It made more than this, but some went into a double batch of applesauce muffins!!
If you are like me, you are always looking for easy snacks that your children actually enjoy AND that are good for them. This recipe can help with that search! My youngest loves this recipe straight from the jar whether it is still warm from the crock pot or cold from the refrigerator. My oldest likes the muffins I make with the applesauce with the recipe that I got from Chocolate Covered Katie. I love that they are getting tons of yumminess with NO added sugar.
In addition to a snack with no added sugar you also benefit from the vitamins and minerals from the apples and spices. Apples have fiber, are sodium free, and also contain vitamin C and potassium. Cinnamon has manganese, calcium, iron and even a bit of Vitamin K. Cloves are purported to boost immunity and nutmeg can act as an anti-oxidant, boost kidney function and increase blood circulation.
This is a recipe that I made when we had been given a TON of apples and I had to find a way to use them before they went bad. It is super simple and easy. You end up with delicious spiced applesauce or apple butter depending simply on how long you let it cook. This applesauce is perfect to use in recipes like Applesauce Muffins. If you cook the apples long enough in the crockpot to cook out all the extra water then you end up with delicious apple butter which still works beautifully in applesauce muffins, but can also be used as a delicious and nutritious spread for toast and biscuits. Another idea I just got from my mom was to add it to the basket built around the Artisan Bread that I give my daughters’ teachers as their Christmas gifts. I may make up another batch just for gifting this Christmas season. You also end up with a decidedly Christmasy smell filling the house as the apples simmer in the spices!
Apple Sauce Recipe:
6 pounds Apples (I have used many different varieties)
2 tablespoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Cloves
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
Applesauce Directions:
Quarter and core apples.
Place all apple quarters in crock pot.
Sprinkle seasonings over apples.
Cover and cook on high for 6-8 hours*.
Stir and mash the apples a few times as they are cooking.
Spoon cooked apples into food processor.
Puree apples to chop the skins finely enough to remove any lumps.
Spoon into jars to can or serve.
*If you are wanting apple butter you want to cook the apples until all of the liquid is gone. It may be more like 6-8 hours for the apple butter. The processing is the same, it just produces a thicker consistency when the liquid is cooked away.
If you try this recipe be sure to comment below and tell us how it goes. If you try any substitutions, please share!
The girls’ hair after their first time plopping and using gelatin hair gel!!
I tried a new hair gel recently! It was SO incredibly easy to make!! I loved that fact immensely, I also loved the hold. The first gel I tried making on my own is made from flax seeds and water. I got that recipe from Mommypotumus. In her post about hair gel she gives three recipes. I tried the flax seed recipe because she said that it likely had the strongest hold. It’s super simple to mix up, but it can be a little tricky to get strained through the cheese cloth. So, one day when the girls expressed interest in plopping their hair (a simple drying technique for curly hair) and I was really low on gel and energy, I decided to try her gelatin recipe.
It was so, so much easier to make. I mean you don’t even have to heat water on the stovetop, let alone strain anything! The one caution she gives though is that eventually gelatin, although it strengthens hair can reduce your hair’s elasticity. I had noticed a HUGE increase in my hair’s elasticity since using the flax seed gel, so I figured even if this did reduce my elasticity I’d be okay for a while. I was good for a bit, but I did notice a loss of elasticity. So, I have decided to go back and forth between the two, which is what she suggests in her post on the three recipes.
So, this recipe gets a HUGE thumbs up for ease, hold and overall usefulness. It is worth noting that, at least at the strength I make it, when you keep it in the refrigerator it does turn into a pretty solid gel and can be a bit tricky at times to get worked into your hair. But, if you let it warm slightly it becomes easier to work with. It also gets softer as you use it up. I’m not sure if somehow some of the gelatin gets used up first and leaves a higher amount of water versus gelatin towards the end of the batch, but something like that seems to happen. For some reason, this last batch of flax seed gel that I made turned out easier to get through the cheese cloth (I think doing it with tongs while it is still hot helped A LOT). It also seems to have even stronger hold than my previous batches! I highly recommend both types and do plan to go back and forth between them. The gelatin is my favorite for ease and hold. The flax is my favorite for hair growth and increased elasticity. I love both for using natural ingredients in my hair that I am happy to let the girls use anytime they are interested. So, here is the gelatin recipe and directions.
Gelatin Hair Gel Recipe:
1/4-1/2 tsp gelatin (I use 1/2 tsp)
1/2 cup very warm water
up to 24 drops of essential oil (I’ve used peppermint and lavender)
Gelatin Hair Gel Directions:
Stir the gelatin into the water until dissolved
Add in the essential drops if you are using them and stir
Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator up to 10 days
That’s it! Super simple!! AND super useful! If you try it, please let us know how it goes in the comments below!
