Some Neat Gift Ideas - You Make Yourself

Affordable Wall Art

Country Soap and Lotion Dispensers

Homemade Bookmarks

Easy to make Hat Organizer

Kids Apron, Chef hat & baking tray

For Girls (but not small ones!) - Button Rings

Almost no sew Tutu

Sweater Mittens New gift, recycled material!

Crochet Dishcloths Who wouldn't love a bundle of colorful dishcloths!

Lots of "free" CDroms lying around??? Check out Make Stuff










Stumble It!

Carnival Links

Carnival of the recipes - 2 I am going to be checking out "Vermont Cheddar Ale Soup" and "Steak Panini"

Festival of Frugality at Frugal Babe- This one covers tons of aspects from your car to your college students!

Make it from Scratch - Lots of yummy recipes & a few crafts

Carnival of Personal Finance - lots on retirement, saving money, investing money, frugality, family & more.







Stumble It!

Peanut Butter Bread

1 c sugar
1/2 c PB
1 T Butter
1 egg
1/2 t salt
2 c flour
1/2 T baking powder
1 c sour milk (1T vinegar to 1 c milk)
1/2 T Soda

Mix it all together, pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake @350 for 50 minutes - 1 loaf

Lisa K http://thefrugalmomma.blogspot.com

Make it from Scratch #64

Make it From Scratch

And a new carnival I just discovered Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling

Cappuccino Muffins

This Cappuccino Muffins recipe was submitted for the January 22 Make it From Scratch Carnival. Of course I had to make it my own but it just sounded so good I had to make them this morning!

I added
2 T Milled Flaxseed
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

I think next time I'll add a 1/4 cup more sugar, maybe some brown sugar to give it a deeper flavor. They were fantastic, I'll be making these again.

I also used 2 sleeves of single serve Nescafe Columbian coffee granules. From the free samples I was sent. We don't care for instant coffee as a beverage but I use it in my baking a lot. I add it to store bought brownie mix along with some chocolate syrup.

Make it From Scratch #41

Make it from Scratch #41

Some yummy food entries & great crafty ideas!

Make it from Scratch

Make it from Scratch #37 is up!

Here is my dancing fool all ready for her first day of dance class!!!

Make it from Scratch

Make it from Scratch - Autumn Edition is hosted over at Nini Makes. I haven't posted a project since the pepperoni bread, guess I'd better get my behind posting!!!

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Pepperoni Bread & Pizza Subs

Pepperoni Bread

1 cups plus 2 tablespoons water (70° to 80°)
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2/3 cup sliced pepperoni

In bread machine pan, place the first eight ingredients in
order suggested by manufacturer. Select basic bread setting. Choose medium
crust color and loaf size if available. Bake according to bread machine
directions(check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; make necessary adjustments.

Just before final kneading add pepperoni.

I made this by hand since my BM is still out of commission. I dissolved the sugar & yeast in the water & mixed all the dry ingredients together first. I kneaded in the cheese & pepperoni at the end. Let rise once in oiled bowl in moist oven for almost 2 hours, divided into 2 loaves & let rise again. Then baked at 350 until they were golden (about 20 minutes).

Then we cut the loaf in half & sliced like a hot dog bun. Spread the open pieces with pizza sauce, pepperoni & mozzarella cheese. Put it under the broiler until lightly browned. Then we put it back together & we had pizza subs just like our deli makes them. YUM!

Wished I'd taken pictures. I sent the extra loaf to work with hubby, his coworkers LOVE me!

Make it From Scratch #12

There are some fantastic submissions this week!


Anastacia is sharing her #7 Socks from her 52 pair plunge at Anastacia Knits.

I am all for making your own incense & potpourri, I think it just smells better. If you agree go check out Incense at Food for Thought.

Summer tells about her interesting experience. I Tried to Make Soap at Wired for Noise

If you are at a loss over what to do with all of the plastic grocery bags you get when you shop check out Cindy's Crocheted Plastic Eco Tote at My Recycled Bags.

How to Sew a Shopping Cart Seat Cover, Step by Step with Pictures! at How to Me. Using an unfinished baby quilt bought in a store, she gives step by step with pictures.

I am sharing my Lunch bags at Sew What's Up.

Several yummy recipes were submitted! I'll be adding them all to my give them a try files!

Fish Creek House-INNside Innkeepingshares their recipe for Low Fat Cinnamon Cake as well as some fantastic tips to make things lower in fat.

C shares her Make it From scratch the Krispy treat experience with pictures. Looks like they had fun! I've never tried the microwave before.

The The Fat Bottomed Girl gives us her Homemade BBQ sauce recipe.

Banana Pancakes From the One Child Policy Homeschool. Using left over bananas & whole wheat flour, these sound delightful & healthy!

And Carnival Momma Stephanie from Stop the Ride shares her Curried Chick Peas. I know I am always looking for new yummy ways to use chick peas.

There were a few I couldn't use this week, they either had nothing to do with "Make it yourself" or were double submissions. The extras went to Stephanie for next weeks carnival. One submission per week please, Thank you. And enjoy the posts, I know I have!

The next Make it From Scratch will be hosted by Stop the Ride Get your entries in early!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of Make it From Scratch! using the
carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Homemade shake-n-bake

This is one I have been using a lot lately & I just threw it together, no real recipe. I tried the "shake-n-bake" recipe I posted before & I found that the only thing that would stick was the flour, so that was the first ingredient to go!

Bread crumbs (mine are currently unseasoned, and store bought, I'll make my own next time)
Milled Flax Seed (got it at our Walmart Super Center, it adds a nutty taste)
Lawry's Poultry Rub (We had a bottle left over from a fundraising BBQ)

In a container with low sides (I use my rectangular glass baking dish) I mix a couple handfulls of the brea crumbs with about 1/4 c of the flax seed & probably a tablspoon of the Lawry's. Then I just roll whatever I want breaded & bake as usual. We had this on Pork chops last night & Drumsticks a couple weeks ago.

Make it From Scratch

Will be hosted here May 8th!

Go to Blog Carnival-Make it From Scratch to submit your post!

It can be anything you like, but it has to be made from scratch by you! You can check out the "rules" at Stop the Ride

Make it from scratch #10

Make it from Scratch is up at Stop the Ride

So far I have had my tummy grumble, & discovered a new resolve to learn to use those knitting needles.

Frugal Friday #5

I am a day late!

My frugal tip of the day is probably more for us country folk, unless you have a little bit of garden in the city.

I compost, there I said it, we are a composting family.

A few years ago we picked up a compost bin & ever since we use it to dispose of any not-meat waste. Of course it is primarily coffee grounds, banana peels & egg shells, sometimes I do have to toss older fruits & veggies, peels & scraps. This coupled with the fact that we save everything paper to be burned in the furnace & potty training is complete we are down to a small bag a week for trash. We also throw yard clippings in there when we have them & every fall it gets filled to the brim with leaves (we have way more leaves than we do room in the bin!)

Thankfully we switched to a garbage pick up that recycles so we aren't throwing away the 3 milk gallons or 2 juice bottles we use every week .

The best part, I get rich compost for my garden, for FREE!!! Can't beat free, frugal & green all at the same time!

Recycling platic bags

Got this great link from the Make it from Scratch Carnival.

Crocheted Plastic Bag Keeper

I also spotted this at the same blog...
Croceted Sling bag using VHS tape

I thought I was doing so good with recycling old clothes into new clothes, now I guess I'll have to dig out the old half eaten vhs tapes!