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Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

A little bit of everything. Life, animals, family, crafts, recipes.

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Recipes

Yummy Lemon Squares Recipe

June 16, 2014 by Jess 1 Comment

Here’s an oldie but a goodie! Here is my favorite Lemon Squares recipe – I’ve been making this one for about 8 years or so. Always a favorite! Enjoy πŸ™‚

 

lemon squares recipe

Yummy Lemon Squares

lemonsquares

 

Crust:

1.5 cups flour

3/4 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)

3/4 cup butter

Lemon Filling:

6 large eggs

3 cups sugar

1 1/3 cup lemon juice

grated zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift the flour and powdered sugar for the crust and then add the butter. Mix it by hand – it should be a crumbly texture. Press it into the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake the crust for about 20-30 minutes – it will smell SO GOOD – like shortbread!

Filling: Whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add the zest and lemon juice. (I also squeezed the lemon into it after I used the zest). Sift the flour over the mixture and stir it until its mixed in. Pour over the baked crust and pop it back into the oven for another 35 minutes. Let it cool completely before cutting, then store the bars in the fridge. Enjoy!!

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Filed Under: Recipes

Right Now

March 31, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

It is the last day of March today and our first “nice” day of the year so far here in Chicago. Today is the warmest day of the year at nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 60 degrees??? Heatwave for us! It’s a little windy outside but I am so tempted to pull out all my summer clothes so I can wear shorts and a t shirt outside right now. Enough of being cooped up indoors, this has been the longest winter ever.

But since the snow all finally melted just last week (and there are still some piles of it around), our backyard is a glorious big mud pit. (well some of it is anyway). Which makes it oh so fun to clean off 16 little feet when they continuously come in from outside all day long (3 dogs and a pig).

We did get outside for a bit yesterday which was really really nice! I took Ava, Angus and Zoey for a long walk to a nearby Forest Preserve and we had a little picnic there. (Moose and Steve were doing shows for most of the day). Poor Angus is getting older now so he was pretty worn out on our way back to the car. I plopped him into the stroller with Ava for the last bit and both of them were quite content! Ava was actually really excited to have her buddy sit with her.

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Speaking of Ava, she is 20 months old now and talking up a storm! She knows all the dogs by name now and can say their names perfectly. She also says “norman” now and not “Normo” or “NumNum” anymore which I kind of miss cause it was so darn cute. She also knows our cavy “Waldo”. Yesterday when Steve got back, we were all playing in the backyard together (yes Waldo and Norman too!) and Ava learned how to climb up and go down her little slide all by herself. It seems like such a small thing, but it is so big. Our baby is not such a baby anymore and we are sure realizing that everyday! Just like when Norman was trying to play with her and knocked her down accidentally. Ava sat there stunned for a second then looked up at us and said “what happened?” as clear as day. Wow.

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Norman was trying to play with the chickens at one point. I promise that no chickens were harmed! πŸ™‚ Great action shot of our chicken Nuna though!

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What Happened?

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Watching these two together makes my heart want to burst with love πŸ™‚

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Such a Daddy’s girl πŸ™‚

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Other things that are going on:

There is a fun article about me over on the Little Lake County Blog that I write for.

I recently got to review Yummi Pouches and did a review for them here

I also created 3 new yummy recipes – primarily so I can use them in pouches for Ava and they are all hidden veggies recipes!

And later today I am going to attempt to take some Easter pictures of Ava in the backyard. We’ll see how that goes!

Happy Monday everyone!

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Filed Under: Daily Life, Kids/ Babies, Photography, Recipes

Go Organic! How to Eat Organically on a Budget

March 31, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

Go Organic! How to Eat Organically on a Budget

With all the information out there now, it’s no surprise that Organic and non GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) food are better for us, but what is really stopping so many people from eating the better foods? Usually it tends to be price. For example, if you see some organic apples with a price tag of $2.99 a pound and they are sitting next to some identical (but non organic) apples for $1.99 a pound, which are you likely to go for? Hopefully after reading up on the benefits of eating organic and reading the dangers of non organic foods, will change your mind and make you reach for that organic apple every time.

For fruits and veggies I try to follow the “Dirty Dozen”  which means that I stay away from all the most contaminated produce and only buy those when I can find organic ones. There are so many more options popping up in a variety of stores by the day now, it really is making it much easier to eat healthy.

Here are some other tips that I have found make it much easier to eat organically and on a budget! It can be done!

