Whip It Up Wednesday: Breakfast Apple Crisp (It's Healthy!)

Last week my husband ordered a 40 Lb box of honey crisp apples. Needless to say, even after he made many, many jars of both applesauce and apple butter we were still swimming in apples that needed to be eaten! I was trying to get creative with them and stumbled upon this idea. It came about because, well, I was craving apple crisp.  And it was breakfast time.

Super Healthy Breakfast Apple Crisp

Ingredients:
2 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and sliced fairly thin
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
approximately 1/4 cup granola (any kind)
Vanilla yogurt (I used Greek--it's amazing and tastes like ice cream)

*This recipe makes two servings, and takes about ten minutes start to finish to make.*

1. Put your sliced apples in a microwave safe bowl. Sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg on top, then drizzle with 2 of the 3 Tbsp of honey (save the other one for the topping).

2. Steam your apples in the microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, depending on the thickness of your apples and how soft you want them. I like super soft apples I can cut with a spoon, so mine went in for the full four minutes. I use an embarrassingly low-tech way of steaming my apples. I put them in my bowl, then I put a microwave safe plate over the top. This forms enough of a seal that my apples get perfectly steamed! But if you have a classier way of steaming things in the microwave, feel free.

See what I mean? Pretty low-tech.

3. When the apples are done steaming, let them sit for about two minutes. This will let them get cool enough that the cinnamon and honey will come together into a delicious syrup, and the yogurt won't melt when you add it. When you take off the lid, it will look like this:

Also, I'm using hot pads in this picture for a reason! The bowl and plate will be HOT. So please be careful!

4. Stir your apples to evenly coat in the honey and spices, then top with your granola and a scoop of yogurt. Drizzle the rest of the honey on top, then devour! This recipe officially got Husband and Child tested last Sunday morning and it was a huge hit. My husband has already requested a peach version as well as a mixed berry. Enjoy!

 

~Jessica



Thrifty Tip Tuesday: Making Your Own Baby Food!

Between the two of us,  Hilary and I have two seven month old boys who have just started solid foods! You heard me right. Not only are our four year old daughters only nine weeks apart, but our sons have a whopping seventeen days between them. So you can imagine we spend a lot of time comparing and sharing tips on how to pay for baby necessities and still be frugal. One of the ways we have both found that works for us is to make our own baby food at home!

Making your own baby food is so much simpler then most people would think. Sometimes it's as simple as thinking outside the box (literally)! You don't need a fancy baby-themed food steamer/puree-er. You just need a food processor or blender, maybe a few pots and your stove. Sometimes you even need less then that.

Below we will outline four of the ways in which we save on baby food, and we show you the cost difference between buying them in the store and making them yourself.

Baby Oatmeal

Baby oatmeal is something that is shockingly simple to make. I was blowing through this stuff when my son was about nine weeks old, because he has acid reflux. That's when I discovered that I could make my own for a fraction of the cost. Here is your ingrediant list:

1 lb of bulk quick oats, or Quaker-style quick oats from the grocery store.

That's it.

Seriously.

Baby oatmeal is simply oats that have been ground down so that they are fine enough for a baby to eat and not choke. All you need to do is put your oats into your food processor and set it on puree until it looks like fine grain sand.

The cost breakdown
2 Boxes of Gerber oatmeal (16 oz): $4.98, or $0.18 per 5 Tbsp serving
1 lb quick oats from Winco (16 oz): $0.59, or $0.02 per 5 Tbsp serving

That's like saving $4.39 total, or $0.16 every time you feed your baby. I was buying at least 4-6 boxes of this stuff a month at the height of my son's reflux, so by switching I saved up to $8.91. That's two lattes!

Pumpkin

Pumpkin is another area in which I began to think outside the box (or can). I LOVE pumpkin. Every year around thanksgiving I stock up on canned pumpkin while it's cheap, and use it all year when I need a pumpkin fix! My son is truly my child and loves him some pumpkin just like his mommy. Last time I got out a can of pumpkin to make pumpkin butter, I realized something surprising. Check it out:

The ingredient list on baby food pumpkin and canned pumpkin is exactly the same! Pureed pumpkin.

So here in a single picture is how I make my pumpkin baby food:

(The Starbucks cup is optional.)

