Mmmmmuffins

I love to keep healthy (i.e. homemade) muffins in the freezer for the kids to eat for breakfast or a snack. I've been slacking in that department for awhile though and finally decided today it was time to restock. We usually make my favorite banana muffins, but since I did not have any really ripe bananas on hand we had to try something different. I found an apple muffin recipe from Hillbilly Housewife and decided to go with it. Boy are we glad we did. They are delicious! Even Spice couldn't get enough. I figured as soon as she dumped in the applesauce she would find an excuse not to eat them, but she did and raved all through our "breakfast" dinner about how yummy they were. I made a couple of changes to the recipe...doubled the cinnamon since we love it so much, doubled the allspice since I didn't want to hurt its feelings, and omitted the cloves since I only had whole cloves in the house. Here's our version of the recipe:

Ingredients
3/4 C canola oil
2 C sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
2 C unsweetened applesauce
4 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 scant tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine sugar and canola oil in a large mixing bowl and stir until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir until mixed well. Stir in the applesauce.
In another large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice. Slowly add this to the sugar mixture and stir just until moistened. Spray muffin tin or papers with a non-stick cooking spray and fill each cup 3/4 full of batter. Bake 20 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness.

Hillbilly Housewife has tons of great recipes. If you're ever in a pinch because you're in the middle of cooking and realize you're missing a key ingredient, it's Hillbilly Housewife to the rescue. She has recipes for all kinds of convenience foods and even condiments like pizza sauce (I've tried this one and it's good), frostings, and even ketchup (haven't tried this one yet, but I plan too.) I've only found one problem with the muffins...they won't last long enough to make it to the freezer.

Not Me Monday...It's Back!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else has not been doing this week. As for me...

I did not miss the actual return of Not Me Monday last week because I've barely been in the mood to blog since MckMama's extended absence began and had given up on all things blog related.

I did not carry a thermometer around in the days leading up to Sport's First Communion and check Spice's temperature at random a dozen or so times a day because I was paranoid SOMEONE was going to get sick on the big day and something told me it would be her. The discovery of Swine Flu in Georgia the day before the event did not spur on my fears, nor did the arrival of my mother-in-law. Nothing against my mother-in-law, but there seems to be a disturbing trend in our household...every time she comes to visit someone gets sick, usually to the point of throwing up. We're generally a healthy family and I'd almost go so far as to say we never throw up unless she's around. We don't know why this occurs and there seems to be no scientific explanation. It just happens. So the combination of Swine Flu and my mother-in-law did not cause me to worry incessantly, nor did the memory of Sport throwing up in his Godmother's van on the way home from Spice's baptism four years ago. (And yes, my mother-in-law was present for that one too). Anyhoo, I'm happy to report we all made it through the weekend healthy as horses and Spice absolutely did NOT wake up with a 101 fever the day my in-laws left. That would be insane!

I do not force my mother-in-law to bring many packs of frozen crawfish with her anytime she comes to visit in exchange for room and board. Really...I don't. She simply does it out of the kindness of her own heart.

We did not scarf down the first pack of crawfish the day my in-laws left before they even had a chance to make the drive all the way back to Louisiana. That would make us sound like pigs and besides, crawfish are precious commodities for anyone trapped in Atlanta far, far from the bayous of Louisiana. They must be rationed!


I did not show my children this video to wrap up our Ancient Egyptian studies this week. Just like I did not show them this video as a study of Irish dancing on St. Patrick's Day. Although, if I had, those monkeys would have been a BIG hit around here...something the kids would still be talking about to this day.

I also did not have to stifle sobs during Spice's dance recital this past weekend when another class used this song for a performance. That song would have no effect on me whatsoever because I never worry about how quickly my babies are growing up and how they will be leaving me in the blink of an eye. I also would not decide to use this song for Spice and Hubby's father/daughter dance on her wedding day. That's soooooo far away and this song will be so lame by then. Besides, something like that would be completely up to her anyway.

Word of the Day

Weeha: (interjection) A term used to show joy, pleasure, or excitment; often heard on the Little People Farm. Word Origin: Spice, 2009. Related Terms: Whee, yeeha. Usage: "Weeha, Farmer Jed is riding his horse! Weeha!"

