Sesame Wheat Sprout Bonbons

Sprouted wheat is one of my favorite health foods. As I've said before, Mormons are counseled to store a year's supply of food for their families and wheat is a wonder food that has an almost eternal shelf life! Seal it in a number ten can and I could be using my wheat when I'm having great-grandbabies! Again, as I've said in yesterday's post. We literally have to store half a ton of wheat to meet the needs of our family of eleven for a year, so I am always looking for ways to become familiar with and use our wheat. After all, what good is half a ton of wheat going to do us if I don't know what to do with it?

I love sprouting wheat because it's almost like it turns into a different food. Instead of a hard, unpalatable kernel, sprouted wheat is soft and chewy and even a little sweet. I had some on my counter today and and as I walked by holding a fussing baby, I thought I would stick some in his mouth to see if it would make him happy. He stopped crying immediately, chewed it up and stuck his pudgy arms out for more. I was thrilled to see that he would eat this health food just plain like this, so I put him on the floor, sat on a stool next to him, got a big handfull of it, called his twin brother to join him, and thoroughly enjoyed feeding them bite-sized servings of sprouts over and over again! They reminded me of little birds, taking fresh greens from their mum.

As I sat and watched them, I thought that there must be some way I could make a good-tasting wheat sprout snack the other kids would love. I turned to this book...


...adapted a recipe and here's what I came up with...

Sesame Wheat Sprout Bonbons
Ingredients:
1 cup sesame seeds
3 cups wheat sprouts (For a post on an easy way to sprout wheat kernels, click HERE.)
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup nut butter
1/4 cup coconut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
In medium bowl, combine sesame seeds, wheat sprouts and coconut. In small bowl, combine remaining ingredients, then pour over wheat sprout mixture and stir until blended.

Place this mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours, then form into balls on a cookie sheet...


I wonder why I can't make a straight line of bonbons. Anyway...these can also be placed in mini cupcake papers for a fancier bonbon. Chill in the fridge again and serve cold. The two-year-old opted for these instead of chocolate cake. Here's his cute little band-aided hand holding one now...


Hope you enjoy!

I am pleased to list this post @ Biblical Womanhood's "Frugal Friday". Check out her blog for TONS for great money-saving tips!
I am also pleased to list this post at...
-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
-Kim's Tasty Tuesday and
and -The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

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Homemaker Monday: Dried Pinto Beans to "Refried" Beans in 5 Minutes!

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Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs. (By the way, if you have been featured on Homemaker Monday in the past, your name is on my left sidebar. Check it out!)

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Dusty over at To the Moon and Back. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE fan of whole wheat recipes, being that I'm mormon and have, literally, half a ton of wheat in storage, as we are counseled to store a year's supply of food for our families. Really, there's half a ton. I'm not joking. Sooooo....when I came across Dusty's post on soft whole wheat pretzels, I HAD to choose her for the the "YOURS" feature because I've actually been looking for a good pretzel recipe like this for a long time. If everything goes as planned, here's what you're going to get if you follow her recipe...


Thank you so much, Dusty, for your awesome addition to Homemaker Monday! For Dusty's entire post, click HERE!

MINE: Today I would like to share a recipe with you that can come in handy if you are in a pinch. Have you ever been in need of refried beans in the case of an emergency, but didn't have time to soak the dried pinto beans, cook them for several hours, and smash them? Let me share my solution here with you today. Recently I was introduced by a dear friend to a book called...


This is an amazing book! You can't imagine the ways one can use beans! They can be ground up into flour to use as soup or sauce bases, as a healthy substitute for white flour, or, as I am about to show you, as an instant "refried" beans mix to have on hand.

Now the honest report on this recipe is this: The texture, color and taste of these "refried" beans was a little off (I ate them with tortilla chips), but they would make a great ingredient if you came across a recipe calling for mashed or refried beans. That being said, the nine-year-old boy chowed down on a whole bowl of chips with these beans right before bed and LOVED them! And he's my pickiest eater, so go figure! I plan on giving the leftovers to the babies later today (they won't know the difference), so these have definitely come in handy over the last 12 hours. This is fun to try, so if you'd like to, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup pinto or black bean flour (ground in a grain grinder)
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 t instant minced onions (optional)

Directions to make the mix:
In a bowl, combine all ingredients with a whisk. Now your mix is finished. You can store it in an airtight container until your refried bean emergency arises. Here's what it looks like...


