Whole Wheat Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anything is better with chocolate! These cookies are whole wheat but they still taste great, I don't know anyone who would turn these down.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mix together:
1 egg
1/2 c canola oil
1/4 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c honey

Add:
1/2 c water
2 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda

Then add:
1 c zucchini
2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour*
2 c quick oats
1 - 2 c chocolate chips

Spoon & shape into golf-ball sizes. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. They will come out fluffy and delicious! :)

* Whole wheat pastry flour can be made by substituting a little bit of corn starch for whole wheat flour. Use 1 tablespoon of corn starch for every 1/2 cup of ww pastry flour. Example: I added two tablespoons of cornstarch in my 1 cup measuring cup, then filled the rest with whole wheat flour. Then I added one tablespoon in the 1/2 cup measuring cup and filled the rest up with ww flour. (1 1/2 c ww pastry flour = 1 1/2 c ww flour - 3 T corn starch.)
If I've confused you enough, then you can just add white flour instead, or just use all whole wheat flour.

Oct 08 General Conference Activity Packet

I found out last April that someone makes activity packets for each LDS General Conference. I googled it and found the one for October 2008. Here is the link to download it if you'd like.

It's fun for the kids to do, as well as teens and adults! :) I think I'll use at least one page and give to the primary children as "homework." If they bring the paper back the following week then we can put stars in the jar.

Random Spiritual Thoughts

I feel like my blogging life has been slowing down and I'm not really going to change that. I've been getting into routines at my house and I just don't have time to sit at the computer as much as I used to.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say some random spiritual thoughts. I often get things in my head and don't really do much with them, so here goes...

1. Heavenly Father answered my prayer and guided me - We, as a primary presidency, have been trying to think of some sort of reverence game for sharing time & singing time. We have a small primary (about 16 kids on a good day and that's 50% attendance) but we still have reverence concerns. We saw some cute ideas on various websites but it just wasn't really clicking for me. I went to the temple to do an endowment session and happened to say a prayer to help me know what to do for primary. By the end of the 3 hours, I had received ideas to figure it all out. I was really excited that I got a "double whammie" I went to the temple plus did my primary homework. (I often spend 1-2 hours searching online for sharing times ideas when it's my turn, then end up doing something that I found within 10 minutes of my search! I was glad that I didn't even have to go online about this, I liked what I had.)

The idea for the reverence chart:
"Reach for the stars" and "Be a STAR in Primary!"
STAR
S = Sitting
T = Thinking
A = Attentive
R = Reverent

I made a poster with a boy & girl on it with stars at the top of the poster. The boy & girl are on some fishing line (thanks Candace) and whenever the children are reverent the boy & girl reach higher for the stars. If they reach all the way to the top and "reach the stars" then two children get to pick stars from a bag and put them into a jar. Once the jar is full of the stars we will have a "star party." Star party could be flashlights with papers with holes in them, with star shaped food, and maybe a few other star-themed games. (I'll have the Faith in God boys & girls help me plan it.)

Not only did Heavenly Father help me with the idea, but he helped me with the material too. I found some perfect glittery star ornaments at Michael's to use that were $1.99 for 12, and I even found a star shaped jar at the DI for $.50!

I presented the idea on Sunday with a fun sharing time using the teachers in a "star fashion show." We had Wiggly Wanda, Sleepy Sarah, Reverent Rosie, Distracted Darcy, and Talkative Tiffany. They all entered the room walking down the "red carpet" and I talked about each character. Afterward, the children lined up in front of Reverent Rosie and I gave them a star sticker.

(If any of you want more info about this, just email me or comment.)

