Top 12 In 2012

Can you believe that today is the last day of 2012?

I thought it would be fitting to leave with you my top 12 favorite posts from 2012.

1. Settling In--We bought our first home this year!
2. Room To Breathe-- Stay tuned as I revamp our routines in the new year and continue to find my groove in my ever-changing schedule!
3. Resourceful Drawer Pulls-- Still love these!
4. Dear Cookies
5. Valentine Getaway
6. 7 Things We Don't Usually Spend Money On
7. Expensive Free-Range Chicken Challenge--Continuing to work on stretching the grocery budget and using resources wisely in order to afford  better quality food!
8. Inexpensive Photo Album Gifts
9. Gingham Pennant Garland Fun
10. Birthday Party
11. How Not To Be A Good Host
12. Mailbox Facelift

Happy New Year!

See you in 2013!

Chili Dog Casserole

I've been craving chili dogs recently and wondered how I could make a bunless gooey casserole version to switch up our Saturday night hotdog dinner.

A quick google search told me I was not alone in making something like this! One version I saw used croutons for the bread part which certainly sounds delicious!

Basically, I looked at a couple recipes, picked out a hot dog chili recipe to try and then layered the ingredients in a baking dish.

30 minutes later, we had hot bubbly gooey deliciousness!

Down here in the South, we eat our chili dogs with slaw on top. I believe that's referred to as "all the way".  I used to think that sounded and looked gross...until I tried it. It is so good!

I made coleslaw to serve with this casserole. Whether you eat it on top or on the side is up to you!

This recipe fills an 8-9 inch square baking dish and serves 2-4. Double the recipe to fill a 9x13 pan.

This would be a good freezer meal-- assemble recipe and freeze before baking.

Chili Dog Casserole 

Serves 2-4 

4 hot dogs, sliced in rounds
1 recipe prepared hot dog chili or buy a can from the store, whatever floats your boat
Shredded cheddar cheese, probably about 1 cup
Yellow mustard, optional
Chopped onion
Ketchup, optional--I'm a mustard girl when it comes to hot dogs. But hey, if you like your ketchup, by all means, knock yourself out!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place hot dogs in a greased 8-9 inch square pan. Cover with chili. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Squeeze mustard and/or ketchup on top, if desired. Sprinkle with chopped onion.

Spoon this gooey yumminess on a  plate and eat with coleslaw!

Freezer Casseroles

This week, I'm going to be stocking my freezer with some casseroles and other easy to heat and serve dishes.

We have family coming to visit us during the month of December and I thought some freezer meals would come in very handy so I'm not spending all of my time in the kitchen while they're here.

I was inspired by Good Cheap Eats to have some casseroles ready to just pop in the oven! Then all I'll have to do is serve a simple side or two such as a salad and/or veggie to have a filling meal. We won't have casseroles every night---we'll change things up with some crockpot meals too.

 Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash prepared and ready to freeze!

Since changing our eating habits, I've realized that we don't eat that many actual "casseroles" anymore.

But I've come up with a decent list that includes some "tried and true" recipes that we like as well as a few new ones!

Tried and True:

• Unstuffed Pepper Bake
• Chicken and Brown Rice Stuffing Bake
• Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash--I hadn't thought of freezing this recipe until I saw this!
• Several Egg Casseroles for breakfasts. 

New to Me:

• Broccoli Chicken Cheese Bake
• Ham and Swiss Pork Chops- from this cookbook.
• Pineapple Chicken--also from this cookbook.

Not Really Casseroles but Easy Make Ahead Meals:

• Meatballs
• Sloppy Joes-in-a bowl: Freeze sloppy joe meat, cooked brown rice and some shredded cheddar cheese in a meal kit. Serve with chopped onions, black olives, pickles, tomatoes, peppers or whatever you desire!

I'll start working on this list tomorrow and see how it goes. Even if I only do half of the things on my list, I will still be a couple of steps ahead making for a smoother December!

