I purchased a pound of green stevia powder and have been researching how to use it. It is not like the liquid stevia most recipes are designed for. I have only used it in smoothies, so far, but it was good! One teaspoon sweetened the entire 8 cups of smoothie! I will still use honey sometimes, though, to get our raw local honey in us!
According to various sites:
2 Tbsp. Stevia Powder = 1 cup sugar
OR 3-4 tsp. = 1 cup sugar...it depends on the brand you buy.
The recipe to make stevia concentrate is 1 teaspoon of stevia leaf powder mixed with 3 tablespoons of water. That gives you one ounce of stevia liquid concentrate.
Where a recipe calls for sugar, simply substitute one tenth the amount of Stevia powder and leave out the sugar, which usually works well.
For those who experience cravings for sweet things, simply mix half a teaspoon of powder with a large glass of water, refrigerate, and drink as required!
Some Links:
http://stevia.homestead.com/recipes.html
http://canceranswersthatheal.com/stevia.htm
I like this meme...so I'm going to do it and tag a few other folks to do it, too! What I was doing 10 yrs ago:May of 1998...EmBlem was 2.3 yo, GirlofGod was just 10 months old. I was newly pregnant with Trixie, not even having any symptoms. I wouldn't discover her presence for another three months. She was a sneaky little thing :)
My Honey and I had just become foster parents, and were adjusting to having twin four year old boys, who were born and raised in a garbage dump. They lived in a school bus there. They were birthmoms 12th and 13th children, and my first exposure to RAD. It was a hard month! Five things on my to do list for today:Grocery shopping, a stop at the bank, finish up school for the week, have the children clean the chinchilla habitats, continue The Great Clothes Swap.
Things I would do if I were a billionaire:Build a building for my little church, adopt a few children from Liberia, or Haiti, or wherever the Lord directed, move to the mountains and surround myself with forest. Three of my bad habits:letting the yard get way too long before tending it, starting projects and not finishing them, not getting my kitties fixed (that one is for you, Grandmaofmany!) Five places I have lived:a beautiful island in Washington State; a lovely, but rainy town very near both the ocean and the forest in Oregon; suburban Sacramento, and currently, a rapidly growing, small town feeling, hotter-than-hot half the year town near enough to the forest to keep me from going too crazy in the summer. Five jobs I have had: (from most current back...) sign language interpreter, classroom aide for mentally and physically disabled people of all ages, waitress, dishwasher, babysitter.
Then shake your head and wonder
1. when the Lord is coming. (soon)
2. what the world is coming to. (ultra-extreme PC-ness)
3. how can this happen in America? (liberal policies)
4. what will be done about it? (not a thing, most likely...might make the nice Muslims angry)
I was blessed to be able to watch my friends children. Each of her children has a best friend among my children. A day spent together is a good thing. My girls had a baby to carry around and play with all day, and friends to imagine with.
And we all finished school, as well! What could be better than that?
Here's an amazing "fact" on the side of a Coca Cola box that I saw:
"It's true. All beverages hydrate, including soft drinks. So if you are looking for hydration, but want the delicious and refreshing taste you get from Coca-Cola, don't compromise - go for it! You'll be hydrating your body with each and every sip.
We offer over 80 ways to hydrate, energize, nourish relax or enjoy every drop of life."
I have begun making our very own kombucha! Kombucha is a cultured drink that begins its life as sweetened black tea. A kombucha culture ( AKA mother, SCOBY, mushroom) is added and it's allowed to sit at room tempature for 4 to 10 days, depending on how you like it made. The mother consumes the tea and sugar, changing the liquid into kombucha.
I have found that 10 day is a little too vinegar-y for us, but five day is perfect. I have two big kombucha fans among our Lambies. Several others think it not too bad. Even the child that turned up her nose and had to be threatened into taking a couple of teaspoons of it as a supplement will now drink a couple of ounces happily.
I have been drinking four or five oz. daily, slowly building up. I haven't noticed a great deal of difference in how I feel, but have only been using it for a week. I am making about a gallon every five days, but it's not lasting between us all, so I am upping my production.
I have even had a mother to share already!
Here are some comments about kombucha from the Lambies:
EmBlem: "It smells kind of like beer, but tastes like ...well, it's ok. I give it a 5 out of 10."
GirlofGod: "I could drink drink a full cup a day."
Spidey: "It doesn't smell like beer! It tastes very, very yummy and good! I'd drink a gallon a day, it's so good!"
Trixie: "Smells like beer but tastes like apple cider. It's an A+!" (She's the one who almost died when I first made her take some. She dramatically clutched her throat and rolled her eyes and literally cried while she held it in her mouth, refusing to drink it...The next day she took it happily).
Polly: "It is not that good at first, but better later, it tastes like apple cider. It was the goodest it could ever get the last drink I took. I want Momma to make more."
Jack: "It's good and it's yummy, delicious and yummy and I like it."
Missy: " Kombucha like" with a big smile (translates into "I like Kombucha").
Troubles: "I like kombucha...1, 2, 3, 4, 5," (when asked how much kombucha he wants.
My son is nearly three. One day, as we were getting out of the van to go to the bookstore, he announced, "I'm the Boogeyman!" I asked him what he meant.
"I had a big boogey in my nose." he replied.
"Where did it go?" I asked after checking his nose and finding it clean.
"I put it on Brother's yellow shirt....very gently." he said with a smile.
I have so been enjoying her blog! It is one of my daily stops. We have been devouring wonderful farm-fresh, fertile eggs lately, and I am looking forward to her series on eggs. It begins Monday! She's just finished writing a great article on adjusting your taste buds to a nourishing diet. Great stuff!
Do you enjoy moving the furniture around to get a fresh, new feel to your room? I do. Yesterday the Lambies and I moved things around in the living room. When he came home, my Honey helped, too.
We discovered that there is but one way our furniture will fit in our room.
Please be praying for Jodi, the youngest member of Team Bettendorf. She is is the Pediatric ICU right now. Read at her mom's blog for updates. This poor family battled a rare form of cancer with their three year old daughter last year.
I received a Kombucha culture in the mail from my friend CheeseSlave yesterday. I brewed the tea this morning, and just finished putting in my SCOBY (Simbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) and tucking it all happily into the pantry for four or five days. I'll let you know how my first attempt turns out!
My neighbor called at about 8:45 this evening with an offer I couldn't refuse. She had some leftover dry ice and was willing to give it to us. I have never shown the Lambies any, so I happily accepted. That led to an unexpected experiment at bedtime. My eldest thought to grab and pour some of the fog (the pouring shot was blurry, though).
We will learn about dry ice tomorrow during school time. I needed to get them to bed, since I am planning on painting tomorrow and need to get taping! I got much less done today than I had hoped!
I haven't posted many pictures of the Lambies lately...I'll remedy that this week, Grandmaofmany. I'll begin by recounting my encounter with a Spartan. This evening, I was doing laundry, and not paying attention to the battlecries coming from the hall. Until, that is, a Spartan came running into the room, yelling "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" at the top of his lungs, jumped into the air, and came down in a crouch, stabbing the floor mightily with his sword. I made the Spartan pose for a few shots before releasing him again.
I'm the blessed wife of My Honey of 12+ years, and Momma to eight wonderful Lambies aged 12 and under. We live in Central CA, and use Ambleside Online for our curriculum. I'd love to meet you , so browse a while and feel free to leave a comment!
My eldest thought to grab and pour some of the fog (the pouring shot was blurry, though).
