I got the case of Spring Fever!

I absolutely love the outdoors. I could probably live outside. This is where Bear and I don't mesh. He's not so much on the outside. I think he just doesn't know how to just sit and do nothing but to listen to the wind and birds. He's got to have something occupy him. I, on the other hand, could sit and listen to nature for hours and I do it as often as I can.

A couple of years ago, a great friend and her hubby helped Bear and me build a roof over our patio. The sun shines in my back yard all day and in the summer, it's brutal and I never got to enjoy my yard during that time. With this roof, I can stay out pretty much all day and enjoy the outdoors.

the porch

I also made a special corner of the yard for me. I planted a rose, gardenia and jasmine bushes. I added an arbor and added jasmine around it as well. My corner is the best thing ever. The plants have grown so nicely and it is looking more and more like my vision. The only problem...I didn't really have any where to sit while I was back there. Nothing just seemed to click. Then I got the fever...Spring Fever and my creative side let loose so I could further enjoy my back yard.

Since we are a one income family, I don't have the luxury of just going out and buying items that I want. I have to be ingenious and create my own. We had an old hammock stand for a long time but the hammock was long gone. When we cleaned the yard a couple of years ago, Bear wanted to get rid of the stand. I was adamant and refused to let it go. Something told me I'd be needing it one day. Well, that day was the other day. But the problem? I had no funds to buy a $80 or more hammock. So I did what I always do...Googled it! And I came upon a guy explaining how to make a hammock out of...a SHEET! Just a regular sheet. BINGO! I found my answer. I have plenty of sheets hanging around, so why not? The only thing I needed was rope. Easy enough. So I go to Lowes to purchase the rope and one chain and a S hook(they were missing from the stand). The kind lady cut my chain (enough to hold Bear's weight) and then proceeded to tell us about her on-line gaming addiction. That's a totally different story that I'll not bore you with at the moment. In all I spent around $15 for the rope, chain and hardware. Not bad! I do want to say I bought waaayyy too much rope. I probably only needed 10 foot but got 50 instead because, well, I just didn't know. So I have plenty of rope left over and could probably make 5 more hammocks. So, in all, that really is a great deal! I get home and can not wait to try out this hammock. I mean can it really hold an adult? A twin sheet? Well, I knotted the ends as he described and pulled extra hard just to make sure they were tight. Then I doubled the rope and then tied it under the knot with a "lark's head knot". I then just put the two ends in the chain and did a double knot (I was just testing it out. I actually have two welded rings I'm going to use to attach to the S hooks). And, being a chicken, asked Baby Girl to get in it first. She fit fine and nothing fell, so I took the plunge and got in. I was in HEAVEN! You can pull the sides up around you so you are in a cocoon. When Bear got home, I asked him to try it and it even held him. So it's quite a success. So I now have perfect seating for my corner. I can lay and watch the birds eat from the feeder and be in bliss!

My area w/ Baby Girl enjoying the hammock

Baby Girl enjoying the hammock in my area.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as my outdoor seating goes. I also wanted an outdoor futon. Well, if I couldn't afford a hammock, I sure as shit couldn't afford a futon much less and outdoor one. So once again, Google was my friend.

I already had an old bed frame up in the attic. I got it down and was elated to find it was a twin (well it actually goes up to a queen but I was needing a twin). I found online how to make a simple futon mattress . It's more like a Japanese futon mattress. It doesn't have the back and I was okay with that. I was putting it up against the wall so I was envisioning it more like a daybed any way. The directions said to get a zipper mattress cover and just stuff it with other mattress covers. Being on a budget, I couldn't see spending $60 or more on mattress covers to stuff in the zipper cover. So I went to Target and purchased a zipper vinyl cover so it's water proof. Then I did get one mattress cover and I bought the cheapest foam topper they had. In all I spent around $30 on those items. I had an old queen size quilt (again, just hanging out in the attic). So I sandwiched the foam in the quilt. Then put the mattress cover over that so it would hold it together and put that in the zipper cover. I needed a cover because let's face it a white vinyl mattress would get dirty and hot outside. So I went to Joanne's to see what they had. Luckily for me, my Joanne's store is moving to a better location down the street so they are liquidating the store. I got almost 7 yards of outdoor material for $30.00! I saved over $130 on the material alone! True there were only 3 selections, but I like what I got.

