21
Jan

new adventure

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I have a new project in mind for 2012, and I’m hopefully starting on it today. I have collected so many new cookie recipes this past year, and haven’t actually tried any of them. So…I’ve decided to try one cookie recipe each month this year. Look for a cookie post coming soon!

2
Jan

happy new year!

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Wishing everyone a happy 2012! Hoping to find a direction for my blog this year that I will actually stick to. Wish me luck!

6
Jul

herby Italian mini meatloaves

Posted in Recipe | 3 Comments »
We’re trying to use everything in our freezer before we go grocery shopping again, so I’ve had to be a little creative with my recipes this week. (I usually use e-mealz, which is a snap.) I knew we had ground turkey in the freezer, so I decided to do something with it for dinner last night. Burgers sounded boring, and I didn’t really have anything to mix it with, so I decided to make meatloaf. One problem…I can’t stand meatloaf. I know most of you probably think I’m strange because of it. I know my husband and dad do since meatloaf is a favorite of both of them.

So instead of making a traditional meatloaf, I decided to invent a new kind of instead, in hopes of actually enjoying my dinner. This is what I came up with, and I was pretty pleased with it. The amounts are approximations since I hardly ever measure ingredients unless I’m baking. Here’s how it goes…

Herby Italian Mini Meatloaves
3.0 from 2 reviews
Print
Recipe Type: Main Dish
Author: Allea Ingram
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 45 mins
Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 6
What You Need
  • 1.3 lb. package of ground turkey (any ground meat would work fine)
  • 1/2 cup (plus extra for the top) spaghetti sauce
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup (plus extra for the top) parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 breadcrumbs
  • 1 tsp (or about 1 clove) minced garlic
  • 1 heaping handful of fresh Italian herbs (I used basil, oregano, and flat leaf parsley from my garden)
What To Do
  1. Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
  2. Mix the first six ingredients together thoroughly.
  3. Finely mince the herbs, then incorporate into the meat mixture.
  4. Form mixture into six equally sized mini loaves, then top with extra spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese.
  5. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.
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If you have any other non-traditional meatloaf recipes that you love, please share.

24
Jun

frozen banana ice cream with chocolate sauce

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This may very well be my new favorite dessert. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also HEALTHY! Here’s the recipe…

Frozen Banana Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce
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Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: All You Magazine
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 10 mins
Serves: 4
What You Need
  • 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
  • 5 ripe bananas, peeled and frozen, then cut into small pieces
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
What To Do
  1. Combine chocolate chips and 3 Tbsp. water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring each time, until just melted. Then stir or whisk chocolate sauce until it’s smooth.
  2. Place bananas in a food processor and pulse until broken into small pieces.
  3. Add milk and vanilla and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
  4. Scoop banana puree into dishes and top with chocolate sauce. Serve immediately, as it melts FAST!
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I’ve made this dessert for Thomas’ family and for my dad, and it received rave reviews. Even my brother-in-law, who doesn’t much care for fruit (go figure), really enjoyed it. Hope you do, too.

10
May

dieting sucks

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My whole family (myself, husband, mom, sister, aunts, uncles…) is currently doing the 17 Day Diet. The problem I’m having isn’t that the food isn’t good, or that I’m feeling deprived, or even that I’m hungry. I’m just so bored! I’m having a hard time coming up with creative ways too cook lean proteins and vegetables every night. Anyone have any good veggie recipes? We could use a little more variety around here…

On the upside, I just finished week 1 and have already lost 5 pounds. Absolutely no complaints there.