The Cost Breakdown
8 containers of pumpkin baby food (about 30 oz) $3.96, or $0.49 per serving (a single 3.5 oz container is considered one serving)
1 huge can of pumpkin (30 oz) $1.59, or $0.19 per 3.5 oz serving

Overall you save $2.37, or $0.30 per serving! The bonus of this is that if I break out a giant can of pumpkin puree and use some for my son's dinner, I get to make pumpkin butter out of the rest.
~Jessica

Applesauce


This is such an easy food for your baby!  No prep at all, just one giant container of applesauce.  We always buy the unsweetened or natural applesauce since packaged baby applesauce does not have a lot of sugar, so the unsweetened is more comparable to the baby stuff.

The Cost Breakdown13 1/2 containers of applesauce baby food (about 47 oz) $6.54, or $0.49 per serving (a single 3.5 oz container is considered one serving)
1 huge container of applesauce (about 47 oz) $2.44, or $0.18 per 3.5 oz serving



Overall, you save $4.18, or $.30 per serving!



Sweet Potatoes


I LOVE mashed sweet potatoes.  We eat them at every major holiday and we use a little bit of butter and brown sugar to prepare them (vs. marshmallows and a lot of sugar).  So I am an old pro at making mashed sweet potatoes and since they are so easy, they make a great baby food.  In fact, after I steam several pounds of sweet potatoes or yams, I put half in a bowl with butter, milk and brown sugar and leave them for us, then mash the rest with water and put them in baby food containers for my little guy!
Normally, I use sweet potatoes, but the last time I went to the store, yams were only $0.78 a pound and sweet potatoes were $1.48 a pound, so I grabbed the yams instead.
To make, peel the yams or sweet potatoes, chop into quarters and throw them in a huge stockpot of boiling water.  Boil until they are mushy.  Drain them, then take a electric hand mixer (or a stand up mixer) and puree them.  For baby, add water until they are smooth.  Ta-da!  Super easy.

(And this is after several days of feeding them to my son!)

The Cost BreakdownFor this round, I bought 5 giants yams for $5.20 (6.66 pounds at $0.78 a pound).  It made 12 cups of baby food, or 27 1/2 servings (3.5 oz)!
27 1/2 servings of store bought food (96 oz total) $13.33, or $0.49 per serving
6.66 pounds of yams (96 oz), $5.20, or $0.19 per serving
Overall, you save $8.13, or $.30 per serving
These all seem like small amounts, but if you replace two meals a day with one of these easy baby foods, you can save $18.00 a month!  When you are trying to save money, even that makes a difference!  And these are all easy with little or no prep!

~Hilary

What baby foods do you make yourself that are fast and easy?

Quick'n'Dirty Pumpkin Butter (also known as Lazy Pumpkin Butter)

I am obsessed with Pumpkin, and this is one of my favorite ways to use it. Because really, what product would not be improved by slathering pumpkin on it? It's rich and creamy and basically gives me the excuse to eat pumpkin pie on toast.

Ingredients
1 30 oz can of pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 cups apple cider or apple juice (cider will make and extra spicy butter)

1. Add all the ingredients together in a pot or sauce pan. I find a sauce pan heats up quicker and provides a more even reduction. Set heat to medium.

2. Stir to break up the pumpkin chunks. When the pumpkin has fully incorporated reduce the heat to medium low.

3. Let simmer uncovered on medium low for 1-1 1/2 hours depending on the consistency you'd like. The longer you let it simmer the thicker and more "butter-y" the butter will become. Once it reaches the consistency you prefer, take it off the heat and let it cool a bit.

4. Eat it. On everything. My current favorite way to eat it is on vanilla Greek yogurt with chopped walnuts. Nom nom nom!

Quick Fix-It: Bleach Pen Magic!

The back story of this post is that I bought this amazing track jacket for $10 at Target.  I LOVE it.  The fit, the color, everything.  Then a few weeks ago, I accidentally brushed up against some bleach in my laundry room and disaster!  I got a bleach spot on my almost new jacket.  I was so upset.

So I had been seeing a lot of amazing stuff on the internet about bleaching designs onto fabric using a bleach pen.  I looked and looked and finally decided to free hand it.  I have been obsessed with peacock feathers, so I looked at some pictures online, came up with a quick design and started the project.