To make the instant "refried" beans:
Whisk 3/4 cup of instant "refried" bean mix with 2 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cook on medium heat for two more minutes or until mixture is thickened, stirring constantly. If there are lumps, don't worry, it just adds to the character of the beans.


Eat with chips, mix with salsa or guacamole or add to any of your favorite recipes calling for refried beans. If you try this let me know what you think!

OURS: All righty then, let's see what all of you homemakers have for us today! Thanks so much for visiting or linking up and I hope you have a wonderful Homemaker Monday!



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I Can't Believe It's a Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie

It's hard to bake without using eggs and butter. There are a lot of recipes out there that suggest using bananas, apple sauce, baby food, or even steamed carrots as substitutes, but the resulting product usually tastes a little off. And I can tell how my kids feel about the results as they will eat the first one I give them to try, but decline seconds. The following recipe, however, is one exception to this rule.

I found this recipe at Post Punk Kitchen and it is to die for. I modified it a little bit to avoid the use of so much refined sugar, but it still tastes so much like a "real" chocolate chip cookie and my kids can't get enough of them. I'm not going to lie to you. I wouldn't call this health food, but it's animal free and it's a great snack to send to school when your kids need to provide a treat for the classroom, for a church activity or just as an after-school indulgence. Here's the recipe...

Ingredients
1 cup agave nectar
1/2 white sugar
1 1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
2 tablespoon corn starch
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.

Step 2: Combine agave nectar, sugar, oil, almond milk, and corn starch in a medium-sized bowl with a mixer for two minutes. Don't get lazy and skip this step. It's important to keep combining with the mixer until it looks like a caramel syrup. If you don't, your results will be an oily, spread-out mess.

Step 3: Mix in vanilla.

Step 4: Add in flour, baking soda, and salt and combine until mixed thoroughly.

Step 5: Fold in chocolate chips.

Step 6: Spoon 1-inch balls onto baking sheets and bake for 6 to 9 minutes, or until the edges are just barely lightly browned.

Now here is the way I served this recipe at my lady luncheon today. I made the dough. I asked my friends if they would prefer the dough baked into cookies or just raw. They all voted for raw, so I got one of my prettiest bowls, spooned most of the dough into the bowl, stuck four spoons in it and set it on the table for all to enjoy....


Do with it what you will....

(Here is the baked result, if you get that far....)



Thanks for visiting me today!

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Homemaker Monday: How We Do Fruit

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Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs. (By the way, if you have been featured on Homemaker Monday in the past, your name is on my left sidebar. Check it out!)

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to The Blossoming Skillet! This fantastic lady has been working on perfecting one recipe for three months now! It's a recipe for which I have been searching for quite some time and I was THRILLED to find it linked up on Homemaker Monday last week. The Blossoming Skillet teaches us how to make whole wheat pita pocket bread. Look at these beauties...


She even grinds her own wheat, adding to the nutritional value of these versatile treats. I've been making lots of different hummus recipes recently and these pita pockets are going to make a perfect addition to my dips. For her entire post, click HERE! Thank you so much, Blossoming Skillet, for this awesome recipe and don't forget to take the "I Was Featured" botton from my left sidebar if you'd like!

MINE: The following is something that makes a vegan exceedingly happy...


I know, this looks like an ginormous amount of fruit, but remember that we are a family of ten (with lots of visitors) and it works to have this much fruit set out at the beginning of each week. In our case, it seems to work well to have each different type of fruit in a different bowl, that way the kids don't have to dig in the bowl for what they want, dropping and bruising fruit as they go. Incidentally, my kids were absolutely shocked when I told them that fruit can bruise. After learning that, they started being a little gentler when bringing the bags in from the van.

Back to the point, it makes me feel like I'm a good mom when I see the kids walking around biting on a apple or getting the paring knife out to peel a couple of kiwis. Sometimes I even break my own rule about eating in the living room if I see they have a healthy piece of fruit in their hand. Having fruit visible and easily accessible for the kids seems to be the key to enabling them to grab healthy snacks. We never have chips, cookies, Kool-aid, soda or any other junk food in the house. Fruits, vegetables and whole wheat bread are pretty much their only options as far as snack foods go, and they've gotten so used to it, they rarely complain.