2
May

homemade laundry detergent

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Here’s the promised follow-up to my homemade fabric softener post. I’ve been making my own laundry detergent for almost a year now, I think. It’s easy, and very cheap! Here’s how…

Homemade Laundry Detergent
Print
Recipe Type: Household Cleaning Product
Author: thefrugalgirls.com
Prep time: 15 mins
Total time: 15 mins
What You Need
  • 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
  • 1/2 cup Borax
  • 1 bar Ivory soap (or 1/3 bar Fels-Naptha laundry soap)
  • optional: 10-12 drops of essential oil…I use lavender
  • A large bucket, 2-gallon size or larger. I bought a 5-gallon bucket from Lowe’s for a few dollars, and it works great.
What To Do
  1. Grate the bar of Ivory soap into a large pot.
  2. Add 6 cups of water and heat over medium-high heat until soap dissolves.
  3. Add washing soda and Borax and stir until dissolved.
  4. Remove from heat, and set aside.
  5. Pour 4 cups of HOT water into bucket, then add soap mixture.
  6. Stir, then add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of additional water. Stir well.
  7. Add 10-12 drops of essential oil, if desired, and stir. The scent of the soap is pleasant without the essential oil, so this step is definitely not necessary.
  8. If you wish, transfer to empty laundry detergent containers, or keep in the bucket if it has a lid.
  9. Set aside, and let sit overnight. The mixture will thicken and turn into a gel. You will need to shake it or stir it the first couple of times you use it. The detergent will be a little lumpy, but it works great!
Notes

Makes around 2.5 gallons of detergent.

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You can find the original recipe here.

Here’s the approximate price breakdown. I bought a 10-pack of Ivory soap bars at Walmart for just under $4, a box of Borax at Walmart for $3 and some change, and a box of Washing Soda at Harris Teeter for $3 and some change. So at just over $10 total for enough supplies to make at least 10 batches of laundry detergent, each batch only cost me about $1. Since I only have to make a new batch about once every month and a half, I will probably not have to spend any more than those $10 on laundry detergent this year. I think that’s a pretty good deal.

Let me know if you decide to try this…

28
Apr

homemade yogurt…in the crockpot!

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Made another batch of crockpot yogurt tonight, so I thought I would share. This is one of my all-time favorite crockpot recipes. Yogurt is a staple in our house, but it can get expensive if you’re not careful, especially when you like to eat it with your cereal every morning like I do. This recipe is so easy and so inexpensive that it’s pretty much a no-brainer for anyone who eats yogurt on a regular basis.

I’ll admit…I was a little nervous about this recipe the first time I tried it. The idea of leaving warm milk out on the counter overnight seems strange and potentially unsafe. But, I promise you, after using this recipe for a long time, it’s perfectly safe and very yummy. Here’s all you need to do…

Crockpot Yogurt
Print
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Stephanie O’Dea http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 5 hours 30 mins
Total time: 5 hours 31 mins
What You Need
  • 64 oz. (half gallon) of any kind of milk (just make sure it’s NOT ultra-pasteurized, or the cultures won’t grow)
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt with live and active cultures
What To Do
  1. Add the milk to your crockpot.
  2. Heat on low for 2 1/2 hours.
  3. After the 2 1/2 hours are up, turn the crockpot off and let sit for another 3 hours.
  4. After the 3 hours are up, remove about 2 cups of the warm milk, and put it in a separate bowl.
  5. Whisk the 1/2 cup of yogurt into the 2 cups of milk, then add the mixture back to the milk in the crock pot.
  6. Put the lid back on the crockpot, then wrap a heavy towel completely around the crockpot and allow to sit for 8-12 hours (overnight).
  7. In the morning, put yogurt in a new container and refrigerate. Save 1/2 cup to use as your starter next time. The yogurt will last in the fridge for 7-10 days.
Notes

* This yogurt has a somewhat liquidy consistency. I usually thicken the yogurt by straining half of it and mixing the strained yogurt back into the batch. Other people seem to have had success with adding powdered milk into the mix.

*To strain yogurt: Line a colander with coffee filters or cheese cloth. Place colander over a bowl, and add the desired amount of yogurt. Place in fridge overnight. When you come back in the morning, much of the water will have drained away and you will be left with a very thick Greek-style yogurt. Mix the thickened yogurt back in with the rest of the batch and your yogurt will have a slightly thicker consistency. You can also strain the entire batch if you prefer Greek yogurt.

