My Sister's Toe

These are some pictures of my sister's toe after yesterday's dance practice (the darkness on her nail is nail polish), OUCH!!! My foot looked this bad after SURGERY not after my soccer game. Her toe looks like this after DANCE!!! My mom says that she just sprained it because usually when any of her (my mom's) kids break a bone you can't tell, other than the pain. There is no swelling, bruising or anything else if we break something. My sister went to one doctor this morning that said she fractured her big toe, but he sent it to a doctor at a different hospital and he said there was no fracture. What are these doctor's looking at? Well they said she had to come back in a week and then they would REALLY know...ya, right.

Ginger's Cafe

Last Friday was a half day for Merit Academy, my sister and I couldn't decide what to do with ourselves. On our way home we stopped at the library then decided to stop at Ginger's Cafe, located on Main Street in Springville, they have delicious shakes that don't contain any milk which makes them edible. We grabbed two of their vegan cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip and brownie chocolate chip and saved them for later. I definitely recommend Ginger's Cafe for lunch. We went there over Spring Break and I ordered one of their salads, the vegan ranch was great considering it was vegan. We had hummus for an appetizer and little cuts of bread came with it, very delectable.

The healthiest muffins you will ever find!

Recipe

1 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 cups oats
Or 1 cup white flour
And 1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 cups grated carrots
1 Apple peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup raisins
2 Tbs. Chopped walnuts (optional)
2 Tbs. Toasted wheat germ (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a medium bowl combine eggs, egg whites, applesauce, oil, and vanilla.

In a large bowl combine flours/oats, honey, baking powder, baking
soda, and salt. Stir in carrots, apples, and raisins.

Add wet mixture until moistened.

Spoon into muffin cups about 3/4 full, if using no muffin cups spray
muffin pan with cooking spray before filling.

Combine nuts and wheat germ then sprinkle over top. Cook for 15-20
minutes.

Cherry On Top

• 
  
  If you are serving to a large amount of people, make mini muffins. I will look like a lot more muffins.


• 
  
  This batch is doubled, making about two batches of normal sized muffins and four batches of mini muffins.


• 
  
  I bought raw wheat germ and cooked it in a sauce pan until I had it as toasted a I wanted it to be, which supposedly is healthier.

The Weekend!

Last Friday was no school, which was freaking sweet! My sister and I went and saw The Bounty Hunter, which was pretty funny. Then my family spent the rest of the night hanging out together. On Saturday there were two pretty big events going on: Merit Madness and Miss
Springville! I went to both of the events and I was a little disappointed about the basket auction. I know I shouldn't compare it to the Reagan Academy basket auctions, but our basket auction stunk compared to their previous basket auction. Then the ladies in charge ended it early, which made my family unhappy because we came back after the Miss Springville thing so we could do some more auctioning. Well, there loss. On Sunday I made some more muffins and after church
we planted a bunch of bulbs in our flower boxes in the front yard. My boot got really dirty so I quit early. Then we celebrated planting the bulbs with some strawberry shortcake, which is not on the diet, but that is why we love protein and a good work out!

MERIT MARCH MADNESS

Recipe

• Saturday March, 20th
• 6pm-11 pm
• Merit Academy
• Dinner from 6-8pm $5.00
• Dancing the rest of the night $Price varies
• Basket Auction

My mentoring class is making a basket for this fun Merit March Madness Night and we have decided to do baked goods. But not just any kind of baked goods, they have to qualify under at least one of these circumstances:

1. Free of something (e.g. sugar, milk, chocolate, etc.)
2. Healthier than most baked goods
3. Organic ingredients

I volunteered to bring a basket and some of the chocolate chip cookie brownies that I talked about last week. But, my art teacher was talking about these muffins she makes that are made up of vegetables and don't have milk products in them and I decided that I will make those instead. This way I get to add another recipe to my collection and have a new healthy snack to cook for my family!
That isn't even the greatest thing about the Merit March Madness Night. The greatest thing is that my family (aka: my mom) has decided to make a basket for that night also!!!!!!! Our basket is going to be a movie themed basket and we already have 24 bags of popcorn and 8 movies to put in the basket, one of them being 2010!!!! We loaded the basket with movie candy like Milk Duds and Mini Charleston Chews, which are delicious to freeze before eating!!!!

Cherry On Top

• If you really want to go, because you know you do, to this event I think Merit is selling tickets online at meritacademy.org.
• My school wanted everyone to have tickets sold by March 1st, oops!, so if you want to go, quickly go to their web site and check it out. If you know my number just call me and I can get you some tickets!
• You can make your own basket and turn it into Merit by March 17th if you want to do a fun family activity!

Dairy Free and a Whole Bunch of Other Stuff Free

Recipe

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of organic dairy free butter

1/2 cup of organic dairy free shortening

1 cup packaged brown sugar

1/2 granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 12-ounce package (2 cups) dairy and nut free chocolate chips

Oven 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stir together flour, soda, and salt. In a mixer bowl beat butter and shortening on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugars an beat until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating till well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Use 9 x 13 brownie pan to cook for 18-23 minutes. Then let cool completely before cutting into and serving.

Cherry On Top

• The dairy free items listed can be found at the Good Earth in Provo and probably any other organic store.
• These are great because they are dairy free.

Chocolate Chip Brownies

My sister is allergic to a ton of stuff and our school was selling a bunch of sweets and desserts on Friday. She couldn't have any of the food so she decided to make Chocolate Chip Brownies that she isn't allergic to. I enjoyed them and so did everyone else in my family but my daddy. I am going to have her get me the recipe and anyone who is allergic to milk can use this recipe.