Menu Planning

So I sit down every Saturday and plan out dinner for the week and make my shopping list. I use a great sheet I found on Pinterest listing the menu for the week and then what I need for it.

Here's the issue, once I've used my shopping list, it gets lost in the bottom of my purse or shoved in one of the grocery bags never to be seen again. Now normally this doesn't sound like an issue, except when you have as many brain hiccups as I've been having lately.

Here's the problem: I forget what I had planned to make for dinner, I mean I can deduce it was some kind of chicken dish or steak, but what exactly the dish is and what I'm serving with it it completely lost from my memory.

Solution:
I was at Target today picking up a few things we needed and I decided to just stroll down all of the leftovers from the back to school section and I found this:

It's a magnetic dry errase board that is laid out with the days of the week. It came with a pen and everything. PERFECT! So then I went to check the price because it was not where it should have been, and what did I find it's on sale for $5, MAJOR SCORE! I also got a cute 3 pack of mini dry errase pins for $1.50 to go with it.. because sometimes black is boring.

The only bummer is that it does not have magnets on the back to stick it on the fridge, so what did I do? I used these magnets I got at the Container Store with the little hooks on it. I hooked them to the back. Perfect... well almost. The magnets weren't as strong so I need to go out and get some heavy duty magnets that I can adhere to the back. Until then, I have a strong magnet propped underneath the board so it will stay.


I wrote out The main dish of what we we're having this week since I just put it up to give you an idea. I think I may use some of my decorative wasabi tape I got from Mindy Mae's Market to create different sections under each day of the week, so I can either write out lunches, dinners and plans we have each day... we'll see how it goes.

Need some motivation?

Well here ya go! Watch this video....

Whatever it is you need to do, wether it be shed some pounds, eat healthier, workout, drink more water, drink less soda... whatever it is... you need motivation to do it. Here's is something that has recently has giving me motivation... not just to be a healthier me, but to live a better, more organized life. Check out the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZk40J_drws&feature=colike

Check out Mindy Mae's Market

Ok my friends, go check out Mindy Mae's Market.

They have so many cute things to buy and craft with and some super cute jewelry to wear as well. ALSO for the next 3 days you'll be able to find my hair ties on sale there at a discounted price. GO CHECK IT OUT... What are you waiting for?

Here's what you'll see when you go check it out! Photo from Mindy Mae's website.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Tonight began cooking school for my husband. I went to my pinterest account and picked 2 things he wanted to learn to cook. Was it a main dish or a side dish that he could cook for dinner... nope, it was Soft Pretzels and Chocolate Chip Cookies, HA!

So tonight we tackled pretzels. He wanted to start at 10pm... I told him it would take a while but he didn't mind since we're night owls.

Here's how it turned out.

Rolling out the Pretzel

Making the pretzel shape

Ready to be baked

Putting some butter on them after the popped out of the oven

SO YUMMY!

Zucchini Chips

So I had an extra zucchini in the fridge and didn't know what to do with it. When in wonder, turn to pinterest.com. HA! I found some recipes for Zucchini chips and compiled all of them together and made my own recipe.

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, and was pleasantly surprised. It didn't really taste like zucchini at all, so this might be a winner for the kiddos.

Here's my adapted Pinterest Zucchini Chip Recipe.

Ingredients:

1 zucchini
canola cooking spray
Seasoning(s) of your choice (I used Greek seasoning)
Spray Canola Oil

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
*Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil
*Spray with canola oil.
*Slice zucchini into thin pieces, about the thickness of a quarter- if you have a mandoline slicer, use it.
*Lay out slices on prepared baking sheet
*Spray tops lightly with cooking spray
*Sprinkle with seasonings of your choice (less is more)

*Place in oven and bake 55 minutes.
*Rotate baking sheet and bake an additional 30-50 minutes until chips are browned and crisped to your liking. Just watch them and decide. It took my oven a long while to crisp up these little guys, it will be different depending on where you live and oven type.

Product Feature

Ok, so you know I make hair ties. I try to sell them a lot cheaper than what is out there because 1. I enjoy making them and 2. I don't like it when I see something GREAT, but can't see spending the money for it.

Just last week when I was at a certain retail store, I saw hair ties like mine and there were 4 for $12.... WHAT? Same colors, same quality, but the price was nuts.

ANYWAY, I applied to have my hair ties featured (and up for sale at a discounted price) over at Mindy Mae's Market. If you haven't been to this site check it out. They have GREAT stuff from craft supplies, to jewelry, to products featured by other crafters at a discounted price! I LOVE THEM, and come August 20-22nd my hair tie bundles will be featured there at a discounted price. These bundles are of colors that I have not put up in my store. So mark your calendars for August 20-22nd over athttp://www.mindysminutemarket.com/ and spread the word!

$6 Score

My friend asked me to create a shadow box frame with some special items she is saving from the recent (7.24.12) of her son. I was at Khols yesterday and found a shadow box frame that was $30 but to my surprise it was 50% off.

HOORAY. So happy, I texted her a photo of the frame and the price and she was down for the $15. I was so excited. Well I get home leave it in the Khols bag, on the reading chair.

