Freezer Friday ( Spaghetti Sauce)

 I am still working on tomatoes. I have more to make tomorrow. I have moved on from the diced tomatoes to spaghetti sauce. It tastes so much better than the jar stuff and is so simple to make. I can't wait to pull it out this winter and have a little taste of summer in my food!

 

Homemade spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons minced garlic
* 1 large onion, finely chopped

* 3/4 cup celery, finely chopped
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 16-ounce can tomato sauce
* 4 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
* 1 tablespoon oregano
* 1/2 tablespoon basil
* 1 tablespoon parsley
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 6-ounce can tomato paste
* 1 medium carrot, grated

Directions:
1. In a large pot, saute garlic, onion and celery over medium heat.

2. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for three hours. Serve over pasta.

This sauce can also be cooled and frozen in freezer bags.

thrifty thursday out of milk

Hey guys sorry there was no post yesterday.  I was suppose to do it but I had a asthma attach the first one in over a year.  But when I have to use the inhaler it makes me light headed.  So I didn't remember to blog.

Okay on to today's post.  We were making a pantry list the other weekend.  I had Scott helping me I was organizing and her was writing it all down so I could put it in an excel file later.  Well you know guys and their tech stuff.  So he was wanting a easier way to do it and he started looking at apps for his phone.  And he found an app called out of milk.  I was a little skeptical at first but I was willing to try it so he put it on my phone also.  Now I don't know how I ever lived with out it.

Okay here is how it works.  You go to the app and you can make lots of pantry list.  I have one for the pantry, freezer, fridge, fridge freezer, spice cabinet, and one for the bathroom.  I am thinking about doing one for my craft room also.   You can also go to the web sight http://www.outofmilk.com/  you can use it on your smart phone, the computer or both.  So you make your pantry list and them you update it as you use things from any of you pantry list.  When you need to make a shopping list you can go to your pantry and click on something you need and hit copy to shopping list.  If you know the price of the items you are buying it will keep a running total of how much you are spending with everything you add to your list.  This works great for me since most of my shopping is done at Aldi's.  So I was able to take a old receipt and use it to price most of my stuff.  I used it this weekend and it was right with in 2 dollars     Also if you are at the store and don't know if you have something in your pantry you can just call it up on your phone and see if you have it or not.  I cant say enough about this great app.  I love it.

Also look at the pictures of my nice organized pantry.

 

Tasty Tuesday ( Slow Cooker Chicken and Pasta Soup)

I had a bunch of chicken left over from some chicken breasts I had made the other week and I had left out a bag of diced tomatoes that I made to so I decided to make this soup.  I am unsure where I got the recipe from but I have made it a lot and my family loves it. The best part is that most of it can be made in the crockpot,

Slow Cooker Chicken and Pasta

3 cans chicken broth
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained ( I used homemade but the Italian style is great for this recipe)
1/2 tsp dried leaf basil ( I like to add way more than this but it is up to you)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots ( I use the whole bag or a can of each)
1 cup water
1 cup chopped onion  ( I just use onion flakes)
1 cup chopped celery
1 tsp parsley flakes ( again I add way more than this in mine)
dash of garlic powder ( or how ever much you like)
box of small pasta

In the crockpot, combine chicken broth, cooked chicken, water, tomatoes, onion,celery, basil, parsley and garlic powder. Cook on low 5-7 hours. Cook pasta as directed. Add pasta and vegetables to crokpot. Cook 30 minutes.

Make it Monday Snowmen Earrings

Hey everybody!  I hope you are all having a great Monday.  I actually got a lot of things finished today.  I made I think 10 pairs of earrings today.  The pair I am the proudest about are the snowmen.  I have been wanting to make these for some time now.  I just didn't have the right beads to do it and kept forgetting to pick them up.  This weekend I remembered to get the beads.  These are not exactly what I was looking for.  Originally I was going to use round white balls but I saw these beads and knew they would make great snowmen. 

.    Was I right what do you think?  I think they are really cool.  I just can't wait till winter so I can wear a pair of these.  I am going to be selling some at a craft show in October but I will be keeping a pair for me.

Freezer Friday ( Sloppy Joes )

 Crockpot Sloppy Joes

• 1 pound ground turkey or lean ground beef
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon mustard 
• To taste, chopped onion
• To taste, chopped celery

In a skillet, cook the meat til done, breaking apart into small clumps as it cooks. Meanwhile, collect all the remaining ingredients in a slow cooker. Stir in the cooked meat, cover and cook on high, stirring occasionally if possible, for 4 – 5 hours, longer is fine too.

Thrifty Thursday ( Using up blue jeans)

We had a yard sale not to long ago and for some reason I decided to keep out the blue jeans instead of donating them to Goodwill. I finally dug them out yesterday and decided to try to make something with it. My Mother In law gave me her old sewing machine not to long ago so I have been trying to teach myself to do some simple sewing. I decided to make some blue jean bags.

First thing you need to do is cut a piece of blue jean fabric.

Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the blue fabric to line your bag.

Sew the fabric so that it is face up on the inside of the blue jean fabric

Sew the bag together leaving the top of the bag open. Trim the edges up

Now you get to decorate your bag. I cut out flower shapes from my scrap blue jean material.