What's your favorite freezer recipe? 
 

Bumbo Seat Recall

Bumbo has issued a voluntary recall on some of their seats due to the fact that an infant can fall out.

 

To correct this problem, they are sending repair kits which include a safety belt for the Bumbo and a warning sticker to place on the outside of the seat.

My husband jokes that the sticker is to provide reading material for the baby. :-)

Since I have a new baby starting soon, I went ahead and requested my repair kit. It arrived a couple of days later and I installed the new safety belt last night.

Ready for baby!

Just a FYI to any of you who have Bumbo seats--you may want to check and see if yours was included in the recall!

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pie

This Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pie was my "fancy new recipe" contribution to our Thanksgiving dinner. When I saw the recipe in the November issue of Southern Living, I knew I wanted to make it!

This recipe called for a long list of yummy and not-so-healthy ingredients. Which is why we served it for Thanksgiving dinner. Because a) Thanksgiving is a holiday so therefore, we can eat whatever we want, right? and b) We had plenty of people to share it with so we didn't eat it all ourselves!

Anyways, this pie was to. die. for.

 What could be better than chocolate chips? Chocolate chips with cream, cream cheese and sugar, of course!

And since the chocolate layer isn't rich enough, why don't we add caramels, butter, cream, sugar and nuts?

Yes, why don't we?

Chocolate-Caramel Pecan Pie, ready to serve!

**Click the link above for the recipe!
**I substituted walnuts for the pecans. 

Thanksgiving "Shepherd's" Pie In The Crockpot

Another delicious way to use Thanksgiving leftovers!

I layered a variety of Thanksgiving favorites in the crockpot for our weekly church fellowship potluck today. The result was very good!

Ingredients(varying amounts of each; this is a "use what you have" dish!):

• Stuffing
• Chopped turkey
• Gravy
• Green bean casserole**--other vegetables can also be used.
• Mashed potatoes

My gravy was extra thick on Thursday and it always gels up when cold anyways, so I put it in a saucepan and added a little milk.  Then I whisked it while it heated on low until it was nice and smooth. Still a good gravy consistency but not nearly so thick--it stretched a little further this way!

Cold mashed potatoes are usually pretty clumpy too, so I added some milk to those as well and stirred.

To make your Thanksgiving "Shepherd's" Pie, layer in a  greased crockpot:

1. Stuffing.
2. Chopped turkey.
3. About half of gravy.
4. Green bean casserole** or other veggies. 
5. Mashed potatoes.
6. Gravy. 

That's it! Cook on low for about 4 hours.

The layers and flavors all kind of mix together into something very yummy and comforting!  I wasn't sure how it would end up in the crockpot but was very pleased with the result.

**I had mixed feelings about putting Green Bean Casserole in this. But it tasted great--I think the extra flavors from the sauce really helped the whole dish.

Keep in mind that your crockpot should be at least half full to cook properly. I used a 5 quart and added an extra thick layer of mashed potatoes to fill it up more!

Buy Handmade!

In honor of Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, get 20% off anything in my shop when you use the coupon code CYBERMONDAY12 at checkout!

Coupon code good through  Monday 11/26/12.

Thanks for looking!

Turkey Dinner Soup

I bookmarked this recipe a while back to make with Thanksgiving leftovers! It's from the cookbook Is It Soup Yet?

If using leftovers, this soup comes together in about 15 minutes. I made it for lunch today and we both really liked it!

Turkey Dinner Soup
Serves 4

2 cups turkey or chicken broth
2 cups leftover cooked vegetables: such as cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, corn, green beans
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon celery salt (I left this out since I didn't have any.)
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons cooked whole cranberries (optional)

Pour broth into a medium-sized saucepan. Add vegetables, dill weed, celery salt, and salt. Cook vegetables for 10 minutes on medium-high heat until heated up. Add turkey and potatoes. Pour 1/2 cup milk into soup and heat through. Whisk 2 T. flour and 2 T. milk together. Add to soup, stirring well. Serve immediately. Top with a spoonful of cooked cranberries if desired!

