That being said, sometimes I come across something that blows my mind so much that I just HAVE to try it. This was one of those things.

Banana “Ice Cream”.

Not banana flavored ice cream. “Ice Cream” made of bananas. I had to try it. And it was easy. And it was delicious. Here’s what you do.

1. Buy Bananas and let them ripen. I mean really ripen. I like to eat my bananas when they’re still a bit green, so when they’re bright yellow with some brown spots they’re too ripe for me to eat, but that’s about where you want them for this.

2. Slice bananas and place them on a cookie sheet. Stick them in the freezer for a few hours. Overnight or all day would probably be best.

3. Throw them in a blender and blend.

4. That’s it. Add some cocoa powder or peanut butter (I added both) if you like that sort of thing. It gets creamy. It has a texture just like ice cream. You can eat it right away for a “soft serve” texture or let it harden for a more “hand dipped” texture.

Just right for summer!

I’m not a great coupon-er. I don’t have the patience to hunt down coupons, clip them out, organize them, and match them up with sales, etc. It’s too much. I work full time at a daycare, with the infants, am trying to fix up our house, and still manage to cook dinner for Chris and I almost every single night of the week. That being said, I just don’t have the time or inclination to coupon.

I  am not a health nut. We eat non-organic foods. Sometimes they’re even processed. For the most part I try to keep our foods fresh and healthy, with as much home-made to them as possible. We save money by not going out to eat very often – I try to keep it at once every two weeks or less.

I still love to try and save as much on our groceries as I possibly can. Here’s how I do it!

I start by clipping coupons. I know I just said I’m not a coupon clipper, but I keep it simple. I get on Kroger’s website (I shop at Kroger because it is our nearest grocery store – next closest is about 10+ miles away), and look at their coupons and add ones I might use to my saving’s card. Simple!

Then I sit down and make a menu for a 2 – week time span. Why two weeks? Well it seems to work for us. Most fresh fruits and veggies seem to keep pretty well for about two weeks, so we always have fresh food. Also, it means I don’t have to spend every weekend at the grocery store. Bonus! I take into account plans with friends and family we already have, holidays, etc. I also ask for Chris’ input on meals he would like to have/cook. Here’s my menu from last week and this coming week:

If you notice down at the bottom of each day I have ingredients noted. This is how I easily create my shopping list. I write down everything I will need for a meal that we do not already have on hand (and is not already on the list). Then I write a list that I try to organize the way the store is laid out (that way I don’t have to double back for missed items). I say try because my Kroger just re-organized and moved all kinds of stuff on me… but I digress.

To my grocery list I also add anything off our needs list (a dry erase board on our fridge for when we are low/out of items), check our breakfast stores and toiletries and cat/dog food/litter/etc. My budget is $150 for two weeks. When you figure it out this comes to less than $1.79 per person per meal. And this includes items for our two cats and dog, as well as our toiletries, treats, etc. Not too shabby.

By creating a menu I am able to account for everything I’m buying, and make sure perishable items (breads, fruits, veggies, etc) are used before they go bad. This helps us to waste less money, as well as eat healthier.

How do you save money on your groceries? Do you have a grocery budget?

I love to clean with white vinegar. I think it smells sharp and clean, and the smell (if you find you dislike it) dissipates very quickly. I use Vinegar alone or in combination with other products (water, dish soap, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide) to clean almost everything in my home. These ingredients, combined with a scrub brush, cloth/paper towel, and and razor blade make up my favorite cleaning products for almost everything.

For every day surfaces I keep a spray bottle of vinegar and dish soap. I’ve used this solution on my laminate countertops, toilets, sinks, toilets, ceramic tile floor, and even pet stains on carpets with great success. I then follow with a wet cloth/mop or spray of clean water to wipe the soap off surfaces.

