Organic Muesli

Organic muesli is a staple in my home.  We buy it in 5lb bags a few times a year and my children eat muesli made with organic whole milk, pastured butter and maple syrup at least 2-3 times a week.  It is simply delicious and such a wholesome and nourishing breakfast.  I am scrapping the bottom of my 5lb bag and found this site that sells tons of different varieties as well as 2 that are 100% organic.   They just opened their store and are trying to get to 200 fans by this Sunday at 5pm.  If they make the goal they will extend a 50% off coupon to all the fans!  WOW!  I'd love to get a bunch of our delicious organic muesli for that price!  Please like the page and jump on this deal as well!  :)

http://www.mueslifusion.com/

How to Clean Your Oven....Naturally

I recently saw some youtube tutorials on cleaning your oven with baking soda so I decided to give it a try since I refuse to use toxic oven cleaners, and I desperately needed a natural solution!

Here are my results:                                           BEFORE:

                                                                        AFTER:

As you can see my results were fantastic.  I have to be honest this method is a bit messy but it does work great.   So how to do it?
Buy a big bag or box of baking soda & and a large spray bottle if you don't have one, use a scoop or measuring cup (1 cup size) to scoop the baking soda and sprinkle it onto the surface of your oven (I also did this to the inside of the oven door).  Apply very heavily to any soiled areas.   One down side to this is that if you have stains on the back, top or sides of your oven this isn't going to work too well for those spots.. since the baking soda cannot be placed heavily on those areas and be allowed to sit like that.  I was able to spray the walls then 'throw' some baking soda at them to give them a light coating.. which did take some off but they did not come entirely clean like the bottom of the oven.  So after you have laid the baking soda down then spray very heavily with water using your spray bottle.  You want the water to saturate the baking soda enough to make it a thick paste consistency.   Now leave it for at least 12 hours but up to 24 hours.  Check on it periodically and respray any spots that have begun to dry.  You want to keep that baking soda in a wet paste consistency throughout the process.  When your ready, just take a wet wash cloth and begin wiping up all the soda.  The crusted stains should just wipe right up, some spots that maybe didn't get as heavy of a coat of baking soda will need to be rubbed over it a few times but it should come right off as well.  I hope you all have as much luck with this as I did!  

Organic Baby Food Purees

Yum! There is just nothing that compares to organic fresh produce!  This is my stash from one of my resent shopping trips to the local health food store.  I love that they now carry fresh produce and such a nice variety.  They get fresh shipments in every Friday and I love seeing what new produce they have each week as it always changes.  It's a fun challenge to come up with recipes that revolve around what organic produce was availably that particular week.  I also order a lot of my main staples in bulk (by the case) from there which gets me a 10% discount.  Some of those items are organic whole plain yogurt, organic raw milk cheese, organic pastured butter, organic coconut milk, organic chicken nuggets, organic sprouted seven grain bread & brown rice tortillas.

As most of you know Jack still is without any "chewing teeth" he only just has front teeth still (with another front tooth on the way in).  So I do still have to modify some of our family meals for him by pureeing it in the blender or mashing it and I also make him fresh fruit and veggie purees each week which I add to his plain whole milk yogurt or just feed him as a side dish to a meal.

I just make what was organic and available that particular week.  Some weeks its sweet potato and apple, this week it was pears & butternut squash with cinnamon, in this photo we made a apple mango puree.

To make the purees I just simply peel and cut the fruit into large chunks, place them in my steamer pot and steam them with the lid on until they are tender.  I immediately dump the veggie/fruits in the blender and blend.  This is so fast and easy, from start to finish it takes about 15-20 minutes and afterward I can throw everything in the dishwasher.  I keep the purees in the fridge in an air tight 'green' plastic container, and I never make more than one puree at a time or freeze the purees.  I make them fresh and only make what we will use in the next 3 days.  Its so quick and easy to make them I just think why not just make them fresh and save room in my freezer, plus no need to thaw or worry about it going bad.

 Here is a 'Green' puree. Banana, avocado & kiwi!

Some other baby food combination ideas for purees:

Pear, Broccoli & Pea

Sweet Potato Apricot

Apple Mango Spinach

Banana Strawberry Kiwi

Carrot Sweet Potato & Apple

Pear Kiwi Raisin

Butternut Squash & Corn