Eggless Breakfast Zucchini Bread

Most zucchini breads are really more like cakes. While they are super tasty, they are perhaps not the best way to start your day.   This zucchini bread incorporates wheat germ and whole wheat flour for some added protein and fiber and a better start to your morning. It is a modification of a recipe from this blog http://foodforahungrysoul.blogspot.com/ . You could bump up the nutritional value even more by adding nuts if you don't have nut allergies like we do in our house.  All that being said it is still yummy.  My little one loves it, especially sliced and toasted with a little butter.  This makes the equivalent of two loaves.  I usually make one full sized loaf and mini loaves or muffins to put in the freezer and eat later.  YUM!

Eggless Breakfast Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups wheat germ
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat Flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup cooking oil
3 cups (about 3 medium-sized) zucchini, grated

Grease and flour two loaf pans (or equivalent such as mini loaf pans or muffin tins)

In a medium bowl combine wheat germ, both flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl beat applesauce sugar, vanilla and oil until well combined.  Stir zucchinni into the wet ingredients.  Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients stirring until just combined.  Pour into loaf pans and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle come out clean.  (About 45 minutes for mini loaf pans, 20 minutes for muffins.)

Happy Breakfasting!

Soon to Come- Zucchini Recipes

Between vacation, the start of school, and a pesky bicep tendon that keeps popping out of place, there hasn't been much activity here for a bit, that will change soon, hopefully.  Our zucchini plants went bananas while we were gone, and we came home to this once it was all harvested.

The biggest one is 2 feet long!!  I gave two big ones away and two "little" ones away.  (These would be large by grocery store standards.)  That left me with 3 large zucchini and one medium one from our CSA.  The big ones were too large to be tasty grilled or stir fried, so I started shredding. I made egg free zucchini "quiche", wheat germ zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini bread, and chocolate zucchini bread. I shredded the rest (I ended up with 35 cups of shredded zucchini.) and froze it for future use.  I plan to share these recipes in the coming weeks as I recover from shoulder surgery, to fix that aforementioned bicep tendon. 

I may even have some green tomato recipes as there seem to be a plethora of those on our vines and no hope for them to ripen.

Super Easy Napkins

Before we moved to Wisconsin, we rarely used paper napkins.  I have a stack of cloth napkins, and we used those at every meal. I just washed them with my regular load of towels.  No extra work. No spending money on paper napkins.  No extra trash produced.  For some reason, it just hasn't worked out that way in this house.  It may be that my son is older and uses more than he used to, the nice laundry shoot that goes straight to the basement where my laundry is out of sight and out of mind, or the inconvenient location of our napkin drawer.  We have only been using them at dinner, not all the time.

At any rate I decided to fix this today.  Our 1920's house has a nifty little breakfast nook where we eat breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  This is where most of the paper napkin usage happens. Out went the traditional paper napkin holder and in went a $0.50 garage sale find basket. 

Next, on to making the napkins.  I can't remember where I saw this idea or I would credit them, but I am going to share it here because it is so brilliantly simple.  I found my son's old red and white gingham curtains in the fabric bin, and cut it into rectangles 15.5"x12.25".  (I used one of my store bought napkins as a template.)  I pulled some threads out of all four sides to create fringe and voila- 7 new napkins.  This was so quick and easy.  I will definitely be buying more gingham in assorted colors so we can have a big stack of napkins for the whole week!  This might even make a nice housewarming gift if you make a dozen or so (or more) and put them in a nice basket with a bow.  Just a thought.

When I used up all my gingham, I started looking for other fabric I could use up in my stash.  I found some Curious George fabric. The purpose for which I purchased it has long been forgotten.  I cut it into rectangles, as well, with the intent of doing the same thing to them.  I realized that the fringe was not going to look quite as quaint on the print as it did on the gingham. I was not in the mood to fold over hems and press and pin and miter corners or line up square corners.  I wanted napkins, and I wanted them fast. Low and behold, I found plain red fabric in my bin as well.  I cut the same size rectangles out of the red, put the right sides of my print and my solid together, and sewed the edges with a 3/8" seam allowance, leaving a 4" opening to turn the whole thing right side out.  Before turning it right side out, I trimmed the corners.  Once it was right side out, I gave the edges a quick press, being sure to turn fabric under at the opening, and top stitched around the edges.

