Wart Removal, all natural, affordable, and quick

I wish I had a great picture to show you but of course I didn't think of it until it was too late.  So a great neighbor of mine, Robyn, told me about this trick and much to my surprise it worked!  So my 4 year old had a wart on his foot for almost a year that that I had been battling with duct tape and over the counter wart removers.  No Luck:(  so here is what you do.  At night before bed soak up some apple cider vinegar onto a cotton ball, place cotton ball on wart and secure with band aid or medical tape.  Go to bed remove in the morning.  Repeat the next night.  That is all I did for a small to medium sized wart.  I forgot the third night and when I came back the fourth night it was BLACK.  I though ohh how gross, but I gave it a nudge with the tweezers and the entire wart fell out.  It left a little crater but that filled up in a week or so with good healthy skin.  I have told others who have said it worked for them as well.  Totally painless and cost pennies and is quick.  I guess it has something to do with the PH in your body, but all I care about is no wart and no painful Dr. visit. So give in a try.

Black Bean Brownies

Okay so I am so sorry that I have disappeared for a month.  This is a new favorite of mine and if your kids are not suspisious like my two older kids (who won't even try them because they don't trust me anymore)  they will love them ( like my younger two).  I have become a really big fan of black beans.  It all started with Megans black bean soup which is now a comfort food.   However to save money I started cooking a big pot of dry black beans each week and then we just had them there to add to our meals.  It is amazing how many things are better with black beans. So give these a try they double really well in a 9x13 and no one I have given them to has known any difference.  They are pretty fudge like so if you like your brownies more cake like just add a couple tablespoons of flour. 

Black Bean Brownies:
3 eggs
1 can of low sodium  or salt less black beans or 15 oz. of cooked dry beans.
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts
I don't do nuts in brownies so I added penut butter chips and that is my favorite of all the variations I have tried.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place all ingredients excepts chocolate chips and nuts in food processor and blend until smooth.  Stir in chocolate chips, pour into 8 inch baking dish and bake for 30 to 35 min.

End of Year Teacher Gift

Every year I scratch my head trying to decied what to do to say thank your to  great teachers.  This year I did something maybe a little cheesy but hopefully useful and healthy.  As you can see my card said "You sure can PRODUCE great strudents".  Then I bought a plastic chip bowl for $1 and then filled it with fresh fruit and veggies.  Mini watermellon or cantalope, bag of baby carrots, bananas, cucumber, lemmon, limes, apples and bell peppers.  Hopefully they can take that home and get so good use out of it.

Delicious healthy soups

http://www.organicspark.com/recipes/

Above is the link to my new favorite blog. She has some of the best recipes, this is her Healing Soup. I have made it many times and it truly is delicious and healthy. I have made the hummus and the carrot ginger soup and below is the salmon and millet cakes. All very very tasty. Go over there and find something you like.

Fruit and Grain Bar

http://www.digthischickmt.com/2011/03/figgy-figgy-figgy-cant-you-see.html

I tried these fig breakfast bars off of Dig This Chick. They are good, I did struggle to find figs in my area, I probably could have at the whole foods markets but I felt that I wanted to keep the cost down so I used apricot and prunes. I also couldn't find an affordable carrot juice until after I had made them so I used straight grape juice off of my own vines which might be a little too tart, but so far everyone eats them when I get them out. Also she said on hers she didn't use all the fruit filling. Of course I didn't listen and thought more is better, but trust her and me it is not, then they are like an overloaded PB&J and messy for the kids. Next time carrot juice and not all the filling. I do feel like it is healthier than the granola bars, but not as affordable unless you are able to dry your own apricots which is what I will have to do with mine this year.

Recipe:

3 Cups whole Wheat Flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/8 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup ground flax seed

dash ground nutmeg and ground cloves

1 stick butter, cold

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs

Filling

2 cups dried figs

1/2 cup dried apricots

2 cups juice ( carrot-orange, I used grape any thing 100% juice)

1 cup water

Follow the link to get all the directions.