If this is still about you, you haven’t learned your lesson yet
Today has been a difficult day. It started with some of the same things that are always hard, staying focused while learning for the girls, complaining that there were things that had to be done. Then on top of that our plans for the day got pushed back by 3 hours and that was devastating to the girls! The fact that this push back also gave precedence to a person who is currently treating me with disdain made it even harder for me to take. Then there is the fact that all of this day is on top of the monumental concerns I have about school in the fall for myself and the girls. And, fear and wondering what the point of this blogging thing is when views took a big dip this month. And, my husband hearing and dealing with the fact that he was told that the job offer he was getting in March when Arkansas shut down for the pandemic will now likely be withheld until there is a vaccine. And, the loss of an uncle, a dear friend and the pending loss of the father of a high school friend.
As you might imagine, I did not take the set back of today’s plans and my daughters’ devastation well. There was definitely my own bitterness and temper at play. That led to my oldest being sent to her room until her daddy got home. Being in her room is something my daughter hates. After I worked on cleaning the house for a while, I would go in to talk to her as she requested. At first, she just kept asking to please have another chance and be let out of her room. I told her that this situation wasn’t about her. Then she changed to apologizing for all the things other people had done to me. I thanked her for her apology and reminded her that it was’t their actions that had landed her in her room, it was her own. And I told her that as long as this situation remained about her that she was not understanding the lesson. My point was that until she was willing to take responsibility for her own actions and put others’ needs above her own desires, she was not getting the point of this lesson and I could not remove her discipline.
Then it hit me. This is likely what God has been saying to me. Our family is in this prolonged time of waiting and having no idea what God’s plan is. A time where everything feels off and we keep walking forward in faith, but can only see darkness. And we want it to end. We want light and answers. BUT, at least for myself, I have to admit, I just want my answers. I want my way. I am still making this about me. I wish I could also say that this revelation led to a time of repentance and prayer and a feeling of warmth, light and renewal. But to be honest, it hasn’t. I’m sure eventually it will because God loves me and because of that love He cannot remove my discipline until I learn my lesson. And although I know what is right and I see His lesson here, my pain is so big and so raw that I cannot get this whole lesson right now. Because I still want to change my actions and posture and obey SO THAT He’ll give me what I want. Just like my daughter changed enough to apologize for her behavior, but still just to get out of her room. I CAN go that far with God. I’ll put you first and others second and then you let me out of this.
BUT, that’s not enough. That isn’t the higher calling He is calling me to. He’s calling me to take responsibility for my actions and put others’ needs above my own because that is what is right. He is calling me to wait on Him so I can walk and not grow weary. But, I’m still stuck because the truth that we don’t think about very often in those verses about the strength of youths and eagles is that God strengthens them so that they can go on, not because He’s going to make their way easier or grant them the desires of their heart. Don’t miss my point here. God does grant us the desires of our hearts when we are focused on Him because then we allow Him to teach AND prune us to desire what He has for us. And, what He has and plans IS best. But, it is rarely easy. Right now God is calling me to wait on Him not for a change in circumstances, but for strength to live in the ones I have. He is calling me to accept that His grace is sufficient for me, not to a release from my thorns. AND, I am finding this call hard. Not because what God asks is hard, who does’t want to fly with eagles? BUT, because I want my own way. I still don’t truly trust that His ways are higher (better) than mine. And so, I want my way. And, as long as I make this about me, He can’t take away my discipline. So, here I am.
I know this post doesn’t follow the rules for a good post. I’ve listened to webinars and read about blogging. I’m supposed to offer something actionable like 5 ways to freedom in Jesus. But today, I don’t have a neat tied up package. My daughter and I made it through her lesson and she’s playing with her sister and puppy. But, I’m admittedly still stuck in my stubborn, childish, fearful fit in my soul. My pain is real and raw and big and I can’t find my way to full repentance. I’m taking steps in that direction and feel God with me each step of the way. But, it hurts and I don’t know if I have the strength to get there. But, I will keep rehearsing His truths to guide my steps anyway. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God has a plan and a hope and a future for me. All things work together for good for those who love Him. One step at a time will eventually lead me to full obedience and the ability truly and fully follow Jesus!
What lessons is God working with you on today? Please share so we can pray each other through this.
As we try to gear up to return to school, after-school snacks automatically come to mind. I don’t know about you, but both of my daughters and most other kids their age, that I know, are positively starving after school. That means it is up to me to have tasty and healthy snacks for them to consume or they will fill up on convenient junk. One of the recipes I have tried this summer will be a great addition to our after school snack repertoire. This summer, I was gifted a huge amount of various produce. Some of that produce was apples. At one point I had at least 15 pounds in the house. Although, my husband loves to have an apple a day in his lunch box, there was no way we would make it through 15 pounds of apples before they spoiled. So, I made applesauce. My girls will eat applesauce sometimes, especially my youngest. But they will not eat it often or for a prolonged period of time. So, I knew that I was making applesauce for baking. I think their lack of love of applesauce stems from when they would be required to eat a snack sized applesauce every day in order to get their essential mineral drops. We have changed to them taking them in juice and that seems to work the best out of all the things we have tried.