2. Institute Class - Darrell and I are taking a married institute class. It's only twice and month so it's a doable date night for us. There is a different keynote speaker each time. So far we've only been to one and it was a great class. It was taught by Scott Anderson who has done many EFY conferences and is a marriage counselor. Things I learned:

• Pre-existence - We obviously had choices since we chose to follow Jesus Christ. That also meant that we were tempted too. Brother Anderson called the pre-existence the "Great Singles Conference" since we were all single and were so excited when Heavenly Father presented the plan for us to come to this life for an opportunity to become like him...married for eternity.
• Harmony - What exactly is the definition of harmony? According to Merriam Webster definition #4 it's "an interweaving of different accounts into a single narrative." That means that if you want to have harmony in your marriage, you need realize that there are two different accounts that are trying to become one. Husband and wife are different and in order to have harmony you need to recognize those differences to make it beautiful.
  
• Beam in your own eye - Whenever there is an argument, instead of trying to change the other person, think about changing yourself. When Brother Anderson and his wife have a disagreement he says "You know honey, we're having a difficulty with [this situation], I'm frustrated because I do [this], I will try better to do [this instead.]" Then his wife says the same thing about herself. Later they compliment the spouse the great job that he/she is doing.
  

3. Pray for something better - I just got done listening to the audiobook by Sheri Dew entitled If Life Were Easy It Wouldn't Be Hard. The book is a collections of different thoughts. One of the chapters talks about prayer. Have you ever been praying and asking Heavenly Father for either this or that? Never thinking about another option? She brought up the point that maybe God has something better in store for you. She told the story about Joseph Smith asking for something better.

After he had looked over the table he said, "Lord, we thank Thee for this Johnny cake, and ask Thee to send us something better. Amen." The corn bread was cut and I received a piece from his hand.

Before the bread was all eaten, a man came to the door and asked if the Prophet Joseph was at home. Joseph replied he was, whereupon the visitor said, "I have brought you some flour and a ham."

Joseph arose and took the gift, and blessed the man in the name of the Lord. Turning to his wife, Emma, he said, "I knew the Lord would answer my prayer."

This thought of praying for something better has never occurred to me, so now I'm going to start doing that. It has been such a struggle for me to make Salem's "life decision" regarding which school to attend and every decision I've made has not made me feel 100% excited. I couldn't figure out if Heavenly Father had answered my prayer or not. I felt a "stupor of thought" so I figured that my answer was no or to keep searching. Now I have learned a little more how to pray and hopefully this will help me in the future.

The Burger Waffle

Have you ever tried to make veggie/bean burgers only to have them fall apart? Well, we have and it's a challenge to get the right consistency to make them stay together.

Darrell and I came up with a great idea...cook the veggie or bean burgers in the waffle maker! We use our traditional waffle maker (not the belgian waffle maker since we have both.) The end result seems to make it more sturdy to hold in your bun or even just on your plate. They might be able to hold up the test to an outside BBQ grill once they are cooked first in the waffle maker, then later reheated on the grill for a party.

We don't really have a recipe since each time it's different. It's kind of like making meatloaf, just throw whatever in there and it'll be good.

Here is a list of types of ingredients that we have used:
Beans - pinto or black, but I'm sure you could use any kind of beans. (I usually start with dry beans and cook them speedily in my pressure cooker.)
Grains - Bread crumbs, oatmeal, cooked rice/wheat/barley/etc.
Cheese - Just a enough to make it tasty
Egg - sometimes we have used an egg to hopefully gel the food together, but you could also use ground flax seed.
Spices - Montreal Steak Seasoning, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, whatever.
Condiments - Worcestershire sauce, A1, Vinegar, whatever.
Vegetables - You can either add whatever pureed or chopped veggies to the burger batter, or wait until afterward and just add it to your sandwich.

If you really need a recipe, there are a ton online. Just start with a basic recipe and make it your own by adding whatever is in your fridge or pantry. Enjoy!

Quaker Sale

The Quaker sale is happening tomorrow through next Tuesday at Albertson's. This is the time that I stock up on my Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (Oatmeal) for the year. It ends up being $1.50 on sale or $.90 with two coupons if you buy 10 Quaker items.

The coupon I have is $3 off when you buy 5 Quaker items. I found this in last week's Harmon's ad, or this week's Dan's ad. It's a manufacture coupon.