My little one was so excited about these napkins.  He kept trying to find a reason to use one.  I may just have to find some other fun fabric for these too.  You can never have enough napkins when you have a little boy!

Mostly Homemade Creepy, Crawly Boys Birthday

Last week was pretty much been consumed with planning and preparing my kiddo's birthday party.  Since I created the cake, invitation and some of the games, I thought I would share.

First the invitation.  I love publisher for this kind of stuff.  I started with a template and just changed out the clip art and words to fit our party.  Here is what I come up with:

The only problem is these never seem to fit in a regular envelope.  Since I had to send these through snail mail, they needed envelopes. I created my own by folding letter sized paper using "the tape method" found here.


Games are a must to keep 7 little 5 years old out of trouble for an hour and a half.  We started our party with visor and paper bag decorating so that there would be a simple activity to keep everyone engaged while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive.  Also, everyone would have a hat for sun protection when we went outside.  The visors were 3/$1 at the Dollar store.  I found turtle and frog stickers, star stickers, and our own markers for this activity.

Next was the scavenger hunt.  I hid one frog, lizard, snake, and bug house (dollar store again) per child and gave each kid a scavenger hunt sheet (also created in publisher) and a crayon.  The kids looked for each item, put it in their bag, and marked it off their list.  This went really well.  The kids helped each other out.

cut page in half to produce 2 sheets

Next, we took our bug houses outside to look for bugs.  I also had some shovels for digging and a bug net for this activity.  The kids had a great time with this, and it was easy pickin's due to the influx of lake flies.

We headed back inside for a game of Frog Hoppin'.  All I did was print out three large lilly pads from clip art, tape them to some pots from my kitchen, and put prizes in each pot.  I found green ping pong balls 6/$1 at walmart.  The kids stood in a line and took turns trying to bounce the "frog" (the green ping pong ball) onto the lilly pads (the pots).  When they got one in the pot, they picked a prize.  This was more difficult than I had anticipated for this age group, so we just moved the pots closer.

Next was the cake.  My birthday boy wanted a snake cake.  I looked on several blogs and birthday cake instructionals and came up with my own version.  I used this egg free chocolate bundt cake recipe minus the chocolate glaze.  I let the cake cool. Then put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes so it would be firmer for shaping.  Once I pulled it out, I cut it in half.  Then I put the two halves together to form an "S" shape, and used a serrated knife to shape one end into a pointed tail.  I rounded the other end and used the pieces I shaved off to form a head. I held the head together with tooth picks.

I iced the cake with a simple butter cream frosting tinted green. Frosting cakes is not my strong suit.  They always come out crumby.  This time I frosted it once, this layer of icing had crumbs running through it, as usual for me. I put the cake back in the freezer for another 15 minutes.  Then I frosted it again. This second layer of frosting came out much better.  I used two marshmallows and black gel writing icing for the eyes, a fruit leather for the tongue, and skittles to decorate the rest of the cake.  All of which were egg and nut free!  It is totally possible to make fantastic fun treats that are allergy friendly.

We only had a few minutes left after cake, so while we waited for the party to disperse, we did flyswatter relay races.  I found a pack of two swatters at the dollar store, again.  My son had a couple plastic flies in his collection of animal toys.  I split the kids into two groups, and they took turns carrying the fly on the swatter to one end of the room and back.  If the fly fell off, they had to stop and put it back on the swatter.

Everyone went home wanting more time to party, which tells me it was just about the right length.  Always leave them wanting more, right?  Most important, the birthday boy had a great time!


