Gearing up for Halloween??

Tubby-time is usually a blast around here.  So, why is Elena is such a panic and clawing her way out of the tub??

Oh...my...goodness....

2-month attention span

That's all I have.  A two-month attention span.  Elena was born in February.  By the end of April, I was heavy into a nice workout routine and weight-loss regimen.  By July, I successfully lost 15 pounds, started couponing, quit working out (which I LOVED and can't seem to start up again!) and started the blog.  Now it's September, I am still maintaining my weight, I've settled into blogging and couponing, and I'm starting to work in the kitchen more.  I'm baking/cooking from scratch a lot more and trying to be more resourceful.  I'm trying to keep the kitchen clean all the time and hoping it will help me keep on top of everything else.  Except the laundry.  I'm hopeless there.  What will my "new" obsession be in November?  I can't wait to find out.  I hope it involves chocolate.

Anyone else have this problem?  Some might call it ADD...wait what was I talking about??

Q. How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: You wanna go build a fort?!?!?!

And for those of you following my biscuit-making adventure - I finally wrangled the yeast into submission!!


Glutton for punishment???

Or eternal optimist!!

Here's the deal.  I could either purchase 3 individual packets of yeast (.75 oz) for $1.50

OR, thanks to Cotsco

2 POUNDS of yeast for $3.50.  I have already put 5 teaspoons of it to good use trying my hand at the dinner rolls again.  We'll see what comes of it.  Leo used his magical powers to infuse the dough with the ability to rise. 

I also go through a 5 lb bag of flour once a week.  So we got the big boy bag!!  Wish me luck!!

Wordless Wednesday

Teething Biscuits

I didn't set out to make teething biscuits.  I set out to make Unbelievable Rolls courtesy of Allrecipes.com.  I followed all the directions perfectly.

They should have looked a little something like this:
(Picture from recipe on Allrecipes.com)

And...this is what mine looked like. 

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it - I killed the yeast...again...

So, I decided to turn these rock-hard biscuits into teething biscuits for Elena.

I just can't win!!  It's pretty bad when the same baby who happily plays with her father's sock

 makes this face at your food!

I'm heading out for more yeast.  I WILL master this!!


While I'm in the kitchen

We had a dinner party on Saturday night.  I was busy in the kitchen making a huge variety of food.  The kids were keeping themselves occupied in the fort Dad built for them. 






It is a shame we had to take it down for the party.  Our house just isn't big enough for it AND guests over as well.  The fort I built for Leo last week was puny compared to this beast!!



And very poorly engineered.


(This is my 200th post!!  When I first cracked open this blog, I was sure I would have no material left by October.  Turns out, my kids are as entertaining as I thought they were!  They alone provide all the entertaining content - which I'm sure keeps Granny and Papa happy in Texas - and I hijack it often with my couponing/cooking posts.  Thank you to those of you who read my blog.  It means a lot to this bored homemaker!  While Leo and Elena are as entertaining as the day is long, our conversations only ever have to do with horsies saying moo, the wheels on the bus, or farts.)

I'm not much of a cook...but...

I have always been really good at following directions!

I found a recipe on Tasty Kitchen for Savory Steak and Potato Soup.  Three words.  De.  Lish.  Ous.

Surprisingly simple too.  Saute onion and garlic.

Add carrots and potato

Add cooked, cubed steak, 1 tsp each salt, pepper, Worcestershire.

Add 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 4 cups beef stock.

Mix and bring to a boil.  Lower temp and simmer for 1+hours.


Okay, I confess.  I only posted this blog to show off my baby again..

Rescue 911 moment

I was cleaning up in the kitchen and I realized it was extremely quiet in the living room where I left the kids.  I always look in on them every few minutes while I work but it had been a few minutes of extreme quiet.  I poked my head around the corner to see what the the two of them were doing.  An extremely exhausted Leo was hanging out on the couch but Elena was nowhere to be found! 

