TerreMum

For families living a greener way of life!

Fairy-tale Friday: Ghostly Visions

It’s dark and stormy here today…

The air is grey , thick and hazy. The wind is whipping around out there and tossing leaves on the branches. You can feel something coming…

It feels sort of mysterious… Sort of foreboding…

The weather has me thinking about dark ghostly visions…

Fade by LabyrinthineNature

Ghost Flowers by soulfuse

That dress looks nice on you by DeLaCruz

Ghostly Twisted Path by GatoRanch

If you would like to take a closer look at any of these gorgeous prints, just click on the picture!

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Eco Wednesday: Eco Friendly Bags

Some of you know that I am on vacation and visiting my sister. One of the things I like to do is go shopping with her! My husband doesn’t like to shop & he certainly doesn’t like to go to craft shows or quaint little towns with the cutest gift shops (like we are going to this weekend!!!!!! YAY!!!!).

So all of this has me thinking about cute little green shopping accessories! Here are some really awesome picks that are terribly cute AND eco friendly!!

Recycled Sail Purse - Red Star by reiter8

Eco Owl Coin Purse made from Fused Plastic Bags by SoSheSews

Hemp Wristlet. The Mini Blossom by infusion

Red Waste Wonderful Coin Purse by sparkyjones

Organic Orange Blossom Purse by Adorable Organics

If you like any of these eco friendly bags or purses, just click on the picture to be magically whisked away to this item!

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Making Monday: Chicken Rosemary Garlic Pizza Recipe

Chicken Rosemary Garlic Pizza

I have a cookbook that has only pizza recipes in it. I haven’t used it very much, but I started looking through it a couple weeks ago when I decided to do the month of Making Monday Pizzas and there were several recipes that caught my eye.

One of these recipes was the Chicken Rosemary Garlic Pizza.

This is a white pizza and sounded really quite different from the usual pizza made in someone’s home, so I thought I would give it a whirl! However, I didn’t have exactly what the recipe called for so this is my variation of the recipe! It turned out really good and my 3 year, Grace, even asked for the leftovers for lunch the next day!

If you are looking for a different pizza recipe, try this one out!

Chicken Rosemary Garlic Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cup cooked and shredded chicken
  • olive oil
  • 1 large clove of garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
  • 1/2 cup of shredded mozzeralla
  • 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Step 1. Prepare your Very Easy Pizza Dough as described in my earlier post of Making Monday Pizzas.

Step 2. Place your chicken in a bowl. Add the rosemary and minced garlic. Then add enough olive oil to cover the chicken. Marinade for 1 hour at room temperature.

Chicken ready to marinade!

Step 3. Brush dough with oil from the marinade.

Step 4. Sprinkle half of mozzarella and half of the parmesan on the dough.

Step 5. Top the cheese with your chicken.

Putting on the toppings!

Step 6. Sprinkle the rest of the cheeses over the chicken.

Step 7. Add the parsley to the top of the pizza.

The pizza is ready to go in the oven!

Step 8. Bake at 515 degrees for 10 minutes.

If you try this pizza, please leave a comment and let me know what you and your family thought of this!

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Eco Wednesday: Child Friendly Road Trip Snacks How-To

I took my very first road trip by myself with the girls this past weekend. My husband has a limited amount of vacation and I wanted to get in some more quality time with my sister than that.

So, I decided to head out on my own a couple weeks early…just me, Grace, and Morgan.

Hmmm… How am I going to keep them happy in the car though…?

I figured if I just had enough snacks, books, and coloring/sticker books then we could make it. (We don’t have the DVD player for the car. I had my laptop all charged up and a few movies just incase I became desperate!)

I must say my girls were little troopers! They were fantastic in the car and we had a quick (well, as quick as it can be driving from New York to Michigan!) and smooth trip!

How did I give them the snacks while driving by myself!?

Great question! I had a great idea one day while packing a lunch for a picnic out with my girls! I packed one of my snack sized eco snack bags for each of the girls. This way I could fill their snack bags, close them up, pass the bags back to the girls, and they could open them and eat their snacks! It was very mess free and worked great!! When Grace and Morgan were done, they just closed them up and passed them up to me to toss in the our big bag o’ snacks!

Here are the bags that I made just for Grace and Morgan:

For my Olivia lovers!

You could use another type of container too that is easy for your children to open and close.

