Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

This is my recipe for Stuffed Peppers, that I hope you enjoy. This recipe is perfect for 2 or 3 people but you can always change the amounts to make more or less. At the bottom of the post you will find a summary of the recipe that you can copy and print.

First gather your ingredients:  4 Bell Peppers, 1 Cup Rice, 1 Lb Beef, Worcester Sauce, Can of Diced Tomatoes, Paprika, Taco Seasoning, Garlic Powder, 1 Onion, Shredded Cheese. Optional ingredients include:  Onion Powder and Tabasco Sauce. You should also preheat your oven to 400 Degrees.

Next you should prep your peppers. After you rinse them, cut off the tops and pull out the seeds. If there are some seeds that fall to the bottom just turn the pepper over and tap it on your cutting board, and they will fall out nice and easy. After you have done that you should cook your rice, brown your beef and saute the onions.

Once your ground beef has been browned and drained of fat, follow the directions on the back of your taco seasoning packet and simmer your meat, taco seasonings, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, Worcester sauce and Tabasco.

Add the diced tomatoes and sauteed onions to the rice, and stir well. Once you have cooked your meat according to the taco seasonings packet and all of the excess water is cooked off, you can mix everything together to finish off your stuffing.

Now that your filling is complete, you can to stuff the bell peppers all the way to the top. I put the peppers in a pan lined with foil for easy cleanup, but that is optional.

Once your peppers are full, cover the top with shredded cheese. I had some leftover filling so I put it in a small baking dish and baked it with the peppers. It makes for a nice lunch the next day or even just some extra filling on the side. Bake the peppers for 30 minutes until the outsides look soft and sort of wrinkly, and your dinner is complete! Hope your enjoy.

Stuffed Green Bell Peppers
- 4 or 5 Bell Peppers
- 1 Cup Rice
- 1 Pound Beef
- 2 Tablespoons Worcester Sauce
- 1 Can Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Teaspoon Paprika
- 1 Packet of Taco Seasoning
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Whole Chopped Onion
- 1 Cup Shredded Cheese
- Tabasco Sauce

Step One:
Prep your peppers, by cutting off the tops and removing the seeds. Preheat the oven to 400 Degrees. Brown the ground beef, saute the chopped onions and cook the rice.

Step Two:
Add the Worcester Sauce, Paprika, Garlic Powder, and Taco Seasonings to the ground beef. If the directions on the back of the taco packet ask for water added, go ahead and add it but be sure to simmer the meat long enough to cook off the excess water.

Step Three:
Add your diced tomatoes and onions to the rice and heat up. If you want to you can add your Tabasco sauce at this point to your own preferences. Once you have fully cooked your ground beef and seasonings, mix it in with your rice and your pepper filling is complete.

Step Four:
Fill the peppers with the meat and rice mixture, then top with shredded cheese. Bake for 30 minutes until the bell peppers are nice and tender.

Melted Chocolate Cookie Cutter Shapes

Here is a great idea for theme birthday party treats or even cake decorating. Its very simple but can make a big impact!

4th of July Cake

These chocolate shapes are really easy to make but can take a cake to the next level. All you need is your favorite type of chocolate chips or bar and a few baking supplies.

You will need a microwave safe bowl, spatula, cookie cutters and a bakers sheet. The food coloring is optional, and only effective if you are using white chocolate.

Chocolate chips will only take about a minute to melt in the microwave, just be careful not to burn them. The chips will retain their shape but as soon as you begin to stir them they will have an even consistency.

After you grease your cookie pan place your cookie cutters on the pan. Scoop a layer of chocolate out into the cutters and just shake the shapes a bit to even them out. This part needs to be done quickly before the chocolate hardens. It is very difficult to remelt the chips without burning them.

At this point I had attempted to add some icing coloring to the mixture, it ended up ruining the entire batch so I would advise against doing that. This is what happened.

After the chocolate has re-hardened you can paint on the icing coloring. If you need to speed things up you can pop them in the freezer and they will be hardened in about 5 minutes or less.

I used some cling wrap to create the marbled effect since I was not a fan of the streaks.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, and maybe it will inspire some creativity of your own!

