Hannah's Room COMPLETE

9/30/12

Hannah's room is COMPLETE!! Here's a look at the pictures before I changed it. It was a mess and nothing was working....green walls, purple decor, disorganized, etc.

Black dresser from our old guest room (was my mom's and then mine).

This picture was my inspiration for the room. 

Here's what I did....

painted the dresser brown...

Pink curtain

Pink wall with bedding

Made this frame to hold her hair clips

Made the rosettes

Can't wait to put pictures in those frames of Hannah!

Love the cream walls and one pink wall.

Used pearls to hold curtain

Yarn wrapped letters I made with rosettes

Yarn wrapped frame with Hannah's middle name hanging in it.

I love the way this looks now

Here's a snapshot of the whole room. It looks bigger with all the light walls. I just love it.  The pictures don't do it justice!!!

Hope you enjoyed Hannah's room revealed! I think I will do another post of how much it cost me to put the room together and what all the frames and shelves looked like before I added my special touch to them :) I got some GREAT deals for this room!!! As you saw with Abby's room, you can decorate a room for next to nothing...you just have to get your creative juices flowing and your eyes open for deals!!

Overdue Post

9/26/12

Ok, remember the table and chairs in the basement? Well, I finished the chairs....a while ago. I forgot to post about it. So let's just recap the project a little. 

BEFORE (table primed)

AFTER

 BEFORE

Chairs Primed

AFTER

The chairs are an almond color and not white. I think it looks great. 

So there's the FINAL post. Stay tuned for Hannah's bedroom!!!!!!!!!

Grocery and Meal List

9/10/12

So I have been using a grocery and meals spreadsheet. It is custom for my shopping and meal preferences. It is a big help though. Now I can check off what I would like to get from the store and KNOW what I'm going to spend...as long as I stick to my list :) Each time I go shopping and buy stuff not on my current list, I just keep the receipt and go home to enter it in so I have a record of it. 

Here's some screen shots of what my spreadsheets look like (click on the picture for closer view). For meals I just divide the cost of what I use out of it for the meal (2 cups flour, figure out how much it costs out of the whole bag). Then it totals up to how much the meal costs.

I like to just put in what the regular price of items are and if they're on sale then it's a bonus. That way I have allotted enough money for shopping trips and budget the right amount of money without expecting the sale price. So whatever I can get on sale is great cause I'll have extra money (end goal). Plus, if you're short on money for a week, you can figure out what meals cost you the least to make and go buy those.

I hope this helps motivate you to do your own! There are some formulas involved that I'm not so sure about because my BIL did the spreadsheet but you can do a simpler one without check boxes and just total up everything if you'd like. Happy budgeting and planning!

New Pizza Crust and Pizza Roll-up

9/8/12

I have a new pizza crust recipe that I tried out last weekend. It turned out great! I am trying to use more of the fresh wheat from my MIL and so I thought I'd tweak my pizza recipe so it isn't as flat and "wheatie" (using the fresh wheat it can be). 

Wheat Pizza Dough

1 cup unbleached flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (fresh or from store...I recognize that not many people have a wheat grinder!)

2 1/4 tsp yeast (or 1 packet)

3/4 cup hot water

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp Garlic salt

1 tbsp Coconut oil

1. Put yeast and water in bowl. Let sit a couple minutes.

2. put flour and rest of ingredients in bowl.

3. Kneed dough a few minutes.

4. Put in greased bowl and cover with towel. Put in oven 20 minutes and let rise (80 degrees or so)

5. Take dough out and punch down.

6. Spread on pan and put sauce, cheese, toppings.

7. Bake 375 for 15-20 minutes

Coconut oil I use....organic would be best (higher quality)

Ingredients ready to be mixed and kneaded.

Doubled in size after 20 minutes.

Punched down. 

Spread out and sauce on dough. Add cheese and toppings. Cook!

Pizza Roll-up

Roll out dough on counter (spray counter with Pam) in rectangle shape.

Add minimal sauce and cheese.

I did pepperoni for this one.

 I put a little bit of butter on the top and sprinkled garlic salt on it. 

Yum! Kyle and Abby loved it. The other great part is that making a homemade pizza costs about $2.50...you can't get that deal anywhere with quality ingredients!

Homemade Salsa

9/6/12

Fresh, homemade salsa is so much more tasty than store bought. So here's the recipe I use!! You can freeze or can this salsa.

Homemade Salsa

7 lbs tomatoes (14 cups)

1 jalapeño seeded and finely chopped

1 1/2 cup diced onion

1/3 cup cilantro

1/3 cup vinegar

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp corn starch

Directions:

1. Chop into pieces (I like chopping because it's thicker) or use food processor to dice tomatoes. Measure out 14 cups and put in big stock pot. 

2. Bring to boil.

3. Simmer 45 minutes.

4. While tomatoes are simmering, chop other ingredients (you can put these in a food processor all together and dice).

5. Add all ingredients to tomatoes and bring back to boil. 

6. Turn off and let cool if you'd like. Put in jars. 

7. If you'd like a little added flavor then add a tsp of fajita seasoning (I don't do this...I love the flavor).

7. Enjoy this tasty salsa!

*If you want chunkier salsa, chop into big pieces. The original recipe has you strain the salsa at the end and it is less watery but it removes about half the amount you can put in jars and doesn't have as much flavor. If you'd like it less watery then simmer longer to let water evaporate.