So how about you? How do you enable your kids access to healthy snacks? What are some of their favorite healthy snack foods? I would really like to know. Hope the tip helps!

OURS: Okay, let's see what all of you wonderful homemakers are up to this fine Monday! If you didn't write a post especially for today, feel free to search your archives for tips, how-tos, recipes or any other kind of homemaking inspiration. Thanks for joining us today and I hope you have a great week!



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Wordless Wednesday: How I Found the Twin Babies Sleeping

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Exceedingly Quick Vegan Sesame Seed Buns

As I said in my post about Quick Breadsticks, I do well when I can rely on recipes that require little advanced planning. For instance, on Saturday afternoon at 5:00, I decided that we would have hamburgers for dinner. The teenage boy had some friends over and I thought that that would be a suitable meal. I know you are asking why I would dare serve hamburgers to my family and here is the answer: I still have a freezer full of meat and although I personally don't plan on eating it, I feel like we need to use it up rather than throw it away. I told the kids that after it's gone, I will not be buying any more meat, so as not to support the factory farming that goes on in the U.S. I told them that if they want to have meat as part of their diet, they need to let me know so we can purchase a calf and some chicks and they can raise their own. (I'll make a report on that when the times comes.)....anywho, so hamburgers it was to be.

Now, my two options as far as obtaining buns in my small Mexican town were to buy Bimbo buns, which are white bread buns that seemingly NEVER go stale or moldy (one must wonder why) or to make my own. I lamented the fact that I had not thought of what I would serve for dinner sooner, because it seemed as if my only feasible alternative was to buy the Bimbo, as I knew it would take 2 to 3 hours for the dough for homemade hamburger buns to rise.

But then my superb mental powers kicked in and a thought came into my head. What if I used the Quick Breadstick dough I had posted about last week, and tweaked it a little bit to form hamburger buns?!? So I did it and it took about an hour from start to finish and it was wonderful! Some of the comments were...

HUSBAND: "These are great buns!"
TEENAGE BOY: "Wow. Those are big."
OTHER, YOUNGER TEENAGE BOY: "These are really good, Mom."

It warmed my heart so. Okay, here's how I did it...

Quick Sesame Seed Buns

Ingredients:
-One batch Quick Breadstick dough (click HERE for the recipe)
(Disclaimer: For this particular batch, I used half white flour and half whole wheat flour.)
-2 tablespoons flaxseeds
1/3 cup water
-Sesame seeds

Directions:
-Make Quick Breadstick dough and divide it into 16, rather than 32, pieces.
-Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten and place on two greased cookie sheets, like so...



-Let rise in a warm place for at least 20 minutes or longer if possible, until doubled in bulk.
-While the dough is rising, blend flaxseeds and water in the blender until smooth. This will be used as a liquid sticking agent for the sesame seeds. If you are an onmivore, you can just use a beaten egg for this step.
-Once the dough has risen, brush with the flaxseed mixture, sprinkle on the sesame seeds, and bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until the buns are light brown. You are going to love these. Here's the finished product...


I swear there is a veggie burger in there somewhere. It's just covered with baby spinach, vegenaise and thinly sliced zuchinni. Hope you love it!

I am pleased to list this post @ Biblical Womanhood's "Frugal Friday". Check out her blog for TONS for great money-saving tips!
I am also pleased to list this post at...
-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
-Kim's Tasty Tuesday and
and -The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

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Homemaker Monday: A Vacuum EVERYONE Can Use!

Welcome to...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs. (By the way, if you have been featured on Homemaker Monday in the past, your name is on my left sidebar. Check it out!)

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to RhondaLue over at Whetten Wonders. She wrote an excellent post about making maple syrup at home using a sweetener called agave nectar...

I thought I knew a lot about the subject, but she shed a whole lot more light with her list of the health benefits of this amazing sweetener and I wanted to make sure all of you got the chance to learn as much as I did. Click HERE for RhondaLue's post that will have you SOLD! Thanks for all the great info, RhondaLue! Have a great one!

