Reuse Wrapping Paper

Ok it may be to late for this post because you probably have already gotten rid of your excess wrapping paper but hey Birthdays happen all year long. So here is a list for ways to reuse that wrapping paper instead of throwing it out.

Cover a shoebox or clean tin can to create beautiful storage containers.

Use in school projects or for paper mache.

Reuse to cover smaller gift boxes.

Rip to shreds and use as packing filler.

Make colorful backgrounds on scrap booking pages.

Use for creative mats for framed objects.

Let your daughter create paper doll clothes from scraps.

Sorry I Forgot to Post my Pumpkin Recipe

It's been a little nuts around here with all the Christmas stuff and working more hours. I forgot to share my tasty recipes with you. Well I hope you froze some of that pumpkin you made (or at least have a can or two lying around after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here are a few of my favorites.

Easy Pumpkin Loaf

Preheat Oven to 350.

1 C Sugar
1 C Cooked Pumpkin
1/4 C Salad Oil
3 egg Whites
2 TBS Skim Milk
2 C Sifted Flour
1tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cardamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 C chopped Walnuts (optional)

Combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, eggs and milk. Mix flour baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices then add to sugar mixture. Blend well and add nuts. Pour into a greased and floured 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

Pumpkin Casserole

Preheat oven to 350

3 c Cooked Pumpkin
1/3 c Butter
1/4 c Light Cream
2 TBLS Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg

Mix ingredients in given order and pour into a buttered casserole dish. Spready with net topping and bake for 30 minutes.

Nut Topping
1/4 C Dark Brown Sugar
2 TBLS light corn syrup
2 TBLS melted butter
1 c Chopped Walnuts

Mix until crumbly.

Pumpkin Soup

3 C Cooked Pumpkin
3 C Chicken Broth
1 Tbls Butter
1 Tbls Flour
2 Tbls Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 C Julienned Ham
3/4 C. nonfat condensed Milk
Nutmeg

Melt butter in pan and add flour stir until flour is golden brown. add pumpkin and chicken broth. Mix well. Mix in other ingredients in order listed except for Nutmeg. Heat but do not boil! Serve with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

WHEW

I hope everyone one had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Yule
Winter Solstice, Pancha Ganapati, Kwanzaa, Yalda, and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti.

There I think I covered all the winter Holidays. What every you celebrate at this time of year I hope it is Joyous.

I had to take today off from work because the wind we had yesterday tore half the siding off one side of our house. Now I'm sitting here waiting for the contractor to show up. One of the benefits of renting a house is I don't have to pay to have it fixed.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while Heck I haven't even had a chance to check in and when I checked my comments today I noticed I had been spammed. Dang that A. Nony Mous.

Well now that the Holidays are over I'll have more time and next year I'll have to remember to plan early so I can keep up with my online friends as well as my friends and family here.

Thank you everyone who expressed your support on my efforts to get healthy. Its been alot of fun so far though I did try one of the exercise classes and from the description I was hoping it was good for beginners but found it to be a little to complicated for me though I toughed it out till the end. Damn those stupid Exercise Balls I kept rolling off and landing on my butt. ( It could have been worse I guess, I could have landed on my head lol). So after that little embarrassing and rather sore class I decided to stick to the treadmills, bicycle and elliptical until I get under 200, then I'll tackle the classes again.

Anyway that's the update. Later today I'll be posting some more tips and getting back into the swing of things I hope you'll stop by :D

I Joined a Gym Last Week

You may not think that it is a very cheapskate thing to do but for me it is. Let me explain!

I have unfortunately let myself get terrible out of shape. Sometimes motivation to get moving is hard to come by. Don't get me wrong I don't just sit on my butt all day long. I walk the kids to and from school every day unless there is lighting. I work part time 5 days a week. But its not enough to shave the pounds off. I need more. So I've joined Lucille Roberts which is an all woman's gym and at 20 dollars a month not a bad investment in myself.

What do I get for my 20 bucks? I get access to different types of aerobic activities including machines and classes and a large assortment of weight machines. The likes of which I can neither afford or find a place for in my over cluttered home.

I will also save a fortune in clothes since regular sizes cost an average of $10 bucks cheaper then Plus sizes.

Then their are the savings from being healthier. I will be less likely to have a whole assortment of diseases just by losing weight. So that equals fewer medical bills and cheaper insurance.

Plus a major motivational factor is my hubby sitting there going "Your spending 20 bucks a month you better get your moneys worth and go work out!" So wish me luck and I"ll keep you posted. I have also set some goals for myself and I'm going to share them with you so you can help keep me honest. I will post on Mondays and keep you up to date. My Long term goal: I weigh (don't look if you have a weak stomach LOL) 250 lbs Yeah ITs gotten that bad. I hope to lose 100lbs total. My short term goal is to lose 2 dress sizes by Christmas. For a little extra incentive I've joined their promotional program they are running right now. If I lose the most weight then I get the year for free. Talk about a cheapskate incentive LOL.

How absent minded can you get

I get to work yesterday and then realize that I gave you two tips yesterday and carried on about why you should do it that I never suggested ways to fix the problems. Talk about your DUH moment.

