Homeschooling

I have a Kindergartner, and I have my own part-time business and work from home. I have given a bit of thought to homeschooling, but I'm not completely sold yet.

This is a very compelling infographic, though!

Created by: CollegeAtHome.com

Baking Without Artificial Colors and Trans Fats

"Eat All the Junk Food You Want as Long as You Cook It Yourself"  --Michael Pollan

Nothing makes me happier than baking up something sweet and delicious. Whenever possible, I try to eliminate artificial and unnatural junk from whatever I'm making. For the longest time, I thought it was impossible to decorate baked goods without having to use colorful chemicals and/or hydrogenated junk, but over time, I have found a few tricks that have allowed me to bake and decorate without chemicals and trans fats. It wasn't as hard as I'd originally thought it would be, and it all tastes so delicious!

My daughter and I just made these bunny cookies for her class for and Easter treat. I used a sugar cookie dough recipe found here, but I only used half the sugar. Since I'd planned to decorate them, I knew they'd still be plenty sweet, and the end result was perfect - just sweet enough and very satisfying.

So, what do I use in place of artificial colors in sweets?

These are my favorites: Matcha Green Tea Powder (Green), Tumeric (Yellow), Beet Juice (Pink), and Blueberry Juice Concentrate (Purple). You might think these flavors sound disgusting, but if you're tinting something sweet like icing or melted candy, the sweetness overwhelms the other flavors, and no one even notices! With each of these tints, only a little bit is needed to get a nice color, so you aren't really adding enough for the other flavors to come through.

Anytime I need to use black or brown, I just melt chocolate chips or use dark cocoa powder to tint. Yum!

We used the leftover dough to make round sugar cookies, and I drizzled the leftover melted green, yellow, and chocolate candy on them for a bit of color.

When it comes to avoiding trans fats, these are the best products I have found when making and decorating sweets:

Neither of these contains hydrogenated oils, so no trans fats! It's important to read the ingredients on the label, even if the front says that a product has 0 Trans Fats, because that might just mean, "per serving." Always double check to make sure that you don't see the word, "Hydrogenated __anything__" in the ingredients!

I use both of these for all my frosting, candies, and cookies. I always use the CandiQuik in place of icing on sugar cookies, too! I just melt it and spread on the cooled cookie, then melt more and tint it for decorations - so easy!

How to Love Choke Down Kale Chips

I keep reading about Kale, and how it's the cure to most everything that ails the human race. A friend of mine mentioned that kale chips aren't terrible, so I thought I'd give them a try. 

At first, they were okay. I liked the crunch, but the taste wasn't really what I'd expected. It was worse. I did snack on them for a while, but I couldn't keep it up, and soon I was back to my bad snacky ways. 

Still, I had all these kale chips, just filling a big bowl on my counter. I just couldn't bring myself to snack on them alone anymore, but my frugal nature wouldn't allow me to toss them out, either. Instead, I went in search of ways to still eat them without having to suffer through the taste. 

Chili was the perfect solution! I filled half a bowl with kale chips, then finished it off with homemade vegetarian chili and a bit of cheese on top. 

Perfection.

A Cute and Easy St. Patrick's Day Treat

While looking for a St. Patrick's Day treat for my daughter's Kindergarten class, I came across these adorable leprechaun hats made of cookies, marshmallows, and melted candies. I made a version of my own (less pretty, but oh, so tasty!) and decided to try them without artificial food coloring.

Instead, I tinted the melted white candy with matcha. I just used a sprinkle. It made for a nice shade of green and didn't change the taste (confirmed by my husband and daughter).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Healthy St. Patrick's Day Treat

Sometimes I feel like trying to feed my family healthy food is as dangerous and difficult as traipsing through a wild-animal infested jungle. Holidays are so much fun, but I always dread the onslaught of artificial colors, trans fats, and chemicals that my daughter ends up eating.

