How I love the thrift store, let me count the ways!

   Hello friends!!!! It has been entirely too long, so sorry. February is a very busy month in this hippie household. Not only did we have a bunch of birthdays, but the kiddos were off for an entire week, my youngest daughter, Bella, was sick, the girls and lil'Hugo all started ball, and hubby's been working 6 days a week!!!! Whew! The month just flew by!
   But I'm back now with a piece that I've been excited to share with you  for an entire month. Today it's all about the thrift store! Here, in Poway, we have an awesome Salvation Army. I have picked up some really nice things for dirt cheap. In January we stopped in and got Lillianna a brand new pair of banana republic jeans, that fit her perfectly, for $4! That day we also found her a cute little top, a sweater and a pair of shoes, a complete outfit for $18.
   My kids love shopping at the thrift store too! Well, the girls do anyway. We never really find boys clothes, but they get other things, like books~which they allow the kids to get 2 free~ hats, shoes, backpacks, and other stuff like that. I'm glad that my kids see the value in buying things that aren't necessarily "new". I really want them to learn how to spend money wisely.
   The prices are pretty low to begin with, but then, oh yeah, they have sale days! My kids get all excited when they see the "50% or 75% off" sign hanging in the window. You'd think it was Christmas! It's really the cutest thing ever. How many kids, especially kids in junior high that WANT to get their clothes from a thrift store? Not many.
   Anyway, The twin's birthday was on the first of February. All the bills had been paid, and we were pretty low on funds, but I still wanted to get them a little something. So, I picked them up from school early, took them to in-n-out for lunch and then we headed over to the thrift store. Just our luck it was 50% off Friday :)
   Lillianna found 2 very cute dresses, a romper and a skirt. Adrien got a hat that holds two drinks, one on each side with straws in it. Bella got a new dress, a pair of shoes and a pair of shorts. I grabbed a lunch box for lil'Hugo. And I got myself 2 skirts, 4 dresses, and 3 pairs of shoes. Our grand total? $50! That's what I'm talking about right there!!!
   Not only do we get a better value, but it's a form of recycling. I feel like I'm getting more for my money, while helping to reduce waste. I'm not buying into the whole bigger, better, more more more mind set that I feel society says is the way it should be. It makes my wallet and my heart happy :)

   People always compliment me on how cute I look, or how nicely dressed my kids are. I looooooove the look on their face when I tell them we got it at the thrift store. Pure satisfaction!

 

That's me, in the middle, in a dress I got at the thrift store for $3

Liked this one so much I got it in black and red. It's from The Limited, cost me $4 each. An the shoes were $2.50

This is my youngest daughter, Bella, second day of school in her $3 thrift store outfit~$1 for the shirt, $2 for the shorts.

Another $2 pair of shorts

Adrien's soda drink hat

Hugo's $3 lunch box

One of my new $2 skirts

$2 dress, it's big, but I'm gonna fix that ;)

Bella's $2 dress and $2.50 shoes

Lilly's sweater that she bought with her own money

 

   These are just a few pics that I had on hand of some of the things we've picked up at our local thrift store. I encourage you to stop by your local thrift store and check it out, you never know...your next favorite outfit could be waiting for you!

 

 

 





Sorry I've been so quiet...

   The beginning of this month was very busy for us. My twins had their birthday on the first, my nephew's birthday was the third and mine was on the fifth!!!! We made it through all of our birthdays with lots of fun, love, and a few gifts.
   I can't believe how quickly my kiddos are growing up! The twins are twelve, my oldest is thirteen and my youngest will be ten next month. They will all be double digits in age!!!! How did that happen??? Weren't they all just babies?
   Oh how I longed for the day when they'd all be out of diapers, sleeping through the night, no longer breastfeeding, and self sufficient. Now, I miss those things. I miss having a baby to hold, a baby that needs me and thinks I'm the greatest.
   While I know that my big kids still love me, these older years bring new challenges that are just... well... no fun! Give me a tantrum throwing toddler any day, a teenager with attitude? No thanks! Can I pass on this? I know one day I'll look back on this time, smile and laugh, but for now... LORD help me!!!!
  

homemade almond milk (raw, vegan)

   I have to be honest. I don't like store bought almond milk. The only thing I use it for is to make smoothies for the kids. I skeptical about making this, but the almonds were on sale and I figured if I didn't like it the kids would be drinking smoothies for breakfast for a few days.
   I got the recipe here. But I'm going to tell you what I did, again, I'm not very good at following recipes exactly...

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups soaked almonds
3 1/2 cups filtered water
pinch of sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract


Directions:
*Soak almonds over night.
   Put almonds in a bowl that has a lid. Add about 2 cups of warm water, put lid on, and
   enjoy the rest of your evening. Drain and rinse the almonds, then peel the skins off
   (optional)
*Place everything in blender and blend on high for about a minute.
*Place a cloth napkin over a pitcher and pour milk through to strain.
*Squeeze and ring napkin out to get as much liquid out as possible.
*Refrigerate you awesome, yummy milk and enjoy!

