I Mustache You a Question...

I just had to hop on the Mustache train for Valentine's Day. I mean does anything say I love you more than a little fancy upper lip hair? By all the mustache themed clothing/art/cards out there I am guessing not!

So with the help of picnik once again I whipped up some mustache valentines for Middle to give to some of his friends.

I made them in super bright fun colors that reminded me of sweet treats. Save them to your computer and print some off for easy peasy Valentines.

 Then all you have to do is find some Valentiney ribbon and attach your favorite candy.

Seriously what a sweet and handsome Valentine! Plus bonus, it can be made super fast.

Dinosaur Valentine Printables

Dinosaurs are a big deal out our house...with three boys I know you are shocked! So this year I decided to make dinosaurs a part of Valentine's Day.

I found these adorable teeny tiny dinosaurs at The Mart (refresher...this is how I refer to Walmart) in the party favor aisle. Around the same time I saw a pin for THIS. Combine both and I came up with an idea for my own Valentines.

First I had to make sure I knew how Dinosaurs actually said Happy Valentine's Day. So I went ahead and asked them...

I found out RAWR pretty much covers it all. Whew...good to know.

Then I went into Picnik and made up some of my own cards using all of their free editing tools. On a side note...anyone else devastated that they are closing up shop? I am starting to have a mini panic attack about it all. Supposedly they are moving everything to Google+, but I am a little leery that it is going to work the same. Maybe I will be surprised. 


Okay, sorry for the side rant. Back to the cards.

These are the cards I made.

Please feel free to click on picture and save to your computer.

I cut up sammie bags and sewed them into smaller bags. I dropped one of the teeny tiny dinos inside each bag and then sewed the bag to the bottom of the card.

I think they are super stinkin' cute.

Twenty-four cards later I was frazzled, but their cuteness rating remained high.

Now Oldest is ready for his school Valentine's party. All he has to do is sign his name.

Happy Valentine's card making!

Linking here:
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Craft-o-manic Mondays: Craft-o-Maniac
Take a Look Tuesdays: Sugar Bee Crafts
Wednesday Wowzers: Oopsey Daisy
Show Me Extraordinary: The 36th Ave

In a Nutshell: Canning, Beef, Coupons

So...um...I am a super late in posting this today. I am running behind in a couple things lately, but I have decided to embrace it. All my running slower is for a very good reason, so I am not going to let it bother me...most the time anyway...hahaha.

I was pretty productive at the beginning of this week and there was a second round of pressure cooking canning at our house. Since my first attempt at the end of Summer with beans went without anything blowing up, I decided that I could give it another go.

I washed the jars and got the lids ready...aren't they so cute and country looking?

I loaded in my canning ingredient. Then I loaded up the pressure cooker.

With a little more confidence I got it locked and loaded and started. I am still a little unsure of everything so when it took a little longer and didn't go exactly like I thought it should, there may have been tears and a frantic call to Hubby and a friend.

No worries though, all worked out. About an hour and half later I had 16 jars all canned and sealed.

So are you wondering what I canned?

No judging...

No seriously, do not judge me.

I canned chicken...say what?!? Yup that is right I canned chicken!

I was totally skeptical when I first heard about canning chicken. I have a friend who had done it and when I spent the afternoon at her house we used a can to make chicken salad sammies. Well, they were just about the most delightful thing. The chicken was awesome. Once I got past how it looked in the jar, I let the taste of the yummy chicken convince me to give it a try.

Luckily I tried this chicken and made the decision right before getting a huge pick up of chicken from a company called Zaycon Foods. PS Thanks to my friend Melanie for introducing us to this company! If you do head on over, we get a referral bonus, so either click on the link above or you can enter LarissaZ in the referred by section when you register. Thanks for sharing the bulk meat love!

I will have to give a little rundown on this company soon.

This is our second time ordering the chicken. This time we were also able to put in an order of ground beef. Forty pounds of 93/7 for $2.99 a pound. YEAH.

So after I canned some of the chicken, prepared and stored the rest, I had to split up the beef into 1 lb portions and store. AND if any of you were wondering if I was going to can the beef...um no. Word on the street is you can...however I felt that my adventures in chicken were enough for now.

So after a day of chicken and beef I was all meat-ed out. I did feel a lot of accomplishment though.

In saving money and frugality fashion, we have also lightly  reinstated this little chore...

Oh couponing...how I am not a huge fan of you. However, our large stock up pile has severely depleted since we moved. So we decided to start up again. We did our first couple shopping trips this week and while we definitely will not qualify for "Extreme Couponing" ever anytime soon, we have stocked up some things again and it feels good.

I have good intentions of showing you guys some projects this week. I have some Valentine printables to share. Maybe a room reveal or two. I am starting to work on Oldest's party projects.

BUT we will see...I can't predict when I am going to need to sit down, chill, and let the only project be growing this tiny human in my belly. Six weeks to go and man am I feeling it.

