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Couponing

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 11 December, 2013 No comment

I clip coupons often as I enjoy seeing the .55 be erased from the register. Something about knowing I am getting the best deal out there is satisfying to my soul. My husband calls me cheap and I would tend to agree. But lets clarify a bit more what “cheap” means. :) I buy quality not pricey. I don’t purchase the cheap end of many things as they will tend to wear out the following day. When it comes to food, I will match ingredients in the cheaper brands and if they are basically the same quality, why not? I don’t understand paying for brand on most food items. It simply doesn’t make sense. Some items such as HFCS can be the difference and in this tragic scenario I will gladly spend more money to avoid this cancerous ingredient. It’s not about the price, it’s about the quality and the deal.

www.coupons.com is a great free site that ships coupons on a daily basis to your email account. Your inbox can tend to be overloaded with emails but if you are willing to take the time to save the money it is worth the flooded inbox.

My advice after watching many coupon shows on TV as they are beyond fascinating that they can purchase $1000 grocery bills and only pay $1.72 for everything. This is beyond me and quite the accomplishment. The problem here is that you are purchasing many boxed goods, there is absolutely no produce to be had. Couponing should be exciting and adventourous but needs to be within limits. DO NOT travel to the store to purchase things you wouldn’t normally buy; don’t let a coupon persuade you into believing you are now in need of this item. You never ate it previously, so why would you now. Or ask yourself, “do I really need 5 boxes of stovetop stuffing?” Probably not, so lets be wise about our purchases. By buying things you typically wouldn’t without the coupon you are actually spending more money. They don’t tell you this tip because they want you to believe that you need 3 24 packs of top roman and 8 hamburger helpers. The key here is to purchase only what you enjoy and would purchase even if you didn’t have the exciting coupon.

The correct answer here is to make your shopping list first, than clip the coupons. The only time I tend to buy outside of my list is when I can stock up on toothpaste, Kleenex, razors and items such as these. Otherwise you will spend money on items you typically don’t need and end up wasting those precious dollar bills.

Croissants By Trade

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 9 December, 2013 No comment

Not sure if they are the best thing on the face of the planet but they come quite close. I must say I always love a good croissant and Costco has a really good soft, decadent joy of a croissant that I fill our counter and freezer with. To be honest, I am a carbohydrate LOVER. Bagels, bread, English muffins, cookies, chips, pastries, muffins, and yes the classis croissant; all of which I eat a lot of if they are lying around. I have never watched my carb intake and although I should, I don’t, I can’t get away from them. They make my palate happy.

Although I took on the task of making my own croissants, I will not make them on a regular basis as they are fun to make they are a two day process and my household quickly devours them. All that hard work put into these astonishing delights do give a new name for homemade croissants. They are worth making a couple times a year to simply experience the flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth pastry.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
1 tbsp. instant yeast
¼ cup sugar
1¼ tsp. salt
1¼ cups whole milk, cold
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

For the butter square:

24 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces and kept cold
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Directions: To make the dough, combine 2¾ cups of the flour together with the yeast, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside. Add the milk to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the dry ingredients and knead on low speed until a ball of dough forms, about 5 minutes. Cut the butter into small pieces and add them to the dough. Continue to knead until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth. The dough should form a ball and begin to clear the sides of the bowl, about 5-6 minutes more. The dough should be sticky but if the dough sticks more to the bowl than itself, add the remaining ¼ cup of flour a small bit at a time as needed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the butter square, toss together the butter pieces and flour on a clean work surface. Smear the butter back and forth using a bench scraper against the work surface until they have combined into a smooth mixture. OR in a Kitchen Aid Mixture combine cold butter and flour and mix well. Shape into a ball and wrap the butter mixture in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use, at least 30 minutes.

After butter mixture is chilled place butter between wax paper and roll into a 8″ square.

Dust a work surface with flour. Roll dough to approximately 1/4 inch thick.

Fold the corners of the dough towards the center of the butter square. Pinch edges to seal the dough and keep the butter hidden.

If your dough is pretty thin and large, repeat the folding process.

Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge over night or for at least 30 minutes.

Using a rolling pin, gently tap the dough starting from the center of the dough and working outward, until the square becomes larger and the butter begins to soften. Fold dough back up placing the corners in the middle of the dough and repeat the rolling process three times to get the butter mixed well into the dough. Make a 14″ square while keeping the surface well floured.

