COTM: Zucchini-Spice Cupcake

This month I went in a different direction with the cupcake of the month. I'm looking for something I can bake weekly for a quick breakfast for the boys. The boys are bottom-less pits, so this would be a quick snack they can eat in the car on the way to school, sort of thing.

And boy did I deliver. These are gone, I got Oh Mom, I got Oh Boy These Are Good. They love it with and without the frosting.

Gluten Free Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes
By Martha Stewart
Converted by Marcie Dingerson

1/2 cup Applesauce
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 Cup Pumpkin
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1/4 teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Cups Grated Zucchini

Mix and then add in:

3 Cups Bob's All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie seasoning

Optional 1 cup walnuts, I did not add this. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Cream-Cheese Frosting

1 container plain coconut yogurt
1/2 cup coconut oil melted
3 cups corn free confectioner's sugar sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix.

*Note if I had to do this again I would not add the oil. I wanted to add only 2 cups sugar, but had to add a third to get it thick.

Week 2 Update & Feeding The Ducks

We wanted out of the house this week, so we went down to Boast Park and fed the ducks. We normally stop at Safeway to pick up some bread first. Because we don't have bread in this house. We then walked around the lake, a nice hike to wear out the kids.

Week Two update. Well money wise things are not good. Too many bills this week, plus I will be using gas this week. So looking at our budget for the upcoming weeks we decided to only pay the van 50 this week, making up difference next week. Currently 4898.72

This upcoming week, I am putting on a Rummage Sale for the boy's school. Send up some prayers it goes smoothly. Hoping to sell out and make a lot of money....I'm excited through. Although after the rummage sale, the bulk of my canning hits.

Art Lesson

So Ethan comes to me with his art book and asked if he could do this. I'm beyond busy and I'm like sure whatever. Next thing I know we were knee deep in paint. The boys painted all afternoon, they thought they had free rain to my paints, and paper.

So with this, they took about 5 marbles, dipped them into paint, and rolled them around on paper. Easy Peasy. Kept them busy for hours. I have art all over this house.

Pretty Right? 

Weekly Update

First on our van challenge. We were able to put 150 towards the van, it was the vans turn in the budget to be paid anyway so this week was good. Next couple of weeks I'm praying we can do this. Currently at 4939.

Next, I got Whoopie pans....Exciting. Look for Whoopie Pies soon from me!

Next, someone explain to me how a cat can sleep like this? Seriously. She is right above my head when I sleep. It's not fun when she flips off in the middle of the night and lands on my head.

Next, Bunny is doing well, these are the new digs.

We are toying with releasing him/her soon. So we will see. Healing is going well.

Next, exciting news for this boy. He is soooooooooo excited. He will be going to preschool Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And he will be going to his brothers school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This child wanted to ditch preschool last year and only go to brothers school, he was a self-proclaimed kindergartner. So this makes for a nice compromise for everyone. We finally got everything settled this week.

Canned Potatoes

So yesterday I canned 50 pounds of potatoes, or 36 quarts, or 18 meals. Canning potatoes is one of the easiest things ever. You just peel the potato, dice, put into water, rinse off and put into a jar, top with water, a pinch of salt, and process in a pressure cannier at 40 minutes.

So sadly one of my twins broke yesterday, so I only had one working cannier. It seems the gauge on the second cannier decided to up and quit working. So on my list for Friday is to go and buy another gauge. Ace is well known for selling cannier parts.

These are my tiny square potatoes.

Challenging Ourselves

We have set ourselves on a one year challenge. It will be a really tough challenge. Tougher then anything we have been through. I think if we crack the whip we can do this challenge.

There will be weeks where we fail yes, there will be weeks we go without this or that to make this happen. But the outcome of this challenge will be well worth it.

Our goal, our challenge will be to pay off the van by August of 2012. One year.

I think as long as we don't have to deal with check fraud again, and can keep a tight lip on everything. We can do this. I hate having debt. I want to be totally debt free. I hated having to get a loan for the van. Hated. I so hate having to make a monthly payment. So if we can tighten things even more around here soon our van payment will be gone.

