1st Attempt:Black Bean Burgers

In an effort to eat healthier and save money...(HAVE YOU NOTICED THE PRICE OF MEAT LATELY???)...I was anxious to try Black Bean Burgers. I found the recipe on MoneySavingMom

I tweaked it to what ingredients I had on hand.

Black Bean Burgers

1 can drained black beans

1 C. brown rice(we used white)

2 T. salsa

1 egg

2+ C. bread crumbs(used whole wheat buns toasted)

seasoning(I used Mrs. Dash and some steak seasoning)

Mix ingredients together and fry in olive oil until firm and hot.



A few things we learned:

• Make the rice ahead of time....otherwise it's too wet.
• Cook for a long time on medium-low heat until firm all the way through.
• Don't forget the bread crumbs or use crackers..otherwise they will fall apart.

Even my picky eater gobbled these down. No, they don't taste like hamburger, but they are very good especially if you find the right seasoning ratio. The kids had shredded cheddar and ketchup on theirs. Don and I opted for salsa and sour cream along with shredded cheddar. The cool thing is, each burger including the whole wheat bun had over 10 grams of fiber and very little fat. And don't get me started on the cost...like..less than 40 cents a burger!  I think this will be added to our dinner menu options from now on.

No-Sew Curtains

After: New blinds, tailored valances, vibrant contrasting colors...it's hard to see, but there are brilliant pops of green in the paisely swirls that is the perfect shade of our walls which are painted in Peeled Cucumber.
I love the way it pulls the wall color, brown blinds, and leather furniture all together.

 

Before: Broken shades, mismatched poofy valances, monochromatic colors




 

To make the no-sew valances, I

traced the kitchen curtain on the right, onto my fabric, cut it out, trimmed it with brown scrolly trim applied with Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue and glued the top seam also. You'll be shocked to hear that I hot-glued it right onto the rod..yep...I'm lazy like that.....besides who's gonna know??...sshhh!


Scrolly Trim



 I just have to finish the rest. I will also be "real sewing" the window seat cushion and make some pillows for the living room furniture in the contrasting fabrics below.You can see the small window on the far right has a blue bar at the top...when I ordered the blinds online from Home Depot, the only size they had(on sale for 75% off!!! cost was $1.74 with free shipping!!!!) was a little short...so we improvised and just added a piece of wood painted on the outside to blend with the frame. Since the valances will come down to cover it, it's a non-issue.



The dining room window with the new blinds patiently waiting for the valance.



The Rohr version of a Veggie Tale..Benny the French Fry, playing in a blinds box.

Don and I had been very frustrated with the broken shade situation. After months of angst, I finally remembered to pray about it. That night I couldn't sleep and prayed to Jesus and St. Anthony to help me come up with an affordable solution.

The very next morning, what should I happen to see...Home Depot clearanced out their Bali blinds to 75% off including FREE SHIPPING!!! I thanked the Lord and St. Anthony and called to celebrate with Don. And...I had been saving up my mystery shop money to buy the new fabric for the window treatments and that fabric was 50% off. Wahoo!! I'm trying to sell the poofy valances on craigslist...so if you're in the market...

The beautiful fabrics

Praise be to God and Thank you St. Anthony!!!

Frugal Baby Gifts

The previous posting about beautiful children's illustrations has got me all excited to share a baby gift idea with you.

You can use children's picture books such as Bessie Pease Gutmann art found in this book. You can literally just tear the pages out, put them in old repainted used frames and mat them and give them as a gift....you can also paint the mat as well.

I bought this book 15 years ago for the same price as the above link..$3.95 and tore the pages out, painted old frames that I had and hung them in Noah's nursery. It was such a blessing at the time because our income was below the poverty line and I had zero money for decorating.

You could also print them out on iron-on transfers and make blankets, tote bags for Mom, Grandmas, Aunts, godmothers,bibs, onesies, t-shirts, burp-clothes...etc.


Here's a few prints from inside the book:

Sweet gift for a new baby girl or maybe 1st birthday.

Great as a Baptismal gift.

How about a Big Sister gift??

Gift for a new baby boy??

TRIED IT!! Make Laundry Soap from Bar of Ivory Soap

I stumbled across this "recipe" in a magazine called "Keepers at Home". I am going to try this and I'll report back on this post how it works out...sounds almost too easy!!!

Melt one bar of Ivory soap with some water on the stove. When dissolved, pour into a gallon container 3/4 full of warm water. Turn a few times to mix and then turn again the next day. Use one cup per load, turning each time you use it. For dish towels or diapers, you can add a few drops of lavender or tea tree oil for antiseptic properties.

Trying Healthy Homemade Poptarts

My version...not quite
as pretty.

The moment I saw these on MoneySavingMom, I had to try them! The recipe is very easy and hails from Heavenly Homemakers. I made 4 different kinds, Grape, Strawberry, Chocolate, and Brown Sugar Cinnamon. The grape and strawberry were made with jam, the chocolate with sundae syrup(heavier than Hershey's syrup, Smucker's brand), and a mix of butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar for the latter. The recipe made about 2 1/2 dozen. My honest opinion is that they are decent, pretty good actually. Homemade cinnamon rolls are much better and I would prefer homemade muffins or scones, but it's fun to try something different.  I liked the Brown Sugar Cinnamon best. The crust is a little chewy and I was expecting a little more flakey-ness. If you had to choose between these and Poptarts, these are way healthier and I love everything that's homemade, but if your kids have had the misfortune of trying Poptarts, they will probably be disappointed...like mine were. Although, they did eat them. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best, I would rate them a 3.

