From the kitchen

I have been completely encouraged in the kitchen these days. I feel like I am finally hitting a grove with cooking the way I want to cook - healthy, tasty, interesting, simple. For the most part I think we all feel really good, enjoy our meals together, and I'm learning to do it as a good steward of our money and our bodies. I've tried a bunch of coffee cakes in the past and, honestly, when you try to make them healthy they taste like cardboard with a crunchy dirt topping. This one was great and we ate it with PLAIN yogurt (it was sweet enough) and fruit. I'm not good a linking to things and I am too lazy (actually, I just want to go to bed and read my Julia Child book) to type out the recipe. But I got it from passionatehomemaking.com. Actually, I have found a lot of pretty good resources from her lately. I made her protein bars - yum! Perfect since we are an almond butter family because of allergies.

While I am recommending things - I found her family food budget the most helpful of any I have read on line. Most of you know my math skills are...well, anyway I try really hard to be frugal and can figure things out, but then I can't remember what the best deals were or where they were. I write them down, but...well, let's just say Mike walked through the dining room the other day and asked, "Are you starting another journal?" I have one for school research, cooking, health food research, etc. I have notebook/journal issues. But her way of making a budget, where she shops, how they like to eat, etc fits with us - so if you are interested it is a link on the right side of her blog.

Also, I will just confess here that I am about to embark upon project MAKE IT MYSELF. Here is what I am going for: laundry soap, dishwasher soap, shampoo (already doing this - my scalp which has itched sine I hit puberty has not itched at all), hand soap, and baby wipes. Some things will be money saving (some of it we bought cheaply anyway). Some of it will just get some of the chemical junk out of our house. I'm not a fanatic here, but honestly have you ever tried to cook while the dishwasher was running? That stuff reeks! Well maybe I am becoming a fanatic. But I am really trying to stay balanced about this whole thing. I am trying to trim down our budget and simplify our life. On the outset it won't be so simply - figuring out how to do it all. But in the long run I love the idea of fewer products and smell good or not at all.

I'll keep you posted. I have two months to make it and give it a trial run. If it doesn't happen by baby time, it will probably be another year.