Five Must-do Activities for Vacationing in Clearwater

Throughout the previous months and weeks, our family has scrimped and saved to be able to enjoy an extended vacation in Clearwater, Florida. Our family loves the ocean and a lot of the opportunities it has to offer, but we do not want to be overpaying for tourist-y things. Here is my list of awesome things to do without breaking the bank in the Clearwater area for a family with small children.

1. Go to the beach!

The tide is going out here at Honeymoon Island. The shallow water is great for relaxing.

Some people like to visit busy, bustling beaches, but our family prefers the more laid back beach approach. If the "happening" beach is what you're interested in, go to Clearwater Beach and check out Pier 60. There are lots of amenities like beach chairs and sun shades for rent along with lots of vendors nearby. To go to the end of the pier, there is a small, per-person fee.  We prefer the slower pace of a beach like Indian Rocks, Belleair Beach or even Honeymoon Island (you do have to pay to visit Honeymoon Island as it is a state park.). We like to find a place that has inexpensive parking, a bathroom, and a foot shower or full shower. At each one of these places, you will have to pay to park your vehicle, but it is usually less than $10. We never stay more than an hour or two because someone always gets sand somewhere it shouldn't be, or someone needs lunch and is getting hangry. 

COST- parking fees vary, but usually less than $10 for the whole day

2. Visit the local parks.

There are so many cool things to do for free at the varied parks in the vicinity. A few of our favorites include Cliff Stevens Park, Josiah Cephus Weaver Park, and the Sprayground at Dunedin Community Center.

Cliff Stevens Park has beautiful walking and biking trails, a disc golf course, and tons of local wildlife. There are beautiful birds, turtles, fish and even a few small alligators nestled in the park. It's free to park your car in a well-shaded parking lot, and it is frequented by walkers, bikers, golfers and nature enthusiasts. Our kids did fine walking the majority of the long walking trail (even though mom was a bit concerned when the trail meandered out over the water that was filled with wildlife), and we pushed our stroller through the entire park easily.
COST- free WEBSITE- Cliff Stevens Park

This Brown Pelican was hanging out on the pier at Weaver Park.
He was watching some fisherman to see if he could get a free meal.

Josiah Cephus Weaver Park is just up the road from Clearwater in the smaller city of Dunedin. The park has two great features: a jungle gym and a pier. First, there is an ample play area for children that is fully cushioned with soft turf for rambunctious children like mine. The shaded play area features a section for smaller children ages 2-5 and a section for children ages 5-12 with a wilderness theme. The see-saw is in the shape of a dragonfly, and kids rock back and forth on the wings. How cute is that? Once the kids have gotten out some restless energy, we head over across the street to the pier where lots of beautiful sites can be seen. On our many visits, we have seen a variety of cool creatures there like mama and baby manatees, starfish, sting rays, brown pelicans, and lots of fish.The park is adjacent to the Pinellas Trail as well.

COST- free  WEBSITE- Dunedin Parks

The Sprayground offers a convenient place for families to cool off in the hot Florida sun, and it's free!

The Sprayground at Dunedin Community Center is our kids' favorite place. Imagine a regular playground, but add water spraying out all over the place! The Sprayground is situated in nearby Dunedin also and provides a great way for kids to get wet without the hassle of the sand and saltwater. It is conveniently located right next to the Highlander Pool (which is very reasonably priced for swimming at just $3 per person), and it has a Kona Ice stand right outside. Maybe you will want to spring for slushies when you're done with the water fun!

COST- free WEBSITE- Kiwanis Sprayground

3. Go fishing!

Sorry about the blurry nature of this photo, but this was the only shot I got of the shark that we caught at the Oldsmar pier. He chewed through the fishing line before he could be reeled in. We estimated the shark was around two feet in length.

A fishing license does cost a bit of money if adults want to fish, as does tackle and fishing poles and bait, but the experience is pretty great! My husband got a 3-day fishing license for less than $20, and we got bait for less than $10. Because we borrowed poles and tackle from family, our fishing experiences were very inexpensive, and our kids had a great time. It is legal to fish from most shore-line areas, piers and docks unless otherwise posted. Be sure to check with Fish and Wildlife for specific guidelines about what size fish you can and cannot keep. We tried two different fishing spots without a lot of success: at the Oldsmar pier we caught a shark (yikes!), and off the Dunedin Causeway, we caught only seaweed while the fish stole our bait.

COST- license fees, bait, tackle and pole prices all vary based on your skill level and length of stay

4. Spend a little more on splurge-worthy activities

Our family had a few activities in mind that we knew we wanted to experience before we left our house. Our daughters wanted to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and my husband and I wanted to try out paddle boarding.

Our kids thought Winter's prosthetic tail was pretty cool. Apparently the Hanger corporation makes an awful lot of these tails, as CMA has them available throughout both locations for people to check out.

The first splurge included a stop at the very tourist-y Clearwater Marine Aquarium to see Winter and Hope, the stars of the Dolphin Tale movies. There are plenty of coupon booklets that offer a few dollars of savings on tickets here and there, and I forgot to bring mine along. I asked at the ticket counter if they offer a teacher discount, and to my joyous surprise, one teacher can be admitted free with each group! I did have to show my teacher ID badge, but that was a savings of nearly $22! There are so many cool things to do and see at CMA, and our kids loved it! Of course there are dolphins, turtles, otters and birds to see, but our kids really liked getting to touch a sting ray in their interactive sting ray area. We even rode a boat shuttle to a second location to check out a lot of the props and sets that were used in the making of the Dolphin Tale films. Our kids got to hold one of many of the prosthetic tails specially made for Winter. They were delighted, and it was a good day. We arrived when the aquarium opened at 9 and stayed until about noon when the kids became hungry and their mom was too hot to enjoy it anymore. Plan on crowds and high prices in the gift shop. Our kids saved money for months to be able to buy merchandise from CMA!