   The first time I made this I did follow the recipe exactly, but thought that the honey made it too sweet. So this time I left it out all together and it was Delicious! See? Easy peasy!

Soaking the almonds

Peeling the almonds

Everything in the blendtec

After it's all been blended

My napkin over my pitcher

Pouring in the milk to strain

You do have to hold the napkin to keep it from falling in the pitcher

 



After the blender's empty, pull your napking up

 Squueze and wring out the liquid

 

Now that's it all wrung out

You're left with this beautiful almond pulp

Place it in a bowl and store in the fridge until you decide what you wanna do with it

I keep my milk in a mason jar

You know you're thirsty now!

This morning I enjoyed it with my oatmeal.

 

 

   I posted a recipe for making cereal using the left over almond pulp. I also used some of the pulp to "bread" my eggplant parmesean today at lunch. I will be looking into more useful and creative ways to use this beautiful by product, and I'll definitely let ya know what I come up with! 



homemade cereal

   So, when I did the 3 day cleanse this last weekend I made my own almond milk. After I made the almond milk I had left over almond pulp. I thought about feeding it to our chicken, but then I decided to google recipes for leftover almond pulp to see if there was a way to use it in the house instead.
   I looked through a few recipes, but a lot of them were raw and required a dehydrator, which I don't have, or they required ingredients that I didn't have. Then I found this recipe. It looked delicious and seemed simple enough. I was out of coconut, but didn't mind going out to get some because I'm quite partial to it.
   I waited until Sunday night to make this, because I couldn't eat it while doing the cleanse and I just knew it was going to be super yummy. So, here's what I did...


Ingredients:
1 cup packed almond pulp
3/4 cup dried coconut flakes (that I pulsed in my blendtec 'til they were more like shredded)
2/3 cup oat flour (oatmeal pulsed in blendtec until it's flour)
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

Directions:
Mix everything together in a big bowl.
Spread mixture out into a lined pan, I used wax paper.
Put in oven on lowest setting over night.
  

   My oven's lowest setting is 170. I put it in about 8:15pm and had hubby turn the oven off when he got up in the morning, about 5am. The cereal came out nice and crunchy and yummyliscious!!! I ate it for breakfast yesterday and today using the almond milk, instead of cow's milk. My oldest daughter is the only kid that's tasted it and she really likes it. She wasn't a huge fan of the almond milk though. That's alright by me, just means I get to be the one to drink it all!

The almond pulp.

Everything all mixed together.

I just plopped it all in the pan and smoothed it out with my hands.

Then I used my pizza cutter to cut it into little squares.

When it was done i popped the little squares into a tupperware.

yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 



3 day detox!

   *Warning this post gives some details some of you may not want to read. If you don't mind getting a bit personal with me read on, friend*


   So... I have been having uti's once a month pretty much since July :( Totally sucks!!! I went to the doc in October, after one round of antibiotics in July, one in August, 2 rounds in September and then a 7 day round, followed by a 3 day round and then a few days later another 3 day round in October!!! I asked the doc what was causing them. Her answer "Well, it could be this...or that...or this other thing...we're not sure there's no way to tell. Why don't I just give a huge bottle of antibiotics that you can just take daily to prevent any more infections." She was serious. She wanted me to be on a daily antibiotic!!!! How nuts is that?!!!
   Well, after 2 weeks of antibiotics in October the infection was gone but I just felt miserable. I felt sick, tired and just not healthy. We went through November just fine and December was nice too. Then, right as the new year started I had that feeling in my stomach again. You know the one? It feels like you drank a whole gallon of water and if you don't get to a bathroom soon, you're going to literally burst open. When you finally get to the bathroom, the 2 drops that finally do come out feel like liquid acid! ughhhh!
   So, I started drinking water like I was dying of thirst, taking cranberry pills to help with the pain and resting. I was just so tired. Tired of feeling tired, tired of being sick. So I decided to do a cleanse. I thought maybe if I can just purge my body of whatever the heck is causing these infections then I'll feel better. I figured at the worst I would do it, feel the same and end up back at the doctor's office and on antibiotics.
   I had found a 3 day detox on the "Hungry for Change" website. It looked doable. I went and got everything I need and started on Friday. The first day was hard, I'm not gonna lie. The food that looked so nice on the website tasted like gross. I really thought about giving up. The only reason I stuck with it was because I really wanted to try take care of myself, my body, naturally. I was cranky the first day. I didn't feel cranky, but hubby told me I was and I believe him.
   The second day, was a bit better. The celery I had used the day before was super salty, so I threw it out and used a new bunch. Doing this made the green juice taste much better, good in fact! The hard part was having to stick a food plan, while cooking yummy delicious food for the rest of the family. But I persevered. It was really hard to concentrate and I was unbelievably tired, but I made it through. I told hubby "No wonder they have you do this over the weekend! I can't think!" Plus the fact that you're going to pee more than you ever have in your entire life is good reason to do it on the weekend.
   The third day, I woke up and felt just AMAZING! I was tired. My tummy didn't hurt. I could think. I was in a great mood. I didn't stick to the detox plan, because it was Sunday. And this particular Sunday we had to be at church an hour earlier than normal. I didn't have time to make my green juice, but I did drink the lemon ginger drink. I had lots of water at church. A friend of mine brought me a raw, organic kombucha tea that did the trick in holding me off until we got home. By the time we did get home, it was 3:30pm and I just went straight to the soup that was supposed to be for dinner. It was cold and rainy and I wanted something warm. I ate the almonds a little later and ended up having the green juice around dinner time. I ate the dessert, and had tea at about 8ish.
   Today, I woke up still feeling great. I wasn't tired, and that is the best part of this whole thing. I'm usually stupidly tired. Like have a hard time even pulling myself out of bed in the morning. But this morning I was up, making breakfast for the kids and cheerful while doing it! I had a cup of tea, chamomile lavender that hubby picked up for me yesterday, 2 glasses of water and a glass of fresh orange/apple juice. I made homemade almond milk to make the dessert in the cleanse, and used the leftover almond pulp to make homemade cereal last night and I'm going to have that for breakfast. I'm going to finally get to enjoy the spaghetti sauce I made on Saturday tonight at dinner.
   I truly feel better. But I am truly thankful that it's over and that I get to enjoy food that tastes better. I'm going to cut back on dairy, and make more of an effort to eat more raw foods. I'd like to feel this good all the time!!!

