The Toy Baskets

If you have small children in the house I’m sure you know of the Toy Bunny phenomenon.  You start out with a few toys in a living room, or play room.  You turn the lights out and go to bed and they seem to multiply like, well, bunnies. 

Toys filled a corner of the living room and often threatened to take over the entire room.  When I told my three-year-old to put her toys away, they just got piled back in the corner with minimal organization since they really didn’t have a place where they belonged. Toys were brought out to play at random.  I needed to be able to tell G-girl to put her toys away and have her know where away was.  I also wanted a limit on how many toys came out at once so they had less of a chance to take over a room.  Oh, and I wanted to do it for about $20.

I racked my brain trying to figure out the best way to rectify the Toy Bunny chaos in my living room and started looking around my house.  I landed on some baskets that I had picked up at our local dollar store and an idea started forming.  Then the next time I was in my DollarTree, I picked up ten basic black plastic baskets.

Then I began sorting.  I put toys in categories and started filling the baskets.  G-Girl has some baskets specific for her things that are kept on a higher shelf: toys that are small, or have small parts.  Other toys that don’t pose a hazard to younger children I baby-sit or own Itty Bitty down the road, are on lower shelves for easy access by all. 

Then I took each basket and dumped its contents on the floor (stay with me here – I’m really not nuts).  I arranged the items quickly and shot a picture.  Then out came the cardstock and a stash of scrapbook letters that I’ve had on a shelf, nearly untouched for –oh, about three years!  I got to work.  I set G-Girl to work with scissors, paper and glue-stick to make her own "po-jet" (project).  I printed out my photos, cut the cardstock to fit the fronts of the basket and heated up my laminator.  I laminated the cards, and punched holes in the corner so they would tie easily to the baskets.  The finished product was basket labels that have a photo of what goes in the basket, as well as a word description. 

There are a number of points to this solution that make it work so well.  When the basket is full, if something new comes home, it’s time to pass a toy along to someone else.  There is a picture to show what goes in the basket to make clean up easy and G-Girl can match the toys to the photo.  Now that the toys live in the nearly finished Green Room, a basket of toys can be brought out to be played with, but when play is done, everything gets cleaned up, back in the basket and back on the shelf before the next basket can come off the shelf which limits toy explosions all over the living room!

I am not claiming this as an original idea.  I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before but I finally implemented it and it works for me!

KitchenAid Shredded Chicken

I have had my KitchenAid mixer for 5 and a half years.  It never ceases to amaze me the things that this puppy can do.  If you are contemplating the investment and you like to cook: it's worth every penny!

So in flying by comments on a blog-post somewhere in my recent memory, I saw someone mention that you could use your KitchenAid to shred cooked chicken.  No WAY!  I filed it somewhere in my brain and the thought surfaced again today.

Sometimes I buy a full 40 pound case of boneless/skinless chicken breasts when a local restaurant supply has it on sale.  A friend of mine called and investigated their "regular" price this week and found out it wasn't that much more than when it's on sale.  I had just used the last of my chicken, so I asked if she was willing to split a case. She was game so I gave her some money and promptly forgot about it.

This morning we were in the middle of Domino Projects since Fridays are HandyMan's day off.  The dog goes nuts and up to the door walks my friend with 20 pounds of chicken.  Oh yeah.  So I quickly package about 12 pounds of it up for the freezer and I remembered the shredded chicken trick I had read.  I threw the remaining chicken in my crock pot to cook it:

Five hours later, I chopped each breast into three or four pieces and threw it in my mixer bowl:

Mixer on low, three minutes later, shredded chicken:



Oh yeah!  It was that easy.  I ended up with 8- 2.5 cup containers of shredded chicken in the freezer for tacos, chicken salad, or whatever random meal I need it for in the coming months.  I'm so glad that my mommy-brain held on to this little tid-bit of information!

It's Really That Good! - Homemade Lotion

Over the holidays there were so many great ideas being thrown around I got overwhelmed, but I did take notes.  Often when I see something that looks too good to be true, half of  me wants to give it a try and half of me goes skeptical.  The dichotomy usually results in me putting the web ideas to the test.  That was the case when I saw this post about making your own lotion.

I'm trying to cut as much chemical stuff out of our household as I can and this idea of making my own lotion seemed like the perfect idea,  if it would work.  I make my own laundry soap and it works great.  I  make my own candles and people love them.


I love the idea of knowing what is in my lotion and am often annoyed when reading the ingredients of commercial lotions.  Why do they put drying agents like alcohol in a substance that is supposed to be hydrating my skin?  And what is all that other stuff in my lotion.  I took to purchasing a natural line of lotions a while back, but they can get pretty expensive.  When I read that I could make my own lotion with four ingredients, three of which were in my house already, I was hooked.  So, I ordered a natural emulsifying wax to use with olive oil, water and essential oils to make my own lotion.