Peanut Butter and Carrot Dog Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

In honor of my Dog Penny's first birthday I decided to make her a cake. It was surprisingly easy and used a lot of ingredients I had on hand. Obviously you don't have to use the biscuits around the edge, your pup will gobble it up just fine, but I wanted it to be cute. The tutorial for the Homemade Biscuits are here. At the bottom of this tutorial I have a condensed version of the cake recipe for easy copy paste. Enjoy!!

Start by preheating the oven to 350 Degrees and gathering your ingredients.

Flour, Baking Soda, Peanut Butter, Vegetable Oil, Carrots, Honey , 1 Egg and  Cream Cheese.

Combine all of your ingredients and mix well until you form a batter. I used a 9" pan which gave me about a 1 1/2 inch thick cake.

Bake at 350 Degrees for 30 Minutes on the lowest rack. For icing you can use Peanut Butter, yogurt or Cream Cheese like me. I wanted a purple cake so I added a bit of food coloring. Now you have a tasty cake for your Doggy Celebration. If you want the biscuits around the outside keep reading for instructions.

After you cut your biscuit dough from the recipe here into whatever shape you want to use, take a same size greased cake pan and press your raw biscuits along the outside to get the rounded biscuits. Since the oven is at 350 Degrees your biscuits will only take around 25-30 mins.

Now all you have to do is decorate! But trust me your dog won't care what it looks like, it will be reduced to crumbs in no time.

Peanut Butter and Carrot Dog Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
- 1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 Cup Shredded Carrots
- 2 Generous Spoonfuls of Honey
- 1 Egg

Combine all your ingredients and mix well into a batter. Bake in a greased pan at 350 Degrees for 30 Minutes. Frost with room temperature Cream Cheese once the cake has completely cooled.

Homemade Dog Biscuits

This recipe is very simple and most of the ingredients are things you probably have in your pantry right now. My dogs can't seem to get enough of them either. There is a condensed version of the recipe and instructions at the bottom of the post.

First gather your ingredients and preheat the oven to 325 Degrees:

Rolled Oats, Butter, 1 Cup Water, Corn Meal, Sugar, Milk, Cheese, Egg and Flour

Melt the 3 Tblsp of butter and combine with 1 Egg, 1 Cup Hot Water, and 1/2 Cup Milk, then whisk together. Measure out 1 Cup Rolled Oats, 3/4 Cup Corn Meal (I used corn muffin mix), 2 Tsp Sugar, 1 Cup Shredded Cheese and 3 Cups AP Flour.

After you form a loose ball of dough, prep your cutting board or pastry board to roll out the dough. Sprinkle a bit of flour over the surface to prevent sticking as well as some extra flour on the top of the dough ball. Roll out until your desired thickness, I kept mine around 1/2 inch since I have a medium sized dog and a puppy. For larger dogs you could make them thicker or vice versa for smaller dogs. 

(Hint:  If you don't have a Rolling Pin, you can cover the dough with cling wrap or wax paper and use a can or jar to roll out the dough.)

I found some dog shaped cookie cutters at Wal-Mart for less than $3, so I cut the biscuits into your typical bone shape, but you could just use a Pizza Cutter and make bars/strips. Once you have prepped your cookie sheet with cooking spray, bake at 325 Degrees for at least 30 Minutes. If you're biscuits are thicker than 1/2 inch they will need up to 45 Minutes.

You could add dissolved beef or chicken bouillon cubes, or even chopped up beef jerky bits for some different flavor ideas. I hope your puppies enjoy them as much as mine did.

Homemade Cheese Flavored Dog Biscuits


Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Rolled Oats
- 3 Tablespoons Butter
- 1 Cup Hot Water
- 3/4 Cup Corn Meal
- 2 Teaspoons Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Milk
- 1 Cup Shredded Cheese
- 1 Egg
- 3 Cups Flour

Step One:
Combine 3 Tblsp melted butter, 1 Cup Hot Water, 1/2 Cup Milk, and 1 Egg, then whisk together. Then add your dry ingredients and shape them into a loose ball.

Step Two:
Roll out your dough to around 1/2 inch thick. After cutting into shape or bars, place on greased baking pan and bake at 325 Degrees for 35-45 minuted until browned and crisp.

