Juicing Tip - Apples

The Apple is pretty much an amazing fruit to juice. And pretty easy to prep. Wash well and then cut into 4 pieces like you normally would. Quickly take out the seeds with the tip of your knife, toss into the juicer, and Bam... done.

Fruit Icee

I made a fruit Icee the other day and I really liked how it turned out. I used my amazing Single Cup $14.00 Blender from Wal-Mart. I would seriously recommend it to all of you! Handy little blender it is!

a few strawberries

a few blueberries

a small chunk of lemon

a tiny bit of water

a couple ice-cubes

and little bit of your fav. sweetener

And of course... just like any recipe... add whatever looks good! Peaches, rasberries, blackberries, orange, etc.

The possibilties........ endless!

Easy.

Good.

Tasty.

Somewhat Healthy.

Better for you than a bag of chips and a sweet tea.

Juicing Tip - Lemons

I love juicing lemon! It's such a good flavor. Love it love it love it.

Now you can actually juice the lemon with the peel still on it... but it will be bitter. Ugh. And I don't like bitter so I take off my peel.

But instead of trying to peel the whole lemon...

...I just cut the end off, then cut the outside off. It's so fast and really easy! 

(For 1 serving of juice I use about 1/3 of a lemon)

And don't worry about the pith. (The white part of the lemon.) Juice it Baby! It's good for you!!!

Soda Tab Lamp Shade

Mom thinks it's Hippy, Dad just smiled, and I don't know what I think of it...

But it's in my room and I guess I think it's sorta cool.

It's not the sturdiest thing in the world... but it's definitely an interesting conversation piece!

Want one?

Here's some directions!

You'll need 400-600 soda tabs depending on what size lamp shade you want to make.

First off, you'll want to take out that small little half circle in the middle of the soda tab. It's shaped like a half moon. It comes out by bending it back and forth several times.

 Then you'll need a lamp shade loop. We had an old lamp shade hanging around the house so I cut the top of it off with some heavy duty metal cutters.

 Be sure to throw this sharp pokey piece away safely.

 Next you want to bend your soda tabs like this.

The easiest way to do this is with pliers. Pinch the top of the tab with the pliers, then bend the bottom of the tab downward with your thumb.

Now this part will vary from lampshade to lampshade. In my case, the top ring of the lamp shade hoop was pretty large, so I had to take metal loops and attach them to the soda tab, then to the lampshade. Here's another way to attach them.

Put on as many as will comfortably fit. Too many will not be good. Your shade will be wrinkly.

Next... clip the tabs with a metal/wire cutter. Do it right in the center as shown in the picture below.

Your tabs should end up looking just like these.

 And this part is tricky to explain so here's a link to Sean's Blog. Look at the 6th picture down.

 And keep on going row after row until it's as long as your little heart desires!

 I ended up spray painting mine white.

 Hope someone out there can find this useful! Leave me a comment if you end up trying it!

Yam Fries

Okay yea... sounds weird... but if you do this right, they taste VERY good. Seriously. And I don't like yams or sweet potatoes. 

The other day I was craving something "filling", so I looked on Joe's Blog and found this amazing recipe. Mom had just bought some yams, so booyah!

First set your oven to the Broil Setting. If yours has two settings, use the hottest.

Next, cut the yams into 1/8" to a 1/4" slices. And there's not a certain amount to use. Just cut up however many you think you'll eat.

 Put about a teaspoon of olive oil into a baking pan, and spread evenly. Put the yams into the pan, sprinkle with your favorite seasonings, then flip over. Sprinkle with seasonings again. 

My absolute favorite seasonings!

 Once the oven is done preheating, place pan in oven. Set timer for 7 minutes, and then flip yams. Set for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how soft/crispy you like yours. I prefer mine soft. 

Once they're done you can dip in ketchup like a fry, or eat as is!