Freezer meals...my saving grace

Ok so I love to cook.  I really do.  I love to try new recipes and there is nothing I love more than that moment where you realize it turned out perfectly and may possibly be the best thing ever created! (yes I am that good of a cook...watch your back Martha...but don't stop selling recipes because I need them!)

What I don't like is doing dishes.  I hate dishes.  Cooking from scratch seems to create a lot of dishes, but eating less processed foods is important for our health and our budget so I cook a lot of things from scratch.

This month is going to be a little busy.  First of all we brought home a puppy named Zelda....

Isn't she cute? She was happy to trade in a box with 6 other puppies for the end of a King Size bed.  She has already claimed her spot.  As cute as she is, she is a lot of work, she likes to play and snuggle and she has to be fed 3 times a day, and of course there is the matter of house training.

Then of Course these two little monkey's still take a up a bulk of my day....

not that I am complaining cause they are pretty cute too :)  And they are totally psyched to have a new puppy in the house and nothing is more sad than a sleeping puppy to them, so not only am I working to train the puppy, but I'm training the girls on life with a small puppy...oh and it's about time to potty train Claire too (I see a lot of little messes to be cleaned up in my future).

on top of this Peter has started his second quarter of Grad school and is in class one night a week and doing homework a few more nights a week.   So dinner isn't always my number one priority and I have to admit that on more than one occasion I have served pancakes or had Peter pick up take out on his way home because I haven't left enough time to make something for dinner.

So I decided that this month I wanted to eat less take out and less pancakes and enjoy more balanced delicious meals at the end of the day, but I just don't always have time to do the prep work or clean up the mess.  So this month I am doing freezer meals! I found this post on freezer meals that promised I could have a bunch of freezer meals for cheap.  She recommends a cook book called Don't panic dinners in the freezer, my library had the sequel available so I checked it out.  (I hardly ever buy cookbooks, I always borrow them from the library first and if it is something I have to have then I buy it....hopefully used. My only exception is Martha stewart cookbooks...I love Martha)  So I spent 2 nights cooking and I have about 20 meals prepared.  There are a few more things I'm going to make to finish up a month of meals but I need to organize my freezer first....can you guess which freezer is mine and which one is from the bloggers?  hint... mine is a mess :) I'm posting it to show you that you don't have to be perfectly organized to do freezer meals. ( I subscribe to the just shove it in there and run method of freezer organization).

So bottom line:
1. The meals we have had so far are delicious we have loved everything.

2. I wouldn't call this a cheap method for making dinner but it was about the same cost as my normal "from scratch" groceries. (you can freeze just about anything so you can tailor your menu to your budget if cutting your budget is something you need to do).

3. I have a lot less dishes!  yay!  next time I'm going to avoid the meals that go in the crockpot because I hate cleaning my crockpot, it takes up half my dishwasher so I have to do an extra load when I use it.

4.  We have not had pancakes or take out once...YES!  I simply pick a bag out the night before and then I pop it in the oven or on the stove about half hour before dinner.  It's working great.

Time to go make dinner!

Not so fast

I was pretty excited when I first tried this homemade dishwasher soap 6 weeks ago, but I have steadily become disenchanted with it.  It started with a few dishes being a little spotty and then steadily progressed into not being able to tell the difference between clean and dirty dishes.  This one lasted a long time and if it had actually worked long term it would have been amazing but I've given it all the time I can and now it is time to eat off of clean dishes.

******UPDATE***** I mixed it with water into a paste and used it as cleanser for my tub.  So all is not lost, it works great as a mild bathroom and kitchen cleaner :)

A homemade Christmas

Ok now that Christmas is over I can post all the homemade Christmas presents I made this year.  I love making homemade gifts and pinterest has made collecting ideas for projects so much more fun.  Above is the Cross stitch of the Seattle Temple.  This is for my sister in law and her husband, they were married there in 2009.  I covered up the part below the temple, becasue it has their full name and marriage date.

