Day 20...Clean Floors part 2

Jeremy spilled some juice on the hardwood floors the other day, and I, being the awesome parent that I am, made him clean it up.  Well...I've been ignoring some severe stickiness for a couple days now, and today was the day to clean it up.  We have old hardwood floors, so I found a home made hardwood floor cleaner.

DIY Hardwood Floor Cleaner by Tip Nut

Ingrdients:

1 Gallon Water

1 Cup Vinegar

10 Drops Peppermint Essential Oil

Before:

After: 

In person, I feel like the floor got clean.  In pictures...I could hardly tell the before from the after.  In fact, I might have gotten them confused.  I'd like nice and shiny floors, so I think later I'll try a DIY floor polish.  I'd say I am a fan of vinegar for cleaning.  

Day 19...Santa Fe Chicken in a Bread Bowl

Ok.  This one is kind of cheating.  I have made this before.  I made it in 2004, during my first year of marriage.  I like to try new things.  And, this was a hit.  Matt loved it!  He has been BEGGING me to make it again.  It only took 8 years, but, I got it done, and have it on Pinterest.  So...I count this as Day 19.

Santa Fe Chicken in a Bread Bowl by Pillsbury.com

The Verdict: This is still awesome...8 years later.  I'll have to make this again, maybe next month.  I don't know why it took me so long to have it again.  Even Uncle Josh thought it was great.  I don't think Jeremy dug it, but, he's picky.  Let him eat Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Day 18...Breakfast Sliders

Today I went with my good friends, The Hearns, to the IU/Michigan State game.  I know...I am a Boilermaker!  Why in the WORLD would I go down to Bloomington?  I'm a good friend.  That's why!   Not only did I travel, in the Hearn RV (it stunk...they don't have Wi-Fi on their RV! Seriously, it was rough!)  Well, being the good friend I am, I thought I'd take some Ham, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sliders, to help us cope in the crappy RV.

Ham, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sliders by Mom Endeavors

I'm terrible at getting the photos!  I completely forgot to take one of the finished product.  I made these up the night before, and baked them in the morning.  They were SUPERB!  Easy to make for a crowd.  This is a must make again recipe.  You could change up the cheese, I used provolone, but you could do any kind that you prefer.  Maybe even have some bacon instead of ham.  Play with it!  And enjoy!

Day 17...Crispy Cheddar Chicken

WOW.  This.Was.Delicious!   This was so simple to make and it was really good.  Jeremy even ate it!  Nothing else needs said.

Crispy Cheddar Chicken by Jamie Cooks it Up

Dredging Station:

All ready to cook:

Fresh out of the oven:

Forgot to take a picture, with the sauce:

Mmm.  I think I'll eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Day 16...Homemade Diaper Detergent

So, I cloth diaper.  It has it's pros (cost!) and cons (work), but, I'd highly recommend it to anyone.  It isn't that difficult, really.  I took up making my own laundry detergent several months ago and really like it, although, I am addicted to the store bought clean smell....but, I'm working on that.  I had been using it on my diapers, but read that it can be too harsh.  So, I cam across a recipe to make a gentler cleaner for the diapers.  It was originally from the Duggar's website, go figure.

Homemade Diaper Detergent by Elisa Loves

The Ingredients:

Mix equal parts of Baking Soda, Super Washing Soda and Oxi Clean (or Sun Oxygen)

Store it in a fancy container...or an old coffee container.

Use 2 T per load of diapers! 

This seemed to work great.  Diapers came out clean and not stinky.  What more can you ask for?

Day 14 & 15...Box Cake and Icing

Well, I needed a dessert, and all I had was box cake.  So, of course I had pinned a recipe to jazz up box cake.  And, as a cheat, I'm going to use a chocolate buttercream icing that I pinned. So, although this is one day...I'm counting it as 2.  Deal with it.

Jazzed up Box Cake by Bronze Budget Bride

Simple instructions for jazzing up your box cake:

Step 1: Look at the directions on the cake mix,
Step 2: Add one more egg (or add 2 if you want it to be very rich),
Step 3: Use melted butter instead of oil and double the amount,
Step 4: Instead of water, use milk.
Step 5: Mix well and bake for the time recommended on the box.

I added 2 extra Eggs

I didn't have enough butter, so I had to use the oil

Now for the Icing:

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting from Food.com

I call it icing, they call it frosting.  Is there a Difference?

