PANCAKES FOR NOW AND LATER!

Tonight I  made pancakes, enough for tonight and alot to wrap individually and freeze for later.  Once I haul out the large grill I want to cook enough that I don't have to haul it out again right away.  I usually make them from scratch but I had went to a super double coupon event a month ago and got the large boxes of Bisquick for 2 dollars a box so I used that mixed with water.  Once I used up all the batter I had mixed up I decided to take a box of blueberry muffin mix (the kind with the small can of wild blueberries in it) and mix it with everything the box says to add and then I added an equal amount of bisquick to it and water enough to have a medium thick batter.

 I cooked them all up and they were delicious.  I ended up with a huge bowl of pancakes and after dinner there were alot left to freeze for breakfasts for the next couple weeks.

Talk about a frugal meal!  You can add eggs and milk instead of water but we happen to be out of milk for the moment and I fried eggs with these so I only put eggs in the blueberry ones because it called for it.  You could do this with apple cinnamon, banana nut, raspberry, and wildberry muffin mixes also.  If I ever make just pancakes for dinner I always use milk and eggs in them so everyone is getting their protein in the meal also.   This is where all the cereal bags (wax paper bags out of the cereal boxes) I saved will come in handy. I can put 3 or more pancakes in each one and then stack them and put in a larger ziploc bag to place in the freezer so you can take out a few at a time.  I love when I find a use for the bags I saved.  Its almost like there's a calculator in my head adding up the savings.  Love it!!

EASY CHICKEN DISHES, STORING RECYCLED BAGS, EASTER, CEREAL STORAGE, AND MORE!

  Been working on looking up and printing homeschool worksheets and fun activities.  I put up a shelf that has sections in it for pencils and papers to hang under their attendance sheets.  Hopefully this will help me to be better organized and give the kids a place to find what they need without hunting forever for it.
  Spent part of the day looking for Easter coloring pages so the kids can color them and hang them around for Easter.  They seem happier to make the decorations themselves.   I found some really cute ones!  I think I will help them color them tomorrow and hang them up.  My sister is coming to visit over Easter and since she decorated like crazy for Christmas when we were in MI it is now my turn to Easterfy  my house!  lol
  Made fried potatoes with cheese melted over it, baked chicken, and corn for dinner with some left over homemade whole grain bread.  It got some oohs and ahhs so I was happy.  Not sure what we will have tomorrow.  Thinking I should make double of whatever I make so I can freeze one meal for when my sister is here because we have so many plans that I need to be prepared with food cooked ahead.  I already took 15 pounds of chicken legs and boiled them down, deboned it, froze the broth and put the chicken in a big stockpot and poured 4 bottles of my .55 cents a bottle bbq sauce over it.  I rinsed the bottles out with a small amount of water and dumped that in too.  Simmered this for an hour and done!  Delicious!   I froze two big bowls, one small one and we ate one bowl.  Total cost was  11 dollars for 3 and a half meals with leftovers at each meal for a lunch too.  So easy and a big bowl of broth for soup!
  Another easy meal is what I made a couple days ago.  You take a couple pounds of chicken legs, thighs, breasts, whatever you have and put them in a baking pan.  You then take a couple cups of long cooking rice and dump over the chicken, cut up an onion and dump over the chicken and rice.  Open a can of cream of mushroom and a can of cream of celery soup and put both in a bowl and fill each can with milk and pour that in with the soup, stir ( if you like your rice mushy like me you can add more liquid and it will soak it up)  pour over the rice, onions, and chicken.  Salt and Pepper and a few dots of butter over the top, cover with foil, bake for a couple hours.  Keep checking after an hour and a half.  I don't time things I go by the smell so you will want to keep an eye on it and  write down what it takes you.  This is easy and cheap, my family loves it!

  I forgot to take an after picture but believe me the rice cooks up all moist and delicious!

My cereal cupboard was getting to be quite unorganized with half bags of cereal everywhere so I took a bunch of the applesauce, mayo, and peanut butter containers that I been washing and dumped then into them.  I kept all the cereal bags because you can cut them open and use them like waxed paper under no-bakes or to wrap burger in to tape up and freeze etc.    I took all of them and folded them and put them all in a clean chicken nugget bag to store.

I taped up my gallon size ziploc bag box so it wouldn't tear when I folded up my washed cheese, splenda, chicken nugget, etc. bags and placed them in the box for later use.

When we get the homemade decorations done and hung I will take pictures for all to see.  Good night!

HANDMADE EASTER BASKET IDEAS, GIFTS, MODPODGE RECIPE

    Well its time to think about Easter baskets and what to get the kids.   I could just go to the store and buy a basket that we wouldn't know what to do with after Easter and waste money that we could have spent on the contents or we could make our baskets from something we already have.  It never fails that if I would go buy something like that, a week later I would see something I could have done that wouldn't have cost anything and would have been way more interesting.  I looked around on the internet and here are some of the frugal ideas I found.

     

  Now I had to think of something to make for teens (or my sister and older kids) that they wouldn't think was to lame.  I decided since they all have Ipods or a phone that needs to be charged each night that the project I had found made out of  Baby lotion or Baby soap bottles (I am sure there are plenty of others that would work) would be one thing they might use.  Here's a picture.

  I would think that sun tan lotion bottles would work too!  You can use fabric and modpodge to coat the outside of the holder.  I am going to try spray paint on the outside only.  I inside you could use felt or leave white.