Ok lets start with fertilizer. You can't go wrong with compost spread upon your lawn. You can easily make your own or buy it. If you know someone with cows that works too. (and it's not as smelly as you would think) Don't use horse manure without composting it first. Unlike cows with their four chamber stomachs, horse manure will have weed seeds in it that you don't want in your lawn or garden.

Next Pest control. Lets face it good old Mother Nature has already supplied us with the solution to our pest control problem. You just need to invite them to your yard. Think Bat houses or Purple Martin houses to help control those mosquitoes. Add natural hiding places for toads, frogs, and lizards. Then a tree or dense bush for birds. Song birds are great for getting rid of snails and slugs. For every problem insect there is something that eats them. Hit your local library to find the natural pest control for your problem bugs.

First A Little Confession Then a couple tips

Ok I admit it I've become a Facebook Addict! I love playing the free games! I'm up to 99 friends some are family members but the rest are new friends who love playing free games too. I've been having a great deal of fun. But silly me I have been ignoring my blogs so from now on I'm setting a timer and only playing for an hour. That way I can have time to blog and clean house too LOL.

Now for a couple of money saving environmental tips. Today we should discuss saving water. Everyone needs fresh clean water to stay alive. We literally can't live without it! Yet every day people use unnecessary chemicals which ends up polluting our water. Lets address two main pollutants that people voluntarily use.

The first is chemical fertilizers. The problem with this type of food for your plants and grass is two fold. First it is actually killing your soil! That's right! The more you use it the more you will have to use it because things like worms that live in your soil that naturally fertilize the lawn will die off or move to find food. The second problem is run off. When it rain or you use your sprinklers the chemicals run off into the storm drains and into the water ways. The excess of nutrients in the water can cause an Algae bloom which can kill off other organisms living in the water by denying them access to fresh air and sunlight.

The second is chemicals used in pest control. Now I address this once before when I was discussing the lack of fireflys in the spring and summer. I remember when I was a kid they were everywhere now it seems we are lucky to see one. The problem with using chemicals to control what we consider pests is that chemicals don't specialize. If you spray for mosquitoes you kill off other nighttime insects like fireflys. If you spray to kill insects that are eating your crops you also kill of the insects that are eating the insects you are trying to kill, not to mention the birds spiders, lizards and other insect eaters. Lastly these chemicals run off the fields and into the water, polluting rivers, streams, underground water sheds. There is no way to control where this poison will end up and even though they say its not harmful to humans, I don't see how it cant' be. Because even if it doesn't kill us out right its killing the environment we need to live slowly but surely.

View From Under The Umbrella.

Here we are on the way to school. Yes we are walking in the rain. It's not too bad today the wind picked up a couple of times and tugged at the umbrellas. Sorry these aren't the best shots since I took them with my cell phone. The thing I lace best about a rainy day in the Fall is how the changing leaves make a dreary day still seem bright.
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Yes It's as cold as it looks

I'm sitting out here watching my daugher and her team play soccer. As you can see they are in shorts and tank tops and the weather is miserable. Here I sit freezing typing at half time while my poor son plays with his transformers. And complaining that he is cold then complaining that he is hungery. I really wish they had called on account of the weather. All I can think is that if I am this cold then those poor girls must be frozen through!
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Pumpkin Recipes

Ok I got mixed up and posted this on the wrong blog but now I'm reposting it here and I will post all the other tasty recipes here too so Enjoy

I love this time of year when there are lots of wonderful pumpkins around to be made into tasty treats and I know I promised you plenty of delicious recipes for these bountiful orange squashes. I'm going to start off with the two recipes, the first is to get the pumpkin ready for all the other recipes and the second is for a wonderfully tasty snack..Pumpkin seeds.

Now when I do this I do it before making dinner when I will be using the oven anyway. This way I only have to preheat the oven once. (less energy saves money)

Now if this is what your going to do then plan about an hour to and hour and fifteen minutes for each pumpkin you want to prepare and about 20 to 30 minutes for each cookie sheet full of seeds. (about 1 sheet for each pumpkin)Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the guts. Place pumpkin guts in a container of cold water (I find it easier to separate the seeds from the strings this way) and set aside.
Place pumpkin halves on a cookie sheet and add 1/2 cup water.
Place in preheated oven for an hour. While this is cooking you can get another pumpkin ready or do the seeds.
Pumpkin is done when the shell is soft. Take out of oven if you have another pumpkin to cook then put it in or put in your seeds.
Turn the pumpkins over and let cool. Now scoop out or trim away the shell and smash or puree and its ready for your recipes.

Pumpkin seeds

Separate the seeds from the strings and compost the strings. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with not stick cooking spray. Dry off the seeds and place them on a single layer on the cookie sheet. Lightly spray the top of the seeds with cooking spray and salt to taste. Place in oven preheated to 350. Set timer for 10 minutes. When timer goes off then stir up the seeds and smooth them flat again and wait another 10 minutes. Stir again.... if nice and lightly browned then take out if not browned to your liking place in the oven for 10 more minutes keeping an eye on them. Let cool and enjoy.