– Only buy what you need for the week or less, depending on how often you can get to the store. I have learned not to over buy now as I hate wasting food. We now buy just what we know we will be able to eat before the food goes bad. (but with a pig in the house, we rarely have any food to waste anyway!)

– Take a walk through the bakery area and see what catches your eye. Some delicious lemon bars recently caught mine in Whole Foods but at $4 a slice, no thanks. Instead I bought organic flour, organic lemons, organic blue agave syrup, etc and made an entire batch of them for less than the cost of one slice! And homemade are always yummier too πŸ™‚ I love baking and I love knowing exactly what is going into all my baked goods.

– If you shop at Whole Foods, pick up their free publications when you walk into the store. “The Whole Deal” is full of great recipes and valuable coupons to use. I also found a “Better Yummies for Little Tummies” pamphlet there that has lots of great tips and menu ideas for kids.

– Most major grocery store chains are now featuring a healthy eating aisle and many have their own lines of organic items. Jewel Osco/Alberson’s has the Organic Harvest line, Dominicks/Vons/ Safeway has O Organics, Meijer has their own Meijer Organics, Whole Foods has the Organic 365 line and Target has some organic items in their Simply Balanced line. I have found the pricing on these organic lines are very reasonable and in my opinion, fully worth buying.

– Whole Foods has a bulk discount – any items can be bought in a “case” which will get you an automatic 10% off. To find out how many are in a case, look at the barcode on the shelf sticker. There should be a /6 or /12, etc at the end. Just ask any of the associates if you have trouble finding the case amount. They also stack discounts, so if Veggie Puffs (regularly $2.99) are on sale for $1 each and you buy 12 (a case amount) then you end up getting the Veggie Puffs for 0.90 each!! I know this as I have recently gotten this amazing sale. And Veggie Puffs are delicious by the way!

– Trader Joes, Walmart and Target also have some organic items and I’ve been noticing that they are getting more and more  in.

– Costco is GREAT for shopping for organics. They also are getting more organic stuff each time I visit – it’s fabulous! Some of my favorite ORGANIC things to get there are : frozen broccoli, frozen raspberries, carrots, spinach, bananas, agave syrup, ground flax meal, yogurt, cheese strings, cheese slices, eggs, crackers, fruit pouches (toddlers), quinoa, guacamole and hummus. They have changed things recently as they have so much more organic stuff than they used to, and now they have a green sign for all organic items whereas the regular stuff has a white sign. It makes it super easy to spot the organics if that’s what you are looking for (which I am when I am there!).

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for example, here is a picture of one of the shelves at Costco showing both a green “organic” label and a regular white label.

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all those aisle displays were organic! I was in heaven!

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– Both Costco and Trader Joes has the best price I’ve seen for organic chicken. It’s all I will buy now, organic meat or nothing. Not only is it healthier but I make sure it comes from a company that practices humane treatment of their animals. That is HUGE.

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Here is the chicken from Trader Joes, I had already opened it and taken the legs out before remembering to grab a photo!

– Most stores now sell organic eggs and they are not much more than the others. Please buy organic/cage free eggs. The treatment of chickens in non cage-free settings is atrocious. Chickens may just be chickens, but they feel pain and all that too. They can be affectionate in their own ways and they have their own little unique personalities. Since we have had pet chickens the last year, I have learned a lot, and I can’t imagine the horrors that people put chickens through, disgusting. I will never support any of those companies again. We have been fortunate in that I think I’ve had to buy eggs once or twice in the last year. Our chickens keep us regularly supplies with big fresh eggs on a daily basis. We even have enough to give to some of our other animals. Our pig, coati, raccoon and hedgehogs all love scrambled eggs πŸ™‚

– Another great place to stock up on organic produce is local Farmer’s Markets. They should start popping up around here in the next coupe months so I’m looking forward to that.

Basically, it is much much easier to get ahold of good organic food at an affordable price now than it used to be. Hopefully it will continue this way as more people choose these options πŸ™‚

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Filed Under: Frugal Living: Deals & Tips, Kids/ Babies, Recipes

Tasty Tuesday: Broccoli Cheese Muffins & St Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

March 4, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

Tasty Tuesday Yummy Healthy Recipes

I’ve Β been busy baking this past week and here are some of the new yummy recipes I created.

(Please feel free to share these but kindly link back to here πŸ™‚ Β I create all these recipes myself from scratch.)

