Move Your Butt Monday . . . The Kitchen

Now I know the title sounds scary – The Kitchen.  It isn’t the whole kitchen.  I am asking you to pick one thing – your spice drawer or your cabinet where you keep your Tupperware.  You know you have that scary Tupperware cabinet.  I am not asking you to go out and buy new things.  You don’t have to do that.  I did.  I got rid of all of my plastic ware.  I wanted to get glass but my husband said he would break it at work and since I pack all of his lunches and he is the one that uses the plastic ware I did not buy glass.

Here is a before and after of my plastic ware:

Here is what I did.  I took everything out.  I kept a few things and then I did buy those lock lid Rubbermaid things.  I wanted the lids to fit together.  I was tired of all of the mish mash.  I did invest a little less than $20.  There is a few ways to keep your plastic ware.  A book I read suggested that you put all of the lids onto the proper container.  If it doesn’t have a lid – get rid of it.  Then you may store them like that although that does take up more room.  If you don’t want to store them that way take a plastic container and put all of your lids in there.  You are still going to have to search for a lid but at least the lids will all be in one place.

Now onto the spices:

In the plastic container is where I keep any mixes in a pouch that I might have.  I do try to make my own, but I am not superwoman.  I also wanted to label the lids of the spices but I just ran out of labels for my labelmaker so I will be doing this soon.  Some of my spices already come with their lids labeled.  As you can tell I moved them from a cabinet to a drawer and this has worked SO much better for me.

So your assignment this week is to tackle one thing – a drawer or a shelf in your kitchen.  Take everything out and reorganize or throw away or better yet – give away!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you do or if you have a post with pictures I will link it to this post.

Happy Monday!

Homemade Hamburger Bun Recipe

This recipe is from a friend from church – thanks Anna!  The pictures of her hamburger buns are MUCH better than mine.

These are her notes:  **This is my Hamburger bun recipe that I LOVE and is super easy…

I use my bread machine to make the dough and then shape as needed. Again, I use all instant yeast, so any water needed in a recipe can be cold – make it warm if you use a different yeast:)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk (warm if non-instant yeast)

2 tablespoons butter, melted, cooled

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 1/2 to 2 3/4 bread flour, divided

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast

1 egg white, lightly beaten

sesame seeds

Mix as you would for bread in your bread maker – liquids then dry stuff  – set on dough setting and once it is done…

move to a clean bowl and cover and let rise for 30 minutes or so until doubled in size (I grease my bowls)

Gently punch down dough to deflate; place on lightly floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Form each into a ball; place on a cookie sheet (I grease mine instead of using parchment paper). Cover and let stand 3 minutes. Flatten into just about 4 in rounds. Cover with towel and let rise 15 minutes.

Place another lightweight baking sheet/pan on top of the buns (helps to make them flatter and more even) and let rise another 25 minutes until almost doubled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly brush the tops of the buns with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Allow to cool on a wire rack. After completely cooling, I wrap mine in foil and then place into freezer bags and freeze – I use them in 2s and they thaw and reheat wonderfully!

***My notes:  I did not do the thirty minute rise and they still turned out very good.  They were really delicious and I would make them again.  I think I may try half whole wheat flour next time.  Yet another reason to love my breadmaker.  Also, I did not use the egg white and sesame seeds.  I just brushed them with butter and called it a day.

For more recipes please visit:

Tasty Tuesdays at Beauty and Bedlam

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

Move your Butt Monday – The Fridge

You probably thought I was going to talk about exercise didn’t you?  Well, I guess I am talking about a different kind of exercise.  Move your Butt Monday is something my cousin and I are going to be taking turns hosting.  We are doing this mostly to get ourselves motivated, but you are welcome to join us in tackling things that need to be done around your house.  We liked the “Make your Home a Haven” idea but no one seems to be doing it so we decided to.  Of course “Make your Home a Haven” is such a nice and polite title, but my cousin is a little more crass than I (right Amee) so she titled it “Move your Butt Monday” and really it does make you want to get up and do something right?

First of all, head on over to her blog and she will give you very good instructions on how to get started.  Today we are working on cleaning up our fridge.

