Creamy Chocolate Fudgsicle Pin

I thought this PIN looked good and wanted to try it.

Since I wanted to do it before I got groceries and the Pin said you could use milk I did that.

So I used 2% milk and since she said it wouldn't be as creamy with milk I added 2 heaping spoonfulls of greek yogurt.

My verdict on using this with milk and greek yogurt.  1) it's not creamy, it's like the crystally 'ice milk' consistency.  2) I can taste the bitterness of the cocoa.

I was thinking I may try this again with greek yogurt and honey so that you don't taste the bitterness of the cocoa as much.

Taco Roll Ups

We had a week were once again meal planning didn't go as anticipated.


DH was home really late on Tuesday and dd1 who is the only kid who will eat at least 1 taco didn't want them, so we did a more casual snack supper.  Wednesday DH and I went to the funeral home for my aunt's visitation and since it's out of town we ate on the road and the kids went to dh's mom's for supper.


Now it's Thursday (and supposed to be French Toast) but I have taco meat thawed out.


DD1 suddenly 'dislikes' tacos so I am going to try 'Taco Roll ups'  I couldn't find any pins with what I had in mind so I created my own recipe.  I don't measure and weigh....I just go by what looks good.


I also hide veggies in food.


Note: I pre made a few pounds of taco meat about a month ago.


1) Taco Meat (ground turkey, taco seasoning, pureed salsa and it has some pureed squash & sweet potatoes in it).  This is a bit under a lb (didn't weigh it but we don't seem to use a full lb when we eat tacos so I had split it up in less than a lb bags).


2) Pillsbury crescent rolls (2 packages)


3) Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese


Spread the meat on  (about a spoon full) and top with cheese (I took about a 3 finger (and a thumb lol) pinch of cheese).

Roll them up and seal off ends to the best of your ability.

I had enough meat for 1 1/2 packages of crescent rolls (so I would guess 1 lb may be enough).  For the remaining 1/2 pack I put some left over chicken and cheese in them.  I thought about adding some taco seasoning to it but decided not to.


Put in the oven at 375 for 13 minutes.

Before I made this I tried to find a PIN on Pinterest of this but I didn't find this.  I will be going to do what apparently isn't 'acceptable' on pinterest (from what I have read) and will Pin this myself.  You can find it here.


The verdict: DH and I really liked them.  DS1 said he liked them and then said he didn't but he ate all of his except 1 piece that wasn't 'perfect' looking.  DD1 said she didn't like the crescent roll part and wouldn't eat it.  DD2 just refused (but she just woke up from a late nap too and was still sleepy).  DS2 well he's not old enough to eat them yet ;)  I have extremely picky kids.  I know you're thinking that most kids are but I do believe based on feedback of food suggestions from friends that my kids are pretty bad for pickiness.

DIY Deodorant

I decided to try DIY deodorant.  I had pinned some recipes and made a slightly different version.


If you would like to check out the pins they can be found here: 
Angry Chicken - The "Pin"
It's Just my Life - The "Pin"
Frugally Sustainable - The "Pin"


and now for my recipe!


1/4c Arrowroot powder (purchased from the Bulk Barn) (in the tupperware container)
1/4 Baking Soda (just happened to have PC "Green"brand)
1/4tsp Vit E
4 shelf stable probiotic caps (I had "children's" so I am assuming the caps are smaller than the adult version which is why I used 4)
4tbs coconut oil (which is equal to 1/4c)

Since coconut oil is solid and I didn't feel like turning the stove on, I put some hot water in the bottom of the sink and placed the bowl in the sink.  This made the coconut oil melt and therefore made it much easier to mix all together.


After it was mixed and fairly runny I took a funnel and transfered the mixture to a glass jar and put a label on it.


Sorry, I cannot calculate cost this time as I do not have all my receipts anymore (and some items I just had in the house).  From memory the small bag of arrowroot powder I bought was about $5 and I have lots left.  The probiotics were expensive (about $20) but I had them already in the house (there are 40 in the box), coconut oil jar is about $10, baking soda was in the house and vitamin E I bought a jar of liquid but do not recall the price.


I did not include essential oils as this is for my dd1 and she doesn't like 'smelly stuff.'

Menu Plan Monday!

