Have you ever put your ingredients into the blender and turned it on, only to have it splash bits of solid food up above the water line? This used to frustrate me to no end, until I figured out this handy little trick. Watch and learn!

Be sure to hop over to Smockty Frocks to see what Connie and her friends have to share!

Credit: Allrecipes.com

This recipe is a modification of one I found on Allrecipes.com. The original recipe is delicious (made with Veganaise), but I rarely have mayo around anymore. I think my husband actually created the version below. It’s not quite as simple as the original, but it’s still very easy.

1 Eggplant, washed and sliced in 1/2″ slices
soy sauce
Coconut oil (preferably solid but not too hard)
breadcrumbs

Dip the eggplant in soy sauce, both sides, then spread coconut oil on it as thinly as possible. Then dip it in the breadcrumbs and put on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400° about 20 minutes or so until it sinks in the middle and is thoroughly cooked. There is no need to flip it part way through unless you want to.

We usually serve these with pasta. Let me tell you, these taste so much better than the Olive Garden’s fried eggplant, not to mention they are so much better for you!

You can use just about any breading for this. Sometimes I mix dry breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast flakes. If I don’t have bread crumbs handy, I often just pour out roughly equal portions (I don’t usually measure) of yeast flakes, wheat germ, and coarsely ground corn meal and mix. This is by far the cheapest breading I have ever used!

Check back every Monday for more of my delicious Vegan Recipes, or just subscribe to the blog so you will never miss a post! Next week, Vegetarian Guiso.

Here’s how these are going to work. I’m going to report tell how the previous week went and how I met that week’s goals. Then I’ll share my latest weigh-in and post the next week’s goals.

So here’s how my week went:

Sunday: I think I kind of got off to a bad start. I went out to eat at a Thai buffet and ate too much. Got my first dessert in, also, a delicious coconut milk creation with bits of something yummy in it. Didn’t really exercise either.

Monday: I must have really eaten too much yesterday! I wasn’t hungry until almost 9:00 this morning. Usually breakfast is at 8:00. So I didn’t eat until I was hungry. For lunch I hauled out some pizza crust that I had frozen like over half a year ago… it was whole wheat, but made like pie crust, so probably had too much fat in it. I think I ate too much, but I was trying to use it up. It sure was good, though! I got my exercises in late in the day, but I got them in!

Tuesday: Something I have learned is that I must have at least one meal that has a good strong protein source. For me, this could be a soy souffle with a whole grain (quinoa, millet, buckwheat, for example) for breakfast, or split pea & barley soup for lunch. At least, I need to do that if I am going to only eat two meals a day. Otherwise by suppertime, I’ve got this craving for something, and then I end up eating too much.

That’s what happened today. Breakfast was sweet potatoes and tofu, which on the surface sounds filling, and it was, but the sweet potatoes digest too quickly, and the tofu isn’t as great a protein source as, say, eggs would be. It’s very simple and digests quickly. Fine. But not when lunch is pasta. I ate a handful of walnuts with lunch to try to add in some extra protein, since, thanks to not-buying-so-we-don’t-have-to-take-it-with-us, we have no veggie meats or TVP or anything like that to add to a pasta meal–and beans don’t generally go so well with spaghetti!

So by supper time, I was starving. And ate. Too much. Nuff said. Oh, and it rained so I couldn’t get out for a walk. Bummer.

Wednesday: I got up late this morning (because hubby slept at the new house and the kids slept in too!), so I had a bit of a later-than-normal breakfast. Since it was so late, and since the soymilk in the fridge was 6 days old, I had cold cereal (mostly home-made granola) with juice on it. I haven’t done that in years. I added some nuts to increase the protein and fat content, but it wasn’t that filling of a breakfast! So learning my lesson from the day before, I made a pot of lentils, curry flavored, and served them over steamed brown rice. And I ate heartily. No need for supper today!

Oh, and I did get my exercises in today. Sure, only one set, not two, but it was late, so at least I did it.

Thursday: I definitely got my exercises yesterday! Cleaning the house and hauling heavy appliances made me sore by the next morning, so yes I made it. Read more about that day here. I got my second dessert in today, some coconut custard concoction the lady who made lunch for us cooked up. It was good, but I already have an idea of how to make a vegan version that will taste even better (and actually be healthy enough to eat for breakfast), so watch for that in the near future.

Friday: I’m just too tired and sore today to do anything! At least I only got two meals today.