Momma Sumer's Mexican Rice Recipe

   My hubby is mexican and grew up eating pretty much just mexican food. I use to tell people "If he can't wrap it in a tortilla, he won't eat it!" I remember for the first few years of our marriage, whenever I would make chicken soup he would heat up refried beans and take the chicken and potatoes from the soup and make burritos.
   The man loves beans and rice and I could not make rice for the life of me. It was so frustrating. I had his mom show me, his aunt, my step mom and even our good friend showed me, and my rice still sucked. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden one day it was like an "ahh haa!" moment. So, for those of you who may have the same problem with rice as I did, try this recipe and let me know if it helps.

Ingredients:
3-4 TBSP oil
2 cups white rice
2 TBSP taco seasoning
1 TBSP chili powder
1/2 cup salsa fresca  (***alternate noted below)
4 cups water
1 cup frozen mixed veggies

Directions:
-Heat oil in pan on medium heat, it's a 4 on my stove
-Add rice and stir until rice is no longer translucent, but don't let rice turn brown!
-Add spices and stir
-Add salsa, water and veggies, stir
-Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let cook on low, I usually turn the stove down to a 2.

This is my youngest daughter, she asked me to take a pic her eating my rice! Isn't she the cutest?

 

   I'm not sure exactly how long to let the rice cook, probably about 30-40 minutes. I start the rice first then make everything else and just keep an eye on it, checking it every once in a while. If it seems done I turn the stove off and let it sit there until we're ready to eat. Sometimes, it's done at the same time as everything else and other times we're waiting for the rice. Just open it up and take a little bite, when it's done to you, it's done.

 

 

***If you don't have salsa made and don't want to take the time to make it , just throw the water, a tomato, some cilantro, a clove of garlic, some onion, and little lime juice in your blender, liquify and use this.***

Salsa Fresca Recipe

   I was eating breakfast this morning. Eggs on toast topped with some of the salsa I made the other day and half an avocado on the side. I eat this often. It's one of my favorites. As I was eating, I remembered that I wanted to share my very easy salsa fresca recipe with you guys. Making fresh salsa is super fast, much tastier and healthier than the store bought crap. So, the next time you're at the store grab these few things and make a batch!

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes (I used organic cluster tomatoes)
1/2 purple onion
cilantro (I used about half of a bunch that I got at the farmer's market)
2 fresh jalapeno peppers
2 cloves garlic
lime (I used the juice from 1/4 of it)
salt to taste

Directions:
-Dice 3 tomatoes and place in a big bowl. Quarter the other tomato and place it in the blender.
-Dice the onion and place half in the bowl, half in the blender.
-Dice cilantro, again half in the bowl, half in the blender.
-Roughly chop jalapenos and place all of it in the blender, seeds and all.
-Peel the garlic and place them both in the blender.
-Quarter your lime and squeeze juice from one piece into blender.
-Process in blender until it's all liquidy (not sure if that's a word, but hey)
-Add the contents from blender to your bowl.
-Mix it all up and salt to taste. (You can add more lime juice if you prefer also)

 

   See...fresh, easy, yummy salsa! You don't have to blend this salsa at all if you want your salsa to be chunkier, I just find that it's not as juicy that way. You can also just throw everything in the blender for a quicker, smoother version.

   I use this salsa to make Mexican rice. Recipe for that is posted here.