I'm don't go overboard with it, and usually just try to do what I can, especially when we eat at home. As someone who has lived through a cancer diagnosis, though, I try to do everything possible to ensure that she never has to go through that.

Sometimes it works out great, like the pink Hello Kitty cupcakes tinted with beet juice (more about that later). Other times, it's a total flop, like the red velvet cake sweetened and colored with cooked beets, which was neither red nor sweet and got tossed in the garbage.

This is such an easy and healthy treat for St. Patrick's Day, though!

It's a green apple shamrock with a pot o'gold on the side! The best part? All you need is a sliced green apple and a little dish of nut butter. Yum! Erin go Bragh!

Behold the Redneck Wind Chimes

For most of my life, I have lived in a rural area of the south, and I come from a long line of rednecks (and there's nothing wrong with that!). As a gag gift for a family white elephant gift exchange, I made the Redneck Wind Chimes.

They're a fun and easy gift, and you probably don't need to buy anything to make them.

What You'll Need
- 4 - 6 empty aluminum cans (PBR and RC Cola are always good choices, but anything will work)
- Rope or twine
- Screws with circle on top (I'm not sure what the real name for these might be?)
- Paint
- Drill or staple gun
- A piece of wood (any size or shape will work, really)

First, I attached a string to the cans so they could be hung. I actually used twisted pair copper from an RJ-45 cable for my cans, just because I had a spare piece. You can use twine or string, or anything that you happen to have around. Make the strings long enough to hang down a bit. I punched a small hole through the top side of the can and threaded the wire through that and the opening in the top of the can. I wouldn't use the pop top to hang it, they probably aren't strong enough.

Next, I drilled holes at the bottom of my board for each wire, threaded the wire through the hold, and tied it in a knot. If you don't want to use a drill, you can staple the wires to the back of the board.

Then, I fastened my screws to the top edges of the board. If you don't have any of these little screws with a circle at the top lying around your house, you could always use something like these picture hangers and just attach them to the back top edge of your board.

Attach the rope from which the board will hang by threading it through the two screws (or picture hangers).

All that's left is your painting! I just used some leftover outdoor trim paint that we had, and painted, "Redneck Wind Chimes" and on the front, along with a few XXXs. You can be as creative as you'd like, though!

These were a huge hit with our family at the party! Have fun!

Experimenting with Fused Plastic

I have quite a few fabric shopping bags, but I don't always remember to take them with me when I shop. I usually recycle any plastic bags we bring home, but every once in awhile I experiment with fusing plastic bags into fabric. I have made a few really useful things so far!

I made my daughter an apron, perfect for painting and crafts because it just wipes clean!

I made a hair cutting cape since I usually cut my family's hair at home.

I like to play around with the designs, and it's so easy to do - just cut colored pieces of plastic and place in between layers of clear or white pieces, then fuse them together. The patterns stay put and show through, so it's like creating your own fabric!

Here are some yellow and orange flowers:

 And some hearts!

Have fun, and remember to recycle your unused plastic when you're done!

Easy Little Shelves

What do an empty clementine crate, wire shelves, and my daughter's crafts all have in common? They're hanging on my wall!

I have been on the look out for shelves that would allow us to show off the lovely crafts my daughter brings home from school. Up until now, they have been on our kitchen counter, but it looked jumbled up rather than giving it a showcase feel.

I ran across a silver wire shelf at a thrift store and thought it would be nice to use for the smaller items. Since we have a black and yellow kitchen, I decided to paint over the silver with some of our black Rustoleum paint (this stuff is so handy to have around the house - I use it for so many crafts!).

We also have a few taller crafts that didn't fit inside the wire cube, and I thought I'd also paint an empty clementine crate to see if it'd look okay as well as hold the taller items.

I was able to hang the wire shelves using sheetrock screws, and I just sat the crate on top. I think it works very well, and I love the extra space on my kitchen counter! It made my 5-year-old feel special to see her arts and crafts up in a special place of their own, too.