Abigail Kimball

I made these amazing oatmeal raisin cookies the other day. I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of them because they were devoured so swiftly. There wasn't much time to look through our  46 different cookbooks to find just the right recipe, so I googled it. I wasn't expecting a spectacular result, but I got one anyway. I added 1 cup of shredded cocoanut (not dry) and a cup of chopped walnuts. These things were amazing! I didn't believe the lady who said these were "the best" on her  blog, but now I do. Especially with my fabulous addition. Honestly, I rarely just do the recipe without incorporating some of my fancy extras. Also, they turn out exactly how the picture shows them to be. No plastic cookie photoshoots, these are legit. I have to give credit to the recipe's author because of just how awesome these simple cookies really are; here is her post:  http://www.bakedbyanintrovert.com/best-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/   The only thing I'm annoyed ...

I'm not very fond of beans, but this time, I had to make them work. It was all we had in the fridge available to eat that Saturday. I always have these really interesting or delicious recipes that I make on Saturday. The reason is, that's grocery shopping day. While mom's gone getting food, it's almost always me at home needing to find something to feed my siblings. "Necessity is the mother of invention." So true.

I learned how to make cheezits when I read "Real Snacks" by Laura Ferroni. I seriously suggest it. Her whole book is recipes of junk food like donuts, oreos, chips, and so on. The twist is, she found a way to make it all healthy and taste 500% better than what you buy at the store. I've these tasty cheesy crackers multiple times, and it's not that hard. This is my recipe: My tips for this recipe are: Don't overcook them. If you take them out when they are just barely becoming browned, they will be perfect. When you take them out of the oven, they get darker on the pan, so keep that in mind. You don't want soft crackers either so don't undercook them. After a few batches you'll get the hang of it and find the right balance. The thinner the dough, the better the crackers. If it's thicker, it takes longer to cook, and eventually turns browner because of how long they are in the oven. I've had to add more water then this recipe says,...

How to make: Spread half of an avocado onto a piece of organic, non-gmo, all-natural, whole wheat, etc.., (you get what I mean) bread (toasted if you like). Fry an egg (ours came straight from the chickens butt in our backyard) over-easy style. Flip it onto avocado bread and top with a fresh green, and tomato.  Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and smash the yolk so it spreads its golden deliciousness over the whole contraption. Garnish with tomato. This as all the foods that is in MyPlate, so you can drink a cup of milk with this and feel good about what you just ate!

This was one of the first things I made from the tomatoes I grew. Even better, we grew the basil too. I got hungry one day, so I just popped outside to grab some fresh tomatoes I grew from seed. As got near the door, I noticed one of my favorite savory herbs: basil. Basil is a perfect touch to the whole tomato-mozzarella cheese, Italian, pasta, and pizza genre of cooking. When I got inside, I realized that I couldn't fill my starving stomach with just herbaceous plants. That's when I added the fresh mozzarella cheese that gave a gourmet touch to my meal. Now, I can't just eat something without spicing it up, so I grabbed some of my mom's homemade vinaigrette and shook it over the top. The bonus: I helped grow half this lunch and the rest came from my mother's caring hands! What can beat that!

 I said this before in my post  about lavender essential oil : I wanted to find a way to make it portable. So I came up with the idea of making solid perfume. I knew it was probably more simple than the ingredients on the ones you buy at the store say. I wanted it to be 100% bad-chemical free. I say "bad-chemical" because actually everything is made out of chemicals so it would be unfair for me to say it needed to be "100% chemical free."    The recipe I found required almond oil, which I didn't have. However, on more research of carrier oils (which is what almond oil is), I realized there was quite a lot that I could work with.  I do suggest always following a recipe you haven't made yet unless, you have a general knowledge of what you're working with. Thankfully, before I could do any "fail fast"-ing with substitutions, mom came home from a visit to Whole Foods with some almond oil!    You can see the one I bought the second to the m...