I have a recipe I saved in my little notebook of recipes for applesauce cake. This applesauce cake is super delicious!! It also has 3 cups of sugar. That is not the kind of snack I really want to be feeding the ladies for an after-school snack or a convenient breakfast. So, I looked on Chocolate Covered Katie’s website for an applesauce cake recipe. She is known for low sugar sweets and treats that are still delectable and that keep people coming back for more. Luckily for me and for my family’s health, she had one. Fortunately, her recipe keeps with the promise of her treats and sweets of being delicious and healthy. I’ve actually even been asked for the recipe and if it was on my website a couple of times by my mom and sister who both had some when I made them the first time. I loved how little sugar this recipe called for and the fact that it was the only sugar in the recipe since my applesauce did not have any sugar in it. My applesauce was just apples, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Since I added these spices to my applesauce I did not add any additional spices to the muffins. I have made this recipe as muffins and small loaves of applesauce bread (that you see in the picture at the top). It works well as both! The bread does take some additional cooking time, though. I am including the spices in the recipe on here in case your applesauce is not spiced as mine was.
Our little Bear proving me wrong by eating applesauce straight from the jar!!
Applesauce Muffins Recipe:
1 cup Applesauce
3 tbsp Oil OR additional Applesauce (I used additional applesauce and they did NOT take on too much of that chewy texture that there sometimes is when you use fruit instead of oil)
2 tbsp Milk of choice
2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 tsp Apple Cider or White Vinegar
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (there are other flour options listed on the original recipe)
¼ cup Sugar
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Cinnamon (omit if you have spiced applesauce)
Optional handful of raisins, walnuts, etc. (I included chopped walnuts in mine since a bunch of those have been given to me as well)
3. Add applesauce, oil (if using), vinegar, milk and vanilla
4. Whisk together until completely combined (the original recipe calls for all of the wet ingredients to be combined before adding to dry ingredients. I did not read through that direction prior to mixing mine up and found that it worked just fine this way as well.)
5. Fill lined or greased muffin or bread tins 2/3 full
6. Bake muffins for 20 minutes, the mini loaves may take up to 10 minutes longer. The middles should dome and a knife or cake tester should come out cleanly. Take out and let cool completely, if you can, without eating them. These are delicious warm from the oven. However, like mentioned on Chocolate Covered Katie’s website, they have even more flavor after a day or two in the refrigerator.
Try these for a snack or easy breakfast and let me know what you and your family think of them. I hope you enjoy them as much as we all did!! Now, for those who have been asking this recipe finally is up on this website!! What are your go to after-school snacks for your family?
I love running. AND, I hate running. Lately, the love is winning over the hate. Running is SUPER hard for me. I am far from a natural runner. I am slow and lumbering in my gate. However, I owe much to running. It was integral in helping reach my lowest weight prior to marriage. It helped me accomplish crazy things that I would never have thought I could do, like running in many 5K’s, 1 10 K, and 3 half-marathons! It has also helped me manage the stress of teaching. I have only picked it back up on and off again (mostly off again) in the years since becoming a mother. But before I got married, it was not uncommon for me to run 3-4 miles, 4-5 times a week.
After I got married, it wained as I spent more time with my husband, who, although he did run one half-marathon with me, despises running! Once I got pregnant with our first daughter, I kissed running goodbye! I was incredibly sick with “morning” sickness for the majority of my pregnancy. Running was so far from anything I could consider while working full time teaching kindergarten and trying not to throw up too often. I did however dream about running during both of my pregnancies. After our oldest daughter was born, I spent most of time surviving my return to full time teaching while taking care of a baby who did not really like to sleep. Then, before she really got the hang of sleeping (she still struggles a lot with it sometimes as an eight year old), we were expecting her sister. This time the sickness lasted all of my pregnancy and I threw up so much that my oldest would fake throwing up to copy me.
Now, my girls are 6 and 8 and we have had extra time at home. So, for the first time in these past 9+ years I have run somewhat regularly. The regularity is still more of an ebb and flow as I figure out how to make it work with the other, more important, responsibilities I have. Unfortunately, my dislike of running still rears its head and pulls me off track. BUT, now I also have an adorable 6 year old who has certainly caught the health and fitness bug! Just tonight as I was finishing dinner, she came out dressed to run and reminded me that we needed to get our run in. We were supposed to go yesterday, but I got caught up sewing a project for my sister-in-law’s online shop. I told her yesterday that we would go today. Then we got busy with dentist appointments for myself and our oldest, and a breakfast and shopping adventure for my little running partner and her Grammie to celebrate her birthday.