Ok so I messed up

The problem with having more then one blog is sometimes you forget things. I promised to post the pumpkin recipes on my gardening blog and I posted here instead. Silly ME

So I"m going to repost the steps for getting the pumpkin ready over there and the rest of the recipes will be posted there. (I have to have something to post on a gardening blog over the winter LOL)

Halloween is coming though so how about a few cheap holiday crafts to frighten up your home.

Go for a grave yard:

Tombstones
To make some tombstones just take several piece of heavy cardboard or Styrofoam and cut into tombstone shapes. Paint them gray and write scary or funny epitaphs on them.

add some

Spider Webs
Using yarn threaded through out your trees and bushes then add some spooky spiders by paint an old ball black add some spooky eyes and black yarn, pipe cleaner or construction paper for legs.

Spooky sheet ghost Take an old rubber ball and place a sheet around it then tie the sheet under the ball to hold it in. Use fishing line to make it invisible or if its a boy ghost try one of dads old ties. Then using the fishing line hang your ghost from a trees and add a couple more lines to hold the sides out like arms.

Then add a few carved jack-o-lanterns and your all set.

Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkins

I love this time of year when there are lots of wonderful pumpkins around to be made into tasty treats and I know I promised you plenty of delicious recipes for these bountiful orange squashes. I'm going to start off with the two recipes, the first is to get the pumpkin ready for all the other recipes and the second is for a wonderfully tasty snack..Pumpkin seeds.

Now when I do this I do it before making dinner when I will be using the oven anyway. This way I only have to preheat the oven once. (less energy saves money) Now if this is what your going to do then plan about an hour to and hour and fifteen minutes for each pumpkin you want to prepare and about 20 to 30 minutes for each cookie sheet full of seeds. (about 1 sheet for each pumpkin)

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the guts. Place pumpkin guts in a container of cold water (I find it easier to separate the seeds from the strings this way) and set aside. Place pumpkin halves on a cookie sheet and add 1/2 cup water. Place in preheated oven for an hour. While this is cooking you can get another pumpkin ready or do the seeds. Pumpkin is done when the shell is soft. Take out of oven if you have another pumpkin to cook then put it in or put in your seeds. Turn the pumpkins over and let cool. Now scoop out or trim away the shell and smash or puree and its ready for your recipes.

Pumpkin seeds

Separate the seeds from the strings and compost the strings. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with not stick cooking spray. Dry off the seeds and place them on a single layer on the cookie sheet. Lightly spray the top of the seeds with cooking spray and salt to taste. Place in oven preheated to 350. Set timer for 10 minutes. When timer goes off then stir up the seeds and smooth them flat again and wait another 10 minutes. Stir again.... if nice and lightly browned then take out if not browned to your liking place in the oven for 10 more minutes keeping an eye on them. Let cool and enjoy.

The Next Step

Well I've taken the next green step for our. House. I've started walking to work. Of course this will be a weather permitting endevor. I can't.show up to work drenched from head to toe lol. Here is a couple of pictures I took along the way. All in all it's a pretty nice walk.
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Dang the Bad Luck

Here I am in my favorite place the Library. Do you know why??

My old computer has finally had enough! It died so completely that I can't even start it up. IF you hold the button you can here something running but once you let go you got ZIP. It really truly stinks.

I think on of the blogs I visit has a virus or bug because everytime I go blog hopping to all my favorites something goes wrong. So starting today I'm going to have to stop visiting some. I'm going to start with the ones that take a very long time to load and the ones that have popups. After that I'm not sure. I like going around to all the different blogs and to feel unsafe about visiting makes me very unhappy.

Of course I'm going to have to start over anyway since all my favorites were lost when my computer when down. So do me a favor if I haven't visited your blog for a while leave me a quick hello in the comments and I'll stop on by and add you back to my favorites when I get my new computer. ( dang I hate spending money) Until then I'm going to start with the ones I've joined and the ones who have visited me from Entecard and the blog catalog. Well I hope everyone else is having a better day then me.

Today’s Green Renovate is going to be a quick one because I want to visit some of my favorite blogs before I go to work today.

It’s getting to be that time of year when we all want to turn on the heat. But did you know that for optimum performance you should change your filter at least once a month. The clean filter allows air to flow better which allows it to be heated and circulated through your home with less energy used. Now you might be thinking to yourself it’s going to cost a lot to keep changing out the filters on your furnace but they have permanent filters that you can clean and put back in. My suggestion is to buy two of them. When you take one out to be clean and put the other one in this allows you two put the filter in and turn the heat back on while cleaning and allowing the other one to dry. This will also help them to last longer!

Recipes for Congestion

Here is a couple of home made goodies to help when you get congested. You can use them not only when you have a cold but for relief if you have congestion from allergies.

These two take advantage of steam to help you feel better. The first is for when your awake the second is for use with a humidifier.

Take 3 Tablespoons of chopped fresh thyme, sage, peppermint, eucalyptus and or pine needles place in a bowl and add boiling water. place a towel over your head and the bowl and breath for 10 minutes. Repeat as necessary. It can be a little boring sitting there so I suggest playing some nice relaxing music while you do this to help pass the time.

For this one you will either need a cotton ball or a humidifier with a place to put the mixture. Some are designed with a small cup or dip next to the steam vent.

