You're such a good cooker momma!

That is what Katie said to me this afternoon. I made the kids some really healthy granola bars and they LOVED them. The recipe is so easy to follow and includes oats, wheat germ, natural peanut butter, honey and peanuts as the main ingredients. I happened to have all of those things hanging around in my kitchen so I thought I would give it a shot! I also added some shredded unsweetened coconut and flax seeds and the kids were eating them before they firmed up. Lisa pointed me to the recipe on the food Ne*twork blog. I believe the recipe is called oatmeal peanut butter bars, give it a try the kids will love it.

I woke up not feeling well this morning. Things are starting to bloom here in the buckeye state and as much as I love spring it is terrible for my allergies. I told Chad this morning I feel like a truck just ran over my head, that is how bad I felt. Thank heaven for good allergy medication! After the meds kicked in I started to feel adventurous. I have been trying to slowly cut out sugar and white flour and while it is hard, finding good nutritious recipes is really fun. Back to the adventure.... Lisa and I ground wheat yesterday while the kids trampled through her flowers played quietly outside. I want to use the wheat before it goes bad, so I thought today was a good day to break out my new tortilla press. I mixed up the dough in the mixer and let it rest for the required 30 minutes. While my dough was resting I started the taco meat and had it simmering on the stove, threw some chicken in the crock pot for dinner, heated up my tortilla maker and started my granola bars. This is where all the fun began. We use natural peanut butter. You know the kind with the oil that you have to mix. I hate mixing the oil in by hand so I usually use my small hand mixer. I had only been mixing for a few minutes when I started to feel my hand get oily. I had the jar (which was plastic) close to the tortilla press and the side melted, so I had peanut oil everywhere. Not to mention I now had plastic melted to my brand new tortilla press. I got all of the oil cleaned up, mixed the peanut butter, found a new jar for it and made my granola bars. Once my bars were cooling I started on my tortillas. They are SOOOO hard to make! I will never complain about the price of whole wheat tortillas again. I had dough hissing at me and literally shooting out of the sides of the press. The first 6 or so where a nightmare. I managed to get it somewhat figured out and they tasted great.

There is just something so wonderful about watching your children eat wholesome natural foods that you made them from scratch. I felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder with my kids sitting at the kitchen table doing school work as I made tortillas with flour I ground from wheat berries. I could imagine a pioneer mother in her bonnet and apron with a baby on her hip kneading bread while the older children completed school assignments happily while she worked. They would lovingly look up at her with smiles on their faces and appreciation in there hearts for all of the things their mother did just for them. This is where I had to stop daydreaming. My children were fighting over a pencil sharpener, disappearing every time I turned my head, trying to sneak the TV on, touching one another, someone was sitting to close, someone called someone else a name, so and so was in their spot..... and so on. It was back to reality for me. At lease for the few minutes there mouths were full, they were quiet and I could pretend they were appreciating all of my hard work.

As a treat for myself I am making homemade chocolate ice cream. The kids are in bed and it is the machine as I blog. I can not wait to sit down, watch mindless television the news and enjoy my ice cream in the peace and quiet.