Tag Schmag

****Post edited ~ drastically. Please read the bottom paragraph.****

I’ve been tagged by Cheri. This is the first time I’ve ever “played” internet tag so this will could be fun. I am to list 7 random facts about myself. Let the record show that had this come from anyone else, I probably wouldn't have done it. I'm a stick in the mud like that.

1. I was captain of the PowderPuff (girls play, boys are cheerleaders) football teams my Junior and Senior year of highschool...and I didn't even know how to play football.

2. I'm scared of Holstein cows (and we even have one)...those ladies are HUGE!

3. I cried every single day while Mr. Visionary was away in Israel this Summer.

4. When we got married, I swore I would not be having children.

5. I don't know how to type.

6. I would give large quantities of cash for a good Reuben sandwich right now.

7. I'm a very good shot with a .45 caliber handgun. Just ask Mr. Raccoon who was after my chickens last year... well, I guess you can't ask him now.

Game of Blog Tag Rules:
*Link to the person that tagged you.
*Post the rules on your blog.
*Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
*Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
*Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Edited: I have removed the list of folks I tagged out of a sense of guilt. I cringe when these things are going around, and hate the time involved and the frivolousness of it all. (I told you I was a stick in the mud...now you know I wasn't joking.) I have removed the links so that no one feels pressured to actually do this thing. My apologies to the ladies I "tagged". Looking back at my day and seeing the amount of time I spent on this one post with no redeeming value makes me cringe. I have repented of ever doing it in the first place, and am making this public confession lest I ever feel tempted to do it again. You may wonder what the big deal is... it is... that I can't find anything in the Word that would justify my time spent in this activity...however innocent.

Ephesians 5:15-17

15See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

16Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of YHWH is.

The truth is, I really need to go back and read this post: Blogging Without Obligation.

 

Leftover Oatmeal Transformed

After going through the trouble of making yogurt to save a jar of whey, buying from a co-op 50 pound bags of organic oat groats, rolling it into oatmeal, soaking the grain overnight in the whey mixture, cooking it and adding organic butter and coconut oil... I can not bear to throw the stuff away. It goes against every frugal, there-are-children-starving-in-this-world and...don't-you-know-how-hard-Dad-worked-to-pay-for-it bone in my body to just toss it.

So the experiments began. I would add the oatmeal to my bread dough, but never could get it to stay light. I journeyed through adding it to homemade pancake batter, homemade biscuit dough and cookie dough. Some of those experiments were fair, but we were still searching for *just* the right use for this pale, cold and slimy bit of what could potentially be yummy-healthy goodness.



Enter Peanut Butter Bars. An old La Leche League cookbook recipe I made in ages past called for rolled oats, soaked in boiling water for a bit before adding to the recipe. I looked at the leftover oatmeal and thought,"This has been in boiling water quite a bit...let's try it." So, without further adieu, we share with you our new, tried-and-true, we'd-almost-make-extra-oatmeal-just-to-have-for-this...recipe.

Peanut Butter Bars with Leftover Oatmeal

2 cups leftover oatmeal, cold and slimy is fine

1/2 cup butter, softened (coconut oil is also yum)

1 cup sweetener...sugar, sucanat, etc....(or honey- if you half the amount, and it doesn't get the batter too moist)

1 egg

1 cup whole grain flour...wheat, spelt, etc....(Yes, these work with rice flour if you need!)(maybe a bit of extra flour if you used honey to sweeten)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/3 cup peanut butter (we like this better doubled)

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter, sweetener and eggs in a bowl. (The boys like to squoosh this with their well-washed hands.) Add oats and other ingredients; mix well. Spread into greased 9x13" baking pan. Bake at 350' for 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack; cut into bars. Yield 18(small) servings.

We have also served this hot, scooped into bowls with cold milk either on top or in a glass beside. It is so yummy for breakfast. The texture seems to be a bit different each time we make it, my guess is because of the varying amount of butter and sugar we add to the original oatmeal pot. It makes great snack bars, or with a few chocolate chips mixed into the batter, a very rich dessert bar for crowds. (We have found that tripling this makes two very full jelly-roll pans full.)

Enjoy!

For more frugal ideas, head over to Crystal's place for her Frugal Friday post!

Tinctures To Go

I hate memes. I do not mind reading them, mind you ~ it is fun to read other folks' ~ but I know me... if I started doing them, I would feel pressured by the things and feel as if I had to do it every week. I have enough real responsibilities without my adding imagined ones. All of that is to say that had I been doing the Works For Me Wednesday meme, and had today actually been a Wednesday, this is the sort of thing I would post.

Mr. Visionary was feeling under the weather last night when he came home from the old grind work. He had a stuffy nose, his sinuses were swollen and stuffy feeling, and his head was aching. He had felt fine until about mid afternoon, so after interrogating questioning him about his day and noting nothing out of the ordinary, I smelled a rat and figured a virus was to blame. I doused dosed him with tinctures, and sent him to bed.

When he awoke stuffy again, I gave him another tincture dose, but realized that, Dads not always having the luxury of staying home when they're feeling poorly, he'd be leaving for work in a few minutes. It was then that an idea struck me, a second-best idea, (the first-best was having Dad stay at home), in the form of portable tinctures.

Dunt dunt dunt dun... (How does one spell that drumroll sound the boys are always making?)





Cool, huh? Now all Dad has to do is mix this pre-measured dose with a little water to make it easier to get down, and voila! Healthy medicine to go.




I save vanilla bottles for just this purpose... the amber colored glass is perfect for maintaining the quality of your tinctures, and I won't mind if they get lost or broken.





Works for me, even if it isn't Wednesday.