Slice the dough in half and begin cutting triangles.

Slice the middle of the triangle to help fold the croissant to the correct shape.

Place on cookie sheet or leave on the counter to rise for another 45 minutes. Cover with tea towel.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake croissants for 18-22 minutes depending on your oven.

Enjoy!!!!!

**They freeze well if you decide to make a double batch and get all the work out at once. This would be my best advice; double batch!

Crustless Quiche

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 8 December, 2013 No comment

YAY, we finally sold our car this past weekend leaving us with one car for a few days. My husband was planning on taking the bus for ten days as the holidays are rapidly approaching. This plan would leave us without a second car for a solid month which would work great considering he has plenty of holiday vacation not needing to drive to and from work. This grandiose plan lasted us a solid two days; one of which was on the weekend. I must say it was pretty humorous to see how quickly our “month” plan turned upside down as soon as reality hit. Come Monday morning, we were in a pinch again as we both had things to do while on the weekend we tote around together making life a little more simplistic. His coworker was nice enough to come and pick him up for work as we were hoping to purchase the car before the days end. With this in mind, I wanted to provide breakfast for their bellies as he was doing a nice gesture to pick up my husband.

Most mornings I make scrambled eggs for the little man and send my husband to work with either homemade granola or every now and again make him breakfast burritos. I would transition the granola with coconut milk or greek yogurt. He has been getting pretty tired of it lately as there aren’t many other breakfast options I send him with other than breakfast cookies. He is naturally not a big cereal or sandwich guy but does enjoy my granola at least. I on the other hand could eat cereal three meals a day; I LOVE it. So, I decided to treat him to a crustless quiche due to the adversity of his palate not enjoying a simple breakfast; he looks for the hearty eggs and bacon meals. :) If you want an easy quick breakfast that looks and taste as if you slaved over it all morning….here’s the key to your success; crustless quiche. :)

Listen carefully……I made this quiche the previous night and baked it in the morning. It was fresh and hot from the oven yet the work was accomplished before bed leaving me with an easy morning breakfast. :) I sent them off to work with quiche and my delicious croissants filling their hungry bellies.

Ingredients:

8-10 eggs
¾ cup milk
Minced onions
Sliced or diced ham
Chopped broccoli
Sliced mushrooms
Shredded cheese
Dash of garlic salt
Dash of sea salt
Dash of black pepper
Chopped, fresh parsley

Okay, now these ingredients are what was in the fridge at the time. The great thing with this type of dish, you can add anything you want.

Other ideas: peppers, tomatoes, sausage and/or bacon, and diced potatoes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake 30 minutes or until the middle is firm and doesn’t wiggle.

Mmmmm good and healthy!

Tasty Dogs

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 7 December, 2013 No comment

Scrumptious, absolutely heavenly. This was a new creation that morphed into something beautiful. I must say I had no hot dog buns, and wanted to experiment a little. How could a hot dog go wrong? Well the simple answer is, it can’t.

Today I took a couple tortillas and broiled them with Swiss cheese slices. In a saucepan I cooked up some mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and onions; simple and delicious. I topped my 100% kosher dog from Costco with my saucepan mixture, blue cheese dressing and VIOLA, a scrumptious hot dog with a twist.

Ingredients:

4 100% Kosher Hot Dogs
4 Tortillas
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1 pound sliced Brussels sprouts
½ yellow onion diced
1 tsp Garlic salt
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 slices of Swiss cheese (or cheese of choice)
Blue Cheese dressing for topping

Broil tortillas with cheese in the oven until bubbly. Broil hot dogs as well to get the bbq taste.

In a saucepan sautee mushrooms, onions and Brussels sprouts with seasoning.

Assemble the dogs and top with blue cheese dressing. Fold up and stick with a toothpick to hold together. :)

These are probably my favorite ‘go to’ meal right now!!!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink….

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 6 December, 2013 No comment

Everything but the kitchen sink….or shall I say faucet. Man I tell ya, I believe we have one problem after another ALL the time. Whether it’s family, friends, job, finances, or home projects, something is always changing. Last night it was our faucet. I was baking pretty much most the day and literally as my husband was walking in the door the hot water pressure dropped significantly. It was almost as if every sink, hose, washing machine, dishwasher, bathtub or toilet had all flushed simultaneously. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case.