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Sunday's meal from last week is being moved to Monday as DH and 2 of the kids went to DH's grandparent's house for grandma's birthday (I stayed home with one sick child and the baby).  

Monday: Sour Cream Enchiladas - I made them yesterday and will reheat today. I used green pepper instead of chilis (as I don't like super hot food) and I did not use onion but did put 1tsp of Epicure 3 Onion dip mix in it.  I ate a couple lunch today and they were very yummy!  I think this would be a good thing to make for work lunches when I go back.

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Uncle Ben's rice and ? 

Thursday: French Toast

Friday & Saturday: We won't be at home for supper time so Treat night.

Sunday: Chicken Fingers

Menu Plan Monday

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Monday: Almost Lasagna

Tuesday: Steak & Veggies (thinking of trying this with California mix veggies)

Wednesday: Kraft Dinner

Thursday: Cheesy Chicken & Rice

Friday: Frozen pizza (don't worry we'll eat it cooked)

Saturday: Eggs & Toast

Sunday: Sour Cream Enchiladas

Meal planning has helped us with not eating out quite a much.  Last week we did end up having a treat night when we weren't supposed to (due to the unanticipated circumstances of the day) but I just removed an upcoming treat night and replaced it with a meal.

I can't say whether or not it has saved us money because I have not been meal planning based on flyer sales.  Each meal we seem to have leftovers so I split the remainder of the meal up based on what we ate that evening, if we don't have enough I figure we can have veggies or some fruit after.

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken

I decided to try this recipe but I kinda switched it up a bit......I decided to also serve it over rice instead of pasta.


The original recipe can be found on the Year of Slow Cooking Blog


What I put in is as follows - the remainder of the cooking instructions is the same as the original recipe.


2 cans cream of chicken 
2 T italian seasoning
1T of Epicure french onion soup mix (plus another 1/2 t - because I was trying to do it from memory and did the 1/2 first)
1 T sugar
1t kosher salt
2t of epicure minced garlic (which is supposed to be equivalent to 2 cloves)
really large chicken breasts (which is why I did the 2 cans soup)
block of cream cheese

I took out 1 cup of the broth and added it to the rice (did 1 1/2 cups of rice - so 1 cup broth and 2 cups water) - so the rice was also flavoured a little

Meal Plan Monday

 

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I entered a meal plan on my google calendar to rotate every 4 weeks (or until I decide to change it since I will be trying new recipes as well). I know it would be smarter to meal plan based on weekly flyers but when I am back to work full time with 4 kids I just don't see it as a realistic plan.  So if I know what types of foods I need for my meal plan I can stock up when I see sales (hopefully). I have also put in the recipes in my google calender but all the recipes I have pinned on my Food & Drink board on pinterest. (Excluding things like tacos or Uncle Ben's rice).  I use my playbook with the google calendar to read the recipe and I don't have to print it off then and I don't have to store recipes.

Monday: Meatballs and Roasted Cauliflower

Tuesday: Crock Pot Cream cheese chicken

Wednesday: Uncle Ben's Rice and Veggies

Thursday: Tacos

Friday: French Toast

Saturday: Spaghetti

Sunday: Grilled Cheese

How the new cleaning routine went

Monday went pretty good.  I kinda forgot about the new routine till after lunch but I would not have done laundry all day anyways because we are on time of use for hydro, so I do all our laundry on off-peak times.


Tuesday went great, it was 'bathrooms' and we only have one small bathroom so it was quite easy to complete that task!


Wednesday didn't go as well.  I knew I was having my mom come for a visit and I was working on it but didn't finish it.


Thursday I was gone pretty much all day so I didn't get anything done for the organize clean.


Friday the kids didn't have school and I went to the gym in the morning and then visited pretty much the remainder of the day so again didn't get it done.


They didn't give any weekend jobs on the routine, but today laundry has been a work in progress.


Next week is a new one and hopefully this routine goes a little better.

My New cleaning routine

So the new routine I found called for laundry, tidy up and vacuum.


I forgot about my new routine until after lunch.......
We are on time of use so there was no way I would be doing laundry all day anyways.


I got the laundry that was done folded and put away and put a load in to run for after 7pm.


I did some tidying but did not complete it all.  The vacuuming did not get done.  


It's a start and it was do-able.


