Restoring what you like

Remember when you were a kid and your mom tried a new recipe or food you werent familiar with and you didnt want to try it? They usually said something like "how do you know you wont like it if you dont try it". It took me years to get my hubby to try something other than sweet and sour chicken off the chinese menu. When you take the time to restore an old home or a piece of furniture you have to know what you like or you are not going to like the finished product. Same goes for you if you are in a stage of life where so many things have changed and you need to change as well. You are going to have to try new things to see what you actually like.

I could give you a whole list of things I dont like. We can tend to become negative in life and only focus on those things. So finding things that interest us can be hard. We also tend to stay in our comfort zone. I am actually not a great seamstress. I like sewing and tend to stick with simplicity but I still try new things and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt and thats okay.

One of the things that brings me joy is repurposing things. One the things that drives my hubby crazy is having to make the things I want to change into other things so that I dont get electrocuted or cut off one of my fingers or arms.

These are a few of my favorite things, The teapot I thought about getting rid of because I never used it but my sister saw on Pinterest where you could put your yarn in it, only if the lid is big enough,  and use it to keep your yarn safe. This only works if you can sit it on a table while knitting. I will not use this when I am knitting in bed or something. The tape measure is something I remember always playing with that my dad had. We have numerous retractable tape measures but I like this fold out one the best and I keep it on a shelf as decoration and I always know where it is. The lamp. I bought this mason jar full of buttons and found the lid a few years later to turn one into a lamp. The collander lamp shade was an idea I had later. It makes a neat star pattern on the ceiling in the evening when we use it.

The hubby and I are on a new kick of cooking on the wood stove as you can probably guess. This weekend we tried a rustic bread. It was ok but we are looking for a new recipe for this weekend. Since its been so cold we thought that it would be wise to use the heat from the stove to cook on and save some electricity. Its always fun to have a partner in crime. It doesnt have to be a hubby and cooking on a stove, I have a friend that I like to garage sale with. You have friends you meet for lunch. Be creative.

I wont post the bread recipe until we find one that we really like but this tortellini soup. In the picture from top left its reheating the dutch oven, letting the dough rise, putting the dough in the dutch oven and letting it rise before baking and then end product which I seemed to crop out of the picture! Maybe I should learn a few photography techniques.

8 oz of tortellini, we use cheese stuffed
16oz jar or homemade spaghetti sauce
4 cups of vegetable stock

Put all ingredients in a pot, heat on medium heat until pasta is cooked. Top with cheese.

Seriously, how easy is that?

Weekend Ramblings

This is our cat, Socks. We found him as a tiny kitten almost dead. Everyone thought he wasn't going to make but me. He definitely is the boss of the house and he thinks hes a dog. I asked him to pose for my blog and this is what he did. He has his own style and I can respect that.

I have stayed close to home all weekend. I did my Kroger run on Saturday morning and Mr Ladybug and I ran to Lowe's for seed starting soil. We are an exciting pair. Our movie night was pretty good, I really enjoyed the new Flatliners. I actually told him that I wasn't sure if I would since the original had Keifer Sutherland in it. I am a huge Keifer fan and my family makes fun of me for it. I was over the moon when he had a few appearances in the new movie. Don't worry that's not really a spoiler.

So our oldest daughter came over for lunch. We decided on appetizers. I made a parmesan cheese ball, placed it on the coffee table where everyone was sitting, returned to the kitchen to start the next appetizer and came back to almost empty plate. They all loved it. I will have to add that one to the recipe box. Do you write your recipes down? Since Pinterest I am really bad at writing things down. Sometimes you go back to look at a recipe and the link doesnt work anymore.


Parmesan Cheese Ball Recipe

8 oz block of cream cheese at room temp
1/3 paremsan cheese, I used shaved but any should work
2 cloves of garlic or a teaspoon of garlic powder or garlic salt

Mix well with a hand blender and form into a ball.

As I have mentioned before a few of us are lactose sensitive so I stopped buying hot chocolate mixes and I can not find a powdered milk substitute thats affordable. So I make a mix and and we can add it to milk or almond milk.

Mrs Ladybug Hot Chocolate Recipe

1/3 cup of cocoa
1 cup of sugar

Mix in a blender or food processor until powdery. Use a heaping Tablespoon for each 8 oz of mild.

