Wow. It's Almost Christmas!!

Well, it seems that we have all been pretty busy with shopping, cooking, baking, planning, partying, etc.  I can't believe Christmas is almost here.  I wanted to jot down some of my favorite Christmas traditions.

1.  Christmas Eve:  Old:  Every Christmas Eve we open a few gifts: a pair of pajamas and an ornament.  We are carrying this tradition on to our kids.  I love it.  New:  Now that our family is growing (8 grand kids in almost 4 years and one on the way) we spend lunch at the Pizza Factory and bowl after at Phat Cats.  Such a fun day out.

2.  Christmas Day:  Old:  When I was little, we used to see at least one movie in the theaters, sometimes more depending on what was out.  I loved that but haven't done it since I got married.  New:  My husbands family tradition has always been a big Christmas dinner.  Ham, funeral potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, jello salad and Chocolate Roll for dessert.  I am very much looking forward to that.

3.  Other Traditions:  Seeing Christmas lights(Temple Square, neighborhood lights, etc.), making and frosting sugar cookies, delivering neighbor gifts, lots of Christmas music.

What are your favorite traditions?

Thanksgiving is coming!

I'm amazed that Thanksgiving is just a few days away! It was just barely Halloween, right?

Anyway, as we all get excited about the Turkey, potatoes, stuffing and pie. Here's a friendly little food-safety refresher.

Keep food out of the danger zone. Food should not remain between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 2 hours. Use a food thermometer to keep track of how warm or cold food is.

Store leftovers promptly and properly. This is sort-of part of rule #1, but deserves a separate section. If you live in a cold climate (outside temperature must be below 40 degrees F) It can be helpful to put containers of leftovers outside for an hour or two until they have cooled down, then put them in the fridge. Just don't forget to move them into the fridge! :) In order to help food cool down fast enough, cut left overs into smaller pieces and store in shallow containers.

Thaw the Turkey correctly. The USDA has some great information on this. Here are their instructions:
In the refrigerator
Place frozen bird in original wrapper in the refrigerator (40 °F or below). Allow approximately 24 hours per 4 to 5 pounds of turkey. A thawed turkey can remain in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. 
In cold water
If you forget to thaw the turkey or don’t have room in the refrigerator for thawing, don’t panic. You can submerge the turkey in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes. Allow about 30 minutes defrosting time per pound of turkey. The following times are suggested for thawing turkey in water. Cook immediately after thawing.

For more information (including a chart for thawing time) visit this page from the USDA.

Let's all have a happy and healthy holiday with no food poisoning! Happy Thanksgiving!

Zaycon Chicken Event!

Alright friends! 

Zaycon Foods chicken event is going on right now! $1.69 a pound is an incredible deal! A 40lb box comes to $67.60. If your not sure what im referring to click here for my blog post about zaycon's chicken event! You wont want to miss the chance to get caught up/or started on your year supply. Chicken in stores are averaging 2.51 per lb! Click here to check out zaycons website!!! Happy Canning/freezing!


* Do you find this website helpful?
*Do you prefer canning or freezing your chicken?

The Number 10

One thing I really hate lately is a messy house.  And with three little girls with short attention spans, a clean house can quickly and easily turn to chaos.  So I have learned the power of the number 10.  And just like how you count to ten to calm yourself down you can do little things in tens.

So say your house looks like this:

When my house and kitchen especially gets this bad, I don't want to do anything.  No cleaning or cooking.  I want to curl up and hope it just disappears.  But instead of doing that, I take on this job ten at a time.

Ten dishes

Ten toys

Ten clothes

etc.

Hey and if you don't care how long it takes, take a ten minute break between your list of ten items.  Some days, that's what I do.

And pretty soon, your house can turn back into a home:

It's certainly not perfect, but what house is with toddlers and toys?

So don't let a messy house overwhelm you.  Take it in tens.

You'll feel better and I know a clean house can change everyone's mood.

Do you have a system for cleaning your home?

30 Lunch Ideas

It's hard coming up with lunch ideas for kids everyday... especially those that aren't in school yet. Hopefully this will help!

1. PB&J sushi rolls (or instead of jelly use bananas)

2. Apple slices and peanut butter

3. Mini Pizzas

4. Cheese Crisps

5. Quesadillas

6. Mini sandwiches on rolls

7. Sandwich kabobs

8. Baked Potatoes

9. Cookie Cutter Meat, Cheese and Crackers

10. Tomato Soup and Crackers

11. Grilled Cheese

12. BLT

13. Lettuce Wraps

14. Nachos

15. Tuna

16. Taquitos

17. Burritos

18. Chicken Nuggets

19. Pizza Rolls

20. Macaroni and Cheese

21 Bagel Sandwiches

22. Bean and Cheese Quesadilla

23 Pretzel and Cheese

24. Spaghettios

25. Pigs in a Blanket

26 Soup

27 Chicken Wraps

28. Meat Pies

29. Tomatoes and Cheese on French Bread

30. Left Overs

What are some of your favorite lunches?