COST- admission $21.95 for adults, $16.95 for kids age 3-12, under 3 is free

Our next splurge included a trip over to Safety Harbor to rent a Stand Up Paddle board or SUP as the rental guy, Ken, calls them. This experience was one of the coolest of the whole vacation for me. This was not a kid-friendly activity for our family, and we are glad that grandma and grandpa took the kids to nearby Phillippe Park where the kids could run and play while mom and dad tried out paddle boarding in the calm bay waters. The man who rented us the necessary items (and who made us sign a liability waiver) gave us a quick lesson on how to paddle board and then set my husband off into the bay to figure it out. My husband did awesome! When he returned to shore, I tried my hand at paddle boarding, and I found that I am much less balanced than my husband! Though I didn't fall off the board, I was more wobbly than him! When I went out into the bay, a big group of manatees surrounded my paddle board and swam all around me. It was breathtaking, and I was so glad I hadn't let my fears or my weak core muscles deter me from such beauty! The gentleman from whom we rented our paddle board was really great. Though he doesn't have his own website that I can find, he is easy to find near the pier at Safety Harbor. His rates are reasonable, and he wants you to be safe and enjoy yourself. We rented our board for just one hour, and we tipped him generously for his instruction. He offers kayak rentals and tours and other things that have left my memory since I read his flyer, but seriously. Go paddle boarding.

COST- $25 for one hour, plus instruction if needed (he asked for $30 total, but we tipped him more because he was so awesome and patient with me... and he held the board steady for me to help me not fall)

5. Go for a walk!

Walking through the Clearwater area will offer you the opportunity to see some of the many dolphin statues that are placed throughout the area. We saw quite a few of them near the marina  at Clearwater Beach, but there is a map available at Clearwater's Dolphins.

The Pinellas Trail is a beautiful walking and biking trail that runs all through Pinellas County, and we took some time to explore part of it. We were able to venture near an ice cream shop and splurge for a quick cold treat on our journey.

Another good option for walking is the Courtney Campbell Trail walkway off Route 60 between Clearwater and Tampa. We walked to the top and back and watched boats, birds and lots of dolphins! Fishing is not allowed from the bridge, and be very aware of others as many folks are running, biking or skating for exercise. The breeze here is lovely, and there are lots of cool things to see as you walk.

Gardening: Not Just a Mega Money-Saver

Gardening: Not Just a Mega Money-Saver

Gardening is a great way for our family to save a fair amount of money each year on our grocery bill. But gardening is hard work, and it requires dedication, consistency, and problem solving (all qualities that we are trying to teach our kids)! What could be better than providing our family with fresh foods that we know exactly how and where they were grown? The fruits of our labor are worth all of the difficulties!

Last year's purple beans and wax beans get a nice shower before going into the freezer.

Since we live in town, we do not have a good space for a garden, but our family has annually offered us a large garden space on their property a few miles away, and I am quite grateful! Though the spring and summer months, we visit our garden probably five days a week to manage all of the issues there. I like to talk about a few major topics surrounding gardens, like start up, plant choices, and our potato towers.

My awesome husband is keeping our soil
nice and powdery and free of weeds.

How do we get started?

Choosing our garden location is important. We need an area that gets a lot of sun. We want a spot that's pretty flat. We have to have good soil. The soil where we plant needed quite a bit of help our first few years. We cleared off the sod and found that our soil was rich in clay, and that isn't perfect for all plants. We did some soil samples and took them to our local experts where they gave us some suggestions to help our soil. Listen to experts. Everyone faces different issues, and experts help amateurs like me figure out a solution! Getting the soil nice and powdery is of utmost importance for a lot of technical reasons. We use a couple of techniques to get the concrete-like clay soil to soften up. We roto-till it first, and then I double dig the areas where our seeds and plants get placed in the garden. Double digging means that you dig a deeper hole than you actually need for your plants and seeds and place about 6" of loose soil under your plants and seeds to allow their roots to really go deep. Deep roots = healthy plants.

What do we plant?

Because I intend to store a lot of our produce, I only choose items that meet several requirements. First, our family must actually like to eat the food. I will not plant turnips, because we won't eat turnips. Second, the items we plant must work well in a canning, freezing or dry goods application unless we just plan to eat the fresh items as they become available. For instance, most lettuces don't can or freeze well, so I only plant as much as our family can eat fresh. Third, I try to plant foods that are easy to care for. Since my garden isn't out the back door, it requires our family to drop everything each time we need to work there, and since summertime is busy, I have learned to only tend to plants that aren't tricky or cantankerous.

Pepper plants and tomato plants are
 getting a good start!

Some of my personal favorites include:

-bush beans

-bi-color corn

-cucumbers for pickling

-bell peppers

-jalapenos

-potatoes

-several varieties of tomatoes

-herbs

-beets

What is a potato tower?

This potato tower holds our Pontiac potatoes. We planted celery in the top
 of the tower as an experiment. See how the tower is nestled in the edge of the garden?

