Seriously.

I fought Pinterest when I first heard about it because the last thing I needed was another piece of social media in my life.  I finally joined after a friend sang the praises of bookmarking crafts and recipes without having to book them on her web browser.  I love being able to pin craft ideas, recipes, and more and when I am looking for it later I don’t have to dig through thousands of links that are totally unorganized.  All the ideas are neatly organized in Pinterest.  Not only has it been helpful as a bookmarking tool, I have come across some great ideas I might not have found otherwise.  Since joining Pinterest, I have made laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, vanilla and a number of other things (posts to come soon about each of those!).  If you are on Pinterest, follow me!

On to the discussion at hand!  A few weeks ago, I came across this picture of several green onions in a drinking glass.  The pin said that next time you use a green onion, save the white ends, submerge them in water and place in a sunny spot.  Green onions will begin to grow almost immediately.

I love green onion and it is the one thing that did well in my garden this year.  It was so nice to cut a piece of green onion off to use in cooking, on a baked potato and more whenever I wanted.  When we had one of our only cold snaps, they died and I had to start buying green onion again.  Though it isn’t very expensive, I almost always throw half of it away.

Until now!  Three days ago, I stuck a few pieces of the white part of the green onion in a glass on my kitchen window.  Yesterday, I had fresh green onion on my baked potato!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked white rice – cooked per standard directions and cooled (I tried it early in my experimenting with this recipe using brown rice and didn’t like it as well, but I’m going to try it again since I’m still working on that “eating healthier” theme)
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels (or thawed frozen corn)
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (or 2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced)
• ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
• 4-6 green onions, chopped
• about ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (more or less, depending on how much you love cilantro!)
• Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
• Lime wedges for garnish and to add an extra little kick

Dressing:

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 4 tsps. Lime juice (you can substitute lemon
  juice, but I think lime was better for this recipe)

Directions:

Combine the cooled rice, beans, corn, tomatoes, cheese, onions, and cilantro. Make sure you cool the rice before mixing with other ingredients or the feta cheese will melt. The pictures which follow are actually from a double batch I made a while back. This is also one of those recipes that can easily be “stretched” if you are feeding a crowd. You can double the rice and dressing and you still have a good salad; the other flavors will just not be as intense.

Wisk the olive oil and lime juice and pour over rice mixture. Chill in the refrigerator at least one hour before serving. Serve with lime (or lemon) wedges. Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

I also use in this recipe, one of my favorite small kitchen “appliances” – our air popcorn popper.  Truly, I think every household should have one.  It only cost $20 to purchase, and popcorn seeds in bulk are pretty darn cheap.  1/2 a cup of seeds also pops close to triple the amount of popcorn popped in a microwave bag – still in 2 minutes.  Not to mention – the health benefits!  Do you know popcorn is actually GOOD for you?!  It is highly recommended as a healthy carb, if it is all natural with no extra junk.  The kids like to sprinkle garlic powder on theirs, or parmesan.  We stay away from the butter because real, or fake, it just doesn’t taste right.

Of course, this recipe is not healthy for you in any way, shape, or form…

Sticky Popcorn:

• 2 cups of sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 stick margarine (I use butter)
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Fill brown paper bag 1/2 full with popped popcorn.  Boil all ingredients except popcorn in pan until it starts to scorch, stirring constantly (if smalls chunks of brown start appearing remove from heat immediately – you boiled it too long…don’t worry, it will still taste fine).   Pour syrup on top of corn in bag.  Close up bag and shake.  Pour out of bag into bowl.

I’m afraid the budget doesn’t allow for a gorgeous double -matted frame job, so what to do, what to do?  I reached way back into my “toolbox” of sewing skills (WAY back, haven’t made a quilt or wall hanging in years!), and decided to turn it into a little wall hanging. I found some sweet fabric to reflect some of the dominant colors which are also found in my office (I spend much more time there than at home, so decided that is where it will hang — it will also help on some of those challenging days to remember these “Living with Charm” words).

