Household tip for the day:

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on 
your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent 
that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.

Tip of the day: Keeping Rice Grains Separate

Rice grains will stay separate and white if you add a teaspoon of lemon to the water for each quart made.

Quick-peel a Potato

Tip of the day: The power of the potato

Ever put too much salt in a soup?  Slice a raw potato and toss it in.  It absorbs a lot of the salt and you can easily remove it later.

If your hands get stained by carrots or tomatoes or greens, rub them with a raw, cut potato to get the stain off!

Water from boiled potatoes helps clean silver.

To easily peel a potato, boil the whole thing and let it sit in cold water for 5 seconds.  Wring it with your hands and it should come right off!
I'll post a tutorial next and i think your mind will be blown... besides, I love the background music!  :)

Pear Mice

Vanilla Snowmen

It is something to do with the kids when they want to be out building a snowman and it is too cold or they are sick or, like here in Utah, when the inversion makes the air quality awful.

Basically, you use vanilla ice cream for snow and  add goodies to make the face and body.

I started with a light dusting of coconut for "snow" covered ground:

Next, I made a plate of leftover Christmas candy:

Then I scooped 2-3 balls of vanilla ice cream and let them build:

Tip for the day: how to avoid spoiled veggies in the fridge

Line the bottom of your vegetable drawer in your fridge with paper towels to help absorb some of that nasty moisture that makes your produce rot faster.  Then if you do leave it in there until it is unrecognizable, just lift the paper towel out and wipe the little bit that's left out.

Fancy Grilled Cheese

Trying to diet is killing me.  I justified indulging in some buttery carbs by watching my portions and adding in a healthy sized meat and veggie serving... don't you judge me. ;)

2 slices 98 calorie bread
Butter --I still won't go margarine
Cheddar
Sliced Avacado, tomato, and lettuce
provalone

Arrange so you have one kind of cheese on each slice of lightly buttered bread and the meat and veggies in between.  Cook on medium heat in a skillet until both sides are golden brown.

I had something similar at Cubby's.  They have cranberries on theirs. SO GOOD.

Turkey Parmesan Muffins

I saw something similar a while back online, but I couldn't find it, so I improvised. It was really good!

Grease medium sized muffin tin
Preheat oven to 350

In a mixing bowl combine 1.5 lbs ground Turkey, 1 egg, 1 egg white, 3T Italian seasoning, 2 tsp crushed Garlic, 1/2 C bread crumbs, 1/2 C Parmesan cheese (grated) --don't over mix.

scoop into muffin tin 3/4 full in each section.  Top with a layer of spaghetti sauce and Mozzarella.

Bake for 20 min.

makes 8 medium sized muffins

Turkey Avocado BLT

There is some sort of sacred union in this sandwich.  If you don't want to cook the bacon, you can pay a little extra for the precooked and nuke it.

2 slices of bread
1 slice provolone cheese
sliced avocado to make a layer
Lean deli turkey
2 slices of crispy bacon
Lettuce
sliced tomato
your choice of Mayo, Miracle Whip OR ranch dressing
mustard

Layer, toast if desired and eat!

Leftover Pot Roast Fajitas

Pot roast is on my top five comfort foods.  It makes me think of home.  We do a large roast, and then use leftovers for stew, sandwiches and soups.  Yet, things can get tired after a while.  I decided to stir things up yesterday (literally as you can see) and make our leftovers more exciting.

Not everyone serves a family of eight, so I calculated the ingredients for 2 fajitas per person.  Just multiply by the number of people served.

*1 T Olive Oil
*1 cup (per person) of leftover pot roast pulled apart or cut up
*taco/fajita seasonings to taste
*1/4 bell pepper (per person) cut up
*3 cherry tomatoes
*1 T minced onion
*Favorite shredded cheese to taste
*2 tortillas (I used wheat, but any kind will do.)

 I hate dry fajitas.  If you need more oil or a bit of water while heating the meat up, go for it.
Combine all ingredients and heat. I add the peppers and tomatoes last to avoid mushy veggies.

Place on tortillas in a line, add any extra cheese you'd like and roll.

MMMMMMM.....!

Easy Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Ham fried Rice

I love Pinterest!

One of my latest finds is this tasty meal found HERE.  It is easy, light and filling and my kids vaccuum it down knowing there is plenty more.  I'm adding this to the label "under $10" because we had every indgredient but the chicken on hand which cost me six dollars to feed 8.

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts (I used the stir fry cut packages)

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

This is about half way done in the oven.  My fully finished golden brown version had a corrupted file.

Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes

Fried Rice : This is so dang easy and it tastes just like restaurant ham fried rice.   

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

1 small onion, chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup soy sauce

(I added ham)

On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated!

