Christmas trail mix recipe, it's not just for Christmas

With 6 kids it is hard to come up with a healthy snack they all like. If I buy apples, they have to be a certain kind or 1 kid won't eat them. Even then, only 5 kids like apples. 4 kids like bananas, 3 kids like certain dried fruit, 6 kids like cheese and 5 like Greek yogurt but 1 kid is lactose intolerant. 1 of my kids hates EVERY vegetable that exists. I have to sneak them in the food for her to eat them.

This being the case I have to get creative. I saw a recipe for a trail mix that has raw nuts and seeds, raw coconut, and dried fruit. 

I made it and only 1 kid liked all of it. 1 liked the nuts so would pick them out. The rest of the kids stuck their picky little noses in the air and didn't touch it

Well, mama doesn't give up

So here is what I came up with. All the kids love it

The recipe is easy

ChristmasTrail mix

2 cups raw Almonds

1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raw coconut

1 cup dried apples

1 cup dried dates

1/3 cup of raw honey

1 Tbs pumpkin spice

2 tsp real vanilla extract

1/4-1/3 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Mix everything except the chocolate. Bake for 15- 20 min. at 350 degrees.

Take out of oven to cool and harden but while the trail mix is hot sprinkle the chocolate chips over it and stir it around.

My oldest daughter says it tastes like Christmas. 

The kids are getting a mostly healthy snack, which makes me happy and they are happy because they count it as a treat. It's a good compromise Which I have learned as a parent happens ALOT

Homestead dream

Last year we took our lovely landscaped yard and tore it up to put in a garden.

it was alot of work. Our yard is terraced/tiered and the ground was/is terrible to dig up. 2-4 inches down is gravel and rock. I'm assuming that is due to living in the hills, I don't know. We decided to throw tarps over it through the winter. We ordered 3 yards of dirt and brought in 800+ lbs of horse manure.

We removed the tarps and lay down a layer of newspaper, dirt and manure. Kind of like making lasagna. I also turned my narrow tier into a smaller garden

 We tore out the landscaping fabric and put in dirt and manure here as well. All this happened in February. 
Then we took a rest.

We planted seeds and a few small tomato plants and they flourished! This is what my first real garden looked like last September.
Oh, but a homestead isn't a homestead without chickens and check out that yolk!

My garden this year wasn't as big, we are once again in the process of moving. We didn't want to travel so far with the chickens, putting undo stress on them or us. They are locals so here they will stay.We found a wonderful home for my sweet girls (the chickens) who are now completely free range and loving it.

We are looking for land! This little adventure/hobby has turned into a way of life that I love and makes me happy. I love serving my family meals knowing that 2/3 of it was grown in my own backyard. It is comforting to know what we are and aren't eating and of course knowing that our little chickens are happy and healthy and giving us yummy, healthy eggs. 

I want that comfort all the time. It is my homesteading dream and what is a dream if you can't make it come true

Homemade greek yogurt, so sophisticated

Yesterday afternoon I decided to make some homemade yogurt. I have a yogurt maker, but I had seen a mason jar method that looked easy so I wanted to experiment. After the whole heating the milk and cooling the milk process and adding my yogurt start, my mason jars were ready to stick in the oven to cultivate or whatever they do. I set my phone alarm for midnight in case I fell asleep and forgot about my precious yogurt.
Midnight came and I pulled out my beautiful still warm, mason jars full of perfectly set yogurt. I popped them in the refrigerator and with pictures of serving yummy parfaits for breakfast I set off for bed. My 18 year old daughter clearly had other plans because before I could even get to the living room she asked what I just put in the fridge. I told her yogurt and she could have some for breakfast. She said "but I only like Greek yogurt." I actually knew this but I am always hoping she will think homemade yogurt is so wonderful she would forget about Greek yogurt. But, I am a loving mother and so I dutifully went to my laptop to look up the process of Greek yogurt. "Meh" I said to my daughter, "it's easy but you can help".
 So we set off to gather the few items we would need to turn my yogurt into Greek yogurt.

1: cheese cloth or a clean tee shirt. My daughter had this lovely clean, old, purple tee shirt that she has vowed to never wear again because we put yogurt in it.
2: Rubber band. I have four daughters so we have an abundance of hair ties but no rubber bands so we improvised.

3: Something (like a bowl or in our case a pitcher) that we can hang the tee shirt full of yogurt over to drain the whey.

Okay, this was the trickiest part because once that tee shirt is full of yogurt it is heavy and hangs really low. But we aren't quitters and if my child wants Greek yogurt gosh darn it, she is going to get her Greek yogurt.

We finally got the yogurt filled shirt high enough to attach it to the pitcher handle with the hair tie.

It looked like this 

Then, I put the whole thing in the  refridgerator and we went to bed.

Now, the directions I read said to leave it in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours. Weeeell, let's just say, I didn't want to get up in 2-4 hours. instead I got up at 6:30 and pulled it out of the refrigerator. I was a little worried. I dumped my hopefully Greek yogurt into a bowl. It was REALLY thick. More like yogurt cheese which, I had been meaning to make but hadn't gotten around to it. I stared at it for a few seconds thinking and then the bells went off in my head. If draining out the whey makes it thick, adding some back in will thin it out a little. I know, not rocket science but I AM NOT a morning person and my brain is a little fuzzy from any time early(6:30am) to around 10:30am. 

So, I added some whey as I had a whole quart to spare 

The result being a fabulously thick Greek yogurt that my spoon could stand up in but didn't feel like I was eating cream cheese. 

I added some local honey for a sweetener and even though I am lactose intolerant I took a bite of my Yogurt.

 It was heaven to my dairy deprived taste buds!!

I love homemade things, especially food, my techniques are far from sophisticated but I get the job done.