Mango Pie

I price-matched some mangos at Walmart and got 4 for a dollar! They were pretty big, and they were starting to wrinkle, so I decided to make a pie. My dad does not like mangos, but he said the pie tasted similar to peach pie, and he really liked it. It was gone so fast that I forgot to take a picture of an individual slice! You'll just have to make it to see how great it looks and tastes.

Mango Pie

Ingredients:

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

10 honey graham cracker squares (break the big rectangles in half - one rectangle is 2 squares)

1 stick butter, softened

1 egg

4 big mangos, peeled and chopped

1 cup water (separated into 3/4 cups and 1/4 cup)

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup honey

cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the graham cracker squares in the pie pan. Take a cup (I used a tea cup with a flat bottom) and mash the crackers until they resemble course crumbs. Add the coconut, butter and egg. Use your CLEAN hands to mix the ingredients, and press it flat and up the sides of the pie pan. Bake for 12 minutes.

While that's baking, add mangos and 3/4 cups water to a pot and bring to a low simmer. Add honey, stir, and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Mix 1/4 cup water and cornstarch into a small bowl until smooth. Add to mangos, stirring constantly, until everything is well thickened. Pour into crust, sprinkle with cinnamon, and bake (still on 350) for 30 minutes. Once cooled to room temperature, transfer to the refrigerator. Serve warm or cold.

Veggie Egg "Muffins"

Quick and easy (and HEALTHY) breakfasts are great to have on hand. These veggie egg muffins are super quick and last longer than a week in the refrigerator. They'll be gone long before then, though!

Veggie Egg "Muffins"

Ingredients:

4 cups mixed frozen veggies (I used a broccoli-cauliflower-carrot-squash mixture) 

2 cups shredded cheese

12 eggs

Directions:

Following the instructions on the mixed veggie package, cook the vegetables in the microwave. Mash or chop them up as desired. Spread them equally into 12 greased muffin pan cups. Sprinkle each evenly with cheese. Beat the eggs together in a spouted bowl. Pour the eggs evenly over cheese (this was a bit messy, so the better you beat the eggs, the better they will pour). Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Mulberry Fail

So, I keep talking about how I've been wanting to pick mulberries and make a cobbler. Last night Charlie and I took Micah and Maverick (baby & dog) to the local mulberry tree and picked enough. You can see by the pictures below that we had a great selection!

Now here's where you find out that I can sometimes be a girly-girl. I started soaking the mulberries in water so that any bugs would come out of them... 

And I started to notice dozens, then HUNDREDS of teeny tiny bugs rising to the top of the water, crawling all over the bowl and making it to my countertop. If you look closely two pictures up, you'll see the rim of the bowl covered with little specks. Those are nasty, gross bugs. I couldn't handle the thought of ANY of them ending up in my cobbler, so I did what any other bug-hating gal might do.

I threw them outside. 

Fail. Charlie was upset that I didn't make the cobbler and that I made him pick mulberries with no treat at the end, BUT we did have a good time walking in the beautiful evening weather. Even he agreed with that. Would you have cooked those mulberries after seeing all the bugs come out of them? I'm just curious. I know that obviously people do, but I could not!

Flax Granola Wedges

I've been wanting more grab-and-go snacks for when I go to work or run errands throughout the week. I found a great recipe for granola bars here that I adapted by changing a few ingredients and baking them into a pie pan. LOVE THEM.

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup almonds (I used whole)

1/4 cup milled flax seed

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup dried cranberries (or raisins)

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

cinnamon & nutmeg as preferred

Directions:

1) Mix all ingredients into a big bowl.

2) Press into a greased pie pan with a plastic bag over your hand.

3) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

4) Put the granola pie in the refrigerator for 1 or 2 hours.

5) Cut into 8 wedges.

Accountability

Recently I have been learning a lot about managing my time, and though blogging is just one more thing to add to the to-do list, it will be worth it. I've noticed that all the blogs I follow are hosted by women who are just like me - trying to make each day and penny count while loving their spouses and children well. What has made them different from me is that they post everything they do, have people who read about their lives, and know that they have readers expectingly awaiting the next post.

Hence, these women have accountability.

There are so many recipes I've been wanting to share, crafts I've been wanting to make, and things I've been wanting to do. I think by finally creating a blog and committing to posting each week as it happens will force me to keep living with purpose. The time spent documenting the days of my life will ultimately save my family money as I find what recipes, ideas, etc. work well for us.

Also, I hope to gain wisdom from my readers. Lately God has been teaching me to steward my time, money, skills and possessions well. I will be posting about those things but would love to hear from you as well about how you have grown in those areas.

I'm excited to get my nice camera out and start taking more pictures of the things I love to do! Thanks for reading yet another blog. :)