Where I Explain My Extended Absence

I didn't mean to stay away so long and I have no real excuse to explain why I haven't posted in nearly a month other than the fact that with no Not Me Mondays to look forward to, I seem to have lost my will to blog. : ( Anyway, to steal a post from Mama Said...here's a rundown of what I've been up to during my extended hiatus:


Eating waaaayyyyyy too many of these during an unplanned, last minute trip home to Louisiana. I love me some boiled crawfish!



Goin' fishin'... also during our trip home. My grandmother has a pond overflowing with fish. It's one of Sport and Spice's favorite things to do when we go to LA.



Living the life of a fighter pilot at the Coca Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, GA. Safe to say the Air Force won't be knocking on my door anytime soon.


Throwing an impromptu 8th(!!!) birthday "party" for Sport after our impromptu trip to LA. His planned party had to be rescheduled so we could make the trip. We returned home on his birthday so Spice and I threw together a quick celebration with presents courtesy of the grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles..., cupcake bites from the freezer leftover from a girl's night tea party Spice and I had a few weeks ago, and a balloon courtesy of Taco Bell. We stopped there on our way home earlier in the day.




Throwing a REAL birthday party for Sport last night. Obviously the theme was LEGO and everyone had a blast. I have to say it was a relatively calm party for a crowd of 6-9 year old boys and I think we even managed to create a few new Lego fans. (I wonder if the Lego people will give us a cut of any new sales resulting from the party???) By the way, I'll give you three guesses as to what's in most of those packages in the previous birthday picture...Legos, Legos, and more Legos.



Getting a lesssson in snakes! One of the mom's in our homeschool group was brave enough to have a snake expert come to her house (with LIVE SNAKES in tow) and do a presentation for the kids. I thought it was really cool and I don't even like snakes. I find it really strange that I've seen more snakes IN MY OWN BACKYARD since moving to Georgia than I ever saw in my entire life in Louisiana. Just doesn't seem possible. We're talking real snakes too, not little garden snakes (although I don't particularly care for those either).



Painting the laundry room. Believe it or not, this is not a picture of work in progress. This is what it actually looked like when we moved in. The other walls were still white. I finally decided I couldn't take the two tone design anymore and hauled up a gallon of paint I had bought for the dining room then changed my mind on. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to show an "after" picture. Unfortunately, painting did not take away the mounds of laundry or ugly recycle bin.



And finally...I've been planting onions and watching them grow. OK so that didn't take much time, but I thought this was really cool. After we received our copy of Onions In My Boots in the mail the other day, I was inspired to chop off the roots of my store bought onions like the book says and plant them. Within days we had new onions growing. I'm so excited! Every time I buy green onions I stick them in the veggie drawer and forget about them until they turn to slime. Now I can turn my own onions to slime and don't have to feel guilty about wasting money! While I was planting the onions I finally found the time to put the blueberry bush and strawberry plant that I bought last year in actual pots. What an accomplishment!

Pray For Stellan

Dave Ramsey Would Be So Proud

If we're in the car between 3 and 7 the kids know we will be listening to financial guru Dave Ramsey on the radio. They used to complain and ask for one of their CDs, but they've finally got it in their heads that they can listen to whatever they want the rest of the day, but 3-7 is Mom's time. They actually enjoy listening to Dave now and Sport asks lots of questions about debt, how credit cards work, and all sorts of things financial. They especially like it on Fridays when listeners call in, report how much debt they've paid off, then scream into the phone at the top of their lungs, "I'M DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" If the callers have their kids on the line, all the better.

I didn't realize just how much Sport had gotten into the show until the other day. We were struggling through a couple of pages in his math workbook. He understood how to do them, but they were just "soooo borrring!" and it was "sooo unfairrrr" that he had to do all that "stupid stuff". He finally got down to the last few problems and announced, "When I'm done with this math page, I'm gonna throw down my pencil and yell I'M MATH FREEEEEEEEEE!"

And he did.

More From the Land Down Under

Without further adieu...Sport's first ever salt dough map:

 

The continent of Australia...the red is Ayers Rock (or Uluru), brown is the Great Dividing Range and Tasmania, the tan part is the Outback and "everything else".

Here are 2 more pictures from last week of didgeridoo artwork.
Sport used animal designs.
 

Spice went with a rainbow theme.