I've done the figuring and this is cheaper than buying a 25 or 50 lb bag of Oat groats and rolling it yourself. (Plus you'd need to have an oat roller, that costs about $70.) (Rolling it yourself would probably keep more nutrients though.)

I'm going to buy 10 42oz canisters of Old Fashioned Rolled Oats: (Hopefully if they don't sell out.)
1 canister = $2.00
Buy 10 canisters and get it for $1.50 because of the Albertson's Sale
10 * $1.50 = $15
Use two coupons and save $6
$15 - $6 = $9
Price per 42 oz canister
$9 / 10 = $.90

Here is the link to the Albertson's weekly shopping forum:
http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100502
Or here is the direct list:
http://pinchingyourpennies.com/coupons/store_sales.php?id=UT_Albertsons_Sep10_Sep16

I try not to get suckered into buying the rest of the Quaker stuff because most of it is just junk and you get the best deal by just buying the Old Fashioned Rolled Oats. Last time they did the quaker sale I was so excited that I wrote a poem:

The Quaker Sale by Heather Hendriksen

Twas the night before the quaker sale when all through the house
not a scissor was cutting or clicking of the mouse

the coupons were clipped, stacked neatly with care,
in hopes that the quaker sale soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of granola bars dances in their heads

and DH and I settled down to talk over the news
I told him of the savings we'd accrue with the chews

More rapid than eagles his happiness came,
And he whistled, and shouted, like it was a game;

"Now, coupon! now, savings! now, preferred savings card!
Pinching your pennies has not made it hard!"

To the top of the aisle! to the top of the wall!
Now shop away! shop away! shop away all!"

Happiness according to Oaklen & Salem

Happiness ...this is what Oaklen & Salem would write about if they did a happiness post.

According to Oaklen
Happiness is...
* Finding the fridge lock accidentally unlatched
* Eating...almost anything
* Hearing mom or Salem say the word "rhombus"
* Being able to pull or hold mom's hair
* Holding hands
* Taking my shoes off
* Talking on the phone with Grandpa
* Pretending to make waffles with the kitchen set and wooden blocks
* Looking at pictures of Oaklen
* Being able to turn on the hose and get soaking wet
* Getting my own drink of water from the bathroom then spilling half of it on the floor
* Daddy playing the dancing song on his guitar
* Getting into the van and sit in my chair all by myself
* Singing "Jesus want me for a Sunbeam" or "I am a child of God"
* Humming as I eat
* Playing on the playground
* Trying to ride Salem's tricycle
* Watching the water pour into the washing machine
* Someone chasing me
* Showing my belly button
* Dreaming about orange garbage trucks
According to Salem

(I asked him to fill in the sentence "Happiness is...")
Happiness is...
Love
Joy
Feelings
Kindness

(Here are other things I thought of for Salem...)
Happiness is...
* Mom & me time
* Riding the bicycle with Dad
* Riding my scooter
* Coming up with cool activities
* Looking at pictures of Salem
* Playing Starfall or Sesame Street
* Reading books
* Learning new signs (sign language)
* Doing math
* Being able to wear anything I want
* Dressing up as a character
* Eating bananas
* Going to the library
* Doing the activity for Family Home Evening
* Helping mom make food
* Eating goldfish crackers from Aunt Marie & Uncle Neil
* Snuggling in my blanket

What's new?

When someone asks the question "what's new?" It's often hard to think of something that's new for me or my family. Well, today we have answers to that question.

1. New Car - A van actually. Since our family is expanding we needed a bigger car and Darrell convinced me that we needed to get one now instead of waiting until I'm hugely pregnant to test drive the vehicles. We sold our Honda Civic last Thursday (Darrell almost cried, it was a good car) and ended up buying a Honda Odyssey the next day on Friday night. I searched many different car websites and ended up finding our deal through Overstock.com Cars. If you're in the market for a used car, check out Overstock cars, I found deals on there that I didn't find anywhere else. We were espeically excited to purchase our van at this certain dealership because now we get lifetime oil changes there for free and they'll even clean & vacuum it too!

