Magnets

It's not very often that K calls me and says, "Can you stop at Michaels on your way home from work?" So, of course I had to jump at the opportunity.

I guess I had left my Pinterest open on the computer so she started browsing and found this blog about making some fun and simple magnets, so I headed to Michaels and grabbed some supplies.

We never got around to making them that weekend and the following weekend was when I had my Big Plans weekend. I took it upon myself to give her craft a try. (I sound all big and bad, but in reality, I politely asked her if she would mind if I did it without her. LOL Of course she told me to go for it, but to be sure I left her a few to do.)

So here's what I came up with:

They were pretty basic. The bird one is scrapbook paper. (And just for my sister: Check out this clip.) The round daisy one I cut out of a magazine. The other two were photos I had.

All I did was:

• Trace shape of wood piece on the paper/picture and cut it out. 
• Used Mod Podge to "glue" it to the wood piece. Allow to dry.
• Trim excess paper with an exacto knife.
• Add another layer of Mod Podge to kind of seal the paper to the wood piece. 
• (Optional) I then put a layer of the Mod Podge Dimensional Magic to give it a more glassy/shiny finish.*
• If you do the above step, allow at least 24 hours to dry.
• Sand/file edges to give it a cleaner look.
• Apply magnet to back of wood piece.
• Hang on Fridge. 

* I am pretty sure I despise working with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. It is thin and runny so if you touch, tap, or move the wood piece before it has a chance to dry, the Dimensional Magic will start running all over the place and there's no recovering it.

These were super simple. Would make a great gift for just about anyone and the picture/graphic possibilities are endless!

Butter Garlic Sauce

I kind of have a challenge going with myself right now. I want to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store so I am on the look-out for recipes with ingredients I have around the house.

K can't really have red sauces/things with a tomato base so I am always looking for pasta dishes that are of the white sauce origin, besides... what doesn't sound divine about butter and garlic?!

Ironically, the recipe I chose, although called "Butter Garlic Sauce" didn't have any butter anywhere in the recipe. Fear not! I added my own! (But only because someone that commented on the original recipe said they did the same thing - otherwise I would have followed the recipe to a T - sans the butter. LOL)

I found the recipe on All Recipes, but here it is for your convenience:

Ingredients

• 1/2 (8 ounce) package spaghetti
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp butter (Optional)

Directions

1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook pasta until al dente. Drain.
2. In a small skillet over medium heat saute the garlic in olive oil.
3. Toss pasta with olive oil and garlic mixture. Add the parsley, salt, and ground black pepper to taste. Serve with fresh grated Parmesan cheese. 

I did things a little different. I accidentally put in 1/3 cup of olive oil and I added the parsley and a couple teaspoons of Parmesan to the sauce as I was cooking it. I also cooked a couple pieces of chicken, diced it, and mixed it in with the pasta. I steamed some broccoli (and by steamed I mean took some frozen Trader Joe's broccoli and threw it in the microwave according to the directions on the package. LOL), put the broccoli on top, sprinkled a little more Parmesan on top and we had a pretty good meal! I mean, it was no gourmet dish, but it was good enough for something fast and easy on a work/week/school night. Plenty of leftovers for tonight's dinner too! :o) 

 

Crack Potatoes

I kept seeing a pin for Crack Potaotes all over Pinterest. My sister-in-law (SIL) was the first to tell me about them and with the way I love potatoes, I figured it was best to just steer clear of them. Which I did... until last night!

K, the SIL and I have taken up to bbq'g in the weekends. I am loving it, but last night, I said to my SIL, "I want to try an new recipe to go with dinner tonight." Her face lit up and she said, "Crack Potatoes?"

How could I resist that? So I headed to Pinterest to get the recipe. The recipe comes from the Plain Chicken blog. And let me tell you, there's nothing healthy about this recipe, but boy, was it mmm-mmm good!

Here's the recipe:

• 2 (16oz) containers sour cream
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 (3oz) bags real bacon bits
• 2 packages Ranch Dip mix
• 1 large (28 - 30oz) bag frozen hash brown potatoes - shredded kind

Combine first 4 ingredients, mix in hash browns.  Spread into a 9x13 pan.  Bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes.  

 

 

Incredibly simple, spectacularly delicious.  

 

Only one complaint... It was a bit salty. Not sure if it was from the bacon or the Ranch Dip mix. When I make it again, I may forgo the bacon all together or make it fresh and see if it helps with the salt factor. Other than that, the Crack Potatoes were sinfully delicious. And don't worry if you have a smallish family and think there's not enough of you to make such a large serving -- according to the originating blog, it freezes well!

Not So Extreme Couponing

I don't know about you, but for me... The economy sucks and so does my bank account. In attempt to save a penny where I can, I started clipping coupons. I question if the time and energy spent on it is really worth the savings, but even if it's not... I do feel a small sense of accomplishment when I check out at the grocery store and hand them a stack (and by stack, I mean 3-4 coupons max) of coupons -- even if it is just a couple bucks in savings.