Now, I am no seamstress.at.all. I laid the material over the cover and cut it out. I know, not a professional way to do it, but hey! it worked. I get out my cheap sewing machine. This is when I really kick myself for not keeping my mom's top of the line sewing machine, but I really didn't think I'd need a sewing machine. Regardless, I get mine and get it all set up. I had to actually Google how to use it. Yes, that just shows you how infrequent and long it's been since I used it last. I was actually surprised I knew where it was. No kidding. Well, Baby Girl had to help me feed it and it did it's job 3/4 of the way. The last side, about  2/3 done the sewing machine would just not work. It kept jamming, so I had to do the rest by hand. But I got it done! I then put the mattress I made in the cover (kind of like a pillow case) and viola! I have my outdoor futon bed! I bought two big red outdoor pillows from Wally world ($15 bucks a piece) to use as the back. Bear and I went to Home Depot and got them to cut a piece of plywood to fit the bed to use as the base.  I love it! I spent most of my day on it today! So in all I spent around $75...not too shabby.

My outdoor futon

 I also made a fire pot. Bear saw one at Lowes and really liked it. But again, too pricey. I went to Wally World and got a ceramic glazed (inside and out) planter for $12. I also got like a grill basket (it's thin and made out of aluminum. It's to hold the gel fuel canister. It can take the heat) for $4 for a pack of 3.  I went to the dollar store and got a bag of pebbles and a couple of paper clip holders. I needed something round to set the mesh grill on so the fuel canister would be even with the opening. They worked out perfectly. I stacked the paper clip holders on top of each other. Cut the grill with scissors and put it on top of the paper clip holder. I then put the canister on top of the grill and lastly, I added the rock around the canister. It's so pretty and works like a charm. I was pretty hesitant on using the fuel gel because I read it's like napalm if you get it on you. But I have a box of baking soda nearby and a snuffer to put the flame out so I feel more at ease when using it.

My fire pot. When you're sitting down, you can't see the canister.

I have other items I'm working on...tiki torches made out of wine bottles and a chandelier. I'll post about those later. I'm sure there's an end to this Spring Fever, but not any time soon. I hope. :)

Hair today...gone tomorrow

So, as in my previous blog about my hair, the saga continues. I had to forgo trying to find an alternative to shampoo and conditioner. It was just not working for me. I used Dr. Bonner's lavender shampoo and my regular conditioner, but my hair was still not silky soft as before. I decided to try V05, yep folks you read that right, V05. Because I'm a frugal momma, I've been using cheap shampoo as soap for years. It's way cheaper than purchasing a $4.00 bottle of body wash. I usually used Suave because it was cheap; well V05 is way cheaper now. It normally runs about .85 a bottle. When Kroger has it on sale, it's like .74 a bottle. So the other day, Baby Girl and I were at Kroger and there was a sale on V05 so I started grabbing a bunch for our body wash. Then it dawned on me: why not try some for my hair? I mean what could it hurt in this stage of the game? They have some tea series shampoos and conditioners so I grabbed blackberry and sage tea shampoo and conditioner. It is marvelous! My hair is back to it's silky soft self! I love it and it is cheap! SCORE!!

Now to the coloring of my hair. If I did not color my hair, it would be white. The last couple of times I colored my hair with synthetic dyes, I had horrible irritation to my scalp. I made the decision to try a more natural approach. This was about 8-10 weeks ago.

I started off with trying to use tea for two weeks to bring some color back. All I got was a drippy mess and nothing else. It didn't change the color one bit.