The best thing I could dream up was I had drained all the hot water as it instantaneously happened. I called my dad as he has many rental houses and must of them must run into random problems at some point or another and he informed me that something must be stuck in the hot water pipe; a rock or sediment of some sort had to of missed the filter. He was right! As my husband was taking apart the sink to quickly fix the issue, he accomplished this task quite quickly but the problem lied in the “reassembling phase.” I must say he was in the kitchen for quite some time and was really silent and downcast about this procedure; actually hostile would be more accurate. Playing doctor on the sink became very frustrating as one problem after another took place and the surgery was not getting better, only worse. He kept preforming surgery while each limb in the neck of the faucet kept getting unscrewed rather than being made whole again. Finally, I look up and the entire faucet is taken from the sink leaving me with no water for 24 hours. Mind you, Thanksgiving was two days away.

I put a smile on my face as I could see the frustration running rampantly through his body. “That’s fine hun,” I murmur as I try and change the tone for the evening (luckily this did work). He apologizes as one of the pieces that needed to be screwed into another was completely missing. Somehow this piece was hiding in the neck of the pipe; completely stuck. It wouldn’t budge no matter what we tried. I’m telling you he tried everything including a wire closet hanger. No luck.

My boys assessing the task ahead….

Today I was realizing the thousand times I truly turn on a faucet throughout one solid day beginning the first moments I woke up. “Coffee anyone?” Wait, no water to rinse out the pot, the grind basket or how to fill the pot for a fresh cup o’ joe. We do have a Sierra Springs water jug that was helpful, but definitely not helpful for the rinsing or washing aspect. I must say between feeding myself, my son, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as simple kitchen clean up, it became extremely challenging to accomplish much of anything. Thankfully I had taken advantage of the baking and cooking the previous day that today I could take it somewhat easy. Though the choice wasn’t up to me I had to respect the circumstance.

In the midst of the chaos I even attempted to file the sink with boiling water from the bathroom to have soapy water to rinse my hands throughout the day, but this task became more time consuming than it was worth and the water would quickly get dirty defeating my purpose. As dinner approached I allowed the dishes to pile up knowing I had a new faucet heading my way.

As my husband came home he was able to fix this dilemma quite promptly and left me with a new sparkling faucet. I cleaned my dishes with the most thankful attitude in awhile I presume. The little things as clean running water help remind me how much I take them for granted.

So remember when the dishes pile up and you are dreading to clean them or simply rinse your hands because you have peanut butter and jelly on them, you can quickly and easily rinse them in your sink without the horror of Thanksgiving approaching and all the dishes that are to be prepared with no water. :)

Sausage and Lentil Stew

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 3 December, 2013 No comment

It has been SO cold in the mornings lately that I would rather lay snuggled in bed for hours. Unfortunately mommy duty calls and that luxury doesn’t happen.

My crockpot has been my best friend and always will be during the winter season. Makes meal time so easy and provides great dinners.

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, chopped
2-3 large carrots, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
3 cups water (Chicken Broth)
2 tbsp Chicken Better than Bullion (omit if using chicken broth)
2 cups Red Lentils
1 lb Kielbasa Sausage
1 tbsp Parsley
2 tbsp Italian Seasoning
2-3 tsp Garlic salt
2 tsp Chili Pepper

Directions:

Chop onion, carrots, pepper and sausage. Add to crockpot. Dump in water, better than bullion and red lentils. Stir well and add seasonings. Viola! That easy!

Leave on low heat for 6-8 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours.

Serve with Bread, pasta, soup, or by itself.

Rigatoni and Portobellos

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 30 November, 2013 No comment

So as I’ve mentioned before, my husband finds a recipe and wont let it rest until he’s filled his belly on it. This happened last week. A co-worker was telling him about this Ahh-mazing, mouth watering pasta dish and of course he gives me the ingredients to rush off to the store and supply the kitchen with these grocery items. After I’ve done so, all week long I hear “when can I make it, when can I make it?” I appointed him to head chef during the weekend as it’s not easy during the work week. He usually arrives home late and by then Cooper needs to get ready for bed. When he cooks on the weekend it gives me a break from kitchen duty and more play time with my little man while daddy is head chef for the evening.