A Sonoma Garden does a great job with her lotion directions.  I followed them to the letter including monitoring the temperatures and the result was a great, thick, creamy lotion in about ten minutes.  I used lavender essential oil and only 20 drops (to the recommended 24-36 drops).  The fragrance is very light and I have no qualms about using it on my skin or GBaby's delicate toddler skin.  It soaks in well and doesn't sit on your skin.  I am so excited about this and can't wait to use up all those other random bottles of lotion that are around my house!

I've read that the shelf life of homemade lotions can vary depending on how you package them.  Since I just made mine this week, I can't speak to that yet.  I'm going to be making small batches frequently.  It took less than ten minutes to mix this up, so replenishing frequently is not a big hardship of time.  When I made about 12 ounces of natural lotion for less than $2.  That totally works for me!

Updated 1/30/2013: We've been using this lotion for the last two years and it's great.  I've only had "shelf life" issues with one batch that I substituted coconut oil for the olive oil over the summer.  Other batches with this substitute were fine.  I wrote it off as a fluke and have been through lots and lots of this great stuff!

Freezer Friday: September Batch Cooking

I'm not sure about where everyone else lives, but it has been hot here this week!  I love batch cooking: it saves me time and money in the long run.  I had laid out my September batch cooking plan on Monday and got to work.

After shopping, getting elbow deep in food stuffs, and recognizing that it was hot, the plan got tweaked a little (soufflé can wait  until Monday when it's cooler!) and some things made it to the freezer that were bonus items (more cheap green and red peppers).  Here is what has made it to my freezer and the pantry for the coming month(s):

Freezer:

2 Ranch Bean Kits (modified Cowboy Beans)

1 Bean kit for 3 Bean Chili

1-9x13 and 2-8x8 pans of Grilled Chicken Enchiladas (Recipe to come)

4-8x8 Lasagnas

6 Grilled Chicken Breast Packets (thaw, heat & chop for salads, fajitas, pasta etc)

8 containers (2 & 4  cup) of Beans - Black, Pinto and Northern

2# Ground Beef to be used for Taco meat later

6  Pepper Bombs each of Red and Green peppers

I still have plans (and 10 pounds of potatoes) to make mashed potatos as well - just didn't get to it yet.

Pantry


Instant Oatmeal packets

3 Biscuit kits

3 Cornbread kits

After all that work, I even remembered to mark off my freezer list so I know what's actually in there!

Special thanks to my local grocery stores who had lean ground beef $1.99/lb and boneless/skinless chicken breasts at $1.69/lb this week!  Also due to some great sales, I've  got my pantry stocked on cereal and pasta as well.  The hope is that all I will have to buy for the rest of the month is milk, eggs and fresh produce.  I'm also hoping to spend a little less time on meal prep and squeeze in some more regular exercise.

Roasted Red Peppers

Remember that pile of red peppers that made it to the freezer? I had 6 peppers left over after the pepper bomb construction that needed to be stored.  But I was out of freezer bags (during harvest season - oh the horror!). So I decided to roast them. I love the smell of fresh roasted peppers and the flavor even more.  I roasted them on the grill and it was super easy!

Step 1- Wash Peppers

Step 2- Grill Peppers: Heat up the grill and place whole peppers on the grill over medium high heat. Turn every 3-6 minutes until the peppers are good and charred.

Step 4- Steam: Once charred place peppers in a bowl and cover. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to steam the skins off.

Step 5 – Remove skin: Once peppers are cool enough to handle, pull the skin off and discard. Cut out stem and remove seeds and discard. Slice roasted pepper meat as you wish.

Step 6- Store: Place peppers in an airtight container. Top off with Olive Oil and toss. Refrigerate jar and use in a timely manner.

So easy, and a great way to use in-season or discounted peppers!  So far we have used them in sandwiches, scrambled eggs and they are destined to go in some enchiladas this week too.

This post is linked up at $5 Dinners-Grow.Eat.$ave: Peppers

Freezer Friday: Summer/Fall Meat Stock Up

I love to buy bulk meat when I can get a good deal.  This was one of those weeks.  Our local restaurant warehouse store had meat on sale this week.  I was able to stock up for the summer and some parties we have coming up.

Pork loin, boneless skinless chicken breast and ground beef were all on sale for less than $2 per pound.  The catch: they were all packaged in ten pound packages.  I was able to have the butcher slice up the pork loin in to grilling chops.  I’ll turn a good portion of the ground beef into hamburger patties and chicken breasts were separated and portioned out for the freezer.

I usually like to throw marinade in with my meat when I freeze it to save a step later but I didn’t have the time this go-round.

When all was done, I had a nice stack of meat in the freezer ready for all of my summer grill meals to come!