Whenever a seed catalog comes in I try to not thumb through it before my hubby gets home. Recently I have waited for him but while I am cooking dinner he will look at the catalog. How rude is that? Yesterday our Townsend and Son magazine came in. Its the place to get all your 17th supplies and our first order of seeds. Mr Ladybug had to go in to work so I didnt think twice about grabbing those seeds or thumbing through the catalog without him. I even sent him a picture of what he was missing.

We got the shelves up to start our plants indoors for the garden. We were going to put it in the living room, in front of our big picture window but we were afraid our cat would destroy it in our sleep. Hes a pretty evil cat but we are so lucky that he chose us as his family. I have to say that just in case he reads my blog. We decided to put it in our bedroom since we have a screen door on it. We did that so that we could keep critters, dogs or cats, in our out without closing the door. Expect to see lots of pictures of the plants and as get bigger!

Friday Funday

If you are reading this it means you are alive and have survived this week. It doesn't matter how you survived only that you did. I had an adventurous day yesterday. Nothing terrible but not what I was expecting. We had a morning appointment that lasted longer that planned. While my son was nice and warm in a dental chair I was in the waiting area where it was below 60 degrees. The plan was to be home by noon but that didn't work out and we weren't home until 2:30. I had driven my hubby to work and I needed to leave at 3:30 to pick him up on time. I fed and watered all our outside animals. With these below freezing temps keeping them with water has been fun. I hopped in the car got to his work on time and he texted to tell me he had to stay a bit later. I am sitting there thinking "if we get home at 5 and I start cooking then it wont be done until 6 or 6;30 and I will have to mess to clean up and I am really tired and blah blah blah". I ordered chinese from my phone and we swung by to get it on the way home. Momma can relax and everyone is happy.

The point I am trying to make is you can have all the plans in the world one little thing can throw off your game and thats okay. My hubby was probably confused by my sitting in a cold waiting room for several hours making me so tired but a few weeks ago when a car ran a light and totally smashed up our car I insisted on coming home and making homemade pizza when he suggested we grab something out.

I had lots of freezer meals made up to last us from Thanksgiving to Christmas. With our kids being our of school and everyone staying around home I didnt worry too much about cooking and what we were having. Next week everyone will be at work, at school, staying later, going out with friends that are back in town and I will be back in plan mode. I dont think it would hurt to have a few freezer meals ready for future hiccups in my schedule. Maybe even a few things that could be heated up on the wood stove just in case we loose power.

On to the weekend. We always try watch a newly released movie on the weekend. The first of July I purchased a Redbox gift card worth $20 for $12. Using Deals texts from Redbox a few times over the year, codes from Retail Me Not and free movies using the Play Pass on the Redbox website we have watched around 22 movies and still have $6 left on the card. I think we have decided on watching Flatliners and that will put us eligible for another free rental the next time we rent one. I have no idea why this makes me so giddy.  I guess all the money I save on movie rentals I can use to buy chinese food.

Do you sign up for text deals at places? I have started signing up for quite a few over the past few months and have gotten so pretty great food deals. Teenage boys are always willing to help you use buy 1 get 1 anything fast food deals.

Besides a movie we are having a family lunch tomorrow with appetizers. I will share those recipes if they are a hit. I think the sweltering 40 degrees its suppose to be on Sunday will have Mr Ladybug in the pigeon loft. I am hoping he doesnt mind me blogging about our racing season, We took last year off but hope to have fun with this hobby again. I am going to be throwing out the broccoli sprouts. A week and a half and only these tiny little things, They also smell weird. I will try radish and alfalfa. Hopefully its just the broccoli seeds. We will also be setting up our seed starting station. Thats always exciting.

One pot dinner, my new favorite cornbread recipe and a few other things.

I am so excited! Kroger is having a Saturday sale and Kroger brand 8 oz cheese blocks and shredded cheeses will be 99 cents and you can buy 5. I have been hanging onto a few coupons and I have two that will total $2 off 4 blocks of cheese. That means that this ladybug will get 5 blocks of cheese for $2.97. I also have a $5 off $50 spent and a $6 off of $60. Something tells me that I am going to be under budget this week or at least on budget but stocking up for future weeks without great sales. Also from the 4-7th you can download a digital coupon on your plus card and get 2X fuel points on your purchases. If you dont make your own toothpaste like I do Colgate toothpaste is on sale for 88 cents. I like to save coupons for toothpaste and buy them up and donate them to a womens shelter.