Tomorrow is bathrooms.  Since our bathroom is small and we only have one I can pick up some of my Monday slack on Tuesday until I get the routine going better.

Menu Plan Monday

 

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My weekly menu plan is trying to use a few recipes I have pinned on pinterest.  Generally, I alter recipes a bit to fit in with our families preferences.

 

My Weekly Menu Plan:   

Monday: Chicken Roll Ups and sliced carrots (just used a mix cheddar/monterey jack cheese and also couldn't find powder ranch dressing, was going to use epicure herb and garlic and forgot! - still tasted good though.  I also didn't do the butter and bread crumbs).

Tuesday: Chicken Spaghetti (except I am going to use Spaghetti Squash - haven't tried it before, so hoping it tastes good!)

Wednesday: Macaroni and cheese (quick meal since the kids have something that evening at 6:30)

Thursday: Sour Cream Enchiladas (will not put in chilis - will use finely chopped peppers so hopefully the kids won't notice and also will use epicure onion spice instead of actual onion).

Friday: "Snack Day" The kids have requested this is a snack day, basically we 'graze' on food in the house, so fresh fruit and veggies are cut up etc and we 'snack.'

Saturday: Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken

Sunday: Chinese Noodles (dd1's choice)

Going to try a new 'cleaning routine' pin

Ok honestly the 52 week challenge and the Declutter 2012 calendar were just NOT working for me!


So I found this pin and read a bit of her blog and think that with some tweaking her routine will work better for when I go back to work.


I am going to have to change Laundry, because with 4 kids laundry once a week just isn't do-able and with time of use for hydro - doing laundry during the day isn't the most 'frugal' thing to do!


So here's hoping this works!!!

Pinterest Suppers!

Yesterday and today our suppers came from Pinterest.


I am not one who enjoys cooking usually, but it's nice to have a meal that doesn't make me tempted to want to go out for supper.


Yesterday I made "Almost Lasgana"

I left out the pasta sauce because my kids don't like "red sauce" and used cottage cheese instead of ricotta because it was on sale and I couldn't find ricotta.  It turned out to be really good even though the kids were extremely apprehensive to eat it (ds1 didn't eat any of it).  DH and I added pasta sauce after the fact to ours and also enjoyed it.  I put the left overs in freezer bags to eat another time.  When I went to bed last night I wished I ate more of it.


Tonight I am making Crock Pot Chicken Parm

The only change I made for this was I used crushed vegetable thin crackers instead of bread crumbs.

We are also going to try Roasted cauliflower.  I used chili powder and epicure Herb and Garlic sea salt.  I am not a fan of veggies in general.  The cauliflower wasn't horrible (please note that I really dislike veggies!!).  I was able to eat it without pulling any faces.  

Overall verdict of supper: DH and I liked all of it.  DD1 ate 1 piece of chicken (because we made her) and refused to eat anymore because there was 'red sauce', DD1 (once I offered 10 cents) ate all the cauliflower on her plate and then finished off the bowl.  She said there was a little too much sea salt.  DS1 refused to eat the cauliflower but did eat all of his chicken (although initially he also said he wouldn't eat it because of the red sauce), DD2 also refused to eat it, but it's waiting for her when she gets hungry tonight as she didn't even try a bite and she did this yesterday and ended up eating all of it later in the evening.

*pictures are screen shots of the pins as I forgot to take pics!

Quiet Spray

My sister in law had told me about "Quiet Spray" on pinterest.  DD1 often complains about having to put her head down because the class is noisy (according to her it's never her lol).  She had heard us talking about quiet spray and one day after school she told me that her teacher needed some.  I guess she also had told her teacher this too.


So I searched out more ideas on Quiet Spray!


I got the original idea here but I wanted to see if I could find a printable to make it a little easier on me to make ;)  So I found this one with a quick swagbucks search of "quiet spray classroom" and it lead me to a site where I could print off an image for quiet spray.


I don't have a colour printer.....so I had to break out the kids markers, but I think the overall effect will still be there.

Homemade Conditioner

DD1 uses excessive amounts of conditioner, so I thought I would give homemade conditioner a try.  I am also trying to be more frugal and wanting to steer clear of chemicals more.


I searched pinterest for homemade conditioner recipes, found a few blogs and this one I wanted to try.