Here is one of the snacks I made to keep them happy:

I made my own trail mix which is so easy to do. Don’t be tempted to buy those mixes already made in the store…they probably have preservatives and other gross chemicals in there! This way you can pick and choose your healthy ingredients and cater it to what will keep your children happy along with their little tummies!

Homemade Trail Mix!

Here is a list of the snack foods I put in my trail mix:

  • Cherrios
  • Pretzels
  • Peanuts
  • Raisins
  • Dried Dates
  • M & Ms (gotta have a little treat for them since we were on vacation!!)

My girls and I loved the mix and snacked on it a lot!

What are your tips for giving snacks to your children in the car!?

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Making Monday: Mexican Pizza Recipe

My Mexican Pizza recipe came about when I was trying to figure out something for dinner and use up some stuff I had in refrigerator.

I tried looking for some recipes online for Mexican Pizza, but none of them were what I was envisioning. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, but it turned out really tasty and my family loved it!! Yes!!

If you have leftovers from a taco night, then you are really all set to go for this!

Oh, and it was so easy that you can let your little ones help decorate the pizza!

Here are the ingredients you need:

  • Pizza Dough
  • 2 cups of Cheddar Cheese
  • 1 cup Seasoned Ground Beef or vegetarian substitute
  • 1/2 cup Black Olives
  • 1/2 cup Diced Tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup Diced Onion
  • Cornmeal (optional)

Directions:

Step 1. Spread your pizza dough out on your pan. If you want, sprinkle with a tablespoon or two or cornmeal and press into the dough.

Pizza dough!

Step 2. Sprinkle with the seasoned ground beef.

Topped with seasoned ground beef!

Step 3. Next top with your olives, onions, tomatoes or anything else you think would be tasty on here! (I think avocado would be AMAZING!! mmmmm!!)

Topping the pizza!

Step 4. Top with cheese!

Puttin' on the cheese!

Step 5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the cheese melts!

As I sat down to eat my delicious creation, I realized that this would probably be very tasty with salsa and sour cream thrown on the top!

Topped with salsa & sour cream!

And it was…!

If you try this recipe, I’d love to know your thoughts and what else you added to your Mexican Pizza!!

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Eco Wednesday: Hang Your Laundry Out to Dry!

Our clothes line!

Shoooo weee! The heat is on!! It’s in the 90’s all week for us!

HELLO SUMMER!!

I’m a big heat lover, but even these temperatures are making me melt this week. When it’s this hot I don’t want to do anything that will create more heat in my house. (Yes, I’m one of those strange people that doesn’t have AC!) So what’s all this heat good for?

Drying your clothes out on the line!!

This year I finally talked my husband into putting out a clothes line for me. (If you don’t like the look of a clothes line, try using the retractable kind! You just pull out the line whenever you need it!) It’s been wonderful! I’m not heating up the house to get my laundry done, it dries quickly, and it smells soooo wonderful!!

I know, I know… People might see your underwear hanging out to dry… I always worry about that too! You can find discreet ways to hang it though! And does it really matter if someone sees a flash of your skivvies if you are doing something good for our earth!?

Well, I hope you don’t need more incentive…but if you do, check out Seventh Generation’s Laundry Challenge! It’s such a cool idea that could have such a huge impact if we all tried to dry our laundry this summer with sun power instead!

You can even print out coupons for Seventh Generation products and calculate how much money you would save by using cold water when you wash your laundry!

Let’s show our neighbors that we care about the earth and hang our undies and the rest of our laundry out to dry!

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Making Monday: Very Easy Pizza Crust

I decided to do a whole month of Pizza Making Mondays!

Yup! That’s right! For every Monday of the month of July I will have a new recipe for pizza!

Pizzas are a staple at our house, but I like to mix it up a little bit! I don’t want cheese and pepperoni every time I have pizza and I bet you feel the same way too!

My first recipe for you is a Very Easy Pizza Crust!

I use this pizza crust every time I make pizza! I used to buy the prepackaged pizza mixes by Betty Crocker that you just add water too. Then I had to be on that restrictive diet and was forced to find a new way to make my dough. This is actually a vegan recipe too!

The crust recipe is actually so easy that it hardly takes anymore time than adding the water to the prepackaged mix! That’s why we kept doing it even after I didn’t have to be on my diet!

Oh! And did I mention that there is no rising time involved in this recipe!?

This will be the base of all my pizza recipes and you will not regret learning this easy crust!

