Haircut and Garage Sales

I realized today that of all the haircuts Brooks has recieved (which is 6 by the way) I've never taken a before and after picture.  Well, no more.  This week is Brooks' first birthday so he needed a new 'do' for his party next weekend.  Dad was an awesome help and kept him distracted while I clipped away.

So here's the before ......

And the after ........

He was not at all interested in smiling - so this was the best picture I could get.  Isn't he handsome though????  He always looks so grown up after a haircut.  Here's an interesting fact.  We've cut Brooks' hair 6 times since he's been born, taking over 1/2" off each time.  Had we never cut it, it would be at least 3" longer and well past his shoulders.  Let's just hope if we have any girls that they are blessed with the same abundance of hair!

This weekend was also the Tea city rummage sale.  I've never been much of a 'rummager' before but I've really gotten into it this year.  Today we found some GREAT deals.  I bought a bunch of 18 & 24 month clothes for Brooks!  Here's the take from the day .....

3 pairs of pants, 6 shirts/onesies and two - yes TWO - Viking jerseys. One is size 12 months (for this year's football season) and the other is 3T (for future seasons).  Chris was so torn as to which one to buy that he bought them both!!  He was pretty excited about them.  Looks like Brooks is too.

And this was my favorite buy of the day!

A winter coat for Brooks for this year.  It looks almost brand new!!!

The fleece lining also zips out so it's like 2 coats in 1.  The fleece looks more worn, but the outer shell seriously looks brand new!  No dirt, rips or tears.  It's great!  And for only $3!!  I bought all the clothes and the jacket for $10.  I LOVE garage sales.

Plus I bought a bike for me.  We have one in the garage, but now with two we can go on a family bike ride.  It's not fancy but for $15 you can't go wrong.  A friend of mine is also giving us her little bike cart so Brooks can ride along too!  He absolutely loves being outside, so I'm excited to take it out for a spin.

pizza night

We love pizza in our house.  Well, to be more accurate ... Chris loves pizza!  Much more than me, but I do enjoy a good slice as well.  Tonight we made homemade pizza.  We've tried this in the past with store bought crusts and they've been ok.  But I've started making my own and  they are soooooo much better than Pillsbury.  Here was our creation from tonight:  Canadian bacon, pineapple, black olives and LOTS of cheese! 

Here's my crust recipe so you can have your own pizza night:

1 C. warm water

1 pkg (or 2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast

1 tsp. sugar

3 C white or wheat flour  - (I used 1 C. white and 2 C wheat so it didn't get too dry)

2 T. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

Mix the yeast, sugar and water, stirring to dissolve the yeast.  Let it rest 5 minutes.  Add the other ingredients.  Knead the dough on a floured board, adding more flour until it's not sticky.  Place in a bowl and cover, letting it rise from five minutes to two hours.  (I let mine sit for about 15 minutes and it turns out perfect!)  The longer you let it rise, the more bread-like the dough will become.  Punch down the dough and shape in to a large pizza crust.

I also added about 1 T. each of oregano and garlic salt to the dough before letting it rise.  It smells amazing and makes the crust extra yummy!  You can either divide the dough into two crusts (which makes two 'thin' crusts) or use it all for one pizza - making it thicker.  We've tried it both ways and I prefer the thicker crust.  But you can decide.

Top with any ingredients you like and bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes.  I've also loosely calculated the cost  and depending on the toppings you use, it only cost $4-6 per pizza.  The crust itself is only about $.99.  It's about the cost of a frozen pizza, but tastes SO MUCH BETTER!

It was a good team effort.  It was also a slightly momentous occasion as this was Brooks' first time eating pizza!  What did he think??

Well, considering he was shoveling it in by the handful, I'd say he liked it :)

Plus, he at TWO whole pieces!  Like father like son,right?

leftover taters

If you're anything like me, you always make waaaaaay too many mashed potatoes for a meal.  And I can never seem to eat them all, causing me to throw them out.  Boo.  But I came across this quick and easy soup recipe from my Miserly Moms book (more on that another time) that uses leftover mashed potatoes.  And since I have a big bowl of them in my fridge, I gave it a try!  It turned out aweseome!!!  Then I served it with homemade oatmeal bread (my first attempt at making bread - a success I think), thus creating this ... a very affordable, easy to make and delicious meal.

Here's the recipes for the both the soup and bread.

Quick Potato-Cheese Soup

1 T. butter
1 onion diced (I used onion powder since my dear husband won't eat actual onions)
2 T. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 C. water
1 C. leftover mashed potatoes
2 C. milk
1/2 C. grated cheese

In a saucepan, melt butter and saute the onion until light brown.  Stir in the flour and S & P.  Stir, forming a roux paste.  Add water, stirring constantly.  When mixed, add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir while it thickens and the cheese melts.

Note:  I also added 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream to ensure that the soup thickened ... and it did.  I also added chopped broccoli for color and flavor.  I doubled the recipe and put the extra in the freezer for another cold and rainy day like today.  My husband, who must have MEAT at every meal, didn't even notice the meatless entree I served this evening.  Even if he did, he didn't say anything.  All I heard was "mmmm, this is delicous."  I'll take that :)


Oatmeal Bread

2 pkgs (1/4 oz each) dry yeast
1  1/4 C. warm water
1  1/4 C. warm milk
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. honey
2 T vegetable oil
2 C. quick cooking oats
6 C. bread flour (I used all purpose flour since that's all I had)
2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in water and add milk.  Add sugar and honey and stir.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well.  Knead for 5 minutes, then let rise to double in size.  Punch down, then knead again.  Let rise once more to double in size.  Shape into two loaves and let rise to double again.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Note:  My bread turned out fairly dense.  Either it's supposed to be that way or I didn't do something right. (remember, this is my first time making bread) Either way, I really enjoy a hearty piece of bread, so I loved it.  It does take a little time to let the bread rise a total of 3 times, but if you're going to be around the house all day (like I was today), it's a nice little project to putz with.

homemade cinnamon rolls

This morning I made homemade (yes, from scratch) cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Actually the process began last night.  I knew it was going to take a while to let the dough rise (over an hour), roll it out, spoon on the filling, roll up, cut into 1" slices and arrange.  Then I put them in the fridge overnight and in the morning took them out to rise once more and then bake.  The result??  These wonderfully delicous, homemade sweet rolls!

They were topped with a yummy buttery frosting .... soooo good!  The recipe made about 18 rolls (there was another pan!), so I will probably end up freezing some of them (unless Chris gets to them first ... which is ok too:)  The best part about these rolls (besides being super tasty) is that they were really cheap to make and better for you than the store bought kind with all the preservatives and extra sugar. 

In an effort to save money, I'm venturing into making more food from scratch.  It's much cheaper, easier than you would think, and like I said before, much healthier.  So far I have recipes for Bisquick, breads, granola bars, cream of mushroom soup (who knew you could make that??), chocolate syrup and more!  I'll post more about our money saving tips as they come up.  It's kind of a process and a bit more work, but its worth it because it saves us money which allows me to stay home with Brooks!