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Dinner

We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for twelve at our house this year!

Preparations are well underway.

Several side dishes are in the freezer, the turkey has been roasted and sliced and pie crusts have been made.

Mom shared with me how a turkey can be baked ahead of time and reheated on Thanksgiving Day. Wrap the sliced meat in foil. Freeze or refrigerate. Place foil packs in crockpot and heat before serving. I've tried this before and the meat was very tender and fresh!

Doing the turkey in advance is nice because then you don't have the big turkey to take care of at the same time as everything else!

Pie crusts have been made. I planned to buy pie crusts this year but at the last minute decided to just make my own since I had all the ingredients. I'm no expert when it comes to pie crusts( lots of patches to cover tears!) and while my homemade ones won't win any beauty contests, they taste ok!


Thanksgiving Menu

My sister and family are coming for Thanksgiving plus some local friends. My sister and I are doing the bulk of the cooking but the other guests are bringing some things too. I've marked my contributions with an *. I think we'll have plenty of food!


Turkey*
Ham
Gravy*
Mashed Potatoes*
Green Bean Casserole*
Butternut Squash Casserole*--changed this recipe a bit and used squash instead of pumpkin.
Brown Rice Stuffing*
Stuffing*--we love Stovetop!
Artichoke Casserole
Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Applesauce*
Olives*
Pickles
Deviled Eggs
Another side dish or two from guests

Pumpkin Pie*
Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie*
Another dessert or two from guests

Cranberry Juice mixed with Ginger Ale*
Sweet Tea

What's on your Thanksgiving menu?

Broccoli

This head of broccoli was picked from my fall garden today.

I planted 6 broccoli plants and now all 6 have broccoli heads growing. Most are still very small--this big guy was the first!

We watched him grow for quite a while and finally decided he was big enough to cut.

I'm super excited about my success with broccoli. I've been a rather negligent gardener this season... Broccoli will certainly be on my list to grow again in late winter/early spring. 

I planted broccoli and cabbage plants for my inaugural fall garden and so far, so good. I planted green bean seeds too, but none of them came up.

It would be fun to serve broccoli from our garden at our Thanksgiving dinner!

Snippets Of Life

• I sent in our registration for an event the other day. This morning, the event coordinator sent a nice email thanking us for registering and asking what the extra enclosed $12 cash was for. Well, we have absolutely no idea where it came from or why I had enclosed it! So we figured the best route was to just give that as a donation!
• Toddler Girl mentioned her "Urkle Mark" (Uncle) the other day.
• One of Baby Boy's favorite "chores" is helping to feed Rock. When we mention feeding the dog, he runs to the laundry room door and waits to go in and get the food for him. I measure it out and he proudly carries it to the dog bowl. The food occasionally does get dumped elsewhere but B.B. still mostly thinks picking up things is fun so it works. 
• Overheard in the grocery store parking lot. Mother to son in the most gentle of tones: "No. It was like you were an animal in there!" 
• Andy on men and women: "Men wear dress shirts. Women wear shirt dresses!" 
• Toddler Girl ate a huge lunch one day. I asked her," Did you eat a big lunch?" Smiling proudly, she responded," I ate a big lunch! It was fun!" 
• It had been one of "those mornings".  It had stopped raining but the ground was still too wet to play in the backyard. So I decided we would go for a walk. And I did mean walk! No stroller for little people to ride in, we were going to all get some exercise (read: wear little folks out so they'd take a good nap)! I told Toddler Girl we were going to get some exercise. About halfway through  the walk she said, "This is exercise!"  
• Baby Boy (soon to be known as Toddler Boy) is quite attached to his Pooh bear. The other day, he and Pooh came over to be cuddled. As I picked them up, I said, "I love a boy and his Pooh!" Then I thought about what I'd said... We won't say that anymore. LOL!!!
• Toddler Girl is very into everyone else's business and likes to make sure all of our ducks are in a row, so to speak. Andy said jokingly one day, "T.G., we need to talk about ducks!" To which she replied quickly, "Talk about Baby Boy's ducks!" Case in point. Hahaha 
• And one more about Toddler Girl--she is in such a  cute stage right now:  She loves to sing and make up songs as she goes. We were out for a stroller ride and T.G. was singing and humming very happily. Then she sang, "We take shoes off in the bouncy house!"

