Three Bean Salad

This recipe came from my mom, and it is one of Camille's favorites. If I double it, people complain that there's not enough. So I have already doubled the recipe so when you double it, there will actually be enough.

Drain:

2 cans wax beans

2 cans green beans

1 can kidney beans

Chop 1 Cup of each:

onion

celery

green bell pepper

Mix it all up and marinate at least a few hours (or better yet overnight) in:

1 1/2 C Sugar 

1 C oil

1 C white distilled vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Tip: my mom taught me when you are doubling recipes you should never double the salt. True? I don't know, but I definitely follow this rule and have never been dissatisfied.

How to Estimate Utility Bills

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We are currently house hunting, and all of those uncertain expenses that come with owning a bigger home are weighing on my mind. We looked at a beautiful five bedroom home the other day, but with all that extra space would come a higher utility bill...as expected. But how much higher? How do you estimate those additional costs?

Through our local power company I found a resource for estimating your home energy cost. Your estimated cost will depend on the house details, your appliances, and your usage. If you are shopping for a new home, knowing the following about your potential house will help you accurately estimate your future energy costs:

• Is the home weatherized?
• By owner?
• By Professional?
• Wall insulation thickness
• Ceiling insulation thickness
• Floor insulation thickness
• Windows (single or double pane?)
• Type and age of heating system
• Type, age, and location of water heater
• Type (energy star?) and age of appliances that come with the house (stove, dishwasher, etc.)

This fun calculator will also give you tips on how you can decrease your energy costs in the future. It's a great tool that I will definitely be using when planning our budget for our future house!

Slacker Blogger Clean Up

Peril of a slacker blogger: Posts from nearly one year ago still waiting to be published...

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I attended a wonderful class last month last year at church on cleaning your home. There were some great tips that I want to remember, but I certainly don't need another piece of paper lying around waiting to be lost. So hopefully these tips and tricks turn out to be helpful! I'll update as I try them.

Have you ever thought about putting Rain X on your outside windows that get direct rain? You get fewer water marks and don't have to clean your windows as often!

Spot X is supposed to work miracles for getting hard water spots off your faucets. For the edges around your faucet, use a ceramic razor blade or plastic putty knife.

Pumice stones help remove hard water deposits and stains in toilet bowls.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works in the shower. I've never used it for anything other than crayons and pen marks an the wall {and let me tell you, I LOVE Mr. Clean. He's the second best man in my house!}

I guess it's time to clean the bathroom and see if these really work!

More Healthy Alternatives

I like to eat healthy, but I sooo enjoy having some sugar. Sometimes I'm looking for a "more healthy" option rather than a healthy option :) So these tricks probably aren't for the person on a diet, but rather the person looking to cut back a little. Did you know you can substitute applesauce for vegetable oil in almost any bread type recipe? I had a friend in college who was an excellent baker and she taught me this trick. I've used it in store-bought cakes and muffin recipes.

I hate having to buy special ingredients for recipes {especially perishable ones}. It seems I only use a small amount and then the rest of the container goes bad because I don't know what to do with it. One such ingredient for me is buttermilk {which I rarely use in baking or cooking} so when a recipe calls for it I make my own from scratch. Not only do I save money and avoid waste, it also contains less fat - especially if you use skim or 1% milk. Put 1 Tbs. lemon juice in a glass measuring cup and add milk until you have one cup. Let this mixture sit for at least 5 minutes before using in a recipe. Can't tell the difference!

If these tricks sounds familiar, it might be because I posted this information in my "Mommy can I have another" best ever bran muffin recipe, but sometimes it's helpful to have the info right in front of you. Or maybe you didn't even see these substitution tricks because you tuned out when you saw the words bran muffin. It's okay. Not everyone likes muffin tops. Or bran. But now you have a couple more tricks up your sleeve.

"Mommy can I have another" Muffins

Tate told me this morning that he can eat five of these in one sitting, but I cut him off at four and handed him a yogurt. My kids absolutely LOVE these muffins. The recipe makes about three dozen, and they're usually gone within 24 hours. The nice thing, is that if your family knows how to pace themselves {unlike mine} the batter can be refrigerated for up to two weeks so you can pop them in the oven and have fresh, warm muffins anytime you like. This is especially handy on busy work or school mornings. I haven't tried freezing the batter yet, perhaps I'll give it a shot next time. Without further ado, here are the best bran muffins ever {at least, they're the only ones I've ever enjoyed}.

