Why We Choose to Eat Butter Instead of Margarine

   

Vs.  

 So my mom has always been a firm believer that we should eat actual butter instead of margarine. She's always jokingly called margarine 'Melted Plastic'. It's been a few years now since we stopped buying margarine. About a year ago, we found an article telling the differences in the 2 products. What we found completely disgusted us and scared us!!
So even though Margarine and Butter have about the same amount of calories, Margarine has the following issues:

Is very high in trans-fatty acids.

Triples the risk of coronary heart disease.

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (the bad cholesterol), and lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).

Increases the risk of cancers up to fivefold.

Lowers the quality of breast milk.

Decreases the immune response.

Decreases the insulin response.

Would you like to know how Margarine was invented?
"Did you know that the hydrogenated fat they use in fast food restaurants in the deep-fat fryers was originally designed as candle wax?  When it didn't work as planned, they looked for a new use for
it, and found it worked great for frying foods and never going bad.

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys.  When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback, so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.
It was a white substance with no food appeal, so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter.  More recently, they have come out with some clever new flavorings."

Oh, yes, and there's one other thing I might want to mention: Margarine is only ONE molecule away from being plastic!!!!!! So turns out Momma has been right all these years-margarine really is basically melted plastic. :-)
You should do this little experiment for yourself:

-Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or a shaded area. Within a couple of days, you will note a couple of things:

-No flies, not even those pesky fruit flies, will go near it.  (That should tell you something.)  It will not rot or smell differently, because it has NO nutritional value.  Nothing will grow on it.  Even tiny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow on.  Why?  Because margarine is nearly plastic.

Would you melt a plastic bowl and spread THAT on your pancakes??

So after you finish reading this post, you may have learned a little more about your margarine that's in your fridge than you would have liked to know. Now what will you do with this knowledge to save your family??

Pass the butter please!!!!!!!!!

Ball a Huge Success

Well guys, another Homeschool Civil War Ball has come and gone and it was a huge success!! I'm so thankful that the Lord has blessed this event so graciously. People always thank me for all the hard work I put into it, but in complete and all honesty, I love doing it. I'm an organizer and planner, so it's actually super fun to me. It just thrills my soul to see all of those homeschool families there enjoying themselves in a safe and conservative atmosphere. How often, anymore, do families take time to have good old-fashioned family fun. This world concentrates so much on the children getting away from the parents, that they lose the knowledge that you can have fun with your family. Our family should be our best friends, and then other friends will fall into place. I am just so thankful that the Lord has allowed me to host this event for 2 years now. Lord willing, I will have another one in the Fall!!

Homemade Chicken and Noodles

Yes, I am well aware that my last post was about our healthy kick, and homemade noodles doesn't exactly fit into the 'healthy' category. But we made these here while back, and I forgot to post.
A couple years back, Momma started making homemade Chicken and Noodles. It is one of Daddy's favorite meals ever-he would eat them every day if he had the chance. I'm not a soup fan, but if I'm going to each chicken and noodles, I'd much rather have these homemade ones. People think homemade noodles are difficult, but they really aren't that bad. And the taste is well worth the effort!!

Here's what to do:
Boil 2 bone-in chicken breasts with:
1/2 onion, chopped
salt
pepper
carrots or celery (optional)

Once your chicken is done, turn your stove off for the time being. You will need to de-bone it by pulling all of the chicken away from the bones with your fingers. Now you are ready to make your noodles.

 Get out a large cutting board (or if you prefer, you can do this in a bowl) and measure out 2 cups of flour. Also a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and a little garlic. Take your fist and make an impression in the middle of your pile of dry ingredients.

 

Now place your 2 egg into the indention that you created.

 

 

Now slowly mix with your hands until all ingredients are well combined (this is going to be a bit messy). If your mixture is too moist, add more flour. If it is too dry, add a small amount of water.
When you have your dough to the correct consistency, move your ball of dough to the side. Remove any remainder of dough you have on your board.

 Then well flour the cutting board. Now roll out your dough. It needs to be very very thin, because as they boil, they will plump up.

 

Now you can use a pizza cutter to cut the noodles to the width you would like. As you cut them, reflour them and place in a pile to the side.

Now is the time to put bring your broth back to a boil. Add your chicken. As soon as the water is at a rolling boil, add in your noodles. They will literally need only a couple of minutes. As soon as they begin to float, they are finished. Now turn down the heat to Low to keep warm.

Serve and enjoy!!

Healthy Kick

So my sister and I have been on a little diet. We each have our own different weaknesses, so we've been working on holding each other accountable. Some of the things we've been cutting back on:
I hardly ever eat anything for breakfast, which I know is not healthy. So, in the morning, I've been getting up and fixing us each a smoothie for breakfast. Then sometimes we might eat a piece of sausage with it to give it some protein. Some ingredients I use for our smoothies are: brown cow yogurt, whatever frozen fruit we have (strawberries, pineapple, peaches, blueberries, etc.), honey (or even some flavored honey we have), sometimes a splash of milk, and some ice cubes. The other day, we had some organic spinach that I put in one to add a little extra protein. It didn't look pretty, but it tasted yummy.

This is one I tried with some peanut butter. It didn't look that pretty, but
the taste wasn't that bad. Next time, I wouldn't add quite as much peanut
butter as I did.


 

 I also made some healthy Banana Crunch Muffins the other day. A friend brought them to church and shared the recipe. They are super good. Here is the recipe. This is actually a revised version of the original. The original actually called for things such as twice the amount of sugar and butter instead of the oil.

Banana Crunch Muffins

3 Cups Flour (I use unbleached)
1 Cup Sugar (I use Evaporated Cane Juice)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 Cup Milk
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 Cup Melted Coconut Oil, cooled
3 Mashed Bananas
1 Cup Oats (I use Old Fashion Rolled)
1 Cup Chopped Nuts (I use pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, powder, soda, and salt. Mix in the eggs, milk, vanilla, and oil. Fold in bananas, oats, and nuts. Fill muffin cups most the way full. Bake for 25 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I will say that besides us loosing a few pounds, I definitely have felt better since watching what I eat more. We haven't taken it to the extreme, but just watching more our portions and ingredients has helped. We've also been trying to be better about our water in-take. She likes pop and I like sweet tea. We have made a commitment to have one only once a week.

Feel free to share your healthy recipes

 

Sold Out

I am officially sold out of tickets for the Homeschool Civil War Ball!

  We are excited and look forward to seeing everyone at the ball!!
If you did not make it this year, feel free to comment with your e-mail and I can add you to our e-mail list.

Homeschool Civil War Ball

Deadline to purchase tickets to the Homeschool Civil War Ball is today. Call today and order before they sell out!

Organization

So I'm all about making life at home easier and more organized. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a list kind of girl. I make sticky notes everywhere I go when I think of things that need to be done. My sister has a gigantic marker board in our front room for school. I have been known to fill her entire board up with lists of things I need to do. So, that being said, I have started selling vinyl labels and chalkboard vinyl Menus and To-Do lists. Here's a link where you can find them on Etsy. For a limited time use coupon code: BUTTONS10 to receive 10% off $10 or more.

 

Have a great weekend