Ranch Cheeseburgers

In general I’m not a big burger fan; however, once in a while I get such a craving for a juicy burger.  It usually has to have cheese.   Everything is better with cheese.  While trying to come up with an easy dinner, I thought it would be great to enjoy the beautiful weather and get the grill fired up.  I didn’t want to buy a single ingredient.  I wanted something easy.   I wanted a burger.  Alas, I did some searching and settled on a simple ranch burger recipe.  This recipe has been around for ages, but this was the first time we’ve ever tried it.  We will definitely do this one again!  One of my favorite things about this is that the cheese is combined with the meat mixture.  Yummy!

Ranch Cheeseburgers

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 pound ground beef

4 hamburger buns

Preheat the grill or broiler.

In a large bowl, combine seasoning mix with the beef, onion, and cheese.  Mix with clean hands until incorporated. Shape the meat into four burgers about 1-inch thick. Grill the burgers to your desired preparedness.

Serve immediately on the hamburger buns.

Adapted from this Recipe.

I | fonts—all sorts & kinds.  If you’re like me, there has to be the perfect font for every project.  I stumbled upon this blog with a link to free fonts.  Click on the image and it'll take you to the free downloads.  Enjoy! 

If you repost, use the photo only and create a link back to the original blog.  Thanks!

Click HERE to get these fonts for FREE.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Truth be told, the photos of this recipe didn't look super appealing to me, but I was looking for something to make using ingredients I already had in the house.  I had this one saved on Pinterest for a while and decided to give it a shot.  We were very pleased with how it came out!  We're already thinking about different variations we can do with the same concept!

It only requires six ingredients and I had all of them.  Woohoo for an easy, tasty meal--even for an 18 month old!

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts  (I actually only used two large breasts.)

1 large onion, chopped

1 -8 ounce box Zatarain's Yellow Rice Mix, cooked according to directions

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 - 10.5 ounce can cream of chicken soup (regular or fat free)

1 -15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

Instructions

Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Scatter chopped onion over top. Spoon cream soup over top of that. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. 

A few minutes before serving, break up chicken a bit, add in cooked rice, corn, and cheese. Stir to combine. Cover and let cook 5-10 more minutes.  Serve hot.

UPDATE:  I made this again using Zatarain's Rice Pilaf, since I didn't have any Yellow Rice at home.  It was good, but the Yellow Rice box definitely gives a little more flavor.  Rice Pilaf made a good second choice, but the Yellow Rice is still #1.

Recipe found here.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

These.  Are.  Delicious.  Edible raw cookie dough?  Yes, please!

I was craving something sweet but didn’t want a boxed cake or cupcake-type of treat.  Upon seeing I had all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, I turned to this fabulous recipe I found about a year ago.  Who can resist chocolate chip cookie dough?  Not many.  This is a safe-to-eat raw cookie dough recipe since there are no eggs included.  I dare you to try it.  Someone you know may or may not have simply kept the dough in a bowl in the fridge to eat periodically with a spoon.

 photo credit

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Makes approx. 3-4 dozen. 

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup milk or soy milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

14 oz dark chocolate candy coating

Directions:

1.     Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or stir by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

2.     Cover and chill freeze dough for 1 hour. (I just chill batter in a Tupperware, air-tight container, skip the rest of the steps, and eat with a spoon, when ready.  It will last at least a week for me, doing it this way.)

3.     When dough is firm enough to handle, form dough into 1″ balls and arrange on baking sheets lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

4.     Melt chocolate candy coating in microwave according to package directions.  (Work quickly here.  The chocolate hardens fast; reheat in microwave as needed.)  Using toothpicks as a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill (or freeze for quicker route) until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

These can be frozen for up to three weeks.  Thaw for a little bit before serving.

Recipe from Love and Olive Oil.

Busy Bags-Button Snake

I've decided to keep the idea of Busy Bags in mind.  Someday when my house is organized, all my laundry is washed and put away, my books are all on bookshelves...then, I might organize a Busy Bag Swap.  Until then, I'll putter with different ideas now and then.  

The first item I decided to make is a Button Snake.  It was simple, which is exactly what I was looking for.

All you need: ribbon, large button, felt, needle, thread, scissors


I got the buttons for $1.97 at Walmart in the sewing section.

Sew a button to one end of the ribbon.

Cut a slit in a piece of square felt.

Sew it to the end of ribbon opposite the newly sewn button.  You can see I thread the ribbon slightly through the slit and sewed it down.

Cut square pieces of felt.  This doesn't have to be exact.

I didn't measure, but I'd guess my squares are about 2in. x 2in.  Cut a slit in each square that's big enough for your button to fit through.

The slit can be tight as it will loosen upon using.

It's easy to make a slit by folding your square in half and making a small cut, just like you would making paper snowflakes.

Voila!  There you have it.

The entire thing took less than ten minutes.

