Tackling Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

These are so soft and delicious.  They are not low-calorie, but they are a yummy treat.

If you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment, they work lovely.  If not, you can use a food processor to combine everything together.  You'll need to knead (haha!) the dough if you are using the food processor.  Only don't knead with flour, use vegetable oil. 

Cinnamon Roll Dough (adapted from What's Cooking America)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

5 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon dry active yeast

In the mixing bowl on your Kitchen-Aid or the bowl on your food processor, mix milk, water, butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar.   Now add flour, salt and yeast.  Mix until a ball forms.  In the Kitchen-Aid, keep mixing for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove the dough ball from your food processor bowl and pour onto an oiled surface.  Knead for about 2-3 minutes.  Roll the mixture onto an oiled surface, press into a 15 x 24 rectangle.

Cinnamon Roll Filling

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

In a bowl,  combine brown sugar and cinnamon.  I usually rub the mixture through my fingers to make sure it's completely combined.  It will feel like dry sand.  Pour melted butter over the cinnamon roll dough rectangle and then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over it.  Spread it to the edges, making sure it soaks up the melted butter.  Roll up the dough and then slice into equal portions.  I make 12 rolls.  Cut the dough log in half.  Then cut each half into half.  You should have 4 smaller logs.  Now slice those into 3 equal slices. You can freeze them at this point.

If you want to bake them, place into a baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1-1.5 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees F for only 10 minutes.   

(after they have risen, before baking)

Cinnamon Roll Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

In a bowl, mix and stir everything together until smooth and creamy.  Immediately spread onto each cinnamon bun hot out of the oven.  

These are so yummy!

I made some Caramel Apple Sticky Buns for the bakery a few weeks ago.  They were a huge hit.  So yummy and soft and sticky and good and delicious and well, I could go on...

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns:

1/2 cup butter

1-1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon corn syrup

1 apple, finely diced*

Melt butter in skillet, add brown sugar.  Bring to a boil add corn syrup and apples.  Cook for another minute or two, stirring to coat the apples and making sure everything is melting nicely.

Line a 9" cake pan with tin foil and then place a 9" circle of parchment in the bottom.  Then pour the caramel apple mixture into the bottom.  Arrange cinnamon rolls over the apple mixture and allow rolls to rise for an hour or so.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  When you press on the center of the rolls, it should sink a little.  That's good.  

Flip them onto a serving plate and then peel the tin foil away and parchment circle.

*I've also made these with pears.  

They are so yummy and gooey!

Tackling Our Homeschool Cabinet

We have an armoire cabinet filled with homeschool supplies.  Everything from paper, notebooks, pens, pencils, workbooks, markers, erasers...etc.  During the back-to-school season, CVS and Walgreens offered great deals on school supplies.  When I got home, I stuffed everything on the shelves.  

When we do craft projects, I meander to the garage and bring in some supplies we need to complete the task.  Afterward, I leave the leftover supplies in the cabinet.  

My husband likes to declutter his computer desk.  His idea of decluttering his space, is to put everything in my homeschool cabinet.  So there are also computer keyboards and cable wires stuffed on the shelves.  

Needless to say, our cabinet has become a catch-all.  

I decided to tackle it.

Here's what it looked like before:

And here's what it looks like now.

Phew!  It took me about 3 hours to sort through everything.  Normally it wouldn't have taken so long, but the kids wanted to "help" me do everything.  And we got sidetracked and looked through old pictures and old photo albums.  Anyways, it got done and it feels great!

Although, today Sissy went looking for the crayons and said, "Mommy, you organized everything, now I can't find anything!"...gotta love it!

Have you tackled anything lately?  Visit 5 Minutes For Mom for more tackles!

Enjoy!

Party on a Frugal Budget

How do you host a party for your little girl (or boy) on a frugal budget?

Well, for one thing, you do everything yourself instead of paying out of pocket for it. 

1.  Watch videos on how to make a barbie doll cake.  Listen carefully to the instructors so you get the cake just right.  Baking the cake and freezing it ahead of time can save you some time and money later on.  This way the cake is waiting for you.  If it doesn't turn out, you'll have plenty of time to rebake and start over. 

2.  Make appetizers from your stockpiled pantry and freezer.  Frozen spinach boxes I snagged for $.60 and sour cream for $.59 turned into a great Spinach Dip.  If you're not sure what you can make with something in your stockpile, visit the brand's website to see if they have any recipe links.  It's a great way to try new recipes.  Also, keep an eye out for sales and buy when things are cheap.  Plastic forks for $.39 and straws for $.39.  Yep, that's a Walgreens deal from November.

(My friend Jodi took this picture.  Thanks Jodi!)

3.  Make your own invitations.  I found some clip-art and printed out invites.  Then glued on some glitter to make them sparkly.