This recipe calls for goat cheese and of all the cheese out there this is probably my least favorite as I think it is an acquired taste. To be painfully honest, I despise goat cheese. I actually LOVE cheese and almost every cheese but for some reason the concept of GOAT cheese kind of freaks me out. What I do know is it has a very strong flavor and because of that, I wasn’t quite sure if I would enjoy this recipe. If I was the one making this dish, I can tell you I am 99% confident that I would have swapped the cheese for a different kind that I like better. BUT to my husbands credit it was delicious and I actually liked it even better the second day. Let’s be honest, if he made it again, YES I would partake because the flavors together were surprisingly spectacular. It must go on record that I will never purchase goat cheese for another recipe apart from this particular one.

If you don’t particularly enjoy the taste or concept of goat cheese, please, please try this recipe as I think you may become a believer as I did…

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, chopped
1 cup chorizo, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

2 lbs Portobello mushrooms
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp EVOO
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp fresh parsley (dried works as well)

8oz crumbled soft goat cheese
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tbsp EVOO

1 ½ lb rigatoni pasta
1 ½ cups pasta water

In a large skillet add chopped onions, chorizo, 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp EVOO. Begin sautéing them and add salt and 1 tsp sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the onions are well browned and beginning to caramelize, 20-30 minutes. Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, stem the mushrooms and chop the stems as well as mushroom caps and use the entire mushroom. In the same skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter and 1tbsp EVOO. Add mushrooms and ½ tsp salt and cook over medium heat stirring occasionally, until tender & browned, about 10 minutes.

Add reserved onions along with parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook pasta; reserve 1 ½ cup pasta water and drain pasta.

In a large bowl, toss rigatoni with reserved pasta water, mushroom mixture, 8 oz goat cheese, 3 tbsp parmesan, and 1 tbsp olive oil. (If the pasta seems dry, add more pasta water)

Serve immediately, topping with a little parsley and parmesan cheese. Goes really well with artisan bread toasted.

Gobble Gobble

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 29 November, 2013 No comment

Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you all enjoyed your holiday and truly had a blessed day. Holidays can either be really exciting and joyful or very hard and painful. I hope all of you had great memories with family.

We decided to take Thanksgiving this year and spend with some dear friends and begin our family tradition with the three of us. Normally we head to Central Washington to my parents place and have a delicious Thanksgiving but this year it was important to us to develop our family tradition knowing Christmas is only a couple weeks away. The drive is extremely long and not quite the highlight of our trip. So with us wanting to develop new family traditions we thought Thanksgiving would be the better of the two since it’s simply a long weekend where as Christmas is more time to be spent with family and less driving. :)

This turkey is unbelievably flawless, I almost believed it was a hoax.

Cooper rocking an impeccable attitude with an itsy bitsy nap all day long!

Warnings of Christ’s Return

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 28 November, 2013 No comment

Today is Thanksgiving, there is a lot to be thankful for. Here’s my thoughts for the day:

I have been involved with my bible study this past quarter at church and it is on the parables of Jesus. We are coming to the end of our study before the holidays hit and todays study was on the coming of Christ and the tribulation for those who are still on earth. Reading these warnings from Christ are a deep challenge for me as I do not want to be present on earth when the tribulation hits, but also don’t want my kids or their kids here either. When you think about the depths of life and the purpose of our creation there is no avoiding what’s to come, and it makes it challenging to think of bringing more kids into this world, yet we all have such instinct for growing our families.

When I read about what’s to occur during the tribulation it does put some fear in me. But when I realize Christ has also told us beforehand what to watch for is beyond my imagination. When you think about that, how do you not believe there is a Christ who saved us when he also forewarns us and tells us what to do when these things occur?

This morning I was reading about Israel and the temple ruble that still lays on the ground today; some two thousand years later and this temple still has not been rebuilt. What a powerful thought; the temple crumbled to the ground without one stone laying upon another when Christ rose from the dead and will not be rebuilt until the tribulation begins and Christ’s return awaits. There will be an antichrist who claims to be Jesus and have false prophets that show signs and wonders to deceive. He will also take residence in the temple of Jerusalem, Christ’s holy place. Christ tells us to take heed as he has told us these things beforehand to forewarn what is to come.