Several years ago, we had some issues with our potatoes. I planted about ten pounds of seed potatoes and got very little yield. I was very disappointed, and scoured the internet for reasons why this could have happened. I know deep down that it was a combination of poor soil quality, poor upkeep with weeds and lack of space for root development. As a result, my husband and I decided to experiment with a potato tower that I saw online.

Basically, a potato tower consists of some kind of structure, (we used a piece of metal fence that we fastened into a cylindrical shape) that is layered with seed potatoes, straw, and soil. Our towers measure about 2 1/2 feet in diameter. We lay the straw on the outside and layer potatoes and soil. Eventually, the potato plants push their way through the straw and the leaves and flowers are all around the entire tower. When harvest time arrives, we unfasten the piece of fence, and potatoes are everywhere! We liked them so well that we decided to make two of them this year: one for Russet and one for Pontiac!

Glad About Gardening

Our kids love gardening! You can see
our daughter playing in the dirt
 near one of the potato towers.

There are lots of times when I could complain about our garden. Yes my back hurts from working in it. Yes, I sometimes get too much sun. We have had blights effect an entire crop. But even so, the frustration is all worthwhile once the harvest comes! The garden does save us money, but the other advantages are immeasurable! Our kids are growing up watching their food grow. They are watching their parents work together to make something work. They are learning how to problem solve, and consistently care for something. They are watching a process and learning to be helpful. They are harvesting healthy foods and watching the process of storing foods. And sometimes we let them take charge of the hose to water the plants; what could be better fun? Plus, gardening is worthwhile exercise!

Our corn has popped up in nice little
rows. Some of it has been hoed, and
some still needs work.

A different angle of  the corn. We have
our pie tins tied out to keep the birds from
stealing our seeds!

Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you

Genesis 1 :29

More About Laundry Soap

We ran out of our homemade laundry soap last week, and everything in our house came to a grinding halt. Luckily I had a couple of small containers of laundry detergent to limp along until I could afford the luxury of making more soap. This time, I was planning to go to our local hardware store to get all of the ingredients for making powdered laundry soap because they sent me a high-value coupon: $7 off of any $20 purchase!

I went to the store and purchased what I needed. Here's the cost breakdown:

2 bars of Fels Naptha $1.89 each- $3.78
Oxiclean                                        $6.99
Borax                                             $4.99
Washing Soda                               $6.49
4 boxes Baking soda                     $3.96- (I already had these on hand)
_________________________________
Total Cost                                 $26.21
Coupon                                   -  $7.00
_________________________________

Discounted Cost                       $19.21

My laundry soap batch usually lasts our family of five about six months. Less than $20 in detergent will last our family through the next six months!

The link above includes adding a scent booster of some kind, but I leave it out of my big batch and add in some kind of fragrance to individual loads if I want. The Fels Naptha adds a nice clean smell on its own. I like the plain detergent on my kids' clothes, and I add Downy Unstopables to bath towels and adult clothes to make them smell great.

There's nothing that feels like getting a great deal on an already awesome homemade detergent!

Angel food cake is from the devil

So today has turned into a crummy day.

It started off as usual with running here and there taking kids to and from school, running to the store and completing errands like any other day. This day has been utterly jam-packed with little annoying occurrences that started this afternoon.  I attempted to make a from-scratch angel food cake to take along to dinner with some church friends later on. I've never made an angel food cake before, but I wanted to practice because my daughter asked for Ree Drummond's Strawberry Sparkle Cake instead of a traditional birthday cake this year. I'm not a very good baker, so I decided to give it a test run today, and the cake was a total flop.

I began by following the directions as listed in Ree's detailed, picture-guided tutorial, and I cracked eggs and separated them, and I sifted and sifted and sifted ingredients as the recipe commanded. I got the cake in the oven and looked at the clock to see that it was 2:34!  I had exactly 9 minutes to wake my two younger kids from naps and get them in the car to go retrieve their older sister from Kindergarten.

How could I let time slip away from me like this?! I thought to myself as I ran up the steps to get our youngest up. His sister had awakened and headed downstairs by now. As I walked into his room, I was greeted with the smell of dirty diaper, and I found my son sitting on the floor with an overflowed diaper. I quickly assessed the rest of the room, and I found that the overflow started in his bed and trailed throughout his room. I scooped him up from the floor and carried him to the changing table to see about cleaning him up. It took a quick assessment to determine that this was a mess that required a bath immediately. But I had no time to give a bath and make it to Kindergarten pick up on time. I carefully pulled out my phone to see if my husband could pick our daughter up from school; it's 2:41 now. The phone rang and rang. No answer. I called his secretary. She informed me that he was out of his office. I called his cell again. Straight to voice mail. Great.

I quickly began drawing a bath and plopped our messy son into the water and scrubbed the mess from his adorable skin. A scream from downstairs reached my ears as I pull our son from the bath. Our middle daughter comes crying and running up the stairs; she has a smashed finger. It is cut, and I am holding an angry, dripping wet boy at 2:47. We are already two minutes late. I send her crying into the bathroom to rinse her finger in cool water while I race through the boy's foul-smelling room to find some clean clothes. My phone rings. It's my husband. I explain the situation, and he says he can quickly run to get our Kindergartener from school. Hallelujah! My husband swooped in to save part of the day!