Toffee Bran Bars

3/4 C all purpose flour
3/4 C 100% bran, divided
1 1/4 C firmly packed light brown sugar, divided
1/2 c. margarine, melted
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C flaked coconut, toasted
1/3 C walnuts

preheat to 350

in small bowl combine

-1/2 C bran
-1/2 C brown sugar
-Margarine

Press in bottom of 13x9x2in pan, bake 10 min and set aside.

 med-sized electric mixer beat these items at high speed until foamy:

-Remaining 1/4 C bran
-3/4 C brown sugar
-eggs
-baking powder
-Vanilla

Spread over prepared crust, bake additional 25 min, or until set.

Remove pan from oven, sprinkle with chocolate chips, let stand for 5 min

spread melted chips around gently before topping with coconut and walnuts in alternating diagonal strips over chocolate.

Cool completely, cut into bars.

Almond Cream Cheese Cookies

3 oz Cream Cheese (softened)
1 C butter softened
1 C sugar
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs Milk
1/8 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 C. sifted cake flour
1 C sliced almonds, toasted

Beat cream cheese with butter and sugar until fluffy.  Blend in egg yolk, milk, and almond extract.  Gradually stir in cake flour.  Gently stir in almonds. (dough will be sticky.)  Divide dough in half; place each cardon large sheet of waxed paper, shape into 12x1 in roll.  Refrigerate until very firm.

Preheat oven to 325.  Cut rolls into 1/4 inch thick slices.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 10-15 minutes or until edges are just starting to look golden.  THESE COOKIES SHOULD NOT BROWN.  Cool on wire racks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Alternative to fried dough

I LOVE fried dough/western scones. I don't love the added oil, grease, splatters, calories, and using an entire bottle of oil I have to dispose of later.

My daughter and I, while preparing a favorite snack of fresh tortillas, decided to experiment a bit.

We liked it so much it was our breakfast this morning and was SO STINKING GOOD!
All you do is heat the uncooked tortillas on a clean dry skillet per directions on the package, butter them, and add your favorite scone toppings.

Lipton's white pizza dip

So good! So easy!  Think Really yummy Artichoke dip meets cheesy bread.

1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup (8 oz.) ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz.)
1/4 cup (1 oz.) chopped pepperoni (optional)
1 loaf Italian or French bread, sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In shallow 1-quart casserole, combine Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix, sour cream, ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.   2. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese.   3. Bake uncovered 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with bread.

Chinese Fried Rice via the Mayo Clinic

This is directly from the Mayo Clinic website.  you can see this recipe and the nutrition facts HERE

1 1/3 cups water
3/4 cup rice
3 tablespoons peanut oil
4 green onions with tops, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 carrots, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 egg
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley

In a saucepan, bring the water and rice to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is tender and has absorbed all the liquid, about 20 minutes.
In a large heavy skillet or wok, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the cooked rice and saute until lightly golden. Add the green onions, salt, carrots, peppers and peas. Stir-fry until the vegetables are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.
Hollow out a circle in the center of the skillet by pushing the vegetables and rice to the sides. Break the egg into the hollow and cook, lightly scrambling the egg as it cooks. Stir the scrambled egg into the rice mixture. Sprinkle with soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Carrot Cake Pops and a Lollipop Garden

 With a 3 year old b-day, I decided to go the Cake-pop route.  It seemed (and was) SO much less messy!  That "frosting" isn't gooey, it is firm chocolate.  YUM!  The recipe looked so easy, I couldn't pass it up.

I decided on Carrot cake, since we were going with an Easter/Spring theme. 

1 box cake made per directions on the box and cooled.

Take 1/2 of the cake and 1/2 container of Cream Cheese Frosting and mix together making a dough.

Roll into balls (or carrot shapes) and stick in the fridge 2 hours or the freezer 30 min. (Make them small... like donut hole small, or to your horror, your beautiful creation will slowly make its way down the stick and die a sad death.  With the carrot shapes, you can get a way with more weight because it it distributed differently... still, there was much bellowing and perhaps a few off color words dierected at the demise of some of my best cake pops.)

Melt white chocolate pieces and add desired food coloring.

While chocolate is melting, prepare candy sticks or dowels.  Candy sticks are a lot more pricy. (I used dowels 3/4 covered with floral tape and on the one pictured, I used floral wire covered with floral  tape to make the stem of the carrot.)

Dip the tip of the stick into the chocolate and place the firm, cold dough onto the stick. Hopefully you will have more luck dipping your dough in the chocolate.  Not only did I have to thin my chocolate out with milk a bit, but I spread it with a spatula, as the chocolate kept pulling the dough off of the stick for me.

Place in styrofoam or a candy stick holder, like the one I got at Walmart and I would suggest keeping them cool until use.  As you can see, some turned out MUCH better than others.  But the kids loved them and their faces were CLEAN!

I had seen the idea for a lollipop garden on Pinterest using Tootsie pops.