Make a "Life Folder"

Making a Life Folder on your Computer

Something I think is really important for any household is what I call a Life Binder. It includes all of your important information, like schedules, important phone numbers, and budgets but it also can include your recipes or anything that pertains to your daily life. I decided to go paperless with mine and simply make a folder on my desktop instead of an actual binder. This is what mine looks like:

Here is where you break down everything you want to organize with its own folder. I have folders for super important things like budgets and recipes, but I also have a folder for movies that contains a list of movies that are soon to be released that I want to see as well as another list of movies I have yet to watch that I don't want to forget about. The folders I use the most are Recipes, Budget and Projects, which I will show you now.

My Recipes folder is divided into various categories, such as Appetizers, Entrees and Desserts. This makes  finding recipe ideas a lot easier than wading through all of my bookmarks on my computer and my poorly written index cards. Everything is neat and legible as well as alphabetized and it's very handy for keeping those recipes you have yet to ry around without forgetting about them.

This is my favorite and most hated folder. So many hours of work went into it, BUT it was totally worth it. It contains multiple spreadsheets for what I call 'Extreme Budget Tracking'. Since we are buying our first house soon, we decided we want to start saving more money and this really helps. I will do a post later on how to budget for your lifestyle and where to get handy spreadsheets.

Another folder I have been working on extensively is my Projects. Obviously I am keeping track of moving expenses and checklists in one of my sub-folders. My Gardening one is filled with ideas, prices, season guides and of course another budget sheet. The travel folder is the most fun since it essentially my dream vacation. I decided that I would start a savings account just for this vacation and have the money portions all planned out so as soon as I reached that number I would drop everything and go. This is where all of my destinations are listed, where I want to stay, addresses of my international friends, calendars of events in various countries, etc. It also contains a list of future vacations I want to take. This folder was inspired after I heard a very depressing statistic:  The average person spends as much time in the bathroom as on vacation. I have no idea if this is true but if it is I do NOT want to be the average person.

Hopefully this will inspire you to make your own life folder and fill it with ideas, inspirations and helpful things. 

Kitchen Drawer Organizing Tips

How many spoons does it take to stir one pot?

Do you ever go to garage sales and look through all of the kitchen utensils in case there is something you don’t have? I most certainly do this, since I cringe at the thought of paying more than a couple of dollars for a spatula or some tongs. But then I get all my goodies home and low and behold my kitchen drawers are overflowing! Well apart from coming up with some temporary storage ideas (like sticking all of my random baking utensils in an over-sized cup in the cabinet) I have decided that I would part with some of my unused utensils…

Things to Ask Yourself:

1. Do I actually use this?
2. Do I really need more than one of this?
3. Would this be useful somewhere else in the house?

Above, is how far I got, simply putting them into piles and staring at them trying to make a decision. Sad, isn’t it? Not as easy as I thought it would be, getting rid of things I don’t even use. I guess my biggest hurdle is having weird empty spaces, I mean if you have a drawer put something in it, right?? Logically, there are four burners on the stove, so a max of four utensils of one kind should be the norm. I mean the odds of me making four different pots of pasta are slim, but making 3 or 4 sides isn’t out of the question, or even frying more than one thing.

Finally I managed to rid my drawer of a few of my multiples. So how did I trick my mind into getting rid of some stuff from my utensil drawer?? RE-purposing!! Since I have begun converting buying from name-brand cleaners to mixing and making all of our cleaning supplies, I simply transitioned some old spoons and such from the utensil drawer to my supply area for the cleaners. And I found once I had more room in one drawer, I wanted room in all of my most used drawers, and it was so much easier to get rid of things.


Good Luck with your Organizing!

Taking Control of Pesky Kitchen Gnats

I'm not sure if it is the weather or if I just cook things that smell too awesome, but even if my entire kitchen is spotless I have a couple of gnats buzzing around. I've cleaned everything I can imagine would attract them, kept little to no dirty dishes in the sink, and put all of my fruit in the fridge, but still they buzz. The only thing that seems to work is killing them, but I don't want to sit around with a fly swatter all day hunting for them. So I tried this simple trick and trust me IT WORKS! It doesn't get rid of the problem (I think we will need professional help for that) but it does kill them without taking up more than a minute of your time!