                     

                   

This butterfly mobile is to go in my nieces room.

These cute little shoes, are for my soon to be new nephew :)

This Heads and tails  game is to go in the girls busy bag.

Pillow case nightgowns made from pillow cases I got at goodwill.

Make your own Monsters, for my little monsters

Old McDonald Puppets for the girls

Button snake for the busy bag

Busy bags with all the gear.  If you are looking for busy bag ideas click HERE for my previous post with links to all the ideas. 

Fat Quarter dresses for the girls.  Blue and pink for Claire, and Pink and Brown for Violet

Click Here

Glittery letters

Click Here

Hers are covered in scrapbook paper, I wanted mine to be sparkly.  I just painted and sprinkled glitter on top while the paint was still wet...you can spray a sealer on if you like but mine didn't really need it (I'll probably need to "re glitter" them next year because of that though).

                                                                  The ruffle tree skirt

Click Here

Dried oranges for tree ornaments

I love the way these look on the tree.  The light shines through and it sparkles a pretty golden color.

dried cinnamon and apple sauce ornaments.  These smell heavenly and look cute on the tree.  Mine are made with mini cookie cutters, so the recipe made like 30 or 40 of them, plus a small blob of dough the girls could play with till it hardened.

 A ruffle scarf for my mom. Next time I make this I won't dye the fabric.  The process was messy and I wasn't happy with how it made the fabric feel in the end.

 2 little mermaids for the girls....they love them by the way :)

 Bread and Butter as a Christmas treat for my family and friends.

 Overall I had a lot of fun doing a homemade christmas this year.  If you don't enjoy doing homemade crafts I suggest going a different route because it is a lot of work and a lot of pre-planning.  I like to plan way ahead and I usually start seriously planning Christmas in september when all our summer traveling is wrapped up, and I started making stuff in September and I was busy with some stage of the crafting process all the way up until December 17th!

 Oh and last but not least my ultra secret project for Peter.  A Padded headboard!  Here is another Link on making your own headboard.  I'll do a more detailed post on the Saga of the headboard later but let me just say this is not a project for sissies...It involves lots of physical labor, table saws, power drills, giant needles, and lots of hammering!  It was fun.

 Now we've just got to get it out of my parents storage room and into my apartment.

 Thanks to my Dad for helping me for the last 2 months to put this thing together!

So if you are thinking of doing a homemade Christmas (in 2012 or beyond) my tips would be to:

1. Plan WAY ahead!- make a list of who you want to do gifts for or what decorations you want to make (I plan to start thinking about next year no later than March)

2. Sign up to get coupons from your local craft store- this stuff can all get pretty pricey!

3. Read through your instructions before you go shopping for supplies, you may find you need more than you planned

4. Shop for your materials before the Holiday rush...there is nothing worse than being stuck at the fabric counter at any point in the months of October, November, or Heaven help you if you try to go in December.  Crafters start crafting early so think ahead and get there even earlier! (the early bird gets to shop in peace)

5. Prioritize-What's going to take the longest? for me it was the headboard so I set aside time to work on it each week at my parents house, it took about 8 weeks of slow and steady work.

6. If you don't like to do this kind of stuff....don't do it.  It saves a little bit of money but not so much that it is worth torturing yourself.  I happen to enjoy making the things I did so it worked great for me, but if you would rather just hit the mall...go...do it...It's supposed to be a MERRY time of year :)

7. Set an "end of crafting" day at least 3 or 4 days before the holiday (if you cook, entertain or bake for the holidays, give yourself a break and quit the crafts at least a week in advance).  There is always something else that can be made, there are so many cute decorations to put up, but at some point you just have to say  I'm DONE and enjoy the holiday.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Happy New Year!

oh....and check out this cute little puppy that is joining our family in a couple weeks...I'm so excited!

 o

Food Glorious Food!

