Super-Food Muffins

My 2 year old son LOVES any type of bread, especially muffins.  Store bought muffins are so unhealthy and several homemade recipes call for loads of sugar and processed flours.  A friend of mine shared this recipe with me and we love it so much, I wanted to share it.  The quinoa adds so much to this recipe.  Not only is it healthy and full of nutrients, it gives the muffins great texture.  This recipe is vegan as long as you use canola oil, agave syrup and soymilk.

I’d also like to add that if you are serving this to a child under the age of 5, make sure that you chop the walnuts small enough (to an almost fine powder) so that they are not a choking hazard.

Super-food muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

½ cup vital wheat gluten*

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon flaxseed meal

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries

½ cup chopped walnuts

2 cups cooked quinoa

¼ cup canola oil (or butter)

½ agave syrup (or honey)

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed (optional)

¼ cup plain soymilk (or cow’s milk)

½ cup apple cider (or orange juice)


Preheat your oven 375 degrees and lightly grease 12 muffin tins.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking powder, salt and flaxseed meal.  Add in the blueberries or raspberries and walnuts; toss them to coat.

Separately, combine the cooked quinoa, oil, agave, brown sugar (optional), milk and apple cider (or orange juice).  Once the mixture is well-mixed, pour these wet ingredients into the bowl of dry, and use a wide spatula to combine.  Stir only enough to bring the batter together, leaving any small lumps that form in favor of mixing it as little as possible.  Distribute the mixture evenly between your prepared tins.

Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

*Vital wheat gluten will help make the muffins less dense.  However, if you do not have vital wheat gluten, use a full 2 cups of whole wheat flour.  Adding an egg can also help make the muffins less dense.

Contributed by Mindy Hill

Wasting Time Worrying

I don’t remember what initially attracted my interest in cloth diapers, but there were three reasons that my husband and I eventually decided to use them: to save money, to be environmentally friendly, and to avoid the chemicals in disposable diapers.  We certainly didn’t choose cloth diapers because we thought they would be easy.  In fact, in the last weeks and months of my pregnancy, as I purchased and prepped our cloth diapers, I was simultaneously preparing myself mentally for the difficulties I would encounter: the relentless laundry, the leaky diapers, the messy, multi-step diaper changes (we decided to use prefolds and fitted diapers with diaper covers).  I constantly had to remind myself that the benefits of cloth diapers would outweigh these difficulties.

I was so worried about the complexity of using cloth diapers that we used disposables for the first week after our daughter was born; I was convinced that I wouldn’t be able to handle cloth diapering while recovering from childbirth.  I also didn’t think my husband would be able to figure out cloth diapering without me there to guide him through the first several diaper changes.  I chose to use prefold diapers with covers because they seemed to be the most cost effective option, however, they seemed the most difficult to use.  I had also bought a few fitted diapers as well, and I planned to save those for the evening when my husband would help me with diaper changes.  Because it was my decision to cloth diaper, I didn’t want to saddle my husband with the extra work and difficulty.

Imagine my surprise when, after one week of disposable diapers, we switched to cloth diapers and found them to be just as easy.  Instead of pinning the prefolds on, we just folded them, placed them in the cover, and put it on the baby.  It only took seconds longer than a disposable diaper.  Sure, there was more laundry, but cloth diaper laundry was much more low maintenance than I expected.  We quickly developed a routine: my husband would throw the full diaper pail liner in the laundry in the morning  before work and put it on a prewash cycle and when I woke up, I would put it on a wash cycled, then into the dryer or on the drying rack.  With the increase in laundry from a baby we barely noticed an extra load.

When our daughter was not yet three weeks (and we were less than two weeks into cloth diapering), we went out of state for a 16-day vacation to take her to see our families for the holidays.  Although we found using cloth diapers at home to be simple, I was worried about the difficulties of traveling with cloth diapers.  Once again, I let my fears get the best of me and we left the cloth diapers at home.  We regretted it almost instantly.  The disposable diapers leaked much more that the cloth diapers we were used to.  Our daughter developed diaper rash for the first time while wearing them.  And, of course, we were unhappy to have to pay for products that we were almost immediately tossing in the trash.  My initial fears about my husband not wanting to cloth diaper were more than unfounded; less than a week into our vacation, he was saying how much he missed cloth diapers.

When I initially decided to cloth diaper, I felt like I would be sacrificing my time and energy in order to best care for my daughter, the earth, and my pocketbook.  The benefits were worth it of course, yet it turned out that cloth diapering is no sacrifice at all.  I feel like it actually saves me time and energy because I don’t have to deal with as many leaky diapers, I don’t have to run to the store to buy more when we run out, and I don’t have to worry about diaper rash.  I only wish I had known beforehand how easy cloth diapering can be, and therefore had saved all the time and energy I spent worrying about the “difficulties” of cloth diapering.

Bio: Mandi is a young wife and mother who writes about faith, marriage, and motherhood at CatholicNewlywed.blogspot.com.  She and her husband are enjoying life as new parents to their two-month-old daughter, Lucia Rose.

