Simple Natural Homemaking

The Secret Ingredient for Rich and Creamy Almond Milk

2013-08-08T20:42:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to make myself like almond milk for years now. While it is a healthy alternative when dairy isn't an option, but the boxed stuff has a funny texture, (due to all the thickeners I suppose), and usually contains synthetic vitamins as well. I'm all about DIY, but often homemade almond milk just tastes like nut-water. After experimenting with several different additions, I've hit on a winner and now make delicious almond milk that is as good over granola as it is straight out of the glass. The secret ingredient? Coconut milk. Just a little bit adds some healthy fat and greatly improves the texture. It is rich and creamy, and doesn't separate when heated, although you will want to give it shake if it's been in the fridge for a while.

To make
Soak 1/2 cup whole almonds overnight in filtered water. In the morning, drain and rinse, then add them to the blender with 2 cups water, 1/4 cup coconut milk, and a pinch of salt (crazy, right? But you really need it to round out the flavor). Blend the heck out of it, then strain through a clean tea towel and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.

You can compost the left-over almond meal, but why not save it and use for muffins or other baked goodies? I keep a small bag in the freezer and when it fills up, I'll dehydrate the almond meal for a couple hours until it's crumbly. I use a dehydrator, but you could easily do it in your oven on a low heat setting, say 200 or below. Check after 30 minutes or so and stir occasionally until dry. Scoop the almond flour into a clean container and store in the freezer for future use.

What is your favorite alternative milk?

Babette Style Crochet Baby Blanket (With Free Pattern)

2013-01-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

My friend is expecting her third baby soon. While I only have two girls, I remember there being a different kind of excitement surrounding my first birth. A shower thrown by friends, another with my volunteer organization. Gifts were mailed from friends out of state and we received cards, flowers, and phone calls of congratulations after her arrival. My second birth brought more practical help to the house with meals and childcare for our toddler, but far fewer gifts. Well, fewer gifts for the baby. My toddler made out like a bandit after Grammy's three week visit and a new toy nearly every day.

So, I could only imagine what kind of reception a third baby would receive, especially as a girl with two older sisters. I had been itching to craft something and found myself with a few spare moments at night after the kids were asleep, so I started a baby blanket.

I was inspired by several Babette Style blankets that I found on Pinterest. The patchwork design with varying sizes of multicolored crochet squares had a kind of whimsy about it that I thought perfect for a baby. I didn't seek out a pattern and instead drafted my own, assuming I would sort out how to make those half-squares and how it would all piece together. It was a labor of love, and I am so thrilled with how it turned out.

If you are inspired to create a similar blanket, here are my tips:

Limit your yarn colors. I chose six that worked well together, I think that is the minimum you would want to use. Eight is probably the maximum. You could also do different shades of the same color for a more subtle look.
Chose yarns of the same weight or, even better, from the same brand. This is important for a uniform look and feel. I used a medium 4 weight acrylic and I worked it with the recommended H-8 hook. It has a slight sheen and a softness that you don't normally get with crochet work.
Start early and set a deadline. So often I start a craft project and never ever finish it. Sound familiar? I started this as soon as my newborn was sleeping a decent stretch in the evenings and set a deadline to be completely finished when my friend was just shy of eight months pregnant. I wanted some time to wrap it and give it to her before the baby arrived, and I wasn't sure where that would fit into her schedule. She's a busy momma too.

Here is the layout I created, which you are free to use. The finished blanket is about 2x3 feet and it's made from basic double crochet squares. This motif leaves you with an odd number of stitches on the outside of each square, so piecing it together was a bit trickier than just stitching one-to-one. I found it best to work the last three stitches of one corner and the first three stitches of the next corner over three stitches on the joining square. There is also a diagram on the layout to help this make sense.

I'm excited to gift this blanket to my friend, and even more excited to meet the beautiful baby for whom it was created.

Starting Our First Garden

2013-01-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Can I share something exciting with you? I just ordered seeds for our first garden. Combined with the packets that I picked up at the store this week, we will have 14 different types of veggies growing soon. I plan to add herbs to that list too. I can hardly wait! Here's a view of what's happening outside:

It may not look like much now, but there is already a lot of sweat invested in that patch of dirt. Someone put some serious work into our backyard before we moved into our house last year, creating terraces and flagstone paths on our steep lot. But there was still so much that needed to be done. Lots of (ugly) ornamental plants to dig out, excess soil that also needed to be removed, and some erosion problems to fix.

Under that layer of snow is the cover crop of rye that I planted in the fall, after removing about four wheelbarrows full of soil and leveling out what remained. That was a long, sweaty, backbreaking job; a perfect introduction to gardening. Some days I was digging away with my newborn in the baby wrap, which was a bit ridiculous, but really highlights my commitment to this project. My husband put stakes in and surrounded the bed with chicken wire to keep the dog (and the toddler) out while it was growing, and since they are a rather permanent addition, I plan to hang some shade cloth from them to protect the more tender veggies from the desert sun. Although this bed is shaded by the house all winter, it gets hit by the blazing sun all day in the summer.