So, we headed out for a run after dinner. As I was getting changed, I asked her if she wanted to go for a long run or just run until she wanted to turn around. I admit being super relieved when she said we’d just run until she wanted to turn around. My heart dropped when she changed her answer before I finished getting ready to wanting to use my phone and C25K app to go on a long run. I accidentally started her on this last week when I invited her to run with me instead of ride her bike, like she normally does, and pushed the button to re-start my C25K app back at Week 1, Day 1. Or so I thought. After running for what was definitely longer than 90 seconds, or whatever the Day 1 run duration is, I checked to make sure the app was still working. Good news, it was! Bad news, it had picked up where I left off about a month ago and we were doing Week 6, Day 2 instead. And, that amazing little girl of mine kept up with all but the last few minutes of the runs. Tonight we did Week 6, Day 3 and she took one 45 second to 1 minute break. We covered just over 2 miles in total distance and ran for 20 minutes total. She is amazing and I told her several times thank you for getting me out there to run! Also, as I have run with her, I have perhaps caught the running bug again. There is something refreshing about making it through a run that you don’t think you can. It is phenomenal for me to make it through a super hard work out and be covered in the sweat of that hard work. Most importantly, I am giving my daughter a habit that will serve her well for her whole life. If she falls in love with running or any exercise activities at 6 years old then she is being set up for success. And, it does seem that she is a natural runner. That can take her places. Places like good health, good habits, the development of perseverance, stress relief, camaraderie from possible future track teammates, and even college scholarships. She may not always love it, but this is one preference of hers that I certainly want to feed and facilitate.
So, my love/hate relationship with running continues. And as I receive more and more gifts from running, I admit the hate part is waning and the love part is growing! What kinds of activities do you love and hate? What things are your children helping you grow in? Please share below so that we can grow together!
There are many ideas on this subject and there are certainly more intelligent people than I am that have information on this. Your child is your child and your intuition is important and good enough for this too! If you feel your child is missing something, they likely are. If you think they are doing well, they likely are. But sometimes, I know it is helpful for me to have a baseline to look at. I also know that in the institution of education it can get pretty overwhelming looking at ALL the standards students are supposed to learn and master and trying to decide between curriculums if you are schooling your child yourself. This list is NOT an exhaustive list of all that should be taught or covered in kindergarten AT ALL. Instead it is simply a list of what I see as the foundational MUSTS. These are the skills that I believe are integral to the success of students later on regardless of their future plans or careers based on what I have seen in my years teaching a variety of grades.
The longer I teach, the more I feel like the basics are getting lost in all the hype of different or new educational bandwagons. In the thirteen years I have taught, I have been through the initial switch to state standards based teaching (we used to just follow a curriculum, but this shift meant a focus on standards of learning instead of just going through a book) to Common Core standards and back to state standards. I have been through a switch to standards based grading from traditional grades, then back to traditional grading, and now back to standards based grading. In an attempt to better understand student needs when students struggle has caused educators to break learning down into specific skills and sub-skills. This can be helpful when remediating a learning gap. However, I feel it is much less effective or helpful on the educating side of things. While I believe it is helpful to look at all the pieces of data from a struggling students’ assessments, I do not believe that same piecing should happen when we are planning the teaching of those skills to students.
The components of comprehension for example, I believe are best taught together as a whole instead of piece meal. Reading a classic novel and discussing the events, predicting what will come next, reviewing the characters, making moral applications to current events and ordering events is so much more effective in building learners comprehension skills. I highly recommend this approach because it also teaches children the necessity of paying attention and engaging with text. Instead often students may be taught comprehension with a lesson on main idea here and cause and effect there. This may help them, but since all of these skills are a part of comprehension I believe they are best served and more easily learned in an integrated lesson and experience. Experiences like reading rich literary texts, both fiction and non-fiction, current and classic and discussing all aspects of comprehension as you go. If we have students reading these same rich texts and talking or writing about what they are reading, I think we would be amazed at what they learn and the depths of comprehension they would achieve! This is just one example of how I believe students will benefit more from integrative education (the teaching of multiple skills/standards/topics at once) than specific standard targeted lessons. I believe integrative education naturally includes the supports (often called scaffolds in education circles) as well as a natural deepening of understanding and learning (think Bloom’s taxonomy or DOK levels). As I have learned more about how readers map words (place them in their permanent memory) based on meaning through orthographic mapping and read about educators like Marva Collins, I just feel more and more strongly that there are only a few necessary skills that children need to master and all of the other things just need to be integrated with those foundational skills. The list below is of those necessary foundational skills that a child should master in Kindergarten. I planned to make this post about what students need in all grades Kindergarten through Second Grade. However, I think I will instead post on each grade individually.