White vinegar is the best Green Cleaner I’ve found. It is a natural disinfectant, and it’s power is only increased when added with dish soap. Sure bleach is stronger, but I’m not afraid of a few germs (it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to rid your home of all germs), and the process of making bleach has some serious environmental impacts. Namely, the production of bleach releases dioxin and mercury into the air surrounding the chlorine plants (dioxin causes cancer and mercury causes brain damage).  source

White vinegar, on the other hand, while it is a weak form of acetic acid, it is completely natural (made by fermenting starches and sugars), and is even safe to ingest.

Here are just a few of the numerous uses of vinegar:

1. Removing stickers (spray on, let sit for 10 min, scrape off)

2. Cleaning fruit (add to a sink of water, let sit 10 minutes, rinse)

3. Remove odors (allow a bowl to sit in a room overnight)

4. Remove corrosion (allow fixtures to sit in a bowl of vinegar overnight)

5. Clean toilets (pour in tank and allow to sit, wipe down the outside with vinegar, pour in the bowl and scrub)

6. Clean windows (spray on 1/2 vinegar 1/2 water solution, wipe with cloth or newspaper)

7. Clean your cutting board (wipe with vinegar)

8. Keep ants away (spray vinegar along openings like doors and windows, clean ant trails by wiping with vinegar)

9. Spray shower/curtain with vinegar to keep mildew at bay

10. Remove carpet stains (mop up liquid, spray with 1/2 vinegar 1/2 water solution, let stand 2 min, blot – for tough stains add dish soap)

These are just a few of my favorite ways to clean with vinegar, and a few simple tools. What are your favorite cleaning products?

Pardon the outdated picture, this is from before we bought it. We’ve done some curb appeal since!

I love our house. For those of you who don’t know, Chris and I bought a house last summer and this is our first foray into home ownership. We couldn’t be happier (most of the time). We got a great deal on our house, that was a HUD home, but it had sat empty for the past 2 years or so, and needed lots of TLC. We still have a lot to do, and it’s been going slowly, but I still love our house.

That being said, I do NOT love our shiny brass hardware. You name it it’s brass: all the door knobs, drawer and door pulls in the bathroom, towel bars, several lights, and all the metal parts of the fans. All brass. All ugly. Except for the kitchen that has nice brushed nickel pulls on the doors and drawers. What’s a girl, with a small budget to do?

Simple Solution. Spray Paint.

I know, I know, sounds hokey, cheap, not at all durable.

So. Not. True!

I did some research, and sure enough, others have tried this same fix, and it seems to work pretty well. So I took a trip down to my hardware store and spent about $10 in spray paint. I bought a grey automotive primer and a silver metallic spray paint and I was ready to get started.

I began by removing the hardware I was going to start with (door pulls and the bathroom door knob for starters – aren’t they ugly?!)

Make sure all items are clean and dry to start with. I scrubbed them with my favorite cleaner combination of Dawn Dishsoap and white vinegar.

After your items are nice and clean, and dry, you need to scuff them up. I used 150 grit sandpaper and scuffed everything really well. Make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies. Then wipe everything down with a cloth to get all the dust off. See the dull spot? That’s where I’ve already sanded.

Now you’ll want to spray paint in a well ventilated area. Ideally you’ll do this outside. I live in Michigan, and it’s cold out right now, so I chose to do this in my basement. I used a box, and some old packaging to prop everything up for spray painting.

Shake your paint well and begin with the primer. Several light coats are the way to go. I did 2-3 coats of primer, followed by 2-3 coats of paint. Let everything dry really well in between. You have to be patient, this part is tedious, and you will have to keep coming back to it.

(this is just primer and they look better already!)

You know the saying “slow and steady wins the race?” That totally applies here. It took me about a day to get all my pieces done to my satisfaction. Ideally you should wait about 48 hours for the paint to cure before reinstalling your hardware… But I’m not that patient. I waited overnight and then put it back on.

Doesn’t that look better already?!

And instead of spending $4+ each for door pulls and $10+ each for door knobs, I spent $10 total. So far I have done 16 door pulls, a towel rack, a toilet paper dispenser, and a door knob.

