! The bunch pictured below will be for my daughter to give my mom at brunch on Sunday. They can also be used to brighten up the kitchen, add a special touch to the top of gifts, as a 3-D decoration for cards, on a tablescape....etc. etc. etc.

Instructions:

1. Start with (8) tissue paper squares (I used 4"x4"). I followed the next steps using (4) pieces of paper at a time.

2. Stack the squares then trace and cut a circle. Fold the circle in half. 

3. Fold it in half again.

4. Fold each half outwards so that the folds are now accordian style.

5. Round the side/edges with scissors.

6. Unfold and repeat with remaing layers, then stack the layers all together. 

7. Place a pipe clean on the layers and staple twice making an X. Make sure the staples are in the middle. (I know the picture only shows 1 staple but after making these a few times, the 2 staple X works better.)

8. Lift up each layer and twist the petals to make a flower.

Here's what it looks like up close....

There are so many possibilities for these beautiful flowers, how will you use these?

Wordless Wednesdays - Pictures in the Clouds

What do you see?

Alternative Uses for Baby Products

The products that we use everyday to keep our little ones soft and clean can also serve other purposes from beauty aids to household cleaners. With each child I was given a ton of baby products as gifts. I still have some that I received from my first baby shower over 5 years ago! Here are a few suggestions on how to re-purpose these items.

1. Vaseline:  There are so many uses for Vaseline - use on chapped lips, dry patches of skin (elbows, heals, etc), or even as a makeup remover. One of my favorites is to mix it with Kool-Aid for flavored lip gloss! For more uses check out this link to 50 Uses for Vaseline.

2. Johnson's Baby Creamy Oil:  This one works great as hair-color protectant at the beach. Comb a quarter size amount through damp hair, then pull back hair into a ponytail. (from RealSimple's 18 Inexpensive Makeup and Beauty Products)

3. Baby Shampoo: For years I have used this it was my makeup brushes. It is gentle on the bristles and removes all the built up makeup beautifully! You can also wash your delicates and hand-wash-only items with it.

4. Baby Powder: This works as a great alternative to dry shampoo (for people and pets!). I also use it during the summer at the beach. At the end of the day sprinkle a bit on your feet and legs to remove the sand before you get in the car. Baby powder can help remove grease stains by sprinkling a little on the stain, let the garment sit and it will absorb the grease.

5. Baby Oil: When I was pregnant I applied baby oil to my skin to prevent stretch marks (it worked!). It can be used to remove makeup.  It can be used to remove labels or stickers from a jar - rub a little on the lable and leave over night. By morning the labels should slide right off. It can also remove bubble gum from surfaces or hair. For more uses check out 45 Uses for Baby Oil.


6. Bedtime Bubble Bath: The lovely lavendar scents is not just for soothing babies to sleep....sometimes mom needs to calm down too.

7. Baby Wipes: Use to remove stains on clothing and deodarant marks. Cleans hands and faces without irritating skin. I have also heard that they relieve sunburn pain, but I have never tried it.


For more tips & tricks checks out my Pinterest boards: Beauty Tips & DIY's, Household DIY & Tips Tricks & Tips.

Wordless Wednesdays: Priceless Art

Even though I paid $0.07 for this in my daughter's "shop", it's still priceless to me.