How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

With all the canning and fresh fruit fruit from summer, we have a few fruit flies that are hanging around and totally "bugging" me. Sorry, that was lame. But this trap is AWESOME for getting rid of those stupid little flies! Here is what you do:

Materials:

2 liter soda bottle or smaller plastic soda bottle (that's what I used)
red wine, apple cider or balsamic vinegar
banana peels, small pieces of fruit
tape


1. Get your bottle and take the cap off the top.


2. Put the bottle on it's side and cut the top 1/4 off the bottle.


3. Pour the vinegar into the bottom of the bottle.

4. Place fruit and peels into the bottle.

5. Turn neck of the bottle upside down and place inside bottle. It should fit snugly.

6. Secure with tape.

Just place one of these traps where you are having the fruit fly problem and soon they will all be inside the bottle, lured by the fermenting fruit, and won't be able to find their way out of the bottle.

Believe me! This works great.

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Kids Corner: Flower Pot Pens...Great Teacher Appreciation Gift

I found this cute and easy craft on Mommy's Kitchen for a teacher appreciation gift that kids could make themselves.
The boys went camping this weekend, so Kenna and I made these for the kid's teachers.

They were so easy! Kenna did everything except wrapping the floral tape around the pen.

Wouldn't these look cute sitting on your desk on in your kitchen? You could decorate the pot too with a bright bow or whatever your heart desires.

We used rice to stand the pens up, but you could use dried beans or small stones.

And the best thing about these pens is that not many people will walk off with a pen with a big flower on the end of it! I'm always losing my pens!!!

Thank you to Mommy's Kitchen for this fun craft. Check out her site for some excellent recipes!

Pretty Flower Pot Pens

small clay flower pots (I used 3 inch pots) (.69 each)
artificial flowers ($4)
Bic Pens ($1)
green floral tape ($1.97)
scissors (free)
tacky glue (free)
Pinto beans, coffee beans or decorative stones (beans $1.18 a bag)
ribbon or craft paint ($1.97)
small wooded decorations (.25 each)

Paint the clay pots with your desired color and pattern and let dry completely. While the pots are drying assemble your flower pens. If you do not want to paint the pots you can just tie a pretty ribbon around the rim and tie in a bow with a pretty coordinating color and add a wooden decoration like we did. If adding the wooden decoration you can glue it on at this point. Cut the stem of the flower to about half the size of the pen. We cut them to about 2-3 inches. If it is a really thick stem, you can take the outside coating off, and only use the interior wire for support.

Remove the little plug/cap at the end of the pen. discard the plug cap. This is where you are going to place the end of the flower into. Add some hot glue around the end of the flower base and place the wire into the pen chamber. Push down to make sure it attaches. It will dry rather quickly. Now assemble and glue the rest of the flowers. We are doing two for each small pot I think you can do up to three with no problem. Larger pots can hold more pens.

When the pens are dry begin wrapping the pen with the floral tape near the writing tip. Continue wrapping up the pen until you are almost at the end. I don't think it really matters which end you start one. I stopped at the end of the pen you will see a line. where the pen starts to change shape. Do not go all the way to the very end. If you do the cap will not go on and off easily. You can do a second layer if you want, but we only did one. Clip the floral tape and tack the end down with a clear glue if needed. It should pretty much stick without using the glue.

Fill the flower pot with a type of dried beans (I use pinto beans because they are brown like soil), but you could use coffee beans or small dark stones. Stick the floral pens into the beans and arrange them into a bouquet. Attach a wooden decoration to the front of the clay pot using tacky glue. The hot glue doesn't really want to stick. If you are sending this gift with your child to school, you may want to put the beans in a plastic bag and put them in the pot with instructions. The teacher can assemble it when she receives it, and it won't dump all over your child's backpack.

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iphone helps for dieters #2

Above photo is a screen shot from my iphone.

Here is another app that really keeps me on my toes! It is called "Water Your Body" and it is $0.99! I have noticed a big difference in controlling my appetite just by staying hydrated.

This app really motivates me because if I drink all my water for the day I get an "A"! If you get 7 "A" days you get a bronze trophy, 30 days a silver, 90 days gold and 365 "A" days you get platinum. Like I said before....I respond well to gimmicks!

iphone helps for dieters!