Thankfully the pinched finger was perfectly treated with the cool water, and she calmed down and decided to catch up on some cartoons. I got our son dressed, swapped out the nasty bed sheets for clean ones, used about a can of Lysol in his room and did a quick clean up of his carpets before I headed back downstairs. While I was gathering the grossness and placing it in the hamper, my son was playing with his closet door, opening and closing it and laughing. On one particular close, he put his finger where it wasn't supposed to go, and the wailing began again. The finger smashing broke the skin just enough to freak him out, so we went to rinse his finger in cool water too.

It took a moment to calm him down, and then I was determined to make it back downstairs where I could take a second to catch my breath. About half-way down the stairs, I smelled something. The cake! I had forgotten about the cake! I went to the oven and checked its' progress, and all was well with the cake from appearances.

I finished with the allotted bake time and tested the done-ness. It looked great. I flipped it over and let it begin to cool. Though I wasn't aware of it yet, I had messed up with the pan. I don't have an angel food cake pan, but I do have a silicone Bundt cake pan, and I assumed that would work out OK; it did not. When I began to pull the fluffy cake from the pan, things went awry, and I had a terrible mess on my hands. It came out of the plan in stringy sections that were ugly. I attempted to taste it, and I can only explain to you that it tasted like overcooked scrambled eggs with sugar in them mixed with dish soap. It was terrible. Apparently the light folding that I did was not enough to thoroughly incorporate the five-times-sifted super fine cake flour, and I found it in large clumps in other places in the cake. My kitchen was a disaster, and I had nothing to show for it!

The entire mess ended up in the trash can, and I am determined to purchase the rest of the angel food cakes that I will need in the future from a reputable bakery when I can find them at a good price. Maybe that's not fair for me to do because I had such a rough time otherwise during the prep/baking time for this cake, but still. I can rejoice in this day without rejoicing in this cake.

This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Swedish Meatballs

My husband gets frustrated with me at times because I am exceptionally creative in the kitchen, and I often can make a dish one time, but then I never remember how to recreate the dish exactly the same way again. I made this batch of Swedish Meatballs tonight, and my husband LOVED them! But he jokingly told me that though he thinks he'll never get to eat them again because I won't remember how I made them. Just for that, I decided to document my delicious experiment just to spite my hubby... kind of. Now that I think about it, I think maybe he was using reverse psychology on me.

Anyway. Here's the delicious details. 

Ingredients

4 c. hot water + 1 T cold water

3 chicken flavored bullion cubes

2 T powdered ranch mix 

1-2 T Worcestershire

about 20 frozen meatballs

2 T cornstarch

wide egg noodles

1/2 c. heavy cream

1 T chopped parsley 

Instructions

Add four cups of water, three chicken bouillon cubes, and 2 tablespoons of Hidden Valley Ranch powdered mix to a large skillet and bring to a boil. Add Worcestershire and about 20 frozen meatballs, and return to a boil. Mix one tablespoon of cold water with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and stir into the boiling liquid in the skillet. Keep stirring.

In another pot, cook a half of a bag of wide egg noodles per package directions. Cook until almost tender, then scoop with a slotted spoon into the skillet with the meatballs and sauce. Finish cooking the noodles in the sauce. Add some of the starchy cooking liquid from the noodles if the sauce gets too thick. After the noodles are totally tender, add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley. Stir and reduce until sauce is thick and bubbly. Yield: 5 servings

Becoming Artsy- Learning How to Be Sane

A little less than a year ago, I was getting close to the end of my rope when I learned I could paint. Motherhood wasn't anything that I expected, and I was feeling beyond overwhelmed. At the end of each day, I would fall into bed, an emotional mess, unable to sleep well. Because I couldn't sleep, I would pull out my phone and look at all kinds of beautiful things that people were making and posting on Pinterest. For a while, I began to feel awful about my situation, and maybe even a little worse because I was comparing my cluttered, messy home to the gorgeous photos all over my pin boards.

One day, though, I talked to my husband, and I told him I really wanted to try to do some of the things I saw on Pinterest.  A friend gave us some pallets that he was going to burn, and my husband and I got busy pulling them apart, putting them back together, and generally making our garage unusable for our vehicles! I got a small paint set from a craft store for less than $20, and I began experimenting. I enjoyed it so much, and my first painting turned out much better than I expected. Since our county fair was coming up soon, I decided to enter my painting, and guess what? I got the first place blue ribbon! How in the world can someone live on this Earth for 30 years and not know about their own ability to paint!?!

This is my very first painting that I did just weeks before I turned 30! What talents do you have hidden? 

After that blue ribbon, I got really excited about painting. Painting on old, beaten up pallets was an awesome stress reliever for me.Old pallets allowed me to not be concerned about messing up, and it seemed that they are pretty easy to make look nice! It seemed the more I swiped the paint across the "canvas," the more my stress seemed to melt away. Initially, I used Pinterest as a template for each item, but then, my creativity began to bloom, and original ideas would come to me. I think painting helped keep me sane through the summer and the transition of my daughter going off to Kindergarten. On days when I was particularly stressed, some of the most beautiful art came out of my paint brush.

As friends and family members heard of my "art" (aka sanity), people began offering money for these pieces! I couldn't believe people would pay me a fair price for my stress relievers! I began selling a few items, and some suggested I set up at a couple local craft shows, and I had great success. I had painted, and my husband had helped me get everything ready. We had truly hundreds of pieces including signs, Christmas decor, and even some furniture!

At the craft show, many ladies kept asking me, "How do you have time for all of this when you have three kids?" The answer is simple: It keeps me sane. If I keep all of these beautiful ideas locked up, I am miserable. If I have an outlet for creativity, my husband and kids can tolerate living with me much better!