Saturday: Today I had a teeny bit for supper (what my daughter didn’t eat of her supper), but I’m glad I did, because I stayed up late packing, and would have probably eaten more later if I hadn’t had a bit for supper. Didn’t get any real exercise in, per se, but I did pack a bunch.

Sunday morning weigh-in: Well, no matter how I figured it, I couldn’t get the scales to say less than 141. Which means I lost nothing this week. But actually I think I went up because of Sunday, so I did lose, just you can’t tell. I’m going to have to do better than that if I’m going to make my goals!

I probably won’t be able to post anything next Sunday, because I’m going to be at camp meeting. So I’m doing a 2-week goal. I want to lose 3 pounds in the next two weeks. We’re going to be at the new house, and I’m going to be walking up and down the hill or up and down the stairs for 20-30 minutes every day (depending on whether it’s raining or not), so that ought to do something! Plus I don’t have a car anymore, so I won’t be able to go eat out, which will keep me from overeating.

Please let me know if you’re joining in the challenge, share your plans and goals, and we’ll encourage each other! See you back in two weeks or less!

The other day I was spending a few quiet moments (a rarity lately!) reading one of my favorite devotional books, and this paragraph jumped out at me:

The loveliness of the character of Christ will be seen in His followers. It was His delight to do the will of God. Love to God, zeal for His glory, was the controlling power in our Saviour’s life. Love beautified and ennobled all His actions. Love is of God. The unconsecrated heart cannot originate or produce it. It is found only in the heart where Jesus reigns. “We love, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19, R.V. In the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the principle of action. It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life and sheds a refining influence on all around.

Steps to Christ, 59

The thought is beautiful all by itself, but as I contemplated it, something struck me. Love is the ultimate motivator. I mean, who would willingly wipe someone else’s bottom for free if they didn’t love them? Sure, some would do it for pay, but all mothers do it for free. Why? Because we love our little helpless babies!

But then something else struck me. When our children love us, they are motivated to obey us. When we have their heart, we don’t have to twist their arm to get them to do something. Have we shown them love like Christ has shown for us?

When our children are motivated by love, look what can happen: “It [love] modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and ennobles the affections.”

In the goal of the development of character in our children, let’s make sure that we put in a lot of love!

Almost–but still so much to do!

I planned to take the kids on Thursday, drop them off with a church member who lives about 15 minutes from our new house (and only a couple of miles out of the way from our current place to there), and clean. I knew we would be tracking dirt (and mud, unless it stops raining between now and then, which is highly unlikely). But the bathrooms were filthy. I wanted to clean toilets and showers/tubs and counters at the very least. When I got there, I realized that I also wanted to run a damp mop over all the floors, because there was a very fine powdery sawdust over everything (including the walls, as I soon discovered). It was as if the house had been empty for months, instead of having just been floored this week. I know the dust came from cutting the laminate flooring.

My husband had to be at Home Depot half way to the house by 8:30, so he left a little before 8:00. I was almost ready to go, but had the kids, and one of the car tires had gone flat again (it had been doing that–gradually losing air so that it was basically flat every few weeks). We don’t have an air compressor, so I spent several minutes with the hand pump. I think it was designed to fill bicycle tires. I took breaks to get the kids buckled in their car seats, but I did get 30 or so pounds of air into it.

Then we were off. I had to be in Sandy to pick up my Azure Standard order around 9:00. Sandy, you understand, is over an hour from Beaverton. We left a little after 8:00. It was either meet the delivery truck at the Safeway parking lot, or drive probably another 20 minutes beyond to the other side of Sandy and out into the country to pick up my order later. Not something I was in the mood to do. So I was really hoping to get there on time.

But before I had even gone a mile, I noticed that my windshield was fogging up. No problem. I glanced down to turn on the defrost. But I never got it turned on.  When I looked up again, I realized that I was about to crash into the car in front of me! I slammed on the breaks, but there just wasn’t time. Fortunately I was only going 2 or 3 miles an hour when I hit, so there were no injuries at all. It was barely a bump. But my hood crumpled into an upside-down V. I wish I’d had a camera to take a picture. The bumper was made of cheap plastic and styrofoam, and it crumpled up over the hood, effectively making it impossible to open the hood. I sat there thinking, “How can this be happening?” for a moment, then pulled off to the nearby side road to exchange information with the other driver.