MINE: This week I would just like to share a quick tip on something that makes it a little easier for kids to help around the house. Let's face it, there are not too many people in this world who love to sweep. Unfortunately, however, this has to be done (in MY house, anyway) multiple times a day, especially in the kitchen. Although I love having a kitchen the measures 20x30 feet, it takes 15 minutes for me to sweep it, which usually occurs at least two, if not three times a day. That could be up to 45 minutes of my day I spend sweeping! And that's just in the kitchen! And so, of course, I enlist the kids to help with the task.

You know what, though? Yes, I can sometimes be a mean mom, but my heart is softened when it comes to sweeping. I know that it's hard for a seven- or eight-year-old to handle a broom and do a great job sweeping a 600 square foot slate floor, so I added THIS to my arsenal of cleaning supplies...


It's a Dirt Devil cordless, rechargable all surface vacuum and the kids love it! Sometimes they even ask me if they can vacuum the floor for no reason, and, of course, I let them! Now, not all of us can look as cool as THIS when we use it...


...but our floors will definitely look that cool. Everyone in the family can use it, even the tiniest tots. See?...




Yes, I know, he's not really using the vacuum. He is simply experimenting with the way the handle maneuvers so smoothly. I just had to prove a point that it is a LOT easier to get this treaseure out for quick messes or little arms rather than trying to pull out the regular-sized vacuum with the zillion attachments. We keep ours right by the side door for super-easy access. Hope this idea works for someone out there. Let me know what success you find!

OURS: Okay, your turn! Let's see what inspiration all of you have out there for us today. I'd love to see some new faces along with the regulars. Don't be shy, dig through your archives, enter your post and see how fun it is to get lots of visitors to your blog! Have a great Homemaker Monday!



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Steak and Potatoes Raw-Vegan Style (now with recipes included!)

For many people, starting a new vegan lifestyle can be a challenge, especially if you're flying solo. Something that can make it a little easier is to make food that resembles some old favorites. This has been especially helpful for me. Drinking almond milk has made it very easy to give up cow's milk, making nut cheeses has helped to lessen my cheesy temptations, and inventing a couple of non-dairy ice cream recipes has made giving up one of my all time favorite foods a cinch.

Since I was not a big meat-eater before "the change", I haven't really felt the need for meat substitutes, such as "Not Dogs" or soy burgers, but many do enjoy these substitutions. Something that many vegetarians use as a natural substitute for steak is portabella mushroom steaks....


Maybe we love them because they're big and brown and juicy, like a steak, and they take a while to finish because of they're sheer size! Or....maybe we just love them because they taste great. The kids love them, too. For dinner last night, I'd cut them into thirds in case the kids didn't like them, and there were two pieces left when dinner was over. After leaving the dishes on the table and rushing to see a dance dress rehearsal the teenagers were involved in, we returned to deal with bathtime, kitchen clean up and the like. As I was getting the babies' bath ready, I walked by the kitchen and saw the seven-year-old girl eating up the last of the mushrooms thirds. She sincerely thanked me and told me how good they were. There are not too many things that make me happier than my family showing appreciation for my efforts in preparing a healthy meal!

As far as the meal was concerned, I couldn't just stop at portabella steaks. We had to have fry look-alikes, too! We made them by cutting jicama with the french fry cutter, seasoning the "fries" and blending up sundried tomatoes and other spices in the Vitamix for some raw ketchup. Check out the bounty!


Now, for the honest report...I didn't truly expect all of my kids to like this meal. When I first tasted the jicama with the ketchup, it was a little tangy for me, but as I kept eating it, it grew on me and I loved it! The babies loved it, too, which was a shocker. The other kids had a bit of a hard time with the jicama though, so there were lots of leftovers for me to pick through. As I said before, however, the portabella steaks were a hit. My husband even loved his!

Here are the recipes for the portabella steaks and the "Crunch Fries" with ketchup...

Portabella Steaks

Ingredients:
-portabella mushrooms
-balsamic vinegar
-olive oil
-sea salt
-pepper

Directions: Place mushrooms capside (upside) down on a texflex dehydrator sheet or oiled cooked sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. For dehydrator method, place mushrooms on a teflex sheet and dehydrate for one hour at 145 degrees. For oven method, place on lowest temperature in oven with door cracked open with a wooden spoon and bake for 45 minutes or until tender. That's it!