After much sickness this weekend I feel like I need to clean everything so why not start with the the fridge:

Before

And After:

Looks a little empty now doesn’t it?  I still need to tackle the top of the fridge where we keep our snacks, but I need to go get a few baskets for that this week.

Don’t forget to head over to Klutzymama’s blog and see what she did.  We will be doing this every Monday.  We are going to keep thing simple.  Also, we are not doing a Mr. Linky but we will add your’s to our post if you leave us a comment.

Simple Family Supper

Tonight we had the privilege of having Heather from Simple Family Suppers come to our Titus 2 meeting at our church.  She spoke on the importance of family supper.  She brought her friend Kiersten to be her worship leader.  She gave spiritual encouragement and practical advice.    She really encouraged us that we do not have to do it all.  We don’t have to be so hard on ourselves.  She talked about starting simply.  The focus was on sitting down at the table together as a family at least once a day.   One thing she said really stuck out to me, “Use the family meal to fight for your family“.  If you have been reading my blog you know how I feel about Sunday dinner.  She provided research that states the good things that happen to children who sit down with their family to eat once a day.

I could go on and on.  She has some E-books for sale.  She has a blog and a Simple Family Suppers facebook page.  She sells monthly menu kits.  I did get to see her November’s menu and it is really comprehensive and there are some wonderful recipes in there as well.  I would encourage you to check out her e-books!

We hope to have her back at our church soon.

Thank you Heather, I know there is so much more we could learn from you!

Please visit Heather at her blog, Choosing Simplicity, More than Survival.

For more Frugal Friday posts, please visit Life as a Mom.

Freezer meal wrap up and recipe

I found this recipe for Zesty BBQ Chicken.  It is so easy and delicious.  Here is the recipe for those of you who don’t want to click the site:

Ingredients

• 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbeque sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
2. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low.

Now, here is how you can use this in three different ways:

1.  Make sandwiches

2.  Put the warm chicken on a spinach salad.  I used spinach, the chicken, cheese and sliced almonds and it was so delicious that you do not even need dressing.

3.  Put it on baked potatoes.

This really is a super easy recipe and there are so many ways to use it.  Did I mention that it freezes very well also?

Now onto my OAMC:

My OAMC day was halted on Tuesday.  I went to pick up our beef.  We order from a local farmer.  I picked up a quarter which is 180 lbs. of beef people!  Well, I split it with 2 other people.  But they couldn’t pick up the meat from me until next week so my freezer is literally stuffed completely full of meat.  I don’t think I could get anything else in there.  So I will have to save some of my freezing for next week.

Here is my original list:

Breakfast:

Quiche in a Bag (but made in muffins – using muffins and muffin liners)

Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins from Deceptively Delicious

Doughnuts from Deceptively Delicious

Breakfast cookies

Lunch:

Corndog Muffins

Pita Pizzas with spinach puree (from Deceptively Delicious) – DONE

Popcorn Chicken

Dinners:

Day 1:

Chicken Mix and Broth (use 4 roasters) – DONE

Master Beef Mix (5 lbs. of meat)

Day 2:

Chicken Bombay (2)

Chicken and Dumplings (can be done in the crock pot as well) (2)

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken – another crock pot recipe

Brown Sugar Chicken – another slow cooker – DONE

Zesty BBQ Chicken – DONE and delicious!

Dump Maple Mustard Chicken – one bag no cooking

*With the chicken mix, beans and the chili garlic paste I can make these meals on the day of:   Sour Cream Enchiladas and Burrito Pie and quesadillas and Creamy Chicken Casserole – make like sour cream enchiladas try it?.

*With the meat mix I can make sloppy joes, bacon cheeseburger roll up, cheesy beef and rice casserole, taco mac, Mexican stuffed shells

Desserts/Snacks:

Peanut Butter Honey Bars (I am going to add flaked coconut and I had to bake them about 5-10 minutes longer to get them set)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (I do use all whole wheat flour and coconut oil instead of shortening)

Lynn’s No Bake Cookie Bars

Mixes/sides:

Alfredo Sauce (can be used with pre-cooked chicken and some pasta and broccoli)

Rice – make 10 cups and portion into 2 cup portions and freeze

Chili Garlic Paste – DONE

Black eyed peas – DONE

Brown Beans – DONE

Black beans – DONE

Baking:

Pita Pockets – DONE

I also made some whole wheat pumpkin scones and cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole, but it will all be gone tomorrow since I have play group at my house.