Fortunately, she had a better vehicle than I did–some kind of small SUV, I think. Anyhow, even though her bumper was plastic too, it was heavier-duty than mine, and it only had two tiny scratches on it. She took my insurance and gave me her phone number, but she said she wouldn’t report me unless something started to fall apart on the car (which is highly unlikely). She said she had just gotten a ticket off her record, so she could understand why I wouldn’t want this to go on my record either! Which was very sweet of her.

So here I was, a mile from home, an hour from where I needed to be, with a bent hood. I had calmed down a bit (though still shaking from the adrenalin rush), and looked over the situation. The highest point on my hood was only 5 or 6 inches above where it was supposed to be (that would be the peak of the bend). I could see underneath. Behind the bumper is a very sturdy metal frame, to which we had attached a tow-bar to tow the car from Texas a year and a half before. This appeared undamaged. The radiator behind the metal frame also appeared undamaged. In the few minutes I had been there, not one drip of anything had landed under the car. As the lady drove off, I said a prayer. “Lord, You know my plans for today. I’ll give them up if I need to, but maybe it’s okay to continue. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to drive around the block. If everything seems okay, I’ll continue on. If not, I’ll turn around and drive home.”

So I did. I had turned off the main road into a neighborhood, so I drove down to the first intersection, took a right (heading towards home), and then took another right (heading back towards the road where I had had the accident to begin with). On the way I watched my gauges closely, and also took my hands off the wheel briefly to check the alignment. Everything seemed fine. So I got back on the main road, heading away from home now, and continued on my way.

I had not one problem the whole way. I got to Sandy before the delivery truck was done unloading and picked up my order. They were still unloading when I left. I dropped the kids off with our friend, gave her instructions on what and how to feed Manny (since he’s on a special diet), and headed to the house.

The first thing I did there was tell my husband what had happened. He said he had sensed something was going to happen, and he took it as well as could be expected. Then he went to the Mexican guys that were finishing up installing the laminate flooring and asked them, “Would you like to buy our car?” In the end, we gave it to them, partly as a bonus for all the hard work they had done (and hadn’t been paid as much as they would have liked to, but they were nice enough to do it for less). The car wasn’t worth much–we had toyed with selling it on Craigslist for $500 a month or two ago, but had decided to wait.

So now we’re going to be in the country down to one car. Sigh. At least my husband is only going to be working 4 days a week, so I’ll have Fridays to do orthodontic appointments, doctors appointments, shopping if I don’t do it on Sundays… And since we want more kids, we’ll just get a minivan sometime later. We’ll watch for one and see what we can do about saving for one.

But this was supposed to be about the house! Well, the painting is all done. There are a few spots that could use a touch up (where the paint was a tad thin), but I’m not worried about those. We have all the paint cans and tools, so if those spots don’t end up getting covered by furniture or pictures, I’ll touch them up when I get a chance. The flooring is in upstairs and in the living room. Our bedroom is so gorgeous! I can’t wait to get the bed in there, with the bedspread matching the trim around the windows, and make some curtains out of this gauzy fabric I have somewhere in my sewing stuff.

I got our shower really nice and clean. Most of the dirty soap scum is gone–the rest I’ll get a little at a time over the next few weeks. I soaked the toilet with vinegar, and now everything below water level looks new. After we move in and have paper towels (I didn’t have those with me, for some reason), I’ll soak paper towels in vinegar and drape them around the inside of the bowl and leave to soak for a while, then take them out and wipe it down. That should cut most of the water stain. If that doesn’t work, I’ll get a pumice stone and scrub it.

The children’s bathroom upstairs (which opens to the hall, unlike the master bathroom, which is accessed through the master bedroom) is fairly clean, except there were a bunch of paint buckets in the corner by the toilet, and I didn’t move them. But the tub would not get clean. I tried two powerful chemical cleaners on it, but neither one did much. The textured floor of the tub just would NOT come clean. Remember the picture from my previous update? Well, it doesn’t look much better yet. I didn’t even get to the sliding glass doors!

But I did damp mop the whole upstairs floor. My husband needed my help before I could get to the living room floor. I didn’t even plan on doing the kitchen yet, because it’s got a bunch of painting equipment and laminate floor scraps laying around in it.

My husband had rented a U-haul truck to take away the trash (old carpet and other junk) to the dump. It was over a ton of stuff, thanks to most of the old carpet having gotten soaked in the rain! He unloaded the whole thing by himself! Then he took the truck over to Sears to pick up our washer, dryer, freezer, and wall oven. When he got there, I helped him back down the driveway so that we could unload it.