See ya soon everyone!

A Pinteresting Saturday: Minky Blankie for Newest

Did anyone notice that last week I missed my Pinteresting Saturday deadline? Ugh. This blanket was actually in the works last week, but I simply had too many other things I had to do. So this got done a little later than planned...

...but it did get finished!

We hadn't found a blankie yet for Newest. So when I saw this project by No Big Dill over at Delia's Nesting Series, it immediately got pinned.

pinned HERE

I did make a couple alterations to the original tutorial. First, I did not get the triple stitch in. That was a little frustrating, but I just couldn't seem to get the stitches on in a way to allow three rows. I still really wish I could have gotten the third row in, but I am still pretty pleased how it turned out.

The second alteration I made I did intentionally.

Minky can be a booger to sew with. I mean pull-you-hair-out-makes-you-wish-you-were-a-swearing-kind-of-gal difficult.  A while ago I did a project this project with minky...

tutorial

I had learned about the tip to sew diamonds into the minky to help the material stabilize. It is tedious work, but it is well worth it, AND I think it totally adds an extra detail to the blankie itself.

The last little touch was to mimic the original sewn on tag. I wanted to hand stitch newest's first and middle name onto the little tag. Then I attached the tag using the machine.

A perfect little handmade touch.

Now Newest has a blankie to snuggle in. Hopefully he will just adore it.

How is your pinterest list going?

Have a fabulous Saturday!

Copy Cat Chick-Fil-A Nuggets in a Slider

First off, let me just go on about how great these copy cat Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets are....

Glorious.
Delightful.
Addicting.
Yummers.
Finger-licking...oops wrong chicken company...
Heavenly.

Then if things couldn't get any better...I decided to make sliders and slap the nuggets in between a glorious homemade roll. Now my feelings...

Ditto of the above times 10.

We have made this meal several times over the last couple months. We enjoy treating our family to this meal every once in awhile...it would probably be more if fried foods was more important on the food pyramid, but alas it is not.

I am finally getting around to sharing this recipe with you all. I promise it is an instant crowd pleaser, but most importantly, it is an instant kid pleaser. So what do you have to lose? Absolutely nothing!

Chicken Nugget Sliders via Copy Cat Chick-Fil-A Nuggets 
nugget recipe adapted from My Name is Snickerdoodle


Ingredients:

3 skinless chicken breasts, cut up in bite sized pieces
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2  cups flour
4 Tablespoons powdered sugar
3 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of pepper
canola oil (or peanut if you have it on hand)

Place the chicken in a ziploc bag, pour the buttermilk in and seal the bag. Store the bag in your refrigerator for 2-4 hours, allowing the chicken to marinate. After you put the chicken in the fridge, you can start the rolls, recipe follows.


When your chicken is done marinating, in another gallon-sized ziploc bag combine all the dry ingredients. Mix well. Set aside.

Start heating up your oil over medium high heat. There should be about 2" of oil in your pan. I use a thermometer to make sure my oil is heated up to about 375 degrees. Make sure your temp is always around here when you are cooking the chicken.

Once the oil is heated up, using tongs, remove the chicken from the buttermilk and place in the flour mixture. Seal bag and shake, shake, shake till the chicken pieces are evenly coated. Take about 8 pieces of chicken out at a time and place in the oil. Cook them until golden brown. Turning them once about halfway through the process.  My chicken took about 2-3 minutes to cook each round. If you are worried, check the thickest piece in your first batch to see if the chicken is cooked all the way through. That will be a good gauge to see how long you need to cook the chicken.

Remove the chicken and drain on a paper towel. Repeat until all the nuggets are cooked.

Serve on a homemade roll with a little bit of lettuce and your favorite condiment. Slap a side of sweet potato fries down next to your sliders and get ready for a delightful little meal.

They are also quite tasty all by themselves, in fact sometimes my Little Men prefer them that way.

This is our new favorite chicken nugget indulgence. I am sure you and your kids will enjoy it too!

Now as I promised, here is my go to roll recipe:

Homemade Rolls


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the warm water, sugar and yeast. Let it proof for about 5 minutes (this means you are activating the yeast a little bit. It will get all foamy).

After you have let the yeast proof, add the oil, salt and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on medium high until everything is incorporated. Then, while mixer is on still, add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the bowl. The dough will be soft and slightly tacky.

You can keep the dough in the mixer going on medium high and let the mixer knead the dough for another 5 minutes (this is what I do). You can also dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand for about 8 minutes.

After the dough has been kneaded, transfer the ball of dough into a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Set aside and let rise for 1 hour.

Lightly punch down the dough and dump onto a greased counter top. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Form the pieces each into a ball and place in a greased baking pan or sheet about an inch a part. Cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.

Brush the tops with butter. Serve.

Enjoy everyone! Thanks for reading!

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