Friday, September 30, 2011

Peanut Butter Popcorn (Mostly microwave)


So thinking about Christmas... I have been playing with popcorn. I found inspiration here and made it my own.

FIRST... Make the basic popcorn shown HERE. (set aside in Large bowl)


Then what you will need:
20 large marshmallows (about half a normal size bag)
1 stick (half a cup) of unsalted butter or spread
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 200. 

In a larger microwave safe dish slice butter, top with marshmallows and brown sugar.

Place in microwave and microwave in 1 min intervals. Mix after each. {make sure that you are really stirring the marshmallows. The hot liquid will help melt them.} Over all it took me about 3 min.

Now we move REALLY fast. Quickly mix in peanut butter until smooth. Then remember the popcorn you made and put in large bowl, Pour your topping on that. (have cold water in sink running slowly incase you want to get in and mix with your hands. The cold water will help to keep your hands from getting to sticky.) Mix topping and popcorn with a spoon and/or your hands until it almost resembles rice krispies.

Spread on cookie sheet and bake in oven at 200 degrees for about 20 min.

Break apart and serve. Plan on giving a ton away or you might eat it all your self... 

Enjoy!!!

Homemade Kettle Corn in the MICROWAVE

I LOVE KETTLE CORN!!! I really dont like Kettle corn from the store but if you get it at a fair with the large cooking barrels its AMAZING. Not to toot my own horn BUT this is AMAZING. Sorry for the lack of photos but it looks just like the basic popcorn I did here just a few small changes to the ingredients.

What you need:


1/3 cup un-popped white or yellow popcorn
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 brown lunch sack
salt to taste (I like popcorn salt}

What I did:

  • mix popcorn, oil and sugar in small bowl
  • pour into brown lunch sack
  • fold top 3 times
  • put into microwave sitting up for around 2:30 DONT OVER COOK stop when there is no more then 2 seconds between pops. 
  • carefully pour into large bowl. {the kernels will be hot}
  • add salt to taste
  • mix and enjoy!!!

Healthy .30 cent homemade Microwave Popcorn!!!

CHEAP POPCORN!!! So the .30 cents is a guess and not exact. You will see later why it is so inexpensive. This is a great base popcorn or can be eaten plain as a healthily low calorie treat. My husband normally does not like popcorn but has been requesting this in his lunch EVERYDAY. It turns out he just didn't like all of the additives and junk that comes on store bought popcorn. My two year old begs me for "popcorn, pees Mommy, Popcorn" and carries the big bowl to his daddy. Okay here is how you do it.


What you need:

1 brown lunch bag
1/2 cup White or yellow Popcorn
1-2 tsp olive oil
(Ya its that easy)



Mix olive oil and popcorn


Poor popcorn/olive oil into paper sack. Fold 3 or so times















Put into microwave sitting as shown {dont lie on its side} Microwave for 2:30-3:00 min or until there is 2-3 seconds between pops. {if you are like my husband and forget about the popcorn, set it to 2:30}


If there are un popped kernels they will be at the bottom. The bag is not hot except for the bottom where the oil has rested. {dont touch the bottom for a few min}


Leave plain if you are like my husband... if you are like me add butter and salt to taste. You can get inexpensive popcorn salt which is nice but not necessary. YUMMM

Bags were less then $2 for 50
Popcorn was less then $2 and you can get a TON of popcorn out of it
Olive oil- I got it on close out for $2.30 but you can use any oil. I like Olive oil because I feel like it is healthier. 

Monday, September 19, 2011

Nursery wall border



When looking for a border I wanted something bright and kid friendly. I think I got bright :) This is not a tutorial but does give you the general idea how I did this. (I don’t have photos of every step)

What you will need:
-1 package brightly colored paper ( I got the standard letter size packs sold at Hobby Lobby 50% off)
-1 roll wide ribbon that matches the wall color or transparent (again Hobby Lobby 50% off)
-1 stencil set (I got a cardboard ABCs one Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon)
-1-3 sponge craft pant brushes (the cheep ones)
-Coordinating paints (I used the same ones I used to paint the letters spelling the kids names)
-Scissors or scrapbook paper trimmer
-Package glue dots (or glue gun)

Measure the diameter of your room. Determine the size you want the pieces to be and CUT, CUT, CUT. cut enough to place on a ribbon and go around your room and then some. If you have a scrapbooking paper cutter they are great for this project and will help keep your edges nice. {They WILL dull your blade fast} Determine what stamp you want on what color and what order you will need BEFORE stamping. 

Lay out everything and put on your favorite movie. It took my husband and I about two and a half hours to stamp all of the squares. This sounds like a lot but it was a lot of fun. My husband is not huge on crafts but SOMEHOW I got him to sit down to this project. To this day it has been one of my favorite memories. Our son was down for the night and it was just the two of us, a movie and a TON of painting to do... I digress :)

Back to it... Do one paint color at a time, so the paint doesn’t dry. Also, only put a small amount of paint on the plate at a time. Place stencil on square and sponge on paint. Dab DON'T brush. Sit aside to dry and move on... 

Once all of your squares are dry, stack in the determined pattern. Lay ribbon across table. Don't cut the ribbon just move as you place squares on it. 

Place a glue dot (or glue gun dot) on back of square and stick to ribbon. I like the glue dots BUT if you choose to do it with them, use the permanent sticking ones and DONT STRETCH THE RIBBON. You will thank me for this advice later. Continue sticking until you have enough ribbon to go around your room. 