Crunch Fries with Ketchup:

Ingredients for the fries:
1 pound jicama, cut into the shape of fries
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon onion powder
sea salt to taste

Ingredients for the ketchup:
1/4 cup onion powder
1/2 cup dried tomatoes, soaked for two hours and drained
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon salt

For the fries, combine the sliced jicama with the olive oil, paprika, onion powder and sea salt

For the ketchup, blend together the tomatoes, vinegar, raisins, salt and onion powder in a blender. Dip fries in ketchup and enjoy!

P.S This recipe was discovered in the "un"cook book called "The Complete Book of Raw Food"...


It's got over 400 raw vegan recipes from the world's top chef! Great book to try! Have a great one!

I am also pleased to list this post at...
-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
-Jen's "Tasty Tuesday" and
-The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

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Live Granola Bars

I don't have an interesting story to include with this recipe (not that any of my other stories are at all interesting), so I'll just go ahead with the recipe!

Live Granola Bars

Many raw foodists call their cuisine "live" because their food has not been cooked over 116 degrees and because it consists of plants, not deceased animals. To be specific, though, a food is not considered live unless it was in the process of germination or growth when harvested and used. For instance, using almonds to make almond butter wouldn't be considered live because the almonds were in their dormant state when processed. However, if you were to soak the almonds overnight, you would have a different story. Soaking nuts or seeds causes them to release the enzyme inhibitors that protect the seed from germinating in unfavorable conditions. Once they are soaked, however, it's as if they now know they are ready to grow, so the enzyme inhibitors are released into the soak water and the nutrient content of the seed multiplies exponentially. I haven't actually figured out how this happens, but it does and it's amazing! Therefore, a soaked almond (having soaked for 4 to 8 hours) would be considered a live food because it is ready to grow.

Enter the live granola bars. These are amazingly healthy bars and astoundingly filling! After eating just half of one as an after school snack with the kids, every time I even looked at a bar later that evening, I suddenly felt so not hungry! Not that they tasted bad, mind you! It's just that they were so, so filling and I wasn't all too hungry the rest of the evening. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So the thing that makes these granola bars living are the sunflower seeds that had been soaked overnight and the raisins (as long as they weren't heated over 116 degrees). And to add to the nutritional value, these bars are one quarter sesame seeds. Do you know how much iron sesame seeds have? 14.5 mgs per 100 gram serving (about 2/3 cup). A piece of steak with the same weight has only 2.8 mgs of iron. That was shocking to me. So maybe when my OB told me that I needed to go out and eat more hamburgers to help with my pregnancy-induced anemia (as an onmivore), he meant because of the sesame seed bun, not the patty! No, I'm just kidding, I'm just happy to have found something with so much iron, as that is a mineral vegans need to make sure they get enough of.

So here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups raw sesame seeds
2 cups sunflower seeds (soaked for 8 to 12 hours)
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup nut butter (such as peanut, almond, cashew)
2/3 cup raw honey (must be raw as the solidity is important to the texture)
10 tablespoons coconut oil (slightly heated until it becomes a liquid (about 78 degrees))
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients expect the raisins and the chocolate chips. It may be easier to wash your hands very well and mix it by hand rather than using a spoon. Next, divide the dough in half into two smaller bowls, and add the raisins to one and the chocolate chips to the other. I do this because I love granola bars with raisins, but my kids love them with chocolate chips! To set the bars, line two casserole dishes with wax paper and press the dough into the pans. Chill in the refrigerator or freezer, then cut to shape. These can then be wrapped in foil and stored in the fridge or just kept in the fridge in the casserole dish to be picked at periodically throughout the day. That's what we do! Oh, and here's what they look like...


And guess what? This bar looks even MORE delicious if you click to enlarge!

If you try this recipe, let me know how your family likes it! Have a great one!

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Excuses, Bloggy Buddies and the Quickest Breadsticks Ever!

