In Case You Haven't Noticed

Look up!  There are 2 new(ish) tabs up there to make things easier for you.  Now you can find all my tutorials in one place, and all my recipes in one place!  It made me realize I'd really like to add more to posts to both sections!

I'd also like to share that in only 4 short days my BABY girl is going to be ONE.  Yikes!  Last weekend we had a mini party for her and she seriously enjoyed her cupcake.  Can you tell?

Pin Cushion Love

I have a thing for pin cushions.  Thankfully I haven't actually accumulated any more than the one I have for myself but I can see myself one day really hoarding those things.

I've spotted a few on etsy.com lately that I love so I thought I'd share them!

 

 from: 'tis sew cute

 

from: Minibytes (here in Calgary!)

 

from: Namolio

 

from: Natures Adornments

 

from: Sea Pinks

 

from: Woolicious

And in case you'd rather make your own than buy one, here's a roundup of some free pin cushion tutorials and patterns:

 

Toadstool Cottage and Mushroom House

 

Bitty Bug Pin Cushion

 

Basket Pin Cushion

 

Tiny Pin Cushion

 

Square Pin Cushion

And there you go, there are probably WAY more pin cushion tutorials out there so if you have one you want me to add to the list, feel free to post me a comment with the link!

 

Quest for A Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie - Cookie # 2

So in my quest for a healthier (yet still yummy) chocolate chip cookie a friend on twitter shared a recipe from Planet Organic with me.  I jumped on the recipe right away because I'm a big fan of Planet Organic and have bought the odd baked good from there and they have always been delish.

I didn't like this recipe as much as the Healthy Oatmeal Cookies from Whole Grain Gourmet but they were still pretty good.

Here's the recipe as on the Planet Organic Website:

Cosmic Cookies

2 1/4 cups

Quick cooking oats

2 cups

Spelt flour

1 cup

Sunflower seeds

3/4 cup + 2

tbsp Pumpkin Seeds

1/2 cup

Shredded coconut, unsweetened

1/4 cup

Flax seeds

1 cup

Granulated cane sugar

1 tbsp

Cinnamon, ground

2 1/4 tsp

Sea salt

1 3/4 cups

Dark chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups

Raisins

1/4 cup

Water

1/4 cup

Blackstrap molasses

3/4 cup

Canola oil

1 cup

Soy milk

1.	Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
2.	In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, everything from oats to raisins. In a separate large bowl, combine wet ingredients, everything from water to soy milk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix slow at a low speed (or by hand) until just combined. Do not over mix.
3.	Portion cookie dough using a 1/3-cup measure and place onto lined baking tray. Gently flatten cookies before baking. Bake for 24 minutes or until lightly browned. Yields 24 cookies.

And here's what I did differently:

I was all out of Spelt Flour so I used whole wheat.  I omitted the sunflower seeds because I didn't have any of those in the house either, and I omitted the raisins as well because I just don't them!  I also substituted the soy milk for regular milk but I think the soy milk would add a really good flavour so next time I think I'll try that.

I found these to be really good fresh out of the oven and even really good the next day but the dozen I froze and took out a couple days later weren't near as good.  I like to bake big batches and freeze them by the dozen so that was kind of a draw back for me.

All in all though I did like these cookies, and I really like how hearty they are.

So how about you?  Do you have a favorite "healthy" chocolate chip cookie?  Any recipes you think I should try out?

little things to sew

Last month I had a birthday and naturally(?) I bought myself some presents.  The presents came in the form of sewing books that I ordered from amazon.ca One of the books I bought was the brand new Oliver + S Little Things to Sew 

I was super excited when I saw this book online and bought it before I even had time to look and see what kind of projects were in it.  It's filled with so many great things and as soon as I saw the Explorer Vest I knew I had to make some for the boys.

The first one I made went painfully.  A few things went wrong, there were a couple steps and instructions that I did differently, and it just took a LONG time.  In the end though, it turned out pretty good and the best part is the fact that since I finished Kaed's he hasn't taken it off.  He actually wanted to wear it to bed last night!  I finished up Brayer's today and he loves his just as much.  His came together MUCH quicker and all in all turned out better too.  The pattern fits his body style a bit better too so I think that really helps in the overall look.

