More Helpful Tips {Food}

DID YOU KNOW?

*Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it.

*Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

*Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

*Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. *Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

*Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

*To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

*For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

*Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

*Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert.  Simple chop them up with the food chopper.  Peel, core and slice a few apples.  Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

More helpful hints from my home to yours!

- Becca - 

Craving Chocolate?

These projects and two of my three go to favorites. Whenever we are throwing a party or need a little treat to send to a friend I resort to chocolate confections. I have over 20 trays to make and decorate your own pieces of chocolate, suckers, or pretzels. You can find these at any craft store and even Walmart has them seasonally. I try to buy them right after the holiday and have found amazing deals.

For the baby shower I'm throwing I wanted to do something a little more simple as I'm hoping for an elegant look. I'm doing dipped marshmallows on sticks and dipped pretzels. I'm gong to use white chocolate and simple white sprinkles for decoration. 

When you're doing these projects you can use any chocolate but most need some modifications. So for convenience I tend to use melting chips if I have them. You can melt them in the microwave or in a double boiler on the stove top.

I've done both- I usually do the stove for a large quantity so the chocolate can stay warm. But if I only need small quantities at a time the microwave is much easier.

I decorated the end of the marshmallow sticks with some baby wrapping paper over card stock. I wanted a pop of color as I knew the platter was going to be white, as well as the food and sticks. 

 Buy pretzel rods and  large marshmallows, each costs about a buck.

Just put your marshmallows on the candy sticks- which can be purchased at any craft store I usually buy a couple when they're on sale. You'll dip them in the chocolate and I use a little scoop/spatula to cover them as high as you'd like.

It depends how you're going to display the marshmallows, but in this case I knew I was going to have them on a platter. So I shook off the extra chocolate and dried them marshmallow side down. I've also had them in a bowl with flower foam in it to display like a marshmallow bouquet.

Same idea with the pretzels, dip them in chocolate, spoon it up as high as you'd want it and them shake off the extra over the sauce pan and lay them flat to dry.

I had planned to be finished at this point but thought they looked too plain. Usually I use sprinkles or colored chocolate and didn't realize it would look so plain. 


 So I put a little blue food coloring in the white chocolate and drizzled it over everything!

 This was the final result. I was a lot happier with the blue accent on top.

This was a super easy and fun project. They taste so yummy and there's so many fun ways to display them and I always get tons of compliments. (not to mention it costs me less than 4 bucks- yahoo!)

- Becca -

Linked up at Simply Designing,  I Heart Nap Time, Craft Envy, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Stuff and Nonsense, Shabby Nest, Tatertots and Jello,  Eements Interiors, Funky Junk Interiors, Nifty Thrifty Things, Fire Flies and Jelly Beans, Some What Simple, Beyond the Picket Fence and finally Fingerprints on the Fridge.

Food Storage for Dinner

Almost every week I make a pot of soup. Usually something with minimal meat, a lot of beans, and a ton of veggies. This is one of the best ideas I've had. Seriously. It lasts my husband and I a week at least, sometimes I freeze half and pull it out a few weeks later. We eat it for lunch or dinner depending on the day and whether or not I'm making something else for dinner.

This is a great meal idea for eating through some of your FOOD STORAGE (the church I belong to suggests each member have a year's supply of food for each member of the family). Whether we're talking about short or long term food storage you need to rotate through it.This dish is great for either- but in this post I used short term as a matter of convenience. Our short term food storage is comprised of a lot of canned vegetables, since we live in a condo and only grow very few potted veggies in summer.
Rotating through tons of canned veggies or beans isn't always the first priority when you wanna cook food you like, so this dish has been a life saver for getting through all the stuff we store.

This week I'm making a variation of chili, which is one of our favorites.

I make vegetarian recipes because they put in so many vegetables, but then I also put in lean ground beef (93 or 97% fat) 

We love the chili option because you can eat it with chips and cheese or maybe just sour cream on top. I am always using different variation on the vegetables and this keeps it from getting old.

This dinner is AWESOME for several reasons:

*It will feed each of us 5-7 times, making 10-14 meals. That makes the cost approximately .78 to $1.10 a meal. I buy the canned foods at Costco in bulk, I use whatever vegetables are on sale, and buy my meat in bulk.

*Although there is very little meat in the chili, my husband is always happy with it and feels like he's getting a regular hearty meal. He is a HUGE meat eater and wants it every single day and he feels  there's enough to satiate him- although it's more likely the beans are what's filling him up.

*It takes very little time considering how many times it saves you from cooking.

*It is so healthy! I always leave out the noodles in the soups so we're filling up on healthy veggies, beans, and lean meat.

Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 medium onion, chopped 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon ground cumin 2 tablespoons dried oregano 1 tablespoon salt 2 stalks celery, chopped 2 green bell peppers, chopped 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chile peppers, drained 2 (12 ounce) packages vegetarian burger crumbles 3 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, crushed 1/4 cup chili powder 1 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained 1 (15 ounce) can black beans 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn Directions Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in the celery, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, and green chile peppers. When vegetables are heated through, mix in the vegetarian burger crumbles. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes. Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season chili with chili powder and pepper. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes. Stir in the corn, and continue cooking 5 minutes before serving. Nutritional Information Amount Per Serving  Calories: 342 | Total Fat: 7.7g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Linked up with Laugh Love and Craft, Tatertots and Jello, Funky Junk Interiors Beyond the Picket Fence,  Some What Simple and Tip Junkie.