My mom says I am technically a professional artist because I have sold my art. I don't feel like a professional artist because I do it only because I love it so much. Honestly, I feel like painting is a little gift that God has given me to allow me to take time to think about how beautiful His world is and to imagine how much he loves His creation. As I dip my paint brush and smear colors together, I can imagine His delight as He created the beauty in the flowers of the field. I think about all the complexity of color and contrast of light and dark, and somehow, the rest of my worries are gone for a little while.

Below is my most recent art piece in process. This is a Bee Hive into which a friend is getting ready to introduce a new swarm of bees. The box was already built and ready for me to paint! She asked for it to be "girly," and I have been happy to oblige!

Isn't this a great place for bees to live?

What creative outlet keeps you sane? Leave your comments below.

Strawberry Pudding "Pie"

I have never met a strawberry dessert that I didn't like, and this one is ah-mazing! It is low in calories and fat, and it satisfies the sweet teeth in our household without going crazy in the calorie department!

This super fast and simple recipe is a mix between an Angel Lush dessert that my mom makes from time to time and my grandma's banana pudding recipe. No bananas in this one, though.

It starts off with about a half of a box of vanilla wafer cookies. Line them up in an orderly fashion to cover a pie plate. Crumble a few if you'd like to try to cover the whole bottom. This is not going to slice nicely like a pie, so the crust doesn't have to be perfect.

Next, follow the directions on the box to make a large box of instant sugar-free fat-free vanilla pudding.  Make sure it is super smooth.




Next, strain the juice from a can of crushed pineapple, and add it to the pudding. Add a tub of whipped topping. You can use a lite variety of this as well to cut calories and fat again,

Mix well with a low speed on the mixer or with a rubber spatula. The mixture should be pillow-y and pretty when you're all done. I like to use a clear glass bowl for recipes like this so I can check to see if I mixed well enough.

This is where it starts getting really goooood! Spoon the mixture onto the cookies. I can't seem to get the whole amount of the mixture into the pie plate, so I reserve about a cup or more for snacking... for the kids, of course!

Aren't these strawberries pretty? I used seven because they were so big and pretty, but you can add more or use fewer depending on your taste. I cleaned up the stems and began to slice them up.

 Yum!

The last step is to arrange these gems on top of the pudding-y, pineapple-y pillow in the pie plate.

Yum yum yum! My kids love this dessert, and I bet you will too!

Cost breakdown:

1/2 box of vanilla wafer cookies  ($1.99/box)     $1.00

3 cups of milk  ($2.55/gallon = $0.16/cup)          $0.48

vanilla pudding mix                                              $1.99

1 can crushed pineapple (ALDI)                          $0.69

1 carton of frozen whipped topping                     $0.89

1/2 quart strawberries ($1.49/quart ALDI)          $0.75

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grand Total                                                          $5.80

This pie easily has 8 servings, more if you have self-control! That's less than 75 cents per person for dessert!

Recipe

Ingredients-

1/2 box vanilla wafer cookies

sugar-free, fat-free vanilla pudding mix, large box, prepared

1 can of crushed pineapple, drained

1 carton frozen whipped topping, thawed

1/2 quart of cleaned, sliced strawberries

Instructions-

Line the cookies in a large pie plate (9"-10"). Mix prepared pudding with crushed pineapple and whipped topping until completely incorporated. Spoon mixture on top of cookies in pie plate until heaping and full. (Filling may not all fit in your pie shell. Reserve any remainder for another application.)

Top with sliced berries and refrigerate covered until ready to use.

$0.20 Bargain Twice-Baked Broccoli and Cheese Potatoes!

Twice Baked Broccoli and Cheese Potatoes

I got a great bargain on potatoes this week: five pounds of potatoes for $1! ONE DOLLAR! I bought the limit, of course, which was two bags. Our oldest daughter loves baked potatoes, so I decided to scrub these babies up and pop them in the oven.

I lined them up nice and pretty on baking sheets and put them in the oven. From ten pounds of potatoes, I got 25 potatoes... for only two bucks! (There were actually 26, but one was gross, so I threw it away.)  That's only 8 cents each!

I set my oven at 380 and left these beauties to cook and soften for about an hour. They weren't quite finished at an hour, so I left them in for another 30 minutes.

Once they finished in the oven, I stuck a fork in them, and it came out easily. The skin even has a different texture too when they're done cooking.

Next, I sliced the tops, and scooped out the middle of the potatoes.

I cooked up a big bag of frozen broccoli, and I mixed it with about a cup of mozzarella cheese. My family likes broccoli cooked really soft, but you can cook yours to your liking. You can use about any kind of cheese you like. I couldn't find any cheddar, so I reached for the mozzarella.

Mix it all up together really good. You could definitely add some softened butter at this point, but I wanted to keep these pretty lean. Add quite a bit of salt and pepper to this mixture.

Scoop the mixture and form it to fit inside each potato. Add a fair amount of mixture to each one. Pop these back into a hot 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes until the tops begin to brown.

When you take these out of the oven, let them cool for a bit before diving in! You could add some sour cream or a bit more cheese if you'd like. Or bacon. Bacon would be really good.

See how soft these are when they're finished?

I paired these potatoes with some grilled chicken, and some veggie quinoa. It was delightful!

