I Love Publix

For those of you not in Publix Land, you're missing out. Publix has this wonderful thing called Apron Simple Meals. You go in around 5:00 and there's this lovely person cooking up a complete meal for you to sample with the recipe and all of the ingredients right there. I LOVE it! I've made a few of these recipes for the family and they're all pretty great!

Tonight we had this week's meal, Cod Saute with Citrus Bearnaise and Quick Asparagus. I used tilapia because I had it, but it was delish! And the kids ate it all, which is icing on the cake (or milk on the cookie, since that was their dessert tonight!) There's a video below and the recipe at the above link.

 

 



Here are a few of the others we've tried:

Spicy Fish with Avocado-Chipotle Sauce and Skillet Potato Cake

Quesadilla Bake with Corn and Chile Taco Salad

Steak and Potato Flatbreads with Tomato Snap Salad





I know there are more, but these are the ones we've had recently. I'll share periodically what recipes we try and like!

As for the parsimonious factor: coupon! If you're new to couponing, some sites I recommend are:

• The Coupon Wizards & their Facebook page
• Insert Insanity & their Facebook page
• Southern Savers

I'm sure there are sites that cover other stores/areas, but these are the ones I'm familiar with.

I'm Gourmet

The downside to being six months preggers: I crave things that I sometimes can't find (or don't care to spend a fortune on.) The upside, at least for me: I'm suddenly a gourmet chef!

About midnight last night there were two things I wanted: a Stevi B's Loaded Baked Potato pizza and a filet with a mushroom marsala wine sauce and gorgonzola cheese.

Tonight I made the steak! It was absolutely fantastic! There wasn't a real recipe I used, I simply sprinkled the steaks with some garlic salt and cooked them on the stove in a little marsala wine. When the steaks were done, I removed them, poured the rest of the bottle into the saute pan, added the mushrooms, and let it simmer on medium high until the wine was reduced some. It reduced and thickened more after I took it of the heat, if you're going to try it. Spoon some sauce and gorgonzola on the steak and I served with some Idahoan Real Mashed Potatoes (best and cheapest instant mashed I've ever had!) seasoned with parmesan and garlic salt.

So I know being "parsimonious" means spending as little money as possible, and filets in a wine sauce doesn't EXACTLY fit that, but hear me out:

1. I'm pregnant. Which means I'm hungry. All. The. Time.
2. I'm pregnant. Which means my brain doesn't quite understand "logic".
3. When we were out the other night, filet medallions for one person was $30. I had mushrooms I needed to use or toss, I had garlic salt, I had parmesan cheese, AND I keep a stockpile of the Idahoan potatoes (which you can usually find for a whole freakin DOLLAR.) So, for the same cost I could have paid for dinner for just me - because face it, I'm not sharing (see #1) - I fed all four of us and we have leftovers! Suck it #2! That's totally logical!

Makes sense to me anyway...

Tomorrow I'm attempting the loaded baked potato pizza since the nearest Stevi B's now that we've moved is 42 minutes away. :(

Chore Charts

So, at our end of the year Girl Scout Leader dinner a few of us were discussing summer plans. While I'm thinking, "my summer is so planned out! We have camp one week, we're signed up for free bowling and free skating and we're going to hit the $1 movies and definitely take advantage of our Six Flags/White Water passes!" A friend did a heck of a lot better... She has her days planned out! I wish I had that much motivation during the summer, but I don't. She had one TERRIFIC idea though! She said her kids will start with two chores each day, if they do them, they're done, if they whine about them they get more chores added. I LOVE IT!

Unfortunately, I can't just toss out chores willy nilly... I need something cute and crafty to write them on - duh!

So, I needed something that I could change daily - chalk board, white board, etc. In a stroke of genius (ha!) I remembered seeing somewhere that glass works with dry erase makers. I dug through the drawer-o-junk, found the one [dying] dry erase market we had, and tested it on my least favorite drinking glass - that one that somehow ended up in my cabinet, and even though I don't like it, I don't toss it... Anyway - IT WORKED!

