From Linda's Lips: Whole milk solution

First off--a very happy birthday to Mindy!!!!! You deserve the best day ever!

Back to our post:
As I was making snickerdoodle cupcakes for my sons birthday tomorrow, I realized I had a Lemon Tree idea right in front of me!

I haven't had whole milk in the house on a regular basis since my youngest turned 2. I realized a while back that I hated it when I went to make a recipe and it called for whole milk (think bread, cakes, and sauces) and I didn't have any in the house. I would substitute with a lower fat if I had to, but the taste/texture was never quite the same. And then, there were times when I would by a half gallon of whole milk only to let it go to waste because I never needed it all. Then, one day I realized I had the solution in my pantry the whole time!

The food storage milk we store is whole milk!

I like storing it because really, if I had to live off of powdered milk, whole tastes a whole lot better in my opinion, and the added fat/calories is probably a good idea if you are living off of little food.

Anyway--as I perused my pantry before making my homemade mac-n-cheese a while back I noticed the can of powdered milk! I made it up in a jiffy (3 rounded Tbsp/1 cup of water) and used it instead of using my valuable milk in the fridge--we go through a lot of breakfast cereal around here--and I was so happy because I was rotating my food storage! From then on, whenever a recipe called for whole milk (or large amounts of milk in general) I used my powdered stuff.

You really cannot taste the difference. In fact, it works amazingly well! I get this in the Mexican food section at Walmart.

Try it out! Works in a pinch, or it could become a new favorite thing!

Free Your Knives

Hello everyone and Happy 2011 to you all! I'm here, I'm growing like an oompaloompa with this kid inside of me, and I'm ready to end my blogging hiatus. I have big plans at the moment to post at least once a week. I know, so ambitious. But for now I think it is a doable and worthy goal. It feels good to be back.

Over the holidays we had lots of family come and visit which made them so much more special, isn't family so great. Leave it to my sis-in-law Linda (yes, the one and the same from Linda's Lips) to teach me even more savvy ways of doing things. One day she turned all of my knives around in my silverware tray to stop them from getting stuck under the wood. I'll admit I thought she was a little crazy at first, but I haven't had a stuck knife since. Thought maybe some of you out there could benefit from this simple little trick.

From Linda's Lips: Toaster French Toast

One of my kids' favorite breakfasts is French Toast. Unfortunately I don't have the time to make it every time they want it. I had a stroke of genius a while back that is a time saver on school mornings. When I make French Toast on the weekends I make a lot. Like two loaves worth. I try to use whole wheat bread to make it more healthy, but sometimes I cave and make it white. The kids can enjoy all they want for breakfast and then I freeze the rest in storage freezer bags and pop them right into the freezer.The toast hardly sticks together, so pulling it out another day is no problem. On a school morning when I get a request for a hot breakfast instead of cereal, I pull out a couple of pieces of the french toast and pop them in the toaster. The house fills with the yummy cinnamon smell and the toast comes out even better than when they ate it fresh. Nice and crispy on the outside and soft in the center. Sometimes we sprinkle on the powdered sugar and syrup, and other times they just eat it in hand. Here's to breakfast!

Guest Post: Children's Scrapbook Totes

I love to scrapbook and with 3 other little ladies in the home, they want to be scrapbooking too. I treasure my "stuff" and had been looking for a good way for the kids to be involved without having to check with me every second on what they could and couldn't use. Anyway, I came across these "totes" at Michaels on sale for $5 each and so bought them each their own. I put their names on it and then filled them each with supplies I thought they could use. Their very own tape, stickers, paper, ribbon, brads, a photo album book, etc.

It has worked wonders. Now when one of them wants to scrapbook, they can pull their own tote out and go at it. They don't need to constantly be asking me for supplies. Everything they need is right in their tote. I even print out a bunch of their very own pictures for them to use in their albums. That way, everything is in one place. My oldest daughter even brought her tote to her friend's house the other day and they each worked on their own stuff. It has been so handy and wonderful and makes us all happy.

Marianne, Utah