Bagel Bites are another thing that’s super convenient… But maybe not the healthiest. I love that an entire pack fits into my Power Air Fryer XL. I’m all about my Air Fryer, and we are all for pizza. 🍕 We are part Italian 🇮🇹, so it kinda makes sense. In trying to make room in our freezer before my Costco run, I found a pack of English muffins… I also saw an almost empty bottle bottle of Marinara in the fridge and a pack of pepperoni… And we always have shredded cheese. So… Mini Air Fryer Pizzas was invented… This morning. 😂
Super easy, the kids can even help!
They could have helped… Except I did it before they caught me. I was trying to get to Costco early, but that didn’t end up happening. First, I made a batch of Boiled Eggs in my Instant Pot because I wanted to make room for fresh eggs. Then I made these mini pizzas and by the time I got to Costco, I had missed the Clorox Wipes 😕. I saw a guy walking out with the prized possessions and when I got to the back corner there were none to be found. We don’t even use Clorox wipes at home, but it’s on the school supply list for second grade, so I’m on the hunt now.
Cut your English muffin in half to make 2 mini pizzas. Top with marinara, or your favorite sauce, add some shredded cheese, and some toppings, then a little more cheese. I would add more cheese on top to help with the casualty we had…
4 mini pizzas ready for the Air Fryer!
Gently place them into your basket.
Set the timer for 5 minutes.
And voila! We only had one major casualty… One pepperoni flew off and landed in the middle. I just put it back on top of the one pizza with only 2 pepperoni. Nobody knew. 🤷🏽♀️ But I would use more cheese next time to try to keep the pepperoni from flying. One did curl, I’m assuming the heavier cheese would have kept that one flat as well. I didn’t get to taste them since they were gone before I got home, so I’ll take that as a good sign that the kids approved!
I used whole grain English muffins since that’s what we had on hand. Next time I may try to make our own. 🤔 I did finally buy yeast for the first time ever, so watch out… This Mama is going to get to baking!
I’ve always been not so keen on the fact that I can’t actually see inside the store bough ones. 👀 Do you use reusable apple sauce pouches?
So I bought the little green pouch ones that I could fill up at home when my oldest was 1. I used those for a bit, until my kids chewed up the spouts. 🤦🏽♀️ And lost the caps. 🤷🏽♀️ It was always a little awkward trying to clean the bottom of the pouch, too. You would fill it from the top, next to the odd placed spout, and good luck cleaning all the crevices. Plus they weren’t see through. I knew what I put in though, so… I did have a little more peace of mind than the store bought ones.
Then, I went back to the prefilled ones…
For no other reason than because it’s just easier. Plus… there were organic options… So they have to be better than the ones that people have found mold inside, right?
But then… Amazon…
Totally popped these up as something I might be interested in. These pouches have a mostly clear backside! And the spout is on the top, like the kids are used to!
So you fill it from the bottom, it even has a line to tell you where to stop filling so it won’t spill over when you zip it closed!
And I found these super cool soft spouts you can attach over the hard spout. They come with a built in cover! These totally help you to avoid spills if your little ones are anything like mine were. Do your kids squeeze the pouch as soon as your hand it to them? Mine would make a mess at the most inopportune times. They will have to get used to the extra suction required. But, you won’t have to worry about a big mess if they squeeze the pouch a little too hard. I’m sure it’s totally possible that they could grab a full pouch and squeeze it just to test it… You can even attach these spouts onto the store bought pouches too! So, if you are just looking for a little bit of safety while handing prefilled pouches to your kids, get you some!
The kids are getting older now…
Hopefully my kids won’t bite the spouts again, because they are older now. But since we are hoping to grow our family through foster to adoption, these may come in handy for our newest youngest.
I filled these with apple sauce today. You can buy the big container of apple sauce for less cost per serving and fill your own containers at home. Did you know that you can often find out the cost per serving right on the price labels at the grocery stores? Plus, I find that my kids eat so much more fruit when it’s already ready for them to grab and eat! You can even make your own apple sauce at home, but I haven’t been that brave just yet.
