Baked Apple Chips and Banana Chips

This year I have started something new. It's not a New Year's resolution, it's a lifestyle change! I know everyone says that when they don't want to be labeled as a resolutioner, but really, I'm trying to change the way we live. 

I'm a snack kind of person! I love to snack on foods all day long. Once we started to really look at the foods we eat, and see what is in them, I had to put all the snacks down. I was eating potato chips, crackers, granola bars, candy, pretty much anything we had in the way of snacks, I was eating it! You might be thinking, "those don't sound to bad." Well, they are not that bad, until you see how they are made. When I think of a granola bar, I think of the following ingredients, oats, nuts, dried fruit, honey and peanut butter. Yummy! When you look at what is in the granola bars you get from the store, it might have all of that yummy stuff in it, but it also has some other stuff that you don't need. 

Here is an example of the ingredients in the granola bars you get at the store. ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR????? Why do you put artificial flavor in granola bars? That's when I was done. I decided that if I wanted snack food or junk food, or anything in between, I was going to make it myself. I don't care how many added vitamins are in there, I don't want the other garbage that they are also adding to it. It defeats the purpose of the vitamins in the first place. 

I haven't made Granola BARS yet, but I have made No Bake Energy Bites, and those things are AMAZ-BALLS! And you can really just add whatever you have on hand! I didn't have the coconut last time, so I just left it out. And I added Craisins one time too! 

Waiting for things makes me snack a lot as well, and since we are "waiting" to see where we are moving to next, I need a lot of snacks! Chris and I made Banana Chips and Potato Chips earlier this week.

I don't have a picture of the Banana Chips just because I didn't have time to take it! They were gone before I knew it! These Potato Chips were cut with a mandolin and baked at 400* for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes. 

Yesterday I made some Apple Chips! I looked up a recipe on Pinterest and all I could find were ones that say to cook them for 6-8 hours......Ummmm, this mom doesn't have 6-8 hours. So I sliced them with my mandolin, dipped them in lemon water, sprinkled them with cinnamon and baked them on 250* for 2 hours, turning after 1 hour.

I watched the first batch like crazy! I didn't want the to burn. They started getting golden and the sides started turning in, that's when I flipped them. 

And it's just that easy! Use your favorite fruit and go for it! You will be supplying your family with healthy snacks and they don't have any added ingredients! No preservatives, no corn syrup, no artificial flavors! My kids love them and that is why I love making them for them!

Simple Teacher Gift

As a minimalist, I try to do simple gifts for people. Either something they "need" or something useful that anyone can use.

When the holidays come around, I always like to do something for the boys teachers. They do so much during the year for my kids, the least I can do is create something for them during the holidays! This year, I had a ton of ideas! I had some clipboards that I wanted to use, and I also got some plastic apples that I was going to do something cool with. My list of ideas goes on and on!

With my oldest in the hospital, everything was put on hold! When we got home, I took a few days to just relax and after those few days, I was ready to be crafty again! I knew I was going to do something small I just didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I had purchased some clipboards on Amazon.com and had some ideas for saying to go on them. I looked at all of them and finally (I think it took me an hour) decided on one. I had my design all ready to go!

I got my clipboards ready and started cutting out the vinyl!

TA DA!!!!! As my youngest would say! All done! Not only is it simple, but who couldn't use a clipboard?? My kids use the extra ones I have all the time when doing their homework! At this point, it was kind of a little blah. I didn't want to put more vinyl on it, I just wanted to dress it up a little so it would be a pretty gift!

I made a card......(the design can be found in the Silhouette Store)

and then dressed it up with a bow!

Giving gifts doesn't always have to be big and glamorous. Sometimes we can just give something small and more meaningful. The teachers that we have had so far have been amazing. I could not have picked better teachers for my boys and I thank God for them everyday! This was just something small so they know I appreciate them. Plus it was fun making them!

Happy Crafting!!

Cleaning out your "closet"

Thinking about becoming a minimalist? Getting ready to move, and feeling overwhelmed with all the "stuff" that you have to go through. Don't stress! Stop where you are! Sit down and think about one part of the house.....your closet....the kitchen.....the play room......the entry room. Pick one and start there. Don't think that you have to tackle your entire house in one day. That's unreasonable. You need to start little and work your way around. Pick your room and go there, look around and see how many things are there. I'm going to use the kitchen as an example.

I walked into my kitchen, I see a pile of dishes in the sink and my cupboards are still full. WHY? Well, let me tell you why. If you only have 4 people in your house but you have 40 cups, there is no need for anyone to remember what cup they used 10 min ago. They can just grab a new one and not worry about it, that is until it's time to do the dishes! But if you only have 2 cups per person, everyone soon realizes that it's easier to only use 1 cup at a time. Same goes with plates and bowls. Having less means that you can't be lazy. You will be doing dishes as soon as you are done using the items, but then your kitchen will stay clean as well! You won't have to worry about having to do 2 loads of dishes because there were just to many to fit in one load.

Sometimes going through things to downsize is hard. It brings back all the memories from when you received the item, who gave it to you, when you used it and why you got it in the first place. I had a bunch of glasses from my high school homecomings and at first I wanted to keep all of them. I had so many good memories of going to homecoming every year! But that's all those glasses were for! I had all the memories, and along with keeping the glasses, I was also keeping the dust and the stress of cleaning them and moving them. After thinking about it for a few days I decided to keep the one glass from the year I graduated and let go of the other ones. I still have the memories of going to homecoming and having fun with my friends, I don't need a glass to remind me.

If there is something that you would like to hang on to, find a place for it. Give it a home. If you can't find a space for it in your home, maybe it's time to find it a new home!

Becoming a minimalist doesn't mean that you have to go through your house and let go of everything right now. It means that you have decided to change your way of thinking about material possessions. You have realized that there are more important things in life, like family and friends. Having less stuff to worry about gives you the freedom to spend more time with the ones you love and more time to do what you love! You are no longer held to the same standards as everyone else, you are not expected to have the newest and most upgraded items. You are not expected to have a collection of the coolest thing this week. You have become free from the webs of today's society.