Because I'm a hoarder, this project didn't cost me a dime! I had everything I needed... Sad, yet, economically and environmentally friendly!

The frames started out cheap and Burgundy. I spray painted both white, after removing the glass, backing, etc. Then one I spray painted light pink and one I spray painted purple. Holding a can of silver metallic spray paint 3-4 FEET above the frames, I let the paint fall onto the frames. This way they were more accented by the silver than actually turning silver.

For inside the frames, using MS Word, I used a font I downloaded a LONG while ago called angelic, set my margins so my page was 8x10, and typed "Daily Chores" "1. 2. 3. 4.", and my appreciative, "...thank you!" One, I printed in pink, one in blue, each to match the colors going on in their rooms, and both were printed on green paper. Why green? Because at this point, I'm not going to the store, I had green, it's in both color schemes, and it's more fun than white. Good reasons.

I used the glass from a frame to mark the size to cut the paper, assembled them all, and decided they needed bows. They're for girls, after all.

Of course, I had ribbon in the right colors. Why wouldn't I? What I DIDN'T have? Hot glue sticks. Damn. Tacky glue it is! It took a while to set, but it worked! I missed that instant gratification hot glue provides, but hey, I needed a good HOUR to pound ONE nail into a bedroom door anyway, so it all worked out... Sigh...

Reese's Pie

I have to share my new favorite dessert!

It may have been done already, but if it has, I haven't seen it!

Back when I did catering, I could get this cookie dough that would make delicious, gooey, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. They were the best! I don't have access to them anymore... :( So to make up for it, I make this...

Reese's Pie! Or Reese's bars, or what ever you want to call them, it doesn't matter, your mouth will be too busy watering to call them anything anyway!

The best part: they're super easy! Here's what you need

2 Betty Crocker chocolate chop cookie mixes + required ingredients
16-24 Reese's cups, regular size
A 9x13 dish

1. Follow directions on the first cookie mix, add an egg and a softened stick of butter. Mix until you have a dough.

2. Press the cookie dough into the dish.

3. Unwrap all of the Reese's cups and place them in one layer onto the cookie dough.

4. Mix up the other cookie dough and drop it onto each peanut butter cup. Fill in larger holes as you wish.

5. Bake at 350° until set and brown on top. The directions for large cookies says 10-12 minutes. I would say start checking then? They take a while. One of these times I need to actually time it. Unfortunately, unless I'm following a recipe that specifically needs a certain baking time, I've never set a timer for the oven.

**Alternately: lately I've been using one peanut butter cookie mix on the bottom and one chocolate chip cookie mix on the top. I prefer a little more peanut butter taste, but that is up to your preference. Directions are the same, simply get the peanut butter mix and it's ingredients (which are different.)

Also, the last time I made them, hubby picked up mini Reese's instead of the regular size. I cut them in half and used them, but I prefer the full size. If you drop the chocolate chip cookie dough on top of the full size, the dough spreads evenly and envelopes the Reese's - the mini's that weren't covered melted while baking..

Country Chic Dresses

So it's been a while and you could probably go buy a dress cheaper than what I spent on these, but they are pretty cheap and REALLY easy to make as long as you have some kind of sewing machine!

 

Like I said, these were SO easy! In fact, they were easier than I thought they would be. My base: a $4 long sleeve tee from Walmart. :) I then used material that I really don't need to hem as the ruffles.  Supplies below are based on one dress:

• Long sleeve tee
• 3/4 yard of knit fabric (for 6" ruffles)
• 2-1/4 yards of 4" eyelet trim
• 3 yards of 4" lace trim

So when I said they were easier than I expected, that's because the knit fabric I found at JoAnn Fabric came in like a tube!! Meaning, it was a continuous circle! I cut my 6", tucked it around the shirt and sewed away! Yay! And the beauty of knit fabric is that it doesn't need to be hemmed!

 

I think the 6" knit ruffles and 4" trims worked perfect for what I wanted. If you wanted, though, you could use wider or smaller trims for different looks, you just need to adjust the amounts you buy of each.

