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. 

Raining

8/21/12

It's amazing how God can answer prayers and then add some extra blessings on top of it! Here are some things God is doing...

1. Showing me how to lean into Him more
2. Answering prayers about our finances and growing Kyle's business like crazy
3. Helping me with budgeting/meal planning
4. Revealing and providing some great ways to teach Abigail about God's love and truth

Tonight a few things happened that I just got excited about and am SO THANKFUL for...all in about an hour time span. ha!

1. Someone we know is getting a new freezer and offered to give their current one to us...for free...and it works/no issues.

2. We are going to be able to buy part grass fed/grain fed beef for.....about $1.50 a pound!!!! It's from a family member of the same people giving us the freezer. You can't find a deal like this anywhere...and now we have a way to store extra food!

3. Our neighbors across the street offered and gave us a double stroller, also for free. wow.

4. I've been praying for ways to help earn a little extra money before Hannah comes but be able to have Abby with me. Well, the school my mom works at needs some help with kids for the next week and a half so I am going to go in the mornings and work a little but Abby gets to go and be in a class for free. So I will be earning extra money and won't have to worry about childcare...wow.

5. Abby did not come out of her room again tonight...yay!

6. A personal training client confirmed that he will be purchasing one more package with me before I have the baby...so more extra money. yay!

7. I'm also just feeling a sense of peace and closeness with the Lord tonight...His love is extravagent

It's just amazing to me how you can pray about specific things and God answers them. Plus, He can figure out ways to make it work before you have to figure it out. Thank You Lord.

Homemade Tortillas

8/18/12

Homemade Tortillas. Who knew you could make them at home and taste delicious?? Have you looked at the ingredients on the tortillas you buy at the store? There is a huge list of crap on them. Usually hydrogenated oil is listed (tricky way of saying there's trans fat). If you find a decent tortilla, they're pretty expensive. No more!! 

Ever since I stepped into the fitness and nutrition world, I have been on a journey to find better quality foods. Not just foods that have "better" or lower calories on the package, but foods that have "real" and quality ingredients. Honestly, my view of "healthy" has transformed a little in the last few years. It's not low-fat or no fat that makes something healthy, it's going back to the source....to the ground or the animal. Finding foods that aren't processed inside a chemistry lab and factory plant. 

Therefore, I have thrown out the box mixes of brownies, cakes, muffins, etc. I have found that you can make all those things and more at home and use REAL ingredients (most of which we have in our cupboards) and guess what? They usually taste as good or BETTER! You just have venture out and find recipes, which isn't hard with the internet....and my blog posts :) 

Tortilla Recipe

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup butter

1/2 cup hot water

Put first 3 ingredients in bowl and mix together. Cut in butter. I usually cut it in chunks and then use fingers or pastry fork. Sorry I didn't get pictures of this part cause I didn't think about it till the next couple steps.

Pour in hot water and form into a ball. Kneed dough a few times (less than a minute). Form into balls. I did 10 larger tortillas, so 10 balls. 

I like using a griddle that plugs in so it regulates the temperature constantly and doesn't get too hot. Or you can use a skillet with no spray.

Flour surface and put ball on it. Sprinkle with a little flour.

Use Rolling pin and roll very thin.

Put on hot skillet for 30 seconds or so. Let it bubble a little. I don't let it brown very much.

 Flip and let it cook another 30 seconds or so.

BAM. That's it. Use the tortillas for whatever you wish. They do taste great.

I got large plastic bags to put them in. If you leave them out then they'll get crispy and crack when you go to use them.

Homemade tortillas are not only less processed, they're more cost effective. These cost about 75 cents to make....not too shabby when you will pay more than twice that for ones at the store. And 10 large tortillas adds up to about 6 grams a fat per tortilla...not horrible, especially because there's only 5 ingredients. I hope you try it out and stop buying store bought tortillas!

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UPDATE!!!!!!! 

If you would like less mess it's totally possible. I didn't like how (flour-ie) my hands would get while eating the tortillas. So now I don't dust with flour and the tortillas don't stick when I roll them. Win win. Plus the pan doesn't smoke because of dry flour being on it. Also, I had issues with the tortillas getting a little hard. So I put a towel over the plate of freshly made tortillas, lift it up to put a new one on. It keeps them moist so they stay soft. Them I out them in a large Baggie or cover the plate tightly in plastic Wrap. So now they are less messy and more soft like ones you buy at the store...but taste way better!

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