10 Minutes

 I am trying to get in shape....it's so hard to leave the house to accomplish this. We have a Y membership and we go once a week and that's about all we can commit to at this time. I am experimenting with a new exercise segment strategy. For 10 minutes a day, I jog through the house. I was super out of shape, the first few days about killed me! But it's getting easier. I set the timer on the microwave. Yes, there is some skill involved, I have to jump over toys, blankets, books, shoes, and the occasional child. At first, Charlie followed me crying, trying to catch me...but he was getting exercise too! Today, I had 5 of the kids running with me...and it was kind of sweet, but also annoying...because they are in MUCH better shape and were running circles around me. It works. It may not work for everyone, but it works for me. Next week, I will add 5 minutes to the workout...although I'm not sure what to incorporate?

Starting Simple

As part of my 2011 goals, I wanted to cook more, eat out less. This is the 2nd week that I have typed up a menu and hung it on the fridge. We gather on Sunday evening, and as a family decide what will be on the menu for the following week. At that time, I also write up my grocery list for the week. We also added a bible verse to memorize(Every Day is a Gift inspired). On Monday, I do the grocery shopping. I'm a very visual person, it's such an easy simple thing, but it has totally changed my mentality...I used to basically cave in at the end of the day and order take out because I was too tired and unmotivated to even think about what to feed the family. Now that we have a plan for each day, it's soo much easier and I have everything on hand because I have already done my shopping. It's not the world's fanciest or exotic lineup, but it's family friendly and everyone had input. Someday, I'll try changing things up a bit, but for now, it's just simpler to stick with the tried and trues. One added benefit is that I don't have children constantly asking, "What's for dinner?" I just point at the menu. What makes dinner prep, planning, and shopping easier at your house??

Christmas Gratitude

I have been the most UN-thankful person over the last several years, I have failed time and time again to send out thank you notes to anyone and everyone!! I decided as part of my "respect" 2011 goal, that I need to be more grateful and hopefully that will transfer over to the kids. So as our Christmas "Thank you" notes we each colored a letter and snapped a pic, added a border at www.walgreens.com and we will just send these out as postcards and write the address and note on the back of the photos. It's a little more affordable stamp-wise and a little more personal. Now, I just have to actually SEND them!! Hopefully the fact that I'm blogging about it...will help with my accountability issues!

Love Index

For our anniversary this year, my better half changed things up a bit, in past years my birthdays and anniversaries had called for a sweet card and a Mylar balloon. As much as I missed having to wrestle a balloon from our ceiling fan this year, I was shocked and awed by his gift. It was simple, loving, and very affordable. It was a stack of index cards tied up with ribbon. On each one, was a reason he loved me...here's a few of my favorites...I love that you bake awesome cookies, I love how you are always thinking about how we can be a better family, and I love how you care about my soul. This was the BEST gift I have ever received!!! I don't think it gets any simpler either. So, I flipped them over and wrote why I loved him on the back and gave it to him for his birthday today..1-11-11, It was just too awesome of an idea not to copy.

Here are his favorites from me: I love your Prince Charming handsome smile, I love that even though you are smarter than me, you still think I am smart in my own "special" way, and I love that you listen to all my plans....even the crazy ones that don't work out.

This was really fun and it's so uplifting to think of all the positives about each other, when often, we are tempted to nit pick or dwell on the negative. When I am having a bad day, I just pull out the stack and read and smile...it really does wonders for my mood.

Super Easy Pancake/Maple Syrup

One of my favorite recipes and also one of the easiest is for Homemade Maple Syrup. This actually tastes very good and better than my $16 bottle from Vermont;)

1 cup water

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring

Boil water and sugar for 5 minutes and then add the maple flavoring. Let cool and then you can pour it into a pancake syrup bottle or maple syrup jug. Store either in the pantry or in the fridge.

Hannah's $10 Birthday Party

Can you have a decent Birthday Party for $10?? I say YES! While we are still in extreme budget mode with our 2 house payments, Hannah just had to have a Princess themed birthday party. Here is the breakdown:

Invitations: Free(I just printed these off the computer and we handed them out as we saw our guests at different functions)

Cupcakes: $ 4.29 ( I made 56 total, 1 white mix and 1 Devil's food and only 1 can of frosting, princess cupcake liners were on sale at Dillons for .79 cents. The girls decorated their own cupcakes with sprinkles and decorations I had leftover from other baking projects.

Shaved Ice: $3.67 ( We had the shaved ice machine purchased a few years ago at Goodwill for $1.99) and the bag of ice was $1.47 and 2 packages of koolaid was .20 cents, this makes the syrup, just mix with sugar and a small amount of water and drizzle over the shaved ice. Spoons and foam cups $2.00 from Dollartree.

Princess Craft: $1.99 Kit purchased from Michael's on clearance. Each girl made their own princess themed picture frame, I took each of the girl's pic and printed it out to put into the frame and they took home the completed frame as a party favor.

Princess Game: Free We printed out a pic from "Princess and the Frog" that we enlarged to 17X22 and used green card stock from Grandma's stash to cut out tiara's to match the pic. We played stick the tiara's on the Princess. The prize was a few freebies I had collected over the last few months with coupons.

Gifts: In lieu of gifts, Hannah requested a few items to take to The Lord's Pantry at St. Pat's.

Total: $9.95

In all honesty, I really missed not being able to send home a goodie bag with each child, this is where I usually spend the bulk of a birthday party budget, but that was just not possible this year. As a parent, I am not a huge fan of goodie bags anyway, as the items usually end up as feet implants or landfill foder.

The highlight of the party was when we gathered to pray for the recipients of the "gifts", each girl began requesting prayers for their own intentions...it was such a sweet and unplanned moment.