So I went to the Bulk Barn (used a $3 off a $10 purchase printable coupon).
Xanthan Gum (225 grams) $13.69
Pure Guar Gum (250 grams) $5.39
Organic Coconut oil (414 mls) $9.29 (opted to try this instead of olive which I have in the house)


I didn't buy any essential oils as scents give me headaches.  I have tea tree oil in the house and put a drop of that in to hopefully prevent spoilage of the conditioner.


1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1/4 teaspoon Guar Gum
1 teaspoon Coconut oil
1 (or 2) drops of tea tree oil
2/3 cup of water (I used hot filtered water out of the Keurig, since coconut oil is solid at room temperature).


I attempted mixing it in a bowl with a whisk (even though the instructions do say use a blender), but it was lumpy so I pulled out my blender and it turned in to a thick creamy conditioner.

3 Main Ingredients (water is the 4th) 

Xanthan and Guar Gums

Coconut Oil

Gums in the hot water

Attempt to whisk was a fail.

Pouring the blended product into a cleaned out conditioner bottle.

The amount made is about 1/4 of a regular sized bottle of conditioner (so not a lot).  For my dd1 it would probably be enough for 2 uses but for most people would use at a time they would get more out of it I would think.

The cost for this small batch is about $0.21 not counting water cost because we have a well therefore our water is free and also not counting the tea tree oil as I also already had it in the house and don't recall the cost.  This cost also does not take the $3 coupon into consideration.

I will update the blog later with how long it lasts and how we like it at a later date.

Back to Organization

I've been busy with things for the kids school and sickness etc so I fell off the organizing bandwagon.  I've also discovered that although the 52 week challenge (and any of the others) have good intentions - they also contain many items that don't pertain to us (or I had already done those items prior to starting it). This also makes you lose the momentum on organizing!

So right now I am just trying to get things back to looking decent.  It is amazing how quick a kitchen counter becomes the catch all.

Kitchen counter - almost back to looking good.
Fridge is low on food - so it looks great lol
Just need to catch up on folding laundry.....oh wait that's a never ending job!

Week #2 Organized Home Challenge Kitchen Drawers & Kitchen Cabinet Organization

So I had a late start on this (in a way).  DH and I had already organized & decluttered most of our cupboards and drawers before I started this.  I just went through and moved a few things I don't use so much into higher cupboards and re-organized our food cupboards.


I must admit that my week 1 - counter, was cleaned again....and now you can't tell again.  At the same time I will say that I don't think it is nearly as bad as before and to clean it up would be quick.


I did get a basket for the counter for extra stuff (that I think we should go through once a week).  It's actually the basket that was under the toaster oven shelf, which I know have a 3 drawer storage container (that has been made pretty with scrapbook paper covering the front)

This is the paper I used.

I haven't really continued with the declutter calendar as some of it is redundant to the 52 weeks, but I will look at it and do any items that I feel really need it.  

The first week I blogged about a few of the items I did - I also went through spices and discarded old ones, re-organized my canned foods.  The freezer I try to keep on top of and my freezer was getting pretty low on food so I skipped that.

This past week was organizing/decluttering nightstand (has a light on top....that's about it, so not really necessary), clean out under the bed (nothing there), clear off one bedroom shelf (don't have any) and throw out junk in the junk drawer & organize (goes with the cupboard/drawer organization form the 52 week challenge and dh and I did that not that long ago).

Looking ahead on next weeks declutter calendar - I have already completed Monday (hair doo-dads), Tuesday (expired skin care), Wednesday (expired medication), Thursday, Friday and Saturday (one bathroom drawer/shelf).


For Week 3: Kitchen pantry and food storage areas.  That was completed with Week 2 as I don't have a pantry and my cupboards are food storage areas, so I probably will not be working on that at all.

Heart Shaped Hair

DD1 wanted me to do her hair, so I had agreed to do it after her bath.  I was checking out pinterest for some ideas (because she wanted something different than a braid/french braid) and she saw this heart style that was recently pinned by dh's cousin.  So I decided to give it a try!

I don't have the topsy tail so I had to flip the hair by hand which caused her a little pain.  It was past bedtime so I wasn't worried about perfection, but she is absolutely thrilled with it.