Since this is my first real garden, I have been asking friends what has working well for their gardens, and taking mental notes. I also went looking for help with planning and organization, and found a great program called Smart Gardener, which I am so excited to use. You can design your garden layout, select and add plants, then it creates your weekly to-do list for the season. Oh, and it's completely free! I'm hoping this will keep me organized and make my first gardening venture a success.

What is happening with your garden right now? What are your plans for the growing season?

Letting Go of The Gourmet

2013-01-13T12:18:00.002-07:00

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I consider myself to have a simple life in many ways, but for so long my cooking was excluded from that. See, I'm trained as a Natural Foods Chef, and it's my creative outlet to make healthy and healing foods that taste fantastic. For quite some time, it was my livelihood as well, and the lavish meals I created for my clients were finding their way into my kitchen long after I left that work behind.

I was using simple ingredients, but never in a simple way. Each dinner was carefully crafted of multiple recipes with complimentary flavors. Moroccan Lamb Kabobs; Quinoa Salad with Apricots, Pistachios, and Mint-Yogurt Dressing; Roasted Carrots with Orange-Blossom and Honey. It wasn't rare to see that kind of menu on a Tuesday night. The average dinner took about an hour to prepare. Ambitious ones were in the range of 2 1/2, and since my husband works from home, I expected him to watch the kids while I hummed away in the kitchen. I'm thinking he felt like he got the short end of the stick, even if his reward was a mini Moroccan Feast.

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After our second baby, it became a burden to cook this way, but I felt like it was a cop-out to do anything less. I mean, I'm a trained chef! I can't just throw some green beans in a pan with a little garlic and call it good. It was hard to hear my husband say he would prefer that for dinner. I thought he was just tired of daddy duty, but really he was telling me I was taking on too much. And he was tired of daddy duty.

Suddenly, the message was everywhere: It's ok to cook simply. Better than ok, since it meant more time and energy to be with your family, instead of in the kitchen crafting a gourmet meal for them. Funny how when you are on the right path, signs come to guide you in all directions.

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I started small, which is silly because this is really one area where it probably would have been easier to go big. For me, it was not. I picked two nights to make quick meals, and the rest of the week could host my culinary overkill. Not surprisingly, I came to like those quick nights a bit more, which encouraged me to continue simplifying my cooking.

It's still a challenge for me to keep the simplicity in my meals. I have to actively look for basic recipes, as the ones I'm most familiar with can be quite time consuming. When dinner is a hit, I add it to our Favorite Recipes List and note if it's quick to prepare. The list is categorized by season, so there is plenty of variety, and it really helps when I'm menu planning for the week. I highly recommend starting one for your family if you haven't already.

Are you a recovering gourmet? Share your quick cooking tips in the comments.

Creating a Play Kitchen

2012-12-27T14:43:00.001-07:00

It's 10:00 AM on Christmas Eve and my 2 year old is asking me to heat up some pretend soup for her stuffed toy. This is her newest idea of fun - feeding her purple puppy that is buckled in the high chair. For nearly a year I have been coveting a play kitchen for her (and let's be honest, for me too), and now I discover this tutorial on a day with an already overflowing to-do list. I'm pretty sure you can see where I'm headed: straight to the garage to gather my supplies.

My goal: turn this

into this (well, it's cardboard equivalent)

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in time for Christmas morning. I can proudly say mission accomplished! Here's how:

I used 3 boxes from the CSA we tried out this summer and some other random bits of cardboard that hadn't made it out to the recycling bin yet. Also gathered from around the house:

a round storage container for the sink
the pump from a soap dispenser for the faucet
bottle caps for the stove knobs
a page protector for the oven door
string and packing paper for the handles
tape (and tape, and more tape)
hot glue (when i didn't think the tape was doing it's job)
ruler, pencil, pen, utility knife, and scissors

We did make one purchase for this creation, and that was some velcro for the oven and fridge doors. I set to work in the playroom, right in front of the kids. Why? Because I can, for this one last year. Next Christmas Eve, mommy's frantic crafting may raise a few more questions. The Toddler even helped, handing one of my cast-off cardboard pieces to her sister when she started getting fussy.

The design happened really organically. Two boxes attached end-to-end worked perfectly for the fridge, and I just measured and tested and cut the rest as I went along. I wasn't sure how my vision of cabinets over the sink would work out, but it did, and they are actually quite sturdy with all that glue. Start to finish, the entire thing took about 4 hours, and that was including a lunch break and a couple of nursing sessions with the baby. Honestly, I love the final product. Toddler does too, and that makes my heart sing!