I plan on making a big batch of yogurt too in my Instant Pot, and filling up more pouches so those can be grab and go as well.
These can be great for school too!
These can even be grab and toss into the lunchboxes when the kids do get to have lunch at school again. We found out yesterday that our kids do get to go back to school in person. It will be day camp style, almost 3 hours a day, with half their class, and with their real teacher in person! I’m super excited too, because our middle child will be starting kindergarten. I was not looking forward to having to try to teach him fully at home through distance learning. Many are having to do this, and I don’t envy them at all. I know everyone is doing the best that they can, and that’s all that you really can do. Do your best, let God handle the rest!
So if you’ve got young kids who like their snacks in pouches, you have got to check out the reusable apple sauce pouches for your kids!
If you want to check out more of our super favorite things, you can find them here!
My son would have Uncrustables for every meal if we let him.
And he eats them frozen…
I’m a little worried about how he’s going to react when he opens his lunchbox at school and finds a thawed out Uncrustable 😱.
Not going to lie, they are super convenient too… He can grab a bag out of the freezer and have his meal ready to go.
But… Then there’s the ingredients. 🙄 And the high fructose corn syrup is a deal breaker for me.
So… I started making my own at home with these cool sandwich cutters!
I know exactly what is going into them, and I can freeze them and store them in one big zip lock bag for less trash waste too! Plus, it saves money since we buy the peanut butter and jelly in bulk!
I put peanut butter on both pieces of bread then drop a spoonful of jelly on top of the peanut butter to try to keep it from squirting out of the bread as I use the cutter and sealer.
Next thing on the to do list… Find a good recipe to making my own bread at home so I can stop having to read all the bread labels… 🤔
Bobby saw Daniel and his Grandpere making Raisin Bread on Daniel Tiger and has wanted me to make it ever since. I found this recipe for Cinnamon Bread and completely forgot he had wanted raisins, so I was going to just add them to the recipe, but I forgot… and it took me until now to finally make what he had originally asked for.
So I found this recipe for Yogurt Raisin Bread, but didn’t have all the ingredients she listed, so I made it my own and it still turned out really good! Here’s my version… I had no plans to add in the chocolate chips, except Alexandria was helping me mix it together and mistook the raisins for chocolate chips when she saw them in the bowl, so I let her throw in some chocolate chips too!
2 Eggs 1/3 cup Chobani Whole Milk Plain Greek Yogurt 2/3 cup 2% Milk 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 1 tsp Almond Extract 1/3 cup Applesauce (this was actually the Kirkland pouches I get for my kids, it is exactly 1/3 cup) 2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour 1 tsp Baking Soda 2 tsp Baking Powder 1/8 tsp Salt 1 tsp Cinnamon Powder 1 cup Raisins 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Coat a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with cooking spray and flour.
Whisk together the eggs, yogurt, milk, vanilla extract, almond extract, and applesauce until well blended.
Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until just combined.
Fold in the raisins and chocolate chips.
Scoop the batter into the loaf pan, and bake for 45 minutes – until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Turn the bread into a wire rack to cool
Enjoy!
I love that we can find recipes to try at home, so that we know exactly what is going into our kids bodies! And I especially love when they are simple, because this busy mama doesn’t have much time to spare!
I first learned about being allergic to the cold while I was watching the Bachelor. I thought the contestant was just saying she was allergic to get attention. I had no idea it was an actual thing.
Until… I started noticing my fingertips getting swollen and taking like 30 minutes to go back to normal. I forgot to say it in my video, but after my doctor did the ice pack test, and it just made my arm turn red, she sent me out to the waiting room to wait for the front desk girls to get my prescriptions for me. While I was waiting in the waiting room, I realized my red spot had turned into a huge red welt…
She diagnosed with me Cold Urticaria on the spot, and made a recommendation for me to see a rhuematologist. Seeing the rheumatologist is what got me started on my journey to learning about the importance of gut health. Not because he told me about it, but because he tried to prescribe me medication for a condition I did not have. I have learned that so many autoimmune issues are caused by an unhealthy gut, and I had no idea some of the issues I was having weren’t just my lot in life, but would get better as I got my gut healthier and healthier.