Cooking your dinner on a wood stove not only saves you money but makes you feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder. I cooked my dinner for about 5 hours on the stove. I mixed up some cornbread and when the hubby got home everything smelled so yummy and was ready to eat. I hope he doesnt expect dinner to be finished at 4:30 every day.

One dish potatoes, green beans and sausage

1 pound of potatoes sliced in to 1/2 inch
1 pound of smoked sausage
1 pound of fresh or frozen green beans

I put a little water in the pot and set on the stove that was around 300 degrees for 5 hours. I layered the potatoes on the bottom then the sausage and the beans on top. I also added chopped onions and garlic.

You could easily do the same thing in your crockpot on low or put everything on a sheet pan and toss with olive oil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Whatever works best for you.

I tried a new cornbread recipe from the Bobs Redmill site and think we will continue to use this one. I made a few changes.

Corn Bread 1 cup Medium Grind Cornmeal 1 1/3 cups Buttermilk or substitute 1 and 1/2 Tablespoon Vinegar in regular milk  1 cup All-Purpose Flour 1/4 cup Cane Sugar or honey 2 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 tsp Salt 2  Eggs 1/4 cup Melted Butter cooled

Instructions

1. Combine medium grind cornmeal and buttermilk in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°F. Spray an 8x8-inch baking pan and set aside.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the cornmeal mixture along with the eggs and melted butter. Mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 – 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.
4. For muffins: Line a standard 12-serving muffin tin or a large 6-serving muffin tin with paper liners, then spray with pan spray. Bake for 15 minutes for standard muffins or 20 minutes for large.

I had read that you could stuff empty toilet paper rolls with dryer lint and use them as fire starters. I tried it and it worked!

Tonights recipe is cheeseburger soup. I hope to cook the ground beef and get it all put together and cook on the wood stove again. I may even try a crusty bread recipe in the crockpot. I am going to be gone most of the morning so who knows what will happen. 

Nuggets, antennas, breads and seasoned flour.

A few months ago we cancelled cable. I think it was the first time ever in our 27 years of marriage that we have not had cable. Honestly I have never been much of a tv watcher but Mr Ladybug is. He did admit he hadnt missed it as much as he thought he would and hes read more books.  When looking into other options besides cable he came across this contraption. He had everything to make this with the exception of something that you attatch to the tv. I think out total cost for this was less than $5 and it picks up like 50 channels. If you would like to try to make your own he found the instructions here. I think there are also a youtube video or two.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/how-to/a6608/build-your-own-digital-tv-antenna/

I dont want you to think we never watch tv. We have Amazon, Netflix and a very discounted Hulu. I also look high and low for Redbox codes and we rent movies from the library for free. Just this weekend I had an Amazon video credit and we watched The Mountain Between us and a documentary called Wasted about food waste, It was very eye opening and sad.

For dinner tonight we had chicken nuggets, noodles and broccoli just. Chicken nuggets are one of those things I just dont understand why people buy. My recipe is so easy. I love Weisenberger Mill Seasoned Flour. We actually drive to the mill every other month and stock up on their products. All their flours are awesome, we love their corn meal and grits and we even buy their wheat berries to grind our own flour when we are feeling crazy. Here is the link if you would like to visit them. https://www.weisenberger.com/

I just take a cup of the seasoned flour and a half tablespoon of smoked paprika and mix it together, I cut my chicken in 1 inch cubes and place them in a little bit of milk. I then take them out of the milk and roll them in the flour and pop them in a hot pan lightly coated with oil. I cook 5-6 minutes on each side. I normally turn the burner off and cover my pan while making the other sides. This insures they are done all the way through and makes them nice and moist.

