Yesterday, I dumpster dived food.
Okay, it wasn't in the dumpster, it was in a pile behind my favorite grocery store. But it was technically expired and free. I scored three boxes of organic spinach, four boxes of organic spring mix salad, a bag of organic arugula, two bags of organic salad mix, two containers of organic herbs, several containers of pre-cut watermelon, and three perfectly good mushrooms.
I whipped up some coconut butter, and it wasn't hard!
Using this recipe from Coconut Mama I made some sweet coconut butter, which is like peanut butter. She uses 2 cups dried coconut in her food processor, I used 3-ish cups in my blender to be sure I had enough butter to clear the blades and still move around.
Seeing Doozer love food so much.
It's a little heart-paining for me because I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for a year, but Doozer has been demanding solid food since she was 4.5 months old, I finally gave in at 5 months. She loves bananas, homemade hummus, curried chickpeas, and berries.
She does not like spinach or rice. She'll try to eat everything, even contraband items like peanut butter and wheat and soy. Heck, plates of food on the ground are her strongest motivation to crawl. It's truly a joy to see her discover food.
Making and eating some truly amazing gluten-free flat bread.
And it was quick! And chewy! And bendy! A total of 20 minutes to mix and bake and then BAM! Some really yummy bread. I found the recipe over at Gluten Free Gobsmacked, but replaced the sorghum flour with teff flour and made my own millet flour and replaced the potato starch with cornstarch. I also didn't use milk powder or replace it with anything. Oh, and I only did salt as a seasoning, but I'll be sure to try out other spices. I'm craving some good caraway bread, so that might be next. BuggaBoo loved it and kept asking for more bread. When I put it away he was so sad because he thought it was all gone.
Well, that's all I could think of right now. And reading over the list does make me feel happier, maybe I should do this more often. DO you guys have anything small pleasures to report?
1) Waking up - alive [although I complain about my arthritis on a daily basis]
ReplyDelete2) Beautiful flowers to look at daily [although I complain about the morning glory that chokes them and the thistle that never seems to go away no matter how many I pull]
3) A lovely green, expansive lawn [although I complain that I have to get sweaty and hot when I mow it every week]
4) A husband that can fix anything [although I complain about the grease he leaves on the concrete when he's fixing those things]
5) A son that is happy to do anything his mother asks of him, and treats her with kindness, and respect - and makes good choices [although I complain when he tracks grease all over my newly shampooed carpet]
6) Clean clothes from a washer and dryer that a generous friend gave us - that were brand new! [although I complain when I need to do the laundry]
7) Plenty of food to eat [although I complain about having to shop for it]
You're right, we do need to look at what's right in our life and not focus so much on the negative. It's hard, though, when it seems like the negative is about to choke us to death! Love you guys.
So do you use coconut butter just as you would peanut butter??
ReplyDeleteMom, I love your list, I could picture those greasy footprints.
ReplyDeleteNormans, yeah, you can use it like any nut butter. However, it's really oily so I want to experiment with using it for cooking. It might make the coconut butter taste a little toasty but if I can saute stuff in it, awesome!
*The fall leaves changing colors (so pretty!)
ReplyDelete*finding awesome deals at the dollar store
*waking up next to one of my little girls and her daddy
*A garden that produces wonderful food!
*cupcakes!
*driving a stick shift (varooooom!)
*having a clean craft room (isn't often)
*finding a new awesome blog or project on a blog to try out