I considered how wide I wanted the finished product to be, and decided that I wanted the emphasis on the stitching so the borders and binding are fairly narrow.

It needed a little something to give it some form, but I didn’t want to use iron-on interfacing.  I had some leftover pieces of soft white flannel which worked perfectly!

Then it was time for the binding … It has been a while since I mitered a corner, so Google was my friend!  I found this great free tutorial online at Jaybird Quilts.

Success!!

A while ago, Jen came across in a catalog this creative way to store stuffed animals.  Did she order a couple? Oh no, she said, “I bet Mom could make those a lot cheaper!” (I think they were about $75 in this speciality catalog).  I did manage to make one for Little S (who had the stuffed-animals-reaching-the-point-of-room-takeover situation going on!) and she received it for her birthday over a year ago. Both of the girls loved the project and requested I make them for the rest of the “grands” — I bought the fabric, even cut it out, but didn’t get them made until just in time for this Christmas.  And, they were a hit!

This “storage solution” would also work great for a dorm room or small apartment (to store extra linens, winter jackets, etc.).

Supplies:

Start out with any bean bag chair pattern.. I used “D” of Simplicity Pattern #5105 (which I can guarantee was purchased during one of JoAnn’s any-pattern-for-$1.99 sales — I do NOT pay full price for patterns!).

Heavy fabric, such as duck or denim (you do not want it to be stretchy!), according to pattern requirements

22″ long zipper (closed at one end)

1/2 yard mesh fabric (like what is used for laundry bags)

thread

Directions:

Cut out the fabric pieces according to the pattern directions.  Begin sewing pieces together, again, according to the pattern directions; however, instead of just a simple seam between two of the pieces, insert the zipper.

For the piece which will be opposite where the zipper has been inserted, cut out some of the heavy fabric and insert a “window” of the mesh fabric.  In the “sample” Jen found in the catalog, this window was made of vinyl … so that was how I made the first bean bag — not a good idea!  Little S almost immediately zipped herself (we should have known!) into the bag and couldn’t get out.  Luckily, a little friend was over playing and we were alerted to her predicament!  So, before making anymore, I did a bit of fabric “research” and came up with the mesh idea.  If you’re making one of these for an older child or teen, or even a young adult, the “window” isn’t really necessary — mainly just allows for the furry friends to be remembered!

Continue to follow pattern directions to complete the “bean bag chair”, simply using your “modified” panels.

Since these “chairs” are likely to get heavy use (Little S drags hers all over the house so she can sit wherever the action is happening!), I double stitched all seams and top-stitched through the seam allowances which I pressed to one side.

Linking to:

There is a lot of information out there about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (just google the term!) so I am not going to go into lots of detail (and the information is extensive!) but basically it means we have gotten rid of all processed and boxed food (which we had been slowly getting rid of anyway), white sugars and flours (the kids and I use wheat flour and I do use white sugar in some baked goods that my husband doesn’t eat but my husband has to use almond flour), and buy organic when we can.  We make a lot of what we eat from scratch now and the diet is similar to the Paleo diet.

Enter the homemade tomato sauce.  Do you realize how many recipes call for tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes or paste?  I didn’t until my husband told me that canned tomatoes et. al were off the list.  Tomatoes and homemade sauces made following the SCD directions are both fine.  I sort of followed a recipe and made my own homemade tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

10 tomatoes

1/2 cup of basil (1/2 a cup?!?!  seriously?)

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 medium onion

The first thing you have to do is peel and de-seed your tomatoes.  Supposedly, the easiest way to do this is to drop the tomatoes into boiling water for one minute.

Amazingly, this is what happens:

Move the tomatoes into a bowl until they are cool enough to peel.  The skin of the tomato falls right off.  To de-seed them, the directions that I read said to cut them in half and squeeze the seeds out.