This was really good.  I'm looking forward to trying it again, with the butter! But, I HAD to save the butter for my icing...I mean frosting.  I could have made a little more frosting though, and added a little more sugar to it.  It wasn't quite as good as Matt's eyeballed method of Chocolate frosting.  Don't tell him that.  He should read the blog if he wants to know what I am saying about him.

Day 13...Buffalo Wing Dip

This Dip was a special treat for Uncle Josh to eat while watching his favorite...Notre Dame.  I have had this dip before, and it was so good!  Unfortunately, Notre Dame played at 8:30 PM that night, and we had just had some MONSTER Pizzas from Harvey Hinklemyers, so, we were not very hungry.  But, I made a promise of dip that I fully intended to keep!

Buffalo Chicken Dip from Frank's Red Hot Website

What theirs looked like:

What mine looked like:

Something went wrong.  I'm guess one thing was that I used 1/2 as much ranch as what was called for.  I KNEW I had a bottle of Ranch in the pantry...but it was a funky color.  Surprise, it expired in 2008.  I also just grabbed my bottle of Hot Sauce out of the fridge, and realized after dumping it in that it was Tobasco Sauce, not Franks.  I'll try again.  And add the cute garnish on top like the picture.

Day 12...DIY Plug Ins

I LOVE to walk into my home and smell a clean fresh scent.  I am addicted to Plug Ins, Sense and Spray and Automatic Sprayers.  However, these items can become costly, and, lets face it, apparently contain some things that aren't good for you.  So, I found this Pinterest that shows you how to make your own plug ins, with water and your favorite essential oil!  How cool.

DIY Plug In by Holy Crikey

All you need is:

Your Favorite Essential Oil (I used Lavender)

Water

An Old Plug In

Open the Plug In.  It was quite simple, as it had a rubbery stopper holding the wick, just pry it off.  I filled the glass about 1/3 full with Lavender Oil and the rest with water.  Put the stopper with the wick back on.  Plug it in. Voila!

This worked SO well!  I used this one in my bathroom.  This is where we keep our diaper pail, full of cloth diapers.  They tend to leave a strong ammonia smell in our bathroom.  This oil warmer was so strong, I could smell it in the living room! Completely masked the dirty diaper smell!  I don't smell it quite so strong anymore, but I think that is just due to my nose adjusting to the smell.  I'm sure if a visitor comes over, they would smell the lavender.  I don't belivee that I will be buying new oil refills ever again!

Day 11...Baked Potato Casserole

This actually was part 2 of Day 10, but, I'm counting it as Day 11.  Why...because, this is my game, and I can do what I want too :)

Baked Potato Casserole by Very Best Baking

I actually halved this recipe, because I was only cooking for 4 adults and a picky kid.  The original recipe serves 16.  For some reason, I failed to get pictures of the process, but I did get a picture of the finished product:

This was another SUPER hit.  It was easy to do, and it was a bit snazzier than plain old mashed potatoes.  It is a definite keeper recipe! 

Day 10...7 up Biscuits

Today I made 7-Up Biscuits for dinner.  This is a very popular pin popping up around Pinterest.  I haven't checked that all the recipes are the same, but, the version I used was rather good.

7 Up Biscuits by Budget Savy Diva

The Ingredients

The finished product.  

These got rave reviews from all the dinner guests.  And, we had a few picky eaters!  The directions at the Budget Savy Diva were a little vague on how you put them into the pan...so I just cut them, and folded them into a little square and it seemed to work.  Enjoy!

*All Pinterest Projects that I blog about can be found on my Pinterest Board titled "DONE".

Gall Bladder Surgery

Well, as I stated before, I was getting a little behind blogging about my 31 Days of Pinterest.  I mean, it is hard enough to find the time to DO the Pinterest, let alone find the time to also blog about it!

Well, last Sunday night, my family went to the concert at Foster Park with our Youth Group.  It was a nice time.  Great weather.  Great Christian music.  Great friends.  Jeremy really enjoyed the bounce houses and sharing a Kona Ice with mommy.

We left around 8 PM, and shortly after arriving home, I started having a pretty severe pain in my upper abdomen.  I tried eating something, and it did not alleviate the pain.  Finally, around 12:30 AM I told Matt I needed to go to the emergency room, as I think I am having a Gall Bladder attack.  I drove myself the few blocks to the ER, telling Matt I'll call him if I need him, and my parents could come stay with the boys.  At the ER, they did a test where I had to drink some peppermint stuff.  It made my lips, tongue and throat numb, but did not alleviate my pain.  That ruled out stomach ailments.  Next step, an Ultrasound of my Gall Bladder.  But, it was 3 AM, and they couldn't do that until 7:30 AM. So, home I went, still in pain, and got some rest.  I believe around 4:30 AM, my pain went away.