I should clarify something here. We have a very steep driveway. I’m not sure of the angle, but it’s VERY STEEP in spots. There is maybe 40 or 50 feet (total guess-I haven’t measured it) of pavement coming down from the road. Then to the left (as you enter) is the house, with parking in front of the house and between the house and the road. There is some gravel in this area, but not enough. It’s been raining almost every day for the past couple of weeks, so the ground is absolutely saturated. Think MUD.

By burge5000 on Flickr

Okay, not quite that bad–yet! There is some gravel, rocks, leaves, twigs, etc, to give it a bit more structure. But I did slip a time or two.

Below the pavement, continuing on down the hill past the house is the rest of the driveway, leading down to a slab of concrete that used to be a shed near the bottom of the property. The road turns to the left, leveling out some as it crosses the width of the property, then goes down to the concrete slab. Here’s a picture from Google Maps that might help you grasp the concept.

After the truck had been filled with junk, my husband tried to turn it around to drive straight out. But he went down the driveway and got the back tires (back wheel drive) off the pavement, and then he couldn’t get it going again, because it was too muddy and steep. He drove down the hill and around the first bend, where it was less muddy and fairly flat, and tried to get going from there, but he either couldn’t turn tight enough (thereby risking crashing into a tree on side of the road) or turned too tight and got into the really muddy spot on the other side of the road. He finally got it straight enough, but he just couldn’t get it going fast enough to get up to the pavement again (backwards, remember), so finally one of the Mexican guys helped him. He wasn’t afraid to spin the tires if he was moving (spinning in place is another story!), but even then it took him several tries to get up to the pavement! Then he backed it into the parking area, and Rafael drove it straight out of the driveway. We were determined not to repeat this again, especially since later there would be no one to help us! Not to mention that it wasn’t raining the first time, but it was later.

The other thing I must clarify is that my husband, although very talented in many areas, cannot back up without looking over his shoulder. This handicaps him when driving big trucks like U-hauls. I learned to back up using mirrors only when I was 19, a few months after getting my license, but my husband was not about to let me drive the rental truck (after the morning’s accident I don’t blame him), so I stood out in the rain and directed his every move. I used my hands to represent which way to turn the wheels, since both he and I get right and left mixed up very badly (I’ve heard there’s a gene for that!). I had him back up onto the road (since he had driven in nose first again), turn around, and drive into the driveway across the road, then back across the road (which was really not straight across but slightly to the side) and down the driveway. Whenever cars came up, I stopped them or directed them around us. I was wearing bright yellow cleaning gloves and a white shirt, so I made a fairly visible object in spite of the rain. It was a kind of powerful feeling, realizing that everyone was doing exactly as I directed. That included my husband! So I got him backed down and turned in such a way that the back of the truck more or less faced the house, and the back tires, though not on pavement, were on a good bit of gravel, not in mud! He was low enough that we were able to leave the truck and drive the car out when we were finished.

Then the two of us unloaded the appliances. We started with the washer. It is a 4 cu. ft. Samsung Washer. We got it on sale. The salesman said we could wash a king-sized bedspread in it. That means I’ll be able to do fewer loads of laundry. Very nice. And it’s high efficiency, meaning I’ll save water and electricity (and detergent, too!). We got the matching dryer. That washer was so big and heavy! We had to take it out of the box (or rather, the box off it) to get it through the doors into the house and the downstairs room, and we’ll have to take the door leading from the downstairs bedroom off the frame to get it into the laundry room! At least we won’t have to take the frame off! I don’t know how we got that washer in by ourselves, but we did. My husband did most of it, but I think he couldn’t have done it by himself. I’m glad I’ve been doing my exercises!

After getting the washer and dryer into the downstairs bedroom, we had to get the freezer in. Now, freezer is an upright, not very tall (box is about my height), but not short either. We decided to take it up the parking area between the road and the house (since it was graveled and kind of like a ramp), up the two steps onto the back “porch” (just a landing, really), in the door, up the two steps to the living room, across the living room, and down the 4 stairs to the kitchen (there are a lot of levels in this house!). So we did. It wasn’t as heavy as the washer, so we were able to pull it up the stairs. To get it down the stairs, we laid it on its back and slid it down carefully. Then we moved it over to near where it’s going to go (but the slot is full of stuff, so we just left it in the middle of the dining room floor).

Then we brought in the wall oven. This one we just hauled up the front steps and into the house. It wasn’t very heavy, compared to all the other stuff, and we had it on a dolly, so it was really pretty easy. We double checked measurements and determined that we will have to cut the cabinet opening to get it in, but there is more than enough room, so we’re okay.

