Favorite Things November 2013

Favorite Things Post #1 November 2013

One of my favorite bloggers Andrea Dekker does this, and I thought it was a neat way to give our favorite products some recognition! So here  goes ;)


#1 Felicity Slimming Cami 

I have been wearing these since day one with our second. He is now 13 months and the two I had from the start start are in as good of shape as the newer ones I've boughten recently. I do have one in white but for obvious reasons the black ones look newer longer. Maybe it's just me though I have problems keeping my whites from becoming dingy! These camis are great at giving you the slimming look, not being bulky and providing enough support to wear as a bra sometimes too! I love that when I pull up my shirt to nurse the cami still covers my stomach as well! So worth the $25 at target stores.

#2 Squooshi Sipn Combo pack

These were $18.99 for a pack of two of the reusable food pouches and two of the Sip'n caps. I went crazy with the canned applesauce this fall and my boys love those applesauce pouches so I figure this could save us oodles of moolah. :) What I love about these particular pouches: they open from the bottom so they are much easier to clean. They come with the normal hard plastic tops similar to the store bought pouches.  This particular set also came with two of the Sip'n caps with flow control (which basically means non-spill, your child has to suck on it in order for it to come out). My one year old immediately got the hang of it and that's saying a lot coming from a kiddo who refused to ever take a bottle and is just now getting okay with sippy cups. :) I love that I can control what goes into our pouches, and put less trash into the landfill too!

After using these 4.5oz. pouches I will go back and purchase the smaller 2.5oz packages.  The 1yr old couldn't finish the larger size pouch and once it gets to the bottom it's hard for him to realize how to "squeeze" the rest up. I actually end up rolling up the bottom and putting a clothes pin on it to hold it in place. :) My 3-year old has no problem with the 4.5oz size. Well worth the money spent!

#3 Cloth Wipes

Shameless plug here...:) I purchased about 12 of these when we first started cloth diapering N back in 2010 and we are still using those original 12 (along with about 30 more....).  I actually took over making these particular wipes for our local cloth diaper store a few months back. They are the perfect size to fold in half and fit into your regular wipes tub to use in place of throw-away wipes. Also great for bathtime and meal-time cleanups. My absolute fave use though is in place of tissues! My boys hardly ever get those red raw noses when we are using these super soft organic cotton sherpa wipes on them.  You know with kleenex your fingers tend to get wet after wiping a runny nose? (GROSS I know!) never happens with these babies! And obviously they are super cute! ;) Like I said our original dozen are still in great shape after 3 years of use! I sell them on my facebook page for $1 each. (The cloth diaper store marks them up to about $1.60 each).

#4 Thatsa Bowl

I have an older style pink Thatsa Bowl that I use All.the.time. I'm having a Tupperware show this month so that I can purchase the ThatsaMega Bowl! I quite obsessively frequently freezer cook and can foods and use my bowl almost every time. It's necessary when working with such large quantities of food. It also works great for making chex mix or any other snack mix and travels well due to the included lid. My bowl is so old it doesn't have the nifty handle they do now which I can see being a big help in carrying and storing the bowl. I admit I will have to buy a new thatsa bowl as well so they can match.... :)

#5 Pressure Canner I just purchased this a few months ago and have already used it numerous times! The thought of pressure canning used to be scary until a friend helped ease me into the idea.  I love this particular canner because you can also use it as a hot water bath and a pressure cooker. You can even stack your jars 2 high! It has a pressure regulator so no worries of it "blowing up" as my grandpa warned me of. ;) 

So far I have used it to can salsa, spaghetti sauce, applesauce (regular and strawberry), pinto and kidney beans, salsa verde, and grape juice! The instruction booklet that comes along with it is very helpful and includes all the recipes you need to get started. By purchasing through the amazon link provided you save 25% off the regular price as well! Score!

It doesn't get much better than this!

As I am finishing up with that mountain of dishes from tonite I can't help but thinking "It doesn't get much better than this!" You may be thinking I have gone crazy so let me explain.
I am washing the dishes as my hubby and lil man are laughing and playing in the living room, bellies full of a yummy dinner and desert.
I am thankful for: 1. A loving husband. 2. A beautiful son. 3. The home we live in.
4. The food I can put on the table. 5. The ability to wash those dishes!
It has been a long summer of not seeing my hubby more than an hour or so a day. Especially hard for lil man since he doesn't understand why daddy is working so much!
It's so nice to start getting into a "normal people" routine again! The lil man is a new person when he has daddy around more often and it just melts my heart!

Well enough of the mush here is what I accomplished tonite!


Speaking of mush..... I steamed and puree'd (sp???) 4 1/2 cup serving of carrots. One of which I used in the cookies we had for dessert! I use carrot puree quite often in things such as pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, homemade mac n cheese, cookies you name it.

Also blanched some corn on the cob so that we can enjoy it in the dead of winter.

Here is dinner: Lemon Glaze chicken and wild rice. I also prepared two more meals of the lemon glaze chicken for the freezer. It was yummy (luckily considering we are going to eat it two more times :)

Don't forget dessert (no this is not a normal thing in this household I was very ambitious tonite!)

Peanut butter raisin cookies with hidden carrot puree, just don't tell my hubby.

I had planned on throwing some of these in the freezer to enjoy later but I'm thinking they will not make it that long.

I can't believe it myself but my kitchen is actually cleaner than it was when I began this afternoon. Thanks to my "Flying Lessons" From www.flylady.net

Go check out her site it is very encourgaing! I am only about a week into it but I am loving it so far. Not that I am following to a tee but at least I am trying.

I had such a fun time this past week because I got to play caterer all week!

