March 2, 2013 · 5:07 pm

DIY Dry Erase Scoreboard

Since getting the pool table, our dry erase calendar has become covered up with scores from the games we have played and I decided a scoreboard would look a lot nicer.

I had an old 11X14 frame just sitting around and I figured glass would make the perfect surface for dry erase markers. That also meant I would be able to customize what went into the frame and I really liked the idea of that.

I found this awesome image of pool balls and went to work.

poolimage

After about an hour, I had this.

scoreboard design

I printed the image and then added a mat to the frame and hung it on the wall.

scoreboard 2

I am not sure how I feel about the white mat, but it was just what I had in the house. Plus it was free.

scoreboard1

Now our pool sticks have some much needed company and I have my calendar back.

 

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February 28, 2013 · 8:47 pm

Painting The Winter Away

The weather has left me with a lot of time at home, so I figured I may as well start a project. The wallpaper in the kitchen has somehow survived a decade living with me and I decided it was time for it to go. Plus, there is no cheaper way to update your house than a coat of paint.

Belle and I went to pick out the color and I finally caved and let her get the “toffee butter” color that she picked. We left Lowe’s carrying two gallons with the intent to paint the kitchen and adjoining den, which since the addition of a pool table should really be referred to as the billiard room.  I told Belle I hoped the color wasn’t a mistake because we had a lot of paint. She said, “Maybe we should’ve got a sample first”.

OK, maybe we should have. The thing is in all my years of painting, I have never found a color I like from a sample. When I paint, I prefer to just pick and pray.

I painted a part of the wall to see how the color looked. I was a little nervous after it dried. It looked very…orange. I decided to finish the wall anyway and the color started to grow on me. I have been working every day a little at a time since Friday and I am finally finished painting. Here is how it came out:

kitchen1

kitchen2

den1

den2

Now that everything is painted I really like the color. Robert also likes it because he says it looks “western”. Belle likes it because she picked the color. AJ says it looks like a “villa”.

I still have to install the baseboard and trim around the windows and doors. For now, I am just happy to have the painting done.

 

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February 26, 2013 · 1:33 pm

Life With Dogs

Having one dog in the house is a challenge. When you get a friend for your dog and end up with two, it is even more work. For those crazy enough (myself included) to get a third dog, having a clean house becomes a distant memory. Here are some of the things I have learned about having dogs in the house:

1. Dogs and Leather Don’t Mix
We have had our leather couches for a long time. They made it though both kids being young and still looked brand new. Unfortunately, leather doesn’t have the same magical powers over dogs. Our cushions have tears in the corners and have been scratched thanks to Bogey who loves to do the “scratch and spin in circles” thing.

2. Carpet is Not Okay Either
We have no carpets or rugs in the main area of our house. The dogs don’t go in our bedrooms. We used to have carpet and I vacuumed every day. I was disgusted with how much dust and hair came flying out of the carpet when we finally pulled it out. No matter how clean you may be, if you have pets in your house, your carpet is gross. I promise.

3. Learn To Love Your Vacuum and Mop
I have to clean my floors. Every day. Really.

4. Pray that Ingesting Dog Hair Isn’t Deadly
When I cook, I keep everything as clean as I can. I constantly wash my hands and wipe down counters. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to stop the occasional dog hair from finding it’s way into your food. Every time I pick one out, I can’t help but wonder how many we don’t find.

5. Forget About Black
You will NEVER wear black again (unless maybe your dog is black).

6. It Is Still Worth It
There are so many reasons not to have pets in the house, but it sure is nice to have them here anyway. There is always a dog to pet, cuddle with, laugh at and the house always feels so full of life with them here.

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February 22, 2013 · 2:28 pm

Meal Planning

Over the past couple of weeks we have been experimenting with meal plans from The Fresh 20. We got a yearly subscription for $24 with a groupon. Each week they provide a new menu with 5 dinners. One meal is seafood and one meal is vegetarian.

What I love about the menu is you are provided a grocery list of 20 items (plus pantry staples), so there is no list to make for the grocery store. They also provide a list of things that can be made ahead for the week. That means over the weekend I can get vegetables cut, rice cooked, meat prepared and have less to do on the nights I am too busy. They also utilize all of the vegetables you buy, so there is no waste. Last week we used one head of cabbage in 3 of the meals. I love that!

In addition to the weekly menus, you receive access to their archives. This worked out great this week when I received their current menu and knew I would have a hard time with the kids eating most of the items.