Updating

So the dust is starting to settle around here. We received our money back rather quickly. But our Mortgage and Insurance bounced. Not pretty around here. As Thursday was spent calling our Mortgage company, and our bank and back again. We ended up going to our bank, removing the money and going over to our Mortgage bank and paying in person. Then coming home for another round of calls.

Well at the our bank, we finished closing the old account, nothing more was to come out of the old account. Lordy I had a list a mile long to take care of. And she took care of it.

We get home to find our insurance has cleared out of the old account. This is the point I want to bang my head against a wall. Luckily I was going to deal with insurance on Friday so the money was there for them. But me not happy with the bank over this.

But happy to report our Mortgage is good.

The dust is slowly settling and we are tightening our belts and making plans for the future. We are hoping to never write another check. We are hoping to be creative, on how we pay things we need to pay. We are hoping to pick up where we left off next week. Hoping?

Emma 1 years old. She's the spoiled rotten baby.

It All Started Thursday Night

Boy it's been a couple of crazy days. It all started Thursday night, as I looked at our bank account to see if our paycheck had dropped and what I found sent me into shock, nearly throwing up and shaking. We were victims of check fraud. A nearly two thousand dollar check cleared our bank, now anyone that knows us knows we don't have that kind of money. So it took our mortgage money, insurance, and money we were going to use for food shopping. And we owed the bank well over one thousand dollars. Not to mention all the fees we got hit with. Which those will be returned.

Hubby was at the bank at 7am to clear this up. We will see our money back, but not in time to clear our mortgage, we had to borrow money to feed our kids, And our paycheck in currently caught in limbo. Basically we are up a creek with holes in the boat and no paddles. We have to change accounts. We spent hours, calling companies and changing this or that.

To let you know the check looks nothing likes ours, makes me wonder if they somehow got our info off line? There were so many mistakes with the check, it dumbfounds me how it cleared? It just kills me on how we work so flipping hard and it sometimes takes everything we have, and someone can come and take it all away.

Poor hubby was between the bank and police department most of the day on Friday. Before he came home for about an hour and left for work. We will recover and move on. But right now the wind has been knocked out of us, and everything is up in the air.

Saturday was spent food shopping. As having three kids at home, seems to wipe us totally out of food. In the evening I had somehow lost total control of the house, kids, everything. So I just focused on the watering and getting my things done and let the kids be total monkeys.

When the neighbors cat came home with dinner. I happen to be close by and the neighbor caught the cat and I took dinner from her, a baby bunny. Poor bunny had taken a beating. I didn't even blink I took the bunny home, and googled on how to take care of it. I sent hubby out to look for a nest. He couldn't find anything. I spent him back after dark with a flashlight and still nothing. It's hard to know about where she got the bunny. So we don't really know where to look.

So it seems we have a bunny. She has perked up, she's eating good, she's about 20 plus days old as far as I can tell. The kids are adoring the new bunny. Here is a photo of the first night we had the bunny. Kirby and the bunny all curled up sleeping on my legs well I was on the computer.

So today I needed to get out of the house. Normally I'm happy to be stuck at home, knowing we are not using gas and saving money. But today I had to get out. I had came across a sewing class I wanted Ethan to take, it costs 350 and it's a week long class and you get a new sewing machine. Well needless to say we don't have 350. Right now we are at negative nothing. So I started thinking maybe next year? Well that won't work, that is about the time we do our family camping trip. So I thought maybe I could find an used sewing machine at goodwill and get it fixed up and teach Ethan to sew?

We found a newer plastic sewing machine that was in pieces. Ethan begged and I said no. We than came across this one. It's metal, it's all in good condition. It runs really well. And at 12 bucks it was a steal. Now I will get it serviced and cleaned out and teach my child how to sew? Lord Help Me.

But as we kept looking around we came across a sewing table. I thought that would be cool to keep his machine on. Well until we realized there was a sewing machine in the table. It's in good shape as well. We will need a new cord. So this one will be a project we will work on later. Hopefully I can get this one fixed up for Tucker. And a steal at 15 dollars.

And then tonight. Here is the cat and the bunny all curled up on the couch. This was after the cat licked the bunny clean. They may become good friends after all?

I for one is hoping for a very calm week ahead. Hoping to clear things up at the bank, so we are able to move forward in our lives. 

Playing With The Boys

Out playing with the boys today.