My heart stopped and my inner spaz kicked into high gear.  I threw down the dishes in my hands and ran a full circle around my house.  I couldn't find her!!!!!  My heart was in my throat.  I frantically checked the bathroom and the stairs.  I have seen every Rescue 911 episode and I am always assessing situations based on real life events from that show.  I usually anticipate and prevent Rescue 911 moments but I dropped the ball this time and all the scary possibilites were flashing in front of my eyes.  She is mobile now, but could she make it up the stairs in only a few minutes???  I calmed down my inner spaz for just long enough to slow down and glance around the living room again.  Then I spotted her.  Can you see her?


There she is...







I think I need the ambulance.  I can't get my heartbeat to slow down...

By the way, there is a petition to request that they bring back Rescue 911 to a television near you.  My signature is already on it :)

What is Strong Man so excited about???


Chocolate Eclairs!!!


I had some extra milk that was going to expire soon, so I made this phenomenal Pastry Cream.


We used Pillsbury Dough Crescent Rolls for the pastry.


The chocolate icing was simple and crazy good:

1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine 1/4 cup milk, cocoa and sugar and allow to boil for 1 minute; remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Mix well and cool. 

Someone please stop me.  I'm going to be 1,000 pounds in a few weeks.  I just know it.  Hopefully Sophia Franklin can inspire me enough to get up and move a little :)

Trimming waistlines and wallets

I received a really special envelope from Sophia Franklin in the mail this week.  Sophia and I haven't seen each other in 10 years but found each other on Facebook last year.  Recently, all of Sophia's posts were about spin class, working out, sweating, etc.  I was waiting and waiting for a picture to pop up showing off her muscular body but it never came.

Then I found out she is a contestant on this season of The Biggest Loser!!  She's awesome and I cannot WAIT to see her progress so far.  I'm addicted to the show and didn't really need an excuse to watch.  But I do feel a whole lot cooler since I found out I know one of the contestants.  What is it called when you are bit by the celebrity bug? 


She read my blog and saw that I love to use coupons. She sent me this in the mail!

Isn't she sweet!  Thank you Sophia!!!  Without a doubt, I would have voted for you anyway, but this just sweetened the deal :)  HAHA!  I'm rooting for you babe.  You are inspirational!

Do work son!  Do work!!!

So, I ran out to Giant and got all this for $15.35.  I saved $23.37!  That's 60% savings!!

My Sunday Morning View

Finally got a rise out of it!

I discovered that, for me, the ratio of cooking to cleaning is exponential.  If my kitchen is clean, I will cook ridiculous amounts of food.  The last few days I have been trying to stay on top of the cleaning.  I also have been trying to make more foods from scratch as opposed to cooking out of a box.  I have to learn sometime, right? 


This was all sparked when I read two blog posts.  One was A Day in my Life by Holly over at A Mommy's Blessings.  She is a mother of 6 and I couldn't get over the fact that she gets up and bakes bread every day for her family.  I also read this post by City Wife, Country Life.  She hasn't bought a bread product in 6 months!!  Inspired by these women, I set out to do the impossible - make my own bread!  Okay, so it's not "the impossible" but it is the "unthought of" - I make lots of things food-wise, but bread?  It just wasn't on my cooking radar, until now.


My first attempt at making bread bombed - I didn't realize yeast had to be stored properly in order for it to be active.  I used an already opened packet and it was dead.


I bought some new yeast, and gave Amish White Bread another go and this time, my dough successfully rose!



Let me just say, I was a very proud woman when I first laid eyes on my 2 beautiful children.  Well...this took a close 3rd.

When I first pulled this baby out of the oven, my eyes swelled up a little, my heart fluttered and my perma-grin set.



The pride was just spilling out of me.  I think I was actually petting the loaf at one point during dinner.  I'm pretty sure Jason thinks I'm crazy.  Only Tom Hanks understands how I felt all night:


Isn't it pretty?

Hey you, wanna fight?

Sometimes when I am pulling out my ginormous stack of coupons in the checkout line, I can almost hear the voices in everyone's heads reciting a line from Leo's newest favorite book, The Grouchy Ladybug: "Hey you, wanna fight?"