4.  Make your own cupcake picks from old scrapbook material in the garage.  Well, maybe that's just me, but I have tons of scrapbooking stuff I had to move out of the house to make room for kiddos and homeschooling. (Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to make these.) I totally forgot to put these on the cupcakes!!!  Oh well, maybe next time :)

5.  Keep decorations to a minimum.  I bought some cheap balloons at Walmart and bought some hot pink tulle from Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon.  Tying the balloons in the corners of the walkways with the tulle draped across, makes for inexpensive, yet festive decorations.

6.  Make punch from kool-aid.  We decided to stick with the pink theme and used pink lemonade.  Freeze some kool-aid in a Tupperware ring (or Bundt pan) and store in the freezer for the party.  Think ahead because if you're like me, I only have one ring so I started about a week before the party to get a couple of these frozen.  Buy kool-aid packets when they are on sale $.20 a packet.  Have sugar, kool-aid packets and pitcher on hand to mix up as needed.  It's cheaper than soda and no caffeine to make the kids nuts.

7.  Visit the Dollar Tree for some great "thank-you-for-coming" grab bags.  I snagged a couple of bags of candy along with these cute puzzle necklaces, all for less than $10.  I divided everything among some "princess" lunch baggies for all the girls to take home.

8.  Print coloring pages off the internet.  I chose some Barbie and the Three Musketeers coloring pages, since that's the movie we planned to watch.  I also grabbed two boxes of 64-count crayons from the Dollar Tree and dumped them into a box for the girls to color at the table.

9.  Barbie Makeover Table.  This could have been expensive, but I picked up on some clearanced hair glitter after Halloween.  So that was a huge savings.  We also used some store rewards to pick up some pretty sparkly fingernail polish at Walgreens.  My biggest surprise find was at Goodwill.  They had received boxes of eyeshadow and lip gloss from a drugstore and marked it 4 for $1.  So I got a couple of shades of each. This was a HUGE hit!  The girls had more fun applying make-up to each other than anything else!  So cute!

10.  Keep it simple.  I got this idea from my cousin.  She said let the girls decide what they wanted to do.  So from the beginning I let Sissy decide what we were going to do for the afternoon of the party.  She said she wanted to watch a movie and play Barbies.  She also wanted a Barbie cake.  We talked about the other fun things we could do and she decided on coloring and sparkles in her hair.  All in all, I think she did a great job for a 4-year-old.  Everyone had a great time.  Can't wait until next time!

How do you party on a budget?  

This post has been linked to:

• Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda!
• Wordful Wednesday at parenting BY dummies
• Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom
• Wordless Wednesday at A Lot of Loves
• Wordless Wednesday at Newlyweds Blog 
• Wordless Wednesday at A Daily Dose of Toni
• Wordless Wednesday at A Beautiful Mess

Tackling My Kitchen Corner

I have a corner in my kitchen.  

Do you?

It's a corner cabinet and corner counter.

It's the perfect place to put things.  Any. Thing.  All.  Things.

I've been trying to clean up the clutter little by little.  I've already cleaned up and organized our laundry closet and our deep freezer.  Now I just need to maintain those areas.  

While our oldest was here, we also went through the foyer coat closet and cleaned it out.  We donated coats, sweaters, maternity clothes, shoes, boots and baby toys.  I didn't take before-and-after photos, but trust me when I say I literally had to push the door to close it.  And you should know me well enough by now, that I don't exaggerate.  Unfortunately, I'm a sentimental clutter-bug.  I truly hate throwing things in the trash, that's why I donated everything I could.  And the best part about the donating was Goodwill put a donation box in the Food Lion parking lot in Newnan, so while we were shopping last week, we dropped everything in there.  

Now back to the chaos of my corner.

See how crazy it can get?  And this is good.  Last week my husband went through all the pharmacy receipts and payroll stubs I had piled up behind the white phone charging station.  I also had 3 cookbooks and a 2" 3-ring binder full of recipes in that corner.  But I put all of them on the book shelf.  It's their "home".

I always tell my kids, "if it doesn't have a 'home', it needs to get donated or trashed."  

Now it's time for me to practice what I preach!

I pulled everything out of the cabinet and put it on the counter.  When I was younger, I used to clean apartments for income.  Out of habit, I was checking for any signs of bugs or mice.  Thankfully, there were none.  Phew!  What a relief! 

Then I sorted through the open bags.  I threw away old pretzels, stale chips and Chex Mix, hard-as-rocks gummy candy and expired dried apricots.  If you're cleaning out your cupboards or pantry, don't forget to clip out the Box Tops for Education.  I had 3 in there! 

I put back bread, cereal, the good chips and dried fruit.  

(In case you are wondering what that sticker says on my shelf, is says "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".  I thought it might help me remember not to munch and snack on junk.)