Here are the steps:
1. I freehanded a few feathers on a piece of paper to get comfortable with the design.

2. I put a big piece of wax paper behind where I was going to draw the design. 

3. I doodled!  It was tough to get the bleach to come out evenly, but I do like how the color varied a little because the bleach was thicker in places and thinner in other places.

4.  I left the bleach on for a half hour.  Then I rinsed off the bleach in the sink (be SUPER careful that the shirt doesn't fold over on itself or the bleach will smear all over the rest of the garment and leave stains).

5.  I put it in the washer for a whole cycle (using warm water, then a cold rinse).

6.  I dried it with some other clothes and here's the final product!

Ignore the lighting.  I took the pictures at night so our lighting was awful, but overall I am pretty thrilled with it!  And grateful that I was able to fix it!  It only used half of the pen, so I can definitely bleach other clothes with stains!

I have read that it works best on 100% cotton clothing.  It didn't bleach as white as I wanted, but the jacket is partially polyester which doesn't bleach as consistently.

Happy bleaching!

Little Girl's Crocheted Cowl Scarf, a free crochet pattern!

I have been making tons of those fantastic crocheted cowl scarves that are so trendy right now. I think I must have six of them for myself, with another two made as gifts! My daughter was enthralled with some of the gorgeous fluffy white yarn I bought for myself, so I figured I would whip her up her own trendy cowl scarf with the leftover yarn from my own. The yarn was so cozy I thought it would be perfect for a cold winter evening.

This is a super easy crochet pattern that even the most inexperienced beginner can do! The whole scarf takes about an hour to come together fully, less if you are not a novice and know what you're doing. And wouldn't these make adorable Christmas presents? My daughter is already asking me for a "sparkly pink one."

*Edited to add, I have since made the adult version of this scarf here, as well as a matching headband here. Both are also free patterns we have available for you to use! This yarn and my N hook are so addictive.*

Girl's Cowl Scarf Crochet Pattern:

You will need:

One skein of a "chunky" yarn. I used Bernat's baby blanket yarn in white. This is an extremely chunky yarn that is super soft and snuggly.

An N hook

Terms used in this pattern: Ch: Chain (for the foundation chain), Hdc: Half Double Crochet, Sl st: Slip stitch

Ch 36. Sl st chain ends together into a circle, taking care not to twist the chain.

Ch 1 (this counts as the first hdc), then in next st begin hdc. Hdc 35 around. Sl st to join.

Repeat 7 times. Weave in ends to finish.

Like I said, easy right? Now go make one (or ten) of your own for the little girls and dudes in your life.

Pinterest Friday: Bird's Nest Necklace

I have been wanting one of those bird's nest necklaces, but I never have the right supplies on hand to make one...until last night!  My husband pulled out a roll of this thick silvery wire from his toolbox and I was inspired!  I find a great tutorial on Pinterest, bought some great turquoise beads and tried it out.

Here is the awesome tutorial:

Source: themcclenahans.blogspot.com via Hilary on Pinterest

Here's my final product:

Here are some of the tips I had:
1. When I saw these online, I thought they would be super sturdy.  Mine weren't.  I thought maybe I did something wrong, but I think they probably aren't ever super sturdy since they are just bent wire.
2. There were two styles online, I tried the more "natural" looking one where you gently thread the wire around loosely.  It was tough to keep the shape using this method.
3. I used a thick wire.  The perk was it went faster since only a few rows was enough, but it wasn't as easy to manipulate.
4. These are SOO fast.  I made two in about 30 minutes (one for me and one for my mom!).  I love the end result, but beading and jewelry is not my thing, so this will probably the last time I make one!

Little Girl's Jewelry Holder

I have been eye-ing several fabric jewelry holders for months, but it wasn't until last week that I finally found the time to make one for my daughter. My only requirement is that I had to use things that I already had or were free. Here's the final product:

And here's the how-to!:

1. Pick a board. I literally used an old scrap of awful particle board that we had in the garage. It wasn't a perfect square (which was fine since this was for my 4-year-old), but if you wanted, you could cut it into a perfect square or rectangle. I didn't even sand the edges since I wrapped the board in batting and fabric, so the edges were well covered.