Do you have any ways your have updated your home on a very small budget?

This weekend I had a wonderful shopping local experience that I’d like to share with you. Now bear in mind that while I’m not a girly girl, there are some things that I really don’t like to do, one of which is to take my car to have the oil changed. It’s true, I don’t like the waiting, I don’t like the inconvenience, I don’t like the smells, or the condescending way the mechanics treat me. So I made my husband come with me (in fact, he drove).

Now we chose to go on Saturday, and while the weather wasn’t particularly bad, the rodes were icy, so we ended up not running all of the other errands we had lined up, and chose to simply swing by a local oil change place in our small town.

source

I must say I will be a repeat customer. The young men who helped us were very honest and straightforward. They didn’t make me feel like an idiot for being (WAY) overdue for my oil change. They were honest both about the fact that yes I really did need to change my oil filter, and the fact that they didn’t have one for my car (but if I want to buy one they told me I could bring it back and they would put it in my car for free). They told me I really should run a flush because it had been so long since my last change. They were upfront about the cost of all their services, were friendly and personable, and besides being really inexpensive, they were quick. We were in and out in about 10 minutes!

This just leads me into the greatness of supporting your local businesses. Chris and I live in a pretty small town, but we still try to visit local businesses in town. We use a local optometrist instead of going to a big box “glasses-r-us” type store. We frequent a local brewery, Original Gravity, and I must say: if you are ever in the Ann Arbor area, go to this brewery – YUM!

We are lucky enough to live very close to Ann Arbor, which is very supportive of it’s small businesses. I can’t remember the last time we visited a big chain restaurant. Sure we may spend a little more when we do chose to go out, but we do this infrequently, and because they are local, the businesses often offer good deals. One of our favorite restaurants is in Ypsilanti, called Sidetrack Bar and Grill, and they usually have a Free Burger Monday (it’s really a BOGO offer, but totally worth it!).

Local shops support local people, so lets support them. These are the places that are most likely to offer support to things like: high school teams, little league teams, drama/glee clubs, etc. Lets show our support of them too.

Thank you again, Coach’s Oil!

What are some of the local places you frequent?

So that’s it. 6-8 Tortillas, cream cheese, chicken breasts, shredded cheddar, sour cream, and salsa. You can use whatever your favorite brands are.

First cook the chicken. I used 2 chicken breasts for about 7 enchiladas. If you like yours to have more filling you might go with 3. I cooked mine by putting them in a shallow dish with just enough water to cover the bottom, covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the microwave for several minutes (about 4 minute increments until cooked through). This left my chicken very juicy! When cool to touch shred it up and put it in a bow. Add your cream cheese (about 4 oz for 2 chicken breasts). and stir it up. with a little bit of the salsa (maybe 1/4 cup) and 1/4 cup shredded cheese.

Put a scoop in a tortilla and roll it up.

Next add about a 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup salsa to your bowl and mix together. Spread this mixture on top of the enchiladas. Top with 3/4 cup of shredded cheese (or more, depending on how cheesy you like your enchiladas!)

Throw your lovely enchiladas into the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes. You’ll need to at least double that time if they are frozen. I then like to broil mine so the cheese is nice and bubbly.

Mmmm. Don’t those just look ooey gooey delicious? They are delicious with a side of corn and/or size salad!

Welcome to my bathroom! Yes, it’s orange. I know, VERY orange. That’s what you get when you let your husband pick a color (My fault, I did tell him ANY color he wanted…). It’s not so bad. We’re using lots of dark blue accents which tone it down some. Here’s my big problem with this half bathroom. See that mirror? That ugly builder grade mirror that just hangs on that wall, no frame or anything? I hate this mirror.

My dilemma is that while I hate this mirror, we do not currently have the funds to purchase a new mirror, or repair the wall from taking this mirror down (someone – probably the builder – glued it to the wall). So I was looking for a simple way to dress up this raw-edged mirror. On pinterest.com I came across a this by Emily Louise on thesitsgirls.com about how she did her mirror and thought I’d give it a whirl. So off to Lowes we went!