Bran Muffins
2 C All-Bran
1 C Bran Buds
1 C boiling water

Combine above ingredients and let sit until not hot anymore.
Then add the following ingredients:

2 beaten eggs
1/2 C vegetable oil*
1 1/2 C Sugar
2 1/2 C Flour
2 1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 C Buttermilk**

Mix ingredients well, pour into greased muffin tins, and bake at 400 F for 18-20 minutes. Leftover batter can be stored in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

*You can substitute applesauce for vegetable oil in most bread type recipes {including store bought cake mixes}. I've don it in this recipe and can't taste the difference.
**No buttermilk? No problem! In a glass measuring bowl, put 2 Tbs. lemon juice and fill with milk until you have 2 cups. Let sit for five minutes before using it in recipe.

The Lunch Bunch

The start of school marks the beginning of early mornings, homework, and sack lunches.  It's enough to keep any mother awake with excitement {or not}. Oh, and remember those first day of school nightmares? I had the mom version where I didn't take my kids to school until 1:30...and to last year's teacher.

I think the biggest real life nightmare is going to be packing lunches. My sack lunches are pretty standard and seem to illicit groans and pleas for expensive school lunches. Today was the first day of school and I'm already stuck in a rut. I need some fresh ideas to satisfy the kiddos and myself. No, I'm not planning on going back to school, but I hate making lunch twice. If I make the lunches tempting enough, maybe even the hubby will get in on the "let's save money and pack our own lunches" program.

My goal is to make packing lunches fast, easy, healthy, affordable, and fun. Oh, and without the kids complaining. Impossible? We shall see. On that note, I'd better start with fun {and healthy}. Here are some ideas I've collected for this school year:

• Have the kids sit down with me and make a list of their favorite fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat choices. I'll pick from this list when I'm making my meal plan for lunches.
• Try new combinations. Mix two fruits together, switch up the bread choices {waffles, pancakes, bagels, English muffins, pitas, croissants, tortillas}, chicken and tuna salads, veggie sandwiches, etc.
• Add dips for fruits and vegetables. Here are some adaptable ideas for packaging anything that needs a dip.
• Cut it out! Kids {and grownups} like variety. Just cutting or slicing something differently can make it more appealing. Mellon balls instead of wedges, apples sliced so you can see the "star" in the center, cheese cut into shapes, fruit pieces to eat with a toothpick {Sidenote, I just tried this yesterday at home - the kids had apple pieces with a toothpick for a fork, and Camille said, "Ooooh. Fancy apples!}
• Improve presentation. The kids got {cute} new lunch boxes and I'm going to try to package things differently.  Camille saw a cute little cottage cheese and fruit combo at the store, and I'm pretty sure it was the package she wanted more than the contents. So this falls under the new combo category also...at her request. Keep it interesting! Sometimes I'll put a sticky note on a tupperware container. Or have a "find the sticker in your lunch" day. But not EVERY day. That would be way too much work. Just when things are getting a little boring.

Here are some fun resources I plan to reference regularly in my quest to make lunch time more interesting. Some of the above info came from these websites also.
free lunchbox printables
www.weelicious.com/ This is a great resource! More than just lunch recipes - her videos are fresh and fun with some great tips on keeping mealtimes interesting.
http://www.ilunchbox.com/ Devoted to all things lunch.
http://www.laptoplunches.com/ 365 lunch ideas. You can also sign up to receive weekly lunch menus
http://www.school-lunch-ideas.com/ Looks like a fun site I could get lost in!
More lunch ideas
Sandwich and snack ideas

How do you keep sack lunches fun for your kids? Any tricks on getting your hubby to take a lunch to work?

Feelin' Saucy

Have you ever opened up your cupboard to realize you only have tomato paste when you really need tomato sauce? Well I have. And more than once. In fact, it just happened the last time I made Sloppy Joes.

Enter my good friend Google. Solves many a quandary, especially in the kitchen. Here's how I made sauce from paste. I had a small 6 oz. can of tomato paste and added 1 ½ cups water to it. Yep, that's it! Some people suggest adding a little brown sugar to sweeten it, but I didn't find that necessary in my recipe. I was so happy with the results, I will never buy tomato sauce again!

Apparently the mom in me focused on the cute kitchen help instead of the ingredients. However, if you look closely you can see our homemade tomato sauce in the background on the stove.

Psst. If you only have tomato sauce and need tomato paste, I hear you can cook it in a pan until it is reduced by half. I've never tried it though, so let me know if you do and it works {or doesn't}! And while you're thinking about sharing, do you have any substitution tricks up your sleeve?