Okay, so I cut my knit fabric: 

 

 I then put the shirt on my daughter and decided how long I wanted the dress to be and marked where the ruffle came to. She took off the shirt and I marked all the way around where the top edge of the knit should be and drew a line to keep it straight:

See my tube?! Fantastic! 

My 3-year-old took this picture.. And many others.. of the stitching on my comforter, her feet, the floor, etc. This one I'm sharing so you can see, if I can make this on this ancient sewing machine (that's far older than me, btw) it can be done on any sewing machine.. I don't even have the little piece that comes off for sewing sleeves! 

 

For sewing, you need to use a zig zag stitch so the fabric will still stretch around arms and shoulders. To keep the ruffles fairly even - because I'm a bit of a  perfectionist - I marked the middle of the front and back of the shirt and the middle of the flat fabric tube on the front and back. I used the shirt seams and tube folds as the other two points of reference. As long as the marks lined up, I was good! I hand fed the ruffles in, meaning the shirt laid flat and I shoved folds of the tube under the presser foot. If it looked like the marks weren't going to line up, I either stretched the shirt or adjusted the folds to correct it. If you have pins, you can always pin these marks together to make it easy. I didn't have pins. I still don't have pins. Which is why the pieces keep falling off of my Advent calender. Sigh.  

 

Moving on... I sewed the eyelet trim on the same stitch line as the knit tube. The trim came already ruffled enough for me, so I didn't bother ruffling it more. I did stretch the shirt a little and once again did a zig zag stitch so it would stretch. I started in the back and when I got around to the back again, I just overlapped it a little and didn't bother sewing the two ends together. They're fine. If you have an issue with it, use a little fray stop. See? Easy.

 

For the lace trim, I sewed just above the knit tube. In fact, the presser foot ran right along the edge of the knit. Once again, zig zag stitch and stretch, shirt just slightly, and overlap in the back.

 

Ruffles are finished!

I did three tiers of three rows - if that makes any sense! Basically, knit, eyelet, lace, knit, eyelet, lace, knit, eyelet, lace. The three tiers made my younger daughter's ruffles come up higher and my older daughter's fit more like a skirt, and I actually planned it like that. I almost only did two tiers on the bigger one for that reason, but three seems to be perfect!  I finished off the ruffles by sewing this ribbon-y trim around the top to tie in the back and pinned a flower on the front.



 

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures while I was doing the sleeves. :( They were easy, I promise! Even without that handy little trick new sewing machines have! Once again, I put the dresses on the girls and marked just above their elbows. With the dresses off, I cut off the sleeves at the mark. This I actually chose to kind of hem - the lace, not the sleeve! I wrapped the lace around the flat sleeve and left about 1/4-1/2" at each end of the lace. I sewed the two ends of the lace together so I made a little tube and then sewed the tube onto the sleeve so the lace was on the outside and the seam is toward the armpit. Just a tip, don't try to make the lace fit the sleeve, stretch the shirt to make the shirt fit the trim. It's much easier.

 

I love these little dresses! And there are so many different colored knit fabrics available, you could do these in different colors for different seasons - like browns and creams for Fall?!

 

Also, if you aren't already aware, JoAnn fabric has an app! The best part about their app is that they have coupons!! I got all of my fabric and trim at 50% off, which was fabulous!! For other craft needs, Michael's also has an app. :)

 

If you decide to make a ruffley little dress, share your pictures!

 

-ML

Super Easy Monogram Plaque

Hey! So I've been "working" on this project for about a year now. Okay, so I haven't actually been working on it. I started it about a year or so ago and forgot about it... Until now! :)

I forget where I got the idea for this, but it's really the easiest customized thing ever! Check it out:

Monogram Plaque

Again, EASY!!!

I had this frame just sitting around my house, begging to be used. I think it started as a Goodwill special. Who knows. Anyway. So I had the frame and I think I had a space to fill before I even had the idea, so when it came time to choose colors, it was basically already decided. Don't you just LERRRVE that pink and gold print??

I'm getting ahead of myself... I need to tell you what you need to make this wonderful piece of art!