I'm at it again! It is time for me to get serious about losing some weight. It is March for heaven's sake. No more excuses!

I am one of those people who needs a gimmick to help me lose weight. A motivator like Weight Watchers, a new diet book, a cute little food journal, a trainer or a contest.

I am officially in a Biggest Loser competition with a group at church and it has really helped me get focused. We get weighed in every Sunday after church. Last Sunday was my 2nd weigh in and I lost 9.5 pounds! I know, I know. Most of that is water weight and I am bracing myself for good but not as good numbers this Sunday.

My fun gimmick other than the contest to keep me focused comes courtesy of my iphone which I want to marry.


The first app that I love is called Lose it!

Description:

Succeed at weight loss with Lose It! Set goals and establish a daily calorie budget that enables you to meet them. Stay on track each day by recording your food and exercise and staying within your budget.

Enter food and exercise easily using a searchable database. Quickly re-enter foods and meals you’ve had in the past. Lose It! together with friends for additional support and motivation. Setup motivators to help keep you on track. Use detailed online reports to track your progress.

Lose It! is the most complete and streamlined weight loss application for the iPhone.

This app is great because when you put in your weight, it tells you how many calories you can eat for the day and as you log your meals it subtracts the calories from your calorie bank. When you log your exercise, it adds calories to your bank. It also can send you a weekly report to your email. I know that I eat much more mindfully when I need to record it!

Best thing about it? IT'S FREE!

I'll be posting some more great apps in the coming weeks. So check back! I'll also post on my weight loss. The competition ends in 11 weeks, so I am going to need some support!

My Favorite Blog Recipe Binders

If you are like me, you find a ton of different recipes on food blogs that sound and look amazing. You have every intention to try them but the problem is being able to find them all when you are ready to cook. And call me strange, but I prefer to look through cookbooks rather than look at a screen.

I decided to make a cookbook with a collection of all my favorite bloggy recipes. I got the idea from my sister who has been putting her personal recipes in these books for years. In fact, she and my sister in law had their recipes in a word file and were kind enough to pass them on to me. It's great to have recipes that are "tried and true" from people you know.

Here is how you start:

1. Go to Microsoft Word and create and new document.

2. Click File on the toolbar and go down to "Page setup". Go to Orientation and click on "landscape". While there change top and bottom margins to 1". Click "OK".

3. Click Format on the toolbar and go down to "Columns". In presets, click on "two columns". Click "OK". This will make it so you can get two recipes on one page.

4. Go to file again and click on "Save As". Type the name of your new file and click "OK".

4. Minimize the word document and start surfing your favorite food blogs.

When you find a recipe that you want to include in your cookbook:

1. Highlight the recipe. You can even include pictures if you want. Lots of blogs have a printer friendly versions of their recipes. This simplifies the process if you don't want to include pictures.

2. Right click on the mouse and click on "copy".

3. Open up your Word document, right click on the the mouse and click on "paste". Your recipe is now on your document. If you don't want the pictures, just left click the picture and then right click and click on "cut". You'll need to do some rearranging of the recipe to make up for cutting the picture out.

4. Make sure it has a title and you can play with the font size to make it fit better on the page.

5. Put the cursor on the the beginning of the next page so it is all ready for your next recipe.

6. Go to File, Click on Save and then minimize and go back to finding more recipes.

Here is what you need when you are ready to make the books:

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Memo Size Binders
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Memo Size Sheet Protectors
paper cutter
tabs to mark categories

1. Print your Word file with all your recipes. I used a flash drive and took it to Staples to print. I had almost 200 pages to print, so this saved me ink and the pictures were in color.

2. Use a paper cutter to cut the paper in half. I think Staples has a large paper cutter you could use if you are already there.

3. Organize the recipes into categories. I did: chicken, beef, breads, pasta, soups, sides, brunch, starters, salads, cookies, brownies, bars, pies, cheesecakes, cakes, frosting, candy, snacks, desserts, sauces and misc. Place tabs on edge of sheet protectors to mark categories.

4. Put the recipe pages in the sheet protectors and place in binders. Use different binders for the different categories as your recipe collection begins to grow.

