Laundry Closet Remodel

BEFORE-

Laundry Closet in Progress:

Feel a Cold Coming On? Ginger Green Tea with Basil- Cold Remedy

This is a great cold remedy.

Ingredients:

7 large basil leaves

1 cup of sliced fresh ginger

10 tea bags of green tea

14 cups water

sugar and milk for serving

Directions:

1. Boil 14 cups of water in a large pan.

2. Peel ginger with a peeler and slice.

Whole Ginger:

Peeled and Sliced Ginger:

3.  Add Ginger, basil, and tea bags to boiling water.  Boil 15 minutes.

Basil:



4.  Strain tea into a large pitcher.  I put a small strainer right on top of the pitcher.  Discard tea bags, ginger, and basil.



5.  Serve tea hot or cold.  Add Sugar and milk if desired.







Front Porch Makeover for under $150.00

I did a quick makeover to our front porch this morning in under 2 and 1/2 hours (shopping for supplies and cleaning porch included!).  Everything I bought cost under $150.00. 

Having a porch that isn't a dingy mess= Priceless!

I had all of my kids where they needed to be by 9:00 am so I went to Walmart and was shopping by 9:15.  I was done shopping at 10:05.  I bought everything at Walmart for a total of $147.62.

2 fall mum arrangements- $15.95 each
2 20 inch planters- $21.96 each
1 hanging mum- $9.96
2 large outdoor pillows with design- $9.00 each
1 small outdoor pillow- $10.00
1 body pillow- $10.88
round placemat- $2.00
red table cloth- $4.96
wreath- $19.97
jack-o-lantern- $5.97

Okay, let's look at the dreaded "Before" photos:

And here are the "After" photos:

All done by 11:20 so I could pick up and spend time with my favorite 4 year old. : )

Junk Drawer Makeover

No matter what I do, a certain drawer in our kitchen always ends up looking like a hurricane went through it.  I went through, threw a bunch of (really really literal) junk away and put everything remaining into a kitchen utensils holder that I bought at TJ Max's for six dollars.

JUNK DRAWER BEFORE:

JUNK DRAWER AFTER:

= SO MUCH BETTER!



Granola with Berries, Dates, and Nuts. Whole Grain and High Protein with Antioxidants.

Ingredients:

4 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup crushed pecans
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/3 cup of honey
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of chopped dates
1/2 cup of dried cranberries, cherries, or blueberries or a combination
of all three

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Stir oats, almonds, coconut, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, pecans, cinnamon, and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

3. Melt butter and honey over low heat in a small saucepan, add vanilla extract and stir.

4. Pour over oat mixture and stir until well blended.

5.  Spread on a large baking sheet.

6.  Put in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.  Oats should be slightly browned and crispy when done.

7. Remove from oven.

8. Pour back into large bowl and add berries and dates.  Stir until combined.

**Tips:

1.  Keep granola in a sealed container and it will last for a week unrefrigerated.

2.  Put all of the ingredients, that you will not be using on a regular basis, in a large plastic storage bag.  Label the bag so when you want to make your recipe again, you don't have to look everywhere for the ingredients. 

Kids Pirate Treasure Chest and Booty

Step 1:  Get a little wooden chest.  We got ours at Michael's.  Any little wooden chest will do.

Step 2: Paint the chest with a piece of a sponge:

Painted chest with paints (we used rust, gold, yellow, and purple) and a piece of sponge for painting:

3.  Put stickers on chest, I also used some super glue on some of them to make sure they stuck (I got these at Michael's in the scrapbooking section):

4.  Put "Pirate Booty" in chest ( I got all of these at Michael's- gold bells, gold buttons, foam pirate stickers, and glitter pom-poms):

5.  Finished Pirate Treasure Chest and Booty:

                                                                            Front:

                                                                             Inside:

                                                                              Side:

Back:

You can fill the chest with any "treasures" that you find!

Acai Berry Green Iced Tea with Mint and Mixed Berries

This is easy and good for you, packed with antioxidants!

Ingredients:

12 cups water

1/2 cup of fresh mint

2 cups of frozen mixed berries

6 acai berry tea bags

4 green tea, tea bags

Sugar to taste- optional

Directions:

1. Bring water to boil.

2. Add tea bags and boil for 10 minutes.

3. Put frozen fruit and mint leaves in pitcher.

4. Remove tea bags from tea and pour tea into pitcher.

Tips-

1. With no sugar- Serve over ice.

2. With Sugar- I think it tastes the best by pouring the tea into a glass, adding 2 teaspoons of sugar, stirring and lastly adding ice.

3. Pour some of the fruit and mint into each glass if you like.

4. You can also make this tea with all green tea.

Quick Crispy Baked Chicken

This is the juiciest baked chicken and it is so easy.

Ingredients:

4 skinless split chicken breasts

1/2 cup butter

13 1/2 ounces Ritz crackers, 3 packages, 37 crackers in each package.

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Blend Ritz crackers in blender until they are blended to fine crumbs.

3.  Melt butter, about 30 seconds in microwave in a medium bowl.

6.  Dip chicken on both sides in melted butter.

7.  Coat chicken in Ritz crumbs and blace on a baking sheet.

8.  Bake 45 minutes.