Hope this helps you plan a fantastic mostly homemade party for your own little one!

Button and Ribbon Topped Curtains

I had been thinking, for awhile, that my sewing room (which is really just a big landing at the top of the stairs) needed some curtains to give a pop of color to the room.   Once we cut down the tree that provided shade to that side of the house, the need was no longer about aesthetics but temperature control.  I had some fabric I found in the clearance bin that needed a purpose, some ribbon to use up, and black buttons. Voila- my curtains were born! 

Supplies:
Fabric
Lining
Buttons
Ribbon
Thread

This is basically a tab back curtain, with two lengths of thin ribbon creating the tabs in front instead of the back. The finished product should be 1 1/2-2 times the width of the window and however long you would like.  I made mine to fit the whole window, but you could certainly make these as valances or cafe style curtains.  Cut your fabric an inch wider and an inch longer than you want your finished product to be.

The ribbons will create the "pocket" for your curtain rod, so the length your ribbons need to be will vary with how thick your rod is.  I had a very thin rod, and cut mine 3 1/2" long.  Be sure you cut the ribbon longer than you need.  You will be able to trim the excess later.

Generally, tabs should be spaced 6-8 inches apart. Since my ribbons were so thin (1/8"), I spaced them closer for more support and visual appeal. Two ribons spaced about 1/16" apart created each "tab".  I just eyeballed this.  I placed my first and last set of ribbons 1 1/2 inches from each edge and spaced the rest 4 1/2 inches apart. When laying this out, put your fabric right side up, and pin your ribbons right side up as well.

Next take your lining, and pin it so that the right side is down.  The right side of the fabric and the right side of the lining should be together.  Pin this, and sew 1/2" seem around the edge leaving a 5" opening at the bottom so you can turn it right side out.  After you sew it, trim the corners and turn it right side out.

Iron the edges. Be sure to fold under your opening as it would be have been had it been sewn.  Fold the ribbons so that they come straight down on top of your fabric, and iron a crease. 

Top stitch the entire perimeter of the curtain at 1/4".  As you stitch over the ribbons be sure they are laying straight.

Next determine how wide your "pocket" needs to be for your rod.  I had a thin rod, so a 1" pocket was wide enough for me.  Mark a line 1" (or whatever width you need) from the top stitch line.  I used pins at ever ribbon to mark this.  You could also use a fabric pencil if you wanted.  Sew a line along your marks.  Again, be sure the ribbons are laying straight as you sew over them.  Once you have done this, trim the ribbon below this stitch so that when you sew your buttons on, they cover the ends.

Sew your buttons on to cover the ribbon ends. 

Then hang your curtain.

One thing to keep in mind with this style curtain, is that your rod will show.  You need to have a rod you don't mind seeing.  Also, this would have been so much easier if I had used one length of wider ribbon at each "tab."  If you are buying supplies, and not just looking to use up sewing supplies, I would buy 1/2" wide ribbon, and use one length to create each tab.  If you do use thin ribbon, as I did, you may want to shorten your stitch length a bit.  I did not do this on my first curtain and a couple ribbon lengths managed to slip between stitches and not get secured when sewing the first seam.  I left them in place, ironed them (unsecured), shortened my stitch length, and made sure I caught them when I did the top stitching.

I think this curtain could be really fun with different shaped and colored buttons.  You don't have to used buttons either.  Any embelishment that covers the ribbons' ends would work.  Fabric roses or rosettes could be really sweet for a little girls room.  Happy sewing!

Bluberry Nectarine Pie

I love homemade fruit pie!  There is just nothing quite like it.  Store bought stuff just can't compare.  Some summers I make a pie a week, but not this summer.  It has just been too hot, my rhubarb didn't do well, and the fruit selection has been expensive or not very good. Bummer! The 4th of July just isn't the same without a pie, though, so I cranked up the a/c and got to baking.  I still ran into the same problem with the fruit.  Add to that, everyone wanted something different (rhubarb, peach, blueberry), so I got creative.  Blueberries and nectarines.  I love mixing fruits in pies!
 

