Homemade Mosquito Trap

I'm steeling this from FB. If you know who posted these pictures please email me at: alissa4illustration AT hotmail DOT COM

Items needed:
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 gram of yeast
1 2-liter bottle

How:
1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.
2. Mix brown sugar with hot water. Let cool. When cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.
3. Add the yeast. No need to mix. It creates carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
4. Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together if desired.
5. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the color black.)

Change the solution every 2 weeks for continuous control.

Click

Have you ever bought protein powders? I haven't. I'd like to try one. Sometimes I just get hungry when it's not meal time, but I don't want to eat a bunch of things. I A) Do not have the time to be snacking throughout the day. B) Do not want to eat carbs. I need protein to fill me up.

During the summer time I make homemade tofu pops. Right now it might as well be winter.

I spotted a protein powder called Click! I'm thinking about trying it.

There's a giveaway going on here to win Click protein and a shaker.

Ways to Use Apple Cider Vinegar

I've found a few articles about D.I.Y. techniques to overcome high cholesterol, diabetes, healing a sore throat, healing a wart, removing pimples and cysts. I imagine if you take it orally, you should mix it with water first. Any thoughts on this?

Here's the first article.

Here's the second.

Image Source

Apple cider vinegar has been my best friend these days. I had a wart that was on my foot. Gross I know! I haven't had one of those since I was itty bitty. When I was a kid, I got a few small ones on my hand. On the foot it's much more painful!!! It was on the bottom of my foot! It kept coming back. I've never experienced walking on something so awful. I got it burned twice. Each time the doctor said, "That should take care of it." It didn't. Instead it left a blister for me to walk on. That was worse then the wart its self! On top of that I had to get special arch supports because my left leg turns in. That was an adjustment to. Toe Juice helped the wart. It came back. That was my fault because I should have used it for two more weeks, after it was healed. I do believe in the Toe Juice product. Apple cider vinegar took care of it. With this I used a q-tip. I didn't want to burn the skin around the wart; just the wart it's self.

I have many family members that get cysts on their scalp: My mom, my sister, my cousin and my grandpa all have them. It's genetic. They really don't hurt. In fact dermatologists don't remove them unless they become bothersome. They are not cancerous. Well I just started getting them when I turned 36. Having bumps on my head really annoy me big time! I think it's A) Gross! and B) It's annoying to brush my hair and run over bumps. It's kind of like driving and hitting speed bumps.

I read that apple cider vinegar helps remove cysts and acne. I also read that it's best to leave these stupid bumps on my head alone. I started applying apple cider vinegar to them. For two weeks I've been applying it to them with a circle disc cotton swab. I apply it, and hold it down for as long as I can stand it. It helps to prop my arm up on a pillow. It burns after a bit. For awhile, I thought I might be causing more harm than good. Remember it burns. They are not gone, but they are 1/2 the size they were! If I can get things to go away with apple cider vinegar it's much cheaper than going to the doctor, I can do it on my terms and yes it stings, but it's better than being cut into! One last thing: A little bit goes a long way!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies

First off I'm going to start off this post with some of the things I used to create these wonderful smoothies. 

We love peanut butter, but all the oils aren't great. There is some controversy on that. I've been trying to use powdered peanut butter. I've been using PB2 Powered Peanut Butter. I've been able to get it at the grocery store HyVee and Whole Foods. I haven't checked if Trader Joes has it or not.

I've been using whole flax seed. I've read in different sources that flax seed is better to digest if you ground it right before use. If you are looking for a great brand Tropical Traditions is wonderful!

Organic Flax Seed - 16 oz pouch









I use Chocolate or Vanilla NuStevia when I'm in a sweet mood.

Now onto the recipe: 

I start adding things into the blender. I add a splash of almond milk and keep adding that until the blender can handle it. The more the milk, the runnier it gets. That part just depends on your preference.

All 4 family members love it! It's the only way I can get the 7 year old to eat, or in this case drink bananas. I imagine I could even throw in a handful of spinach. My family happens to just eat a small pile of spinach every morning anyhow.

Aussie Bites

I posted about these on my other site, but like to keep all my recipes over here. Aussie Bites are really pretty good!

Set you oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients together. Mix everything together. Spray little muffin cups and put them in them. The recipe I found said to cook them for 12 minutes. I found that they needed to be cooked for 20 minutes.  I also replaced in the original recipe some butter with coconut oil.

Missing a Step

Source

I've done this more times than I'd care for. It does just about give me a mini heart attack!

Protein Bites

This is a really easy and no bake recipe. My boys and I LOVED it!

I'm Sore

On Tuesday I went to the Y with the kids. 

First I have to mention that my oldest always wants me to run around and play tag with him before class. By the time class hits, I'm sort of pooped already!  He's a FAST runner. My 4 year old jumps in to play to.