My 18 month old son LOVES it!  He doesn't quite have the hang of it yet, but he's very close.  He liked seeing the button peeking through the felt slit.  He also likes to thread all the squares on the ribbon and just slide them back and forth from one end to the other.  This will be useful at restaurants, the grocery store shopping cart, church, car rides, etc.

Thrifty Momma--Where to find a deal.

*I added Summer 2013 deals to the top of the list!

This will be an ongoing list of places to find a deal.  I have tons of bookmarks on my web browser, but when it comes time to find the things I've saved, I can never pinpoint it.  I've decided to put all of my findings/advice in one place and to post it for others to access.  If you know of something that would be great to add to this list, let me know!  I will attempt to keep this as organized as possible.

SUMMER 2013 Deals & Events

• Free Bowling & Skating All Summer Long
• Free or Cheap Summer Movies

Food

• Shop Aldi!  We get most of our food "staple items" here and I'm always amazed by how much I save.  I do still use the regular grocery store, but Aldi is where I turn to first.
• Target will often have coupons for many of their store brand items.  Look on their website: Target >> weekly ad >> coupons

Travel

• Looking for a lodging rental? Try www.vrbo.com  We found a great South Carolina cabin using this website.  Of course you have to be cautious when renting from an unknown person, but this is a good place to start your search. 
•  LaQunita hotels have been great on road trips for us.  We can stay for under a hundred bucks.  There is no additional pet fee for the dog, we get a free crib for the baby, and breakfast is included.  The locations we've stayed at have always been great.

Kid Stuff

• Shop resale stores and consignment sales.  I get most of our kid clothes and toys at these places.  This is especially great for toys that will be outgrown relatively fast, for outdoor toys, things you want to try but not pay full price for, and clothes, clothes, clothes!
  
  Some of the places I turn to:
  * Once Upon A Child
  * Kid to Kid (my favorite local shop, but check the store locator for one near you)
  * Gwinnett's Kidsignments Sale (one of my favorite local sales!)
  * United Methodist Church preschools nationwide have sales once or twice a year (my local ones:  Cannon UMC, Snellville UMC)
  * Tykes, Tots & Teens consignment sale.  Horse Park in Conyers.  I found this one recently and LOVED the checkout process.  It's all computerized so no cutting and counting.  It went way faster than some of the other sale checkout lines.
• We love Target's Up & Up diapers!  They are cheap and super absorbent.  They've been awesome for us.  They often have online coupons for them, too.

General places and websites for Savings

• Southern Savers  Despite its name, you don't have to be in the south to enjoy the savings.  "Like" their Facebook page to find out even more.
• Thrifty NW Mom  Tons of great stuff here!  Again, "like" her Facebook page.
• YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY!  Not sure if your kid will like a certain book?  Want to find a video on California's coastline?  Want to find one good quinoa recipe?  Looking for a place to take the kids on a rainy day?  I check out tons of cookbooks, children's books, movies, educational DVDs (for me...and my husband), attend children's story time, etc. all at the local library.  Don't forget about this awesome neighborhood resource!
• Totally Target  So many great Target store deals are posted here.  "Like" the Facebook page to get things in your news feed.

My New Project--shelves!

If you know me, you know I like a good DIY project.  However, I don't know a whole lot about things that don't fall under the "general crafts" type of title.  The other day I was browsing a particular eBay auction listing, which I do with some regularity, and saw this set of bookshelves.  I really thought I could do something great with them.  I waited until a few minutes left in the auction and got ready to hit my keyboard's "enter" key fast.  Low and behold, I won the shelves!  Woohoo!  I went to pick them up today, and they are in better condition than I thought.  They're also a little bigger (yay!) than I thought.  

I plan to sand and re-stain then, but I haven't a clue how to do either of these two things.  I'll have to do a little research before I begin, but a few people (mostly family who live far away) wanted to see what I bought, or should I say...wanted to see what I've gotten myself into.  So, here are a few pictures to give you a look at the "before" of the bookshelves.  I can't wait to work on the project and actually finish it!

These are the two shelves just as I received them.

 

I like the rounded edges!

 

These photos show some of the smaller things I want to clean up and fix up.

 

These two photos are just to show how tall they are.


This final photo is where I'm thinking of placing one of the shelves.  The frames on the wall are come down to be replaced with a shelf-style gallery wall.  (See below for what I'm looking to do with this "photo wall" soon.)  The other option in this room is putting them next to each other, stretching almost the whole length of the wall opposite the wall in this photo.  Not sure what we'll do yet.

Ideas I'm looking at for inspiration where the photo wall will be in our dining room.  I'd have the gallery wall above and the bookshelf below.

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit.  Red wall, white shelf   

Photo Credit.  Red wall, red shelf

Photo Credit.  Crown molding shelves

DIY Scarf Hanger

I decided that my little drawer for scarves would do no longer for a couple of reasons.  The first being the drawer wasn’t big enough and my scarves usually ended up on the closet floor.  Second, I wanted to do something “crafty” to solve my problem.  And third, I was at BigLots with my little guy and ran across an extremely cheap way to do it.  Yes, I have one hundred one other things I could have done this afternoon, but I MUST get this project done.  Now. 