Are you ready??

Are you??? :)

Okay, so you need:

- a frame - any size you want! Any style you want! YAY!

- paper - ANY design you want! Has to fill the frame. (I have a secret about mine!)

- a wooden letter that fits inside the frame.

- paint for the letter - again, ANY color/kind!

- hot glue gun

I used, like I said, a frame I had $0; wooden letter from Michael's $1.18; I ended up using two paints, one was Satin Nickel spray paint (Walmart) I had leftover from another project (the planter I'm going to stick my Christmas tree in this year!), and three coats of Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Glitter paint in Antique Silver (Michael's) $3.50? I said I have a secret about my paper. Here's the secret: I didn't use paper! I was looking all over for, like, a scrapbook paper to use. I found a few things that were okay, but they weren't great and considering I had to buy an entire book of paper to get the one paper, I wasn't getting it unless I loved it. So one day, I'm in Target getting whatever it was, when I pass by this gift bag and think, "THAT's what I want the paper to look like!" So I go over to Target's little crafty area to see if they have some paper similar while I'm thinking of it. FINALLY I realized that I could just use the darn bag! Once it's cut to size and in the frame, who's gonna know except me?! Well, now everyone, but you get my point! So, I didn't use paper, I used a gift bag!

At last, my "plaque" is complete, and in my splendid opinion, it is magnificent!

See it in my bathroom:

And another angle of the bathroom:

:)

Truffle Bouquets

These are SUPER easy and make great teacher gifts!! The girls in my daughter's Girl Scout troop made these for their parents with mini candy bars and chocolate hearts, that's how easy they are!

For my daughter's teachers, I upgraded to Ferrero Rocher and Lindt truffles. :)

Supplies:

• Individually-wrapped candy
• "Bendy" straws
• "Wet" Floral foam
• A container of some kind
• Tissue paper
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors
• Glue stick (Like a kids glue stick)
• Possibly a knife to cut the foam, depending on the foam and container

Start by cutting the short end of the straws in half and bending them, and then cut your tissue paper into squares or rectangles, not too big, but big enough that when you put it behind the candy, the candy looks like the center of a flower and the paper looks like petals. I think mine were around 3x4, but none were measured and they weren't really the same size. For the ones the girls did, they used a single piece of tissue, but the ones I made for the teachers, I used two pieces of complimentary tissue glued together:

My tissue paper

Straws cut and bent

This part should be done by an adult if you're working with smaller children. Lay out 4-6 pieces of candy. Put a small glob of hot glue on each, and then stick the short end of a straw on each candy in the glue:

Next, you want to put the tissue on each candy. If you're using a single piece of tissue paper, the straw should poke through easily. If you've glued two pieces together like I did, it's not so easy. I used a knife to cut a small hole/slit in the paper where I was going to stick the straw to keep the paper from tearing:

Notice the hole isn't in the center. The long part of the straw isn't in the center of the candy, but I want the candy in the center of the paper, so adjust according to your own straws/candy.

Next, to make the paper curl around the candy and to stay in place, use the glue stick to make a circle on the tissue where the candy will go. For the Ferrero Rocher, I made the glue circle just a bit bigger than the little cupcake wrapper the candy is glued into so it would go up the sides some:

Now before the glue dries, slide a straw into the slit (or poke a hole) in the tissue paper and press the paper against the candy, trying to cover the straw:

Front

Back

Now you need to get your container ready. I used pretty Valentine gift boxes. The teacher ones I got from Walmart for around $2; the ones for the troop, I got at the dollar store! For the foam, get the "wet" foam, the squishy foam. It works better with the straws. My dollar store has some of this, and I got three big blocks for $4 at Walmart. Cut your foam to fit the container. If you have to piece some together like I did, glue the pieces together. With these boxes, I just glued the foam down in there. If you're using a vase or a cup of some kind, be sure the foam fits tightly or it will dump easily:

Now start arranging!

I think I used about 17 candies per bouquet for my 6"x6" boxes. Stick the straws in however you like! Fill in with some larger squares of tissue, and you're done!