French Toast in a Mug

Well its another rainy almost winter day here and once again I have a crazy toddler running around the house.   So today is a day I whip out another one of my 'fun things to do when your toddler is driving you crazy' activities. I found today's activity a few months ago on this fantastic blog and we all fell in love with it.

French Toast in a Mug

All you need for this recipe is:

2 mugs
2 slices of bread, cubed
1 egg
3 tablespoons of milk
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of sugar
A small dash of vanilla
2 small cubes of butter

All those ingredient are stables in our fridge and pantry so this gets eaten a fair bit.  It is such a lovely treat on a cold night.

Place a butter cube in each mug and zap in the microwave till it is melted. Once melted give it a good swish around the mug.  Place half of the bread cubes in each mug.  The bread can be anything that you have on hand.  I had just made some dinner rolls and a few of them were a little browner then I would like so I used them for this.

Crack the egg in a bowl and mix it together with the milk,sugar,cinnamon and vanilla.  Push the bread down with the back of a spoon so that it soaks up as much of the egg mixture as possible.

 Zap 1 mug at a time in the microwave for 1 minute. Then in 10 second bursts till there is no more runny egg. 

Give it a drizzle of honey and dig in.

So easy and SO yummy.    It is a huge hit with the little Monkey.

Butter in a Jar

Today I have a fun activity for the kids, even mummy and daddy will like this one :-)

I hate wet weather days (although it is good for the garden), my 2 year old is an out door fella. So when it is raining outside all hell breaks loose inside. I am always on the look out for some fun activities that we can do together and if he learns something in the process that is even better. Usually we stick to cooking. He is my little Junior Master chef in the making.

(My Monkeys first attempt at bread rolls, proud mummy moment!)

The other day I was doing  a little bit of web surfing for activities and recipes to add to my list and I found this wonderful activity on this site.  It has some great ideas, I have grabbed a lot of ideas from it.

Butter in a Jar

All you need for this activity is:

- Cream (thick cream not light)

- A jar with a lid

First make sure that you sterilise the jar well. I just pour boiling water into the jar. If you put a metal spoon in the jar first it will take a lot of the heat shock so the jar wont break. Leave that for a few minutes to do its thing and get the cream out of the fridge.

 Once the jar has been sitting for a few minutes pour the water out and give it a good dry with some paper towel. Half fill the jar with cream and screw that lid on tight.  Hand it over to your little monkey and tell them to shake away!   Seriously, that is all you do to get butter from the cream. So simple and fun.

 It took me about 7 minutes of shaking to get the butter but expect it to take a bit longer for your little monkey, and they might need a little help.   

 Shake, Shake, Shake

You will hear when it starts to change. The cream slosh sound will stop and when you open up the lid you will have whipped cream at this stage. Keep going. It will feel like nothing is happening and then all of a sudden you will hear that slosh again and the cream will become lumpy. Give it a good last few shakes and you will  have a lump of butter sloshing around in buttermilk. 

Pour out the buttermilk and place the butter in a bowl. Pour over cold water and give it a little massage until the water runs clean. You don't want any buttermilk in the butter or it will go off very quickly.   

 And what do you do with the buttermilk?  Make pancakes of course!  Here is our yummy pancake recipe.

1/4 cup castor sugar

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1 cup self raising flour

1 1/4 cup of buttermilk

1 egg

Mix it all together making sure there are no lumps then cook in a fry pan on a low heat.  We love to add blueberries, mashed banana (little mans favorite) or chocolate chips.  They are the fluffiest pancakes ever!

So on the next rainy day ( or any day :-p ) grab some cream and a jar and make yourself some butter and pancakes. So much fun!

 Yum yum

What is the favourite rainy day activity in your house? 

Tiffany.

Penny Pinching Sunday

Homemade Bread

On my last post, Penny Pinching Sunday - saving at a grocery store, I wrote about saving money by making some of the staple items yourself.  One of my favorite things to make is bread. It tastes so much better then store bought and there is something very therapeutic about kneading out that dough. 