Instead of the menu they provided, I selected another menu, which consisted of Chicken Milanese, Shrimp Scampi, Chicken and Broccoli Casserole, Tuscan Bean and Chicken Stew and Potato Frittata.

My favorite of the week was the Shrimp Scampi. I broke out my pasta maker for the meal.

pastamaker1

This machine makes quick work of turning sheets into pasta shapes:

pastamaker2

I thought the addition of baby arugula would be a problem for the kids, but everyone ate everything on their plate.

scampi

The broccoli and cheese casserole would have been so simple if I had everything prepped ahead. I had the chicken cooked and broccoli chopped from the night we ate the Milanese, but we did the rest of the prep on cooking night.

brocchicking

Belle has gotten very good at cutting veggies. She loves doing this right now because no one else in her class is allowed to use big knives (or so she tells me).

bellecutting

I thought the chicken and broccoli casserole was pretty good, but not very flavorful. AJ picked through the rice and broccoli and only ate the chicken. Belle said it was alright.

brocchicken

The only downside so far is the meals seem a little uneven. Sometimes there is a lot of food and others there isn’t anything left for lunch the next day. We had fish sticks last week, and it just wasn’t enough food. We were all still hungry.

So far I feel like The Fresh 20 was worth the money for us. We were in a major meal rut and now we are eating something brand new every night. There are so many veggies in their meals and they always seem to find the healthiest way to prepare the food.

Today is Friday, so the latest menu will be hitting my inbox at any minute. I can’t wait to see what we’ll be eating next week!

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February 16, 2013 · 11:31 pm

Where does the time go?

It is so hard to believe that it has been almost a month since my last post. If you remember I mentioned that Robert got sick right before Christmas, and he is still having issues. The doctor has ordered no work or lifting, which has been frustrating for him. That also means I have been working even more to keep up with the house, the kids and going over our budget to figure out the best way to handle the incoming medical bills. We keep on saying it could be worse, but then it seems to get worse anyway.

A few weeks ago I dented my Subaru after sliding down a road covered in black ice. When you live in the mountains, that can be a very dangerous situation. In my case, the left side of the road was yards and the other was a cliff. My car ended up ultimately sliding to the left and hitting a light post. Since the alternative was certain death, I tried to look on the bright side. After all, you all know how much I love my car, but it could be worse. Right?

Then last week Belle got sent home with lice. I had to do a million loads of laundry, clean the house like a nut, and spend hours (seriously, hours) combing her hair to get rid of all the nits. Luckily, no one else had lice but her, although I couldn’t help telling AJ he had it too when we checked his hair. Sometimes you have to get your laughs where you can. Belle having lice has left me thinking that saying things could be worse might not be the way to go. Instead, I’d like to think things could be better and cross my fingers that they will be.

It hasn’t all been awful over the last few weeks. I did celebrate my birthday. Robert and Belle bought me a bunch of kitchen stuff.

newtools

They got me new cookie sheets by USA pans. I am absolutely in love with USA pans. I bought a few of their bread pans a month ago and they are fantastic. I also got a new set of measuring cups and some bamboo utensils. Something about cooking with the bamboo makes me feel like a damn professional. I love them.

AJ made me a painting.

ajpresent

The rain is made from crayons that he melted.

My dad and his wife Lisa also took me out for breakfast, bowling and shopping where I bought a few more kitchen items. Lisa made me a cake with candles (the only birthday cake I got). While we were all talking,  AJ went over and took of the candles out of the cake and started cutting it. Um, really? I don’t know what that kid thinks sometimes.

Daisy also celebrated her first birthday on Valentine’s Day.

daisyone

Belle has been asking for a pool table for a while and her wish finally came true. My dad decided to invest in a slate table and gave his old one to us.

pooltable

We have been having such a good time playing. Belle always cracks me up when she shoots because she always looks so serious.

So that is it for now. A little bad, and some good too. I guess that is kind of how life goes and even though it seems like just a little more of the bad right now, it can always get better!

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January 18, 2013 · 12:21 pm

Knowing What You’re Eating

I am not a health nut, but I do think it is important to know what is in the food you eat. So much ready-made foods have a lot of unnecessary ingredients and making the foods yourself enables you to have control over exactly what goes into the things you eat.

Here are a couple of my recent favorite ways to eliminate processed foods.

Fruit_VegetablesFruits and Veggies

I have discovered the best way to intake fruits and veggies is in smoothies. They are fast, easy and portable. Robert introduced me to the Nutribullet, and while I think any blender would probably do the trick, I love the recipes included with the blender.