We had a class called Family Fitness. 

She started us out with:

• 9 jumping jacks
• 9 punches
• 9 push ups
• 9 seconds of planks
• 9 crunches
• 9 lunges

Then we did 8 of all those, then we did 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

My 4 year old said in the middle, "Mommy I'm tired!" I felt like saying the same, but was a cheerleader to him instead. I think the hard part for me was getting up after all the floor things (push ups, planks and crunches).

I have to admit the I'm the biggest 1/2 asser when it comes to push ups. Even the girl style ones I find to be less than desirable. But my 1/2 assing must have done something; those are the muscles that are ubber sore!

After that we played a running game called, "Reindeer". One person stood behind a bar, attached to the bar were stretchy cords on each side, the other person hung onto those. My 4 year old tried to run, and I pulled back to make it harder to run. Then we switched rolls.

After that we played tail tag. We had socks tucked into our pants. One person was, "it". They ran around trying to steel our tails. We had to sit down once our tail was stole. Once we sat down we could try and steel people's tails as they ran by us. Then we could get back up and keep playing.

This was two nights ago; I'm still sore. 

CJ Bibigo "Won Ton of Giving" Campaign & Giveaway

CJ Bibigo is making a donation of one ton of Mini Wontons to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank this holiday season through a social media campaign called “Won Ton of Giving.” Facebook users are encouraged to “like” CJ Foods on Facebook to help meet a goal of 3,000 fans, and when the goal is met, the company will donate 2,000 pounds (or more than 91,000 wontons!) to the food bank.

They are also giving away CJ Bibigo prize pack on New Age Mama.  

The prize pack consists of the following: 

 

Do You Like Avocados?

I wasn't raised on them. My husband loves them. I like them mashed and used on sandwiches. They are also great with chips, or on salads.

Life in the Lost World has a giveaway going on for one winner to win a box full of avocados by Paradise Avocados Grove! They have all kinds of recipes I'd love to try out on their site.

I've Been on a Hummus Kick

The other day I spread homemade hummus on rye bread and put cut up cucumbers on it. It was a good sandwich!

Simply 7 has a giveaway going on at Life in This Lost World.

I want to try these out:

Some of their snacks features:

• No Trans Fat
• No Artificial Colors or Flavors
• No Preservatives
• Gluten Free Ingredients
• Non-GMO
• 50% less fat than potato chips
• Vegetarian

Italian Volcano Juices

We always get special drinks for the holidays. Thanksgiving is coming up. I'd love to try out Italian Volcano Juices. I don't like soda as much as I do sparkling or Italian juices.

You can enter here for a chance to win some of their juices!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

I love peanut butter. The problem is, even with the all natural kinds, they add a lot of oil.

I recently bought a powdered peanut butter from No Name Nutrition. Then my husband found some powdered peanut butter at Whole Foods. I've heard they carry some at HyVee, but I have yet to find some.

We've used it in smoothies. I love a smoothie with bananas, powdered peanut butter, freshly ground flax seed and chipped ice. Yummy! 

We also love pancakes on Saturday mornings. I'm always trying to find different recipes to make. I found this recipe and modified it. They were so good!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

The things I changed:

• Powdered peanut butter for real peanut butter
• Almond Milk for Cows milk
• Olive Oil for Butter
• I have yet to change out the sugar, but plan to. I have a hard time figuring out how much of natural sugars to replace in for sugar. I'm still working on that.
   

Mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients and combine the two. Then make your pancakes.

We had more than just pancakes, but I took a shot of a pancake on a plate.

Beans

My husband grew beans this year among a lot of other things.

Our boys had fun peeling them out of their pods.

Pretty soon it will be soup time.

What's your favorite kind of soup?

Lately I've Been Struggling to Breathe

I've been struggling to breathe. My oldest son has been struggling to breathe. It's allergies at it's worst. It's entered our chest cavity. Both of us have a cough. We sound like two smokers during some of the day.

Both of us have been doing the Neti Pot twice a day. We've been taking over the counter allergy medicine. Then we've been taking all natural Maty's Cough Syrup.

Source

I won the cough syrup a while back and it's the one thing kids can take. Most cough syrups are for adults only and contain alcohol.

I've been washing our pillow cases with every load of laundry I do.

As of right now we're both feeling blah! I seriously have had a problem getting one post out. I just feel like doing absolutely nothing.

Mica, my son is in 1st grade. He's opted to take a nap the last two days. In return he gets to stay up a little bit longer than usual.

It wasn't a total waste of the day. My oldest son has a bake sale at school coming up and my youngest starts preschool this week. I did my motherly duty and made treats. Then my oldest saw a recipe for pumpkin pudding in his Highlights magazine. I managed to make that with him as well. It's a bread pudding. It is more healthy than most puddings. I took a picture, but I have to say that bread type puddings are not that pretty.