Ta daaaa!!! You have completed your border. Now hanging it. I used tacks. I placed one in the ribbon under the square every 5 foot or so. Again DONT PULL THE RIBBON TAUT. Its okay to pull it so it is straight but don’t over do it. I learned the hard way. The glue dot sticks to the fibers on the ribbon and if stretched will come unglued. 


This makes such a huge difference in a room. I feel like the border in my kids room is like the icing on a cupcake. Sure the cupcake tastes good but it just is not complete with out the icing :)

I hope this was clear enough. Please ask me if you have questions. Thanks :)

A fun nursery for a Boy and Girl.

So when I first found that we were going to be staying in our current apartment rather then moving I was a little worried. We had a 22 month old boy and a new born girl. My little girl was in a arms reach mini co sleeper {side note: These are AMAZING!!! how I ever made it through my boy with out this I will never know} I knew that she could use this longer then the standard bassinet BUT she would need to move to the crib and share a room with her brother. I was nervous about this but it ended up working beautifully. 

Living in a rented town home there is only so much you can do for a nursery. I wanted a inexpensive statement room with the limitations of renting. I could not paint (no murals... sad) or put anything to heavy up. SOOOO I got creative. 


The first thing that needed to happen was some sort of border. I could not use a sticky one and the other options were expensive. SO I made mine. I will show in the following blog how I did it. I painted wood and cardboard letters for their names.


The animals that you see are inexpensive foam sheets cut and glued into animals. There was no pattern for these I just sort of made them up as I went.


The foot rest for the rocker is WAY oversized. Our rocker was squeaking so we called the people at Nebraska Furniture Mart and they came and brought a whole new base and left me the old one. I make a trip to Home Depot and they cut and drilled the board for me. I then went to Hobby Lobby and got a pice of foam and fabric. Mixed all together and this was born!!!


The flowers are from a collection from Hobby Lobby. I got them when they were on sale for 50% off making all of them around $10 total. {there are more off to the right over the changing table, my picture was not wide enough}



Josie's bedding I got from a garage sale. I had a specific idea in my mind and just could not find ANYTHING to match it online or in stores. Then one Saturday I stopped at a garage sale and found this gem for ... $12!!! Yippy for me. It fits perfect. It give a girly flair without changing the feel of the room. 

How to make korker bows


I have always LOVED these bows but am far to cheap to spend $4 a bow. I found a tutorial HERE and made a bunch for A flower building party I had. Here is what I did:

What You’ll Need:

  • Grosgrain Ribbon ~ 3/8″
  • Dowels ~ 1/4″ by 12″ {I have heard of people using wooden pencils}
  • Clothespins ~ regular or mini
  • Alligator Hair Clip or Barrette
  • Glue Gun
STEP 1: Wrap ribbon around dowel, and secure each end with a clothespin.
STEP 2: Place on foil-lined cookie sheet…
STEP 3: Bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.  {yep… I know it’s weird, but trust me… it works!} 
STEP 4: Allow dowels to cool, then carefully remove corkscrew ribbons from the dowels ~ gently unwind them.
STEP 5: Cut your ribbons into thirds… with each piece ending up around 4″ long…
STEP 6: Angle cut the edges of the ribbon, then quickly run the ends of the ribbons under quick flame to prevent them from fraying. A candle worked great for me.

STEP 6: Start stacking the ribbons, alternating the colors.  Keep them pressed together neatly in the middle….
STEP 7: Tie the last piece of korker ribbon left around the middle.
STEP 8: Fluff the ribbons…
STEP 9: Glue them onto the top of your alligator clip or barrette {knot side facing down} 
You’re all done!!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Mini biscuit pizza


So I saw a comercial for something like this and I winged it. Henry has been really picky recently and is REALLY into pizza (what two year old isn't... ) I needed something to switch it up other then real pizza or english muffin pizzas


believe it or not all this is are the flaky layer biscuits in the refrigerated dough section. I took one of the raw biscuits and divided it into three, stretched and placed on a cookie sheet. I didn't want the bottoms to burn so i put a layer of waxed paper. I baked until they were firm but not completely cooked.


Leftover spaghetti sauce...


Grated cheese and turkey pepperoni...


DONE!!! These are soooo inexpensive and would be great for a football party. 

Fruit and Nut Snack Bars


Original recipe found HERE

I was looking for a fun snack and a good way to use up the peanut butter and Cheerios that I had stocked away in my pantry and whala this recipe shows up in my inbox. It was in a newsletter put out by eat better america. It was soooo good. I had a hard time sticking to a serving size... I didn't :) The only downside was that Henry (my two year old) didn't like them. He has a hard time liking sticky stuff. Here is the recipe:

Snack Mix
4cups Honey Nut Cheerios® cereal
1cup dried tropical three-fruit mix (from 7-oz bag) {I used dried berry mix of cherries, cranberries and blueberries}
1/2cup sunflower nuts {I didn't have these but it was fine}
1/2cup dry-roasted peanuts {Since I didn't have sunflower seeds I doubled this}
Syrup
3/4cup packed brown sugar
1/2cup corn syrup
1/4cup peanut butter
1teaspoon vanilla
1.Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix snack mix ingredients; set aside.
2.In 2-quart saucepan, mix all syrup ingredients except vanilla. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.
3.Pour syrup over snack mix, stirring until evenly coated. Press mixture firmly in pan. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered.
The best part....

Nutritional Information1 Bar: Calories 100 (Calories from Fat 30); Total Fat 3g (Saturated Fat 0g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium60mg; Total Carbohydrate 15g (Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 10g); Protein 2Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 2%;Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 2%; Iron 6Exchanges: 1/2 Starch1/2 Other Carbohydrate0 Vegetable1/2Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 1 
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.