Simple Homemade Pasta Sauce

So today I want to show you how to make the EASIEST homemade pasta sauce-hands down! It is so simple & so yummy!! Plus it is cheap to make....sounds too good to be true huh?

Well it's not. Here we go:

You need:

A blender or immersion blender
A stock pot with lid
4-6 (28oz.) Cans of whole tomatoes (or the equivalent in fresh from your garden/farm stand)
6-10 cloves of garlic
Olive oil

That's it.





Promise.

To make:

Open all your tomato cans and either use the immersion blender or put them in the blender and purée.

Pssst. There are those pesky DIY Painted countertops again!


Finely chop garlic. In stock pot heat about a 1/4-1/2 cup of olive oil over medium heat. After about a minute or so you will want to add your garlic. Stir and don't burn the garlic!! Only a minute at the most!

Then add just a 1/2 cup or so of your tomato purée. Stir it around for a couple minutes.

Next you'll just dump all your purée in the stock pot (as much as will fit- mine holds 5 cans) and simmer on medium-low or low heat for at least 4 hours. Stir it whenever you think of it.

Then we get to the part I love the best: take a big thick slice of homemade bread (if I'm really on my game I make them the same day so I have fresh-from-the-oven-homemade-bread)and dunk it in the sauce without anyone seeing.

Place it on a plate and smother in warm homemade-y goodness. Devour before your family catches you.

You're welcome for that secret.

Now back to the recipe. Take the pot off the burner after 4-6 hours of simmering (and who knows how many dunks of bread) and let cool completely. I usually make this starting at noon and remove it from the burner around 5pm let it stand on the stove until after supper then I place it in the fridge- pot & all- overnight. In the morning (or when it's completely cool) divide it up into large freezer ziploc bags and lay flat until frozen. Then you can stand them up like little files in your freezer. Cute, eh? If ziplocs filled with sauce were cute I mean. But anyway if you do it like that you will fit more in less space and they will thaw faster than if you put them in containers.

What I do is divide them into the exact quantities my recipes call for. So if I do my menu plan every two weeks and there are 4 dinners that need sauce- I make it, divide into those amounts, label it the recipe name & freeze. It's SO easy for Military Man to pull the one he needs and there is no measuring or leftover sauce that needs to be used up.

Yum yum yum!!
Also feel free to add your spices or a bay leaf or what have you. I don't only because we add those to the dish we are making with the sauce and we also use this as a pizza sauce for our homemade pizza night!

Thank you so much for stopping by, please leave me a comment so I know you were here! I comment back, I swear!!

Have A Happy Day,



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Pro-CRAFT-ination. Do you have it?

I tweeted earlier today that I had 'pro-CRAFT-ination' and it really got me thinking. I have a LOT of projects 'in process' right now and I can't seem to finish them before starting a new one.

I once heard that procrastination is the worst form of perfectionism- it's the paralyzing fear that if it's not going to be perfect why even start? Or you are too nervous it won't turnout perfect you can't even start. I believe I have pro-CRAFT-ination because I'm not afraid to start a new craft project but once it is underway I can't finish it because of this underlying fear that it won't turn out exactly as I envisioned it- aka: perfectly.

Yeah totally realized all that from a tweet.

SO I've decided to list all my unfinished projects here in a post and I hope to check in with you all weekly and be able to cross a project off! I need motivation to get 'er done! (ok that was totally lame and cheesy but I'm leaving it in!)

Here is my monstrous list:

1. Bathroom floor to be painted & sealed
2. Completely empty old craft room & put it into windowless room.
3. Move Lil Man into old craft room
4. Strip & repaint nursery room door & frame (lead paint detected)
5. Paint nursery walls.
6. Lay nursery floor. (currently plywood)
7. Try to reconfigure crib.
8. Make curtains for nursery
9. Make mobile.
10. Make Lil Man curtains
11. Finish lining living room curtains
12. Make playroom curtains
13. Finish fabric storage for playroom
14. Sew Velcro to play kitchen curtains to hang them.
15. Tank top refashion
16. Maxi dress refashion
17. Doggie door painting & install
18. Train table
19. Old window into craft room storage
20. Paint new countertop to match my painted laminate counters.
21. Finish sanding & sealing kitchen floor.
22. Paint trim, stair risers, & railings in dining room
23. Paint kitchen
24. Paint new light for dining room & hang
25. Make Miss E some dresses
26. Strip wallpaper & paint on hallway.
27. Type up & digi-scrap my recipes.

Ok there is more than that but I can't make you read forever. Just a note- most of the curtain projects & paint projects I haven't started yet so maybe I don't have pro-craft-ination on those.
Do you ever have pro-craft-ination? What one project have you been putting off just finishing??

