food tips

i've been all over the internet (unintentionally) looking for food saving tips...

it all started with doing some work, then i took a break and pinterested for a bit...and BANG a friend pins this pic:

and i'm speechless!! we tried doing monthly shopping and fell into some pitfalls with food going bad before using it. so we switched up our game plan and went to the biweekly shopping method. we sadly still had some food go bad, but not near as much as when we monthly shopped. so when i saw pin i was all game to learn some more especially since we've been throwing money away! after reading pages from Blissful & Domestic i smacked myself in the forehead and realized i needed to rethink my storing NOT my shopping!!

i am floored that i never thought to rethink my storage. well, Danielle has definitely put some thought into her storage. check out her posts on cutting your grocery bill in half. 

don't forget to check out fresh produce on a budget! 

i was so thankful she included this:

if you scroll to the bottom there are some reader tips : 

From mwhip : "one great way to save on your green onions - chop to just above where the white starts and then put the bottoms in a cup of water and the green tops will continue to grow indefinitely. I saw it on pinterest and decided to try it and it really DOES work! i just make sure i dump and rinse the container and roots at least once a week, usually when i clip the stalks and chop em up." 

From tdgogators : "I live in Florida and right now Tomatoes are in Season. I got a bushel for ten bucks! I cut an x in the bottom(just piercing the skin and dropped them into my BIG stock pot of boiling water for a few minutes. I scoop them out as the skin started to peel away from meat of the tomato and into a colander to drain then to a baking rack to cool. I set up an assembly line and just kept boiling, draining and cooling. After they were cool peeled the skin off, put into Quart freezer bags, and into the freezer! Since they were fresh tomatoes they will last for months! I use them for fresh salsa soups and stews. Delish I did this last year and I had tomatoes into the fall!" 

From Jackie : "Great ideas! I also have a copy of America's Cheapest Family--very inspiring. One thing you said about not freezing spinach: when I buy the big Costco bag of spinach, I will chop and cook what we don't need for salad, then freeze in serving size bags. We love having spinach eggs, and the small bags of spinach thaw quickly. Then you just squeeze out the extra water between paper towels and it's ready to add to your eggs." WHAT??? we eat spinach at least 2x/week!

From Katie Vyktoriah : "I'm not sure if you know this or not, but another way to keep things like berries fresher for longer is to rinse them in a mixture of water/vinegar (10 parts water, 1 part vinegar) for about 5 minutes. Then drain and put in bags or whatnot. It kills all the mold spores and any germs that are on them, and means they last a week or so longer than normal." i actually just read this on pinterest and am super excited to try it out!!

From Casey : "I buy romain lettuce at Costco and then wash and spin it. Then we roll it up in paper towels and put it in ziplock bags... It can last up to a month!" OMG we go through lettuce like it's going out of style WHY did i not know this????? 

Wedding Planning

i have been looking at wedding stuff 100 times more since T told me he is interested in marrying me...so i decided to keep a list of tips as to what i've heard from others they did or didn't like at weddings:

Do's:

• Good food! 
• If serving a buffet make it as covered as possible. 
• Make sure servers know how to serve if having a menu. 
• Consider guest comfort!
• Beverages for waiting (even for ceremony).
• Fans if it may be hot and guests will be outside.
• Blankets if it may be cold and guests will be outside.
• Include the kids!
• Have the officiator 

Don't's:

• Seating is a priority!
• Don't sit anyone near a restroom.
• Don't squish people in. Consider comfort.
• Consider how guests are getting from their car to the ceremony/reception.
• Don't make people walk on gravel in heels!!

I'm sure there will be more on that later...especially considering I'm going to be attending a bridal show this sunday! (Can't wait!!!)

Laundry Soap + Cheat Sheet

So, we've been using a homemade detergent for our HE washer for a few months now. About 3-4 months ago I pretty much had a breakdown over the cost of laundry detergent...my excema had started flaring up again, and when I went to the store to find a gentle laundry detergent it shocked me that it was so dang expensive!! What's in this stuff anyways? What exactly am I paying for. So I did some research and turns out most of what I'm paying for is the stupid bottle I throw away :( This does not a happy Jenifer make! So I scoured the internet looking for a detergent that was cost effective. And lo and behold my Pinterest addiction has helped me out and I was able to find several recipes for DIY Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent that claimed to be safe for HE washers. So I took the plunge and am proud to say I haven't looked back!! After using my new recipe my clothes are softer, have zero static cling and smell wonderfully clean! (I even left some in the washer for an extended amount of time - which we won't talk about-and they didn't smell all mildewy!! YAY!!) Now, I like to save money as much as the next person, and was ecstatic to find and agree with a breakdown of savings! I found my recipe at Building It On Pennies. And I have to say I LOVE this soap!! You can click on her link and read her how to (which does have pics), or you can keep on reading to discover my how to which is a bit different!

Ingredients:
Borax Laundry Detergent Booster
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
Fels-Naptha or Ivory Soap

You will also need:
a 5 gallon bucket
immersion blender or a paint mixer drill bit and drill
a large pan/bowl that is stove-top safe and will hold more than a gallon of liquid
a grater
measuring cup (I use 2: 1 for liquid and 1 for solid)

Once you have collected all your ingredients you are ready to go!