A couple things I did differently was change the shape of the pockets and instead of using bias tape around the armholes (I didnt' have a good coordinating color) I simple folded and pressed the seams in and top stitched.

For the outer fabric I used a wool blend suiting material and for the inside a Toy Story print flannel.  I thought the Toy Story fabric would make them like the vests more but I don't think they really care.  Their favorite movie character, Hiccup (from How To Train Your Dragon) wears a vest so that immediately makes them cool in their eyes.

I managed to shoot a few pictures of the boys in them this afternoon but as it's -20 outside and I really don't have a good place to take inside pictures in my house they didn't turn out as well as I'd like.  Of course the constant jumping, running away, and general silliness of the kids didn't help either but at least they had fun!

 

So far the book has more than lived up to my expectations and both boys have already spotted other projects in there they want me to make.

Quest for A Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie

I'm on a quest to find a healthier version of a chocolate chip cookie.  I have my old favorites but we're trying to cut down on sugar at home and at first I just stopped baking cookies altogether but I found I was really missing it.  Both the baking and having a once a day treat for the kids (and myself!)

I've tried two recipes so far and the first one was Healthy Oatmeal Cookies from Whole Grain Gourmet

Here's the recipe:

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies (with Honey)
Ingredients:
Dry ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (a pinch more depending on the moisture of the mix)
• 1 1/2 cups of Large Flake Rolled Oats (smaller flake is OK too)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

Wet ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup oil (corn, grape seed or olive) * you can also use some applesauce to replace some of the oil if you wish*
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses
• 1 egg (beat with 1 Tbsp Water)
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Yummy ingredients

• 1/2 cup raisins (1 cup for my Dad's batch)
• 1/2 cup walnuts (more for my Dad's)!!

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. Hint: when measuring out the honey, spray the measuring cup with oil or baking spray--your honey won't stick).
3. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. If the mixture seems too wet, add a bit of flour. If it isn't binding together very well, you may wish to add an egg white.
4. COOL the mix for 20 minutes in the fridge.
5. Preheat the oven to 335 degrees (lower temperature due to the honey in the recipe which will burn more easily).
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto your baking sheet (I recommend lining the baking sheet with parchment paper). Press down with a fork to ensure even cooking.
7. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until golden on the bottom of the cookie. The cookies freeze very well and make a great snack! Enjoy.

And here is what I did differently:

-Instead of raisins I used chocolate chips.  I don't like raisins myself and neither does hubs but everyone likes chocolate chips!
-I ended up having to add about 3/4 of a cup more flour than the recipe called for and I did add the extra egg white as suggested.
-I didn't cool the dough (I actually totally missed that instruction) and they turned out fine but letting your cookie dough set always improves the flavour so next time I will.
-I used olive oil not grape seed oil.
-I only put in about 1/2 a tbsp of cinnamon but next time I'm gonna go ahead and add the whole tbsp.

I actually really liked these cookies.  They weren't overly "healthy" tasting but the molasses flavour was a bit strong for me.  I think upping the cinnamon next time will help that.  The kids and hubs all liked them as well so that's an extra bonus for me.  I froze some of them and thawed they were just as good so again, an extra bonus.

If you make these I'd love to know how they turned out and what you did differently and how it turned out!

Cutest Bean Around

So my good friend Jenn recently opened her own etsy shop Cutest Bean Around and in the last while she's made some pretty amazing hats for my kids.  Both the boys  are really into the movie How To Train Your Dragon so when I saw a pattern on etsy for a Viking Hat I had to get Jenn to make me some.

Then last Sunday was Kaed's 4th Birthday party and he had a How To Train Your Dragon theme and Jenn made him a  Toothless dragon hat.  It's amazing and Kaed wears it everywhere.  Even Ara can appreciate a good Toothless dress up time :)