What's going on in your life? 

Pumpkin Cooking

Our neighbors gave us 2 big pumpkins a few weeks ago. I used them as outdoor decor for a while and then brought them in to cook before they started to rot.

Pumpkins can be hard to cut when raw, so I followed these instructions on how to cook whole pumpkins in the oven.

Super easy!

I got 12 cups pumpkin puree from the 2 pumpkins. I froze some in 2 cup portions(equivalent to a can of pumpkin) for many baking recipes and some in 3 cup portions which is perfect for pumpkin soup.

Some yummy pumpkin recipes we like:

Pumpkin bread
Pumpkin spice oatmeal (although since going mostly grain-free, I gag at the thought of eating a bowl of oatmeal!)
Pumpkin soup (I add chicken)
Roasted pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin pancakes
Cooked pumpkin with butter and salt & pepper

I'd also like to try this crustless pumpkin pie, although making a regular pumpkin pie recipe without the crust works just fine too!

What's your favorite pumpkin recipe?

Saving The Change

One tidbit I took away from reading Money Saving Mom's book earlier this year was her suggestion of saving $1.25 each week.

She explained that while $1.25 only adds up to $5.00 a month and saving $5.00 a month equals only $60.00 a year, it's getting into the habit of saving money. Typically, once you  start seeing a little money start to add up, you will look for other ways to increase your saving.

We are already in the habit of saving pretty consistently but I decided to take her challenge! Even an extra $60 a year sounded good to me! And I knew that we would be needing to purchase some furniture before too long and some extra cash to set aside for that would be super nice.

 I began by adding $1.25 to the fund each week by using some change left in our grocery envelope.  At the end of each month, I went through all of our cash envelopes and saved the change. I also began to save half of my "play money" ($10) each month and added that to my little stash  as well.

As our pile of change began to grow, we dubbed it "The Couch Fund" as a couch was one of the first items we needed to purchase.

We started our little fund in March and by July we were able to purchase some furniture off Craigslist-- a couch ($85), patio table ($60) and 4 patio chairs ($15).

I will note that we had also stashed the earnings from a spring yard sale (approx. $150) and also $100 we made by selling an extra lawn mower that was left for us by the previous owner of our house. These two "deposits" helped to beef up our little fund a lot!

We're still squirreling extra change away regularly hoping to purchase a new-to-us dining room table and chairs soon.  We continue to watch Craigslist and thrift stores/yard sales and while we wait to find just what we're looking for, we continue to add to our savings!

Once we purchase a table, a vacuum cleaner (new or factory-refurbished) is next on the list!

I like that we haven't had to add another category to our budget to save for these things but have been able to squeeze some extra change out of the existing budget instead. 

Yes, this takes more time than putting a purchase on the credit card! But it is so rewarding to see your savings grow and then to be able to pay with cash.

We started filling this jug with our extra pennies back in 2007. We wonder how long it will take to fill!

**This post is part of Frugal Friday over at Life As Mom.

Stick Wreath

One thing we have in abundance at our house is sticks! The little ones love to pick them up and play with them.

So when I saw this cute stick wreath featured on Crafting a Green World, I knew this would be a good fall project for my little brood.

All of us were able to participate in gathering a basket full of sticks and then the next morning, Toddler Girl and I assembled the wreath.

For the cardboard circle, I traced a dinner plate onto cardboard (used one of our recently emptied moving boxes!) and then used a bowl to trace the inner circle.