Home made granola bars (trying to replace z bars)

 Okay so this one is definely a money saver for us.  A box of Z Bars from Costco is $10 ish, and I do love them, soft and yummy with not too many calories for a quick snack or for energy on a bike ride.   So when I saw this one on Kitchen Stewardship I just had to try it.  I doubled it and ended up with over 40 bars which I wrapped and placed in freezer.  Then the next week took out a handful for soccer games, softball practice and keeping the little one happy during all of this.  Did I mention my husband ate 3 at the soccer game instead of the dinner I packed him.  Healthier I don't know, lots of oat, but also lots of butter and of course yummy chocolate.  Time sensitive definetaly only takes minutes to mix pour into a cookie sheet, bake, cook, cut , wrap done.   Cost saver, oh yea.  Again I don't know what oats cost because I buy in large 50 lbs. bags, the butter and honey are the expense so 2 cups of honey is maybe $4 and 1 lbs. butter is another $4 maybe so about $10 for all 40 bars.

Recipe:

4 1/2 Cups rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup butter softened

1 cup honey

Add- ins: 1 Cup chocolate chips, I cup chopped nuts, or and 2 cup combination with dried fruits or sunflower seed, or coconut or whatever you like. (My kids like plain chocolate chips the most but my husband and I really like the craisons and coconut)

Pre heat oven to 325 degrees,  for single batch use 9x13 for double batch use a rimmed cookie sheet (jelly roll pan).

Beat butter and honey first until smooth and smelling yummy,  then all other ingredients except add ins.  Beat hard until combined then stir in add-ins.  Press mixture into pan,  you do need to really jam them down in (spray your hands with cooking spray and that will keep them a lot cleaner) so they don't fall apart later.  Then bake for 15 to 20 min. or until golden brown.  Let cool for at least 10 min before cutting into bars (in pan).  Then let cool completely and remove and wrap.

Homemade Wheat Thins (easy)

 So I have been trying to replace processed foods with more natural or whole foods,  I am not ready to jump completely into that change but am working towards it.  Most of the processed foods that does come into our house are snacks for the kids.  So what I want to focus on for the next few posts is are they healthier, time efficient and cost effective.  I have now made these crackers twice, the first time I doubled the recipe the second time I quadrupled the recipe and was much happier the second time around because I ended up with the equivalent of a two pouch Costco box.   I am just going to assume they are healthier since the wheat was ground minutes before use and I used honey and butter instead of processed sugar and hydrogenated oil.  I do thin these are fairly time efficient, it took me less than 30 min. the first batch and less than 45 min.  the second batch ( I do have double ovens which helped to speed things up). As far as cost, I think the Costco bag is about $5, I have no idea on homemade because I bought my wheat years ago.  The flour is minimal only a couple cups of wheat a small amount of honey, but two cubes of butter is at least $1.50 and they you have to think about the energy to bake and wash dishes.  So I think probably pretty even on cost.

Recipe:
1 1/4 Cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Tbs. honey (or sugar)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. paprika
4 Tbs. butter
1/4 Cup water
1/4 tsp. vanilla
Salt for topping
Parchment paper or flat baking stone
Please follow directions, the second time I did not and the dough was not as smooth and harder to roll out.

 Pre heat oven to 425 degrees.  Combine flour, salt and paprika in mixing bowl, then cut in soft butter until it looks like large crumbs. no bigger than a pea.  Then combine water, vanilla and honey and add to flour mixture.  Mix well until combined and dough forms.
Then divide dough into fourths rolling out one fourth at a time on a sheet of parchment or right on to a stone (I only used parchment).  Use as much flour as necessary to make rolling easy.  Roll out until dough is as thin as humanly possible with out tearing.  Then use a pizza cutter to cut into a rectangle.  I saved all the edges and baked them together at the end our you can just cut as is and have some weird crackers, doesn't matter kids eat them either way.  Then continue to cut into squares I have done some big and some small, what ever you like.  Poke lightly with fork, I forgot on some and had bubbles but not a big deal if you are in a hurry.  Then sprinkle with salt and slide parchment onto cookie tray and bake for 8 min.  (in my oven but you make want to check and start with 6 or 7)