I finally get sage and rosemary and some henna powder. This is a whole different story. I had ordered some sage and rosemary from a crappy online site. For three weeks I have nothing, nada, not a thing. I email inquiring where my purchase was at and she tells me it will be shipped the next week. So I patiently wait and at the end of the week I still did not have my herbs. I emailed again to let her know that if the order had not been shipped to please cancel the order and refund me my 39 bucks. She refunded me and then proceeded to berate me for canceling the order after waiting for almost a month. I kindly replied to her email  letting her know that a well established business would not berate a first time buyer for inquiring about their order. That seemed to shut her up. So I decided to purchase my herbs from another online vendor that I've used before. I know what you're thinking, "why didn't you use them in the first place?" To that question my answer is, " I don't know." lol. Anyway, while I was adding my sage (I actually got lucky and got some rosemary at the State Farmer's Market when we went a few weeks ago) I noticed she had henna powder so I ordered that as well. It was cheaper than what I found at Henna for hair. And now I know why; the henna powder was old and did not do anything. While the sage and rosemary made my hair feel yummy, all it did to my white hair was to make it whiter and not darker. So back to the drawing board.

my hair in overhead lighting after using henna

my hair in natural lighting after dying with henna

So I finally purchased some henna from Henna for Hair. I should have done that from the very get-go. You live and learn. Where it took me almost 8 weeks to get my other herbs and henna I'd tried, it took me less than a week to get this henna. So, you go Henna for Hair, you go! Last night (which happened to be my 25th anniversary. Happy anniversary, Bear. Love you!) Bear helped apply the henna to my hair. I slept on it, not very well mind you. I was so excited about seeing the color. I woke up extremely early; I don't think it was even 6:00 yet. I rinsed out the color and was shocked to see that my white now looked like Ronald McDonald red. I dried it and decided it didn't look "that" bad. I'm still disappointed only because I let my roots get so long it looks the same as it did before just with red instead of white. So, I've ordered some indigo to put on top of the henna. I'm hoping that will get me to my dark brown color. I'll just upkeep it with indigo and henna.

In the end, I'm glad I went the natural route. My scalp is so thanking me for it. Eventually, I'll just let my white hair fly but until then, I'll use henna and indigo. Happy hair day!

Crock pot dinners

Ole Betsy

Since I get home late on Mon., Tues., and Thurs., due to kickboxing, I have turned to my crock pot to feed us so we don't have to go out and eat or starve to death waiting for dinner to get done.

So far I've made four meals in the crock pot. Some were fantastic and some were okay. Let's start with the fantastic meals...

Crock pot Lasagna. Yep, you read that right...crock pot Lasagna. So easy and so yummy. I want to preface this by saying I have an old crock pot. I don't even know how old it is; that's how old it is. Easily over 12 years old. So all I have is low and high on my pot. Not the newly added warm function. I so wish I did have that, but I don't. Maybe I'll get a new pot in the near future with the warm feature, but for right now "Ole  Betsy" will have to do. So the lasagna recipe is easy enough. You brown your meat (I use ground chuck or sirloin)and drain the fat. Add a jar of Ragu (or homemade sauce or your favorite spaghetti sauce. I love Ragu traditional so that is what I always use). Get a box of lasagna noodles. It can be a regular box; it doesn't have to be the no boil kind, but you can use those as well. Take about 3-4 cups of mozzarella cheese, a container of ricotta cheese and about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and mix them together. You could substitute cottage cheese for the ricotta, but I like the authentic taste of ricotta. Spray your pot with a non-stick spray. Add about 1/3 of your meat mixture to the pot. Add a layer of noodles. I break mine in half to get them in the pot. Now, don't think the meat has to be perfectly covered (this was a little frustrating to me at first, but I slowly realized it wasn't going to happen in the pot). Just cover as best as you can. Then add a layer of cheese mixture. Add another layer of noodles. Another layer of meat mixture. Another layer of noodles. Another layer of cheese mixture. Another layer of noodles and the rest of the meat mixture. Now, this is when I wish I had the newer crock pot model with the warm setting. If you are going to be away all day...you have to have the warm setting or your lasagna will just dry to blech. The first time I made this, I went to the park and was gone for probably 4-5 hours (maybe longer)with it on low. When I got home, the lasagna was DRY. It was still edible but it was, well, dry. The second time I made it I was only gone for about 2-3 hours, again using low. It turned out PERFECT. You can add some mozzarella cheese at the end if you want some on top. Just add it about 10 minutes before serving.