Then I tackled the counter and it looks so much better!

Maybe I'll tackle my bedroom next week.  But no one sees it, but me and Kevin...

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to:

• Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom
• Decluttering Challenge at Mom's Plan
• 11th Heaven's Homemaker Mondays
• Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family
• A Slob Comes Clean End of Year 

Tackling My Laundry "Closet"

Do you have a laundry "closet" or a laundry room? 

I always think of a laundry room as a wonderful place to hide dirty clothes when your friends and family come over.  Unfortunately, we don't have a laundry room, just a closet really.  Our washing machine and dryer are parked behind two doors.  No luxury of hiding laundry in our house.  

Over time though, I've let the shelf above the machines get a little out of control.  And the top of the dryer, well, i can't even tell you the last time I cleaned it off.  Not anymore!  I tackled them today:

Before:

After:

I tried to organize the laundry detergent bottles as best I could.  You know I stockpile laundry detergent when I can get it for $2 and under a bottle.  That's my goal price.  I'm not that particular since the kids are not allergic to it.  The Snuggle fabric sheets were free at Walmart several months ago.  Did you pick up on that deal too?  

 

I even took the vacuum cleaner and sucked up all the lint from behind the machines.  Boy that's a lot for me!  I didn't pull out the machines and clean under them.  I was afraid I would pull some wires and hoses out of place.  I've been babying my washer since it went on the blink a few weeks ago.  I'm doing smaller loads, just more of them.  I'm not opening the lid while it's running, since the manufacturer says it can ruin the machine.  

What have you been tackling lately?  Next I need to work on my corner countertop.  I'm such a clutter-bug!

Enjoy!

Tackling My Frosty Freezer

UGH!  I've been saying I was going to tackle our deep freezer since at least April.

Well Thursday the deed was done.  

The kids and I went grocery shopping and picked up some frozen veggies.  I crammed them into the door shelves only to have the door not close all of the way. 

That's when I decided enough was enough.  At first, I got the blow dryer and started melting some of the ice from the front of the shelf.  It was about 3" thick, just on the front of the metal shelf!  After about 5 minutes, I had Sissy bring me a towel since the water was dripping onto the stuff on the lower shelf.  And Boo-Boo brought me a fork to "pick" my way through the ice.  It was ridiculous!  Finally I found a hammer and banged my way through the ice.  I started on the top shelf and worked my way down.  I could not get all of the ice off the top metal thing.  I'm not sure what that's called, but my hands were killing me, especially my right hand, and I was done banging away at it. 

I used my broom and plastic dust pan to scoop up the ice chunks and put them into plastic garbage bags.  I filled one completely and the other about 2/3 full.  I knew there was a lot of ice in there, but I had no idea there was
that much! 

I poured it out on the driveway and the kids played in it like it was snow.  So funny!

Now my freezer looks fabulous!  It feels really good to have it all cleaned out...FINALLY!

...and now I will ENJOY it.  :)

This has been linked to:
Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom

The Daily Grind: Cleaning the Dishwasher

Have you ever looked, and I mean really looked, inside your dishwasher?

I did.

Last week.

It was totally disgusting!

I usually wipe down the edges a couple of times a week and spray the front with some window cleaner to wipe off the fingerprints and hand smudges left from my little ones.

Just so you know, I'm not talking about this kind of maintenance.

My dishwasher wasn't cleaning anything on the top rack.  This is what made me look inside.  There is a spray arm connected to the top rack and will spin and spray water to get everything clean.  It hasn't been working.  So I went online to see what I need to do in order to clean and maintain the dishwasher, thinking there might be something stuck in a hole or something.  After taking out the bottom rack, I looked up and saw the entire "roof" of the dishwasher covered in mildewy mold.  

GROSS!  

I don't know how long it's been like that, I mean, who looks up there anyway?  I never had before now!  (how many of you have ran from the computer to check out your dishwasher? please let me know if yours was like mine or if mine was just a fluke!)

Anyway, so I immediately got my white vinegar and starting cleaning everything in the dishwasher.  I don't even want to tell you what the rag looked like, but it was nasty!  But now the dishwasher is clean.  

Thankfully, I found another site that stated there probably wasn't enough water pressure reaching the instrument to make the spray arm move and spray.  

By the way, did you know you shouldn't put liquid dishwashing detergent in the dishwasher?  Apparently the bubbles interfere with water pressure too.  Not that I've done that or anything!

My husband got home and adjusted the regulator under the house and so far so good.  We still can't run the washing machine simultaneously with the dishwasher, but we're not interested in buying a booster pump for $1000.  So I'm completely okay with not washing clothes while dishes are going.

As long as I don't have dirty dishes coming out of the dishwasher, I'm good!

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to:

• Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom