Grapefruit Peppermint Hand Scrub

It's that time of year where we want to be outside as much as possible.  And usually that involves yard work and gardening, which can make your hands seriously grimy.  I found this great hand scrub from Kate over at The Gaines Gang.  It really helps get embedded dirt and muck off of your hands after a day of working in the yard.  And it smells amazing!  Make up a batch of this for yourself and your garden loving mom.  She'll think it is an excellent Mother's Day gift. :)

Here are the 3 ingredients you will need:

• Sugar
• Method Pink Grapefruit Dish Soap
• Peppermint Essential Oil

Fill your container 2/3 full with sugar.

Add dish soap to the sugar and mix with a butter knife.  Go easy on the dish soap when you first add it.  I put way too much in and ended up having to split my scrub into two containers.  Which was okay, since I then had one for my mom and one for me. :)

Keep adding sugar or soap until you get to a paste like consistency.  Add 5 drops of essential oil and mix.

I used a decorative candle jar as a container for my scrub.  Since the jar was already so pretty, there was no need to add any extra decoration.  

This scrub worked so great!  I think I may make some for my dad for father's day using regular Dawn dish soap, since it is blue and awesome at cutting grease.  He is a golf course superintendent, so between doing maintenance on machinery and taking care of the golf course, his hands can get really dirty.  I think I will make his a nice lemon orange scent. :)

Scented Bath Salts

While I had good intentions of putting up a post every day this week, you can see that it didn't happen.  So it goes with two little ones demanding my attention.  And that's OK.  Because I only get one chance to enjoy them as tiny little babies.  They change so much every day at this point that I don't want to miss any of it.  The Rowselettes are almost 7 weeks old and one week past their official due date.  They are finally the size of normal new born babies and seem huge to me, although they're still tiny little peanuts.  They're really starting to be awake a lot, and it is so fun to watch them have floor/tummy time.  Here are some photos of them snuggling in bed with me earlier this week.

Now onto another homemade Mother's Day gift.  Bath salts are really easy to make yourself.  Considering how expensive they can be to buy, it makes sense to just make them at home.  And you can make any variety of scent and color you want when you create your own.

Here are the 3 ingredients you need:

• Mineral & Dead Sea Salts (I got mine from Michaels)
• Epsom Salts
• Essential oil(s) of your choice

Fill your container with half Epsom salts and half Mineral & Dead Sea salts.  Pour into a mixing bowl.  Add 10 drops of essential oil and stir to mix well.

 Spoon the mixture back into the container and decorate with a ribbon, label, or piece of fabric.

See how easy that was?  Delicious scented bath salts in 5 minutes for way less than the price of store bought ones.  You can also add pieces of herbs and flowers along with color to make the salts more decorative.  For example, since my scent was rose & neroli, I could have mixed in dried rose petals and used food coloring or soap colorant to make the salts red or pink.

Note:  If you can't find Mineral & Dead Sea salts, you can always use course sea salt found in the grocery store.  Or just use straight Epsom salts, instead of a combination of the two.

Honey Vanilla Bubble Bath

This bubble bath is absolutely luscious!  The honey vanilla scent is wonderful, and the olive oil in it makes your skin feel so soft.  I found the recipe here and decided it would be a great addition to my Mother's Day gift ideas.  It only has four ingredients, all of which you probably have in your cupboard right now.  Combine this bubble bath with the Coconut Vanilla Sugar Scrub and the Coconut Almond Body Wash and you've just created a spa gift basket for your mom.  And who deserves a nice relaxing spa day more than Mom?

Here are the 4 ingredients you will need:

• 1 c. olive oil (the original calls for sweet almond oil, but olive oil is what I had on hand)
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/2 c. liquid hand soap
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Place the olive oil in a mixing bowl.

Slowly add in the honey, vanilla, and hand soap while continually whisking to emulsify the ingredients together.

Pour your homemade bubble bath into a pretty bottle (this is actually a small tequila bottle that I reused) and add a decorative ribbon or label.

Note:  Because the bubble bath is made of ingredients that normally wouldn't mix together, it will separate after sitting for a while.  No need to worry, just give the bottle a quick shake before you use it to remix the oil into the other ingredients.

Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day is a week away.  If you're still struggling with what to get for Mom, here are some ideas for homemade gifts I'm sure she would love.  Make just one or a combination for a fun gift basket.  These are links to posts I've already done that would make great gifts, and I will also be posting new DIY gift ideas all week.

• Coconut Almond Body Wash
• Citrus Cleaning Spray
• Coconut Vanilla Sugar Scrub
• Homemade Hand Soap

I'm planning on spending Mother's Day with my mom and the Rowselettes at an annual Mother's Day fun run (we will be walking) put on by the Haven organization.  Proceeds from the race go to support victims of domestic violence.  I can't think of a better thing to support while spending some quality time with my Mom.

My mom and I at the last Mother's Day fun run.  Hoping this year will be just as beautiful. :)

The Rowselettes have Arrived!

As you may have noticed, I've been MIA for about a month and a half now.  But I have a really good reason for my lack of posts.  The Rowselettes have arrived!