Um…okay…

Squeeze, squish, splat…

So, when I cut the tomato it didn’t exactly cut in half perfectly so there was tomato flesh instead of seed.  I ended up just ripping the tomatoes apart and taking the seeds out.  My kitchen was a disaster.  My hands were covered in tomato juice so I couldn’t take a picture of it for you.

Cook the onions, 2 tablespoons of oil, and three pressed garlic cloves in a large pot until soft.  Crush up the tomatoes and add them to the pot.  Instead of crushing them, I put them in my food processor.  I also added about 3-4 cups of tomato juice (which is SCD legal).

Add the basil.  The recipe I (kind of) used said to use 1/2 cup.  Measuring out half a cup worried me but I dumped it all in the pot.

Simmer on the stove until the liquid has evaporated.

The recipe makes about 2.5 cups without the juice.  With the tomato juice added, I got about 4.5 cups of sauce.  I bagged the sauce up in 1/2 cup bags to freeze for use in the future.

And the verdict?

The tomato sauce was a hit.  My husband is planning homemade pizza (with almond flour crust) for dinner tonight and I think he is happy that I don’t have to keep asking if he is sure that he can’t have canned stewed tomatoes!  I thought that I added a ridiculous amount of basil but it wasn’t overpowering.  I didn’t add any salt or any other seasonings so it might need a little bit of salt if it is used as a pizza sauce rather than a mix-in.

Now if I find a recipe that calls for tomato sauce, canned tomatoes or tomato past, I have a substitute ready to go!

My dissertation was submitted and I had nothing better to do than sit and wait (right, and if you believe that I have an entire “to-do” list you can complete for me!).  So, over Thanksgiving I decided to start working on some Christmas gifts – many of which I had purchased supplies for LAST year!  This year’s “fun” gift was family sets of marshmallow shooters with shields!

SHOOTERS

 Supplies (for one shooter):

12-inch length of 1/2 inch PVC pipe (sprinkler/plumping pipe)

One – 1/2 inch end cap

Two – 1/2 inch elbows

One – 1/2 inch T joint

Craft glue (I like Tacky Glue)

Sandpaper

Directions:

Cut the PVC pipe into three pieces 2” long, and two pieces 3” long.  My original intent was to cut these by hand with a small saw…luckily, I ran into my neighbor at Lowe’s and when she found out what I was up to, she volunteered her husband and his nice, FAST table saw (we bartered 3 shooters in the deal!).  What was I thinking??? I did cut one piece by hand, and it took me as long to make one cut as it did for T.H. to do about 20!

It is also important to get two smooth edges (one for each end, since invariably big and little people pick them up and “shoot” out of either end).  Even though the table saw made pretty smooth cuts, I still used the sand paper to “finish” off the edges a bit.

Lay out as shown in the picture below.

 
Starting with the mouthpiece end (top right in picture), use a paint brush, Q-tip, or foam applicator, to brush a SMALL amount of craft glue around the edge of the connecting end (of course, if you put the glue on the wrong end, just flip it around – if it is smooth enough!).  You may need to add a few drops of water to the glue to get it to be “brushing” consistency.  Insert the PVC piece into the elbow and wipe away any excess glue. Repeat process for each PVC piece and connector.  I let the shooters dry overnight before putting them away to start on the next project – the body armor.

Hints/Notes:

*The PVC pipe comes in 5’ lengths – with careful measuring/cutting, I was able to get enough “little” pieces to make 5 shooters out of each length – if your pieces aren’t exactly 2” or 3” it is no big deal!

*You do not want to do the pipe cutting inside – we made a real mess on my neighbors’ patio!

*I made 18 of these shooters for less than $20, including a new bottle of Tacky Glue

*Play rules include “No aiming at heads” – Marshmallows travel at high speeds when shot!

*After the initial gift giving/opening, these shooters have been consigned to outside play only (see picture below – marshmallow stuck on INSIDE of living room window, found FIVE days after Christmas!)

*I think these would be fabulous fun for a sleepover, couples wedding shower, family reunion, etc. You would certainly “break the ice” quickly!