2. Find a scrap of batting or interfacing that is slightly larger than the board.

Wrap the batting around the front of the board, then use a staple gun to staple it to the board.

*Make sure you hammer the staples down flat so they don't scratch the wall.

3. Find a scrap of fabric that is slightly larger than the board. My daughter picked this color out. It wasn't my first choice, but it wasn't for me! Wrap the fabric around the board and staple it. Make sure you pull it taut so it doesn't wrinkle and if you have a pattern, make sure it is even.

4. I did the hanger step last, which in retrospect was silly because it tough to screw stuff into the back when the hooks were in the front. If I did it again, I'd do this step fourth. I used two soda can tabs as hangers (my husband scavenged these out of the recycling bin at work). I (I mean, my husband) screwed them to the back of the board.

5. For the front, my daughter picked an aqua fabric (which was a better choice than the hot pink that she chose first). I had ribbon that matched perfectly, so I glued a ribbon onto the board. 

Then I made the rosettes. There are probably a million better tutorials that are better, but here's how I made mine. I cut long strips of fabric. I found that tapering them at one end made it easier to start the spiral. I rolled the strip, then used hot glue to glue the roll to a piece of jersey I had lying around.

I would put a little glue, then roll the strip and press it down. I did this over and over until I have a rosette. Then, I glued the tail underneath the rosette, trimmed any extra white jersey, then hot glued the rosette to the board. I made three of them.  The ends frayed a little because I didn’t tuck them under, which I was fine with.  I like the shabbiness of it!  If you don't like it, I would try jersey or tucking the frayed edges in before rolling it!

 6. Then, the cup hooks. I did these in a few steps because I didn't want to use power tools. First, I used a measuring tape and push pins to get an idea of where I wanted the hooks (see the picture above). Then, I took a small nail and hammered it into the board to make a small hole. I wiggled the nail around, then pulled it out.

Then I stuck the cup hook in the premade hole, banged it with the hammer, then just twisted the cup hook into the board.

7.  Once the ribbons are on, the cup hooks are in and the hangers on the back are mounted, just hang onto a wall and let your child (or you) hang all of their goodies on it!

The only thing I bought was a pack of 20 cup hooks for $3.99 at Lowe's. Everything else I had on hand and now my daughter has a jewelry organizer in her favorite colors for under $5!

Whip it up Wednesday: Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

Cold season is upon us! I don't know about you all, but at my house we've been battling what I call The Cold That Won't Die for the last month. We  haven't gone more then a few days without someone in our family of four coming down with sniffles/a cough/runny nose/congestion. This week I decided to whip up some homemade chicken noodle soup to help us through cold season.

Without further ado: Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup!

*Note: This recipe makes enough soup for two meals. I froze half to save for our next battle with The Cold, so if you want you can cut the recipe in half for a single meal's worth. I find however that soup is one of the easiest meals to start with if you're trying to build a freezer meal stock pile.*

Do you see the steam coming off the soup on the lower left hand side? That there is pure cold fighting goodness.

Ingredients:

14-16 cups of chicken broth (I used two big boxes)
2 chicken breasts (frozen is preferred for cooking time)
a bunch (six stalks) of celery, sliced
6 small carrots or 4 big ones, sliced
1 onion, minced
a full bag of egg noodles
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese

1. Add chicken breasts, carrots, onion and chicken broth to the crock pot. The Chicken breasts should be whole and preferable frozen for accurate cooking times. Set your crock pot to cook on high for six hours, or low for eight hours. Walk away.

2. Add the celery about two hours before the soup is done cooking if you're cooking on high, four hours if cooking on low.

3. About twenty minutes before the soup is done, boil the noodles according to the instructions on the package. Make sure you let the noodles stay pretty firm, as they will soak up a little chicken broth and flavor once you put them in the soup. They also taste better after you thaw them, if you plan on freezing half you soup.

4. When the soup is done, pull the chicken breasts out of the crock pot and gently shred them. They should be falling apart at this point so it won't be hard. Put the chicken back into the crock pot and let it soak for a few minutes. Add the noodles.