Watch the video to hear more.
Please message me if I can answer any questions for you.
Mosquitoes used to eat me alive. And I was allergic to them so they would swell huge, get a fever, and hurt for days. If a mosquito bit my forehead my eye would swell shut. And… I love tropical vacations. The only bad thing is that there are tons of mosquitoes.
We left from our wedding, straight to the airport, and overnighted to Tahiti. When we landed in Tahiti, we thought we were going to jump on a flight over to Moorea, only to discover they had updated our itinerary… and our flight wouldn’t leave for 8 hours. We were exhausted, and I still had tons of hairspray in my hair, and tons of makeup… so we decided to take a bus to the boat shuttle,
then another bus shuttle to get to our hotel earlier. When we got to the hotel, our room wasn’t ready….
But… they offered shower rooms in the lobby and said we could use those. So, we took our bags in, turned on the hot water, got undressed… and waited…. and waited… and waited. After 5 minutes of cold water, Ryan got dressed and went back out to the lobby to ask for help. One of the workers came in and felt the water and said it should have been hot by now. 🙁
So they had a wing of the hotel that was under construction, so they weren’t putting guests there, but one of the rooms was actually ready to go, so they said we could use the room until our Garden Bungalow was ready.
I’m sure you know what we did next… booked a massage for a couple hours later, took a shower, and took a nap.
After our massages we got to move into our Garden Bungalow and decided to take the hotel shuttle to a restaurant on the water for dinner. After we unpacked everything, we realized that the 2 containers of Off Spray I went out to buy on the morning of my wedding were nowhere to be found. But… we were just going out to dinner, so no big D.
Until they sat us at our table on the lagoon with long white tablecloths and gave us our menus and went to get us some glasses of water. I was trying to look at the menu when my legs started burning… and itching. I couldn’t figure out why. But… being close to the water, and wearing a dress, and having a long tablecloth meant that mosquitoes were able to get to my legs without me even realizing it. I got bit on both legs for a total of, I think it was… 18 bites. So, I said we needed to leave. The hotel shuttle had just left to go back, so we had to wait for him to return to pick us up and drop us off at the grocery store. Of course, everything was in French, so we ended up picking this up… it looked right. Then we walked back to the hotel. On our way back, we met a very sweet lady who said we could use lemon on the bites, and she showed us where her little Pearl Shack was that she owned, and said her son owned the ATV shop next store and he takes people on tours of the island.
So, back at our room, we ordered room service that came with… Lemon, and my hubby put lemon on my bites. It didn’t make the allergic reaction any less severe, I still had to spend the entire honeymoon with huge welts, with fever, and looking bruised and feeling super heavy.
That’s what I had to deal with… for years and years and years. I had no idea that my bodies reaction to bites could or would ever change… until I learned about gut health and started researching more natural options. Oh my goodness, you definitely need to learn about this stuff, it’s so crazy how so much of your health is tied to your gut! And I didn’t even learn about gut health until I was diagnosed with Cold urticaria, an allergy to the cold, yes, it’s a real thing. I thought it was something fake that the girl on The Bachelor made up to try to get more attention from the bachelor. But it was only a few months later that I learned it was real, and I had it, and they wanted to try to mask my symptoms by putting me on Lupus medication, even though I don’t have Lupus.
Anyway, that’s what got me started on this more natural path. My skin no longer has crazy reactions to the cold, my bites are much fewer (did you know the mosquitoes are actually attracted to the bacteria on your skin??? I thought it was my blood type, but when I would meet fellow mosquito attractive people they never shared my blood type), and when I do get bit, I say it looks like a normal person’s mosquito bite. In the last couple weeks I’ve been getting bitten again, and if you are like me, it drives me crazy when it’s time for bed and all I can think about is how itchy that bite is. This mama needs sleep, I work 30 hours a week from home as a data analyst and I also watch my almost 2 year old, and almost 4 year old, and have to pick up my almost 6 year old from the bus stop every day. I sleep like a log, now, and wake up super rested and ready to start my day, but… nobody likes to be woken up to itchy skin.