I added some of the fabric I had leftover on the inside of the flower and then added a strap to close the bag. I also put a strip of material across the top to give it some color.

For the handle I just used ribbon and sewed it on really well. I think it turned out cute and I went on to make a ton more bags. You can also just cut the pocket out of the jeans and decorate it also.

If you have any questions let me know. I can honestly say it is a cheap craft to do and if I can sew it I know you can lol. I love the lining on the inside of the bag. I thinks it adds a little something to it.

Pinterst for your cell phone

Okay so the other day I was doing a search for Pinterest.  I know I should have it bookmarked as much as I go there.  I just have never got around to it.  So like I said I had Googled Pinterest and was getting ready to click on the link when I saw a link that said Pinterest for your android phone.  I decided to go check it out.  Well you have to go through what ever market you have on your phone to download it but it is a free app.  So I when and down loaded it thinking if I didn't like it I would just uninstall it.  Well let me tell you there will be no uninstalling on my phone.  I love it !!!!!!!  You can do everything you do on the computer but it is now mobile.  Which I love.  Of course it is not helping with my pinning addiction but we all have to have are vices right.  Here is a picture my husband took with his phone of my phone on Pinterest.  
 
Now I am thinking of putting it on my tablet as well.  So if you are as hooked on pinterest as I am go check out your app store for this great app.

Stephanie

Tasty Tuesday ( Italian Pork Chops)

I had a bunch of pork chops the other night that I needed to use up. I am not a huge fan of them so I wanted to do something that we would all like. I came across this recipe and I am glad I tried it out. They were really good and my house smelled wonderful while they were cooking!

Italian Pork Chops

1 T mustard
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

4 pork chops
shredded mozzarella cheese

Mix together mustard, olive oil, and Italian seasoning.

 Coat the pork chops with mixture. Place in a greased 9x13 pan or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

 Add shredded cheese to the top of the pork chop and cook an additional 5-15 minutes.

Make It Monday ( Keychains)

I have a ton of felt that I need to use up. I found the idea of making some keychains. It didn't take much time at all and I am planning on selling them at a craft show I am doing this fall.

First trace some small squares on a  piece of felt and cut them out.

 

You will need 2 squares for each keychain.

To decorate I sewed 2 or 3 buttons on each square. I added a stem and some grass with embroidery thread.

After you are done sew both squares together leaving the top open to stuff it and add a ribbon.

These took just a few minutes to do and great for anyone learning to sew.

freezer friday left over chili

 I made chili the other day and since it is just me and Scott here now I knew we would never eat it all before it went bad.  So I decided to freeze some.  I didn't want to throw it in a bag to freeze it since I like to vacuum seal everything that I freeze.  Then I remembered that I had seen pictures on pinterest of people freezing soup in muffin pans to get individual servings.  Well I happen to have a silicone muffin pan and I thought that it would be great for the chili.   So here is what I did. 

first put the chili in a muffin pan.  then place in the freezer on a level surface

when it is frozen about 2 or 3 hours later get it out.

then simple pop them out of the pan it was really easy to do with the silicone muffin pan since it turns inside out.

 I took six at a time and vacuum sealed them.  If you don't have a vacuum sealer just get most of the air out to avoid freezer burn.  I now have 3 meals ready for nights when I don't feel like cooking.
hope everyone has a great weekend
Stephanie

thrifty Thursday I have a craft room !!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone I know this isn't really a thrifty Thursday but I have to let everyone know that I now have a craft room.  I just got most of my stuff moved in this last week.  Now comes the hard part organizing it.  As you all can tell from reading this blog I dabble in a lot of different craft mediums.  So I am going to have to find a way to store everything by craft type and still make everything easy to get to. I also need to find Cheap ideas for storage. 
I also thought if I posted this on the blog it would motivate me to hurry up and get it organized.  So everyone out there in blog land if you have any cheep organization ideas for me please let me know.

This is what it looks like now so anything will be a improvement.

Whatever Wednesday ( Pineapple Cookies)

Pineapple Cookie Recipe

{recipe from the kitchen of Lavon Scott}

makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup shortening
  
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup crushed pineapple – next time, I may add more pineapple
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• cinnamon + sugar for sprinkling – optional, but recommended

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together shortening and sugar until it’s nice and smooth. Add one egg at a time, mix until well combined. Add in the pineapple.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda. Carefully add the dry ingredients to the pineapple mixture.

Using an ice cream scooper, scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Be sure to space them about 2″ apart.  

Optional, sprinkle cinnamon & sugar on top each cookie before baking.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Tasty Tuesday (Crockpot Breakfast Casserole)

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

• Meat: 1 lb ham, bacon OR sausage; cooked, degreased and crumbled/diced16 oz. hash browns, frozen
• 3/4 cup cheese, shredded
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• Salt & Pepper to taste

  Grease or use a crock pot liner.
 Layer ingredients starting with frozen hash browns followed by meat, onions, peppers, and cheese.

  followed by meat and cheese.

 Repeat layer twice

 Beat the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper together.

 Pour over the layered ingredients in the crock pot (ensure everything gets moistened well)

 Cover. Cook on Low for 7 hours.

This was really good. I doubled it and used sausage for the bottom later and bacon for the top layer.