Quick project!

Scrapbook paper plus Lysol Wipes (you could also use Wet Ones or baby wipes container) plus super sticky double sided tape (the one with the plastic red stuff to take off) = 5 minutes to a cuter container for your plastic grocery sacks. I use reusable bags at the grocery store, so I actually take bags from other people in order to line my wastebaskets. Recycling for others and not having to pay for something I'm throwing away anyways? Priceless

Pinterest

I've talked about pinterest before. We had some failures this weekend. We failed to make a flashlight from a bottle of Mt. Dew, we're having quite a time making bath crayons that work and my glow in the dark jello apparently required more specific ingredients than I had on hand.  However, we did have two great successes this weekend.

The first was putting a few drops of food coloring into shaving cream and letting them put it on the bathtub walls. I put it in a bowl that floated around (plastic or metal will work) and it was super easy to clean the walls off afterwards.  The other success was making our own Butterfinger bars  OMG... so incredibly yummy. And easy. 3 ingredients, people. The hardest part was finding Candy Corn in the dead of winter.

Date Night

I was recently asked how Paul and I fit in date night. I'm posting my response in case it helps someone else out and I'd love comments on how my friends make it work!

We try for once a month. Sometimes my parents will watch them, but more frequently we trade with another couple. I'm also part of a co-op. We have an online spreadsheet that tracks hours and there's a formula for how many kids you have, so:

I watch Amanda's 2 kids for 4 hours on Friday I get 6 points (4hrs +2kids)
Amanda watches Gloria's 4 kids for 2 hours and gets 6 points(2 hrs + 4 kids = 6 points)
Gloria watches my 3 kids for 3 hours (3 hrs + 3 kids).

So even if Amanda isn't available to swap directly with me, someone else is. This is also how I do daytime appts since I'm a SAHM with no childcare available.

We'll also go to lunch rather than dinner, see a matinee rather than at night and we'll use a coupon from an Entertainment book to get BOGO movie tickets or buy tickets at Costco. Or we go somewhere with big portions and share (we like the same types of food)

Lately we've also started watching a TV program with episodes for the entire season on Netflix. After we put the kids to bed, we head downstairs and snuggle for a couple of episodes. It feels like Datenight and is totally free and gives us something to discuss.

Still cooking

Today's breakfast was an easier version of my usual Rhodes frozen dinner roll monkey bread recipe and dinner was a Crockpot Sesame Chicken I threw over some rice. I used chicken thighs I got at a great price and had put in the freezer after pulling off the skin. Maybe 99 cents a pound? Anyways, so delish and came right off the bone. 

Valerie's been talking up a storm, mostly DAAAAADDYYYYYY! and Hi.. I've been doing all this cooking and baking by hooking up her seat to the countertop so she can watch me.

Sick and stuck

The kids and I have had an awful cold and been stuck at home with a little less than a foot of snow

last week...

This week...

it's almost all melted now, so we've gotten out of the house, but haven't visited anyone because our cold seems quite harsh, lasting a long time, and VERY contagious.

We've had houseguests, so I've been trying recipes on them and I got in on a deal for 20 pounds of chicken at 1.69 a pound from Zaycon Foods , so I've been cooking that up for meal swaps.

I cooked 7 pounds for this awesome cheesy penne dish  in my crockpot. I put in as many breasts as would fit, as much water as would fit and cut up 2 carrots and 2 celery on the top. High for 2 hours, cooked overnight. In the morning, I had 6 cups of chicken broth for the freezer and 7 pounds of cooked chicken.  This recipe was awesome because it makes 2 8x8 pans, which is what we swap, so I just had to double it twice and I had the 8 pans I needed for swapping.  I chopped up the chicken with my food processor slicing blade. I also used the blade to slice up 2 big 40 ounce containers of mushrooms from Costco and then the cheese grating blade to do 1.5 pounds of parmesan from Costco.

Tip of the day: slicing/shredding, etc. in the food processor usually saves me $2 or more per pound of ingredient.

I also used 4 boxes of whole wheat pasta I got for $1/box last week (I never pay more than that. Sometimes I can get it .75 if I also have a coupon).  I also used a jar of sundried tomatoes and a package of sliced provolone that I just cut up to melt in the sauce.  I probably could have gotten an even better price on the provolone at the Business Costco in Lynnwood, which carries bulk meats and cheeses I think in 3-6 pound minimums for deli counters that have slicers (or people willing to cut up and put through their food processor) but I didn't have any other reason to trek that way, so there you go.

I also shredded some for freezer burritos for this month. I've been using beef & chicken I've gotten on sale, mixed with black beans (I used dried beans cooked for 2 hours on the stove for this batch, cheaper than canned) ; brown rice; shredded cheese and I either seasoned the meat with spices (online recipe for taco seasoning-cheaper than the packet) or added some mild salsa. Roll in large burrito tortillas (now have a recipe, so can make them myself in the future) and then foil. You can microwave them 2 minutes from frozen for a quick lunch or dinner and I'll bet for sure they are cheaper than even the $1 crappy ones with preservatives you get on sale at the grocery store.