Alright that's all I can type out on my iPhone right now lol! Sorry for the lack of photo- it wouldn't let me add one because I'm using a phone. Hopefully I'll remember to log onto my computer tomorrow to add links & pictures!


Oh and in case you noticed the slow down of posts: I took an unofficial and unplanned bloggy break & rested up while enjoying my babies!!

Have a happy Day,

How to Make Hummus

Ok we’re going to completely gloss over the fact that I didn’t do a WIDTW (What I Did This Weekend) post yet again this week. Why? Because I really didn’t do much that I can blog about (since I don’t share pics of the kiddos on here and all that jazz).
Ok moving on. Today I have a photo tutorial for how to make your own homemade hummus!
Making Hummus is actually very easy & I do it about once every two weeks! It saves a lot of money because the size container I fill cost me at least $4 in the store!

Ready to make your own homemade hummus?(Psst: you will also find close ups of my painted countertops in these pictures! Just in case you wanted to see more detail!)

Here is the picture tutorial:
You will need:
1 can of Chick Peas
Lemon Juice
Olive Oil
3-5 cloves of garlic (or some garlic powder if you want)
Red Pepper Flakes (or whatever ingredient you need to make the flavor of your choice.
Food processor or blender or good old fashioned muscle/potato masher (notice I am using the worlds tiniest food processor-its for making baby food actually)
Note: If you have tahini on hand put some in too but if you don’t no big deal! You can also substitute sesame oil for the olive oil if you want.

Ok lets get started:
1. Open, drain & rinse your chick peas. Place in your food processor.

2. Add a little bit of lemon juice. I always eyeball this but its like 1/8 of a cup.

3. Add your cloves of garlic...more if you want a stronger garlic flavor- less if you want less. If you are using garlic powder I don't know the conversions so you'll have to either go for it & see how much you like or Google the conversions lol

4. Run your food processor a little to mix it all and start creaming the chick peas. Add your flavoring.

5. Run your food processor & stream in your olive oil until you get the texture/creaminess you want. I can't stream in while my food processor is running so I add a little, process, add a little, process etc. until I get there. You may have to stop a few times and scrape the sides of the food processor bowl to make sure it’s all getting mixed/creamed evenly.

6. Place your hummus in a container and refrigerate. I washed out an old hummus container and my homemade fits perfectly in it!


That's it for homemade hummus!
Other Flavorings you can add are:

• Roasted Red Peppers
• Feta Cheese
• Jalapeños
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Parsley
• Ground Cumin
• Plain black pepper

Have fun with it and enjoy!
Have a Happy Day,

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None of the brands featured in this post have paid me or provided me with product to review. All opinions are my own and I bought all the ingredients/supplies myself.

I’m Guest Posting over at Top Notch Eats!

Hi all! Today I am guest posting over at Top Notch Eats!
Kaleena is a college friend of mine and boy if I knew the girl could cook when we were in college I would’ve hit her up for her leftovers at lunch! ;)

Please go read the post and check out the yummy recipes she posts!! :)
Have a happy day!

Pirate Birthday Party

So after sending out the pirate party invitations I got to work on creating some pirate decorations for the party!
I use Martha’s instructions for tissue paper pom poms (as you’ve seen at the tea & cupcakes baby shower & the Dr. Seuss baby shower) but I’ve noticed some confusion as to how exactly they are made so I wanted to show you a little visual as to how they look before you ‘fluff’ them.

I use twist ties (those freebie ones in with your trash bags- I just tie the bag closed I never use a twist tie so I have lots!) and monofilament thread but fishing line would be cheaper, you’d get a lot more (A whole reel!), and it works just as well!
Just layer (6+ layers works the best) your tissue paper on top of each other (you can alternate colors to get a multi-colored pom) and accordion fold on the ‘short’ side. When you reach the end of the tissue paper twist a twist tie around the center and then tie a length of clear thread (monofilament or fishing line) around that center also. This is how you want to transport them if you need to bring them somewhere other than you made them. If you fluff before travel you will have smooshed sides on your poms.  Also make sure you cut the ends before you fluff- into the shapes you want- I do either curved edges (seen on the tea & cupcake party poms) or pointy ones like these.
Ok on to where these poms ended up for the party!
In the playroom corner:

Over the food/cake table:

I also used vinyl cut from my silhouette machine to decorate a few places
The play room window:

The kitchen mirror as you walked in had a vinyl pirate ship & a banner:

Those pirate banners were super easy! They were pirate boy foam crafts that came 6 in a kit ($1 a kit at JoAnn’s)- I bought 2 kits and put them together. The pennant was a freebie from the Cottage Industrialist (also got the pirate hats and eye patches there) and printed them on cardstock.
Here is the pirate dress up station you saw the sign for before:
 