5. Serve! In our house I let everyone at our table salt and pepper to their individual tastes so I don't usually add it to soups in advance of serving. We also garnish this soup with a little bit of grated Parmesan to add a tiny bit of cheesy goey-ness to an otherwise broth based soup. Let me tell you, if you've never had Parmesan on top of chicken noodle soup you're missing out! It's amazing! Also, my four year old tends to eat anything with cheese on it with a lot less complaining.

6. If you're freezing half of this soup: wait until it cools down, put it into a container for freezing and
pop it in the freezer. We have some gigantic gallon and two gallon plastic freezer bags that work wonderfully. This soup will last up to two months in the freezer and is just as tasty the second time around!

Thrifty Tip Tuesday: Cleaners and Affordable Wall Art

Jessica: My thrifty tip for today is to make your own all purpose cleaners! I started doing this because I was appalled at not only the nasty chemicals I was spraying all over my kitchen, but the fact that my kids then ate food from and touched those surfaces. Once I got started making my own cleaners, I realized that they are also super cost effective!

Many DIY cleaner recipes call for vinegar as the main ingredient and so does mine, but I add a little something extra. I make my own orange-oil infused vinegar at home, and it's really easy! I just saved the rinds of several oranges, put them into a large old jar and poured in vinegar. Two weeks later and I had vinegar that not only smelled a heck of a lot nicer, but also cleans better due to the orange oils.

In case you can't read my fancy all purpose cleaner recipe from the bottle, here it is:

All Purpose Cleaner
1/2 cup orange-infused vinegar (or normal vinegar if you don't have any orange rinds)
1/2 tsp washing soda
1/2 tsp Castile soap (please ignore my terrible spelling on the bottle)
2 cups of hot water

I literally just put all the ingredients into the bottle and then microwave 2 cups of water until it's just shy of boiling. Then I shake it all together in the bottle and wait until it dissolves, and it's ready to use!

You can also add lots of essential oils that help with various things, Tea Tree Oil is supposed to help disinfect (I tried it, it was stinky) and lavender is another popular additive for it's anti-bacterial properties (it smelled weird combined with oranges and vinegar). I personally prefer just my basic recipe, and let me tell you, this stuff really works! And I feel good about my kids eating foods straight off the counters.

Hilary:  I recently painted our bedroom a really bright tropical green and needed some dramatic wall art to match such a bold color!  I looked everywhere for affordable art and couldn't find it.  Finally, I went to Cost Plus World Market (love that store!) and saw this incredible gift bag.  I bought it, cut out the main picture, and put in into a great frame I got on clearance at Michael's (love that one too!) for $5 and voila!  A dramatic picture for my wall!

Price breakdown: $5 for frame + $4 for gift bag = $9 for wall art

 

 

Six Ingredient Crispy-Creamy Gnocchi in Six Steps

I made this for dinner tonight and it was a huge hit with everyone from my husband to my very picky four year old daughter! It is absolutely delicious and a nice change from spaghetti with tomato sauce if you're a pasta lovin' family like us.  And the best part is that this meal takes maybe 20 minutes to prepare! That's the kind of dinner I like to make.

Ingredients:
2 Packages of potato gnocchi (we use a mix of whole wheat and regular, we like the varied texture)
2 Cups cherry tomatoes
1 Package of goat cheese (I used the kind with added Italian herbs)
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced (or probably three tsp of pre-minced garlic)
1 handful of fresh basil leaves (about six leaves)
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. Heat Olive Oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and saute for about five minutes until it starts to get golden brown.

2. Turn heat up to medium-high and add gnocchi. Stir with the spatula until they are evenly coated with the oil and the garlic. The gnocchi will start to get browned and crispy after about 5 minutes, keep stirring it every so often to make sure it cooks evenly on all sides. You want the outside of the gnocchi to get crispy while the inside gets soft and chewy.

3. Roughly chop the basil and add to the pan when the gnocchi is almost done. You want the basil to get wilted but not fried.

 

 4. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the pan. Mix them in well with the gnocchi so they get coated in garlic as well.

5. Continue to cook until the tomatoes are getting a little juicy and squished...mmmm. Then add the goat cheese. The goat cheese will melt super fast, so add it, stir it once and then take it off the heat!

6. Serve and enjoy! I added a bagged side salad to make it a "complete" meal, and I was done! Super fast and super hearty. My husband had three servings so it is officially man approved, and my daughter even had some of the *gasp* vegetables!