Vitamix

Jeff & I recently ordered the Forks Over Knives movie along with the companion book, cookbook, & Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue. If  you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it! So many of the recipes would be easier with a blender, or at least a food processor. I have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, a toaster, and some knives. We have purchased 2 blenders and they have always just made me mad. :)  Both blenders are long gone, so Jeff suggested I go buy one. I thought another blender was a good idea, but he really wanted a good one... He wants homemade plant milks and nut butters. So we got the Vitamix! I didn't realize it functions not only as a blender, but as a food processor, ice cream maker, juicer, and it heats up soups- ready to serve! It also cleans itself...as if it is its own dishwasher! It came with an instructive dvd and a huge hard cover cookbook! It was pricey, but it takes the place of multiple appliances. (At least it does in my kitchen!)
So our first go with the Vitamix was a wonderful recipe on wholefoodmommies.com, a chocolate smoothie with spinach. This is the kids' FAVORITE! I promise you canNOT taste the spinach!! Today I made two more smoothies, berry for breakfast and mint chocolate chip (with spinach, of course) after lunch. Tonight's dinner was roasted veggie tomato sauce with noodles. YUM!!

Here's what I did:
1. Lay veggies on a roasting pan and put a bit of olive oil on them. (I added onions chopped by the Vitamix too!)
2. Roast these at 350 until the onions are done.
3. Place in Vitamix with oregano (I used YL oil), tomato paste, garlic, basil (from my garden), salt, and purée. This was hot from the blender and ready for the noodles.

Next time I might use less carrots, but it was really good! It also feels great to use food from the garden. (both basil & bell pepper came from there.) The little kids weren't so fond of it, but I'm sure I just need to find the right combo for them. This recipe was my variation on what I found in the Forks Over Knives cookbook and the Vitamix cookbook, based on what I had on hand.

I am not good at getting dinner on the table for the family, so I hope this will help. Dinner was super easy tonight, and I'm looking forward to many more!

Paper clutter solution!!

I have researched ways to solve my issues with paper clutter time and time again, each time coming up with very few solutions that work for me. The biggest problem with my paper clutter is that I have many "active" papers that I cannot complete for a time. I'm sure there are many out there like me who wear many hats. As for me this school year, I homeschool four at home, teach between 1-2 classes per week in a Classical co-op, am a unit leader twice per month in my daughter's AHG group, and also have responsibilities as a nursery pastor at the church. We have papers! I purge as much as I can, file less than I should, and stack, stack, stack. You (ok, I) cannot file active papers. My active papers include unread mail, periodicals, coupons, receipts (lots of returns at the finish of projects when not all supplies were needed and I will be reimbursed), stacks of non-consumable pages we use each week in co-op, and the books, supplies, and name tags for AHG. To organize these items, I found the perfect place!! I suppose it's a dresser, but to me, it's an "active paper file." (It's my new indispensable piece of furniture!)
Each drawer contains a different stack of papers. I even used a labeler to identify (discreetly) the papers that go in each drawer. This way, my entire family is privy to my system. ie: they can help. :)