Start with a double pie crust, whatever recipe works for you. Most recipes don't have egg in them, but a few do.  So if you want the pie to be egg free, be sure to select one without eggs.  I love the flaky pastry recipe from The Joy of Cooking.  I use half shortening and half butter, so I get the great flakiness from the shortening and the yummy taste of the butter- best of both worlds!  I also add 1/4 cup powdered sugar to the dry ingredients instead of the teaspoon of granulated sugar.  It adds a nice hint of sweetness for fruit pies.

When making pie crust, the key is fast and cold.  Your butter and water need to be very cold.  I put ice in my water, and work fast.  This is in part, so things don't warm up, but also you don't want to overwork the dough.  Ice water is also your friend when rolling out your dough.  Any tears can be patched by pressing the dough together with a little ice water as glue. Although, in my opinion, a perfect looking crust is not important; you can get that from a store bought pie.  What matters is taste and texture. I also like to roll out my dough, put my bottom crust in the pie pan, and put the pan and the rolled out top crust back in the fridge while I make my filling. That way the crust is nice and cold when it goes into the oven. Once you have your crusts and pan prepared, make the filling

Blueberry Nectarine Pie Filling:

3 cups blueberries
2 cups nectarines sliced (I left the skin on and nobody was the wiser)
3/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces


Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Mix everything but the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Let sit for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour filling into prepared bottom crust. Work fast after this; you don't want the filling to make your crust soggy before you get it in the oven. Dot the top of the filling with the small pieces of butter.  Brush the edge of the bottom crust with ice water, place the top crust on top.  Trim crust as needed and seal bottom and top crust.  Cut vent holes and place in the bottom 1/3 of the oven at 425 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.  Then place a cookie sheet under the pie pan (I usually put my pie shield on now too) and drop the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes or until thick juices begin to bubble from the pie.  Remove form the oven and let cool on a wire rack before serving.

This pie was quite tasty.  In the future, I would use fewer blueberries and more nectarines.  They got a little lost in the blueberries, but nobody at our house was complaining.  Prep was super easy too, since nothing had to be peeled.  Happy pie baking and eating!

I do really LOVE to bake pies.  I think it is becoming a lost art. So if you have nay questions about crusts and/or pies, feel free to ask.  I would love to try to help!

Quick, Eggless, (and Totally from Scratch) Strawberry Cake

My first attempt at this was an utter failure.  I substituted sour cream for the eggs, added some extra baking powder, macerated the strawberries before I pureed them. I really tried to jazz it up.  The batter tasted like strawberry ice cream.  I thought I was on to something, but then... It didn't rise, not even by a hair.  I had a strawberry brick.

This time around I thought I needed to employ the K*I*S*S strategy-Keep It Simple Stupid.  I started with a simple busy day cake recipe and just substituted a simple strawberry puree for the eggs with a little extra baking powder and ta-dah: Success!  The cake rose nicely and had actual (not fake) strawberry flavor through out.  It isn't that strawberry pink color that the boxed mix is, but that didn't bother me.  All that comes from artificial junk, none of which is in this cake, and isn't that part of the point of doing things from scratch.  I didn't bother to ice it, but I am sure a little strawberry cream cheese frosting would turn this simple cake into something special.  I saved this for a book club meeting a couple days later and used it as the base of strawberry shortcake.  It was a big hit!

I am sure you could double this as well and turn it into a nice layer cake.  I am also thinking about all the fruit possibilities: peach, apricot, raspberry... If you experiment and have success let me know.