And I have rhubarb coming out of my ears that needs to be picked and packed for the freezer… add that to the list!

Getting Paid to Shop: Ebates

Some of you who have been reading for a while may remember my philosophy on shopping.  In a nutshell, stores are not a my happy place, but finding deals with my keyboard and netbook is all sunshine and butterflies in my world.  So, when I stumbled upon Ebates I thought it was too good to be true: do my regular online shopping and get 1-20% of my money back (that's not a type-o: I got 20% back on an Old Navy promotion!).  The way Ebates works is like this: when you're ready to shop, you go to their website.  Find the merchant you wish to shop with and then click the link.  A tracking ticket will be opened and you will be taken to the merchant site.  Do your shopping as usual.  Within 30 days you should see the credit on your account.

I recommend making notes of the tracking numbers for your click throughs (handily available with your account information) and the purchase you make for easier dispute resolution should the credit not make it to your account within the allotted time.  I only had to do this for one purchase and come to find out, I didn't get the credit due to fine print on which categories from Ebay you can get credit for.

I signed up in January, did my normal online shopping and on Monday, I found the above check in my mailbox.  What's not to like?  I got $45 back from doing shopping I would have done anyway.

Today I found out after scouring the internet for the "best deal" that sometimes the merchants give them exclusive coupon codes that aren't available anywhere else! In this instance it brought my $140 appliance down to $98 after sale prices and coupons!

So, do you shop online? Yes? What are you waiting for?  Go check it out!

Disclosure: The links embedded in this post are tied to my referral account and I will receive credits if you sign up.

Print Your Own Money

What would you say if I told you that you could print your own money?  It is perfectly legal and there are no poor consequences.

After this week's grocery shopping trip, I've decided that printing coupons is like printing my own money.  There are a few different groups of thought on coupons.  Some folks make their grocery list based on what is on sale and what they have for coupons.  That doesn't work for me.  I make my list, know what I keep stocked in the house and when I find coupons to match my shopping habits, it print them.    I spend about 15 minutes a week clicking the print button to get coupons.

Want to find coupons?  There are a  number of sources for the coupons that are available on the web.   I subscribe to MoneySavingMom.com in my blog reader-each of her posts comes through like an e-mail with the subject line reading the deal she found coupons for.  I skim through the headers and if her deals aren't stuff I usually buy, I delete.  Then every couple of days I'll click through and get the coupons.  Coupons.com and SmartSource.com are two of the main websites where I go to print coupons.  Most allow you to print a coupon twice and photocopying the coupons is a no-no.  These websites re-set the print counters at the beginning of the month and add new coupons on a regular basis.

This week when we went shopping, I had craft store coupons, grocery coupons, and birthday coupons ...

We are working on redecorating parts of our house.  I took a minute to print the ACMoore coupons - one from my computer, one from HandyMans - and we saved $30 on picture frames that we wanted to get.

Then came the grocery coupons.  Like I said before, I print coupons for things I'm going to buy anyway and will give me the best deal: pasta, coffee, olive oil, contact solution.  For example, this month I needed pasta, Ronzoini has great gobs of coupons out there and my store happened to have it on sale, making my pasta $0.25 a box.  All told: $12 in grocery coupons.

Finally the birthday coupons.  Certain places give you deals on your birthday - Cold Stone is one of them.  Their coupons are good for a week around your birthday.  So, we got free ice cream.  This was a treat because we probably wouldn't have gone to Cold Stone otherwise.  ($8.)

At the end of the day, doing my normal shopping I managed to spend $50 of money I printed myself.  Not bad for a little bit of time, ink and recycled paper (coupons get printed on the back of paper to reuse in our house)!

Cheap/Free Seeds & Garden Planners!

What better way to get you in the gardening spirit than warm sunshine and  free stuff!

Erin over at $5 Dinners has posted some great gardening freebies that are too good not to share!  She has posted some great garden planner sheets for square foot gardens and container gardens as well as a planner for when to plant and how much you harvest!  This gal is organized!

Interested in some free seeds to kick off your gardening season?  Visit TheDinnerGarden for your free seed packets!

For the price of a postage stamp, you can get three varieties of basil for your garden from Tomato Heirlooms.  You just have to sign up for their newsletter.

Make Your Own Powdered Laundry Detergent

As I strive to eliminate unnecessary chemicals from our household, I began to explore options for making our own laundry detergent.  Many of the "recipes" I found were for liquid detergents which required melting soaps and mixing and shaking and more work than I wanted to put into it.

