Thursday, September 22, 2011

Mini Shepherd’s Pies

Mini Shepherd’s Pies

1- lb. ground beef or turkey
3- Tablespoons of chopped onion
½- teaspoon minced garlic
1/3- cup chili sauce or ketchup
1- Tablespoon cider vinegar
½- teaspoon salt
1 ¼- cups water
4-5   -cups of homemade mashed potatoes
4 to 6 oz. of Cream Cheese
2- Tubes of buttermilk refrigerated biscuits
1- .99¢ of potato chips, crushed  
Pre-heat oven to 375˚                 
  1. In a large skillet, cook beef or turkey, onion and garlic until meat is no longer pink. Drain and rinse, stir in chili sauce or ketchup, vinegar and salt; set aside.
  2. Peel potatoes, chop and put in a medium pot, bring to a boil till tender and brake apart with a spoon. Drain; put in a medium size bowl with cream cheese and salt to taste.  Mash till smooth.
  3. Press 1 or 2 (if you bought the small biscuit press 2 if you have the bigger ones just press 1) biscuit dough flat and press to the sides of a greased cupcake tin cup.  Fill with beef mixture. Place a large spoon full of mashed potatoes over beef and then sprinkle with crushed potato chip, press down light so they will stick to the mashed potatoes.
  4. Place pan in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a golden brown.
  5. Serve and enjoy.
The thing that I LOVE about this recipe is that it freezes wonderfully.  I usually make 2 batches and freeze whatever is left over, it is great for the days when I’m in a rush and can’t cook dinner.  Hope you all like it.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Yuk Guck

Yuk Guck

3 Large Bell Peppers (1 green, 1 orange and I red)
1 lb. Ground Hamburger
½ onion, minced
1 tsp. powder or fresh sage
2 cups of cooked rice
2 cups of canned or fresh (home grown fresh, not store bought) tomatoes. If you use canned drain them.
¾ cups of real butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

Wash bell peppers; remove seeds and slice or cube. Cover with boiling salted water and simmer for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile thoroughly cook hamburger and onion, then drain and clean. Drain bell peppers; add to cooked meat and onion along with sage, tomatoes and butter.  After rice is cooked add to meat along with salt and pepper to taste.  It will look kind of like a soup at first but will thicken up after it has sit awhile.   

This has been a family recipe for over 50 years and we LOVE it.  Hope you enjoy it.

Soap Dispenser

We LOVE LOVE LOVE this, all you need is a Mason Jar with lid, find a pumpy thingy (you can buy pumps from a craft supply store or just take one from your lotion bottle after your done with it), hot glue and paint.  So cute, got the idea from here. I painted my lid to match the pump and to cover up the hot glue. I also Mod Podge the lid after the paint dried since it will be used around water.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Tooth Pillow



My mom made one of these for me as a child and when my kids started losing teeth I pulled out the old Tooth Pillow and it was in pretty bad shape, so I made up a new on for my little ones.  The cost was about 3-4 dollars per pillow. 

What you need is:
2 eyes
1 puff ball- for the nose
White Felt

Pretty easy peasy. 

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Best Strawberry Lemonade


What you’ll need:
-1-can of frozen lemonade
-1-24 oz Wal-Mart brand of frozen strawberries w/ sugar.
-Sugar- to taste (I use ½ to 1 cup)
-Blender
-Large Pitcher
-Wire Strainer
-Spoon
 
Thaw the strawberries.  Blend strawberries, sugar and about 1 cup of water. 
 
Blending
 
Strain,  I do this about 3 to 4 times to get as many seeds out as possible, if you like pulp strain once or not at all.
 
I have to use a spoon to unplug the little holes; this will also make it go faster.  You should only have to do this the first time, which is when I get rid of the most pulp.
 
That is A LOT of pulp.
 
Use the pitcher and the blender to drain back and forth.
 
Mix in lemonade with water in a large pitcher. 
 
I add water to taste, keep tasting while adding water to get it to the way you will like it. My pitcher is usually as full as I can get it and end up with a little over a gallon.

Candy Poster Card


Made this for my AWESOME friend, it did take 3 posters and 30 candies. Had to change it up a bit, couldn't find 3 of the candies, but it still turned out cute.

Happy Birthday to my # U-NO Friend,
For your Birthday I wanted to give you a Trip to New YORK City for a shopping SPREE down 5th AVENUE with $100GRAND to buy a new diamond RING(pop) or a bunch of WHATCHAMACALITS!!! Maybe take in a SYMPHONY and hear a great SKOR!!! Maybe REFRESH (gum, I had to leave this line out, couldn't find this gum anywhere) at the spa. Or I thought about a FAST BREAK to MARS (believe it or not, I couldn't find this one) or an ORBIT (gum) around the MILKY WAY but that seemed NUTRAGEOUS. But the money slipped through my BUTTERFINGERs and my PAYDAY was ZERO. So instead I just want to TAKE 5 to say Happy Birthday!!!! Remember, today is your SPECIAL day and you deserve a FAST BREAK. There is no one in the MILKY WAY more important than you today!!!! You are a STARBURST in the sky. I wish you MOUNDS of EXTRA(gum) fun!!!! I hope this BIG HUNK of a candy card gives you some SNICKERS and CHUCKLES (couldn't find this one either)!!!!
Love your AIRHEAD, NERDY Friend

Friday, September 9, 2011

Behavior Chat



Made a Behavior Chart for both girls, we give them points for silly things like brushing your teeth without being asked, making your bed, cleaning your room, good behavior, helping out and so on.  Positive reinforcement, and when they are bad we take away a point.  Usually 1 point for every good and bad thing, unless they are hitting, that’s 5 points, for now (we have had a problem with hitting lately).  When a child gets 25 points they get to go on an Ice Cream date with either papa or mama, 50 points a date to the bowling alley or movies with their choice of parent, and 100 points they can have a little party with friends.  This has REALLY helped us out, the hitting has gone WAY down, the girls listen better and just feel like a better mom.  Love it.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Papa's Day

Saw this on a blog and HAD to do it for Father's Day this year.  He LOVED it and has it a work for all to see. 
  • First cut out a talking bubble out of white poster board, you can really use any color you want.
  • Then had each kid hold it up as if they were talking, like a comic strip, the bubble was left blank, I added the word in later with Photoshop.
  • I asked the kiddo's what they loved most about their papa and then wrote in their answers. 
  • Printed a 8x10 at Wal-Mart for less than $3 and bought a $3.00 frame.  Less than $7 total, thats great for an AWESOME gift.


The hardest part was having the kids hold the bubble up just right, they didn't really understand what I was doing and why there were no word on the board. The little one and I were very happy with how it turned out.

Bathroom Art

Saw this on Pinterest and LOVED it.  Did my own version in my kids bathroom colors and added Remember I love you to the end.  Think it came out pretty dang cute. I did it on Photoshop, for the PDF file go here, also here is one with the colors the I Love You. I printed it off at Costco in a 16x20 and that is also the size of the poster.