Thanksgiving in pictures

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration. Did you know only 52 pilgrims were at that first celebration & 90 Native Americans? We painted the pilgrims follwing an idea I found online. Then the littles started drawing the Native Americans. They only made it to 18 ... we'll have to add more next year. I was hoping to get a family picture but what you see at the end is the best Uncle John gave us. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Tortillas

We aren't gluten free but ever since my dad made the switch to being gluten free I've been trying to mix it into our diet here and there.  I have a little boy who LOVES bread - he's just like his momma!

A few weeks ago I ran across a blog called: Yammie's Gluten Freedom.  I've tried a couple recipes from her already and have been pleased.  Tonight I tried her tortilla recipe and I was surprised at them being quite bendy!  Although, I didn't have a cake lifter and I think I really need one of those if I plan on making these again.  Also, I subbed glucommenen powder for the xanthan gum ... seemed to work just as well!

Here is the recipe!

Technology

I gave into technology tonight. What does that mean? Well, I had a lot of emails, etc to catch up on so instead of waiting until my children were in bed to catch up on all that, I chose to do it while they were awake. Not a good idea. Ended up w over-tired children in the end because I wasn't cognasent of the time but rather absorbed in getting my tasks accomplished. They are worth more than that.

Tomorrow is a new day. 

:)

Pantry organization

I have set out to organize a new part of my house every week. I began with the kitchen a few weeks ago then took a little break, organized the small part of our garage and this week I tackled the pantry! Emptied everything, got rid of a few things & then put it all back in a way that made way more sense. 

This weeks organization will probably be the craft room or laundry room...if I'm ambitious maybe both? Realistically ... Probably just the craft room. Yaay for organization!

Falafel and Pita bread experiment

I recently purchased a bunch of dried garbanzo beans and was super excited about making falafel with them.  Started out by soaking them overnight and then the children and I set to work in the afternoon making them using THIS recipe that I found on Pinterest.  

We also made our own pitas using THIS recipe from Budget Bytes.  Unfortunately only one pita rose well, but I think that may have been because I had to keep opening the oven to see how they were doing - we don't have an oven light!

We made a yogurt sauce with Greek yogurt, feta cheese and a bit of seasonings from the pantry: lemon pepper, oregano and parsley (I think).

We LOVED them!  The falafel was a bit dense and we can try adding some baking soda to the next batch to see if that lightens it up a bit.  I might try that tomorrow!  We only cooked up half the batch, ended up eating half of that batch and froze the rest.  All in all a wonderful experiment.  

However, I have learned that making messes in the kitchen on Saturday night is NOT the way to go!  I like to take Sunday off so today (Monday) was spent trying to get my kitchen back in order!!  

All those spices smell SO yummy!

Reading 'A Horse and his Boy' while we wait for the Pita dough to rise and falafel to chill.

Getting ready to cook our pitas

cooking the falafels

The Spread

My dinner ... a falafel salad with pita on the side

My girl eating her falafel sandwich

Our Fall "to do" list

The kids and I saw this cool Fall "to do" list on Pinterest and decided we just had to do it!  We put things on the leaves like:  

• have a bonfire
•  Nature Scavenger hunt
• camping trip
• roast marshmallows
• make hobo packs

We made a list of about 10 things we want to do, added them onto our Fall "tree" and will let the leaves "fall" as we accomplish each fun Fall thing!

Dinner was SO tasty!  We are planning on doing it again when we go camping next weekend!

Playing with pastels

In case you are wondering this was not an "original by Tara".  No, I owe this fun project to Pinterest with the help of our cousin Joy who gave the kids some wonderful pastels!  Josiah went a little overboard and decided to draw his tree picture with the pastels before I caught him!  I told them both that they can use the "fake pastels" from their little art sets ANY time they want - but NOT the real pastels!  As you can see the project was a success and I think their favorite part was the blending of the colors together!