Easy florentine tomato soup

Take  1 jar marinara sauce you would eat and pour into your pot add entire container of same size of milk and 1 of water.add 5 oz of spinach fresh or frozen. Cool until thickened. Add parmesan or asiago as garnish.

roasted beets, mint and goat cheese

Wash and prick holes in 3 medium beets.Wrap in foil. Put in oven while cooking other things at 350- 375. Cook until tender 30-45 minutes. Allow to cool and remove from foil.warning,do not slice until cool unless you like resembling an axe murderer. 1/4 the slices and toss with 1/2 package goat cheese or 3 oz feta (the honey goatcheese thats 2$at aldi also works well here. Dress with olive oil,salt and pepper and if desired balsamic vinegar. Add chopped mint leaves,dry will work in a pinch. Eat on its own or as a salad topping.

Salad mushrooms

Wash and slice one container button mushrooms. Add three tb lemon juice, bottled is fine. Add salt and pepper  to taste, 2 tb olive oil.put all ingredients in a jar with one green onion sliced. Shake and wait at least 20 minutes.Refrigerate up to one week. Use as dressing layer in salad jars or on mashed potatoes or along side noodles or salad greens.

detangler spray (for hair)

This can be used instead of conditioner for average hair or in addition to for dry hair and can be rubbed on dry winter skin to moisturise lightly.

You will need a clean spray bottle (Unless you implicitly trust the manufacturers of what ever was last was in it AND washed it out really well..I'd pony up the buck for a spray bottle)
Pour this in there
1  cup rose water (bc it has the glycerin, smells pretty and is shelf stable)
1- 2 tb skin appropriate oil (from lightest to heaviest... argan, apricot,almond, olive, avocado)
10-15 drops of essential oil for scent...you can totally skip this
shake before each use.

spray on skin or hair that needs moisture.

freezer primping..how to get the most from a cold place

rule 1.
label stuff- After they freeze most soups look alike . Greens and herbs are even more impossible.  Also knowing when it's dead will help avoid tragic mishaps.

rule 2- Wash produce and leaves before freezing.In an ideal world you might slice up the stuff or blender your herbs and throw them in ice cube trays and then in freezer jars but you are very likely tired and need to make dinner. If you rinse off the herbs and shake most of the water off before shoving them back into the produce bag they gave you at the the store you can use scissors to remove the parts you need later. Whenever you find red or yellow peppers cheap they should go in here or be added to pasta sauce. If you are concerned about herbs going off before you finish a bunch put them in cold storage

rule 3
keep a scrap bag/bin
bits of onion, cabbage leaf, asparagus stumps, half a tomato, and a half eaten corn cob make good soup if you know where they are and how to use them. Keep your cheese ends and bones/shells in different bins from your veg. if you save eggshells for making coffee or for boosting your garden store them in yet another bag. Only freeze leftovers if you can think of ways to use them later...otherwise this is freezer hoarding

rule 4 you'd be surprised what goes in here. Butter is protected from overuse and onion smell, large amounts of oat flour as it goes rancid awful quick after grinding, flax, sesame seeds, bread and beans can be stored in the freezer if you are willing to deal with texture changes and any jars of lemon curd you plan on eating more than a month out from making it (the fat protects the eggs in it from going weird), homemade cookie dough or pastry crust also fits in well. Dried mushrooms and seaweed also stay fresher longer in the freezer.

rule5
Figure out a system that works for you. I tend to put often used pre prepped ingredients in the door with butter and a jar of ground flax and bread to the upper right. Your diet and therefore your plan should look different. Whatever your plan try to clean it out at least once a season to prevent realizing you have 5 year old flax in there. 

gf green tea cake and green tea or strawberry buttercream frosting

Green tea cake 

altered from http://www.thevintagemixer.com/2013/07/matcha-green-tea-pound-cake-recipe/

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a loaf pan or line with parchment paper.

mix together

1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup vanilla almond milk (you may use regular milk)
1 cup sorghum flour(or whole wheat pastry for those who are not gf)
1 tablespoon matcha green tea powder or 2tb ground green tea
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tb vanilla
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown on the outside and a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting (if desired) green tea or strawberry buttercream
1 stick ozs room temperature butter (fully soft) or same amount quality margarine
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1ttb milk

1 tbsp matcha or ground green tea (or 3 tb strawberry preserves or  2 tb pureed strawberries or raspberries in which case omit milk)

cream together sugar and butter until fluffy and uniform.

mix in fruit or matcha

blend until uniform.

pour into piping bags/ a bowl/zippie bags and chill 1/ hr

frost your cooled cake.

adorn with some mint or thin fresh fruit slices

If you need to avoid gluten be especially careful on checking baking powder, sorghum flour and powdered sugar as many brands are co-processed with wheat flours

oat flour

In my area oat flour is 3.50-5 dollars for a 22 oz bag, hence my previous tendency to avoid making ground oat dishes despite really liking them and of course the stellar nutrition of oats. A 32 oz container if rolled oats is 1.30$. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before that I could make that a 32 oz container of oat flour for shortbread, cookies and quickbreads by using our old spice/ coffee grinder for 5 minutes. If you are celiac please make sure your oats are gf as cross contamination in fields or on rollers is dangerous for you. Since there are currently no gmo oats on the market  this means I can indeed go grab the cheapest rolled oats and still not expose my household to that crap. We've barely used the spice grinder since Rabbit got a burr grinder for coffee 2 years ago...except when I mix up packets of spice mixes like curry powder or enchilada seasoning.

To make oat flour :

1. Wash the grinder cup and cover really well. Spice smells will stick to oats like crazy. Allow to dry well as introducing grains to dampness encourages mildew and mold.

2. Attach the basin and fill 3/4 full.

3. Press to grind until you reach the desired texture, in my case about 30 seconds.

4. repeat until you have enough for the next week or two's use or for the recipe

5. if storing make sure the jar or tin is clean, airtight and dry