Of course you can get a bread maker and do it that way, but if you don't want to go out and buy a new bread maker this is definitely the way to go. 

I have tried tonnes of bread recipes and this one is by far my favorite. It makes a very fluffy bread that never last very long in my house.  I found the recipe, along with many other fantastic recipes, on this fantastic blog.

High Rising Sandwich Bread

Ingredients

3 cups of all purpose flour

2 tablespoons of sugar

1/4 cups powdered milk

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons butter

1 cups hot but not boiling water (roughly)

1 large egg

Combine flour, sugar, powdered milk, instant yeast, salt, egg and butter in a large bowl. Add the water and mix until it is a rough (shaggy) mix. ( See that egg in there? That is an egg from my own back yard! Big thanks to these lovely chickens )

 Rest it for half and hour.

Place the dough onto a lightly floured bench and start kneading.  I took some pictured of the dough during the kneading process so you can see how it changes.  You are looking for a very soft and elastic dough ball. 

After about 4 minutes.

Almost there (about 7 minutes).

And your done!  Its now smooth to touch and when you pull it a little you can see it spring back.

Place the dough in a clean and lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size (roughly 1 1/2 hours).

  

Temperate does play a big part in how long it takes to rise.  My house gets very cold so I like to start pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees Celsius now and place the bowl on top of the stove to rise.

Once it has risen place the dough onto a lightly floured bench and punch the dough down. 

Shape into a rectangle the same length as your bread pan then roll it up and place it in.

Place some more cling wrap over the pan.

 Only place the cling wrap over very lightly, if it is to tight it will stop the bread rising above the pan.  Place the pan back on top of the stove to rise until it has risen roughly 1-2 inches above the rim of the pan.

I had to use my larger bread pan with the pictures, so it doesn't rise above the pan in the photos.  Usually I will use my smaller size for this recipe but my toddler decided that was the perfect pan to make his play dough bread in (ha ha). 

Once it has finished rising place it in the pre heated oven and bake for 35-45 minutes.  You will know when it is done when you tap the bottom on the bread and it sounds hollow. 

And voila!  You have just made your own bread.  Know all you have to do is slice that end crust off, lather it in butter and enjoy!

I like to double that recipe and make two at a time. That way you always have one in the freezer to go.

How simple was that!  

Tiffany. 

Homemade Cleaning Products - Part 2

I have had quite a few e-mails from some lovely followers asking about what other cleaning products I can make from the ingredients listed on my first post, Homemade cleaning Products. 

Here are some more of my favorites.

If you have children or pets I'm sure you will use this one just as much as I do.
 
Carpet Deodoriser
Ingredients
1 cup Baking Soda
4/5 drops of Essential oil ( I use Orange )

Grab yourself a zip lock bag. Drop in your essential oil and then your baking soda.  Give it a good shake so that you don't see the oil smears on the base. Sprinkle the baking soda over freshly vacuumed carpet. Leave the baking soda on the carpet for a few hours then vacuum it up.  I like to store my carpet deodoriser in a jar. I drilled some holes into the jar and now I can sprinkle it on the carpet a little easier and store it like that.

Carpet Stain Remover
Ingredients
Equal parts vinegar and water

Combine the vinegar and water and spray on the stain. Let it sit for roughly 10 minutes then clean it up with some warm soapy water.

Hard Carpet Stains
Ingredients
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup borax
1/4 cup vinegar

Combine the ingredients into a paste and rub into the stain. Let it sit for a few hours and then vacuum it up. Sometimes you need to then give it a clean with some soapy water and then blotch dry.

I have had a fair few e-mails asking how to get marks of the walls. With a toddler I use this one  often, and can say that it does a fantastic job at getting crayon off the walls.

Wall Scrub
Ingredients
Baking Soda
Water     

Grab a damp sponge and dip in some baking soda. Scrub the mark on the wall and then wipe over with another damp sponge.  It works wonders!