Then I found the recipe for Jabs Homemade Laundry Detergent.  He has a great tutorial on how to make this powdered laundry detergent with three ingredients:  1 bar of soap, 1/2 cup Borax, 1/2 cup Washing Soda.  Here area  few of my notes on the process:

Grating the Bar of  Soap I have used the Fels-Naptha soap and found that it is very difficult to get it to break down into a small grain.  I tired letting the bar dry out as a commenter suggested and that didn't work for me. So I've resorted to grating the bar of soap, adding the Borax and Washing Soda and then running it through the food processor.  This works great

Does it Really Work? Yes.  I have used it on the cloth diapers and they come out clean as ever.  (*Note, this soap may build up on all-in-one type diapers and non-cotton diapers reducing their absorbency) I still add oxy-whitener to the diapers and whites as I always have and have noticed no difference between this and the expensive green detergent I was using before.  The real joy of it -it really only takes 1 1/2 tablespoons per load.  Concentrated detergent, less space used in my laundry room.

Less money, less waste, clean clothes.  What's not to like?

Buttery Garlic Croutons

With my January mission to use up food that is in the house, it only seemed natural to also work to preserve what food I had and to minimize waste.  Enter the stale rolls.  We had some rolls that had been accidentally left out overnight and they were nice and hard on the outside and beyond stale.  Normally, these would have gotten thrown out the front door to provide an easy meal for the birds, squirrels and other wildlife that share out land.  But not this time!  I was planning salads for dinner and decided to make croutons.  It was SO easy I’m wondering why I haven’t done this sooner!  Here’s the quick directions:

Buttery Garlic Croutons

1.  Chop the bread into cubes, about ¾-1 inch square.



2. Melt ¼ cup of butter and sautéed in a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic.  This was for about 3 cups of cubes.



3.  Toss the bread and butter and then spread the cubes on a cookie sheet.  Pop them in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.



The finished croutons were melt in your mouth, buttery, garlicy perfectnes!

Savings Tracker

I am a numbers person and I like to save money.  When I was trying to explain my delight in saving money to HandyMan, he had a hard time wrapping his head around it.  He's also somewhat convinced that I have a pointy hat and magic wand stashed to get some of the deals that I get.  Finally he narrowed it down to the equivalent of opening his paycheck and thinking "Sweet! Money!"  I do the same thing for money that doesn't have to come out of our accounts for things we need (or want).  I like tracking our budget to see where we're on track and where we need to make changes.  I love to see the little line at the bottom of a receipt showing how much I saved because I used the [stupid] store loyalty card or coupons I went out of my way to print.

So imagine the pitter-pat dance my heart did when I stumbled upon The Coupon Project: Savings Tracker!  I know - I'm such a geek!  But, if you want to have an idea of how much you're saving throughout the year using discounts and coupons, check it out.  It is a great excel sheet that's easy to use.  Take a couple minutes and enter the information from your receipts and it will calculate it out for you.

Homemade Christmas: Gifts in a Jar

This is the first of a few coming posts about homemade holiday gifts.  When times are tight, creativity can help to reduce your gift-giving budget without losing the sincerity or style of the gift.  Here are a few links for gifts that are compiled with or stored in a jar as well as some of my own ideas that came to mind when I found them :).

For some of these projects, any size jar will do.  Others will need a specific type or size of jar.  Scope out your projects and start saving those jars and see what you can make for this holiday season.

Reduce*Reuse*Recycle - Use emptied condiment jars (peanut butter, pickles, salsa, etc.) to gift your holiday goodies.  Wash them out well - especially the lids.  Decorate the lids with a bit of holiday fabric or wrapping paper and you're ready to go.  Check for lingering odors and then fill them with holiday cookies, fudge and candies.  Your goodies will stay fresh until they're ready to be eaten.

Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar This is a fun idea to pass along food that doesn't have to be eaten right away.  The method is to neatly stack all of the dry ingredients for a cookie recipe into a jar.  Decorate the top and add the recipe and shazam - gift ready for giving.  The method can be used for most types of cookies although I would caution you to stick with basic recipes.  Throw in some holiday colored M&Ms for color and enjoy.  I once received one of these that was all pretty and decorated but the combination of ingredients (raisins, M&M's, and chocolate chips) didn't appeal to me so it sat in the cabinet for a long time.

Homemade Bath Salts Bath salts are relatively easy to make if you have access to the ingredients.  PioneerThinking has a lot of fun bath salt recipes.  If you'd like to gift some rest and relaxation this holiday season, check it out.

Jar Photo Frames I stumbled across this idea and I love it!  It's especially fun for grandparents and showing off pictures of the kids.  I have a couple of ideas for putting multiple photos in the jar that I'm going to try out and will post more on later.

Applesauce Cake in a Jar This one is a little out there but I thought it was interesting so I gave it a link.  I'm wondering if you can make it work with other cakes.  Or use the little half-pint jars and homemade brownie batter... hmmmm.

Sewing Kit in a Jar I recently have jumped back into sewing and this gave me great ideas for organizing my sewing stuff!  Read through the comments on the linked page as there are also some great ideas there too.