Mix together 2 to 4 drops of peppermint essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, and winter green essential oil. Then soak a cotton ball and place next to steam vent or put in cup on humidifier.

In both these recipes the steam helps loosen congestion and the herbs and oils helps sooth and relieve the congestion. Just like the stuff you buy in the store with out the gooey stuff on your chest.

Home Cold Remedies

I know I promised these last week and I also missed a Renovate Friday. I still haven't worked all the kinks out of the schedules to allow me to get back online like I use to do. Between the kids early morning and after school activities and my constantly changing job schedule I can't seem to find time to get here. Which really stinks because I'm missing out on reading all my favorites blogs!





Ok now for a couple of wonderful remedies to help with a sore throat. These remedies are designed to help lower the amount of drugs you need by soothing the symptoms of the cold. They are not a cure and as always you should consult a doctor about your symptoms to make sure it's nothing serious!

My favorite is a cup of hot tea mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon and 1 tablespoon honey. The heat from the tea helps soothe the achy feeling that a sore throat gives you. The lemon has antiseptic properties to help heal your throat and the honey adds a protective coat which helps keep it from becoming more irritated. The best thing is that because it isn't medicine you can use it as often as needed and if you use a nice herbal flavored tea your kids can enjoy this symptom soother too.





You can also try old fashion gargling. Just mix 2 tablespoons brown sugar with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda too 1quart warm water. Place into a container with a tight fitting lid and shake well before each use. This can also be used as often as needed.





;Now I"ve heard this helps but I haven't tried it yet myself. I think I will ave to on my next cold just to see if it works. Apple Cider Vinegar is suppose to kill bacteria on contact. So mix it with water but make it as strong as you can take. Then gargle one mouthful every hour, swallowing afterward. Repeat twice each time. The acid is suppose to be very helpful in soothing your sore throat and if you swallow it, the extra potassium is also beneficial. Make sure you rinse your mouth out after because the acid will probably be hard on your tooth enamel.

Starting to get cold.

It's starting to get cold here in New York (not that it got very warm this summer) and I'm trying to decide whether I should go ahead and pick the little watermelon. It was suppose to be small but I really did expect it to get a little larger.

It's also time to start cleaning up. I think after I clean out all the dead or dying plants I'll put in a few mums till winter just to make it look nice for the neighbors. I did get enough zucchini to make six loaves of bread and plenty of eggplants. I got some tomatoes though I was hoping for more because we really like tomatoes. It was just too wet this year. I never did get any broccoli. Every time it started to get a little head of broccoli it would jump straight into flowers. A friend of mine said her father use to grow broccoli and would wrap the leaves around the head to keep it from flowering and let it grow bigger. I'll have to try that next year. I never got any pumpkins (since I actually planted more zucchini) so I'll have to hit the farmers market to do my pumpkin baking. When I start I'll share some of our favorite recipes with you so you can enjoy the bountiful fall harvest too. Though I did hear that pumpkin crops were having some problems this year too. So I think I'll go this weekend before scarcity kicks in and the prices go up.

I'm going to be spending the winter doing a little research to help me get a better crop of veggies next year as well.

The last couple days have been fun I have a God awful cold and realized I didn’t have my medicine cabinet stocked for the cold season. I certainly don’t have enough tissues around between my cold and my husbands allergies we went through a lot of tissues. we did however manage to get to the Renaissance fair on Sunday which was good was the last day. I love going to the Renaissance fair to all kinds of interesting things. What I really love the people powered ride how cool is that about green for the planet.

Of course all the junk food and the jousting, sword fights and the people in costumes and some people really go crazy dressing up going from being a Renaissance faire to Dungeons & Dragons faire. it’s all a great deal of fun and I have a few really good pictures to share with you it’s from the bird of prey show they have there. I hope you enjoy them you think the next couple of days and post a few of my home remedies that I use since the cold and flu season is upon us. They help with the symptoms but won’t make the cold go away that is just something you have to live through until you get better and hope it will make you stronger against the next cold.

Billy paying the toll to cross the bridge. 1 Hug

The Queen and her Subjects

One of Robin Hoods Merry Men

EARTHQUEST BIRDS OF PREY

Harris Hawk

Eurasian Eagle Owl

Eurasian Eagle Owl in Flight

Horned Owl

Andean Condor

Green Renovate Friday

I love this time of year. My energy bill is so low you would think I had installed solar panels. My windows are open to the fresh breeze, making my messy house seem a little cleaner. But I know winter is just around the corner and the heating bill will shoot my electric bill right back up.

Speaking of windows... Let's face it not everyone can afford to replace their windows with the new and improved 5 star, energy efficient, three pane, uber windows. So lets go with curtains! A good set of curtains can help keep heat and cold out of your home. Even these can be pricey. We finally got all ours done when Linens and Things went out of business. Which is sad because I liked Linens and Things but a cheapskate has got to save money! Our curtains have thermal backs which helps keep the heat or cold out and they also help keep the outside noise down. Very important since we are living next to a rail road track. The commuter trains aren't so bad but the cargo trains that run at night are horrible. Sometimes I can't wait until my hubby gets a new base so we can move someplace quiet.