So I did not get everything done.  I will hopefully do that next week when my freezer is a little less full.

This post is listed at:

Life as a Mom’s Ultimate Recipe Swap

Dining with Debbie’s Crockpot Wednesday

Four Months Old and Batman, a Cheerleader and a Cow

My little man is four months old now.  He went to the doctor and is now 15 lbs. and 26 1/2 inches.  He is 20th percentile in weight and 90th percentile in height.  He is by far my chubbiest baby.  Usually my babies stay skinny for quite a while.  The tide has turned.  I have to say though he is not quite as big as my friend, Cari’s son Rigg.  You see Rigg and Caleb were born one day apart at the same hospital.  We were on the same floor just a little ways down from each other.  He was almost a pound bigger then.  Anyway, Cari updated us on Mr. Rigg so I thought I would update on Caleb.  I have stolen an idea from my friend Amy (thanks Amy!).  She did the sign with her son every month and I thought it was so cute.  At least Caleb will have some leverage with the other two because I didn’t do it with them.

Happy with the pacifier

Not so thrilled

Now he's really not happy

And now some pictures of Batman, a cheerleader and a cow:

 

Preemie baby hat tutorial – sewing

My cousin had a baby last year.  She delivered 9 weeks early.  We were all pretty shocked when she went into labor.  Well, she had a baby boy and he weighed about 2 1/2 pounds.  He did very well fortunately.  So she decided that this year she would put together goody bags for moms whose babies are in the NICU during the holidays.  She has gotten quite a few donations.  My contribution is preemie hats.  I found this free pattern online so I thought I would share with you how to make one.

First, go here and print off the free pattern.

Now, fold the fabric in half with wrong sides together and cut out the pattern.  Make sure it is stretchy where the fabric indicates.

Now fold the material with the right sides facing each other.

Now sew the material as the pattern indicates.

According to the pattern you should: Roll one end up around the outside of the other so that
the wrong sides are together and points are matching.  I find a picture to be helpful in understanding exactly what that says (it could just be me).

Adjust opening so that all of the seams match up in the middle top. Serge/sew a straight seam across the top through all layers.

Turn top seam to inside of hat.

Roll up bottom of hat to make brim.

And here is my daughter’s baby doll modeling the hat:

This is a really easy sewing project and very worthwhile.  I would advise calling your local hospital to see what their policies are regarding donations.

It is the tiniest little hat and so sweet.  I can’t imagine what those moms go through watching their little ones being so tiny and struggling.  I am very thankful my cousin’s son came through very well and is now a healthy 11 month old.

Also, if you are in the Indianapolis area and would like to donate something please leave me a comment and I will e-mail you with the details.

To see what others are tackling today, please visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Menu Plan Monday and November OAMC

Well, this works out well, apparently Crystal from Money Saving Mom is going to be doing a baking/cooking day this week and I had planned to get the rest of my OAMC done this week as well.  They have set up a Facebook page if anyone wants to join.  My menu this week is posted at the end.

Here is my OAMC plan:

Breakfast:

Quiche in a Bag (but made in muffins – using muffins and muffin liners)

Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins from Deceptively Delicious or Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins from Deceptively Delicious

Doughnuts from Deceptively Delicious

Breakfast cookies

Lunch:

Corndog Muffins

Pita Pizzas with spinach puree (from Deceptively Delicious) – DONE

Popcorn Chicken

Dinners:

Day 1:

Chicken Mix and Broth (use 4 roasters) – DONE

Master Beef Mix (5 lbs. of meat)

Day 2:

Chicken Bombay (2)

Chicken and Dumplings (can be done in the crock pot as well) (2)

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken – another crock pot recipe

Brown Sugar Chicken – another slow cooker – DONE

Zesty BBQ Chicken – DONE and delicious!