My mirror was bigger than Emily’s, so it cost a bit more. I measured around my mirror and after some simple math knew it would take me a little more than 2 sheets of 2″x2″ tiles, so I bought 3 sheets so I would have plenty of extra. I also got a tube of silicon adhesive. I spent a little under $30. You could cut cost even more if you can find tiles you like in the clearance area of your hardware/tile store.

My next step was to cut the tiles apart and trim the mesh on the back (so you couldn’t see it from the sides). You’ll want a utility knife and/or a sharp pair of sheers (I used a utility knife to cut apart and old but sharp kitchen sheers – not the ones I currently use in my kitchen though!).

Once you’ve trimmed up enough tiles (plus a few extra, just in case) you’re ready to start gluing! Measure again along the bottom. The bottom of my mirror is 35″ across, so I knew that since my tile’s were 2″x2″ that I would have some overhang on each side. I ran a strip of glue along the bottom and pressed the tiles into the glue, making sure to keep a level handy, just in case I needed it.

As you go up the sides make sure you give a good hard push, so they don’t slide around. Use your level to make sure you’re keeping a straight line. Going across the top is a little more tricky. The glue I used takes 45 minutes to set and 24 hours to cure, so while it set I used painters tape to keep the tiles from sliding around.

Be patient. Putting the tiles across the top took me the longest, and was the most frustrating part. But now check out my bathroom!

Doesn’t it look much nicer? It reminds me a bit of a tropical get away. Almost like my husband knew what he was doing when he chose that insanely bright orange (shh… don’t tell him I said that!).

Your home is your haven. It is the one place where you are supposed to be able to feel completely safe and secure. Yet unfortunately there are people out there who can quickly turn your home into a scary place.

My husband and I recently purchased our first home (woohoo!). While we are very excited about this there are some fears that come along with that. We have lived in apartments for the last 7 years, so our neighbors have always been very close. So while we didn’t always know our neighbors well, we did have the security of living close to many other people, most of whom could hear us through the walls if we needed them to. Now our neighbors, though close by, no longer share walls, so it’s harder to hear.

Now don’t get me wrong. I feel very safe and secure in my home. We live with-in limits of a small-ish town, but we still do several things to protect ourselves. Here’s how we try to keep ourselves a little safer:

Change Locks:

The first thing we did upon closing on our house was to change all the locks (and deadbolts!) from the outside to the inside of the house. That means front door, garage door, and from the outside to the inside of the garage. Our home was a foreclosure  so there was really no telling who might have had keys to our home, so this was especially important for us.

Keep Car Key Close:

This may sound silly, but it’s actually a pretty neat tip! Do your car keys have a keyless entry fab? You know, those handy little buttons that unlock and lock your car and pop your trunk? If so, you have a built in safety feature for your home. Say you hear someone outside your home, maybe rattling door handles. You know that red button the back of your car keys (the one you always hit at the most inopportune times…). Push that panic button and you’ve got a free home alarm! That sound ought to scare off most would-be thieves.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              source

Fire Extinguishers:

Keep appropriate fire extinguishers in your house. The National Fire Protection Association recommends keeping a fire extinguisher on each floor. For more information on fire extinguishers visit their website at http://www.nfpa.org

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Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Detectors:

Again you should have these on every floor, especially around the kitchen and bedrooms. Make sure to check batteries in these at least twice a year.

Be Aware:

One of the best tips I can give you about home safety (or safety anywhere) is to be aware of your surroundings. Be able to recognize your neighbors and their cars, and be aware if there are strange people or cars lingering around your property. It’s important for you and your neighbors to keep an eye out on each other. If you’re going to be on vacation ask a neighbor to keep an eye on the place, and let them know if you will be having someone come over (like a pet sitter), so they will know to watch out for these people.