I will say I only have maybe fifteen scarves, tops, so I didn’t have a whole huge stash to deal with.  I also wanted some type of hanging device so I could easily see what my choices were on the mornings I needed a scarf to wear. 

All I ended up doing was buying a curtain rod for $1.25 and hammering it into my husband’s closet.  He has the bigger of our closets with enough room to hang the rod, so it worked perfectly.  He also had a 2x4 already on the wall for nails to hang his belts, so it worked even better!  You could easily nail this right into a wall as long as it's not a paper-thin wall like those of our childhood bedrooms. Like I said, it was a quick and cheap project to complete.  Not much explanation.  A picture (or 5) is worth a thousand words. 

 

They did not have a link to the exact curtain rod I purchased on the BigLots website (and I forgot to take a picture of it) but this same kind of thing can be purchased at Walmart.

It's time for Meatballs y'all

Growing up with an Italian family, there was never a shortage of meatballs with the typical Italian dinner.  However, I have always been intimidated by the meatball and making them from scratch was not something I thought I could do well.  Thanks to my sister Jane, I had a recipe in my recipe binder for over a year for a meatball recipe she found online.  I pulled it out the other night and decided to give it a whirl.  I’m glad I did!  They were delicious and my husband already wants me to make these again!

Mmm Mmm Meatballs

1 pound extra lean ground beef

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 small onion, diced

½ teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup milk

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Combine the beef into a mixing bowl.  Add sea salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix well.  I always find it best to mix with your hands!  Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs.  Mix until evenly blended.  Form into 1 ½ inch meatballs.  Place onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until no longer pink in center.

The verdict:  These were delicious!  I did not use any of the spicy ingredients that were listed in the original recipe.  I’m a baby when it comes to spicy.  Next time I might make a few the same way but add the spicy ingredients in for my husband who can never have things too spicy.  After making this recipe, I’m no longer afraid to make homemade meatballs; that’s for sure!

Adapted from the recipe here.

Chicken Pot Pie - A Crowd-Pleaser

Here’s another quick and easy recipe to make for dinner.  It was a crowd-pleaser, even for our little 18 month old crowd-pleaser.  I’ve made this a few times, but somehow I forgot about it.  I’m sure it’ll come out more often now that the little guy loved it!  The prep is easy and it bakes for only 30 minutes.

Hearty Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounces) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed

1 cup cut-up cooked chicken

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup Original Bisquick® mix

½ cup milk

1 egg

Heat oven to 400ºF. Mix vegetables, chicken and soup in ungreased 2-quart casserole.  

Stir remaining ingredients in small bowl with fork until blended. Pour into casserole.  

Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.  

Makes approx. 6 servings

The original recipe can be found here.

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

These were SO good!  They were great to compliment the Cranberry Apple Pork we made for our Easter dinner.  I only had Russet potatoes on-hand, so that’s what I substituted for the Red Potatoes.  They turned out perfectly fine; just remember you don’t need 8-9 potatoes if you make the same substitution, since Russet Potatoes are much bigger than Red Potatoes.

Ingredients:

8-9 Red Skinned Potatoes 

1 1/2 Cups Freshly Shredded Parmesan Cheese

1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley

1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Wash and cut your potatoes into bite-sized cubes and place them into a large bowl. Add your seasonings and oil and mix. Add your Parmesan cheese and mix until it coats all of the potatoes. Place potatoes on a cookie sheet and bake 35-40 minutes, until nice and browned. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese and parsley when serving, if desired.

This recipe can be found here.

Cranberry Apple Pork Tenderloin

Slow Cooker Cranberry Apple Pork Loin

We bought a pork tenderloin with the intention of finding a new recipe to try.  I have two shelves of cookbooks, but where would I start my search process, you ask?  Why, Pinterest, of course!  I came up with four recipes that sounded good and my husband was the one to make the choice. 

We decided to try this one since it was pretty simple.  I’ve never cooked pork before, so this was our guinea pig, so to speak.  The only thing I would change is to add more salt when cooking.  I thought it was hard to add salt “to taste” when mixing ingredients that would be in a slow cooker all day, so I was pretty conservative with the salt, which left the final product needing more in the end.  Other than that, it was really tasty!  The blog I originally got this from said it was even better the next day, and she was right!  We loved it even more for left-overs the next day and the day after that.

Cook Time:  8 hours, low

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

1 (3 to 4 lb) boneless pork loin roast

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can whole cranberry sauce (not sliced cranberry sauce)

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c apple juice

2 apples, cored, peeled and coarsely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place roast in slow cooker; rub all over with the minced garlic. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Pork should be about 160° when fully cooked. Serve with Garlic Parmesan Roasted Potatoes.

This recipe can be found here.