So… of course I went to google to find natural remedies for mosquito bites and one listed, that I know I have a bottle of was peppermint oil. I am not an oily mama, so I don’t know all the correct terms, but I put some oil straight onto the bite, rubbed it in and was good until morning!
So, if you have bites and have essential oils on hand, try it out. And if you don’t have peppermint alone, do what I do, and find one that has it as an ingredient. It can’t hurt to try it.
Also, if you plan to go to Tahiti, learn some of the language before you go, it’s so cool to see people light up when they know you can speak a little of their language.
We definitely want a new vacuum for the house, and I found a list that shows the best vacuums for wooden floors, with Shark Navigator Lift-away Professional being listed as #1, and I actually found it on sale at Costco this week… But I didn’t buy it yet, because I hadn’t read reviews from real people. It’s $50 cheaper at Costco in Visalia, right now, than it is on Amazon if you are in the market for a new vacuum.
Actually… As I did more digging, I found out that even though it’s called the Professional… It’s a different model than the one sold at Costco. The one at Costco doesn’t have as many features, so it doesn’t cost as much. It’s probably still a really good vaccum, but we’ll likely stick to Amazon to order the right model based on the reviews for wooden floors usage.
But…. If you are just looking for a small vaccum, I’d say hands down, this Eureka Blaze is amazing for the price! I’ve been sweeping with my microfiber floor mop lately and this vacuum saved me so much time. We’ve had the vacuum attachment off for so long that I was thinking I had to use the mini attachment, which takes too long when cleaning up hundreds of kids crumbs, but with the rolling attachment it just took a few minutes.
So I kept seeing the recipes for Yogurt in your Instant Pot, but… I didn’t have everything I needed, and the instructions looked way too complicated, so I never tried it.
Then… I saw one that said I only needed Milk and a yogurt starter (and that meant I could totally use one of the store bought yogurts in my fridge, because it just needs to have live and active cultures). So… I set out to Costco (my grocery store of choice) and was happy to pick up a 2 Gallons box of milk, because the recipe called for a gallon, but… I decided to just do half the recipe.
When we used to buy milk from the Costco in Oxnard, it would last FOREVER. They had 3 of the 1/2 Gallon Cartons in a box and they were Organic Horizon 2%, so we would get 2 or 3 boxes at a time and it would last us for months. When we moved to Visalia, they only sold a box of 2 Gallons in it, and it wasn’t Horizon, and they actually just switched Producers in the last few weeks, and it would be expiring in like a week. My kids don’t drink milk nearly as fast as they used to, and when the best buy date is like tomorrow, and we still have a spare gallon in the outside fridge, we have to buy a huge box of cereal, so my hubby can have cereal with milk for every meal, so we don’t have to throw milk away.
So, I was very excited to try the recipe so we could use half of the first gallon of milk on yogurt, and I wouldn’t have to also buy yogurt, or smoothies… I was thinking ahead. Plus, the Producers milk would be good for like 2 weeks from the date I purchased, it so I was also happy I’d have a little extra time if I didn’t get to making my yogurt right away.
So, I decided to make it on a Friday, completely forgetting we would be having an Ohm Hour that evening…
Here’s the recipe, then I’ll tell you my experience after…
Ingredients:
1/2 gallon of milk (I used whole milk, but you can use whichever milk you prefer) Just a tip, 1/2 gallon is actually 8 cups
Yogurt starter, I used 1/8 cup of a storebought yogurt with live and active cultures, or you could use 1/8 cup from a previous batch you made at home
Instructions
Sterilize your Instant Pot (IP) by adding 2 cups of water to your IP, make sure the steam release handle is closed, press the steam button, then set the timer for 1 minute. After a few minutes, your IP will come to pressure and will steam the water for one minute. After it beeps, do a quick release (I put a towel over my release handle and twist it open so the steam can escape into the towel and not get water everywhere). After all the steam is out, open the lid and dump the water out.