Anyway as I was saying curtains can be expensive too so start with the room that you entertain visitors with. Pick out nice ones that compliment your room but have the thermal back or add a second layer with a second curtain rod behind the first.

After that get creative. Hit the yard sales and clearance sales. A twin comforter with Superman or Belle from Beauty and the Beast will work just as well as good curtains and your kids will love waking up to their favorite characters. Knot some baby blankets together for a colorful mosaic for the baby's room and a nice quilt for your window will help keep everyone warm and toasty in the winter (coming soon to an northern hemisphere near you ) and cool in the summer (for you lower hemisphere readers).

When the kids out grow childhood characters then its time to update their curtains with real curtains they are getting to an age where they want to have their friends over an might be embarrassed with Thomas or Dora hanging on their windows. But by now you have had time to hit more yard sales and watch the sales ads so you should be prepared.

You will notice I put the kids curtains ahead of our curtains... Lets face it kids can be cruel and our kids are more susceptible to the taunts of their peers then we are (not to mention not many of our peers will be in our bedrooms) I will not put my cheapskatery above the welfare of my children and it can be hard enough with all we pile on our children with more and more homework and less time to play. The last thing they need is problems with friends too.

Time to do Some Baking

Did ya ever have one of those weeks where time just flew by so fast that you didn't even know what day it was???

I did last week I even forgot to post Renovate Friday last week Shame on me!

Well the weather is getting cooler and school is back in session which for me means time to do some heavy duty baking. I love making muffins and when I bake them they come in three sizes. I make mini muffins to go into lunch boxes, regular size muffins for after school snacks and Giant muffins for breakfasts. I make hugh batches of them then freeze them for later and the mini muffins can go right into the lunch box frozen they will be all thawed out by lunch time. Now if you care to join me in my baking frenzy then here are a few of my favorite muffin recipes.... Enjoy!

BANANA MUFFINS
Makes 9
3 Ripe banana’s cut into pieces or smashed
½ c honey
¼ c butter cut into pieces
1 egg1
½ teaspoon vanilla (use real vanilla not the fake stuff it tastes better and is better for the environment)
1 ½ c whole wheat flour2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray muffin pan with not stick spray.Mix bananas, honey, egg and extract together. Add flour and baking powder and mix together.Spoon batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let sit for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve or let cool completely before freezing.

RAISIN OAT MUFFIN

Makes 12

2 c Rolled oats

1 C whole wheat flour

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 Tbls. Baking Powder

1/3 C water1 Egg

½ C extra virgin Olive Oil

½ C Maple Syrup (use real maple syrup its more expensive but the taste is worth it )

½ C Walnuts

½ C Rasins

Preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin pan with Nonstick Cooking spray. Pour oats into a food processor (or blender in small amounts) and cut into small pieces. Mix Oats, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder together. Add the water and egg and mix well. Next Add the oil and syrup and mix. Last add the walnuts and raisins stir until completely mixed together.Spoon batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let sit for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve or let cool completely before freezing.

APPLE OATMEAL AND COCONUT MUFFINS
Makes 12
2 C chopped Apples
1 C rolled oats
1 C low-fat plain Yogurt
2/3 c Honey
1/3 C Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1/3 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Egg1
½ C Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp. Baking Flour
2 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon
¼ Tsp. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 375 and spray muffin pan with Nonstick Cooking spray.

Combine Apples, oats, yogurt, honey, coconut and oil together and mix well. Let sit 5 Minutes. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.In another bowl sift the flour, baking powder and spices together then add to the oat mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are moistened.Fill the muffin cups until they are quite full. bake for 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let sit for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve or let cool completely before freezing.

SQUASH CORN MUFFINS
Makes 12
¾ C Corn Meal
¾ C Whole Wheat Flour
½ C All- Purpose Flour
2 ½ Tbls Dry Buttermilk Powder
1 Tbls Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
½ Tsp Ground Cinnamon
¼ Tsp Ground Cloves
2/3 Cup light Brown Sugar
¼ C Butter cut in pieces
2 Eggs
2 Tbls Honey
¾ C Pureed Cooked Squash (or pumpkin)
2/3 C water

Preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin pan with Nonstick Cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix cornmeal, both flours, buttermilk powder, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves mix well.Place the sugar butter eggs and honey in mixer and blend until smooth. Add the squash and water and mix well. Add the squash mixture to the flour mixture and mix well.Spoon batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let sit for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve or let cool completely before freezing.

ORANGE CARROT MUFFINS
Makes 12
1 C Grated Carrots
1 Banana, mashed
½ Cut up Prunes or Raisins2 Eggs
1/3 C Honey
1 Cup orange juice
1 Tsp. orange extract
2 Cups Whole Wheat flour
¼ Cup Oat Bran
2 Tsp Baking Powder

Preheat oven to 375 and spray muffin pan with Nonstick Cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, place the grated carrots, banana, and prunes and mix well. Then add the eggs, oil and honey and mix. Add the juice and orange extract and mix well.In a separate bowl the flour oat bran and baking powder and mix well. Then add it to the carrot mixture and blend until dry ingredients are moistened.Spoon batter into the muffin pans and bake for 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let sit for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve or let cool completely before freezing.