Monday morning, I got my Ultrasound, and was told that my family doctor would call with the results Tuesday. Well, she called around noon, and said I had a large stone and recommended that I have my Gall Bladder out.  I ended up having another very long attack Monday night, saw the surgeon, Dr. Abbasi, on Tuesday, and scheduled for surgery on Thursday.  This was to be my first "real" surgery.  I had my Wisdom teeth out in high school.  I don't think that counts.

Here I am, looking pretty chipper!  Ready for surgery.  Had prayers with Pastor Jerry heading in, said my goodbyes, in case anything should go wrong :)

Although small, and looking pretty good to the untrained eye, this is my gall bladder, just before eviction.

 

Post Op, trying to be chipper.  But, it was a little more difficult at this point.

The incisions.  Not too bad. Nice and little, but the top one sure is sore!

Needless to say, I'm going to take this opportunity to post about a few pins that I have completed, but the project is on hold until I 'm up and moving about again.  Hopefully, I'll be in full swing in a few days.  Currently on Day 2, still moving  a little slow.  Feel like I'm having a hard time catching a deep breath, appetite is not up to par and staying on a no fat/low fat diet until my follow up appointment.  But, things are going well.

Day 9...S'mores Bars

I.LOVE.S'MORES!   I love them.  Really I do.  Pinterest is chock FULL of variations of S'mores...cookies, bars, cheesecakes.  You name it, Pinterest has it!  So, for dessert today, I made what I thought was a new S'mores Bar recipe.  But, after making it, I realized I had made the same one before, but from a different website.  Oh, well.  It was still good the second time around!

S'more Bars by Wit and Whistle

The Ingredients

The Finished Product

 These turned out really good.  I think I used too much marshmallow fluff.  That stuff is so sticky, it's hard to measure.  So, I used the whole 7 ounce container :)  I bit much.  We ate these at room temperature, but I bet they would be WAY better fresh out of the oven!

Day 8...Baked Oatmeal

This 31 days plus blogging business is HARD work!  If I have time in my day to do a Pinterest Pin, it is hard to find time to Blog about it.  So, I am behind.  But, I'll try to catch up.  I did miss a couple days of getting anything Pinteresty done, but, I did two things on other days.  So, I call it even.

Wednesday morning for my Mom's group, I made baked oatmeal.  This was kind of a cheat, because I made it before, but, it did come from Pinterest, so, it counts!

Baked Bluberry and Banana Oatmeal via The Curvy Carrot

I forgot to take my own photo, so the above is the photo from Pinterest.  This recipe I actually first made when some of my small group was on a 21 Day No Junk Food Challenge that I also found on Pinterest.  We needed something "desserty" that wasn't junk food, and this fit the bill.

The only sweetener used in this recipe is 1/4 cup of Maple Syrup.  Other than that, this is a good for you food that is simple to make and tastes great.  You can add some brown sugar on top if you like, but honestly, it is not needed.  This is certainly a keeper...for breakfast OR dessert!

Day 7...Mini Corn Dogs

Jeremy LOVES corn dogs. Me, not so much. But, because I love him, and this seemed fairly easy, I thought I'd go for it.

Today's Pinterest:  Mini Corn dogs.

Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

Butter

Sugar

Egg

Buttermilk

Flour

Cornmeal

Baking Soda

Salt

Combine wet and dry ingredients...

looking good so far!

Hot Dogs, cut them into little pieces

1Tbs of mix into mini-muffin cups with a little piece of hot dog

And bake!

Lovely little miniature corn dogs!

 These actually tasted pretty good, but you can see from my final product that they don't exactly look like the original.  Maybe I should have let them cool a little more?  They fell apart pretty easily.  But, it was a nice sweet cornbread!  I enjoyed them.  There was a variation in the recipe to use half of the butter and add some applesauce instead.  Maybe I should try that.  This is a maybe keeper for sure.  Jeremy ate the hotdog....not the cornbread.  Benny tried the cornbread, but most went on the floor.

Complete Receipe

Day 6...Baked Cheese Balls

Today was a scramble to figure out what Pinterest I would do.  I stumbled across these cheese bites and I already had all the ingredients!  So, Jeremy and I tried them out with our lunch.