Today’s very successful recipe: Broccoli Cheese Muffins. Both Ava and I went crazy over these! I made them as healthy as possible and they are all organic as well.

low fat broccoli cheese muffins

2 eggs

1 cup milk (I use low fat Almond Milk)

1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

2 tsp agave syrup

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup ground flax

2 cups steamed broccoli diced

1/2 cup cheese (shredded or cut into small cubes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all the wet ingredients together with a whisk, then add the dry ingredients and mix until coated. Do not over mix!

Add the broccoli and cheese last and stir just until coated. Spoon into muffin tins (I use the silicone muffin liners and they work great!). This makes about 15 muffins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

low fat broccoli cheese muffins

low fat broccoli cheese muffins

I also made these this week as well: (click image to go to printable recipe)

 

More recipes coming soon!

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I got the cute cupcake graphics that are in the header from My Cute Graphics

Filed Under: Recipes

Friday Photos

February 28, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

Here are all the photos that I posted this week on Instagram:

Just a little bit of randomness for today πŸ™‚

This is Angus last night on our way into Chicago for a show. He and Moose were both requested for the show but since the vehicle was full of all the other animal’s crates, Angus got to ride with me πŸ™‚

I made this yummy Shamrock Smoothie yesterday. Recipe is here. You won’t believe this is so healthy and that there is spinach in it but there’s lots! It tastes like the Shamrock shake from McDonalds!

Another recipe I made yesterday – Spinach and feta muffins. Healthy and sooooo delicious!! The entire batch is gone already, 1 day later. Recipe is here.

A family favorite: Pancake breakfast! Steve likes his plain and Ava and I love the raspberry ones! made from scratch, recipe is here.

Watching what else? Bubble Guppies of course!

I’m ridiculously excited that our chickens are laying eggs again!

 

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Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life, Recipes

Right now

February 26, 2014 by Jess 1 Comment

  • not enjoying this winter in Illinois. Not. At. All.
  • Did a deep clean of the house yesterday and it felt fantastic. Although now my back doesn’t feel so fantastic….
  • Stayed up way too late last night and woke up way too early. (huge thank you to 2 of my dogs for waking me up to go outside at 3:00am – after they had been out at 1:30am!!)
  • I would actually be very happy if I never saw snow again.
  • I want sushi right now in the worst way.

 

In other news:

I recently got to review a very cool music album over at the Little Lake County Blog

This mini album of mine that was in my book was featured a couple weeks ago in Women’s World Magazine.

friends mini album

friends mini album

 

Over at Homeketeers I did a couple tutorials on some Kids Crafts:

These crayons were really fun to make and they are so easy for Ava to hang on to!

DIY homemade toddler crayons

DIY homemade crayons

the other kids craft is also using crayons: stained glass crayon melt art

stained glass crayon melt art kids craft

I’ve been baking and creating new recipes like crazy. All those cookies that I baked last week took me back to the baking I did for our wedding almost 3 years ago. I baked hundreds of cookies and hundreds of cupcakes from scratch! Right up to the morning of our wedding day (as I wanted everything to be fresh). Thankfully a few of my friends helped and one of my friends husbands came over to finish baking some of the cupcakes for me so I could go get my hair done! Thinking back on it now, I can’t believe we managed to pull it all off!

For old times sake, here are some photos of our wedding baked goods: everyone got one of these Mickey cookies – which turned out to be HUGE so there were 100 of those.

mickey mouse wedding favor cookie disney

wedding favor heart cookies

 

Then we had plates of mini heart cookies on each table so there were probably 300+ of those. And we had a Cupcake Display as well as a cake. My goodness. I think we had about 100 full size cupcakes and 100 mini cupcakes. 3 different flavors and 1 plate of gluten & dairy free for those with special diets. More on our wedding here

wedding cupcake display

wedding cupcake display

white chocolate chip cupcakes wedding

wedding cupcake display

I did create all the recipes myself so I will scrounge those up and post them up here soon. The few months leading up to the wedding I did so much baking, trying to find the perfect recipes. It was a good thing I had 100 testers as not only would my 5 roommates test them for me, but I took everything else to the zoo and let everyone there test them out πŸ™‚ I do miss those days…. Now my only taste testers are my toddler and my pig and neither of them provide very accurate feedback. Ava will eat anything in a cookie or cupcake form and Norman will eat….well…ANYTHING at all. Steve does not like sweets, so he’s out. (occasionally Β though he’ll like something, like the cookies I made last week).

So that’s what’s going on around here right now. Feel free to share what’s going on in your world πŸ™‚

 

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Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Crafts, Daily Life, Kids/ Babies, Recipes, Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums

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