I Should Have Taken a Picture

Do you remember me telling you this was PUMPKIN??? Well it's not it's Zucchini!! How do I know ...

Well after months of checking for nice pumpkins and getting nothing but big yellow flowers. I noticed the other day the leaves were wilting and needed some water. So I headed out and grabbed the hose. I turned toward the plant and saw the biggest zucchini I have ever seen! It was a good foot and a half long and about 6 inches around. After I finished being flabbergasted
..... I mean how the heck did I miss that monster after all the checking I did??? I grabbed the zucchini and headed into the kitchen. Now if you want to use a zucchini in any recipe where you taste a lot of zucchini any one will tell you to use them before they get more then 5 inches long when they are still young and tender. So I chopped and grated my zucchini and made 4 Yes 4 loaves of zucchini bread. Now I wish I had taken a picture to show you but it's to late it has been eaten... My zucchini bread doesn't stay around for long!

First Day of School

For us today is the First day of school. I took them over this morning. My daughter Sam is going into 7th grade ... Junior High School.....WHAT Already? I can't believe it! She is so excited...She practically flew to school even with the heave backpack.
My son Billy was not so thrilled until we arrived at the school and while we were waiting out front one of his friends from last year showed up. While they were talking they found out they were in the same class this year too. You should have seen his face light up. It was great!!!! I even arranged a play date for him right after school. Sam has to stay after school today until 5 for an orientation with the rest of the 7th graders. Since my son's friend has an older brother in 7th grade too, Billy and his friend will be playing after school until then. It's a great way to finish the first day of school. Especially for someone (Billy) who doesn't like school!

The only problem with this morning was I forgot to bring the camera. NUTS!

Green Renovate Friday

Man what a week! You may have noticed I didn't get on to post much this week. It's been a little more CRAZY then usual.

Three people got fired this week and one person quit over at my job. So I've been working more hours and covering for the lost people. Then add the daily trips to summer camp so I can keep my job and throw in the fact its the week before school and you get the picture.
But I didn't want to forget Renovate Friday so here I am up early so I have time to post.

I lived in Arizona a few years ago, down in Tucson. It's really beautiful there especially when the thunderstorms roll across the desert. What I found appalling was how much they were building up there, how many people actually had grass lawns and how many businesses had water fountains to decorate their building. It's a DESERT people you can't keep draining the water from the ground unless you want it to become a dry sinkhole instead of a town!

Sorry got off on a tangent there...... anyway it's time to think Xeriscape Landscaping. This means using plants that normally thrive in your environment to landscape your yard. Even in a desert like Tucson there are many great choices you can use. The benefits include less water and chemical uses. Since the plants are already native to the area they are use to the amount of water the area gets and the composition of the soil. You can also providing for the local wildlife by native plants as food sources and shelters.

Now something good about water use that I saw in Tucson: Grey Water Systems. If you are living in a drought prone area and want to save your landscape without wasting water then you need to install a Grey Water System. These allow you to reuse water from the sink, shower and washing machine to water your landscape. It's a win-win situation! Your plants get the water they so desperately need and you save water, money and the environment.

The Environmental Contradiction At The Bronx Zoo

I love the Bronx Zoo..... Of course I love any zoo that is well designed and has naturalist habitats for the animals.


The Bronx Zoo is doing wonders for the animals there. Teaching people about endangered ecosystems and the animals that live there. They even have a pretty cool working composting toilet exhibit

With displays that tell users how the water from the sinks are reused to water the plants outside and how the foam used to flush the toilet uses less water then a normal flushing toilet.

What they don't have is water fountains..... or at least very very few of them. I think I saw two and one of them was broken. Instead feel free to purchase a nice over priced bottle of water

$2.50 for that little thing. The bain of the environmentalist existence and a penny pincher's nightmare, and what happens when you are done with it? Recycle it right.......Wrong! You throw it away because there isn't a single recycling bin in the entire place. You cant even refill it from a water fountain..... as I said there are none to be found.

I really need to remember to bring my own water when we go places because it makes me so mad when these public places have no place to get a drink unless you shell out a small fortune for it. Unfortunately a easy to carry water bottle will only take you so far on a hot day with no place to refill it.

Green Renovate Friday

Man has it been busy around here I've gotten a few posts up this week but I haven't been able to do a lot of reading. Today is no different though I got up a little earlier so I'll be able to visit some of my favorite blogs. I can't wait till the kids go back to school.

Now lets talk Green Renovations. You've decided you want a new look, your going to redo your kitchen, bathroom or Whatever. Start by considering what you already have. Can it be remodeled with some paint or reused in a new quirky way? If your cabinets are still in good shape would just refacing them be ok? Are your appliances seriously outdated? These would be best to replace completely with the newer energy star appliances. Be creative, checkout yard sales and consignment stores for items to give your home a new look without buy more stuff.

If you do decide to gut your home then find a local Building Materials Reuse Association. They will help you tear apart your old stuff in a way that insures that it can be use again by someone else. It is also as you might have guessed a good place to start looking for building materials for your new look. There is even a website to help you find one near you. Check it out for your next remodel.

