early morning nature walks....

while still in our pj's....see- every morning a woodpecker goes crazy on our vent/intake thing on our roof and it is sooo loud.... wakes everyone up.

So we ran out to find it~



found some reeeaaallly pretty weeds....
FOUND IT~ CAPTURED IT~



more birds in our mesquite & saguaro....

the great outdoors

we CANNOT get enough of this beautiful weather!
ira even found GRASS!!!

~life is amazing~

emers

Crafting Day!

~CANDLES~




~BEAN PAINTING~
had some oooolllldddd beans from who knows where- we tossed them in paint and some glue.......












we even took some painted beans- shook them in a jar to paint it for a tea light holder (see pink jar in last pic)

~MARBLE PAINTING~







it was a FULL day!

Groundhogs day!

we pretended we were groundhogs leaving our burrows.... we did not see our shadows ;)






Ira kept calling it "gopher day"..... :)

we printed up some activities, read some stories.... talked about what 6 weeks of winter means to people who DO NOT live in the sunny desert and why they hope for a short winter and we hope for a loooooooooong one :)

Nature Day: yet another rainy nature walk

and we looooove it!

so nice to have wet weather here where its always so drrrryyyy!



"look at the rain clouds!"



liv- she smetimes gets tired and falls asleepo- not this time.....


~joy~

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

new recipes....

Almond Butter
this time i *slightly* toasted the raw almonds.... slightly, as in...barely even warmed them.
after it turned to butter, i added some vanilla extract, cinnamon and a teensy bit of raw agave.

de-lic-ous

then, in a fit of dairy desperation (withdrawal symptoms are taking longer to go away this time)
i had freshly baked pitas and inspired by this and this- i made this~

very plain... but delicious as well. so delicious i took a bite before the picture! lol

i made a second one with fresh basil on top and it was super good.


~pizza~
i toasted the pita in the oven for 1 minute, added tomato paste and oregano and toasted again for 2 minutes, then added "cheese sauce"

~cheese sauce~
in a food processor:
1 clove garlic
pinch of tumeric
1T tahini
lots of nutritional yeast to taste
small drizzle of evoo until it was pourable....second round i used less evoo and liked it better....but this needs to be played with more.... its the kind of thing that feels like its one ingredient away from being amazing.

Baking Day!

we made pitas and tortillas!

here is liv rolling out some tortillas!









ira eating one ;)

jared assisted me in cooking- just so he could eat one :P

~Tortilla Recipe~
we used this recipe as a guide and made some changes...
we used whole wheat flour
6-8 T of shortening
2t Baking Powder
1 1/2t salt
1 1/2c. warm water

then followed her directions.

pita dough rising....

~Pita Dough~
we also changed this recipe
we used whole wheat flour, we did NOT poke holes in the pitas and we cooked them on a dry irong skillet, not in the oven.


it was getting late... so we made some popcorn and watched our netflix movie of the day~ UP..... once the girls fell asleep, i put emers back in the wrap to roll out the dough. no pics.... camera had died ;)

~popcorn recipe~
2-3T Coconut Oil
1/2 c. popcorn kernels
2 T Nutritional Yeast
1-2 T earth balance (miss our butter :( )
salt to taste

heat oil in large saucepan with 3 test kernels... when they pop, remove from heat, add all kernels and cover. Leave off heat 30 seconds to bring all kernels to same temp... then put back on high heat. As popcorn pops shake pan to get kernels to bottom... when all popped- put in large bowl, drizzle with melted earth balance- then nut. yeast- then salt.

freakin amazing!

typed while nursing-srry for typos!