stuff I've tried round up and the 1 week check in

Ok so I haven't been blogging much lately...what can I say...life happens.  Anyways.  I have tried a few things from Pinterest lately that I have really liked.  Let's start with $5 dinners

why not?  I would love to cut our grocery bill down.  So I gave the dinners a shot and for the most part they are ok (the list above is half $5 dinners and half of the Freezer meals, I had leftover from last month)  So the cheap meals are Chicken or tuna casserole, chili and cornbread, grilled cheese and tomato soup, breakfast for dinner, chicken fettucini, and spaghetti and meatballs.  

First off I hate casserole, it makes me physically ill, but I tried the tuna one anyways and nope nothing has changed about my bodies ability to eat a casserole and a spent the night sick...blah.

I like the chili and cornbread because it all came from a box or a can and it took 10 minutes to make, the kids ate and I like it so I would call that a successful cheap meal,  I like grilled cheese and soup but the kids don't so that one is an adults only cheap meal.

Of course pasta is always an acceptable meal for our family, fettucini and spaghetti were a big hit.  Oh and breakfast for dinner...who doesn't love that?

conclusion: they were cheap and I liked about half of them, however they are not very healthy and these dinners still require the addition of a veggie.

UP NEXT:  Brownie Pizza

I made this for V day.  I simplified the recipe even more by using a can of cream cheese frosting and omitting the apple butter.  

It was delicious.  The frosted brownie was super sweet so the raspberries were perfect for on top because they were a little tart.

Up Next : A t-shirt Scarf and a DIY Cardigan

These are both super easy.  I took a sweater that fits me weird

and two t-shirts I didn't like anymore (for obvious reasons)

  and turned them into this:

I didn't use the hemming tape the sweater I just did a roll stitch to get a clean edge.  I also used a sweater so it was a little wavy when I finished but once it was washed once it took a better shape.

The above picture also serves as my "BEFORE" picture for my 14 day challenge.  It was taken on Wednesday when I took my first measurements.  So it has been about 6 days of working out and I'm starting to see some great results!

here I am today. 

Here is my inches lost report

Bust: - 4 inches (some may not like to lose in their bust but I am super happy to lose it!)

Waist at belly Button: -2 inches

Waist @ the dreaded love handles: -3 inches

Hips @ bum: - 2 inches

Thigh: - 1 1/4 inch

Calf: - 1 inch

Bicep: - half inch

Neck: -1 inch

yay!  If you haven't read about the 14 day drop a size challenge head on over to my previous post.  And get started today!  I have a pair of leather pants from High school that I would like to fit into and with these inches lost I am getting closer every day!

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!

Quite possibly the best...

This is quite possibly the best pork chop I have ever eaten!  Check out the recipe over at Rock Recipes.  

These Pork chops are coated in a flour and spice mixture and cooked in the tiniest bit of oil to get that great crunchy texture and then you add the honey garlic sauce on top and it is amazing!

Also I didn't have sage so I used Rosemary instead and it was still so delicious.  I made an entire pack of these chops even though there were only two of us eating and we have been having leftovers for lunch the past few days and each time we eat one we are just in heaven.

enjoy :)

Make your own green glitter....or the case of the crusty pile of green salt

I still don't have my camera back...ummm Mom...I kind of use that a lot.  I tried to make my own glitter because I was making my own 

Calm Down Jar for the girls and I needed more glitter because I had used most of my glitter supply to make glittery letters to go over my piano that spelled 

Joy.

So I was really excited when I saw this picture on Pinterest 

MAKE YOUR OWN GLITTER!!!

Awesome!!! Now I can avoid one more trip to JoAnns...it get's a little weird when more than one employee recognizes you because you have been in more than 3 or 4 times that week.

Ok so the recipe says to mix up some salt with some food coloring and bake it on a tin foil lined baking sheet, and 10 minutes later you will have a 1/4 cup of gorgeous glitter.  

well I decided to make green glitter cause it's my favorite color and I thought it would work well in the purple calm down jar I was making...sounds cool huh?

Well what I got was a sheet of crusty green salt, not sparkly at all.  I used gel food coloring so maybe that was it.  I'm willing to try this one again with liquid food color but for now my calm down jar is just a little less fabulous than I want it to be.  That's ok it doesn't calm the kids down at all it makes them run around screaming SPARKLES!!! SPARKLES MOMMY!!!!

Spring rolls

I Love Spring rolls! I have a favorite restaurant downtown that makes the best spring rolls, they are perfectly sticky on the outside and crunchy on the inside (also they put dried pork and shrimp in them and that never hurts).  So when I found this recipe for Spring rolls.  I was super excited to try it.

The hardest part of this recipe is tracking down the rice paper sheets ( I found them in Top Foods, they typically carry some nicer things and you can often find unusual things there, so if you can't find them at your favorite store, go to the nicest store in town and I bet you will find them there).

I sliced up some Nappa Cabbage, I bought shredded carrots, and I used green onions, and cilantro and Avacado.  I was too lazy to cook up any meat so we had veggie spring rolls.  I also made the spicy peanut sauce included in the recipe and it was a little bland for me so I added some garlic chili sauce, which was great but when the sauce began to cool it got a little firm, so if you want to add some spice use the chili sauce but add more water and soy sauce.

Yummy and dare I say...healthy?  I love it when that happens :)

Asian Slaw with ginger peanut dressing

Asian Slaw with Ginger Peanut dressing.  It's delicious.  I added some grilled chicken so that this could be our whole dinner and it was fantastic.  It is great for a whole meal but also a great asian salad option (as much as I love my old standby of cabbage and ramen noodles, it is nice to have an alternative).
I didn't use the regular coleslaw mix I used a broccoli slaw mix and it was really yummy.  Give it a try.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

I don't have my own picture so I borrowed this one from the original Pioneer Woman post.

