Welcome to Freezer Friday ( Bacon-Colby Lasagna)

Happy Friday! Here is my recipe for you today. Remember everything I post on Fridays can be made ahead and frozen.

Bacon-Colby Lasagna

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 pounds sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) tomato sauce
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 24 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
• 8 cups (32 ounces) shredded Colby cheese

• In a Dutch oven, cook beef and onions over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the bacon, tomato sauce, tomatoes, sugar and salt; cook until heated through.
• Spread 1 cup meat sauce in each of two greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dishes. Layer with four noodles, 1-2/3 cups meat sauce, 1-1/3 cups cheese in each dish. Repeat layers twice.
• Cover and bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until bubbly. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting. Yield: 2 casseroles (12 servings each).

Welcome to Thifty Thursday ( Couponing part 1)

In today's economy money is tight for everyone and it seems that more and more of us are using coupons to help cut our grocery bills. Today I thought we could talk about ways to organize them. Everyone has different ways and you have to find what works best for you. I personally use the binder method so I thought I would explain to use how I set mine up
I first bought a zip up binder. I then went and bought baseball card holders to use to put my coupons in. I then last added tab dividers so I could organize my coupons into sections.

For the last step I added a pencil holder to the front. I usually keep a calculator and pen in this pouch.

 

You can divide them however you choose. I use the following: bread, dairy, can goods, pasta and helper, frozen, cleaning, health, medicine, paper goods, baby, snacks

I hope this helps you if you are interested in using a binder method. It is time consuming to start but after that it makes seeing your coupons so much easier!

Welcome to Whatever Wednesday!

Last week my crockpot broke. For me this was a tragedy lol. I use it at least 4 times a week so I new I had to get a new one. My husband took me up to Kohl's Friday night and I ended up with this new crockpot

I tried it out this weekend and I loved it! You can set it for how many hours you want it to cook and at what temperature. It also came with a thermometer and a spoon that fits nicely in the spoon rest that is on the lid . You snap the lid down in place and it seals it really tight. I am thinking that transporting this crockpot with something like soup in it is going to go much smoother than it did in my last one!
I would highly recommend this crockpot if you are looking for a new one.
Mindy

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday ( Meatball Stew)

Here is a great fall dish. It can be made in the crockpot or in the oven. I hope you enjoy!

Meatball Stew
1 pd hamburger
1 egg
Onion flakes
1 ½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1½ can tomato sauce-divided
¼ cup bread crumbs
Carrots-peeled and chopped into small pieces
Potatoes-peeled and chopped into small pieces

Mix hamburger, egg, onion flakes ,bread crumbs, ½ cup of tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Make into meatballs. Brown and drain fat off. Transfer to casserole dish (or crock pot) and add carrots, potatoes, 1 cup of water and 1 ½ cans tomato sauce. Bake at 350 for 1 ½ hours.

Make It Monday

Hey Stephanie here with your make it Monday post.  This was suppose to be a post about how I make my Halloween people in the front yard pictured above
But since it rained all day yesterday I did not get them done.


I did have something I was wanting to do any way so I did it and it is going to be our Make it Monday
project.  It will only take about 5 minutes to do.

A friend of mine gave me this really pretty foliage for fall.

I have these vases I use on my mantel for decoration.  This summer they were filled with shells.  

So I simply cut the leaves off of the foliage

Placed them in the 2 vases trying to keep the prettier sides facing out.

And placed them on my mantel
I also used some of my twine wrapped bottles on here and a few pumpkins this way I can keep it up  till Thanksgiving.
Here are a few more pictures

  See quick and simple
Let me know what you think
Steph.

Freezer Friday ( Vegetable Soup)

Freeze ahead Veggie Beef Soup

1 pd ground beef
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
2 cans beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup cubed peeled potatoes
3/4 cup fresh or frozen green beans
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup water
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/8 tsp pepper

Cook beef, onion and green pepper until done, drain. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Serve immediately or transfer to freezer containers. Maybe frozen up to 3 months.
To use frozen soup: Thaw overnight. Transfer to a saucepan and heat through

Thrifty Thursday

So....I got distracted yesterday and forgot to post something. Ooops! Next week I am going to start a series on how to use and organize your coupons. If there are any certain things you would like to know please contact me so I can answer them for you. Thanks!
Mindy

What Ever Wednesday

Hey Stephanie here,

I was talking to Mindy the other day and she was talking about needing to clean her Microwave.  I said you know the easy way to do that right.  She said No and since Mindy knows a lot about cooking and cleaning.  I thought if she didn't know this little trick maybe a lot of people didn't.