My other meal swap meal this time was Asian Chicken in 1 gallon freezer bags from my Once a Month Cooking cookbook  I don't do the program because we are pretty picky and I also have found the swapping better for my food budget rather than doing their grocery list because I can buy stuff in bulk on sale. But I love that they are all tried in the freezer and tell what to package them in, etc.  I then put 1 cup of brown rice in baggies with instructions on cooking in sandwhich bags to go with.

Now I'm ready to swap for January, February and March. I try not to do more than 3 months not only for storage, but also the fact that most meals start deteriorating after 3 months. Most of us eat our meals the month we get them, so I don't worry that my March meal will not be good, but I don't want anything going bad. I aso recommend making sure you are using Freezer bags rather than just storage bags. I've been having a lot of leaks in the fridge when defrosting and I think we have some inferior bags going around....

My other experiment this week was Drunken Noodles which I've never tasted let alone made. Paul wanted me to try it, so I found a recipe and got ingredients as best I could.  We used thinly sliced chicken breast, green peppers and we couldn't find the Thai chilies so we used dried red chili peppers. I added 8. 2-4 would have been plenty, but my cold appreciated the extra spice!  It was quite good, esp considering I'd never made them before but the recipe does feed a crowd, my wok was filled to the brim, so next time I'd either 1/2 it or make it when we have company.


the other new addition to our family this week was a Keurig coffee maker. Paul's friends decided since I'm the only one who drinks coffee, it would make more sense to have $150 coffee maker that only brews one cup than my free coffee maker that brews 10... but I digress. It's fancy and I appreciate it and it's fun to brew stuff quickly. anyways, it comes with a "make your own" K-cup so I'll be experimenting with cocoa, coffee & tea in the coming weeks I'm sure.  They went to Costco for butter and cheese and came home with that. This is why Costco is so evil. and fun.

We also made a mind jar when I got bored and pulled all the arts & crafts stuff out on the table during the snow and we also made a crockpot brunch casserole. It's an entire crockpot. Make it if you have a houseful or a brunch to go to (I'm thinking our next MOPs meeting?)  as well as a crockpot Mac & cheese that was creamy and delish.


We're home today to hopefully finish off being sick and Monday we'll begin school again and hopefully get back on track. It's a busy week and then we'll have to add in making up all the things we missed from last week. I predict there will be more crockpot and timesaving recipes coming....

Getting my craft on... with an addiction to Pinterest on the side

Have you heard of Pinterest yet? No? You live under a rock? Oh, I see... well, it's a website that basically is a way to organize your favorites by pictures, which is great for us visual people.  You know how you tear out an article in a magazine and think, "oh, I want to do that someday!" well, this website sets up virtual bulletin boards for you and "pins" those websites/ideas for you on whatever board you like. For instance, I have one for recipes, one for home stuff (organization, make your own cleaners, etc) and one for paper crafts and one for other crafts.  The best part is you don't even have to go and find stuff because it reads your Facebook friends and if they pinned it, you can see their (or strangers') bulletin boards and repin the idea to your own board.  Awesome, right?

Well, it's addicting. I have 700 pins. And I can't stop. That means I have to do 2 every day to do what I already have pinned by the end of the year.  Yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm trying, because it all has to do with my Proverbs 31 focus this year, doing more stuff myself. I've made some really yummy recipes so far and have about 7-10 more planned over the next 2 weeks. We have company coming which means I have fresh meat for guinea pigs.... um, I mean, taste testers. 

So far I've done Paula Deen's sweet french onion soup in a crockpot (yum! Paul's opinion: too many onions); I also did a yummy lasagna soup as well as a sausage & cheese pie . 

I organized my foil & plastic wrap a new way:

Made blackboard paint (I'll review when I use it as well as a link to directions); made these ADORABLE Valentine's for Carter's class:

Other things I've been doing?  A Kinect dust cover: ie: a box with fun game paper on it...

I'm moving up to making my own bread, but I'm scared, so I've been making Rhodes frozen dough for my bread. $1 a loaf with coupon and fresh made. I put it in an oiled bread pan either right before going to bed or right when I get up as it takes about 9 hours in my house to rise enough to bake:

Also, I've been using "leftovers" from paper kits to make cards in advance, I gave sets of cards to lots of people for Christmas:

So that's what I'm up to! More projects as they come to completion. I've been shopping for ingredients/supplies....

Snow Day!

Henri wins the award for bravest sledder, Valerie for most die-hard snow fan (she was pretty mad she had to come in after almost 2 hours in the snow)