I spent an hour carting around my two ridiculously patient children to pick out all the deals I wanted this week at Giant Eagle.  I scoped out the checkout lines and chose the shorter line.  I also saw 2 women at the register and I assumed one was helping bag groceries so I was definitely happy to choose this aisle.

I handed over my coupons after she rang all of this up:

Yes...I bought 20 boxes of pasta.  I also had 10 coupons for those boxes making them only $0.38 each!

Fast forward to the end of the stack of coupons and the cashier who I hoped would help me bag groceries stopped the "trainee" (yup...I was wrong) and told her frantically "Those say do not double!"

AWWW MANNNN!!  In all my trips to Giant Eagle, if the coupon doubles automatically, they just let it go.  So, I planned my grocery trip around this and bought 6 boxes of Toaster Strudels, 2 Chex Mix and 4 Pillsbury Dough breads thinking they would double the coupon.

This is the moment of truth - Do I dare risk pulling all those items out of my card and voiding them from the purchase?  There are 2 people in line behind me.  The voices in my head are screaming "You don't even NEED those items.  Now that they're not a good deal, what are you doing?!?!"  This voice was screaming so loud in my head I lost all ability to be rational.  Had my rational voice been given a chance to speak, it would have said, "Lisa, calmly look through your coupon binder and pull out the appropriate coupons for these items that CAN double.  They are in there.  You clipped them last week.  Stop being such a spaz."

So, as fast as I could, I spastically pulled the items out of the bags, said I was very sorry to the cashier, but I was wrong about the item cost and needed to take them off the purchase.  The cashier told me "They say 'Do not double' so we can't double them.  I apologized and said, "I understand completely.  They usually double so I planned my trip incorrectly and cannot purchase these items." 

Without making eye contact, I slowly turned my head to the left and slowly whispered "I am sooooo sorry" to the customers stuck behind me in line.  Had the spaz in me calmed down a bit, I could have cracked a joke to make them not be so frustrated...like "If you want to slash my tires, I understand..."  Scratch that - no jokes.

Here comes the kicker - the cashier then told me "We have a new coupon policy and we don't like to take internet coupons."

Uhhhh...So I respond, "Well, they are completely valid coupons from the manufacturer?"

Her: "Well, our new coupon policy is that we don't like to take them."

Me: "Wait, you don't 'like' to take them?  Or you don't take them.  Those are two very different things and I need to know for future shopping trips."

Her: Very quietly: "We do take them."

I didn't MEAN to start a fight!!  I just was under the impression that all my coupons would double because all of the cashiers allow them to double.  I did not demand that she double them, I just politely asked that the items be removed.  I was extremely embarrassed and she just had to rub it in by complaining about my printed coupons from the internet as if I were a thief. 

Couponing is a tough business and is not for the faint of heart.  In fight or flight, I am flight and I RAN outta that store and frantically loaded my car.  At this rate, I'm not sure how long I'll last!!  I wish Giant Eagle would be a little more consistent so I know what to expect.  Do they double all coupons or not?!  It is a total crapshoot and you just don't know what you're going to get.  Jason was dreaming of those Toaster Strudels so I'm sending him back in this evening to try again.  I have coupons that CAN be doubled this time.

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.  And then I pull out my receipt.  For all the above items, I paid $33.39.  I saved a whopping $48.08!  That's a 60% savings! 
Yes.  It's worth it.

How to make bread - A Tutorial

STEP 1: Google "How to make bread"


STEP 2:
Mix together the following:
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour


STEP 3: Flour your countertop



 STEP 4: Clap your hands together to watch the flour particles FLY!


STEP 5: Knead the dough 

STEP 6: Do not question the master.  Just do as he does.

 STEP 7: See Step 6

STEP 8: Cover the dough and let rise for 1 hour in a warm place 

STEP 9: When your dough doesn't rise, start over and just make Beer Bread and come up with something else for the dough:






Strong Man is only in it for the icing - seriously delicious!!


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