Here are the ingredients you will need:

  • 1 Tablespoon of yeast
  • 1/2 Cup of hot water
  • 3/4 Teaspoon of salt
  • 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 1/4 Cup of flour

Directions:

Step 1. Mix the yeast with the hot water. Set aside until the yeast dissolves and let it stand for a few minutes.

Step 2. Add the salt and olive oil. Mix.

Oil & salt added to the yeast & water

Step 3. Mix in the flour.

The dough is all ready to go!!

Step 4. Spray a cookie sheet with some oil. Place the dough in the middle.

Step 5. Here’s my trick to easily spreading out my dough: Sprinkle about a tablespoon or so of flour on top of the dough. Begin to flatten and spread the dough out with flat fingers. DO NOT use fingertips!! That always just puts holes in your lovely crust!!

Spreading the dough!

Step 6. Once you have your dough spread out onto your sheet, bake it in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

Ready to cook!

Step 7. Take your crust out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and then decorate!!

Try it out!! You will not be disappointed!!

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Eco Wednesday: All Natural Veggie Wash

All Natural Veggie Wash

Farmers Markets and road side fruit and veggie stands are really starting to pop up everywhere right now!

I don’t know about you, but I am loving it!

You know what I’m not loving though? All the pesticides that are probably on them. Yuck.

I have always washed my fruit carefully before eating it, but I always wondered if that was enough…?

Well, I found a new product that I’m quite happy about! It is Veggie Wash. It is an all natural fruit and vegetable cleaner!

“Veggie Wash® is the all-natural way to remove wax, soil and agricultural chemicals from produce. Because it contains only food-derived ingredients and is never tested on animals, you can enjoy the freshest-tasting fruits and vegetables, along with the peace of mind that comes with using environmentally safe products.”

I must say I was a little hesitant to use it at first because I was worried about it leaving a weird taste on my produce. However, I didn’t notice any strange taste at all! It was just the taste of my delicious fresh fruit! I even washed my strawberries with it and didn’t taste anything but my strawberries!!

It has even earned the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval!

Yep. It’s good stuff!

So don’t hesitate at the Farmer’s Market this weekend! Grab your produce, bring it home, clean it with this all natural cleaner, and feel good about what you are putting into your body!

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Making Monday: Rhubarb Cream Pie with Coconut Topping

Mmmmm! My first rhubarb pie!

Confession: I have never ever baked anything with rhubarb.

Oh, don’t worry, I’ve eaten plenty of rhubarb delights, but I’ve never really thought to try to bake anything with it. Maybe one of the reasons is that it was never something my family ate as I was growing up. It’s kind of strange too because we all like rhubarb too!

Our farmer’s market has started up here now and at the first market I spied a pretty bunch of rhubarb… And I thought, “Why not!?” Maybe this will be my summer to try some new baking!

Since I didn’t have a family recipe to make, I searched around on the internet. I really had to look too because I didn’t have strawberries to add, I didn’t want to use a lot of sugar, and I only had one pie crust in my freezer and it seemed to be that that’s what most recipes for rhubarb pie require.

So I will be posting a recipe that is based on a few recipes I saw and then made it my own!

I think my first attempt at rhubarb pie turned out quite tasty!! That’s even despite a serious pie disaster that happened while baking! Read on to see a picture and find out what happened!!

Rhubarb Cream Pie with Coconut Topping

Pie Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup enriched flour
  • 2/3 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 4 cups rhubarb in 1″ slices (1 lb)
  • 1 deep dish pie crust

Directions for the Pie:

Step 1. Mix the sugar, flour, nutmeg.

Step 2. Beat sugar mixture into the eggs.

Step 3. Add the rhubarb.

Mixing in the rhubarb!

Step 4. Fill the deep dish pie crust with your rhubarb filling.

The pie is ready to start baking!!

Step 5. Bake at 400 degrees 30 minutes and make the topping while you wait!

Topping Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup of grated coconut

Directions for Topping:

Step 1. Mix the sugar and butter together until creamy.

Step 2. Beat in the vanilla and the egg.

Mixing in the vanilla and egg!

Step 3. Stir in the grated coconut.

Step 4. Spread over the rhubarb pie filling.

The pie is ready to go back in the oven!

Step 5. Bake for 30 more minutes and then cool before eating.

Now… Here is the bizarre story of my pie disaster! You can see from the pictures how full the pie was. This is because I did not have a deep dish pie crust. I realized once I put the filling in that I was in trouble. However, I decided to keep on going…oops!

