Sprouts growth over...

After a bit of a sprout hiatus I started some sprouts again. I opted to sprout 3 tablespoons of alfalfa and it overfilled the easy sprout container once the leaves popped out!

Alfalfa galore!

My easy sprouter is still exceeding my sprouting expectations! I have
sprouted at least six different batches and each have come out
perfectly! Now I have to track down some lentil, broccoli and radish
sprouts...ultimately I need to find a local sprout seed vendor!!

Sprouts!

Home grown sprout using my Easy Sprouter! It has worked well. This
is my fourth batch! I soak the beans in 135 degree water for five
minutes (FDA rec listed on one of my seed packs as sprout seeds are a
raw agricultural product) then a nice soak in water for eight hours.
Then they are rinsed two to three times a day and ready in about five
days.

I enjoy stirfrying them in a pan coated with Pam just for a minute and
the adding a splash of sesame oil, mirin cooking wine and chicken
stock. Yum!

It works!

I've been using my new Copco pour spout on my bag of rice! It works
well! If I recall correctly there are two other sizes and they were
in the $5 range at Wal-mart.

Aerogarden mini: Salad greens @ four weeks

We still haven't harvested any but I would say it is time!

Aerogarden mini: Salad Greens

These are the salad greens in the 3 pod mini Aerogarden. The
Aerogarden was a Christmas gift from my office staff and the salad
greens were a gift from friends who didn't want to do salad greens in
their Aerogarden. I planted the seeds about 3 1/2 weeks ago! Looks
like it's time for a salad!!

Cupcake courier

Once you make those cupcakes you'll need a place to store them or help
you to get then from home to the final munching spot in one piece!
After lookin at the many options I finally chose the cupcake
courier. It really likes the idea of something that could carry 3
dozen cupcakes and leaves room for the decorations on top of the
cupcake. The trays are removable so it doubles as a cake carrier as
well. I loved this orange color but it comes in pink and blue as well.

How to make yogurt!

I love to make my own yogurt! It is so easy and considering how much
yogurt we eat it is considerally less expensive and I get to control
the sugar content.

You can make as much yogurt as you like with whatever milk you like.
Currently we are using skim milk and use about 3/4 gallons in a
batch. You need a pot to heat the milk to 180 F on low heat.

Once to temperature, pour milk into a heat safe bowl. I like the
pyrex bowls as they have plastic lids I can top them with when the
yogurt is finished and ready for the refrigerator.

Leave the milk to cool to between 90-120 F. Once to temperature add
some plain yogurt with live culture (a couple of tbsp is fine) with a
clean spoon and whisk. We have tried a variety and have liked Activia
the best. We use the Activia vanilla flavored yogurt. There is a bit
of the vanilla flavor (which is yummy) in the first batch but by the
second batch it is gone.

Once you add your yogurt culture, place the bowl(s) in the oven. If
you can set the temp to 100-110 F do so, else you can just wrap the
bowl in a towel (oven off).

In 8-12 hours you'll have yogurt. You can use some right away
otherwise cover and refrigerate.

We take a few scoops of yogurt out of the corner of the bowl to create
a pocke for the whey to accumulate. You will notice the yogurt will
get thicker as you drain more of the whey off. Try drinking some...it
is quick refreshing and a bit lemony. You can slurp it out with a
straw if noone in your house minds you drinking from the communal
yogurt bowl.

We use the whey in the yogurt smoothies we make along with some
heaping spoons of yogurt, frozen strawberries, a banana and a teaspoon
or so of sugar.

Hello, Cupcake!

I am enjoying my new cupcake book which was a gift to myself for
Christmas 2009. It has wonderfully creative ideas for upcakes and
many tips and techniques that anyone can master with some practice and
determination. I used the banana chcolate cupcake recipe and topped
it with an "especially dark" chocolate frosting (recipe on the back of
the Hershey dark chocolate cocoa container). I think the kiddos at
daycare are going to love these! My two enjoyed a preview after lunch
today. You'll notice I simplified the decorations a bit ...for my own
convenience ...yet I think they still look cute.

PB&J Sweetbyte

This is half of my sons heart shaped PB&J sandwich. He ate the other
half so fast before I could catch a photo. This was also sent by my
mother. I started using canapé cutter shapes to make the kids
sandwiches...stars, hearts, etc. It is a great way to teach shapes
and cuts the sandwiches into bite sized pieces. Now that they are
bigger they do well with the the two sandwich halves this cutter
creates.

Grilled cheese dinobytes!

My mother sent us some dynobyte sandwich cutters and thy are a big
hit. Today it was grilled cheese but I've done PB&J as well as ham or
turkey and cheese! Somehow cool shapes just make the sandwiches taste
better!

Arrowhead: smaller bottle caps

Anyone seen this yet? We are now for the most part using reusable
water bottles however today we were at Costco and the vended water was
convenient. I got two today and noted the stubby cap one of the
bottles. The bottle also feels a bit thinner...but with the same 0.5
L content.

Chicco Liteway: Folded

Well we are back from our trip and all our travel gear is stowed in
the back of our van including the stroller. We very much enjoyed our
holiday and the stroller added to the enjoyment we had!

Chicco Liteway: Road-tested!

This is day three of my family holiday with the Chicco Liteways...my
first time traveling via airplane with a stroller along for the trip.
I have to say this stroller does not disappoint! We had no problems
gate checking the stroller on any of our flights. It was so nice to
have a stroller for my nine month old son as it meant I didn't have to
carry his 20 lbs about the airport!
I still think the two best features are the full recline and the five
point harness. These are not features I noted on many umbrella/
leightweigt strollers I looked at. Not surprisingly, the full recline
has been nice to enable my son to snooze comfortably while we were out
and about! However it has also been nice on multiple occasions to
allow us to pack the stroller full of all our stuff (without the baby
in it) to take up to the hotel room after our day of adventure.
The height of the stroller and the nice sized sunshade come in neck
and neck in third place. My 6' 4" husband and 6' 3" father in law are
comfortably able to push this stroller without hunching over to do so.
The 40 lb weight limit also means my 2 and a half year old got some
stroller time when he was too tired to walk! The five point harness
easily converts to a three point for him and just as easily converts
back again to a five point for the baby!

The New Ride

Here is the new "travel" stroller that I ordered! Liteway by Chicco. I love my Gracos but they are unrealistic for traveling and other trips that don't lend themselves to taking lots of stuff along. Oh my how there seems to be so much stuff that follows along when going anywhere with kiddos!

I reserve the right to alter opinions after our first trip with this stroller however already I can say emphatically that I love it!! All those positive reviewers knew what they were talking about! This is a solidly constructed well thought out stroller!  For a compact stroller it has some very nice perks including a 5 point harness that can revert to 3 point for older kids, full seat recline, a very sizeable sun shade and a storage bin below that can be removed and used as a backpack!! They even have a velcro strap that covers the buckle to keep all our inquisitive and very intelligent kids from figuring out how to undo the buckle (not that I think they could as it takes quite a bit of pinch power!) The height is awesome and imagine my husband at 6' 4" will comfortably be able to push this stroller without feeling hunched over! The wheels glide across the floor and pivot nicely! It has traditional stroller brakes as well. It is weigh rated up to 50 lbs which mean either of my toddlers can cruise in it if their baby brother is getting a lift elseways! I weighed it myself and the stroller is ~ 17 lbs! That's pretty light compared to my Graco and suitable for traveling! Can't wait to road test it!!!!