Quick, Eggless, (and Totally from Scratch) Strawberry Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup fresh strawberries halved
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl.  Puree the strawberries. My 1 cup of halved strawberries turned into just over a 1/4 cup of puree.  Add milk, butter, vanilla, and 1/4 cup of strawberry puree to the bowl. (If you have an extra teaspoon or two of puree go ahead and that too. Any more than that and save it for something else, like frosting.)  Beat with an elictric mixer on low until the mixture is combined.  Then beat on medium for one minute.  Pour into a greased and floured 8 inch cake pan.  I also like to put parchment in the bottom, so it releases more easily.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean.  Cool for five minutes and remove from pan and cool thoroughly before frosting, if you desire

ENJOY!

Eggless Orange Rhubarb Muffins

Last week we got our first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box of food from Olden Produce in Ripon, WI.  The email they sent out letting us know what we were going to receive mentioned rhubarb.  I had visions of  bunches and bunches of rhubarb.  I was planning pies and preserves.  I don't know why.  Our rhubarb at home has done pretty poorly due to the early hot, dry summer.  Did I think they had some magic rhubarb at the farm?  I don't know.  What I do know is that we only got 3 stalks of rhubarb.  Not enough for one pie, or half a pie, or half a strawberry-rhubarb pie.

What to do with this rhubarb?  So I got to thinking; the one thing that hardly ever goes uneaten at our house is muffins.  I started looking for recipes for inspiration and came across Orange-Rhubarb Muffins at the Rhubarb Compendium online.  Perfect!  I love citrus with rhubarb.  The two flavors play so well together!  I always add a little orange zest to my rhubarb pie.  What could be better?

So here is my egg-free, nut-free version. (This one also happens to be milk-free.)  I also tweaked the amount of rhubarb.  They came out just about perfect.  Everyone enjoyed them, even my hubby who is not in love with rhubarb in quite the same was as my son and I are.

Eggless Orange Rhubarb Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 up vegetable oil
zest of one orange or to taste
3/4 cup orange juice
1 cup rhubarb, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare muffin tin by either lining with paper liners or coating with non-stick cooking spray.  When making muffins without eggs, I prefer to use cooking spray.  For some reason eggless muffins don't seem to come out of the paper liners very well, making a mess and leaving everyone feeling cheated because half the muffin is still on the paper.  If you coat the muffin tin well, including the top, they should slide out nicely.

Combine the first five ingredients (the dry stuff).  Mix the applesauce, oil, and orange juice until well blended.  Add this to the dry ingredients.  Stir to combine being careful not to over mix.  Fold in the rhubarb. Spoon into muffin tins, and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool for about 5 minutes, and then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to continue cooling.

ENJOY!!!!

Mason Jar Straw Lids

After I made a dish soap pump from a mason jar, I got to thinking about other things I could use them for.  They are so ubiquitous and inexpensive, especially at the thrift store on half off day.  While I was using one to drink from, I thought, "I need to put a hole in the lid so I can stick a straw in it."  Then the problem of the sharp edges around the hole quickly made itself apparent.  Enter the RUBBER GROMMET, found in the "hard to find" drawer of small parts at the hardware store.  For an extra $0.30 I had my solution.

You will need:

Mason jar, lid, rim
Drill bit 3/8"
drill with clamps/ vice or drill press with clamps
wire cutters
rubber grommet- diameter of  9/16" (pictured below)

Set your lid on your drill press and clamp it down so that the bit hits the center of the lid.  If you are not lucky enough to have a drill press lying around, (I don't think any of my friends do) you will need either gently clamp the lid in a vice, you don't want to crush it, or clamp it to the edge of a table so that it is secure but the area of the lid you want to drill is hanging off the edge of the table.  Now drill your hole.

Once you are done, the back edge of the hole will probably have some sharp edges hanging off.  Take the wire cutters and trim as much of it off as you can.

Now work your rubber grommet into the hole.  I usually come at it from the side.  Once it's done, give it a good washing, fill your mason jar with your beverage of choice, screw on your lid and rim, insert straw and enjoy.