Christ tells us not to return home when these things take place, to flee and flee without taking the time to grab belongings and woe to the pregnant women and nursing mothers as this time will be very hard on them. Head to the mountain top and flee immediately; this time will be a time of complete urgency (Mark 13:14-23). The tribulation will last for 7 years, midway through the antichrist will come forth. Christ has promised to shorten the days for his chosen people to help sustain through this period of horror. Don’t take life lightly, there is a real aspect here that needs to be addressed. Society is very quick and strategic on masking what life is truly about.

Let me ask you, when you hear about the end times and Christ’s return, whether you are a believer or Christ of not, how do these things make you feel? What happens to your stomach when you hear about the pain and tragedy that will take place? Do you overlook these historic facts as well as biblical facts? Do you take heed and want to prepare your mind and soul for the truth of life and why we were created? Or do you feel convicted but don’t want to face the reality in hopes you aren’t alive for this? The last thing you should do is find a rabbit hole to hide in, instead, you should do quite the opposite, hunt and search for the truth and hold it tightly.

Christ’s return is no joke and unfortunately since the fall in the garden of Eden, we live in sin and will continue to live in sin until Christ comes home for us. When I step back and look at the bigger picture of life, the little things seem to dissipate and have no true value or concern amongst them. I can choose to worry about the day and things to take place, or I can hold tightly that I am a mother, wife, and follower of Christ and when I die only my soul will go with me, not the tangible things I’ve accomplished here on earth. When I realize what my goal is in life and if I died today, I have to ask myself if I am utilizing my strengths for Christ or for my own glory? That is a tough question but an honest question. I want to strive to lay my head down on my pillow each night knowing I glorified God while being a mother, wife, friend and daughter. This is the legacy I want to leave. I want to leave my son with a heritage of faith, respect and integrity. I want my life to be of value not of material possessions.

I must say I have been really struggling with these concepts of faith and the life around us. Sin is so blinding and sex is filling our society. There are empty souls searching for happiness and my soul literally breaks for our society as I see complete blindness take over everyone. The hunt for something greater is only digging a deeper hole of brokenness. My desire is to express the reality of life that Christ lays out so perfectly in the Bible and impresses on my soul the reality that our life is fleeting. We must talk to those around us and give them a hope in the midst of our fallen society. The more I am learning the more I want to share the truth with everyone. I never really cared before, my faith was mine and mine alone, but the more I learn about Christ and the peace that resides in me, the more I want to share the good news with those out there that are hunting for something greater; a purpose in life. There is a peace to be had, there is a confidence to hold dearly, and a love that is unimaginable.

Am I raising my precious bundle to feel loved, good enough and protected? Am I teaching him how to succeed in this big world around us that we call life? Am I teaching him the things that matter most in life or how to get what he “deserves?” Am I leaving him a legacy of truth and inspiring him to do the same?

Moment of truth: What legacy are you leaving today? If it is not a good one, the good thing is you can change that, take the steps and don’t look back. Leave a heritage of integrity rather than dishonesty and a broken heart. The beginning of the race doesn’t define the end of the race. There is grace and forgiveness to finish the race strong no matter how the race began.

Overnight Artisan Bread

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 27 November, 2013 No comment

I’ve heard a lot of people tell me they aren’t good at making “yeast” bread. I’m not sure where this actually comes from because I’ve never had a problem with yeast. I’m wondering if it’s the recipe themselves. I have a couple ‘go to’ bread recipes that I absolutely love and most of them are yeast recipes. I would honestly be shocked if you made this recipe and it didn’t turn out.

It’s super easy and sits over night.

Ingredients:

6 cups unbleached all purpose flour of bread flour (Don’t use wheat or brown rice flour)
3 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Instant or Rapid-rise yeast
3 cups water
Rosemary (optional)
Shredded Cojia, mozzarella or sharp cheese (optional)

In a standing mixer, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Add a couple tablespoons Rosemary and cheese if desired. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or tea towel and set aside for 12-18 hours. Overnight works best.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into 2 round loaves. Set aside while the pot is heating. Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. No need to oil the pot. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. The top will crack a bit like Artisan bread does, this is a NOT a bad thing, it means the bread will be crispy on top which is how it’s supposed to be. Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. Repeat with second loaf.