2. New Garage Door Opener - Our 20-year-old garage door opener has been on the fritz for months and we almost always have had to manually open it. It wasn't such a bad thing since I got out of the car to shut the door in nice summer weather, but because we opened it manually, the garage wasn't as secure as we wished. We saved up our cash-back bonus award and got a Sears gift card to get the garage door opener for free. We of course bought it on sale too at the the Labor Day Sale. Darrell spent most of the day out in the garage installing the new garage door opener. I'm amazed with what he can do! We opted for the opener with the lifetime warranty and all the bells & whistles so now we're set for life. Yeah! :)

3. New School - Salem started kindergarten today. Darrell, Oaklen & I went to take him to school at 8:10 in the morning! I was surprised that I didn't get emotional this morning, no tears. (I must have gotten that all out of me when I cried in the checkout line at Shopko a month ago when we were buying him school supplies.) He was excited and had a good day. One funny thing he said to me as I picked him up and we were getting into the van was: "I thought she was going to teach me like 30 + 30 or something, but she didn't." :) I hope he has a wonderful time in kindergarten. He may not learn as much as he hoped but we can make up for that at home if he's interested. He's learning at such a fast pace that I'm amazed. My hope is that kindergarten will be a good social learning experience.

4. New schedule - With Salem now in Kindergarten we have a new schedule. For months I was preparing for all-day kindergarten but last week they changed it to half-day because the enrollment was suprisingly high this year. I was bummed that they changed it but I'll just have to live with it and I'm sure things will work out fine. Since he's home by 11:00 each day, I've got to figure out lunch for the three of us. It was so nice this summer to just go over to the park and have the kids eat lunch there every weekday. I can't even remember what I used to do for lunches before summer!

I was planning on taking that same institute class that I took fall & spring semester, but now I can't because I have to go pick Salem up at that same time. We can still do story time at Barnes & Noble and go to the library twice a week so I'm thinking that the schedule won't be extremely different.

5. New wardrobe - The cooler weather is fun and gives me good nesting feelings. I need to change around Oaklen's clothing to switch to fall gear. It was nice for Salem & Oaklen to share some clothes this summer, there were many shirts & shorts that fit both Oaklen & Salem (or at least Salem convinced me that they fit.)

I'm not excited about sock weather. It's time to put away the sandals (I already put away my white ones of course) and get out regular shoes. Sock laundry is my nemesis and it's been so nice to only have a few pairs of socks once in a while in the laundry pile.

My belly is expanding and the baby bump is starting to be more like a pregnant belly rather than a frumpy blob. I haven't gotten out the maternity clothes yet but I need to soon. I conveniently have a couple shirts that are the maternity-shirt-style that are trendy right now that I wear often to make me feel more comfortable. I'm hoping that because I will be pregnant during the winter months instead of the summer that I can wear more of my regular clothes since sweaters & sweatshirts are a little more roomy. We'll see.

So, that's my list of things that are new in my life. What's new with you?

Salem's 5th Birthday Pics

Here are the pictures of Salem's birthday. He had a fun day, his dad made him breakfast in bed and he got to open up some of his presents in the morning. He played with his new roller skates, read his new books, and played his new board game.

A few days before we made him an origami crown out of newspaper, he wore it most of the day.

I made a whole wheat chocolate zucchini cake for his birthday. The recipe doesn't have any eggs in it so I let the kids lick the bowl & paddle. A few months ago Salem and I came up with the idea to make a Lego cake. It turned out pretty well, and I made cream cheese frosting to make it taste even better. When we thought about making a cake a few months ago, Salem wanted me to make two - one for him and one for President Monson (since they share the same birthday) how cute huh?

That night was a fun family party. He was blessed to have many family members there and more cool presents too! Thanks to everyone that helped make his special day! (A special thanks to my friend Alecia for letting me borrow her camera for the day since ours was broken.)

Enjoy the pics... (click on the image to view it larger.)