PadawanOfHappiness

 In my previous post on healthier swaps I covered: ✅ Instant Oatmeal (I am keeping this)  I am still toying with my ratios but I am fairly comfortable with this. 🚫 Annie's Mac & Cheese (I am going back to the blue box, but will limit how often I use it) 🔎 Hersey's Simple 5 Chocolate syrup for Hershey's chocolate syrup  -  I am not ready to go with this syrup I am going to try to make my own. There are a lot of recipes out there and they have similar ingredients/proportions so I am just going to pick one and go for it.  Many of the comments talk about how much thinner the homemade version is, the three popular solutions based on the comments are (1) add less water (2) boil longer and it must be a hard boil (3) add 1 tbs of corn starch. 🚫 Crazy Richard's Peanut butter  I was not a fan so 🔎 I am going to try another brand before I go back to Simply Jif Next up to try is Teddie's 🔎 Bisquick -  My kids still like Bisquick better, but I am still ...

I am not saying that Arizona is a hole in the ground but it has a few famous ones, so that is what I nicknamed this vacation.  The ones we saw were: Meteor Crater Sunset Crater Montezuma Well The Grand Canyon The one we almost saw was lava river cave tube, technically it is open year round, but in the spring and summer months you can use a forest service road to drive to it and then you have about a 3/4 mile hike.  If the road is closed it is a 4 1/2 mile hike, it was in our plan to see at the end of April, but the road was still closed.  As we drove past the closed road we did see some random small piles of snow in Flagstaff.  I think it would have been cool (pun intended) since the cave stays between 32-44 degrees year round.  Sunset Crater, Montezuma Castle, and the Grand Canyon are all part of the National Parks system and they accept the America the Beautiful Annual Pass .  If you are going to multiple National Parks look up the individual fees, it m...

These tips are not specific to any one trip, but I have found them very helpful for family car trips.  Some of these tips I no longer use but were very helpful when the little Padawans were younger so I included them. Packing lists, they are a must, the level of detail and how cute you want to make it is up to you.  At the moment I do put down the number of shirts, shorts, underwear etc.  Each person uses it to pack their own bag, when they were younger I would review their bags before we left.  I no longer need to check it they have the system down.  You can save these so you only have to make minor edits for each vacation. One edit I made for this trip that I plan to keep is listing what goes in their duffel bag (this is what they use as their carry on, or in the car what they keep with them) and what goes in the big suitcase. Pack in clear plastic tote bins.  It is easier to see what you have as well as they are more easily stacked so you can pack a lot ...

Instant Oatmeal Since I was last here I have managed to try making my own instant oatmeal.  One good thing is that Mr. Padawan and the little Padawans* are very happy eating the same thing over and over again.  This makes my life a bit easier since I don't have to make a variety of instant oatmeal flavors. I settled on maple and brown sugar.  I did play with a few different versions that I found on the internet and found that I prefer the old fashioned rolled oats because that is what I use to make my granola and I didn't want to have a variety of oats in the pantry.  This means that I do toss my oats into a mini food processor and some of it I do chopp relatively fine, some are cut down a bit and some are left as is.  I then dump it all in a big bowl add in brown sugar and cinnamon, mix and then dump it into a glass jar.  For Mr. Padawan I do a general 1/3 cup, for the little Padawans, who seems to eat BIG breakfasts they do a 1/2 cup. One note, I need to ...

As I have started to eliminate some of the processed foods, I have a varied approach.  Sometimes I try for less processed or processed but NonGMO foods, and sometimes I go for things made from scratch. Items that I now make from scratch (at least 90% of the time) Pasta sauce Pie crust Cookies Granola Items that I make from scratch occasionally Rolls Bread Pretzles Items that I swapped to NonGMO Baking Powder  Things I am trying to find alternatives for Instant Oatmeal Chicken nuggets Stove Top Stuffing Bisquick pancake and baking mix For the instant oatmeal I found a few recipes on line that I will try out.  I do actually have the time to make regular old fashioned oats in the morning, but the problem is one of texture, one of my kids doesn't like it and I can relate.  So rather than fight that I want to look for better healthier options.  The reason I picked this was a friend posted a comparison of the ingredient list for Quaker Oats Instant oatmeal in the US v...

With the whole scaredemic of the Covid years, it has awakened me in many ways.  I became more politically active than I had been previously, I became more aware of the pitfalls our society, and how unhealthy we are as a whole.  Not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually. It opened my eyes to how much other entities want to control individuals, they want to treat us as stupid children and have us just accept what they offer us, because they are only "looking out for our best interests." Well you know what, for the most part companies, governmental agencies, and government bodies are not looking out for the individual, they are looking out for themselves.  We have it so good right now, clean water, food, and most of us are not working in hard labor industries, we have gotten soft.  Mentally and physically. Right now I am looking at food companies and trying to figure out what is good for us vrs what is bad.  My favorite principle to live by is KISS, ...