So… My husband is out there today installing the oven (and maybe the freezer) and cleaning things up. We’re going to move in on Sunday.

So I’m worn out and sore today. Not motivated to do anything. Anyone wanna come help me?

By Melissa Toledo on Flickr

This week Sarah at Sarah’s Heart’s Home and I are discussing Quiet Time Ideas for Toddlers. A couple of days ago I listed a few ideas to keep preschoolers from being bored. A few of those ideas could work for toddlers as well, so I’m not going to repeat those here.

Maybe I should clarify that by “toddlers” I mean from the age the kid starts walking (sometime around 1 year old) until about 3 years old. By 3 years old, they aren’t really “toddlers” anymore, and then we call them preschoolers, I guess. I’m still trying to figure this all out! So there will probably be some overlapping of age groups in these ideas.

At this age, most kids still take a nap or two every day, so that is probably my favorite thing for them to do! However, my 3 1/2 year old only takes naps sporadically now–unless I wake her up early, in which case she will probably sleep for at least an hour, if not two, in the afternoon. But I can’t rely on this anymore.

One idea that come to mind is books. My daughter has “quiet time” in the morning before breakfast, where she looks at Bible story books quietly. Sometimes we let her use the computer (we don’t have a CD player right now) to listen to one of her books read out loud. This time will later evolve into personal devotions as she grows older.

I’m not terribly full of ideas, but I have rounded up a few sites, and I think they will be able to give you some more ideas. Sorry I’m not more creative, but I’m writing this before we move (because I won’t have time to get it done on time after the move), and my brain just isn’t very creative right now.

Here’s a list of a number of activities.
This post has a few ideas. It’s written from the perspective of a day-care, but could work for anyone.
This article is like a step-by-step guide for toddler quiet time. Definitely worth perusing.
This list of activities isn’t necessarily for quiet time, but it was so good I just had to include it. Many of the ideas could be adapted for quiet time.

Check back in two weeks when Sarah and I share a day in our lives. In the mean time, check back every day for other regularly scheduled posts, and other updates on my life.

This article is taken from the Raising Godly Tomatoes website, written by L. Elizabeth Krueger. It is not part of the book. You can find the full article here. Here is what she says about involving the children in your day. That way they won’t have time to think about being bored (see yesterday’s post).

By laurelbethyw on Flickr

Rather than trying to keep my children entertained all day, I believe that I should be training them on a minute-by-minute basis toward the goal of becoming godly adults. What better way than to include them as much as is possible in whatever I am doing, so they will learn to live as I do? I try to find ways so that even the little ones can help me, but it is also good for them to learn to just watch and listen, as well.

Sewing is a good example. I often sew or type with a baby on my lap and a toddler playing with my button box on the floor next to me. Slightly older children can help by cutting out patterns or they can play with my scraps. At eleven years old, my daughter could do much of the actual sewing and ironing, and we would be able to finish a dress in half the time by working as a team. It was also a lot more fun than trying to give her a “sewing lesson”. We just treat sewing like any other chore we need to get done, and we try to enjoy all our chores.

I try to treat everything else similarly. As I go about my day, I try to especially include the younger children in the things I am doing. If I’m in the kitchen, I will call the six year old to unload the dishwasher and the eight year old to help with the actual cooking and clean up. The two and three year olds climb up on the stools at the counter and watch (I never have to call them). They love to lick bowls and munch on scraps of things I am making.

Same thing when I’m working in the yard. I might give the younger ones a garden tool to dig with, or I’ll set them to work collecting the weeds I’m pulling, and throwing them out for me. Of course there’s always lots the older ones can do.

Dad does the same thing. He includes the children in his office work by giving them any job they can handle, often with the older ones teaching the younger. All except the babies are taught to run the fax machine, make copies on the copier, work the computers and calculators, type, file, etc. ( Our oldest, Shane, at thirteen, handled all the computer support work for our in-home office as well as our out-of-home, five-person business office.) This is all done informally by simply including them in Dad’s work. The children take turns accompanying Dad to business meetings whenever possible. If Dad is not home all day, as is the case in most families, he can include them in what he does when he is home; mowing the lawn, taking care of the car, fixing things, handling the family finances, etc. In everything we do, it is an opportunity to teach godliness to our children.