SHIELDS

Supplies for One Shield:

½ yard fabric (all one color, or assorted scraps – I used flannel, mainly because that was the only pink camouflage I could find)

½ yard of 3/8” wide grosgrain ribbon

12” of 7/8” wide grosgrain ribbon

1/2 yard of Heavy-duty interfacing

Polyester fiberfill

Embellishments – optional (e.g., buttons, silk flowers)

Pattern:

Directions:

Since I made enough of these to outfit an army (or at least a large squad!), I started by cutting out a number of solid color pieces for the backing.  Then after cutting out an assortment of full pieces from the coordinating fabrics, I cut them into smaller pieces and did some mixing-matching – this means your finished front piece will be a bit smaller than the backing (because of the seams) – just trim to match (I’m all about making these projects fun and easy – not precise and perfect!).

All seams were about ¼” (give or take!).  Sew the two small pieces together – iron the seam and sew on a piece of the 3/8” ribbon (I used a zigzag stitch for this).  Sew the top piece to the bottom and repeat ironing and ribbon.  If you’re going to add buttons, an initial, or any other embellishment, now is the time!

Baste the interfacing to the inside of the solid back piece (or, if you were smart and actually bought iron-on interfacing, iron that stuff on!).  Flip it over and on the outside, place 7/8”
ribbon for “grips”.  See picture below for placement (I forgot to take the picture of the back as I was making these, so just used an extra piece of the interfacing … do NOT sew your grips onto the interfacing – because then they would be INSIDE the finished shield!).

Stitch ribbon in place on each end (where the pins are in place).

Now, placing right sides together (after trimming the back piece to match the front piece), stitch the two pieces together, leaving a small opening so that you can stuff the pillow “shield”.  Trim the seam, and then turn inside out.  Stuff the shield and then top stitch to finish (and close the opening).

Once the “battle” got heated, we were laughing so hard I had tears running down my face!  Too bad I forgot to make myself one!

Wishing you and yours a healthy, safe, and Happy New Year!

We recently tried another recipe from the book that was just as healthy and delicious.

Grilled Chicken & Zucchini Wraps

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 to 6 zucchini, sliced lengthwise

olive oil

salt and pepper

1/2c ranch salad dressing, divided

8 10inch whole-grain flour tortillas

8 leaves of lettuce

Brush chicken and zucchini with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grill until cooked thoroughly.  Doesn’t that look awesome?!  Chicken, zucchini and steak (for my husband, not related to this recip!)…yum!

For the record, we have never grilled zucchini and have never grilled chicken with just olive oil, salt and pepper.  I am amazed at how tasty it was with no added calories from sauces or marinades!

Slice cooked chicken into strips.  For each wrap, spead one tablespoon of salad dressing on a tortilla (we used a carb control wheat tortilla).  Top with a lettuce leaf (we used romaine), chicken strips, and zucchini.

Sprinkle with cheese of your choice (we used cheddar), roll up, and enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 – 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

½ tsp. season salt

1 ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

3 green onions

1 package luncheon meat, thinly sliced (the cheap stuff!)

Directions:

Finely chop the green onions.  Chop the luncheon meat (I like to use Buddig beef), reserve half.  Combine the remaining beef, onions and all other ingredients.

Refrigerate for a while so that it isn’t “sticky”; form into a ball and roll the ball in the remaining chopped beef.  Serve with crackers.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a health, safe, and Happy New Year with friends and family.

The winner, selected randomly by a random number generator, was Sandra W. who said that her favorite was “Potato soup and my own recipe for Curried Chicken Salad. MMMMM!!!”

Congratulations Sandra!  Please email me at jennifer at twokidsandamap dot com or use the contact form as soon as possible (within three days) with your contact information to confirm the prize!  I wonder if we could talk you into sharing your curried chicken salad on our site!?!

Stay tuned!  I will be sharing some more recipes from the cookbook and we will have another early review for you soon!