Kaake Family Blog

There's a nasty cold going around with a cough that likes to linger. I didn't have any natural chest rub on hand so I thought I'd make some. Thank the Lord, I had everything but the eucalyptus essential oil on hand. I saw several recipes online that looked neat. I also wanted to make sure that whatever I made would be helpful for the kids and baby as well. I ended up meshing a couple recipes together (story of my life) and here's what I came up with. The original recipe called for 30 drops eucalyptus eo but none of the other essential oils. Below is the recipe I used. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon beeswax 5 tablespoons coconut oil 20 drops eucalyptus essential oil 6 drops lavender essential oil 3 drops tea tree oil Directions: 1. Using a double boiler (or I used a glass bowl in a boiling pot of water), melt the coconut oil and beeswax. Stir well. 2. After melted well till there are no more little pieces of beeswax, let the mixture sit a bit till it star...

Picture by Taste of Home. My cake looks very similar other than mine is a bit fluffier :) I LOVE chocolate oat cakes. The main reason (even before I was a health nut) is because they were not sickly sweet. I had a recipe here at home that I wanted to convert using all natural sweeteners. It still takes unbleached flour instead of whole wheat but other than that, it's a lot more healthy than most cakes. Keep in mind, this is not meant to be really sweet. It does however satisfy my sweet tooth. This was my first time converting a cake recipe over to partial honey as an ingredient. I'm very excited with the texture and flavor. Yeah! A huge thanks to my sil, Beka for always encouraging me to keep trying :) Ingredients: 1 cup old fashioned oats 1 1/2 cups boiling water 2/3 cup rapadura, sucunat or demera (I used rapadure aka whole cane sugar) 1/2 cup softened butter 2 large eggs 3/4 cup honey 1 3/4 cups unbleached flour 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 heaping ta...

I got a very cute little book from the library yesterday. Today, Jon and I snuggled on our oversized chair after we had done school for a relaxed book reading. The book starts out with a little girl who is going to see her Grandpa. She wanted to take him a gift, so off she goes with "a beautiful bunch of bananas". Along the way she meets all kinds of obstacles. The first sweeps the bananas right out of her arms and into the water. She has 4 other mishaps on the short trip to her Grandpa's house that cause her to lose her gift for her Grandpa. During this whole time, she never complains, sits down and cries or gives up. She continues on her journey regardless of the obstacles knowing that she is soon going to reach her destination; her Grandfather's house. While reading through this book it reminded me of the Christian life. Obstacles will always come; and generally when we least expect them. They will sometimes throw us for a whirl, while stretching our fa...

Does that make sense? The thought I'm trying to convey here is making up food ahead of time for those times when you need something quick to grab. When I got my car, I was running a lot more than usual and eating out a lot more. So not worth my budget or my health. Here are a couple things I have made in the past few days to get ahead of the game. Both are SO yummy! (picture borrowed) Baked Oatmeal - I got this recipe from my friend Jennifer. You bake it, eat a single portion and refrigerate the rest. I like it leftover cold or warm. It's especially good warm with vanilla yogurt on the top. Oh and this oatmeal is not your usual baked oatmeal. It's more like a very moist cake. Very flavorful unlike most of them. This can be eaten by itself and enjoyed immensely. Ingredients: 6 cups oats 4 t baking powder 1-2 t cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups buttermilk, rice milk, soy milk, etc.. 4 eggs 3/4 cup oil 1 cup honey 1 t. vanilla 3 cups fresh fruit or fr...