Paletas {Make Your Own Popsicles}

After eating my weight in these bad boys, I started thinking that maybe I could make my own Popsicles now that I have my new obsession Vitamix.
Plus we just added "make popsicles" to our 2012 Summer List so it was a no brainer.
Popsicle makers we would be.

I read several posts about making your own popsicles, then I ordered this Popsicle maker from Amazon.
Love it.
Worth every penny.
My first goal was to make a whole fruit popsicle.
Sorta like Edy's except with more fruit.
I chopped fresh strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, and seedless watermelon into small bite size chunks.
(I put my pineapple in the Vitamix for a couple of seconds...not necessary though)



I filled each container about 3/4 full with fruit.
Then I filled to the top with fruit juice.
I used Dole Orange Pineapple Banana.
Not exactly as healthy as I was aiming for but it was on hand the day the popsicle maker arrived and well, I'm just impatient like that.
Next time I will be using something less high fructose corn syrup laden artificially sweetened.
Real fruit juice.



Lastly, I added the lid and then the sticks (both come with the maker).
Freeze till solid and....



Voila!
Gorgeous whole fruit Popsicles.

Both my husband and I loved biting into the chunks of frozen fruit.
Our kids...not so much.
That's cool.
More for us.
I promised them that next time I will put all the fruit in the Vitamix and blend well before freezing.



My second favorite Edy's popsicle is the Coconut flavor.
So I made made my own.
I'm feeling pretty powerful with this little freezing machine.

Coconut Paletas:
2 cups Coconut Milk (I found Light Coconut Milk in a can at Kroger)
2 cups skim milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2-1 cup sweetened coconut shredded (depends on how much you like coconut...I personally used a whole cup)

Mix ingredients well and fill popsicle maker.
Add the lid and sticks.
Place in freezer till frozen.

Tip:
Soak your popsicle sticks in warm water while making your popsicles. This will weigh them down and prevent them from floating up when you stick them in your popsicle maker.



Oh. My. Gracious.
Sinful.
Like drinking a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic.
Yes, I've considered it.

Have you smelled that stuff?!?

With your very own popsicle maker, you can say so long to ingredients like "Citric Acid, Corn Syrup, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum, and Soy Lecithin."
Gross.
You will know every single ingredient that goes into them.

There are so many variations of popsicles that can be made when making your own.
The possibilities truly are endless.
I have an entire board on Pinterest just for pinning popsicle recipes.

You can also visit Kelly at "The Nourishing Home" and receive her free e-book on Healthy Ice Pops and Frozen Treats.
All you need to do is subscribe to her blog.
Trust me, you are gonna be much obliged.
Fabulous healthy content.

How about you?

Do you make your own popsicles?

Have a favorite recipe you'd like to share?

Feel free to do so in the comments.

Skip to My Lou's "Made By You Monday"
A Lettered Life "Tasty Tuesdays"

"My every mortal breath, is Grace and nothing less"

Camping, My Garden, and a Toilet Shaped Cake {InstaFriday}

Aidan was recently honored for the badges he earned through the Royal Ranger program at church.
Thanks to this program he has read multiple books of the Bible and knows how to tie a bajillion different knots.
Boy is set.



He also had his first encounter with a batting cage.
Loved it.



I am such a sucker for freshly rolled hay bales.
And ginormous skies filled with big puffy clouds.



I planted this garden on May 6th.
It is now a BEAST!
In fact this isn't the most up to date picture.
That watermelon up there in the top right?
It is the size of a softball now.
Fresh cucumbers in my pasta salad last night.
I am loving this gardening thing.



Holiday World was on our 2011 Summer List.
We did not get there last year.
However, we did this year.
It was amazing.
I highly recommend this park.
Anything located in a town called Santa Claus has to be fun right?

That's the beauty of Summer Lists.
Putting a goal on the radar and finding a way to make it happen.
You can find our 2012 Summer List here.



Last week we headed to a friend's 50th surprise birthday dinner.
For the life of me I could not get this picture to focus.



This was the cake.
Yes, for real.
I did not eat it.
Guess what?
I have found the secret to weight loss ya'll.
Make food look like crap.
Literally.
Can't you just see the infomercials for this?
Watch out P90X...the crap diet is moving in.



This is the real reason I go to dinner with friends.
They have babies that I get to hold.
This is Miss Micah.
Yes, her head smelled amazing.



The past 4 days of my life have been spent sitting right here...with this view.
Kayaking.
Reading.
Smores.
No make-up.
It is glorious.



Friends of ours happened to be there at the same time.
The kids had a blast in the lake.



My favorite part of camping?
Sunset.
No filter on this photo.

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalm 19:1








"My every mortal breath, is Grace and nothing less"

"How Does Your Garden Grow?" {Square Foot Gardening}

Last month I decided to finally mark something off of my bucket list.
Growing my own garden.
I actually had this on our Summer List 2011 too.
Never happened.
It is intimidating.
It's that simple.
And I have just enough of the perfectionism gene to say to heck with it because I feel I won't do it "right".
This time I threw caution to the wind and said, "I'm going for it."
Ok, so I lie.
Actually, it is simply the fact that my mom lives close enough now to hold my hand, every step of the way, that I have any courage whatsoever to pull the trigger on such a venture.



