Spring is official this week! Along with the warm breezes, thunderstorms, spring flowers, budding trees, and busy birds, comes soccer season. That means we'll be coming and going to practices, games, and cub scouts each week. And of course, that means I need a meal plan so we don't end up eating on the run.

My toddler is experiencing tooth decay, so I've been reading Ramiel Nagel's Cure Tooth Decay. I'll be incorporating as much homemade chicken bone broth as I can into our meals, as well as fish, cooked veggies and greens, yogurt, and maybe sauerkraut. The biggest challenge will be to reduce or avoid bread and pasta, except maybe some sourdough. My goal is to get a sourdough starter going this week. Wish me luck!

Monday
- Make sourdough starter
- Boil one dozen eggs for snacks
- Roast chicken, boiled red potatoes, garlic-butter green beans

Tuesday
- Feed starter
- Make chicken bone broth
- Chicken & rice soup, salad

Wednesday
- Feed starter
- Baked lemon-pepper salmon, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli

Thursday
- Feed starter
- Chicken tortilla soup (served with corn tortilla strips & Greek yogurt)

Friday
- Feed starter
- Beef stew, salad

Saturday
- Feed starter
- New recipe, as yet undecided :)

Sunday
- Make sourdough sponge
- Grilled tilapia, rice & black beans, cole slaw

Applesauce Muffins

Applesauce isn't just a kid's snack. It makes delicious, moist muffins. The original recipe for these applesauce muffins came from Marilyn at The Urban Homemaker. The only adjustments I made, other than doubling the recipe, were to use organic virgin coconut oil, half honey/half maple syrup, and add a handful of unsweetened coconut, along with the walnuts and raisins. These muffins have a great texture and are springy, not crumbly at all. Everyone in my house loves them.

Applesauce Muffins
Makes 24 muffins

2 lg. eggs
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 cup honey (or 1/2 honey, 1/2 maple syrup or other sweetener)
3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix egg, oil, applesauce, and honey in medium bowl; set aside. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder & soda, and spices. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring only until moistened. Gently fold in nuts, raisins, and coconut, being careful not to overmix. Fill oiled or lined muffin tins 2/3 full. (I ran out of liners, so I used coconut oil to grease the cups and it worked perfectly.) Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden and springs back when touched. Let sit in pan for just a minute before removing to wire rack to cool.

Linked to Tuesdays at the Table, Tasty Tuesday, Titus 2 Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesday, What's Cooking Wednesday, and Homemaking Link-Up.

We Interrupt This Blog For Real Life

An amazing thing happened recently...my computer crashed. Well, actually two computers crashed, one of them twice. I was beginning to wonder if it was a divine sign after the first time. After two crashed computers...hmmm. I'm borrowing another of Papa Bear's computers to write this, but my camera is mysteriously broken also, so no pictures. Is it just me or does it seem that all of this broken technology points to more than coincidence?

In the meantime, I've been catching up on all those chores and projects that I thought I didn't have time for. I spent all yesterday afternoon and evening (until midnight) working on:

• Emptying the office closet, so I can make it a quiet nook for the boys and a safe place during storms. It's in the center of the house, under the stairs. I removed the lower shelf and added it to the top one to create a place for emergency supplies. My plan is to paint the walls, put a large cushion or floor pillow in the bottom, and maybe add a section of rain gutter bookshelves or other low-profile book holder.
• Reorganizing the downstairs and upstairs hall closets to make room for stuff from the office closet. That led to culling through our sheet sets. Some had to go, some were suitable for camping, a few lone flat sheets are going into a fort making kit for the boys, and the remaining complete sets are being stored in their respective bedrooms. I still need to find a place for our board games.
• Sorting and putting away a mountain of clothing that I had not wanted to deal with. Some outgrown things that needed to be put in storage. Mostly clean clothes that I had let pile up because putting away clothes is my least favorite chore. To make it easier for me and the hobbits to put things away, this became...
• Taking the sliding doors off of the hobbits closet, hanging a curtain rod, and using ring clips to hang twin sheet curtains. The three youngest share a closet and their chest of drawers is in there also. Of course, I had to straighten and clean out the closet and then that led to...
• Cleaning the hobbits' room. That by itself is a big job. Everything is now in its place. Even the space under the beds is clear. For the moment. Once the room was clean, I got started on... 
• Hanging a couple of pictures and peg racks on the walls for their hats and dress up stuff. I had found the peg racks at thrift stores long ago and finally spray painted them white yesterday, in between my other projects.