So today for whatever Wednesday I am going to share with you a easy way to clean your microwave.

Place about 1/2 cup of water in a bowl add a couple cap fulls of lemon juice( you can use vinegar instead of lemon juice).  Then place the bowl in the microwave and run it for about 3 minutes then take the bowl out and use a damp rag to wipe down the inside of your microwave.  The steam from the water and juice will have loosened any food that was stuck to the inside of the microwave.


Now If you have teenagers who let stuff get splattered in there and not clean it or tell you LOL.  You may have to repeat the process a couple of times.


See I told you it was easy
Hope you have a great Wednesday

Apple Cake

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday! Today I am posting a recipe for Apple Cake. It is getting to be apple season so I am going to post some apple recipes over the next couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy this!
APPLE CAKE

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
3 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups apples (diced and peeled)

Mix all together and pour in a greased cake pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

hey Stephanie here Today is Make It Monday

What do you think I am going to do with a ugly picture frame, 31 clothes pins 12 small nails and some cooper wire.

I am going to make a bill organizer of course.  You see I have a really big problem with bills getting opened and laid down somewhere.  Then when it is time to pay them I cannot find them.   So I am going to make something where they can all be clipped up and then be paid on time.

First you paint your picture frame and clothes pins

Then you turn the picture frame over and hammer nails evenly spaced across from each other on both sides of the frame.  I used  five nails on each side.  because of the size of my frame I place my first nail 1 inch down from the top.  Then the rest of them are spaced 3 inches apart.  Measure your frame and decide to space them for your frame size.

Next measure around your frame from one nail around the front of the frame to the matching nail on the other side of the frame.  Adding about an extra inch to this measurement.  Cut your wire to this measurement  (you don't have to use wire you could use string or ribbon or anything you would like) 

Now wrap your wire around the nails on one side of the frame. 

Then add your clothes pins to your wires.  I added 7 on the first 4 wires and 3 on the last one to make

31 days .  4 weeks with the last three on a separate wire

When you have all the clothes pins on wrap the wire around the front of the frame placing the clothes pins inside the frame.  And wrap the other side of the wire around the nails.  Once you have it tightly wrapped.  Hammer all the nails in till they are tight. 

I them made a hanger out of wire and attaches it the same way I attached the other wires.

I now have a place for all the bills to go when they our opened

I am going to add Numbers to the clothes pins so I will know at a glance when the bills are due.

Let me know what you think

Porcupine Meatballs

Welcome to Freezer Friday! On Fridays I will be posting recipes that freeze easily. Today the recipe is porcupine balls. I hope you enjoy!

Beef Porcupine Balls

1 pd ground beef                   1/2 cup raw rice
1/4 cup chopped onion          1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper                       2 tbsp vegetable oil
2-8oz cans tomato sauce      1 cup water

Mix beef, rice, onion and seasoning, Form into small balls. Fry in hot oil turning frequently until light brown. Add tomato sauce and water. Mix well. Cover and simmer about 45 min.

Hey Stephanie here with our thrifty Thursday Post

Cheap but good

Homemade laundry detergent

Here is what you need:

• 1 c borax
• 1 c washing soda
• 1 bar of soap (ivory or fels naptha)

 I found all these at Wal-mart 

Start out by grating your Fels-naptha soap just like cheese.   I use a hand grater.

Then just mix all the ingredients together.  I keep mine in a pretty jar above my washer.  Use 1 tablespoon per load.  I have found that A baby formula  scoop is the perfect size. 

I am glad to say this does work with my front load washer since the special detergent is still expensive.  And It really does a good job on all the daycare clothing accidents.

I was reading another blog the other day and they suggested after using a hand grater to put your soap bar in a food processor.  So I used my magic bullet after hand grating and I am very happy with the results it is much easier to mix together and scoop out.  

Hi this is Stephanie Welcome to Whatever Wednesday

Hey everyone out there in blog land.  I thought I would do this weeks Whatever Wednesday since I promised to let everyone one know how the premade cream cheese frosting was.  The brand I got was Duncan Hines Whipped frosting 16.2oz.  I have to say I was disappointed in it the first problem was that the color was more of a cream color than white.  But I figured that was just because they have to add stuff to preserve it.  Then I started icing the cake and there was not enough to cover a layered cake.  So I ended up making some cream cheese frosting.  Also the taste was not quite right.  It didn't taste bad but
just not what I am used to when I think of cream cheese frosting.  I might end up using it again but not for a red velvet cake. 
So there you have it my opinion of this frosting

Chicken Carrot Fried Rice

 

 Hi it's Mindy. Welcome to Tasty Tuesday. Every Tuesday I am going to post a recipe. I hope you enjoy. This one was really good and even my kids ate it lol!