I started by buying three 16 ft. long 2X8 pieces of untreated lumber from Lowe's.
I had them cut two of those in half (these would be my long sides) and one of them into four equal pieces (these would be my ends).
This helped me build two 4X8 beds and utilize every piece of wood.
A box of  3 1/4" deck screws.
Twine.
Nails.
One truckload of "Holy Cow" all in one topsoil.
All of this, plus your veggies to plant, and you will be Farmer Brown in no time!



Adam screwed them together and then we placed them out in my fenced in patio area.
If you do not have a fenced in area you will need to put up something to keep the critters out.
I knew that if they were out of sight (behind the fence), they would be out of mind.
I needed to see them everyday to enjoy think about watering it.
Once the beds were level (I ended up moving one of them after this picture) we took up the top layer of grass then put down strips of weed control.



Then my hunk of a man scooped in the Holy Cow while we spread it in the beds evenly.
You will want it almost completely to the top.



My mom was teaching Aidan how to spread the soil and break up the clumps.
She'll hate me for this.
I'll just pray she forgives me and be glad that she doesn't have her own blog.



Even the teenager cheerfully he kept mysteriously vanishing got in on the work.



Then we took a tape measure and marked each one foot section with a pencil making an arrow tip that points into the bed.
The nail would go inside the arrow.
We did this all the way around.



Then we nailed in the nails at each arrow at an angle.



Leaving about this much sticking up.
Then I took twine and started it on one end tying a knot around the nail.
Then I would pass it down to the opposite end and we would loop it around the nail twice and move to the nail beside that one.
Then we would pass it back down lengthwise again,
Looping and passing till we got to the last nail then tying a knot.
We used the same procedure to go across the width of the bed as well.



Then I used the hammer to bend over the nails and hammer them in to the wood a bit as to hold the twine securely and pull it as tight as possible.



Hope that makes sense.
In other words I did not tie a knot at each nail.
Only the beginning and ending nail.
The others I wrapped around twice then passed to the next nail.



This was my paper where I had charted out all the veggies I would need to make room for.
This helped me to plot out where everything would be planted based on how much I had to plant and how many squares I  had to plant in.

I advise you to Google the proper procedures for your specific veggies and fruits.
There are some rules to planting certain things.
Such as cucumbers and melons can't go side by side.
Nor can cantaloupe and watermelon.

Also you will need to know how many of each thing can fit into one square.
Tomatoes can go two to a square but lettuces can go 4 to a square.
It is worth the time to research for the most successful garden possible.

There really is a science to gardening which makes me appreciate the generations before me that literally lived off the land.
How resourceful they were.
How in sync with nature they had to be to make it all work.

And then to teach themselves to preserve it all winter without going bad?!
Mind blowing.



This was taken the day they were planted.
May 6, 2012
Bed #1: Broccoli, spinach, rosemary. jalapenos, red leaf lettuce, romaine, butter leaf lettuce, strawberries and baby watermelons.
Bed #2: Cucumbers, corn, sweet potatoes, load of different types of tomatoes, and cantaloupe.



This was my garden today.
May 30, 2012
It is a beast! :-)
I simply cannot wait to have 'mater sandwich from freshly picked tomatoes in my garden.



So proud of these two little jalapenos that are growing.
They are the first actual veggie I see forming thus far.
They are like my babies now.
I check them everyday.



I picked these yesterday morning for a salad.
I washed them and put them in the salad spinner.
They are glorious...that is all I can say.
Completely organic too!
No better feeling.





 

Homeschool Yearbooks and a Snazzy New Camera Bag

We are so blessed to be part of a fairly large Homeschool Tutorial that offers our kids lots of opportunities such as a Student Government, Proms, Graduations, and the beloved Yearbook.



You know, that thing we couldn't wait to get our hands on, just so we could flip back to the index pages to see how many times our faces would be gracing the pages? C'mon...you know you did it too.



Our 2010-2011 yearbooks came in last week and Monday was the official Yearbook Signing Day at the park. It was hot as heck outside but we braved the heat and busted out the ball point pens.



The kids love this day. Partly because they are excited about the Yearbook. But mostly because it is just the excuse they need to see their friends again during summer break.



I am one of those mean moms that makes all 3 of my children share one yearbook.

They each designate a page for their friends to leave their well wishes.

When we got home I asked Maggie why all of her friends simply signed their names and nothing else.

She responded, "Cause I told them to. I knew Tyler would read what they wrote and make fun of it."

Please tell me that this incessant sibling teasing is going on in other homes as well??

Maybe it's time for more than one yearbook?



Remember my post about fanning the photography flames and keeping my "bag" with me at all times?

Well here she is.

Isn't she lurvely???

It's my new JoTote that I won from Cheryl's blog. You should check her out if you haven't already. She is fabulous.

And so is this bag. Seriously.

I didn't know how much I loathed my manly backpack style camera bag until I feasted my eyes on this bag...in all it's glorious mustardy goodness.



As you can see it totes more than lenses. The interchangeable "innards" make it possible to fit your wallet, phone, even your iPad.

So basically I now have no excuses for not having my camera with me at all times.

Getting them off my camera, edited, and posted?

I can still think of a few.


"My every mortal breath, is Grace and nothing less"