I used to coupon all the time. My sister would even send me coupons in the mail to help out, but for some reason I got away from it. I guess I started making enough money, I didn't think it was necessary anymore. Anyway, when I couponed before, it was organized. I had a little wallet sized accordion file thing that was labeled with different categories so it made it easy to look for the coupons.

Since being back on the couponing wagon, my coupons have been a frustrating mess! Every time I wanted one, I literally had to stop in the middle of the aisle, grab my stack of coupons, and begin shuffling through them - dropping several in the process. It was painful. One or two times to the store with K experiencing my coupon mess and she insisted something be done.

The whole point in couponing is saving money, right? So I was having a hard time justifying buying a coupon organizer. I did buy one lame thing that didn't work at all for like $1 somewhere, but I wouldn't allow myself to spend more than that.

So I got resourceful. I googled DIY Coupon Organizers.

The coolest coupon organizer I found was this one to the right.

But - forgive me if any of my (four) readers out there has one - it's a little dorky. I'm not sure I would have the guts to walk around the store with it attached to my cart.

I definitely needed something small enough to fit in my purse because I can't tell you the number of times I have gone into a store and bought something I knew I had a coupon for, but it was sitting at home or in the car I didn't drive that day.

I needed something simple, easy, cheap, yet durable. That's when I found this one:

 Perfecto! I knew I had all of the supplies at home. Even if they were white envelopes, I didn't need it to be fancy. As soon as I got home, I checked our supply of envelopes and ended up finding some old purple ones that would work great!

 Please check out the Paper Source website for more detailed instructions, if you need them.

Here's what I did:

1. Glued the envelopes together with a glue stick - put the glue on the flap part of the envelope and attach it to the "front and bottom" of the envelope (by front, I mean the side that you put the mailing address on.)
   
   Side note: the original instructions said you need an odd number of envelopes between 5-9. I used 9 envelopes on mine.
   
2. Once all the envelopes are attached, I let the glue dry and then grabbed the exacto knife. Make a small slit (the width of the ribbon you chose) in the bottom of the last envelope and also through the top part of that same envelope.
   
3. String your ribbon through, fold it like an accordion, and tie the ribbon.
   

Vuala! You have your un-labeled coupon organizer! :o)

You could step it up and really embellish it if you wanted to. I just got some labels I had, printed out the labels I thought would work best, and slapped 'em on.

I should have staged this one different so you could see how the ribbon is strung. Go to the Paper Source I linked above for a better picture of that step.

For the most part, I like it. K says I didn't make the ribbon long enough. (OH! I also put a little anti-fray stuff on the ends of the ribbon so it didn't become an unraveled mess.) My only complaint is that to have to tie a bow every time you want to re-close it is kind of a PITA (Pain In The Arse). Especially when you have a shopping basket in one hand and your cell phone, wallet, and coupon organizer in the other hand. It's another stop-in-the-middle-of-the-aisle scene. Granted, less of a mess, but still a nuisance.

This could be used for other organizational things too. Like if you're one of those people that breaks out your budget in categories and allows a certain amount of cash for each thing. You could separate and keep your cash in the different envelopes.

Possibly a daily to-do organizer. Keep a piece of note paper in each one and make to-do lists for each day of the week. Might make your to-do list feel less overwhelming.

Anyway, that was my most recent project. Nothing spectacular, just a little organization. It was free (kind of - I mean I had to have bought all the stuff at some point, right?), took me less than an hour to make, and my grocery shopping and couponing experience is much more pleasant. Well worth it.

Spaghetti with a Twist

Of course I saw the picture above on Pinterest. Most people that know me, know I love pizza (particularly Round Table Pizza), so I thought this would be a fun, experimental twist to spaghetti... and it WAS! 

 

I got the recipe for "Pizza Spaghetti Casserole" from this site. It's really just spaghetti with pepperoni, but it sounds much fancier. LOL I did my own variation from the original recipe, but it was definitely delish. I highly recommend checking out the original recipe too because it's a little more than just spaghetti with pepperoni! 

Here is my version: 

Ingredients

• 12 ounces uncooked spaghetti 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pepperoni slices cut in half, amount used at your discretion
• 1 (26-oz.) jar tomato-and-basil pasta sauce (I just used Ragu's Traditional -- It was on sale.)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
• 8-oz. of shredded Mexican cheese blend 

Preparation

1. Cook spaghetti with 1/2 tsp. salt according to package directions. Drain well, and place in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
   
2. Add spaghetti noodles to the backing dish; pour pasta sauce over the noodles. Arrange half of the pepperoni slices evenly over pasta sauce. Sprinkle evenly with cheeses. Arrange remaining half of pepperoni slices evenly over cheese. Cover with nonstick or lightly greased aluminum foil.
   
3. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes; remove foil, and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is melted and just begins to brown.

 

The original recipe called for Italian Three Cheese blend, which I couldn't find at my store. Come to find out, I was looking in the wrong section all together. :o| That's why I just did the Mexican blend, but next time I make this I will be sure to try the Italian blend. 

The variations are endless... you could throw in mushrooms, olives, bell peppers... and anything else you might like on a pizza! The only ingredient I would be skeptical about (and I am not really sure why) is pineapple. This dish is fun, easy, and tasty!! 

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