Prep Day #1
I sin, I know I do, when I envy some of the ladies on the Trim
Healthy Mama Facebook forum. I see them post pictures of all the wonderful
snacks and drinks they prepare for the week on Sunday afternoons: their Prep
Day. I love organization, but my day
seems to get away with me, and I rarely take time to prepare ahead of time.
Also, our Sundays are full of worship and fellowship, so choosing Sunday to be
my prep day is out of the question. So, while I had the girls work on their
math for an hour, I prepped on Monday.
Well, my hour
became more like three. I had bought 12+ lemons and 7 limes. Before I had a
chance to turn them into wonderful concentrations for my Singing Canary and
Strawberry Limeade Good Girl Moonshine (GGMS), 2 of the limes turned into rocks
and one of the lemons grew a science project. Unfortunately, we are currently
studying flying creatures for science, not molds, so the lemon was immediately
sent to the trash can.
I peeled, and peeled, and peeled. I thought lemons must be the
HARDEST of all the citrus fruits to peel…then I started on the limes. I put
half of the lemons in my wonderful ninja’s largest pitcher and filled it
half-way with water. Then I blended for 2 minutes or so, and poured the
resulting sludge into several handy containers. Then I took my handy-dandy pulp
strainer (a nylon kneehigh) and stretched the top across the top of my pitcher.
I poured all the lemon juice, pulp, and seeds back in and then squeezed out ALL
the juice. Serene and Pearl are right, it IS the fun part! I poured the
strained juice into 1.5 cup freezer containers with lids and dumped the pulp
into the trash.
Normally, most of my kitchen waste goes to our chickens, but my
wise Chicken Chick informed me that citrus isn’t good for poultry. At least
none of our hens died the last time I tossed them peels!
Then I repeated with the rest of the lemons, and again with the
limes. The lime juice I poured over 4 frozen strawberries, to make it simpler
when I want to make my GGMS.
 |
| Leaning Tower of Lemon Concentrate |
I was left with a PILE of peels! I couldn’t feed them to the
chickens, so what was I going to do with them?? I hate to throw away something
that could be useful. So I went to Google, typed in “How do I make lemon
extract” and found this wonderful blog: http://www.thankyourbody.com/31-ways-to-use-lemon-peel/
I was a bit
overwhelmed: 31 more things for me to prep?!? I decided to just make a few. I
use lemon extract, and want to make lemon essential oil, so those were my first
two choices. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make those immediately, because I didn’t
have enough olive oil or any vodka. I put them on my list, and will make them
later this week. I DO have the prep work done, though, so great feelings of
organizational happiness filled my soul. I put a couple handfuls of lemon and
lime peels into a gallon plastic baggie and set it inside the fridge for later.
I turned the peels of a lemon or two into zest with my cute, little
parmesan grater. Then I put the zest in a zipper snack baggie and set it inside
my freezer.
Oooooo, I can
clean the microwave!!! I took a bowl of water, added a handful of the smallest
pieces of lemon peel, and put it in the microwave. I nuked it for 5 minutes.
When I opened the microwave, I could see a fine condensation all over the
interior. I wiped everything down, but it still didn’t smell fresh enough. I
repeated the process with another bowl of water and peels. This time, the
microwave glistened and smelled wonderful!
 |
| Lemon Cleaner |
Ah! I love fresh scent of
Lemon All-Purpose Cleaners, and now I am making my own. I took an old spaghetti
sauce jar that still had its lid, filled it with lemon peels, and then poured
white vinegar over them until the jar was full. I set the sealed jar in the
windowsill and will shake this tincture several times every day for 2 weeks.
Then, I can mix it in a spray bottle 50/50 with water, and voila! I have my
own, homemade cleaner.
Now I was really getting excited about Prep Day #1. I went back to
my computer to find something else to make. I still had about half of the lemon
peels, and all of the lime peels to use. I wanted to freshen my refrigerator
and trash can by putting a couple peels in each (under the garbage bag for the
latter).
I remember my favorite grandparent, my Grandma Mary, setting a
small pot of water on her wood stove and floating orange peels in it to make
the house more humid and fresh-smelling. I promptly put a small saucepan on the
back burner of my stove and floated some lemon and lime peels in water inside
of it. This simmered all day, and the house smelled...like lemons. Everywhere I
went, I could smell lemons. Good thing I love that scent, and so does my
family.
I put water and lemon peels inside the tea kettle that resides on
the other back burner of our stove. I let this come to a boil, and then poured
it out. The kettle gleamed in the early—er, late—morning light.
By this time, I’m realizing that the girls have finished their 30
minutes on Khan Academy as well as another 45 minutes of Life of Fred. OK, time
for Home Ec! I invite my beautiful, attentive daughters into the kitchen, and
show them what I have done so far. I figure they could help me use up the rest
of the lemon and lime peels. They like everything I have done, and figure that
it would be ok to throw the few remaining peels away. Don’t they understand
frugality? Don’t they get the pleasure from having things prepared ahead of
time? Nope, they don’t really care. Now, if I could make lemon bars from the
last peels, then they would be more interested. Sigh.
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| Lemon-Lime Sugar Scrub |
Prep Day #1 is done! Lunch anyone?
 |
| Strawberry Margarita GGMS |
My
Favorite Good Girl Moonshine – Strawberry Margarita GGMS
Put all the following into blender:
6 Frozen Strawberries
@ 1-2 Tbs Lime Juice
@ 1-2 tsp ACV
Dash powder ginger & cinnamon so each strawberry gets
some
1 dash cayenne
6 tsp sweetener
3-5 dashes sea salt
@ 1 cup water
Blend – taste – tweak – Blend
Pour over ice in a 1 quart jar
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