BEWARE of doing all the work yourselves and letting your kids play all day so they can “enjoy their childhood.” This will only result in a adult who is self-centered and lazy, and has a “the world owes me a living” attitude. When people hear the term “spoiled” in regard to a child, they often laugh and think of it as a temporary thing that can be sort of cute at times. Nothing could be more backward. When I used to own and ride horses, I often heard the term “spoiled” in regard to a particular type of animal. In the horse world, this was never cute. A spoiled horse was one whom BAD TRAINING HAD RUINED PERMANENTLY!

Deuteronomy 6:7   -  “And you shall teach them (God’s laws) diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

I have never heard these words from my kids. Yet. My son, of course, is too young. I would like to think that “Mama” and “Dadoo” mean what I think they mean, but so far the only thing I am sure he says and means is “Uh uh.” Oh, and let’s not forget “Uh oh.” Still, that’s not much!

My 3 1/2 year old daughter has never heard the phrase, but that doesn’t stop her from coming up with a substitute. “Mommy, I want to do someping.”

I am not one of those creative moms that comes up with 101 ideas to keep kids happy and busy, but I have a few standbys for situations like this.

One is coloring. This is almost always a hit. Especially when I print out a picture to match her Bible lesson for the week. This will be harder to do when we don’t have Internet at home. Usually I just google the topic of the story (such as Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter) and add the word “coloring” and up pops a list of pictures.

Another thing she loves to do is string beads. I have a set of pink beads with big (maybe 3/16″) holes in them that she can string onto one of those stretchy strings for making kids jewelry.  She never actually completes it. We just unstring the beads and put them back for later. But it can keep her busy for a while. After we move, I’m going to buy different colors for her.

Nanna gave her a package of multi-colored pipe cleaners, and she loves to sit and make things. She put two of them together and told me it was an ant and that it smelled. They can keep her occupied and out of trouble for extended periods of time.

And yes, many times I send her outside to play where I can watch her. Being out in nature is so soothing, lets her burn off energy without stressing Mommy, or waking up baby brother, and it’s fun.

Many times, I get her involved in what I’m doing. She is pretty good at rinsing dishes, grinding cereal, or setting the table. She helps me pick up the rugs and wash the mirrors and windows. As I type this, she’s sitting in the big laundry basket, folding cloth diapers right beside me and loving it.

So Gislaine will learn what being bored means soon enough. But let’s hope that by then, she won’t have a need to use it!

I’m a little disappointed. As of yesterday evening, I don’t have 25 subscribers. The actual subscription went up and down a little, topping out at 18 a few days ago (it’s currently 17, up from 15 the day before). So according to the rules of the contest, I won’t be doing a give-away.

But I’m not too disappointed. I have people coming to the blog every single day, and I have more subscribers than I started out with (which was 0). So that’s good.

As a consolation prize, I wanted to offer a coupon for 10% off anything in my store. But Paypal doesn’t let merchants make coupons unless they are eBay merchants. So since I’m not selling on eBay, I can’t do that. I don’t have time to go through and edit the prices on all the products, just to have to undo it again. Maybe I would if we weren’t moving this weekend, but right now that would be crazy!

So here’s what I can do. If you order within the next 3 days (that means, no later than Thursday evening), I will refund the shipping on your order (meaning that after the refund processes). This is the best I can do under the circumstances. Oh, and I will ship your order no later than Friday. That way you’ll get it next week. How does that sound?

Just a note: This is refund applies whether you participated in the contest or not, whether you are subscribed or not. It’s my way of saying thank you to those who did.

My son is on a gluten-free diet. This means the only amaranth, rice, and millet (he isn’t fond of quinoa, and it’s expensive). I’m also going to be trying teff soon. Because of his other allergies to dairy, eggs, and other things, he eats a lot of cereal and beans. I cook up about 3 cups of cereal per day for him!

This method is an excellent way to save money with feeding a newborn cereal. If they are breastfed, they really don’t need all the extra iron in the ready-to-mix cereals–it’s just constipating anyhow. And if they are formula fed, just mix some formula in the cereal after it’s cooked for a nutrition boost.

Anyhow, here’s the video:

And here’s a picture of what cream of amaranth looks like after it’s cooled down:

For a nice consistency in the rice cereal, I use a 1:6 ratio. For millet and amaranth, I find that I need to use a little more cereal to water. Usually I will cook 3 cups of water to one heaping half cup of cereal at a time. When cooking for a younger baby, who is just beginning to eat cereal, I probably cooked 1/2 cup of water with about a tablespoon of rice cereal. That made a nice thin cereal. It cooks up in about a minute or two–very quick and easy!

So that’s it, folks! Try it and save some money!