Toilet Cleaner
Ingredients
1/4 cup baking soda
1 cup vinegar

Combine the baking soda and vinegar. Vinegar and baking soda can make quite a bit of mess when combined so it is best to do that in the sink. Spray onto the toilet bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Then scrub and rinse.

 Bath Tub Cleaner
Ingredients
Vinegar
Baking Soda

Wipe down with vinegar and then scrub with baking soda. After that just rinse it off and you will have a sparkly clean bath tub.


I hope that answers some of your questions and you find that they work just as well for you as they do for me.   If you have anymore questions about the cleaning products or if you have a cleaning problem I can help you with please don't hesitate to drop a comment or an email.

Once again, happy cleaning.

Tiffany.   

Homemade Cleaning Products

One of my favorite things to do is look around the house and find ways to cut cost and 'greenify' my house (yes I have no life). Well a few months ago I got out all my cleaning product ready to nuke my house of germs and this was what I saw on my kitchen bench...

Right there I had another one of my epiphany's. I couldn't believe the amount of chemicals that I had and the cost that they all added up to, easy close to $30. And most of them I needed to buy fortnightly.
There had to be away that I could cut down the amount of chemicals I was pumping into my house and the amount on cash that was flowing out.  I jumped on google to 'google it' and there it was, my answer.
I could make my own cleaning products for less money and best of all I knew exactly what was in them. 

So now this is all I use to clean my house...

                                         

They cost me roughly $45 to buy. Yes I know that the initial cost is more expensive then buying commercial cleaning products, but most of them are fairly cheap.  The most expensive items are the essential oils but bear in mind that you only use a few drops at a time. So that little bottle will last you quite some time.  The item I buy the most frequently is the pure soap. A pack of four will usually last me a month and it only sets me back $2 a pack. 
Have I won you over yet? If not wait till you see how easy it is to make and how well they work.

This one is by far my favourite, the Laundry Powder.

Ingredients
4 cups of grated pure soap (or to save time you could use Lux Flakes)
2 cups of washing soda
1 cup of borax

It is as easy as just combining all the ingredients and  pouring it into a container.  I prefer to take my stab mixer to my grated soap. You can use it just in the little curls but the perfectionist in me likes it a little finer.  Also, when you are using the borax it is always best to play it safe and wear some rubber gloves.   Add one tablespoon to every wash and you will be surprised at how well it works, I sure was.

This one is a very close second on my list of favourites.

Eucalyptus Oil All Purpose Cleaner
Ingredients
15 drops of Eucalyptus oil
1/2 cup of vinegar
water

Once again as simple as combining the ingredients.  Drop in 15 drops of the oil, pour in the vinegar and then top up with water. Give it a shake and away you go.   So simple!  I love the smell of Eucalyptus as well it just smells so clean.

This one is a little more fiddly but well worth it.

Dish washing liquid
Ingredients

1/4 cup of grated soap
2 cups hot water
1/4 glycerine
15 drops of orange oil

Mix the soap with the hot water and then stir until the soap is completely dissolved. Put aside till it has cooled to just above room temperate. Add the glycerine and the oil.  When the mixture cools it will come to a nearly jelly consistency. Grab a fork and break it all up then pour it into a squeeze or pump bottle.  Then tackle those messy dishes.

The one thing I get asked the most when I tell people that I use homemade cleaning products is 'What do you use to get off the baked food in your oven?'   Well its simple and easy.  And best of all it works!!

Ingredients
1/2 baking soda
1/2 salt
water

Mix the baking soda and salt together with just enough water to make a paste. Smear that paste over the oven. I found it works best when it is kept a little moist. So I always have a little spray bottle of water on hand to give it a squirt every hour or so.  Keep the mixture on for about 5 hours then wipe it off with a damp cloth.  All those baked on nasty's will come right off.

So there you have it.

                                           Eucalyptus all purpose spray and laundry powder

 That is some of my homemade cleaning products. I have loads more ways to keep your house clean with these ingredients but only have a limited amount of time. I will have to make a part 2 to this post.  Try them and I am sure you will be just as surprised as I was with the results.

Happy cleaning.

Tiffany.