Building Materials Reuse Association

Shame on Me

I didn't something very environmentally unfriendly yesterday.

I'm so embarrassed.

My hubby was doing laundry on Monday but forgot to put the whites in the dryer. His white T-shirts were in there and he needed one for work. So I grabbed one out of the wash and through it into the dryer all by itself.

Oh the Shame of it all! The environmental horror!!!!!!

Hee Hee oh well nobody is perfect. I hate when I have to do things like that. I know it's such a waste to dry one shirt but he really needed it. What I really need to do is make sure I'm keeping up with the Laundry so we don't get anymore forgotten loads but like I said NOBODY is perfect.

Tomatoes Watermelon and..... Fungus ?!?

No more picture perfect round tastless Tomatoes for me! My tomatoes are ripe and OH So Juicy that they are putting those pretty supermarket tomatoes to shame.

I'm finally getting some watermelon this is the biggest one. There are a couple of tiny ones too. I hope they ripen before the weather gets too cold.

I'm getting a white powery fungus on my zuccini and my pumpkin plants

and the flowers keep falling off with out producing fruit.

According to GardenGuides.com I can use milk to help control the fungus by mixing one part milk to 9 parts water and spraying on the plants once a week. I did it this morning I'll let you know how it goes.

Find It Locally

I have been trying very hard to eat locally grown foods. I've even have a little container garden in the backyard to grow some of my own food. Eating locally grown food is not only more environmentally friendly, it's cheaper and healthier. The food doesn't need to travel as far to get to you. Sometimes its sold right on the farm or you can even pick your own and local Farmers Markets are a bounty of the freshest (except for home grown ;D ) fruits and veggies you could ask for.

I've have just the website to help you get started enjoying your local fruits and veggies. It's called Eat Well Guide. at http://www.eatwellguide.org/ Using keywords, city and state or zip code it can locate Local Farms, Farmers Markets, Community Supported Farms, Restaurants, Stores and Even Caterers that use locally grown foods. You can even use it to find Grass Raised Beef which is healthier then grain feed beef and more humanly raised and more environmentaly friendly. Thanks to this site I now know where to go here in Long Island to buy Local foods and I wish I had found it sooner because I love going to Farmers Markets.

Green Renovate Friday

Lets Talk the Bathroom.

Last week I mentioned the water limiting aerator as one way to help control the amount of water you consume. Lets continue in the water consumption area and finish off the bathroom.

Barry from An Explorer's View of Life ( a wonderful blog you should go check it out), left a comment last week about his low flow shower head. Did you know a that if you take a 10-minute shower you using a regular shower head then you are letting between 25 and 50 gallons of water head down the drain? Most normal high-flow shower heads use between 6 to 10 gpm. A low flow shower head have a flow of about 1.75 gpm and use 30 percent less water.

Now if you want to spend less money and still want to save water then try one of these:

This is an in line shower shutoff valve after you get yourself all wet you push the little button and it shuts the water off. Then you soap up, get all clean then push the little button to turn the water back on. These are great because there is no need to mess with the knobs while you have soap all over your face just one button to push.

Now of course the best water saving option would be to use a combination of both. Low flow to get wet turn it off when you soap up the low flow to rinse off, for Maximum water conservation.

Now onto the toilet. A regular toilet flushes about 3.5 gallons of water each time you hit the handle. There are several options when going for less water usage when you flush. If you upgrade to a water saving toilets you will only use about 1.6 gallons of water each time you flush saving a little more then half the normal water used. There is also the Dual Flush toilet which offers more or less water usage depending on... "ahem...." what you are doing. .8gal for liquid wastes and 1.6gal for the ....ummmm ..... poop.

There is also the low tech option for those who's situation warrants a less costly or less permanent option (like those who are renting their homes). Take a half gallon plastic milk jug or a clean brick and place it in the tank away from any moving parts. This will displace some of the water which will shut off the fill valve sooner helping you use less water.

A Freezer Full Of Loaf Ends

If you look in my freezer right now you will find several bread bags ( I really should consolidate them) with the crusty end pieces in them. The kids stuff the bags in there after they have finished the rest of the loaf. (Yes I told them too) They don't like the end pieces and that's ok with me no one should have to eat something they don't like but I'm not going to waste perfectly good food.

So what do I do with them? I toss them into the oven after I have finished cooking dinner and turned the oven off. The residual heat drys out the bread so I can use it for other things. Mostly I grind them up to make bread crumbs instead of paying 2 or 3 dollars for a small box of crumbs. I also do this with bread that has gone stale. Though the stale bread has other uses too. (you can use the end pieces too but remember my kids don't like them )

Here are just a few ...

Croutons - Sauté stale bread cubes in olive oil with a little Parmesan cheese and garlic some very tasty croutons for your salad.

Soup - Use to top French Onion or other Soup then add the cheese and bake.

Bread Puddings

Feed The Birds

French Toast

Stuffing

Garlic Bread - mix up some olive oil and garlic and spread on stale bread and bake at 350 until just brown on the edges.