Baked Cheese Balls:  Never Trust a Skinny Cook

The Original

The ingredients:

Milk

Breadcrumbs

String Cheese (I used one all white, and one yellow and white)

Cut up the cheese into little segments, dip in milk, roll in crumbs.

Bake for about 7 minutes

The cheese sticks tasted good, but, as you can see, the all white sticks got quite melted.  The comments from the original source recommend freezing your cheese first.  Might try that next time.  Overall, a fun and easy twist to add to a generally boring lunch.

*exact recipe located in the Source Link

Day 5...Clean Floors

The kitchen floor was looking scummy and I am all out of chemical ridden floor cleaners. So, it was time to make my own!

The Ingredients:

1/4 c White Vinegar

1/4 cup Baking Soda**

1 T dish soap

2 Gallons WARM water

Mix together, and mop away!

(**The recipe I used said Baking Soda, but the picture they posted SHOWED Washing Soda, I didn't realize this until AFTER mopping the floor.  Baking soda worked, but next time, I'll try Washing Soda. Or a method that has only Vinegar and Water.)

It seems to have worked, and didn't leave the chemical smell!  My floor is a wood laminate floor, and it is sparkly clean.  I wouldn't say it worked BETTER than commercial cleaner, but, it definitely wasn't any worse.  And, for no harsh chemicals, I think it is a keeper! 

Source:  Food.com  

Day 4 of Pinterest...the Laundry

I've been saving this pinterest tip for awhile.  Waiting for a day I needed something quick and easy.  For a few months now, I have been making my own laundry detergent.  It is FAR cheaper than buying detergent, and works just as well.  (Detergent Recipe)

The ONLY downfall to homemade detergent that I have found is that it does not leave your clothes feeling FRESH.  They just, well, smell like, nothing.  One of my great joys of laundry day is pulling my clothes out of the dryer, and taking in a big whiff of Spring Fresh (or Lavender, or vanilla, etc) goodness.  So, the mission today is to create a scented fabric softener.

The ingredients:

White Vinegar

Rubbing Alcohol

Essential Oil, frangrance of your choice 

(* choose Lavender)

Mix 1 quart of Vinegar

1 teaspoon Rubbing Alcohol

20-25 drops of essential oil

I mixed it in this cute pink jug, only to find

that it had a leak.  So, I had to transfer it to the 

only other thing I had: 

I filled my Downy Ball to the line, threw it into the wash

and  waited.

But, for good measure, I also made a "dryer ball".

Take two old socks.  Put 15-20 drops of oil on the foot of

one sock.  Ball it up, put it inside the other sock.

Now you have a fragrant sock ball.  Throw it in the

dryer with your clothes.

Review:  My clothes are soft (just as usual, as I had been using straight vinegar as softener).  There is a slight Lavender scent to the clothes.  Not as strong as when using store bought detergent/softener, but enough to please my nostrils.  I  do believe I will continue to use this.   Not sure of the cost savings, but,  I understand that Commercial Softeners build up on your clothes, and vinegar does not.  So, it should be better for our skin and clothes!


Source: Camp Wander

Day 3...Dinner

Today is Day 3 and all is well in the land of Pinterest!  One would think, with over 400 recipes pinned, choosing what to cook for dinner would not be a problem. BUT, it was.  I think I looked through the recipes for over an hour last night, and finally landed on TWO recipes to try.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Source:  Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice

Roasted Broccoli

Source:  The Amateur Gourmet

I prepped the Chicken earlier in the afternoon, and put it covered in the fridge, so it would be ready to throw in the oven later.  That seemed to work out pretty good.

Here are a few pictures of my process:

Prepare a Dredging Station

 Pound the Chicken....I might have gone a little too far

Add a slice of ham and swiss cheese, then roll it up!

Voila!

Yummy Deliciousness!

Overall, I give the Chicken Cordon Bleu 5 Stars.  It was quite easy to make, and super yummy.  I did, however, cook it at 425 rather than 400, and still felt that it needed a little more time to cook.  

The Broccoli....it wasn't bad.  but for the effort, it didn't taste good enough to do more than put a frozen bag in the microwave.  I also did not have parmesan cheese, so, it was missing that and pine nuts.  But, I don't think those two ingredients would make much difference.

Thanks for following!  Find the recipes via the above posted links.  And, don't mind my photography skills, I take the pictures on my iPad, so there isn't much to do to make them lovely.