It looked so cute and all it was, was the candy stuck in a patch of grass.  Cute and easy, right?

Well, not for me.  i couldn't find Tootsie pops anywhere.  So I used dum-dums.  Well, dum-dums are significantly shorter and got lost in the grass.  So I added a mini muffin liner and tied the bottom with emroidery floss, then placed them in the actual flower garden.  Even the boys att he party liked picking these flowers.  :)

Complete with egg hunt, gift bags, coloring printable crowns and

rounds of duck-duck goose, simon says, and a bubble machine, I only spent

$30 on the entire party.

Canned vs. Martha Stewart

There was a comment left on my post about apple pie that amused me no end.  The Anonymous commenter had very obviously not read the recipe post, and furthermore, made the point of this blog more apparent to me.  The comment was: "pie filling from a can. way to go martha stewart. "  While I get that there are always people on the Internet that troll for the opportunity to be contrary and really should be ignored, I thought this was a great opportunity to explain why I began this blog.   

There is always room for easy cooking AND a little "Martha Stewart" or Emeril.

From every angle of our lives as women, homemakers, working women and moms, aunts, grandmothers, etc.  There are high expectations that either push us to frustration or make us just give up.  This is even more true when it comes to the kitchen.  This is so sad.  We are hard enough on our selves with out having to endure more fuel to our kitchen woes fire.  Food is what brings families together. In some families, it is all they do together.  If your choice for feeding your family is a bowl of cereal for dinner or eating out, every single night.... well, you're either trying so hard you can't live up to your expectations so you quit, or just not trying at all.  Yet you also don't need to spend hours cooking and creating, make a gorgeous center piece out of what once was belly button lint to add to an $80 meal your kids won't eat.



When I became a wife and mom, I knew how to make very few things.  Sure, I had enough basics to follow a recipe and I knew a few basic recipes by heart.  It wasn't until I began gaining the collective kitchen knowledge of the family my hubby and I had and our more artsy-foodie friends, that I began to realize how much variety and availability each household and situation has.  Not to mention the camaraderie in cooking with other women.  Some of my best friends have shared a kitchen and their table with me and I have been honored to have them at mine.  We can all learn from each other is we put aside those crazy expectations of perfection and just be one of the girls who knows her way around a kitchen.

Some nights you are on the run; some mornings you just don't feel like making a big fuss.  There are those days when you are so sick of coming up with lunch ideas that you want to scream and call the pizza guy.  Then you look at how much you've already called the pizza guy and how much you could have spent eating real food.  Here is a place you can grab an idea and whip something up that enriches your family, your health and your confidence as a homemaker.  Now, if you have time to make it look amazing, then more power to you.

A woman who loves to feed her family is a woman who thinks about other people and what is best for them.  The secret is she doesn't have to break her neck or the bank to do it.

So YEP!  Canned is great if that's what you've got.  Because, be it pie filling or veggies or cream of something casserole, it sure beats Del Taco for the umpteenth time this month, is more nutritious and your family will think you care about them... particularly if you make it look nice.  Think about it.  If you take your kids to a fancy restaurant, tell them to order cheap or split a meal so you can eat nice, it isn't the same as making that same meal in the all you can eat form for 8 people at the cost of one plate at the restaurant.  That makes your kids and hubby happy and you have more money left to do an activity with your family.

I have a load of recipes that make my family feel loved and special and it only takes a little elbow grease, 30 minutes and 10-15 dollars to do it.  And they all agree a place setting is so much more personal than the gift bag full of greasy, who knows what's really in it, here just eat, "food."

Happy Cooking, Ladies!  Oh, and to Anonymous:  Eating good food makes you less grumpy.  You should try one of our recipes.  ;)

Apple Pie

Richard's Grandma said she loved apple pie as dessert for her traditional Irish dinners.  She's no longer with us, but the tradition continues.
I have some odd inability to make a decent pie crust, so I buy mine.

You can be lazy and buy canned pie filling, (this way often lacks flavor) but the best way to make the pie filling is finding tart apples, and following on of the many recipes such as this one by Paula Dean.  I find apple pie filling to be like a bread recipe.  Everyone has a recipe they love, but few of them are truly bad.

The bottom layer needs to be poked with a fork to keep its shape and keep from bubbling.  Trim the outside of the bottom crust so it doesn't go over the sides.

dump pie filling into bottom crust and even out as best as possible.

Place the top layer, centered, on top of the fruit.  Use your fingers to "close the lid" and pinch the crust all the way around.  Sprinkle with sugar.

Use a small, sharp knife, like a paring knife to make air holes.  you can be creative or just make large slits.

Cover crust edges with foil. You do this because the crust will brown well before the middle of the pie is done with out it.  By the time the pie is done, with out foil, the crust will burn on the edges.

Bake at 400 for 20-30 min and remove foil.  Continue to bake until crust is browned.

Voila!