Those parrots are printed on cardstock after being colored in Photoshop (you could just use markers after printing) with a clothespin on the tail to clip on your shoulder. I got the parrots from Family Fun.  Besides the pirate hats and parrots there are eye patches, red & back sashes (just plain bandanas) and tiny ‘party favor’ telescopes.
I made pirate themed food signs which you can sort of see in this picture of the food table:

I kept the food simple this time and did a ranch veggie dip with veggies and a really yummy fruit dip with cut up fruit (not pictured) as well as cheese and cracker platters (also not pictured). For drinks I did raspberry iced tea from a mix and a super yummy lemonade.
I also bought two ($2 each at JoAnn’s) pirate ship foam activity kits and put them together- one was on the buffet with the drinks:

Outside I buried pirates treasure (some of which is scattered on the food table above) in Little Man’s sandbox for the kiddos to search for and we also tied a piece of wood to two cement blocks for a ‘plank’ to walk. I did buy some ‘water bomb’ balloons that were shaped like- you guessed it- cannonballs but we didn’t do those. All of this is not pictured because I didn’t take pictures of it without kids in the pictures and I don’t share pictures of my kids or other’s kids on the blog…sorry!
Last but not least was the pirate ship cake I made for Little Man:

The sails & waves are paper and the pirate and treasure chest came from a toy Little Man had.
Here is a list of pirate party ideas I used to help me come up with all the fun ideas!
Pirate Ship Cake & This cake also
Buried Treasure & Invite Ideas
Pirate hats and eye patches
Steph’s Pirate Party blew. me. away. (walking the plank idea came from here)
Every pirate needs “dress-up” station came from here.

So thanks to all these people for sharing their ideas online and for Google for bringing you to me so I could throw a cheap & fun pirate party for my Little Man!!
I hope you all enjoyed this ‘walk’ through my Little Man’s 3rd birthday!
Have a happy day,

I am linking this post up to:



Pssst! I'm trying to reach 100 followers (see over there on the right sidebar?) so I've decided to try a little giveaway. 
If I reach 100 followers by Tuesday August 10, 2010 (one week) I will giveaway the pirate banners, pirate 'coins', little party favor telescopes, the un-opened package of cannonball 'water bomb' balloons, a small package of pirate themed foam stickers (opened but I didn't use them), and possibly the 2 foam pirate ships if I can figure out how to ship them without breaking them. I will choose one winner randomly from the comments on Wednesday Aug. 11, 2010.
You would have an almost complete decorating kit for YOUR pirate party if you win...just by following me and leaving a comment here. Make sure you tell your friends because I have to be at 100 followers in one week or the giveaway doesn't happen :) (see? incentive!) This is open to USA readers only but if you are from outside the US feel free to follow anyway you'll be helping out!

Baby Time Guest Post:: Top Notch Eats

Today I'm lucky enough to be sharing with you a guest post from my favorite food blog Top Notch Eats. Kaleena has my style of cooking: easy, healthy & yummy  food! 

Today she is sharing a recipe for 'Blueberry Coconut Coffee Cake' sounds yummy! Take it away Kaleena!


Adapted from: Week of Menus

I love bringing treats into work. It can sometimes turn a person's day around. I know that I am certainly not a morning person, but when I have something that is so simple to enjoy with my coffee it makes sitting at my desk at 8:00am that much easier.

I also love to bake, but don't like to have the bake goods stay in my house for fear that they will be totally consumed. Usually I hang onto a recipe until I have collected all the items in my pantry or freezer then I bake away. Its wonderful. Baking is one of my favorite things to do because its so simple because all you need to do is take the recipe one step at a time.

This Blueberry Coconut Coffee cake is light, fluffy, and full of the right amount of sweetness. Start off by getting the topping together.

Topping

1. 1/3 cup of flour

2. 1/4 cup of butter at room temperature

3. 1 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut

4. 1.2 cup of brown sugar

5. 1 tsp of cinnamon

Then combine the 2 cups of all purpose flour in a separate bowl. Add in 2 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Then mixture 1/2 cup of softened butter with 1 cup of sugar and 2 eggs. Add in 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 cup of milk.

Then butter and flour a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Then pour 1/2 of the cake batter into the pan.

Sprinkle a layer of thawed out frozen blueberries.

Then sprinkle half of the topping mixture on top of the blueberries.

Then pour the rest of the cake batter over the top. Then the rest of the topping mixture. Set your oven to 375 degrees and bake it for 40 minutes.

Slice it up, toss it into a container, and get ready to make your friends at work happy campers.

Enjoy !!!

Thanks again Kaleena & I hope you all find your way over to Top Notch Eats and find a new recipe or two!