This is me at dinner...ok not really but I feel like this sometimes.  I love food!  Who doesn't (no nasty comments I'm aware some people don't love food).  I love the recipes that I find on Pinterest and I was just looking through my recipe board in order to start planning meals for the next few weeks and I realized that I have tried a lot of things and haven't bothered to blog about them.  So I'm just going to do a recipe rundown of all the things I have tried.

1.Lemon Fudge- Yuck.  It is like eating a mound of lemon frosting, WAY to sweet

2. Carrot Apple Coconut muffins-  I love them!  However I made them for the kids and they don't love them, the flavor is great but I need to puree the fruit and veggies next time so the kids will eat them, I do love that they are sugar free though.

3. Turkey taco lettuce wraps-Delicious!  I actually used ground beef because I just don't like ground turkey, but the lettuce wraps as a taco shell was delicious and even if you use beef it will save on calories.

4. Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon butter- Heavenly, I gave it away as christmas Presents this year.  yummo!

5.Asian Slaw- great, fresh salad.  I used broccoli slaw instead of regular cole slaw and I added some cold teriyaki chicken to it and used it as a main dish.

6.Sweet and salty roasted chickpeas- yuck...next!

7.Crock pot BBQ ribs- AMAZING! so simple and delicious, there were NO LEFTOVERS!

8. Hawaiian sweet roll Ham sandwiches- yummy but you won't feel good after you eat them.

9. weight watchers honey mustard crunchy chicken- really good but they only count as weight watchers if you use fat free dressing....which I didn't have

10. jalepeno poppers- perfect...Superbowl possibility.

11. Slow cooker thai peanut chicken- just kind of blah

12. Cranberry salsa- best thing I ever found on pinterest, there is a plate of it in my fridge right now and I'm taking it to christmas dinner.

13. double crunch honey garlic pork chops- I insist that everyone try this recipe, it is THAT good!

14. 7 Layer tostadas- fast and easy for a weeknight meal, and there is lots of variation possibilities.

15.Homemade Cherry limeade- of course it's good, its Cherry Limeade

16.  Caramelized Chicken- very good, If you are going to do it in a crock pot keep it under 4 hours otherwise you will have jerky...no joke...and don't go run errands and forget about it either.

17. Spring rolls with Spicy peanut sauce- I had to spice up the sauce a little bit but it was great, and I love spring rolls, there is a great step by step recipe on the link.

18. Cajun Chicken pasta- it's like cajun fettucine.  I know that sounds like a strange combo but it turns out so delicious!

19. pf chang lettuce wraps- a new favorite!

20. crock pot orange chicken- meh.  It's ok but, there are better recipes.

21,ham and cheese crescents- it's ham and cheese and buttery rolls....of course it's good.

22. Honey soy glazed chicken- It is my experience that Martha Stewart will never steer you wrong in the kitchen.  

23. sliced baked potatoes- just not as good as I wanted them to be.  ok but not great.

24. Honey chicken- One of my favorites at the chinese takeout place, and a pretty decent make your own take out, but really heavy.

25. sweet and spicy honey garlic shrimp- So Amazing!

26.  cake batter rice krispie treats- eh I'll stick with the regular ones.

27. Best ever beef dip sandwiches- lives up to its name.

28.  Cheesy chicken lasagna- I'm lactose intolerant...I don't know what I was thinking, but Peter loved it.

29. Comeback sauce- It has a great flavor but it is way to heavy to be used on a daily basis...maybe if you were having a BBQ with fries....lots of fries.

30.  slow cooker coconut chicken curry- very good, very easy.  Great comfort food.

31. toasted ravioli- you bread and fry ravioli then dip them in sauce.  so delicious and bad for you, but they also take a lot of work, I don't think this will be a repeat.

32. Coca Cola Chicken wings.- yum!  mostly taste like sweetened soy sauce.  Who knew coke had such a prominent place in modern chinese cooking.

33. zucchini fries- too much work! you want fries make fries they are so much easier.  you want veggies eat veggies.