I love this recipe, it is like cajun fettucini.  I love all the peppers and the cajun spice.  It's super easy, and your kids might actually eat it!  My kids won't eat anything that doesn't end in "'n cheese" so I had no such luck but I wasn't expecting any.  Peter and I loved it though.

Dishwasher soap

 Ok I had very low expectations for this homemade dishwasher soap.  I live in an apartment that was built in the 80's and I'm pretty sure I have the original dishwasher.  I cannot use cheap or generic dishwasher soap in this machine and get anything back but food covered nasty dishes.  So I have been shelling out for the cascade/ dawn dishwasher packs, which is fine, they work great, I love them and I mean come on who isn't going to pay to have clean dishes?  But if you can get the same results for cheaper FANTASTIC!  I am always looking for ways to slash small expenses from our budget.

The recipe calls for 24 packets of unsweetened lemonaide Kool aid...umm that is like 12 bucks worth of Lemonade this time of year.  So I just bought the 3 dollar can of Country time and called it good.

You need to use a rinse aid called Lemi Shine with each load to make this work, but it is only a few dollars and you can buy it at Safeway.  Use a Table spoon of Lemi Shine and a Table spoon of the dishwasher soap in each load.   Making this stuff is super easy, just get two big bowls and divide your ingredients between them and mix them up ( you could use one GIANT bowl if you have one but I don't)The recipe makes 5 quarts and according to a calculator I found online that equals 320 tablespoons!  Given the cost of the ingredients and the lemi shine making one batch of this dishwasher detergent costs the same as one 60 load package of cascade packs.  So that is more than 5 times as cost efficient!! Oh Please work!  Please!

I really tested this stuff.  I didn't pre rinse my dishes and I had been making cranberry salsa and I had emptied out my fridge of leftovers so I had some nasty tupperwares and sticky food processor parts, plus our regular dishes and sippy cups......

It totally works!  I was so shocked! So this one is getting filed under AWESOME!

Bonus I can now cut out 15 dollars worth of dishwasher soap from my grocery budget!

Cranberry Salsa

I tried a new recipe for Thanksgiving this weekend.  You MUST TRY THIS!!!

Cranberry Salsa....Make it, taste it...Love it!

But.... we made soap yesterday!

ok so I got a new keyboard! hurray! I was so excited to find out that I didn't need to buy a new mac keyboard for my computer I could just get a regular keyboard with a usb plug-in.  Even better if your in-laws have an extra one laying around their office :)

here is the link for my last post on that Thanksgiving frame printable.  It's free and all I did was print it on plain paper and cut it down to fit an 8x10 frame that I had and then I painted it with some paint I had on hand.  done.  my kind of Thanksgiving decorating and I might just keep it up because I love the quote.

ok so on to the soap...
On Thursday I whipped up a new batch of my laundry detergent, because I finally used it all up (2 months worth of laundry for about 4 dollars worth of ingredients...and I do a TON of laundry).

  I am still really loving this laundry soap, if it has one problem it is that it doesn't have perfumes in it (which is actually why I am using it because of my sensitive skin) but since it doesn't have any perfume in it is not very forgiving if you forget your clothes in the washer all day...or weekend.  So if you depend on the over perfumed power of tide to keep your clothes smelling fresh this might not be the detergent for you.

On Friday my husband asked me what my plans were that night and I said I was going out with the girls for dinner and then coming home and making soap, and he said..."But we made soap last night!"  Have those words ever been said by anyone else?  I don't know but I thought it was funny that we have become the type of people who make soap more than once in a week.  So we decided I would make soap and he would watch a movie I wasn't interested in.  Marriage is all about compromises right? :)

I had been wanting to try making my own body wash for the same reasons that I was interested in homemade laundry soap.  Hives suck.

 So while Peter watched Tron: Legacy I grated two bars of soap into a big pot.  I chose Yardley oatmeal and almond because I know it doesn't bug my skin, it smells great and i can get it at the Dollar tree :)  (this is something I really like about this recipe, you can pick whatever soap you want, so if you have a favorite bar soap that doesn't come in body wash you are all set)

  The recipe calls for 2 cups of grated soap and I found that each bar was a little more than 1 cup so I just stopped grating as the bar of soap got small enough that I feared for my fingers.

 Just a warning...this bottle is $17.50 BUT...I will probably be able to make 20 batches of body wash with it and each batch makes a little over a gallon so you really are only using less than a dollars worth of Glycerin per gallon of body wash. Glycerin is a skin protecterant so I wouldn't recommend skipping it, it's what makes it so body wash won't dry your skin out as much as bar soap will.

 So the original recipe is to only use 1/2 gallon of water and I was able to fill these 4 bottles with that much, HOWEVER when the soap cooled it was almost as solid as the original bar of soap so I scooped that soap out and melted it down and added another 1/2 gallon of water and that made a much more liquid like body wash.  It ended up being the consistency of a creamy body wash, and I bet the type of bar soap you choose will affect the consistency of the end product so I would start with a 1/2 gallon and see how your soap reacts but for the soap I used I needed a whole gallon....which resulted in these 4 bottles being totally full plus another 1/2 gallon storage container. (2 dollars worth of soap and maybe a dollars worth of glycerin and a gallon of water= more than a gallon of body wash...cha ching!)

Oh and I love this body wash!  It smells great, it feels great, and it rinses nicely without a film left on your skin, so I'm calling it a success!  I'm definitely keeping this recipe.