Salsa Chicken. OMG!! This is to DIE for! This by far has been one of the best tasting meals I've ever made...in a crock pot or not! It is so easy and soooo yummy. My mouth is literally watering thinking about it and I just had left overs for lunch! You can use thighs or whatever chicken you have. I never buy thighs, only boneless, skinless chicken breast, so that is what I had. I had three, not over-sized, chicken breast. I sprayed Ole Betsy and added the chicken. Then I opened up a can of whoop ass black beans, rinsed and added to the pot. I open a jar of Pace "original style" picante mild sauce (16 oz) added it to the pot. Then I added a can of drained corn. I also picked some cilantro from my garden and added. If you're using thighs you probably won't need as much sauce but breast will dry out so you need more sauce. Put Ole Betsy on low and let it cook for about 6 hours. The chicken just fell apart in the pot when I stirred it. It was wonderful! I served it with yellow rice (because I don't like the prepackaged mexican rice). I also had Bear stop and get some chips and salsa from our favorite Mexican restaurant. I had cheese dip that I purchased from Wally world. So we made nachos with it. It was so freaking good! For lunch I just had the rice and chicken...still so yummy!

Now for the okay meals. And they were only okay because they were either undercooked or overcooked. Once I get the timing down, they will be fantastic too!

I don't even know what to call this. It's my own recipe that I modified from a couple of recipes. I use eye of round steak (cause that's what my local butcher has) but you can use any steak. I cut it into bite size pieces and brown before putting it into Ole Betsy. Spray the pot first then add tomatoes (canned or fresh). Then slice an onion and add. I also added cut carrots and celery. Then add the beef. I also added garlic but sometimes I don't. Cook on low for about 3 hours. The first time I made this I only let it cook for about 2 1/2 hours. The veggies were still crispy and that didn't go over well with Bear, so next time I'll cook for 3-3 1/2 hours. I made mashed potatoes before I left, put them in the fridge and warmed them up when I got home. Simple, yummy meal!

Philly chicken cheese sandwiches. No, you're eyes are not going wonky on you! I made the filling for the sandwiches in Ole Betsy. I cut the chicken in bite size pieces then salt and pepper them. I sliced some onion. Sprayed the pot and then added the onion and the chicken. That's it! Turn on low.  When I cooked this the first time, I cooked it for way too long (about 6-7 hours). The chicken tasted okay but had the texture of saw dust.  Being new to cooking with a crock pot I have no idea how long things will take to cook and with it being chicken, I didn't want to get food poisoning so I over cooked it. So next time, I'll cook it for about 4-5 hours on low. Put the filling on a bun, add your favorite cheese (white american here) and put it in the oven until toasted and cheese is melted. So yummy and fast.

I'm really enjoying my crock pot and all it offers me. I love cooking but some days, the easier the better. I'll blog later about the new recipes I tried earlier this week. We're desperately trying to save money and our eating out budget was the first to be reduced. I'm trying to make new, interesting meals so it won't feel like we're missing anything. Stayed tuned for that blog.

Happy cooking and eating!

Let's Knit!

I got the cutest pattern for some dish clothes from Lily-Sugar N Cream. I tried to pin it to my Pinterest knitting board but the picture wouldn't show so I'm circumventing the board and putting in my blog which is also on Pinterest. Sneaky...I know. lol. Can't wait to knit a few of these. They look adorable.

Happy knitting!

What a Hairy situation

I'd like preface this by saying that I LOVE my hair (vain to say, I know, but it's the truth). It has always been soft and silky. I can remember my grandmother couldn't french braid my hair because it was "alive" as she said. It would just crawl out of the braids. But after much dyeing of my hair, after all if I didn't I'd be white headed, I've irritated my scalp horribly. I decided to start looking for a more natural way to wash my hair so it would ease the irritation.

My friend suggested the baking soda "no poo" shampoo. It's quite simple: 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a cup of water. That's it. You shampoo with it about 2-3 times a week to clean your scalp. The best method I found is to spray my hair with the solution and massage it into my scalp. I followed it up with her first suggestion of Apple Cider Vinegar conditioner: 1 tablespoon of ACV and a cup of water. Well my hair was a dried, crazy mess!