34. Dr Pepper sauced boneless wings- SO GOOD!!!  This is a definite for the superbowl!

35.  Crock pot Mac & Cheese- I have tried so hard to like baked mac n cheese and I just don't....blah.

36. Cinnamon roll pancakes- Fantastic breakfast!  And while your at it try the cream cheese topping...might as well go all the way right?

37. Crock pot kalua Pork-  The best part is that it cooks for 16 hours so you have 16 hours to drool over your crock pot.

38. Dirt Cups- Why I waited till I was 28 to learn how to make dirt cups I don't know, but they are a great desert for kids....or teenagers....oh heck everyone likes em.

Ok well that is it.   I hardly ever make the same thing twice so I'll keep trying new recipes and sharing them :)  

Texas Roadhouse Butter

This years "Christmas Treat" is Texas Roadhouse Butter with Old english oatmeal bread.    I found the butter recipe on Pinterest via a blog called Fly through your window.  Check it out, it's a cute blog.  The bread recipe is from a Williams Sonoma baking cook book and they don't publish this particular recipe on their website so I don't think I should publish it here.  If you live near me though I would be more than happy to let you take a look at my cook book.

Thank you to whoever gave me that book for my wedding 6 years ago.   I have used it many times and the recipes always turn out wonderfully!  If you like to bake I would recommend This book.

Anyways, the butter is super easy to make and it is fantastic.  I like to eat it on toast for breakfast.  I have learned in my limited experience of making flavored butter (my Dad always made honey butter for Thanksgiving....mmm) it is best to let your butter soften at room temperature.  DO NOT MELT YOUR BUTTER!!! You will get a weird butter in the end and you won't be happy.  

Enjoy!

2 little Mermaids

2 Little Mermaids have joined the ranks of Christmas gifts for the girls.  They have yet to be wrapped so they are hiding in my closet.  I have one blond daughter and one red headed daughter so they each got a doll that matched them. I used all left over fabric from my mom's fabric bins so this project was practically free! yay!
I found this pattern over at the Crafting Fiend.  It is a free Pdf download, the only part that didn't come up in the download was the body so I just made a long trapezoid that was the same width of the neck and not as wide as the tail width pre-smocked and I think the length was about 6 inches.   Their necks seem a bit long to me so I'm thinking of making a little necklace for them...what do you think?

The most exciting part of all?  This is my last sewing project of the year and my final gift for the girls!  After today I will be almost done baking my bread  and then I just have to finish Peter's top secret gift, and one quick gift for my mother in law and then I can just relax until Christmas!

8 hours later...

 I pinned this ruffled tree skirt how to, months ago and I have been wanting to make one for this year.  I was thinking about what kind of fabric to use.  I had seen it first in the cream, then in burlap and lace, and then in bright Christmas colors.  I loved the lace but hated the burlap, and Peter loved the cream, so I decided to do the cream with just a little bit of lace.

I found in my sheets pile 3 flat sheets that were the perfect color.  Thanks Mom for the hand me down sheet tops! I cut a 4 1/2 foot square out of one sheet and used the border piece as my width guide for the strips.  I cute the strips the the short length of the sheet to make them more managable.

 I cut up 2 twin size top sheets and the rest of the third after having cut out the base of the skirt from it, so this requires about 2 1/2 sheets worth of strips.  I also had 3 yards of lace which only made about a quarter of a row of ruffles, so I placed it strategically so it would show in the front.

  My pile of strips.  It ended up being about 2 times this size.

 next I just hot glued the strips to the base, making a ruffle as I went.  One thing I liked about this skirt was the messy, unfinished edges, this is my kind of project because after doing something for 8 hours I am not precise about anything.

 Finished!  everyone else has long gone to bed and left me to my ruffle gluing.  I had to wake up Peter to show him because it had taken so long and I needed to share my success with someone!

I love it!  It is so heavy though I bet it weighs 10 pounds or more!
 The tree is almost done, next I'm going to dry oranges and lemons to hang, and string some popcorn and cranberries for garland.  11 days till Christmas!!!