Newskids

Last night, Ch. and I had an interesting experience in Provo. Through a homeschooling group, I found out that the Daily Herald of Provo wants kids to come and do a short newscast to be posted onoline. It was interesting to see how many times we had to do things over and how much had to be edited becasue the kids couldn't read. We were there almost three hours, and they still weren't done. About 9 kids did the newscast last night. They do this every Tuesday at 5. If you're interested, you need to call Karen at the Daily Herald. they really liked him and asked if we'd come back again. So we might do this again. Because of being in Seussical this summer, he had lots of facial expression. I said, "That's a little too much. Tone it down." The guys there said "Be quiet! We think it's perfect." So I told Ch., "Ignore what your mother said, like you usually do :-) "

The link is http://www.heraldextra.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,159/ He did it on July 29 and his part is Wildlife Rehab. It will be up for one week.

Seussical, Jr. Performance

Just as an FYI to everyone. Ch.'s performances will be July 31, Aug. 1, 2, 4 at 7 p.m. He only has one real solo and lots of mini solos. His other main solo was taken out because of time constraints. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for kids over 3. He's had a great time doing this, and I now fear we'll be this busy every summer with theater :-)!

THE YARD

I had said I didn't want a new house because I didn't want to have to do a yard. Then I had said Scot wasn't going to do the yard. We were going to hire it out. Of course, my life didn't quite go as planned. After much work all summer this is the state of things now.

I'm so tired of dirt. Dirt in the house, on the house, in the garage, in diapers, in C.'s ears...We've had dirt delivered on two different days. Both days we allowed C. to play to his heart's content. No pics, but he rolled in it, did somersaults and filled his clothes with it.
Try keeping a 2-year old out of dirt!

Pumpkin Oat Bran Muffins

Wow, I've been doing a great job of blogging :-) I told you guys this wasn't really my thing. I've had a bunch of pictures on the camera that I wanted to blog about, and I don't know how to save them to the computer. That's embarrassing to admit. Scot's been too busy with the yard to help me. I've had a few recipes I wanted to post. I'm always trying new things, but I'm self-aware enough to know that most of them would not interest most people who might read my blog. I received a Vita-Mix blender as a gift and have really been enjoying making new recipes with it. I had oat groats in the pantry, so I used my Vita-Mix to make oat flour in this recipe. Before I've just bought oat bran in the bulk section at Good Earth. I also used up the ends of some boxed cereal (I have no idea what kind it was, but this is a great use for the bottom of the bag of some healthy cereal). I just blended the cereal up in my spice grinder (That was a present from Scot for my birthday. If you know Scot and birthdays - it was a great event!) BTW just freeze any leftover pumpkin. It works great to pull out of the freezer for another batch.




Pumpkin-Oat Bran Muffins Recipe
Adapted from Recipezaar

1 1/2 cups unprocessed oat bran
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup skim milk or buttermilk
2 egg whites or 1 whole egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

EXTRAS:

chocolate chips or
zest of one orange, 1 t.vanilla, and dried craisins

I split the batter in half and did half with chocolate and half with the craisin/orange combo

1. Combine first six ingredients in a large bowl; stir well. 2. Make a well in center of mixture. 3. Combine pumpkin and next three ingredients; stir well. 4. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. 5. Spoon into muffin pans filled with muffin liners, filling 3/4 full. 6. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. 7. Remove from pans immediately; serve warm or at room temperature.

NOTE ON MUFFIN LINERS -----If you make any quantity of muffins at all, you need to go to Orson Gygi and buy their bulk paper muffin liners. I buy 500 at a time. Just make sure you bring your muffin tin to see the exact size you need. They sell various sizes of papers.

NOTE ON ORANGE ZEST-----I like to zest a few oranges at a time and freeze the zest in a baggie. Please get a Microplane zester!!!! You'll never live without one again!