Fast forward to today, after lunch. The husband and I get home and what do I see... my Khols bag ripped on the floor. I turn the corner to where the love seat is and I see the packaging that was around the frame torn and on the floor. I walk further and see the frame. The door of it was wide open and the corners of the doors have been chewed (didn't get a picture of it).I was so disapointed in Pudge (the yellow lab, 2yrs.). He was put into a timeout! Yes, I said time out and we have a time out spot and both Sam and Pudge know to go there.

I knew I had to go back and hope that there was another one there.., so I get in the car and drive back to Khols. I speed walk it to the back of the store and LUCKILY they had 1 left. I snatched it turned the corner to go pay and these cute holders caught my eye. I spotted a sale sticker on them and what do ya know, they were on sale too for $6... SCORE! I picked those up and a set of 8 washcloths for the bathroom for $3. HOORAY

Pretty for Christmas I think.

You may be asking what am I going to do with the other frame, well I figured to take it as a positive and I think I'll destress it to make it look somewhat like it was suppose to be that way (except one corner is REALLY chewed). We'll see. Another post for another post for another day.

Million Dollar Pasta

Another Pinterest success! This is really easy and is a great base recipe. You can add anything you want to this to make it your own.

Here is the orignal recipe including how I tweaked it.

Ingredients:
1 lb. of Ground Beef **I didn't use any meat at all
1 can of Spaghetti Sauce **10 oz.
8 oz of Cream Cheese **used low fat cream cheese
1/4 cup of Sour Cream **used low fat Sour Cream
1/2 lb. of Cottage Cheese **used low fat Cottage Cheese
Whole Stick of Butter *You don't need this much butter. I cut a few small pieces to put
on the bottom of the pan and on the second layer of pasta.
8 oz. of Noodles
Bag of Sharp Chedder Cheese **used fat free cheese


**Other things I added:
Italian seasoning to the cheese mixture
chopped up mushrooms and mixed it in the sauce
~You can totally add any other veggies or meats you like or even substitute Ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese (which I almost did because I can not eat cottage cheese. The texture just makes me gag, but when mixed here... YUMO, so glad I used it).



What ya do:
*Put your over on 350
*Boil your noodles
*While they are boiling go ahead and mix up the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese
*Mix it well- they used their stand mixer... but a bowl and spatula work just as well.~I also added my italian seasoning here.


***If you are going to use meat cook it now and add the spaghetti sauce to it***

*Since I didn't use meat, I took my spaghetti sauce ~Chopped up my mushrooms and added them to the sauce, put it in a bowl and warmed it in the microwave -cover the bowl with a paper towel-
*Put a few slices of butter on the bottom of your 9X13 pan.
*Place half of the noodles on the butter
*Dump your cheese mixture on top of the noodles and spread it out.
*Put just a small amount of butter on top of those noodles and then pour the sauce (Whether it's the meat sauce or not) on top of the noodles.
*Pop it in the oven for 30 min.
*Pull out and add some cheddar cheese to the top and put it back in for (the recipe said 20 but I did) 10 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melted and maybe get a little crunch on the top noodles. ;)

That's it... Super easy right? If you try it let me know how you liked it or what you tweaked to make it your own!



Enjoy~

Photo Board

Ok so here it is, I made a photo board. I found the idea on Pinterest and thought... I could do that. So I made 2 boards. One for my family room and one for our bedroom.

Sorry for the crumby photo quality, I was snapping away on my camera phone.

The Beach Themed Board for our bedroom

The Miss California Board

~Here's the "how-to"~

You will need:

Foam Core Board (whatever color you want)
double sided tape, or photo slips
Mod Podge (I chose Mat so there was no glare on the board)
Foam brushes
Command Strips to hang with

Blury but, grab your form Core Board and some photos you like, and trim your photos to 4X4.

Layout your photos across the board where you want, and then go back and measure them to make sure they are all even.

Use your finger to hold each photo down and with your other hand lift up the sides and stick your photo splits or double sided tape under the picture. **Make sure you put tape on either both sides or top and bottom so that when you do the next step your photos won't move). Be so proud of this blury pick. I stacked 2 books and my glass owl pot, put my phone on top of it, and snapped this picture with my nose. LOL

Paint the entire board. Don't be afraid to glob it on (the stuff dries clear) because you want the Mod Modge to not only cover the board and the photo, but get under the corners of the photo too.

Next paint the sides and edges. This will help just incase something bumps into your board the paper top of the board will won't chip/rip as easy.

*Let your board dry completely.

If your photos bubble a bit, just go back over it with some Mod Podge and press a bit firmer as you paint over your touch ups. To avoid this MAKE SURE YOU SECURE YOUR PHOTOS BEFORE MOD PODGING. I had a 3 photos that weren't as secure as they needed to be on my first board (my second I had no issues).

Add your command strips to the back (Follow the directions on the package) and hang.

Here is our beach themed one hung. I need to add something else to the wall here to go with it. Any ideas, please let me know.




The black one isn't hung yet. I would like your advice... which wall should I hang it on?

Wall with the TV
Wall next to the TV
Wall next to the couch wall

Thanks for your advice and thanks for checking this fun and easy Photo Board Project out!

Pictures of Craftiness soon, I promise!

All most ready to post my crafty project. I just need some rubbing alcohol, and to place them in our home and I'll post the photos and an easy "how-to".

Craftiness in the works

I'm in the midst of a craft project I found on Pinterest, that is really inexpensive to create, but I think is awesome! I just can't wait to show it to you and get your thoughts! Keep your eyes on the blog and soon it will be revealed.