By now, most of you have probably seen the excited rebranding around here… Simple Organic is now Simple Homemade! I”ll share a little more about this transition on Sunday but in the meantime, you can enjoy the same quality content, including today”s favorite linky!

If you want to be one of the first to know all about why Tsh and I decided to make the switch, you can give a listen to my recent appearance on her Home Fries podcast, The Simple Mom Podcast. I had a great time sitting down over a virtual cup of coffee to chat with her about Simple Homemade, cloth diapering, adoption, and more!

Now, it”s on to our regularly scheduled monthly tribute to taking our pins from the boards of Pinterest to real life!

Just a few things I made

This month, I didn”t tackle any big projects. But I wanted to share a few recipes with you that are totally worth sharing and repinning.

Lemon Quinoa Cilantro Chickpea Salad

This salad came out a bit more like dip for me, but boy was it good. I made it in the afternoon, packed it up and we took it to the beach for our first picnic dinner of the year! Then I served the leftovers as a dip to my small group and we all concurred: yum. I”ll definitely be making this again.

If you make it, I”d use a bit less liquid. The ratio for the quinoa in the recipe was where I had some problems.  I think it would have been less mushy if I had made the quinoa with the ratio I usually use.

If you”ve seen this pin yourself, make sure you check the link. When I first found it, it just linked to a general blog. I was on a mission to find the recipe so I searched her blog before I found the actual post and then fixed the pin”s link.

Mint Chip Ice Cream

This recipe produced rave reviews as well. I made this for March”s Ice Cream Sundays get-together, and when a friend heard about it but couldn”t come, she requested I make it again for her birthday party, to which I was happy to oblige.

Every person who tasted it commented on the unique flavor– so truly mint– and how it differed from store-bought mint ice cream, however tasty that may be. My second batch came out a little mintier and with a bit more of a green tint to it– I think this is because I accidentally let the milk mixture boil for a bit or so before letting it steep.

It was also my first time trying a stracciatella-style chocolate chip, and I love the consistency it gave the chocolate.

Chocolate Hazlenut Banana Smoothie

I pinned this from a great real food blog a couple of weeks ago, and gave it to the kids this week as a “special treat” when we were out of yogurt to make one our usual daily smoothies. It came out delicious. I did however substitute Nutella for the hazelnut butter and cocoa (shhh!) so mine wasn”t quite as natural and nourishing as Kimi”s.

My big secret though? I successfully hid a handful of frozen spinach in it to make up for using Nutella. Guess what– you couldn”t taste it at all. I doubled the smoothie recipe to feed myself and the two younger smoothie-drinkers and fortified it with about a cup of spinach.

And lastly…

Source: toxel.com via Nicole on Pinterest

I made this for my parents” pool…

JUST KIDDING!! Pretty neat though, huh?! That made it to my dreaming and wishing board for sure.

Looking for a Pinterest-related laugh? Make sure you check out my friend”s awesome collection of random oddities, called Pinterest Are You Drunk.

There are some seriously weird and funny things that people pin.

I realize this post is actually a week early, since March is a 5-Friday month, so I”m going to leave the linky up until the end of the month. If you don”t mind, grab our new button for your post that says simplehomemade.net on it. Thanks for joining us and for bringing life to your pins!


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