Feeding my family on $140- Part 2

Ok so now you know my menu plan for the next few weeks & I just wanted to put in a couple notes.
1. I switch around meals to suit our needs that day (for example Hubs will be working late one night this week & since he is the 'cook' I will probably move Saturday's pasta night to that night to save me some time). I write out the menu plan so I know what I need to buy at the grocery store to have everything I need for all those meals- it doesn't mean we ONLY eat that on the scheduled day.
2. Lunch is usually grilled cheese but you won't ever find bread on my grocery list. I make my own. Flour & yeast are so much more inexpensive then a loaf of bread. I do not have a breadmaker but I do have a stand mixer to help me out. That said- a stand mixer is not an 'essential' part of a kitchen, people have been making bread for many more years then there has been electricity.

3. If you don't stay at home like I do you CAN still do this. It takes a little thing called pre-planning & discipline to figure it out. If you are living paycheck to paycheck and there is always more month then $$ just promise me you'll give menu planning & a grocery budget a try? It's so reassuring to know that your family will be fed no matter what. I'm not saying you have to make your own bread or hamburger rolls- that's just how I save us that much more.
4. Beans & rice are staples in our diet. Why? they are filling, nutritious, and cheap. Yes they take a little pre-planning & 'extra' work but you are saving $ by doing the 'extra' work yourself and not paying someone to do it for you. That is the core of saving money- remove some of the convenience and you get a cheaper product.
5. There ARE menu planning resources on the internet and I did try a few (usually $5 a month subscription or something similar) but I found our grocery budget skyrocketing because they didn't focus on cheaper foods, just yummy tasting ones. But if they work for you- by all means go that route and save yourself some time!
6. I buy whole chickens and cook them up in my crockpot and end up with enough meat for at least 2 meals plus *free* chicken stock for other meals. For about $4 a chicken (whole, free range, 'organic' chicken) I get much more then those $7 (& up!) packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. If I don't get a whole chicken I at least get the bone in, skin on package of chicken. It takes 2 seconds to take of the skin and cut the meat away from the bone. If you are squeamish about it just have Hubs do it- like I do ;)

Ok moving on. I know these posts without many pictures are long but hopefully we are all learning something and saving some $$ for ourselves right?? I promise tomorrow I will get back to posts with pictures & more crafty ideas!
Here is my grocery list & receipt total- keep in mind even if it doesn't list 'organic' next to it- it still probably was. I am just pointing out organic items that I buy that you might not think of as having an 'organic' option.

My grocery list for this paycheck was this: (tried to separate it out a bit for you- easier reading)
1 gal. Milk, juice, bananas, apples, grapes,
D's cereal bars (organic), raisins, dried cranberries, butter- hope to buy in bulk soon,
half & half, coffee-organic/fair trade, celery, cream cheese, 4 cans tuna fish packed in water,
Vegetable oil (almost out so had to replace), Sugar (again- replacing), Worcestershire sauce (replacing),
15 oz. chopped tomatoes, 26 oz. chicken stock (needed some more before I remembered I had a chicken to cook in the crockpot- oops!), 15 oz. can kidney beans (normally buy dried to save money but didn't this week...weird.),
6 pack Yo-kids yogurt for Little Man & the large organic vanilla yogurt for Hubs & me, sour cream,
all-natural peanut butter, strawberry jelly, 1 lb. bag northern beans, Jiffy mix- cornbread,
Stove Top stuffing mix (I never have any leftover bread to make my own stuffing or bread crumbs), taco shells, 2 or 3 tomatoes, lettuce (we buy the pre-shredded bag but the lettuce head would be cheaper),
pinto beans (hubs bought the canned kind but I prefer the bag of dried), dozen eggs,
2 cans black beans, rice (we were running low on both white & brown), mexican shredded cheese mix (hope to buy bulk blocks of cheese and shred just what we need soon to save $$),
shredded cheddar cheese, 1 lb. ground turkey,
jar of yeast, bottle of honey (anyone know where I can get bulk honey??). That's it!

Here is a photo (blurry- iPhone again...stupid computer won't read my camera card reader!) of the total for all the items listed above:

In case you can't read that it says: $125.98 (woohoo! LESS then my $140 budget!)
Also here is a photo of the $$ off per gallon I saved too since my grocery store teams up with a gas chain to offer the discount:

It says I will save $0.20/gallon if I use it within the next 2 weeks...which we always do! :)

So there you have it! A little thought, planning & time is all it takes to save money on the grocery bill! Coupons & stockpiling not required! (Although would help out a lot!)

I hope you learned something and if not- at least got some great links to new sites to check out recipes from! :) Please let me know what you think & if you have any great resources for me!!