A friend of mine was preparing to take a weeklong vacation to a cottage with about 10 family members!! She gave me the task of menu planning, organizing, shopping and preparing food for the week. While the task seemed daunting to her it was very exciting for me! I love a good project.

With her help I planned out 3 meals per day and two snacks for the week. Made three shopping trips buying everything they will need for the week. Then I got cooking/baking.

Tried out some breakfast burritos for the first time which were frozen so they would be fresh and yummy by the time they ate them! I found it easy to do a type of assembly line with all my ingredients. Also lay out your plastic wrap or tin foil and then assemble the burrito and wrap it right up!

Let me tell you they were YUMMY!!!! Definately be making these again and will keep extras in the freezer so we can quick pull them out for breakfast.

Here is one of my desserts, a Peanut Butter cup dessert. I froze these and they can eat them straight out of the freezer very yummy!

I wanted to add a special holiday touch so I used powdered sugar! All you have to do it cut your shape out of waxed paper lay it over your dessert and sprinkle your sugar over it voila!

Here it is all the frozen meals/snacks I made for the week. All in all there was:

1 pan of Baked Oatmeal, 18 Breakfast burritos, 2 dozen made from scratch cornbread muffins, 4lbs of RioRancho Taco meat, 4lbs of Sloppy joe meat, 2 pans of peanut butter cup dessert,

20 handmade pig in the blankets, 4 dozen whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies,

(unbaked spoonfuls so they could have freshly baked cookies!) and then 2 large bags of marinated chicken drumsticks! I think that was all the frozen stuff and then I also made up a batch of her Bean Salad recipe which i may have to try for myself someday it looked very yummy!

*Had so much fun and got very motivated to continue to stock my fridge with frozen homemade meals!

Super Powers and Oreo Yogurt

My boo and Emma(dog) enjoying my awesome garage sale find!

I recently got a steal of a deal at a garage sale. A bike buggy that converts to a jogger for only $15!!! I absolutely love it! Attempted to run once: did not go so well! Have not tried it on the bike yet. Today though I broke out my rollerblades and we had a great time! The weather today is absolutely beautiful not to hot which is of utmost importance for me to be outside.

I realized today that excersising in the morning gives me superpowers that last all day long! It really is amazing! After that little trip I had an impromptu freezer cooking session. (Whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and 4 pans of Cheesy potatoes). Did all my laundry and dipes, vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, cleared off my kitchen table which is a miracle all on it's own, and still spent lots of quality time with my fam! And that's all before 5pm. Not to mention we had two sets of guests over in that time frame and have another round of guests coming soon! Whew I think I will sleep good tonite!

Super powers aside I ask myself why is it still so hard to get the motivation to exercise even when I know how much good it will do me for the day?!?!?!

I had an Aha moment this week! We love yogurt in this house but I hate to have it go bad (this doesn't happen too often since we buy organic which seems to last a lot longer!). I buy plain for my boo and don't like to buy two 32 oz. containers at once so I bought a package of oreo cookies and ground them up in the food processor...... Then I store them in a ziploc baggie in the freezer. Now I can turn my plain yogurt into a yummy late night snack! Yogurt already takes the place of ice cream in our house! It's nice to be able to buy the bigger container to save money and have less waste in the way of all those small yogurt containers. I just sprinkle a little bit of my oreo crumbs into my yogurt and voila! Yummo! :)

p.s I highly reccomend Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt. It is absolutely delicious not to mention it is organic and offsets their carbon emmissions by giving 10 percent of their profits to enviromental causes!

The Freezer is my Friend. (and should be yours too!)

My freezer cooking story isn't that extraordinary but i'm learning! I have been freezing fresh vegi's and fruits for a couple of years now. Slowly but surely I am adding more variety into my repitoire.

Recently I stumbled upon the amazing blog "A Turtle's Life For Me"
(because I do not yet know how to tag my words to a link here is the actual link!)

http://aturtleslifeforme.blogspot.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html

Natalie is an awesome blogger and I have literally read every post she has ever made! Her blog is literally addicting lol.

This particular post on freezer cooking has been quite popular lately! So far I have made the "Twice Baked Potatoes", "Shredded Chicken", and the "Taco Meat". I also purchased the book she raved about called "Don't panic Dinner's in the Freezer". This book will help you get started with freezer cooking, or inspire you to get back into freezer cooking. I also highly reccomend it. There is a link on her post to purchase the book.

Here are my "Twice Baked Potatoes" ready for the freezer and boy are they yummo!

The "Taco Meat" recipe was a lot yummier than my usual venison with just a taco seasoning packet!

Next I tried a Baked Oatmeal recipe. I used tin pie plates (which get washed and reused) then cover with tin foil. Disclaimer: Do not stack right on top of eachother until they are fully frozenor you will have major spillage! ;) (hence the plates inbetween the pie plates I remove these once hey are frozen)

And my ultimate favorite things to freeze are fresh fruits and vegetables.

Not only is it awesome to enjoy these in the winter, but it is a great way to save money! I stock up on fresh produce in season when it is cheapest and freeze the excess.

We also have a garden and always have more than we can consume before it goes to waste so it works perfectly to freeze, blanch, or can the leftovers.

The best way I have found to freeze berries is to rinse them and then lay out in a single layer on a cookie sheet for freezeing. Once they are frozen you can place them into your freezer bag or container. This way you can take out a handful and they won't be a solid block!

**** On my to-do list yet is a homemade baking mix recipe, and some Corn bread muffins.

????? Do you have a favorite freezer cooking method or recipe? Please feel free to share it in the comments section!