I had a few bananas that were starting to turn so I whipped up some banana bread, I really like this recipe because it not overly sweet and the top was nice and crunch, I think I could just eat the top and be fine, I am sure my family would not appreciate that,

Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3-4  mashed overripe bananas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

This morning my son has an appointment that will be less that 30 minutes. While waiting we I will have my grocery list I made yesterday and my flipp app so I can see who has the best prices on what I need. I do shop multiple stores. Living in a decent sized city makes that pretty easy for me. I do plan my  outings though. Todays appointment will have is near the feed store so I will make sure I dont need anything for the chickens or rabbits. Its also near my favorite library so I will make sure we have no books due back and will run in to see if there are any books or movies that catch my eye. A few minutes a day planning your day can save you time and money.

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Getting Started

Its so easy to be excited on the first day of the year but if you are like me your first day isn't really like a normal day. Its still a holiday for most of us. Of course getting a new car battery didn't really feel like a holiday but having your car start when you need it to is going to feel pretty awesome. So we have made plans and they will stay just that unless we follow through.  Where to begin?

Blogging almost every day is on my list of goals. So in the evenings when things have settled down for the day I am going to start my blog for the next day.

Cutting the grocery bill is on my list of things to do and that means better meal planning. If I grocery shop on Fridays then I need to start meal planning on Tuesday to give me three full days to not forget anything on my list. I need to go through the cabinets and freezers to know what I have. I also need to  look at staples like flour, sugar, butter, oats and things like that. Dont forget the grocery ads. I use an app called Flipp. I find it easy to use and great to look at if I am in a waiting room or waiting on a kid somewhere. I have already made out my meal plan that starts this Friday and even included 2 meatless dinners. Don't tell my menfolk.

Something fun we did over the weekend was cook on our wood stove. We had bean soup on Friday and on Sunday we reheated the leftovers on the wood stove. I had seen where you can use a crock to steam potatoes and we did that as well. You just take a heavy duty crock that is oven save and add a little water to the bottom of it. Poke holes in your potatoes and put them in the crock and place lid on it. It did take a few hours but if you plan ahead its not big deal. I made extra and mashed them with our dinner tonight. Lucky's Market makes in house beer brats and we cooked those on the stove as well. It was fun not using any electric for our meals yesterday. I loved having a kettle of water on the wood stove all weekend .  One never knows when you will have to have an emergency cup of tea.

You may wonder how my word RESTORE fits into blogging and meal planning. The blogging which is kind of like keeping a journal helps restore my sanity and keeps me accountable for what I need to do. The meal planning helps restore order to my home. Lets face it there are a lot of things that go into running a home and if you have meals planned, groceries bought and supplies on hands that helps a lot. It saves money for not running and grabbing fast food and saves money.

On the menu for dinner tonight is homemade chicken nuggets, buttered noodles and broccoli. I will fix extra and that will be lunches. I can also add the extra chicken to salad.

Hope everyone is chugging right along with their New Years Goals.

Happy New Year

GOOOD MORNING!!!!!! I said that a little loud for those who are hung over. No parties for this girl. I was asleep before 10 and awake before 6 this morning. I am starting my new year well rested and in good spirits. I hope you are to.

Mr Ladybug and I are going to plant some onion seeds indoors today. I am just about out of onions from the garden and thought I could just clip off some green tops of some to use when cooking and try to not have to buy any from the store. I am even using seeds I saved from my plants. That always excites me. Its like getting free food. We placed an order for seeds yesterday and can not wait to get things growing indoors and have a head start when its time to put them outside. My hubby started most of our plants from seed and it worked out great last year.

The sprouting has been slower that I thought. I moved them to a warmer location and they finally started sprouting. I guess we will be eating them in the next 3-4 days. I may try to sprout some alfalfa to see how fast it grows. It may just be broccoli is a slow grower.

I finished my potholder. I wasnt going to post the pic because it was not as perfect as I would have liked. Are you ever like that sometimes? Its all fine and dandy to put your best out there but very few of us are perfect on our first try at anything. Its called learning and growing and its normal. My potholder is pretty, it works just fine. It has character, lots and lots of character.  I had fun making it and cant wait for potholder 2.0.

Lipbalm 3.0 turned out better than the two prior ones but still not perfect. No one wants to walk around with little dried beet grains on their lips. On my to do list today is put up a profile pic and you will be able to see the color there, I love the color and it tastes good too,

On my list of things to do today is

Start tomorrows blog post
Cook something new (we are trying Prime Rib aka the budget buster)
Make a few homemade cards to send out ( restore the post office to its rightful place with mail and just not amazon deliveries)