I love these.  The lids are interchangeable between sizes, so I can put one on an 8 ounce jar for my kid or, on a hot summer day (like today), a big quart size one for me. Not only do they make your jar a spill resistant cup, but they keep the bugs out of your lemonade. They would be fun for parties.  You could paint the jars for favors or just to make them more festive. I have also run these lids with the grommets through the dishwasher without any ill effects so far.

Tie Top Ribbon Valances tutorial

My kitchen valances were a long time in the making mostly because my hubby and I couldn't decide on a fabric.  I had so many fabric scraps by the end we joked that I could just make a patchwork valance (maybe another time).  However, I knew I wanted to use a spool of ribbon I've had in my craft supplies for awhile, and I wanted to try to sew them so that the face of the fabric folded over to the back so you wouldn't see the lining.  Here is what I came up with.

Materials
(for ease of explaining I will tell you what I used for the valance pictured above.  You may need to alter measurements based on the size of your window and effect you are after)

Fabric- 10" of 45" fabric
Lining- 9.5"x44"
Ribbon- 7 pieces of 1" wide ribbon cut 21" long each
Thread



All seam allowances are .5"

Your valances should be about 1.5 - 2 times the width of your window depending on the look you are after, although I often don't follow this rule.  My main window is about 33" and my fabric was 44.5" wide.  So I just used the whole width of my fabric and cut it 10 inches long.  Cut your lining 1" shorter on the width and .5" shorter on the length.

Determine the top of your fabric.  With right sides together line up the top edge of your fabric and lining.  Pin the sides together so the edges are even and the top is even but the bottom of the fabric hangs lower than the lining.  Once pinned it will not lay flat.

Sew the sides.  Turn the fabric right side out.  Center the lining so that about .5" of fabric comes around the back and press the edges so you get a nice crease.  When you turn your fabric inside out again, you will use this crease as your finished edge NOT the seam.

Turn fabric so right sides are together again.  Use pins to mark along the top edge where your ribbons will go.  They should be about 6-8" apart, but you could certainly put them closer or further away depending on the look you are going for.  I put my first and last ribbon .5 inches from the edge.  I spaced the rest 6 13/16" apart so that I had seven evenly spaced ribbons.  Fold each piece of ribbon in half, and pin it BETWEEN the lining and fabric with the folded edge lining up with both raw edges at the top.  (Last ribbon placed on top is to show you what it looks like before you put it between the fabric and the lining)

Once they are pinned sew along the top edge.  Be sure your ribbons are not twisted when you sew over them.  Next, trim a small square from your fabric at the bottom edge up to the lining and sewn seam on each side as shown below.

Then, line up the edge of the lining with the bottom edge of the fabric.  This is tricky at the corners, but it should look like this.

Sew along the bottom edge and leave a 4" opening somewhere so you can turn the whole piece right side out.  Also, make sure you do NOT catch any of the ribbons in this seam.

Turn it right side out, and use your fingers to straighten out the corners and seams. Your corners should look like this.

Place valance face down on the iron and press a crease in the bottom edge so that about .5" of fabric wraps around to the back. (See picture above.) Hand sew the opening closed.  I used a blind hem stitch, don't know if that is really the best one for this application, but it worked. Use a lighter to slightly melt the ends of the ribbon so they won't fray.  Ta-dah!  Now you are ready to tie it to your curtain rod.

I see all kinds of possibilities here: longer ribbons for making pretty bows, multiple thin ribbons for a festive look, or a full length curtain.  Don't be afraid to experiment and share!

Welcome

Welcome to the Eggsistential Homemade Life, where I will share my adventures in sewing, baking, and whatever other projects find there way into my life.  I usually have a couple projects brewing and am baking something at least a couple times a week.  I hope to share my homemade solutions for household issues. (I even make my own cleaners.)  I love a challenge, so if you have a problem and are looking for a homemade solution throw it my way and maybe we can brainstorm up an answer.

In the coming weeks, I will be working on a eggless strawberry cake, ribbon tie-up valances, bird feeders, and whatever else strikes my fancy.