Sleepover!!

We had a special guest at our house tonight. Mrs. Stickley let her pal Tigger come home with Mahala for a sleepover. He even brought his stuffed animal with him. Before coming home, we had to go to the allergy doctor for shots and a checkup. Tigger was very helpful and held Mahala's hand as she got her shots. Then we picked up Todd from track practice and came home. Tigger and Mahala played Temple Run on my cellphone and played with Mahala and Emily in their room.

Tigger ate some chocolate and shared some with the rest of us.

Mahala read Tigger a bedtime story.

Tigger had a glass of water before going to sleep. I hope he doesn't wet the bed.

Mahala cuddled Tigger and gave him lots of hugs and kisses.

By 9:00 Tigger was tucked in bed.

Goodnight Tigger, Sleep Tight!

Pizza Sauce

I knew that later in the week we would be having pizza for supper one night, so I decided to go ahead and make the sauce so that it would be ready. I have created this recipe by combining several other recipes together and making a few adjustments. I am not sure if I have posted a pizza sauce recipe before, but if I have I'm sure this is a little different.

I begin with 1 1/2 cups of hot water. To that, I added 2 chicken bouillon cubes. (Anytime a savory recipe calls for water, it adds to the flavor if you use bouillon cubes or replace the water with chicken broth or stock.). From there, I added in my 6oz. can of tomato paste. I normally use Muir Glen organic tomato paste, because the taste of it is so much better, but I didn't have any on hand. At this point I also add 3-4 tbs. of extra virgin olive oil. Once you have all that blended together, you can add your seasonings. You can adjust these amounts based on your taste.
I add:
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
1 1/2 tsp. basil
1 1/2 tsp. pizza seasoning
1-2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Once all of your seasonings are mixed in, cover and let sit for at least an hour, so all the flavors can blend together. You can use now or refrigerate or freeze for future use. We usually have enough sauce for 4 pizzas from this.

A Morning of Baking

I started my morning off with some baking. I made a loaf of wheat bread, 12 honey yeast rolls, and a bunch of chocolate chocolate chip muffins. I am slowly trying to incorporate wheat flour into our recipes instead of white flour. In the bread I used a little bit of white flour but mostly wheat, and in the muffins I used 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat.
(Not sure why some of the above writing is underlined and why some is not. Weird.)

The wheat bread is a new recipe. We will see how it turns out. Go here to check out the recipe that I used.

The honey yeast rolls came out of the oven around lunch time and now we only have 5 left. We will eat them with supper. Go here to check out the recipe.

The chocolatey chocolate chip muffins will go in the freezer and warmed up for breakfast. The mini-muffins can go in the kids lunch boxes frozen and they will be thawed by lunch. It will be a special treat for them. Go here to see the recipe.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits

We started off the week trying some new recipes.
My first attempt turned out great and the kids gobbled them up.
I'm not sure that you would consider this a recipe, I just had to put it together.

I began by thawing some frozen strawberries and blueberries. I got out my cute little cups(?) that we have never used and began with a layer of strawberries, then a layer of vanilla yogurt, then a layer of blueberries, and so on. It did not get in the picture,
but I let the kids top them off with some granola.

The kids loved it and it was less than 250 calories.
You could make it healthier by using a different kind of yogurt.

Super easy and better than some of the other junk my kids like to eat for breakfast.

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

I read an article the other day about how the hand soaps that we use have too many chemicals in them and how antibacterial soap was really not good for us to use. I checked prices of several natural soaps and they were outrageous, so I started searching the internet for a recipe for hand soap. We really do not like bar soap, it's just not convienient. So, here is the step by step directions to make liquid hand soap. Thank you to www.littlehouseliving.com for the recipe.

I started by bringing to boil 8 cups of water.

While the water was coming to a boil, I used my grater to grate 1/2 a bar of a natural soap that I purchased at the nutrition store. The bar cost me $4, so The cost for this hand soap is $2, since I only used 1/2 the bar.

When the water comes to a boil, stir in your grated soap and continue to stir until the soap is dissolved. At this point, you can add some essential oils to change the scent of the soap if you choose. I added some vanilla and a small drip of spearmint.

Remove from heat and place a lid on the pot and let it sit for up to 3 days or until it becomes thick.

When I was finished, I used some containers that I had to store the soap in. You cannot purchase this much hand soap at the store for $2, so I am happy with my results.

Milk at Kroger

Super excited about the deals I got today at Kroger. I went in to get a gallon of milk and ran across an awesome deal! Horizon Organic Milk Singles on Sale for .25!!!! I got 18 of them and a gallon of milk. I had a coupon for $1.00 off the gallon of milk. I wish I had some Horizon milk coupons, but I didn't. However, I will be printing some and going back for more milk. My total came to $6.69! A savings of 21.34!!!!!

Kroger Deals! Mega Event!

I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon with 3 kids in tow to just get a few things. I couldn't pass up the Mega event. There are lots of good deals out there.

I got all of the above items for $48.79, a savings of $45.13. For coupon matchups go to www.southernsavers.com and select Kroger. The Bertoli pasta at my Kroger had peelie coupons on them, so be on the lookout!