They decided they couldn't wait any longer than 34 weeks and 4 days to come greet the world.  On March 23rd at 10:26 pm & 10:27 pm first Alexander James and then Archer John were born by c-section (due to the fact that Archer decided to stay in his sideways position).  Xander was 5 lbs. 6 oz. and 19.5 in. long.  Archer was 4 lbs. 13 oz. and 18 in. long.  When I first saw them, I couldn't believe that both of those babies fit inside of me.  Both of them required extra monitoring due to the fact that they were premature, but completely healthy.  They had to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for two weeks.  This was mainly to ensure that they could eat well on their own and continue to grow and gain weight.

We've been home now for two weeks, and it is exhausting but awesome all at the same time.  And even though I know one baby would be half as much work, I wouldn't trade having my two bundles of joy for anything in the world.  They were both such individuals right from the very start.  It's amazing how two little beings can be so different from each other, even though they were conceived at the same time and shared the same space for so long.

It's time!  Wearing my super cute birthing/hospital gown from ModMum.

Alexander (Xander) James in the NICU with his dad.

Archer John also in the NICU with his dad.  He needed a little extra oxygen for about 6 hours after he was born and then he was good to go.

First time holding my babies.  So precious!

 

Archer and Xander snuggling with mom during their feeding through their nasal gavage tubing.

No more monitors!  And we get to share a bed now. :)

I love my brother. 

The doctor says we can go home! 

Celebrating National Sibling Day with snuggles.

And here is one of our photos from our newborn photo shoot.  This was my husbands idea.  He's very creative. :)  The foxes and fox scarves were knitted by my wonderful sister in law Amy from Amy's Nutritarian Kitchen.

Southwest Chicken Black Bean Dish

For some reason we always have extra rice in the fridge at my house.  Apparently my hubby and I are not good at estimating how much we will need for a specific meal.  Because of this, I've come up with quite a few rice dishes to use up left overs.  So here is another tasty, easy, budget friendly rice dish for you all to try.

Southwest Chicken Black Bean Dish

• 1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Anaheim chile, chopped (This is optional.  I had them on hand so decided to add it to the recipe.)
• 1 large onion. chopped
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can chicken breast (I use the Kirkland brand from Costco.)
• 3 cups rice, cooked
• 3 Tbsp. Mesquite seasoning

1. Spray the pan with olive oil spray, add peppers and onions, and saute over medium heat.
2. When the veggies are starting to soften, add corn and black beans.
3. Break up the chicken breast chunks in the can, and add to the pan.
4. Add rice and stir to combine all ingredients.
5. Add the mesquite seasoning and a half can of water.  Stir well and allow to cook for ~10 min. or until everything is heated through.

Wash the beans well using a colander and cold water.  This would also be a great recipe to use the homemade crock pot beans. :)

I use a fork to help break up the chicken breast chunks.

 As always, season to taste.  If you prefer more or less seasoning, go for it.

This dish is really tasty on its own, with some taco chips, or as a burrito with cheese.  You could also easily leave out the chicken for a vegetarian meal.  I want to say a special thanks to my wonderful husband for helping me with my cooking, since I'm on restricted activity at this point in my pregnancy.  He's definitely a keeper. :)

Crock Pot Beans

My husband spent four months in Costa Rica after college being an international playboy, as he likes to call it.  Due to said time in Costa Rica, he became very good at cooking dried beans.  Before I met him, my beans always came from a can.  I still use the occasional can of beans for convenience sake, but try to make my own whenever possible.  They freeze extremely well, are super budget friendly, and taste amazing!

Our house has a gas range, which I love for cooking, but am not such a big fan of leaving on all day long.  Especially since I'll be having little ones around the house soon, an open flame burning all day is much less appealing to me.  Therefore, we decided to experiment with making our beans in the crock pot.  After doing some reading online, I determined we did not need to soak the beans over night before cooking them this way.  So here is our recipe for delicious homemade beans.

Crockpot Beans

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 2 Anaheim chiles, sliced (I had these on hand, so decided to use them.  They are completely optional.)
• 6 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I used avocado oil.)
• 1 Tbsp. salt (You may increase or decrease the salt amount as you like.)
• 2 lbs. dried small red beans

1. Chop and slice all of your veggies.  Wash the beans, using a colander and cold water.
2. Put all ingredients in the crock pot and add enough water to cover the beans plus two inches.  (More water may need to be added as the beans cook.  Just make sure the beans are covered at all times.)
3. Give the contents a good stir.
4. Cook on High for ~10 hrs.  Stir occasionally throughout cooking time.
5. When beans are al dente, turn crock pot off and let cool.  Package in freezer bags or plastic containers.

Yummmm!  This is probably the best batch of beans we've ever made.  In fact, they were so good, we ate them right after they came out of the crock pot with some taco chips for dinner.  And then had them again for breakfast the next morning.  Due to said eating, we only ended up with 6 - 2 cup bags to freeze for later.  But had we not, we would have had 8 bags of beans to freeze.  Not bad, considering the dried beans cost less than $3 for the 2 lb. bag.  Adding the veggies to the beans makes for great flavor, but if you're trying to really be budget conscious, you could do them plain with just oil and salt.  You could also do just onions or garlic, which both tend to be very inexpensive veggies to buy and add great flavor all on their own.