Pour your half gallon (8 cups) of milk into your IP. Turn the steam release handle to sealed. Press the Yogurt button, then press the Adjust button until the displays says “boil.” The IP will now boil your milk. This will take around 45 minutes, but may take a little shorter or longer., depending on how long it takes to build pressure. After the milk has boiled, your IP will beep and the display will read “yogt.”
This next step is the step that requires the most attention. After the display reads “yogt”, you need to remove the metal pot from your IP and set it on the counter, with a liquid thermometer inside so that you can see when it cools to 110 degrees F. You can speed up the cooling process by adding ice packs around the pot, and stirring your milk, but I just let it sit for an hour and it was slightly over 110 degrees so I checked 10 minutes later and it was ready.
Once your milk has cooled to about 110 degrees, you can add your yogurt starter. Slowly add your yogurt starter as you are continuously stirring, so that your starter is mixed evenly throughout your milk.
After it’s all mixed up, put your metal pot back into your IP and put the lid back on. Press the yogurt button again, then press the adjust button until it displays a number. This number is the number of hours that your yogurt will culture. You can use the “+” and “-” buttons to adjust how long you want your yogurt to culture. I planned to let mine go for 8 hours since we aren’t lactose intolerant, but you should let it culture for around 24 hours if you do have lactose issues.
After you’ve selected the number of hours, your IP will beep and then display 0:00 as that is how long it as been culturing. This timer counts up, so you’ll see how many minutes or hours it has been culturing.
When your yogurt is done culturing, your IP will beep a final time and then display “yogt.” You can now transfer your yogurt to your preferred storage containers. I put mine in meal prep containers. Store your finished yogurt in the fridge. It should keep for several weeks.
So… that’s how it should be done…. this is actually how my version looked…
I sterilized my IP, added my milk,
set my milk to boil
and walked away. I came back around an hour later and it was ready for the next step. I pulled the pot out, put in the thermometer, which actually happened to be my mother-in-loves, and I’ve only ever used it when trying to make her English Toffee… which reminds me, we should try to make it this year, and as I was trying to lean it against the side of the pot, it fell in….
so I scooped it out with a spaghetti spoon… I did get it hooked to the side,
then covered the pot with a towel while I went outside with the kids to play.
After an hour, I checked on it, and it was still a little warm, so I had Alexa set another timer for 10 more minutes. After she alerted me that my 10 minutes was up, I left the kids playing on the trampoline, listening to Grim Grinning Ghosts and ran in to get my yogurt to add to my boiled milk. I used a whisk to make sure my yogurt was completely mixed in (I used blueberry, I thought it was just plain yogurt on top, since the fruit was on the bottom, but the yogurt did come out a little blue.. oh well), then I set my IP for 8 hours. I was 5 hours later that I realized we had an Ohm hour starting in 10 minutes.
I didn’t know if I should stop the IP, and potentially ruin my first batch of yogurt, or let it run, and potentially risk my ohm hour streak… so I let the Yogurt keep culturing. I still don’t know if we ruined our streak, but we would have just been completing our 3rd hour in a row since I ruined the streak a few weeks ago when I didn’t realized our Eco mode on our Nest thermostat upstairs was set wrong…. oops! Before bed, I decided to check on the yogurt, it did look pretty creamy, but as I was scooping it into meal prep containers, it was still kinda watery…. So I did what I thought I should do… stirred it up and set it to culture overnight.
In the morning it was still looking like a hot mess, just like it did when I left it the night before. I scooped it into containers anyway and stuck it in the fridge. A couple hours later when I shook the container, it was firm. So, definitely not as watery as it was in the warm pot, but the consistency still looks a little off.
I did, however, ask the kids if they wanted to try a smoothie. I usually buy them the little drink smoothies, that they love, but this time I got to make it myself, so I knew exactly what was it in, and they LOVED them! I added some of my chunky yogurt… a whole banana (that I broke into pieces), a big strawberry, a little milk, and a couple drops of strawberry stevia, then I used my immersion blender to get it into the smoothie texture that they are used to. I poured it into little Tupperware Snack cups, that I had no idea actually could use sippee top lids on them, and gave them to the kids. They all asked for seconds, so I had to make another batch.