1. Take your Fels-Naptha or Ivory Soap and cut it into thirds.
2. Baggie 2 of your thirds for your next batches.
3. Take your remaining third and if using FN grate completely (I used this ikea grater on the fine grate side and LOVE it since it catches everything), if using ivory soap you can microwave it for a few minutes in lieu of grating.
4. Take 1/2 gallon (which is also 8 cups or 2 quarts) of water and bring to a boil.
5. Add your shredded or microwaved soap and bring back to boil.
6. Keep stirring and keep an eye on the soap mixture b/c if you're like me you'll boil it over without meaning to!
7. Once the soap has completely melted add 1/2 a cup of borax and 1/2 a cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda.
8. Here's where I do mine differently: I let this boil for about 10 minutes (vs her 5) stirring to make sure it's all moving and not sitting in a clump on the bottom somewhere.
9. Put 1.5 gallons (24 cups or 6 quarts) of COLD water in your bucket.
10. Pour your hot soap mixture in and start to stir. (You can use your immersion blender or paint mixer...I've even heard some people hand stir.)
11. Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour and stir again. (I sometimes let mine sit overnight and stir again, but that's only because I forget).

You are now ready to use your soap! 

The main reason I let mine boil longer is b/c I've found it separates less. However, everything I've found says that some separation is normal. 

I dispense mine in a drink dispenser and usually just shake it if it separates.

I also use white vinegar in a downey ball for softener. And it also works like a charm!!

Now, more than once I've had to google how to remove a stain, so I recently made a cute little cheat sheet to keep in my laundry room. 

I printed it out and put it and this in a frame and voila I have helpful art in my laundry room!! Now I want some vinyl lettering to add this!

We talked about it...

I finally got up the nerve to talk to my boyfriend about marriage and can now safely say he is interested in marriage to me!! :) I was so happy to hear this! It's been about 2 weeks now since we talked about it, but I'm glad I can safely put my fears of him not wanting to marry me away. My boyfriend has been married previously and it ended badly. I was terrified it had left a bad taste in his mouth with regards to marriage and am ecstatic that he said while he never thought he'd get married again it is something he's been thinking about with me! So now I have gone into overdrive on pinterest pinning all kinds of wedding related pins. Now I am anxiously awaiting a proposal (which when we talked about it he told me he's been thinking about how to propose)!!!

Just goes to show you that you should ask if you have questions about something!! I'm so grateful he gave me the answer I wanted to hear!

Gonna do the new!

               in case you haven't noticed, i read A LOT of blogs...i sometimes wish internet-ing and blogging were my job...except that i'm a people person most of the time so i would imagine the world wide web and blogs would not be quite as fulfilling all the time as my mind occasionally leads me to believe. anywho, i've decided to start doing a few new things. Some of the new things i'm interested in are:

• cleaning out. i found this amazing list via mimiandmeg.

• paring down. another amazing list via mimiandmeg.

• mini construction-ing:

           1. bathroom:

               ~mirror revamping with either a me-built or pre-built shelf

               ~bathtub storage

               ~bathtub coziness addition

               ~shower update

               ~makeup organization

           2. closet:

               ~stiletto storage this or this

               ~flip flop storage

there's soooo much more organization and construction i'd like to do but, i think this is a healthy list for now :) i'll be tackling these projects and posting about them all very soon! starting at the top and working my way down.

imperfection

i am an imperfection. i do not always have the best attitude, mouth, personality...or really anything. there are days when i want to be left the heck alone and days when i would do anything to not have to be. i don't always say things right, and i don't always pay attention. but, i am grateful for every single stinkin' person in my life and who aren't in my life (both ever and ever again). i found out on friday that a friend of mine died in her sleep...she was maybe 5-8 years older than me. we hadn't spoken in a while, because i am also an imperfect friend. i think about it now and i was able to easily go about my day once i put her from my mind... how horrible to be able to put someone so easily from my mind, especially after they have lost their life. is that all we mean? are we only important while we are here? i do not want to be so easily forgotten. i do not want my daily life to completely overwhelm me to the point where i'm too busy for the important people in my life. i do no want people to be less important to me than things. i understand that life has to go on after death, but i wonder what it says about a person when life is so easily continued after a loved on dies. is it the amount of love you feel for someone that defines the ease with which you move on? i want my own life to be of a greater importance to all who know me than to be able to move on after only minutes of finding out about my demise...i would think many people would feel that way. i would like to think i am about so much more than the hats i wear and the things i do...i want to be about more, but i don't think being less means you are less. i am a sometimes confusing paradox.

menu planner/grocery list

in addition to my menu board i decided to create a menu planner/grocery list for my 2 week shopping ventures. here it is:

i like to keep things color coordinated so i matched the greens to my menu board, and my boyfriend prefers squares to any other shape so squares it is for the menu selections. i also chose to laminate it so i could save a few trees! what i do is write my meals + 2 sides  in each green box, then i use the dotted lines for the ingredients i need for those recipes. and of course there's a bottom part for other non-recipe related items.

I previously used this one from yellowinlife:

i found it on pinterest and liked the layout and the font, the problem: i plan for 2 weeks at a time and this one only has for 4 days. i also tried using this one and just made some copies that i stapled together, but i ran into the issue of when i wrote the ingredients individually under each recipe it was hard to read when i was at the store, and 2 days i planned for different chicken meals that called for the same amount of chicken and i managed to only buy enough chicken for one night. :(

so, i made some changes and made my own.  :) enjoy!