(It’s a good thing I put a cookie sheet under my pies when I cook them!!!!)

So anyway, when I went to put the pie back into the oven, I was trying to hold it so gently as to not spill out any more filling. I actually had it resting on just my nails. Well, weirdly enough one of my nails broke and I almost completely folded my pie in half!

OH NO!! Pie disaster!!

ARGH!

I lost at least half of the filling. I decided to go ahead and back it anyway though. Turns out it was pretty yummy even with half of the filling gone!! I’m looking forward to trying this recipe again with the right size crust!!


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Fairy-tale Friday: A Handmade Wedding

Back in March, Renee Meier contacted me about doing some custom snack bags for her wedding. I had a lovely experience working with her! I was so thrilled when she sent me a message asking if I’d like to see some of the pictures from her wedding!

HECK YEAH!!

I always wished some of my wedding customers would send a picture or two of my handmade goods at their wedding! Yes, Renee was making that little dream come true! I was so impressed by the pictures she sent me that I asked if she would mind doing a little Q & A about her special day!!

Here are her responses and some of the beautiful pictures from her wedding!!

What is your occupation? Funny enough I work in a factory all day-building cars.  It gives me a lot of time to think and plan things.

Tell us a little bit about your wedding day: Our wedding was on a sunny saturday in Ayr, Ontario at the wonderful SanFrancisco’s restaurant.  We had an intimate wedding of 14 guests.  Our photographer Marc Douglas has an eye for unique surroundings and Ayr was perfect. We even went into the local art gallery (with our dog!!) for some photos.  The ceremony was short and sweet, we wrote our own vows.  We had drinks and appetizer during pictures then a lunch with the speeches and were on our way to Toronto by 7 p.m. to start our honeymoon. It was perfect.

I know you said even your dress was handmade. Why was having a handmade wedding important to you and your husband? I can be a little particular and I like to be unique.  When you work with an artist they really work hard to create your ideas exactly the way you want them.  Often they offer an idea or suggestions to help make the piece even more beautiful and the end result is something that often makes a lasting impression on you and your guests.

Where did you find the artists who made your special pieces? The dress was the beginning.  After complaining to a co-worker that I just couldn’t find the perfect short wedding dress,  he gave me his mother-in-law’s number.  What an incredible talent-so sad it’s a dying art.  This got the ball rolling…and the rest as they say is…Etsy.
What did your guests think of the handmade wedding? Our guests were so impressed and touched with the personal touches that most of them asked to take their place settings home.  Every place setting had a re-usable snack bag filled with everyone’s own favourite snacks with a book mark and name tag (plantable), a linen napkin with screen printing on it and a funky napkin ring.  All their eyes lit up when they opened them.  Some of the pieces I gave to my sister-in-laws to use at their weddings.  There wasn’t a dry eye in that room that day, it was very touching and intimate.  I was quite proud at their reactions to everything.
What was your favorite handmade piece? My favourite was my necklace.  My best friend made it for me with beads from etsy she had ordered to match my shoes.  It was five different strands and one strand of my grandmothers pearls for that something old.  I loved it.
Has supporting the handmade movement always been important to you? Always, my grandparents were artists and my parents dabbled some so I’ve always been around it.  I even shop at the farmers market every saturday to support our locals. I always look for unique pieces from artists at festivals and craft sales (and of course on etsy) But most importantly I feel several artists are very environmentally friendly and use recycled materials or earth friendly products. Keep it up!
Anything else you would like to add? I would like to give a big high five to all the artists that helped, listened, worked hard and sent their well wishes to us.  Please give their sites a look and tell them I say “hi”.  Thank you TerreMum-for the awesome snack bags and your interest in our wedding. The Butter Shop for the cool water bottle labels…and quick work! 2birdsinlove for the bird feeders at our reception. Of the Fountain, our bookmarks were perfect they held down the labels and looked great.  Sassyapron, I wore this when I cut the cake and recommend the same to all brides…to die for.  Steelribbons, can you say perfect napkin ring, so cool I loves them. Greenpost, environmentally friendly plantable heart shaped tags, need I say more? And last but definitely not least Marywibis, the linen napkins were gorgeous and the hand blown champagne flutes were perfect but your kindness and talent is unmatched (check this woman out) thank you.  All these artists were found on etsy. Thank you Renee

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