Here it is, 10:46 on Monday night and I STILL haven't posted my Homemaker Monday tip. What kind of blog carnival host am I? I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I am going to save my tip for next Monday and post my usual recipe blog I like to do on Tuesday. I don't think I would have been such a slacker were it not for a couple of awesome bloggy friends I have. Let me just add here that I actually did write my post on my laptop while I was sitting in the courtyard watching the three babies play. However, one of the twins pushed the other off a stair and as I hurriedly put my laptop down, I somehow deleted the entire post! To add insult to injury, a few minutes later the toddler locked us all in the courtyard. I sat there for 20 minutes thinkng what I should do, then remembered that I hadn't locked the back gate and opened it and went inside. Yeah, it was a fun morning. Anyway, because you probably won't get to read my blogging friends' sweet comments, I would like to share them with you here. CompleteLee Blogger said, "Works in progress always happen when you have a large family, don't they?? Thanks for the carnival." How understanding is that? Kim at Forever Wherever said, "Life is busy and I think you have your priorities straight! I'm sure no one would mind if you didn't have a post today." Again, a super-understanding comment. Danielle Ice from Homemaker Barbi said, "As always, thank you for hosting this linky for us all! I want you to know that we really appreciate it. Have a great week!" Doesn't it just make your day when someone just lets you know they appreciate you? I'm surprised I got any comments today at all, but I just had to share these with you to let you know how much I appreciate all of my blogging friends. I do have some real life friends, too, but I really don't get out much because of the twins and the toddler and because I opt to let the teenaged boy have the car at school so that he can make the five trips picking up kids at different times, rather than me doing it. I have come to look so forward to reading your sweet comments every night before bed and it's been wonderful to get to know so many other women out there who work hard and simply want to do the best they can for their families. I salute all of you!

With that, here's a recipe that I think will make your life a little easier....

Quick and Easy Breadsticks

Ingredients :
2 1/2 cups warm water
6 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup oil
6 cups whole wheat flour
6 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
5 teaspoons yeast

Here are the easy directions...

Step 1: Mix the water, yeast and brown sugar in the mixing bowl of a mixer with a dough hook. Let it sit for about ten minutes, or until the mixture is foaming, like beer (not that I would know what that looks like, being a Mormon and all).

Step 2: Add the remaining ingredients and let the machine knead the dough for ten minutes. If the dough is too firm, add a little water during the mixing process. If it's too soft, add a little flour.

Step 3: Divide the dough in half, then in half four more times (You should have 32 pieces) and roll each piece into a stick about 9 to 10 inches long and 1/2 an inch in diameter. Place these on two greased cookie sheets. It's okay if they're close together.

Step 4: Let rise for about 20 minutes, or longer if you can.

Step 5: Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and salt, then bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes.

Here's how they turn out...



Let me explain why I love these breadsticks so much. First of all, they are animal product free, which definitely works for me. Second, if you're like me and don't decide what's for dinner until 5:30 at night most nights, this works out really nicely as it can be started and finished in less than an hour. Third, these are fresh, homemade breadsticks and kids and husbands, especially husbands, really, really appreciate homemade bread for dinner! Fourth, there is no white flour, which means no empty calories, which means you are doing something that will make your family healthier. So yeah, these are the best!

Can I just share one more thing? Today it was a little chilly outside for the first time in about two weeks (great day to get locked outside in the courtyard, right?) However, the babies have gotten used to spending much of their mornings outside, so we couldn't let the cold stop us. A lady I work with was here this morning and I asked her to hold the twins while I went to find their beanies. They had never, EVER let me put anything on their heads before, so this was a long shot, but I guess they appreciated the warmth the beanies provided. Aren't they the cutest things ever?...


Just had a mom moment there...Thanks for listening! See you tomorrow hopefully!

And now for the Daily Feature - What I ate today (in case you care...)

Breakfast: Almond butter and raw honey on manna bread (recipe on left sidebar)
-almond milk (recipe on left sidebar)

Lunch: Homemade flax chips with beans and guacamole
-frozen blueberries

Snack (at a Mexican restaurant): A shrimp cocktail made with avocados instead of shrimp at my request
-chips and salsa

Dinner: Two breadsticks (recipe above)
-a couple of asparagus
-spinach salad with strawberries, grapes and sesame seed dressing

This post is part of Katie's...



Check out TONS of great recipes there!

I am pleased to list this post @ Biblical Womanhood's "Frugal Friday". Check out her blog for TONS for great money-saving tips!
I am also pleased to list this post at...

-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
Kim's Tasty Tuesday and
and -The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".


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Homemaker Monday

Homemaker Monday post in progress. Thank you for your patience, and here's Mr. Linky!...



If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!