        Here is a recipe for homemade modpodge.

Mod Podge in a Pint Jar (matte)

Fill jar half way up with white glue (like Elmers)

Then fill jar up with water.

Shake Well.

This is a 50-50 mixture glue/water.

It will have a Matte finish

If you would like a Glossy finish, add 1 TBS of clear varnish.

Shake it!

HOW I SPENT MY SATURDAY AND MORE!

  Went to Walmart and the Dollar Tree today partly cause I needed some things but mostly because it was 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  I had a few projects in mind to make for Easter for my kids and wanted to see if any of the things it would take to make them would be there.  I got dish soap, band-aids, toothpaste, aluminum foil, batteries, SEEDS (yay!), a couple Easter decorations, potting soil and a few other things.  I love when its time to start the seeds indoors!  Another thing I found there was the original "Topsy Turvy" that was advertised on tv.  The planter for tomatoes that hangs upside down.  I bought 2 of them because 1 dollar was a far cry from the original 19.99 that they started out as.  I can't make it for 1 dollar.  That was my "find" of the day.

  I headed over to Walmart because they have what I have coupons for at the best price.  I had went to the website for Mt. Olive Pickles and filled out the subscribe page for special offers and if you did that you got a coupon sent to you snail mail.  I filled it out a couple dozen times to see if they would sent more than one and guess what they did and the coupon amount is 1 dollar off any of the Mt. Olive Products.  I took 14 coupons with me and had to stop in the store and look up on the internet on my phone Walmarts coupon policy to see if they had a limit on how many of the same coupon you could use and they do not so I got 10 bottles of pickles for .98 cents a jar and 2 free squeeze bottles of relish, 1 bottle of sweet jerkins, and one bottle of these little salad peppers that unless I go get the jar I have no idea how to spell their name.

  Then of course my son had to make a pit-stop at the toy dept. to spend some of his money he saved which was right next to the gardening dept. so I thought I would take a look and see if they had any additional seeds that I might need.  I have a few herbs that I want to plant which are Basil, Cilantro, and Parsley and I only found Parsley at the dollar store so I found the rest here.  I did get Oregano at the dollar store too.    I am now set to get my seedlings started tomorrow.  I am also going to make some of those bird feeders that I put on my last post also.

  My daughters have a project tomorrow to do also.  I had an old spice rack out in my garage that I brought in and they are going to clean it up and paint it a bright color and make it into a nail polish holder.  Excited about that cause It is such a cool way to display and store all that nail polish in a big container in my closet in my bathroom.

  I was at Michael's Craft Supply store a few months ago and while I was there they marked down their unfinished bird houses to 1 and 2 dollars.  I bought every one that someone else didn't grab.  I told my kids they could paint some of them and I am going to paint one of the big ones to put up outside on the tree.

    Got a really good deal on them!!

Heading to bed so I can get up and get tons done!!  Goodnight!

2 LITER BOTTLE HANGING PLANTERS

  Had to stop my housework and share something I seen on facebook.  It is so cool!   A good way to use 2 liter bottles.  Maybe grow some herbs on your porch.  I think I would hang on the side of my house that isn't getting steady sun so the roots don't get to warm or (suggested by a friend) paint the bottom black or I thought maybe line the inside with peat moss before adding potting soil.

http://fooyoh.com/contributeda/7940823

MUST HAVE KITCHEN TOOL OF A FRUGAL KITCHEN!!

  Still in pain with teeth!  UGHH!!   I had two pulled after a week of horrible pain then figured I would recover slowly because it was a very rough extraction and now it looks like the extraction irritated the tooth next to it and now that one is infected.  Going on two weeks of alternating Vicodin and Ibuprofen to deal with the pain.  Not happy cause I never take anything stronger than ibuprofen and I have no choice right now.  I called the dentist who by the way is the best!!  He called in a stronger antibiotic and more pain med and I will be seen next Tuesday.

  Well thats that but daily life goes on anyway.  Making homemade chicken soup tomorrow which I already boiled a whole chicken today for.  I bought this pasta that I had a coupon for so I got for a quarter, yay! that I always have when we go to Chicago's "Italian Village Restaurant" in their first course of chicken soup.  Ditalini Pasta is very short little tube shaped noodles.  It reminds me of our times at that restaurant.  Its the oldest Italian Restaurant in Chicago and its really awesome!  Anyway I am making the soup and two pumpkin pies tomorrow.  I had found Libby's Pumpkin on closeout and I had coupons to go with that, I got them cheap so I am going to make some homemade crusts and whip out two pies for tomorrow and if I feel good enough I would like to make 4 extra for freezing as I talked about in one of the last two blog posts I posted.
I used to use a fork to cut the shortening into my flour and just figured it was the labor you had to go through to have a homemade crust but I was at a thrift store in Michigan recently and picked up a pastry cutter for .47 cents that looked like the one my mom used to have when I was a kid and when I used it for the first time I was so excited at how easy and fast it worked.  I can't believe I went without this for so many years.  What was I thinking?!?!  Oh well its never too late!!  I love it, everyone should have one right away.  It truly cuts 3/4 of the time it takes to cut your shortening in.
            MUST HAVE KITCHEN TOOL FOR FRUGAL KITCHENS!!!

  Have alot to post but meds got me tired so when this tooth thing is resolved I will be doing longer posts.
Have a great weekend.   Comment about your favorite kitchen tool that you can't live without!