Not Your Momma's Green Beans

So I knew I loved roasted potatoes and carrots, but I haven't dabbled too much in other roasted veggies. But yesterday, by a fantastic twist of fate I had a bag of fresh green beans from Bountiful Baskets and a "new to me" Rachel Ray magazine from my husbands work-complete with a Roasted Green Beans and Almonds recipe.

Now you have to understand that my boys (including the one I'm married to) don't take to green foods very much. I usually make them eat three each, and they gag it down and get it over with. But last night they all loved it and asked for me. Miracles never cease. I also heard that roasting cauliflower with ranch powder is awesome too. I will have to try that.

The best green beans ever

Fresh green beans, ends snapped, and snapped in half
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Coarsely chopped salted almonds

Preheat oven to 450. Spread beans on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir to evenly coat. Bake for ten minutes, then add almonds and roast for another 4-5 minutes.

Super Yummy French Bread

Last time I was at the Prepared Pantry I saw this base for French Bread. Curious I decided to give it a try. It was sooo good. It had that distinct french bread taste. I've tried to make homemade French bread before. It was good, but tasted like regular homemade bread.

The instructions included were fairly easy to follow, but not quite simplified enough for me.

If you get a chance to get some of this awesome stuff and want an easier method, here is what I did:

Ingredients:

One cup Base for French Bread

2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)

3 1/2 cups bread flour

1 seven-gram packet of yeast

Put all ingredients in your bread maker and use the dough setting. When that is done, shape into two long loaves on a cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray and let rise until really puffy in a warm place (about an hour). Preheat your oven to 375. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Store leftovers in a paper bag. (Not plastic).

Best eaten within a couple of days.

Perfect with some soup or chili.

Simplified Mango Sticky Rice

Mango Sticky Rice: One of our good friends (and one of the best cooks I know) writes the food blog Salt and Flattery. He did a post on Mango Sticky Rice that looked soo good. But it was a little too extensive for me (and I couldn't find Thai sticky rice or have a bamboo steamer) So I did what we did best around here and simplified. It turned out pretty darn yummy. I would be curious to see how my simplified version compared to his. Here is my version:

Mango Sticky Rice

Ingredients:

1 Cup Thai Jasmine Rice (Found in the Asian Section)
1 Can (14 oz) Lite coconut milk
A little less than 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 mangos, peeled and chopped (I used frozen that I thawed)


Mix the coconut milk, sugar, and salt and add enough water that it makes 1 3/4 cup liquid. Bring to a boil in a saucepan and add rice. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes without removing the lid. Stir in mangos and serve.


I thought it was delicious. My husband thought it was like dessert rice. Half of the kids liked it.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Yes, you heard me-homemade!! Who knew?? We learned this recipe at a church meeting a few months ago. I recently ran out of the store bought stuff and decided to give it a try. Then yesterdays dirty clothes got to be the lucky ones to give it a go. And yes it worked. Everything was clean.
And the best part is that it is stinking cheap. I haven't calcuated exactly but it has to be way less than a penny per load. I don't know how widespread this recipe is online, but I still had to share it with you. I heard that the 18-kids and Counting lady uses this stuff to do her laundry. It really only took about 10-15 minutes to make after you have everything gathered.

I found the Fels-naptha and washing soda at Winco (our grocery store)

Liquid Laundry Soap

4 cups Hot tap water
1 Fels-naptha Bar
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax

Directions: Grate Fels-soap and add to hot water. Stir over medium-low heat until the soap is dissolved. Fill one gallon bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water. Add soap mixture, soda, and borax until dissolved. Add more hot water to fill up 5 gallon bucket. Let sit over night. Then when cool you can add 10-15 drops essential oils per 2 gallons of soap.

I'm going to use a leftover plastic gallon ice cream bucket to fill up for easier use, then go back to the five gallon bucket to refill that. You might have to restir once in awhile.

Top loaders uses 1/4 cup per load.
Front loaders uses 1/8 cup per load.

Witches Hat

Today's Project: This witches hat. (Sorry I was feeling to lazy to take pictures of the process).
I picked up a paper mache witches hat from our local craft store for $1.99. Then I ripped up some fabric scraps and used Mod Podge to glue them around the hat. Then I painted the base black and used tacky glue to attach a scrapbooking metal frame for the buckle. Makes me excited for Halloween!

The $10 Wall

Upstairs we had an "extra" catch-all room. This is what one wall looked like (which was painted with love a few years ago for a couple of cute little boys who are now downstairs). It needed a redo. It had black permanent marker in a few too many places.

Since this room is bigger than my daughters room and I had to paint anyway....I decided to move her over. I painted this yellow color.


But it needed a little decoration. So, I took these of these chargers ($1.99 each) that I got from the Hobby Lobby.

And then I cut some purple fabric scraps into strips.

And then I used Mod Podge to glue them down in a random fashion



Then I found a leaf pattern from my computer and cut out 5 leaves for each flower from heavy purple fabric.

I traced the plate and made a pattern so I would know where to place them around the center.




Then I used a paint roller to roll some fabric starch onto the leaf.


Then I pressed it onto the wall, slightly under the pattern and smoothed out. At this point you can use a sponge to spread more fabric starch onto the top of the leaf. (To remove the fabric from walls, just dampen and peel off)

And here are all of the petals:


Repeat for any other flowers you want.
To hang the chargers, we used Gorilla Glue to glue a teeth bracket to the back, then hung them on a nail in the center of the petals.




I'm happy with how it turned out. The flowers are big enough they take up an entire wall. I like the modern/shabby look of them.

Grill once, eat (at least) thrice

Don't you love it when everyone likes (and eats) their dinner. This week we did something that saved time, and everyone likes all three meals.
We grilled chicken once and ate three meals off of it (and still have a little chicken left to freeze). We got Mexican, Italian and American out of it, so it didn't feel like we were eating the same thing every meal. And the best part of it, everyone liked all of them.

So, first grill ups lots of chicken. Some with instructions for the Grilled Chicken Quesadillas, and the rest seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic salt.

Night One:
Grilled Chicken Quesadillas

Night Two:
Ranch Chicken Pizza (I didn't use arugula)

Night Three:
Chicken Phillies Recipe (Sorry I couldn't find the source)

Grilled Chicken
Onion
Multi-colored peppers
Olive Oil
Shredded cheese
Hoagie Buns

Turn your oven on to broil. Slice the chicken, peppers, and onions thinly and saute them in olive oil. Place on your hoagie bun, add cheese and broil about 5 minutes until cheese is melted and heated through.

YUMMY!