Necessary Skills from Kindergarten
Accurate and automatic ability to identify and produce rhyming words
Awareness of syllables in words
Ability to accurately and automatically manipulate sounds within words (say cat, now say cat and instead of /c/ say /b/, and the correct answer is bat, or say slump, instead of /s/ say /c/, and the correct answer is clump, or say mast, now say mast without ast, and the correct answer is /m/) – These skills and the rhyming and syllable counting are called Phonemic Awareness and you can read more about that here.
Accurate AND Automatic knowledge of all 26 letter names for both upper and lowercase letters
Accurate AND Automatic knowledge of all letter sounds for each letter
Awareness (exposure to and some knowledge of) of digraphs (ch, sh, ph, th, wh)
Accurate and Automatic knowledge of the names of all numbers 0-20
Ability to quickly and accurately (placed correctly on handwriting lined paper) write all 26 letters and numbers 0-20
Accurate and automatic counting to 100 by 1’s, 5’s and 10’s
Accurate and automatic counting to 20 by 2’s
Ability to count groups of objects up to 20
Ability to add and subtract up to 10, using manipulatives (counting bears, tokens, etc.) if necessary
Ability to cut on line to cut out shapes as small as a 1/2 sheet of paper
Extended Skills from Kindergarten
If your child is ready for more before the end of kindergarten then these are some skills your child would benefit from.
Accurate and automatic fluency with Math facts (addition and subtraction) to 20
Blending consonant vowel consonant words
Accurate and automatic counting of syllables in words (up to four syllables)
Begin writing on wide ruled notebook paper
Cutting out smaller objects
Begin writing complete sentences (focusing on capitalization at the beginning of the sentence, names and the pronoun I and including punctuation at the end of the sentence)
Again, this list is not exhaustive. Especially in regards to all the information that should be taught in kindergarten. This is instead a thoughtful consideration of all that information and a look at it with the end in mind. That end being first grade, sixth grade, high school or college. Then thinking about, what, if they had nothing else, MUST they have. This list, especially, the necessary skills list will NOT match with public school expectations. It will however match most age based ideas on reading development which tend to run about a grade slower than the expectations of state and Common Core standards. The most unique thing about education is that we are teaching unique individuals. Some children will be ready for more, even beyond the Extended Skills list above. This list is what I would use though to gauge if there is going to be a long term deficit in learning leaving kindergarten. And, if all of the necessary skills are firmly in place and some of the extended skills have been explored, your child will do well in the long run. ESPECIALLY, if for reading they are thoroughly skilled in phonemic awareness and in math if they have a really strong understanding of numbers 1-20 and the patterns within that group (1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s).
Please let me know if you find this list helpful. If your child is in public school and they have only mastered the Necessary list I would consider some tutoring because they will struggle to keep up in first grade. If you are homeschooling these skills are so important that they deserve as much time as your child needs to deeply and completely master them. Also, if you are homeschooling and are doing a grade 0 (starting school early, but not pushing things really hard) I would strongly consider using the list of necessary skills as a guideline for what to focus on. Having that firm foundation will allow them to gain other skills more quickly, thereby alleviating any deficit there may appear to be early on. Just as when you are building a house or any other building, the stronger and more accurate the foundation, the more quickly the rest of the construction will go and the higher the quality of the WHOLE thing!! That is why when you start something you should keep the end in mind. It’s also why the question, “Is my child behind?” can have different answers. It depends on what your child needs to be ready for.
Let me know if you find this list helpful! Do you have any other specific skills you would include or that you are wondering about? I would love to hear your thoughts, questions or concerns!!
Making one meatloaf for now and one for the freezer!
My husband, Adam, used to own a restaurant. The restaurant he owned was the restaurant he worked at all through high school and his first time at college. He’s since gone back a couple of different times to earn multiple degrees. And his favorite meatloaf recipe comes from the owners of that restaurant. He remembers it from when he was just a high schooler learning the ropes. After we got married and I had made meatloaf a few times, he called his friend who happens to be the son of those restaurant owners, and now has his own restaurant in town, to get this recipe. It’s the one I have used ever since. The only adjustment I make to this recipe is that I triple the Worcestershire Sauce it calls for, at my husband’s request. It’s a big deal for him to request a change to a recipe! Especially one from his beloved Martinez family!! So, when he does, I make it. Tonight I tried this recipe as meatballs.