Back To School - College Style

I know school has already started for most everyone, but EVERY blog out there has done a back to school post geared for moms with kids so I thought we should have a post for college students. And since you can't have a back to school post without a first day of school picture, here ya go...!

It's technically the 3rd day of school and the hubster didn't want to cooperate and take a picture with his backpack on so this is as good as it gets.

This semester I'm on campus 3 days a week, 4 hours a day so I have to bring along snacks. Otherwise my lucky classmates would get to hear my tummy rumble all through class! Plus I'm one of those lucky ones that needs something in my system every few hours in order to function.

I've made things a little easier on myself this semester. To help save on time and not find myself running late for school in the morning (since I have to leave at 7:30am, yuck!), I've prepared a few snacks ahead of time that I can just grab and go. As soon as I got home from the grocery store I washed and bagged all of the grapes and carrots that I bought by putting them into little snack bags. Now I just grab one of each as I'm heading out the door and I'm good to go.

Grapes, String Cheese, and Carrots

I also took the time to bag up some different crackers and other snacks, because let's face it, although carrots and grapes are delicious and good for you, they're not always filling or quite what you're looking for. It was super easy to bag up everything all at once and now I don't have to worry about it for a while. It was certainly hard to wake up for school these last 2 days and I know as the semester goes on it will only get harder (when I find myself wanting to go less and less), but since I had these snacks already prepared I made it to school in plenty of time and I didn't have to go without eating due to running out of time to grab a snack. The other nice thing is since there are healthy choices prepared it allows me to grab things that are good for me instead of less healthy options that are prepackaged like a candy bar. Win/win!

To my college friends past and present:
What are some things you do to help get out the door on time?
What snacks do you like to take with you?

Yogurt Popsicles

What you need:

 

·         3 different flavors of yogurt (any flavor)

paper cups

popsicle sticks

tin foil

spoons

Directions:

Use one flavor of yogurt and fill the bottom of the cup 1/3^rd full. Repeat this step with the second and third flavors of yogurt until the cup is full. Place aluminum foil over the top of the cup and cut a slit in the center. Slide a Popsicle stick through the slit and half way down the cup of yogurt. Place in the freezer for at least 4 hours (overnight is best). Peel away paper cup and enjoy.

Skin Care

I was reading a friends blog the other day, she posted about skin care and the 8 steps to healthy skin. Yes, you read that right, there are 8 steps to healthy skin. I currently mainly do # 6, 8 and occasionally 1. I'm sure there are many of you out there like me who just thought as long as I wash my face and moisturize I should be good to go... apparently not.
 Here are the steps

1. Cleanse – clean your face with a cleanser. Pretty simple, right?
2. Exfoliate – yes, every day. A very gentle exfoliation though. Avoid it if you have some major pimples so you don’t spread the bacteria everywhere.
3. Tone – apply toner to your face to even your skin’s ph level. 
4. Treat – You can just do this step at night, which would be applying some sort of anti-acne or preventative aging serum.
5. SPF – gotta protect that skin!
6. Moisturize
7. Primer – I honestly didn’t even know about this. If I understand it right, it helps your make-up last all day and prevents it from smudging or coming off.
8. Foundation – putting on whatever make-up you want

I didn't even know half of these existed! I feel like  have been introduced to a whole new world. Now granted I have two children under the age of 2, so the likely hood of me doing all these steps are slim. However, im definitely going to invest in a primer. I didn't even know that existed! I hate that a few hours after I put my make up on its already worn off.

So now im curious, how many of you knew there were so many steps to skin care greatness? Do you follow all these steps? And if so what products do you recommend for those of us that are clueless?

Gone Fishin'

Here's a fun snack for small kids!
*Kids under 2 should be supervised with pretzels due to choking hazard*

What you need:

Pretzel Sticks

Cream Cheese

Goldfish Crackers

Blue Food Coloring

Directions:

In a small dish, mix a few drops of food coloring into some cream cheese. Then take a stick pretzel and dip the end into the blue cream cheese. Now using the cream cheese dipped pretzel, go fishin' for some goldfish. Once a fish is caught eat it!!! And eat the cream cheese and pretzel too. No double dipping!!!

Healthier Alternatives For Kids

Here are some healthy snack options for our growing kids.

Fig Newtons instead of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fruit Leather instead of Fruit Roll-ups

Cheese and Fruit

Smoothies

Raisins

Dried Fruit instead of Fruit Snacks

Dried Veggies instead of Chips

Frozen Yogurt instead of Popsicles

Nutritious Cereals instead of Sugary ones

Graham crackers dipped in applesauce

Mini Rice Cakes

Ants on a log

What healthy snacks do you give your kids?