I decided to google some recipes online and found this website with a gob of information on natural hair care (even dying w/out chemicals..yipppeee).

So I made up the conditioner that called for 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water and 2 tbs of honey. I didn't like the thought of putting vegetable oil in my hair so I used all olive oil. Man, was my hair greasy and disgusting feeling! I went and bought some Dr. Bonner's Lavendar castile soap to wash my hair. I washed my hair with the castile soap and with the baking soda "shampoo" and I retried the conditioner by using my friend's recipe (2 oz honey, 12 oz boiling water, mix, then add 2 oz olive oil, in her case she used sunflower oil w/added vitamin E). My hair wasn't as greasy, but it still was too greasy for me. The next day it was horrible, but I managed to get through it.

So today I created yet another conditioner..this time NO oil. I mixed 2 tbls of honey with 2 cups of boiling water. I washed my hair with castile soap and used the new conditioner. My hair is much better...not as near as greasy as the last few days. The next time I will use the castile soap and baking soda "shampoo" with the no-oil conditioner to see if my hair will be soft and silky like it was when I was using the chemical filled shampoos and conditioners. As you can see from the above picture...it's got some fly-aways but thank goodness it's not greasy looking/feeling. I'm also sure it will take my hair a few days to weeks to adjust.

I can't wait to try the no chemical hair dyes. I'm just waiting on my herbs to get here to do that. I also need to order some henna and indigo. If I can't find a natural way to dye my hair, I'm afraid I'm Paula Deen bound.

What's for dinner 3/5/2012

Something so freaking yummy! I kind of played on a few things to make this meal.

First I had some Eye of Round Steak that is sooo delicious. I cut it into bite size pieces. I sliced a sweet onion. If I would of had some fresh garlic, I would have minced it...but I didn't so I used garlic powder.

I sauteed the onion first. Once I had it transparent, I put it on a plate to get it out of the way (but not for long). I then browned the meat. I added salt, pepper and the garlic powder. You know, just to taste. After the meat was browned, I put the onions back in the pan. Speaking of pans, I bought a non-stick green pan. That was one reasons why I sauteed the onions first, to give it more flavor. I then added a can of petite diced tomatoes (again, only cause I didn't have fresh tomatoes). That was it. I let it simmer for about 10 minutes with the lid on. After that, I took the lid off and simmered for 20 minutes while my potatoes were cooking for the mashed potatoes that I made to go along with the meal. After 20 minutes, I added some frozen spinach (again, cause I didn't have fresh). I also added some Parmesan cheese.

I served the meat mixture on top of the mashed potatoes and had rolls with it too. Such an easy, fast and yummy meal. I've made this before w/ Rotel tomatoes and yellow rice for a Mexican flavor. Amanda didn't like that...too spicy. This meal though, she ate it up!

So grab a pan, some steak, onion and tomatoes and eat!

What's for dinner 7/21/11

Something so good it made me say, "mmm" at every freaking bite!!! I ran across this recipe a few days ago. We had it for supper tonight and OMG was it DELICIOUS.

I was afraid it would be spicy, but it wasn't at all. I did omit the jalapeno pepper from the salsa just to make sure the heat was not too much. I didn't have fresh cilantro; I used dried instead. The next time I make it, I'll use fresh. I also used three Roma tomatoes. Also, I didn't put a lot of mayo on them except for one, and it does taste much better with a little more mayo. Oh and I also didn't have a fresh lime so I used bottle lime juice. Next time, I'll have to remember the fresh lime.

It is time consuming to prepare but sooo worth it. I made the marinade,salsa sliced the pepper, mango and onion while I was waiting on Baby Girl to finish her math work. Putting the sandwiches together was time consuming too but it was nothing that I hadn't done before. It was suggested on the site to add the mango in the salsa, but I didn't know what the mango would taste like (and wasn't sure Bear would like it) so I sliced them instead. Next time, I just may take that suggestion and add them to the salsa to omit one step in the sandwich preparation.

To me, the french bread set this sandwich way above any other. In all, I'd give this recipe 5 gold stars!!

Bon Appetit!