We generally buy pre-made meatballs and then I just warm them in the cast iron skillet and cover them with BBQ sauce and a little water. I serve those with a vegetable of choice and mashed potatoes. You could also serve either the meatloaf itself or the meatballs with a loaf of Artisan Bread. My whole family really likes our pre-made meatballs, including me. I don’t however like the soy that is in the pre-made meatballs. I have made meatballs from scratch a few times before, but they have always seemed too dense. I got the idea of trying this meatloaf recipe as meatballs the last time I was mixing it up and my daughter was helping mash all the ingredients together and then just started rolling the mixture into balls. We went ahead and made the traditional loaf and froze another that time, but the idea to try it as meatballs stayed with me. My husband was less than excited tonight when he got home as I was finishing dinner and heard I was experimenting. BUT, he said the meatballs were pretty good.
I really liked how much lighter they were than the times I had made them with just meat. I did have trouble keeping them together during cooking. I’m wondering if it is best to make them up ahead of time and freeze them first to help with keeping them together. I am also thinking as I type this that it might be helpful to use a cookie scoop to get the meat into the balls because that would press the meat together more tightly. If you have any insights or suggestions please share them in the comments below.
Now on to the recipe of this hearty, home cooked dinner!
Meatloaf Recipe:
1 1/2 pounds Ground Beef
1 large Egg
1 8 ounce can Tomato Sauce (I have used ketchup multiple times when I haven’t had tomato sauce on hand. Okay, so maybe two changes to the recipe sometimes!!)
1/2 cup chopped Onion
1/2 tbsp garlic powder or minced garlic (I’ve used both)
3/4 cup Quick Oats
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce (I use 3 tbsp in ours)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Meatloaf Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mash together until VERY well incorporated.
3. Place in a 2 quart casserole dish shaped into a loaf in the center of the dish
4. Bake for 45-60 minutes
5. Serve with mashed potatoes, favorite vegetable, artisan bread (or your family’s favorite sides)
Let me know how your family enjoys this dinner! What are the recipes your spouse remembered form growing up that you make for them now?
Recently, I have decided to try Keto eating with a focus on vegetables. I really like how I feel when I eat Whole 30, but I REALLY miss the dairy. And, I feel that if I am conscious of how much I of it I am eating that I can manage it. So, Keto seems to perhaps hold a balance of these ideas for me. Currently, I am missing the fruit that I can have on Whole 30, but have to REALLY limit or avoid on Keto. But, other than that and realizing that I am going to have to be more conscious about my dairy intake and focus on upping my fiber intake, it’s been okay. I honestly don’t like any restrictions and although I have been pushing and exceeding the upper limits of my comfortable weight since before we closed school for Covid, I have been avoiding doing anything about it.
However, as the start of school approaches (it’s been pushed back 2 weeks, but is still supposed to start between August 24-26 for our state) I feel like I have to get a handle on my eating and my weight now. Also, I have finally reached a more balanced mindset of trusting God and resting in the peace that He is in charge of all of this. There really aren’t any more answers than before, in fact there feels like there is WAY more to worry about. The girls are still slated to return to school with a daunting amount of restrictions. My oldest is acting out because of her concerns about all of the changes to school for the fall. But for whatever reason, I am certain that it is likely God’s gracious love for me, I can finally trust Him to work it all out and show us what to do. It is certainly a case of peace that surpasses all understanding! And I am eternally grateful for it. So, back to the Keto thing. That is what I am trying in order to get ahold of my eating habits and my weight before in-service and the stress of a new school year hit!
In our house, bedtime snacks are a big habit! So, my go-to snack has become mug cakes. I have been eating the chocolate one from Chocolate Covered Katie. Then, once I got tired of chocolate (yes, I am shocked that happened!), I tried a cinnamon roll mug cake from Kirbie Cravings. My daughters of course have been wanting to try them as I have been eating them. I am grateful that there are no ingredients that they can’t have. But, I am also being kind of stingy with them because they do have more expensive ingredients in them. I haven’t thought to take any pictures of them yet, so, I’ll have to update this post with pictures once I do! Also, I have enjoyed it when I take the time to make a baggie of all the dry ingredients for a second mug cake while I am making one to eat. That way the next time I can just pour my baggie into my mug, add the liquids and have dessert that much quicker! Here are the recipes for what have become my two favorite snacks so you can try them too!
