If I Dream It...

Wow, hard to believe it has pretty much been a year since I last published anything... I like sharing the info and my experiments, but I'm bad at actually taking the time to write. It's not that I don't have the time - I just tend to jump around with things and, admittedly, I like my lazy time too. However, that lazy time isn't necessarily all that productive. Not that I HAVE to be doing something.... but I want to feel like I've done more... made at least some impact.  So I'm giving this another go. I'll need to figure out a pattern to my sharing that can go across topics,  so bate with me as I try to create new habits and see what works :) Over the past year I've gained all sorts of hobbies... My baking has continued and I keep getting fun challenges. I'm still far from charging what they're worth, but they're fun, good practice, and my friends and family enjoy them :) I play poker almost nightly... not for the money, but the people... ...

I wish I could explain where the thought for these tilapia tacos came from... but other than having extra cabbage I have no good excuse :) I love cabbage - thing is I buy it with one recipe in mind and then I have to come up with different ways to use it :) So with cabbage in mind and a peach that was starting to near the too ripe point, my version tilapia tacos with peach salsa was born. And wow - was I happy! To explain how much I enjoyed these - I've now had them two days in a row and I'm contemplating having them for dinner tonight :) Gotta finish off that peach salsa after all... Now I will admit, the peach salsa doesn't look the prettiest - but I made it in my mini food processor to avoid chopping everything by hand. But that aside - for my first attempt at peach salsa... I gotta say I like it! I made it spicy as the hubby generally isn't a big fan of fruity flavors for dinner - but it sounded good with tilapia... after the fact I even googled it, not ...

I don't know why - but I've been craving pancakes a lot lately. So this weekend I finally set to taking the time to take care of that craving :) Now I don't generally think healthy when I think pancakes - but I didn't want something too bad for me. So I figured - wheat pancakes. I mixed together some wheat flour, coconut flour, ground flax seed, and baking powder and I had the base for my pancakes ready. To finish the batter I mixed together some milk, salt, and maple syrup. Maple just sounded good and out of my usual sweeteners it is surprisingly the lowest in sugar content. Then I tossed in some blueberries and decided to make a blueberry syrup to go with them :) And just because it sounded good I added coconut flakes to top it all off..... Mmmmm YUM! In case anyone else finds this interesting -- here's the sugar / calorie break out for the 3 options I looked at for my syrup... clover honey: 1 Tbl = 16g sugar and 60 cals blue agave: ...

I don't know why - but the other day I started craving pudding. It's a sweet treat that I have always enjoyed but rarely have any more. One, I never want much of it and two, while I do enjoy my sweets - I am trying to eat more healthy sweets and less processed sugars. I have gotten better with this at breakfast - I've been having fruit smoothies every day for breakfast with about a tablespoon of agave nectar for sweetener upon occasion and have loved every one (though I do wish I had a better blender that actually blended in the seeds). The simplest, and one of the best is frozen pineapple chunks with coconut milk and a little agave. This reminds me of a pina colada and is just totally yummy :) I have no measurements as I blend in the cup I drink from. It's about 1 1/2 cups of fruit though and usually enough liquid to cover it. Milks make it thicker and juices/water thinner. Upon occasion I add chia seeds as well. Yes, I know it looks odd - but it's good! I...

I finished this project awhile ago - but it actually took two attempts and I'm finally sitting down to write out the successful one. When I got married we did an hourglass with colored sand. Thing was - we had a LOT of extra sand... what would we do with it? I decided to make a monogramed frame. My first attempt was an epic fail (sand is surprisingly heavy). So pouring it from the old one to the new one was a little tricky and the pattern wasn't as pretty. But the point was to use our extra and actual wedding sand... not buy more. So I worked with what I had. My original was a thin box frame with plastic sealing the back and then the back on top of that. I didn't get any pictures of the back - but you can see the plastic in the back in this photo. Sadly the sand started to leak from the bottom left corner pretty good. Each time I cleaned it up - more came out, the 'leak' got bigger, and I couldn't fix it without taking it apart and potentially ruining ...

So it has been a long time since I posted last. I have not been very good at taking the time to write things out. I've been side tracked with health, dogs, vacations, work, and baking -- basically life... and well, just haven't stopped to sit and type. However, I've decided I should start to get back to it... I have a few things that I should take time to write out and take pictures again... so give me some time and I'll work on being back more regularly. For now, I just figured I'd show you a little bit of my baking craziness. It all started with a request from a friend's mom. She found a photo in a magazine and asked if I could make it for her. It seemed simple enough - so I said sure. What would result from that - was shocking. I did a practice one, hers, a new practice one with an idea I had to make it look more real... and from there it was order after order. It was a potted cupcake bouquet - pretty and fun. A pot of cupcakes, iced like roses... y...

The holidays are nearing and I don't know about you - but with all the gift giving, I like to be able to  give and still make at least a little difference in the world. There are a ton of charities out there and a lot of neat sites that allow you to "donate a chicken" or "buy seeds" or something like that. But if you're feeling the need to buy something tangible for a person other than a donation in their name, there also are lots of sites that offer gifts that give back. This is what I chose to do for the daughter of a few friends of mine. You see, she's a very mature and thoughtful little girl - for her birthday this year, she asked everyone to make donations to a certain charity instead of getting her gifts. So what unique gift could I find for such a thoughtful little girl? Find something neat that also gives back :)   So I searched and searched and am happy to report I think I found a few things that she'll love. However, I figured it...