Dump Maple Mustard Chicken – one bag no cooking

*With the chicken mix, beans and the chili garlic paste I can make these meals on the day of:   Sour Cream Enchiladas and Burrito Pie and quesadillas and Creamy Chicken Casserole – make like sour cream enchiladas try it?.

*With the meat mix I can make sloppy joes, bacon cheeseburger roll up, cheesy beef and rice casserole, taco mac, Mexican stuffed shells

Desserts/Snacks:

Peanut Butter Honey Bars (I am going to add flaked coconut and I had to bake them about 5-10 minutes longer to get them set)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (I do use all whole wheat flour and coconut oil instead of shortening)

Lynn’s No Bake Cookie Bars

Mixes/sides:

Alfredo Sauce (can be used with pre-cooked chicken and some pasta and broccoli)

Rice – make 10 cups and portion into 2 cup portions and freeze

Chili Garlic Paste – DONE

Black eyed peas – DONE

Brown Beans – DONE

Black beans – DONE

Baking:

Pita Pockets – DONE

Seems like a lot, some of it is done and the rest of it is pretty easy.

Here is my menu this week:

Breakfasts - toast, bananas and eggs; peanut butter baked oatmeal and peaches; breakfast casserole and fruit; quiche in a bag muffins and bananas

Lunch - pita pizzas, leftovers, corndog muffins, chicken nuggets; peanut butter sandwiches, veggies and fruit

Dinner -

Zesty BBQ Chicken, roasted potatoes and spinach salad, oranges

Baked potatoes with leftover Zesty BBQ Chicken and salad, peaches

Enchilada bake, corn and fruit

Pizza

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken and rice and broccoli

To see what  others are having, please visit Org Junkie.

**And I just found out that Cheryl from Moms in Need of Mercy will be hosting a monthly “Once a Month Cooking Festival” on the first of every month so I am linking up there as well.

A preview of what we are doing tonight . . .

Just some things

This will probably be another random posts.  You love them don’t you?  I have lots of things on my mind lately and it is getting more difficult to focus on one thing at a time.  Even my little daughter is starting to multi-task.  She was pretending to talk on my cell phone while putting away some candles that she had gotten down.  My husband and I looked knowingly at each other.

I just wanted to share some things I have been thinking about.

You should go over and read a post by Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking.  Her blog is so wonderful.  She is so encouraging and practical.  She suggests we take a weekly planning and praying retreat.

I have been thinking a lot about food storage lately.  I know you all probably know of the Prudent Homemaker blogs.  Her food organization is awesome.  Now I just have to figure out where to start, where to store my food and how to convince my husband we need a year’s worth of food (ha, ha, ha – I am laughing at the thought of this).  I am going to set aside some of my grocery budget for 5 gallon food storage buckets and gamma lids.  I use A LOT of flour.  And I just discovered that they sell a 50 lb. bag of popcorn at Sam’s.  Oh, I will be getting that tomorrow.  We go through popcorn like nobody’s business.

Also, regarding homeschooling, I am feeling more and more like I should.  I am doing a little bit, but I am keeping it super simple.  I have talked about it before.  Right now I am working through the book Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  He is doing so well.  I cannot believe it.  We don’t follow the book completely.  We don’t do the writing exersizes.  We just sit on the couch and do about 5-10 minutes a day.  I highly recommend this book because I have a boy who doesn’t like to focus that much or sit still and he does this book and he is reading some words and short sentences.  It is so amazing watching your child learn to read right there beside you while you are teaching him.

We are also working on “character training”.  I am having the kids (my 4 and 2 year old) sit on the couch with some books.  They sit quietly and are not allowed to get up and are only allowed to whisper.  Last week we did this for 5 minutes at a time.  This week we are doing 10 minutes at a time and I hope to work up to at least 30 minutes.  I make them run around the house and do jumping jacks after it though.  It seems to be working pretty well.  I am doing this so that they can learn some self discipline and also be able to sit quietly while in church or other places.

We start the morning with reading some Bible stories and going over our memory verses.  I am relaxed and we do most of it on the couch after breakfast.

Anyway, those are some things that we have been working on.  I told you this was going to be random. What have you all been up to?  I want to know.