The hobbits love the changes to their room. None of them know about the empty closet yet or else they would be in it right now. Kids do love cozy nooks. Needless to say, I did not have a hard time falling asleep last night. Now, I'm off to buy a gift for my niece's daughter's birthday party tomorrow, pick out a paint color for the "secret nook", purchase a new shower curtain liner, browse the thrift store, and pick up a few groceries.

Life With Boys Link-Up

Being a mom is hard work. Being a mom of boys is also an adventure. If you are a mom of boys, whether it be 1 or 10, you know that they can see things a lot differently than we do. Life with boys can get very interesting (and messy and loud and unpredictable and sweet and funny and...). Sometimes, a mom just needs to share it with someone who can appreciate it. Like other mommas with hairy-legged, bear-hugging, bug-loving, risk-taking, on-the-go boys.

Link up your posts and share with us the joys and perils of your life with boys, whether it be about feeding, teaching, training, entertaining, or just loving them. Link directly to your post and keep it family-friendly, please. Don't have a blog? Leave a comment. As you skip through and read about other mommas and their boys, please leave comments to encourage and uplift.

Please link back here or grab the Life with Boys Link-Up button from my sidebar 

so other boy moms can join us!

Homemade Pasta Sauce

I seriously thought about titling this post "I Left Paul Newman" but I was a wee bit concerned about the tabloid paparazzi showing up at my house. Up until recently, my pasta sauce of choice was Newman's Own Sockarooni. One night, I started boiling my spaghetti and discovered that I did not have Sockarooni in my pantry like I had thought. Ugh!

Since my options for a quick dinner were limited, I decided to forge ahead and make my own sauce using the giant can of whole tomatoes that I had purchased at Sam's Club. After all, that's why I had bought the can to begin with. That over-sized can that sat on the floor next to my pantry, sheltering dust bunnies for the past few months. {Ahem} I did a quick glance at the pasta sauce recipes in my trusty Joy of Cooking cookbook and got started.

My first attempt was pretty good, but since then, I've made our pasta sauce from scratch several times, tweaking and getting familiar with it. Now, I'm ready to share with my readers. Just in case there is someone else out there who is brave enough to leave Paul Newman (or whoever else may make your pasta sauce). I suggest looking at the ingredient list of your favorite pasta sauce and adjusting whatever recipe you use to reflect that. This is a great large family or once-a-month recipe.

Pasta Sauce (makes about 12-14 servings)

 

1 (102 oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste (you could probably use two cans)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves, minced (or 1-2 tsp. jarred minced garlic)
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. oregano
1-2 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
honey, to taste (I use about 1 tsp. to balance out the acidity)

Pour the undrained tomatoes into a large, shallow dutch oven or deep skillet. Heat over medium.

Using a potato masher, crush tomatoes until no large chunks remain. Add remaining ingredients.

Bring to a simmer. Simmer on low for several hours or until sauce is reduced and thickened, stirring occasionally. Taste and add more seasoning, if desired.

At this point, I remove half of it and put it in a large jar or gallon-size freezer bag to freeze for another meal later. If you use a jar, fill it leaving a few inches for expansion. With a freezer bag, make sure it's sealed (double-bag, if you're skeered), lay it flat on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Then remove cookie sheet and store the sauce horizontal or vertical, your choice. You don't have to use the cookie sheet, but it keeps the bottom of the bag flat instead of sagging through the gaps in the wire racks and making it a little more difficult to remove from the freezer.

We like a meat sauce, so I use ground beef that I pre-cooked with onions and garlic and froze. I add it about 15-20 minutes before serving and simmer until the sauce and meat are heated through. Serve over your favorite pasta and add a salad.

Linked to: Homemaking Link-Up, Tasty Tuesday, Healthy 2Day, Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Pennywise Platter Thursday