Here's the math:

2- 5# bags of potatoes          $2.00 (on sale)

1 bag of frozen broccoli       $1.50 (Sam's Club regular price)

mozzarella cheese                $1.50 (ALDI regular price)

-------------------------------------------

                                             $5.00 Total Recipe Cost!

Since this recipe yielded 25 potatoes, that breaks down to 20 cents per potato! Talk about a bargain! I served these up for dinner, then I wrapped up the others and popped them in the freezer to use on a particularly hectic night when dinner is testing my patience.

Recipe: Twice Baked Broccoli and Cheese Potatoes

Ingredients-

10 # potatoes ( I used Russets)

1 large bag of frozen broccoli

1 cup  shredded mozzarella cheese

4 T butter, softened

salt and pepper

Instructions-

Preheat oven to 380 degrees. Scrub potatoes under hot running water. Arrange on sheet pans and bake until tender, about 90 minutes; turn potatoes over after 40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then slice the potato skin carefully to open just the top of the potato.Cook the broccoli until tender. Carefully scoop out the inside of the potato and place in a large bowl. Scoop insides from all potatoes, and mix together with cooked broccoli, mozzarella, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Fill each potato generously with the broccoli cheese mixture. Top with a small amount of softened butter, then return to a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes until the tops of the potatoes brown slightly. Serve as meal or on the side.

Working Out at Home Doesn't Work for Me!

Changing my lifestyle became really important to me a while ago, but my goals came into sharp focus last summer when I was working with some teens in my church on the topic of the fruits of the spirit that are discussed in Galatians. I think I might have learned even more than those teens because when I examined my own life against that passage of scripture, this is what I found: I want to profess my belief in Jesus, but I need to start producing some fruits, and self-control really got me. When I look in the mirror, my body doesn't exactly scream "Self-control!" I am a walking, talking embodiment of my beliefs, and if I can't get my self under control, no one will look at me and see the awesome power of Jesus that I know is real.

I want to workout in my home. I have even purchased some equipment to help me in my endeavors, but I never can seem to keep up the habit of regularly burning those calories at home.


Our current situation has my husband and me raising three young kids, my husband juggling an exceptionally stressful career, me working part-time and staying home raising our family, us balancing church responsibilities, our kids active in tee ball, dance, and children's activities in our church. Working out is low on the list of priorities. Over the last couple months though, I have been attending Zumba classes at a nearby church two nights each week at a rate of $5 per class. I love going, and I don't mind the cost because my long-term health is worth $10 per week! Last night, though, our schedules had a serious conflict, but I had a stern resolve that I was working out, no matter what. Nights like last night are why I don't workout at home though.

My husband and I both worked during the day, and we had already eaten dinner and taken kids to tee ball practice, and I was planning a 40 minute workout with Zumba for the Wii. I knew my husband had a meeting that he planned to go to in a few minutes, and I thought I could squeeze in a quick workout while he was gone.  As I bent down to put the Zumba disc into the Wii console, my 18 month old son came over to me with an odor. It was clear that he needed a new diaper. My husband had a meeting to go to within a few minutes, but he reluctantly agree to change our son's diaper before he left. So I went ahead trying to get things going on the Wii. For some reason it wouldn't work, and I realized the little receiver communicator piece that is supposed to sit on or around the TV had gotten knocked down by someone's little hands. I got it figured out and started my workout. My two daughters wanted to workout with me, and I cautioned them that they should scoot away from their mama for their own safety.

The three of us were getting involved in the first of many songs. It was fun. We were stepping and sliding and punching the air when my husband finished the diaper change and brought the little boy back into the mix and headed out the door to his meeting. Our son saw my Wii remote and thought he needed to hold it, so he began attacking me while I was still in motion. He grabbed and reached and reached and grabbed, but my cat-like speed was no match for his less than 3-feet-tall frame. When he realized I wasn't going to stop to allow him to take away my Wii remote, he grabbed on to my right ankle and hung on tight while he wailed about this terrible injustice! He got to go for a little ride before I realized his resolve to hang on to my leg might get the both of us hurt. So, I scooped his crying little body up and grabbed his chair from the table in the dining room where I could strap him to keep us safe! I pulled it into the living room while he kicked and screamed under my arm, sat him down so he could watch, fastened the straps, and I resumed dancing within five feet of him. He began to cry as if he had been deserted. I did my best to ignore him, and I continued my calorie-torching dancing.

Though I was ignoring him, his sister wanted to console him and help him to stop crying so she ran upstairs, grabbed the Kindle Fire and gave it to him while it played some songs. All the while, I am sweating to my Zumba! When she finally got back to her own version of Zumba beside me, she apparently forgot the rule about keeping her distance from mommy. I reminded her a couple times, "Mommy.... (huff).... (puff)... is... moving... (huff).... around.... a... lot... scoot... over... so... (puff)... you... don't... get... hurt!" We danced and moved, and she zigged when I zagged, and my heel connected to her little arm while I was mid kick. She alerted me to the injury, but I could tell that she was injured emotionally more than anything, so I kept on moving and dancing while she cried on the bench in our living room.

While she still cried from getting a gentle kick (that she had been warned about numerous times), her brother decided to throw the Kindle Fire across the room in anger from being strapped in his booster seat for his own safety. Once the Kindle was lying on the floor, he decided to mourn his loss by screaming as loud as he could. The oldest of the three was beginning to lose interest in the fitness program, and she went to the kitchen to get a drink for her and her crying sister. I'm still dancing. I could see from the corner of my eye that our oldest was getting two very large cups of water filled with ice. It looked rather refreshing. I was super sweaty by this point. When the song finished, I grabbed my own water, and took a nice long drink. The strapped-in young boy apparently felt thirsty too because he was crying and motioning for my water bottle. I handed it to him as the next song began and I resumed my calorie massacre. He threw my water bottle to the floor in anger as well.