Post Phone Numbers:

This is especially important if you are new to the area. Keep the non-emergency police line and fire department number, poison control, doctor’s office, veterinarian, gas/electric companies, and immediate family posted. These are great for quick reference in an emergency, especially for a babysitter or pet sitter, who may be unfamiliar with the area.

There are lots of simple ways to protect yourself and your family. What are some things you do to stay safe?

Typically my husband and I eat leftovers for lunches, but some meals we have don’t leave much in the way of leftovers. For these occasions I like to keep easy lunch fixes on hand to help our mornings go more smoothly. One of my favorite things to do in this regards is to keep frozen sandwiches on hand.

I know what you’re thinking: FROZEN SANDWICHES?! They must get soggy or fall apart. Well let me tell you this just isn’t true! Here’s how I do it.

1. Start with two loaves of french style bread – you can usually find it in the bakery for about $2 a loaf. You will also need your two favorite types of lunch meat (can be packaged like I have shown here or from your deli, whatever you prefer), as well as your favorite type of cheese (I have pre-sliced here because it was on sale for CHEAP).

2. Slice your bread down the center lengthwise and open it up.

3. Begin layering your meats onto the bottom slice of your bread loaves.

4. Place cheese slices on top of your bread. Note: use as much or as little meat and cheese as you like, this is personal preference!

5. Place the tops back on your sandwiches and slice into desired size (I make 4 sandwiches out of each loaf, but cut them to whatever size your family likes!)

6. Wrap each sandwich individually in plastic wrap.

7. Bag up sandwiches, date the bag, and place in the freezer.

When you are in need of a quick lunch, pull out an individual sandwich and send it off to school with the kids, or in your lunch for work, throw in a fruit or vegetable and some crackers and you have a full meal. If you take it out in the morning it should be nicely defrosted by lunch time. If you fancy a warm sandwich they heat up nicely in the microwave, though are best if you wrap in foil and place in the toaster oven for a few minutes.

These are an easy way to make a hectic morning run a bit more smoothly. What do you do to make your mornings easier?

My puppy Teddy

Today I’d like to talk about how real people live.

We all see beautiful images of immaculate houses, whether it is via television or movie, or on the cover of books and magazines, or even websites like Pinterest. Those crazy people who have white carpet and white furniture and it looks simply beautiful. Well folks I’m here to tell you I live in the real world like you! I do NOT have white carpet. I do NOT have white furniture. One of the biggest reasons for this is I have pets. Yup, it’s true, my house is not a fur free zone!

The photo above is of our most recent family addition, a Double Doodle Puppy named “Teddy” (doesn’t he look just like a teddy bear?!). And let me tell you something about this poodle mix: HE SHEDS!

In addition we also have two cats, both rescues from shelters/Humane Societies, Flip and Avery. (Flip is the Orange one and we think he’s part Maine Coon so is very fluffy, Avery is the grey and Black tabby).

With Three animals in our house there is, needless to say, an abundance of fur. Here are a few tips I have for “de-furring” my home.

1. Buy Microfiber. We have two couches that are super easy to keep fur free via vacuuming or brushing with your hand or lint roller.

2. Choose appropriate colors. I think white furniture is lovely but it is not practical for our lives. Between pet hair and general clumsiness we knew a mocha brown would best suit our lives.

3. Dust weekly. Fur and other grime builds up quickly so a quick dusting of flat surfaces.

4. Vacuum and sweep weekly. We could probably do this every other day if we had the time but for our schedule a weekly vacuum/sweep does it.

5. Deep vacuum monthly. Make sure you get under furniture, on the stairs, and in the creases along the walls. Take a quick swipe along baseboards and along corners before you do this to knock off lurking spider webs and fur balls.

6. Have your carpets steamed at least once a year. The pros do a great job of getting built up hair and grime out of carpet and furniture.

7. Consider slip covers. You can quickly pick up the whole cover and toss it in the laundry to get rid of hair and grime. Not to mention being able to change the look of a room easily!

How do you cut down on pet hair?