Our DIY Bath Salts!

Homemade/DIY Bath Salts

Our Base Recipe:

1 cup Epsom salt
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup sea salt

Our Blends:

lavender + bergamot

eucalyptus + peppermint

lavender + rosewater



lemon + rosemary

This is a super inexpensive DIY project (minus the initial investment on the oils) and makes for a fun little "girls morning" craft!
We bought the Epsom salt, sea salt and baking soda from a local bulk store for roughly $1/pound (some items less, some items slightly more).
The essential oils we bought from a local All Natural store - prices vary depending on what brand you use. Just like anything else in life- the higher the price...the higher the quality.
These oils last forever a VERY long time...a little goes a long way.

As to HOW we did it...
In large glass bowls we mixed up our Epsom salt, sea salt, and baking soda. Then we added our essential oils- we had a total of about 20-30 drops per single batch.

When mixing the oils in the salt mixture, we made sure to grind up any clumps caused from adding the essential oils. Then we dumped and spread the salts out onto a large cookie sheet to dry (this prevents any large clumps) for about 20 minutes.

Then it was time to fill up our containers...
and voila!
It's that easy.

My plan is to not just use these in the bath, but also when I shower, by sprinkling some on the floor of the shower!

This was a super fun and easy little project that even my 10 year old niece helped out with!

(we did feel a little "Walter White/Breaking Bad" while mixing up our salt concoction and dumping it out to dry...we debated adding curry powder and blue food coloring...maybe next time) ;)

(I hope you've seen Breaking Bad, otherwise now you just think I'm crazy...)

Old Windows!!!

So these babies have some crazy sentimental value...

they are my great-great-great-great-grandparent's windows, from their original homestead from back in the early 1800's. 

How awesome is that?!

The best part is that I found them this past summer... in the original homestead (which is still standing, and is on my parent's land...it now serves as storage for all of our fun outdoor activities we do at my parent's...snowmobiling, swimming...etc.) tucked in a corner in the "attic" behind a bunch of other stuff. The most exciting part about it all, was that about a week before I found these windows, I almost bought an old window for 20 bucks from a local store. 

Then I find these windows, which are pretty much priceless in my book!

SO glad I didn't spend the money on the window from the store!

They kind of got neglected in my own garage since summer, and today I finally got around to cleaning them up, and bringing them in!! I plan to hang some seasonal little wreaths on the one window, but seeing as how I don't have any yet... the dried flowers will have to do for now. ;)

(trip to Hobby Lobby anyone??)

As soon as we made our floating shelf, I knew that's right where the windows would go.

I get kind of sappy (something that happened to me after becoming a Mom...) and I imagine my (4x)great-grandparent's looking out these windows, enjoying sunsets, watching the seasons change, watching their kids playing outside...and I just find it SO awesome that now here they sit, the main attraction in their great-great-great-great-granddaughter's living room.

*sigh*

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In other exciting news...

Saturday, I'm having a girls morning with my sisters and my mom, and we're going to make our own bath salts!!!

I'm pathetically excited for this! 

Coffee, cinnamon rolls, girl talk, and DIY craftiness!!! ...what's better than that?!

Here's a sneak peak...

A homemade bath salts post to come....!!!

Ok, enough rambling... 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I can't wait to share another fun DIY craft with you after this weekend!

xoxo

Homemade Applesauce

Comin' at ya with another ridiculously simple, and amazingly delicious recipe!

Let's get right to it:

Ingredients:

3lb bag of Gala apples (I use organic)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Peel and chop apples into large chunks.

2. Put apples into a large pot (with a lid) and add about 1/3 cup water. 

You really only want to have water that's about 1/4"-1/2" deep on the bottom.

3. Cover pot and simmer apples for about 30-45 minutes. Check the apples somewhat often- you want them to be extremely soft when pierced with a fork.

4. DO NOT strain the apples. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

5. Blend/mash apples to desired consistency. This is where I chose to use our ninja blender, because I wanted a very smooth applesauce. If you want a chunkier apple sauce, you can use a potato masher. You can also use an immersion blender... (I just don't have one...yet...). 

6. ENJOY!

I chose to make homemade applesauce because we go through it like CRAZY in this house. Gavin LOVES it and a lot of times we use it to mix with his carrot purees... to sneak some veggies into the boy! This homemade applesauce tastes a million times better than the store-bought. 

It truly can't be beat!

...especially since it's SO simple to make!

Hope you enjoy!! 

Blackened Walleye

 It is truly as simple as that.

I wanted to try and use our recipe for our very own "blackened chicken"... but at the same time I wanted the traditional buttery-lemon, baked fish taste in there as well. So, without having ANY clue as to how it would turn out, I came up with a concoction to combine the two! 

Luckily, it turned out to be DELICIOUS!

This specific recipe paired great with some asparagus and parmesan couscous on the side!

I used 3 walleye fillets, and it was the first time I have used a ziplock bag for marinating...but it most definitely won't be my last! Wow, it made mixing the seasonings and the butter together SO much easier than trying to mix together a liquid and seasonings in a bowl... seasonings tend to clump up, and in the bag it was so easy to just mash it all together. 

I marinated the fillets just while the grill was heating up, so it's really a super fast, and simple recipe. We really rubbed the hardened marinade onto the fillets before grilling them, so that they would go on the grill and really soak up the extra flavor.

The great thing about this recipe, is it's versatile enough to try on any other type of fish, not just walleye.

ENJOY!

See below for a typed out list of ingredients and instructions:

Ingredients:

3-4 walleye filets

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp paprika

1 clove minced garlic

Instructions:

In a ziplock bag combine butter, lemon juice, spices and walleye fillets. Seal bag and mash all ingredients until combined well, and mixed together.

Marinate fillets for roughly 10 minutes, while grill heats up to medium-high heat.

Before putting fillets on the grill, rub each with the hardened marinade for extra flavor, while they grill.

Grill fillets for about 4 minutes each side. It is cooked through when the fillet flakes easily.

VOILA!

Simple as that.

ENJOY!

2016!!

The new year is always so exciting!

I get to see how many times I have to do this: 2015 2016...

(I hope I'm not alone in doing that until about March)

...and I also get to choose a few things I want to try and do differently this year!

So here are my simple & attainable 2016 "resolutions":

1. Eat fish dinners 2-3 times per week.

Aaron recently read in one of his nutrition books, to aim for a fish dinner 2-3 nights out of your week.

Um... ya, we were NOT doing that. Oops. 

We tend to eat chicken and beef A LOT... but forget about making fish a regular staple in our diet.

SO... we plan to up our fish intake!

...which means more of my FAVORITE homemade fish fry recipe, as well as attempting our hand at some new recipes we haven't tried yet! We actually made a blackened walleye recipe last night that was delicious!

Of course, as we go about this journey and find some new favorite fish recipes, I will share them with you here! :)

2. Make Healthy Sweets.

I have one heck of a sweet tooth. It's truly a nasty little bugger. When I crave something sweet, I NEED something sweet. I tend to forget we have literally hundreds of recipes for sweet treats, that are AMAZING, and really pretty simple to make! For example, my chocolate oatmeal cookie balls, that are NO BAKE, and I can make a batch in about 20 minutes, start to finish. Some of these recipes are SO simple, and it's so rewarding to fulfill my sweet tooth, with a HEALTHY sweet! Way better than ending up making a late night run to the Dairy Queen drive through... yes, guilty of that.

There you have it! I am not big into "resolutions"... as you can probably tell.

The resolutions I have every year are simple, attainable, and easy to stick with longer than the first few months of every year. ;)

HAPPY 2016!!!!!!