His sister had by this point recovered from her injury, and she went in search of her own beverage. When she got to the kitchen, she began to get her own cup with ice water, and our oldest daughter became outraged that her sister wanted to get her own beverage because there had been one already prepared for her. What happened next, I can only describe as a very loud cat fight that caused me to PAUSE the Wii. The fight between the two girls was about a cup of ICE WATER. I sent the screaming, crying, mass of older daughter to her bedroom while our younger daughter got her own cup of ice water. I went back to the living room, where our son was staring at our crying older daughter as she cried her way up the steps. I hit resume and went ahead with my workout.

My mom-eyes were still monitoring the kitchen situation where our younger daughter was asserting her independence from her sister's ice water regime, and she was filling a different cup with water and ice cubes. As I was doing leg lifts, I heard a small gasp and saw about 12 ounces of water and ice go flying across the kitchen, dripping down through all kinds of worksheets and art projects that came home from school today. I was so frustrated with the whole mess of an attempt at working out that I ignored her and kept on dancing, realizing that the mess was just water, and it would wait for me.

Naturally, the daughter who had been exiled to her room for her extreme overreaction about a cup of ice water wondered when she could come rejoin our wonderful Zumba group. I gave her a time and some stipulations through my huffing and puffing and side stepping and squats. She rejoined the mess just as the last song was coming on. He brother was throwing the Kindle Fire some more, and her sister was partly dancing while keeping her distance and retrieving the Kindle for the loud little boy to keep throwing.

For this particular workout, the cool-down song is "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias, and  when I heard the beginning notes of the song I said outloud, "Praise the Lord!"  The girls looked at me with confusion on their faces, but I knew the only way that I can burn any calories at home is with the help of the Almighty! My Wii told me I burned almost 500 calories in that 40 minute crazy-fest! And I thought to myself, "This is why so many young ladies are overweight! This was a nightmare!"

Working out with small children around is a chore! Even if I liked working out, it would still be a miserable experience! Besides all the mess that I just described is the "mom guilt" that comes with not giving my full attention to my children in the evenings. I miss them while we are apart during the day, and I know they need me to hear about their day and their frustrations.

I know we have another conflict later this week, and I am not sure how I will proceed! My out-of-the-house Zumba class is my preferred method of working out, but my husband has more meetings on Thursday during Zumba time, and I cannot justify spending money for the class and  a sitter!

What do you do to make exercise a priority? Leave a comment below!

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentlesness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

A Day to Honor Fools

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but 

fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1 :7

I hate April Fool's Day. It is my least favorite day of the year, followed closely only by St. Patrick's Day. You might think, "What could you possibly have against having a little bit of fun?" Even as a child, when I figured out that people were out to trick each other, I knew it wasn't something I wanted to be part of. April Fool's Day is shrouded in trickery, surprise and otherwise throwing people off their plan for the day. Essentially, tricksters aim to make someone feel foolish. I get angry when people think that they can get away with messing with people because of a date on the calendar. Granted, there are some tricks that are all in good fun, but then there are tricks where people are cruel and hurtful to others. I'm not okay with that no matter what the calendar says. Yes, I have been accused of being a "fuddy-duddy," and I am totally fine with that. 

Some people might think I am a crumby mom because of the advice I gave my Kindergartner this morning before she left for school. It dawned on me that she hasn't really had any experience with April Fooling, so I cautioned her that people are going to try to trick her today and maybe try to make her feel left out or give her some kind of false hope toward something that isn't real. Naturally, she was confused. When I told her that, often times, adults get involved, she seemed a little apprehensive to go to school. I told her that most everything is done in fun; she was eased a bit. I told her that even though people might try to trick her today, I didn't want her to get involved in the foolishness. She seemed completely okay with that. Even as a young person, she can sense that foolishness is volatile and dangerous. You really can't predict what fools will do!

My Bible supports me in my refusal of playing into the notion of fools, and it supports my endeavors to gain wisdom. Here's a sampling of what my Bible says about fools in Proverbs.

"How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?" 1:22

"Then [fools] will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for [wisdom] and not find [it] since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord" 1 :28-29

Yikes! That doesn't sound like a joke to me!

"The wise inherit honor, but fools get only shame." 3:35

"Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing... she says, 'Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!'" 9-13, 16, 17

"A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother." 10:1

"...a chattering fool comes to ruin." 10:8, repeated in 10:10

"...the mouth of a fool invites ruin." 10:14

"The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense." 10:21

Wow! That's quite a prediction! Death from lack of sense!

Here's the one that seems most fitting for today:

" A fool finds pleasure in wicked schemes, but a person of understanding delights in wisdom." 10:23

"The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult." 12: 16-17

The list could go on and on about all the misery that happens to fools. In short, foolishness is dangerous!   A lot of the problems that happen with fools comes from their mouths and their own plans and can lead them to misery or death. I don't want to be a fool, and I also don't want to endorse a day that honors foolish behavior. 