For meals, if I don’t have fresh on hand, and I need to choose between frozen or canned, frozen wins. I can portion better and frozen veggies have nothing else added.

bakingmixBaking Mix

Making your own bisquick is really simple. Having this mix in your pantry will prevent the purchase of store biscuits and frozen breakfast foods.

I used this recipe and even though they recommend refrigeration, I’ve had mine in the pantry with no problems. They do call for vegetable shortening, which I am contemplating eliminating and replacing with a healthier oil, like coconut.

pastaPasta

I was given an Amazon gift card for Christmas, which I used to purchase a pasta maker. I have wanted one for so long and after making my first batch of homemade pasta, I can tell you it was worth it. I have been dedicated to replacing as much of my white flour with wheat as I can, but I find the store bought wheat pasta to be, well gross.

From start to finish, I think it took me about 20 minutes to make the pasta and not a second wasted. It was delicious.

Cream of Something Soup

I came across this awesome post on how to make cream of something soup. So many recipes call for cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup and I don’t ever have any. If you are interested, the author does a great job and even provides charts for making customized versions based on diet. That post will be printed out and saved by me for sure!

Cereal

I love granola and Belle likes oatmeal, but I have been searching for a replacement for some of the store bought cereals that the kids like. Last weekend I made some caramel puffed corn for us to snack on. When AJ tried it, he said it tasted like cereal, which gave me the idea to use the puffed corn or wheat or rice as a base to make my own cereal replacement.

I am a baker, not a cook. I love recipes and directions. I don’t like to deviate, so I was so happy that I came up with this recipe all on my own and it actually tasted really good:

Homemade Cocoa Krispies

cocoa1

Ingredients:
5-6 cups puffed rice
1/4 cup coconut oil slightly melted
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup honey
dash vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325. Mix coconut oil, cocoa, honey and vanilla in a bowl. Gradually add puffed rice as long as it continues to coat. I used about 6 cups of puffed rice. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

After cooling it will be crispy and chocolately.

cocoa2

Eat with milk or by the handful!

Aspirations for the Future

I am hoping with my giant garden this year, my store bought pasta sauce and salsas will be replaced with my own homemade versions.

I will also be making applesauce again this year, but will leave it unsweetened in hopes of using it to replace oil in some of my baking.

I  am still working on utilizing herbs and spices for flavor, instead of relying on salt.

I am on the fence about making homemade mayo because of the short shelf life, but would love to try homemade ketchup.

I need to learn to deviate from recipes. As I said I am a baker, so I am always jealous of Robert when he is cooking. If something doesn’t taste right he always seems to know just how to fix it. If he isn’t there to fix it, I don’t have that ability, so I just serve it to the kids and say, “Sorry this tastes like shit.”

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January 17, 2013 · 7:35 pm

My New Pantry

I have become increasingly frustrated with the industrial shelving we use inside our pantry. The unit is too deep and things get lost in the back. There wasn’t enough shelves inside and it didn’t take advantage of the whole width of the pantry closet. Plus it was always so dark in there.

Here is a picture of the pantry as it was (kind of). This is a pic from my post about pantry organization last year, so it actually looks much better in the photo than in reality a year later:

pantry-before

I decided I wanted to pull out the industrial shelf and install more customized shelving. Over the weekend Belle and I went to Lowes to have some shelves cut and get supplies for the project, which ended up costing $70.

Yesterday I finally got the project started and finished. After removing the old shelf, I gave the pantry a coat of paint by mixing some colors we had on hand to make a blue-gray color.  Then I began installing the shelves. As with all projects, there was a lot more work involved than I originally planned. I discovered the pantry was a half inch wider in the front than in the back. Of course I measured the front to get my wood cut, which meant I had to break out my saw and cut each piece an additional half an inch. I used 1×2′s to hold up the shelving and the process was painfully slow. Finally, 7 hours and 8 shelves later I was finished.

pantrydone

I decided to use ball jars in half gallon and quart sizes to store my baking supplies, grains and beans. They are a really cheap storage solution since even the half gallons only cost 1.50 each and the quart sizes run about 75 cents.

pantryclose

I made labels for the jars using the same kraft paper I labeled my spice jars with.

labelsinpantry

After I printed out two sheets of labels I put them in a laminating pouch back to back and ran them through my new laminator that I got for Christmas. I cut each one to size and used a hole puncher for the decorative edge. Then I ran them through my sticker maker and put them on the jars.

If only my back didn’t hurt so much from all the work I did yesterday, maybe I would be in good enough shape to bake something and start enjoying my new pantry.

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