Use stale Hot Dog buns, Hamburger buns, bagels or English Muffins to make little Pizzas

It's Already Started

As I flip through the newspaper this morning I noticed an article about Holiday spending. Then I remembered that just the other day I saw another article about the Holidays too. Now I'm assuming that they are talking about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa that December trio of money gouging, advertisement blasting, debt creators. Yeah Go Ahead Call Me Scrooge.

How long before just after New Years the Holiday decorations just stay up and they start hocking more present ideas for next year. Give me a break!

I say go ahead start planning today and stick it to the greedy money grubbing companys by heading to your local library and check out some books on homemade gifts. It's time to take back the holidays. Make it more about the family you love then the overpriced gifts that advertisers try and convince you to give to "Prove" how much you love them.

Here is a few titles to get you started and if your Library don't have these they will have many others. You can also make a request to your Librarian to get the book you want.

Gifts With Heart: Inspiring Stories, Handmade Crafts and One-Of-A-Kind Ideas by Mary Beth Sammons

Food for Friends: Homemade Gifts for Every Season by Sally Pasley Vargas

The Perfect Basket: How to Make a Fabulous Gift Basket for Any Occasion by Diane Phillips

Great Gifts In a Jarby Ms Mimee

Tomato Blight

It appears here in Long Island we are in the grip of a tomato blight due to the massive amount of rain we have had this year. Its effecting large and small gardeners alike. Lucky for me it hasn't gotten a hold of my tomatoes yet but I'll have to keep an eye on them. Here is some information from the newspaper about Tomato Blight so you can keep an eye on your tomatoes too.

What to look for: White-mold encircled gray spots on leaves and gray or brown lesions on stems. Eventually the fruit exhibits dark, greasy-looking lesions (yuck) and the plants blacken, wilt and die. Since I don't have any (knock on wood) I looked around and found this picture on Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News Website. (click here) Itt

What to do: Affected plants must be tightly sealed in plastic bags and put in the trash. They should never be composted or allowed to linger on the ground.

Preventative: For organic gardens the paper suggests products with fixed copper but states it's the least effective against blight. for non organic it suggests looking for products that contain maneb, mancozeb or chlorothalonil.

The Next Best Thing

I love the Library... you can go back through my post histories and find any number of comments on how much I love the Library. Where else can you get so much for free? Books, DVDs, CD, Magazines and the list goes on. If you are not using your local Library your paying too much!

But I know a place that is Second Best epically for an avid reader such as myself, and though you can't get CD's or Movies you can get books. Downloaded onto your computer or even your Palm Pilot or Smart Phone. Its Called Project Gutenberg.

You can download everything from Pride and Prejudice and Dracula to The History of the United States and Amusements in Mathematics. They have almost 30,000 free books to download for FREE according to their website plus another 70,000 through their partners and affiliates. Go check it out (click here) and don't forget to Book Mark it. I downloaded The Manual of Gardening by L. H. Bailey. Which has a couple sections I'm interested in... A small back yard and A city lot not to mention the Growing of Vegetables.

Happy Reading Everyone.

Green Renovate Friday

This weeks Green Renovate is going to be a simple and cheap way to help you save resources (and some cash). It's something that anyone can do in their home.

Add a Water Limiting Aerator to all your faucets. These cheap inexpensive devices restrict the water flow to as much as .5 gallons a minute but believe it or not you won't notice the difference and they are very inexpensive.

These are a couple that are sold on Conservationmart.com

This one restircts water to 1.5 gallons a minute and costs $0.99

This one restricts water to .5 gallons per minute and costs $3.47

By mixing air into the water as it flows this little up grade will stop gallons of water from pouring down your drain. You save money since you will be using less water and energy and help the environment at the same time in the same way using less.

Vegetable Container Garden Update

Ok time to post some more pictures of my Vegetable Container Garden. Here are how things are growing.

The tomatoes are growing well you can see plenty of the just waiting to ripen. You might notice I've intertwined the tomato plant into the fence for support. This helped to save money since I didn't have to build or buy a tomato cage.

The best growing plant is the Pumpkins. The funny thing is they aren't in a normal planter I had an empty storage bucket and just filled it with dirt. The only problem is there are plenty of flowers but no pumpkins. I think today after work I'm going to go out and hand pollinate them with a small paint brush.

The Watermelon is growing too slowly I don't think I'll get any good melons before it starts getting cold. I didn't have them in a spot that was getting enough sun. Something to remember for next year.

Remember that pepper plant I started last winter indoors .... Well it finally got a pepper. LOL


My zucchini is doing very well it looks nice and healthy and

look at the size of that zucchini. I think I'm going to have to dig up a good recipe for that one.

My broccoli isn't looking so well but it did start growing a couple more bunches.

Remember my Experiment... Well I'm marking it as a failure though I might try it again next year. The cherry tomato looks scraggly but it is still producing tomatoes. But the tomato plant that is hanging upside down hasn't produced any tomatoes.

Last a little money saving tip. If you don't know what a plant is don't buy it. I bought a "salad mix" six pack I saw when I was checking out the local garden store. I though how cool a mixed salad container garden. Even though I have used some of the lettuce there were three plants that I have no idea what they are. They are growing well but I haven't a clue what to do with them or when to harvest them. The two in the front are starting to get flower buds.