Keto Chocolate Mug Cake Recipe:
6 tbsp Almond Flour (Chocolate Covered Katie also lists option for using nuts instead of nut flour)
1 tbsp + 2 tsp Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Monk Fruit/Erythritol Sweetener (any granulated sweetener will work according to the original recipe)
Pinch of Stevia (or additional 2 tsp of sweetener, this is what I use and it really does need at least 1 additional tsp to not be bitter from the cocoa powder)
1/8 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 tbsp Milk of choice (I’ve been using heavy whipping cream because of the carbs in regular milk, but I am thinking of trying regular because some of my cakes have gotten dry)
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
Keto Chocolate Mug Cake Directions:
Place all dry ingredients in mug and whisk together
Add vanilla and milk and whisk until smooth
Microwave for 30 seconds
Microwave for addition 15 second intervals if necessary to get to desired doneness (be careful not to overcook as it gets REALLY dry). It is better under baked than over. And it will firm up some as it cools
Top with whipped cream and peanut butter if desired
Cinnamon Roll Keto Mug Cake Recipe:
1 tbsp Coconut Oil (melted, the original recipe calls for unsalted butter, but I have only used coconut oil)
1 large Egg
3 tbsp Almond Flour (I really like that this recipe uses less Almond Flour since it is expensive)
1 tbsp Erythritol Sweetener (I use a monk fruit/erythritol blend)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (I usually make mine a heaping tsp because I really like spice and especially cinnamon)
Topping Recipe:
3/4 tsp Erythritol Sweetener
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
This is supposed to make enough for two cakes, but I often just use it all on my one cake. There is also a recipe for cream cheese icing in the original recipe, but I haven’t tried it with this yet. I just put a little whipped cream on mine!
Cinnamon Roll Keto Mug Cake Directions:
Put all dry ingredients in mug and whisk together
Add egg, melted coconut oil and vanilla and whisk until smooth
Sprinkle topping on batter
Microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds, add 15 second intervals to achieve desired doneness (I usually end up needing 1 minute and 45-50 seconds with my microwave)
Add a little whipped cream if desired or choose fancy and make the icing from the original recipe!
These are my two favorite Keto desserts right now. Although, my mom just gave me a coconut and dried cranberry cookie that was absolutely delicious. I may have to get that recipe next to try making and sharing it with you! If you try these cakes, let me know if you love them as well! What are your favorite Keto snacks?
An example of syllabicating a word with the vcv pattern
After I wrote the post about the syllable types, I realized that if that was completely new information then you might need information about how to syllabicate words. So, today I am going top talk a little bit about how to syllabicate words and the purpose of doing so. When I went through my trainings with Brainspring on syllabication they would say that the purpose of syllabication was to get close enough to pronounce the word correctly. What that meant was that breaking the word down through their syllabication processes would get you close enough to pronounce/read the word, but may not match a dictionary’s syllabication. In this post I am not going to include all of the details of their program, I am certainly not qualified to teach all that they offer. I just want to give you an overview of how to syllabicate words and the purposes it serves.
First, similar to the syllable types there are syllable pattern types. There are 3 types. There are vccv (vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel), vcv (vowel, consonant, vowel), and vv (vowel, vowel). Also, before we talk about the three types, I want to mention that you will only use syllabication with multisyllabic words. You can find most of the syllable types in one syllable words as I mentioned in the Syllable Typeposts, but you don’t need to syllabicate unless there are two or more syllables in a word.
The easiest way to syllabicate is to find the first 2 vowels and then you have to look between the vowels to see how many consonants are between. We will talk about the three different syllable pattern types, now.
Vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel
The first thing to do is to find the first two vowels. You need to remember that there are some times when vowels go together with another letter and count as a consonant like with qu. Also, when two vowels are together and they count as one vowel like vowel teams, ee, ea, ue, ie, oe. If there are two consonants between the vowels then the word would be divided between the two consonants. An example of this pattern would be better, bet (closed syllable) ter (r controlled syllable). Sometimes there will be three consonants between the vowels, but will always have a blend that should be treated like one consonant. This is the case for words like constrain. In this word you would actually group s, t, and r together and count it as one consonant. So the first syllable would be con (closed syllable) and the second syllable would be strain (vowel team syllable)
2. Vowel, consonant, vowel
This kind of syllable pattern has two options for where to break the word. You should always try before the consonant first. That will leave you with an open syllable as the first syllable and thereby a long vowel sound in that syllable. An example of this would be raven, ra (open syllable) and ven (closed syllable). If that pronunciation is incorrect than you should move the break to behind the consonant to provide a closed syllable and thereby a short vowel sound in that syllable. An example of this would be cabin, cab-closed syllable and in-closed syllable. That should then give you the correct pronunciation. There are only a few reasons why it might not. One is a schwa syllable type. An example of that exception is the word banana. I went over that word in this Syllable Types, Part 2 post.
3. Vowel, vowel
The last syllable pattern type is vowel, vowel. This is where there are two vowels side by side, but they are not a vowel team or a diphthong. Each vowel in this scenario is a sounded vowel and thereby fall into their own syllables. The first one would be open and thereby have a long vowel sound and the second syllable would depend on what if anything comes after the second vowel. An example of this type of syllable pattern is the word eon. The syllables break down to e (long syllable) and on (short syllable).
These are the three types of syllabication patterns. The point of doing syllabication is to help decode (read) unknown multisyllabic words. When words get this long it is no longer effective to sound out words as a whole. It becomes nearly impossible to keep all of those sounds in mind by the time you get to the end of a 7, 8 or 9 letter word. Also, as words get longer and multiple different syllable types are combined, the vowel sounds change and it is necessary to know what type of syllable you are looking at to determine which vowel sound to use.