Proverbs 22:15 says, "Folly is bound up in the heart of the child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away." Each day that is wasted with foolishness is a day that I can't ever get back to work on wisdom in my children's lives and my own. I feel like I have encountered some adults that never got the folly driven out of their hearts by the rod of discipline when they were children because their parents thought that foolishness was funny or cute. Foolishness in adults is a character trait that is neither cute nor funny; fools end up miserable and often don't even recognize that their own behavior led them to their miserable state.

Have I ever participated in April Foolishness? Yes, as a child. Do I like a good practical joke every now and again? Absolutely. However, I don't ever want to make anyone feel like a fool or be a fool myself, and  I certainly don't want to raise fools. 

Rather, I want to instill great wisdom in the lives of my children, whether that is popular or not. "For those who find [wisdom] find life and receive favor from the Lord," according to Proverbs 8:35. What do you think? Is April Fool's Day fun for you?

 Have you ever had wonderful things happen as a result of an April Fool?

Easy Recipe for Delicious Ham- My Own Version of Copycat Honeybaked Ham

My husband's family LOVES Honeybaked Ham. For years, his family would purchase a Honeybaked Ham at the mention of any holiday meal, but when all of their kids got married and started having kids like crazy, the grandparents wanted to spend their money on gifts for the kids instead of a hunk of ham. I knew it was a sacrifice for them, so I committed (to myself) to find a recipe that was delightful.

Pinterest helped me very much in my endeavors, and the copycat version that I found was very good. With a few tweaks, I think I have it spot-on now! Check out this step-by-step version, followed by the recipe!

Ham

First, I was given this bone-in ham in a frozen state; I thawed it in my fridge. It was already fully cooked and smoked, but not yet sliced, so I did my best to cut it into pieces without demolishing it. I sure could use some lessons on slicing up meats! I lined my roasting pan with two layers of Heavy Duty aluminum foil in a crossed pattern to be sure to cover all of the pan... I hate doing dishes! You can get a pre-sliced ham if you'd like, and you don't have to use the foil if you like to scrub pots and pans.

Glaze

Next up, we are going to make a beautiful syrup to pour over the ham. We're basically cooking sugar into almost a candy state along with a bunch of yummy spices and then letting it set on the ham.
First into the pot is sugar. Plain old granulated white sugar.

Onion powder goes in next. It adds quite a savory element to the mixture.Then cloves, paprika, and ginger. Ginger is not my favorite flavor, so I go easy on the ginger in this version. You can add a bit more if your family likes the flavor more.

                                                   

                                                   

                                                   

Alton Brown is one of my favorite TV Chefs, and he always touts the superiority of freshly ground nutmeg, versus its pre-ground counterpart. I always grate my own as a result of AB's teachings! (My hubby got me this nice little Microplaner a few years ago, and I use it often to zest citrus, shred up Parmesan cheese, and grate some nutmeg into my favorite dishes!)

                                          

Next, add some water to turn this mixture into a paste.

                                                 

Stir this very well and then put on the stove. You're going to need to turn on the heat to this and cook it for several minutes. Also, turn your oven broiler on. Mine only has a "HI" setting and a "Lo" setting. I put mine on low and took out the top oven rack to give me plenty of space.

Cook it over medium high heat for several minutes; the mixture will start to bubble around the edges. Keep on cooking until it comes to a nice boil.  The color will even change just a bit because of all the bubbles.

Take off of the heat, and begin pouring it over the ham. You can spoon it, ladle it, or just go for it and pour from the pan! I chose to ladle it today.

Keep spooning, ladling or pouring until you get the ham covered nicely.

Once your ham is covered, you're going to put your ham in the oven under the broiler, and you're going to WATCH IT. Almost immediately, you're going to hear sizzling. Do not walk away. You can even leave the oven door open to watch it. 

I like to turn my ham a few times to be sure that all of the sugary coating turns into a sort of bark.

You want the sugar to caramelize but not burn. Keep turning it as needed.

Your house will begin to smell fabulous at this point when the heat warms up all those beautiful spices.

Look at all that beautifully caramelized sugar bark on this lovely piece of ham! There should be a bit of a crunch. 

You can serve this as it is, you can warm it up so that the meat is warm all the way through, or you can put this whole thing in your fridge and let all the spicy goodness in the coating really sink into the meat.

Let this ham be the star of your family gathering this year! Your guests will "ooh" and "ahhh" over the wonderful flavor of this ham!

Recipe for Copycat Honeybaked Ham

Ingredients

Pre-cooked, pre-sliced, bone-in ham

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp onion powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp paprika

a couple tablespoons of water

Instructions

Line a roasting pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil with excess on each end. Use an additional layer to form a cross with 3-4" excess all around the pan. Place the meatier side of the ham face up in the pan. If desired, score the meat. Pre-heat broiler.

In a saucepan, combine the rest of the ingredients. add enough water to form a thick syrup. Heat over medium- high heat stirring until the syrup reaches a full boil. Boil one minute until almost a candy state. Remove from heat and ladle over the ham. Cover all of the visible areas of the ham.

Place in the pre-heated oven. Watch the ham carefully. Turn the pan as different areas of the ham glaze become caramelized. Keep turning as needed. This process takes five to ten minutes. When the glaze is caramelized onto the ham, remove from the oven.

To Serve Cold: 

Cover the ham with the excess foil, put the lid on roasting pan, and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate until ready to use; several days in the refrigerator will allow the flavors to penetrate the meat.

To Serve Hot:

Heat your oven to 350 degrees, and cover ham with excess foil. Bake for 30 minutes until ham is hot through.

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