Chicken Carrot Fried Rice Recipe

3/4 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
4 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
3 green onions, sliced
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
3 large carrots, shredded
4 cups cold cooked rice
1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and garlic; set aside. In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry broccoli and green onions in 1 tablespoon oil for 5 minutes. Add carrots; stir-fry 4 minutes longer or until crisp-tender. Remove and set aside.
In the same skillet, stir-fry chicken in remaining oil until no longer pink and juices run clear. Add the rice, pepper, vegetables and remaining soy sauce. Stir-fry until heated through.

Stephanie Here

Hey don't forget if we get 25 followers we are going to give away a prize to 1 lucky follower. 

Stephanie Here with Make it Monday

Hey I am going to try and do a make it Monday Post every week.  Today's post is twine wrapped glass bottle.  These are a cute decoration for fall.  I simply took a glass bottle (these happen to be glass baby bottles) and starting at the bottom applied glue to the bottle.  I used plain white glue.  Then I stuck the twine in the glue and started wrapping it up the bottle applying glue as I went up. I think they turned out really cute.  I used them last year on my mantle.  I have 5 of them I made.  They would look great in a line on the table with fall colored flowers in them. Please ignore the tablecloth I run a home day care and that is a daycare tablecloth.

Stephanie Here

Today is my DH birthday he is 45.  So I am going to be busy making a red velvet cake.  Thank goodness they now have a box mix for the cake.  And they even have a cream cheese frosting premade.   I am going to try it today I will let you know if it taste as the homemade stuff. 
That is all for now I will be back in a little while with a craft project.

Stephanie Here

I just spent about an hour drilling holes in these little plastic shoes.  We are going to use some of them to make ruby red slippers for Mindy's daughters birthday party.  But we need some suggestions on what to do with the rest of them.  They are about 2&1/2 inches in lengthv and about 1&1/4 inches tall.  We are thinking of some way to use them as some kind of Christmas ornament any ideas for you guys out here in Blog land will be appreciated.
thanks in advance

Lasagna Roll-Ups

The weather is starting to get cooler so I have been going through some of my fall/winter recipes. Lasagna Roll- Ups are a favorite in my house. I hope you enjoy them to.
Lasagna Roll-Ups

1 box lasagna noodles
1 pd ground beef
15 oz container of Ricotta Cheese
8 oz of mozzarella cheese
extra mozzarella cheese for top
2 eggs

Boil lasagna noodles according to the package directions. Cool. Cut each noodle in half (across the middle) Mix cooked ground beef, both cheese's and eggs. Spread a thin layer of mixture on each noodle. Coat bottom of pan with a thin layer of spaghetti sauce and place each noodle fold side down. Cover noodles with spaghetti sauce and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 35-45 min.

Hi Stephanie Here

these are pictures of a necklace that is for sell in our etsy store. the store name is  twocraftingmoms.  See we are trying to keep things easy.

Hershey Bar Snowman

Aren't they cute?

Hopscotch mat

Here is a hopscotch mat that I just recently made. It is made with a yard of duck canvas fabric and felt. On the back I made a Tic Tac Toe Game and a Memory game.

Stephanie Here

With fall coming up I thought I would share a idea for fall decor. I made these last year they are simply left over 4X4 painted orange with a hole drilled in the top big enough for a small tree branch to fit in it.  And you have square Pumpkins.
Hope you like this idea
Happy crafting

Hi Mindy here!

Hi I'm Mindy. I am married to a great guy and have two wonderful little girls. I am new to crafting but I am really enjoying it so far. I love to cook and try out new recipes. I am sure you will be seeing lots of food blogs from me.
I can't wait to start posting!
Mindy

Hi Stephanie Here

I wanted to let you guys out there know a little about me.  I am  happily married and a  mother of 3 boys.  I love to craft.  I enjoy making jewelry, cooking, doing DIY stuff for my home and all sorts of other crafts.

thanks for reading
Stephanie

HELLO

Hi everyone 
My name is Stephanie and Mindy and I are trying to start a blog together.  So we will both be posting on here.

welcome to our blog

Hi Welcome to twocraftingmoms blog.  Please be patient with us as we are new to blog land.