Oatless Oatmeal

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Is it cereal?  Is it granola?  Is it oatmeal?

 

 

Well, it's really whatever you want it to be!  Little Lady has been asking for oatmeal lately.  I guess she is tiring of the egg or paleo pancake breakfasts.  Of course, oatmeal isn't really a paleo food, so I set out to find an alternative.  A friend had mentioned Steve's Original, which is basically a paleo cereal you can order online, but I wanted something I could make at home.  I'm cheap crafty like that.  After looking at several different options, I settled on this recipe.  Putting it together is also a super kid friendly activity.

 

You'll Need





Honey

Vanilla Extract

Coconut Oil

Almond Meal

Pumpkin Seeds

Sunflower Seeds

Flax Seeds (I added this for fun)

Shredded Coconut

Chopped or slivered almonds

 

 

Please go through the link above to get the quantities.  Also feel free to add whatever else you want or to change some of them up.  Add more nuts, omit certain seeds, add some dehydrated fruits - I think this will work well with any of those alterations.  I just did the basic recipe to start out with to make sure it went over well.

 



 

Gather all your ingredients and a ready and willing child.  You can still try it without the child, but you might finish much faster and with lower blood pressure than expected.

 

Preheat your oven to 350.

 

 

Combine the first three ingredients in a small bowl.

 

 

Remember to melt your coconut oil when measuring it. 

 

 

 

Talk about the different measurements and count them out with your child.

 

"One teaspoon."

 

 

"TWO teaspoons."

 

 

Allow the tiny hands to whisk it, and then take you're turn and get it all whisked together.

 

 

Take a not-so-quick break to change and strap on the under-the-weather Little Man that just woke up from his nap.

 

 

Measure out the other ingredients and let the kiddo helper dump them together in a large bowl.   My measurements for the flax seeds were two kid size hand fulls.

 

 

Point out all the neat layers to your child, then mix them all together.  They are going to want to help with this too.

 

 

Take another break to move the sick baby to the front, since they keep crying on your back.

 

 

Take the bowl with your first three ingredients, whisk it up again, and add it to your dry ingredients.  Mix it all up well.

 

 

Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and stick in the oven for 10 minutes.

Toss it around a bit and then cook for about 8 minutes more.

 

 

Take it out and let it cool.  It hardens up as it cools.

 



 

Get a little sample ready for your helper.  Per my friends suggestion, I made it into oatmeal by simply adding almond milk and microwaving it for a couple seconds.  You can enjoy it as cereal by eating it with cold milk or as granola by eating it on it's own.

 

 

Allow your kiddo to taste test it.

 

She approved!

 

Just store it in an airtight container.

 

Pretty easy, huh?  Next time I think I'll add some dehydrated apples or bananas.

 

For a delicious non paleo granola idea that is fun to do with the kids, check out this recipe from Delia Creates.  Both of these would make a great gift too, just wrap it up in a pretty bag!

 



 

DIY Christmas Stocking

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This year I finally got around to making Little Lady a Christmas stocking, and of course made one for Little Man too.  There have been tons of fleece fabrics in the remnant bins, so I stocked up and they ended up being perfect for this project.

The first step was making my pattern.  You can hand draw this or just trace a stocking you already have onto papers taped together.

 

Cut out your fabrics.  I used a green fleece material for the outside and a nice red jersey knit (another remnant bin find!) for the inside.  Set them aside.

 

I wanted to put the kids' names on the front, so I found a font I thought was good and bold and printed out their names, stapled it to a piece of red felt, and cut out the letters.  Whenever I cut stuff out of felt I just staple it on.  It is super easy to remove the staples and it doesn't really damage the felt.

 

I then glued the letters on the front with fabric glue, being sure to leave space along the edges for my seams.  Then, since I do all this stuff after the kids are in bed, I thought it would be a good idea to let it dry 'till the next night.

 

Now this is where you can make a choice of how to proceed. You can sew the stocking and the liner together separately, essentially making two stockings and then sticking the liner stocking inside the main one.  This will leave a nice neat seam on the inside of your stocking.  OR you can just layer them all together and sew them all at once. I went ahead and did it that way because I didn't feel like having to anchor the lining and I figured no one would really notice.  I was also tired.  For that you just layer the main stocking fabric right sides together and then place one liner fabric on the top and one on the bottom, then sew all the way around - except for the top of the stocking.  Then turn the stocking right side out and it will look like stocking - just needs the trim at the top.

 

For the trim, I used a nice thick cream fleece material.  Basically measure the top of your stocking, multiply by two, add an inch for mess-up sake - this is how long you'll want it.  It is up to you how wide you want your trim.  I probably did about 5 inches down from the top of the stocking, so that means I cut it 10 inches wide, since I doubled it over.

 

Now this is where you'll have to make sure you're paying attention.  Your trim will be folded, wrong sides together (right sides facing out), and you'll pin it around the top, but basically the trim will be INSIDE the stocking, the opposite of where it will be when you're finished.  Look at the picture below, those are your layers.

 

I also wanted a little loop to hang the stocking with, so I stuck one through where the ends of the trim would be sewed together.  Once you've sewn all around the top of the stocking you trim any excess where the trim comes together and then sew the ends together.

 

Then fold that trim down over the seam.

 

It will now look like this.

 

This is what the inside of mine looks like, since I sewed the liner and stocking together all at once.

 

You really can't tell from the outside.

 

 

There you have it! These really were easy, came out nicely and cost well under $5 total to make.  That's my kind of project!

 

I realize I could have/should have done more pictures of each step. This was my first sewing tutorial, so I apologize. Hopefully it makes since. If not, just ask in the comments below and I'll try to clear it up!

 

 

 

 

A homemade Christmas.

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I was considering saving some of these for next Christmas, but I'll probably have a whole new set of projects next year, so I figured it was best to share these now! 

I am very new to the sewing scene.  Seriously, less than a year, and there never seems to be enough time for it.  That said, I love doing personalized, homemade gifts and gave it my best this year. 

For Little Man, he is so young he really didn't need anything, but I figured he should have something under the tree and how could I resist MAKING him something?!  I looked around a bit for baby gift ideas and came across these.

A cloth block from Make It & Love It.  Perfect for using fabric scraps and for the beginner sewer.  

 

Of course, I then had to make the accompanying cloth rings! 

 

Little Man has already been munching away on these! 

 

Next up was a stuffed turtle for a dear friend of ours.  I used a great tutorial found here.  I also just now realized that ALL the above projects were from the same site.  Ha!  Looks like I'll have to look around that site some more!

 

Now, this was one of my proudest accomplishments this Christmas season.  I found some fun remnant fabric and thought it would be great for some pj pants.  Making clothing seems very daunting, but it really wasn't that bad and I'm inspired to keep doing it! 

 MADE has a great tutorial that I used here. 

 

I put a fun little heart "tag" to quickly identify which way was the back.

 

 

They were perfect!

 

 

Last, but not least, I made the kiddos home made stockings!

 

 

 

I'll post a tutorial this week for these!

 

 

 

A homemade Christmas is truly a special Christmas!