These are the three syllable patterns to look for when syllabicating and how to divide each one. This is also some of the reasons for using syllabication in decoding. It is like learning to count by 2’s or 5’s instead of 1’s. Now you only have to read a few chunks instead of 7 or more individual sounds to decode the word. Counting by 10’s is like using roots to decode words. We will talk about that in a later post. I recommend some teaching on each of these patterns in isolation to familiarize readers with the process. But, I would teach the majority of this as “real life” unknown, multisyllabic words come up in reading.
Let me know how this information helps you. I am planning to do another post on syllabicating that shows each step of the process.
This past Friday was the girls’ joint birthday party. Even though we try to limit our guest list to my and Adam’s immediate family (occasionally one or two friends may get invited) that is over 20 people who come to the girls’ parties. It is a HUGE blessing to have so much family close by, but it is also a big thing to feed all of these people. We generally just do desserts, but it can still be a lot of cake or cupcakes.
This year I suggested cookie decorating and the girls thought that would be a great idea. I always want to make everything myself from scratch and often end up overwhelmed and in tears trying to get everything done. This year I told my husband that he was in charge of making sure that we bought any mixes we needed or anything store bought that we should get in order to keep me from making myself and our family miserable trying to do everything myself. I don’t know if really thought I could handle everything, or just forgot his job when we were grocery shopping, but we did not buy any pre-made cookie dough or mixes, although I did buy pre-made icing.
In an effort to keep from overwhelming myself or the family, I decided that since I WAS making everything from scratch to make some cookies each day since I wanted at least two different types of cookies to decorate. The first ones I tried were 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies and they turned out really well!! So well in fact, that I ended up having to make another batch on Thursday to make sure we still had enough for the party on Friday! The next ones on the list were sugar cookies. We had to have sugar cookies since they are the quintessential decorating cookie. The tricky thing about sugar cookies in our family is that they are my husband’s favorite cookie. That means he is pretty particular about them. I knew the recipe I picked was a winner when he tried them and said they were good. I even probed further to be sure, and asked if they were good as in I shouldn’t worry about serving them or if they were actually good. He said they were actually good. They were a little hard when he tried them, but that was because I was storing them in the refrigerator to keep them fresh. I took them out of the ‘fridge a couple of hours before the party, added half a slice of bread to the air tight container to add moisture and they were soft and chewy for the party. The other thing that makes this recipe a winner for me is that they were simple for me to make. I used my food processor for ease. It also helped since I was late getting my butter out of the refrigerator and didn’t want to have to wait forever for it to soften. I was super nervous after I got them mixed up and read the rest of the directions or commentary in the recipe. I often find myself in a predicament like this where I just start mixing looking just at the recipe, without reading all of the directions through. THis time the concern was that it said not to over mix your butter. I certainly did over mix my butter by using my food processor in comparison to the stir in directions from the recipe itself. Fortunately, despite my over mixing, my cookies did not rise in the oven and then fall when they came out. I linked the original recipe above if you want to follow their mixing directions for safe outcome purposes. I am sticking with my food processor mixing technique myself, since the cookies turned out so well and ease is always something I am looking for as long as it doesn’t sacrifice the quality! Here are the ingredients and directions for how I made these sugar cookies.
Sugar Cookie Recipe:
1 cup Butter
1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
1 large Egg
2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional, I left it out of mine because I didn’t have any at the time, but I do think it would enhance the flavor to include it)
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar (for rolling scooped cookie dough in before baking)
Sugar Cookie Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place butter, sugar and egg in food processor and mix until completely combined
In a separate bowl mix together flour, salt and baking powder
Add about 1/3 dry ingredients to food processor and blend until combined. Repeat twice with the remaining two thirds of dry ingredients.
Add vanilla if using and mix final time until fully incorporated
Place remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow tupperware container
Use a small cookie scoop and scoop dough into balls
Roll cookie dough balls in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet 1 1/2-2 inches apart(you can choose to flatten the balls if you would like, the cookies in the picture above were not flattened prior to baking)
Place cookie sheets on two separate racks in the center of your oven
Bake for 5 mintues
Switch the trays to the opposite racks and bake an additional 5 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookies are starting to brown
Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes
Remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling, store in an air tight container.
As you can see I really, really mixed my cookie dough A LOT. But the cookies turned out really, really well!! Although sugar cookies are Adam’s, my husband’s, favorite cookie, I am not generally a big fan of sugar cookies. These however, have a buttery, sugary goodness that I cannot resist! I hope you find them equally delicious and easy to make!! I look forward to hearing how making them goes for you! Please be sure to comment below if you try this recipe. Let me know if you use the recommended vanilla!