In the tutorial, she wrapped her cardboard circle with twine but I didn't have any so I used strips of burlap instead. A nice rustic and natural look!

I squeezed tacky glue for each stick and T.G. stuck them on the wreath! Tacky glue takes a long time to dry; I set the wreath out of reach for the rest of the day.

Yes, hot glue would be faster but then T.G. wouldn't have been able to help which was really the point of this project! And I have a love/hate relationship with hot glue--it doesn't always work as well as I think it should!

A brown gingham ribbon was used for hanging and our stick wreath is now hanging by the door where the littles hang their coats and bags.

We love our simple fall wreath!

Snippets Of Life

• Toddler Girl saw me getting Baby Boy's pacifier (which attaches to him with a clip). She said, " Oh, _______(Baby Boy's) leash!"  LOL!!!
• We have a little weather station in the house which tells the temperature and shows a little man dressed in weather appropriate attire. On this morning, Andy announced that we should be wearing wet suits, trench coats and hats. Hahaha 

• In the "things you never thought you would say" file-- Me: "Let's not wipe our noses with the lion's tail!" 
• A black sock accidentally got in with the load of whites to which I added bleach. It's kind of a blackish brown now...
• A wooden skewer works to unlock inside doors....
• Toddler Girl has been talking about "horsey-ducks".  
• Toddler Girl said she wanted Andy the other day.  He picked her up and she wiggled out of his arms and pointed to me saying, "No, that one!" She can say my name but prefers instead to refer to me as "Mommy" or her latest, "You!"
• I asked Andy the other day if the pants I was wearing made me look "extra plump". He assured me that no, they didn't. What was he supposed to say!?! We've been laughing about it ever since. Extra Plump. It could be a new size--XP. LOL!!!
• Baby Boy is usually circling as I get Toddler Girl settled in for her nap. She sprawls out on her mat and says, "Kiss!". He comes over and kisses her. She did this yesterday then called to him again- "Hug!" He came and kissed her again. She has it made, doesn't she? 
• This post is brought to you by Prednisone, which I've been on for a week now, due to an allergic reaction. It's amazing how energetic I feel when taking this stuff! I also eat a lot...

Pinned It, Made It: Can I Clean My Bathrooms In 15 Minutes?

Can I clean my bathrooms in 15 minutes?

Always looking for ways to streamline my cleaning tasks, I pinned this article that tells how to clean two bathrooms quickly--in 15 minutes!

The question was: Would it work for me?

Well, let's find out!

Before starting the timer, I gathered all rags and supplies, including mop water.

I then set the timer for 20 minutes since I was planning to sweep and mop as well. (In the blog post, she did floors another day.) Floors already take me a while to complete--we have a good amount of hardwoods--so I'd rather just do the bathroom floors at the same time as the bathrooms!

She suggests starting with mirrors them cleaning toilet in Bathroom #1. I squirted toilet cleaner in both rooms first. Then back to #1.

Bathroom #1: Clean mirror, spray sink, counters and toilet with cleaner. (We don't use the shower/tub in this room so no need to clean weekly!) Run to Bathroom #2.

And yes, I'm cracking myself up with my references to the bathrooms as #1 and #2. LOL!!!

Bathroom #2: Clean mirrors. Spray sink, counters, toilet, tub/shower. Run back to #1.

Quickly scrub toilet and wipe down what was sprayed before. Repeat in #2.

Look at timer--exactly 15 minutes!

Back in #1, sweep floor and mop. Run to #2 and do the same thing.

Finish up just as timer beeps--20 minutes from start to finish!

The verdict:
It worked! But I moved fast--no dilly dallying!


My notes:
This was enough time to quickly do the basics but no extras such as dusting or wiping down cabinet doors. I'll do these things as needed on another day when I do dusting and cleaning surfaces.

This worked well for my size of bathrooms--small-average size.  Large rooms may take longer to clean.

I'm a timer motivated cleaner so this method is working really well for me-- I'm not as apt to put it off when I know it will be done in 15-20 minutes!