*You can flavor your yogurt in several ways. For fruit flavors, trying blending the yogurt with fresh or frozen fruit. You might also try jams or preserves, though I haven’t tried it myself. I usually make vanilla yogurt by mixing 1/4 tsp. of vanilla and a packet of stevia into a cup of yogurt.

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You can find the original recipe here. Good luck with your yogurt making!

8
Apr

homemade fabric softener

Posted in Home, Recipe | 1 Comment »
I’ve got a different kind of recipe for you tonight. I’ve been making my own laundry detergent and fabric softener for at least six months now…maybe longer. It’s incredibly easy and VERY inexpensive. I had to make a new batch of fabric softener tonight, and it took me less than five minutes. Here’s what you do…

Homemade Fabric Softener
Print
Recipe Type: Cleaning Product
Author: thefrugalgirls.com
Prep time: 5 mins
Total time: 5 mins
What You Need
  • 6 cups HOT water
  • 3 cups white vinegar
  • 2 cups of Suave conditioner in your favorite scent (I like lavender lilac)
What To Do
  1. Mix the hot water and conditioner together until conditioner is completely dissolved.
  2. Add vinegar and mix well.
  3. Store in a large container. I use a gallon-size vinegar bottle, but you could use an old fabric softener container as well.
  4. Use as you would store-bought fabric softener.
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I originally found this recipe on The Frugal Girls, which is a great site to visit if you want to find clever ways to save money. Suave conditioner usually costs less than a dollar for a regular sized contained (around $1.25 for the family size, which will make a batch and a half), and white vinegar is less than $3 for a whole gallon. Put that all together and a 2/3 gallon sized batch of fabric softener costs you around a dollar. Not too shabby, eh?

I promise to follow soon with the laundry detergent recipe…

3
Apr

eastern nc style barbecue sauce

Posted in Recipe | 1 Comment »
Then, of course, there’s the sauce. I’m originally from the western side of the state of NC where tomato-based barbecue sauce is king, but I’ve definitely been converted to the eastern NC way of doing things. This vinegar-based barbecue sauce is delicious!

You can find the original recipe here.

Eastern NC Style Barbecue Sauce
Print
Recipe Type: Sauce
Author: razzledazzlerecipes.com
What You Need
  • 1 cup White vinegar
  • 1 cup Cider vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. Crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 Tbsp. hot sauce (I used Texas Pete)
  • Salt – to taste
  • Freshly cracked black pepper – to taste
What To Do
  1. Mix it all together and let it sit. It’s that simple.
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3
Apr

eastern nc style barbecue in the crockpot

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We had a potluck after church today. We were told to bring a dish from wherever we were from. That probably doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but we go to a very multi-cultural, multi-national church, so we ended up with dishes from all over the world. Thomas and I are both from NC, so, naturally, we brought barbecue.

I found a great recipe for Eastern NC BBQ pork and made it in the crock pot instead of grilling it. It turned out fabulous! Here’s what I did…

Barbecue Rub
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Recipe Type: Main
Author: razzledazzlerecipes.com
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 8 hours
Total time: 8 hours 10 mins
Serves: a lot of people
What You Need
  • 2 pork tenderloins, weighing about 5 lbs. together (or pork roast of about the same weight)
  • Liquid Smoke
  • 1 Tbsp. Salt
  • 1 Tbsp. Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. Brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. Ground cumin
  • 1 Tbsp. Chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp. Black pepper
  • 1/2 Tbsp. Cayenne pepper
  • 2 Tbsp. Paprika
What To Do
  1. Mix salt, sugar, brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, black pepper, cayenne, and paprika together.
  2. Splash each tenderloin with a little liquid smoke, then coat thoroughly with the rub.
  3. Place in a 4 qt. or larger crock pot and cook on low for at least 7-8 hours.
  4. Remove meat from crock pot, shred, add sauce (recipe in following post), and enjoy!
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You can really use any type of pork roast. I chose the tenderloin because they happened to be on sale this weekend.

Check the next post for the sauce recipe…

 

 

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