Clear Storage Drawer Pin

I saw a pin on pinterest on making your clear storage drawers pretty.   So I have a drawer (different than the one in the pin) that I wanted to use for hair ties/brushes etc and decided to give it a go!

My not so pretty plastic storage bin 

My trusty Making Memories trimmer and scrapbook paper (courtesy of my website)

I don't have modge podge in my house so I opted to water down some sobo glue.  No specific way - the first batch was good and the second too runny.

Glue on the inside before the paper.

Since my bins had quite an indent I needed to hand cut with a scissors to work around it. 

Tried to do the folds 2 different ways.   

and/or

This ended up being my preferred way to fold around

Glue over the paper again.

Waiting to dry

Finished project - OK I was too impatient to wait for it to dry completely.
Used some stickers to label the drawers.  Would have loved to use book plate style but I didn't have any self-adhesive ones.  For some reason I could NOT take a straight picture of it either (I tried many many times - the floor must be slanted or something).

Decluttering Pins (Pinterest) & shower cleaner update

I have completed January 4, 5, 6 from the 2012 Declutter calendar.  I have decluttered the top shelf of one (make that 2) cabinets.  I have gone through my spices and threw out old ones (as well as some we tried but just didn't care for).  My cupboards are really deep and for that reason I don't like having some stuff too far back because I forget about it (especially on the higher shelves where I can't see all the way back) and then I buy more.  I glanced quickly through cabinets to see if there are any items I can put at the top/back, but at the moment I am not sure what to move.  I will sleep on it and decide later.  Kitchen cabinets and cupboards are part of Week 2 in the 52 week challenge anyways.


For the 52 weeks to an organized home - I seriously did the counter tops and table (Week 1).....you can barely tell now :(  Granted dh did some cleaning in his office and that ended up on my counter tops, but I am sure I can get them back to clear tomorrow.


As an update on our shower with the vinegar/dawn cleaner - that stuff works amazing!!!!  Seriously, I have scrubbed at that shower with so many different things and nothing got it as clean as this did.  Personally, I think any soap would probably work because I think the soap helps the vinegar stick and do it's job (since soaking things with hard water in vinegar works).  My shower hasn't felt that smooth in a long time.  So I am very happy with the results of trying out that pin.

Tried out 2 new pins today

DD1 and I made some recycled crayons.  I picked up a silicone muffin tray at the superstore while getting groceries tonight to make some recycled crayons with the broken crayons we had sorted out of her craft supplies.


There were multiple pins (and I also googled it) on how to make these crayon creations and the temperatures in the instructions all varied.  We have a gas oven and the lowest setting I read was 150 degrees all the way up to 300.  I tried 230 based on the one website - well they were not melting.  So I tried 250 and it took about 20+ min for it to melt at that temperature.  (Most sites said 15-20 min).  The first batch not all the crayons were melted and it still mixed on the top causing the yucky brown.  DD1 wanted to mix up the colours so that's what we did.  The second batch I tried to convince her to stick with more like colours but she still ended up doing some mixing.  Both batches I had one botched crayon - one wasn't fully hardened when I tried to pop it out and the 2nd time around one (which turned out nice for colour) broke in 1/2.

First Batch -Bottoms

First Batch - Tops (you can see crayons that didn't melt at all too)

2nd batch - bottoms

2nd batch - tops

We have more crayons to melt tomorrow and will see how those turn out as well.

I also made the vinegar/dawn cleaner pin which is supposed to be good for cleaning hard water stains.  We have hard water (even with our softener).  I have tried my enjo (which I love) with marble paste and everything but it just doesn't get it clean even with scrubbing.  I tried this spray on my bathroom since (which the most clean I have ever gotten it was with a magic eraser) and it has made a difference!  The hard water spots are only where the water tends to sit, so as long as the sink gets dried off in the places the water sits it should stay fairly good without having to use this all the time.  My shower is currently sprayed and waiting to see the results.  I sprayed the extension from the shower head and could already scrape some of it off with my nail without any problem. I also scrubbed the tap and the water spots have come off! (Disclaimer - I did not have BLUE dawn - I had green antibacterial ultra concentrated and it still worked - I don't know if the blue would have worked better.  Even though it was concentrated I also still made it based on the directions of 12 oz of each product).  Sorry no pictures for this one.