**This post is part of Pinned It, Made It Monday at Country Girl At Home.

Winner!

The winner of the pumpkin giveaway is...

Wendi!

She commented that what she loves most about fall:

"The thing I love most about fall is the changing leaves. It is like a new picture outside my window each day."


Congratulations!


For the rest of you, I'm offering a coupon code good for 15% off anything in my shop through October 31, 2012. Use  coupon code FALL2012 at checkout!

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

I've wanted to make pumpkin pie play dough for fall for a long time! And finally got around to it this fall...

It helps that the littles are really getting into play dough now. And our last batch of Smurf-blue  dough was needing to be replaced.

I looked at a few recipes on the internet and came to the conclusion that by adding pumpkin pie spice and red and yellow food coloring (to make orange) to my basic play dough recipe, we would have pumpkin pie play dough.

I am super practical and prefer the simple route for many things,can you tell? I mean, why reinvent the wheel play dough when you can just add to it to get what you want?

I didn't have pumpkin pie spice and I saw no reason to buy any so I just added a couple shakes of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and ground cloves that I had in the cabinet. If you really want pumpkin pie spice, here is a recipe to make your own! I didn't measure the amount I put in but I knew it was ready when it smelled so good I wanted to eat it.

I'm really happy with how it turned out--nice and orange and smelling just like pumpkin pie!

One of my favorite smells of fall!

In The Shop: Kitchen Towels

A brand new batch of kitchen towels are in my shop!

Cheeseburger Mac (Homemade Hamburger Helper)

I've been making Homemade Hamburger Helper type meals for  five years, since I first saw this post.

I didn't grow up eating Hamburger Helper and have only had the boxed kind a couple of times in my life. I do like easy skillet meals, though, which prompted me to try this in the first place! The homemade kind doesn't have all the chemicals that the boxed kind has so it's much better for us!

Our favorite kind is Cheeseburger Mac which I've adapted from the original post.

I know some of you are thinking, "I didn't think she ate pasta!" Which we really don't very often since eliminating wheat. But after a year of no pasta, I discovered that I could make this with rice pasta instead and it is super good!

The Tinkyada brand of brown rice pasta is very good. I bought a bag at a dent and bent type of store for $1 last year. We liked it. But regular price is around $3-4 a bag. That's high for pasta, especially if you aren't allergic. Since then, we've tried Trader Joe's brown rice pasta for $1.99 a bag(16 oz.). It's just as good! Since this recipe only takes 8 oz. of pasta, I can make two pots of this, each which serves us for two meals. Not bad, frugally speaking!

Cheeseburger Mac 

Ingredients:
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup water or broth
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Ketchup and yellow mustard, a few squirts of each
1 cup diced tomatoes, drained
8 ounces pasta-- rice pasta, regular pasta, whole wheat, gluten free,whatever...
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese


Directions:
1. Brown a half pound of meat and chopped onions in a skillet. Drain grease. I reduced the amount of meat from a whole pound to a half pound; we don't think it's made much of a difference in taste! This is one way I'm able to stretch the more expensive grass-fed beef and afford to eat it.

2. Pour one cup of water or broth in a measuring cup; add a teaspoon of cornstarch and mix well. Pour it into skillet and bring to boil.

3. Add several squirts of ketchup and mustard to pot. We really like the cheeseburger taste this gives but you can skip if  you want!

4. Stir in diced tomatoes.

5. Add noodles and stir them in. If needed, add more water so the noodles can be mixed in without clumping too bad. The water shouldn't cover the noodles! As they cook, keep an eye on the noodles and stire often, adding a bit more water if needed.

6. Cover and simmer, stirring often until noodles are soft, about 10- 15 minutes.

7. When noodles are done, turn heat to low and add a handful of cheese, stirring it in until it melts. Turn stove off, sprinkle more cheese on top and serve to your hungry family!

Enjoy!