All you need is:
- A Cup/Mug/Glass/Container
- Some Apple Cider Vinegar
- A drop of Dish Washing Liquid

Just fill your cup about halfway with the Apple Cider Vinegar add a drop or two of Dish Washing Liquid and set it on your counter. After a few hours....

Those tiny dots you see are gnats!!

VOILA. You have killed at least some of your problem... the only down side is the smell of Apple Cider Vinegar BUT if you keep it at half a cup the smell isn't very strong and won't drive you nuts. Happy Gnat Hunting!!

Make a Record Wall

Make a Record Wall

I had some visitors coming and since we are moving in a couple of months after only a year renting, I hadn’t done anything with our spare bedroom. Between the blindingly white walls and the echo you get from an empty-ish room I knew I needed something simple and cheap to put on the wall.

Most thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army sell records for a Dollar each, however sometimes if you go off the beaten path a bit and either go to a smaller thrift store or even browse Craigslist, I have found records for as little as 10 cents apiece. The trick is figuring how many you want/need. Having bought a few record collections off of craigslist and the desire to have a record wall much larger than this for some time now, I have many more than I actually need. In this tutorial I only used 12, so at $1 each I would have only spent a right around $13 with tax if I had gone out and bought records specifically for this project.

Supplies:

-          Records (DUH)

-          Yardstick

-          Level

-          Hammer and Nails

-          3m strips (optional)

Step One:

Ok so this one is super easy. Figure out where you want to hang your ‘art’. I measured straight up from a wall outlet that was in the center of my wall so I didn’t have to get out a measuring tape. I made a mark right in the center of where I wanted the top row of records to go.

Step Two:

Each of the records have a 6 in radius so your nails are going to be 12” apart plus whatever spacing you want in between. I ended up at around 12 ¼ “. If you measure 6 and 1/8” (be sure to use the level and get it straight) from your center mark on each side then you will have your first two spots marked for your nails. Then just go the full 12 ¼ “  out from the two marks you made and your top row is done! Then just use your yardstick and level to fill in the rest of the marks.

I was super lazy at this point and only measured the top row and the left row, then I just places the records and measured the spacing  by eye and used the holes to find the nail spots.

Step Three:

Hang the Records! If you're OCD (or the preferred CDO) you can use 3m strips to prevent your records from turning and the keep the labels aligned, but I decided I didn’t mind that they weren’t all facing the same way.

Now you have a super fancy and cheap record wall, hmmm now what to do with those record covers....

D.I.Y. Dry Erase To Do List

D.I.Y. Dry Erase Cleaning or To Do List

I absolutely LOVE dry-erase boards and with an underwhelming cleaning check-list, I knew my ideal solution would be some sort of dry erase/cork board combination.

After about 20 minutes of staring at the selections of bulletin and dry erase boards in the store I decided that I really wanted a half and half board, so that I could create a list and not have to re-write them all the time because I smudge them with my hand. SO here is what I came up with.

Supplies:

-          Magnetic Dry Erase Board $4.50

-          Cork Board $3

-          Both with Dimensions of 5.5in x 14 in

-          Blank Computer Paper

-          Packing Tape

-          List of things to include on your To Do or Cleaning List

(MY underwhelming cleaning list, the suplies I intend to replace it with ad the finished product)

Step One:

Take a piece of Blank Computer Paper and figure out how wide it should be, to fit on your Cork Board. Make a crease and then cut off the extra. Keep the scrap to use later.

Step Two:

Write your checklist on the paper you trimmed to fit the cork board, minus the check boxes. I used the scrap paper to prevent the ink from my marker from bleeding through to the counter.

Step Three:

Take another piece of paper, or use your scrap paper and line it up with your checklist and make your boxes that you can put checkmarks into. Then fold and trim off the extra paper.

Step Four:

Take some packing tape and attach the boxes to the right edge of your dry erase board.

Step Five:

Now you are finished and can hang your new dry-erase checklist wherever you need it!