5. Use a label maker to label the spines of the binders.

6. Enjoy all your new recipes in your custom cookbooks!

I've been working on these cookbooks for almost a year now. I would buy a new binder or pack of sheet protectors every month or so because it all adds up and can get expensive.

This would be a great gift for a new bride. You could even ask for recipe contributions from extended family to compile a family recipe collection. Have fun!

Planning Ahead Grilled Chicken

Planning your meals is half the battle when you are dieting. For me, it is so important to have quick meals and snacks that are high in protein. I try to have protein with every meal and every snack. To make this easier, I plan ahead. Here is one thing I do:

This week I found boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.69/pound. I bought about 20 pounds and put 10 of it in the freezer for later use. I had two packets of McCormick Grill Mates in the zesty herb flavor so I prepared those marinades in two separate gallon size Ziploc bag. I then separated the chicken evenly into the two bags, massaged the bag to cover the chicken with the marinade, and then put them in the fridge for an hour.

After the chicken was marinated, I grilled it all up in a couple batches.


After the chicken was all grilled up I let it cool on a plate so that it would be easier to handle.


Then I sliced up most of the chicken breasts and put serving size portions in snack size bags. I didn't count, but I had probably 30 serving size bags.


I then put the small bags into a labeled gallon size freezer bag.


I also cut some of the breasts in half to make a serving size. A serving size of chicken should be the size of a deck of cards. The chicken breasts I purchased were easily 2 servings per peice. I put 2 halves in sandwich bags and then place all of the sandwich bags in a labeled gallon sized bag for the freezer.

So, now I have a bunch of sliced chicken for wraps, salads, pasta, or for whatever I want. I also have some bigger chicken peices to have with veggies and brown rice for dinner. All I have to do is take it out of the freezer, microwave it and I'm all set!

Here is a printable menu planner from Chart Jungle to plan out your week. Hang it on the fridge for quick reference.

Mexican Casserole and Naughty Cornbread

I am posting this to tell you how I store my ground beef. Maybe you do this too. I usually buy the cheapest family pack of ground beef available. That is usually the 73% lean ground beef. (I only use this for browned ground beef recipes like spaghetti sauce, tacos, sloppy joes and casseroles like this one. For meatballs and meatloaf I get a leaner ground beef.) I get a couple of big dutch ovens and cook up the whole family pack at once. I also like to add dried onions to give it some good flavor. When the beef is nice and browned, I transfer it into a colander with a plastic container under it to catch the fat. After the fat has been drained, I remove the plastic container and run very hot water over the beef in the colander. This will help drain even more of the fat off. When the beef cools, I measure out about 2 cups and put it in a small freezer storage bag. I place all of the bags of beef in my freezer. Now I have a lean, meal size portion ready when I quickly need ground beef for a week night meal. Ready for some recipes?

Mexican Casserole (makes two 9x9 to eat one and freeze one for later)

1 box of pasta, cooked according to package and drained ( I used wagon wheels)
15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
3/4 can of water (soup can)
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups browned ground beef
2 packs of taco seasoning or to taste
1 cup colby jack or whatever cheese you have on hand

Basically......mix it all together (except cheese), put it in the casserole dish, top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees, uncovered for 30 minutes or until bubbly. You can top it with sliced olives. sour cream, shredded lettuce or just eat it as is. My kids really liked this. Especially JD.

To use frozen casserole: Put into fridge the night before to thaw. Bake at 350 degrees, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes longer.

Naughty Corn Bread

1 box of yellow cake mix
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
eggs, oil and milk according to box mixes

Preheat oven according to directions on the cake mix box.

In a bowl combine all three box mixes. Add eggs, milk and oil according to each box mix. (Replace the water called for on the cornbread box mix with milk). Mix all the ingredients according to the cake mix directions.

This makes A LOT of cornbread, so I just make 2 batches of muffins and freeze what I don't use. They are really easy to defrost in the microwave for a quick meal.

Just bake these according to the cake mix directions. (About 20 minutes for the muffins and 30 minutes for 9x13 pan). Know your oven and make sure not to over cook these. Cooked just right, these are so moist!