7 months into my 12 step program

I started my cloth diapering 12 step program the day my daughter was born, I stopped buying fluff – amazing huh? She was my first child and as a first time mom, I was so overwhelmed with caring for her, I had no time to look at or research cloth diapers. {If you read my first post “They have a 12 step program for that right?” {(Original Article){scroll down} you will understand.} I got through the first 3 weeks ok, AND THEN I was able to start thinking coherently, I had some routines down and started having some free time during the day when she was sleeping. So, off to the computer I went to catch up on my email and the cloth diapering blogs and boards.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED. I FELL OFF THE WAGON. I had purchased a variety of newborn diapers, and did not like two of the styles because they didn’t fit my daughter’s build and we were getting leaks. So rational dictated that it wouldn’t hurt to replace just those diapers with my favorite bumGenius Newborn AIO because I could resell them and recoup some of my money back.

That was the beginning of the end because a month later she was big enough to fit into her one sized diapers. That is when the ONGOING CHECKLIST started. She was sleeping through the night at seven weeks – yes I know I am very lucky - so I needed hemp doublers, check, bought 6. The hemp was so great, and my daughter is a HEAVY wetter, so double check; I replaced my entire microfiber stash with hemp inserts, a luxury but, wow, the BabyKicks Hemparoo Joey Bunz hemp is amazing.

I then thought I might have to change my wash routine because of the hemp, so check, I bought Tiny Bubbles, bumGenius and Rockin Green detergent to try out along side with my Charlie’s Soap. I read about funky smells - check, I bought some Bac-Out in case I needed it. I worried I may have to strip my diapers - check, I bought a box of calgon and some packets of RLR. Then of course I needed to get a bottle of blue dawn. FINALLY, I figured I was done, complete and I had it all – checklist was completed - I was ready to get back on the wagon.

Then, when trying to climb back up on the wagon - THE WAGON WENT AND ROLLED OVER ME. It happened, the BUMGENIUS FREETIME DIAPER. I.WAS.IN.LOVE. Check, I initially bought 2 just for fun to try them out. They were so easy to rinse with the diaper sprayer – those flaps just hang over the toilet easy peasy and the new colors Dazzle and Einstein were calling my name. I now have 7 more on the way. Truth be told, I’m trying to figure out a way to replace my entire stash with these diapers, however, I doubt my husband will go for it. I guess I’ll have to wait for baby #2 and use the “some diapers are worn out and need to be replaced line” before I can get some more.

What is surprising through all of this is that I am STILL saving money over disposables, even after all this spending. Off of my original stash of diapers we broke even with the cost of disposables when my daughter turned 5 months old. With the additional spending and the extra hemp, it went to approximately 9 months. So, depending upon when my daughter begins to potty train, I figure I should have about a year and a half of free diapering – and that doesn’t even include the savings I’ll have with child #2.

BIO: Brenda is a first time mom. She quit the financial word fast lane to become a full time mom at age 41 – and doesn’t regret the decision for one minute. She has a very understanding fluff loving husband named Mike and a beautiful daughter named Camden who has the cutest fluffy butt in the world.

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Cloth Diapering "Irish Twins"

A little over a year ago I gave birth to our second son. 9 months after our first one. That’s right, 9 months. My boys are 9 months and one week apart from one another.

At the time I was not cloth diapering. I had looked into it with my first son but was overwhelmed by all the options and the start up costs that would incur. But with the rising costs of diapering two children, I needed to look for other options.

In order to make cloth diapering a success for us, I have had to figure out the best way to maximize our budget while still getting diapers that work for both boys.

First, I had to make a decision about whether or not they were going to share diapers. While I know that some moms find this to be a disgusting idea, and I can completely understand where they are coming from, I was not one of those. I knew that I would be sanitizing them in between each child wearing them, so I was not concerned.

Second, I needed to decide which kind of diaper I was going to spend the most money on. I discovered that I prefer the pocket diapers the most. But I knew, with a bit of research, that having some covers with flats, inserts, and prefolds as another option, would stretch my budget even more, and also allow for some versatility.

Third, I had to decide whether I wanted to go with sized diapers, or one-size diapers. For me, this was a pretty simple decision. It didn’t make much sense to me to buy a bunch of multiple sized diapers. While I do have a few sized diapers in my stash, the majority can be adjusted to fit either boy. At first this was important because they were of very different sizes. Now that they are both bigger they can fit on the same rise, simply with an adjustment of the waist.

Fourth, I thought about how often I wanted to be washing diapers. I knew that I didn’t want to be washing them every single day. But I also knew that we couldn’t afford to buy enough diapers to go too long in between washes. So I had to come up with the perfect number for my kids. Each child is different in the amount of diaper changes are necessary in a day. I kept track of how many changes I was doing on a regular basis and then bought that number of diapers I would need in order to wash every other day. That was then my goal number of diapers to purchase.

Fifth, I looked for sales. This was really important in order to get the most out of our money. I tried out a few different diapers and then watched for the ones I liked the most to go on sale. I was fortunate because Kellys Closet had a marvelous sale on said diapers at the time that I wanted to buy a bunch. I also looked online for creative ways to cloth diaper on the cheap using unconventional items (ie. flour sack towels as flats in covers).

Sixth, have fun! I was excited to receive my “fluffy” mail. And I was proud that I was making an impact on the world, our budget, and most importantly, my little guys’ bums.

Dana G is the proud stay at home mother of 2 handsome baby boys and the wife of a marvelous man who serves our country in the Air Force. You can check out more of her tips and stories on adaynasmile.wordpress.com.