I can definitely get used to making my own yogurt, and getting to make whichever flavors we want by adding our own fruit or ingredients. I may mix up some honey in it tomorrow for them.
Next time, I’ll start earlier, and definitely not during an ohm hour day.
So… Remember that time I was glad that Alexandria only got the marker on her skin and the kids chairs, and was really happy she didn’t get it on the new couch 🛋?
Until my hubby noticed a few days later that she actually did get it on the side of the couch 🤦♀️
My friend Kendra mentioned that she cleans her couches with alcohol and water. So… I gave it a go.
It seemed to work, it just doesn’t smell the best. Then, I remembered my Theives cleaner that gets stains out of the carpet and it smells good too!
I’m happy to report that I was able to get the marker off the couch 🛋 🙌
And I even got most of the marker off of Bobby’s chair
Let me start out by saying that we got a really great deal on this house…
When we were looking at houses, I was primarily looking at single story houses, but there weren’t that many that had a big yard, and I really wanted a big yard for my kids and our dog. This one came on the market the night before we were going to tour houses on our list that met most of our criteria. Our realtor was able to get us an appointment to come in and look at it the next day. Even though it was two story, the back yard was exactly what I was looking for, and there was a huge loft upstairs that could be used as a play room, so… we put in an offer and they accepted it!
However… we had a lot of work to do. And one of the things I noticed when I was putting decorations on top of the kitchen cabinets was the layer upon layer of dust… yuck!
But… we’ve been a little busy working, taking care of the kids, and getting everything else around the house in order that this cleanup was left for later.
Now that the painters are almost done, and I can finally put things back in their cabinets, and I had to get up on top of the counter to pull down the glass dishes to put back where they go, I knew I had to just get up there and get it done.
Cleaning isn’t on the top of my list of fun things to do. And cleaning other people’s mess is definitely on my list of things that I prefer not to do. But, we’ve been in this house 7 months now, so… I got up there to get it done.
I first tried to clean with one of the scrubby cloths from Norwex with just water… it didn’t clean up the grime. So… I added dish soap, not Dawn… we like to think of Costco as our grocery store, so we use the Kirkland Dish soap. It would start to get the layers off, but I’d have to climb off the counter to keep rinsing the cloth because it was getting covered in the grime rolls. Plus, there was the little accent that also had dust in it. So… I went upstairs to grab this scrub brush we had, and looked up ways to clean grime off cabinets and decided to try White Vinegar. I used a Norwex Envirocloth with the vinegar and it was working, until the cloth would get coated in grime, then it was just spreading it around. So I started using the scrubby brush with vinegar, until the scrubby brush was covered in grime, and I’d have to get down to wash the brush. The dish soap did great at cleaning the grime off the brush, so I made a combo mixto, mixto combo with Vinegar and Dish soap. That seemed to get a lot of the grime off, but still left the bottom sticky later.. and I did have to keep climbing down to wash off my brush.
The recipe I found that I loved for getting the last layer of grime off was vegetable oil and baking soda. You use one part vegetable oil and 2 parts baking soda. And you just put it on and rub it off with paper towels. I probably went through an entire roll of paper towels, but I got to make much fewer trips off the counter to wash out bowls and brushes and cloths, since I could just throw away the dirty paper towels.
I thought I may be able to skip the vinegar and dish soap step, but the vegetable oil and baking soda alone didn’t do a good job of taking off all the layers of grime.
So… my best combo for cleaning the remaining shelves was to mix vinegar with dish soap, scrub scrub scrub most of the layers off with my scrub brush, then second pass was vegetable oil and baking soda with a paper towel, then I did one last clean up any leftover grime rolls from the corners with a bottle of plant enzyme spray cleaner and a paper towel.
It’s not perfect, but it’s so much better than it used to be. I’m probably going to be really sore tomorrow, but I’m so glad that this is done!
Here are before and afters…
To see it done MUCH faster than it actually took… watch it here!
Instructions
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